บท 89: Chapter 89: Wood Nearly Died at the Hands of Shiki
Wood's defection from the Navy had been reported to Sengoku, so it was impossible for Rear Admiral Gion at Navy Headquarters to be unaware of it.
When Gion first heard the news, her initial reaction was disbelief. However, as more information reached Navy Headquarters, confirming that Wood had led over a hundred prisoners to hijack a warship and escape from Impel Down, she had no choice but to accept the truth.
Gion's feelings toward Wood had always been complicated. She regarded him as both a friend and a rival.
When she saw Wood risking his life to assist the Fish-Men at Mary Geoise in the name of justice, she felt a deep sense of admiration for him.
Despite Wood's seemingly frivolous demeanor and sometimes shameless personality, he was a man who dared to kill a Celestial Dragon for the weak and risked his life to storm Mary Geoise for the sake of honor and gratitude.
Gion couldn't believe that someone with such a strong sense of justice would betray the Navy.
So, no matter what, Gion wanted to hear the truth directly from him.
If Wood's answer didn't satisfy her, she would enforce her own justice and bring her former friend to Impel Down herself!
"Even if you hold former Marine Major Wood in such high regard, based on his past achievements, his rank, and his strength, deploying such a large force to pursue him is against regulations.
You must understand that the Navy's forces are stretched thin right now. We've deployed a significant number of Marines to hunt down Fisher Tiger and his crew following the Fish-Men's attack on Mary Geoise.
And now with Shiki the Golden Lion's escape from Impel Down, our forces are even more limited. We simply don't have the manpower to go after a mere former Marine Major."
Sengoku was clearly trying to dismiss the issue, but Gion believed that Sengoku didn't fully appreciate the danger Wood posed due to his lack of understanding of Wood's abilities.
Gion wanted to explain to Sengoku just how dangerous Wood truly was, but she found herself at a loss for examples.
Wood had always kept a low profile; during his time in the Navy, he hadn't really accomplished anything noteworthy.
The only significant achievement she could mention was the incident at Mary Geoise, but that was something that couldn't be publicly acknowledged, so Gion couldn't bring it up.
"Then I don't need a large force. Just one warship with the basic crew configuration will suffice, right?"
Seeing that Sengoku was immovable and knowing that they had missed the best chance to pursue Wood, Gion made her final concession.
Seeing Gion's firm resolve, even to the point where it seemed she might disobey orders if her request wasn't granted, Sengoku could only nod in agreement.
He couldn't find any other excuses. Gion was Wood's classmate and friend, and it was the Navy's duty to capture criminals, so Sengoku had no grounds to refuse.
As Gion hurriedly left the room after receiving his approval, slamming the door behind her, Sengoku could only silently pray for Wood, hoping that he wouldn't be caught by Gion too easily.
However, Sengoku quickly reassured himself. The vast ocean was expansive, and even the Navy had no accurate intelligence on Wood's current location. With just a small crew, how could Gion possibly find Wood so easily?
What Sengoku didn't know was that Gion had a piece of Wood's life paper, something left from their mission at Mary Geoise.
With the life paper guiding her, no matter where Wood fled, even if he reached Raftel, he wouldn't escape Gion's grasp!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Wood, who had been locked in an intense battle with Shiki the Golden Lion, had no idea that he was already being tracked by Gion.
"Lion's Threat: Imperial Wrath!"
Under the power of Shiki's "Float-Float Fruit," a massive amount of seawater began to levitate, forming a wave hundreds of meters high, which then closed in to completely surround Wood.
At the crest of the wave, the seawater coalesced into roaring lion-shaped beasts, which opened their gaping maws to bite down on Wood in the center.
As the tsunami, resembling a natural disaster, came crashing down on Wood, his Observation Haki, no matter how powerful, could not find a safe place to escape.
The only way out was upward, but the towering wave was several hundred meters high, and no matter how fast his Moonwalk technique was, it wasn't faster than the falling wave.
The power of the Float-Float Fruit was terrifying, and Wood now understood why Shiki had once been on par with Whitebeard and Roger at his peak.
The Float-Float Fruit's power was in no way inferior to Whitebeard's Quake-Quake Fruit.
Just as Whitebeard, as the Earthquake Man, could cause earthquakes and tsunamis, Shiki's Float-Float Fruit could do the same.
The move Shiki was using now was called "Lion's Threat: Imperial Earth" when performed on land, but at sea, it was known as "Lion's Threat: Imperial Wrath."
On the ocean, with this ability, Shiki was nearly invincible, except against a few Devil Fruit users.
It was well-known that Devil Fruit users were vulnerable to seawater, and as the overwhelming tsunami descended, how many could truly resist it?
Faced with the massive wave, even though Wood used all his strength, human effort was ultimately no match for the power of a natural disaster.
His dazzling slashes, though they cut through the wave, were useless against Shiki's ability to make the seawater float and gather again with ease.
The surging seawater slammed Wood into the ocean, and before he could swim back to the surface, Shiki's power twisted the water around him into a spiraling column that shot toward the sky.
"Bang——!"
Trapped within the water, Wood began to lose strength due to the intense suffocation. Just as Shiki was about to deliver the final blow, a gunshot suddenly rang out through the air.
As blood blossomed from Shiki's shoulder, he suddenly felt a wave of weakness wash over him.
The twisted water column holding Wood also lost its power and fell, dropping both the water and Wood into the sea.
"Sea-Prism Stone bullets! You little brat, you actually had something like that!"
Sea-Prism Stone was already expensive on the open seas, and due to its hardness, weapons made from it were even more costly.
Sea-Prism Stone pistols and bullets were considered the bane of Devil Fruit users. Even setting aside their outrageous price, they were simply beyond the reach of most people.
But as luck would have it, Wood happened to have one.
The Sea-Prism Stone pistol he was holding came from the treasure hoard of Charl Marck Saint, which Wood had looted.
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