Inside the half-demolished clinic in the Flower Capital.
Fuzefu—Fuzefu the Fang, one of the Tobi Roppo, Kaido's Flying Six underlings—died without even realizing it.
He never had time to activate his Ancient Zoan powers or deploy any Armament Haki.
It was pure suppression. Absolute domination through overwhelming speed.
When your opponent's velocity surpasses your perception threshold, even the most skilled warrior becomes nothing more than a target.
This was the kind of instantaneous death Carl had long associated with Admiral Kizaru's Pika Pika no Mi. The so-called Glint-Glint Fruit was a cheat code in the New World, bringing speed to a nearly unfair level.
While not literally reaching the speed of light due to physics, Kizaru's techniques could blitz entire battalions before they blinked. Even legends like Silvers Rayleigh had trouble countering it without years of battle experience and mastery over Haki.
So it wasn't until long after Carl had already vanished from the courtyard that the horrified screams of Fuzefu's subordinates tore through the night.
At that very moment, Carl was already closing in on a new presence—faint but familiar.
"Hah… finally locked onto you."
Down one of the alleys of the Flower Capital, X Drake, also known as Diez Drake, strode cautiously through the dusk, a wide-brimmed hat low over his blindfolded eyes.
He didn't notice anything unusual until a figure suddenly descended in front of him.
Carl grabbed his coat and swept him into a side street with fluid momentum.
Boom!
Drake stumbled and fell heavily onto the stone pavement.
"Who?!" he barked, instantly pulling his signature battle-axe in one hand and his katana in the other. He assumed a defensive stance, muscles coiled.
"It's just me," Carl said, casually brushing off his gloves.
"You…?!" Drake's pupils contracted. "Solomon Carl?! The infamous 'Seven Zero Seven'! What in the world are you doing in Wano?!"
Carl exhaled, almost sheepishly, and took out a sleek metal humidor, offering a cigar.
"It's… a long story."
Drake hesitated before accepting the cigar, lighting it but not relaxing just yet.
Carl puffed on his own before glancing up through the haze. "I know who you really are, Drake."
"!"
Drake's brow furrowed. But considering Carl's connections and status, it wasn't surprising.
As the Captain of SWORD, the Marine's covert ops faction, Drake's dual identity was top secret.
But Solomon Carl, groomed by the Kizaru faction and a rising monster within the Navy's elite, was no average officer.
Carl was the kind of person who didn't just know secrets—he collected them.
Drake let out a slow breath. "So… why now? Why Wano? Why me?"
There was no way a powerhouse like Carl had just wandered into the most locked-down nation in the New World without reason.
Was the World Government finally making its move on Kaido and the Beasts Pirates?
Carl scratched his head and laughed dryly. "Honestly? I'm here to borrow a permanent log pose. That's all."
Drake blinked. "That's… it?"
"I wish it weren't," Carl muttered. "Let's just say… a lot's happened."
He exhaled another smoke ring, looking up at the darkening sky. "To keep it short—I lost mine."
Drake's eyes twitched. "You lost a log pose? And you still ended up in Wano?!"
Carl rubbed the back of his neck in mild embarrassment. "Technically I followed Katakuri here."
Drake choked on his cigar. "Katakuri?! From Big Mom's crew?!"
Carl nodded grimly. "Yeah. That stubborn bastard hijacked a ship and escaped from Fish-Man Island all the way to Totto Land. I chased him down… then he took a detour."
Drake looked stunned.
He could barely process how this man managed to cross the entire New World without a permanent log pose.
"How… how did you survive that?"
"Well," Carl shrugged, "their ship had a pointer. So technically I had one. Until I didn't."
"So you chased Katakuri across the sea and ended up here?"
"Pretty much."
Drake held his forehead, groaning. "You're insane."
"Maybe," Carl admitted. "But now I'm here. And I need another pointer. Simple."
Drake frowned. "That's not simple. You're in Wano, the heart of the Beasts Pirates' territory."
"I know," Carl said nonchalantly. "But Kaido's not in Wano anymore."
Drake narrowed his eyes. "…You're planning to steal it?"
"Exactly."
The two stood in silence.
Drake, a double agent who had been walking a tightrope between pirate loyalty and Marine duty, rubbed his temples. As one of the Tobi Roppo, he knew the location of the Beast Pirates' log pose, but giving that information to Carl might burn every bridge he had left.
Carl didn't push. He just stood there, calm and calculating.
"Fine… It's in—"
BOOM!
The ground shook violently. Dust spilled down from the rooftops.
Both men turned their heads sharply, sensing a monstrous aura descending from above—no, crashing down like a meteor.
And with it, the roar of one of the Beasts Pirates' All-Star Commanders.
The battle wasn't over yet.
Not by a long shot.
Before Drake could finish speaking, a thunderous explosion interrupted the conversation.
Carl's brow furrowed. He instinctively turned his head toward the distant horizon—the faint red glow fading from his eye as his heightened perception calmed. A deep boom reverberated through the air.
"That direction… Orochi's Shogunate mansion?"
His voice was casual, but a hint of tension flickered in his tone. He raised a brow slightly. "With that kind of disturbance, it couldn't be anyone else—it must be Fujitora, right?"
As if in response, a black speck in the sky rapidly expanded in their view—falling fast, trailing smoke and fire.
"M-Meteorite?!" Drake's jaw nearly dislocated as he pointed upward in disbelief.
"Well, yeah," Carl exhaled a puff of smoke calmly, eyes narrowed, "just an old blind man's little trick…"
The meteorite plummeted with devastating force, and the sheer air pressure swept over the Shogun's estate, sending guards scattering. Inside, panic erupted like wildfire. Even Kurozumi Orochi, hiding in his fortified inner sanctum, could feel the coming annihilation.
Suddenly, a figure launched into the sky from the middle of the compound. His hair swayed wildly in the wind, and his blade glimmered with black lightning—Kuroshiro, no, Denjiro, the undercover retainer of the Kozuki clan.
CLANG!
A terrifying black slash, coated in Ryuo (Advanced Armament Haki), bisected the meteorite with surgical precision. Though the boulder continued to descend, it had been fragmented into countless smaller chunks.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Meteor shards struck the outer walls and grounds of the Shogun's mansion. Smoke and dust enveloped everything, and flaming debris lit up the main courtyard like a battlefield.
Drake stared, stunned. "That… that was supposed to annihilate the entire estate!"
"Like I said," Carl smirked, "just something an old blind man does for fun."
Carl, of course, found Denjiro interesting. Despite being in deep cover, driven by a long-standing prophecy, Denjiro refused to allow Orochi to die before the appointed time. Even though he loathed the snake, his loyalty to Kozuki Toki's prophecy was unshakable.
"Anyway," Carl refocused, patting Drake's shoulder, "tell me where the permanent pointer is first."
Drake hesitated. "…Fine. It's on Onigashima Island."
"The main fortress?" Carl raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. It's stored with the Beast Pirates' treasure hoard," Drake explained with a frown. "And it's guarded—by one of the All-Stars."
Carl's eyes narrowed slightly. The Three Calamities, or the Big Kanban, were not ordinary foes. "So one of Kaido's right-hands, huh… That complicates things."
Drake nodded grimly. "It's not just anyone. These aren't like the Tobi Roppo. This is a monster tier."
"Got it." Carl took one last drag from his cigar and turned toward the smoldering ruins of the Shogun's mansion. "But I can't head to Onigashima just yet. The Wanokuni sign-in isn't complete."
He grimaced slightly, remembering what happened at Mariejois—he'd only stayed a single day, and the system had reset his progress the moment he left.
From afar, chaos continued to erupt within the General's mansion.
The sounds of a battle echoed. Not a skirmish—this was a war. A war where one man stood alone against a horde.
BOOM!
Carl arrived just in time to see a body hurled through the outer wall. The clash of metal resounded as a gravity-coated staff-sword descended from above.
"Gravity Blade—Raging Tiger!" came the familiar voice of Issho, also known as Fujitora.
CLANG!
Carl balanced himself on the perimeter wall, observing silently. Inside the courtyard, Fujitora stood alone against countless Shogunate soldiers. The only one managing to parry his blows was none other than Kuroshiro/Denjiro himself—still pretending to be loyal to Orochi.
The rest of the guards could only circle around, trying not to get pulled into the gravitational collapse centered on the old admiral's feet.
"Hell Brigade!" Fujitora roared.
Invisible gravity erupted like a shockwave, pinning dozens of Orochi's men to the ground. They wailed, unable to move under the overwhelming force.
"Get him! Get him now, you fools!" Orochi shouted hysterically from under a half-collapsed roof.
That meteor strike had nearly killed him—if Kuroshiro hadn't intercepted it…
"Kuroshiro, why are you backing off?! That blind bastard's killing us!" Orochi shrieked.
Denjiro remained eerily calm. "Don't worry. He won't last long now."
"Hah?!"
Kuroshiro's gaze turned toward the mansion gate.
A thunderous rumble grew louder—and then the source arrived.
A monstrous figure smashed through the gate, sending splinters flying. Towering in height, clad in armor plating, with massive ivory tusks curling from his shoulders and steel mandibles locked over his jaw—
Jack the Drought, one of the Big Kanban, Kaido's elite calamities, had entered the battlefield.
"Who the hell is making all this noise?!" Jack barked. His crimson eyes scanned the wreckage until they locked onto the blind swordsman.
"You? A blind geezer?!"
Fujitora didn't move. He tilted his head slightly and smiled. "A man of the Marines… That's right."
"Jack the Drought! Kill him now!" Orochi screamed, still trembling.
Jack didn't respond to the cowardly Shogun. With a roar, he charged—fist cocked, entire body throwing forward like a rhino in a stampede.
"DIE!!"
BOOM!
But before the punch landed, Fujitora's cane-sword was already pressed into Jack's gut.
A resounding crack rang out—Jack's massive body was flung back like a cannonball, demolishing several pillars as he tumbled into the wreckage.
Fujitora stood calmly, gravity swirling faintly at his feet.
"…Looks like he won't be going easy," he murmured.
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