Chapter 194: Vergo
The Marine gate guard initially wondered why Fujitora was swinging his blade at him from such a distance, but as Fujitora slashed horizontally, a tremendous force came from his side!
The Marine guard felt a powerful pressure pushing him sideways, flying to the right. He felt as if he were caught in a violent storm, his entire body out of control.
When he finally landed after a dizzying spin, he ached all over.
Struggling to his feet, he angrily prepared to shout at Fujitora, but when he saw the Marine base gate that had been behind him, his eyes bulged!
Fujitora’s Gravity Blade wasn’t aimed at the guard. Although the guard was rude and unreasonable, Fujitora wouldn’t take his anger out on a low-ranking Marine—just a lesson was enough. Fujitora’s target from the start was the Marine base gate.
Under this Gravity Blade, the gate of the G-5 branch base was completely crushed and destroyed, along with dozens of meters of the walls on either side, reduced to piles of rubble and debris. The hundreds of meters of concrete ground stretching before Fujitora were also shattered into a cracked mess.
Dust filled the air, and the area swept by the Gravity Blade looked like it had been hit by a powerful earthquake. If there had been buildings or houses near the gate, the destruction would have been even worse.
Fujitora coughed twice, then used his staff sword to feel his way forward.
Only then did the stunned Marine guard snap back to reality. Shivering, he pulled out a whistle and blew it desperately.
This was, of course, an enemy attack signal. Normally, the sound of the whistle would bring Marines from the base rushing out, but the problem was that this was the G-5 branch. The Marines here could act like pirates or thugs, but never like proper Marines. The whistle blew for a long time before a few figures lazily emerged from the base!
Fujitora sensed them with his Observation Haki and shook his head inwardly. He had heard many rumors about the G-5 branch, but seeing it in person was worse than the stories.
However, despite their behavior, the G-5 branch’s combat strength was not weak. As more people ran out, dozens of mortars and rocket launchers were aimed at Fujitora from a distance.
The Marines of G-5 were mostly burly, fierce-looking men with strong fighting spirits. Even though they saw the destruction Fujitora had caused with his Gravity Blade, they weren’t panicked. A captain-level officer growled at Fujitora, “Who are you?! How dare you trespass on Marine G-5 base!?”
Fujitora closed his eyes and said, “I’ve come here to find Commodore Overhead!”
“What business do you have with Commodore Overhead!?” the captain asked.
“Nothing much, just to ask him to close the casino on Grambo Island!” Fujitora replied. “Because if the casino continues to exist, the people there will lose their homes…”
The captain was stunned for a moment, then his eyes shifted as he roared, “What damn casino!? What does that have to do with us Marines? They’re operating legally; we have no right to interfere. You blind man, you’re just making trouble! Men! Arrest him!”
Needless to say, this captain was likely one of Overhead’s men, a beneficiary of the casino. There was no way he would listen to Fujitora.
At the captain’s command, the G-5 Marines immediately shouted and opened fire on Fujitora with guns and cannons. To them, “arrest” was just a euphemism for killing without mercy.
They couldn’t wait to see this blind man blown to pieces—it would be great entertainment, even better than watching boiled pirates!
But when the dozens of shells and bullets flew toward Fujitora, they all stopped abruptly, floating eerily in midair.
Weightlessness! Since Fujitora could increase gravity, he could also decrease it. An object without weight couldn’t fly far!
The G-5 personnel were shocked by this bizarre sight. Before they could react, the bullets and shells fell from the air and hit the ground.
Then, the Marines felt a heavy pressure descend on them.
The pressure grew more intense. Some couldn’t hold out and collapsed to the ground, their bones creaking under the strain!
“We’re… going to be crushed!”
Amid their screams, the ground beneath them suddenly caved in. Hundreds of meters of terrain collapsed at once!
Boom! A massive pit formed instantly, and the Marines fell straight into the dark hole. At the bottom, they were still pinned by immense gravity, blood streaming from their noses and mouths…
“Hell’s Journey!”
The originally open parade ground of the G-5 base was almost entirely filled by this giant pit.
For a monster like Fujitora, numerical superiority meant nothing.
The continuous loud noises finally alerted all the Marines in the base. Officers at various levels began to appear with their soldiers, but when they saw the devastation, they all gasped in shock.
“Hurry! Report to Vice Admiral Vergo!”
“Enemy attack! Turn the fortress cannons and aim here!”
In the chaos, over a thousand Marines gradually gathered, surrounding Fujitora in a tight circle.
“Oh dear, so many people. It seems I’ve been set up by young Ian!” Fujitora smiled wryly and slapped his forehead.
Ian had no idea what Fujitora was thinking. At that moment, he was crouching on the roof of a building inside the base, watching a squad of Marines rushing toward the main gate in a panic.
In his view, having Fujitora attract attention at the front was a smart move. He wasn’t worried about Fujitora being overwhelmed—he hadn’t even seen a meteor fall from the sky yet.
For Fujitora, if one meteor couldn’t solve a problem, two would!
With the base’s Marines drawn away, Ian had an easier time. He was consulting the sketch Old K had given him, searching for the location where prisoners were held.
The G-5 base crew was utterly lawless. Normally, captured pirates were supposed to be handed over to the judicial island of Enies Lobby for sentencing, then sent to the appropriate level of Impel Down based on their crimes. But as Ian moved through the base, he saw several gallows, each hanging rows of ragged skeletons swaying in the wind.
Clearly, these were pirates executed privately by the G-5 personnel.
While most pirates probably deserved their fate, executing them without trial was still wrong.
Ah, but he forgot—Enies Lobby was probably the same now. Anyone sent there was guaranteed to be found guilty. The so-called trial process was already a farce…
Ian wondered if Smoker would still apply to transfer here in the future. If he did, how would he deal with such a lawless bunch of subordinates?
Thinking of Smoker, Ian suddenly missed the East Blue. Were Johnny and Yosaku still using his name as pirate hunters?
Shaking his head, Ian pushed these thoughts aside and focused on moving through the base, searching for the prison.
He leaped from rooftop to rooftop, looking around for a building that resembled a prison.
But the more he searched, the more confused he became. There didn’t seem to be a prison in this base!
Just then, Ian heard a whistling sound above him. Without thinking, he flipped forward in a somersault.
Bang! The spot where he had been crouching exploded.
The explosion wasn’t from a cannonball—it was from a bamboo pole!
Normally, a thin bamboo pole wouldn’t cause an explosion, but Ian knew someone had coated it with Armament Haki.
He looked up and saw who had attacked him.
It was a man wearing sunglasses and a checkered coat—none other than Vergo, the base commander of G-5. While Fujitora was causing chaos at the front gate, Vergo had unexpectedly appeared here. He floated in the air using Moon Step, looking down at Ian. The bamboo pole had been thrown by him.
Seeing that Ian had spotted him, Vergo didn’t stay in the air. He landed directly on the spot Ian had just vacated.
He pulled the bamboo pole out of the roof and said coldly, “I was worried a rat might sneak in, so I came to check. Now I see I was right.”
Ian was speechless as he looked at Vergo. His entrance was certainly imposing, but seeing a piece of pudding stuck to Vergo’s cheek ruined the effect.
Was this guy eating pudding before? Definitely!
But seriously, how do you get a slippery piece of pudding to stick to your cheek without it falling off!?
Vergo, however, seemed unaware of the pudding on his face. He held the green bamboo horizontally and pointed it at Ian, asking, “Who are you? What do you want at G-5? Is that person at the front gate your accomplice?”
Ian felt a bit unlucky. Vergo was surprisingly sharp. Even though his Marines had reported Fujitora’s appearance, he didn’t go to the front gate. Instead, he came to the interior and found Ian sneaking in.
“Alright!” Ian shrugged and said, “Vice Admiral Vergo, can you tell me where you keep the pirates you capture?”
“You’re here to find prisoners?” Vergo was a little surprised, then shook his head regretfully. “Unfortunately, there is no prison in the G-5 base. All captured pirates are executed!”
Ian’s face darkened. Vergo’s answer didn’t seem like a lie.
So, did that mean Old K’s companions had all been killed after he left to run the casino?