Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Haruto swept his gaze across the battlefield below.

On the execution platform, Portgas D. Ace was securely restrained with Seastone handcuffs, while Fleet Admiral Sengoku stood nearby in person.

A hundred thousand fully armed Marines waited in formation.

And aboard the Moby Dick stood Edward Newgate—Whitebeard, the Strongest Man in the World—with his Supreme Grade naginata, Murakumogiri, planted against the deck.

Even from several hundred meters away, the overwhelming presence of a man who had stood at the pinnacle of the seas was impossible to ignore.

Haruto knew better than to intervene yet.

If he intended to change the outcome of this war, he needed to choose the right moment.

While Haruto considered his options, Sengoku raised his head toward Charizard.

His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

A report from Loguetown surfaced in his mind.

Under normal circumstances, something like that never would have reached the Fleet Admiral’s desk.

Haruto was not even a pirate.

The problem was Charizard.

A massive dragonlike creature wreathed in flames appearing in Loguetown had immediately attracted the attention of World Government intelligence agents.

The report had eventually reached the Celestial Dragons in Mary Geoise.

Those self-proclaimed descendants of the world’s creators possessed an almost obsessive desire to own anything rare, exotic, or powerful, and Charizard naturally caught their attention.

An order had subsequently been passed down to the Marines to capture the creature.

That was the only reason Sengoku knew anything about Haruto at all.

However, the moment his eyes returned to Whitebeard aboard the Moby Dick, he pushed the matter aside.

He still had no idea how Haruto and Charizard had suddenly appeared above Marineford.

For now, it did not matter.

Whitebeard and the entire force gathered beneath his banner were the real threat—an enemy powerful enough to overturn the balance of the world.

Sengoku decided to leave the unidentified newcomer alone for the moment.

As long as Haruto did not interfere, there was no reason to waste resources on him.

If he made a move, they could deal with him then.

Sengoku was far from the only person who had noticed him.

Below the execution platform, the three Admirals seated in their chairs had also spotted Haruto.

Kizaru remained as languid as ever, lazily clicking his tongue as he glanced upward.

Akainu looked once before dismissing him.

Aokiji leaned back in his chair, his half-lidded eyes revealing little emotion.

The Seven Warlords scattered across the plaza had noticed him as well, though their reactions varied considerably.

Donquixote Doflamingo adjusted his sunglasses and let out his characteristic strange laugh, clearly intrigued by the unexpected newcomer.

Dracule Mihawk barely spared Haruto any attention, his gaze remaining fixed on Whitebeard.

Boa Hancock simply could not be bothered.

Gecko Moria licked his lips, greed flashing through his eyes as he imagined what an excellent zombie Charizard might make.

Bartholomew Kuma stood silently in place, expressionless as a machine.

On the deck of the Moby Dick, Whitebeard and his Division Commanders had also noticed the figure hovering high above the battlefield.

Yet both the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates silently reached the same decision.

Ignore him for now.

For one thing, Haruto was several hundred meters in the air, making him inconvenient to attack.

More importantly, war was about to erupt.

Neither side wanted to create another problem before the battle had even begun.

"Yeah, figured they’d notice me."

Haruto chuckled as he felt countless powerful gazes settle briefly on him.

He had never intended to hide.

With something as enormous and conspicuous as Charizard hovering over Marineford, it would have been stranger if these monsters had failed to notice.

Haruto was not particularly concerned.

Whether it was the Marines prepared for battle or the Whitebeard Pirates poised to attack, neither side had the luxury of worrying about a spectator right now.

Because Whitebeard’s tsunamis had finally reached their full height.

Two colossal walls of water towered over Marineford.

They rose more than a hundred meters into the air, higher and more imposing than the fortress itself, blocking out the sunlight beneath their immense mass.

The roaring ocean seemed like some ancient beast opening its jaws, ready to swallow Marineford and all one hundred thousand Marines in a single bite.

The sight drained the color from countless Marine soldiers’ faces.

Hands gripping rifles began to tremble.

Some men could barely keep their legs from buckling beneath them.

This was the power of the Strongest Man in the World.

A single attack had created a disaster on the scale of a natural catastrophe.

The tension across the battlefield reached its peak.

Standing on Charizard’s back, Haruto stared at the apocalyptic sight below.

Far from frightened, his eyes burned with excitement.

Whitebeard’s Tremor-Tremor Fruit truly deserved its reputation.

Seeing a power capable of creating natural disasters with his own eyes was something completely different from merely knowing about it.

Haruto patted Charizard and had it descend a little so he could get a clearer view.

Naturally, the Marines had no intention of allowing the enormous tsunamis to crash down.

If those waves struck Marineford directly, fewer than one in ten of the assembled soldiers might survive.

Marine Headquarters itself could be destroyed in a single blow.

Aokiji, who had remained lazily seated until now, finally moved.

His body flashed upward as he leapt high into the air.

He briefly glanced toward Haruto and Charizard, who had descended noticeably closer to the battlefield, and frowned.

Then he looked away and spread both arms.

An overwhelming wave of cold erupted from his body.

"Ice Age!"

Two massive columns of ice extended rapidly from his hands and struck the approaching tsunamis.

The instant they made contact, the raging walls of water seemed to freeze in time.

Crack—crack—crack!

The harsh sound of ice spreading echoed across Marineford.

The violently surging seawater froze at a speed visible to the naked eye, transforming the towering tsunamis into glittering sculptures of ice.

Within only a few seconds, the two enormous waves had become colossal frozen mountains looming on either side of Marineford.

And Aokiji was not finished.

After neutralizing the tsunamis, he twisted his arms toward Whitebeard aboard the Moby Dick.

"Ice Block: Partisan!"

Several razor-sharp spears of ice formed instantly and shot toward Whitebeard with piercing whistles.

Whitebeard did not so much as blink.

Standing at the bow of his ship, he raised one arm and punched the air in front of him.

Boom—!

The impact sounded as though the very fabric of space had shattered.

A violent tremor spread outward and collided head-on with the incoming ice spears.

Aokiji’s attack exploded into fragments almost instantly.

The remaining shockwave continued forward without losing momentum and swept through Aokiji himself.

Fortunately, he had already transformed into ice.

The tremor shattered portions of his elemental body, but caused no meaningful injury.

Aokiji then dropped toward the waters inside Marineford’s bay.

The moment he touched the surface, a second burst of extreme cold erupted from him.

Ice spread outward with a deafening series of cracks.

In moments, the entire inner bay of Marineford froze solid.

Every ship belonging to the Whitebeard Pirates became trapped in the ice, immobilized together with the surrounding sea.

That had been Aokiji’s true objective.

He knew perfectly well that Ice Block: Partisan had virtually no chance of seriously injuring Whitebeard.

What mattered was stopping the tsunamis and transforming the bay into a battlefield.

With the sea frozen, the Whitebeard Pirates would be forced off their ships and onto the ice, where they would have to engage the Marines directly.

The Marines, meanwhile, could use Marineford’s fortifications and terrain to retain control of the battlefield.

Aokiji’s attack had failed to harm Whitebeard, but watching an Admiral casually freeze two enormous tsunamis and the entire bay instantly restored the shaken Marines’ morale.

"The Marines will win!"

No one knew who shouted first.

A moment later, the cry was taken up across the fortress.

"THE MARINES WILL WIN!"

The roar of tens of thousands of voices shook Marineford.

Then the cannons fired.

Shells streaked across the sky trailing smoke and flame before crashing into the frozen battlefield, blasting chunks of ice into the air.

The Marine soldiers who had been waiting in formation surged forward.

Across from them, Whitebeard’s men roared and charged down from their immobilized ships.

The two forces collided on the frozen bay.

Steel rang against steel.

Bullets screamed through the air.

Cannons thundered.

Explosions shattered the ice.

Battle cries and screams merged into one deafening wall of sound.

The Summit War had finally begun in earnest.

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