The world held its breath in the vacuum left by Vista's sudden flight with that kick.
High above, Fight between Whitebeard and Big Mom stuttered. Two forces of nature were now united by a single, intrusive thought: The Marines.
"BORSALINO…!" Whitebeard roared.
He tried to disengage, to bring his quake-wreathed bisento down upon Kizaru, but Big Mom, snarling and paranoid, seized the opening. Napoleon lunged, forcing Whitebeard back on the defensive.
"You now have the dogs of the government here, Newgate?!" she shrieked, her eyes wild with betrayal. "Those annoying pests?!"
"Don't be a fool, Linlin!" he bellowed, parrying her strike with a force that sent cracks spiderwebbing through the air. "They're after the child! Our grandchild!"
Down on the deck, Perospero staggered to his feet, wiping blood from his lips with a sticky hand. He saw Kizaru standing over the infirmary entrance and a malicious, triumphant grin spread across his face.
"An admiral's help! Perorin♪ Now you'll see the might of the Big Mom—!"
Kizaru didn't even turn. He simply raised a glowing finger, the miniature sun at its tip pulsing with unbearable energy. "I am not your ally," he drawled, his voice a lazy blade of ice. "You are simply in my way."
He fired.
A laser beam, a perfect, pencil-thin line of pure destruction, shot across the deck. Perospero, in a panic, threw up a thick wall of his strongest candy armor. The laser struck it, and for a fraction of a second, the candy held, caramelizing and melting under the intense heat. Then it exploded.
The Candy Wall detonated in a shower of super-heated syrup and shrapnel. The force of the blast threw Perospero backward, screaming, as he was sent tumbling off his own candy bridge and into the churning, chaotic sea below.
Kizaru paid him no mind. He began to walk slowly toward the infirmary door, his steps unhurried, almost casual. Each footfall was silent amidst the roaring chaos.
As he walked, his Observation Haki reached out, piercing the thick wood of the ship. He felt them. Two life forces. One, a man, burning with rage ready to erupt. The other, a woman, her energy strained, flickering with pain but anchored by an immense, stubborn will. The unborn child was a faint, third pulse within her.
He reached the door. And in a move so bizarre, so utterly out of place in the middle of a war that it was profoundly terrifying, he raised a glowing hand and knocked politely. Three soft taps.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Oi. Admiral."
The voice was young, hot, and defiant. Kizaru turned his head slowly.
Behind him, blocking his path, stood two figures. Portgas D. Ace, his fists wreathed in roaring flames. And beside him, Isshin, his hand resting on the hilt of his katana, his posture perfectly still, his young face a canvas of cold, lethal focus.
"Your business is not in that room," Isshin stated, his voice quiet but carrying the weight of drawn steel.
Kizaru sighed, a theatrical sound of pure boredom. "More of Whitebeard's sons. You children multiply like sea slugs. I don't have time for this."
Ace didn't wait. "Fire Fist!"
He launched a colossal pillar of fire, a roaring inferno that engulfed Kizaru completely. For a moment, the deck was bathed in orange light. But the flames simply passed through the admiral's shimmering form as he broke into particles of light.
"Too sloooow," Kizaru's voice echoed. He reformed behind Ace, his leg already raised for a kick.
But Isshin was there. His blade left its sheath in a flash of silver so fast it was almost invisible. A clean, upward slash of Haki-infused steel aimed directly at Kizaru's neck.
Kizaru was forced to abandon his attack on Ace, leaning his head back at an impossible angle. The blade hissed past his throat, close enough to sever a single, glowing particle of light.
"Ooh," Kizaru noted with a hint of genuine surprise. "That one could have hurt."
While the admiral was off-balance, the battle raged around them. Shiki, cackling from above, used his Float-Float powers to rip entire sections of the Moby Dick's upper deck free. He sent a massive chunk of wood and cannonry plummeting down toward Jozu.
"Catch, diamond boy! Wororororo!"
Jozu met the falling debris with a raised shoulder, his body glittering. The makeshift meteor shattered against his diamond form, but the sheer force drove him to one knee. Thatch used the distraction, weaving through the falling splinters, his swords aimed for Shiki's floating legs.
Back at the infirmary, Ace and Isshin pressed their attack.
"Flame Commandment: Fire Pillar!" Ace slammed his fists into the deck, and a raging column of fire erupted from beneath Kizaru. Simultaneously, Isshin lunged forward, his katana a blur of precise, deadly thrusts aimed at Kizaru's heart, head, and limbs.
Kizaru simply dissolved. His body broke apart into a swarm of golden photons, evading both attacks with insulting ease. "An impressive combination," his voice echoed as he reformed a dozen meters away. "But you are fighting against light itself." He raised his hands. "Yasakani no Magatama!"
A storm of deadly light bullets rained down upon them. Ace created a swirling wall of fire to intercept the barrage, explosions rocking the deck. Isshin moved like a ghost through the onslaught, his blade deflecting the few projectiles that broke through Ace's defense, his eyes never leaving the admiral.
"You're fast, swordsman," Kizaru commented, appearing directly in front of Isshin. "But are you as fast as this?"
He delivered a blindingly fast kick. Isshin, anticipating it with his Haki, managed to cross his katana in a defensive block. The impact sent him skidding back ten feet, his arms screaming in protest, the wood of the deck groaning beneath his sandals.
Ace used the opening. "HIKEN!"
He was a blur of motion, appearing at Kizaru's side, his fist of fire aimed at the admiral's head. But Kizaru was already turning, a mocking smile on his face.
This time, however, Isshin was ready. His feet planted, he entered a low, quick-draw stance. His aura sharpened to a single, deadly point.
"Dragon Flash.*
It was not a yell, but a whisper on the wind. The slash was faster than sight. A single, horizontal arc of pure, condensed Haki that sought to cleave the very light in two.
For the first time, Kizaru's expression changed from boredom to genuine focus. He couldn't fully phase through it. He was forced to move, twisting his body in a flash of golden light.
The slash missed his vitals, but it caught his suit, slicing a clean, sharp line across the yellow pinstripe fabric on his shoulder.
A thread came loose.
Silence.
Kizaru looked down at his ruined suit. Then he looked up at Isshin and Ace, who stood ready, panting but defiant.
His lazy smile returned, but it was colder now. Sharper.
"You've damaged government property," he said, his voice losing its drawl. "That's a capital offense." He looked past them, his gaze once again falling on the infirmary door.
"A valiant effort, truly. But the mission comes first." His body began to glow with an intensity that dwarfed everything else on the battlefield. "That child… will not see the light of day."