With the reason being that he needed Bill to “guide” him, Fujitora’s hand had never left Bill’s shoulder, and even as they walked through the kingdom’s gates, the Admiral seemed insistent to not let go.

  Whether it was an attempt to protect Bill from himself, or because he had a duty to follow orders given by CP0, Fujitora made it a point to follow Bill however fast Bill was walking.

  Zephyr walked behind them and said nothing, but his face spoke of his aggravation.

  To the former Admiral, this was the problem with the whole world.

  Pirates, the World Government, and even the Navy.

  Any attempt to change anything… to fight for Justice… or to do anything good… when it came to the interests of “those people” it was impossible.

  He, despite believing that the Celestial Dragons were descended from gods, hated Fujitora for interfering much more than Bill did.

  But what Zephyr didn’t know at that moment was that Bill had already decided to do what he currently didn’t have the courage himself to do.

  Getting some 50 yards away from the kingdom’s gates – because Bill didn’t exactly know how much effort he would need to put in – Zephyr watched stunned when Bill acted.

  Erasing his presence and slowing down time by fifty percent, Bill lowered his shoulder and raised his elbow to knock Fujitora’s hand away.

  Spinning around to grab Fujitora by the wrist, Bill looked at the nearly nine-foot-tall Admiral in his blind eyes for a fraction of a second, before deciding against punching him, and instead opted for swinging him by the arm and throwing him with significant force.

  The entire action took less than a quarter a second.

  From Fujitora’s point of view, capable of Future Sight as he was, there was a strange sensation of Bill’s presence disappearing and then reappearing like a rock skipping across water.

  When Fujitora did perceive Bill, it seemed like Bill was moving slow – so slow it was practically at a snail’s pace. But when Bill skipped out of and then back in Fujitora’s perception again, he had moved his entire body faster than Fujitora could move his hand.

  By erasing his presence Bill would disorientate even those power individuals that could see with their eyes, but against Fujitora who had forsaken his vision and relied on powerful Observation Haki, it was as if Bill was his natural enemy and had completely caught the blind Admiral off guard.

  Seeing Fujitora fly into the distance, Bill quickly turned to a stunned Zephyr and said: “I need you to hold him back – I’ll get the King!!”

  Getting a quick nod in return, Bill didn’t dwell on Zephyr for a second longer, and already jogging fast towards the Colosseum he used his Snail.

  “Vio, QUICKLY, where’s your dad? I’m grabbing him now!”

  Surprisingly to Bill, because he assumed she was watching them, Vio took several seconds to answer his urgent question.

  “He’s been taken underground, Diamante is dragging him, but Bill, I never knew this pce existed!”

  Now running fast, but not nearly as fast as he could because that would have killed the Communication Snail in his hand, Bill shook his head and answered quickly: “Forget that for now, tell me how to get there!”

  When Vio answered with a series of directions – apparently under the Colosseum was a byrinth of tunnels – Bill shook his head again and said: “Just tell me when I’m close, I’ll punch through!”

  Almost as if to answer that, a low, deep, ‘boooommm’ was heard coming from behind him.

  Surprised but not shocked that Admiral Fujitora had chosen to use actual force, Bill just hoped he wouldn’t go overboard and push Zephyr too hard.

  Zephyr was strong.

  Equipped with the Battle Smasher he was stronger than most Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals, and for a short period of time, he could rival his old self… but that would be devastating to the old man’s body.

  For Vio’s part, hearing Bill say he would knock through walls to get to her father, she agreed immediately: “Ok! Start was the entrance and I’ll guide you!!”

  So doing just that and ignoring the crowds of people whose heads were turning to the rumbles coming from the Kingdom gates, Bill got to the front of the Colosseum in barely over thirty seconds.

  The CP0 agents were still there but ignoring them – despite the fact that the shortest one was already moving in his direction, he shouted: “Alright, tell me where to go!!”

  As Vio started to answer, the shortest agent had made his way to Bill.

  This time, Bill wasn’t as polite as before.

  A long time ago Bill had learned a lesson from his father.

  Back then, when he had just started to come to terms with the fact he was in a new world, it was the first time Bill had ever seen a true giant.

  This giant was a Marine Vice Admiral and, as a result of the encounter, Aramaki had beaten the giant up, threw him into the ocean, and then forced him to apologize to Bill for scaring him.

  Naturally, the Vice Admiral hadn’t done anything wrong… only Bill had been startled by seeing a sixty-foot-tall human.

  The result of that assault was… nothing.

  His father wasn’t punished, and as far as Bill knew, Vice Admiral Lacroix hadn’t even held a grudge.

  In a world with superhumans, this was the power of strength.

  It wasn’t absolute. No organization would tolerate an uncontrolble loose cannon. However, within reasonable bounds rge allowances were given.

  Naturally, it had to be mentioned that Vice Admiral Lacroix was not comparable to the CP0 agents in terms of authority.

  Naturally still, it had to be mentioned that Bill’s potential value to the Marines far far dwarfed Aramaki’s from back then.

  Twenty years ago, Aramaki was a potential Admiral seed, but this was also before he had gotten the Tree-Tree Fruit.

  In today’s world, even if his full strength wasn’t fully known, at the age of 23 Bill had defeated the legendary Flying Pirate, Shiki. At the age of 25, had battled Admiral Kizaru to a standstill – even busting his nose during the ‘fight’.

  He had ‘commandeered’ an entire city made of gold and shipped it to Old Marineford to be used by Fleet Admiral Akainu.

  He was the recognized leader of an extremely resource rich ‘Future Isnd’ and co-led the rgest department created by New Marineford.

  He had dozens of ships already moving through the Grand Line on their way to Reverse Mountain.

  He was supported by a former Admiral and his father was a current Admiral – one who could create an ‘Elixir of Life’.

  So, Bill figured, as long as he didn’t kill these agents… he’d probably be fine.

  And really, he had thought to himself when Fujitora was escorting him out of the city…

  ‘They brought it on themselves!!!’

  With the snail still in one hand, Bill kicked the smaller agent in his chest in a downwards motion for a second time.

  The first time, the agent broke a few steps.

  This time, Bill sent the Haki-infused agent more than six feet underground.

  Easily dodging the medium height agent’s punch, Bill jumped and drove his knee into the man’s face – breaking his mask and several bones in his face.

  And seeing this, the taller agent quickly backed off.

  Ignoring the CP0 agent’s threats and shouts, Bill walked inside the Colosseum.

  Passing through the bck-cd soldiers, none of them moved to try and stop him, he lifted the Snail again and said: ‘Vio, what’s going on, I need directions quickly!!”

  But all he got was a confused answer. As if Vio herself didn’t know what she was seeing.

  “Sugar… why is she there?”

  As a Special Officer of Trebol’s Army, Vio knew Sugar well enough but the nature of their positions as ‘Special Officers’ made much of their actual jobs secret.

  She didn’t know what Sugar’s Devil Fruit was, only that she had never seen the small girl appear to age even after several years passed.

  So, giving Bill some quick directions, Vio’s vision was back on her father who was dragged in front of Sugar.

  And then…

  Her vision snapped back.

  And then…

  Bill, who had just punched his way through a solid stone wall, stopped in his tracks.

  Standing still amongst the rubble… Bill was confused.

  He… couldn’t remember why he had come.

  The sensation was to him like having a word on the tip of his tongue… something that was there… something that he KNEW was there… but couldn’t verbalize...

  And even worse, he couldn’t think of it.

  Even in his previous life Bill had a good memory. In this world though, he had gained a perfect memory.

  He absolutely never forgot anything.

  That didn’t mean he remembered everything all at once, but like when a person recalls what they had for dinner the previous day – even though they may not have thought about it since they had eaten it, he could recall how many steps it had taken him to walk from his bed to the bathroom – even though he never really thought about it after he did so.

  After mastering Life Return, Bill could remember literally everything he had ever seen. Everything he had ever read. Everything he had heard.

  So, standing still, Bill heard Vio call over the Snail: “Bill, hurry!! They’re starting her match now!!!”

  He didn’t know what he was standing there for… but he KNEW it wasn’t to get the Princess.

  Or… it… wasn’t… now?

  [Life Return] was fundamentally a spiritual enlightenment. While it had broad simirities between people, it was different for each person.

  Bill remembered he was originally supposed to get the Princess… but he knew that wasn’t why he was standing in the rubble of a destroyed wall.

  As these thoughts raced through his mind, he almost stumbled backwards.

  With his mind reeling and feeling ‘danger’ all around him, Bill turned and ran back out of the Colosseum.

  Immediately, he ordered all Marines inside Dressrosa to withdraw – including Fujitora’s men although he didn’t have the actual authority to do so.

  During those long minutes, Bill ignored Vio’s urging and just knew the correct move was to regroup.

  The rumbling outside the Kingdom’s gates still continued, but Bill couldn’t remember why Fujitora and Zephyr were fighting.

  He knew they were fighting… he knew he had told Zephyr to hold Fujitora back, but he didn’t know why he had done so?

  This caused him a level of anxiety he had never experienced.

  He couldn’t put his finger on why, but it exceeded his fear when he had ‘woken up’ as a baby.

  It exceeded his fear when he first saw his enormously tall father, back when he still had the expectation of an American of the mid-20th century.

  He knew there was something deeply wrong, and after shouting orders to withdraw all Marine forces from Dressrosa, he quickly made his way towards Zephyr and Fujitora.

  Zephyr was fighting like a mad man.

  Only knowing that he was stalling Fujitora for Bill, and with the memory of King Doldo gone from his memory, the only ‘natural’ reason he could have come to Dressrosa was for pure revenge.

  Revenge for his trainees who had been sughtered, and retribution for his family who had been murdered by pirates’ years before that.

  And his brain naturally filled in the rest, creating memories from thin air and minimizing any incoherence in that false memory to account for essentially nothing.

  In Zephyr’s head, he was stalling Fujitora so Bill could deal with Dofmingo.

  Thus was the power of Sugar’s ‘Hobby-Hobby’ Fruit.

  Fujitora, holding his ground, had decided after just a few minutes that Zephyr needed to be ‘put down’ for Justice since the former Admiral had decided to betray the Navy.

  His memory was slightly sharper than Zephyr’s given his mastery of Observation Haki.

  Still, like with Zephyr, his mind had filled in the gaps, and, in his head, he was arresting Vice Admiral Ox for assaulting a member of the World Government.

  With both men believing that they were fighting for something important to them, the intensity of their fight skyrocketed.

  Making his way to the scene of the battle, Bill’s eyes widened as he looked at the devastated area.

  Zephyr was cd in pitch-bck Armament Haki

  Fujitora had drawn his sword and with the ground pancaking everywhere, with the air had distorted around him, Bill knew the Admiral meant business.

  And then his head jerked upwards.

  A massive meteor was falling from the sky.

  Bill quickly reckoned it to be the size of a rge building.

  ‘Is he trying to destroy the entire isnd?!’

  Naturally Bill had read the reports on the new Admiral’s ability, but he didn’t know how much control Zephyr had over the falling meteors.

  Bill didn’t even know if they were ‘true’ meteors from space.

  Still, he knew that if a meteor the size of a building hit a city, that city would be basically gone.

  So, despite wanting to stop the two from fighting, Bill had no choice but to deal with it first.

  Landing on the ground, about forty yards from the Kingdoms rge gate, his legs bent and by kicking off he destroyed the ground with a shockwave that almost took down a portion of the Kingdom’s walls.

  With sonic booms bsting the surroundings, Bill still held back.

  Moving so fast that a cone of compressed air formed in front of him as he flew upwards, the fact was that if Bill really pushed himself to the max, it would have caused the air itself to catch fire from friction.

  Reaching the meteor within a couple of seconds, Bill hissed: “[Time Slow]” inadvertently and slowed it by a whopping eighty percent.

  As fast as he was already moving, when the meteor ‘slowed’ by so much, it seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace.

  That was how, without using Armament Haki, when Bill punched the meteor… he broke it.

  From the outside, even from the perspective of Fujitora, Bill punched the meteor once and simply pulverized it.

  In reality, he had punched it hundreds of times.

  He had moved to break the rger pieces until there was nothing left but stone dust.

  In fact, destroying a rge building was nothing for either Zephyr or Fujitora.

  Both men were legitimate isnd-level disasters.

  But to do what Bill had done? Impossible.

  Zephyr immediately thought of Garp.

  Fujitora, he didn’t think of anyone… he just stopped fighting.

  Landing on the ground with the ‘thud’. Bill looked at the two big Marine Officers.

  His Coat of Justice was burnt and torn to shreds, he didn’t have Armament Haki to protect it, but he himself had no marks on him, whatever.

  He spoke fast, wanting to capitalize on his ‘entrance’.

  “Admiral’s, please stop fighting, something seriously wrong is going on here… I’ve called all Marine personnel back from the Kingdom… we have to regroup and compare what we know… but something is seriously wrong.

  I think…” Bill then muttered under his breath ‘God help me’ but continued: “… this may be a [Buster Call] situation.”

  UberNuber