Chapter 24

The battlefield fell into a strange, suffocating lull. The pirates were cheering. Squard, the Spider Maelstrom Captain, had appeared on the deck of the Moby Dick. He was walking toward Whitebeard.

To the untrained eye, it was a subordinate approaching his captain. To the Marines, it was nothing. To Admiral Akainu, watching from the scaffold with a magma-red grin, it was checkmate.

But to Kurumi, it was the turning point of history.

"He's going to stab him," Kurumi whispered, crouching behind a block of ice near the prow of the ship. Her Clock Eye ticked furiously. "Akainu tricked him. Squard thinks Whitebeard sold them out."

In the original timeline, Squard plunges his massive sword through Whitebeard’s chest. That wound is the beginning of the end. It weakens the strongest man in the world, slowing him down enough for the Marines to execute their Encirclement Plan.

Kurumi gripped her black flintlock. Her knuckles turned white.

If Whitebeard gets stabbed, the Marines win decisively. Ace dies. Blackbeard steals the fruit effortlessly.

But if Whitebeard isn't stabbed… he enters the plaza at full power.

A chaotic, dangerous thought formed in her mind. I need chaos. I need the Marines desperate. A healthy Whitebeard is the ultimate distraction.

She raised her gun. The distance was 400 meters. The wind was howling. The target was a moving blade.

Zafkiel: Aleph (Time Acceleration – Perception).

The world turned gray. Squard drew his massive sword. He screamed, "DIE, WHITEBEARD!"

He thrust the blade toward the old man’s heart.

Kurumi pulled the trigger.

The Deviation

CLANG.

The sound rang out like a temple bell.

Sparks flew on the deck of the Moby Dick. Squard’s massive sword didn't pierce flesh. It shattered.

The bullet, coated in concentrated Armament Haki, had struck the flat of the blade inches from the hilt at the exact moment of impact. The force snapped the steel like a twig.

Squard stumbled forward, holding a broken hilt, his momentum carrying him into Whitebeard’s shins.

"W-What?!" Squard gasped, staring at his broken weapon.

Whitebeard didn't flinch. He looked down at his "son," then slowly raised his eyes. He looked across the ice, through the smoke, directly at the small Marine Commander crouching in the distance.

Kurumi lowered her gun, smoke curling from the barrel. She didn't hide. She met the Yonko’s gaze.

"Why…" Squard trembled, tears streaming down his face. "Why did you sell us out, Pops?! Why are we the only ones dying?!"

The silence on the ship was deafening. The pirates stopped cheering. Marco flew down, confused. "Squard? What are you saying?"

"Akainu told me!" Squard screamed, pointing at the scaffold. "He said you made a deal! Our lives for Ace's! That's why the Pacifistas are only targeting the allied captains!"

Whitebeard looked at the broken sword, then at the sobbing man. He understood instantly.

"Foolish son," Whitebeard grumbled. He didn't hit him. He knelt down and pulled Squard into a hug.

"You really thought I would sell my sons?"

The Ripple Effect

On the scaffold, Akainu’s magma boiled. He crushed his cigar. "That interference… who fired that shot?"

Sengoku’s eyes widened. "The plan… it failed. Whitebeard isn't wounded!"

Down on the ice, Kurumi stood up. A chill ran down her spine. She felt a murderous intent locked onto her. It was Akainu.

"Commander Kurumi!" A nearby Marine Captain shouted, confused. "Why did you shoot? Squard was attacking Whitebeard! You saved the enemy!"

"He was obstructing the execution," Kurumi lied through her teeth, her voice steady despite her racing heart. "I saw a pirate raising a weapon against a high-value target. I fired instinctively. I… did not realize it was infighting."

It was a flimsy excuse. Akainu knew it. Sengoku knew it. But in the heat of battle, they couldn't arrest her.

The Monster Awakes

"GURARARARA!"

Whitebeard stood up. He wasn't bleeding. He wasn't panting. He was furious.

He raised his bisento. The air cracked.

"Marines!" Whitebeard roared, his voice shaking the entire island. "You try to deceive my family with cheap tricks? You try to make a father kill his son?!"

He slammed his fist into the air.

Atmospheric Crack.

This wasn't a normal quake. Because he wasn't injured, he didn't hold back. The vibration didn't just crack the ice; it shattered the Encirclement Walls before they could even rise.

CRASH!

The massive steel walls that were supposed to trap the pirates were twisted and bent like aluminum cans. The mechanism jammed.

"The walls!" Sengoku screamed. "They won't rise! The hydraulics are destroyed!"

"CHARGE!" Whitebeard bellowed, jumping off the Moby Dick.

He landed on the ice. He didn't stumble. He ran.

Imagine a freight train the size of a building moving at the speed of a race car. That was Edward Newgate at 100% health.

He punched the air again. A shockwave blasted through the plaza, sending hundreds of Marines—including giants—flying into the ocean.

The Chaos

Kurumi watched the devastation with a mix of awe and terror.

"I might have overdone it," she muttered, reloading her flintlocks.

In the canon, the Marines trap the pirates and boil them in the bay. Now? The trap was broken. The walls were down. And Whitebeard was in the plaza early, with no hole in his chest.

"Luffy!" Whitebeard shouted, spotting the rubber boy. "Don't fall behind, brat! The path is open!"

"YEAH!" Luffy cheered, invigorated by the old man's power. "I'm going to save Ace!"

The Target

"Commander Kurumi."

The voice was deep, dripping with magma.

Kurumi froze. She turned slowly.

Admiral Akainu had left his post. He wasn't looking at Whitebeard. He was walking toward her, his arm transforming into a dog made of lava.

"You," Akainu said, his face shadowed by his cap. "That shot was precise. Too precise for an accident. You ruined the strategy."

"I… miscalculated, Admiral," Kurumi said, stepping back. Her boots slipped on the wet ice.

"Justice does not tolerate incompetence," Akainu growled. "Or traitors."

Great Eruption.

He fired a massive fist of magma directly at her.

Kurumi’s eyes widened. This wasn't a test. This was an execution.

Zafkiel: Aleph!

She accelerated her time to the limit. She couldn't dodge the blast radius—it was too big. She had to deflect.

She drew both black pistols. She didn't fire bullets. She fired pure Haki, dumping every ounce of energy she had into a Reject Dial she had strapped to her chest.

Impact… REJECT!

She fired the shockwave at the ground to launch herself backward.

BOOM.

The magma consumed the spot where she had stood. Kurumi was sent flying through the air, crashing into the debris of a broken wall. She coughed blood, her ribs cracking from the recoil of the Reject Dial.

"He… actually tried to kill me," Kurumi wheezed, wiping her mouth. She looked up. Akainu was turning away, assuming she was dead, refocusing on the rampaging Whitebeard.

"Good," she grinned, her teeth stained red. "Now I'm a ghost. And ghosts are hard to catch."

The timeline had shattered. Whitebeard was unstoppable. Akainu was distracted. And Kurumi was free to hunt for the real prize.