A table popped up on the light screen.
Kizaru.
Under the photo was a line of text: Work after getting paid; slack off if there is no overtime pay.
Everyone across the sea saw this line at the same time.
“Admiral Kizaru Borsalino.” “Glint-Glint Fruit, Logia.
Light-speed movement, light-speed kicks.
Doesn’t it sound invincible?” Clips of Kizaru at the Sabaody Archipelago appeared on the screen.
Kicking a Supernova away, firing a laser from his finger to pierce a giant Mangrove tree, floating in the air, leisurely looking down at the pirates below.
“When the Supernovas at Sabaody Archipelago saw him, it was like mice seeing a cat.” “But here is the problem…” The screen switched to the Marineford War.
Kizaru stood on the plaza.
Whitebeard was right across from him.
“When it came to the Marineford War, facing a true Four Emperors-level opponent, what did Kizaru do?” The editing on the light screen cut rapidly.
Segment after segment of Kizaru’s battle footage from the Marineford War were spliced together.
Each segment was very short.
But each segment was lethal.
Not lethal to the enemy, but lethal to Kizaru’s reputation.
“Let’s take a closer look at this segment.” Austin’s voice trailed off, carrying that kind of annoying, smug grin.
“During the Marineford War, Straw Hat Luffy broke into the battlefield to save his brother.
As an Admiral, Kizaru had multiple chances to intercept him.” The light screen showed footage of Luffy sprinting across the battlefield.
Covered in wounds, clothes mostly torn, but his legs were moving fast.
Kizaru appeared.
Floating in the air, one finger raised, a bright white orb of light condensing at the tip.
A laser fired.
Swoosh!
A crater exploded on the ground next to Luffy.
He was fine.
Another laser.
Swoosh!!
It grazed Luffy’s shoulder and hit the ruins in the distance, sending debris flying.
He was still fine.
Austin took these two shots separately and slowed them down.
Slowed down enough to clearly see the trajectory of the lasers.
Then he drew two red circles on the screen, marking Luffy’s body position and the lasers’ landing points.
One was fifteen centimeters to the left.
One was twenty centimeters to the right.
“Folks, do you see that?” “This is the Glint-Glint Fruit.
Light speed.
The fastest speed in the universe.” “Something that would not even miss a stationary target.” “And yet, hitting a Luffy running in a straight line, he missed.” “Missed twice.” Austin’s tone was full of incomprehensible disdain.
“You are telling me this is missing?
This is not missing.
This is called precisely avoiding all vital points.” A line of large text popped up on the screen in fluorescent pink, bolded, with a flashing effect: [System Notification: Kizaru Borsalino: Light-speed slacking, firing everywhere except the target.] On the Marineford plaza, the air went silent for two seconds.
And then…
“Pfft.” A sound came from a soldier in some corner.
Then a second, then a third.
Some covered their mouths with fists, some buried their faces in their arms.
Laughter seeped out from all directions, uncontrollable.
A recruit squad leader’s face was flushed red as he gripped a nearby soldier’s arm tightly: “Don’t laugh!
Don’t you damn laugh!” The soldier was holding back tears: “I am not laughing…
it is just the wind…” Kizaru stood on the high platform.
His sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose, the lenses reflecting the colors of the light screen.
The gazes of those around him fell upon him.
It was not that he had not been watched before.
But before, it was with awe and fear, not like this…
what was this?
What do you call this look?
Suppressed laughter.
Everyone was holding back laughter at an Admiral.
Kizaru tilted his head and raised a hand to scratch the back of his head.
“How scary~ being analyzed so thoroughly, it is just too scary~” His tone was still that same old way.
Leisurely, nonchalant.
But he spoke unusually fast and ended abruptly, showing he was not as composed as he appeared.
Aokiji leaned against a pillar, his right hand covering his mouth, his shoulders shaking.
He was laughing.
He used all his self-control to keep from laughing out loud, but failed.
An extremely short snort escaped from his nose.
Kizaru turned to look at him.
Aokiji immediately coughed twice and turned his face away.
“The wind is too strong, I choked.” The wind from the New World could not reach the plaza of Marineford; both Kizaru and Aokiji knew that full well.
But the light screen was not planning on letting Kizaru off.
Austin’s narration added a concluding comment, in a tone that sounded like a final verdict: “So the conclusion is in.
Kizaru’s combat power is directly correlated to his paycheck.” “Fighting Supernovas: within salary range, beat them to death.” “Fighting a Four Emperors: beyond salary range, off the clock at light speed.” “Fighting Luffy: a key target, but with no overtime pay or meal allowance, he just goes through the motions, precisely aiming lasers at the guy’s pant legs.” A photoshopped image popped up on the screen.
Kizaru’s face was pasted onto a modern time clock screen, with text written beside it: [System Notification: Clock-out time has arrived, please do not work overtime.
— Borsalino] The suppressed laughter on the plaza finally could not be contained anymore.
The first to break were the soldiers in the back.
They were far from the Admiral, so they were bolder.
Laughter spread sporadically, then spread like a virus.
In the end, even the Field officers in the front were using clipboards to hide their faces.
Kizaru took off his sunglasses, wiped them, and put them back on.
The movement was very slow.
He spoke sluggishly: “This light screen…
it is not being very kind~” No one responded.
Because everyone was busy laughing.
Akainu did not laugh.
He had been standing on the steps, staring expressionlessly at the screen from start to finish.
“Precisely avoiding vital points.” Akainu spat out those words one by one.
He turned around to look at Kizaru.
That look was not at a colleague; it was at a criminal.
“Borsalino.” Kizaru: “Hmm~?” “Are you slacking off on the battlefield?” The laughter on the plaza cut off.
Everyone’s heads turned simultaneously toward Akainu and Kizaru.
Kizaru spread his hands, looking quite innocent.
“Is this not something that has not happened yet~ Akainu, why are you being so serious~ what if that screen is just talking nonsense~” “Nonsense?” Akainu took a step forward.
A slightly glowing red footprint was left on the ground.
The temperature was rising.
“It even measured the ballistic deviation for you.
Fifteen centimeters left, twenty centimeters right.
You call that nonsense?” Kizaru’s smiling face finally could not be maintained.
The corner of his mouth twitched, then quickly reset.
“…The wind was strong.” Akainu stared at him for three seconds.
He turned and walked away.
As he walked, two stone slabs beneath his feet cracked.
The heat of magma seeped up from the cracks, the edges scorched black.
Aokiji watched Akainu’s receding back, the smile on his face also fading.
He leaned against the pillar and whispered something only Kizaru could hear.
“Be more serious next time.” Kizaru did not say a word.
After two seconds, he pushed his sunglasses back up and tilted his head toward the screen.
His mouth moved, mumbling to himself.
“If I am serious…
people will die.” No one knew who he meant by “people”.
…
Foosha Village.
Luffy squatted on the bow of the ship, tilting his head as he finished watching this segment.
He did not understand things like fifteen-centimeter ballistic deviations.
He was not good at math.
But he understood one thing.
“This flashy gold uncle…
does not seem to want to hit me much?” He scratched his head and pulled his straw hat down a bit.
“Whatever, forget it.
I did not get hit anyway.” Then he continued gnawing on the jerky he had swiped from the kitchen earlier, chewing happily.
…
Past timeline, tavern.
Gol D.
Roger looked at the photoshopped image of the time clock on the screen, and the wine in his mouth sprayed out.
It sprayed all over Rayleigh’s face.
Rayleigh expressionlessly wiped the wine off his face.
“Captain, you are like this every time you drink.” “No!” Roger laughed, slapping the table, “Look at that Admiral!
Light speed!
Light speed!
And he actually missed a brat!” He laughed so hard he slapped his thigh.
“That is not missing, that is slacking off!
Hahahaha!
I have lived all these years and it is the first time I have heard of an Admiral slacking off on the battlefield!” Rayleigh asked the tavern owner for another cigarette and lit it.
“It means this Kizaru has his own ideas.
Or…” He took a puff.
“Or he does not want to be the Marine’s blade.” Roger’s laughter subsided a bit.
“You mean?” “For a light-speed user, if they truly want to kill someone, there is no such thing as missing.” Rayleigh flicked the ash, “He let Luffy walk through alive.
Only he knows the reason why.” Roger thought for a moment, then laughed again.
This time his laugh was different from before.
“Interesting.
The Marines are not exactly a solid block after all.”