Through two full evolutions of the Demon Carrier and the awakening of Haki, Jin was no longer a man bound by human limits.
Those three months of training under Garp within the Calm Belt had been nothing short of hell.
After two days of lectures on the basics, the old Marine hero had offered no more words—only battle.
Every waking breath had been combat. Fighting titanic Sea Kings and abyssal beasts. Fighting the elements. Fighting Garp himself, who delighted in punches and sneak attacks that came without warning, his booming laughter echoing through Jin's bones.
That ceaseless crucible burned away the weakness in Jin's body. Every number—strength, speed, stamina—climbed like mountains. Every instinct, every fiber of his being sharpened until he could feel the exact weight of his power with terrifying clarity. And beneath that pressure, something deeper had stirred. Not muscle. Not technique. Something else. Something primal, still half-asleep, scratching at the edges of his soul.
He hadn't understood it then. Garp had only grinned, eyes narrowing with the glint of recognition, and driven his fist harder into Jin's jaw. "One day, brat… you'll figure it out."
And so when Jin's fist crashed into Hanafuda, the impact was monstrous.
The Lizard King staggered, body folding, pain distorting his features. It felt as though Jin's knuckles had pierced his gut and split him open.
"Huuh… huuh…" Hanafuda's breath tore out raggedly. The grin was gone from his face. His eyes had grown cold as steel. "I underestimated you."
The chain scythe roared to life. With a whirl of his arms, Hanafuda summoned a storm of iron. Over a hundred spiked spheres, all crackling with Armament Haki, filled the air like a metallic rainstorm, hurtling toward Jin.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Stone shattered to gravel beneath the barrage.
But Jin flowed between them like a phantom. Each dodge came within a hair's breadth, yet not one blow found flesh. His eyes narrowed, breath steady, a strange calm overtaking him. It was as though he could feel more than see—the rhythm of battle itself whispering in his veins.
"You… you've learnt Observation Haki!" Hanafuda's voice betrayed surprise.
It was that instant of shock that doomed him.
Jin vanished—no, not vanished, but moved so swiftly and silently that it seemed so. His body made no whisper of sound, not even the wind stirred by his steps. Silence cloaked him, the power of the Silent-Silent Fruit forming a barrier that devoured all noise, even suppressing the senses of those who relied on Observation.
Hanafuda blinked—and Jin was before him.
Thoom!
An uppercut detonated against his jaw. Blood spattered from his lips as his massive frame was hurled back, rolling through broken stone.
Jin had lived through fire. In his clashes with Garp, every time he thought he had reached his limit, he had been forced further, deeper, to draw out more. And each time, that same buried spark had flickered inside him, restless, hungry. Now that honed strength erupted, each blow infused with raw potential.
Were he facing an ordinary man, the first strike would have torn them apart like paper. Even clad in Armament Haki, Hanafuda's bones rattled beneath the assault.
He spat blood onto the dirt. "Damn you…"
One blow, he could blame on carelessness. But two? This was no accident. This young king was… monstrous.
But Hanafuda was no weakling. He had fought Kaido himself, and lived. His body was tempered like iron.
Wiping the blood away, he snarled, hands digging into the ground as Jin's shadow fell over him, foot descending in a crushing kick.
Boom!
Rock caved into a crater seven, eight meters wide. Shards rained down like shrapnel.
But Jin was already gone, leaping high. He descended in a war-axe kick, black streams of Haki rippling down his leg, the pressure alone tearing space into fractured mirages.
Danger screamed through Hanafuda's bones.
His pupils contracted to pinpricks. His flesh bulged, bones cracking audibly. His body warped.
"ROOAAARRR!"
A roar shook the shoreline like thunder. Dust and wind exploded outward, waves colliding against the coast with a deafening crash.
When the haze cleared, the thing beneath Jin's kick was no longer a man.
A dragon-headed beast, half man and half tyrant lizard, loomed on two legs. Black-red claws crossed overhead, halting Jin's strike. His chest was bare, muscles bulging, power coursing through him like a volcano about to erupt.
Scales glittered with the sheen of Armament. Fangs gleamed in a snarling maw. Dark-gold eyes burned with predatory malice.
The Zoan—Ancient Type. The Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Hanafuda became a storm. His claws carved trenches through stone, his tail scythed like a battering ram, his jaws snapped with the weight of a guillotine.
"You want to kill me?"
Jin's instincts screamed warning. He vaulted aside, brushing past the edge of a descending claw.
Craaaack!
The slash carved a canyon into the cliff wall, rock shrieking as it split apart.
And that was but the first stroke of the beast.
Whhhssshhh!
The massive tail whipped, predicting Jin's landing spot. The air shrieked as it cut through. Stone pillars shattered into dust.
Jin leapt once more, hands seizing the tail's spiked tip.
"HAAH!"
His shout ripped out, his arms exploding with strength as he wrenched.
Rmmmmm!
The great tyrannosaurus lifted off the ground, Jin spinning him like a windmill before slamming him through stone and earth. With a final heave, he flung the beast skyward, sending the Warlord crashing back down, the ground shattering beneath the impact.
Dust rolled like stormclouds. Any ordinary foe would already be unconscious.
But Hanafuda was no ordinary foe. Ancient Zoans, combined with his own monstrous body, gave him vitality beyond reason. He dragged himself upright, bloodied but not broken.
"You damned brat…" his voice rumbled like an oncoming storm, low and venomous before erupting into a roar. "You'll regret ever making me serious!"
For the first time in years, his pride screamed in humiliation—forced to bleed, forced to strain, forced down by a mere upstart. His golden eyes flared, pupils narrowing to killing slits as thunder rippled across his scaled frame. The ground itself seemed to quake beneath the weight of his wrath.