Bang!
A claw raked across Jin's chest, blood spraying in an arc.
Boom!
A tail smashed his ribs, sending him tumbling through rubble.
Crack!
A stomp caved the earth where he'd been a heartbeat before, shockwaves rattling his bones.
Jin staggered, body trembling, skin carved with crimson lines. His breath came ragged, every inhale scraping fire through his lungs. The strength that Garp had beaten into him roared in his muscles, but even so, he was breaking.
Hanafuda loomed like an abyss given flesh. "You thought yourself strong? You thought yourself worthy? You're nothing before me!" His words thundered, claws dripping with blood not his own. "I am the Lizard King! My claws devoured Kaido's lightning, my hide repelled his thunder! You are a child daring to fight a god!"
Claws smashed into Jin's side, driving him to one knee. Dust clogged his throat. His vision wavered red. His fists curled—but they shook, trembling with weakness.
Hanafuda's maw opened in a growl. Lightning coursed over his scaled hide.
"Conqueror's Lightning Headbutt!"
The entire world seemed to shake as he charged. His head surged forward, wrapped in lightening and kingly will.
For the first time in three months, the thought whispered in his heart. 'I can't… win.'
The chain of battle that Garp had hammered into him—the endless struggle, the abyss of the Calm Belt, the fire that had carved him into steel—flickered, a candle sputtering in a storm.
Garp's words echoed: Your potential is too vast. You'll never awaken your Conqueror's unless you're crushed against it, forced to break your limits. Only in death's grip, only when the world itself denies you, will your will be born as a king.
Jin did not back away. His fist clenched tighter, his arm wrapped in Armament, his spirit flaring like a star.
Thooom!
The headbutt slammed into Jin's chest, lifting him from his feet, hurling him backward through rock. The cliff exploded, rubble raining.
Hanafuda thundered after him.
Jin rose from the crater, eyes burning, laughter spilling from his lips even as blood ran down his side.
The killing intent around him only fanned his fire. His blood boiled hotter.
And yet, the hotter it burned, the colder his mind became. Every sense sharpened, every thought stripped bare. No heaven. No earth. No self. Only the fight.
"Die!"
Hanafuda's colossal body expanded once more, bones popping like gunfire. Both fists swung down, wrapped in Armament, coated in Conqueror's, sizzling with lightning. They formed a storming sun of energy, screaming toward Jin.
Waves heaved against the cliffs. The sky tore.
And Jin… closed his eyes.
He breathed. Listened. Felt the heartbeat of the world itself.
The shadow of death loomed—
All his battles, his scars, his lessons. All of Garp's fists, the Sea Kings' roars, the taste of blood and pain—they were nutrients scattered in his soul. And now, at last, they converged.
—and then, something broke.
No, not broke. Something snapped awake.
Jin's head lifted, eyes wide. Not with fear. With fury. With defiance. A fire that refused to kneel, refused to bow. That same spark that had risen against Garp, against the sea, against the monsters of the deep. A voice that roared through marrow and blood.
"I've never felt anything like this…" he whispered. His eyes opened, shining with serene fire. "The world is beautiful, Hanafuda. Don't you think so?"
Hanafuda roared defiance, his thunder-fists crashing down.
Jin's own fist rose to meet it.
"I will not yield."
A seed split open inside him. Roots burst forth, branches tore through the sky. His will unfurled, vast and unyielding, wrapping his body in the mantle of a king.
His veins surged, power erupting like molten rock. His spirit unfurled, vast, uncontainable. The air convulsed.
BOOM.
The world shuddered.
From Jin's body exploded a storm of black-red lightning. Rocks shattered without touch. The ocean recoiled, waves splitting apart in walls of white spray. Dust was hurled skyward as though struck by a god's hammer.
CRAAACK!
The collision shook creation.
"Impossible!" Hanafuda's heart quailed.
"This…" his voice cracked. "This is—!"
Conqueror's Haki.
BOOOOM!
Blood exploded in the air. Jin's body drove through Hanafuda's storming fist like a nail driven through timber—just as Garp's iron punches had taught him. A strike to pierce Armament itself.
Hanafuda's scream tore the air as he crashed to earth. His body shrank back to human form, blood gushing from his mouth. His right arm hung in tatters, shattered bone jutting from flesh.
Jin landed before him, steady, terrible. He raised his hand, ready to end it, to seize the Dragon-Dragon Fruit.
"King Jin, wait!"
Two figures dropped from the sky, clad in black suits, their boots tapping against the stones as they landed. CP agents.
One held out a Den Den Mushi.
"The Five Elders demand a word."
Even the World Government had stepped in.
Jin's gaze flicked to them. They trembled beneath it, fearing that he might erase them with the same indifference he had shown the Warlord.
From the snail's mouth came the calm voice of an aged man.
"King Jin. Hanafuda is a government-appointed Warlord of the Sea. Give us this one favor… grant us this face."
Face?
How much was their "face" worth?
Jin's expression darkened.
The silence that followed pressed upon the battlefield like a vice, the very air trembling beneath the weight of his decision.