BOOM—!!!
The explosion was deafening, a thunderclap that shattered the peace of the archipelago.
Vice Admiral Sakazuki, a man whose very name struck terror into the hearts of pirates across the Grand Line, was launched backward with violent force. His massive, muscular frame flew like a cannonball, smashing through the bar's thick, reinforced walls. He plowed through one partition after another, finally crashing onto the street outside in a chaotic plume of dust, smoke, and flying debris.
The entire structure of the bar groaned and trembled. On the counter, rows of expensive wine bottles clinked rhythmically against one another, a fragile, chiming dirge for the violence that had just unfolded.
Then, a heavy, suffocating silence descended.
Inside and outside the bar, time seemed to freeze.
Gion, a celebrated Vice Admiral and master swordswoman, stood rigid. Her hand gripped the hilt of her famous sword, Konpira, but she did not draw it. The cold glint of the blade seemed frozen in the dim light, mirroring her shock. The Marine soldiers, who had only moments ago been bracing themselves against the terrifying heat of Akainu's lava, now stood with their jaws unhinged, resembling petrified statues rather than elite warriors.
Even Silvers Rayleigh, the "Dark King" and a legendary figure of the old era, forgot to take his drink. His glass hovered inches from his lips, his eyes narrowing as a flicker of genuine disbelief danced within them.
"He... he must be joking, right?" a young Marine recruit stammered, his voice barely a whisper. His rifle, slick with sweat, nearly slipped from his trembling hands. "That was... the Admiral..."
Behind the counter, Shakky continued to wipe a glass with practiced elegance, though a faint, enigmatic smile touched her lips. "It seems the repair bill for tonight will be much higher than I anticipated."
The question hung heavy in the air: What exactly just happened?
Sakazuki, known to the world as "Akainu," was a man whose creed of "Absolute Justice" was as unyielding as iron. He was a "World-Class Power," capable of destroying islands with his magma. Yet, this monster of a man had been sent flying by a casual, almost lazy punch from a black-haired youth.
But the most impossible detail, the thing that defied all logic of the seas, was that there had been no sign of Armament Haki wrapped around that fist.
"This... this isn't scientific!"
The thought screamed through Sakazuki's mind as he lay amidst the wreckage. He struggled to push his upper body off the broken pavement. Pffft. He coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with sizzling, molten magma. His face, usually a mask of stern intimidation, was now twisted in shock and bewilderment.
Why? Why did my elementalization fail?
He was a Logia user. Without Haki, physical attacks should pass harmlessly through his magma body. As a battle-hardened Vice Admiral who had survived countless wars, Sakazuki knew the rules of combat better than anyone. Even against other Devil Fruit users, battles always adhered to the fundamental laws of Haki. This made no sense.
"Hey, little dog."
A voice, curious yet chillingly indifferent, drifted down from above.
Sakazuki grit his teeth and looked up laboriously. The black-haired youth, Takuro, was floating in the air—flying without any visible device or wings. He looked down at the Marine as if observing a rare, interesting bug he had found on the ground.
"Let me ask you something," Takuro said, tilting his head to the side. "Do you Devil Fruit eaters honestly believe that just because you turn your body into a natural element, you become untouchable?"
Sakazuki remained silent. He stared intently at his opponent, his eyes burning with wariness. He could feel that several of his ribs were fractured. Every breath brought a sharp, tearing pain to his chest.
"Sigh..." Takuro let out a long, helpless breath, looking for all the world like a patient physics teacher dealing with a particularly slow student. "Do you really think that by turning into light, ice, or magma..." He raised a hand, his finger tracing lazy circles in the air. "...that your physical body ceases to exist?"
"Wrong!" Takuro raised his index finger sharply. "You merely transform the basic particles that make up your body into a different state of matter."
"But your essence, your physical existence..." His voice took on a strange, rhythmic cadence. "...has always been right there."
"So..." Takuro smiled, a benevolent expression that didn't reach his terrifying eyes. "As long as my speed is fast enough, and my strength is great enough..."
He leaned forward in mid-air. "Fast enough to hit you before your particles can separate... fast enough to force them to re-aggregate and solidify before the elementalization process completes..."
"Then I can hit you. It's simple physics, isn't it?"
Sakazuki: "..." Gion: "..." Rayleigh: "..."
Everyone present felt their minds go blank after hearing this "Saiyan Science Lecture."
Particles? Aggregation? Solidification?
What on earth is he talking about?
Rayleigh stroked his beard, deep in thought. "I see... He is using absolute speed and overwhelming physical strength to forcibly interfere with the activation of the Devil Fruit," he muttered, analyzing the impossible. "It is a truly unheard-of theory. A power that transcends the logic of our world."
Shakky chuckled softly. "It seems our little friend is even more special than we imagined. He operates on a different scale entirely."
"Alright, class dismissed." Takuro clapped his hands together, the sound sharp and final. His fighting spirit, a visible aura of energy, began to reignite. "Post-meal exercise..."
"It's time to officially begin."
His gaze shifted, locking onto Gion, who stood ready amidst the ruins of the bar.
"...Little girl."
When that gaze landed on her, full of playfulness and a pure, unadulterated lust for battle, even Gion—a candidate for the rank of Admiral—felt her heart hammer against her ribs.
Such terrifying pressure!
This man... he hadn't even gotten serious yet.
She could feel her palms sweating against the hilt of her sword. It was a sensation she hadn't felt since she was a recruit. Even when sparring with the current Admirals or facing World-Class threats, she had never felt such a pure, primal oppression. It was the aura of a predator sitting at the very apex of the food chain.
However, before she could even adjust her breathing technique—
"You wicked brat—!!!"
A roar, filled with humiliation and volcanic fury, exploded from the street. Sakazuki, looking like a demon crawling out of the depths of hell, rose from the crater. His entire right arm had completely transformed into a bubbling, churning mass of scorching magma. Madness burned in his eyes—a hysteria born of his trampled dignity.
"Be completely reduced to ash—!!!"
"Great Eruption—!!!"
A giant fist made of pure lava, even larger and more terrifying than the one before, tore through the sky. It rose like a volcanic eruption, carrying enough power to level the entire town. The heat was so intense that the air itself twisted and shimmered. Nearby Marine soldiers scrambled backward in panic, terrified of being incinerated by their own commander's rage.
"Sakazuki, stop!!" Gion exclaimed in alarm. She could see that this attack had exceeded the necessary limits of capture; he was driven purely by the intent to kill.
Facing an attack that would make any normal pirate despair, Takuro merely pouted, looking bored.
"Again?"
He didn't bother with a flashy technique or an energy beam. He didn't even use his breath to blow it away. He simply raised his right hand casually. As the giant magma fist descended from the sky to crush him—
He threw a simple punch through the empty air!
BANG—!!!!
There was no explosion of fire, only the sound of physics breaking.
An invisible wave of compressed air—a shockwave generated by pure brute force—erupted from his fist. Wherever the pressure wave passed, space itself seemed to distort. Under Sakazuki's shocked gaze, his ultimate attack, a fist of magma capable of melting icebergs, disintegrated inch by inch in mid-air.
With a final, thunderous BOOM, the Great Eruption was blown apart, scattering into a harmless rain of cooling rocks.
"Wh-... What?!" Sakazuki's mind went blank. This scene completely subverted his understanding of combat.
He... he blew apart my magma from a distance?!
What kind of ability is this? It's not Haki!
Takuro, however, was too lazy to explain the concept of Ki shockwaves to him. The moment he threw the punch, his figure vanished from his original spot. He moved so fast he left only a faint afterimage that lingered for a fraction of a second.
In the next instant, he appeared like a ghost directly in front of the stunned Sakazuki. He moved with such velocity that even Observation Haki—the ability to predict movement—failed to register his presence until it was too late.
"The game ends now."
As the calm voice fell, a seemingly ordinary fist, devoid of the black coating of Haki, slowly imprinted itself onto Sakazuki's face. The punch appeared slow to the naked eye, yet it contained a kinetic energy that transcended the laws of this world.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!!!!
A deafening roar echoed across the island. Sakazuki's burly body folded like a shrimp around the fist. His crimson suit tore apart at the seams. He was launched backward like a broken kite, smashing through every building in his path with terrifying momentum. He finally came to a stop hundreds of meters away, creating a human-shaped crater in the earth.
He did not move again.
The street was a disaster zone, looking as if a typhoon had just touched down. Terrified residents hid in their homes, peeking through shattered windows at a battle that defied imagination.
"Sakazuki!!!" Gion gasped, staring at the destruction.
Her colleague, a monster whose strength surpassed her own, an iron-blooded soldier who represented the Marines' greatest power, had been defeated so effortlessly.
She unconsciously gripped Konpira tighter, her knuckles turning white. As a swordswoman, she understood what she had just seen. That punch wasn't a technique. It was something more fundamental. It was absolute power.
At that moment, Takuro slowly turned in the air. His playful, dark eyes locked onto her once again. His expression was relaxed, his breathing even. He looked as if he had just swatted a buzzing mosquito rather than defeated an elite Marine Vice Admiral.
"Alright." He rotated his wrists, his joints making crisp crack-crack sounds. "Now..."
"It's just you left, isn't it?"
"...Little girl."
A chilling cold instantly enveloped Gion. But she was a Marine elite, a warrior who stood at the threshold of the "World-Class" tier. Taking a deep breath, she forcibly suppressed the rising fear in her heart.
A sharp, piercing sword intent erupted from her body, rising like a white crane spreading its majestic wings. She channeled every ounce of her Haki into her blade. Konpira let out a clear, resonant hum, vibrating in response to its master's desperate determination.
"Even if I die..." Her voice carried an unshakeable resolve, the pride of a soldier. "I will uphold justice to the very end!!!"
"Flying Crane!!!"
With a delicate yet fierce shout, she swung. The famous sword transformed into a deadly flash of bright white light. It was an elegant, lethal strike that looked like a crane soaring across the sky, slashing fiercely toward Takuro's neck. This strike contained her lifelong mastery of the sword; the energy was so sharp that even the air was split cleanly in two.
Facing this desperate, full-power sword strike, Takuro merely shook his head slowly. A hint of helplessness flashed in his eyes.
Then, under everyone's shocked gaze, he casually extended two fingers.
Clink—
A crisp, metallic sound echoed through the silent street.
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