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At that moment, it seemed as if the air itself had frozen, and everything fell into an eerie calm.
Bullet and Crocodile's expressions changed drastically as they stared at the severed arm on the ground and then looked back up at the two figures in the sky.
For some reason, a sense of unease and dread stirred within them.
"As expected, he's incredibly strong!" Murmuring softly, Kojin fixed his gaze on Roger before his body slowly descended and landed on the ground.
He lowered his head and looked at the bloodstained arm on the ground, then suddenly grinned.
"But the excitement in my heart is only growing!"
Then, before the shocked eyes of everyone present, he raised his remaining arm, clenched his fist, and, without hesitation, slammed it into his own head.
"Bang!"
His skull shattered like a watermelon, exploding into fragments.
The sight made Roger's pupils contract and sent shivers down Crocodile and Bullet's spines.
'Has he gone mad?'
Having lost an arm, Kojin had chosen to blow his own head off!
But in the very next moment, a scene unfolded that nearly stopped the hearts of the three onlookers.
The severed arm on the ground, the splattered blood, and the shattered head had all vanished without a trace. In their place stood a complete, uninjured Kojin.
"He... he's alive?!" Crocodile exclaimed in shock.
He had never realized that this powerful senior officer might also be a Devil Fruit user.
No... wait!
The gloves on his fists were still seastone gloves.
Which meant that Kojin wasn't a Devil Fruit user at all?
Then what exactly was that bizarre, undying phenomenon?
Crocodile, Bullet, and Roger were all momentarily at a loss.
"You truly possess an extraordinary lineage," Roger said gravely as he landed on the ground.
At that moment, he fully realized just how troublesome the young Marine before him was. He was impossible to kill, an undying bastard. Even when injured, he could restore himself completely by dying and then coming back to life.
In a sense, this man was born to be undefeated.
With his physique, bloodline, and that ferocious, domineering power, he could defeat almost any opponent.
Kojin smiled as he twisted his neck until it cracked.
He clenched his fists, feeling the abundant strength surging through his fingers and intense battle intent burst forth from his eyes.
There was no doubt that his physical attributes... strength, reflexes, and overall capabilities... had improved again upon being killed by Roger. But it was also clear that the rate of improvement was diminishing as he grew stronger.
Like a parabola, it would inevitably begin to fall once it reached its peak.
"Come on, Roger! Let's have a real battle!"
Roger stared at Kojin, studying him seriously for a moment. Then his expression suddenly relaxed.
"Let's move this somewhere else! Since you want a proper fight!"
Kojin nodded in agreement without hesitating.
"There's a dense forest to the northwest, near the shore," Roger said.
The two of them took off running, reaching maximum speed in an instant.
Moments later, Kojin arrived at the forest that Roger had mentioned.
He slowly raised his head and looked at Roger, who was standing opposite him. Their eyes locked, and sparks seemed to crackle in the Void between them.
Almost simultaneously, they both moved, their figures colliding in an instant.
Blade light blazed brilliantly, momentum surging like a raging gale that bent the surrounding trees. Above them, dark clouds shifted with their movement, lightning flashing unpredictably and thunder rumbling loudly.
Crocodile and Bullet stood to one side with tense expressions on their faces. They were nothing more than spectators to this clash.
From the moment it began, the battle had already reached its brutal peak.
Roger's blade was fast, precise, and ruthless, changing endlessly and able to pinpoint Kojin's position with absolute accuracy.
Thus, within the first moment, Kojin's neck was pierced.
However, this had no effect on Kojin's actions. He swung his fist brazenly, adopting the same fighting style he had once used against Rayleigh.
However, this style seemed to lose its effectiveness when facing Roger.
His opponent was simply too fast. The moment Kojin threw a punch, Roger vanished, launching another attack immediately.
An immense pressure bore down on Kojin instantly, making him deeply realize one thing...
There was still a gap between him and a powerhouse like Roger, who stood at the pinnacle of the world.
In every aspect of combat... Haki, speed, experience, technique, Roger was like a flawless hexagonal warrior, a master of all trades.
From the very start of the battle, Roger had already entered his most frenzied, peak state. He showed no signs of his terminal illness, and each swing of his blade sent shivers down Kojin's spine.
Yet there was a silver lining:
Constant death.
Like a relentless storm, death after death crashed down upon Kojin in rapid succession.
Roger crushed his opponent with overwhelming dominance, slashing repeatedly and killing him over and over again, while the points on Kojin's system panel skyrocketed at an astonishing rate.
By the third hour, Kojin had completely maxed out his Armament Haki.
Every inch of his body could now be wrapped in Armament Haki, and he could unleash flowing Haki effortlessly, without the slightest obstruction.
By the seventh hour, Soru had reached maximum level. Its activation speed approached teleportation, with a range of five thousand meters.
By the tenth hour, their continuous, uninterrupted battle had confined its range perfectly to the small forest in which they were fighting.
Kojin's eyes shone brightly. His repeated deaths had gradually allowed him to become familiar with Roger's combat rhythm, and his experience and technique were improving at an alarming rate.
The more he died, the more he advanced.
"Is this kid some kind of monster?"
"How can he improve so quickly in battle?!"
Roger was utterly shocked, however. He now fully understood the sensation Rayleigh had described earlier: death wouldn't truly kill this opponent but instead make him stronger with each defeat.
Time passed swiftly as the two fought through the night.
In the blink of an eye, it was morning. Wild winds howled out of the jungle. In addition to Crocodile and Bullet, the battle was now being watched by T-Penn, Rosinante, Evans, and others.
"He's incredibly strong!"
"Too strong!"
Kojin himself was equally stunned by the sheer power of the mustachioed man before him.
Throughout the entire night, he had lost count of how many times he had died, yet his opponent had remained completely unscathed.
In other words, even now, he still could not break through Roger's Observation Haki-killing state and inflict even a single wound on Roger's body.
This power surpassed Rayleigh's by an unknown margin, and it was as if an enormous chasm lay between them.
Over the course of that night, he had maxed out Soru, Rankyaku, and Shigan from the Six Powers.
They had reached a true max level, their power had undergone a qualitative transformation, yet they still couldn't allow Kojin to harm Roger.
This man fought as if he possessed absolute evasion skill and could predict the future; it seemed utterly impossible to break through his defense.
The battle continued, with Kojin devoting his entire body and mind to this unprecedented fight.
In the blink of an eye, another day and night had passed. Kojin had accumulated enough Points to max out his Tekkai (Iron Body), Geppo (Moonwalk), and Kami-e (Paper Art).
"You're truly tenacious, kid!" Roger exclaimed, his spirit clearly burning with excitement.
Their fierce battle raged on until the early morning of the fourth day, when Roger's movements suddenly faltered.
"Pfft!"
A mouthful of blood sprayed violently from his lips.
His formidable aura and frenzied combat state vanished in an instant, his body swaying as his face turned deathly pale.
Kojin froze, his charge abruptly halting.
"Cough, cough!"
"I'm finally getting old!" Roger sighed, shaking his head. A flicker of disappointment flashed through his eyes, but it quickly vanished, replaced by a hearty laugh.
"Kid," he said, "Do you want to learn swordsmanship? I don't have much time left, but I can teach you everything I know!"
After a pause, Roger grinned broadly again.
"I can hear the relentless, burning ambition in your heart!"
"You need power."
"Don't you?"
(End of Chapter)