East Blue.
Ten thousand meters above sea level.
A massive floating island drifted above a sea of clouds, dozens of smaller islands orbiting it like stars circling the moon. The whole scene looked like something out of a dream.
One of those islands was thick with ancient, towering trees.
Clang! Clang!
The clash of blades rang out across the island. Ancient trees were sent flying, rivers split apart, and endless clouds of dust churned into the air.
Two figures shot through the forest at blinding speed.
Every collision unleashed surges of sword energy that tore apart everything around them.
"As expected of that monster. In less than two years, his swordsmanship has already reached this level!"
"And he still hasn't found a named sword suited to him."
Indigo, the ship doctor of the Sky Pirates, said in amazement.
"Since Lius is this strong, does that mean we can leave now?"
Beside him, a beautiful girl with short orange hair asked with bright, eager eyes. She wore shorts and a tank top, tattoos running up her arms.
"Kah-le kah-le!"
Indigo shot Nami a sideways glance and smiled without a word.
That was the captain's call to make. As a mere ship doctor, it wasn't his place to decide.
Nami knew that full well. She puffed up her cheeks in frustration and fixed her big eyes on the battlefield at the island's center, silently willing Lius to beat that old man to a pulp.
This was the Sky Pirates' home base.
At the center of the battlefield stood a powerfully built old man, his golden hair fanning out like a lion's mane, a ship's steering wheel planted straight through his head.
He was none other than one of the three legendary pirates, spoken of in the same breath as the Pirate King Roger and Whitebeard Newgate.
Golden Lion Shiki!
The other figure looked no older than fifteen or sixteen.
His black hair whipped wildly around him. His bare upper body showed lean, well-defined muscle. His handsome face was set with pure focus and intensity.
"Wave Slash!"
Shiki roared.
The two named swords mounted at his knees in place of his severed feet, Kogarashi and Oto, fired two blazing arcs of sword light in an instant.
The ground split open. Rivers were severed. Every tree and blade of grass was shredded to nothing.
"And this old man is crippled like this. How terrifying must he have been at his peak."
Lius's expression shifted. He barely had time to raise both swords into a block.
Boooom.
The collision sent out a shockwave that flattened the jungle for a full kilometer in every direction.
Lius took the full force of it. He was launched through the air by the sheer power behind the blow, and one of the swords in his hands shattered, raining down as fragments from the sky.
"Jya ha ha ha! Watch yourself, boya!"
Shiki laughed and gave chase, his figure flashing as he dove from high above.
He moved so fast he became a streak of gold.
The two named swords came for Lius like the claws of a lion pouncing on its prey.
"Don't underestimate me, old man!"
Feeling the murderous intent crash down on him, Lius clenched his teeth and growled, his pupils snapping tight.
Boom!!
A torrent of Conqueror's haki exploded out from Lius's body like a tsunami crashing over the world.
In an instant, the sky changed color and the ground cracked apart.
Even Shiki's speed was affected, his dive stuttering for just a fraction of a second.
But as a legendary pirate, even with his power diminished by his disability, his vast experience won out. He shook off the impact almost immediately.
"Ah!! This Conqueror's haki..."
From a distance, ship doctor Indigo stared in horror. "That Admiral said that Lius had the strongest Conqueror's haki he had ever encountered!!"
Nami raised both arms against the wind rushing at her face, squinting her big eyes.
"So this is what you call Conqueror's haki?" she said. She didn't fully understand it, but it shook her to her core.
Just the shockwave at the island's edge felt like being caught in a raging storm at sea.
How terrifying must it be to stand right in front of Lius?
"Wait, what is that?"
Indigo suddenly went pale and let out a shriek.
In all his years following Shiki, he had only seen something like this in the battles of the old era's titans.
Hum!
The raging conqueror's haki poured out like a flood.
Golden lightning crackled endlessly between the earth and sky.
The black-haired boy stood gripping his shattered sword in both hands.
The lightning sparked by his conqueror's haki began to wrap around the blade like flowing water, wild and relentless.
"Could it be that technique...??"
Shiki widened his eyes in mid-dive.
[One Sword Style: King's Contempt!]
Lius roared, kicked off the ground, and launched himself into the sky.
The name of the technique matched its power perfectly. A king who scorns the world had arrived, carrying the force to destroy everything in his path.
The next second.
BOOM!!!!
The two clashed in midair. A circular shockwave ripped outward in every direction.
A mushroom cloud of dust and light billowed up into the sky.
The entire island shook like a volcano going off.
...
...
"Ow, ow, ow! Take it easy! Girls shouldn't be so rough."
"Who are you calling rough?"
"Ay, I didn't say you were rough. Just, maybe, a tiny little bit gentler!"
"Hmph!"
At the edge of the floating island.
Lius sat on a boulder with his shirt off, wearing nothing but a pair of patterned shorts, completely at ease.
Nami stood beside him, carefully and gently wrapping his wounds while he winced and yelped through his teeth.
This kind of bickering back and forth.
In the past two years, they had been through it dozens of times.
As for why Nami was here in the first place.
It was all because of Lius.
Two years ago.
Lius fell from the sky and knocked out Shiki, who had been on patrol around the floating island.
He was still standing there in a daze when the island's massive beasts came charging toward the noise, every last one of them opening wide, gaping jaws ready to swallow both Lius and Shiki whole.
Luckily, as was standard issue for transmigrators, Lius's cheat ability kicked in right at that moment.
From the very start, he awakened a maxed-out Conqueror's haki.
Conqueror's haki is the rarest of the three types of Haki.
It represents the qualities of a king. It cannot be trained. You are either born with it or you aren't, determined purely by your own destiny.
Maxed out.
That meant it had hit the absolute ceiling this world's rules allowed.
No one in this world could surpass Lius's Conqueror's haki. At best, they could stand equal to him.
Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, had Conqueror's haki so powerful it produced real, physical effects.
And Lius, with his maxed-out Conqueror's haki, was in no way inferior to Emperor Shanks.
You can imagine, then.
When Lius let loose his Conqueror's haki at full power.
Not only did it scatter the beasts, it jolted Shiki wide awake. The old pirate swore then and there to take Lius as his disciple, willing to pay any price, as long as he could shape Lius into the strongest man on the seas.
Lius had transmigrated as himself.
Though somewhere in the process, something had gone sideways, and he had de-aged back to thirteen or fourteen years old.
In this world, Lius had no family. No ties to anyone.
So he went along with it, more or less, and agreed to Shiki's offer.
As for how Nami ended up here?