"So fast..."
Shanks and Buggy watched the scene before them, the corners of their eyes twitching, their hands unconsciously trembling as they gripped their swords.
Smoke billowed and rubble flew everywhere.
Kozuki Oden's body hurtled back like a cannonball, smashing into a coral statue in the banquet hall and embedding himself in it.
He let out a pained cry and spat out a mouthful of blood.
His eyes stared in disbelief at the sharp black light before him, blocked by his single sword, bloodshot veins crawling across his gaze.
"This... how is this possible..."
The dark, demonic light was now clearly visible, like a purple ghost flame.
A three-pronged handguard, a blade radiating a chilling, oppressive aura...
The "sword that can destroy even hell"—one of the 21 Great Grade Blades—Enma!
Enma was now wrapped in terrifying Ryuo, its body swirling with purple-black cyclones.
The blade's tip pressed tightly against Ame no Habakiri, the fierce vibration between them throwing off showers of sparks and a piercing metallic screech.
At this moment, the two swords that had once been Kozuki Oden's treasured companions... clashed head-on!
But what shook Kozuki Oden to his core was not Enma's speed or terrifying penetrating power.
It was that, even at such close range, he could no longer sense Enma's presence!
This meant the Meito he had once cherished most... had been completely tamed by that Marine!
It no longer belonged to him.
At that thought, an uncontrollable fury burst from his chest like a long-suppressed volcano.
Eyes blood-red, Kozuki Oden roared at the heavens:
"Daren!!"
Boom!
A vast, overwhelming aura exploded from his body, sweeping across the entire Dragon Palace in an instant.
Conqueror's Haki!
The heavens and earth changed color.
Not far away, Shanks and Buggy were hit head-on by Kozuki Oden's wild surge of aura, their faces turning pale as they hugged their heads and staggered back several steps.
The other members of Roger's pirate crew were also startled.
They all knew Kozuki Oden's strength well, but right now, the aura he was unleashing was noticeably stronger than usual!
However, anyone could see that something was clearly wrong with him.
He was completely unable to control his rapidly surging Haki, letting it spill out recklessly.
"Oden! Calm down!"
"Control your breath! If you keep releasing Haki like this, you won't last long—you'll die!"
Rayleigh and Gaban's expressions darkened.
Both gripped their longswords and battle axes, stepping forward as if to intervene.
They could tell at a glance: Kozuki Oden was in a dangerously abnormal state.
The Haki swirling around him was burning violently, turning into a ghostly green flame.
His blood-red eyes made him look almost demonic.
Rayleigh and Gaban, seasoned veterans of the seas, instantly understood the situation.
Oden was overdrawing his Haki, forcibly transforming it into a demonic aura…
He was trying to walk the swordsman's path of "Shura"!
"Don't stop me!"
Kozuki Oden gritted his teeth, the rage in his eyes evolving into pure brutality.
With a hysterical roar, he swung his sword with all his strength!
Clang!
Enma was knocked flying by his attack, but the violent backlash from the clash shook his internal organs.
Blood streamed from his mouth and nose.
"I'm betting the dignity of a samurai, even my life... Today, either he dies, or I die!"
His aura was devilish, frenzied, and endlessly surging!
With just one strike, that damned Marine hadn't even moved—yet he himself had been blasted back, grievously wounded!
The staggering leap in strength left Kozuki Oden gripped by an unprecedented fear... and despair.
He knew clearly:
If he couldn't kill Daren today, he would never again have a chance to surpass him!
When he had first set out to sea, he could still fight him to a draw.
But now, after just a little over a year, Daren had already far outstripped him!
What about the future?
No—there would be no future!!
A samurai's path was to shatter like jade, not crumble like clay.
Boom!
His right foot, clad in wooden clogs, stomped heavily on the ground, the force causing the earth within a ten-meter radius to collapse.
Kozuki Oden's blood-red eyes locked once more onto the Vice Admiral, shrouded in the swirling storm.
Like a beast unleashed from its cage, he roared and charged forward.
The demonic aura burned wildly in his wake, and Ame no Habakiri let out a shrill, mournful screech.
"Damn it!"
"Calm down!"
Seeing this, Rayleigh and Gaban finally couldn't hold back any longer and rushed forward, anxious expressions on their faces.
But a figure suddenly appeared in front of them, blocking their way.
"Roger!?"
Rayleigh and Gaban were stunned.
"Let him go, and..."
Roger wasn't his usual joking self at this moment. His expression was unusually serious, finally showing some of the dignity befitting a captain.
His eyes were cold as he swept over every member of Roger's pirate crew.
"None of you are to interfere."
"But... but he could die!"
Shanks couldn't help but shout, his palms sweating.
Roger slowly turned around and looked at Kozuki Oden's determined back with a deep gaze, then suddenly smiled.
"Listen carefully, Shanks..."
"On this vast sea, everyone has their moment to shine. When that moment comes, no one can stop them, not even if it costs them their life."
He clenched his fists and muttered in a low voice,
"And for Oden, that moment is now."
Everyone opened their mouths, but no words came out.
They looked again at Oden's reckless back, pursed their lips, and shared complicated looks.
Yes.
Although their captain was loose-lipped, incompetent, impulsive, and crazy... when he got serious, he often saw straight into people's hearts.
He cut right to the core.
If they stopped Oden now, even if they saved his life, he would become a broken man who had lost his will to fight, a walking corpse in this world.
Such a life would be meaningless.
Kozuki Oden was their comrade, and they had to respect his decision.
...
"Oh? His aura has become even stronger..."
At the entrance to Fish-Man Island, Daren unleashed his Haki without restraint, his entire body enveloped in a vast, swirling storm.
The Ryugu Palace soldiers nearby had already collapsed all around him.
He puffed his cigar, narrowing his eyes at the samurai charging toward him again.
He swept a glance at Roger's crew standing motionless, and a cold smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Is this a chance for Kozuki Oden to prove himself?"
He took a step forward.
The moment his military boots hit the ground—
BOOM!
An even more turbulent and violent aura erupted, turning into a crimson storm that surged toward Kozuki Oden, vast and unstoppable.
"...Then I'll play with you."