Inside the tavern—
The air was warped.
Silent.
Deadly still.
Everywhere one looked… pirates lay sprawled across the floor, unconscious.
Dozens upon dozens had collapsed in a matter of seconds, their bodies limp, eyes rolled back.
The once-boisterous tavern, filled with raucous shouts and laughter…
had fallen into complete silence.
Not even a whisper.
Not even a breath.
Colorful lights continued to flash overhead, scattering prismatic beams across overturned tables, across the small figure who stood tall among the fallen.
Buggy's face had gone ashen.
His expression twisted, his entire body trembling.
The thought clawing at his mind left him paralyzed.
"Im… impossible…!"
"I-I must be going mad!"
"That brat… could he really…?"
"Could he truly have awakened the Conqueror's Haki?!"
Buggy's lips quivered.
A chill ran down his spine.
He wanted to deny it.
He needed to deny it.
But there was no other explanation.
Who else?
No one else here could have unleashed that overwhelming will.
It was the boy.
It had to be him.
A single answer.
An answer so terrifying it nearly stopped Buggy's heart.
"That brat…" Buggy's eyes widened in horror.
"He actually has the rare 'king's disposition'?!"
"One in a million are born with it… and in this backwater East Blue… I just happened to provoke such a monster?!"
"Not only provoke him…"
"…I even threatened to cut him into pieces?!"
The memory burned like ice, sending Buggy into a fit of trembling.
He knew, in that instant—
He had courted disaster.
A calamity beyond comprehension.
A four-year-old child…
with full mastery of Conqueror's Haki.
"Even Shanks couldn't do this at four years old…" Buggy thought, his mind reeling.
"I've never heard of anyone mastering it before ten. Never!"
"And yet today, I've seen it with my own eyes."
"A once-in-a-century monster."
"No… once in all of history!"
His skin prickled, goosebumps rising all over his body.
Fear gripped him, dragging him down into a suffocating abyss.
Not even Roger.
Not even Rayleigh.
Not even those men could do this at such an age.
This child was something else entirely.
"Four years old…" Buggy muttered, his voice shaking.
"What kind of monstrous talent is that? I can't even comprehend it…"
He clenched his fists, panic flooding his veins.
"Damn it all! Of all people, I had to stumble onto such a freak here in the weakest of the Four Seas?!"
"This brat's talent… even in the New World, among monsters, he'd be unparalleled!"
The thought made him want to vomit.
Pale-faced, Buggy raised his head, forcing a nervous smile at Kai.
"H-hey, brat… let's… let's call this even, yeah?"
"We don't need to fight. We can… put this behind us, eh?"
He was cowed.
Terrified.
Even if mastery of Conqueror's Haki didn't guarantee combat power, Buggy dared not take that gamble.
What if this boy's strength matched his will?
What then?
Such people were destined to rise as kings of the sea.
He didn't want to risk being crushed underfoot.
For the first time that night, Buggy had forgotten his rage at being called Red-Nose.
Fear drowned out all other feelings.
The few surviving pirates, including the blue-haired thug who had brought Kai here, stared slack-jawed.
Their invincible boss—
Captain Buggy, who ruled East Blue's underworld—
was cowering before a four-year-old.
Their worldview shattered.
"E-even Buggy… bowed his head?" one whispered.
"This brat… he's a demon!"
The blue-haired man shook violently, realizing he himself had led this monster into their stronghold.
"Backing down already?"
Kai's tone was mocking.
His eyes glittered with amusement as he studied the trembling Buggy.
"Weren't you arrogant just a moment ago?"
"And now you cower?"
A grin stretched across Kai's face.
"Too bad…"
"I told you from the very beginning—"
"Every last one of you here today…"
"…I'll blow you all to pieces."
Buggy's scalp prickled.
Terror surged through his chest.
Before he could move—
Kai blurred.
"Now that the ants are gone, my mood feels much lighter…" he said, his smile widening.
"Come then. Let's have a man's fight."
"You'd best kill me."
"Because if you don't—"
"I'll kill you instead."
He burst into wild laughter—
—and vanished.
Too fast.
Kai's body flickered like a phantom, darting through the tavern.
The human eye couldn't follow.
"Soru!"
The Marine's Rokushiki.
His speed transcended human limits, leaving Buggy unable to track him.
"S-so fast!" Buggy's pupils shrank. His face was drained of blood.
He couldn't see the boy at all.
In an instant, Kai reappeared at the side of the blue-haired thug.
His fist clenched.
Merciless.
A brutal swing arced toward the man's skull.
The punch ripped the air itself.
Boom!
The sound barrier shattered—an audible sonic crack tore through the tavern.
The blue-haired man's mind went blank. His ears rang violently.
"Dodge!!" Buggy screamed, panic etched into every line of his face.
Too late.
The fist connected.
CRACK—BOOM!
An explosion of gore.
The man's head burst like a ripe melon.
Blood sprayed into the air, misting in crimson droplets.
Fragments of bone and flesh rained down like grisly confetti.
The stench of iron filled the tavern.
His body slumped lifelessly to the floor with a heavy thud.
Dead.
Instantly.
Buggy's eyes bulged as he stared at the gore-streaked fist of the boy.
His throat went dry.
Horror seized him.
"That… that movement…" he stammered.
"That was—"
"Rokushiki?!"
"You… What kind of monster are you?!"
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