For a moment, the battlefield was dead silent.
Then one of the Marines who had arrived late — still pale from seeing more than three thousand pirates lying unconscious on the ground — swallowed hard and stammered:
"D-Did I… did I hear that right just now?"
"Captain Miz said… that four-year-old kid…"
"…he's the one who wiped out the entire Demon Pirates?"
The others who had shown up late subconsciously followed the direction Miz was pointing.
And then…
They saw him.
That four-year-old figure.
He stood there bare-chested.
His small body was packed with tight, coiled muscle, veins faintly bulging beneath his skin.
Each muscle line looked like it held terrifying explosive power — like a volcano forced into the frame of a child.
Across his back, the demonic pattern — the Ghost Back — spread like a feral brand, savage and domineering, as if something ancient had awakened on his young body. Just looking at it made their scalps tingle.
A heavy pressure radiated from that tiny frame, sweeping across the battlefield and pressing down on every Marine present.
It was an oppressive aura — a presence that absolutely did not belong to a four-year-old.
"I-It's… him?!"
The Marines were stunned.
They had seen Kai before — he had been traveling together with Vice Admiral Kuzan (Aokiji).
Naturally, they had assumed…
…that he was just some relative, or a junior with good connections, whom Vice Admiral Kuzan was bringing along to "gain experience" during this East Blue operation.
But now—
Miz's words had completely overturned their understanding.
"Wait… you mean it wasn't Vice Admiral Kuzan who wiped out the Demon Pirates?"
"It was… that four-year-old kid?!"
"No way!"
"Is that even possible?!"
"A four-year-old took down the Demon Pirates?!"
"The Demon Pirates had over three thousand men — you're telling me he wiped them all out by himself?!"
"Oh. My. God!"
Shockwaves rippled through the Marine ranks. Many of them felt their minds go blank.
Miz's statement had ignited a storm of disbelief and awe among them.
One after another, stunned and wide-eyed, they stared at Kai's back — unable to look away.
"C-Captain Miz, are you sure you didn't get it wrong?"
A Marine stared at Miz in a daze, still unwilling to believe it.
Before Miz could even reply—
Dozens of Marines who had witnessed everything with their own eyes stepped forward and said, one after another:
"It's absolutely true!"
"We all saw it!"
"That kid did it — he single-handedly wiped out the entire Demon Pirates!"
"Even their three division captains, each with bounties in the tens of millions, were taken out by him alone!"
"One versus three — he crushed them without even breaking a sweat!"
"He's… unbelievably strong!"
The Marines who had watched the entire battle spoke with voices still trembling from shock.
Those who had just arrived were utterly speechless.
Their worldviews were cracking.
Then someone finally asked the question that was burning in all of their hearts:
"How can a four-year-old possibly do that?!"
"More than three thousand Demon Pirates — and you're saying he wiped them out alone?!"
"That battlefield must have been an absolute massacre!"
"But… why doesn't that kid have a single scratch on him?"
"You're telling me he annihilated more than three thousand pirates… and walked away completely unscathed?!"
"That's insane!"
"Even Vice Admiral Kuzan himself couldn't eliminate over three thousand Demon Pirates in an instant without at least some kind of injury!"
"So this four-year-old did something even Vice Admiral Kuzan couldn't do?!"
"What the hell is going on?!"
All eyes turned to Miz — full of shock, fear, disbelief, and a desperate need for an explanation.
Under those burning gazes, Miz took a deep breath, suppressing the restlessness in his chest.
He looked at Kai's small figure with eyes full of reverence.
Then, word by word, he said:
"Have you ever heard of something called… the disposition of a king?"
"The kind of potential that appears only once in a million people?"
"The… disposition of a king?"
The newly arrived Marines were confused.
Miz continued, his voice solemn:
"Only those born with the spirit of a king can awaken a power that terrifies the entire sea."
"That power is known as…"
"Conqueror's Haki."
"Only true monsters who stand at the top of the sea can wield it."
"For example — in the second half of the Grand Line, the New World — the man hailed as the world's strongest, Edward Newgate, 'Whitebeard'… is one of those people."
No one dared interrupt.
Everyone listened in stunned silence.
"And that four-year-old over there…"
"He has the spirit of a king!"
"At just four years old, he has already awakened — and this is the terrifying part — he has mastered Conqueror's Haki!"
"He has achieved a feat that has not appeared in hundreds of years on this sea!"
"He is also the only person in Marine Headquarters' history… to have awakened Conqueror's Haki at just four years old!"
"The only one!"
As Miz's words rang out…
Silence.
For several seconds — no one spoke. No one moved.
Then—
BOOM!
The atmosphere exploded.
All at once, the gathered Marines lost their minds.
"C-Conqueror's Haki…"
"That's the power that let that four-year-old kid knock out over three thousand Demon Pirates in an instant?!"
"He wiped out that whole group of vicious criminals using just that?!"
"Even the world's strongest man, Whitebeard, has the same power!"
"And now this four-year-old kid… already possesses it too?!"
"What kind of monster is this?!"
Some Marines even laughed bitterly:
"At first, we thought Vice Admiral Kuzan brought the kid along because he wanted to mentor a junior."
"That he was just taking a newcomer to see some real action."
"But who would've guessed…"
"That the 'burden' beside Vice Admiral Kuzan was actually… a terrifying monster!"
"A monster… who just happens to be four years old!"
"At only four, he wiped out the entire Demon Pirates by himself! Even their three division captains with bounties in the tens of millions… were obliterated on the spot!"
"What kind of feat is that?!"
"Absolutely terrifying!"
"A genius like this… appears once in a hundred years!"
All around, the Marines stared at Kai's back with eyes full of awe, respect, even worship.
"Today, I finally understand…"
"What a true genius looks like."
"This… is it."
All around them, on the rubble-strewn street of Chuanliu (Flowstream) Island, more than three thousand pirates lay unconscious — like wheat cut down in a single swing.
That scene alone…
Was enough to shock anyone.
No one could have imagined…
That a four-year-old child could cause such a scene.
A single burst of Conqueror's Haki…
And an infamous East Blue pirate crew — the Demon Pirates, who had occupied Chuanliu (Flowstream) Island for years and terrorized the surrounding sea — was erased in one day.
And the one who did it…
Wasn't Kuzan.
Wasn't Garp.
Wasn't even an elite Vice Admiral.
It was—
Garp's grandson.
Monkey D. Kai.
A four-year-old monster.
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