BOOM—
The blast of Conqueror's Haki shook the air.
A tidal wave of sheer will roared out from Kai's small body, tearing across the training grounds like a black storm.
The sky didn't darken—
But it felt like it should have.
The pressure was that heavy.
It was like the heavens themselves were leaning down on Marineford.
The invisible wave rushed outward, shredding the air, crushing everything beneath it.
Within moments, it had devoured dozens of meters around Kai—
And it was still spreading.
The first person to take the full brunt of it—
Was Zephyr.
His face changed.
His pupils shrank.
In that instant, a suffocating, crushing will smashed into his mind like a hammer.
It was heavy.
It pressed down on his very soul.
If Zephyr had been just some average officer, his knees might've buckled right then and there.
But he was a Marine Headquarters Admiral.
He didn't have Conqueror's himself, and he wasn't "a king"…
But he'd faced more than one monster who did possess it.
He was used to resisting it.
Even so—
He had to admit:
"This brat's Conqueror's…"
"…is way beyond what I expected!"
He had thought—
A four-year-old, even if freakishly talented, and even if he'd awakened Conqueror's Haki—
Would still only be at the "barely usable" stage.
Maybe enough to knock out a small cluster of weaklings within a ten to twenty-meter radius.
But this—
This wasn't some awkward, shaky Conqueror's blast.
This was a genuine, overwhelming, battlefield-level Conqueror's Haki surge.
The kind that could tilt an entire fight.
"How… how is this possible…" Zephyr muttered, stunned.
He stared at Kai, face full of disbelief.
"He's only four…"
"And he's just barely begun to control it…"
"Yet his Conqueror's is already at this level?!"
"This is insane!"
"This kid… what kind of monster is he?!"
His scalp tingled.
A cold sweat prickled down his back.
And then—
He suddenly remembered something.
The wave of Conqueror's was still surging outward—
Straight toward the cluster of dorm buildings several hundred meters away.
His expression collapsed on the spot.
His face went pale.
"Crap!"
"Oh, this is bad—"
"I've really done it this time!"
He spun around, eyes widening as he looked toward the dorms.
Those buildings…
Were filled with Marines.
Tens of thousands of them.
Most of them basic soldiers, junior enlisted, ordinary men and women—
Not officers.
Not elites.
Definitely not people who could casually shrug off Conqueror's Haki at this level.
If that wave reached them—
Zephyr suddenly had a very vivid image in his mind:
Tens of thousands of Marines collapsing at once like falling dominos.
"…I'm dead," he thought blankly.
Completely, utterly dead.
He opened his mouth, wanting to tell Kai to stop—
But it was too late.
Once Conqueror's Haki was unleashed—
You couldn't just pull it back like flipping a switch.
The only way to cancel that kind of wave…
Was to use another Conqueror's Haki to crash into it.
And Zephyr—
Didn't have it.
He had no way to stop it.
"Why did I…"
"Why did I insist on having him use it here?!"
Regret flooded him like a tidal wave.
"This is my fault…"
"If I hadn't been so stubborn…"
"If I hadn't thought, 'What's the harm, his range can't be that big'…"
He could already picture Fleet Admiral Kong's face in his mind.
And it hurt.
"Once those tens of thousands of Marines all collapse…"
"I won't hear the end of it for years."
"Complaints, reports, scoldings…"
"Kong's going to skin me alive."
His head throbbed.
"I had no idea…"
"That this monster's Conqueror's was this ridiculous."
"Garp, you bastard, why didn't you warn me properly?!"
His earlier self-confidence—
Evaporated completely.
"Some monsters…"
"You really can't judge with common sense," he thought bitterly, remembering Garp's warning.
"And this brat Kai…"
"Is exactly that kind of monster."
While he was drowning in regret—
The wave of Conqueror's had already raced across the full three hundred meters.
Three large dorm buildings stood right in its path.
They—
Were the first casualties.
Inside those three dorms—
Life had been completely normal just moments before.
Some Marines were napping.
Some were chatting.
Some were doing push-ups.
Some were reading.
Others were getting dressed, brushing their teeth, or lazing around on their bunks.
Then—
WHAM.
The invisible wave slammed through the buildings.
The effect was instant.
Eyes rolled back.
Bodies went stiff.
Then—
Thud! Thud! Thud!
They dropped.
One after another.
Like wheat being cut down in a storm.
One Marine with a wash basin froze mid-step, eyes going blank before he toppled sideways, water splashing everywhere.
Another, reading a book, simply tipped off the side of his bunk and face-planted on the floor.
One poor guy who'd been doing pull-ups on a beam blacked out mid-rep and crashed flat on his back.
Another was squatting over a toilet when he suddenly seized up and fell straight into the pit.
Inside those three dorms—
It was chaos.
No.
It would've been chaos—
If anyone had been conscious.
Instead—
Everything went dead silent.
Thousands upon thousands of Marines collapsed wherever they happened to be.
Some half-on chairs.
Some sprawled in doorways.
Some hanging halfway off ladders.
Others slumped over tables, arms dangling.
Three whole multi-storey dorm buildings—
Utterly wiped out.
Not a single person left standing.
In total—
At least twenty thousand Marines were knocked unconscious in less than a second.
From the outside…
Those dorms now looked eerily quiet.
Too quiet.
Like haunted buildings.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring dorm blocks—
Conscious Marines had heard some faint crashes and thuds from that direction.
Then—
Nothing.
The sudden silence made their skin crawl.
"What was that sound just now?"
"I thought I heard something like a whole squad hitting the floor…"
"Was it just me?"
"I heard it too. It was like… boom-boom-boom, then quiet."
"That's weird. They were pretty noisy over there before. Why'd they all go quiet at once?"
"Should we go check?"
They stuck their heads out of windows and over railings, looking toward the three dorm blocks in question.
Everything looked normal.
But something felt off.
None of them realized—
If they actually stepped inside…
They'd see something they'd remember for the rest of their lives.
Three full dormitories.
Every bed occupied by someone knocked out cold.
Marines lying in the hallways.
Marines drooling on desks.
Marines sprawled across sinks.
Marines half inside toilet stalls.
All of them—
Eyes rolled back.
Foaming at the mouth.
Utterly unconscious.
Complete and total annihilation.
Back at the clearing—
Zephyr's Observation Haki spread out across the area by instinct.
He scanned the dorms—
And felt his heart stop.
He could sense them.
Every life force in those three buildings—
Suddenly dip into a deep, unconscious state.
"…"
He went completely still.
For a long moment, he just stood there, staring into nothing.
Then, very slowly—
He turned his head toward Kai.
His neck moved like it was rusted.
His expression was complicated beyond words.
His throat was dry.
"…Brat," he finally managed hoarsely, "you've just landed me in massive trouble."
Kai blinked innocently.
He looked like he wanted to say:
I told you it'd be better to move somewhere else.
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