By the time Tsuru led twenty elite Marines to the scene under Kong's orders—
The area around the three dorm buildings was already packed with onlookers.
Crowds of Marines stood around the cordoned-off blocks, talking in hushed, nervous tones.
Tsuru took one look and felt a headache blooming.
"So much for keeping this quiet," she thought helplessly.
She couldn't even blame Garp this time.
This mess…
Had Zephyr written all over it.
He'd known Kai was a monster.
And still decided to "test it himself."
And now?
They had this disaster on their hands.
"Everyone, clear out."
"Nothing to see here," Tsuru said as she walked forward, voice calm but carrying a subtle pressure.
The surrounding Marines stiffened.
Recognizing the legendary strategist, they didn't dare cause trouble.
They quickly dispersed with respectful bows and nervous glances, though as they left, their whispers only intensified.
The story would spread through Marineford like wildfire.
"Go inside and check for serious injuries," Tsuru instructed.
"Yes, Vice Admiral Tsuru!"
The twenty elites exchanged uneasy looks, then marched into the first dorm building.
They weren't ready.
They thought they were.
They weren't.
The moment they stepped inside—
They froze.
"Wh—what the—?!"
"This…"
"What happened here?!"
"Why is everyone… on the floor?!"
"Not just a few—everyone?!"
"Are you kidding me… the whole building is down?!"
One by one, the elite Marines stared, slack-jawed.
The sight in front of them felt like something from a nightmare.
Everywhere they looked—
Marines were lying sprawled across the floor, beds, corridors, bathrooms, stairwells.
Not dead.
But completely unconscious.
And that was just on one floor.
They kept going.
Second floor.
Third.
Fourth.
The deeper they went—
The colder their backs felt.
Goosebumps rose on their arms.
Their scalps tingled.
This was too much.
An entire dorm block.
Not a single conscious soul.
The second building—
Was the same.
The third—
Also the same.
Floor after floor, thousands of Marines—
All laid out.
All knocked out cold.
Some with toothbrushes still in hand.
Some with books open on their faces.
Some mid-step on ladders.
Some slumped over buckets.
One unfortunate soul was still halfway into a toilet stall.
They'd never seen anything like it.
"Vice Admiral Tsuru," one of the elites asked at last, his voice trembling. "What… happened here?"
"What could do something like this?"
The others looked at her too.
"Poison gas? Some kind of mass hallucination? A Devil Fruit?" someone muttered.
Tsuru shook her head lightly.
"You're my most trusted men," she said. "You've been with me long enough to know there are countless monsters in this sea."
"These monsters aren't strong just because they're big or durable."
"They're strong because they wield something far beyond ordinary strength…"
"…Haki."
"And among all forms of Haki…"
"There is one that belongs only to those with the potential to rule."
"Conqueror's Haki."
The elites fell silent.
One by one, their eyes went wide.
"A-and you mean…"
"This is—"
"Today, what you're seeing here…"
"The tens of thousands of Marines knocked out cold…"
"All of them were hit by Conqueror's Haki."
"Conqueror's Haki… in its most brutal, direct form."
Tsuru's gaze swept across the carnage with a complicated expression.
"Conqueror's Haki…"
Just hearing the name made the elite Marines swallow hard.
They'd heard of it, of course.
The power of kings.
A power possessed by one in a million.
The kind of power only true monsters had.
"This kind of power…"
"Is usually found only in legendary figures," Tsuru continued. "Like Admiral Sengoku."
"Or Garp."
"Those are the kind of people who can wield it."
The twenty elites exchanged stunned glances.
"Conqueror's Haki… really did this?" one whispered.
"To knock out tens of thousands of people in an instant…"
"How terrifying is that level of power…"
Tsuru didn't answer directly.
She simply said:
"Spread out and check every floor. Look for heavy injuries."
"If anyone's in serious condition, they're the highest priority."
"Yes, ma'am!"
They moved to obey, now a little more careful when stepping over sprawled bodies.
The deeper they investigated, the more surreal the whole thing felt.
Tsuru, standing in the central corridor of one of the buildings, looked over the countless unconscious Marines and couldn't help sighing quietly.
"This kid, Kai…"
"Really is something terrifying."
She remembered the Golden Lion incident years ago.
When Shiki had invaded Marineford.
Buildings had been shattered.
The sea had roared.
The sky had been split.
But in terms of actual numbers injured…
Shiki's attack hadn't come close to this.
Back then, the casualties hadn't even reached triple digits.
Today—
A four-year-old with one blast of Haki…
Had knocked out over twenty thousand Marines in one move.
With no ships.
No crews.
No artillery.
Just his will.
"This is the most serious casualty count we've had in nearly ten years," she thought.
"And it was all done…"
"By a single child."
Half an hour later—
The twenty elites returned to her.
They reported one by one:
"Vice Admiral Tsuru, no severe injuries in my section."
"Same here."
"I've got one poor guy who fell off a balcony. Lucky it was only the second floor. Just some bruises and a twisted ankle."
"I have two with minor head wounds, but they're stable."
"One with a slightly heavier head injury. Probably concussed, but alive."
"Everyone else is just unconscious."
Tsuru let out the breath she'd been holding.
Thank goodness.
No deaths.
No critical injuries.
If it had gone that far…
The fallout would've been even worse.
"Good," she said. "Send the more seriously injured to the medical ward immediately."
"As for the rest…"
"I'll assign a separate team to handle them."
"Yes, Vice Admiral!"
Just as they were about to leave—
One of the elites hesitated, then asked:
"Vice Admiral Tsuru…"
"Do you know who unleashed this Conqueror's Haki?"
"I mean…"
"In Marine Headquarters, as far as we know, only Admiral Sengoku and Vice Admiral Garp have Conqueror's, right?"
"But neither of them would randomly blast Haki at the dorms…"
The others looked at her too.
Curiosity burned in their eyes.
In their minds, there could only be a few candidates—
Kuzan.
Sakazuki.
Borsalino.
The younger generation of monsters.
Maybe one of them had awakened it?
Tsuru looked at them.
"You're half right," she said. "The one who caused all this isn't Sengoku or Garp."
"And it's not one of the old guard."
"It was…"
"A newcomer."
"A four-year-old boy."
"A once-in-a-century prodigy."
"A monster who just recently arrived at Marineford."
"That's the culprit who wiped out these three dorms in one shot."
Silence.
Then—
"W-what?!"
"FOUR YEARS OLD?!"
"A four-year-old newbie has Conqueror's Haki?!"
"Vice Admiral Tsuru, you're not joking, are you?!"
"How can that be?!"
"That's too ridiculous!"
"This isn't 'genius' anymore—that's inhuman!"
They stared at her like she'd grown a second head.
For them—
Conqueror's Haki was something so distant it might as well have been myth.
Something they might live their whole lives never even seeing, let alone touching.
And now—
Tsuru was telling them that this terrifying wave of Conqueror's had been unleashed by…
A four-year-old.
"W-wait…"
"So you're saying…"
"The one who knocked out tens of thousands of Marines in one breath…"
"…is a four-year-old kid?!"
A trembling voice cut through the air.
Then—
Like a match dropped into a barrel of gunpowder—
The entire group exploded.
"What?!"
"Four?!"
"Is this a joke?!"
"What kind of monster is that?!"
"In all Marine history…"
"There's never been anything like this…"
Their worldview—
Shook to its core.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios