Leno kept a smile on his face.
Inside, though—mmp.
As expected, this guy who slacked off all day was ridiculously strong.
Among the current three Admirals, the weakest might actually be that lazy pheasant, Aokiji.
"I wasn't hiding," Leno shrugged lightly. "No one just bothered to look at me."
Kizaru's tone became a touch more serious.
"Why don't you come back with me~ With your current strength, I'm sure they'd let you atone for your mistakes."
"All you'd need to do is take responsibility for the Impel Down riot, capture some pirates properly…"
"Don't make me laugh," Leno cut him off coldly. "I'm not going back."
The air around them grew heavier.
Behind Leno, Domino tensed.
Robin's gaze sharpened.
Kalifa lowered her head, silent.
Kizaru tilted his head slightly.
"Not going back~? That's troublesome."
"You know, I don't really like working too hard~"
"But orders are orders."
His body began to shimmer with golden light again.
"So scary~ A former Marine Vice Admiral standing on the opposite side…"
"Feels like overtime with interest."
Leno rolled his shoulder once, black Armament Haki spreading across both arms.
"Stop pretending."
"If you really wanted to take me back, you'd have used full force earlier."
He smirked.
"You came here mainly for Robin."
"And to see for yourself whether I'm worth killing."
Kizaru paused for half a second.
Then chuckled.
"Oho~ You've grown sharp."
"Still… handing over Nico Robin would make things much simpler~"
Leno's eyes turned icy.
"You're a little late."
"She's my crewmate now."
At that word, Robin's pupils trembled slightly.
Crewmate.
Not hostage.
Not tool.
Kizaru's gaze shifted briefly to Robin, then back to Leno.
"You're really planning to stand against the entire World Government for her~?"
"And for yourself?"
Leno's voice was calm.
"No."
"I'm standing against them because they chose to discard me."
He stepped forward.
The ground beneath his foot cracked slightly.
"And if you're here to test me…"
"Then don't hold back."
Behind them, the Buster Call fleet's cannons continued roaring.
Smoke filled the horizon.
Luffy and the Straw Hats watched in stunned silence.
An Admiral.
Leno.
Two monsters facing each other.
Kizaru sighed.
"Why is it always the troublesome ones who grow this fast~?"
Golden light exploded outward—
And in the next instant—
He vanished.
A beam of light shot downward from the sky like divine judgment.
"Yasakani no Magatama."
Countless light projectiles rained toward Leno.
Leno didn't retreat.
He stepped forward instead.
Armament Haki surged—
And the battlefield trembled as light and darkness collided once more.
If he knew what Kizaru was thinking, he would definitely mock him on the spot—
Devil Fruit mastery?
No.
This wasn't about development level.
It was about rules.
And Leno's existence right now was already breaking the rules.
Sea water roared in through the spreading fractures.
The ground beneath everyone's feet split apart like a crumbling chessboard. Massive chunks of the island tilted, collapsed, and slid toward the sea.
The Buster Call warships in the distance began adjusting their artillery angles in alarm.
"This lunatic…" Kizaru murmured in midair. "He's planning to sink Judicial Island entirely~"
Below, the Straw Hats stared in shock.
"Is he insane?!" Usopp screamed.
"Judicial Island is collapsing!" Nami cried out.
Luffy didn't speak.
He just stared at Leno.
That man…
He wasn't running.
He wasn't retreating.
He was smiling.
Domino looked at the surging seawater with a pale face.
"Leno…!"
Robin's pupils trembled slightly.
She knew he was immune to seawater.
But sinking an entire government stronghold—
That wasn't escape.
That was declaration of war.
Kalifa clenched her fists subconsciously.
This man…
He really had no intention of leaving himself a path back.
Kizaru descended slightly, golden light shimmering around him.
"Sea water doesn't affect you~?"
"How troublesome~ That breaks common sense, you know."
Leno dusted off his hands casually.
"I already said it."
"I'm not bound by your common sense."
The fractures expanded further.
Several CP9 agents barely managed to leap toward stable ground.
In the distance, cannon fire from the Buster Call began raining down prematurely.
Boom—!
Boom—!
Explosions lit up the crumbling island.
Kizaru sighed.
"This is getting out of hand~ If I don't get serious, Sengoku will scold me~"
The golden light around him intensified.
This time—
It was different.
No more playful laziness.
No more testing.
The air itself began to distort from condensed photon energy.
Leno narrowed his eyes.
Good.
Finally.
"Yata no Kagami."
A reflective beam shot across shattered debris—
And in the next instant, Kizaru appeared directly above Leno at near-impossible speed.
A kick descended.
This time—
Armament Haki coated it.
Black and gold collided.
BOOM!!!
The shockwave tore apart the remaining structures nearby.
Domino was forced to shield her face.
Robin grabbed her arm to keep her from being blown away.
Kalifa steadied herself against a broken pillar.
Leno blocked—but this time he was driven into the fractured ground.
Cracks exploded outward beneath his feet.
His arms trembled slightly.
So this was an Admiral actually trying.
Kizaru looked down at him through his glasses.
"Scary~ You're still standing."
Leno grinned upward.
"You're still holding back."
For half a second—
Silence.
Then both vanished.
Light streaked.
Black Haki surged.
Explosions rippled across collapsing terrain as the two figures clashed again and again midair.
To the Straw Hats watching from afar—
They couldn't even track the fight anymore.
Only flashes.
Only shockwaves.
Only destruction.
Luffy clenched his fists.
So this…
Was the level beyond them.
He had thought defeating Lucci meant he was strong.
But compared to this—
He felt small.
Powerless.
Helpless.
For the first time since setting sail—
A deep, suffocating frustration settled in his chest.
Above the sinking island—
Kizaru's voice echoed faintly between impacts.
"You're growing too fast, Leno~"
"That makes you dangerous."
Leno's reply cut through the smoke.
"Good."
"Then fear me."
And as another shockwave split the sky—
Judicial Island continued its descent into the sea.
Did they really think he wasted his time in Impel Down?
If Koby could boast about putting in "two hundred times the effort"—
Then what about him?
He had shared a cellblock with Shiki the Golden Lion.
A man who stood at the very top of the old era.
A monster who understood Devil Fruits on a level most people never could.
And more importantly—
A man who had personally crossed blades with Whitebeard.
Who had witnessed the Gura Gura no Mi up close.
Who understood what it meant to shake the world.
You think Leno sat there rotting?
No.
In the darkness of Infinite Hell, while others despaired—
He listened.
He learned.
He asked.
Shiki, arrogant as he was, didn't mind talking.
Especially to someone who had the guts to break chains.
Devil Fruits weren't just abilities.
They were extensions of will.
Control the medium.
Control the application.
Ignore conventional limitations.
Whitebeard could quake the sea.
Aokiji could freeze it.
So why couldn't Leno split resistance itself?
Why couldn't he split impact?
Split force?
Split space?
Split the very concept of cohesion?
The Bara Bara no Mi was mocked as a clown's fruit.
But only because its previous user never pushed it.
Shiki once said:
"The difference between trash and terror… is imagination."
And Leno had plenty of that.
So yes.
Fruit development?
With Golden Lion's experience, and his own obsession with getting stronger—
It wasn't difficult.
What was difficult—
Was surviving long enough to use it.
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