The New World.
This was the latter half of the Grand Line.
A sea filled with danger.
A sea crowded with monsters.
Countless powerful figures from the first half of the Grand Line flocked toward the New World, all hoping to conquer this chaotic ocean.
And yet—
only a very small handful of pirate crews truly had the power to dominate the New World.
Among them were:
the Whitebeard Pirates, the Beasts Pirates, the Big Mom Pirates, and the Red-Haired Pirates.
In this era, however, the most famous of them all were undoubtedly the Whitebeard Pirates.
Because their captain, Whitebeard—Edward Newgate—was known as the strongest man in the world, a terrifying existence whose power stood at the very peak of the sea.
By comparison, neither the Beasts Pirates nor the Big Mom Pirates yet possessed the capital to clash head-on with Whitebeard's crew.
And as for the Red-Haired Pirates—
they were a rising crew that had only emerged in recent years. Though they had not yet fully reached the level of an Emperor crew, their reputation was already overwhelming, enough to make countless pirates in the New World fear them on sight.
They did not yet bear the title of Emperor—
but they were already infinitely close to that throne.
Compared with a crew like Whitebeard's, what the Red-Haired Pirates lacked was only time and accumulated foundation.
Everyone could feel it.
Within a few years at most—
the Red-Haired Pirates would inevitably ascend to the seat of an Emperor.
Nothing could stop it.
On this day, a massive ship slowly sailed in from the distant sea.
As the wind blew softly, the skull flag raised high above the vessel made its identity unmistakable.
It was a pirate ship.
And that flag was unlike any other—
a skull adorned with Whitebeard's crescent-shaped white mustache.
In the New World, that flag represented one of the most terrifying powers on the sea—
a pirate force feared by countless others.
It was the Whitebeard Pirates.
That's right.
The enormous pirate ship cutting across the waters now was the Moby Dick itself, the great main ship of the Whitebeard Pirates, said to be one of the largest vessels in the world and capable of carrying more men than almost any other.
Splash… splash…
The giant ship split the sea open as it sailed, sending ripples rolling across the water.
On deck, the still-youthful Marco the Phoenix came running over with an intelligence report in hand and handed it to his captain.
"Pops… since when did you have another son?"
Marco looked thoroughly confused.
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
Naturally, the man standing before him was Whitebeard himself.
Even in his old age, Whitebeard's body remained enormous and powerfully built, packed with muscle and radiating a terrifying pressure.
"Take a look."
Marco gestured toward the report.
So Whitebeard took it and began reading.
After finishing, he slowly let out a breath, his eyes showing a trace of surprise.
"So this 'Whitebeard the Second'—he's really not your biological son?"
Marco's expression turned strange.
"No."
"But…"
"I do remember Miss Bakkin. Back in the Rocks Pirates, she was one of us, though she never had much presence."
"Never expected her to find some strong idiot and use him like this."
Whitebeard shook his head.
Then his eyes turned reflective.
"A pirate said to possess the same strength I had in my youth…"
"and yet he was captured by a five-year-old Marine brat."
"What a world."
"No one could have predicted that."
"If I'm not mistaken…"
"that little Marine brat probably already has combat power on the level of a Vice Admiral."
"A five-year-old with Vice Admiral-level strength."
"The Marines have produced a true monster."
Even Whitebeard himself couldn't help showing real surprise when Kai's name came up.
As a pirate, he naturally stood against the Marines—
but he had never harbored that much personal disgust toward them as an institution.
"Kai, huh…"
Marco obviously knew which child Whitebeard was talking about.
A five-year-old…
who single-handedly captured a pirate with combat power in the hundreds of millions.
That alone was enough to show how terrifying this boy was.
"What a frightening monster."
Marco felt the same shock and amazement.
When he had first heard the news, he couldn't believe it either.
A five-year-old Marine had captured a pirate said to possess Whitebeard's youthful strength.
That was the kind of man who would count as a top-tier monster even in the New World.
And yet—
he had been captured by a child.
It was difficult to even imagine.
"What you may not know, Pops…"
"is that this five-year-old monster is the grandson of your old rival."
"Old rival?"
Whitebeard raised a brow.
Marco answered truthfully.
"The Hero of the Marines—Garp."
"Garp's grandson, is it?"
Whitebeard looked surprised.
Then, slowly, a look of expectation appeared on his face.
"That makes it even more interesting."
"I'm really looking forward to seeing what that five-year-old monster looks like once he grows up."
"I believe it won't be long before this sea sees the rise of a Marine powerhouse who makes the entire ocean tremble."
"A monster who has Vice Admiral-level strength at the age of five…"
"Give him just a few more years, and there probably won't be many people left in the New World who can stand on the same level as him."
"Garp's grandson really is a terrifying little demon."
For Whitebeard—the strongest man in the world—to give someone such an evaluation was no small thing.
In the last decade, almost no one had received praise of that level from him.
Kai was the one exception.
"Even Pops thinks that highly of him?"
Seeing the expectation in Whitebeard's eyes, Marco felt inwardly shaken.
For the first time, Marco felt a truly immense pressure from someone so young.
He finally understood something clearly—
the monsters of the new era were already beginning to chase down the giants of the old.
No—
more accurately, only one monster of the new era had the right to do that.
Kai.
Up to this point, no other young prodigy of the current age could even be compared with him.
"This sea…"
"is only going to grow more chaotic."
"With Roger's final words setting the whole world ablaze, there will only be more and more monsters emerging from here on."
Whitebeard had that premonition.
After a pause, his gaze turned serious again.
"But among all of them…"
"this child named Kai is the only one I can't see through at all."
"The so-called monsters rising in this era…"
"won't be able to catch up to him."
"This boy's talent…"
"is simply too frightening."
Even Whitebeard found the idea of a five-year-old with Vice Admiral-tier combat power difficult to process.
Thinking that far, he actually began to pity the other monsters of this generation.
"What a tragedy."
"To be born in the same era as a monster like this."
"The new generation's so-called geniuses will probably feel real despair."
"All the monsters and prodigies of this age…"
"will have no choice but to live beneath the blinding light of a single child named Kai."
Marco's heart shook violently.
Every genius of an era…
suppressed by one five-year-old?
All of them forced to live under his shadow?
Whitebeard's words left even Marco deeply shaken.
He looked back down at the intelligence report in his hand, throat dry, and slowly read out the most eye-catching lines.
"A five-year-old Marine monster…"
"Ghost Back Kai."
"Title…"
"Fist Demon."
Marco let out a long breath, but his shock still wouldn't settle.
He knew exactly what that meant.
On this sea, only the truly top-tier strong were granted titles.
Iron Fist Garp.
Black Arm Zephyr.
Buddha Sengoku.
And now—
Fist Demon Kai.
This title meant one thing:
from this day on, five-year-old Kai had officially stepped into the ranks of the sea's top monsters.
His strength had been acknowledged by the entire world.
He was now known as—
Fist Demon.
…
At the same time, as the news spread across the New World, Whitebeard was far from the only one shaken by it.
One top-tier powerhouse after another began to notice the same thing:
a five-year-old Marine strong enough to shake the sea.
A monster called Fist Demon.
And the name Ghost Back Kai rapidly swept across the entire New World.
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