As captain of the Cerberus Pirates, Kurrin felt his scalp go numb and a chill run straight up his spine.
At that moment, Smoker looked at him with open mockery and smiled faintly.
"So…"
"now you know the answer?"
"Now you understand why we didn't care whether that five-year-old monster lived or died?"
"It's because…"
"from the very beginning, all of you pirates were nothing but insects in that monster's eyes."
"Now do you understand?"
"Do you understand how incredibly stupid your decision just now was?"
"You actually dared lay hands on that monster?"
"You really were tired of living."
"Out of everyone on this battlefield, you somehow managed to target the single most terrifying one."
"So tell me…"
"are you brain-dead?"
Kurrin's face turned pale.
The moment those thirty to fifty pirates had been annihilated—
even he had failed to clearly see how Kai moved.
Which meant only one thing.
Kai's strength likely far exceeded his own.
The realization made him tremble.
"Originally, that monster wasn't even going to interfere in this battle."
"Because this fight…"
"was supposed to be between us and you."
"That monster was only here as a spectator."
"But you idiots went out of your way to provoke him."
"So really…"
"wasn't this just you walking straight into hell on your own?"
Smoker continued.
"Y-you…!"
Kurrin was both furious and terrified.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced toward Kai, who still stood in the middle of that pile of corpses in spotless white.
Even though Kai was just a child of five—
the pressure he gave off was enough to make Kurrin's heart seize.
"Damn you, brat! I'll kill you!"
Enraged, Kurrin forcefully crushed down his fear and launched another assault on Smoker with his Seastone weapon.
At the same time, the other pirates on the battlefield finally began to recover from the shock.
One by one, they stared at Kai in terror.
At this point, in their eyes, he was no longer just a child.
He was a taboo.
A monster that absolutely could not be provoked.
"S-so strong…"
"That kid is terrifying."
"I thought he looked weak enough that even I could take him down with one punch…"
"But who would've thought he was this strong?"
"The Marines actually produced a monster like this?!"
"He's only five, and yet he already has such horrifying combat power! What a freak!"
Panic spread through the pirates.
On the Marine side, the cadets looked at Kai with nothing but reverence and awe.
"Kai really is as reliable as ever."
"He's absurdly strong."
"These pirates really had no eyes. They actually dared provoke him? Serves them right—instant wipeout."
"He wasn't even going to interfere in our trial."
"But those idiots went looking for death."
"In one move, Kai just took out nearly a fifth of the enemy force for us."
The cadets whispered among themselves, their expressions full of admiration.
They had expected Kai to be strong.
But even then, the sheer sight of it was still shocking.
At the same time, Tina glanced coldly at the pirate officer facing her.
His face was pale. He looked completely shell-shocked.
"See that?"
She asked calmly.
"Y-you…!"
The pirate officer stared at her in fear.
"That five-year-old boy your people just targeted…"
"…is actually the strongest person among all the cadets here."
"And the funniest part is…"
"none of you realized it."
"You thought you had found our weakness."
"But the person you chose…"
"was the most terrifying monster on this entire battlefield."
"Even a Logia user looks like an insect in front of him."
Tina's beautiful eyes remained fixed on him.
"That child…"
"How can he be that strong?!"
The pirate officer completely lost control.
"That's enough."
"I've said more than enough."
"It's time for you to die."
With that, Tina launched another fierce attack.
The battle erupted once again.
After that brief pause—
the Marine cadets were the first to recover, and they immediately launched a ruthless counteroffensive against the now-shaken pirates.
The pirates were driven back step by step.
More and more bodies fell.
Blood flowed in streams.
Corpses littered the ground.
On the other side, Colonel Trull and his four hundred branch Marines stared in total disbelief at the pile of corpses around Kai.
The blood had soaked into the earth, painting the ground in vivid red.
And there, standing untouched in the middle of it all, was a spotless five-year-old boy in white.
The contrast hit them like a hammer.
"W-what the hell?!"
"Colonel Trull, did you just see that?"
"Thirty to fifty pirates rushed him at once, and that five-year-old killed all of them by himself in just a few seconds!"
"He's too strong!"
"That can't really be a five-year-old child, can it?"
"Isn't that way too absurd?!"
The Marines were shaken to the core.
Trull was no exception.
"So that's it…"
"The reason Admiral Zephyr dared let that five-year-old onto this battlefield…"
"…was because that child is himself an existence of terrifying power."
"A five-year-old this strong…"
"This really opened my eyes."
"Marine Headquarters truly is a place where monsters just keep appearing."
"A Logia cadet was already shocking enough…"
"And now there's a five-year-old monster too!"
Trull was filled with amazement.
His shock refused to settle.
He had been unable to clearly see how Kai had just massacred those pirates.
Even as a Marine colonel, he couldn't follow it.
He truly couldn't imagine how absurdly strong that little boy must be.
At that moment, he finally understood Zephyr's real intention.
"I think…"
"The reason Admiral Zephyr brought that five-year-old here…"
"…was never to have him participate in the operation at all."
"It was to protect the group of twenty-year-old Marine cadets."
That thought made Trull swallow hard.
He was stunned.
A five-year-old child—
assigned to protect a whole squad of twenty-year-old elite Marines?
That was unbelievable.
The more he thought about it, the more shaken he became.
He had never heard of anything like it.
To think that the Marine elites of this generation actually needed a five-year-old boy watching over them—
just how powerful did someone have to be to be entrusted with that?
Meanwhile, Zephyr, hidden in the shadows, watched the pirates' annihilation and let out a helpless sigh.
"I knew it."
"These idiots really insisted on dying."
"In the end, Kai still interfered in this graduation trial."
"And once he did…"
"the difficulty dropped by several whole levels."
As Zephyr muttered to himself, the battle below continued to develop.
Kai, however, remained calm.
Those thirty to fifty pirates hadn't stirred the slightest emotion in him.
A swarm of insects.
Crush them, and that was all.
He simply watched as the rest of the trial progressed.
"This battle…"
"…is almost over."
"This graduation trial…"
"…is reaching its end."
Kai narrowed his eyes.
Smoker had begun overwhelming Kurrin.
Tina was suppressing the pirate officer with equal ease.
And the other cadets, after the initial shock of killing for the first time, had gradually begun to adapt to the battlefield.
Now that they were finally fighting at full strength, these ordinary pirate grunts were no longer a match for them.
At a glance, the outcome was obvious.
The battle was drawing to a close.
And the Marine cadets clearly had the upper hand.
So far, not a single cadet had died.
That was the true result of the year and a half of training the Marines had invested in them.
Against normal pirates, these cadets were never going to collapse completely.
Then Kai's brows lifted slightly.
"Hmm?"
"Looks like…"
"we've got some uninvited guests."
Just as Kai was judging that the battle was nearly over, his Observation Haki picked up something else.
His Observation Haki still covered a five-hundred-meter radius, and within that space, nothing escaped his notice.
Not even the slightest disturbance.
So through that powerful perception, he clearly sensed it—
a group of even stronger individuals was rapidly approaching the battlefield.
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