Late night, in the secret room hidden inside the base commander's office.
The revelry outside was still going strong, but Rain sat alone in the quiet room.
He wasn't basking in the glory of the day. To him, Golden Lion's death was only the beginning—now it was time to count the real gains.
"System."
With a thought, the golden settlement panel appeared again.
Rain's eyes moved slowly down the list.
Earlier, to temper his mindset, he had decisively given up Conqueror's Haki. Now, he needed to make the right choice.
He looked first at the Haki section.
He skipped Haki Inheritance – Observation outright.
Come on.
With "Hearing the Voice of All Things" boosting his Transcendent Observation, Rain even suspected there wasn't anyone on the entire sea who could beat him in that category. Golden Lion's Observation was nothing in front of his.
Skip.
As for Haki Inheritance – Armament, he hesitated for a moment, then abandoned it too.
Both he and Golden Lion were at Peak. Rain didn't yet know how to push Armament further into a higher realm like his Observation had, but stacking same-tier Haki probably wouldn't improve him much—wasteful.
In the end, his gaze lingered between Physique and Swordsmanship.
It was a tough call.
Golden Lion was only in his fifties—prime age by this world's standards. But the ship's wheel through his skull and the severed legs were permanent damage, leaving the system's physique inheritance marked as only "a small amount."
"If I choose physique, it might not push my current Top-tier body past its limit," Rain weighed in his head. "Golden Lion's body is simply too crippled."
"But swordsmanship is different…"
His eyes locked onto:
[Skill Inheritance – Two-Sword Style: Lion-Style Swordsmanship (Peak)]
Description: Inherit the lifetime of sword-path insights of a dual-blade great swordsman, including all ultimate techniques such as "Lion's Chopping Valley" and "Lion's Rashomon Gate." Reached the "Great Swordsman" realm.
"Today's fight already proved how strong Golden Lion's swordsmanship is."
"If I don't feel safe betting on physique, then inheriting his Peak sword art—even if my physique doesn't reach Peak—Kaido and Linlin in the New World probably still wouldn't be my match!"
With that, Rain stopped wavering.
"Inherit swordsmanship!"
"Woom—"
A flood of information so vast it made him dizzy slammed into his mind.
It was like he became Golden Lion—swinging, cutting, and refining swordplay through countless nights. He saw how to read the flow of wind, how to seek the "breath" of all things, how to "inject" Haki into the blade.
Countless sword principles were broken down, rebuilt, and finally fused into one.
After a long time—
Rain opened his eyes.
Deep within his once-black pupils, a terrifying sharpness now glinted, as if his gaze alone were two unsheathed blades.
Half an hour later, the uninhabited cliff coast behind G–17.
Moonlight spilled like water. Waves hammered the rocks with a thunderous roar.
Rain stood alone at the edge of a hundred-meter cliff, sea wind snapping his coat.
Golden Lion's twin blades were still being maintained, so Rain held only a standard-issue Navy longsword he'd casually grabbed from the armory.
"The realm of a great swordsman…"
He murmured.
He closed his eyes, not rushing to swing.
In that moment, the noisy surf, the wind, even the insects' chirps became crystal clear. He heard the sea "breathing," heard the texture of the wind, even heard the "pulse" of the ordinary iron sword in his hand.
The Voice of All Things.
Combined with the newly fused great-swordsman realm, the world in his eyes became countless "lines" that could be severed.
"Ffff…"
Rain opened his eyes slowly. Black Armament Haki flowed soundlessly over the blade like water.
No extra motion—just one swing toward the endless, raging sea.
"One-Sword Style: Sea-Sunder."
"Shhk…"
A tear so faint it was almost inaudible.
Then—
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—!!!!
The rolling ocean ahead, in that instant, looked as if an invisible god-hand had ripped it apart from the middle!
A terrifying fissure stretching several kilometers split the sea surface open.
Water surged violently to both sides, exposing the muddy seabed and reefs.
Most shocking of all—
The fissure didn't close immediately.
On the cut "walls" lingered a tyrannical sword intent and Armament Haki—two invisible barriers that held back billions of tons of seawater from crushing inward.
The sea… had been cut.
Only after more than ten seconds did the remaining intent fade. The two sides of the ocean slammed back together with a colossal boom, blasting a water pillar a hundred meters high.
Rain watched the sea settle, a satisfied smile tugging at his lips.
"So this is the world of a great swordsman…"
"Cutting the sea is… just a thought."
Right now, he was already strong enough to stand among the very top of this ocean.
The next morning.
G–17 Branch, Base Commander's office.
Rain sat at his desk, reading various reports on the branch.
Suddenly—
"Buru-buru-buru—Buru-buru-buru—!"
The den-den mushi on the corner of the desk rang like mad, without warning.
It was the direct line to Marine Headquarters' top brass.
Rain lifted an eyebrow, as though he'd expected the call.
He set the papers down leisurely and picked up the receiver.
"This is G–17. This is Rain."
"…So you still remember who you are."
A woman's voice came through, weary and headache-laced.
Fleet Admiral Headquarters' Chief of Staff—Vice Admiral Tsuru.
"I knew the moment Fleet Admiral Kong put you somewhere messy like G–17, you wouldn't behave for long. But I didn't expect…"
Tsuru sighed; her tone turned severe. "...that you'd make this big of a commotion."
"What's wrong, Vice Admiral?" Rain asked lightly, feigning innocence. "I just went out to scout and incidentally cleaned up the surrounding area."
"Cleaned up?"
Tsuru's voice rose a few notches in disbelief. "You call killing Golden Lion 'cleaning up'?!"
"An urgent report from G–17 landed on Fleet Admiral Kong's desk this morning! The report says you not only brought back a floating island fragment, you publicly displayed Golden Lion's swords and announced his execution in front of the entire base!"
Tsuru paused, like she was forcing herself to digest it, then asked heavily, "Rain. Give me the truth. Was that really Golden Lion? Did you really… kill him?"
"Yeah. I did."
Rain didn't hide it at all—so straightforward it made Tsuru briefly go silent. "We ran into him on the way back from scouting. We fought. I won."
The other end stayed quiet for a long time.
Even with Tsuru's composure, hearing someone describe the slaying of a legendary pirate like it was a minor errand made her heart skip.
"…The report also says you returned by riding a floating island."
Tsuru took a deep breath, and asked the most sensitive question. "Which means… the Float-Float Fruit has been inherited?"
Rain glanced out the window. Outside, Gion was practicing her new power—controlling several boulders in the air.
"Lucky break. When he died, the fruit rebirthed nearby. I had Gion eat it."
"You—"
Tsuru's voice caught.
By regulations, a strategic devil fruit that could change the course of war should be turned over to Headquarters—decided by the Fleet Admiral, even the Five Elders. Rain's "act first, report later" private distribution was brazen beyond discipline.
She should have reprimanded him.
But the words died on her tongue.
Gion was one of the Navy's key assets, spotless in background. With her taking it, the power stayed "in the pot"—and it was the greatest possible boost to Marine strength. If it had been reported upward first, it might have slipped into other hands.
"…Letting her eat it was still better."
After a long moment, Tsuru spoke again, resigned. "Meat in the pot is better than meat stolen away. With that power, Gion's future ceiling just rose dramatically."
"I'll handle the Fleet Admiral for you. You've earned an unprecedented merit—killing Golden Lion is enough to shut most mouths."
"Much obliged, Vice Admiral," Rain said with a smile.
"Don't celebrate yet."
Tsuru's tone shifted—meaningful. "Rain, do you understand what this means?"
"Golden Lion's death… you broke the balance of this sea."
"The monsters in the New World—Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Kaido entrenched in Wano—they'll move."
"You're too high-profile, and too young. First you erased Mock Town, then you killed a Warlord candidate, and now Golden Lion fell to you—"
Her voice carried real worry. "Ever since Ohara, you've been changing. Growing too fast. Fast enough to… unsettle people."
"Right now, you've become a target."
"Be careful in the near future."
Click.
The line went dead.
Rain held the receiver, listening to the tone. The smile on his face slowly faded.
He stood and walked to the huge window, looking down at the reborn G–17 and the raging sea beyond.
"A target, huh?"
His fingers tapped the glass lightly. There was no fear in his eyes—only a fiercer, hotter battle intent.
"Good."
"I still need a few whetstones hard enough… to test my Great Swordsman realm."
"If you want to come—"
"Then come."
~~~
Patreon.com/Weze_
— You can read more Chapters in my Patreon Page! please vote, comment, share this, or visit my Patreon Page and join the Free Membership!