The dragon hovering in the sky, Kaido, opened his massive jaws above Monkey D. Luffy.
"I came to see the ones who were supposed to eat the [Smile] this time..."
As he spoke, the colossal dragon began to shrink, and beneath the blue scales, a human form emerged.
Every inch of him was covered in thick muscle, and though he looked human, he towered at five meters tall. Clad only in trousers, his bare torso bore a massive iron club strapped to his back.
Long, curly hair cascaded over his shoulders, and on each side of his head stood two horns—in contrast to his dragon form's array of spikes.
A middle-aged man with yellow eyes, a razor-sharp gaze, and a fierce expression made himself known, and he said,
"I didn't expect it to be this pathetic… right, King?"
"Yes. It was a waste of time, Kaido."
Right after Kaido spoke, a man about three meters tall emerged from the flames.
He wore a black leather suit, gloves and boots that covered his arms and legs, and a mask studded with small horns on his head, hiding everything but his eyes.
Strangely, a pair of large black feathered wings sprouted from his back, and flames licking up from his shoulders burned fiercely without singeing a single feather.
With a sword at his waist, he lightly swung the hand that had been grasping someone's slack neck forward,
"He just wouldn't stop whining that he'd never bow to you."
"Smo...ker...!"
"Luffy..."
Having barely uttered his comrade's name, Smoker's body was thrown to the ground.
A massive hole had been torn through Smoker's abdomen, its edges charred black.
"Sur...vive..."
"...!"
After those words, Smoker closed his eyes and dropped his head to one side.
Monkey D. Luffy stared at the still forms of Smoker and his fallen subordinates.
Luffy had grown strangely accustomed to bleeding and seeing others bleed.
But it was far from ordinary to recognize the faces of those sprawled before him.
"Set me up on a blind date, boss!"
"Why should you be the only one dating!"
"If you're gonna say that, at least wash yourself! Why don't you go clean up after missions!?"
"Ugh, that's too much trouble..."
"We count on the pheromones soaked into this man's rough sweat as our secret weapon!"
"Exactly!"
"Hahahahaha!!!"
They were rougher than most Marines, but they led the charge for justice like no one else.
"Smoker, whatever happened to the candidates we put forward for the Inspection Unit?"
"What's the problem with that?"
"They're all from Personnel, the same jerk-offs who treated us like defective goods."
"The kind with no manners, who don't listen and run in headfirst without thinking."
"Isn't that exactly our style?"
Smoker, his adjutant and friend, had stood by his side for over a year.
"Koby, why are you the only one scrubbing the deck? Are you really third-in-command material?"
"Because I'm still weak, Luffy."
"When everyone else shines in missions, I can't help… I'm not ready yet… But it doesn't mean I'll stay like this forever."
"I'll get stronger so I can stand proudly beside Luffy and fight without falling behind, just like Smoker!"
Koby, the sole crew member a year younger than him, had been cheerful and unafraid of hard work ever since they started building their unit together.
"Lu-Luffy... cough, cough!"
"Koby?"
As he recalled those memories, Luffy looked at Koby, who had collapsed but now stirred back to consciousness.
"So one of them's still alive."
"But he's just a minnow, Kaido."
"Don't... you... so much as touch..."
"You still don't understand the world, Garp's grandson."
Luffy cried out, lying prone beside Koby, and Kaido, watching him, said with a hardened expression,
There was no trace of compassion, anger, or any emotion in his eyes.
"In this world, whether you or I are strong or weak is the only thing that defines everything."
"Stop it..."
Luffy buried his face in the ground, then pushed off with his brow, lifting his upper body.
Meanwhile, King strode forward to stand before Koby.
"In my eyes, you are no different from livestock waiting to be eaten."
"For one reason and one reason only: you're weak."
"Smoker..."
Koby, seated and staring at Smoker collapsed beside him, looked up at King standing before him, sword in hand.
The barely propped-up Koby froze the moment he looked up, unable to move, his only act to stare with trembling eyes at the sword being raised above him.
"Justice, equality—those aren't unwavering truths. They're illusions crafted by the strong."
"Whether it's humans or beasts, words from the weak are just annoying noise, nothing more."
Luffy, pushing up with his brow, braced his trembling limbs against the ground.
He spread his bent knees and, staggering, slowly planted his quivering legs on the ground.
"The strong soar while the weak are trampled—that's the way of the world."
"This is war, and you've lost. Losers don't get a next chance."
"Same goes for you."
As Kaido spoke, he watched Luffy stagger on his feet.
Standing was all the power he had left; he didn't look capable of taking another step.
Was it because he's Garp's grandson that he still hesitates?
I wasted too much breath taunting such a brat.
"This ends here."
No sooner had he thought that than Kaido bid farewell and turned his body away.
Seeing Kaido's retreat, King swung his sword toward the slumped Koby,
"Stop."
"...!"
In that moment, an invisible, colorless aura erupted from Luffy.
An unseen force began to push back the winds and the roaring flames.
On top of that, the shattered debris on the ground quivered soundlessly, and it wasn't the golden aura of Haki he'd gained from his Devil Fruit.
"This power..."
Turning around, Kaido's eyes flashed in surprise, while King lowered his raised blade and looked down at Koby at his feet.
Though terror-stricken and unable to move, Koby was still conscious, lying collapsed on the ground,
Conqueror's... Haki!
Luffy glared at King, who had thought that, and clenched his fist tightly.
The veins on his knuckles swelled as if they'd burst, and blood oozed from the gaps between his fingers.
In Luffy's eyes, anger and madness mingled and gleamed in a golden hue.
He pushed forward, ignoring his lungs aching from the black smoke and every muscle in his body screaming in pain.
"I told you... to stop..."
He no longer staggered but took step after step forward.
Loss, pain, guilt—all of it burned as fuel for this very moment.
The blaze that ignited in his heart surged through every fiber of his being.
"I DID IT ALREADY!!!"
Clad in the golden aura, Luffy kicked off the ground and lunged at King.
The golden aura looked faint, like a small campfire, but his punch generated a gale that swept away black smoke and ash as it carved through the air.
"That power doesn't suit you!"
Seeing that, King gripped his sword with both hands and swung mightily at the rushing Luffy,
Bang!
Kaido, who had silently moved beside King, blocked King's blade by swinging his iron club over his shoulder.
"Kaido!"
Luffy's fist never reached them.
But the shockwave from club meeting blade sent Luffy hurtling toward a burning tree in the distance.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After smashing into the first tree, then the second, third… and finally the fourth, Luffy's body came to a halt.
Once the crashing sounds died down, Luffy lay against the charred trunk, his body sprawled among soot-blackened leaves.
Conqueror's… so you were born with it too.
Kaido sheathed his club, and for a long moment he stood in silence, staring at Luffy. King, seeing Kaido, also sheathed his sword and shared the silence.
Then Kaido grabbed the bottle at his waist and took a long swig of sake,
"You're not going to kill him?"
"..."
"He's raw, but he's awakened Conqueror's Haki."
"Ha… Yeah, he's so inexperienced he even knocked out his own subordinates trying to protect them."
"Conqueror's Haki, the mark of a king who wields his presence to force unconditional surrender."
"And it was born in Garp's grandson…"
Kaido, looked at by King, was smiling.
His sharp eyes held a glint of anticipation as they gazed at Luffy.
"Isn't it fun?"
"You always go out of your way to make trouble for yourself."
"Urorororo, this is the sort of joy only the strong can indulge in."
"Whether I kill them, torment them, or let them live… that choice is mine."
"Do you think he might run away?"
"Judging by those eyes, I don't think so."
"...!"
Kaido said that and took another swig from his bottle, while King turned to look once more at the fallen Luffy.
Luffy lay unmoving, but his half-open eyes still gleamed with life.
"I'm looking forward to it, King. I wonder what kind of look he'll have when he crawls back alive to see me again."
"If not, then he was worthless from the start and didn't even deserve killing."
Kaido strapped the emptied bottle back to his waist and, as before, began to shift back into his dragon form.
Meanwhile, King glanced down at Koby lying beside him.
"Leave him be. He's the price paid for my snack."
"Understood."
As Kaido spoke, having fully transformed and taken flight, King answered him.
Then he flapped his wings and shot flames from his feet, lifting off to follow Kaido.
"Urorororo, those eyes are still alive, Garp's grandson."
"It was worth coming all this way."
Kaido, muttering to himself as he watched Luffy still lying there staring up, turned his head when he saw King approaching.
Together they soared into the sky thick with dark clouds, and the gusts they created in flight swept the storm clouds aside.
The displaced clouds gathered over the edge of the island where Luffy lay and began to pour rain down.
Where are you going…?
Luffy lifted his heavy eyelids and took in the disappearing figures of Kaido and King.
Rage welled up, but having exhausted every last ounce of strength, he could do nothing more.
Blood trickled from his lips as he glared at the sky with shaking eyes.
It's all my fault.
As his gaze fell with his eyelids, Luffy looked at his fallen crew members.
One lay dead with eyes open, another was twisted grotesquely, and yet another was burned beyond recognition.
There were more than thirty of them, all members of the Inspection Unit who had followed him.
Koby… Smoker…
Luffy tried to reach out to them, but not even his hand, only a single finger, twitched.
I'm sorry.
The rain pouring from the storm clouds extinguished the fires clinging to the trees and undergrowth.
Luffy's tears mixed with the rainwater as they fell to the ground.
The mingled waters blended with the blood of the silent, cooling corpses and flowed toward the sea.
The light faded from Luffy's eyes as his head slowly bowed.
With that last glimmer, everything there sank into darkness.