Night had already fallen.
Uta had long since taken Bella back to the ship to rest, while vessels continued arriving at the harbor one after another, each packed with people who had come for Uta's concert.
A thousand meters offshore from Water 7, Cain and Yasopp stood facing each other.
The sheet of ice beneath their feet was something Bella had created earlier that day while training with Aokiji.
The moment Yasopp learned about Bella's existence, he had been completely stunned.
Once he recovered, however, every trace of restraint vanished from his attacks on Cain.
If anything, his sniping had become even more vicious than before.
And it had continued right up until now.
"Yo, brat! Why'd you drag me out here in the middle of the night?"
Yasopp rested his rifle across his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at Cain.
"Well, you've spent the last few days shooting at me nonstop. I figured I should let you see how much I've improved."
Cain smiled and settled into a fighting stance.
"Besides, there's going to be a serious fight tomorrow. I can't have you showing up and making things harder for me."
"Honestly, when the boss first said Uta would grow more by staying with you, I went along with it."
Yasopp's tone suddenly darkened.
"But I haven't seen much growth. What I have seen is her getting dragged into danger everywhere you go."
He stared straight at Cain.
"Listen carefully, brat. From this point on, give me everything you've got."
"If you can't show me enough strength to earn my trust, then even if it means disobeying the boss, I'll take Uta away myself."
"Being with you is too dangerous. I need to see both your strength and your resolve to protect her."
Cain was visibly startled. He had not expected Yasopp to say something like that.
But he had no intention of backing down.
A cold smile tugged at his lips.
"Don't worry. I won't disappoint you."
Before the final word had left his mouth, several Beli coins appeared in his palm.
Conqueror's Haki instantly wrapped around them, and Cain hurled them with all his strength.
"Hey, hey. You're trying to fight me at range?"
Yasopp raised his rifle.
"Have you forgotten who you're dealing with?"
He was about to fire when he noticed the coins were wildly off target.
They streaked past him and exploded behind his back with a series of thunderous booms.
Yasopp paid them no attention.
Cain opened his mouth and unleashed a burst of flame. Thick white mist immediately rose around them, obscuring the battlefield.
But that meant nothing to Yasopp.
His Observation Haki had already locked firmly onto Cain's position.
"Hmm? He moved."
Yasopp's eyes sharpened.
He had already predicted Cain's trajectory. With a sharp flick of his wrist, he snapped the rifle barrel upward and fired.
The bullet plunged into the mist.
A violent explosion erupted, blasting the fog apart.
When the air cleared, Cain was revealed spread-eagled against an ice spike hanging in midair.
His hair looked as though he had been struck by lightning, his face was blackened with soot, and only half of a broken Beli coin remained in his hand.
He looked utterly dead inside.
Cain struggled free, slid down the ice, and hit the frozen surface with a wet smack.
Then he raised his head and shouted at Yasopp.
"Hey! Did you really have to go that hard?! I only just learned how to throw things with Conqueror's Haki! You didn't even let me demonstrate it!"
Yasopp hugged his rifle and laughed so hard he nearly crouched down on the ice.
"Hahahahaha! That's it? That's your improvement, brat?!"
"I thought you were about to unleash some incredible attack, and all you did was throw a handful of money at me!"
"What was the plan? Bribe me or make me laugh myself to death?"
Yasopp continued laughing, never noticing the faint curve appearing at the corner of Cain's mouth.
At that exact moment, Yasopp's Observation Haki suddenly reacted.
He was absolutely certain this was not something Cain could do.
A burst of Conqueror's Haki was rushing toward him from behind.
Cain's body showed no sign of releasing anything, proving the attack had come from somewhere else.
Yasopp spun toward the incoming force.
"Brat, pause the fight. Someone troublesome is coming."
But when he looked carefully, there was no one there.
By the time he realized that, his Observation Haki was already screaming in warning.
Danger was coming from every direction.
Even worse, his own body was being identified by his senses as a threat. A violent urge to harm himself suddenly rose within him.
In an instant, he connected it to Cain's earlier technique, Human Path.
The effect was completely different, but the principle was nearly identical.
Even after Yasopp understood that Cain was responsible, the self-destructive impulse did not weaken in the slightest.
He turned his head—Too late.
Cain's claw was already pressed firmly against his throat.
Cain stopped the attack there and smiled.
"This is my real trump card."
"What do you think? Pretty good effect, making your Observation Haki completely malfunction, right?"
Cain understood the situation clearly.
In raw strength, he was definitely stronger than Yasopp.
But when it came purely to Observation Haki, he was nowhere near him.
Yasopp had come specifically to train Cain's Observation Haki. If Cain wanted to earn his genuine approval, he had to defeat him through an Observation Haki contest rather than brute force.
Yasopp's training over the past several days had greatly strengthened both Cain's Observation Haki and Human Path, but the technique still had flaws.
So Cain had improved it.
This new version was called Human Path Pro.
Rather than merely guiding another person's Observation Haki into making the wrong judgment, it directly threw their senses into complete chaos.
The principle was simple:
Ordinary Human Path, combined with Conqueror's Coating!
And the medium carrying that Conqueror's Haki had been the coins Cain threw at the beginning.
Because his Conqueror's Haki had been infused into them, Cain could establish a link between the coins and his own Observation Haki.
Then he triggered the Haki attached to them all at once, blasting it directly into Yasopp's sensory perception and creating the effect from moments earlier.
At present, Cain still could not release Conqueror's Coating over extreme distances the way Shanks could.
Otherwise, he would not have needed to use coins as a medium.
Once he mastered that ability, the technique would become even more powerful, and its range could eventually expand to cover an entire island, just as Yasopp had demanded.
Only then would the technique be truly complete.
Cain officially named the finished version:
Human Path Pro Max.
(Human Path Pro Max principle: First, use Observation Haki to accurately sense and lock onto the target. Then use Shanks' ultra-long-range Conqueror's Coating to directly envelop them before layering Human Path over it. The impact of Conqueror's Haki throws the target's Observation Haki into complete disorder. At its core, it is a targeted mental attack.)
Looking at the claw pressed against his throat, Yasopp hurriedly raised both hands in surrender.
His face, however, was still filled with confusion.
"What kind of progression is this, brat?"
"Other people break through in the middle of a fight. You, on the other hand, show no signs, no growth process, nothing at all—and then suddenly jump straight to the next stage?"
"Break through in battle?"
Cain scoffed.
"What am I, your training dummy? You think I can just get beaten around until I magically become stronger?"
"I don't improve through mindless fighting alone. Most of the time, I use my brain."
"Instead of relying on some last-second breakthrough, I'd rather prepare in advance."
"Even when I do experience a breakthrough, I'll calm down and refine it first. I'll make sure I fully understand it, completely master it, and preferably develop an even better application before I reveal it."
"Some things are better handled cautiously."
"You never know what kind of hidden risk might come with a newly awakened technique."
"So basically, you're afraid of dying?" Yasopp asked.
"I am not!"
Cain immediately denied it, folding his arms across his chest.
But his gaze quietly darkened.
He understood the price of sudden breakthroughs better than most.
He remembered the time he had overdrawn his Observation Haki to save Uta and glimpsed that single fleeting moment of the future, only to end up losing control completely afterward.
He had been incredibly fortunate that Doflamingo, Katakuri, Ace, and his grandfather had all been there to contain the situation.
If Uta, Luffy, or the others had been the ones left behind with him instead…
Even thinking about it made Cain uneasy.
He did not dare imagine the consequences too deeply.
That was why, from that day onward, even if Cain truly broke through in the middle of battle, he would never use a dangerous technique he had only just understood and had not yet fully tested.