Chapter 20: Pressure and Potential
The thought was a nagging splinter in Levi's mind as he watched the crimson Conqueror's Haki bleed from Luffy's straining form.
Could Reiatsu… squeeze out the deep potential of a person's soul or will? The coincidence was too stark. Two Conqueror's Haki awakenings, both triggered under the immense spiritual pressure of his Reiatsu pillars? In his memory of this archipelago's events, neither Kid nor Luffy had manifested this power here. Luffy had faced utter despair as his crew vanished before his eyes, yet the King's Disposition had remained dormant. So why now?
The theories flitted through his analytical mind as he observed. Was it the specific, soul-targeting nature of Reiatsu? A form of extreme spiritual friction igniting a latent spark? He filed the question away for later consideration; the immediate situation required his full attention.
His eyes, which had momentarily lost focus in thought, sharpened. The Tyrant Bear, that silent, looming enigma, had used the fractional instability in Levi's focus—caused by Luffy's outburst and his own internal questioning—to move. The cyborg's systems whirred, his dented, sparking body coiling with renewed purpose. He was going to try again. To touch Luffy. To send him away.
A flicker of irritation crossed Levi's face. This was becoming tedious.
"You continue after I tell you to stop, and you do it right in front of me?" Levi's voice was deceptively calm, a flat line that carried a weight of finality. "I don't appreciate losing face."
He didn't gesture. He didn't shout. He simply willed it.
A concentrated mass of Reiatsu, dense and fast as a falling star, materialized in the air beside Kuma and slammed into him.
WHUMP!
The impact wasn't explosive; it was profoundly solid. It was the feeling of a mountain side-swiping a man. Bartholomew Kuma, a Shichibukai, a former king, a warrior of immense power, was plucked from his footing and hurled sideways like a discarded toy. He carved a fresh trench through the soil before crashing into the thick, resilient trunk of an Archiplankton mangrove with a sickening crunch of metal and organic matter. More sparks, more hydraulic fluid—this time from his leg joints—sprayed into the air. The bible he carried tumbled to the ground, pages fluttering.
"Hey!!" The unified gasp from Sentomaru, the Straw Hats, and even the chained Supernovas was one of pure shock. The sudden, effortless violence against a Warlord of the Sea was a staggering display of dominance.
Levi didn't spare Kuma a second glance. He began walking, each step measured and deliberate, towards the still-struggling Luffy. "What did you want to do? While I understand everyone has their own… perspectives, the Straw Hat is currently my designated credit. Some grandfathers want to give their grandsons another lesson? I think that would be… amusing."
His words were cryptic to most, but they carried a cold, transactional logic. Capturing Luffy was the primary objective. He was the instigator. Letting him escape now would render this entire efficient sweep pointless. Levi held no personal hatred for the Straw Hats. A part of him, the distant fan, could even appreciate their chaotic, bond-driven journey. But he was no longer a spectator. He was a participant, an Admiral with a role to play and interests to secure.
To view them through an idealistic lens now was a luxury he couldn't afford. They were his merit, his stepping stone towards accessing the privileges of Mariejois. He was also, he admitted to himself, curious. Did this world truly run on predetermined destiny? He would test it. He wouldn't slaughter Luffy's friends—that was unnecessary and would invite a different, messier kind of trouble. He would simply capture the captain. Luffy, with his simple, crew-focused mind, was predictable in that regard.
A mischievous, almost whimsical idea tickled his thoughts. What if Garp had to retrain his grandson from a Marine prison cell? The image of the heroic Vice Admiral, perpetually torn between absolute justice and stubborn family love, was a drama Levi wouldn't mind observing from the sidelines. With Garp's influence, an execution was highly unlikely. A stint in the torments of Impel Down to appease the Celestial Dragons' wrath, perhaps. Then… who knew?
More than that, Levi wanted to probe Luffy's secret. Why did figures from a bygone era—Roger, Whitebeard—speak of a "someone" who would come? Why did a man like Shanks stake his bet on this particular boy? Coincidence felt insufficient. It smelled of inevitability. What connection did this rubber-powered teenager have to the giant straw hat hidden in the holy land? The questions were a puzzle he was now positioned to investigate.
Ultimately, the simplest reason remained: he was a Marine, they were pirates. Capture was his job. His allegiance, however, was to himself. Until he understood the core truths of the World Government and the Revolutionary Army's actual viability, he would play his cards close to his chest. Information was a currency, and he would spend it only for maximum personal benefit. He wouldn't even report Kuma's obvious treachery to Sengoku… not yet. Not unless it served him.
In this dangerous world, trust was a liability. Strength and self-interest were the only reliable companions. Protecting himself came first. Helping others was a conditional afterthought. It was cynical, perhaps selfish, but in his view, realistic. Greatness was for those willing to be martyrs; he preferred to be the one left standing.
Kuma's interference contradicted Levi's immediate interests. Therefore, Kuma was removed.
Luffy, who had been stunned into momentary stillness by the sudden attack on the seemingly threatening Kuma, now glared at Levi with renewed fury. The absence of killing intent from the cyborg in that last moment had confused him, but the Admiral before him radiated a cool, professional menace.
"You'd better lie down obediently, Straw Hat," Levi said, his voice devoid of malice, almost bored. He flexed his fingers slightly.
The Reiatsu pillar encasing Luffy condensed. The spiritual weight didn't just double; it became focused, intensifying the pressure on every cell of Luffy's rubber body.
PFFT!
Luffy coughed, a spray of blood misting the air inside the light. The brief leverage gained from his Conqueror's Haki surge was crushed. He was forced flat, his face pressed into the dirt, the breath driven from his lungs.
"Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy. You are under arrest by the authority of the Marine Admirals," Levi stated, beginning the formal declaration.
His sentence died in his throat.
His eyes, which had not even glanced at the heavily damaged Kuma powering up for another impossible charge, or at the terrifyingly fast presence he sensed rocketing toward the grove from the distant amusement park, snapped back to Luffy.
Because in his Reiatsu perception, something about Luffy's soul shimmered.
It wasn't just the burning will of a defiant teenager. It felt… layered. Vast. As if echoes of ages were folded within it. It felt incongruously old for a spirit that should only be seventeen years old.
"I TOLD YOU… TO STOP!"
The voice was a guttural roar, torn from a place deeper than lungs. And with it, for the second time in minutes, Conqueror's Haki erupted from Monkey D. Luffy.
But this was different.
This wasn't a desperate blast. This was a rising.
Against the intensified, crushing weight of Levi's Reiatsu, Luffy's body trembled, then pushed. His palms flattened against the ground. His arms straightened. With a sound of tearing will, he stood up within the pillar of soul-crushing light.
Levi's eyebrows lifted a fraction in genuine surprise. A part of his mind, the part still connected to a different life, couldn't help the dry, internal complaint.
I really do feel like the disposable villain waiting for the protagonist's power-up scene.
The thought was fleeting, brushed aside by cold reality. His cheat was the real deal, opened wider than any inherited will. Surprise didn't mean fear.
But the anomaly of that soul, that feeling of compressed time within the boy fighting to stand before him… that was a mystery worth his attention.
The final pieces were now converging on his stage. The damaged revolutionary weapon. The arriving legend. And the captain with an ancient soul, standing tall in a cage of light.
Levi's lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Interesting."
(End of Chapter)
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