Whoosh…
The sea breeze skimmed across the shore, kicking up ripples and waves that lapped against the coast.
A huge sailing ship lay moored at the edge of Octagon Town's harbor, its hull lightly rocking with the motion of the sea.
The air was silent.
Other than the sound of hearts pounding in chests, there was almost nothing.
A silence so heavy—
It was actually a little terrifying.
A kind of silence that made your skin crawl.
All along the shoreline of Octagon Town stood members of the Revolutionary Army: led by fish-man instructor Hack, with the young Sabo beside him, and seven or eight elite Revolutionary soldiers.
In this moment—
Every face looked the same.
Horror.
Shock.
Awe.
Those emotions were written plainly on all their expressions—
they couldn't hide them even if they tried.
Even Hack, a veteran Revolutionary soldier who had survived countless brushes with death, was frozen in place. His large eyes were wide and round, filled with fear as he stared straight ahead.
Everyone's gaze was focused on the same place.
The deck of the ship.
No one could look away.
What had just happened—
Had completely overturned their understanding of the world.
Their worldview had been picked up, slammed to the ground, and stomped repeatedly.
They could see it clearly.
Standing on the deck—
There were only two people left on their feet.
One was Ryukawa, whose back every Revolutionary here now recognized.
The other—
Was the leader of this CP operation, the commanding officer: Morrison.
As for the rest of the CP agents, those elite operatives of the World Government—
They were all lying on the floor.
Every last one of them.
So weird it made their scalps tingle.
"J-just now… what the hell happened?!"
Sabo's young mind went completely blank.
He stared with wide eyes, stunned and confused.
What just happened?!
Why did all those men suddenly collapse?
What kind of power could do that to them?
He had never heard of anything like this in his life.
It was too terrifying.
This was the first time Sabo had ever witnessed something so shocking it felt unreal.
Was it Ryukawa?
No.
No, that didn't make sense.
Ryukawa clearly hadn't done anything. He'd just been standing there in place!
Then—
Why did all those people fall?
How?!
It made no sense!
It simply could not be explained with common sense.
"They all… fell…"
"Wh-why? What… what caused that?"
All the Revolutionary soldiers were shaken to the core.
They swallowed hard, Adam's apples bobbing.
Their hands and legs were trembling.
Too scary.
This was the first time any of them had seen such an eerie, impossible technique.
"Hack, sir…"
Sabo turned to look at Hack with pleading eyes.
He was counting on Hack to explain.
Among everyone here, Hack was the only one he felt could possibly understand what had just happened.
Huff—
Hack let out a long breath.
But the look of raw shock on his face still refused to fade.
He was rattled. Badly.
In fact—
Precisely because he knew what had happened, he was even more shaken than Sabo and the others.
Only by understanding it—
Could you truly grasp how terrifying it was.
"T-this isn't… an illusion, right?"
Hack pinched his own thigh hard.
A sharp sting ran through his body.
Not an illusion.
Everything that had just happened was real.
The CP agents were still lying all over the deck—
that alone proved it wasn't a hallucination.
But how was this possible?!
Hack's own understanding of the world was cracking.
He stared blankly at the scene unfolding on the ship's deck, his lips trembling, unable to speak.
"T-that kid… he… he…"
His words broke off halfway.
It was obvious—
His emotions were surging too violently, his thoughts in complete chaos.
"Hack, sir… was all of that caused by Mr. Ryukawa?"
"And… was that the 'new ability' he mentioned earlier? But that's just too terrifying! He literally didn't do anything! He just stood there without moving!"
"In that case, how did he wipe out all those men in an instant? That just… doesn't make sense!"
Sabo poured out all the questions swirling in his head.
This kind of technique was practically supernatural.
Too mysterious—
and too frightening.
To wipe out an entire group—
Without even moving.
Just thinking about it made Sabo's back go cold.
"Yeah… he really didn't do anything…"
Hack mumbled to himself, his gaze still unfocused, mind dazed.
He couldn't believe it.
Something this insane—
Had actually come from a kid.
And not just any kid—
A rookie on his first time out to sea.
It was absurd.
Flat-out absurd.
Hack was starting to question his entire life.
"This insane scene… it reminds me of something truly terrifying."
"But it's too absurd. It shouldn't be possible for that kind of power to appear in a brat like him."
"Yet everything I'm seeing tells me my guess is probably right. There's no second explanation that fits."
"I thought… that even for him, there was no way he could touch that realm of power so soon. But I underestimated him. Even in my dreams, I never imagined…"
"That this kid's talent could be monstrous to this degree!"
Hack took a deep breath, still struggling to calm down.
"Hack, sir, what kind of technique was that?"
Sabo could barely contain himself.
"Didn't I already explain it to you once before?"
Hack finally spoke clearly.
"In this world, there are many monsters with incredible talent and power. And they all possess a terrifying ability that people call…"
Haki.
"And Haki is split into three types."
"I've already told you about the first two—
Armament Haki and Observation Haki."
"Ryukawa's already mastered both of those."
"As for the third type of Haki—
it's the rarest of them all. I've barely even heard of real cases of it."
"They say that only one in millions…"
"Is born with the potential to wield it."
"It's called…"
Conqueror's Haki.
Hack's eyes stayed fixed on the ship's deck as he spoke, his voice still shaking with awe.
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