Hack was shattered.
Never—never—in his entire life did he imagine…
That he would witness something so terrifying—
And from a teenage boy at that.
Conqueror's Haki.
The legendary power that only those born with the spirit of a king could wield.
This shouldn't be possible!
A kid just setting foot onto the sea for the first time—
How could he possibly awaken, much less control, such a terrifying force?
It defied logic.
It defied common sense.
Hack's head was full of questions…
But there was no one alive in this world who could answer them for him.
"Con… queror's…"
Sabo stood frozen.
He stared blankly at the boy standing on the ship's deck, his lips trembling, unable to form coherent words.
He had a hundred things to say—
but now that he tried, none of them came out.
"Conqueror's Haki"…
Even the term was completely unfamiliar to him.
But Hack's expression alone told him:
This wasn't some ordinary technique.
This was beyond rare.
Beyond precious.
Beyond anything a normal person could ever hope to touch.
One in a million—
That's what Hack said earlier.
A king's disposition!
How rare was that?!
Sabo simply couldn't imagine it.
But the scene that had occurred moments before replayed vividly in his mind.
Hack's earlier explanation echoed:
"Conqueror's Haki overwhelms others with pure pressure.
Anyone with weak will collapses instantly, losing consciousness—
eyes rolled back, foam at the mouth."
And when Sabo connected those words to what he had witnessed on the deck…
A chill ran through him.
That meant—
The CP operatives had all collapsed because…
"B-because Mr. Ryukawa released Conqueror's Haki…?"
Sabo whispered.
The Revolutionary soldiers behind him also stared wide-eyed.
They had guessed as much—
But they needed Hack to confirm it.
Hack swallowed hard.
"If… if my guess is correct," he said, voice tight,
"then yes. That's exactly what happened."
He didn't want to believe it.
But…
He couldn't deny anything.
Everything they saw matched the characteristics of Conqueror's Haki perfectly.
And Hack, more than anyone present, understood—
What kind of existence someone with Conqueror's Haki became.
The people born with this power were monsters.
Legends.
Beings destined to stand at the very top of the sea.
And yet—
A boy.
A boy who had barely started his journey…
Had just displayed that same power.
In its fully usable form.
Hack's scalp tingled.
The most terrifying part wasn't just that Ryukawa had the potential.
It was that—
He could already use it. Skillfully.
On his first release.
That was something even the greatest monsters in the world rarely achieved.
Normally, Conqueror's Haki awakened unconsciously, uncontrollably—
in desperate moments of survival.
But Ryukawa…
Ryukawa had released it on command.
As if he'd been using it for years.
Hack's worldview cracked a little further.
"This kid…"
"His first time using Conqueror's Haki… and he can already control it completely?!"
"That's… that's insane!"
His voice shook.
His mind couldn't keep up with the information overload.
Sabo felt his own worldview crumble.
"A person with Conqueror's Haki is already a monster among monsters," Hack continued with difficulty.
"For example, the Seven Warlords… and our own leader—Dragon."
Sabo and the others froze.
Leader Dragon?!
The Dragon?!
Their gazes all turned toward the youth standing on the deck.
And suddenly—
That young figure seemed immeasurably tall.
Hack exhaled shakily.
"I truly believed Conqueror's Haki was something far, far beyond all of you," he said.
"Even for Ryukawa, I thought it would be years—maybe decades—before he brushed against that realm."
"But now…"
He laughed at himself.
Self-mockery.
He had underestimated the boy entirely.
The scene of the CP agents collapsing—
one after another, as if harvested by an invisible scythe—
burned itself into his memory.
There was no doubt.
"This kid's new ability… it's the legendary Conqueror's Haki," Hack whispered.
"If he'd told me earlier, I wouldn't have believed him. I would've laughed."
"After all… how could a teenager possibly wield something like that?"
He shook his head, overwhelmed.
"Yet here it is. Right before my eyes."
"A kid who not only possesses Conqueror's Haki—
but can use it freely, on command…"
"That kind of talent… is beyond monstrous."
Hack's jaw clenched.
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"This kid isn't human."
"He's a monster."
A fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy—
Who had already mastered the rarest power on the sea to a usable level.
Such a thing had never happened in history.
Unconsciously awakening it was one thing.
But controlling it?
That was the mark of someone destined to become a legend.
Hack could think of no comparison.
Not even Dragon, in his youth, had done such a thing.
Ryukawa was a different breed altogether.
A once-in-an-era monster.
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