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Outside the building—
More than two thousand CP elites were stationed in place. It was everything East Blue could possibly mobilize: the full weight of Cipher Pol's armed manpower, gathered here in one single net.
The streets around them had been cleared.
Most civilians had already fled in terror.
But there were still a few who couldn't resist their curiosity—people who didn't mind gambling their lives for a good look. They stayed hidden in alley shadows and street corners, watching.
"Why are there so many people here?"
"Look at their weapons—top-grade firearms and ammunition. This looks like they're about to start a war."
"They aren't Marines… but their gear and discipline scream World Government."
"Two thousand people surrounding one building this tightly—whatever's happening inside must be huge."
Whispers flew back and forth.
No one could understand it.
Two thousand elites, all armed to the teeth, all gathered to seal off one place.
What kind of thing could possibly justify this?
At the same time, the CP agents themselves stood outside with bored expressions, rifles in hand, none of them looking tense.
"To deal with one intruder… was it really necessary to make this kind of scene?" one man grumbled.
"In my opinion, send a few dozen armed men and it's done. Why mobilize two thousand?"
"Who knows," another muttered. "Maybe the people above are just overly cautious."
"Cautious, sure. But we're the ones suffering for it."
"Two thousand of us, standing guard here for half a day—what a joke."
Dissatisfaction spread like low smoke.
"And seriously—what kind of idiot has the guts to break into our Loguetown base?"
"He's insane."
"But whatever. His corpse will be tossed out soon enough."
"In all these years, I've never seen anyone storm our base openly like this."
They laughed and talked, totally unworried.
Because in their minds, this was already over.
Then—
bzzz…
A faint ripple swept out from inside the building.
It brushed across their bodies like a light breeze.
And then it changed.
The ripple surged—
like a river exploding into a flood under a storm.
The pressure climbed, climbing, climbing—
until it felt like a hundred-meter wave about to crash down from the sky.
Boom.
The aura slammed into the minds of the two thousand agents.
Like someone had stuffed something into their skulls by force.
Pain flashed through their nerves in an instant.
Like a hammer striking the forehead.
Conqueror's Haki.
The Conqueror's Haki released from the lobby poured out onto the streets, spreading in a radius of hundreds of meters—covering everyone within that range without exception.
Two thousand CP elites, standing in a neat ring…
were of course caught in it.
And with their flimsy wills—
none of them could resist.
What happened next was nightmare.
Thud. Thud—
One CP agent after another suddenly lost all strength, their eyes rolling back as their bodies collapsed sideways.
Weapons slipped from limp hands, clattering onto the pavement in a chaotic scatter.
"W-what is th—"
"My god—!"
"What's happening?!"
A few who reacted late tried to run.
But they couldn't.
The Haki hit too fast.
The moment the pressure wrapped around them, every cell in their bodies felt crushed by an invisible force.
Thud.
They dropped too.
All around the building, the same scene unfolded.
One after another, agents fell.
Eyes white.
Foam at their mouths.
Bodies twitching once, then going still.
In a blink—
it was over.
When you looked down the streets—
the image was horrifying beyond berryef.
Two thousand elite CP agents…
all of them…
collapsed.
Not one exception.
A full wipeout.
Silence fell.
A strange wind swept dust across the road.
Rifles lay everywhere, scattered like spilled bones.
Black suits were piled across the ground in a thick carpet.
Two thousand men.
All down.
The scene was captured in full by the hidden onlookers.
Among them were even a few pirates in Loguetown—bold enough to linger and watch.
They stared, slack-jawed, eyes wide with raw fear.
A chill ran from their soles straight up their spines.
No one understood what had happened.
Just now…
what the hell happened?
Why did two thousand elites drop in an instant?
It wasn't logical.
It wasn't possible.
It smashed their common sense into shards.
"W-what happened?!"
"Why did they all suddenly fall?!"
"Two thousand people… two thousand!"
"They just… collapsed?! What did that?!"
"My god…"
"What kind of ability is this?"
They felt their skin crawl.
Because no one appeared.
No figure stepped out.
And yet—
two thousand men were erased like a candle snuffed.
"What… was it from inside?"
"Did whatever happened in the building affect the outside?"
"But that makes no sense!"
"How can something inside cause this kind of impact out here?"
"Two thousand people dropped in an instant—what kind of power is that?!"
"That's not human!"
"That's a monster!"
All eyes turned toward the building in dread.
Around it, bodies lay motionless.
The streets were quiet.
Too quiet.
Quiet in a way that felt wrong.
Inside the lobby—
Lucci's eyes were bloodshot.
He stared at Ryukawa, unable to suppress the violent waves in his chest.
Too shocking.
He never would've believed it.
In a filthy backwater like East Blue…
he had run into Conqueror's Haki.
And the one using it…
was just a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy.
How?
This was East Blue.
Wasn't this sea supposed to be the weakest?
Then explain it.
Why was there a freak here—
a freak young enough to still be called a child—
who could wield Conqueror's Haki with practiced control?
What had happened just now overturned Lucci's worldview.
It wasn't just "surprised."
It was like the foundation of his understanding was starting to crack.
"It really was Conqueror's…"
"This kid—at this age—actually possesses that one-in-a-million kingly disposition."
"It's unreal… but what I just saw forces me to believe it."
Lucci's jaw tightened.
"No doubt."
"That was Conqueror's Haki."
"East Blue… this so-called weakest sea…"
"And yet I stumble into an outlier."
"What kind of monster are you…?"
"And where did you crawl out from?"
As CP9's acclaimed prodigy, Lucci wasn't ignorant of Haki.
He knew the basics of all three colors.
He hadn't personally faced Conqueror's before—
but he'd heard enough.
And what he'd witnessed matched every rumor perfectly.
So there was no alternative explanation.
Only one answer.
Ryukawa had it.
That was what made it terrifying.
A boy from East Blue… with Conqueror's?
The idea itself made Lucci doubt whether East Blue deserved the label "weakest" at all.
He'd been certain he'd set the perfect trap.
A jar.
A guaranteed win.
Then Ryukawa released Conqueror's—
and in one breath, annihilated the entire field.
Three hundred marksmen inside.
Two thousand elites outside.
All gone.
Lucci's half-day of preparation…
collapsed in a single instant, turning into a joke.
What was supposed to be a mob execution—
became a duel.
And Lucci now had to fight someone who possessed Conqueror's Haki.
The pressure hit him like a weight across the spine.
His fists clenched.
He no longer dared show even a trace of arrogance.
His expression tightened, heavy and serious.
"I'll admit it."
"I underestimated you."
"I never thought I'd meet a monster with Conqueror's Haki… here in Loguetown."
"You surprised me."
"But Conqueror's Haki is merely intimidation."
"It's effective on trash—enough to knock them unconscious."
"But against me, it won't work."
"If you think you can win using Conqueror's alone…"
"You're mistaken."
Lucci took a deep breath, gaze locked.
"Conqueror's can pressure my will, yes."
"But it won't shatter my consciousness."
"My combat power won't drop."
In high-level battles, Conqueror's was usually just for clearing the field.
The real pillars were Observation and Armament.
And that was Lucci's confidence.
Ryukawa laughed softly.
"No. You misunderstood."
"From the beginning, I never planned to use Conqueror's on you."
"Just like you said—I used it to clear the field."
Then—
Ryukawa slowly lifted his wooden sword again.
The tip leveled at Lucci.
Lucci blinked, expression turning strange.
"…A wooden sword?"
"Don't tell me you plan to fight me with that."
Wood?
Was he being mocked?
Even if you have Conqueror's—
a wooden sword is still a wooden sword.
This was absurd.
"Wood?" Lucci's eyes hardened. "Are you serious?"
Ryukawa's smile didn't change.
"Wooden sword?"
"Look again."
The instant the words fell—
a black sheen crawled from Ryukawa's arm, spreading down over his grip, coating the entire length of the wooden blade.
It didn't look like wood anymore.
It looked like iron.
Like steel.
Cold, sharp, and terrifyingly solid—radiating a murderous edge.
Armament Haki. Fully engaged.
In that moment, the wooden sword became a blade that could not be broken.
A chill filled the hall.
Lucci froze.
He stared at the weapon in Ryukawa's hand—
the black-coated wooden sword, wrapped in Armament like armor.
His lips trembled.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed.
Every muscle in his body went stiff.
He stood there, blank, stunned, mind emptied by the shock.
"What… am I looking at?"
"That… that is—"
"Armament Haki?!"
In that instant—
Lucci's mentality finally snapped.
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