[send power stones please]
The atmosphere turned strange.
Dead silent.
Lucci's mind had cracked.
He could feel it himself—his so-called confidence was collapsing by the second, like a building caving in on itself, falling into rubble piece by piece.
Just moments ago, before the fight truly began, Lucci had believed victory was guaranteed.
Two thousand CP elites had sealed the building.
Three hundred marksmen had locked their barrels onto Ryukawa's head.
One order from him, and Ryukawa would've eaten three hundred bullets.
To Lucci, it was perfect.
Losing?
Not even a possibility.
There was no way the half-day of preparation he'd poured into this trap would turn out to be wasted.
But then—
Lucci shattered.
In a single instant, the two thousand elites he'd deployed were erased.
Conqueror's Haki swept through the area, and every one of them dropped unconscious, useless for battle.
Lucci could never have predicted this outcome.
In East Blue—this tiny "weakest sea"—he'd run into a freak who could wield Conqueror's Haki smoothly…
and the freak was a boy.
A boy, barely fourteen or fifteen, already holding Conqueror's.
That alone was horrifying.
But the worst part wasn't Conqueror's.
It was what he'd seen right after—
Armament.
"B-Black… Armament…"
Lucci's eyes bulged, bloodshot and trembling, staring at the wooden sword in Ryukawa's hand.
The blade was wrapped in black like armor, looking unbreakable.
A weapon that should've been harmless…
now radiated a sharp, terrifying edge, as if it could cut through anything in this world.
"This coating…"
"How could I mistake it?!"
Lucci's mouth opened, but his throat was bone-dry.
Even though he didn't personally wield any of the three colors—
as a top Cipher Pol operative, and the so-called CP9 prodigy—
his knowledge was extensive.
He'd been taught the traits of the three kinds of Haki.
He knew exactly what they looked like.
And now—
he was seeing them with his own eyes.
He'd never personally experienced Conqueror's before today, but he felt it now.
That sensation—being drowned under a king's will—made his skin crawl.
It didn't crush his consciousness, but it was enough to make his entire body feel wrong.
Like being locked under the gaze of a predator—scalp numb, spine cold.
If it were only Conqueror's, Lucci wouldn't have lost composure like this.
But—
Someone explain it to him.
"Why does this kid also have Observation?!"
"He has Conqueror's…"
"And he has Armament!"
"How is this possible?"
"He's fourteen or fifteen!"
"East Blue-born, ordinary background, nothing special at all."
"So why?!"
"Why can someone like that use Conqueror's… and Armament… so smoothly?!"
"Who the hell is he?!"
"Where did this monster come from?"
"Something like this should exist on the Grand Line!"
"How could East Blue produce a freak like this—this isn't scientific!"
Lucci's mind twisted nearly out of shape.
The repeated shocks battered his mental Stamina until it creaked.
Normally, Lucci's mindset was supposed to be rock-solid.
And it was.
Among Cipher Pol agents, he was one of the steadiest.
But what he'd run into—
was too absurd.
Too world-flipping.
Even Lucci couldn't digest it.
Then another thought stabbed him.
Hard.
"If my guess is right…"
"If he already has Armament and Conqueror's…"
"Then that means he probably also has the third."
"Observation."
"So…"
"At fourteen or fifteen…"
"He's mastered all three types of Haki."
"Armament. Observation. Conqueror's."
"All of it?!"
"Is that even possible?"
"Does a monster like that really exist?"
Lucci's lips shook.
His eyes were wide with raw horror.
He'd always believed he himself was special—talented beyond most.
He'd risen above countless agents.
He'd been called the strongest CP9 agent in eight hundred years.
That title was part of his pride.
But the moment he met Ryukawa—
Lucci's worldview began to crumble.
He couldn't imagine—
that one day he'd meet something this abnormal.
Something that broke common sense.
Ryukawa's talent wasn't just rare.
It felt unprecedented.
"Three types of Haki… mastered at this age…"
"What kind of talent does that take?"
Lucci's hands and feet went cold.
Even he felt fear now—true fear.
This was bad.
He came to East Blue thinking he was handling a simple case.
And instead he'd run into a genuine monster—
a monster who stood right in front of him, holding all three colors of Haki.
His thoughts were a mess now, emotions surging too violently to suppress.
"This is a monster."
"A real monster."
Lucci took a half-step back, eyes locked on Ryukawa with open fear.
At this moment, he no longer dared underestimate him.
If anything—
he'd branded him with a single word:
Monster.
At this age, already mastering all three colors…
If he was allowed to grow—
what would he become?
And yet, until now, this monster had been completely unknown in East Blue.
Lucci had never heard even a whisper.
"Cipher Pol's intelligence… is lacking," he thought bitterly.
"A monster like this, and we had zero information."
"This trap we set…"
"In reality, it was us building our own execution stage."
He could already see it.
Their nightmare was about to begin.
A freak with all three colors.
Lucci didn't believe he could "easily" shake someone like that.
At the same time—
Ryukawa's eyes sharpened.
He lifted the wooden sword coated in Armament, blade angled toward Lucci, cold pressure rolling off it in waves.
This farce was over.
Numbers meant nothing.
One burst of Conqueror's—
and a thousand men became dead weight.
Just like now.
Only one enemy remained.
Rob Lucci.
The so-called strongest CP9 agent in eight hundred years.
Ryukawa smiled.
"Are you ready?"
"Damn it…"
Lucci's face grew heavier as the pressure washed over him.
Even his limbs were starting to resist his will, his body stiffening.
It felt like a boulder had been dropped onto his shoulders—moving became difficult.
Ryukawa's smile stayed light.
"Honestly, I've always wanted to test this."
"My full-power strike… how much destruction can it really cause?"
"Today I happened to meet you."
"A target that can—barely—count as an opponent."
"So I hope you don't die too easily."
The words were calm.
But the intent behind them made Lucci's entire body erupt in goosebumps.
He retreated fast, opening a gap of more than ten meters, like a wild beast sensing death.
His eyes were wide, terrified, muscles taut like drawn wire.
Ryukawa slowly raised his sword.
"Iai…"
The wooden blade in his grip carried an oppressive, razor-sharp presence.
The edge wasn't steel—yet the pressure was.
That was the aura of a swordsman.
A swordmaster.
The crushing force slammed into Lucci.
His face darkened further.
Not good.
Very not good.
Ryukawa's presence carried a threat Lucci had never experienced in his life.
"Iai…"
Ryukawa's voice was quiet.
"One-Slash Draw."
Then his sword fell.
It looked light.
Almost gentle.
But the Armament-coated blade tore through the air like it was paper.
The air split.
A thin, shrieking line of force screamed outward with terrifying speed—
and in the instant the blade descended, a faint crimson slash-light bloomed.
A red-tinged sword aura coiled around the blade like fire finding its breath.
Then it burst from the sword's tip—
shooom!
A world-breaking slash shot toward Lucci's position.
It carved through space, dazzling and violent, trailing a brilliant arc as if it carried the power to destroy everything in its path.
The floor tiles beneath it shuddered and loosened, cracking under the pressure of the passing edge.
That red slash was like a second sun—
so bright it stabbed the eyes.
And Lucci, standing directly in its line—
felt it more clearly than anyone.
He smelled death.
The dazzling crimson edge rushed toward him in an instant.
Before that slash, Lucci felt—
small.
Like a drop of water facing a raging river.
The strike gave him the terrifying illusion that it could split anything in the world.
"T-this…"
"What kind of power is this?!"
Lucci trembled despite himself.
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