The timeline rewinds several months—to the exact moment Gern set foot on the Mink Tribe's homeland.
Around that same time, news spread through the papers—
The infamous "Curse Doctor" and "Giant Battleship" had been captured and thrown into Impel Down...
Meanwhile — New World, aboard the Moby Dick
The sea wind carried a salty tang across the deck as the newspaper rustled loudly in Marco's hands.
His eyes were locked on the front-page headline:
["Heaven-Shaking" Marine Gern Strikes Again — Single-Handedly Suppresses "Giant Battleship" and "Curse Doctor"!]
In the accompanying photo, a young Marine officer stood tall, black hair whipping wildly in the wind.
"Hey, hey… isn't this guy's growth a little too ridiculous?" Marco muttered, gripping the paper tighter as his brows knitted together."It's only been a few years since he became famous for cutting down Golden Lion, right? And now even 'Giant Battleship' Sanjuan Wolf and 'Curse Doctor' Samuel got taken out by him?Those two weren't small-time pirates by any stretch!"
Listening to Marco's disbelief, Whitebeard sat on his massive, exclusive chair, a sake bowl in hand.At the words, his gaze sank slightly—yet a meaningful smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Gurarararara! That's exactly why you idiots need to work twice as hard," he boomed."Especially you, Marco…" Whitebeard deliberately dragged out the words, mischief flashing in his eyes."You know—when Gern made a move against me back then, he was even younger than you are now."
"OLD MAN!!" Marco instantly bristled."Why do you always compare me to someone else's kid?!""And besides—" He jabbed a finger angrily at the newspaper."Didn't you try to adopt him back then?!"
"Gurarararara!" Whitebeard laughed heartily and downed another mouthful of sake, the liquor dripping down his mustache."If that brat had been willing to come aboard…""Who knows—he might've already taken your spot as First Division Commander by now!"
Marco: "I get it. Old man's getting old—now he only likes high achievers. Hah. Guess there's no fatherly love left for me."
Just as the two were bantering about Gern—
A thunderous shout suddenly erupted from inside the ship, followed by the rapid clack-clack of wooden geta sandals.
Kozuki Oden burst out like a whirlwind, the hem of his orange kimono flaring wildly as Enma and Ame no Habakiri swung at his waist.
He snatched the newspaper straight from Marco's hands, eyes bulging as he stared at Gern's photo, his voice rising with excitement.
"Marco! Who did you just say attacked Whitey?!"
"Oden, you idiot—"
"Come on, tell me!"
"…This Marine. Gern." Marco pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed."Back then, he actually cut Old Man head-on."
"He cut Whitey?!"Oden's pupils shrank violently, his breathing quickening.
Back in Wano, when Whitebeard got even slightly serious, one punch had sent Oden flying into the sky!
With that memory flashing through his mind, Oden snapped his head up, blazing battle intent igniting in his eyes.
"Then he… won?!"
"Haha! No way!" Marco laughed and shrugged."He was only fourteen or fifteen at the time—if he'd won, that'd be insane.But his power's special. A Logia. Probably an advanced variant of Old Man's Gura Gura no Mi.Honestly, Old Man admired him a lot back then."
"An upper-tier version… of the Gura Gura no Mi?!"Oden's voice shot up, his hand unconsciously gripping Enma's hilt.
As for the rest of Marco's explanation—he'd selectively tuned it out entirely.
Oden stared fixedly at Gern's photo, a feral grin spreading across his face.
"Hey, Marco! Where is this guy now?!"
One look at Oden's expression told Marco this was bad news."Wait—Oden, you're not thinking—"
After all, since boarding Whitebeard's ship, Oden's favorite three activities had been: drinking, fighting, and listening to legends of strong men.Recently, saving Toki of Amatsuki had added a fourth—romance.
"Obviously I'm going to meet him!" Oden declared, already stepping up onto the railing."A vibration user stronger than Whitey? Someone who cut Golden Lion?And a Marine powerhouse I've never crossed blades with? How could I miss that?!"
(Kozuki Oden had never fought a Marine top-tier head-on before.)
Whitebeard watched Oden's eager back with an amused glint in his eyes.
"Gurarararara! Go on, Oden!"He swirled his sake bowl, his smile deep and knowing."Just don't get taught too harsh a lesson by the young ones."
Oden turned back, his grin blazing like the sun itself."Don't worry, Whitey!"
Before the words had even finished echoing, he leapt.Air exploded beneath his feet as he kicked off midair, his body streaking like an arrow toward another pirate ship flying Whitebeard's flag.
"Seriously thick-skinned," Marco sighed heavily as he watched the figure vanish into the distance."Old man, do you think Oden might completely overwhelm Gern? You did say his strength and body are monstrous."
"Don't forget—Gern's raw power back then wasn't inferior to mine either!" Whitebeard laughed, ripples spreading through the sake in his bowl."Gurarararara! The waves of the new era were bound to crash in sooner or later!"
......
The timeline returns to the present.
The sea wind howled.Between the two ships, the ocean itself seemed cleaved apart by an invisible force—the air heavy, stagnant, suffocating.
Kozuki Oden stood at the prow, his kimono snapping wildly in the wind.
He bared his teeth in a near-maniacal grin, eyes burning as they locked onto Gern.
"Hey, Marine! I heard you once cut Whitey with a blade?"
"Then hurry up and let me see it for myself—"Unrestrained battle lust blazed in Oden's gaze, like a beast that had finally found its prey.
"A beast-like presence…"Gern's brows drew together slightly. He could clearly feel the pressure radiating from Oden—not merely Haki, but something primal, ferocious, almost savage in its aggression.
"HEY! MARINE!" Oden roared again, his voice like thunder."I'm talking to you!"
Gern didn't answer.
He merely raised one hand coldly, the tip of his blade pointing toward the deserted island ahead.
"If we're going to fight—we do it there."
"No problem. Though I am the challenger—"Before the sentence finished, Oden's right hand was already gripping Enma's hilt.
SHAA—!
A crimson slash tore across the sea, carrying a tyrannical momentum as it screamed straight toward Gern's face!
Where the blade wave passed, the ocean split apart, water surging aside to form a trench dozens of meters deep.
"But I don't feel the presence of a true powerhouse from you at all!!"
Gern's pupils tightened slightly.Black Blade Eight Desolations snapped upward, its edge wrapped in pale vibration particles as he intercepted the attack head-on.
CLANG—!!
The metallic crash detonated through the air.At the moment of contact, Gern felt a tremor ripple through his grip—
And then, the vibration particles writhed like living things, swallowing the slash's force entirely.
"Returning it to you," Gern said coldly.
His arm tensed—and the blade snapped upward in a fierce countercut!
A pale, crescent-shaped shockwave burst from the blade, over three times larger than Oden's original slash.
Air warped and shattered in its wake.The sea was carved into a vacuum corridor, even sunlight refracting into eerie rainbows under the high-frequency vibrations.
"That's it—that's it!"Excitement flashed through Oden's eyes."Now this is interesting!"
Crossing both blades, Enma and Ame no Habakiri coated themselves in jet-black Armament Haki as he chopped down violently into the oncoming wave!
BOOOOM!!!
The moment the forces collided, the clouds above the island were torn apart.The sea caved inward, forming a massive crater over a hundred meters wide.
The prow beneath Oden's feet cracked with a sharp crack—yet he himself didn't budge an inch, his geta buried deep into the deck.
"Hahahaha! That's some punch!"Oden laughed as he shook the numbness from his wrists, his battle spirit flaring even hotter."I'm Kozuki Oden! Marine—state your name!"
"Gern Reginald Sigmar."
The instant the name left his lips—
Before Oden's laughter could fully fade—
CRACK!
The deck beneath Gern collapsed violently, spiderweb cracks exploding outward from his feet.The air seemed seized by an invisible hand—
Then—
BOOOOM!!!
A Vibration Flash erupted.
Gern's body became a pale afterimage as space twisted and collapsed along his path.High-frequency vibration particles shredded the air itself, carving a chasm into the sea from sheer residual force.
Oden's Observation Haki reacted—too late.
His pupils shrank violently.
"So fast—!"
He hadn't even seen the movement.
His vision was flooded by blinding pale light—and a pair of crimson-glowing eyes.
Gern's fist was wrapped in dark-violet arcs of Conqueror's Haki, flowing Ryuo Armament coating it like liquid steel.Compressed within was a High-Frequency Vibration Core, humming with annihilating force.
"Black Quake — Flash Prison."
The moment the punch slammed into Oden's abdomen—
DOOOOOOM!!!
A circular shockwave exploded outward.The pirate ship and surrounding seawater were pulverized into mist, clouds in the sky shattering like glass.
In one-thousandth of a second, Oden's body folded into a bow.The back of his kimono detonated open—
The unabsorbed force erupted as a crimson-and-black torrent, blasting him away!
BOOOOOM—SHHH!!!
Oden streaked through the air like a meteor, smashing into the distant island's mountain and carving out a crater a hundred meters wide.
Rock layers collapsed in succession.Dust and debris blasted skyward as the entire island trembled violently, tsunamis dozens of meters high surging across the sea.
Gern slowly drew back his fist.The deck beneath him had already been reduced to dust.
Suspended in midair via Sky Walk, the red glow of Conqueror's Haki still burned in his eyes.Space around him remained fractured with rainbow cracks from lingering vibrations.
"I told you to go to the island," Gern said coldly, staring toward the smoke-choked landmass.Armament Haki faded from his left hand as his voice fell like ice."Since you wouldn't go yourself—I sent you there."
"Exactly what I wanted!!"
A violent surge of Haki blasted the dust apart, stones and earth spraying like rain.
Kozuki Oden slowly rose from the crater, chest heaving—yet a nearly deranged grin split his face.
His kimono was in tatters, revealing a body of honed, steel-like muscle.Fine cracks webbed across his skin—scars left by the High-Frequency Vibration Core—
And then, before the eye, they vanished.
After all—this was the man who would one day take Roger's Divine Departure head-on without protection.Gern hadn't expected to end it with one punch.
"Hahahaha!!"Oden's laughter thundered, eyes blazing with searing battle lust.
"Whitey said you left a deep impression back then…"He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth as Enma and Ame no Habakiri spun into his hands.Flowing Ryuo Armament surged over the blades like living creatures, steel humming hungrily.
"I came all this way—"Before the words finished—
BOOM!The ground beneath Oden collapsed!
"So—"His figure vanished—
And reappeared above Gern like a demon descending from the heavens, twin blades crossed in a lethal arc!
"—I'm damn well taking something worth remembering!!"
"Oden Two-Sword Style — Ten-Fist Slash!!"
The slashes roared like raging dragons.The island's coastline was cleaved apart by the blow, seawater flooding violently inward!
"Heh. You really are something…"Gern lifted his gaze coldly, the incoming storm reflected in his eyes.
Gripping his blade with one hand, pale high-frequency vibration particles gathered once more around Eight Desolations.Dark red arcs of Armament crackled wildly.
"No matter how much you underestimate justice—there's a limit to it!!!"
Blade met blade.
For a single instant—
The world fell silent.
BOOOOOOM—
The skysplit in two.