Roger's choice didn't surprise Rayleigh in the slightest. A knowing smile tugged at his lips, the kind that said, I get you.
As the Roger Pirates' vice-captain, Rayleigh naturally obeyed his captain's decision. He offered a practical suggestion.
"If we're going to steal Devil Fruits, we'll need disguises."
A short while later…
The Roger Pirates had already changed into fresh outfits inside a clothing shop in the city. Roger wore a pure white silk ensemble, spotless and immaculate, without a speck of dust on him. On his shoulders and across his chest were special golden ornaments.
Wearing sunglasses, Roger reached up and touched the strange hairstyle perched on his head something like a bone-shaped rod. He smacked his lips.
"Why do the Celestial Dragons wear such weird hairstyles? I have to say, it's ugly as hell."
Then he turned to Rayleigh, uneasy.
"I'm a famous pirate, you know. If I disguise myself as a Celestial Dragon… won't I get exposed?"
After all, his face had long since spread across the seas through bounty posters. Anyone who had seen one would recognize him at a glance as the captain of the Roger Pirates.
"I thought of that." Rayleigh grinned and pulled out a small razor he had prepared beforehand.
The pale, glinting blade made Roger's eyes widen. His mouth twitched. Instinctive resistance flashed across his face.
"No. Absolutely not. I've been growing this beard for years."
"You're trying to kill me."
A beard was a symbol of maturity. The mark of a hard man.
Besides, among pirates, growing a beard was practically a trend. In this era, the thicker the beard, the stronger the masculine aura more charm, more presence.
And more importantly, a thick beard made a man look fierce.
As a captain, Roger needed to keep a commanding image in front of his crew.
In another world, the saying was: My head can fall, my blood can spill, but my hairstyle must not be messed up.
In the pirate era, it was: My head can fall, my blood can spill, but the beard cannot be shaved.
Roger's face was full of refusal.
Rayleigh simply waggled the razor and said calmly, "Captain, if you don't disguise yourself as a Celestial Dragon, then you can only disguise yourself as a slave."
"Choose."
"And if you pretend to be a slave, you'll need shackles on your wrists. That's not exactly convenient."
"Besides, disguising as a Celestial Dragon was your idea."
Roger stroked his beard, hesitating.
"I just thought it'd be fun to pretend to be a Celestial Dragon. You didn't say anything about shaving off a beard I've spent years growing!"
At the side, Colonel Miu Gurean cigar in his mouth stared at the Celestial Dragon outfit on Roger like his eyes might burn holes through it.
"Captain, how about we switch? I'll play the Celestial Dragon. I want to enjoy it too."
"No." Roger shut that down instantly.
In the end, Roger reached out and took the razor from Rayleigh, looking like a man preparing for execution. His movements were painfully slow as he raised it to his upper lip.
Time seemed to freeze.
His body went stiff, like it had locked up.
"Don't hesitate." Rayleigh urged again, watching him drag it out. "The more you shave, the faster it grows back. A beard like this… it'll probably be back in a few months."
Roger asked, trying to delay the inevitable, "First tell me how to act like a Celestial Dragon."
"Just… rein it in a little, Captain." Rayleigh said simply.
Roger looked even more confused. Gaban, disguised as well, also couldn't quite understand, and gave Rayleigh an inquisitive glance.
Rayleigh explained, "We're pirates. The people we deal with most are pirates. Pirates are the sort who burn, kill, loot evil without limits."
He spread his hands.
"And tell me… are Celestial Dragons any different?"
"…Actually," Gaban murmured, thinking carefully, "they really aren't."
If something annoyed them, Celestial Dragons destroyed it.
If they liked something, they took it.
If someone offended them, they killed without hesitation.
Wasn't that exactly how the most vicious pirates behaved?
No wonder Rayleigh said Roger only needed to rein it in.
"Time won't wait." Rayleigh pressed. "If we don't move, the Devil Fruits will fall into someone else's hands."
Roger's heart hardened. His hand finally moved.
Black whiskers began to fall to the floor.
Pain flashed across his face, like he was enduring spiritual torture.
A little later, the ground was littered with black stubble.
Only a faint shadow remained on Roger's face now, making him look far cleaner and strangely younger.
Rayleigh wore a faint smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, like he was trying very hard to hold something back. He coughed twice, awkward.
"Ahem… with the sunglasses, most people shouldn't be able to tell you're the captain of the Roger Pirates."
"Heh." Gaban grinned at the side, also clearly holding in his laughter. "Captain looks ten years younger. Like when I first met you."
Only Roger was the one truly wounded inside.
…
Marine G-1 Base
Hours had passed since the pirates launched their assault on G-1.
Admiral Sengoku's eyes flashed with sharp light, so intense that even his glasses seemed to flare with blinding gold. In those glowing lenses was reflected a hulking figure powerful and monstrous muscles like boulders, scales of blue spread across his body, and a face like some draconic beast.
A brutal, domineering fist tore through the air, ripples spreading outward as if the atmosphere itself had been pierced followed by a terrifying sonic crack.
Strange black-and-red flames, thick as something alive, coiled around that massive fist. Scale-covered, steel-like muscle formed an unparalleled armor along his thick, corded arm.
With world-shaking strength, it smashed toward the golden Buddha that Sengoku had become.
"Tengetsu Ares' raw power is already unmatched…" Sengoku thought grimly. "But what's even more terrifying… is that bizarre Armament Haki of his."
The giant golden Buddha moved with shocking agility. In the instant the punch came, Sengoku shot away like a springy rubber ball.
After being burned once by that "Ryuo," Sengoku didn't hesitate. He chose to retreat.
He refused to meet that monstrous, Ryuo-laced punch head-on.
Tengetsu Ares' fist crashed into empty air.
A deafening boom exploded.
Where his punch landed, the atmosphere trembled violently. The overflow of force shattered the earth around them, breaking it into chunks of stone that actually hovered in the air.
Those stones looked like ice as they rapidly melted away until they vanished completely.
"Oi." Tengetsu Ares' feral golden eyes flashed with irritation. "You're a Marine admiral. Is dodging all you can do?"
What he wanted was a fight that felt good clean and brutal, no holding back.
But Sengoku kept avoiding direct exchanges, and Tengetsu Ares felt the frustration of strength with nowhere to go.
What made it worse was that Tengetsu Ares was extremely interested in Sengoku's strange shockwave power. He wanted to learn it understand it through combat.
Sengoku's constant evasion made that impossible.
Sengoku's face darkened for a split second, then smoothed out again. A sharp light flickered in his eyes, like he was calculating something, even as he spoke.
"Tengetsu Ares. From what I know, you're different from other pirates. You crave battle."
"And your dream… is to forge your body into the supreme Great Grade blade."
"If you join the Marines, we can make an exception. We'll let you become an admiral and we'll pour every resource we have into making your physique even stronger."
He sounded utterly calm.
"What do you say?"
Tengetsu Ares stared at him like he'd just heard something absurd.
He couldn't understand why Sengoku would suggest something so ridiculous in the middle of a fight. Even he knew this much pirates and Marines were enemies to the bone.
"Stop with the nonsense." Tengetsu Ares snapped. "I'm never joining the Marines."
He knew joining the Marines meant losing freedom. It also meant becoming an enemy to his brothers Kaido, Whitebeard, Shiki.
He didn't realize Sengoku was stalling for time, trying to disturb his rhythm. But Tengetsu Ares only wanted one thing.
A real fight.
Tengetsu Ares' eyes widened, his gaze locking onto Sengoku. His aura surged outward in a violent wave.
"Quit nagging. If we're fighting, then fight!"
A soul-crushing burst of Conqueror's Haki erupted from him, sweeping across the battlefield like a raging gale.
Sengoku didn't flinch.
He stood like an old monk in meditation as his own Conqueror's Haki poured out to meet it. His voice remained steady.
"You think you can crush me with presence?"
"Don't tell me you believe only pirates possess Conqueror's Haki."
Tengetsu Ares' Conqueror's Haki slammed into resistance, like hitting an invisible, colored barrier. Around Sengoku, it was as if a golden magnetic field had formed locking in place and shielding him.
"Conqueror's Haki…?" Tengetsu Ares blinked, surprised. "So even the Marines have it."
"I thought only pirates did."
He'd met plenty of powerful Marines before, but he'd never seen Conqueror's Haki on any of them.
Today, he saw it on Admiral Sengoku.
Tengetsu Ares raised his arm.
His blood surged like black-red lightning, flashing around his limb with a harsh zzzt-zzzt and crackling pop-pop.
A red glow began to seep from his arm, wrapping over his knuckles and forming around his clearly defined fist.
He looked at Sengoku with a hint of expectation.
"Can you do this?"
He wanted Sengoku to also possess Haki infusion so he could learn it from him in battle, steal the method the way he always did.
But…
It was only wishful thinking.
Seeing that Haki-wrapped force in Tengetsu Ares' hand, Sengoku's expression shifted. Shock flared in his heart.
"He mastered Haki infusion…?"
"And intelligence reports never mentioned it."
"If he wasn't hiding it… then he learned it recently."
Sengoku watched him in silence, mind racing.
"That look… he doesn't seem like someone who's been concealing his strength for years."
"Then there's only one possibility."
"He just learned it."
Sengoku's thoughts sharpened into a conclusion.
Tengetsu Ares had mastered it within the last month or two.
A storm rose in Sengoku's chest.
"His learning talent is unbelievable."
"And I can feel the power of that infusion on his fist… it's far above ordinary Armament Haki."
"To grasp this in such a short time…"
"So this is one of the reasons Fleet Admiral Kong places such importance on Tengetsu Ares."
Watching Sengoku remain silent, Tengetsu Ares frowned. His heavy brow cast his eyes into shadow, disappointment flickering inside him.
"So it really is like Rocks said…"
"People who can use Haki infusion are extremely rare in this sea."
He exhaled.
"Whatever. Then I'll force him to use that shockwave more. If I can learn it… that'll be a big boost to my strength."
But the thought only made him more irritated.
Sengoku kept avoiding direct exchanges, slipping away again and again with fluid, effortless technique his body moving with a freedom that didn't match his enormous golden form at all.
He was big, yet unbelievably fast.
Tengetsu Ares had never met such a troublesome opponent in close-quarters technique.
It made him feel like he had power… and nowhere to land it.
And while Tengetsu Ares was thinking, Sengoku was thinking too endlessly trying to find a way to defeat this monster.
"Monstrous physique. Bizarre Armament Haki. Absurd regeneration. A battle-genius level of learning. Unmatched Haki infusion…"
Any one of those traits would make a fighter terrifying.
All of them in one body?
That was a monster among monsters.
Sengoku thought until his head ached, and still couldn't find a clear path to victory.
His shockwave power was strong enough to shatter stone and punch through steel.
Yet against Tengetsu Ares, it felt like it meant nothing.
Sengoku could only smile bitterly inside.
"So this is what Garp feels every time he fights him…"
"No wonder that idiot goes back and trains his fists like a madman after every clash."
In that moment, Sengoku understood Garp.
And in a way
He became Garp.
At that same moment, far away, Kong narrowed his eyes, shock flashing through them.
"If I'm not mistaken… that's Haki infusion."
"That kid mastered it?"
"What terrifying talent…"
"If I remember correctly, even Whitebeard and Shiki only grasped it around their thirties…"
"In just two or three years, Tengetsu Ares has grown into a true powerhouse."
"This war… Rocks must die."
"And Tengetsu Ares… can't be allowed to escape either."
Even from a great distance, Kong could still feel the destructive force on Tengetsu Ares' fist.
Beside him, "Black Arm" Zephyr could no longer keep his composure. His expression changed, worry and heaviness deepening in his eyes.
"It hasn't even been that long… and he's stronger again."
"Every time we meet, he's different."
Shock after shock.
Even someone as strong as Zephyr felt fear crawl up from somewhere deep inside.
A feeling he had never known before.
The kind of fear that comes when you watch an enemy grow rapidly right before your eyes.
From someone you barely cared about…
To someone so terrifying that, in your heart of hearts, you start believing you can't beat him.
And Zephyr wasn't the only one shaken.
Marine Captain Gion was also stunned. Just the violent lightning-like aura was a brutal visual impact, not to mention the annihilating force wrapped around Tengetsu Ares' fist.
She turned toward Tsuru beside her.
From Tsuru's dark, heavy expression, Gion could feel just how grim her thoughts were.
"Sister…" Gion's face had gone pale. "What is that power? Even from this far away… it feels dangerous. Like it makes you want to run."
This was the first time she'd ever taken part in a war like this. She'd followed Tsuru on many operations, pursuing great pirates across the seas.
But compared to Tengetsu Ares…
Those pirates were like children waving swords in front of an adult.
Not even worthy of shining his boots.
Tsuru spoke slowly, her voice low.
"That is Haki infusion. A technique that uses Conqueror's Haki."
"It amplifies your attacks its destructive force is terrifying."
"Anyone who can use it… stands at the very top of the sea's pyramid."
Gion knew what Conqueror's Haki was.
But this was the first time she'd heard it could be applied to attacks.
She stared at the battlefield as if she were looking up at a mountain that pierced the clouds so tall she couldn't even see the summit.
Her hand tightened unconsciously around the hilt of the named blade at her waist. Her heart swayed wildly, like a needle spinning back and forth.
"He… he's only…"
"Only nineteen…"
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