Of course, days at sea dragged on forever.
Don't let Monkey D. Luffy fooling around the world in a few months trick you—the Roger Pirates didn't have such clear objectives. Most time still got burned traveling.
Hell, you could say Roger was the real chosen one, stumbling ass-backwards into every condition needed for the final island.
While unlucky pirates might spend their whole lives never finding where Poneglyphs were buried or people who could read the damn things.
A year flew by in a blink.
Sea Circle Calendar 1496.
Thirteen-year-old Aus was officially making waves.
But Aus wasn't focused on that—something else grabbed his attention.
"Yo! Buggy! Good news—I hit two meters!"
"Are you brain-dead? This obviously isn't the time for that shit!"
Buggy, barely four-foot-five, craned his neck up at Aus towering over him and couldn't help bitching.
They were in the middle of a goddamn fight!
"Hahahaha... I know!"
Aus was riding high, casually tilting his head and spinning to dodge bullets aimed at him, sliding over to Buggy's side.
"Clang—"
Pitch-black Armament Haki instantly coated his entire arm, slapping it right next to Buggy's temple.
"Thunk—"
A bullet smacked the back of his hand, bounced off, and clattered to the deck.
"Watch yourself, Buggy." Aus grinned.
"What the hell???"
Only now realizing he'd nearly bought it, Buggy's jaw dropped, eyes bulging, snot almost scared out of him.
"I... I almost died!"
Buggy was shaking. Sure, he'd eaten the Chop-Chop Fruit and was a splitting man, but he was only immune to slashes. A bullet to the brain would definitely punch his ticket!
Patting Buggy's shoulder, Aus hopped to the ship's edge, spreading his Observation Haki.
Instantly he could read the exact situation of those two warships chasing from way out there.
"Not even sending an Admiral after us—what big shot did these Marines piss off?"
Aus gripped his gun with one hand, but his eyes were on Captain Roger at the bow.
Seeing Aus step up, tons of crew watched his moves, including the straw hat crew.
Aus was more and more handling shit solo these days.
Since awakening Conqueror's Haki, Aus had been crazy enthusiastic in fights.
His words: as much direct combat as possible might boost Conqueror's progress—victory and blood battles were the best spirit training.
How to put it...
The road to the top was always like this.
Because of Aus's style shift, his bounty kept climbing all year.
Now he was worth 500 million Belly!
"I got this, Captain Roger. Just some Marine trash."
Roger wasn't planning to move anyway. Hearing Aus, he just sheathed his sword, turning toward that distant waterfall-shrouded island.
Wano Country!
"Make it quick, Aus! We're landing!"
"Roger!"
Aus raised his sniper rifle. His monster Observation Haki swept those two warships a hundred meters out over and over. All steel and iron was like paper to him.
This was another Observation application Aus developed—god's-eye view almost like X-ray vision.
Kinda like Mantra.
Steadying his breathing, Aus's eyes suddenly blazed crimson.
Explosion scenes flashed before him one by one. Future Sight itself wasn't his goal anymore.
What he was trying to see
was way further ahead.
With a sharp crack, a pitch-black Armament bullet basically vanished into thin air, sonic booms trailing behind.
Brief silence.
"BOOM—!"
Like dominoes falling, after impact sounds came chain explosions!
Through wails and screams, a steel battleship slowly tipped over, sinking toward the deep.
This scene obviously scared the shit out of Marines on the other warship. They stood there like idiots, eyes nearly popping out.
"He can pinpoint ammo storage from hundreds of meters? You're shitting me! How's that even possible???"
The Marine Rear Admiral on the surviving ship, watching this go down, was having a breakdown, then snapped back, yelling orders at his men.
"Retreat! Hard to port!"
"That monster isn't something we can handle!"
Immediately ordered the ship to turn, but clearly didn't realize that for powerhouses, hundreds of meters was basically point-blank range.
"Someone's coming fast!"
"Target's too quick, can't track!"
"It's 'Black Gun' Aus!"
Watching Aus's figure rocket out on air steps, the Roger Pirates showed zero surprise, all hanging over the rail waiting for this no-contest beatdown.
The survivors on the Marine warship, seeing the Oro Jackson wasn't approaching, breathed easier.
These were New World Marines after all. Both ships' commanding officer—Rear Admiral Tesro—obviously wasn't some total nobody.
Facing this recently rising young pirate,
he had both Haki types and confidence to stall Aus a while.
Just hold out briefly. Once the warship got distance, all the Marines jumping one guy—easy money, right?
"Black Gun Aus! You got balls, come at me—"
Splurt!
The surrounding Marines, who'd also figured they'd escaped and hadn't celebrated yet, watched their smiles freeze solid.
"Dying with a smile—that's my biggest mercy."
Aus, who'd somehow appeared on deck, casually flicked blood off his blade,
glancing back at the Marine Rear Admiral's head on the ground, still smiling.
Nothing shocking—he'd already seen this scene before drawing.
The other Marines, like Peking opera face-changers, all went from joy to pure despair.
Aus strolled around casually, basically one cut per person.
Maybe scared shitless, two Marines even dove into the kitchen.
"Yo, Marines, you should've been ready to die before attacking, right?
Can't go playing deserter king now."
Aus naturally wouldn't show mercy. If he were some weakass pirate, even without dying he'd definitely rot in prison forever. He wasn't some bleeding heart.
But there was bonus loot—this Marine Rear Admiral's sword looked like quality steel.
Black-patterned blade, long and heavy feel, not curved like most katana, zero excess hilt decoration, more like a cane sword.
Overall kinda like Gambler's Fire Line, but longer and more gorgeous.
Aus didn't know famous blades, but felt it beat the hell out of the trash long sword in his hands. Plus it was long enough—
enough for when he hit three meters.
Grabbing his war prize, Aus Moon Walked back to the Oro Jackson.
Perfect timing.
He wanted to see if Wano's Ryuo was any different from the Armament flow techniques Vice-Captain Rayleigh just taught him.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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