Chapter 4: Aokiji—Eat My Bullet!
In the days that followed, most of Riven D. Dante's training focused on strengthening his body.
He couldn't compare to those so-called two-hundred-times-effort geniuses, but whether it was sniping, swordplay, or martial arts, Dante could master skills at twice the efficiency of someone like Shanks—a natural-born prodigy. That alone made him monstrous.
So naturally, the earlier he built up physical strength and awakened his Haki, the better.
Time slipped by.
Two months had already passed since Dante had left his hometown. His days aboard the ship were fulfilling, if not exactly exciting.
Early one morning, barely after sunrise, Dante was dragged out of bed by Buggy and Shanks to help clean the deck. The night before, another massive banquet had been thrown in celebration of Captain Roger's bounty being raised yet again.
Everyone had gotten drunkexcept for the "Three Brat Princes."
"Tch! Who in the world can party every single day without feeling mentally drained?!" Dante cursed inwardly.
With the crew's hot-blooded idiots, plus a captain with a personality uncannily similar to that of a future "Monkey D. Luffy," Dante could only sigh.
It wasn't that he didn't want to join in, but truthfully, rum tasted awful to him. Without an addiction to alcohol, he simply couldn't appreciate it.
This wasn't the thrilling, passionate adventure he had once imagined. Aside from the occasional storms, lightning, hail, or hurricanes, it felt less like an epic voyage and more like being trapped in an endless, rowdy bar full of elite macho men.
By the time they finished cleaning up the countless bottles and scraps left from the banquet, it was nearly lunchtime. Dante was just about to grab a bite and then head to training when
He froze.
Something was coming.
His Observation Haki picked it up before his eyes could.
Buggy rushed to the ship's railing and peered into the distance. "Wait— isn't that… a cannonball?!"
Sure enough, a black dot was arcing through the sky.
"What the hell?! Who fires a cannonball from that far away?!" Buggy yelled.
"Feels more like a missile…" Dante muttered. A suspicion crept into his mind.
Without bothering to shout a warning, Dante immediately unslung the rifle from his back. Shanks and Buggy looked on nervously as he took aim at the dark speck in the sky.
Unnoticed, Captain Roger himself had appeared at the bow, grinning as he watched the boy line up his shot.
"Oi, brat. That guy's cannonballs are fast. Can you really hit it?"
Roger's grin widened, testing him.
Dante clicked his tongue. Who's he looking down on?
Maybe he couldn't beat the guy himself—but shoot down a cannonball? No problem.
"Got you."
Through his Observation Haki, Dante locked onto the incoming projectile. His finger squeezed the trigger
Bang!
The bullet struck true, piercing the cannonball dead center…
And yet, instead of exploding in midair as expected, the projectile simply shrugged off the shot, deflecting his bullet and continuing to fall along its original trajectory.
Dante's eyes widened.
The hell—?! This cannonball's cheating!
No… not cheating.
It was coated in Haki.
"Damn it." Realizing he was outclassed, Dante quickly shouldered his rifle and stepped back behind Shanks and Buggy. He wasn't panicked—if the sky was falling, there were giants here to hold it up.
Sure enough—
"DIVINE DEPARTURE!!!"
With a thunderous roar, Roger swung his blade. Dark-red lightning crackled along the edge as his strike carved through the heavens themselves.
The sky split apart.
Not only the cannonball Dante had aimed for, but the entire volley that followed exploded in midair before they could touch the sea.
Dante's eyes nearly popped from his head.
He knew this move from the anime but witnessing it in person was something else entirely.
One swing cleaving the heavens?
Hell yes, I need to learn that!
His scalp tingled, his mouth practically drooling as his Observation Haki frantically tried to track every detail of Roger's movements.
But… his strength was still too low. All he could sense was an overwhelming surge of power coursing through Roger's body. The finer details remained beyond him.
Dante sighed in frustration.
So this is like trying to copy a forbidden jutsu with a Sharingan—you can't paste what your system can't handle.
Before he could dwell on it, Shanks and Buggy grabbed him and dragged him back among the other crew members, who were now assembling on deck.
"Bwahahaha! Boys! It's the Navy fight to your heart's content!" Roger's booming laugh echoed as he raised his sword.
"Damn it, that mad dog again. We finally shook him off, and two months later he's already back?!" grumbled Jaba, hefting his twin axes.
"Then let's give him a proper welcome," Rayleigh said bluntly, unleashing a massive slash that split the sea itself—
Only to be shattered by a single jet-black punch from the distant warship.
Meanwhile, Dante was already scrambling up to the lookout. Settling beside his sharpshooter mentor, Beitam, he grinned. "Yo, Uncle Beitam!"
The big man, fat but far from slow, nodded at him with a smile. "Ah, it's you, Dante. Careful, kid this time we're not facing small fry."
"I can handle myself." Dante smirked, raising his scope to his eye.
Through the lens, he spotted a burly figure on the Navy warship. Clad in a Vice Admiral's coat and black suit, the man casually hefted cannonballs in his hands.
Dante's gut clenched. So it was that guy.
Those impossible cannonballs… he'd thrown them with his bare hands.
Tch. So in this world, cannons are still trash-tier. Manual mode outperforms auto-fire.
He muttered to himself, "Figures. Only the Hero of the Marines could pull that off."
Sure enough, it was Monkey D. Garp.
"Oi, Roger! You hear me?! Surrender now!" Garp's voice bellowed across the sea, amplified by a giant loudspeaker.
"Bwahahaha! Not a chance, Garp!" Roger roared back, grinning ear to ear.
Their voices clashed over the waves—two titans exchanging the same fiery opening lines as always.
And then the battle began.
As expected, Roger's crew didn't plan to clash head-on with Garp here. With so many powerful fighters aboard, their mobility was their advantage. And if Garp forced them into a direct Haki clash on the open sea, the result would be catastrophic. Ships shattered, crews forced to swim to the next island. Nobody wanted that.
Still, reckless Marines tried to close in with Moonwalk.
Those who weren't knocked down by Rayleigh or Jaba ended up shot out of the air by Dante's rifle.
But through his scope, Dante noticed someone odd amidst the ordinary Marines—
A lanky man with curly hair.
"Oi, oi… that guy blending in with the rank-and-file? No way he's up to anything good."
Had Dante not recognized him, he would have slipped right past unnoticed.
But Dante knew better.
That man was the future Ice-Ice Fruit user. If he got too close to the Oro Jackson… the consequences would be disastrous.
Dante's lips curled into a grin.
He reached into his pouch and pulled out a single bullet one he had begged off Beitam after much effort. A rare round forged of seastone. His ace in the hole.
Lining up his scope, Dante whispered under his breath:
"A little gift… from me to you."
The crosshairs fell squarely on the young Marine.
"Take this Aokiji."
"Eat my bullet."
---