The atmosphere was deathly silent.
Not a sound—
not even the cry of a seagull—echoed.
Only the sharp crack… crack… of splitting timber rang faintly across the deck.
The boards creaked, splintered, then broke apart—
sharp, piercing, final.
Fractures spread like spiderwebs across the vast wooden deck, radiating from the epicenter of the explosion.
At that shattered center,
smoke billowed upward, dust rolling in heavy clouds.
Lieutenant Commander Bogard's body lay half-buried beneath the destroyed deck,
his blood seeping outward, soaking the planks around him in a wide, scarlet pool.
The sea breeze carried the metallic tang of blood,
dispersing it over the trembling warship as its violent shudders slowly subsided into stillness.
When the dust settled—
everyone could see it clearly.
The center of the deck had caved in completely,
a jagged pit surrounded by shattered planks and blood-stained debris—
a gruesome crater that looked more like the ruins of a battlefield than the deck of a Marine warship.
Shredded pieces of Bogard's uniform lay scattered about,
soaked in blood, torn beyond recognition.
For a long moment, no one dared to breathe.
Then, finally, a trembling voice broke the silence:
"M-My god… Lieutenant Commander Bogard… lost? He… he actually lost?!"
That one sentence shattered the quiet.
The deck erupted into chaos.
Dozens of Marine s gawked in disbelief, eyes wide, staring at Bogard's unmoving form lodged beneath the broken planks like a defeated beast.
"Wh-what the hell?!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Lieutenant Commander Bogard—taken down that easily? Three punches?!"
"He's a Marine Headquarters officer! A man said to rival a full Colonel! How could he be crushed so completely?!"
A chorus of shocked gasps spread across the ship.
No one had imagined this outcome.
That Bogard would lose, perhaps—but like this?
To be utterly overwhelmed?
Completely crushed?
Slaughtered in three blows?!
If this had been a real battle to the death,
there was no question—
Lieutenant Commander Bogard would already be a corpse.
"Mr. Kai… is far too strong…"
One Marine swallowed hard, his face pale.
"He's only four years old!"
"Four years old—and he just obliterated a Lieutenant Commander with three punches!"
"What kind of monster is that supposed to be?!"
The deck buzzed with noise again,
the astonishment spreading like wildfire.
The thought alone—
that a child, barely taller than their waists, had single-handedly defeated a senior Headquarters officer—
was enough to make every Marine's scalp crawl.
If they hadn't witnessed it with their own eyes…
none of them would have ever believed it.
"Are we sure this isn't some kind of hallucination?"
Several Marine s rubbed their eyes hard,
but when they looked again,
the scene remained unchanged.
"It's too much…"
"Lieutenant Commander Bogard—an elite among elites—was crushed from start to finish."
"He couldn't even fight back! Not once!"
"From beginning to end, Mr. Kai dominated him completely. It wasn't even a contest!"
"Three blows, and it was over!"
"Do you dare believe that?"
Their minds reeled.
No one could have imagined such a one-sided battle.
It wasn't Bogard suppressing Kai—
it was Kai, crushing Bogard!
Brutally.
Effortlessly.
Without giving him even a sliver of resistance.
"Could the gap between them really be this massive?"
"He's a Headquarters Lieutenant Commander!"
"And Kai… is four years old!"
"Four years old—and he just destroyed him. That's beyond monstrous!"
"Unbelievable…"
"Mr. Kai truly is a once-in-a-century genius!"
Under the Marine s' stunned, reverent gazes,
Kai descended slowly from the sky,
his boots tapping lightly against the air—
Geppo.
Each step emitted a sharp, crystalline pop, like glass shattering underfoot.
Then—he landed.
Boom.
Golden sunlight poured down over him, glinting off his skin.
The light traced the bold lines of muscle across his youthful frame—
veins crawling like cords beneath his skin—his physique sculpted, taut, and defined,
his back bearing the terrifying contours of a warrior's mark.
His presence alone was overwhelming—
feral, suffocating, demonic.
The aura that radiated from him was so intense
that the hundreds of Marine s nearby trembled uncontrollably,
their faces drained of color.
Even the residual pressure from his battle aura
was enough to leave hardened soldiers quaking.
Fresh from combat,
Kai's fighting spirit burned at its peak.
Battle-lust coiled around him like a living storm,
refusing to fade.
Every gaze—awed, reverent, fearful—locked upon him.
"D-did you guys see that?"
One Marine finally broke the silence again, his voice barely above a whisper.
"See what?" another asked.
The first sailor's eyes widened,
his face paling as he pointed toward Kai.
"From start to finish…"
"Mr. Kai didn't even get hit."
"He's completely unharmed!"
"Not a scratch on him!"
"Do you understand what that means?!"
The deck went quiet again.
Then, like a wave breaking,
shock rippled once more through every heart on board.
"H-how's that possible?!"
"He—he beat Lieutenant Commander Bogard to the ground in three punches,
and came out without a single injury?"
"Not even a bruise?!"
"Then… Bogard never even touched him?!"
Hundreds of eyes darted toward Kai.
And sure enough—
from head to toe, he was spotless.
The only blood staining him belonged to Bogard.
So yes—
the Lieutenant Commander hadn't even brushed the edge of his opponent's coat.
Three punches.
That was all it took.
"Are… are we sure this isn't a dream?"
"That's a Headquarters officer! How could it end this way?!"
The answer was obvious—
the gap was beyond comprehension.
Heaven and earth apart.
"Honestly…" one Marine muttered under his breath,
"Lieutenant Commander Bogard doesn't seem all that strong anymore."
"You're wrong," another replied immediately, shaking his head, eyes filled with awe.
"You're all mistaken. Bogard isn't weak."
"It's just that the enemy he faced was too terrifying."
"Mr. Kai…"
"He's simply too strong!"
"A monster—through and through!"
The statement struck home.
Every Marine present nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. It's not that Lieutenant Commander Bogard's weak—"
"It's that, next to Kai, anyone would look weak."
"That's all this is."
"Just an illusion created by absolute power."
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