Above the ruined streets hung a vast iron sky—a dome forged from countless pieces of metal suspended in midair.
Below it, gray mist laced with ghostly green flames drifted along the ground like creeping fog.
Two figures faced each other in the shattered street.
One wore a blood-red cloak.
The other, a pitch-black long coat.
Eustass Kid and Davy, eye to eye.
Behind Davy, the defeated fighters and the townsfolk who hadn't managed to escape huddled together, retreating as far as they could.
Kid made no move to stop them.
As long as he killed the hunter standing before him, the rest were nothing but meat on the chopping block.
Only the old man remained trapped—caught in the grip of a giant metal hand.
At least the Barrier-Barrier Fruit kept him from being crushed outright.
Kid's expression was grave.
He had read reports about Davy—stories he once dismissed as exaggerated fearmongering.
Now he realized they hadn't been exaggerated enough.
After all, this boy had killed Killer.
The thought made his forehead veins bulge. Rage flared within him—but he bit it down with force.
He could not afford to let emotion dictate the battle.
With a teeth-grinding shriek of metal, the giant hand gripping Fort detached, reshaping itself into a tight ring around the old man's neck and torso.
Kid formed another metal arm beside him and sneered:
"So that barrier's your power? Paramecia type, huh?
My abilities don't drain stamina. I can attack endlessly just by using magnetism.
How long can you protect him?"
It sounded like he was revealing a weakness.
What he was actually doing was applying pressure.
Kid's judgment was sharp:
Unlike his magnetic rings that contracted on their own, Davy's barrier required constant control and burned through soul-power.
Even if Davy didn't need stamina to activate his abilities, the soul was still a resource—and the barrier could not split into multiple shields. It was one construct only.
When Davy killed Bartolomeo, the original user, that man hadn't yet learned to divide the barrier.
Which meant Kid, with almost no effort, was forcing Davy to bleed energy.
This is why I hate fighting in the middle of a city…
Davy's eyes flicked briefly to the oppressive iron sky overhead.
He sighed inwardly.
No choice. I'll have to stop conserving soul energy.
In silence, Silence—his spirit puppet infused with the Silent-Silent Fruit—manifested beside Fort.
A blade flashed.
The metallic ring trapping the old man split open.
Kid's pupils shrank. He reacted instantly, thrusting out a hand to unleash another magnetic strike.
But Davy was already there.
He launched a Rankyaku—a slicing wind blade—straight at Kid's face, forcing him to defend while Davy used Soru to sprint toward Fort.
Saving the old man came first.
Only then could he free up the Barrier-Barrier Fruit and stop the passive drain on his soul.
Clang!
Sparks flew as Silence—wielding Red Princess infused with the Smooth-Smooth Fruit—sliced clean through the metal ring.
At the same time, the barrier reshaped itself along the cut, peeling apart the restraint perfectly.
Kid cursed and hurled a swarm of blades toward Davy.
Magnified by magnetism, they tore through the air like a storm of death.
Davy slapped a soul-flame into his chest—
And exploded into pieces.
"Huh? That easy?"
Kid stared at the chunks of flesh and cloth falling through the air, confusion flickering across his face.
But then—
He realized something was wrong.
Davy's severed legs were still running—perfectly balanced, perfectly in stride.
Not the desperate twitching of a dying body… but the steady rhythm of forward motion.
The dismembered pieces moved faster than the legs, streaking toward Fort like projectiles.
With a wet, unnatural slither, the pieces reassembled—
And a whole, unharmed Davy appeared in front of the old man.
His hands turned pitch-black with Armament Haki. He grabbed the metal hand, veins bulging.
"Open."
With a sickening metallic groan, the metal bent apart.
Davy's face flushed red with the exertion.
Noticing Fort still frozen in shock, he kicked the old man bodily away.
BOOM!
The moment he let go, the metal snapped back on itself, flattening into a twisted disc bristling with spikes.
"Go!"
The old man scrambled backward on hands and feet until sense returned to him.
He glanced at the boy now standing between him and death.
For a moment, he felt his heart twist.
He had hated the one who killed Killer—blamed him for everything.
Even felt that if anything happened to his grandson, this youth would share responsibility.
But what fault did the boy really have?
He had killed a pirate—nothing more.
The ones slaughtering innocents were pirates.
How could the blame fall on the one who stopped them?
There was no such logic.
"…Thank you. And I'm sorry."
Fort whispered, then ran.
Even after he'd gone far, the barrier protecting him still shimmered around him.
Meanwhile—
Kid stopped attacking.
He crossed his arms, as if he were finally ready to "talk."
"You've used multiple Devil Fruit abilities."
Davy said nothing.
Kid continued anyway.
"That's impossible—one person can only eat one fruit."
"So all your powers must come from one ability."
"That green fire—
it summons puppets,
and the puppets use different fruits."
"You're a soul-type Devil Fruit user, aren't you?"
Still, Davy made no reply.
Kid grinned.
He hadn't been trying to get answers—just to confirm his own deductions by watching Davy's reactions.
He was announcing that he had already seen through his opponent.
"You don't need to tell me.
I don't care what powers a dead man has."
The words had barely left his mouth before Kid vanished.
Only Observation Haki allowed Davy to sense him.
So fast!
Kid was far quicker than Killer—
No, quicker even than Davy expected of the highest-bounty Supernova.
His raw physique, boosted by magnetic force, made him move like a teleporting beast.
If Davy didn't have trained Observation, Kid wouldn't even register as a blur.
The last time he faced someone this fast…
Was Garp.
"Magnetic… STRING!"
Kid roared.
A massive metal arm—tens of meters long—came crashing down with combined magnetic force and sheer weight.
To Davy, it felt like a collapsing skyscraper.
No clever tricks.
No fancy skills.
Just overwhelming, crushing force.
So this is the man with the highest Supernova bounty…
He's even stronger than I expected.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The impact shook the world.
Air blasted outward, uprooting trees and obliterating buildings.
The shockwave rolled across the town like an earthquake.
Even people far on the opposite side of the island felt the ground tremble beneath them.
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