However
Compared to the rising panic among his subordinates, Capone Bege remained unnervingly calm.
His sharp eyes tracked the battlefield, observing the distortion field with careful calculation. The spatial interference had not vanished. That meant Rowan's true body was still within range.
Bege turned slightly.
"Vito."
A slender young man with a sharp grin stepped forward at once.
"Leave it to me, Godfather."
This was Vito, one of Bege's trusted officers. With theatrical flair, he drew two ornate muskets from his waist custom weapons modified far beyond standard flintlocks.
Without hesitation, he fired.
The shots were different.
The bullets did not follow ordinary ballistic arcs. They dispersed unpredictably, scattering across angles designed to flush out movement rather than target a single body.
One of those rounds streaked directly toward Rowan's true position.
Rowan's instincts sharpened instantly.
Instead of bending its trajectory with spatial distortion, he moved.
A sharp sidestep.
The bullet grazed past his waist.
In that split second, he understood.
Seastone.
Kairoseki ammunition.
On the seas, nothing restrained Devil Fruit users more absolutely. Even seawater merely sapped strength through submersion. Seastone, however, emitted the same wavelength as the sea itself. Upon contact, it suppressed a user's abilities at the point of impact and drained physical stamina simultaneously.
For Paramecia users like Rowan, the danger was immediate. His Warp-Warp Fruit required precise spatial control emanating from his body. If Seastone struck him directly, that portion of space could not be distorted.
His fifteen-meter field would collapse locally.
The distortion around him still refracted light, creating layered visual displacement. But when he dodged, the refracted phantom shifted accordingly. Maintaining desynchronization between illusion and body was possible yet wasteful.
Bege saw it.
A slow smile curled beneath the cigar.
"Did you think I'd face a Devil Fruit user without preparation?"
Rowan's expression did not change.
"Seastone weapons," he said calmly. "You came prepared."
A beat passed.
"But preparation alone doesn't guarantee victory."
Even with Seastone bullets, they still had to land a hit.
And Rowan had no intention of allowing that.
The Counterattack
The refracted image stepped forward
Then vanished in a blur.
Rowan accelerated.
His advanced physical enhancement transformed the battlefield. Even without investing proficiency into Rokushiki, the explosive force in his legs now approached the threshold required for Soru, one of the Six Powers techniques used by elite agents of the World Government.
He did not execute formal Soru steps.
He did not need to.
Raw acceleration alone was enough.
In an instant, he breached the gun line.
Steel flashed.
Rowan's movements were efficient, ruthless. Each strike targeted joints, throats, ribs disabling or killing in single exchanges. He did not linger. He did not overcommit.
Spatial distortion layered over physical speed rendered him nearly impossible to track.
Screams erupted.
Bodies twisted under overwhelming force.
To the surrounding gang members, it felt as though the air itself had turned hostile. Their gunfire struck warped pockets of space while Rowan carved through their formation like a storm.
"Damn it!"
Bege's composure finally cracked slightly.
He had anticipated difficulty.
He had not anticipated massacre.
"Cease fire! Pull back!"
His voice cut through the chaos.
"Vito! Laki! Hold him!"
From opposite flanks, two figures surged forward.
Vito reloaded swiftly, but this time he discarded firearms. At his side, another officer Laki joined him.
Both drew long rods of dull gray metal.
Unlike steel, their surfaces lacked polish.
Seastone rods.
Crafting Seastone into blades was rare and expensive. Rods were simpler. When striking a Devil Fruit user, they functioned like both weapon and restraint inflicting impact while suppressing ability.
"Give it up!" Vito barked.
"You're not the first ability user we've taken down!" Laki added.
They split left and right, coordinating their approach.
Without cannon fire deafening the field, they could now track Rowan by sound and instinct.
Rowan tilted his head slightly, eyeing the rods.
"Seastone suppresses ability users," he said calmly. "But it does not make the wielder stronger."
He drew his blade.
The steel gleamed.
Not one of the Twelve Supreme Grade swords.
Not even among the Twenty-One Great Grade.
But a finely forged blade nonetheless balanced and deadly.
Rowan stepped forward and swung.
The slash was clean.
No exaggerated theatrics.
Just controlled power.
Air pressure condensed along the blade's path and erupted outward in a compressed arc a rudimentary flying slash born not of refined swordsmanship, but of overwhelming physical force.
Vito and Laki could not see the attack clearly.
But they felt it.
A bone-deep chill ran through them. Instinct screamed danger.
They crossed their Seastone rods defensively.
Impact.
The air detonated.
A thunderous shockwave exploded outward, tearing dust from the ground. The Seastone rods held the material did not fracture.
But the force behind the strike transferred directly into their bodies.
Both men were hurled backward three to four meters, boots carving trenches into stone.
Their arms went numb instantly.
Breathing staggered.
They stared at each other in shock.
Seastone could nullify Devil Fruit effects.
It could not erase kinetic force.
It could not negate raw physical strength.
Rowan lowered his blade.
The distortion field shimmered faintly around him.
A man who combined Devil Fruit spatial manipulation with overwhelming physical combat prowess
That was the true danger.
Bege watched from a distance.
His jaw tightened.
He had contingencies for pure swordsmen overwhelm them with cannon fire.
He had contingencies for pure ability users neutralize them with Seastone.
But Rowan was neither extreme.
He was both.
An opponent whose bounty forty million Berries no longer reflected his threat level.
Even within the Grand Line, such a fighter would not go unnoticed.
Smoke drifted between them.
Bege exhaled slowly.
"…The operation has failed."
For the first time since the battle began, the Godfather of the West Blue acknowledged a truth he rarely entertained
Ghost Hand Rowan had overturned the board.