A harsh rustling sound spread through the air.
Steel-Bone Kong and Sengoku—closest to Rocks' crater—both felt their hearts sink. They whipped around at the same time.
In an instant—
their eyes bulged.
They shouted in alarm, almost in unison:
"No!!"
Because in their line of sight…
they saw several black vines.
And those vines were way too familiar.
They were the deadly weapons from Romu's "Flower-Tree World"—the same thorns that had taken the lives of thousands of Marines and World Government fighters.
But that made no sense.
Romu was supposed to be dead—so the vines should've stopped moving long ago.
So why were they moving again?
There was only one answer.
Romu wasn't dead. He was still alive.
Garp Makes It Worse (Loudly)
Their violent reaction drew Garp's attention. He glanced at Kaido—already unconscious—and casually tossed him aside before striding over.
"What's going on?" Garp asked.
Sengoku lowered his voice. He was weak, yes—but more importantly, he didn't want pirates hearing the news and regaining their will to fight.
"Romu is still alive."
But Sengoku forgot one thing:
Garp's brain is a straight line.
"WHAT?!"
"Romu's still alive?!"
His roar blasted across God Valley.
Sengoku slapped a hand over his face.
Kong's already-dark expression somehow got even darker.
Garp finally realized what he'd done and scratched his head awkwardly.
Sengoku's Real Fear: Romu Absorbing Rocks
Unlike Sengoku and Kong, Garp didn't panic.
"So what? Alive is alive," he said. "After taking your hit, he can't have any fight left. Same as Rocks—just finish him off."
Kong covered his face too.
"You explain it to this idiot. I'm going down to deal with the vines."
He moved immediately.
Sengoku shouted after him, voice tight:
"Hurry! If you can't make it—destroy Rocks' body!"
"Understood!" Kong replied from inside the crater.
Garp repeated, confused:
"Destroy Rocks' body?"
Then his brain finally clicked—Romu's ability.
Sengoku's expression turned completely grim.
"This monster has that trick."
He said it with absolute seriousness:
"Romu's fruit can absorb life energy in a terrifying way."
"If he absorbs Rocks… with that monster's physique and vitality, Romu's injuries will recover instantly—and his strength will rise again."
He glanced toward the distant battlefield—Whitebeard and Golden Lion still fighting, barely holding on.
"If Romu recovers and powers up… for us, it becomes another hard battle."
Meanwhile: Whitebeard & Shiki Hear the Name "Romu"
Blades and axes crashed.
Shiki's swords Oto and Kogarashi had already clashed with Gaban's twin axes multiple times.
A spray of blood followed.
Shiki's left arm—already mangled—opened again, a deep axe-cut showing bone.
"Damn it!" Shiki cursed, teeth grinding.
Whitebeard tried to cover him, but fatigue was crushing him. He was moving slower, breathing heavier, and every tremor strike was draining what little he had left.
"Shiki!"
Whitebeard roared.
"Get up! Didn't you hear? Romu's still alive!"
"Aren't you still trying to settle the score with him?!"
Shiki—half-buried in broken rock—panted like a ruptured bellows, voice hoarse but pride intact.
"What the hell are you shouting for?!"
"If that brat Romu isn't dead… then I'm sure as hell not dying first!"
He tried to lift his swords—
and realized they felt like mountains.
His arms wouldn't obey.
So Shiki did something insane.
He spat out his cigar, ripped cloth strips from his sleeve with his teeth, and tied both great swords onto his arms.
His eyes burned red.
"I—Shiki—"
"Will never lose to Romu again!"
He charged Zef with the fury of a wounded lion—
BOOM!
A monstrous impact.
Shiki was blasted back.
This time…
he didn't get up.
Whitebeard tried to move—
and Zef punished the opening with a brutal strike.
Bones cracked.
Whitebeard was sent flying, buried under shattered rock.
No sympathy in Zef's eyes.
He was a Marine.
They were pirates.
That was the whole math.
Deep Underground: Romu's "Energy Seed" State
Down in the silence—forty or fifty meters beneath the surface—
everything was still.
No battle sounds.
No screams.
Only darkness.
And a single "wooden bud" pulsed with faint green light—brightening, dimming… brightening again.
When it glowed, you could see a blurry human silhouette inside.
It was Romu.
His eyes were shut. His face was blank.
But below his head—
his entire body was impaled with black thorn-vines, immobilized.
He wasn't dead.
He had entered a strange state.
What happened was this:
The instant Romu's vines pierced Rocks' body, Rocks' terrifying life-force began flooding into Romu.
But after the absorption reached a certain threshold…
it didn't continue like before.
The energy concentration became so dense—
it solidified.
Like liquid turning into stone.
It formed a "wood-bud" cocoon around him, freezing his body in place.
Then—
Snap.
Romu's eyes opened.
He stared at the energy-bud sealing him inside and felt it.
The power.
Too much.
So much that his old understanding of "strong" felt childish.
He exhaled slowly, awed even as he stayed calm.
"Too strong…"
His internal energy now felt like an endless ocean—surging, roaring, overflowing.
And his mouth curved.
"And… awakening isn't even a question now."
"With this physique… the True Thousand Hands should be possible."
But then his gaze turned cold.
Because his body might be trapped—
but his awareness wasn't.
He could sense everything happening above.
Whitebeard. Shiki. Kaido.
His squad.
Their suffering.
He tightened his focus, voice low in the darkness:
"Faster."
"Faster…"
Kong Arrives Too Late
Back inside Rocks' crater, Kong's face was ugly.
"Damn it."
"Too late."
Rocks' body had already been drained—black thorns stuck everywhere.
The once-bulging muscle had withered into a lifeless husk.
But Kong didn't panic.
Even if Romu absorbed Rocks and reached Rocks' level…
with the current forces on the field, they could still kill him again.
He grabbed the corpse, launched upward, and returned to the surface.
Thud.
Rocks' dried body hit the ground in front of Garp and Sengoku.
"Too late," Kong said heavily.
"That monster Romu already sucked Rocks dry."
Garp casually nudged the corpse with his foot.
"Good. No need to worry about Rocks having some hidden trick."
Sengoku nodded, grim but steady.
"Now we only have to deal with Romu."
The Three Walk Toward Romu's Crater
Kong.
Garp.
Sengoku.
The three of them began walking side by side toward Romu's crater.
Roger—nearby—saw their faces and understood instantly.
Rocks was finished.
Romu was the next problem.
He muttered under his breath:
"Romu…"
At first, Roger didn't want Romu to die.
But now that Romu had absorbed Rocks…
Roger couldn't ignore what that might mean.
He watched, uncertain.
"Let's see…"
Kaido Tries to Stand… and Gets Shut Down
A breeze passed.
Kaido—still dazed—snapped awake.
"Damn it!"
"I, Kaido, am going to die fighting you bastards!"
The massive azure dragon body forced itself up again.
But before he could finish roaring—
the three were already in front of him.
Their pressure alone made the air feel heavy.
Kaido's current state was pure stubbornness—he was standing on rage, not strength.
Garp casually threw a punch.
A simple punch.
But it carried a terrifying surge of power.
Kaido's body was smashed upward, soaring almost straight into the air with a pained howl.
"ROMU—!"
Kaido screamed.
And then—
a light, lazy voice drifted into his ears:
"Who are you calling for like you're summoning a ghost?"
Kaido's dragon eyes widened until they were nearly round.
Before his mind could even catch up—
the ground beneath them shuddered violently.
A deep rumble.
Then—
BOOM!!
The earth exploded in a hundred-meter radius.
A gigantic black pillar shot upward—
rising to Kaido's height in an instant.
A mountain-sized fist slowly opened in midair, blood dripping from its palm.
It was an arm.
Romu's wooden giant arm.
Romu had awakened.
Romu was back.
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