Before his words had even finished, the rotten timber in Zaraki's hand came crashing down in a brutally straightforward chop.
There was no swordsmanship in that strike at all, only a savage release of every ounce of strength in his body.
The air detonated violently in that instant, and a visible, transparent shockwave burst from the tip of the rotten timber, roaring toward Treasure like an invisible beast.
Treasure's face changed at once.
Almost on instinct, he manipulated dozens of chains into a shield wall in front of himself.
It made no difference.
Before that tyrannical force, the so-called defense was shredded apart with ease, and the crisp sound of chains snapping rang out one after another without pause.
Treasure screamed as the tremendous force blasted him backward, sending him crashing straight through the wreckage of the already-tilting pirate ship behind him.
The half-destroyed hull let out another groan, then slowly split into two pieces and began to sink into the harbor.
Silence.
The only sound left on the dock was the water washing against broken wood.
The surviving Marines and pirates alike stood there with their mouths hanging open, unable to force out a single word.
Treasure, the same monster who had beaten them into helplessness, had just been smashed away by a piece of rotten wood!
"M-monster..."
Carina slumped to the ground and stared blankly at the figure in front of her, who was still holding the follow-through posture, her mind completely empty.
She had been the closest one just now.
She had heard it clearly—the sound of something in the boy's body tightening, like steel cables being drawn taut.
"So he really is Vice Admiral Garp's man... that old man's influence..." Commander Domon leaned against a reef and wiped the blood from his face with a bitter smile.
"That unreasonable fighting style... they're carved from the same mold."
His voice was not loud, but in the dead silence blanketing the battlefield, every word was heard clearly.
"G-Garp?"
From inside the wreckage, Treasure shoved away the broken planks pinning him down and crawled back out, looking utterly wretched.
A large section of his golden armor had caved in, and blood was running from the corner of his mouth.
The moment he heard that name, his pupils shrank violently.
That name was a nightmare to every pirate alive—the Marine Hero, Garp the Fist.
"No wonder... no wonder you're this hard to deal with." Treasure stared at Zaraki, and all the contempt in his eyes had already vanished, replaced by a blood-red ferocity.
"So you're the brat under that old monster's wing. Then killing you will make my name ring across all seas!"
With that roar, Treasure's body began to twist into a bizarre new form.
Countless chains burst out from beneath his skin, no longer lashing outward but wrapping tightly around him layer after layer like steel bandages.
In the blink of an eye, his whole body turned into a massive sphere of metal chains, leaving only a pair of bloodshot eyes exposed on the outside.
"Chain Absolute Fortress!"
Treasure's voice came from within the thick metal layers, muffled and heavy like thunder trapped underground.
"This is the defensive form I created for dealing with the monsters of the New World! Even cannons can't leave a scratch on it! Kid, no matter how strong you are, can you really smash solid steel apart?!"
Zoro, who had just arrived, came to a sudden stop the moment he saw it.
He looked at the monster shaped like a steel fortress, then at the rotten, splinter-shedding beam still in Zaraki's hand, and his face turned pale in an instant.
"Hey! You idiot!" Zoro shouted at Zaraki without thinking. "If you don't use a real sword, brute force alone won't—"
"Zoro."
Before he could finish, a low voice cut him off.
Koushirou had appeared behind him at some point and gently rested a hand on his shoulder.
"But, Master! He's only holding a rotten piece of wood—" Zoro's veins bulged with frustration.
"Too late."
Koushirou shook his head, his perpetually narrowed eyes opening just slightly as his gaze moved across the battlefield and settled on Treasure.
Sure enough, after hearing Zoro's warning, a smile spread across Treasure's face beneath the layers of chains.
"Iron Cutting? I see." Treasure laughed madly, the chains on his body tightening further with a grating metallic shriek as their sheen deepened once again.
"Thanks for the reminder, green-haired brat! I've pushed the hardness to its limit now! Come on, then! Let's see how you plan to break through my defense with that rotten stick!"
Zoro's face stiffened immediately.
He had made things worse!
That shout had only caused the enemy to strengthen his defense even further, sealing off whatever opening might have existed before.
His fingers tightened around his sword hilt until the knuckles turned white.
"Watch quietly."
Koushirou's voice remained gentle and calm.
"A true swordsman does not care whether he holds a famous blade or a withered branch."
At the center of the battlefield, Zaraki lowered his head and looked at the rotten timber in his hand, which had already cracked in several places from the strike earlier.
Then he lifted his eyes toward the steel turtle shell still taunting him.
"The Iron Cutting technique?"
Zaraki raised a brow.
He slowly lifted the rotten wood in his hand, the movement deliberate enough for everyone present to see every line of muscle on his arm bulging under the strain.
"Who told you I was going to use a technique?"
The corners of Zaraki's mouth slowly curved upward, and the smile that appeared there belonged neither to a Marine nor to a swordsman, but to a beast that had finally found the prey it wanted.
"I just think smashing a turtle shell this hard sounds very... satisfying!"
He casually twirled the rotten timber in his hand in a loose sword flourish, stirring up a heavy whoosh in the air.
Technique?
Zaraki looked at Zoro's anxious face, then at Treasure, who was hiding inside his chains and sneering through the gaps, and a faint smirk tugged at his lips.
The green-haired brat was right.
To cut through a steel lump like that with a rotten piece of wood, one really would have to learn Iron cutting.
The lingering effect of the Enlightenment Tags had already let him brush against that thin veil.
If he wanted, he could simply follow those lines and slice through, and the bastard in front of him would come apart as easily as tofu.
But that would be boring since that was a swordsman's way.
Not Kenpachi Zaraki's way!
The madman sleeping inside that template was already stirring deep in his soul like a starving ghost locked in a cage too long, drooling over the durable target in front of him.
What it wanted was not careful dissection.
It wanted impact.
It wanted shattering.
It wanted that primitive thrill of breaking something apart blow after blow!
"Hey, moss-head."
Zaraki slung the rotten timber over his shoulder while his other hand moved to the second button of his coat.
Zoro froze.
Treasure also froze, his bloodshot eyes narrowing behind the chains.
"Huh? You're not gonna use a real sword? Then what, are you going to tickle me to death with that stick? Don't make me laugh. Right now, I—"
"You talk too much."
Click.
The second button came undone.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
As Zaraki's fingers moved lower, the black coat that had fit him smoothly moments ago began to loosen in a way that felt strangely ominous.
There was no wind, yet the hem dropped with a dull, heavy sound as though it weighed a thousand pounds.
"This coat's too restrictive for a real fight."
Zaraki spoke like a man shrugging off work clothes at the end of the day, and in one swift motion he peeled the entire coat from his shoulders.
The last bit of fabric left his body.
Boom—!
A pressure that seemed to come from the soul itself crashed down across the battlefield.
Centered on Zaraki, the ground within ten meters sank half a foot without warning.
Tiny stones seemed to lose their weight for a single instant, floating against all reason before they were ground into dust.
A visible golden pillar of aura shot into the sky with a piercing shriek, like a golden dragon waking from sleep.
The air turned thick, it felt as though an invisible hand had wrapped around every throat present, making even the simple act of breathing into a luxury.
"W-what is this..."
Carina's legs gave out beneath her, and she dropped to the ground again.
Covering her mouth in terror, she stared at the young man standing inside that golden light.
A moment ago he had looked like nothing more than an ordinary person with a little strength.
Now, after taking off his coat, he looked like a beast that had just crawled straight out of hell!
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator