"So that's how it is..."
At the edge of the battlefield, Koushirou's usually half-closed eyes were now fully open, and the lenses of his glasses reflected the golden pillar soaring into the sky.
Looking at his stunned disciple, he explained with a bitter tone, "Zoro, that coat was a shackle."
"A shackle?" Zoro swallowed hard, his hand trembling uncontrollably around the hilt of his sword.
"He was suppressing himself." Koushirou drew in a deep breath, still visibly shaken by that violent aura.
"Partly so he could control his power with greater precision, and partly... perhaps because he think he is too strong and he found it boring. But now... the shackle has been moved."
The golden light slowly faded.
Zaraki stood there bare-chested, and the muscles that had looked merely solid before were now completely awakened, each one swollen and defined like steel forged in fire, giving off a frightening heat.
He rolled his neck, and his spine gave off a string of crisp popping sounds.
"Ah... that's better."
A long breath of white mist left Zaraki's mouth as his dark-gold eyes locked onto Treasure in the distance, and a savage grin spread across his face.
"Now then... let's go back to that little talk about relieving pressure."
Under that gaze, Treasure felt as if every drop of blood in his body had frozen solid.
It was the look of a predator standing at the top of the food chain and staring down at prey that had nowhere left to run.
"You're bluffing! You think taking off one piece of clothing means you can break my defen—"
Before Treasure could finish, the young man vanished from his sight.
In the next moment, a force violent enough to feel like it could crush his organs slammed into his chest.
There was no technique in it.
Zaraki gripped the rotten timber in both hands and swung it like a giant hammer, bringing down a blow wrapped in nearly tangible golden aura and smashing it directly into the thick shell of chains!
"Break for me!"
Crack!
The piece of rotten wood, which had soaked in seawater for who knew how long, burst in that instant with a hardness that rivaled a divine weapon.
Treasure felt a crushing shockwave tear through the chains and churn through his insides, and his entire body flew through the air like a ball smashed out of the field, whistling sharply before slamming into a massive reef a hundred meters away.
Boom!
The reef shattered, spraying debris in every direction.
Zaraki did not stop.
In a flash, he was already above Treasure's landing point again.
Treasure had only just started to push himself up when Zaraki smashed him straight back into the rubble with another heavy blow.
"This one is for your cheek!"
Before he could recover, the next strike landed.
"And that ugly armor of yours pisses me off!"
Zaraki seemed to have gotten addicted to the pounding, swinging one blow after another without pause.
"And this one? No reason. I just felt like it!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The impacts rained down without stop.
The chain fortress that had looked indestructible moments ago now resembled a tin can being beaten flat by a reckless child, each strike accompanied by Treasure's muffled groans and the harsh screech of deforming steel.
Chain Chain Fruit Power....
In front of overwhelming strength, it all looked like a joke!
"Damn it... damn it! Naomi! Are you just going to stand there and watch?!"
At last, finding a sliver of space between the pounding blows, Treasure screamed in desperation.
Blood frothed at the corners of his mouth.
His proud defense had not yet fully collapsed, but the constant violent tremors battering his body and rattling his brain had already driven him to the edge of madness.
Whoosh—!
The answer came as a sharp whistle tearing through the air.
It was an arrow.
From the shadow of the battlefield ruins, a woman in a revealing leather outfit stood with a drawn bow, her posture taut as she waited for the perfect opening.
Naomi, the sniper who had been hiding until that exact moment.
The armor-piercing arrow she released flew straight for the exposed gap beneath Zaraki's arm as he swung.
"Got you!"
Naomi's specially made arrow could punch through solid rock.
Zaraki did not even turn his head.
He only clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"What a buzzkill."
In that instant, the golden aura around his body withdrew all at once, and a pitch-black sheen gathered beneath his arm at the exact point where the arrow would land.
Armament Haki: Hardening.
The arrow that could break through rock struck that blackened patch of skin and gave off a crisp metallic clang, as though it had hit an impenetrable wall, before snapping cleanly in two and falling uselessly to the ground.
Not even a scratch was left behind.
The air fell silent again.
Treasure stared with wide eyes at the boy's body, and all that came from his throat was a useless gurgling sound.
Naomi was so horrified that her bow slipped from her hands, her face frozen in disbelief.
He had blocked an arrow with his bare body!
"Hey."
Zaraki slowly turned around as the black Armament Haki receded from beneath his arm, revealing a face that was clearly displeased.
He looked first at the snapped arrow on the ground, then at the stunned female archer in the distance, and finally lowered his eyes to Treasure, who was lying under his foot like a beaten dog.
"Two against one? Fine by me."
He tossed aside the rotten timber, which had already crumbled completely into splinters, and dusted off his hands.
His voice was so cold it felt like ice shards buried in winter wind.
"But having the fun interrupted right when it's getting good..." Zaraki's gaze sank, and a trace of impatience crept into it.
"That feeling pisses me off!"
He planted his foot on Treasure's deformed chainmail breastplate and leaned forward slightly.
The battle-hungry fervor belonging to Kenpachi Zaraki slowly cooled in his eyes, leaving behind nothing but contempt for the weak.
"So this is the level of the New World pirates? If this is all you've got..."
Zaraki shook his head and looked down at him as if he were staring at a pile of trash not even worth recycling.
"Then crawl back to your mommy and drink milk. Pirates life aren't for you!"
Those words cut deeper than fists.
They were naked humiliation.
Treasure lay there in the rubble, and after hearing them, the body that had been trembling in fear suddenly stiffened.
As a pirate who had crossed the Grand Line, as a treasure hunter whose name carried some weight on these seas, he could accept defeat.
He could even accept death.
What he could not accept was being looked down on by some brat from East Blue with eyes that treated him like garbage.
Humiliation rushed straight into his head and burned away the last of his reason.
The trembling born of that humiliation traveled through the dented armor and into the sole of Zaraki's foot.
It no longer felt like fear.
It felt more like a boiler shaking on the verge of bursting!
"Drink.... milk..."
Treasure forced the words out from between the rubble, his voice hoarse, like two rusted iron plates grinding together.
He jerked his head upward.
The face that once held a treasure hunter's pride was now swollen a dark purplish red from congestion, and the veins at his temples writhed violently like earthworms about to burst.
"When I was fighting for my life in that damned sea, you were probably still crying in your mother's arms!!"
The sound of chains, which had nearly died away, began to stir again.
Zaraki's brow lifted slightly.
He could feel it clearly now—inside the wrecked body beneath his foot, something called pride was burning like fuel, dragging out strength from a body that should already have collapsed.
'Good.'
A dog that only knew how to whimper and beg for mercy was not worth dirtying his hands to kill!
If it still wanted to bite, then it was at least worth playing with.
"That's more like it."
Zaraki did not press down any harder.
Instead, he lifted his foot on his own and even took half a step back, leaving some room for Treasure to stand.