Kenshiro immediately took his stance.
He spread his legs slightly, lowered his center of gravity, and firmly planted his feet against the stone floor. Despite the nine consecutive rounds he had just endured, Nuts' death, and the numerous wounds now covering his body, his eyes never left the General for even a second.
Armament Haki spread along his forearms all the way to his fists, coating his skin in gleaming black.
Across from him, the General remained perfectly still for several seconds.
Then it charged.
The difference between it and the previous Heartless was immediately obvious.
The General didn't simply swing its enormous greatsword and rely on brute strength. From its very first movement, the blade swept through a precise arc designed to force Kenshiro to guard his left side before immediately reversing direction.
Kenshiro raised his forearm.
CLANG!
The impact echoed throughout the arena.
The black-and-purple blade struck directly against his Armament Haki, sending a shower of sparks bursting between the two fighters.
Kenshiro slid back half a step.
The General immediately followed up.
A second strike.
A third.
Then four more in almost uninterrupted succession.
The greatsword quickly became difficult to follow with the naked eye. Despite the size of its weapon and the apparent weight of its armor, the Heartless wielded it with impressive speed.
Slash, thrust, rising strike, full-body spin—each movement naturally flowed into the next, turning its offensive into a veritable storm of blades.
Kenshiro didn't even attempt to dodge the first attacks.
He blocked them directly with his arms.
Every collision between steel and Haki produced a deafening metallic crash. Rather than trying to stop the General's power head-on, Kenshiro used his forearms to deflect the blade, clearly waiting for an opportunity to slip inside the greatsword's reach.
I carefully followed their movements.
"It's really good..."
Hades turned toward me.
"Kenshiro?"
"The General."
I wasn't joking in the slightest.
Its swordsmanship was far from negligible. It knew how to control distance, change the angle of its attacks, and, most importantly, exploit the tremendous reach provided by its weapon.
It wasn't simply swinging wildly like most ordinary Heartless.
"I think it could give Zoro a good fight."
Hades immediately gave me an interested smile.
"Oh?"
"I didn't say it would win. Zoro at least knows the basics of Observation Haki, which would give him a significant advantage against it. But purely in terms of swordsmanship and offensive pressure..."
The General drove Kenshiro back several meters with another relentless series of strikes.
"...yeah. It could genuinely keep him busy."
That realization made Kenshiro's performance all the more interesting.
Because despite his almost complete lack of Observation Haki, he was holding his ground.
A blade grazed his shoulder and opened a shallow cut.
Another brushed against his thigh.
Kenshiro endured both without flinching.
The General then attempted to exploit the opening and brought its greatsword down vertically.
Kenshiro stepped aside.
BOOM!
The blade shattered the stone.
The pirate immediately moved inside its guard, but the red claws on the General's free hand swept through the space in front of it.
Kenshiro was forced to throw himself backward.
"It even uses its second hand," I remarked.
The General had effectively turned what should normally have been the greatest weakness of an enormous greatsword—its vulnerability at extremely close range—into a trap.
Anyone who managed to get past its blade would find themselves facing the long claws of its other gauntlet.
Kenshiro understood that.
The battle continued like this through several particularly fast exchanges.
The General controlled the distance.
Kenshiro controlled close combat.
Neither of them could truly keep the other within the range where they were most dangerous.
Then Kenshiro slightly changed the way he fought.
Instead of retreating from another horizontal strike, he moved forward.
The greatsword came straight toward his face.
Kenshiro abruptly dropped his entire body.
The blade passed only a few centimeters above his hair.
The General immediately reacted by thrusting its clawed hand forward.
But Kenshiro was already too close.
His right foot dug into the stone.
His legs tensed.
His hips rotated.
And all the power in his body surged upward into his arm.
Armament Haki completely coated his fist.
"HAAAH!"
The uppercut launched.
BOOOOM!
Kenshiro's fist struck the General directly beneath its helmet.
The sheer force of the impact nearly lifted the Heartless off the ground.
For a fraction of a second, nothing seemed to happen.
Then a crack spread across the neck of its armor.
The General's head was torn clean off.
It spun several times through the air, its two yellow eyes still glowing, before crashing heavily to the ground several meters away.
The body remained standing.
One second.
Two seconds.
The enormous greatsword finally slipped from its hand and crashed against the ground.
Then the General toppled backward with a metallic roar before dissolving into black smoke, releasing a pink heart that floated into the air.
Silence fell over the Coliseum.
Kenshiro remained in his finishing stance, his fist still raised.
He was breathing heavily.
Very heavily.
The black Haki coating his arm gradually faded away, revealing skin covered in bruises and small cuts. Several new gashes marked his chest. A thin trail of blood ran down from his shoulder, and his thigh had been struck as well.
And yet, none of his injuries seemed truly serious.
After ten rounds.
After losing his partner.
After facing a Heartless skilled enough with a sword that I could seriously imagine it putting up an interesting fight against Zoro...
Kenshiro was still standing.
I smiled slightly.
"That's why he's worth one hundred and twenty million."
This time, his bounty made perfect sense to me.
Kenshiro certainly wasn't one of the monsters Kaido kept at the top of his crew. He barely knew how to use Observation Haki, and his Armament Haki had clearly been depleted by ten consecutive battles.
But he had just reminded everyone of something the first tournament hadn't necessarily allowed us to properly measure.
He was a pirate who had crossed the Grand Line.
A man who had reached the New World.
And, above all, someone who had been deemed competent enough to serve under an Emperor.
Kenshiro finally lowered his fist and stared at the spot where the General's decapitated body had just dissolved.
He remained silent for several seconds.
His victorious expression gradually disappeared as he turned his head toward the part of the arena where Nuts had died only a few minutes earlier.
Then he spat a little blood to the side.
"I did it, Nuts."
There was no real joy in his voice.
He had won.
But he had won alone.
Without saying anything, I left my place and descended into the arena.
Kenshiro watched me approach without showing the slightest hostility.
I simply extended one hand toward him.
"Cure."
A soft light immediately enveloped his body.
The numerous cuts left by the General's greatsword closed within seconds. His bruises disappeared, damaged muscles returned to normal, and even the injuries accumulated throughout the previous rounds gradually faded away.
However, I deliberately left the old scars covering his chest untouched.
They weren't wounds that needed healing.
They were part of him, and they told his story.
Kenshiro examined his arms in surprise before clenching his fists several times.
"Not bad..."
"I'm starting to think that's your favorite expression."
A faint smile crossed his face.
I then looked toward the place where Nuts had fallen.
"The other participant... Nuts. Had he been your companion for long?"
The smile disappeared.
"He was my captain."
I raised my eyebrows slightly.
Kenshiro looked down at the ground.
"Before we entered the New World, he was the one who commanded our crew. There weren't many of us, but he was the one who got us that far."
He placed a hand over one of the old Shigan scars on his chest.
"We lost almost everyone else during the journey. By the end, there were practically only the two of us left."
"And then you joined Kaido."
Kenshiro nodded.
"Nuts had fallen behind when it came to Haki. He could use some basic Armament, but nothing solid enough for the New World. His Fruit made up for a lot of it. His speed, his agility, his ability to move across almost any surface..."
His gaze settled on me.
"He's the reason we managed to attract the Beasts Pirates' attention. His Fruit is the reason both of us were accepted into Kaido-sama's crew."
I finally understood why Kenshiro had never tried to abandon Nuts despite the obvious difference between their levels.
Nuts hadn't been a partner assigned to him for the tournament.
He was the man Kenshiro had followed long before either of them became one of Kaido's pirates.
"I see."
I reached toward my shadow.
Something immediately stirred within it.
Kenshiro frowned.
The enormous squirrel Heartless I had collected after the ninth round slowly emerged from the darkness. Standing two meters tall, it was considerably larger than Nuts had been in human form. Its claws dug slightly into the stone while its gigantic red-and-black tail swayed behind it.
Kenshiro tensed.
"What the..."
The Heartless turned its head.
Its eyes met the pirate's.
It remained perfectly still for a second.
Then, without receiving the slightest command from me, it walked toward Kenshiro.
"Nuts?"
The creature stopped in front of him.
Kenshiro slowly extended a hand.
The Heartless lowered its head slightly and rested it against his palm.
The pirate stopped breathing for a second.
Even Hades didn't make a comment.
I allowed my power to take effect, and the shadow beneath Kenshiro's feet expanded. The Heartless gradually sank into it until it disappeared completely.
Kenshiro immediately looked down.
"What did you do?"
"I entrusted him to you."
His head snapped back up toward me.
"That Heartless isn't simply a copy of his Devil Fruit. When Nuts died, his heart and his power both played a part in its birth. What you just saw is what they became together."
Kenshiro remained silent.
"I can't bring Nuts back the way he was. He's dead. But that Heartless was born from him. It recognized you and, apparently, it would rather stay with you than with me."
An emotion that was difficult to identify crossed Kenshiro's face.
I smiled at him.
"So keep moving forward together."
He looked down at his shadow again.
"Keep getting stronger, Kenshiro. And this time, become strong enough to protect your companion when he comes back out."
I started walking away.
"Sora."
I stopped.
Kenshiro inclined his head slightly.
"Thank you."
I simply acknowledged him with a nod before returning to Hades.
The god of the Underworld watched me approach.
"You do realize you've just given the entire world yet another reason to ask questions about you?"
I looked toward the cameras.
"I'm starting to get used to it."
"Good! Because now comes my favorite part. The reward!"
Hades practically leapt into the center of the arena.
"Kenshiro! Come here!"
The pirate obeyed.
A light appeared between Hades' hands, and two imposing bronze bracers materialized. Their appearance was surprisingly simple compared to the divine artifacts handed out during the previous tournament. They were massive, covered in signs of wear, and clearly designed to withstand monstrous impacts rather than serve as decoration.
Hades held them up.
"Hercules' first bracers!"
Even Zeus immediately turned his head.
"You kept those?"
Hades shrugged.
"I have a lot of storage space."
He handed the two bracers to Kenshiro.
"They date back to the time before Hercules regained his divinity. These little beauties enhance their wearer's physical strength and, more importantly, their endurance."
Kenshiro slipped the bracers onto his forearms.
His eyes widened almost immediately.
He clenched his fist.
"I feel... lighter."
"It's more like everything else is going to feel lighter. Even a perfectly ordinary human could lift around a ton with those bracers. So with your natural strength and your Haki..."
Kenshiro's smile became enormous.
"Not bad."
Hades fell silent.
I remained silent.
Zeus ran a hand over his face.
Then Hades pointed a finger at Kenshiro.
"Find a second expression!"
For the first time since Nuts' death, Kenshiro burst out laughing.
The broadcast, meanwhile, had already made an impact across the entire world.
On Onigashima, several members of the Beasts Pirates had followed the fight around an enormous screen-equipped Den Den Mushi. Kaido, seated in front of a respectable amount of alcohol, burst into thunderous laughter when Kenshiro decapitated the General.
"Worororo! He did it!"
Queen watched the screen with considerably more interest.
"One hundred and twenty million, and he makes it all the way through on his first attempt... Maybe we didn't send weak enough guys."
"That's the whole point, idiot!" Kaido replied. "To see which ones can handle it!"
When Nuts died, the atmosphere had briefly changed.
Kaido hadn't reacted much to the death itself—his men knew perfectly well what they had signed up for—but when the squirrel Heartless appeared and was then entrusted to Kenshiro, he leaned slightly forward.
"So Sora really can do that... Interesting."
Queen adjusted his glasses.
"If the Heartless genuinely retains some of the dead person's abilities, then this is much more interesting than we expected."
Kaido grinned as he watched Kenshiro receive the bracers.
"And my men can come back stronger than when they left."
He grabbed his gourd.
"We'll send five more men next month. No important officers. I want to see how far this tournament can push the others."
On Whole Cake Island, Big Mom was watching the same scene surrounded by several of her children.
"Mamamamama!"
Her laughter echoed through the room when Hercules' bracers were revealed.
"One ton for an ordinary man?"
Perospero studied the screen carefully.
"And probably much more for someone who already possesses superhuman strength. The rewards seem to be tailored to the winners, Mama."
Big Mom momentarily stopped laughing.
"Then our five recruits had better do better."
The pirates from her crew waiting for their turn on Kyuka obviously didn't hear that remark.
That was probably better for their peace of mind.
Aboard the Moby Dick, Whitebeard had also been watching part of the broadcast.
Several commanders surrounded the screen while Edward Newgate watched Kenshiro contemplate his new companion.
"Gurararara..."
Marco crossed his arms.
"So Kaido and Big Mom really have started using the Coliseum as a proving ground."
Whitebeard didn't answer immediately.
His attention was drawn more to the Heartless born from Nuts than to the bracers.
"That kid is playing with dangerous things."
Marco turned his head.
"Sora?"
"The dead are normally supposed to stay with the dead."
He took a drink.
"But he didn't lie to the pirate. He didn't give him his friend back."
A smile appeared beneath his mustache.
"He only gave him something that'll help him keep moving forward. But I wouldn't have my sons participate in that tournament. Or rather, I wouldn't force them to."
On the Red Force, Shanks' reaction was considerably less solemn.
"HAHAHA! A squirrel!"
Benn Beckman sighed beside him.
"That's really what you took away from all this?"
"It was two meters tall!"
"Two Emperors are now officially using the tournament, a pirate just received an artifact capable of greatly increasing his strength, and Sora can entrust Heartless born from the dead to other people."
Shanks took a drink.
"Yeah, but the squirrel was impressive."
Beckman closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"Why do I even bother?"
Shanks' smile faded slightly, however, as he looked at the images of Kenshiro and his shadow.
"Kaido's going to like this system."
"That's exactly the problem."
"Maybe."
Shanks stared at the screen.
"Or maybe it'll keep Kaido busy with something that doesn't involve starting a war. If that's the case, I'm willing to give Sora the benefit of the doubt."
At Marine Headquarters, no one was laughing.
The meeting room was almost completely silent as the images from the Coliseum continued to be broadcast.
Sengoku stood in front of the screen alongside Tsuru. Several senior officers were present, including Akainu, who seemed to grow more irritated with every new piece of information.
"Two Emperors," Sakazuki finally said. "He's now openly providing a training ground for two Emperors."
Tsuru calmly corrected him.
"He's providing a tournament their men are allowed to participate in. That isn't exactly the same thing."
Akainu turned his head toward her.
"They go in at one level and come out with divine artifacts that enhance their abilities. As far as I'm concerned, the difference is purely semantic."
Sengoku remained silent.
He knew better than most of the people in the room just how drastically Sora—or rather, the mysterious individual behind that name—could overturn situations that should have been impossible.
One of the vice admirals then pointed toward the screen.
"And the Heartless?"
The room immediately fell silent again.
Tsuru clasped her hands together.
"That is probably the most concerning information to come out of this broadcast."
"He takes the abilities of the dead. Devil Fruit users are nothing more than future powers for him," one officer replied.
"We don't know exactly what he takes," Sengoku corrected him. "Don't turn an observation into a certainty."
His tone was sharp.
"We saw a Zoan user die. A Heartless appeared with characteristics corresponding to his Fruit. Sora claims that it is a fusion between his companion and his power. That is all we know."
Tsuru gave him a brief look of approval.
Akainu, meanwhile, stared at the screen.
"That's more than enough."
He slammed one hand down on the table.
"If this phenomenon works with far more powerful pirates, then every death around that man could potentially strengthen his army. And now he can even distribute those creatures to other pirates."
No one could truly dispute that conclusion.
Sengoku watched Kenshiro thank Sora one last time.
"Then we keep watching."
Akainu frowned.
"That's it?"
"For now, yes. Kaido and Big Mom have placed Kyuka under their protection. Attacking the island to interrupt a tournament would mean risking a simultaneous confrontation with two Emperors without even knowing exactly what we're trying to prevent."
Tsuru calmly added:
"And more importantly, we keep watching. Every broadcast gives us free intelligence on Sora, Hades, their creatures, their rewards, and now even some of the Emperors' fighters. It would be foolish to eliminate that source of information ourselves."
Sakazuki clenched his teeth.
Everything in his expression showed just how much he hated that conclusion. From his perspective, calmly watching pirates fight, grow stronger, and walk away with artifacts capable of significantly increasing their power looked far too much like passivity.
Yet even he couldn't ignore the problem Kyuka presented.
With Kaido's and Big Mom's flags now flying over the island, direct intervention risked turning a simple military operation into a major incident involving two Emperors.
"So what?" he finally growled. "We just sit here and watch these criminals grow stronger tournament after tournament?"
"I might have a better idea."
Every head turned toward the entrance.
Garp had just walked into the meeting room as though he were joining a perfectly ordinary conversation. A bag of cookies was tucked under one arm, and he was already chewing on another one, seemingly unconcerned by the tense atmosphere.
Sengoku immediately closed his eyes.
"Garp..."
"What?"
"How long have you been listening from behind the door?"
Garp thought for a few seconds while chewing.
"Long enough."
"That isn't a measurement of time."
"Then long enough to know you're making things more complicated than they need to be again."
Sakazuki gave him an especially cold look.
"If you have something intelligent to suggest, Vice Admiral, then speak."
Garp swallowed his cookie before pointing toward the screen, where Kenshiro was still receiving Hercules' first bracers.
"Why don't we send participants too?"
The suggestion was met with silence.
Even Sengoku took several seconds to respond.
Garp casually continued.
"Letting the pirates have all the fun with this thing is annoying. We might as well let the Marines benefit from it too."
Sengoku frowned deeply.
"You're seriously suggesting that we send Marines to participate in a tournament organized by Hades and Sora?"
"Yes."
"A deadly tournament."
"Yes."
"On an island currently protected by Kaido and Big Mom."
Garp grabbed another cookie.
"They're protecting the island, not the tournament. And so far, Sora has never said Marines aren't allowed."
This time, Sengoku didn't immediately respond.
Tsuru, however, seemed to seriously consider the suggestion.
"He even allowed Hina to participate in the first tournament."
Garp immediately pointed a finger at her.
"Exactly!"
"Don't look so victorious," Tsuru replied. "Your idea is still extremely dangerous."
"Of course it's dangerous."
Garp pointed toward Kenshiro on the screen.
"But look at what a pirate worth one hundred and twenty million just got. Bracers that increase his strength and endurance, plus the Heartless born from his former captain. If we simply keep watching, Kaido and Big Mom will send five men every month, find out which ones have potential, and get the survivors back with additional rewards."
Sakazuki crossed his arms.
"For once, I agree with him."
Garp froze.
Then he looked at Sakazuki.
"I take back my idea."
"GARP!" Sengoku roared.
Tsuru raised a hand to her mouth to hide a faint smile.
Sakazuki, meanwhile, didn't look remotely amused.
"What I mean," he continued sharply, "is that we cannot allow the Emperors' crews to be the only ones benefiting from this system. If the Marines can obtain the same rewards, then at the very least we need to investigate that possibility."
Sengoku ran a hand over his forehead.
The worst part was that once you stripped away the very Garp-like way the idea had been presented, there was a certain logic to it.
"We can't send just anyone," he finally said. "Death is permanent in that arena. I will not sacrifice soldiers simply in the hope that they might come back with an artifact."
Garp shrugged.
"Then ask for volunteers."
Tsuru nodded slightly.
"And we start with a small number. Fighters experienced enough to understand the risk, but not officers whose loss would compromise an entire base."
Sengoku looked at the screen.
"Sora would still have to agree."
Garp gave him a huge grin.
"Then ask him."
"And how exactly do you suggest we contact him?"
Garp's smile faded slightly.
"...Good question."
Sengoku took a deep breath.
"I knew it was going to end like this."
Tsuru intervened before another argument could break out.
"We have three months before the next public tournament. And if the intermediate sessions really are reserved for Kaido and Big Mom, there's no point provoking an incident by trying to force our men into them. We can observe the next two broadcasts, determine the risks more precisely, and find an official way to contact the organizers."
Garp nodded.
"Works for me."
Then he pointed toward the screen.
"But if we participate, I want to try too."
Sengoku turned toward him so abruptly that his chair scraped against the floor.
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Because I refuse to explain to the World Government that Monkey D. Garp died in an underground tournament after deciding to fight a three-headed dog for a pair of magical shoes!"
Garp burst out laughing.
"When you put it like that, it makes me want to do it even more!"
"GARP!"
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away from Sengoku's latest headache, we had absolutely no idea that the Coliseum might have just gained an entirely new category of potential participants.
Hades cheerfully clapped his hands.
"All right! Enough emotion! We still have three teams to traumatize today!"
I sighed.
"You could say 'fight.'"
"Technically, both are true."
"That's exactly the problem."
Kenshiro, meanwhile, slowly left the center of the arena.
Hercules' first bracers now encircled Kenshiro's forearms.
He was still examining them with satisfaction that was difficult to hide, repeatedly opening and closing his hands as though trying to measure just how much additional strength they gave him.
But they clearly weren't his favorite reward.
Every ten steps or so, his gaze dropped toward his shadow.
Nuts was there.
Or at least, what he had become.
When Kenshiro reached the other members of the Beasts Pirates, the lower-ranking officer accompanying them crossed his arms.
"You won."
Kenshiro nodded.
"Yeah."
His superior then looked down at his shadow.
"And Nuts?"
A faint ripple moved across the dark surface.
Kenshiro instinctively placed a hand over it.
"He's coming home with us."
No one argued.
Even Big Mom's men were looking at Kenshiro differently now.
He was no longer simply the first participant sent by Kaido.
He had just shown them exactly what awaited them.
Ten rounds.
Dozens of Heartless.
A dead companion.
A boss dangerous enough to push a New World fighter to his limits.
And at the end of it all, a reward none of them could have obtained anywhere else.
Galdino approached Kenshiro and examined him for a few seconds.
"Congratulations."
Kenshiro slightly raised his new bracers.
"Thanks."
Galdino shook his head.
"I wasn't talking about the bracelets."
His gaze dropped toward the shadow.
Kenshiro immediately understood.
"Ah."
Marianne gave him a much warmer smile.
"Nuts probably would've been happy to know that you managed to finish what the two of you started together."
Kenshiro remained silent for a few seconds.
Then his expression softened.
"Yeah."
The shadow behind him shifted slightly.
He looked down.
"We did it, partner."
This time, something resembling a long dark tail briefly emerged from his shadow before disappearing again.
Kenshiro smiled.
(Author's Note: I'll be more concise with the other fights, I promise. Crosses fingers behind my back... Damn it, that gets written down too ^^)