"You little brat! When did you master the Indestructible Body?!"
Zephyr stormed forward and seized Darren's arm, his rough, battle-worn hand gripping the younger man's forearm like a vice. His brows furrowed as his palm met Darren's skin—unyielding, solid, unnaturally dense.
"It's real?!" Zephyr's voice cracked, eyes wide in disbelief. "Impossible! You've got the same damned physique as that monster Kaido!"
If he hadn't felt it with his own hand, he would never have believed it. Zephyr had fought Kaido before—he knew that nightmare's durability firsthand.
That beast's body was a fortress of flesh. Guns, swords, cannons, toxins—none of them worked. Unless a man possessed Conqueror's Haki or overwhelming Armament, he couldn't even leave a scratch.
That was why Kaido had been "captured" dozens of times yet never truly restrained. He couldn't be bound. He couldn't be broken.
And now... his student was the same?
For a long moment, Zephyr just stood there, frozen in shock.
As chief instructor of the Marine Training Camp, he'd spent years pushing the limits of physical conditioning—testing theories, refining methods, researching physiology down to the cell. And every attempt to reproduce an "Indestructible Body" had ended in failure.
Because the human body has limits.
The tensile strength of skin, the density of bone, the elasticity of muscle and joint—all of it was bounded by the laws of nature and bloodline. Even with perfect training, there came a wall no man could pass.
But Darren... Darren had smashed through that wall like it was paper.
"Just what the hell have you been doing, brat?!" Zephyr demanded. "Did you discover a new method? No, wait..." His voice trailed off, suspicion dawning in his eyes. "Before the Totto Land operation, you were strong—but not like this. Then you went to Wano..."
He froze, realization dawning.
"Wano Country! Don't tell me... Kaido taught you this Indestructible Body technique?!"
"Uh..." Darren's mouth opened and closed. "That's... not exactly—"
That hesitation said everything.
Zephyr staggered back as if struck by lightning. "It can't be... Kaido? Teaching?!" He looked stricken, pale, as if his entire worldview were crumbling around him.
For a teacher who prided himself on shaping generations of Marines—the very pillar of their future—this was the cruelest irony imaginable. His greatest pupil, the brightest star he'd ever raised, had learned his ultimate strength from a pirate.
"Have I... misled my students?" Zephyr muttered weakly, staring down at his trembling hands.
"Zephyr-sensei!" Darren said quickly, panic flashing across his face. "You've got it wrong! Kaido didn't teach me anything! We just... fought. A real slugfest, that's all!"
Zephyr looked up sharply, disbelief and exhaustion mingling in his expression. "So you're telling me that without instruction—without theory—you somehow achieved what I've spent decades researching?"
"Well... yeah. I mean, not exactly—"
"Enough," Zephyr sighed, rubbing his temple, the fire in him cooling into a weary acceptance. "If you truly developed this body on your own, then it's simply fate. A gift—or a curse."
His shoulders slumped slightly. "Kaido's blood isn't human. But you... you're something else entirely."
Seeing Darren about to respond, Zephyr waved him off. "Forget it. At least now I can stop worrying about you dying."
He chuckled dryly, though a faint glimmer of both awe and exasperation lingered in his eyes. The Golden Lion's mastery of flight, Kaido's monstrous physique, Byrnndi World's unparalleled destructive power—Darren had somehow accumulated fragments of all of them.
What next?
Zephyr couldn't decide whether to feel proud or horrified.
"You youngsters are going to give me a heart attack one of these days," he grumbled.
"By the way, Zephyr-sensei," Darren said suddenly, changing the subject, "you didn't look too happy when you came in earlier."
Zephyr's frown deepened, but then he forced a rueful smile. "You've got sharp eyes, brat. It's nothing—just another argument with Sengoku."
"An argument?"
Zephyr's jaw clenched. "The World Government just approved a new initiative—the Shichibukai System. They're granting certain powerful pirates the right to plunder legally, using them as weapons to balance power across the seas."
His fist slammed into the wall, cracking the plaster.
"Tell me, since when do Marines rely on pirates to maintain order?! Justice and evil aren't supposed to coexist! This policy spits on everything the Corps stands for!"
His voice thundered with righteous fury. "They call it 'strategy'—I call it a betrayal of Justice itself!"
"And guess what, Darren? The first Shichibukai's already been chosen!"
He glared, seething. "That arrogant brat Crocodile! The Sand Crocodile! He's razed towns, sunk our ships—and now they've turned him into an ally?!"
Zephyr trembled with outrage, eyes burning. "It's madness! Utter madness!"
"Hey! I'm talking to you!" he barked suddenly. "Why are you so quiet?"
Darren's expression was... complicated.
"Zephyr-sensei," he began cautiously, "I'm aware of the Shichibukai appointment."
"You knew?!" Zephyr's eyes bulged. "And you didn't tell me?!"
Darren rubbed the back of his neck, smiling awkwardly. "Well, I didn't just know about it..."
Zephyr narrowed his eyes dangerously. "...What are you trying to say?"
Darren sighed, realizing there was no graceful way out of this.
"I was the one who approved Crocodile's Shichibukai title."
Zephyr: ...
To be continued...