The battle was over.
Smoker had lost.
And not just lost—
He'd been dominated.
The moment his elementalization was sealed by seastone, all resistance vanished. In the end, he'd been driven into the ground by the neck and forced to accept defeat.
"Smoker-san," Kai said, flicking dust off the dagger's blade, "you've lost."
"…Yeah."
Smoker wiped the blood from his lips and dragged himself out of the crater, boots crunching over broken stone.
His uniform was torn.
His face was bruised and dirty.
The always-fierce young man looked, for a heartbeat, genuinely devastated.
He had never imagined—
That the person who would beat him like this…
Would be a four-year-old child.
"If you'd used that dagger from the very start," Smoker muttered with a crooked grin, "I probably wouldn't have lasted three moves."
He wasn't being polite.
Just honest.
He'd felt that power firsthand.
If all of his Logia tricks had been shut down from the beginning…
There wouldn't have been much of a "fight" at all.
It wasn't that he was weak.
It was simply—
That the monster standing across from him was too strong.
"Not bad," Kai replied, completely calm. "You're strong."
And he meant it.
Smoker's physical ability, foundation, and killing intent were all first-rate. Drop him anywhere in the first half of the Grand Line, and he'd be an absolute powerhouse.
He'd just run into Kai.
Around them—
The trainees finally snapped out of their daze.
They looked from Smoker to Kai.
Then back again.
It took a few seconds before the noise came back.
"He actually beat Smoker…"
"And the last hit—Smoker couldn't even fight back…"
"If Smoker didn't have his Logia power, that first exchange would've ended him…"
"Did you see that Soru? I couldn't even follow him with my eyes!"
"And his Tekkai… he just caught that punch…"
"If that blow landed on anyone here, we'd be dead."
"We were worried he'd drag us down…"
"Looking at this now, we're not even qualified to compare ourselves to him…"
The more they talked, the more embarrassed they sounded.
They remembered very clearly what they'd been saying earlier:
"A four-year-old? What right does he have to join our camp?"
"Isn't he just here on connections?"
Now?
Those words felt like a slap in their own faces.
If anyone was "unqualified" here…
It definitely wasn't Kai.
In the crowd—
Tina watched him quietly, her expression completely changed.
At first, she'd just thought he was small, kind of cute, and weirdly calm.
Now—
Curiosity had turned into pure respect.
And more than a little admiration.
Four years old…
And he could pressure Smoker in close combat.
Then end the fight with one clean seastone-assisted strike.
"And that's a Smoker who already has a Logia fruit and Rokushiki…"
Thinking that, Tina's chest tightened a little.
Her pulse quickened.
"So amazing…"
The words slipped out under her breath, cheeks turning soft pink.
She'd always believed she was a genius.
At seventeen, she'd entered Zephyr's camp and quickly risen to the unofficial rank of "number two."
But compared to the kid in front of her…
For the first time in her life, she felt like the word "genius" barely meant anything.
This wasn't talent.
This was—
Monstrous.
"From today on…"
"The real number one of the training camp…"
"It can only be him."
Tina quietly made that decision in her heart.
Maybe in the future, when this name shook the world—
She'd be able to say with pride:
"I trained with him under Zephyr-sensei."
"I watched, with my own eyes… as he beat the Logia-user Smoker at only four years old."
Heavy footsteps sounded.
Zephyr walked back into the center of the field, stopping between Kai and Smoker.
He looked briefly at Smoker—dusty, grim, but still standing—
Then at Kai, who hadn't even broken a sweat.
Finally, he lifted his head and swept his gaze across all the trainees.
"You all saw that match clearly, didn't you?" he asked.
His voice was quiet—
But it cut straight through the air.
No one dared pretend otherwise.
One after another—
They nodded.
"Just now," Zephyr continued, voice cooling, "someone said he would 'drag you down.'"
"Now tell me…"
"Is he the one dragging you down?"
"Or are you the ones who aren't even on the same starting line as him?"
The field went silent.
Several trainees lowered their heads, faces burning.
Even Smoker said nothing—just clenched his teeth.
"I told you before," Zephyr said, "in my training camp…"
"There is only one standard."
"Strength."
"If your strength is high enough…"
"I don't care if you're four years old and you join halfway through. I'll open the gate myself."
"If your strength isn't enough…"
"Even if you stay here one or two years…"
"You're just trash."
He raised his arm and pointed straight at Kai.
"From today onward—"
"He is this class's rightful Number One."
"Your goal is no longer 'catch up to Smoker.'"
"From now on…"
"Your goal is to see whether, in the next few years, you can even keep up with half the pace of this four-year-old monster."
He dropped his hand.
"Dismissed."
"Afternoon training continues as scheduled."
"And remember this fight."
"This is the gap between you—"
"And a true monster-class talent."
While the trainees were still reeling from his words—
Kai casually flipped the dagger in his hand and passed it back to Zephyr like he'd just finished warming up.
For him—
This duel with Smoker…
Was nothing more than his first step
into the Marines' elite training camp.
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