The outcome of the fight was already decided.
On the shattered training field, an eerie silence fell.
Zephyr stood between two figures. One was still on his feet, breathing evenly, eyes calm. The other was sprawled on the ground, blood at the corner of his mouth, eyes rolled back in a dead faint.
Smoker.
And the one still standing—
Was the four-year-old monster: Kai.
Zephyr slowly raised his right hand and announced, voice ringing clearly across the grounds:
"Winner: Kai."
The training camp exploded.
"What?!"
"He actually beat Smoker?!"
"And it only took, what, three or four minutes?!"
"No way… That was the strongest guy in the entire camp…"
The seventy or so trainees who had watched the whole fight were slack-jawed, staring at Kai like they were looking at a ghost.
Especially the ones who'd been running their mouths earlier, insisting Kai had no right to join the training camp—
Right now, all of them felt like they'd been slapped.
Hard.
They'd thought a four-year-old kid wouldn't even be able to take a single move from Smoker.
But reality?
Not only had Kai endured Smoker's attacks, he'd crushed him in close-quarters combat. If Smoker hadn't relied on his Logia intangibility and Smoke-Smoke Fruit techniques, he would've been flattened in the very first exchange.
And once Kai drew the seastone dagger…
The flow of the battle flipped instantly.
No more elemental tricks.
No more smoke.
Just raw fists.
Right in front of everyone, Kai chained together a violent barrage of blows and pounded Smoker into the ground like a training sandbag.
"Did you see that clearly?"
"That wasn't just strength… his Rokushiki is insane!"
"Yeah. His Soru is way faster than ours, his Tekkai is sturdier, and his Rankyaku cuts deeper. It's like we're not even practicing the same Six Styles as he is…"
"I thought I was some kind of genius when I got into the training camp…"
"Now I finally get what a real genius is."
"Four years old… and already that strong…"
The trainees kept muttering under their breath, glancing at Kai with shock, fear—and, whether they liked it or not, respect.
Even Tina, standing in the crowd with her long pink hair and still-girlish features, had both hands pressed over her chest as she stared, eyes wide.
"That little brother is… incredible…"
A four-year-old who could force Smoker to use his Logia, and then, with a single seastone dagger, suppress him and beat him half to death.
Calling that "talent" felt like an insult.
That was a monster.
On the field, Zephyr crouched beside Smoker and checked his condition.
The young man's breathing was rough, his face pale. His uniform was torn in several places, ugly bruises blooming all over his body, a thin line of blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.
If Zephyr hadn't stepped in when he did—
Smoker really might have been beaten to death.
Zephyr exhaled slowly, a touch of relief in his eyes.
"Fortunately, I stopped him in time," he muttered to himself. "Another few seconds and that kid would've killed my student in front of the whole camp…"
He straightened up and turned toward the rest of the trainees.
His gaze swept over them.
All the noise died on the spot.
"In the match you just saw," Zephyr said, voice steady but carrying across the grounds, "Smoker did not hold back. From the moment he activated his Logia, he was going all-out to win."
"And yet…"
"Even with his Devil Fruit powers, once seastone entered the field, he was still suppressed."
"That means that in a straight hand-to-hand fight—no powers involved—Smoker is absolutely not Kai's match."
He pointed at Kai, who was calmly wiping off and resheathing the dagger.
"Remember this," Zephyr went on. "This boy is four years old. Four. And his combat strength is already at least on par with a Marine Headquarters Commodore."
Another wave of shock rippled through the crowd.
Zephyr's expression hardened.
"You all think you're 'geniuses' because you made it through the selection and into my training camp."
"I won't deny it. Compared to ordinary recruits, you are geniuses."
"But—"
"Compared to Kai…"
"You're just a bunch of normal people. The gap between you and him is the gap between earth and sky."
The words were harsh.
But no one dared object.
Because everything he'd said matched exactly what they had just witnessed.
"From today onward," Zephyr barked, "I don't want to hear the slightest complaint about the training being too hard, or my standards being too strict."
"You will train harder."
"You will grit your teeth longer."
"You will treat Kai as your target—your wall—the peak you must chase."
"If you can't accept that…"
"Then get out of my training camp."
His roar echoed around Training Ground No. 1 for a long time.
Silence followed.
Then, one by one, the trainees straightened up, eyes burning brighter than before.
"…Yes, Instructor Zephyr!"
"Understood!"
"We'll catch up! Even if he's a monster, he's still human—we'll chase him down!"
Zephyr looked at each of their faces and finally nodded, satisfied.
This was exactly what he wanted.
The appearance of a real monster among them—
For the rest of these so-called geniuses, it would either be the sharpest humiliation…
Or the strongest motivation of their lives.
He turned back to Kai, his tone easing just a little.
"From this moment on, you're an official member of my training camp."
"Take the afternoon to rest. Starting tomorrow…"
"I'll personally teach you Haki."
A spark lit up in Kai's eyes.
"Understood, Instructor Zephyr."
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