Miss Bakkin was dead.
Blown apart by a single punch from Kai.
That one blow was utterly unstoppable—
a force that crushed everything in its path.
Even the sea within nearly ten meters of the impact point had been driven downward by the sheer pressure of Kai's supersonic strike, leaving a massive depression in the water.
Spray shot high into the sky.
Then fell back in glittering sheets.
Splash! Splash!
Ripples spread across the surface.
The sea itself had been hammered downward several meters by that one punch.
Given that—
it was easy to imagine how miserable Miss Bakkin's fate had been at the center of it all.
To begin with, Miss Bakkin had never been especially strong.
Her only real skill was manipulating people.
Her greatest support—
had always been her idiot son, Weevil.
Without him, she probably wouldn't have been able to stir up much trouble even in the East Blue.
For someone who had once belonged to the old Rocks Pirates, she was practically a disgrace to the name—
dragging down the entire lower limit of that legendary crew.
Today, facing even a casual Haki-coated punch from Kai, a weakling like her stood no chance.
She was blown apart on the spot.
A spray of blood danced through the air.
Not even bones were left behind.
Only a few torn scraps of fabric drifted down from the sky and floated on the sea before being carried away by the current.
As for the cloud of blood—
it quickly dissolved into the ocean and vanished without a trace.
And so—
Miss Bakkin died here, body and bones erased completely.
Kai had reduced her to nothing.
Whatever she shouted before her death—
Kai never cared.
Her threats, her begging, her intimidation—
he dismissed all of it.
As for Whitebeard?
He didn't care about that either.
For one thing, whether Weevil really had any blood relationship with Whitebeard remained a giant question mark.
And even if Weevil truly were Whitebeard's son—
that didn't mean Whitebeard would move heaven and earth for him.
The sons Whitebeard cherished were the sons of the Whitebeard Pirates—
not some nobody like Weevil, whose name Whitebeard might not even recognize.
Only those Whitebeard accepted as sons were truly his sons.
Only they would receive his love and protection.
Weevil?
He clearly wasn't worthy of that.
And even in the worst case—
even if Whitebeard actually did decide to come after Kai—
did Kai really have any reason to fear him?
He had Garp behind him.
Dragon, too.
Zephyr.
Fleet Admiral Kong, who already regarded him as a treasure of the Marines.
Then there was Sengoku, Tsuru, and all of Garp's old comrades.
With that kind of backing—
did Kai really need to fear Whitebeard?
What a joke.
If Whitebeard dared move against him, then even the Whitebeard Pirates might not survive the retaliation waiting behind Kai.
For all these reasons, Miss Bakkin's threats meant nothing to him.
"One manipulative little pest dealt with."
"Now…"
"it's time to handle the real target."
Kai slowly turned his head and looked toward Weevil, floating not far away in the sea.
Miss Bakkin had only been a side target.
The truly important opponent—
the one who had to be dealt with—
was Weevil.
Miss Bakkin alone had never been that dangerous.
Her real threat came from the fact that she could control Weevil.
That was what made her dangerous.
Now, when Weevil saw Miss Bakkin get blown apart by Kai's punch—
he went completely insane.
"No!"
"Mom…"
"You killed my mom!"
"I'll make you die! I'll make you pay for her with your life!"
"You deserve to die!"
With naginata in hand, Weevil launched himself at Kai in a frenzy.
The image of Miss Bakkin being blown apart replayed over and over in his mind.
He was furious beyond reason.
He had always worshiped and obeyed her.
She was the only one who could make him behave.
And now—
she was dead.
From this point on, there was no longer anyone in the world who could restrain him.
He charged at Kai like a mad beast.
"Good."
Kai's eyes lit up instead of showing fear.
A smile full of battle intent spread across his face.
Then he met Weevil head-on once again.
Clenching both fists, he pushed his Armament Haki to the limit and punched directly into the incoming naginata.
BOOM—!
Their forces crashed together yet again.
The resulting shockwave churned the surrounding sea into violent waves.
Splash! Splash!
Water rose against gravity, then rained back down from the sky.
Around the point where Kai and Weevil fought, the sea itself seemed to cave inward, forming a giant basin as the force of their battle distorted the waters around them.
Even the aftershocks from a clash between monsters like these were enough to throw the whole sea into turmoil.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Kai and Weevil's exchanges became faster and more violent.
The naginata in Weevil's hands even began to show tiny cracks.
Even wrapped in Armament Haki, it could no longer withstand Kai's relentless, Haki-coated bombardment.
Of course, smashing that weapon apart didn't come for free.
Several bones in Kai's fists were already fractured as well.
"Again!"
Ignoring the countless wounds carved into him by the naginata, Kai laughed wildly.
His battle spirit burned brighter and brighter.
Blood flowed freely across the muscular lines of his body, making him look even more overwhelming.
The fight continued for another full hour.
For monsters on this level, there had never been any chance this battle would end quickly.
By now, the duel had lasted two full hours.
Both of them were covered in injuries.
Weevil was the same.
Completely berserk, he ignored the pain from his wounds.
His eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging, like a maddened bull swinging his naginata at anything in front of him.
His brute force was monstrous.
But in losing his reason, Weevil's reactions had slowed.
And Kai quickly took advantage, beating him into an even worse state.
At this point, Weevil's nose and ribs had already been broken—
and now his left arm had been broken too.
He could only hold his weapon with one hand.
Kai wasn't doing much better.
More than ten savage cuts crisscrossed his chest.
Blood and flesh had been torn open, and blood streamed steadily from the wounds into the seawater around him.
Even his fists were drenched in blood.
Though they were coated in Armament Haki, the extreme intensity of the battle had still left the bones in both hands badly damaged.
His fists were practically mangled.
"Now this is satisfying!"
Feeling the pain coursing through his body, Kai's eyes flashed with savage red light.
He attacked even more violently, hammering Weevil again and again in a brutally direct style.
Body against body.
A frontal clash.
Everything about it made Kai's blood surge.
Ever since he first set sail—
he had never experienced a life-and-death battle this exhilarating.
It filled both his body and mind with a fierce sense of satisfaction.
Then—
Crack.
With a sharp sound, the naginata—already riddled with fractures—finally broke apart in Weevil's hand.
It shattered into countless fragments that fell into the sea and slowly sank out of sight.
Now deprived of his weapon, Weevil raised his fists, coating them with Armament Haki, and threw himself into close combat with Kai.
His eyes were red with fury.
"Die! Die!"
He kept repeating the words like a broken record.
Kai clenched his own blood-soaked fists and met Weevil's Haki-coated blows head-on.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Every collision unleashed horrifying aftershocks.
The sea for hundreds of meters around them churned wildly.
Wave after wave rose and crashed outward in all directions.
Kai's injuries grew worse and worse.
So did Weevil's.
After a while—
Weevil started to come back to his senses.
He was no longer as mindlessly berserk as before.
It was as though Kai had literally beaten the madness out of him with his fists.
And once he regained that sliver of reason, he immediately felt the agonizing pain exploding through every inch of his body.
He began howling miserably.
"It hurts!"
"It hurts so much!"
With the mentality of a small child, he didn't have even a shred of the dignity expected from a true powerhouse.
Overwhelmed by pain, he started bawling outright, tears and snot running down his face.
Weevil looked like a pitiful, oversized idiot—
almost enough to make someone feel sorry for him.
Kai, however, showed no mercy.
His attacks only became more ferocious.
Weevil was forced to fight back, and the two of them once again plunged into violent close combat.
And just like that—
time passed.
In the blink of an eye, another hour was gone.
At last—
this peak battle, which had lasted more than three full hours—
finally reached its end.
And the final victor…
was about to be decided.
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