Weevil was unconscious.
Clearly—
Kai had beaten him down completely.
The man known as the pirate with Whitebeard's youthful strength had passed out cold, his heavy body hanging limply from Kai's one-handed grip.
That alone was enough to show the truth.
The final victor…
was Kai.
Weevil had lost all ability to fight.
He had even lost consciousness completely.
Under the golden sunlight, above the glittering sea, Kai held Weevil's massive body aloft.
And though Kai himself was small—
at this moment, he looked impossibly tall.
Five years old…
and he had captured Whitebeard's "son" alive.
It was an utterly shocking feat.
Weevil was no weakling.
He was known as a monster with the power Whitebeard once possessed in his youth.
And yet even so—
he had still been decisively beaten by five-year-old Kai.
Of course…
Kai had paid a steep price to win.
At this moment, he was covered in injuries from head to toe.
That battle with Weevil had lasted more than three full hours.
Kai was not only exhausted, but every part of his body was screaming in pain.
He had at least a hundred wounds on him.
If not for his terrifying physique and the stubborn clarity of his will, the one who would have collapsed at the end would not have been Weevil—
it would have been him.
By the final stretch, the fight had become a contest of pure willpower.
A contest to see whose spirit would break first.
And clearly—
Weevil's will was nowhere near as strong as Kai's.
After all, Weevil was basically just a mentally impaired child blessed with a monstrous body.
Kai, on the other hand, had spent the entire past year under nonstop electroshock training, forcing both his flesh and mind through endless torment.
When it came to willpower—
Kai was confident he would lose to no one.
The Ghost Back System may have been the core of his rise, but his strength also came from relentless effort.
That was why so many Marines genuinely respected him.
They respected not just his talent, but his effort—
his endurance—
his willingness to repeat hellish training day after day.
That was something most people simply could not do.
"It's finally over."
"That was…"
"one hell of a fight."
Kai let out a long breath and looked over at the unconscious Weevil beside him with a sigh.
He had to admit it.
Weevil was incredibly strong.
Strong enough that Kai had been forced to use everything he had.
To put it simply—
Kai had thrown out every move in his arsenal, gone all-out from beginning to end, and only barely managed to capture Weevil alive in the end.
At the same time, after subduing him, Kai had fallen into the weakest state of his life.
At this moment, even a pirate worth over a hundred million berries could probably kill him with ease.
He was that drained.
Fighting Weevil had wrung out every last drop of his strength, stamina, and focus.
Only the final stubbornness of his will had allowed him to edge out a narrow victory.
This was the first opponent Kai had faced since going to sea who could truly fight him all the way to the end.
Every pirate he had met before this—
he had crushed with one hand.
None of them had been a real challenge.
Only Weevil had pressured him to this degree.
Only Weevil had pushed him into such a weakened state.
"But still…"
"In the end, I was the one who came out on top."
Thinking of the result, Kai couldn't help laughing.
Now that the battle was over, the tension in his body finally began to ease.
And the moment he relaxed—
pain flooded in from every wound he carried.
"Tch…"
"That really hurts."
Lowering his head, Kai looked at the wounds carved across his chest.
Some of them were so deep that bone could almost be seen beneath the torn flesh.
He was badly hurt.
Of course he was.
Against a top-tier fighter like Weevil, there had never been any chance he would come out unscathed.
Winning was already hard enough.
And even then—
Weevil, now unconscious, was in an even worse state.
"Still…"
"this fight finally showed me exactly where my current strength stands."
Kai narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
By his own judgment, his current combat power was absolutely no weaker than a Warlord's.
Figures like this era's Gecko Moria, Doflamingo, Crocodile, or Bartholomew Kuma—
none of them would be enough to overwhelm him.
Mihawk, though?
That was a different matter.
Mihawk stood alone in a class of his own.
At Kai's current level, he still didn't have the confidence to fight him.
But as for people like Doflamingo?
They no longer posed much threat.
"In the blink of an eye…"
"I've already reached top-tier combat power on the level of the Seven Warlords."
Kai found that thought deeply satisfying.
A little later, under Zephyr's orders, several cadets helped haul Kai's exhausted body back onto the warship.
Once he was laid down against the deck's cool wooden planks, Kai finally closed his eyes.
His whole body felt like it had stopped working.
Even the slightest movement sent pain tearing through him.
He was beyond tired.
This battle had drained him completely.
Right now, all he wanted was to find somewhere and sleep.
Never in his life had he felt this exhausted.
Not even his past limit-breaking training had left him this empty.
This kind of fatigue went beyond what his body should have been able to bear.
Then—
the system's voice echoed in his mind.
[Training rewards obtained this session:]
[Strength +0.001, Speed +0.001, Stamina +0.001, Armament Haki Proficiency +0.03, Observation Haki Proficiency +0.04, Mental Strength +0.005.]
[After 100x training-effect amplification:]
[Strength +0.1, Speed +0.1, Stamina +0.1, Armament Haki Proficiency +3, Observation Haki Proficiency +4, Mental Strength +0.5.]
The moment the system finished speaking—
a warm current surged through Kai's body.
It flowed through his organs, meridians, bones, and flesh, easing his serious injuries little by little.
At the same time, a flood of Haki-related experience poured into his mind.
A moment later, the system finished its adjustment.
Kai's strength rose again by a small amount.
And his heavy injuries eased slightly as well—
though nowhere near enough to heal him completely.
That likely meant only one thing:
the damage this time was simply too severe.
Not long after, the unconscious Weevil was also dragged onto the deck by the cadets.
Under Zephyr's direct orders, they bound him in the heaviest iron chains available.
Only after that did the cadets finally relax a little.
It couldn't be helped.
The pressure Weevil had put on them was just too immense.
The battle between Kai and Weevil still lingered vividly in their minds.
Against a monster like that, caution was only natural.
Still, with Weevil gravely wounded and now wrapped in specially forged chains, even if he woke up, escaping should be nearly impossible.
In other words—
Weevil had officially been captured alive.
It could now be publicly declared:
Whitebeard's "son," Edward Weevil, had been captured by the Marines.
"Kai, you all right?"
Zephyr walked over and looked down at him, his expression filled with emotion.
"Teacher Zephyr… do I look all right to you?"
Kai grinned weakly.
"You pushed yourself too hard."
"You knew how strong your opponent was, and you still insisted on facing him alone."
"Yes, you won this time."
"But what about next time?"
"Next time, don't be so reckless."
Zephyr's tone was earnest.
"Got it."
Kai nodded.
Next time?
If he met another opponent like this again…
he would absolutely still charge in.
That was just how he was.
There was too much violence in his blood for him to do otherwise.
"A monster on Whitebeard's 'son's' level probably never dreamed he'd lose to a five-year-old kid."
"What a world…"
"Even I never could have predicted this."
"You little monster…"
"You've already become this strong."
Even if Zephyr had gone personally, taking down a pirate like Weevil would still have taken him at least half an hour.
That alone showed how terrifying Weevil really was.
And yet such a pirate had been defeated by Kai, a five-year-old.
How could Zephyr not be shaken?
"You little brat… you really are a terrifying monster."
"You're only five and already this strong."
"Give it another couple of years, and I might not even be your match."
Zephyr looked at Kai with amazement.
A five-year-old who single-handedly defeated a pirate with combat power worth hundreds of millions—
who in the world would believe that?
If word of this spread—
it would shake the entire sea.
No—
it would shake Marine Headquarters itself to the core.
Then Zephyr suddenly remembered something.
A few days ago, when he and Kai were leaving Marineford, they had spoken on the road.
Kai's words from that day were still etched in his mind.
After a long silence, Zephyr looked at him with a complicated expression.
"You were right."
"I really did have a massive misunderstanding about your strength."
"You said it yourself."
"From the very beginning, I never truly understood how strong you were."
A five-year-old with Vice Admiral-level combat power?
If he hadn't witnessed it today with his own eyes, Zephyr never would have believed such a thing could exist.
But now—
he believed it.
There really were monsters in this world who shattered all common sense.
And Kai was one of them.
No—
more accurately—
Kai was the only example this sea had produced in hundreds of years.
There was no second one.
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