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Sorbet Kingdom.
'So, my brother Hanafuda is getting dragged through the mud again on my account,' Jin thought, feeling a little guilty.
Maybe it was time to find a higher-level opponent, to give Hanafuda a break. Otherwise, every time he met a major player, it would be the same story.
"Oh! You're the one who beat Hanafuda..."
Jin was genuinely worried the guy would fall into a depression. He couldn't just keep beating that same drum.
He also wondered if Hanafuda had found any new Ancient Zoans yet. The carrier's third evolution was still two Devil Fruits short, and he hadn't found a single lead. He'd been in the South Blue for days now with nothing to show for it.
It was like having an itch you couldn't scratch.
That final step was always the most frustrating.
Like waiting at a red light when you're in a hurry—the last few seconds always seem to last an eternity.
"You're the leader of the Revolutionary Army, aren't you?" Jin asked, his voice cutting through his thoughts. "Dragon."
"I am," Dragon replied, unsurprised. He assumed Kuma had told him. What he couldn't figure out was why Kuma was with this man in the first place.
And the term "Life's Mentor"... it was baffling.
Damn it. Kuma's gotten himself involved with a con artist.
This was Jin's first time meeting one of the true powerhouses of the pirate world. He couldn't help but clench his fists. "How about a little spar?"
"Hm?" Dragon was taken aback.
WHOOSH!
Jin had already vanished, reappearing in front of him in an instant, a fist aimed straight for his face.
The punch passed through him. Dragon's form dissolved into the wind, reforming a short distance away.
Where his fist had landed, there was a hole, but no blood. Only a swirl of wind.
Dragon's Observation Haki was far superior to Crocodile's. His elementalization was nearly instantaneous, happening just before the blow connected. He had foreseen the attack. It was how he could deal with powerful Haki users.
During the Summit War, Aokiji and Akainu had demonstrated a similar ability. A standard Haki-infused attack couldn't stop them from turning intangible.
Wisps of wind now coiled around Dragon, making him the eye of a storm.
The Logia Wind-Wind Fruit.
Jin vanished again.
A powerful sidekick swept through the air.
Danger.
Dragon's gaze hardened. His Observation Haki predicted the attack, and his body was just beginning to disperse when Jin's foot suddenly hooked at an angle.
A blade of compressed air shot out from the tip of his boot.
It cleaved the ground where Dragon had been standing, leaving a gash over forty meters long.
During his travels in Kano Country, Jin had sought out and sparred with various powerhouses, honing his Haki techniques.
He had learned thirteen different principles of power generation: internal, whole-body, abdominal, storing, releasing, twisting, drilling, hard, soft, spiraling, shaking, focused-inch, and collapsing.
Each principle was a school of thought in itself.
And learning them was just the beginning.
Integrating them into actual combat—that was the key.
It wasn't that learning them made you infinitely stronger. They were just methods of applying Haki, techniques that made your existing power more efficient, more lethal.
Like the Ryūō of Wano.
It didn't increase your Haki reserves, it just changed its form and application to inflict internal damage.
To put it another way, Haki was like a piece of clay. With different techniques, a user could mold it into a hammer, a nail, a wrench—tools with different properties.
And the "power generation" principles of Kano Country were the master techniques for shaping that clay. They preached the unity of ki, man, and nature.
For an outsider, it was difficult to grasp.
But Jin was no outsider. He understood the culture, the principles, and he had mastered them quickly.
The attack he had just used on Dragon was "releasing power."
Unleashing it all in the instant of contact.
Even if Dragon had turned to wind, the attack would have hit him. Because if the release of Haki is faster than the elementalization, there is no escape. At the same time, the invisible field created by the Haki would compress the space, inhibiting the speed of the transformation.
This was what Kaido meant when he said that Haki transcends all. With enough Haki, you could overcome any ability.
Jin had always prioritized his Haki training. Even after he began developing his fruit abilities, he had never stopped.
His training with Garp had shored up his physical foundations. His travels in Kano Country had refined his Haki techniques.
His potential was now being converted into real combat power at an astonishing rate. His fists and feet kicked up a howling gale as he pressed his attack.
After his initial surprise, Dragon's eyes sharpened. He was getting serious.
Dark clouds began to gather in the sky.
A razor-sharp wind howled, and the ground was sliced open, the rocks shattered, faster than any blade.
Jin threw a kick and charged into the storm.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
He shot through the explosion like an arrow, straight at Dragon.
Dragon's body was like a drawn bow. He threw a punch, a hammer blow of raw, violent power.
He had been a prodigy in the Marines, a master of all forms of combat. Years of battle had forged him into a formidable warrior.
His fist was wreathed in Haki, the wind swirling around it, creating a terrifying shockwave.
Before their attacks even connected, they were already clashing in the space between them, sparks flying. It was their Conqueror's Haki.
A powerful shockwave ripped through the area, sending rocks and rubble flying. Even Kuma had to squint his eyes.
Fortunately, Kuma's earlier attack had been so powerful that it had not only destroyed the castle, but had also killed all the nearby guards. The weaker inhabitants had already fled. Otherwise, they would have been knocked unconscious by the clash of Haki.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Their fist and foot collided. From the point of impact, massive cracks radiated outward across the ground.
The small hill on which the castle had stood couldn't withstand the force of their battle, and it began to collapse.
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A strong wind blew, bringing with it the rain from the sea. In the royal capital, the doors were all shut, the streets empty.
After King Bekori's return, he had lost all trust in his people and had moved the royal palace to his family's castle, a naturally defensible position. But a short while ago, that figure had once again stormed the castle.
Soon after, a massive explosion had rocked the fortress.
"KUMA IS BACK!"
"ISN'T HE WANTED BY THE MARINES?"
"IS HE GOING TO DRIVE THE KING OUT AGAIN?"
The news reports of last year's "one-man revolution" had been skewed, but the people of the Sorbet Kingdom knew the truth.
Some of them prayed, hoping that Kuma would once again drive the king away and give them a few days of peace.
"Hmph. What's the use?" others sneered. "No matter how many times he drives the king out, nothing will change. It'll just make King Bekori exploit us even more. It's all his fault. The king was only going to burn the southern slums, but now we're all caught up in it."
Why did he have to fight back?
Why did he have to involve us?
That's what the people in the north were thinking.
The rain fell in a steady drizzle.
Three figures stood on the ruins of the royal palace, looking down at the city.
Below, the palace guards were muttering, expressing their dissatisfaction with Kuma's rebellion.
To the people of the north, what happened to the people of the south was none of their business. But Kuma's resistance had dragged them into it.
And they resented him for it.
Listening to them, Jin was reminded of an old essay.
"When a warrior falls in battle..." he said, his voice carrying over the wind and the rain, echoing through the capital, "—the flies are the first to notice his wounds. They swarm and buzz around his scars, thinking themselves triumphant, thinking themselves more heroic than the fallen warrior, simply because they are whole. But the warrior has already fallen. He can no longer swat them away. And so the flies buzz louder, believing their noise is the sound of truth, for their perfection is far greater than the warrior's. But a flawed warrior is still a warrior. And a perfect fly... is still just a fly... So buzz off, you flies. For all your wings and all your noise, you will never be more than insects."
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