– Bellamy –?

  "I'M NOT LOSING EVER AGAIN! NOT TO YOU AND NOT TO ANYONE ELSE!" I declared loud enough that the seas answering my call shifted the surroundings ships away. "I'M GOING TO BE THE STRONGEST MAN ALIVE!!!"

  If my declaration of intent impressed the old veteran, he didn't show it. Neither did I care if I'd impressed him, for that statement had not been meant for anyone other than myself.

  "Big dreams, squirt! BUTO!!"

  "RAIKEN!"

  It was a simple articulation of fact, an assertion of my will and the proclamation of the reality I was going to create.

  Let's pause here for a moment before going any further, shall we? Imagine that you were watching a movie or an anime or whatever flight of fancy that your mind decided to turn my life into for your twisted sense of entertainment. And then imagine that someone pressed the PAUSE button just as the big guy and I were about to enter into round two. Just for a moment so I can point out something rather important in case of any potential misunderstandings. Won't even take a minute, I promise.

  Well.

  It'll probably take a fair bit longer depending on your reading speed but I don't care.

  So, here's the thing.

  Me dying from embarrassment aside; my big, dramatic declaration didn't have the sort of effect that some may have expected. I didn't suddenly find new reserves of strength; I didn't suddenly get better at using my devil fruit nor did I suddenly think of a more intelligent plan to win this duel beyond punching Chinjao repeatedly in the face until he stayed down.

  And I definitely did NOT unlock conqueror's haki.

  Anybody who cared enough to dig a little deeper into the mechanics of my current universe should know that conqueror's haki was a bullshit power. At first introduced as a way to enforce your will upon another and knock them unconscious, we soon saw hints of other effects such as the clash of wills (and blades) between Shanks and Whitebeard cleaving the heavens asunder. But until this point, conqueror's haki – while powerful – was still clearly a separate and distinct tool with specific use cases that people could do without. Those with sufficiently strong willpower could resist it and fight a wielder of this third form of haki on a relatively level playing field.

  Apparently Oda didn't like that.

  Which is why he introduced the concept known as Conqueror's Coating/Cladding that made armament haki essentially obsolete. How did Kaido put it again after Luffy failed hurt him in any meaningful way? Right. ADVANCED. EMITTED. ARMAMENT HAKI was too SHALLOW to make it through Kaido's conqueror's cladding. Yeah. Let that sink in for a moment. Yes, Luffy had learned that technique only hours prior and was probably no master by any stretch of the imagination, but still.

  In the same arc that Oda introduced the advanced form of armament, he nerfed it into oblivion. Meaning that if someone wanted to fight the Yonko or even some of their more senior officers and most of the admiralty on an even footing, the hereditary form of haki was no longer a nice ace to have up one's sleeves but the entire deck that one needed to play the game instead.

  Three guesses for which form of haki I happened NOT to have and the first two don't count.

  Don Chinjao on the other hand, very much did. Sure, Luffy took him down without too much difficulty during the Dressrosa arc but that would only be after another year of severe depression reduced Garp's former rival into a dried-out husk. However, unlike his future counterpart, my Chinjao was still fully capable of mustering up the will needed to infuse his body with conqueror's haki.

  Which all went to say that I was doing a remarkably little amount of progress in fixing his conqueror's coated head.

  My Raiken, for lack of a better word, bounced off of Chinjao's thick skull. It also sent the man careening past me and through one of his own ships, but sadly that provided only a pale comfort because not long after disappearing from sight behind a cloud of dust and splinters, the old man resurfaced with an armful of cannon balls which he began flinging at me with a surprising amount of gung-ho.

  "Oi, that could have hurt!"

  "It was meant to, you stupid brat!"

  Obviously, he'd picked up a trick or two in his decades long rivalry with Garp. I easily deflected the first with my spring shield, only to realize that turtling up was only going to encourage the man to pepper me with more. A lot more. Thus convinced I caught the next one, my arm stretching as I extended the cannon balls deceleration over the span of a dozen meters to reduce its impact. Those same meters then served to catapult the projectile back towards the original owner with all the strength I could muster.

  "Then let's see how you fucking like it!"

  "Hah!"

  The sound barrier was broken in an instant, the metal surface glowing red hot as air friction got to work in turning the black sphere into a veritable comet. Chinjao backhanded it out of his way in an almost negligent manner…not that I'd expected anything else from my opponent.

  "That all you've got, you little squirt?"

  "You wish!"

  If I could deal with his cannon balls, it stood to reason that he could do the same to mine. However, in briefly occupying Chinjao's arm it had more than fulfilled its purpose. Taking advantage of the opening, I bodily drove my feet into the largest part of his anatomy, which wasn't protected by his currently limited conqueror's haki. His rotund gut. While I did get clapped across the head by a conqueror's coated hand for my troubles, making my brain bounce around painfully within my cranium, this did mark the first time I'd scored a solid hit on my opponent.

  In light of these circumstances, maybe shaking my head to clear it hadn't been the brightest Idea I'd ever had, but I nonetheless made to pursue as soon as I was able. Consequently, by the time Chinjao had stopped bouncing painfully across the waves and regained his orientation, I was already on him with one hand outstretched and holding a familiar object.

  "REJECT!"

  Unfortunately, dizzy as I was, I was slightly too slow to prevent Chinjao from interposing his arms between my dial and his fragile abdomen. Thus, instead of seeing the aged pirate puking up his guts, I merely sent him crashing through three battleships. Considering that their owner's head was harder than their hulls combined, this meant very little in the grand scheme of things, proven when Chinjao returned with his white beard billowing menacingly around him.

  "Childish tricks." He scoffed. "If that's all you've got, then you have no chance of claiming Whitebeard's throne."

  "Says you."

  "Reality doesn't change because you don't like it. You can't even beat me in my current sorry state and you don't have conqueror's haki either, whereas Whitebeard was someone who fought his way to the top amongst a legion of conquerors." Chinjao's voice, as angry as it was, almost took on a hint of pity. "Give up. Becoming the strongest man alive isn't something a brat like you should dream about."

  For some reason, that pity hurt me more than anything else.

  "You're not half bad for a brat. Find a more realistic goal instead of longing for something that's impossible to reach."

  "Can you give up on your treasures, Don Chinjao?" I asked, looking down upon him from on top of a mast.

  "Of course I can't!" Chinjao snapped, the pity disappearing. "How dare you ask me that?"

  "Neither can I give up on my dream so easily. It wouldn't be called a dream otherwise."

  "Then you're a fool."

  "I know."

  My fist met his with the sound of rumbling thunder again and again, my strength straining against his own and my haki against his. And slowly, I began landing more blows than he, at first an extra one every so often but soon two or even three to one of his. Perhaps it was his advancing age, but for whatever reason my opponent was beginning to flag. His speed slowed down noticeably and his breath became increasingly uneven. Yet, throughout it all his blows lost none of their vigor and his defense had all but turned into an iron wall.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Whenever I failed to perform a perfect parry, his conqueror's haki unerringly messed up my insides and my arms groaned with every strike he blocked in turn. I lost myself a little bit in that furious exchange, letting go of every superfluous thought. I couldn't afford not to. All notions of fixing Chinjao's noggin became a luxury as did the intention of ending this battle in an amicable way. Instead, all my cognitive computational power was redirected towards one thought and one thought only.

  How was I going to beat the guy standing in my way?

  Perhaps this was the Zone that some people talked about, a state of hyper focused concentration that pushed everything to the wayside which wasn't immediately conducive to obtaining victory. Punches had to be crisper, my steps more efficient. Waste and excess I hadn't known I had, shaved away in search of an ideal state. In hindsight, the resulting change hadn't been anything massive, but it was enough to make Chinjao reconsider his current course of action.

  Unsure of the outcome should he continue to engage me in a battle where I held the initiative by virtue of my faster speed, the aged veteran chose to flip the board. Like I'd done previously, Don Chinjao disengaged, diving towards the ocean beneath us when I gave chase. The wave of water he splashed in my direction was easily dodged, this very move having been one I'd been wary off for the entirety of our duel. I hadn't been prepared for Chinjao to take a page out of my book and come barreling through the wave to shoulder tackle me into the sea.

  Had I not created a platform beneath myself out of one of my springs, he may have succeeded. As it was, I managed to roll to my feet before attempting to jump away and regain some distance. Alas, before I could escape a meaty hand struck out faster than a viper and trapped my ankle in an iron grip.

  "Oh shit!"

  "Gotcha!"

  My head made a beautiful ringing sound once Chinjao smashed it into my own platform. He'd likely have done so multiple times like the Hulk did to Loki in that one movie, if I hadn't dissolved the leg he was holding into individual springs and reformed the appendage once I was out of his reach.

  "Tricky little bugger, that's what you are, Springtrap-kun."

  "…spring hopper."

  "And stubborn too."

  One jump, two jumps, three jumps, four.

  Five jumps, six jumps, seven jumps, more.

  "You're fast, but do you honestly believe that's enough to overcome a lack of conqueror's haki?"

  Geppou. Coil Chassis. Thunder Cloak.

  "Squirt, you're a hundred years too early to covet Whitebeard's throne."

  Tekkai to harden. Armament to strengthen. Lightning to pierce.

  "And I'm going to make sure that lesson sticks."

  Everything I could think of; everything I'd accomplished packed into a single fist.

  "Drill-less Dragon Drill-less Nail!"

  And delivered to my target via quantum's tunneling effect. Bypassing the protective layer of haki cladding the exterior of his head. All the force I could muster being applied straight to his bony cranium like a lightning strike from god.

  "Mj?lnir!!!"

  I felt something give way. And it wasn't my hand.

  "Hrrk?!?"

  A majestic peak arose once more in the lands of Kano.

  – Ross –?

  Myskina Alcier was a genius. How else was one supposed to describe someone who'd solved a centuries long impossibility to save his daughter's life? While like most geniuses, Alcier was lacking in areas of general common sense due to their skewed perspective of the world, there was no doubt that he was a genius when it came to matters of alchemy.

  Ross was not a genius. He was, however, a rather paranoid person as he'd so often stated himself. And if there was one thing a paranoid person was good at, it was at finding problems and dangers around every corner before coming up with over-the-top solutions to deal with those dangers. The more paranoid someone was, the stronger this tendency became. While certainly debilitating if left unchecked, this part of Ross' character had honed another aspect into a very sharp blade.

  Namely, his creativity. And when one combined those two qualities inherent in these two individuals, it resulted in something wonderful.

  "Come down and fight me!"

  "I will if you stop using your big pointy stick!"

  Mind you, Ross wasn't talking about his new Jet-dial Emission Torrent Propelled Anti-gravity Carrier Kit. Or JET PACK for short. As useful as it was in keeping Ross beyond the range of Sai's naginata, it wasn't anything truly original. Laki had created something similar for Fuza nearly a year ago to forcibly increase the old bird's upper speed limit.

  No, that honor went to Ross' new gauntlet.

  "Hewitt, I need a minute."

  "Gotcha."

  More specifically, the material composing said gauntlet. From the moment that Alcier had been introduced to Skypiea's dials, the man's inner scientist had been hooked like a junkie to the world's most fabulous drug. Dials didn't obey the classic rules of physics, at least according to Bellamy, and had opened a new horizon of potential research for the alchemist. Thus, when Ross asked if creating a metal alloy with the shock absorbing properties of impact dials were possible, Alcier had grinned (maniacally) and said, "Let's find out!"

  Many months after Alcier began his new project, it turned out that yes, it was possible. Once the material was created, forging the Vibranium into a gauntlet had been a trivial task after that. While nowhere near as efficient as the impact dials they were based on, Ross' new equipment had been more than sufficient to negate Sai's family trick. It was unfortunate that despite everything, the vice commander of the Happo Navy was better at pure fisticuffs but that was where the gauntlet's ranged options came into play.

  "Ok, I'm ready!" Ross called out to his crew mate, who – more or less successfully – was keeping their foe trapped within a whirlwind of chains and knives. Periodically a spray of metal fragments would scatter about the place whenever Sai shattered a segment of his encirclement, but for now he hadn't been able to break out. Not that it stopped him from trying, as the man continued to destroy Hewitt's chains almost as quickly as he could renew them.

  "About time! This guy's annoyingly persistent!"

  One open palm pointed at his target, the other grasping his wrist for added stability. His jet pack's setting configured for further support. The focusing device centered on his gauntlet began glowing white.

  "Have a taste of the-move-which-I-haven't-named-yet!"

  "What kind of shitty name is that?!?"

  What was released wasn't composed of physical matter, no matter the visual similarities to one of Laki's plasma bolts. Had it been, then Sai's attempt to block it may have been more successful. Unfortunately for the commander, what Ross unleashed upon him was the sum total of every scrap of force the gauntlet had experienced since its creation. A not insignificant portion of which had been contributed by Sai himself.

  "Upon my honor as the vice commander of the Happo Navy, I swear I SHALL NOT FALL!!!"

  Still, Sai hadn't been appointed to his post for nothing. Upon realizing that his naginata wasn't going to halt the incoming blast, the officer made the split-second position to brace himself for impact. And true to his word, by the time the smoke cleared, Sai had not fallen. Bruised and battered he may have been, but he stood tall and defiant with his naginata bearing only a minor 99% of his weight which his legs no longer could.

  "Seriously, go take a nap already!"

  When Bellamy popped over not long after that with an unconscious Don Chinjao dangling from his grip, Hewitt mercifully put Sai to sleep before adding his voice to Lily's call for the Happo Navy's surrender. Which they eventually did once it became clear that the entirety of their senior leadership had been put out of commission and was being held hostage.

  But…Ross would probably never understand why Hewitt felt it necessary to knock Sai out with a headbutt.

  Why?