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"Although I don't know how powerful the former Pirate King was."
"But in my opinion, Mr. Ikki might be stronger than Roger himself."
Sadi paused, then pressed on with even more certainty.
"And even if he isn't quite there yet, given enough time..."
"He will definitely surpass the Pirate King."
The words landed differently than anything she had said before. She had already compared Ikki to the Four Emperors, and that had drawn reactions. But this was something else entirely.
Bullet's eyes went wide.
The Four Emperors hadn't meant much to him personally. When he had been captured and thrown into Impel Down, that title hadn't even existed yet. So when Sadi had said Ikki's power surpassed theirs, it had moved him, but only so far.
Roger was different.
In Bullet's heart, Gol D. Roger was a mountain he had never been able to cross. The one man who had ever beaten him. The peak he had spent years of his life straining toward, and never reached. And now this girl was standing in front of him and casually measuring some pirate hunter against that name.
"You're saying Ikki will surpass Roger?"
He asked it quietly, his voice trembling. Not from the venom. From something that had ignited inside him without warning.
"Of course. I wouldn't lie about something like this."
Sadi drew herself up, chest out, expression solemn and certain.
"Hehehe. Hahahaha. Now that is interesting."
"Power surpassing Roger's? This Ikki... I'm increasingly eager to meet him."
Bullet's laughter rolled out of him, loud and genuine.
"You want to meet Lord Ikki that badly?"
Sadi's smile faded. Her eyes narrowed, fixed on him.
"What exactly would you do if you did?"
"What do you think?" Bullet stopped laughing. His gaze steadied, direct and unblinking.
"I would confirm it for myself."
"If his strength doesn't surpass Roger's, I'll kill him."
"But if it does..." A slow grin spread across his face.
"Then that would be even better. I'll crush him with my own fists, and prove once and for all that I have surpassed Roger."
In that moment, something in Bullet's eyes had changed. Something that had been cold for a long time was burning again. Roger was dead, and with him had gone Bullet's chance to surpass him the right way. But if a man existed somewhere out there who carried that same weight, that same ceiling...
Then defeating that man would be the same thing. It would count.
The fire that Roger's death had smothered roared back to life.
"Hmph. A man like you surpass Lord Ikki? Don't make me laugh."
"I'm here. That alone means you'll never get the chance to see him."
Sadi snorted, crossing her arms.
"Sadi-chan is right." Magellan's voice was flat and final. He fixed Bullet with a hard stare.
"With us here, you will never see the outside again. You'll spend the rest of your days in Impel Down. This time, there will be no escape."
"Give it up, Bullet."
"Hehehehe." Bullet grinned, wide and unrepentant, looking between Magellan and Sadi.
"We'll see, Magellan. We'll see."
He had failed this time. That was a fact. But failure was not surrender. When the moment came, he would try again.
Magellan stared at that grin for a long moment. Then he moved.
The Hydra swept forward.
Bullet, already pushed well past his limits, had nothing left to meet it with. The impact crashed through what remained of his consciousness, and he went still. Completely under.
"He's dangerous. We'll need to watch him closely from now on."
Magellan said it quietly, almost to himself.
Beside him, Sadi gave Bullet one last glance, then looked away.
"Let's go, Domino."
"I'm tired. Take me to rest."
Domino nodded immediately.
"Of course, Sadi-chan. Come on, slowly now."
She took Sadi's arm gently, and the two of them made their way toward the corridor connecting the sixth and fifth levels.
None of them noticed, in that moment, what was unfolding elsewhere in the prison. The riot on Level 6, and everything they had done to stop it, had all been watched. Every moment of it, captured on the video Den Den Mushi and observed in real time by the revolutionary prisoners on the 5.5th floor, led by Ivankov.
"That's insane! Magellan is one thing, but how did Sadi-chan get that strong?"
"She mentioned Ikki, didn't she? She trained under him. That has to be it."
"How does that even work? Even if Ikki is some kind of monster, there has to be a limit. You can't just make someone that much stronger that quickly."
"We've seen Sadi-chan through the video Den Den Mushi before. She was strong then too, but what she just showed us is on a completely different level."
"And what was that power, anyway? That sword, those clones. What is any of that?"
The revolutionary prisoners buzzed with it, trading theories back and forth, unable to settle on answers.
"A strange power indeed."
Ivankov, the "Miracle Person" and senior officer of the Revolutionary Army, stroked his enormous chin and turned to the subordinate beside him.
"Lightning. What do you make of what Sadi-chan just showed us?"
Lightning adjusted his sunglasses before answering.
"My best guess is that she ate a Devil Fruit that allows her to split into multiple versions of herself. As for the sword, I think it may have consumed a Devil Fruit as well. Given how it extended the way it did, possibly some kind of Zoan type with snake properties."
"An interesting theory." Ivankov nodded slowly.
"And not an impossible one."
As a senior officer in the Revolutionary Army, Ivankov was well aware that weapons could consume Devil Fruits. The way Sadi's blade had stretched and moved certainly pointed toward something of that nature.
And the clones fit neatly enough with a duplication-type ability. Neither explanation was conclusive, but both were plausible, and that was enough to keep the question sitting uncomfortably in the back of his mind.