Gojo's father had been shot by Saint Jalmack, and the moment the bullet pierced through his body, he collapsed heavily onto the ground.
Blood slowly spread beneath him.
"Father…!"
Young Gojo's eyes widened in horror as he stared at the scene before him, his small body frozen completely in place.
Meanwhile, the moment Gojo's mother saw her husband dying right in front of her eyes, something inside her snapped.
The fear and hesitation that had filled her face earlier disappeared instantly, replaced by fury and desperation.
Without warning, she suddenly moved.
Before the nearby Marine could even properly react, Gojo's mother forcefully snatched the gun from his hands. The Marine's eyes widened in shock as she pulled the weapon away with surprising speed.
And then—
Without the slightest hesitation, she aimed directly toward Saint Jalmack and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
As a former princess, she had once been properly trained in handling firearms and self-defense. Even though years had passed since then, her movements still carried traces of that training.
The bullet shot straight toward Saint Jalmack.
However, she had long been out of practice.
Because of that, her aim missed slightly.
Instead of piercing Saint Jalmack himself, the bullet struck the transparent cuboidal bubble covering his head — the special protective cover all Celestial Dragons wore so they would not have to breathe the same "dirty air" as ordinary humans.
The bubble instantly shattered apart.
Crack!
Fragments of transparent glass-like material exploded everywhere. Several sharp shards flew across Saint Jalmack's face, cutting his skin and leaving multiple thin wounds behind. Tiny streams of blood slowly trickled down his cheeks.
For a brief second, the entire road became silent.
Saint Jalmack himself looked stunned.
Then—
His expression twisted into pure rage.
"You bitch!" he screamed furiously. "You filthy creature… how dare you?!"
His face had become completely ugly with anger.
At that moment, he no longer cared about Gojo's mother's beauty at all.
The humiliation of being injured by someone he considered beneath him had completely consumed his mind.
Without hesitation, Saint Jalmack directly raised his gun again and fired at her.
Bang!
Gojo's mother's body trembled violently after being struck.
The gun slipped from her hands and fell onto the ground with a metallic clatter.
For a moment, her sky-blue eyes slowly turned toward Gojo.
There was pain in them.
Regret.
And deep affection.
Then her body collapsed onto the road beside her husband.
"Mom…?"
Gojo's voice came out trembling and broken.
Meanwhile, Saint Jalmack was breathing heavily in panic and fury. Without his protective bubble, he immediately started feeling disgusted by the surrounding air itself.
"I need to leave here immediately," he said while trying to cover his face. "And inform the others that this kingdom can no longer be incorporated into the World Government."
His voice carried both anger and disgust.
After saying this, Saint Jalmack quickly turned around and left the area with the Marines and guards hurriedly surrounding him protectively.
And it was precisely because of this chaos and urgency that Gojo himself was left alive.
If Saint Jalmack had properly noticed him or looked at him carefully, he would have immediately realized that Gojo was the child of that woman because of the resemblance they shared.
But fortunately—
That never happened.
Afterward, the bodies of Gojo's father and mother were taken away by Gojo's father's younger brother — Gojo's uncle.
The funeral was small and quiet.
The atmosphere throughout the kingdom remained tense after the incident involving the Celestial Dragon. Fear spread everywhere, and many people avoided even speaking about what had happened.
Thankfully, although the king desperately wished to curry favor with the Celestial Dragons and join the World Government, he had not fallen so low as to hunt down an innocent child and his remaining family.
Because of that, Gojo survived.
However, life after that tragedy became extremely difficult for both him and his uncle.
The warmth and happiness that once existed in their small family had disappeared completely that day.
This tragedy had remained deeply suppressed within Gojo's mind until today.
But after seeing Saint Jalmack casually shoot that helpless man in front of everyone, those buried memories had resurfaced once again.
Deep within himself, Gojo had always known certain things.
He knew that he hated the World Government.
He knew that he hated the Celestial Dragons.
As for the Marines… he never truly trusted them either. Somewhere inside his heart, he even resented them for standing by the side of monsters like the Celestial Dragons instead of protecting ordinary people.
But until now, he never fully understood why he hated them so deeply.
He only knew that it had something to do with his parents.
The actual memory itself had been completely sealed away.
It was as though his young mind, unable to endure the overwhelming grief and trauma of witnessing his parents being murdered right before his eyes, had forcefully locked those memories away in order to protect him.
But now—
That seal had broken.
The memory of his father collapsing after being shot…
The memory of his mother desperately fighting back…
The memory of both of them dying before him…
Everything had resurfaced completely.
And the moment those memories returned, something inside Gojo snapped.
Meanwhile, Saint Jalmack, after casually killing the kneeling man earlier, had started walking forward again. But then his eyes suddenly noticed something strange.
Gojo was standing.
He was not kneeling.
The moment Saint Jalmack saw this, anger immediately appeared on his face.
"How dare a lowly creature stand before me?" he said furiously while reaching for his gun again.
Without hesitation, he prepared to shoot Gojo as well.
But before he could—
Something terrifying erupted from Gojo.
A vast pressure exploded outward from his body like an invisible storm.
An overwhelming aura suddenly spread across the entire area.
The atmosphere itself seemed to distort.
The air grew unbearably heavy.
Boom.
The ground beneath many people trembled slightly as the pressure spread outward in all directions.
The civilians nearby widened their eyes in horror before many of them instantly lost consciousness and collapsed onto the ground one after another.
Even several guards surrounding the Celestial Dragon suddenly fainted, their bodies dropping lifelessly where they stood.
Some weaker Marines also collapsed immediately, unable to withstand the monstrous pressure pouring out from Gojo.
The expressions of a few elite World Government agents changed drastically.
"Conqueror's Haki…!" one of them said in shock.
Another agent stared at Gojo with disbelief clearly visible on his face.
"There's no mistake," he muttered. "That young man is releasing Conqueror's Haki!"
At this very moment, the overwhelming grief and rage inside Gojo had become the trigger that awakened his latent power.
The pain of remembering how his parents died before his eyes…
The hatred he felt toward Saint Jalmack…
The resentment buried inside him for years…
All of it erupted together at once.
And through that emotional explosion, Gojo awakened Conqueror's Haki.
But that was not all he was feeling.
Right now, Gojo's emotions were in complete chaos.
His heart was beating violently inside his chest.
Anger surged through his entire body so intensely that even his hands were trembling slightly.
But mixed within that fury—
Was fear.
A deep fear buried within his childhood memories.
The same fear he had felt back then when Saint Jalmack murdered his father without hesitation.
The same helpless terror he had experienced while watching his mother die before him.
And now, after remembering everything, that fear resurfaced once more as Gojo looked directly at Saint Jalmack again.
His breathing became heavier.
His eyes trembled slightly.
Yet the overwhelming aura pouring out from him only became stronger and stronger.
Gojo clenched his fists tightly.
The fear resurfacing from those memories still lingered inside him, clawing at his mind, but he forcefully suppressed it.
His breathing gradually steadied.
Then, inside his heart, he spoke—not only to himself, but also to the real Gojo who had truly experienced all of this.
Because the truth was—
The real Gojo Satoru had already died long ago.
At the age of twelve, when he had been kidnapped by pirates, that original soul had perished, and he had transmigrated into this body afterward.
Meanwhile, the tragedy involving Saint Jalmack had happened when Gojo was only six years old.
So in a way, the child who had helplessly watched his parents die… and the person standing here now… were both connected and yet different.
Still—
Those emotions had become his now.
That hatred had become his now.
That pain had become his now.
Gojo slowly tightened his jaw and made a promise, both to his past self and to himself.
No need to fear anymore.
Today… one of those so-called Gods will fall.
They call themselves Gods, right?
Then I will kill one of them right here.
The moment Gojo made that decision, the aura erupting from him intensified even further.
His Conqueror's Haki became vastly more violent.
The pressure spreading through the surroundings grew so heavy that cracks even started appearing on parts of the ground nearby.
Not only that—
An overwhelming killing intent also burst out from him.
And unlike before, this killing intent was now completely concentrated toward Saint Jalmack and the remaining World Government agents standing around him.
The elite agents instantly felt it.
Their expressions drastically changed.
Cold sweat appeared on several of their foreheads as they felt the terrifying hostility directed toward them.
One of the agents, who appeared to be their leader, immediately shouted, "He's targeting Saint Jalmack! Eliminate him immediately!"
His voice carried urgency now.
"And send a message for backup at once! He is Gojo Satoru—one of the most dangerous criminals currently on the seas! We must treat this threat seriously!"
The remaining World Government agents immediately prepared themselves for battle.
Their bodies tensed.
Weapons were drawn.
Killing intent spread throughout the area.
And then—
One of the elite agents suddenly vanished from his spot using Shave.
Boom!
The ground beneath him cracked from the explosive movement speed.
In the next instant, he appeared directly beside Gojo and launched a Finger Pistol toward him with lethal precision. His finger shot forward like a bullet aimed directly at Gojo's head.
However—
The attack suddenly stopped just inches away from Gojo.
The agent's eyes widened slightly.
It was as though an invisible wall existed between them.
Gojo remained completely motionless.
Then slowly—
He removed his sunglasses.
His cold eyes turned toward the agent.
At the same time, Gojo's hand moved toward the hilt of the sword resting on his back.
The instant his fingers wrapped around the hilt—
The World Government agent's instincts screamed danger.
His expression changed drastically.
Retreat!
That thought flashed through his mind instantly.
But he was too late.
A brilliant flash suddenly appeared.
Gojo's sword moved with such terrifying speed that the slash was almost invisible to the naked eye.
Shing!
For a brief moment, silence filled the area.
Then—
A deep diagonal cut suddenly appeared across the World Government agent's body.
Blood burst outward violently.
The slash had carved so deeply through him that even bones and internal organs had been cleanly severed. The wound extended diagonally across nearly his entire body.
The agent's eyes lost focus almost immediately.
Then his body split apart and collapsed onto the ground in two separate pieces.
He died almost instantly.
The surrounding agents froze for a moment after witnessing the scene.
This alone showed just how terrifying Gojo's strength currently was.
In the world of One Piece, especially among elite World Government agents with powerful physiques and training, people did not die so easily from a single attack.
Yet this elite agent had been killed instantly—
With just one sword strike from Gojo.
And the fury radiating from Gojo only continued to grow stronger.
----
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