Black-and-red lightning flashed violently, flooding the battlefield with light as the two figures rushed toward each other. Their eyes locked for an instant, sparks stretching between them before both broke into excited grins.
"So even eight hundred years later, someone this strong exists in the world!" Luffy laughed.
His fists blurred into a storm of punches, filling an area nearly a hundred meters wide.
"Legends about you have survived all this time," Kojin laughed, raising both fists to meet him. "That's exactly why I woke you up. Show me how strong the Warrior of Liberation really is!"
Their fists turned into little more than afterimages before colliding head-on.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A nonstop series of explosions echoed across the skies of the Sabaody Archipelago as lightning poured down from above. The deafening noise was so intense that people all across the island turned toward the battlefield in shock.
"What the hell is happening over there?" a Marine officer whispered, staring in disbelief.
Behind him, the other Marines stood with their mouths agape. Even from a distance, they could clearly see that the sky had turned black and red. The clouds had been split cleanly apart, endless bolts of lightning crashing down through the gap.
"What kind of terrifying presence is that? I can barely breathe!"
"Are two monsters fighting over there?"
"Conqueror's Haki… how can Conqueror's Haki be this strong?!"
All across the archipelago, everyone who witnessed the scene was left stunned.
Back on the battlefield, Bartholomew Kuma looked up at the two figures trading punches in midair. Even he was shocked, he had never witnessed power on this scale before.
His expression turned serious as he glanced toward the Straw Hat crew nearby, who were beginning to stir after being shaken by the earlier shockwaves. If he wanted to save them, this was his best chance.
Kuma looked up once more. Kojin and Luffy were completely absorbed in their fight, fists colliding without pause.
He stopped hesitating and stepped forward.
Almost instantly, Kuma appeared in front of Usopp.
Still dazed, Usopp slowly looked up.
"If you could travel anywhere…" Kuma spoke calmly, "…where would you like to go?"
"Huh?" Usopp stared blankly.
Kuma brought his palm down.
BANG!
Usopp vanished.
Then Kuma moved again.
BANG!
Sanji disappeared.
Step after step, Kuma continued swinging his palms.
Franky.
Brook.
Chopper.
Nami.
Robin.
One after another, they vanished from the battlefield, sent flying into the distance inside bubble-like shockwaves.
"With your current strength, you aren't even ready to face one ten-thousandth of that man's power," Kuma murmured, watching the distant bubbles disappear into the sky. "Leaving is your best option."
The next instant, Kuma vanished, only for Rayleigh to appear directly in front of him with ice-cold eyes.
"What did you do to them?"
Kuma leaned in slightly and lowered his voice. "Please don't worry. They're unharmed. We have the same goal. What matters now is figuring out how to save Straw Hat."
Rayleigh froze. Then both men turned back toward the battle in the sky, their expressions grave.
The fight had already reached a fever pitch. Kojin and Luffy stood face-to-face, throwing punch after punch with almost no attempt to dodge. It was pure brute force against brute force, Conqueror's Haki erupting wildly with every collision.
"You're strong!!" Luffy shouted.
For the first time, he could clearly feel the pressure. The strength pouring from Kojin seemed endless, like an ocean without a shore. But what was even more unnerving was his instinct, he could sense that an even more terrifying power was still hidden behind everything Kojin had shown so far.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Their fists continued colliding, neither side gaining the upper hand, yet both were grinning wildly.
"HAHAHAHAHA! This is great!" Kojin laughed loudly. "It's been a long time since I've been able to throw punches this freely! Joy Boy, you really do live up to your legend!"
"I'm having fun too! HAHAHAHAHA!" Luffy laughed just as loudly. "It's just a shame this fight can't last much longer. After all, I'm someone who already disappeared into history!"
The expression on Luffy's face was mature yet cheerful, completely different from the teenage Luffy everyone knew.
The two exchanged another five hundred punches before blasting apart at high speed.
Luffy suddenly burst into laughter as his body rapidly expanded. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a giant nearly a hundred meters tall.
"So this is what fighting with complete freedom looks like?" Kojin smiled. "You really do have an absurd number of ways to fight."
"Take this!" Luffy roared, bringing a gigantic foot crashing down.
At this size, both his body and strength were no different from a true giant's. Kojin flickered and vanished, easily avoiding the stomp.
BOOM!
The earth shook violently, then bounced upward, under Luffy's power, even the ground had turned to rubber.
"HAHAHAHA! You're fast!" Luffy laughed as his enormous fists began raining down toward Kojin.
At over nine meters tall, Kojin was huge by ordinary standards, but compared to Giant Luffy, he looked almost like a mosquito. The battle suddenly looked like someone firing cannons at a fly.
"When it comes to raw strength…" Kojin smiled calmly, drawing back his right fist, "…I won't lose to anyone."
BOOM!
A fist as huge as a house slammed right into Kojin's own, and stopped. It couldn't move forward another inch.
Luffy's eyes widened. He clearly hadn't expected Kojin's raw physical strength to match his even after becoming a giant. After all, the awakened Nika Fruit didn't just inflate his body with air; it made him a true giant, giving him an enormous boost in power.
Yet Kojin could still meet him head-on.
Then Luffy felt something strange at his right arm. His eyes widened again as he realized Kojin had already shifted up to his wrist.
Kojin pivoted into a shoulder throw, and what happened next was beyond ridiculous: Luffy's colossal body actually left the ground. Kojin was lifting him through sheer brute strength.
'JUST HOW STRONG IS THIS GUY?!'
The world spun, and a moment later,
BOOM!
Luffy was slammed hard into the earth, shattering the ground beneath him.
"Being bigger doesn't automatically make you stronger!" Kojin laughed. "But if you insist on comparing size… I'm bigger than you!"
Kojin's neck stretched upward as his head began rapidly expanding, his black hair transforming into thick, rope-like strands that whipped through the air. His body grew along with it.
In an instant, Kojin reached a hundred meters tall, and he didn't stop there.
He kept growing. And growing. And growing.
It was as though an endless amount of air were being pumped into his body, expanding his frame with massive quantities of newly formed flesh.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred.
Three hundred.
Four hundred.
His growth only stopped when he reached nearly five hundred meters tall.
A five-hundred-meter body was far beyond the scale of a normal giant. A creature that massive naturally radiated an overwhelming pressure that made anyone watching tremble instinctively.
What unsettled everyone even more, however, was Kojin's appearance. His human features were almost completely gone, replaced by a streamlined, fish-like head with smooth black skin and eyes along the sides.
"He's transforming into his beast form…" Rayleigh said gravely, sweat dripping down his forehead. "And I 'still' can't tell what Devil Fruit this is!"
What shocked him even more than Kojin's sheer size was that this still didn't appear to be a complete transformation. Despite reaching nearly five hundred meters, the only major changes were his facial structure and the wings on his back. From a distance, he looked like a colossal god wearing a black mask, only a pair of cold eyes visible.
"This is only the smallest size of my beast form!" Kojin's voice thundered through the air.
Kuma's pupils contracted, his massive body trembling. Beside him, Rayleigh tightened his grip on his sword.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Rayleigh muttered. "Nearly five hundred meters, and that's still the minimum?"
If this was only his smallest form, how enormous would Kojin become if he transformed completely into his true Zoan state?
"What kind of Devil Fruit did he eat?" Kuma murmured.
That was the question on everyone's mind. Standing before them was a majestic, mysterious entity whose colossal frame inspired sheer awe.
Then, he moved.
The titan stepped forward, bringing a foot down toward Luffy, who was still lying on the ground. Luffy's waist suddenly twisted in a bizarre way, coiling around Kojin's leg while infused with Conqueror's Haki.
"Trying to act like chewing gum?" Kojin smiled. He lifted his leg, and slammed it down.
"THAT'S DANGEROUS!!" Luffy screamed, his eyeballs practically popping out of his head. His twisted body snapped back into shape and shot away like a released spring, bouncing backward across the ground.
A moment later, he reached upward into the storm. "HAHAHAHAHA!"
A bolt of lightning crashed down, and Luffy caught it right in his hand. To everyone's shock, the lightning rapidly reshaped itself in his grip, hardening into a spear.
"As long as my imagination is strong enough, I can do anything!" Luffy laughed. "This is the ultimate power!"
He hurled the lightning spear straight at Kojin.
WHOOSH!
In an instant, the bolt reached him.
"The power of imagination…" Kojin murmured thoughtfully. "If you can imagine it, you can make it happen."
Clearly, the Nika Fruit was far more complicated than its name or outward abilities suggested. Its true power lay in imagination.
Imagine yourself as a giant, and you become one.
Imagine lightning as a spear, and you can grab it with your bare hands.
Imagine flames as leaves, and you can manipulate them just as easily.
That was the true nature of the Nika Fruit.
"What an interesting Devil Fruit," Kojin laughed. "Seriously… this is fascinating!"
Then he opened his mouth wide, and the lightning spear flew straight inside, disappearing without causing even the slightest disturbance.
Kojin grinned. "Now then… why don't you see what my Devil Fruit can do?"
"The Power of Devouring!"
(End of Chapter)
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