"Are you planning to tickle me with that piece of firewood? Toss it and grab your gauntlets or a real weapon," Ace said, his gaze lingering on the dusty wooden sword for a second as he frowned in annoyance.
"I don't want to beat some guy who can't even pick a proper weapon, just to have Luffy's big mouth blabbing about it everywhere later!"
"No need."
Zaraki flicked his wrist, the dry wood grain scratching lightly against his palm.
His instincts from the Kenpachi Zaraki template told him this kid was annoying, but a raw itch for the coming fight still stirred inside him.
He looked up, restless energy boiling deep in his eyes.
"This piece of wood is enough for you, because if I end up killing you by accident, Garp will make things a pain in the ass when he gets back."
The real blade resting in his System Space never left his mind, but Zaraki had no intention of exposing the Asauchi in front of the villagers for a mere farewell match.
"You bastard... stop looking down on me!"
Ace's face turned red with anger at the insult, but just as he was about to explode, a sudden chill shot up his spine.
In that split second, Ace was stunned to see the lazy Zaraki across from him change.
Even though Zaraki kept his relaxed posture, Ace felt like the guy's presence had stretched outward, turning into a grinning beast!
The feeling of being targeted by an apex predator made Ace hold his breath, his palms getting slick with cold sweat as he tightened his grip on his steel pipe.
"Hey! Stop staring at each other like that!" Luffy yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth.
"Hurry up and fight! The meat's getting cold, and I wanna see that whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sword stuff!"
Luffy's shout broke the weird tension in the air, easing the heavy pressure a little.
Ace shook his head hard, trying to throw off that creeping sense of danger.
'What a joke! I'm gonna be the Pirate King! How the hell could I be scared by a guy who hasn't even stepped foot on the sea?'
"Good, very good," Ace said, taking a deep breath and bending his knees, digging a shallow groove into the dirt with his feet.
"Since you're so eager to die, I'll give you what you want. Zaraki, in ten moves, I'll have you begging to switch weapons!"
"Ten moves?" Zaraki chuckled as if he had just heard a joke, his head hanging low while his shoulders trembled with a muffled, almost crazy laugh.
With that laugh, the power leaking from his newly awakened template spilled out more violently than before.
The villagers suddenly felt as if a huge rock had been dropped onto their chests, and a few of the older people nearly collapsed when their legs gave out.
This was spiritual pressure—raw and unrefined.
Even though Zaraki had only unlocked five percent of the template, to ordinary people in East Blue it already felt like a natural disaster.
Even Luffy, who had been yelling a second ago, now stood frozen, mouth hanging open as he grabbed the wooden post beside him for support.
Standing right in the middle of that pressure, Ace took the full brunt of it.
For a moment, he felt as if a scarred demon was looming behind Zaraki, raising a jagged blade toward the sky with a silent roar.
"Come at me, Ace." Zaraki snapped his head up, his eyes blazing with wild excitement as a sharp grin spread across his face.
"Forget ten moves. The current me... I'm having a hard time holding back."
'What the hell is this pressure?!' Ace's breath hitched.
Every hair on his body stood on end, as if he were being hunted by some monster.
His instincts screamed at him to retreat, but his pride nailed his feet to the dirt.
'No... I can't back down! If I run here, how can I ever set sail? How can I ever face this bastard again?!'
His face burned with shame, but that feeling quickly turned into fuel. Ace roared, trying to drown out the fear in his chest with sheer stubbornness.
The ground under his feet cracked into a shallow crater as he launched himself at Zaraki like a cannonball, charging forward with the reckless force of a desperate gamble.
Closer!
Ten meters, five meters, two meters!
Ace raised the pipe high, the wind whistling as he swung it down with everything he had toward Zaraki's shoulder.
He did not hold back at all.
But in his vision, Zaraki only smiled.
It was the smile of someone enjoying the fight far too much.
'Too slow,' Zaraki thought, with enough time to judge the attack calmly.
With Beast Instinct and the Kenpachi template amplifying his perception, Ace's movements looked sluggish, almost like they were happening in slow motion.
Every shift of muscle, every breath, every twitch was painfully clear.
He didn't dodge.
He didn't block.
Instead, he simply gripped the wooden sword with both hands and brought it down in a brutally direct swing.
Boom!
The wooden sword crashed into the steel pipe, and at the instant of impact, the pressure packed into Zaraki's body burst outward through the blade.
It was not a refined slash, nor any true sword technique—just raw spiritual pressure discharged violently through a swing.
Ace felt as if he had slammed into a falling mountain.
The steel pipe in his hands shuddered violently, nearly flying free, and the skin between his fingers tore open on the spot.
A massive force surged through his arm and into the rest of his body.
Pfft—
Ace did not even have time to scream before he was blasted backward like a dead leaf caught in a storm, flying away at nearly twice the speed he had charged in with.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
His body smashed through three layers of wooden crates stacked outside the tavern before finally slamming hard into the trunk of a distant coconut tree.
The impact shook several ripe coconuts loose, sending them crashing to the ground as a cloud of dust rose around him.
The entire area fell silent.
Only the distant sound of sea wind could still be heard.
Zaraki remained in the finishing posture of his swing, the wooden sword groaning under the force he had poured into it as hairline cracks spread across its surface.
Slowly, he straightened.
The end of the fight did nothing to calm the blood rushing through his veins.
If anything, it burned even hotter.
'This... is real power.'
It was a weight that came from the soul itself, far beyond anything that could be gained through ordinary physical training alone.
He glanced toward Ace, who had been knocked unconscious amid the shattered crates, then lowered his gaze to the battered wooden sword in his hand.
The rough blade was now covered in spiderweb cracks, with splintered spots exposing the pale grain beneath.
The wild light in his eyes gradually faded, returning to clarity, though a faint smirk still tugged at the corner of his mouth.
At that moment, the familiar mechanical voice echoed in his mind once more.
[Host has achieved a crushing victory in their first battle, significantly increasing mental resonance.]
[Template fusion progress: 5.3%]
[Reward generated: Kenpachi Zaraki's exclusive skill (Stage 1) available for claiming.]
[Obtained Item : Modified Nutritional Express (Vanilla Flavor)]
[Obtained Item : Awakening Token]
'So this is the follow-up reward...'
A pale blue screen, visible only to Zaraki, hovered in front of him, partly obscuring the drifting dust from where Ace had crashed.
He looked down at the ruined sword in his hand.
"The quality was still too shit," he muttered with a click of his tongue, tossing the useless stick aside.
With a soft thud, the wooden sword hit the dirt and snapped cleanly in two, rolling down the slope until it stopped near Luffy's feet.
That tiny movement was like a trigger, finally snapping the stunned crowd out of their daze.
"Whoa—!"
Luffy forgot all about the meat in his hand, his eyes going round as his jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
He looked at Ace sprawled out in the distance, then back at Zaraki, who had casually thrown his weapon away.
Like a loaded spring, Luffy jumped off the barrel.
"Zaraki! What the hell was that?! That whoosh—then boom—thing!" the boy shouted, wildly swinging his greasy arms around to mimic the attack, paying absolutely no attention to whether his other brother was dead or alive.
Zaraki ignored the loudmouth and looked past him toward the coconut tree in the distance.
The stubborn Ace lay there spread-eagled in a heap of broken wood, his chest still rising and falling heavily.
Even though he looked badly beaten, with blood at the corner of his mouth, his life force was still strong.
'He won't die.'
Of course he wouldn't.
This was Ace. If he could not survive a blow like that, the standards of this world would be a joke.
After confirming that his reckless brother was not about to croak, Zaraki finally looked away and pulled a handkerchief from inside his robe.
Makino had forced it on him earlier, saying it was for wiping sweat, but right now it was perfect for cleaning the lingering dust and splinters from his hands.
A light sea breeze drifted in from the shore, carrying the salty smell of the ocean and gradually dispersing the suffocating pressure that had filled the area.
Zaraki turned his attention back to the floating screen.
Just five percent of the template had already let him crush the current Ace with brute strength and raw spiritual pressure alone.
'So what kind of exclusive skill is this?'
His eyes fixed on the flashing golden question mark.
In the Bleach world, Kenpachi Zaraki was famous for having no interest in flashy abilities, complicated movement techniques, or Kido.
His fighting style was brutally simple: strike harder, cut deeper, and overwhelm everything in front of him.
Zaraki's heartbeat quickened.
'If it's that move... the one that doesn't require a release...'
His fingers twitched unconsciously, as though they were already wrapping around the hilt of a real sword.
The urge to swing, to cut, to test the limits of this new power still pounded in his veins.
He exhaled slowly, shutting out Luffy's nonstop shouting beside him.
Then, with a small shift of focus, he tapped the golden icon.
'Since I've been thrown into this world of monsters, let's see how far this cheat can take me.'
[Confirm reward claim?]
"Confirm," he answered inwardly.
In an instant, the floating golden icon shattered into countless fragments of light, which surged together like streams rushing into the sea before pouring straight into Zaraki's eyes.