I'll Collect Your Corpse Someday

A battered warship floated through the air at a steady pace. Two figures stood and sat atop it.

Golden Lion Shiki stood, while Oak sat. Oak looked thoroughly displeased, his face so swollen that it was only slightly better than Pighead's. Clearly, he had lost their clash against Golden Lion, and for the first time in his life, someone had broken through his defenses. He sank into a gloomy silence.

"Jihahahahaha!"

Seeing Oak's dejection, Shiki burst into laughter.

"Brat, what do you have to be depressed about? I'm the one who should be depressed! I had to go all out just to finally break through your defenses. What the hell did you grow up eating? Your defenses are even tougher than Linlin's!"

As he spoke, Shiki stomped angrily, making the entire ship shudder. He had needed to go all out just to break the defenses of a teenage brat who could not use any Armament Haki. It would be humiliating if word got out. If the others on the island found out, they would laugh their teeth out.

That was right. Oak could not use Armament Haki at all. Not only Armament Haki, but he could not use Observation Haki either. Having grown up in the West Blue and lived only within a small stretch of sea, he had never had the chance to come into contact with such powers, much less learn them. The only Haki he knew was Conqueror's Haki, which he had awakened only recently.

The reason he possessed such formidable combat power, enough to severely wound five CP0 agents while at less than a tenth of his strength and force Shiki to go all out to break his defenses, was entirely due to his innate talent. He possessed defenses like steel and iron, monstrous strength surpassing that of Sea Kings, and combat experience and techniques honed through war and slaughter.

He had another talent as well: he only needed to see someone else's move once to learn it. For example, the Six Powers he had used in his fight against Shiki were mastered during his battle with CP0. The same was true of Hasshoken, which he had learned in the West Blue from hostile mercenaries from the Country of Flowers.

Oak rose to his feet. With short blue hair, fair skin, a lean build, and a height of two meters, he looked nothing like a monster possessing freakish strength and defenses of steel and iron. He shot Golden Lion Shiki a sidelong glance and said irritably, "Why were you looking for me?"

"Didn't I tell you? Rocks wanted to see you. Not just you, either. There's also a brat named Kaido from the Vodka Kingdom. I heard you two have made quite a name for yourselves, so Rocks has taken an interest in you. Newgate and I happened to be bored lately, so we each came to find one of you."

Shiki replied with a lazy expression.

Oak nodded. If Rocks had sought him out alone, he could not have determined the man's intentions. But since Rocks had also sent for Kaido, and Whitebeard had been dispatched for him, Oak was certain that Rocks intended to recruit him into the Rocks Pirates. After all, in the original story, Kaido joined the Rocks Pirates through Whitebeard's hands this very year.

Oak remembered that Kaido, who joined the Rocks Pirates at this time in the original story, had merely been an apprentice.

If he joined at the same age as Kaido, he would probably hold a similar position. Though he could not judge who was stronger between himself and Kaido at this stage, even if he were stronger, it would not be by much. Before eating the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon, Kaido had been a genuine monster as well. At the age of ten, he already possessed the strength to destroy a nation by himself, and like Oak, he had escaped from the Marines after being betrayed by his own country.

With strength like that, joining the monster-filled Rocks Pirates would only make him an ant beneath their feet.

Although Shiki kept saying that he had needed to go all out to break Oak's defenses, Oak did not believe a word of it. From beginning to end, he had never seen Shiki display Conqueror's Haki, much less its advanced technique, Conqueror's Haki Infusion. As for the idea that Shiki, who would one day stand alongside Whitebeard and Roger as one of the three legendary pirates, had not mastered Conqueror's Haki Infusion at this age, Oak believed that even less.

In other words, once he joined the Rocks Pirates, he and Kaido would be the lowest of the low, free to be bullied by their seniors with little ability to fight back.

Even after considering all these issues, Oak ultimately decided that if Rocks truly invited him to join, he would not refuse. It was not because he feared Rocks would make things difficult for him over a refusal. Given Rocks's personality, he would not do that.

Rather, Oak believed that being among monsters in the Rocks Pirates would allow him to grow stronger quickly. Strength was what he craved most after arriving in this dangerous world, and a thrilling life was what he had always pursued. In this era, what could be more exciting than joining the Rocks Pirates and attempting to overthrow the world alongside a group of villains?

With that thought in mind, he turned and glanced at Shiki.

"You ugly lion, just wait. I'll definitely find a chance to pay you back for today!"

He was still bitter over being slapped by Shiki first, then beaten black and blue.

Shiki merely laughed heartily in response.

"Jihahahahaha! You think a brat like you can defeat me? You'd need a few hundred more years!"

"Besides, brat, that's no way to treat the man who saved your life!"

With a swish, Shiki drew the twin swords from behind his back and brought them slashing down at Oak's head.

Boom!

After resting for a while, Oak had recovered all his stamina, and the anesthetic in his body had completely worn off. Full of energy, his strength had returned to its peak. Without the slightest fear, he smashed his fists forward.

"I'll repay the favor you did me today. When the day comes that you're so old you get defeated by some brat who's just set sail, I guarantee I'll come collect your corpse!"

After the clash, Oak retreated a hundred meters and spoke as he looked at the warship beneath them, now completely shattered into fragments.

"You're full of shit!"

Shiki felt insulted. He was the mighty Golden Lion. No matter how old he became, there was no way he would be defeated by some brat who had just gone to sea, much less need the brat before him to collect his corpse.

Flying Slash!

Enraged, he swung one sword with one hand. The entire stretch of sea within his sight was split apart by the slash, opening into a massive fissure like a chasm standing above the ocean. Under that strike, Oak's figure vanished in an instant, sent flying hundreds or perhaps thousands of meters away.

"Damn, I went a little too far!"

As Oak grew smaller and smaller in his vision before finally becoming a tiny black speck, Shiki suddenly remembered that he still had to bring the brat back to Rocks. He immediately used his power to float after him at high speed.