One Piece: Invincible from the Start

Every master of Haki had been forged through countless trials.

In his earlier clash with Ivankov, Kuta's Haki had crumbled in an instant.

That was the difference in the quality of their Haki.

It was like smashing an egg against a rock.

Ivankov looked at Kuta with a hint of surprise. "Little Kuta, you're impressive! But you'd better be careful from here on."

"I'll show you the essence of Kamabakka's Okama Kenpo!"

With that, he leaped into the air, spun a full 360 degrees, and landed lightly. His hands traced a character in front of him.

As for what character it was, nobody could tell.

He relaxed his left hand beside his waist and held out his right, palm open toward Kuta.

"Hip-hop!"

Kuta stared at Ivankov's over-the-top performance, dumbfounded.

So this was Okama Kenpo? How embarrassingly dramatic.

Ivankov drew back his right hand and raised both hands slightly above his shoulders. Relaxed from head to toe, he smiled. "All right, all right. Come at me!"

"Hip-hop!"

Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee? And what's with "hip-hop"? Why not "hi-yah"?

Kuta pursed his lips, gripped his sword with both hands, and swept it up over his head. Then he stamped hard against the ground.

Whoosh!

His body shot toward Ivankov like an arrow loosed from a bow.

As soon as he closed the distance, he brought his sword down on Ivankov with all his strength.

"Shave: Step-in Slash!"

Ivankov was ready this time. The pressure of Kuta's Space Domain could only slow him a little.

His hands blurred as he drove a rapid barrage of knife-hand strikes at Kuta.

"Okama Kenpo: Dream Strike Processing Fist!"

Clang, clang, clang...!

The blade struck Ivankov's Haki-coated hands again and again. Only afterimages and fleeting flashes of cold steel were visible.

In a flash,

Clang!

The two collided once more and locked into a contest of strength.

As they strained against each other, Ivankov suddenly winked down at Kuta.

"Hell Wink!"

Kuta put all his strength into his sword and knocked Ivankov upward, then used the recoil to leap back.

Boom!

The spot where he had stood exploded into a deep crater.

"Little Ivan, that's dirty. A sneak attack?"

He put on an exaggerated show of lingering fright and wiped imaginary sweat from his brow.

"It was not!" Ivankov roared.

Then he stared at Kuta and winked rapidly.

"Hell Wink! Hell Wink! Hell Wink!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!

Wave after wave of shockwaves hurtled toward Kuta.

Kuta paid little attention to the incoming blasts.

He expanded his domain and stretched the space within it, slowing the shockwaves sharply as they entered.

Standing calmly in place, he swung his sword in quick succession and split each incoming shockwave as easily as a bubble.

Seeing that the move was useless against Kuta,

Ivankov kicked off the ground and began circling him.

He ran faster and faster, his high-speed movement producing countless afterimages of his face.

"Facial Afterimages!"

From a distance, it looked as though countless giant faces surrounded Kuta.

Kuta took a guarded stance as he watched the afterimages around him.

A red glint flashed in his eyes. He swung his sword at one of them.

Found you.

A silver-gray Slash passed through the afterimage and carved a deep groove into the beach behind it.

"Little Kuta, it's no use."

"Any one of these afterimages could be real. Or every one of them could be fake."

All the afterimages shouted in unison.

"Are you ready for a storm?"

"Hip-hop!"

After that warning, Ivankov began to wink at breakneck speed. Every facial afterimage unleashed Death Wink at once.

"Galaxy Wink!"

Countless shockwaves, each more than ten times stronger than Death Wink, shot toward Kuta like missiles, leaving him nowhere to run.

Feeling the disturbance on every side, Kuta swiftly sheathed his sword and pressed his palms together.

He had no intention of running. This was exactly what he wanted.

Kuta slowly closed his eyes and gave himself over to the urge to be dramatic.

"One bag of rice has to climb how many floors? One bag of rice has to climb two floors. One bag of rice needs me to give more. One bag of rice needs me to wash it..."

Just as the shockwaves were about to reach him, he snapped his eyes open. His pupils widened, and the space around his body collapsed inward in an instant.

Then he thrust both hands outward. An overwhelming force surged in every direction, even faster than the incoming blasts.

"Pseudo: Shinra Tensei!"

In truth, he had compressed the space within his Space Domain to its limit in an instant, then released it.

It was a move he had devised in imitation of Shinra Tensei.

The two forces held each other for only an instant before colliding in a thunderous explosion.

Sand and an even stronger shockwave burst outward, scattering every afterimage and hurling the real Ivankov away.

Boom!

Ivankov's back slammed into the mountainside behind the beach.

He was so huge that the whole mountain seemed to shake.

Everyone at the docks had sprinted toward the village the instant the explosion went off.

Watching the shockwave storm close in behind them, Ahua and the other kids wished they had a few extra legs.

"Run!"

"The storm's coming!"

They had barely taken cover when the storm struck, sweeping the street clean in an instant.

Behind a house, the group listened to the wind howl past, dumbfounded.

"Can a person really do that?"

"That's insane!"

Kuina looked outside, a trace of worry in her eyes.

Koshiro noticed her expression and adjusted his glasses. "Don't worry, Kuina. Kuta's fine."

"I'm not worried. I'll always believe in Kuta."

Kuina paused and glanced cautiously at Koshiro.

"I was just wondering how many Beli we'll have to pay for all this."

Just then, a sea fish that had been blown into the air and caught on the eaves fell.

Smack!

It landed on Koshiro's head.

Expressionless, Koshiro took the fish off his head and flung it aside.

He stared at the street, now covered in sand, with fish, fruit, and broken tiles tumbling through it.

His left hand trembled as he adjusted his glasses.

"Father, are you all right?"

Kuina looked up at Koshiro.

"I'm fine. It's only a little Beli!"

Koshiro answered as if he did not care.

But he made up his mind: when Kuta came back, Koshiro would make him earn back twice the money.

"All right, let's go out."

Koshiro stepped forward and headed outside.

The street was a mess. Roof tiles, fruit, fish...

They were everywhere.

The group picked their way over the debris toward the docks.

At the docks, they saw that of the dozen or so small fishing boats once moored in the harbor, all but a few larger ones had been blown onto the beach to the right.

Beneath Kuta, seawater was slowly seeping up through the bottom of a huge circular crater.

Before long, there would probably be a small pond there.

Zoro's eyes widened as he stared at Kuta, who hovered unharmed above the crater.

His whole body trembled with excitement.

Only after seeing the heights of true power could he push himself harder to reach them. He firmly believed he would catch up.

Sensing Zoro's determination, Kuina tightened her left hand around her sword.

She stared calmly at Kuta, her thoughts in turmoil.

So this is Kuta's power at its peak?

It's enough to crush anyone's hopes.

He's never once taken our practice matches seriously, has he?

Shimotsuki Village was too small. Even she could come close to being unbeatable there.

If Zoro had not arrived, she could never have improved so much over the past year.

She could tell it would not be long before Zoro surpassed her in stamina.

That was how they were born. No matter how much she hated it, she could not change it.

All she could do was train even harder.