"Do you have anything you wish to say?"
Fleet Admiral Kong's solemn voice echoed through every corner of Marineford's Central Plaza via the Amplifying Den Den Mushi, resounding in the ears of tens of thousands of Marines.
A deathly silence hung over the plaza.
Everyone's gaze locked onto the aloof figure in white at the center of the platform, like iron filings drawn to a magnet.
A sixteen-year-old Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral!
It was an unprecedented record in the eight hundred years since the Marines' founding! It was a supreme honor that would have driven any normal person wild with excitement, leaving them incoherent!
They were all waiting, eager to hear what impassioned, blood-stirring speech this boy who had worked a miracle would deliver.
In a corner of the platform, the tall, beautiful Vice Admiral "Momousagi" Gion, with her icy demeanor, fixed her almond-shaped eyes on Yas. Her grip on the Famous Sword Kompira tightened unconsciously. She could sense none of the emotional fluctuations someone his age should have had, only a bottomless, unnerving calm, as though he were about to receive some inconsequential trinket rather than the rank of rear admiral. That utter indifference stirred a trace of inexplicable irritation and defiance in her heart, proud as she was as a top-tier fighter.
Not far from her, the future Admiral "Aokiji" Kuzan yawned lazily, his eyes half closed. But anyone looking closely would have found an unprecedented gravity hidden in the depths of his seemingly unfocused gaze. His Observation Haki told him that the boy standing on the platform was not a person at all. He was an energy black hole compressed to its limit and wrapped in human skin. The violent power within him sent waves of instinctive shudders through even Kuzan, a Logia user.
"What a pain," Kuzan muttered under his breath. "Marine Headquarters is going to get lively now."
Under countless complicated gazes, Yas finally reacted.
He cast an indifferent glance at the promotion document in Fleet Admiral Kong's hand, a document capable of shaking the world, then looked at the brand-new rear admiral's uniform with a gold star on its epaulettes and the white coat on the tray held by a nearby soldier.
Then he spoke.
"Oh."
One word.
Light and casual, without the slightest trace of emotion.
Like a passerby's most perfunctory comment on a pebble by his feet.
"Oh???"
Fleet Admiral Kong's expression froze.
The corners of Admiral Sengoku's eyes began twitching furiously.
Even Garp, who had been enjoying the spectacle without caring how much trouble it caused, stopped with his hand halfway to his mouth as he stuffed himself with Senbei, his face blank with astonishment.
Across Marineford, the minds of tens of thousands of Marines collectively crashed. Their mouths fell open, unable to believe their ears.
Just... just an "oh"?
"Yas! You little bastard!" Sengoku finally lost his patience. He stepped forward, veins bulging on his forehead, and growled in a near roar, "This is rear admiral! Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral! Do you have any idea that the entire world is watching you right now? Can't you show a little..."
But Yas paid no attention whatsoever to his roaring.
Ignoring the brand-new rear admiral's uniform, he casually picked up the collar insignia representing the rank of rear admiral from the tray and pinned it to the collar of his original black combat uniform without even looking at it.
Then, under everyone's horrified gazes, he raised his head. His emotionless, ice-blue eyes swept over all the Marines below and the dozens of Headquarters Vice Admirals on the platform.
"Too noisy."
Yas spoke flatly.
The instant his words fell!
Boom!!!
An invisible, domineering, terrifying pressure that seemed to stand above everything in the world erupted from Yas, sweeping across the entire plaza like the shock wave of a nuclear explosion!
Conqueror's Haki!
But this Conqueror's Haki was different from before. It did not knock anyone unconscious.
Like an invisible net, it precisely enveloped the entire plaza. The tens of thousands of Marines below felt as though an unseen hand had seized their hearts in a crushing grip. Their breathing stopped instantly, their minds went blank, and every discussion and stray thought was forcibly wiped away in that moment!
The pressure felt by the dozens of battle-hardened Headquarters Vice Admirals on the platform was even more terrifying!
To their horror, they discovered that this Conqueror's Haki was "alive"! Like hundreds of millions of invisible steel needles, it pierced each of their wills with unerring precision!
The few vice admirals whose eyes had betrayed disdain and jealousy moments earlier were especially affected. Their faces turned deathly pale, cold sweat covered their bodies, and they felt as though their very souls were wailing and trembling beneath the intimidation of that terrifying will!
"S-such precise control!" Momousagi Gion's body jolted. For the first time, horror appeared in her beautiful eyes as she looked at Yas.
Such immense Conqueror's Haki, yet he could apply it with such fine distinctions! Intimidating the weak without harming them in the slightest, striking precisely at the strong without letting the slightest trace spill over! Such control over Conqueror's Haki was simply unheard of!
This guy... what kind of monster was he?!
In a single instant, all of Marineford, from the highest-ranking vice admirals to the most ordinary soldiers, fell utterly silent. A pin drop could have been heard.
It was as though Yas were the only person left in the world.
Only after doing all this did Yas turn his gaze back to the already dumbstruck Fleet Admiral Kong, as though he had merely done something utterly insignificant.
His voice was not loud, yet it exploded like thunder in the depths of everyone's souls.
"Is the promotion ceremony over?"
"Then tell me."
At last, a trace of a predator's searing, shudder-inducing light ignited in Yas's ice-blue eyes.
"Who is my next prey?"
Before you continue