Showdown with Kizaru!

In an instant, he unleashed hundreds of Shigan in succession, his fingers leaving countless afterimages in the air as they bore down on Ivan.

Lucci was brimming with confidence. This was a technique that far surpassed the limits of the human body, one that could only be used in a state of Life Return.

During a mission, he had once used this move to kill a pirate with a bounty of 230 million. He wanted to see how Tanuki would counter it!

Every Shigan could easily pierce rock, to say nothing of the power of hundreds unleashed in rapid succession.

Yet faced with such a terrifying attack, Lucci saw that Ivan had no intention of dodging.

Lucci was puzzled. What's wrong with this guy? Can't he dodge? With his strength, he should be able to!

Then he saw Ivan's fist turn black as it came smashing toward him!

"Fist Bone: Normal Punch!"

Back in East Blue, Garp had used this move to test his strength. It was exactly what its name suggested: nothing more than a casual punch from Garp.

Now he would use the same move against Lucci, for no other reason than that an ordinary punch was all he needed to deal with him!

Lucci didn't know what Ivan was thinking. All he knew was that Ivan, being this careless, was about to be hit by his Shigan.

Then Ivan's body would be riddled with wounds, and he would die in an instant!

But the moment Ivan's fist collided with Shigan: Madara, Rob Lucci suddenly realized things were nothing like he had expected.

His fingers, which could easily pierce steel, broke the instant they touched Ivan's fist, and Madara, which seemed like countless Shigan unleashed at once, was smashed apart.

One of the strongest moves he had spent years studying was like an illusion, shattered with a single poke!

Ivan struck Lucci in the chest, and his body became a blur as he flew backward.

"Aaaaah! I refuse to accept this!" Amid the rubble where he had landed, he sprang to his feet. His body rapidly swelled, then contracted.

He quickly squeezed out the energy remaining in his body, preparing to risk everything in one last attack!

He clenched his hands into fists and pressed them together, taking the stance of a rhinoceros thrusting its horn. "I don't believe the gap between us is this big! Life Return: Kami-e Martial Body: Rokuogan!"

Lucci stomped the ground beneath him to pieces and pierced through the air, charging at Ivan as a streak of yellow light, like a sharp spear piercing through Ivan.

Yet Ivan's reaction made Lucci even angrier, because he wasn't paying him any attention at all. He even looked away from him and up at the sky.

Lucci completely lost control of his emotions. "Bastard! There's a limit to how much you can look down on someone! Die!"

Boom!

Rokuogan struck Ivan. This time, Ivan didn't attack, or even dodge.

The next moment, the sound of breaking bones rang out. The bones in Lucci's arms were crushed, and his arms went limp, hanging like two pieces of noodle.

When Lucci slowly raised his head and saw that there wasn't a mark on Ivan's body, he fell into utter despair. "How is this possible? How can the gap be so big?!"

Lucci's attack hadn't been entirely without effect. He had succeeded in drawing Ivan's attention.

Ivan looked down and grabbed Lucci by the head, pulling him to his feet.

"Lucci, when you were thirteen, you slaughtered more than five hundred captured soldiers to carry out a mission, simply because weakness was the original sin. So are your own sins beyond forgiveness now?"

Lucci didn't respond. That last blow had completely extinguished what little fighting spirit he had left. Now he was no different from a walking corpse.

Seeing Lucci like this, Ivan shook his head, intending to finish him off at once.

But just then, a rather sleazy-sounding voice, full of pressure, rang out behind Ivan.

"Hey, young man, could you put him down? He and I aren't in the same department, but if he died, it would be quite a problem for me too."

At those words, Ivan's entire body stiffened. Every cell in his body felt an intense sense of danger, as though he were standing beside an abyss and one careless step would send him plunging into its endless depths.

He slowly turned around and saw a sleazy-looking man with curly hair, dressed in a yellow-and-white suit, standing behind him.

The man stood a full three meters tall and gave Ivan an unprecedented sense of danger, as though the man before him could kill him at any moment.

And he was none other than Admiral Kizaru, one of the Navy's three greatest fighting forces!

Facing Kizaru, Ivan showed no fear. Instead, he grew even more excited.

The reason he hadn't finished Rob Lucci off immediately was that he had learned from Iceburg that Kizaru would soon arrive.

He needed to wait for Kizaru and fight him!

He needed not only the terrifying pressure Kizaru would bring to help him awaken Observation Haki, but also to use Kizaru as a stepping stone to gain greater fame and increase the recognition of his Homelander template.

Ivan didn't immediately answer Kizaru's question. Instead, he asked, "Kizaru, do you know what Rob Lucci has done?"

Kizaru felt somewhat helpless. Unless necessary, he really didn't want to fight someone like this.

But he was a marine, after all, and knew better than anyone how powerful the World Government was. Rather than let these self-proclaimed champions of justice throw the world into chaos, it was better to maintain the status quo.

"Young man, this world is complicated. It's not simply black and white; most of it is a shade of gray. Your justice is too cruel for this world. It's better to maintain the status quo.

"So, young man, can you let him go?"

Ivan shook his head. He had long anticipated Kizaru's choice. He was already surprised that Kizaru had even said this much to him.

But Kizaru lacked the confidence to overturn this world because he didn't have the power to do so.

Ivan, on the other hand, had the system. Once he grew stronger, he would be absolutely certain of success!

So Ivan's answer was...

He gripped Rob Lucci's head and squeezed hard, trying to crush it.

At the same time, Kizaru's Observation Haki caught the movement, and he instantly raised his foot and kicked at Ivan.

But when the laser kick hit Ivan, it struck only an afterimage. Ivan himself had appeared dozens of meters away.

In Ivan's hand, Lucci's head had been crushed completely.

Rob Lucci, hailed as Cipher Pol's greatest genius in eight hundred years, was officially dead!

Seeing this, Kizaru's expression, composed from beginning to end, finally froze.

What had just happened? Why had Tanuki suddenly appeared over there?

Even Kizaru's Observation Haki had been unable to catch the movement!

Kizaru finally realized that events had gone beyond his expectations. It suddenly dawned on him that his operation was very likely to fail. If Tanuki had a means of moving over long distances, it would be nearly impossible to keep him here!

Thud!

Ivan tossed Rob Lucci's corpse toward Kizaru. It hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Facing Kizaru, who had finally turned a serious gaze on him, Ivan laughed and taunted, "What bullshit gray? It's just a distorted result forced by circumstance! We of the Night Garden will hunt down every shadow, and then there will be only white, no black!"