CHAPTER 402: CHAPTER 45: FIST BONE

A strike, swift as lightning—impossible to dodge, impossible to ignore.

Darren’s eyes flew open. From their depths, twin flares of violet sparked to life.

He’d seen Kaido swing that monstrous club before, more times than he could count. But this—this was something else entirely. A pressure so vast, so raw, it felt like the sky itself might split in two.

Too fast.

The attack tore through the air like a thunderbolt, a straight line of pure devastation.

Even with his Magnet-Magnet Fruit–amplified Observation Haki, honed razor-sharp through recent battles, Darren could barely glimpse it. Just a blur—a streak of annihilation.

The club moved like a god’s wrath unleashed. It wasn’t Kaido dragging the weapon forward; it was as if the club itself was dragging him.

Darren’s mind flashed to Katakuri—his Observation Haki, the future-sight that had once overwhelmed him. But even Katakuri couldn’t dodge this.

It didn’t matter how far ahead you could see—when your opponent’s speed shattered the limit of your body’s response, prediction was meaningless.

Every outcome, every possibility that Darren could glimpse in the sea of future visions led to the same ending:

Destruction.

And still, he grinned.

"Not bad," he muttered. "Too bad I’m not planning to dodge."

Shhhh!

Jet-black Armament Haki surged down his arm, so dense it steamed on contact with the air, wreathed in white smoke.

He hadn’t come to Wano to hide. This wasn’t a spar. This was war.

This was Kaido.

The wind roared, pulling his hair back as his spirit surged. For a single breath, all of Darren’s power—his instincts, his will, his soul—aligned into perfect, blazing focus.

Young Darren, Garp’s gruff voice echoed in his mind, strength is unity. Once you throw a punch, your heart must be clear—no hesitation.

This is a fist born of will!

The memory struck deep. His breath stilled. His heartbeat slowed.

The chaos faded.

No more lightning. No more mountains or crashing tides. Even Kaido’s spiked club, poised inches from his face, vanished into silence.

Only warmth remained. The sun on his skin. The taste of salt in the air. The memory of sand beneath his feet as he trained with bloodied knuckles, punching again and again beneath the sky.

Marineford. The battered battleship. That crumbling port where it all began.

His body moved before thought returned. Calm. Absolute.

Heart, technique, and body—unified.

Armament Haki: 0.893.

He’d broken the 60-point threshold.

Streams of black Haki spiraled around his arm like molten metal, distorting the very air. The weight of his will condensed into one blazing point.

Darren’s eyes lit with feral joy.

"I get it now!"

And he punched.

A thunderclap erupted from his fist, not just noise but intent made real—raw and absolute.

His fist met Kaido’s Thunder Bagua head-on.

"Fist Bone: Flash Strike!!"

BOOM!!

Fist and club collided in a god-shattering crash. The impact was so immense it tore through the clouds and shook the heavens.

A shockwave exploded outward, blasting the air apart and cracking the ground far below. Mountains trembled. Forests swayed. Entire sections of Wano cracked and heaved under the force.

From their clash erupted twin storms—Kaido’s scarlet aura and Darren’s piercing blue—each trying to consume the other.

In the sky, King halted mid-flight, still in his Pteranodon form. His eyes widened, frozen in disbelief.

He blocked it.

He actually blocked Big Brother Kaido’s Thunder Bagua... head-on?!

King couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

He remembered Darren’s duel on Coin Island—how he’d barely held his own against Golden Lion, relying on luck, Devil Fruit trickery, and an unnatural physique.

Back then, it had taken everything Darren had just to survive.

Now—just weeks later—he had stood his ground against Kaido.

How?!

King had surpassed most of the world’s warriors himself. But this Marine had already climbed beyond him. In a single month?!

His disbelief turned to unease.

Just what happened to this guy?

Could the Marine training camps really turn someone into... this?

"This is impossible!!!" Kaido bellowed, his eyes wide with fury.

He was shaking. Not from exhaustion—but from something worse.

Fear.

The boy he could have crushed in one swing not long ago now stood just shy of the summit. A step away from legendary power.

Darren’s knuckles bled. His lip split. But he laughed through the pain, teeth flashing red with blood.

Almost there.

He had blocked Kaido’s strike with pure force—but his body screamed in protest. The sheer weight of Kaido’s Haki still dwarfed his own.

But even now, he didn’t retreat.

He stepped forward.

Armament Haki above 60...

Strength and Speed at 80...

Just a little more.

He wiped the blood from his lip, chuckling. "All thanks to my great mentor... Sensei Queen."

"If he hadn’t pumped me full of those freak-show viruses, I’d never have hit this level so fast."

The moment the words left his mouth, Kaido and King turned sharply.

Their eyes burned with realization.

Of course!

Queen’s prison—where Darren had been held.

That was the turning point. Not the battlefield. Not the training.

The lab.

Kaido and King stared down toward the smoldering mountain.

There, among the flames and chaos, a towering brachiosaurus whipped its head around in alarm.

Queen, overseeing the retreat, suddenly felt his entire body go cold.

He turned—and locked eyes with two gazes filled with pure, unfiltered murder.

"W-wait! I didn’t do anything!" he shrieked, his voice shrill. "Don’t drag me into this! I had nothing to do with it!"

To be continued...