One Piece: Yujiro Hanma

"…Husband..."

Shirahoshi's trembling voice rang out, unable to hide her growing fear, as she took refuge behind Tiberion, despite her body being at least five times bigger than his.

It was absurd.

A colossal mermaid, about 11 meters tall, seeking protection behind a 2.5-meter-tall human whose body, though formidable, seemed tiny compared to hers.

But the presence that Tiberion exuded made everything seem small before him.

"…"

Those present, used to seeing mermaids as merchandise, stared at her with eyes shining with greed and perversion, and Shirahoshi could clearly feel it.

Even without fully understanding malice, her Observation Haki, though uncontrolled, picked up the malicious intentions of each one.

"Oi, oi, oi... brothers," mocked the man with the scar, spreading his arms wide, "Did I hear that right?"

"Is this mermaid calling 'husband'... a human?"

Laughter erupted, accompanied by complicit murmurs among the other criminals.

But Tiberion did not laugh.

He didn't even look away.

He simply, slowly, swept his eyes across the area, observing the group like one would observe a pile of forgotten trash in a corner.

There was no fury in his gaze.

Only absolute disdain.

"…Annoy me...?" he murmured to himself in a low voice.

With a step forward, he was now just a few centimeters away from the scarred man.

"Pathetic insects like you?"

The word "insects" fell like a stone into the middle of the calm.

"Hmph."

Tiberion let out a snort of disgust.

"Do you know what really bothers me?"

"That trash like you breathes the same air as I do."

"The Marines in Sabaody..." he continued, "are a damn disgrace. They can't even clean up their own rot."

"…"

Those words wounded everyone.

The faces of those present darkened instantly. What had once been greed was now mixed with blind hatred.

Their hands instinctively reached for the weapons at their waists or behind their backs. Their bloodthirsty eyes couldn't tear themselves away from Tiberion.

How many in Sabaody were truly good?

How many didn't have blood-stained hands?

Who could claim they had never sold others, or killed, or betrayed, simply to survive?

Sabaody was not a place of justice. It was a dump.

A market where everything, absolutely everything, had a price.

And in this rotten world, being called trash wasn't an insult... it was an unbearable reminder of what they truly were.

That's why they couldn't tolerate it.

THEY COULDN'T!

"Damn it! Say that again!" roared a pirate, raising his knife. "Who the hell did you call trash, you bastard?!"

"Yeah, you son of a bitch! Who's the trash here?! Say it to my face!"

"Fucking bitch, if you have any balls, say it again!"

"Shit! Don't think that stupid-looking haircut makes you special! What's wrong? You want all of us to gang up and beat your ass, huh?!"

"Hehehe…" another one mocked, licking his lips. "Doesn't matter. Just hand over the mermaid behind you, and I swear no one else will give you any trouble."

And then, the scarred man, the same one who had started it all, stood tall directly in front of Tiberion.

His shadow completely covered him.

He was taller than Tiberion, more muscular, and held a drawn sword in his right hand.

He leaned forward slightly, baring his yellow teeth in a mocking grin.

"Last chance," he spat. "Leave the little mermaid... and maybe we'll let you walk away."

The group slowly closed the circle around Tiberion and Shirahoshi, like hyenas circling an old lion.

And just when the air seemed about to become unbreathable, Tiberion spoke, "Close your eyes."

His voice was soft, but the tone allowed no room for argument.

Shirahoshi, who had been looking down, lifted her gaze to him. Inside her, a small seed of sadness sprouted upon sensing that these people truly wanted to hurt her, wanted to tear her away from her husband, wanted to shatter the small world of happiness she had started to build by his side. That's why she obeyed without hesitation.

"Mmm." She nodded, closing her enormous eyes.

And as she did, a sweet warmth filled her chest.

Despite the hostility surrounding her, her joy did not disappear; because for her, true happiness was in her husband's presence.

Just thinking about it made a smile form on her closed lips.

"..."

Tiberion, still with his hands in his pockets, sighed, as if lamenting the filth he was about to stain his own hands with.

And then, he moved.

He pulled out both hands at a speed that was not human; in the blink of an eye, his two arms shot out like bear claws. With one hand he struck the man's abdomen, and with the other, he grabbed his back tightly.

The man barely managed to open his mouth to let out a choked scream before Tiberion brutally flexed his fingers in opposite directions, sinking them into flesh and bone with shocking ease, as if tearing old cloth.

And with a single movement, he pulled with both hands, tearing him apart alive, splitting his body from the belly up to the sternum, releasing a hot torrent of blood and entrails that drenched the ground in an instant.

!?

Disbelief froze everyone present.

The leader's body fell apart to the sides, the two halves hitting the ground, while blood pooled quickly.

But before their brains could even process what had happened, Tiberion was no longer standing still.

With a barely contained roar in his chest, he threw himself at the insects like a predator among worthless prey.

A first punch smashed into the skull of a man armed with a chain, slamming him into the ground with such violence that his head shattered like a watermelon.

Without stopping, he spun on his axis and, with an elbow, broke another's neck, sending him flying like a rag doll.

Another man also raised his sword... but he was too slow.

Tiberion caught the blade midair with two fingers, bent it like paper, and with a brutal knee strike, shattered his ribcage. The man collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood before dying.

Each blow was lethal.

He had barely killed a few hundred when finally the survivors' instinct for self-preservation overcame their greed and hatred.

One after another, they began to retreat.

"R-Run!" screamed one as he dropped his weapon and fled blindly, "THIS BASTARD IS A PSYCHOPATH!"

"Y-Yeah!" shouted another, throwing his sack to the ground, "Too savage! I almost shit myself from fear!"

The screams of panic mixed with the chaotic sounds of footsteps as the survivors ran desperately in all directions.

Suddenly stopping, Tiberion calmly watched them flee.

He had no need to chase after them one by one.

That would be like chasing leaves in the wind.

Instead, he slowly shifted his attention to the ground.

More specifically, to one of the enormous roots that snaked across the ground.

It was gigantic, more than three meters in diameter.

Then he narrowed his eyes.

Without saying a word, he began to tense the muscles in his arms.

Every muscle fiber compressed, the veins on his forearms bulged, and visible heat began to radiate from his skin, forming a white mist.

And then, he threw a simple punch.

A dry punch, directed at the root.

BOOM

The root, which had resisted for centuries, split in an instant under his fist. Before the fragments of bark even finished falling to the ground, Tiberion had already taken the next step.

He quickly wrapped his arms around the massive root, embracing it as if he were hugging the very spine of the "island."

His muscles began to release visible thermal energy, the steam rising thickly around him.

Right now, a single arm of his could exert a pulling force of approximately 20,000 tons.

And now, with both arms working together, he easily exceeded 40,000 tons of brute force.

Then he began to pull.

At first, the root resisted, as if the entire island itself were clawing to hold it in place.

But soon, the tremors began.

First it was a subtle shudder, barely perceptible beneath the feet of those fleeing on the "Island."

Then, the trembling grew more violent.

The ground truly began to vibrate.

After all, this place was no ordinary island.

The Sabaody Archipelago was composed of 79 gigantic trees, the Yarukiman Mangroves, whose colossal roots intertwined into a network so complex and ancient that it supported the entire structure of the floating island.

If a sufficiently large root shook, it was perfectly possible for one or more of the mangroves to tremble, affecting entire areas of the Archipelago.

And now, before everyone's terrified eyes, that possibility was no longer a theory.

It was a fact.

Pirates, merchants, bounty hunters, and human traffickers who were fleeing desperately first felt the tremor beneath their feet, and as a reflex, turned their heads toward the origin of the earthquake.

And what they saw left them petrified.

Some couldn't help but hold their breath, as if afraid that even the slightest noise could trigger their own destruction.

"SHIT!" exclaimed one, his face filled with horror. "Is this even possible...?"

"He's a monster, right?" stammered another, unable to take his eyes off Tiberion's figure, who continued pulling with a ferocity that was as natural as it was terrifying.

"DAMN IT!" shouted an old merchant. "I've been in Sabaody for over ten years... and it's the first time I've seen someone try to rip out a mangrove root!"

"And the worst part...! It's that... it's really moving!"

Their disbelieving eyes filled with terror as they saw how the root began to shake.

Despite the tremor under their feet and the terrifying image of Tiberion hugging and shaking a mangrove root, some pirates, in their typical arrogance, began to catch their breath and feel that perhaps their luck was not as sealed as they had first believed.

One of them let out a long, noisy sigh of relief.

"Sigh..." he exhaled, shaking his head. "Luckily, this guy didn't come after us…"

His words gained strength as he spoke.

"Now he's pulling on a mangrove root..." he added with a nervous laugh. "Is he planning to use it as a weapon to wipe us all out with one strike?"

Hearing this, several of the pirates who had slowed their frantic escape looked back.

And immediately, one of them exclaimed:

"Shit! Now that you say it... yeah, he's probably planning to kill us all in one go!"

More chatter broke out, but this time, it wasn't out of fear — it was mockery.

It was that false sense of security that often takes hold of mediocre minds when they think they see others' limitations.

Another pirate, raising his voice so everyone could hear:

"Ha, although I admit he's strong... he couldn't pull out an entire root even in his dreams!"

"Exactly!" another agreed, crossing his arms. "I don't believe it either."

"Look closely," he continued, raising his voice as if giving a lecture, "that root is at least three meters in diameter, and judging by how it moved... it probably extends through more than half of 'Island' Number 13."

!

"…"

There was a brief silence as many began to realize the magnitude of what he was saying.

"Do you know what that means?" he added with a grin. "Ripping it out would be equivalent to moving half of 'Island' No. 13!"

Upon hearing such madness, many bursts of laughter followed.

The sense of danger that had made them flee earlier began to fade, replaced by a cynicism that only ignorance and ego can justify.

"He can shake it, but he'll never move it! It's impossible!"

"Hahaha!" laughed another, letting himself fall to the ground, "They're right! Come on, let's sit down, grab some popcorn, and watch his show."

Some even sat down on nearby roots, unafraid.

"If he comes after us, we'll just run! With so many of us, how many could he possibly catch?!"

And deep down, they all shared a thorn that pricked at them.

A rage born from having been humiliated, from having been forced to flee like cowards.

And now, seeing Tiberion "struggling" against a gigantic root, their wounded egos flared up again.

More and more people stopped running.

Some came back out of curiosity.

Others stood at a distance, watching.

A few, very few, kept the sense to continue moving farther and farther away, observing warily from the far edges of "Island" No. 13, aware that something about that scene wasn't normal.

Meanwhile, at the center of it all, Tiberion smiled.

In his heart, he had already sealed the fate of all those insects laughing and thinking themselves safe.

Because as long as they remained on "Island" No. 13, it didn't matter how far they ran, it didn't matter where they hid... they would feel death breathing down their necks.

With a pulling force around 40,000 tons, he still hadn't managed to completely tear out the root.

It continued to resist, trembling and groaning under the pressure of his strength, but the tangled mass of roots stretching deep into the earth held on fiercely.

It wasn't enough.

He needed more. He didn't want it to give way little by little.

He wanted an immediate impact.

A cataclysm so sudden it wouldn't give his prey time to hide among the other "islands."

So he raised the stakes.

Closing his eyes for a moment, focusing his mental power, he activated his Haki.

His skin took on a dark, carbon-like sheen, and the heat already radiating from his body intensified, forming clouds of steam that wrapped around him like armor.

A single arm now exerted more than 30,000 tons of pulling force, and together they easily surpassed 60,000 tons.

The sound of the root being torn out echoed louder.

The ground trembled under everyone's feet, and although most of those present were beginning to feel a growing unease, there were still many who kept mocking smiles on their faces.

After all, shaking was not the same as ripping out.

And no matter how much Tiberion had proven to be stronger than logic could explain, there had to be limits.

"Hahahaha! See? I told you! Relax! Shaking is not the same as tearing out."

"If he actually rips it out, I'll eat a pile of shit right here!" one exclaimed, sparking laughter.

"Ha... His brain must be fried if he thinks he can pull out a mangrove root with brute force alone! Not even a Giant could do that!"

But while they laughed, Tiberion didn't stop.

He didn't even seem to hear their words.

His mind was focused on only one thing.

He had already used brute force and Haki, combining it with his thermal release to amplify his strength.

But it still wasn't enough.

He knew that if he wanted to cause the immediate impact he sought, he would have to unleash a part of his true strength.

So, without hesitation, he activated the Demon Back.

Under his shirt, the muscles on his back began to mutate. The tissues started to twist with a life of their own beneath his skin, swelling, expanding, hardening as if a second body was emerging under the first.

And then, the image of a demonic face surfaced.

The temperature around Tiberion rose sharply.

A single arm, now fully empowered, reached more than 50,000 tons of pulling force, and with both arms working together, he could unleash a force exceeding 100,000 tons, even approaching 110,000 when he pushed his body beyond its limits.

Then...

!

Those present, who just seconds ago had been laughing and joking, began to feel the entire world around them change.

It wasn't a gradual change. It was immediate.

BOOM

A deafening roar exploded from the center of the Mangrove.

The vibration was so intense that the ground beneath their feet split into kilometer-long cracks, branching out at an incredible speed.

And from those cracks, like a beast being unleashed, a gigantic root burst out from the underground, tearing through the earth's crust.

It was an impossible sight...

The root coiled around itself like a furious dragon, while the rest of the "island" trembled and tilted dangerously.

Thousands of people, without another word, broke into a stampede.

"Motherfucker! HE RIPPED IT OUT!! HE'S REALLY RIPPING IT OUT!!"

"RUN, EVERYONE!! THAT GUY ISN'T HUMAN!!"

________

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