Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 237 Bane: What kind of king do you want to be?

As Bane landed, he stepped onto the deck of the pirate ship, without even a speck of blood on his body.

He withdrew the domineering and dark aura from his fist, a sneer playing on his lips, and said with a hint of disdain, "What? Is that all the skill you have? You dare call yourself the Second Whitebeard? Pathetic!"

At this moment, Bakkin Stussy in front of him was so terrified that she could not speak.

She had also received an invitation to Charlotte Linlin's tea party, since they were both on the Rocks ship back in the day and had some connection.

This sudden voyage with Weevil is also intended to take them to Whole Cake Island to meet up with Charlotte Linlin and Kaido to discuss important matters.

However, just at the edge of this sea area, I saw several naval warships, seemingly guarding a few magnificent three-masted sailing ships.

Bakkin Stussy immediately guessed that this was a Navy Headquarters admiral escorting royals from member states to a meeting in Mary Geoise, and considering the current situation in the New World, these royals seeking refuge must have brought with them very substantial wealth.

Bakkin Stussy was an extremely greedy person, so she immediately had the idea to rob a bunch of people.

As for the warships at the Navy Headquarters, Bane didn't modify his warships like Garp and others did, adding any iconic figureheads or similar designs, such as Garp's dog-headed warship.

Bane had always used any warship he could find when he went to sea as his flagship, so after observing for a while and confirming that there were no special ships, Barkin Stussy assumed that it was just a fleet escorted by a group of ordinary naval officers.

What's there to be afraid of?

She's a remnant of Rocks's faction, someone who even dared to attack former Admiral Zephyr with her son—she's incredibly audacious.

They immediately made the decision to plunder, and then tragedy struck.

Her proud "son" was killed by the man in front of her with a single punch in mid-air!

It was only then that she recognized the navy officer's identity: Admiral Bane!

"Damn it, you stole my prey again!" Zoro's figure transformed into lightning and appeared beside Bane, complaining with great dissatisfaction.

"His name is Edward Weevil. He was the one who attacked Professor Zephyr, causing him to lose an arm and killing all of Ain and Binz's classmates," Bane said immediately.

Before confirming Weevil's identity, Bane had no intention of taking action.

But when Ain lost control of his expression and became emotionally charged as he accused Weevil, Bane didn't want that bastard to live another second.

Zoro, who was initially a little annoyed, fell silent after hearing Bane's explanation, then nodded and said, "Well done."

"I surrender. I have important information to tell you, I..." Bakkin Stussy said, barely suppressing her fear, as she regained her senses.

But the next second, in a flash of lightning, Zoro decapitated him with a single stroke, flicking the blood off his blade and saying, "We have absolutely no interest in what you're trying to say."

Zoro had no interest whatsoever. Although they had only exchanged blows for a short while, he was already certain that the guy named Weevil was mentally unstable and lacked the intelligence of a normal person. Clearly, this old woman was the real mastermind. No matter what she said, he would not let her live. Otherwise, how could she have the face to go back to see Teacher Zephyr?

After defeating Bakkin, Zoro looked at Bane again and said, "That punch...it had a bit of Garp's feel to it."

"Oh? You noticed?" Bane chuckled, stroking his chin. "On the way back to headquarters from Eregia with him, I asked him for some pointers. This punch has some technique; it's derived from Garp's Galaxy Impact. This is also the strongest attack I've created by combining my own strength, Haki, and Devil Fruit ability!"

Before that, Bane could be described as a jack-of-all-trades, knowing a little bit of everything, but without any particularly outstanding skills. It wasn't until he learned how to box that he concentrated almost all his skills into his fists, gradually forming his own personal style.

However, despite his fierce punches, he has never truly condensed a powerful killing move similar to Garp's Galaxy Impact, Roger's Divine Evasion, or Kaido's Thunder Bagua.

It's impossible to project that domineering aura like, "What kind of king do you want to be?"

He had been thinking about this kind of killing move for a long time, but he was always just one step away from it, until he and Garp came up with that lame combination attack on Aregia Island.

Because of their disastrous first attempt against Shanks, the combined iron fist he and Garp unleashed was cleaved into dust by Shanks with a single slash, leaving them in a very embarrassing situation.

Bane didn't take it seriously at the time, but Karp was still feeling uneasy. On the way back, he insisted on dragging Bane along to think about it some more.

Taking this opportunity, the two had an in-depth exchange on their boxing techniques, and both benefited greatly. Bane, with the help of some techniques from Garp's Galaxy Impact, finally "broke through the barrier" and integrated his fist, Haki, and abilities into one, creating a powerful punch called "Galactic Explosion"!

This attack can be said to be specifically designed to target Devil Fruit users. Relying on the irresistible and powerful attraction of the Dark-Dark Fruit to Devil Fruit users, it creates a situation where the Devil Fruit user cannot dodge and can only confront it head-on. Then, it gathers Conqueror's Haki and its own terrifying power that surpasses the ocean into its fist bone, and then uses the ability of the Dark-Dark Fruit to compress these to the extreme before "blooming" it!

This was Bane's first time practicing this punch in real combat, and the effect was very good.

With this level of attack power, Bane can be said to have maxed it out. Apart from people with naturally monstrous physiques like Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, almost no one can withstand his punch head-on.

Especially for those with special abilities, since other experts are not strongly controlled by the Dark-Dark Fruit, they still have room to maneuver in such situations, while those with special abilities simply cannot dodge; they will either be killed or have to rely on their own skills to survive.

On the distant warship, Ain put down her binoculars, her expression somewhat lost. She wasn't actually afraid of Edward Weevil, the pirate who had given her nightmares, but she never expected that he would be killed so easily with a single punch.

Now that I've come to my senses, I feel a bit lost and bewildered.

After the confusion subsided, Ain couldn't help but exclaim, "Young Master truly lives up to his reputation as the strongest man on the high seas."

Then, she looked at the naval captain who was also stunned and had not yet recovered, and said, "Report to headquarters, we can completely lift the surveillance and arrest warrant for Edward Weevil."

"Huh?" The colonel was taken aback for a moment, then quickly replied, "Yes, Lieutenant General Ian."

On another warship, Fubuki, wearing a cloak of justice, stood at the bow, her mind replaying the scene in the sky just now.

In the final moments, everything returned to calm, as if all things had been contained within that ordinary punch. In a daze, Fubuki seemed to see Saitama's shadow.

With the most ordinary boxing, unleash the most ferocious power.

"Are you going to become One-Punch Man too?" Fubuki suddenly smiled and shook her head to herself.

Soon, news of Edward Weevil's execution reached the Navy.

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

At headquarters, there was absolutely no shock from this matter. When the intelligence department received the summary information, Chief of Staff A-He calmly indicated that he knew, and then naturally destroyed the information about Weevil without any extra emotion.

The rest of the navy personnel were equally calm.

After all, in their eyes, this was perfectly normal and reasonable. Who was Edward Weevil? Although he was called the Second Whitebeard, and their intelligence department even gave him the evaluation of "possessing the power of the young Whitebeard".

But how to put it? Back then, this evaluation was personally decided by Chief Strategist A-He. So much time has passed, and some of her trusted subordinates have come to understand that this extremely high evaluation might have been done in some ways to save face for Senior Zefa.

Otherwise, his bounty wouldn't have fallen below 500 million Berries.

If a pirate like this encounters Admiral Bane in the New World, how good can the outcome be?

If the news that came back was that General Benn had been defeated by Whitebeard II, that would be big news and a huge shock!

At the Navy Headquarters, there was no disturbance; everything was calm.

But in Melville, Binz was running frantically toward Professor Zephyr's office, his expression agitated and tears welling in his eyes.

When he pushed open the office door, he saw Zefa standing by the window, a cigar in his mouth, looking at the sea of ​​clouds outside, seemingly quite content.

"Teacher!" Binz shouted excitedly.

"Oh," Zefa responded, without turning his head, "What kind of behavior is this, all flustered? Is this how I've always taught you?"

"Teacher, Lord Bane is on his way to headquarters." Binz paid no attention to the 'reprimands' and was still excitedly trying to say something.

But before he could finish speaking, Zefa waved his hand, exhaled a puff of smoke, turned around, and said with a relieved smile, "I understand now. With your worries gone, you can finally get a good night's sleep."

"Yes." Binz looked at Zephyr with a warm smile, and for a moment he felt as if he had returned to the time when he first joined the Navy and became Zephyr's student. He couldn't help but raise his hand to wipe away the tears that were hard to hold back from the corner of his eyes.

After Binz composed himself and left Zephyr's office...

Zefa's smile gradually faded as he looked at the sea chart hanging on the wall, his gaze fixed on the center of the world—the Holy Land—Maryjois.

After a long silence, Zephyr's eyes darkened considerably, and he muttered to himself, "Only one of you is left."

Have all the knots in my heart been untied?

That was just to comfort Binz. It's true that he got his revenge, but he had more than one enemy.

He had never forgotten the old stories of headquarters back then.

(End of this chapter)