310 - One Piece: Red Dragon of the Rocks Era (Patreon)

310 - Michael Falls and Joy Boy Calculates

"Fine. If that's how it is, let's settle this with a fight. I want to see what the Great Kingdom can actually do."

Caius gave Michael a mocking smile.

He raised Longquan. Sword intent swept across the capital, and people throughout the city froze beneath its weight.

The clouds broke apart as his Conqueror's Haki surged skyward. Lightning flickered overhead. Then countless invisible blades of sword intent gathered above the city, too many to count.

Caius moved. Before Michael could track him, he was standing directly in front of him, bringing Longquan down in a brutal overhead strike.

Michael had not expected him to attack without warning, but he reacted quickly. He drew his unfamiliar katana and tried to counter. It made no difference. The gulf between them was too wide.

Before Michael could put any strength behind his swing, Longquan struck him, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki and sword intent. Pain tore through him. His vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

It happened too fast for the enhanced fighters behind him to respond.

By the time they understood what had happened, Michael was already down.

Their modifications had made them utterly loyal. Fear no longer held them back, and more than a dozen pseudo-limit-breakers rushed Caius at once.

Power tore through the mountains around him. When the fighting ended, smoke drifted over the wreckage.

The terrain had been leveled. Caius stood among the broken cliffs, lit a cigarette, and looked down at the unconscious Michael.

Michael had come in person, while Joy Boy watched from hiding. Caius knew the king was weaker than he was. The adult Imu of his own era had known it too.

What surprised him was how frightened Joy Boy seemed. Caius had shown the Great Kingdom no hostility before today. The reaction made little sense.

'Was the king hiding something?'

'Was it the machine that could produce limit-breaking fighters in batches?'

Caius saw its value, but the process forced growth before a fighter was ready. Joy Boy had even fed talented people into it. What a waste.

Caius knew the details because he had drawn them from the badly wounded Michael through mental hypnosis. In that condition, Michael could not resist.

Caius had no need for the flawed machine here. What he wanted was the complete version on the moon.

That version would support a fighter's progress without sealing off further growth. It was a tool, not a ceiling.

He would have to bring it forward eight hundred years. Otherwise, his people would need far too long to reach the same strength on their own.

Imu would be sixteen or seventeen in this era. The adult Imu Caius knew belonged to another time; this girl had a life and choices of her own in the kingdom.

Later, after settling into the capital, he searched for her with Observation Haki but found no trace. That left a gap in his understanding of the royal court.

He wanted to learn what part she played before deciding his next move.

'What should I do with Michael?'

'Kill him? I don't dislike the man, but he doesn't seem to understand the position he's in.'

Caius was still weighing his options.

Meanwhile, in the royal palace, Joy Boy followed the battle from afar.

The sight left him grim. He finally turned away.

Even prepared for the worst, he had underestimated the stranger. Caius was stronger than he had imagined, perhaps strong enough to have reached the level beyond limit-breaking.

That possibility unsettled Joy Boy. He wanted to eliminate someone capable of overturning his rule, but he could not move until he had a plan. If Caius stormed the palace now, Joy Boy might not even have a way out. Fleeing would also ruin the authority he had worked to build.

He found himself resenting the fact that Poseidon of Fish-Man Island no longer followed him.

And then there was Zunesha. Joy Boy had punished the great elephant at the worst possible time. Now he had no ally he trusted to face Caius.

He could overwhelm Caius with numbers, but that would burn through resources he could not replace.

He needed those resources to extend his own life. The power he held as king had become too intoxicating to surrender.

His public talk of the sun and his other grand titles were tools for winning people over. If power meant nothing to him, why not devote all his resources to training alone?

Because a kingdom could gather far more than one man. With enough resources, he might still find a way beyond the limit-breaking level.

He did not know his fate was already set. He would die before fulfilling his ambitions. The world would praise him afterward, because he would leave no witness alive who knew the darker truth.

'Not yet. I'll wait.'

'Soon I can spend some of those resources to create more fighters. Better to send them against Caius than risk myself. If he hasn't gone beyond the limit-breaking level, enough of them might kill him.'

Joy Boy smiled at the thought.

...

"Well, no one has come to save you. Looks like Joy Boy abandoned you. That's a rough position to be in."

Caius turned meat over the fire as he spoke to the bandaged Michael beside him.

At least he had finally learned the man's name.

"I expected as much. I may look important in the capital, but that's all it is: an appearance. Joy Boy holds the real power. I've had time to get used to it."

Michael sounded unconcerned.

After more than a decade in the post, he had seen the arrangement for what it was.

"Ha! At least you know where you stand. That's what I respect about you."

"Work for me instead. You'll be comfortable, and you'll have a chance to make something more of the position. What comes after that depends on you."

Caius spoke around a mouthful of roasted meat.