One Piece: Awaken The Replication System

A haven for pirates since the Rocks era, where legends were born.

"Strange!" Shanks, Beckman, and the other Red Hair Pirates set foot on the island, finding no resistance.

"What's going on?" Beckman muttered in surprise.

"Where is everyone? Where are the pirates?"

"Could this be some kind of trap?" The crew was equally bewildered.

They had braced themselves for a massive clash, yet they encountered not a single opponent. The place was eerily empty, the once bustling pirate hub now ghostly silent. As Shanks led the crew deeper into the island, a faint smell of blood hit them.

"Look here—someone's dead!"

"It's the pirates!"

"And there's more!"

The ground was littered with bodies, blood staining the soil. Shanks observed the corpses with a grim expression.

"They were fighting each other!" Beckman remarked, astonished.

"Internal conflict?" Shanks's brow furrowed, unsurprised. This Four Emperors group had always embraced the brutal ways of the past. John, the captain, hadn't had the strength to unify them by will alone, relying instead on treasures and power to keep them in line.

As they ventured further, they stumbled upon a wounded survivor who recounted what had happened:

Captain John had schemed to lure Shanks and his crew into an ambush, going so far as to convince Kaido and Big Mom to help him. Yet Kaido and Big Mom had reconsidered once they realized Leno was stationed in New World. Captain John had suspected their alliance was weak, yet he clung to the hope they would back him.

But support fell through.

Realizing his plan had failed, Captain John tried to escape with his treasure but encountered Silver Axe and Ochoku, who had arrived to negotiate terms. Already resentful, these two felt betrayed as John tried to flee. They were furious. They'd fought to claim power, yet their leader wanted to run with the loot?

Shanks hadn't even stepped foot into the heart of the island when chaos erupted among John's crew. Ultimately, the treacherous Captain John fell, slain by Silver Axe and Ochoku.

Shanks and his crew reached the aftermath—a pool of blood where Captain John lay, stabbed and lifeless. The aging captain, once feared across the seas, had met a pitiful end.

"So…what now?" Yasopp scratched his head, puzzled.

Beckman shared his confusion.

"This wasn't part of the plan."

Shanks's face was clouded with complex emotions. The victory felt hollow. After a moment of silence, he spoke:

"Let's bury him."

Captain John, a figure of his time, had perished in disgrace.

After laying John to rest, Beckman asked, "So, Shanks… are we going to stay here, make Hachinosu our base?"

"To settle down?" Shanks gazed toward the open sea.

"If we do that, how are we any different from the Four Emperors? That would only go against our dream of living freely on the sea!"

With a decisive look, Shanks turned to his crew. "Let's go!"

The Red Hair Pirates left Hachinosu behind, setting sail toward the horizon.

A Desolate Island in the New World

Leno vs. Whitebeard!

A clash unlike any other was about to unfold!

"Empty Shocks!" Whitebeard stood tall, gripping his Murakumogiri. He'd seen Leno's battle with Kaido and had mentally prepared for this showdown.

With a powerful strike, Whitebeard sent out waves of his Tremor-Tremor Fruit's force, the impact reverberating like thunder.

Crack! The air around him shattered like glass, shockwaves radiating across the sky. The ground shook, seas roared, and the heavens trembled. Leno's onlookers, Hancock and Luwell, were horrified by the sheer power.

The island rocked violently, ocean waves turning into towering tsunamis. Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit powers were at their peak, his mastery near perfection.

Even from the sidelines, the onlookers' faces went pale, their bodies retreating instinctively.

"Wow, that's… unreal!" Lucci said, almost paralyzed by the Conqueror's Haki the two fighters emanated.

"Yeah, it's beyond anything we've seen," Fukaboshi added, nervously laughing and clutching his forehead.

"It's only because you're so weak," Hancock remarked proudly, not holding back. Her aura was as fierce as her words.

Leno finally appeared, navigating the tremors and shockwaves like one might trudge through mud. Whitebeard's constant quake made closing the distance nearly impossible. The poison-like force repelled everything.

Leno let out an appreciative sigh. "To wield such power, shaking the very earth and sea—there's a reason they call you "Strongest Man in the World"!"

Whitebeard's crushing blows couldn't faze him.

"How's he…still standing?" Vista gaped in disbelief, knowing full well that the shockwaves could tear through almost anything, even from miles away.

Volcanic eruptions painted the distance with blazing lava, the sea churned into chaos, and the very island cracked under the strain of Whitebeard's might.

Yet, Leno emerged unscathed.

"Is it his Armament Haki?" Marco speculated, stunned. "No… it's his physique as well! He's as strong as Garp!"

"Hmph, of course!" Hancock declared with pride. "Leno is the strongest man in the world!"

Marco cast a wary glance at her, careful not to fall prey to her charm, which had already petrified a few crewmates. After her fruit awakened, Hancock's beauty was unmatched, and her allure was simply overpowering.

Leno stood there, watching. Only he, Luwell, and Kuina seemed unaffected by Hancock's allure, everyone else dared not look directly at her, fearing they'd embarrass themselves.

"Aren't you Boa Hancock from the Seven Warlords of the Sea? What brings you to the Hunter Guild?"

Hancock kept her silence, disdainfully ignoring the onlookers as her gaze remained fixed on Leno. Every movement, every word he uttered radiated a captivating strength, igniting something within her that she hadn't felt before.

Luwell gritted her teeth, feeling a wave of jealousy and a renewed sense of rivalry. But competition only drove her further.

Boom, boom, boom...

After a few probing exchanges, Leno and Whitebeard plunged into an all-out battle. Leno held an edge in their clash of Conqueror's Haki, but Whitebeard's seismic punches were devastating.

One powerful strike, and Mountain split apart.

Leno stood firm amid the violent tremors. Around him, the air shattered into spiderweb-like cracks, and the ground beneath him crumbled.

"A long-awaited battle!" Leno's eyes gleamed as he rolled his shoulders, his invisible Armament Haki bracing against the shocks.

The collision of Haki and shockwaves sounded like waves crashing against a cliff, filling the air with a spine-tingling roar. Alongside his Haki, Leno's body began to tremble slightly, forming his strongest defensive layer.

With the SSS-level Overlord Body talents, Leno's physique had become nearly indomitable—strength, speed, vitality, and regeneration were his to command. His skin even radiated a faint golden light, making his body as resilient as Kaido's.

Whitebeard's blows did less damage than expected. With Leno's immense defenses, he maximized his Haki and sword techniques, channeling them into raw, boundless power.

Though he hadn't fought the Four Emperors at full strength in over a year, his body was still warming up, much like a machine revving back to life. This fight against Whitebeard was the perfect way to test himself and adjust his fighting condition.

"Is this all you've got, Whitebeard?" Leno taunted. "You call those punches? Aren't you one of the Four Emperors?"

Whitebeard, never one to take an insult lightly, realized that Leno's body was possibly as tough as Kaido's. He switched tactics, drawing upon experience from his battles with other physical powerhouses. Setting aside Murakumogiri, he clenched his right fist, charging it with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power, creating a massive halo of energy.

Whitebeard's muscles surged, his punch wrapped in shockwaves and infused with Conqueror's Haki. As his fist came down, the ground quaked, and the air itself seemed to tear in its path.

With a violent boom, Whitebeard's fist collided with Leno's, creating a burst of energy that lit up the sky like lightning. The island trembled under their power, cracks splitting across the landscape.

The earth split beneath them, magma erupting from a newly cleaved volcano. The island itself couldn't withstand the force, buckling under the shockwaves as the sky and ground seemed to tilt.

Marco, Luwell, and others scrambled to retreat to their ships, braving fierce winds and waves to escape the island's destruction. Massive tsunamis rolled over the collapsing land.

"Monsters… they're both absolute monsters!" Van Augur muttered in disbelief.

Vista wiped his brow. "That power—this is just a fraction of their full strength, isn't it?"

Marco nodded gravely. "Ordinary attacks mean nothing to them. This is a duel of Haki!"

Leno and Whitebeard continued to clash, each attack freezing or shattering the surrounding landscape as if nature itself bowed to their strength. Eventually, Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit power began to crack the ice, leaving deep rifts in the battlefield.

Leno, standing in a crater, wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. The last shockwave had pierced his defense and bruised his lungs.

"Now this is a fight!" he grinned, his body healed and strengthened by his SSS-level Beauty talent, leaving him unscarred.

Hancock, who was watching from a distance, couldn't help but be awestruck. Even after such a brutal clash, Leno's body was flawless, his talents keeping him in peak condition.

Leno closed his eyes, feeling his energy coalesce like a sleeping volcano ready to erupt. Power surged within him as his talents awoke, one by one, glowing like stars.

When he opened his eyes, lightning sparked within them, and in an instant, he disappeared.

"One Sword Style: God Moonless!"

In a flash, Leno struck Whitebeard, leaving a deep, bloody slash across his chest.

"Dad!" Marco shouted in alarm.

Whitebeard laughed, his chest rising and falling as his heart pumped more blood into his reddening skin. With each heartbeat, his whole body glowed crimson, releasing an overwhelming, terrifying force.

In the distance, Marco and the others looked on, horrified. "Why is he pushing himself to this point?"

Years ago, Whitebeard had used this technique against the likes of Garp, Sengoku, and Zephyr. That battle left him with lasting injuries. For him to use it again now, he had to be pushed to his absolute limit.

Marco's heart clenched. "Could it be...?"

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+30 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg