Chapter 125: Have You Ever Experienced Being Pushed Down?
The mirror of light shattered.
A streak of gold bent through the air, following the path of refraction, and in the next breath, Kizaru appeared beside Axel.
That familiar face emerged from the glow—lazy eyes, drooping mouth, and an expression so naturally sleazy that if it had not belonged to an Admiral, it would have been punched several times over by now.
Not far behind him, Issho was closing in.
The moment Kizaru noticed his subordinate had been struck down, he used the advantage of his speed to shake Issho off for the briefest instant and arrive ahead of him.
"Oooh… how scary."
Kizaru lowered his head slightly, his tone as drawn-out and careless as ever.
"Kid… have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
He did not dare to take his time.
Issho was right behind him. That invisible pressure was still weighing on his body like a mountain, threatening to drag even light itself toward the earth.
So the moment the words left his mouth, dazzling yellow light gathered around Kizaru's raised foot.
Then he kicked.
Axel's Observation Haki had already caught the attack.
His body could not match Kizaru's speed. That much was obvious. Against the Glint-Glint Fruit, trying to move faster was a joke.
But if there was one thing that could move faster than the body—
It was thought.
The instant the light mirror's path appeared, Axel's mind had already begun calculating. Angle. Distance. Timing. Impact point. Possible trajectory.
Before Kizaru even fully arrived, Axel had shifted his body.
His hand tightened around his wooden blade.
He drew and blocked.
Bang!
The kick collided with the blade.
The wooden sword had been strengthened by his ability until it was harder than steel, yet against Kizaru's light-speed strike, even that only lasted for less than a second.
Crack!
The blade burst apart.
Wooden fragments sprayed through the air like shrapnel.
Kizaru's kick did not stop. With terrifying momentum, it swept forward toward Axel's abdomen.
Then—
Whoosh!
The golden flash skimmed past Axel's waist by a hair's breadth and shot into the distance.
A heartbeat later, it struck a large tree far behind him.
BOOM!
The tree vanished in a violent explosion of light and fire. Flames surged upward, licking toward the clouds, while splinters and smoke scattered across the battlefield.
Kizaru frowned.
His kick had been aimed directly at Axel's abdomen.
There was no mistake in his timing, no flaw in his aim. Yet in the final instant, the direction of the attack had shifted by a tiny fraction.
For less than a second—no, perhaps not even that long—his body had slipped out of his control.
That was why the attack missed.
Kizaru had no time to ponder what method the brat had used. The truly troublesome enemy was already behind him.
That blind swordsman's pressure was a nightmare.
Being entangled by Axel had already delayed him. Under Issho's gravity, even the speed he was so proud of became difficult to use freely. He had only managed to break away by catching the child off guard. If they settled into a proper fight again, escaping would not be nearly as simple.
Before Issho's next attack could arrive, Kizaru turned into a beam of light and retreated.
"Are you all right?" Issho asked.
He could sense Axel's presence, but because he could not see the situation directly, he could not judge the boy's condition with certainty.
"I'm fine."
Axel let out a few slow breaths.
That had been close.
Fortunately, the direction of Kizaru's energy was still something he could interfere with. By altering the vector of the kick at the last possible moment, he had managed to dodge what should have been a direct hit.
He had already tested this before with Issho.
At first, Axel had wondered whether something supernatural like a Devil Fruit operated under a completely separate system from natural energy.
The results proved otherwise.
Vector manipulation could interfere with the direction of Devil Fruit energy.
Uncle Issho's gravity was no different from gravity found in nature. The only distinction was that one existed passively, while the other could be actively manipulated through a Devil Fruit.
As long as it could be understood, measured, and analyzed, Axel could affect it.
That meant he held an advantage against Logia-type Devil Fruit users and certain Paramecia users.
As for Zoan users?
That hardly needed to be said.
Vector manipulation was most terrifying at close range. The moment he touched someone's body, he could reverse their blood flow and rupture their blood vessels from within. A living body would resist that interference to some extent, but ordinary people would never withstand it.
After escaping danger, Axel finally had the leisure to feel annoyed.
Kizaru had actually launched a sneak attack on him.
An Admiral.
Sneak attacking a child.
If not for Observation Haki and the calculations he had made in advance, he might already be lying on the ground after taking that kick.
The thought made Axel's eyes narrow.
Then, looking at Kizaru, who had not yet gone too far, an idea suddenly came to him.
"Hey, old man."
Kizaru paused and glanced back.
Axel raised his voice.
"Didn't you just ask me, 'Kid, have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?'"
Kizaru lifted an eyebrow.
"My answer is no," Axel said. "But I have a question for you too."
"Oh?" Kizaru sounded mildly interested despite himself. "What question?"
He had asked that line to plenty of people before, especially when dealing with troublesome brats.
But this was the first time a brat had turned around and asked him something in return.
Axel looked at him seriously.
"Old man, have you ever been pushed down by a girl?"
"…"
The battlefield went quiet.
Even Issho, standing beside Axel, coughed lightly.
He had been slightly curious about what sort of question the child would ask, but he had not expected… that.
The Marines lying nearby stared at Axel with twitching expressions.
This kid was strange.
Terrifyingly strong, yes—but strange.
He clearly had enough power to kill many of them if he wanted. If he had used the same attack he used on Rear Admiral DeWitt, most of the Marines here would have been dead instead of merely sprawled across the ground groaning in pain.
Yet when he fought, he always held back.
And now this question…
It was bizarre.
Perhaps in the entire world, he was the first person bold enough to ask an Admiral something like that to his face.
Worse still, the answer seemed rather obvious.
Admiral Kizaru was nearly fifty years old, yet there had never been any news of him having a family, a lover, or even a scandal.
That alone was enough to answer the question.
Of course, no one dared to say it out loud.
As the person involved, Kizaru looked as if he wanted to reply, "I'm sorry, I can't answer that question."
In the end, he chose silence.
Some things only became harder to explain the more one tried to explain them.
After a long pause, Kizaru finally squeezed out a sentence.
"What an unlovable brat…"
Axel, however, was not someone who lost verbal battles easily.
He tilted his head, then spoke with a look of sudden understanding.
"Oh, I get it. You're saying that because of your face."
Kizaru's expression froze.
Axel continued kindly, as if comforting him.
"It's not your fault you were born looking like that. Don't worry too much. Life will get better."
The meaning was obvious.
Kizaru's remark came from envy.
Envy, jealousy, and resentment born from a face that had failed him.
The surrounding Marines nearly coughed blood.
This brat was ruthless.
Then Axel casually pointed at one Marine lying on the ground.
"If you don't believe me, just ask him what he thinks of your face."
The Marine's soul almost left his body.
He had only been lying there pretending to be dead. How had he suddenly been dragged into this?
Feeling Axel's finger aimed at him, then feeling Admiral Kizaru's gaze slowly shift over, the Marine stiffened like a corpse.
His body trembled.
Whether from pain, fear, or sheer despair, even he could no longer tell.
"A-Admiral Kizaru's face…"
His voice shook.
"It's… not that bad…"
Kizaru stared at him.
The Marine swallowed.
"How should I put it… handsome? No, wait… distinctive! Yes! Admiral Kizaru has a very distinctive charm!"
Axel asked, "What kind of charm?"
The Marine's mouth moved faster than his brain.
"Uh… a sleazy kind of charm—"
The moment the words escaped, his eyes widened.
Then he clamped both hands over his mouth, rolled his eyes back, and collapsed flat against the ground.
He chose death.
It was safer.
.....
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