Of course, life at sea is long.
Never mind that Monkey D. Luffy seemed to circle the world in just a few months—but the Roger Pirates didn't have such a clear route, and much of their time was spent simply on the way,
you could even say Roger was the true chosen one, stumbling into gathering all the conditions to reach the final island,
while the less lucky pirates might spend a lifetime and never find where the Poneglyphs were buried or anyone who could read them.
A year flashed by,
Sea Circle Calendar 1496,
and the now-thirteen-year-old Aos was formally making his mark,
though he didn't care much about that—something else had his attention.
"Hey! Buggy! Great news—I've hit two meters!"
"Are you an idiot? How is this the time to obsess over that?!"
Buggy—at about one forty-five—looked up at the much taller Aos and couldn't help griping,
We're in the middle of a fight!
"Hahahahaha… I know!!"
In high spirits, Aos casually cocked his head and turned to slip past a few bullets aimed at him, then came to Buggy's side,
"Clang—"
jet-black Busoshoku Haki rushed down his whole arm, and he set it by Buggy's temple,
"Thunk—"
a bullet struck the back of his hand, bounced away, and clattered to the deck.
"Watch yourself, Buggy," Aos said with a grin,
"Eh???"
Only then did Buggy realize how close he'd come—mouth agape, eyes bulging, snot almost scared out of him,
"I… I almost died!"
He shuddered; sure, as a Chop-Chop man he was immune to cuts, but that was it—take a bullet to the head and he'd be dead for sure!
Patting Buggy's shoulder, Aos sprang to the rail and sent his Kenbunshoku Haki rippling outward,
instantly sensing the particulars of the two pursuing warships in the distance,
"Not even sending an admiral and they're still ordered to take us on—whose toes did these Marines step on?"
Rifle in one hand, Aos glanced toward Captain Roger at the prow.
Seeing Aos step up, many crewmates tracked his every move—including the straw hat–wearing bunch,
Aos was more and more someone who could hold his own.
Since awakening Haoshoku Haki, he'd thrown himself into battles with special zeal,
in his own words, as much frontal fighting as possible—perhaps best for honing Conqueror's; wins and blood-duels are the finest tempering of the spirit,
What can you say,
that's the path to the throne.
And because of this shift in style, over the next year his bounty kept climbing,
and now he was a man worth 500,000,000 Belly!
"Leave it to me, Captain Roger—it's just a bunch of Marine grunts."
Roger hadn't planned to act anyway; hearing Aos, he sheathed his blade and looked to the waterfall-shrouded island ahead,
Wano Country!
"Make it quick, Aos! We're making land!!!"
"Understood!"
Aos raised his long sniper rifle, sweeping his formidable Kenbunshoku again and again across the two ships hundreds of meters away—every slab of steel laid bare before him,
another application he'd developed for Kenbunshoku—an almost X-ray, god's-eye view,
somewhat like a "mind net."
He regulated his breathing; a scarlet light flared suddenly in Aos's eyes,
visions of explosions flickered past his gaze. Future Sight itself was no longer the goal,
what he was trying to see
was a farther future.
With a curt report, a jet-black, Armament-coated bullet all but vanished into the air; a faint sonic crack rippled after it,
and after a brief hush—
"BOOM—!!"
as if in chain reaction, impacts sounded, followed by cascading detonations!
Amid howls and screams, a steel behemoth slowly keeled over and slid into the deep.
The sight plainly terrified the Marines on the neighboring ship; they stood dumbstruck, eyes about to pop out,
"He can pick out our magazine from hundreds of meters away? That's a lie!!! How could that be possible???"
The rear admiral on the adjacent ship wavered on the edge of a breakdown as he watched—then snapped to and bellowed orders to his men,
"Retreat!! Hard to port!!"
"A monster like that is beyond us!!!"
They ordered an immediate turn, not realizing that for the strong, hundreds of meters might as well be arm's length.
"Something's coming in!!!"
"Too fast—can't make it out!"
"It's Black Gun Aos!!!"
Watching Aos sprint through the air on Geppo, the Roger Pirates weren't surprised; they leaned on the rail and waited for the foregone conclusion.
Aboard the surviving Marine ship, seeing the Oro Jackson not bearing down on them let everyone exhale,
and as New World Marines, the two ships' commanding officer—Rear Admiral Tesoro—wasn't a total nobody,
and against this newly risen young pirate,
with two colors of Haki at his command, he was confident he could hold Aos for a while.
Stall a bit, let the warships get some distance, then swarm him with every Marine aboard—how hard could it be?
"Black Gun Aos! If you've got guts, come at—"
Schlik!!!
Around him, Marines who thought they'd escaped wore smiles that froze on their faces.
"Dying with a smile—that's the most mercy I can give you."
At some point, Aos had already appeared on the deck; he flicked the blood from his blade,
then looked back at the rear admiral's head on the floor—still wearing that smile.
No surprise—he'd seen this moment before he drew.
Faces around him flipped from joy to despair like a Peking Opera face-change,
and Aos strolled along at an easy pace, felling them one per stroke,
Two Marines, scared witless, even crawled into the galley to hide,
"Hey, Marines—before you draw your weapons, you're supposed to be ready to die,
not play at 'King of Cowards.'"
Aos didn't hesitate. If he'd been some weakling pirate, they wouldn't kill him—they'd lock him up for life. He wasn't a saint.
There was an unexpected bonus—the rear admiral's blade looked like a fine one,
black-patterned steel, long and weighty, less curved than most katana, with no extra fittings on the hilt—more like a staff-saber,
overall a bit like a gambler's "fireline," only longer and more ornate,
Aos didn't know famous blades, but it surely beat the mass-issue sword at his hip—and it was long enough,
long enough for when he hit three meters.
With his spoils in tow, Aos stepped through the air on Geppo back toward the Oro Jackson,
just in time—
he wanted to see whether Wano's Ryuo differed from the Armament flow techniques Vice-Captain Rayleigh had just taught him.