Chapter 50: The Red-Haired Shadow — The Cost of Ambition
The screen transitioned from the soot-stained skies of the South Blue to the shimmering, terrifying waves of the New World. This wasn't a flashback; the "FUTURE" watermark pulsed in the corner like a warning heartbeat, sending a collective chill through every rookie docked at Sabaody.
The camera panned over a red-masted ship: the Red Force. It sat anchored near a desolate island, the air around it humming with a Haki so dense the broadcast itself began to flicker and distort.
Suddenly, a lone ship—the Victoria Punk—tore through the fog. On the prow stood a slightly older Eustass Kid, his mechanical arm humongous, his face twisted into a grin of pure, unbridled arrogance.
"SHANKS!" Kid's future voice roared, vibrating the very speakers of the golden screen. "Come out and face the man who's going to take your head!"
> [Monkey D. Luffy]: "OY! That's Shanks' ship! And look! There's Yasopp! USOPP, LOOK! IT'S YOUR DAD!"
> [Usopp]: (Crying in Sabaody) "D-DAD?! He looks so cool... but wait, is he going to fight that scary red-haired guy?! KID, STOP! DON'T ATTACK THEM!"
> [Eustass Kid]: (Sabaody) "Shut up, Long-nose! That's me! Look at the size of that arm! I'm finally taking down a Yonko! This is what I was born for!"
> [Shanks]: "Dahahaha! Look at that fire! Beckman, did you hear that? The kid wants my head. I hope he's prepared for the price."
> [Benn Beckman]: "He's got spirit, Captain. But he's playing a game he doesn't understand. He's walking into a storm with an umbrella made of spoons."
> [Yasopp]: "Careful, Beckman. Don't spill your drink while you're teaching the brat a lesson. I've got a bet with Roux that this lasts less than ten seconds."
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Kid didn't wait. He leapt from his ship, his magnetism pulling every bit of iron from the Victoria Punk to form a massive, spinning drill of metal. "PUNK ROTTEN!" he screamed, diving toward the shore.
But he never touched the sand.
A silhouette moved. Benn Beckman didn't run; he simply exhaled a plume of blue smoke and stepped forward. In one hand, he held his flintlock rifle—not aimed, just held casually.
"You're loud, kid," Beckman said, his voice like cold stone.
The air suddenly turned heavy. A shockwave of invisible pressure exploded from Beckman. It wasn't just Haki; it was the overwhelming "Presence" of a man whose spirit was refined to the point of absolute lethality.
At Sabaody, Luffy stopped jumping. His eyes widened, and he broke into a cold sweat. "That... that's not the Backman I remember. The air around them is... it feels like it's trying to crush the screen."
Kid's massive metal drill began to vibrate. The magnetic bond was being crushed by Beckman's sheer willpower.
"Get lost," Beckman muttered.
He didn't fire a bullet. He swung the butt of his rifle. It moved so fast the camera couldn't track it. One moment Kid was mid-air; the next, a sickening CRACK echoed across the island. Kid's mechanical arm disintegrated, and his real left arm... twisted at an impossible angle.
The Agony: A Lesson in Blood
Kid hit the ground, sliding hundreds of feet through the sand. Blood sprayed the white shore. He looked up, his vision blurring, only to see Beckman standing over him, the smoke from his cigarette still curling into the sky.
"The New World isn't a playground," Beckman said, looking down with eyes that showed no pity, only a grim reality. "You wanted to see a Yonko? You haven't even earned the right to see our Captain's face."
The screen zoomed in on Kid's face—not the face of a winner, but of a boy who had finally realized that the world was much, much bigger than his scrap heap. His left arm was gone, severed at the shoulder by a strike that bypassed his magnetism and hit the core of his soul.
> [Sengoku]: "This is the brutality of the New World! This is why we don't interfere with the Yonko unless necessary! One First Mate just dismantled rank 45 without breaking a sweat!"
> [Akainu]: (Sticking his head out of a dumbwaiter in Marineford) "UTTER WEAKNESS! If that brat can't even handle a First Mate, he should have stayed in the South Blue garbage bin! BECKMAN! YOU'RE A CRIMINAL, BUT AT LEAST YOU KNOW HOW TO DISPOSE OF TRASH!"
> [Roronoa Zoro]: "So that's the level of the top... He didn't even use a sword. He used the back of a gun. Kid... you're lucky to be alive."
> [Eustass Kid]: (Sabaody - Screaming at the sky) "BECKMAN!! I'LL KILL YOU! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S THE FUTURE! I'LL RIP THAT RIFLE OUT OF YOUR HANDS AND EAT IT!"
> [Killer]: (Holding Kid back) "Kid, look at the screen! Look at your eyes! You didn't give up! Look!"
> [Buggy the Clown]: "HONK! I KNEW IT! SHANKS' CREW IS FULL OF MONSTERS! I'm going back to the East Blue! I'm going to find a nice, quiet island with no magnetic brats and no cigarette-smoking terminators! HONK! But first I must escape Impel Down."
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>[ Magellan ]: "You are not going anywhere Red-Nose. I got order to kill you here."