And so, the great brawl raged on for three full days.
By then, everyone in the Whitebeard Pirates had come to recognize the terrifying strength of the monster named Ozz.
Sneaky and strong—definitely way beyond the standard.
Fortunately, by the fourth day, the fighting finally came to a halt.
The two crews began hauling out supplies and treasure from their ships, setting up like street vendors haggling at a market.
The intense fighting and rigorous training in Haki had left Ozz a bit drained too. What he needed now was time—to internalize, to refine.
Not that he was particularly interested in the trading going on. After all, his only real possessions were a Devil Fruit and some scattered Beli and treasure from daily loot shares.
He wandered around for a while and eventually traded a chunk of treasure for a bit of seastone from the Whitebeard crew. Whether for crafting bullets or other purposes, it was a handy material to have.
"Buggy. Shanks. Are you two just going to stand there gawking all day?"
Ozz sat on a fallen tree trunk behind the two, watching them stand there with arms crossed and expressions full of bravado, a bit speechless.
"They're the ones staring at us, Ozz," Buggy muttered.
"Oh yeah?"
Across from them, Little Mark—whom Ozz had taken down with a single shot—sat cross-legged, bandaged up like a mummy. Next to him sat a stocky, dark-skinned kid wrapped in just as many bandages:
Marshall D. Teach.
Future Yonko. The backstabbing, treasure-hungry, woman-chasing Blackbeard.
But right now, the two weren't staring at Buggy and Shanks.
No—what their eyes were locked on was the guy eating snacks: Ozz.
"Are those guys apprentice pirates?" Teach asked seriously, eyes narrowed.
"Yeah," Marco replied. "Been with the Roger Pirates for a while now."
As one of Whitebeard's early crewmates, Marco had known about the three little rookies for some time. But even he hadn't expected that black-haired kid to be that strong—completely outside the realm of reason.
"No way... That kind of monster is just an intern on Roger's crew?!"
Sweat beaded down Teach's face. The wound on his left shoulder still throbbed with pain—the internal damage hurt far worse than it looked.
The other two didn't seem strong at all.
How could the difference between them be so massive?
That first encounter with Ozz—and the overwhelming power he displayed—had clearly left a mark on Teach's psyche.
While the two were sizing up the trio, Ozz and his crew were doing the same.
"Hey, Ozz, Shanks, you noticed too, right?" Buggy asked.
"Yeah," Shanks nodded.
"That guy—during the ceasefires the past two nights—never slept!"
"What? Is that supposed to be impressive?" Ozz asked, confused.
"No, no, it's just... rumor has it he's never slept. Not once since birth!"
Ozz raised an eyebrow. "Okay, that's a proper freak."
Still, what caught Ozz's attention wasn't Teach's insomnia—it was the fact that Buggy had apparently been staring at him for three days straight. Creepy.
As for Teach himself, Ozz didn't particularly like or dislike the guy.
If anything, Blackbeard's greedy, scheming, backstabbing ways probably fit the world's idea of what a pirate should be.
Roger, Luffy—those types were more like travelers dressed in pirate costumes.
The reason Ozz had aimed a little harder at Teach earlier wasn't out of hatred. He just wanted to test the guy out.
After all, anyone who could put a scar on adult Shanks' face couldn't be weak.
But judging from that one shot... Teach was still just a kid.
And Ozz wasn't interested in bullying children.
Instead, he turned his gaze to the treetop canopy, where Roger, Whitebeard, and Oden were deep in discussion—occasionally erupting into heated debate.
He even saw space itself cracking from the force of their argument...
"Looks like the journey's officially on a countdown now."
He took another slow sip of juice,
lost in thought.
"So, Oden's officially part of the Roger Pirates now?"
The Roger Pirates had set sail again. Buggy, staring at the samurai now aboard their ship, was still in disbelief.
"Eh… something like that. We're basically borrowing him from Whitebeard," Ozz said casually.
He wasn't too fazed—on the contrary, this gave him more chances to learn Ryuo (Flowing Haki) directly from Oden.
Sure, the Ryuo technique he'd stolen during the battle felt authentic enough, but asking the original master for pointers never hurt.
What if there was some trick he'd missed?
With his sword in hand, Ozz slowly approached the center of the party, where Oden stood in the middle of a crowd of cheering crewmates.
Then, without warning, he drew his blade.
The sudden move startled everyone. Tension spiked.
But to their surprise, Ozz wasn't picking a fight.
"What're you all staring at me for? I just want to ask about Ryuo."
Phew...
Oden let out a long sigh. Honestly, he didn't want to spar with this shameless little gremlin again. Not being able to land a single hit and getting beaten up in return was more torture than training.
That said, Ryuo wasn't exactly a secret. And since they were crewmates now, he didn't mind teaching it.
But after asking Ozz about his current grasp of the technique...
He found himself a little lost.
Ozz simply raised his fist. One layer, then another of red-armored Haki spread across his body.
It flowed like water—and with a gentle wave of his arm, the bottle in Oden's hand exploded into glass shards.
"Is there... anything I should improve?"
Ozz asked with a warm smile—completely unlike the terror he'd been in battle.
"I sort of figured it out during the past couple days of fighting," he added modestly.
Oden opened his mouth to reply—only to realize he had no words.
Because there was nothing left to teach.
What Ozz had just demonstrated was textbook Ryuo—pure, flowing, and perfectly executed.
In fact, Oden was beginning to suspect that Ozz had known all along and was just toying with him.
Seriously...
Do people like that really exist?
Is he even human?
With Oden's silence bordering on existential crisis, Ozz was politely but coldly dismissed.
"Hmph. All this just because I used a bit of future sight to mess with you? Holding a grudge much?"
Talk about petty.
He'd pulled that trick on so many people—only Oden had such a big problem with it. Maybe he should reflect on himself a bit, huh?
With no luck learning anything new, Ozz left the party center under the gaze of crewmates who now looked at him like he was some kind of cryptid.
Maybe being too good really did make people isolate you.
Out of options, Ozz figured he might as well go find his two best pals.
A quick scan with Observation Haki revealed them training hard at the ship's stern.
To be honest, their current level of training didn't do much for Ozz anymore.
After being mentored by Rayleigh and Roger, his standards had skyrocketed. At this point, even copying Shanks' Haki progress with Observation Haki felt like a waste of time.
He might as well focus on refining his ability to see the future, pushing that three-second window to four.
Way more productive.
What he didn't expect was that when he showed up, Buggy just waved lazily and went back to slacking off...
But Shanks?
Shanks lit up like a puppy seeing its favorite toy.
Dropping his dumbbells, eyes gleaming with excitement, he reached for the sword at his waist—
And with a battle cry full of fire:
"Come fight me, Ozz!!"
Ozz: ...Excuse me???