"So, Mr. Kai, how exactly did you get all those injuries? They look pretty nasty."
"Got chased by a Marine Admiral for three days straight during a prison break. This was the result."
"Is that right? A Marine Admiral... you must be a real powerhouse, Mr. Kai!"
"..."
Kai kept up the casual banter with the crew. It was pretty obvious they were just fishing for details on his background.
But an Admiral chasing him for three days? And now he was just chilling in the East Blue? That meant he had actually escaped the highest military power of the World Government.
Pure bullshit, they thought.
Everyone figured he was just blowing smoke. But they were just passing strangers, so nobody called him out on it. They nodded along, treating his tall tales as free entertainment.
When the ship finally approached a place called Aiya Island, Kai turned to the captain. "Thanks for the ride."
Aside from a simple 'thanks,' he didn't exactly have any treasure to offer. No pirates had attacked on the way, so he couldn't even pay them back with muscle. And making empty promises like, 'Call me if you ever need a favor'? What was the point?
He didn't even know how long he'd stick around the East Blue. He might head back to the Grand Line any day now. How would a regular merchant ship even track him down?
More importantly, he was absolutely certain the Marines were about to slap a massive bounty on his head. Staying associated with him was a death sentence for these regular sailors.
So, while they were still a fair distance from the shore, Kai stood up, gave his final thanks, and kicked off the empty air.
Using Geppo. He bounded straight for the island. This way, no one at the docks would see him step off the ship, keeping the crew's hands clean.
"..."
The sailors stood utterly dumbfounded, watching Kai literally walk on the sky. He crossed the thousand-meter gap to the island in a handful of explosive strides.
This was the East Blue. The ship's guards were small-fry, none of them had ever seen Rokushiki techniques before. But one thing was instantly clear, Kai was a monster.
That whole "chased by an Admiral for three days" story? Now... they were starting to think it might actually be true.
Well, mostly. Some still couldn't wrap their heads around it. They had no frame of reference for how strong an Admiral actually was, nor how strong Kai was. Without a baseline, the scale of his claim was just meaningless noise.
Once on the island, Kai kept a low profile. Step one, get cash.
The easiest way to do that was to hunt down some pirates. But pirates didn't just spawn on every street corner. At a quick glance, Aiya Island didn't have any docked pirate ships. So, he had to resort to a little 'robbing the rich to heal the poor' to afford a doctor.
He found a clinic, grabbed some meds, and got to work patching himself up. His monstrous physique could have healed the wounds naturally given enough time, but why wait when medicine could speed things up?
He had a gut feeling the Marines weren't done with him yet. Not by a long shot.
Kai spent the next few days in strict recovery mode. It wasn't just the physical damage, the mental toll of playing cat-and-mouse with Kizaru for three days straight had left him completely drained.
He slept for two solid days. When he finally woke up, he felt almost brand new. The massive gash across his chest had been stitched, treated, and was already scabbing over nicely. His energy and spirit were back at peak condition.
Meanwhile.
Out in the rest of the world, the name 'Kai' had just detonated like a bomb.
News of his exploits was drawing the eyes of the entire world. Marine Headquarters had officially issued his bounty!
The number was staggering, 350,000,000 Berries.
But what really grabbed people by the throat was the fine print in the newspaper—the brief summary of the Impel Down breakout. The Marines had pinned the entire disaster squarely on Kai's shoulders.
That was how the public found out. The inescapable great underwater prison, Impel Down... had been breached? And prisoners actually got out?!
And this absolute nobody, this 'Kai', was apparently the mastermind who incited the riot and orchestrated the whole thing. A highly dangerous criminal mastermind. Hence the 350 million bounty.
That was an insanely high starting bounty! Hell, after Luffy burned down Enies Lobby, he only got 300 million. And Enies Lobby was arguably more famous among everyday citizens than the secret underwater prison. Even after Luffy broke into Impel Down and crashed the Paramount War later on, his bounty only bumped up to 400 million.
Pinning the destruction of the prison and the mass breakout entirely on Kai... 350 million was honestly a fair starting price. Frankly, the Marines could have gone higher and it still would've made sense. Kai's growth rate was terrifying, he was a massive, looming threat to the World Government.
But, factoring in that Garp was currently heading back to the East Blue, the brass probably figured the Hero of the Marines would just scoop Kai up. They tossed out the 350 million as a placeholder. If Kai somehow slipped through Garp's fingers, they could just use Garp's combat report to gauge how much he'd improved since escaping Kizaru, and update the bounty then.
"C-Captain!!!"
"Captain, you need to see this!! It's today's paper! That guy... Kai! The one we picked up a couple days ago, remember?!"
"He... he wasn't making it up!!"
Back on the merchant ship, absolute chaos reigned.
A frantic sailor shoved a newspaper and a crisp, fresh wanted poster into the captain's hands. The photograph was undeniably Kai. But it was the obnoxiously long string of zeroes making up that 350,000,000 figure that made their blood run cold.
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