A “Meteor” Falling from 30,000 Meters Above the Earth!
7: Chapter 7 — Breaking the Sound Barrier with His Bare Body!
A “Meteor” Falling from 30,000 Meters Above the Earth!
Kahn hovered silently in the sky above Mount Colubo.
Below him, Monkey D.
Garp stared upward with an expression that increasingly resembled disbelief.
Looking down from above felt strangely satisfying.
Especially when the person below was Garp.
“I didn’t eat one,” Kahn answered calmly.
He rotated casually in midair.
His movements looked completely natural.
No explosive air bursts.
No visible footholds.
Nothing resembling Geppo whatsoever.
It was true flight.
Pure anti-gravity movement.
Garp’s face twitched.
“You didn’t eat a Devil Fruit?” “Then how the hell are you flying?!” Boom!!
The air exploded beneath Garp’s feet.
Using Geppo, the old marine shot upward instantly like a cannonball.
His massive hand lunged toward Kahn’s ankle.
He refused to believe this nonsense without testing it personally.
Even without Haki, Garp’s grasp carried terrifying force refined through decades of combat against the world’s strongest pirates.
Yet— Kahn vanished sideways instantly.
No leverage.
No kicking motion.
He simply moved laterally through the sky effortlessly.
Ridiculously fast.
Garp grabbed empty air.
Even the old marine paused briefly afterward.
A three-year-old child had dodged him in midair.
“It’s instinctive,” Kahn replied while looking at his own palm thoughtfully.
The interaction between his body’s biomagnetic field and the planet’s natural forces was becoming increasingly clear to him.
Gravity itself felt laughably weak.
“Fish swim.” “Birds fly.” “I can fly too.” “That makes sense, doesn’t it?” A vein bulged visibly on Garp’s forehead.
“Makes sense my ass.” Humans absolutely did not possess instincts like this.
If everyone could naturally fly through the sky, Marine warships would become meaningless.
“Stop talking nonsense and get down here!” Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Garp repeatedly kicked the air beneath his feet while chasing after Kahn aggressively.
Even at his age, the Hero of the Marines moved through the sky with terrifying speed using Geppo.
But Kahn quickly noticed something important.
Geppo relied heavily on linear acceleration.
Its aerial agility remained fundamentally limited by physical kicking motions.
Meanwhile, Kahn’s flight possessed complete freedom.
He darted left.
Right.
Upside down.
Spiraling upward like a streak of golden light.
The two figures rapidly chased each other through the sky above Mount Colubo.
Below them, Ace stared upward so long his neck began hurting.
Portgas D.
Ace stood completely frozen.
“…This has to be a joke.” Only days earlier, Ace had finally managed to use Geppo briefly himself.
He had been proud of that achievement.
Then Kahn casually started flying naturally.
The difference between them felt utterly hopeless.
And that realization filled Ace with overwhelming frustration.
They shared the same blood.
The same mother.
So why was Kahn so monstrously different?
High above the mountain, Kahn effortlessly avoided another grab from Garp before suddenly stopping.
Then he looked upward.
The sun.
An enormous burning star radiating endless energy across the heavens.
Even from the planet’s surface, sunlight already strengthened him dramatically.
Then what about closer distances?
What if he approached the source directly?
The moment that thought appeared— Kahn could no longer suppress it.
His Kryptonian physiology treated solar radiation like nourishment itself.
Logically speaking, proximity to the source should massively increase absorption efficiency.
“Old man Garp,” Kahn called out calmly.
“I’m done playing.” Garp halted midair using Geppo while glaring suspiciously at him.
“What are you planning now?” Kahn slowly pointed upward.
“I’m going there.” Garp froze.
That look in Kahn’s eyes— He had seen it once before.
On Gol D.
Roger.
The look of someone completely insane.
Then— BOOOOM!!!
A deafening sonic explosion erupted through the sky.
Kahn transformed into a golden streak instantly and shot vertically upward at terrifying speed.
The sound barrier shattered immediately.
A massive white shockwave ring exploded outward across the clouds.
Even Garp was pushed backward violently by the air pressure.
“HEY!!” “KID!!” “THERE’S NO OXYGEN UP THERE!!” Garp shouted furiously.
But his voice could not catch up.
Kahn had already disappeared into the sky.
The sound of wind gradually vanished around him.
Not because the atmosphere became quiet— But because he was moving too fast for sound itself to keep pace.
Clouds flashed past beneath him like mist.
Moisture condensed briefly across his skin before instantly evaporating from friction heat.
Higher.
Higher still.
His field of vision expanded rapidly.
Mount Colubo became tiny.
Foosha Village shrank into a speck.
Soon, the entire outline of the Goa Kingdom spread beneath him.
Then came the vast ocean of East Blue.
Endless blue water.
Scattered islands.
The breathtaking scale overwhelmed him briefly.
Yet Kahn continued accelerating upward relentlessly.
Every cell inside his body screamed with excitement.
The sunlight became increasingly intense.
Power surged through him more violently than ever before.
His skin burned hot.
His blood felt like flowing magma.
The sensation was intoxicating.
Like a man dying of thirst diving into an endless ocean.
Infinite energy flooded through his body.
For a brief moment, Kahn finally understood why Superman felt invincible beneath a yellow sun.
Right now— He almost felt capable of punching apart the world beneath him.
But gradually— The situation changed.
10,000 meters.
The approximate altitude of Skypiea.
The air became noticeably thinner.
Breathing grew more difficult.
Still manageable.
His enhanced lungs far surpassed ordinary humans.
20,000 meters.
The temperature plummeted sharply.
Not ordinary cold— But an eerie stillness that penetrated deep into the bones.
Even sunlight struggled to maintain his body temperature now.
30,000 meters.
The sky itself transformed.
Blue disappeared entirely.
Dark purple consumed the heavens.
At the edge of space, stars became visible despite daylight.
The sun appeared larger.
Brighter.
More violent.
Without atmospheric protection, ultraviolet radiation and cosmic energy bombarded Kahn’s body directly.
His Kryptonian physiology remained powerful— But he was still only three and a half years old.
His biofield had not fully matured yet.
Pain spread across his skin like countless needles piercing simultaneously.
Then came the true danger.
Oxygen.
There was almost none left.
Kahn held his breath instinctively while attempting to sustain bodily functions using absorbed solar energy instead.
But despite his mutations— His biology still fundamentally resembled humanity.
He had not evolved enough to survive vacuum conditions yet.
“…Still not enough…” Kahn stared upward weakly.
The sun looked close enough to touch.
Yet the distance between them remained utterly unreachable.
His vision blurred gradually.
His brain screamed warnings from oxygen deprivation.
His heartbeat thundered violently against his chest.
His lungs burned.
Consciousness began fading.
Then— His body’s instinctive survival mechanisms activated automatically.
The biomagnetic control maintaining flight collapsed.
Gravity reclaimed him instantly.
“…Damn it…” That thought barely crossed Kahn’s mind before darkness consumed him entirely.
Then— He fell.
Like a meteor.
Plunging downward from 30,000 meters above the Earth.
… Back on Mount Colubo, Garp stood atop a cliff while holding a telescope stolen directly from Dadan’s cabin.
“Where the hell did that brat go?!” “I can’t even see him anymore!” Ace shaded his eyes while staring upward.
“…Grandpa.” “There’s something black falling from the sky.” “Hm?” Garp adjusted the telescope focus.
The tiny black dot rapidly grew larger.
Then his expression changed instantly.
Flames.
The object was burning.
Atmospheric friction had ignited the surrounding air.
Realization struck immediately.
“OH, SHIT!!” Garp’s eyes widened violently.
“That idiot brat!!” Without hesitation, Garp grabbed Ace beneath one arm instantly.
“RUN!!”