"Keheheheh!!"
"Hahahaha!!"
Their Conqueror's Haki surged at the same time.
RUMBLE—!
For a heartbeat, heaven and earth went dark. Wind howled, clouds twisted, the air itself trembled.
BOOM!
Colliding wills detonated, black-red sparks scattering like falling stars over the shattered island.
"I'm coming, brat!" Shiki roared.
His twin blades were wrapped in Armament, black lightning crawling wildly across the steel.
"Got it, Shiki."
Jin lifted his greatsword. Jet–black Armament climbed up the blade, crackling with the same jagged lightning.
"Keheheheh! So you had this power and didn't use it before? Looking down on me, were you?!"
Jin shook his head.
"Misunderstanding. I only unlocked it when I broke through to Great Swordsman—same time as the wind."
"Keheheheh…"
"Then show me, brat."
"Show me how far this 'White Ghost' of the Marines has come."
Shiki dove from the sky, blades crossing.
"Bring it on!!"
Jin raised his sword in a slanted guard and swung up to meet him.
For an instant, their weapons didn't even touch.
Yet—
BOOOOOOM!!
The air between them imploded, black lightning balling into a sphere before exploding outward in a storm of pressure.
All the remaining small-fry pirates rolled their eyes back and dropped like flies.
Kuro and Jango forced their heads up against the crushing weight of the clash.
"Th-their weapons… didn't even touch…" Kuro rasped.
Jango swallowed hard.
"This is… that thing, right? The Conqueror's coating the old man keeps talking about…"
Gion and Tokikake were holding up better, but their faces were just as grim.
Between Shiki and Jin, a black orb of pressure pulsed and shrank with every clash, pitch-dark lightning running wild around them.
"Move!" Tokikake barked. "Grab the soldiers and jump! There's a ship below to pick them up! That battlefield's not somewhere grunts get to stand around and watch."
He and Gion herded the nearby Marines toward the edge and leapt off the crumbling island.
—
Out on the sea, Captain Mao stood on the deck of a warship, staring up.
"You lot—look at the sky!"
"Is… is it cracking?!"
Some East Blue recruits who'd never seen true monsters before started yelling in panic.
Compared to this, that battle with the Red-Hair Pirates really had been kids roughhousing.
White brat… just how far have you grown?
"Men overboard!" a lookout shouted.
Mao squinted, then saw Marines literally raining down around them.
Tokikake landed on moonwalk, kicked off, and dropped gently to the deck.
"Captain, start pulling them in!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Move, move! Haul every last one of them up!"
Mao's face was tight as he watched the shattered island overhead.
"Vice Admiral Tokikake, what's the situation up there?"
"That white brat is going all-out with Shiki," Tokikake said grimly.
"The sky's no place for regular soldiers anymore."
As if to underline his words, one edge of the floating island cracked and snapped off. A small mountain tumbled from the sky, smashing into the sea with a titanic splash.
Tokikake's eyelid twitched.
"Faster! Anyone still in the water in three minutes is dead weight!"
"Yes, sir!"
—
"Keheheheh! Brat, you're not bad at all!"
"Haha! You too, old lion!"
"Chop Wave!"
Shiki's blade carved a giant fissure across the rock.
Jin sprang aside and slashed back.
"Gale: Big Strength Slash!"
His sword aura cut a clean line through the air. Shiki dodged, and the mountain behind him was sliced neatly in half instead.
Every slash they threw now was wrapped in Conqueror's. The aftershock of a glancing cut was enough to pulverize stone.
They barely dared block. Either you got out of the way—or you coated yourself in everything you had and prayed.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Swish, swish, swish!
Stray slashes crisscrossed the island, carving canyons and dropping boulders into the sea.
Whenever their blades actually met, the shockwaves turned everything nearby into dust.
"Those two…"
"Have been fighting like this… for two days now," Gion murmured.
She and Tokikake had long since evacuated the Marines and were watching from farther out.
Tokikake whistled low.
"When I first saw that brat, I could tell he was strong. Didn't think he was this strong."
"Three colors of Haki, Great Swordsman, and hand-to-hand on top of that."
"He's a damn monster."
Gion nodded.
"If he ever eats a Devil Fruit on top of all that—"
Tokikake winced.
"Don't jinx it…"
A streak of golden light flashed down beside them, condensing into a lanky man in a yellow-striped coat.
"Kowai, kowai… kids these days are terrifying~"
"Admiral Kizaru!" the two vice admirals snapped to attention.
Kizaru waved lazily.
"No need to be so stiff, ne. So…"
"What's the situation?"
Gion jerked her chin toward the broken sky.
"As you can see—Shiki and White are trying to kill each other."
Beru beru beru…
Click.
"Moshi moshi, Sengoku-san~"
Kizaru flipped open a Den Den Mushi.
"Borsalino, are you there?" Sengoku's voice came sharp and tense. "What's happening over there?!"
Kizaru watched the two figures slam into each other, black lightning tearing the sky apart.
"Mmm, Sengoku-san… Gion and Tokikake are both fine."
"As for Shiki, he's already in last-ditch mode."
"What?!" Sengoku's voice jumped. "Hold him, no matter what!"
"Kuzan is almost at Twin Cape, he'll be there soon—"
"Mmm, Sengoku-san…"
"I don't think Kuzan will make it in time, ne~"
Sengoku's tone went cold.
"Explain. Clearly."
Kizaru's gaze slid to the top of Shiki's head.
"Because…"
"Our old golden lion pulled the steering wheel out of his skull."
"At this rate, he'll be dead when the fight's over anyway, yo~"
"Shiki…"
Sengoku fell silent for a moment.
"Then drain him dry."
"Tie him up if you have to!"
"Make sure that bastard dies for real this time!"
"Sorry, Sengoku-san."
"I can't touch him~"
Sengoku's voice sharpened.
"Borsalino. Stop talking in circles."
"Say everything at once."
"Right now."
Kizaru sighed.
"Yes, yes…"
"The problem is…"
"White Ghost is already going all out with Shiki."
"Cutting into that fight is a great way to get killed, ne~."
From their vantage point, Shiki and Jin clashed again, both of them blasted backward, both of them staggering.
Then they got up—
And kept going.
They'd abandoned defense entirely.
You cut me, I cut you. Whoever fell first, lost.
"That brat's really pushed himself that far, huh…" Sengoku muttered.
"Give me specifics."
Kizaru watched Jin drive his sword into Shiki's waist, then take a slash across the chest in return.
"Mmm… hard to describe, ne."
"Let's just say…"
"They're about to decide it."
"And from what I hear, this is their second day."
"…"
Sengoku's voice went flat.
"Protect White Ghost at all costs."
"If you have to interfere, you interfere."
"We cannot afford to lose a fighter like that. Every front is short on manpower."
"Got it, Sengoku-san. But after this, I am taking some time off."
"Having to jump into that mess would be… so scary~"
Click.
The line went dead.
Kizaru pursed his lips.
"So cold, ne, Sengoku-san."
Gion and Tokikake wisely pretended they'd heard nothing.
They went back to watching the battlefield.
CLANG!
Blades met again, the two men almost nose to nose, both panting.
"Keheheheh… brat…"
"Looks like you're at your limit."
"Tch. I could say the same, old man."
They shoved off, boots grinding into shattered stone as they staggered back a few steps.
"Haa… haa…"
"Brat," Shiki rasped.
"This is the last one."
Jin's chest heaved.
"Good."
"We'll see whether you go see Roger alone…"
"Or I go keep you company."
"Keheheheh… cocky bastard."
Shiki crossed his blades, black lightning dancing along the steel, lowering himself into a forward stance.
"Come, then!"
Jin drew the greatsword back, the blade humming with layered Haki.
Black sparks crawled along the edge as he mirrored the stance.
"Keheheheh…"
"Lion's Wrath: Chop Wave!!"
Shiki blasted forward at impossible speed.
"Gale Style…"
"Dawnbreak!!"
Jin hurled himself straight to meet him.
"This is it," Gion whispered.
Tokikake's hands were clenched white on the rail.
Kizaru's pupils flashed red for a moment as he watched—and the faintest smile tugged at his lips.
Steel flashed.
For a single, sharp moment…
Everything went silent.
Then—
CRACK—
They passed each other.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—!
The floating island beneath them fractured like glass and began to crumble, chunks of rock tumbling from the sky into the waiting sea.
"Who won?" Gion's voice was tight.
Splurt.
Blood gushed from Jin's chest in a cross-shaped cut, pouring down his torso.
Shiki turned slowly, grinning.
"You did."
Jin turned as well, smiling back through the blood.
"Looks like…"
"You're the only one going ahead."
Tokikake and Gion squinted up, and finally saw it—
A thin, almost delicate line across Shiki's chest, slowly widening.
"Kh…"
Shiki coughed, blood splattering the ground.
"Brat…"
"That wind sword of yours is nasty…"
"The sword aura's rampaging inside me, keheheh…"
He looked down at his twin blades, eyes suddenly complicated.
Then he threw them.
They stabbed into the rock at Jin's feet with twin thunks.
"One's called Sakura Ten," he rasped.
"The other is Deadwood."
"They've followed me across half the Grand Line."
"Killed more people than I can remember."
"But in the end, they lost to an East Blue brat along with me."
"Find them a successor."
A wooden chest drifted through the air, carried by the last tatters of Shiki's power before dropping beside the swords.
Shiki's lips twisted in a bloody grin.
"That's your payment."
"You'll like it, keheheheh…"
"Can't have you doing this for free."
"That your last words, Shiki-senpai?" Jin asked quietly, glancing at the swords and the chest.
"Last words…?"
"Keheheheh… hah…"
"Don't make me laugh, brat."
"I'm the great pirate Shiki the Golden Lion."
"Why the hell would I need last words?"
Jin nodded.
"Got it."
"I'll find someone worthy of them."
"Keheheheh… keheheh…"
Shiki laughed as he fell backward, eyes drifting shut.
His mouth was still curled into a grin when he hit the stone.
Kizaru flashed to Jin's side.
"Ne, ne, Lieutenant Commander White Ghost…"
"Is that loot I see?"
"Want to share with your senpai a little?"
"I won't tell Sengoku-san~"
Gion and Tokikake both nearly tripped.
If you want it, just say you want it.
Why dress it up like that?
Jin honestly wanted to stab him.
"This is a request," he said flatly.
"From a dying man, Admiral Borsalino."
Kizaru chuckled, eyes half-closed.
"Accepting a pirate's dying request, are we?"
"If that gets out…"
"People will talk, ne~"
"People already talk," Jin muttered.
"I'm not exactly a good man to begin with."
He turned his head to say something else—
And his knees buckled.
"White!"
Gion flashed in and caught him, fingers pressing to his neck.
"Passed out from exhaustion."
"He's lost too much blood. We stabilize him now, then treat him properly back in Loguetown."
She scooped him up in a princess carry without hesitation.
"Moonwalk. Soru!"
Two techniques overlapped as she shot toward the warship.
"Damn it…"
Tokikake watched them go, feeling something in his heart crack just a little.
"Gion's never carried me like that…"
Kizaru's lazy voice drifted over.
"Ne, Tokikake…"
"Don't forget the souvenirs~"
"After all…"
"That's an entrusted item."
Tokikake gave the admiral a long look, then hefted the swords and the chest.
"Yeah, yeah."
He followed after her.
Kizaru flipped the Den Den Mushi open again.
"Moshi moshi, Sengoku-san."
"Shiki's dead."
"Report," Sengoku said.
"Shiki burned the last of his wick," Kizaru replied.
"Then went out in one last burst."
"White Ghost is heavily wounded and unconscious."
"You stayed out of it?" Sengoku pressed.
"Of course~"
"Brat's strong. Three colors of Haki, swordsmanship, brawling…"
"And he's got that power now, too."
Kizaru smirked faintly.
"Quite the monster you've got on your roster, ne, Sengoku-san."
Sengoku grunted.
"Bring Shiki's corpse back."
"Have Tokikake and Gion escort White Ghost to Headquarters when he's healed."
"Got it~"
Click.
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