The world had become a storm of invisible blades.
Kuro's Shakushi was not a technique; it was a force of nature, a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter. The Black Cat Pirates shrieked as they were cut down by their own captain, their bodies collapsing under a flurry of slashes they could not see. Nami watched from the boat, her hand clapped over her mouth in horror.
Luffy stood at the center of it all, his body a canvas of stinging red lines as the phantom blades raked across his rubbery skin. He couldn't see Kuro. He couldn't track him. But he could feel the deadly wind of his passage. He knew he couldn't dodge. He had to stop the storm at its source.
He planted his feet, enduring the hail of cuts, his eyes darting back and forth, searching for a pattern in the chaos. There. A flicker. A slight distortion in the air.
NOW!
He lunged, not with a punch, but with his whole body, his arms outstretched like a net. His fingers closed around something solid—the rough fabric of Kuro's suit jacket.
The force of the impact was like catching a cannonball. Luffy was dragged forward, his sandals carving deep grooves in the dirt, but his rubbery grip held firm. The invisible storm came to a dead, shocking stop. Kuro, the phantom, was made tangible once more, thrown to the ground by his own momentum.
He looked up, a look of pure disbelief on his face.
"Look at them," Kuro sneered, gesturing with his head towards his own wounded, terrified men. "They are still alive, still suffering, all because you interfered. I would have granted them a swift, clean death. You are not merciful, Straw Hat. You are merely a fool."
He began to tremble, preparing to launch the Shakushi again. "This time, I will not be caught!"
But Luffy was on him in an instant. This time, he didn't just grab. He tackled Kuro, wrapping his rubbery limbs around the captain's body like a boa constrictor, pinning his arms and legs. Kuro struggled, his strength immense, but he was completely immobilized.
Deep in the forest, the situation was just as desperate.
"I'll sign it!" Kaya cried out, seeing Jango loom over the injured Usopp Pirates. "I'll sign the will! Just leave them alone!"
Jango grinned, his objective within reach. He tossed the three small boys aside, where they crashed hard against the tree trunks. He then approached Kaya, holding out a pen and the will. "A wise decision, little mistress."
As her trembling hand signed away her life's fortune, the three boys, pretending to be more hurt than they were, huddled together. "Losing… doesn't mean we can run away," Piiman whispered. Their captain had trusted them with a mission.
With the will signed and pocketed, Jango's demeanor turned completely sinister. "Excellent. And now, for your tragic accident." He raised his chakram, its sharpened edge glinting.
It was then that two figures burst through the trees. Zoro, carrying Usopp on his shoulder.
"We're here!" Usopp yelled.
Zoro didn't waste a second. He tossed Usopp into the high branches of a nearby tree, giving him a perfect, elevated vantage point. A sniper's nest.
Jango, seeing his plan unraveling, lunged for Kaya. But from the ground, the three Usopp Pirates made their final, brave stand. They charged and rammed a sharpened shovel directly between the cheeks of his rear end.
"GYAAAH!" Jango screamed, leaping into the air in pain and humiliation. He kicked the three boys aside and made one last, desperate leap towards Kaya. "It's too late to save her, swordsman!" he taunted Zoro.
"My goal was never to stop you," Zoro smirked, his sword already flashing.
SWISH!
He didn't cut Jango. He cut down the thick branches that were blocking Usopp's line of sight.
"It was to clear the way."
High in the tree, Usopp saw his opening. The forest fell away, and he had a perfectly clear, unobstructed shot. He pulled back the band of his slingshot, his breath steady, his aim true. This was for Kaya. For his village. For his father.
Back at the coastline, a bizarre event was unfolding. The Black Cat Pirates, seeing their terrifying captain completely immobilized by the strange boy in the straw hat, did the unthinkable. Their fear of Kuro was momentarily replaced by their awe of Luffy.
They began to cheer.
"GET HIM, STRAW HAT!"
"SHOW HIM WHO'S BOSS!"
Luffy, still wrestling with the struggling Kuro, was incredibly annoyed by this. He stretched his neck back, and back, and back, until his head appeared right in front of the cheering pirates a hundred feet away.
"HEY! SHUT UP!" he yelled. "DON'T CHEER FOR ME!"
Kuro, still trapped in Luffy's grip, could only watch in stunned disbelief. "My plan… My perfect plan…"
It was at that exact, chaotic moment, that the two battles, miles apart, reached their simultaneous climax.
In the forest, Usopp let his projectile fly.
At the coast, Luffy, having finished scolding the pirates, let his head snap forward like a recoiling rubber band.
A single, explosive pellet—a Kayaku Boshi—shot through the forest.
A single, rubbery skull, aimed like a cannonball, shot forward.
The pellet exploded in Jango's face, engulfing him in a cloud of fire and pepper.
Luffy's forehead connected squarely with Kuro's.
Gomu Gomu no Kane! (Bell!)
In the forest, Jango collapsed, unconscious.
At the coast, Kuro's eyes rolled back into his head, and he too fell, completely and utterly defeated.
The simultaneous finishing blow had landed. The reign of Captain Kuro was over.