Rakuya's brow knit. The air around him pulsed in steady rhythm. One of the Five Elders was already pinned under his Tsukuyomi, sunk deep into illusion. Below, the Marines were being battered senseless by Sea Kings and had no attention to spare for the sky.
Which meant no one should have been able to approach him here.
Yet the disturbance at his back had turned erratic. That could only mean someone had drawn close.
A spatial ability user.
Otherwise, for anyone to reach his blind spot without him sensing it would be absurd.
As Rakuya weighed it, the hand reaching from the unseen fold of space clenched and drove forward.
"Die."
The fist arrived with the voice.
It punched straight through Rakuya's back.
A chill laugh sounded behind him. "A mere pirate dares oppose the Government. Courting death."
The masked man's tone oozed contempt. He pulled back to strike again when Rakuya's body burst into a storm of black crows that scattered with harsh cries.
"What?"
The man in the black mask froze for a beat, startled.
"Brat, you dare strike from the shadows?" Rakuya's voice drifted in like cold wind. He appeared behind the man.
"What power is that?" The masked fighter's expression sank. His voice dropped low.
Inside Tsukuyomi, the Elder's body went rigid as the world around him lurched. When he opened his eyes, he was back in open sky.
"How am I here?"
Snapped free of the illusion, he stared at himself in a rush and found not a scratch.
"Genjutsu… the realism is terrifying." His heart hammered. Sweat had soaked the white robe on his back.
The scenes of death surged up in his mind and bristled every hair on his skin. When had it taken hold? He replayed the exchange. He had met the boy's eyes. After that everything had changed.
All of it tied to those eerie eyes.
"My lord."
Now fully conscious, the masked man called out.
"Do not look into his eyes. He can seize your consciousness and drown you in illusions."
The Elder's thoughts raced as he warned him.
The masked man paused, caught the gravity in his lord's face, and understood.
"Yes, my lord."
With that reminder, he did not dare be careless. Without the warning, Rakuya would have been happy to let him sample the terror of Tsukuyomi.
"Boy, what else do you have besides illusions? Strong, sure, but not invincible. If I never meet your gaze, you cannot hypnotize me."
Freed of the dream, the Elder's old confidence returned, along with a deeper hatred.
"My lord, your command?" The masked man opened a door in the air, a technique uncannily like CP9's Blueno and his Door-Door Fruit.
The man could split the void, step through, and vanish. His was a formidable spatial gift.
"Old man, when did the World Government start keeping talent like this?" Rakuya's eyes flickered with brief surprise. In the original tales there had been no mention of a guardian of this caliber at a Five Elder's side.
Had they hidden him all along, a trump card to be played in the world's direst hour?
It made sense. The Five Elders had lived eight centuries. They had not simply drifted through those years. They would have stockpiled secrets and studies Rakuya could not yet guess. In eight hundred years, recruiting and forging a few monsters was child's play.
"Death Attendant. Go."
The Elder's gaze was ice. He fixed on Rakuya's throat and kept his eyes below the line of the face so he would never meet that gaze again.
He had a shadow in his heart now where illusions were concerned, a deep rejection of that blood-red world.
Swoosh.
He vanished with Shave and reappeared at Rakuya's front, body flipping as his heel scythed down.
His kick struck true and Rakuya scattered into crows again.
"Another decoy?"
The Elder's pupils shrank. This power was a headache. After all this, neither of them had touched so much as the hem of Rakuya's coat.
"Troublesome."
His frown deepened. The boy's gifts were too strange to read.
"In such a hurry, old man? Afraid I will kill you?" Rakuya's voice came from the other side. He was clearly enjoying the Mangekyo's repertoire.
If not for testing his eyes, he would have already swept the Marines from the sea.
"Hm?"
The Elder snapped his head around. Rakuya watched him with a half-smile, all confidence.
"Tempest Kick."
Crack.
The blade of air cut through another flock of crows.
At the same instant, Rakuya's voice rose from elsewhere. The Elder had barely steadied himself before he lunged again.
"Finger Pistol."
Cawing filled the air.
More crows.
"Damn it. Death Attendant." The Elder's rage flared. His eyes veined red as he called for the shadow at his side.
"Yes, my lord."
The Death Attendant nodded. A door of space opened and he stepped through. It sealed at once. The sky held no sign of him.
"Two-on-one, old man?" Rakuya's gaze cooled as he raised his guard.
"Hmph. Prepare to be taken."
A cruel grin split the Elder's face, as if his game had finally fallen into place.
Rakuya's brows drew tight. He was about to think it through when space shuddered. A door yawned open above the void and the Death Attendant stepped out, grin carved like a scar.
"Spatial Prison."
His shout cracked the air. Four pillars of light speared up from the cardinal points. Between them, panes like glass flashed into being, sealing together into a cage that snapped shut around Rakuya.
"Hm."
Rakuya's eyes slid to the Elder, who was watching him with a wolfish smile. The look said a plan had borne fruit.
"Got you at last, Rakuya. This time you will not slip away. Before space itself, even the mighty cannot flee." The Elder's voice went cold and exultant as his laughter rolled across the sky.
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