Golden Lion Shiki versus Sue the Pirate Literary Master.
Round 2 began in a snowstorm—an aerial battle.
Driven by their respective powers—Sue sprouting wings of paper from her back—they tore through the sky at high speed, weaving and crossing. Sue's bangasa and the blades on Shiki's feet collided again and again, scattering sparks.
"Zanpa!"
Shiki whipped a flying slash forward with the force of a leg-blade swing. Sue snapped her bangasa through the air and batted it aside—then, in the same motion, drew the concealed blade from the umbrella's sheath and spun wide, loading the strike with centrifugal force as she brought it down.
"Ten Seisha!"
"Oho!"
The blow cleaved the air with a brutal roar. Shiki slipped past it in a blur, and as they crossed he slashed at Sue's abdomen—
only for the struck portion of her body to liquefy into paper, flowing aside. Shiki had stepped into close range, and Sue answered with the smallest possible movement—an interception that was also a counter.
"Chiito!"
Her blade traced his attack's line as if following the very path his slash had taken.
Judging that dodging in time was impossible, Shiki caught it on his other leg-blade.
At cross range, they locked in—GIGIGIGIGIGIIN!!—a downpour of steel ringing through the snow as they traded cuts.
"Not bad," Shiki barked, laughter threaded through his voice. "Makes me want you even more, 'Pirate Literary Master'… With you, someday you could even be my right-hand! How about you rule the world from the skies with me, huh?!"
"Sorry, but I've got zero interest in 'ruling' or 'conquering.'" I shoved back with a grimace, wings flaring. "Freedom suits me better!"
"Hah… you sound like some idiot I know!" he snapped. "Why is it every bastard I want like this?!"
"I don't know who you mean, but—" I drove my blade in again. "—nobody lives happily with someone else deciding their life for them!"
"Yeah?" Shiki's grin sharpened. "You'd be surprised how many do. Enough to make you sick. Most of them don't even realize it. They've had the World Government's boot on their neck since the moment they were born—and they can't even find the question, let alone the doubt!"
"…I've got my own thoughts on that," I shot back, teeth bared. "But—!"
"Oho?!" Shiki laughed, delighted. "Jihahahaha… See? You get it!"
GIIIN! A single, thunderous clash—and we sprang apart, the recoil carving out a heartbeat of distance.
I filled it immediately.
From my left hand, countless paper petals erupted and swarmed toward him in a white frenzy.
"Kamizori Fubuki… Senbonzakura!!"
"Tch—! Shishi: Sengiritani!!"
Shiki's leg-blades whipped in a brutal storm, firing off slash after slash. The barrage wasn't just blades—shockwaves rode the cuts, too. Thousands of paper petals were shredded out of the air… and the assault didn't even slow. It kept coming, straight for me.
"Tch." I clicked my tongue, judged I couldn't fully evade, and snapped open my bangasa—Armament lacing the frame as I braced.
It held—but only barely.
The next instant, the umbrella was ruined. Torn, buckled, its ribs snapped—it wouldn't survive another exchange.
I threw it away.
Swinging wide, I circled in hard and slashed.
Shiki caught the blade again—and in that same moment I condensed hundreds of sheets into my hand.
He tensed, expecting another blizzard.
But the paper in front of his eyes reshaped itself into a lion.
The flicker of surprise it bought me was all I needed.
At cross range—zero distance—I fired it.
"Zero range… Shishi Senkou!"
Shiki couldn't dodge in time. He met it with an Armament-hardened forearm, taking the full impact. The paper lion drove him back, its fangs biting in—yet it couldn't break through his Haki deeply enough to tear him open.
With his free hand, he grabbed and ripped. With his leg-blades, he shredded what remained.
And I didn't let him breathe.
This time, I changed my hair—paper mingling through it, binding it into a violent, whipping mass that moved like it belonged to me.
"Ranshi Kamigami!!"
It wasn't hair anymore. It was a weapon—third and fourth arms made of bundled sheets. If it struck, it wouldn't "hit" so much as seize, slice, and grind.
And I layered more on top of it—turning both legs into paper blades, adding them to the weapon in my hand.
Five blades.
A fivefold rush.
But Shiki—who apparently hadn't even been serious yet—bared a predator's grin and cleanly handled all of it with only his two leg-blades, every deflection perfect.
"Jihahahaha!" he roared. "What's with that technique—and those legs?! You got some respect for me or what?!"
"Believe it or not…" I hissed, forcing my pace to hold. "…both are coincidences! I thought them up on my own!"
"Oho." His laughter deepened. "Now that's even better. I don't put much stock in fate—but when you show me something like this, it makes me want to believe. But—"
He flung out Shishi: Sengiritani again, blasting my five blades away and forcing space between us.
I kept my balance, but the distance opened.
Blade up, wings steady, I watched him, wary—waiting for a crack.
"Still too green," Shiki said, voice suddenly cool. "Fine. I'll show you the real thing."
"…Huh?" I blinked. "What's that supposed to—"
He didn't answer.
He thrust his hand forward and made a scooping motion, like he was collecting something from the air.
And the world around me moved.
The snowfield beneath—no, the ground itself—began to swell and roll like waves. Massive volumes of snow rose against gravity, spiraling up as if an avalanche were erupting into the sky. It was magnificent.
And terrifying.
The snow gathered, compressed, and shaped itself into several enormous lion faces.
"…E—eh…?" My mouth went dry. "You're kidding… no way…"
Cold sweat slid down my cheek.
It was like my technique.
And yet it wasn't even the same category.
"Jihahahaha… Let's see you endure it!" Shiki's command cut like a bell. "Shishi Odoshi: Goshojimaki!"
The snow lions lunged in unison.
I threw paper petals forward again, ramming them into the nearest face—shredding it, carving it apart—
and instantly another face filled the gap, forcing in, swallowing the space I'd made.
While I dealt with one, others closed from every direction, jaws spreading wide. Front, back, left, right—teeth everywhere, trying to converge and bite down all at once.
I tried to break upward—
but even the sky was already full of them.
I coated my blade in Armament and tore through the cluster above me, desperate to clear a line—
and the rest crashed in.
For a moment, lion faces crowded my vision so densely they blotted out the light.
And then everything went dark.
The avalanche they formed swallowed me whole.
From above, Shiki watched with calm, almost bored eyes.
He could compress the snow, harden it, pin me until I couldn't move. End it cleanly.
That should've been it.
But then—
through his power, he sensed something.
"…Stubborn."
BOCOON!
A section of the snowmass burst open.
A gigantic drill of paper punched through, spiraling outward. The double helix unraveled—
and I tore free, gasping, snow clinging to me in ragged sheets.
"Haa… haa… haa…!" I spat breath through my teeth. "I thought I was going to die!"
Even panting, even trembling with drain, my eyes stayed locked on him.
Because the gap between us was impossible to ignore.
I was burning through myself.
He still looked… comfortable.
And that fact drove itself into my ribs like a blunt blade: the man in front of me was plainly above me.
(He's a legendary Great Pirate who's lived since Gol D. Roger's era… of course. But if he once reigned as a former 'Four Emperors'… then over these past ten-plus years, he has to have weakened at least somewhat. Otherwise I'd be dead already. No—if he were truly at full force, even if he didn't mean to kill me, I shouldn't be able to touch him at all… which means—)
(I don't want to believe it, but… there might still be a way.)
"…I can't afford to hold back because I'm worried about stamina," I muttered. "Not anymore."
I made my choice.
Sword in one hand, I formed a paper blade in the other—held it reverse-grip, point down—
and let go.
It fell.
And instead of stabbing into the ground, it vanished—like it had been swallowed.
Shiki frowned, a question rising—
and then the snowfield around me peeled upward with violent force.
Not cracked.
Peeled.
The surface lifted like a page turning—and everything it touched became paper, surging into the air.
"—!! Awakening," Shiki breathed. "You'd already reached it."
"This is exhausting," I snapped, jaw tight. "But I get it now. I can't keep pretending I have room to spare. From here on out—I'm using everything I've got!"
The sky filled with paper.
At first each sheet was huge, but they split—again and again—until they became countless square flakes, a few centimeters across.
There were too many to count.
Hundreds of millions.
Maybe more.
Shiki's expression tightened, and for the first time, a sheen of cold sweat appeared.
"Kamizori Fubuki—"
I lifted my hand.
And everything moved.
"—Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!!!!"
The storm rushed him in a single, unified wave.
Shiki snapped snow into shape again—snow lions in swarms—
but an equal tide of massive paper blades surged forward, cutting, tearing, shaving them down as if the storm itself had teeth.
He saw the future in an instant: paper would fill his vision again. It would bury him.
"Tch!" He clicked his tongue—and switched.
"Shishi Odoshi: Jimaki!!"
He tore up the ground beneath the snow and raised lions of earth and rubble, adding them to the fight.
Then he compressed the snow lions—hardening them into dense, ice-laced beasts, tougher, heavier.
The battlefield expanded outward—hundreds of meters in radius—paper tsunamis, blades, spears, lions colliding with earth and ice lions, shattering and reforming, devouring and tearing apart.
It looked like monsters waging total war.
Even then, it wasn't enough.
He was barely holding.
And I was still feeding more paper into the storm as time passed.
Despite two layers of lions—earth and ice—some paper blades still slipped through.
Few, but real.
Shiki dodged and cut them down—
and then, from behind, a huge paper spear came in, serpentine and fast.
He raised a leg-blade to meet it—
and I burst from inside the spear, sword already swinging for his throat.
"What—?!"
(Inside the paper—she's moving through it?!)
He caught my blade at the last instant—
and a half-beat later, the paper tide behind me surged forward like a flood, crashing toward his back.
Shiki twisted away—barely—
and I vanished again, swallowed into the paper, my presence erased from sight.
Then two more spears shot in at once.
I sprang from one—was blocked—melted back into paper.
Struck again from another angle.
And then, in the middle of our blade-lock, thin paper blades pierced straight through my body from behind and shot at Shiki.
My own body became his blind spot.
He noticed too late.
The blades grazed him, shallow but sharp—tearing fabric, nicking skin.
(That's it—because I'm a paper human, I can let my body be cut and pierced without it becoming lethal damage. I can use myself as cover. I can cut through myself. Spear through myself. And this paper storm—)
(It's not just offense and defense. It's my road.)
Unpredictable, relentless, everywhere at once—my assault exceeded even what Shiki expected, pushing him back, tightening the noose—
and he ground his teeth.
But even as frustration sparked—
a smile climbed his face.
A smile that didn't match irritation at all.
He didn't yet understand why his blood felt so hot.
"Come on, then!" Shiki roared. "I'll teach you what real pirate strength is!"
"Keep barking, relic!" I shouted back, forcing my lungs to work. "Don't you dare make that big mouth and then fold on me!"
"Hah! Then make me fold!" Shiki's grin widened. "You're my daughter, aren't you?!"
"I'm not proud of that," I snapped. "…But fine. I'll do it!"
I surged forward, accelerating by slipping through the paper tide itself—launching straight at him.
The paper tsunami followed, tracking my path like a living wave.
Behind Shiki, lions of earth and ice gathered—his leg-blades raised, coated black with Armament.
And when our blades met—
DOOOON!!
BARIBARIBARIBARI—!!
A collision of Conqueror's Haki detonated between us.
Mine burst out unconsciously.
I'd never used it. I didn't even know I had it.
And yet it erupted from my body as naturally as breath.
Shiki's Conqueror's Haki flared too—something he hadn't released like this in years, ever since he began living in hiding. It hadn't disappeared, but unleashing it at this intensity… it had been a long time.
The impact was monstrous.
The shockwave tore through everything—my paper tide, his earth and ice lions—shredding, collapsing, scattering the battlefield we'd built.
Neither of us had the luxury to look.
But we felt it—through our powers, through the air itself.
Shiki's smile twisted into something feverish—joy surging through him as he realized the obvious: the girl in front of him, who could cling to him like this, who could even clash Conqueror's Haki with him—
was his blood.
And then—
"…Ah…"
Through his leg-blade, Shiki felt it.
My strength.
My Haki.
Shrinking.
Collapsing.
My eyes emptied. My body went slack. The wings on my back broke apart into drifting scraps.
Shiki's expression flickered with confusion—
then he looked past me and saw it: the vast sea of paper behind, losing shape, losing force, collapsing in on itself.
He understood.
And his face shifted into something like weary exasperation.
"Awakening burns you out fast," he muttered. "You use it without thinking… Well, you're not used to it yet—and you didn't have room to spare. Still."
His sigh was blunt.
"You're still too green."
It was painfully simple.
I'd run out.
Adrenaline had been the only thing keeping my body from noticing the truth. The instant the tension snapped, I was already gone.
Unconscious.
Falling.
At this height, I'd smash into the ground.
And as a paper human, maybe I wouldn't die.
But—
Shiki moved anyway.
He dove, caught up, and grabbed me out of the air, gathering me into his arms as I dropped.
I'm tall—about 190 centimeters. Even in this world, that puts me on the larger side for a woman.
But Shiki was bigger still.
When he carried me, the size difference made it look like an adult holding a child.
Or—
if you only saw the surface—
like a father carrying his exhausted daughter with a helpless sort of resignation.
Looking down at my sleeping face in his arms, Shiki muttered,
"Honestly… what am I supposed to do with you?" His voice was rough, but strangely tired. "Two generations of trouble…"
He sighed again, emotions mixing into something hard to name—exasperation, weariness, something softer under the weight of it—
and flew back toward the hideout.
And maybe it was my imagination, but his face looked… a little less poisonous than before.
To be continued...