Chapter 105: One Strike, One Kill!
[New World - The Deck of the Heavy Cruiser Pola]
"Go and 'play' properly with this... guest who doesn't know his place."
Upon hearing Suzaku's command, Jack froze. His brain, which operated mostly on violence and grog, took a moment to process the words.
He looked at the three small women approaching him—two maids and a girl with a katana.
"Huh?"
A vein throbbed on his forehead, right next to his metal jaw guard. His lips curved into a ferocious, incredulous grin.
"You mean... to defy Governor-General Kaido's invitation?"
He slammed the two giant scythes—Shotel blades—in his hands together.
CLANG!
The sparks that flew off illuminated the bloodthirsty fanaticism in his small, cruel eyes.
"It seems you, kid, really don't know how to spell 'death'! In the New World, defying Lord Kaido's will isn't a choice. It's suicide!"
The giant, over eight meters tall, took a heavy step forward.
BOOM.
The steel deck groaned under his weight. That immense, powerful oppressive feeling—the aura of a Calamity—bore down on the ship. It was a pressure dense enough to make ordinary pirates collapse in fear on the spot, foaming at the mouth.
However, the fear and trembling he expected did not appear.
He was astonished to find that everyone on this ship—every single one of them—looked at him with a strange expression.
It wasn't fear.
It was... impatience.
It was the look one gave to a drunk clown interrupting a fine dinner.
Albedo was glaring at him like he was a stain on the carpet. Ulquiorra was looking at the clouds. Madara had closed his eyes again.
And the young Captain sitting at the head of the table... he didn't even lift an eyelid. He was blowing on his tea, testing the temperature.
This complete disregard ignited Jack's fury more than any resistance!
"Ignore me?!" Jack roared, his voice shaking the rigging. "Since you're looking for death, I'll grant it to you! I'll slaughter everyone on this ship and drag your Captain to Wano in chains!"
Just as he was about to act, the cabin door behind him was suddenly pushed open with a loud creak.
"HEY! What's all the noise about?!"
A furious orange-haired girl stormed out, a pen in her hand and ink on her cheek.
Nami.
She was full of vigor. She had returned to her room to draw sea charts of the New World while Suzaku ate, and just as she was getting into the zone, she was annoyed by the thunderous noise of something heavy landing on the deck.
"Can't a person draw in peace?! If you break my concentration one more time, I'll charge you double for—"
But just as her scolding words reached her lips, she froze.
She saw the mountain-like giant figure standing on the deck. She saw the mammoth fur. She saw the two gleaming, sinister scythe-blades that were larger than her entire body.
And she saw Jack's fierce, murderous gaze sweep over her.
Gulp.
Nami's aggression instantly vanished. Her face went pale.
A fake, professional smile immediately appeared on her face. She bowed ninety degrees with practiced fluidity.
"My apologies! I've interrupted everyone's enjoyment! Please, continue the violence! Pretend I don't exist!"
SLAM!
She retreated into the cabin and closed the door at the fastest speed of her life. The lock clicked audibly.
This inexplicable interlude made Jack pause. He blinked, confused by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the weakling.
In that split second of distraction, he noticed something else.
Akame, the girl with the red eyes who had just drawn her weapon... had vanished from her spot.
"Hmph. Running away?" Jack sneered. "Cowards."
But soon, his anger found a new outlet.
He fixed his gaze on Ram, the pink-haired maid standing at the front. She was looking at him with cold, dead eyes, sparks of blue electricity dancing on her fingertips.
"Hmph, the cowardly Captain doesn't dare to act himself, so he sends a few women out to die!" Jack roared, raising his scythes. "Don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're female! I'll cut you in half!"
"How noisy," Ram said flatly.
Before Jack's words had even finished, his massive body moved.
ZOOM!
He transformed into a black afterimage. Despite his size, he was fast. The scythe in his hand, with a piercing shriek that tore through the air, slashed directly at Ram's head!
It was a strike meant to decapitate.
However, the expected scene of blood and gore did not occur.
ZZZT!
Where the blade fell, the sensation was strangely light. It passed through Ram's body as if she were a hologram. Her figure dissolved into a bolt of blue lightning.
Logia Intangibility.
"Too slow," Ram's voice came from behind him.
In the next instant, she had already appeared in mid-air behind Jack, her fair little hand gently waving.
"Wind Magic: Al Huma."
SHING! SHING! SHING!
Several invisible, high-pressure wind blades, enhanced by lightning, precisely cut into Jack's thick muscles.
Clink-clank!
But they only produced the sound of metal striking metal. The blades shattered against his skin.
"Hmph! A rare ability user? Logia?" Jack felt the attacks on his body that caused him no pain and laughed arrogantly.
"Useless! My skin is tougher than steel! I am an Ancient Zoan! My defense isn't something you small fries can break!"
"Is that so? Just a thick-skinned idiot, that's all," Ram said calmly, hovering in mid-air. Her face maintained that faintly venomous expression, without the slightest hint of discouragement.
"Sister! Now!"
Rem, the blue-haired maid, shouted from the deck.
Jack roared, about to turn and jump to catch the flying Ram, but he felt a chilling coldness in his feet.
Crack... crackle...
"What?"
Unbeknownst to him, crystalline ice had already spread from the deck, firmly freezing his massive feet to the steel plating!
It was Rem. She had activated her Water Magic during his attack's interval, freezing the moisture in the air.
"Petty tricks!" Jack's expression remained unchanged. His leg muscles bulged, veins popping like ropes.
"In the face of absolute Armament Haki, any ability is an illusion!"
SHATTER!
Dark Haki instantly covered his legs. With a violent flex, the solid ice shattered into powder. He was free in less than a second.
"I told you! Power is everything!" Jack screamed, raising his blades to crush Rem.
However, it was precisely at the moment he broke free from his restraints—the moment he was distracted by his own strength.
A cold, emotionless voice sounded right behind his ear.
"Hōmuri (Funeral)."
It was Akame.
The red-eyed girl who had seemed to disappear from everyone's sight from the very beginning.
Like a phantom, she had erased her presence completely. She appeared at Jack's perfect blind spot at the opportune moment.
The cursed blade named 'Murasame' transformed into a dazzling red glow in the sunlight.
It slashed silently towards Jack's exposed back.
Jack's Observation Haki detected the attack at the last second.
But he didn't dodge.
A sword? Jack thought, sneering. Are you kidding me?
What harm could such a slender woman, holding a short blade like a toothpick, inflict on "The Drought"? He had tanked cannonballs. He had fought Admirals.
Let her hit me. It will break her sword.
He didn't even bother to turn around or coat his back in Haki. He prepared to endure this blow and then crush this annoying assassin into a pulp with a backhand swing.
Slash.
The cursed blade 'Murasame' cut.
It met resistance—Jack's skin was indeed tough—but the blade was a Teigu, a weapon of legend. It sliced through the dermis.
It left a shallow, even negligible, wound on Jack's back. A scratch. A papercut for a giant.
Having landed a hit, Akame showed no lingering hesitation.
Tap.
She tipped her toe and gracefully retreated, flipping backward ten meters to create distance.
Click.
She sheathed her sword with a soft sound.
She turned her back on Jack and walked directly towards Suzaku, as if her entire job was done.
"Hmph... Haha... Hahahahaha!"
Jack felt the sting in his back. He reached back, touching the small trickle of blood.
He was first startled, then burst into even more arrogant laughter.
"Is that all?! Is this your trump card?!"
He pointed his scythe at Akame's retreating back.
"A scratch?! Do you know how powerful I am?! You realized you couldn't hurt me, so you gave up! Coward!"
"Let me tell you, it's too late to beg for mercy now! I'm going to skin you alive! Hahahahaha!"
He laughed so hard he bent over, tears almost streaming from his eyes. The sheer absurdity of the "attack" was hilarious to him.
However, this wild laughter was interrupted by two completely different reactions on the deck.
Charlotte Katakuri, who had been silently observing the battle from the side, suddenly froze.
His eyes glowed brightly red beneath his scarf.
[Future Sight]
He saw a horrifying scene. A future that was only seconds away.
He saw Jack... falling.
"What...?" Katakuri whispered.
In the present, he looked at Jack's back.
A black-purple curse mark, looking like intricate writing from hell, was rapidly spreading from that tiny wound. It moved at a visible speed, crawling across Jack's skin like living ink.
Wherever it passed, Jack's proud, immense vitality—the endurance of an Ancient Zoan—was being swiftly devoured and annihilated. The flesh turned grey. The veins turned black.
"What... is this?" Katakuri whispered in a lost voice, filled with unbelievable horror. "It's not a wound... it's a curse."
And Suzaku, upon seeing Akame return with her sword sheathed, smiled.
He picked up the teacup on the table, gently blew on the hot tea to cool it, and spoke calmly.
"It's already over."
His voice was not loud, but in the sudden silence of the deck, it sounded like a funeral bell.
Jack's grating laughter... abruptly ceased.
"Uh..."
Jack's body suddenly stiffened. The smile on his face froze into a strange, contorted expression of confusion.
Thump-thump.
His heart skipped a beat. Then another.
He looked down at his hands. The black markings had reached his fingertips. He couldn't feel his fingers. He couldn't feel his legs.
His eyes filled with confusion and incomprehension.
Why... why can't I move?
Why is it so cold?
"I..." Jack choked.
The next second, his mountain-like body, without any warning, lost all tension.
Gravity took over.
THUD...!!!
With an extremely dull, heavy thud that shook the ship, Jack the Drought, the Beasts Pirates' All-Star with a bounty of 1 billion Berries... fell straight backward.
He slammed onto the deck, eyes wide open, completely lifeless.
Dead.
On the deck, there was a deathly silence. The wind seemed to stop blowing.
On the nearby mammoth ship, the Beasts Pirates' crew members were still cheering. Their fanaticism and adoration had not yet faded.
"Yeah! Lord Jack is invincib—"
They watched their invincible Lord fall.
"Lord... Lord Jack?!"
"Hey! Stop joking around! Get up!"
"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! How could Lord Jack..."
A crew member jumped onto the Pola and checked Jack's pulse. He looked up, his face pale as a sheet.
"He... he's dead?" the pirate screamed. "His heart stopped! INSTANTLY!"
"Killed by... that woman? With one scratch?!"
Panic instantly erupted on the mammoth ship. The invincible illusion of the Beasts Pirates was shattered in a second.
Meanwhile, on the Pola, Akame had returned to Suzaku's side. She picked up a piece of leftover meat from the table and started eating, as if she had only done a trivial thing like swatting a fly.
"Mission complete," Akame mumbled with her mouth full. "More meat, please."
Rem and Ram also returned to their original positions behind Suzaku, looking respectful and completely ignoring the massive corpse cooling on the deck.
Albedo and Ulquiorra also withdrew their gazes, looking bored. To them, this was the expected outcome.
On the entire ship, only Katakuri stood frozen. Fine cold sweat trickled down his forehead, soaking his scarf.
He stared intently at Jack's corpse, tracing the black curse marks. Then he looked at the red-eyed girl holding the cursed blade with an indifferent expression.
Finally, his gaze fell upon the man who had been leisurely sipping tea the entire time.
Suzaku.
Katakuri's heart pounded violently against his ribs.
One-hit kill.
Not by overpowering strength. Not by overwhelming speed. But by a terrifying ability that ignores durability entirely.
An Ancient Zoan... a tank known for being unkillable... died from a scratch.
This crew... Katakuri realized with dawning horror. They don't just have power. They have hax. They have abilities that break the rules of the world.
"A Devil Fruit ability user unheard of?" Katakuri whispered. "Or something worse?"
Suzaku put down his tea. He looked at the panicked Beasts Pirates.
"Clean up the trash," Suzaku ordered calmly. "And keep the tusks. They might be worth something."
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