Back at Mary Geoise, more CP0 personnel emerged from the surrounding checkpoints, and Lucci positioned himself between the remaining Warlords and the route Zaraki had taken.
"Do not interfere."
Mihawk looked at him, and for one dangerous second, Lucci seemed to reconsider his choice of words.
Then Mihawk lowered Yoru. "He asked for the fight."
As far as he was concerned, that settled it.
Hancock looked less pleased, but Shirahoshi and the other delegations were still evacuating, and Jinbe clearly reached the same conclusion.
Dorry and Brogy remained near the route to the Bondola station to ensure the Government did not close it again.
Nobody pursued Zaraki. CP0 had neither defeated nor restrained them; Zaraki had made his choice, and each of them had more immediate reasons to stay.
Far below, Zaraki angled toward the cluster of black reefs he had selected, grinning into the rushing wind as Nusjuro's presence drew closer behind him.
'Good.'
Out here, there would be no hostages or civilians, and he would have no reason to hold back.
...
Wind screamed past Zaraki as he descended from the Red Line toward the isolated reefs.
There was no need to search half the ocean with Observation Haki; he had already chosen the location from above, and the jagged black formation was growing steadily larger beneath him.
Nusjuro was still following, close enough for Zaraki to sense him whenever he entered the range of his Observation Haki.
The Elder was fast, far faster than his age suggested, and Zaraki's grin widened.
'Good.' He dropped the final distance and landed on the largest reef with a thunderous impact, his boots cracking the weathered stone.
The island was little more than a cluster of black rock shaped by centuries of waves, with no towns, ships, or signs of habitation anywhere nearby.
There was only the sea, the stone, and the cries of seabirds already fleeing the pressure surrounding him. It was perfect.
Zaraki straightened and turned as Nusjuro descended through the air in several rapid steps, landing on the opposite side of the reef with Shodai Kitetsu resting at his side.
"Why stop?" the Elder asked, his voice carrying easily over the waves. "Did you finally choose your grave?"
"You really do talk too much." Zaraki rolled Nozarashi's hilt through his palm, baring his teeth in a grin.
"I stopped because I was getting tired of worrying about accidentally cutting someone else in half." His golden eyes gleamed.
"Out here, I don't have that problem."
Nusjuro vanished, and Zaraki reacted on instinct.
Shodai Kitetsu struck Nozarashi with a deafening clang, sending a shock through both his arms.
His boots tore through the reef as he slid backward, carving trenches in the black stone while frost spread from the point where the blades met.
'Fast, and heavy too.' Zaraki's eyes narrowed as he twisted Nozarashi and forced the blades apart. Nusjuro landed lightly where Zaraki had been standing.
"Your reactions are adequate," the Elder said coldly. "But reactions alone cannot overcome a superior blade."
A thin coating of frost still clung to Shodai Kitetsu. Zaraki looked at it and laughed.
"Superior?" He flexed his fingers until the numbness faded. "You got one clean clash. Don't start celebrating yet."
Nusjuro's gaze sharpened as Zaraki brought Nozarashi in front of him, the rough sealed blade giving a low vibration.
He had exhausted himself enough times to understand the cost of what came next.
Even after stabilization, the released Nozarashi consumed Reiatsu greedily, but an opponent like Nusjuro was exactly who made it worth using.
Zaraki tightened his grip. "Drink, Nozarashi."
The air grew heavy, and a deep hum accompanied the eruption of dark-gold Reiatsu from his body.
It was raw spiritual pressure, neither lightning nor a new form of Haki, and it rolled across the reef with enough force to send cracks through the weakened stone.
Nozarashi transformed in his hands.
Its guard disappeared, and the blade widened and lengthened until he held the enormous chipped cleaver that had become its released form.
Nusjuro watched, unmistakable interest entering his eyes for the first time.
"So that is the blade."
"You've heard about it?" Zaraki asked, resting the cleaver against his shoulder.
"Enough." Nusjuro tightened his grip on Shodai Kitetsu.
Zaraki disappeared from where he stood, the reef exploding beneath his first step as he brought Nozarashi crashing down.
Nusjuro met the blow with a ringing clash that blasted seawater away from the island's edge, but neither man yielded.
Zaraki twisted the cleaver into a horizontal sweep.
Nusjuro withdrew just far enough for the chipped edge to pass in front of his robe, then immediately answered with a diagonal cut toward Zaraki's ribs.
Zaraki blocked, frost bursting across Nozarashi as he forced Shodai Kitetsu aside and countered.
The fight accelerated from there. Heavy dark-gold arcs flashed around Nozarashi whenever compressed Reiatsu spilled from its edge, making the clashes resemble distant lightning without producing any actual electrical attack.
Nusjuro answered with pure swordsmanship, his movements economical and his angles precise, never wasting strength.
Shodai Kitetsu repeatedly found the smallest gaps in Zaraki's defense, forcing him to adjust faster than he had against almost any other swordsman.
Mihawk's technique had been cleaner, but Nusjuro fought with an older, colder style.
He cared less about elegance than ending a life with the smallest possible movement.
One exchange became ten, then dozens, and the small reef began breaking apart beneath them.
Each collision sent cracks through the black stone, while waves rose around the island and broke against its edges.
Curtains of seawater flew into the air, freezing whenever they passed too close to Nusjuro's blade.
After another heavy clash, Nusjuro finally slid backward across the reef.
Zaraki held his ground, his breathing deeper and his grin wider.
"That's more like it."
Nusjuro glanced at the hand holding Shodai Kitetsu, then at the huge cleaver in Zaraki's grip.
"You mistake restraint for limitation."
Cold vapor began gathering around him, and Zaraki stopped advancing as he sensed the change.
The temperature plummeted, while thin frost raced across the reef beneath Nusjuro's feet in branching patterns.
The Elder's body began to transform, his silhouette stretching as bones and limbs shifted with a series of unnatural cracks
His human frame merged into something far larger and more monstrous, a skeletal equine body emerging beneath his upright torso to give him the shape of a nightmarish centaur.
Dark, flame-like clouds curled around his transformed body.
The cold intensified until even the seawater around the reef began to freeze in scattered patches.
Zaraki's smile vanished for half a second, then returned wider than before.
Nusjuro raised Shodai Kitetsu, its blade now wrapped in bitter frost.
"You were so eager to see what stood above you," he said, his voice deepened by the transformation.
"Then look carefully."
His skeletal horse body stamped against the reef, sending cracks bursting outward.
"Bakotsu."
Zaraki slowly raised Nozarashi, his golden eyes burning with anticipation.
"Now we're talking."