Scatter, Thousand Cherry Blossoms

"Yo! Isn't this Zefa?"

"I heard you gave up being an admiral to become a teacher."

"Congratulations! If you'd changed careers sooner, your whole family wouldn't have died so early."

A prisoner in one of the cells glanced toward the entrance of Infinite Hell. Upon noticing that one of the arrivals was actually Zefa, his face immediately twisted into a ferocious expression. Then he grinned fiercely, his voice so loud it was as though he were using a loudspeaker, swiftly spreading throughout Infinite Hell.

"Black Arm Admiral?"

"I didn't know your whole family was dead."

"Sorry! Being locked up in here, I couldn't attend your family's funeral."

At that moment.

A prisoner in another cell not far away also spoke up.

His venomous words were like an invisible sharp blade, stabbing directly into Zefa's wound that had been sealed away for years.

Similar voices continued to ring out from the other cells.

Listening to the venomous voices constantly echoing in his ears, Zefa's face appeared calm, as though unmoved, but ripples showed in his eyes.

The deaths of his family were the greatest pain of his life.

How could the prisoners' mockery and ridicule possibly leave him completely unaffected?

However, Zefa said nothing.

Before coming here, he had already prepared himself mentally.

"Senior, what's going on?"

Rosen's expression did not change, but his gaze gradually turned cold.

"The first two prisoners to speak were personally captured by Teacher Zefa when he was still the Black Arm Admiral."

"As for the ones afterward..."

"They've merely been locked up for too long and are joining in the jeering."

Borsalino rarely refrained from teasing Zefa.

In fact.

No one noticed that the eyes behind his sunglasses had already turned frighteningly cold.

"Teacher Zefa, are those two names on your list?"

Hearing this, Rosen turned to look at Zefa.

"Though they are both Sixth Level Prisoners, they aren't qualified to be on my list."

Zefa said coldly.

"Then they don't even have any value as training materials."

Rosen nodded in understanding. Then he spread open his palm, and a strand of hair atop his head suddenly fell, landing in his hand.

He closed his five fingers around the strand of hair in his palm.

The instant his fingers touched it, the hair abruptly changed. From a single strand of hair, it became a long sheathed blade, which he held in his hand.

"I'd almost forgotten that you're a Devil Fruit User, junior."

Seeing this, Borsalino revealed a surprised expression.

Perhaps Rosen's performance in training Haki had been too monstrous, and coupled with the fact that he had never used his Devil Fruit abilities in front of anyone, people had repeatedly overlooked the fact that he was a Devil Fruit User.

It was not just Zefa.

Even Borsalino only remembered at this moment that Rosen was an ability user.

"Come to think of it."

"This is also my first time seeing him use his Devil Fruit ability."

"I heard it's the Weapon Fruit, capable of turning any part of his body into a weapon."

Zefa had been feeling exceptionally pained after recalling his family's deaths, but the moment he saw Rosen use his Devil Fruit ability, his attention was immediately drawn over.

After all, he had never seen Rosen use his Devil Fruit ability either, so he was naturally curious.

He wanted to know whether, as an ability user, Rosen's development of his Devil Fruit power was as monstrous as his Haki training.

"So this is his ability?"

Shiryu stared fixedly at Rosen.

He could transform into a blade?

This kind of Devil Fruit ability seemed rather ordinary!

"Scatter, Thousand Cherry Blossoms."

Rosen ignored Zefa and the others' gazes. Instead, he drew the Zanpakutō in his hand from its sheath and spoke indifferently.

He was not speaking to anyone, but conversing with the Zanpakutō in his hand.

As Rosen's release phrase—no, command—rang out, the Zanpakutō in his hand immediately bloomed with dazzling pink light. Starting from the tip and spreading all the way to the guard, the entire blade turned purple before shattering layer by layer into a thousand cherry blossom blades that spread through Infinite Hell like a storm.

"Hey, hey, hey."

"You Marine brat."

"What do you want?"

The first prisoner to speak saw the cherry blossom blades sweeping toward him. His expression changed at first, but then he sneered disdainfully.

"Don't know what kind of Paramecia Ability you have, but unfortunately..."

"I'm not an ability user."

"These Seastone Shackles can restrain my Hands and Feet, and this Seastone cell can restrain my freedom, but neither can restrain my Haki."

Facing the incoming cherry blossom blades, the prisoner rose from the ground and punched the air with an arrogant stance. A visible shockwave burst forth, forcefully scattering the Cherry Blossom Tornado rushing toward him.

But in the next second, the blades that had scattered like falling petals gathered again. Like a spirit serpent emerging from its burrow, they were even faster than before.

In the blink of an eye, thousands of cherry blossom blades passed through the cell and flew before the prisoner. Like a colossal python swallowing an elephant, they opened a huge purple maw and engulfed his face in a single bite.

"Damn it!"

The prisoner's expression changed drastically. Located In the cell, he had nowhere to dodge. He could only use Armament Haki to harden his neck, face, and head, then allow the blades to strike him.

The blades collided with his cheeks, immediately throwing off sparks and producing an ear-piercing metallic clang.

Though the cherry blossom blades slashed across him, his cheeks remained completely unscathed.

"Is that all?"

"Zefa, is that your student?"

"Doesn't seem like much. With that kind of force, he couldn't even shave my beard!"

Seeing that the cherry blossom blades could not cut through his Armament Haki, the prisoner sneered. He raised his chin and covered his mouth with one hand, allowing the blades to strike him while continuing to mock Rosen and Zefa.

However.

The moment his laughter began, he felt the cherry blossom blades slashing at his cheeks and neck abruptly unleash terrifying sharpness. Then, his Armament Haki-hardened face was torn apart.

From both cheeks down to his chin and neck, horrifying blade wounds were carved into him. One could even see his tongue and the inside of his mouth directly through the cuts.

Before blood could gush out, blades resembling falling cherry blossoms had already driven deep inside through the wounds. They burrowed into the prisoner's throat, swarmed his tongue, and twisted violently like serrated teeth.

When the cherry blossom blades withdrew, the prisoner's bloody mouth immediately became empty. His tongue—no, even his vocal cords—had been ground into pulp by the blades, stuffed down his throat, and dropped into his stomach.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

Only after doing all this did the cherry blossom blades leave the prisoner's body. Then came the piercing pain, surging through his entire body like an overwhelming tide. He tried to scream, but he could not produce a single sound, only endlessly issuing hissing noises full of agony and hatred.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

At the same time.

In another cell, the prisoner inside was going through the same thing.

He too was not an ability user and could use Armament Haki. But before Thousand Cherry Blossoms, the strength of his Armament Haki seemed utterly insufficient. After a brief deadlock, his hardened neck and face were sliced apart, and his tongue and vocal cords were reduced to powder as well.

Then, all he could do was make hissing sounds filled with resentment and fury.

"Tongues are for speaking. Since you don't know how to speak properly, don't speak ever again."

Rosen flicked the hilt in his hand.

As though they had received an order, the cherry blossom blades that had swept outward returned before him like fledglings returning to their nest, transforming back into a blade and fitting themselves into the guard.

Perhaps because Thousand Cherry Blossoms was too sharp, after cutting out the tongues of two prisoners in succession, not even a trace of blood stained its blade.