Ten fingers, ten puppets.
The people being controlled included nearly every major figure in the upper echelons.
The entire Asagiri Island had, without anyone realizing it, become a tool for the "Carpenter" to make dirty money, along with its most prized Seven Great Dojos and the Kendo Tournament.
"So all of this was the work of a despicable scoundrel like you!"
Junichi drew his sword. Remembering the miserable years he and his father had endured, he gritted his teeth so hard that tears nearly spilled from his eyes. "Absolutely... absolutely unforgivable!"
He was just about to charge at the "Carpenter" when the sound of something slicing through the air suddenly came from behind him. In an instant, the bamboo sword in Junichi's hand was cut in half.
Junichi turned around in a daze. The one who had severed his bamboo sword was his own father.
Sakuraba Tree's face was twisted into a ferocious grimace. His right hand gripped a pale pink longsword tightly, frozen in the motion of bringing it down, while his other hand clutched his right wrist with all its strength, desperately holding it back.
Obviously.
The sword strike just now had not originally been aimed at the bamboo sword in Junichi's hands.
It had been aimed at his head.
"Go... go, go!" Sakuraba Tree squeezed a pained scream from his throat. "Get away from me, Junichi!"
"Father!" Junichi's eyes widened. Before he could react, a powerful hand seized his arm and yanked him more than ten meters backward.
"Boss Xia Nuo, let go of me! I can't abandon... I have to save my father!"
"Don't be stupid."
Xia Nuo hurled him hard into a corner and said coldly:
"Staying beside him will only hurt him! You've seen puppet shows, right? To stop this show, there's only one way—kill the person pulling the strings backstage!"
"Do you really think you can reach that guy with your strength and a broken bamboo sword?"
Junichi raised his head and stared blankly at the distant "Carpenter."
"What are you looking at, brat?"
The Carpenter sneered and exhaled a ring of smoke. He suddenly swung his left hand, then pointed the two fingers at the end of his right hand toward the south.
"These old geezers won't be useful anymore anyway. Puppetize them completely!"
—Swish, swish!
Invisible ripples spread through the air. They were actually strands of thread, shooting toward the first row of seats on the southern side of the audience.
The seven dojo heads suddenly began making clanging noises all over their bodies. They rose together and approached with stiff steps, while seven gleaming blades simultaneously slid from their sheaths.
As they moved, their elbow and knee joints emitted dull, heavy sounds like wooden balls knocking against each other.
More and more dense wood grain kept appearing across the exposed surfaces of their bodies. Their eyes rolled upward until only the whites showed, crawling with dark yellow threads. They looked utterly bizarre.
In the blink of an eye.
The seven people faintly formed a semicircle.
While protecting the "Carpenter" behind them, they also sealed off every route of escape around the arena.
"And you!"
The "Carpenter" laughed wildly. His right index finger pointed at Sakuraba Tree, and another dark yellow puppet thread shot out.
"Aren't you pretty good at resisting? Try resisting again, you bastard! At this distance, under my ability, you don't have any room to struggle!"
"You beast..."
The veins on Sakuraba Tree's forehead bulged as he resisted with all his strength.
But in the end, it was futile.
He could only watch in despair as rings of wood grain began growing across his body as well.
His left hand slowly relaxed, losing control, while his right hand, still gripping the sword, turned inch by inch toward Xia Nuo and Junichi.
His once-clear mind also grew increasingly hazy.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he seemed to have finally made his decision.
"Puppetization is irreversible. I don't want to become a mindless monster completely..."
"Perhaps this is the best fate for me."
Sakuraba Tree smiled. "Goodbye, Junichi."
"Father..." Junichi's eyes widened as he suddenly realized what was happening. He sat up in panic and tried to scramble onto the platform, but Xia Nuo held him down firmly from the side. He could only wave his arms wildly and shout through tear-blurred eyes, "Don't... don't! Please, don't! Father!!!"
Hiss!
In that instant, the blade in Sakuraba Tree's hand suddenly reversed direction and plunged viciously into his left chest, twisting once inside.
"..." Junichi's movements abruptly froze.
Reflected in his pupils, that gaunt, skeletal body collapsed forward with a smile forced out using the last of its strength.
It was as if the world collapsed at that very moment.
"Mr. Sakuraba Tree!"
"President!"
Grief-stricken shouts rang out from the audience, mixed with wave after wave of sobbing.
Beneath the spotlights.
The black-haired youth had returned to the arena at some point. He stared at that motionless face and frowned almost imperceptibly, but ultimately said nothing.
Then he turned to look toward the audience.
"What are you all still standing around watching for?! Aren't you afraid of dying? Do you think this is still a competition?!" Xia Nuo took a deep breath and roared with all his strength. "Run!!!"
The spectators jolted in terror.
Looking at the sinister-faced "Carpenter" and those bizarre puppets that seemed to have walked straight out of a horror movie, they finally realized what this scene meant.
"Get out of here!"
"I-I can't feel my legs... Help me, pull me up!"
"Aaaah! We're going to die here!!!"
Panic and screams erupted all at once as people fled in disarray toward the front and rear exits.
The announcer also crawled and rolled his way out through the employee lounge passage. Before leaving, he did not forget to grab the two trembling broadcast Den Den Mushi from the wall and carry them away in his arms.
Some unwilling swordsmen wanted to turn back and help fight, but Major Tom T. and the security officers coldly blocked them and mercilessly shot them full of holes with flintlock pistols.
Amid the billowing mist of blood.
The "Carpenter" leisurely shook the ash from his cigar.
"I've got to say."
He looked toward Xia Nuo on the platform and clicked his tongue in admiration.
"Brat, I didn't expect you to care so much about the people. You're barely able to protect yourself, yet you still took the time to tell them to leave first. You're making me want to recruit you."
"You seem to have misunderstood something."
Xia Nuo slowly raised his head. The "Carpenter" froze slightly when he saw a pair of excited, blood-red eyes that resembled a beast's.
"—I told them to get lost because I didn't want them blocking my path. They'd only get in the way of my hands and feet!"
"Stop spouting nonsense, brat!"
Under that stare, the Carpenter inexplicably felt uneasy. He forced out a cold laugh.
"You said it yourself—this isn't a competition. Even if your swordsmanship is decent, what can you do with that broken bamboo sword?"
Swish!
Two dojo heads suddenly stepped forward and attacked. Their blades flashed like snow, easily chopping the bamboo sword in Xia Nuo's hands into several pieces.
Immediately afterward, the two swords were set firmly against him, one at his neck and the other against his chest.
"If you want someone to blame, blame yourself for trusting this Kendo Tournament too much. As a swordsman, you didn't even bring your true sword with you."
Only then did the Carpenter finally relax. He laughed brazenly.
"Now tell me, brat! What difference is there between a swordsman without a sword and a lion whose claws have been cut off?!"
"Talking to yourself like that..."
Xia Nuo looked at the bamboo sword, now reduced to its hilt, then suddenly released it and let it fall.
He raised his head and bared his teeth in a grin. "In the end... who told you I was a swordsman?!"
Boom!!
The instant his words fell, two large hands shot out. One pressed down on each of the two dojo heads beside him, and he suddenly exerted force.
Crack!
A crisp sound like walnuts splitting rang out from their skulls. Their entire heads rapidly deformed under the crushing force, while their facial features gradually shifted and twisted out of place.
Their skin split inch by inch, but not a drop of blood flowed from the cracks.
Instead, dark yellow puppet threads surged out in dense masses like horsehair worms, trying to wrap around Xia Nuo's wrists.
But the instant they touched his skin, the muscles in his arms bulged violently and shattered them into dust.
"That's it?"
The force Xia Nuo poured through his fingers grew greater, more terrifying, and more savage by the second!
Crack-crack-crack! Even the two dojo heads' hard frontal bones could no longer withstand the pressure. Ten round finger impressions broke through them.
The next moment, Xia Nuo hurled them away with tremendous force, as if he were throwing bowling balls!
Boom!
The two puppets slammed into the audience like cannonballs, collapsing countless rows of seats with a series of thunderous crashes. When the dust finally cleared, both bodies were folded and twisted at sharp angles, utterly motionless.
The wood grain covering their bodies gleamed a ghastly waxen white beneath the spotlights.
"..."
The "Carpenter" stared blankly at the scene. His cigar slipped from the corner of his mouth and hit the ground with a soft clack.
Rip—!
The sound of fabric tearing suddenly came from behind him.
He shuddered and turned around, just in time to see Xia Nuo crumple the expensive kendo uniform he had bought and toss it off the platform like a piece of trash.
Freed from the restraint of his clothes, the muscles covering his body surged outward, knotted and bulging, expanding as if they were breathing. The heavy thump-thump-thump of his heartbeat rang clearly through the arena.
The already imposing figure on the platform seemed to swell another size. Now, he looked down at the Carpenter from above like a small mountain.
"You... you..."
The Carpenter subconsciously swallowed. His legs trembled as he backed away, stumbling and nearly falling.
"Warm-up's over."
The black-haired youth before him licked the corner of his parched lips and spoke with a grin. His cheeks trembled and spasmed as he talked. It was not the reaction of tired muscles, but the excited shiver of a beast about to pounce on its prey.
"—Now it's your turn."