"You mean you want me to give you an explanation? You've got it backward."
Xia Nuo sneered. "Shouldn't you be the one giving Junichi an explanation?"
"Junichi..."
"Don't call my name!!!!"
Junichi's breathing was ragged. His eyes were swollen and red, and his teeth were nearly biting through his gums.
"So you're the mastermind behind everything? You're the one who secretly controlled Asagiri Island? Then what were these past five years to me? And what was that sentimental act you just put on?!"
He looked around in despair at the corpses strewn across the floor.
"This is only one day. In one day, you killed so many people. Over five years—five whole years—how many unthinkable things have you done? Why would you do this!!!"
Sakuraba Tree followed his gaze toward the corpses, his expression cold.
Then his emotionless gaze fell upon Junichi again. He spoke in a low voice, as though it had risen from the depths of a dry well.
"Do you remember what I told you back then about your mother?"
"My mother?"
Junichi grew even angrier and roared, "Why are you bringing her up now? What right do you have to mention her! Didn't she fall ill and die ten years ago while traveling with you!"
"Aya died during that trip, but she didn't die of illness."
"Not long after that trip began, we passed through the Goa Kingdom. Two elegant noble ladies boarded the ship. They hit it off with Aya, and within a few days, they had become friends."
"They often held tea parties in the afternoon, then sat on deck together at night to watch the stars. They laughed and played, speaking about everything under the sun."
"Aya had struggled alongside me since I was poor. After all those hard years, aside from the time when you were born, those were nearly the happiest days I had ever seen her."
"Until one day..."
"The two noble ladies suddenly said they wanted to play soccer. But where would we find a ball on a ship?"
"So they suddenly flew into a rage. They beat and cursed their own guards, and even wanted to kill the captain of the guard and throw him overboard to feed the fish."
"Aya couldn't bear to watch. She stepped forward to plead with them and saved the captain of the guard's life. Then she borrowed materials such as a pig's bladder from the kitchen, hoping to sew a soccer ball for them."
"After spending most of the night making it, Aya was delighted. That way, she wouldn't have to worry about the two noble ladies taking their anger out on the guards again."
"She went to deliver the ball first thing in the morning. I slept in for a while before going to find her. Guess what I saw?"
Sakuraba Tree's face was wooden.
It was as though he were telling a story unrelated to him.
"Aya's head had been cut off. The two noble ladies were using it as a ball, kicking it around happily. The ball she had painstakingly made all night had been thrown aside and trampled flat because they thought it was too ugly."
"W-what... what?!"
Junichi's pupils shrank. He staggered backward two steps, his body trembling violently.
Xia Nuo let out a long breath and fell silent for a moment.
He had some guesses about the identities of the two noble ladies.
But he did not interrupt. He let Sakuraba Tree continue speaking on the stage.
Inside the vast, empty training hall, only that emotionless voice echoed:
"...I stood there in a daze for a long time before finally coming to my senses. I drew my sword and charged at them like a madman, but that captain of the guard suddenly blocked my way."
"The swordsmanship I had always been proud of was nothing but a joke before that man. I couldn't even hold out for a few seconds before he crushed me beneath his foot."
"At the time, I truly couldn't understand it. Only after investigating bitterly for a long while did I finally discover the truth..."
"Those two ladies weren't nobles of the Goa Kingdom at all. They were Celestial Dragons who had sneaked away from home to visit the Goa Kingdom! And the captain of the guard Aya saved was none other than Steelres, a Vice Admiral of the Marine Headquarters!"
"How laughable. How laughable... How laughable!!!"
Sakuraba Tree suddenly threw back his head and began laughing maniacally.
"Hahaha, Aya thought she had made two new friends, never realizing that in their eyes, she was no different from a kitten or puppy they had decided to toy with on a whim."
"And the man who had even knocked on our door the night before to thank her for saving his life personally cut off Aya's head the next day!"
"And me? I was kicked into the sea like a dead dog. I drifted for a month before barely surviving!"
"No wonder you became so quiet for several months after returning from that trip..."
Junichi clutched his hair and muttered blankly in anguish, "But after Mother's funeral, didn't you gradually recover?"
"Recover? I never recovered!"
Sakuraba Tree sneered. "I only chose to escape and forget so that I could continue raising you, and for the sake of the dojo I founded with my own hands. I kept pretending to be the good master and good father I had once been."
"The real Sakuraba Tree, the original Sakuraba Tree, drowned ten years ago when he fell into the sea!"
"I thought I could keep running away forever. After all, what else could I do? Take revenge? On whom? The Celestial Dragons or the Vice Admiral? I wasn't even a swordsman. Where would I have gotten the ability!"
He bared his teeth in a grimace.
"But fate simply refused to let me bow my head forever!"
"During that shipwreck five years ago, I went to save someone and nearly drowned in the sea again. But I survived in the end. Not only that, I found a Devil Fruit in the wreckage that had drifted over from a merchant ship!"
"You know the rest."
Sakuraba Tree finally turned his whole body around. The spot in his chest where the blade had pierced him writhed with splinters, instantly repairing itself.
His expression gradually turned indifferent as well.
"Fate saved me twice, then placed the power of a demon before me. It was clearly encouraging me to embark upon the path of revenge."
"So I personally destroyed everything that belonged to Sakuraba Tree."
"The dojo, my family, my old friends... They were all things that would make me reluctant to give them up, trapping me on this tiny island as a wretched insect licking its wounds, afraid to take the first step toward revenge!"
"As for the lives that fell by my hand over these years?"
Sakuraba Tree let out a derisive laugh and shook his head slightly.
"Don't worry. None of them died for nothing. They had value. Over these five years, these Puppetization puppets earned me more than a billion Berries, finally giving me enough money and the capital to pursue my revenge."
"You shameless bastard! You... you... don't you feel even the slightest regret or guilt?!"
Junichi's face was deathly pale. His finger trembled as he pointed at Sakuraba Tree. "You're insane! Completely insane! You became a madman five years ago!"
"Those two Celestial Dragons deserved to die! I want nothing more than to cut off their heads and avenge Mother too! But did you have to do it this way?! Would Mother want to see you act like this? You killed so many innocent people for revenge. When you die, will you still have the face to meet her in the afterlife?!"
"Mind your words, Junichi."
Sakuraba Tree's voice suddenly turned icy. "I was prepared to kill you five years ago, but I ultimately couldn't bring myself to do it. I let you drift on the sea and fend for yourself, which was effectively saving your life."
"But of all the things you shouldn't have done, you chose to return to this island just when I was ready to leave after bringing the curtain down, and you even brought along a..."
"Nosy little brat!"
The instant his voice fell, hundreds of Puppetization strings suddenly shot from the crown of his head. They danced and grew wildly beneath the lights, transforming into countless dark-yellow vines as thick as arms.
Sakuraba Tree's voice rang out again, mechanical and cold like a puppet's, nothing like a human being:
"Things may happen once or twice, but never three times. Junichi, since you don't cherish the chance to live that I gave you..."
"—then you might as well become my puppets together with this little brat!"
Hiss!
Amid the sound of tearing air, the dark-yellow vines shot forward. In an instant, they surrounded Xia Nuo and Junichi from every direction.
Xia Nuo stared at the thick strands twisting wildly like a swarm of snakes.
"Do you still have the strength to fight?" he suddenly asked, turning his head. "If you don't want to fight him, I can understand."
"I... I..."
Junichi stared silently at the figure on the platform. Suddenly, he wiped away his tears and gritted his teeth.
"I don't want to run anymore, Big Brother! My father, Sakuraba Tree, died long ago, just as he said himself. The thing on that platform is nothing but an evil spirit wearing his shell."
"He wants revenge? Then he can wait! I'll avenge my father first, and then we'll talk!"
Xia Nuo looked at Junichi with slight surprise.
"Take this."
He directly drew the Masamune blade and tossed it over. "This ability is indeed troublesome. I'll deal with the main body. You just cut down those branches for me."
Junichi caught it instinctively, then stood back-to-back with Xia Nuo.
Swish, swish!
Before he had time to adjust to its feel, several Puppetization strings attacked from the side.
He immediately raised the blade before him and blocked the first wave. Then he abruptly slashed down from the side, cutting the thick strands cleanly in two.
What a fast blade...
Junichi couldn't help being startled. Even Teacher Koshiro's Wado Ichimonji had no greater sharpness than this.
Xia Nuo had already raised his head, narrowing his eyes at the source of the Puppetization strings.
"Who allowed you to stay up there playing tricks!"
He thrust out both hands and firmly seized several of the nearest vines. His knotted biceps suddenly bulged like hills as violent strength surged through them, and he gave a brutal yank!
"Get down here!"
Crack, crack!
The sound came from the platform's edge, which split apart under the friction. Sakuraba Tree's withered-branch-like body was instantly pulled off the ground and sent flying.
What incredible strength...
Sakuraba Tree narrowed his eyes.
Although he had already witnessed how helpless the puppets had been when he faked his death, experiencing it himself was completely different.
However, he was no inflexible puppet.
With a thought, the soles of his feet creaked open like two small wooden doors.
Countless fine Puppetization strings shot out from within, bored through the dojo's floor tiles, and plunged deep into the ground, firmly anchoring Sakuraba Tree's body in midair.
No matter how powerful the pull from below became, it could no longer move him even an inch.
Now it was time to...
Huh?
Sakuraba Tree's expression abruptly changed. A shadow rapidly expanded in his pupils. From the corner of his eye, he saw that the ground where Xia Nuo had been standing was already empty.
W-when did he...?
There was no time to think. Sakuraba Tree hurriedly activated complete Puppetization.
For those he controlled, this meant completely destroying their independent consciousness.
But for the ability user himself, transforming his entire body into hard wood and layering it over and over beneath the surface of his skin created the finest defensive armor.
Boom!
Xia Nuo grabbed the steel framework hanging from the ceiling and kicked off the load-bearing pillar behind him. Using that final burst of leverage, he suddenly closed the several-meter distance.
At the instant Sakuraba Tree completed his Puppetization, Xia Nuo appeared in midair to his left.
"Got you!"
He grinned savagely and drove a fist into Sakuraba Tree's left shoulder. A ring-shaped shock wave exploded outward.
The hardened Puppetization body instantly caved in deeply, exposing the hollow space inside his chest.
Flying splinters skimmed across Xia Nuo's muscular surface, but could not pierce it at all. They bounced away and scattered across the floor.
How could this be...?
Sakuraba Tree's pupils contracted.
He had tested his own torso with a sword blade countless times before. Even with his swordsmanship, he could at most cut through the first layer of hard wood. He had never been able to damage what lay within.
Yet this brat's punch had actually pierced straight through it!
This was bad!
Even though he had already estimated the other man's strength as highly as possible, this brat was still far stronger than he had expected.
A sense of panic, long absent, surged into his heart.
Before he could react, Xia Nuo firmly stepped onto him.
The boy's handsome face was close enough to touch, but when he bared his teeth in a grin, he looked terrifying as a demon in Sakuraba Tree's eyes.
"You might not know this, but the feel of your body is really, really similar to the orange trees in my hometown."
Xia Nuo's grin nearly stretched to his ears. "Unfortunately for you, during the off-season back home, my favorite thing to do was beat orange trees."
Boom!
Before his voice had even faded, Xia Nuo straddled Sakuraba Tree and unleashed a storm of fierce, heavy punches against his chest, as rapid and thunderous as a downpour.
Every day, he had practiced hundreds or even thousands of sets of Breathing Fist against tree trunks and wooden stakes. Over a year and a half, that added up to hundreds of thousands of sets.
Sweat was never wasted.
Now, with a target made of nearly identical material, everything came naturally.
Boom, boom, boom!
One punch followed another in an unbroken barrage of muffled impacts. Sakuraba Tree's aura weakened at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His consciousness gradually blurred.
No, it couldn't end like this... I can't fall here!
Sakuraba Tree's life was clearly already over!
He should have taken on a new identity and a new name to complete the revenge plan he had plotted for so long!
His right hand trembled weakly as he struggled. He wanted to control the Puppetization strings he had first released from his head and fight back, but no response came at all.
What was happening?!
Sakuraba Tree forced his gaze downward. Through his blurred peripheral vision, he could vaguely see—
On the floor below, Junichi still held the katana, darting between the thick vines and hacking at them.
Taking advantage of his main body being restrained, Junichi had no idea how long he had been cutting. But by now, he had nearly reduced all the Puppetization strings to fragments.
"Final punch!"
At the instant despair surged through him, Xia Nuo's low shout rang beside his ear.
Boom!
The surface of the hardened wooden body was already shattered. Under this blow, his connection to all the Puppetization strings snapped completely.
The unsupported body fell from a height of seven or eight meters and slammed into the floor, smashing out a massive crater.
Xia Nuo stepped down from his opponent's knee with a series of creaks, then turned toward the center of the spiderweb of cracks.
There, Sakuraba Tree's eyes were stretched as wide as they could go, glaring unwillingly at the ceiling. His withered body, however, did not move at all.
He had gone completely silent.