A Body That Can't Die?

"What is that?" Akda looked up and saw the enormous sword in the sky. His jaw dropped as he asked in astonishment.

"It's a sword that can pass judgment on you." Shirakawa didn't explain any further, because he didn't know how to explain it either.

Then Shirakawa swiftly attacked Akda, moving so fast that he left little more than afterimages.

"So fast!" Akda was stunned. A moment later, a tremendous force suddenly came through his blade, sending him skidding several meters backward.

"And his strength has increased, too." Akda's expression grew serious, and the killing intent gathering around him grew heavier by the second.

"This is getting more and more interesting! Hahaha!" Akda suddenly burst into wild laughter, laughing with a crazed abandon.

"Ever since I came back from the front lines, I haven't had a fight this exciting. Come on, defeat me!" Akda's eyes were bloodshot as he spoke.

"We're done for. This guy's lost it." Buggy clutched his head with both hands and spoke in alarm.

"Don't worry. Trust Shirakawa. Right now, no one here can beat him." Unlike Buggy, Shanks remained perfectly calm.

As Shirakawa and Akda's battle grew more intense, Shanks felt worse and worse. He secretly swore to himself, I have to train harder from now on.

His fists clenched tighter and tighter.

"Shanks." Buggy suddenly called out to him.

"Hm?" Buggy's voice drew Shanks's attention away.

"You'll definitely get stronger, too."

Shanks froze for a moment, then smiled with complete confidence. "Of course. I'll get stronger, just like Captain."

Buggy usually seemed carefree and cowardly, but he was also perceptive. And because he had spent so much time with Shanks, he understood what Shanks was thinking better than anyone.

You could say that Buggy and Shanks understood each other better than anyone else.

Meanwhile, Shirakawa and Akda's battle continued, but it was clear that Shirakawa had the upper hand.

There wasn't a single wound on him. Or rather, whatever injuries he'd sustained had already healed. Akda, on the other hand, had a massive slash across both his chest and back.

"Damn it." After going berserk for a while and losing a great deal of blood, Akda finally began to calm down. His eyes were still bloodshot, but he no longer looked as savage as before.

"Are you... immortal?" Akda gritted his teeth and asked in disbelief.

"Oh? I didn't expect you to be so clever, figuring that out and all. That's right. I have an Immortal Body." Shirakawa had held it in for so long that he could finally say those words out loud.

"Damn it." Though he'd gotten the answer he wanted, Akda felt Shirakawa was lying. His tone had been so casual that it was hard to believe him.

But Shirakawa was truly getting a raw deal. Saying those words had made him feel like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"You're lying." Akda bluntly tried to expose Shirakawa's lie.

"Hey, what's your problem?" Shirakawa said in disbelief. Akda was actually questioning what he'd said. If he didn't believe him, why ask in the first place?

"There's no such thing as an immortal body in this world. There has to be a limit. If you break past that limit, you'll die, too." Akda suddenly seemed to think of something and shouted the words to himself.

"Is that so? Then I'd like to find out where my limit is."

To be honest, even after giving it his all, Shirakawa couldn't feel that Akda was putting him under much pressure.

The two clashed again. Their blades grated against each other with an ear-splitting screech, punctuated by Akda's occasional crazed shouts.

"Is there something wrong with this guy's head? He's in this state and still won't accept defeat. He's even yelling and screaming."

Buggy couldn't understand it.

"Who knows? Maybe he really does have something wrong with his head, just like you said." Shanks clearly agreed with Buggy.

As far as Shanks knew, only two kinds of people could stay fired up while gravely wounded. The first were passionate, driven people who believed they couldn't lose. The second were idiots. In their eyes, Akda belonged to the latter group.

After more wounds appeared on him, Akda retreated several steps, trying to put some safe distance between himself and Shirakawa.

"Why'd you stop attacking? Come on, I'm not done yet." Shirakawa taunted Akda.

Akda didn't answer. He only watched Shirakawa warily.

"If you're not coming over, then I'll come to you."

"Wait." Just as Shirakawa was about to move, Akda suddenly spoke.

"What is it?" Shirakawa stopped, wanting to see what else Akda had up his sleeve.

"How about you let me go? We can pretend we never met." Akda spoke in a very submissive tone.

"Heh. Hahaha." Hearing how thoroughly Akda had backed down, Shirakawa suddenly burst into cheerful laughter.

As Shirakawa laughed, Akda joined in, though his smile looked horribly strained.

"If we were the ones begging for mercy right now, would you let us go?" Shirakawa didn't answer him. Instead, he asked Akda a question.

"Well..." Akda hesitated, and Shirakawa already knew what his answer would be.

"I didn't think so. So I won't either." Shirakawa's voice grew sharper as he spoke.

"You reek of blood. Killing you would be doing the people a favor."

"If you insist on this, then I'll drag you to hell with me!"

Akda suddenly lunged, as if he were using all his strength. Judging by his attack, he meant to cut Shirakawa's head off with a single stroke.

"Heh. Such a straightforward attack. Have you lost your reason because you know you have no chance?"

Shirakawa shook his head slightly, looking a little disappointed.

Shirakawa flew into the air and asked Akda, "Have you ever seen a sword technique that descends from the heavens?"

"No, you haven't. Then I'll show you today." Shirakawa didn't need Akda to answer; he already knew Akda had never seen one.

Shirakawa extended his left hand and aimed it at Akda. In an instant, Akda felt his body grow heavy, and he couldn't move.

"Since this move is easy to dodge, I have no choice but to do it this way."

"Damn it! I never imagined you could control Gravity, too!" Akda struggled to get the words out.

"There's plenty you haven't imagined." Shirakawa raised his sword and swiftly dove toward the ground, bringing it down on Akda's head.

Glancing at Akda's bisected body, Shirakawa flicked the blood from his blade and said in an incredibly smug tone, "Well, that was pretty underwhelming."

As soon as he finished speaking, the sword overhead turned into a flash of white light and vanished.

"Looks like the battle's over." Rayleigh and Roger, inside the city, had also seen the Sword of Damocles disappear.

"Yeah. But did you notice that the sword seemed to have a crack in it?"

"Really? I didn't notice."

"Then I must have been mistaken," Roger said, though in his heart he didn't think so.

"Did something happen?" A trace of worry stirred in Roger's heart.