The Deciding Match!

"Too fast! My eyes can't keep up!!"

"Both of them are incredibly skilled at Soru! They're using it almost continuously, with barely a pause. Their figures flash into view, then disappear again! Is this what they're capable of!!"

"Shouldn't the real point be that they're fighting while using Soru? Their reflexes are insane! They're moving at such high speeds and still managing to trade such fierce attacks! What kind of superhuman control does that take!!"

"I'm starting to think Stuart didn't die unfairly after all!"

This was the final test. Everyone had made it this far, and even the last person to fail would be transferred to another department, so the trainees weren't under much psychological pressure. But Louis and Xiluo were putting quite a bit of pressure on them.

The scene was bizarre. Two figures kept flashing in and out of sight as the ground crumbled around them. It was just like something out of a ghost story.

"Phew, this is something. Looks like we can't decide a winner this way, meow!"

Xiluo leaped into the air and curled up. "Rankyaku Tornado!!"

A tornado formed in an instant, like a funnel connecting heaven and earth, and swept toward Louis.

"So, our warm-up should be about over, right?"

Louis's body appeared in the distance in an instant, easily dodging the astonishingly powerful Rankyaku. He kicked out with a Rankyaku of his own.

The Rankyaku wound around itself like waves, surging with tremendous force. It was an attack powerful enough to pierce through and tear apart an entire building.

"I'll make the first move, meow!!"

Louis's Rankyaku slash was shattered in an instant. Big Cat came charging in from behind, a giant cat with black fur on his face, white fur on his body, and large ears with sharp tips.

"A Siamese cat."

Louis understood.

"Don't get distracted, Brother Louis!"

The instant Big Cat landed, he disappeared. Louis's body bent sharply, his upper torso twisting directly to the left. A gust of wind roared past where he had been. Only then did Xiluo's attack sound. In that short time, he had already launched five more attacks.

"So fast."

Louis seemed to dodge Xiluo's attacks with ease, but he was actually the one on the defensive. Xiluo was already exceptionally skilled at Soru, and the Cat-Cat Fruit had further enhanced him, dramatically increasing his speed and reflexes. His Soru was nearly too fast for Louis to follow. Once Xiluo got going, Louis could only take a beating.

"Let him out first."

As Louis thought this, the hair tie restraining his hair snapped, and his long black hair flew loose.

"Eh? You're finally using Life Return, meow? But when it comes to speed, I'm nothing like that guy Stuart!"

Xiluo's voice drifted in from every direction. "Can you catch me, meow?"

"I don't need to catch you!"

Louis hollowed out his waist, narrowly dodging another one of Xiluo's attacks.

"Tekkai."

"Shing!!"

Behind Louis's head, his hair sprang up and split into hundreds of black swords. By stimulating his hair follicles, he could make his hair grow rapidly. Combined with Tekkai's hardening, Louis was now using the Hundred Sword Style!

"Whoa! What is that outrageous move, meow?"

Xiluo didn't attack. He instinctively moved away from Louis. No matter how you looked at it, the situation seemed pretty bad.

"Rankyaku Blade Storm!"

What would it look like if a hundred swords all began to dance at once?

What would it look like if a hundred swords all unleashed Flying Slashes at once?

A storm! Without a doubt, it was a storm!!

"Whoa! Get out of the way! This move covers too wide an area!!"

The spectators below finally realized something was wrong. The attack was clearly sweeping them up in it, too.

Slashes! Slashes!

Slashes filled the sky in every direction!!

"Ugh! This is really too brutal, meow!"

No matter how fast Xiluo was, this attack left him no room to dodge. He could only brace himself against it.

"Tekkai!!"

Big Cat stood upright in his beast-man form, crossing his arms over his chest as he activated Tekkai.

"Clangclangclangclangclangclangclang!!!"

The Rankyaku launched by Louis's hair wasn't very powerful. At most, it made Xiluo's body go numb when it struck him. The only problem was that there were too many of them.

Xiluo felt his entire body going numb. The attacks kept pounding the same spots, and even his hardened muscles were starting to give way.

"Whoosh!"

The slash storm abruptly stopped, and Louis appeared in front of Xiluo. He raised his right fist. At the shoulder, he softened his body with Kami-e and began to rotate. "Drill Finger Gun!"

"Too slow, meow?"

Xiluo moved his feet, trying to use Soru to dodge, but he couldn't. "You waited until I was defending? That's so underhanded, meow!!"

Black hair was wrapped around his ankles, stretching up from the ground. It wasn't hard to see that a lock of Louis's hair had burrowed into the earth, then snaked through the ground and wrapped around Xiluo while he was using Tekkai.

"Tekkai!"

"Thud!!"

With a muffled sound, Louis's Finger Pistol struck Xiluo squarely in the chest, sending him flying.

"Whoa!! That power—"

Xiluo twisted sharply in midair. As a cat, his balance was second to none. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and a bloody hole marked his chest. It wasn't very deep, but it had still pierced through.

Louis clenched his fist. Now that he could control the muscles in his arms, he could unleash their full power. The force of his punch had increased dramatically, and combined with the power of the rotation, it was no surprise that his focused Finger Pistol had pierced through Xiluo's Tekkai.

"Seriously! You're improving too fast, meow! I can't let you hit me again!"

Xiluo gritted his teeth and extended the claws on his right paw. "Shigan Cat Claw!"

A flash of cold light appeared, and the hair binding Xiluo was cut apart. Even Louis's hair, hardened with Tekkai, couldn't withstand Xiluo's Finger Pistol claws.

"Geppo!!"

Xiluo's figure disappeared again. Even in the air, he could still show off his extraordinary mobility.

"Shigan Needle Hell!!"

Louis's hair stood on end—literally. It shot up like the quills of a hedgehog, then burst outward. This attack covered an enormous area with no blind spots. An ordinary person would be turned into a sieve by this one strike.

"Don't even think about it!!"

Louis couldn't see Xiluo move, but his hair kept snapping off. With sharp claws combined with Finger Pistol, Xiluo's attacks were no less deadly than a Famous Sword.

"Ugh!"

Not only had his attack failed, but Louis felt his scalp ache. Xiluo had grabbed his hair and yanked him over.

"Finger Pistol, Rankyaku, Alloy Cat Claw!!"

The claws were already unstoppable with Finger Pistol layered over them. What if he added Rankyaku, too?

Louis felt as if Xiluo's attack would tear him to pieces. It wasn't an illusion. If it hit, the fight would be over. In terms of strength, Xiluo in his beast form had the overwhelming advantage.

"Wind Rider!!"

But the stronger the attack, the stronger the wind it produced. The fine hairs all over Louis's body had grown long enough that his skin, made more sensitive by the breeze, could immediately sense it. Then he used the incredible Kami-e technique that let him twist his body however he pleased. His body caved inward, and he easily dodged Xiluo's attack.

"Argh! You've got to be kidding, meow!! You dodged that too?!"

Xiluo roared angrily. His body disappeared in an instant as Louis's hair swept toward him.

Louis's hair was like a flood, surging in every direction as it chased Xiluo's figure. But it couldn't withstand Xiluo's attacks. His hair kept getting cut apart, and soon a layer of it covered the arena.

"Brother Louis, how much hair do you even have, meow? Does it grow for free, meow?"

Xiluo was breathing heavily. He was using up too much energy. Even with the boost from the Zoan Devil Fruit, he was starting to run out of stamina from constantly maintaining Soru at high speed.

"Enough to wear you down until you can't move."

Louis said it, but growing his hair took energy, and he was already exhausted too. Still, he couldn't afford to lose the verbal exchange.

"Then let's find out, Brother Louis!!"

Xiluo gritted his teeth and cut through Louis's hair as it spread in all directions once more. "Let's see who can hold out the longest!!"

Xiluo was strong—extremely strong. With his terrifying speed, unstoppable cat claws, and extraordinary agility, everyone present, including the instructors, would have been killed instantly if they had faced him. Everyone except Louis.

"But—"

"It's over, Xiluo!"

Louis abruptly lifted his head.

"Huh?"

Xiluo froze, then cried, "What??"

His feet were trapped!!

He had been moving at high speed the whole time, and Louis's hair couldn't keep up. Yet his legs were bound. The pulling force suddenly slowed Xiluo down, and then even more hair wrapped around him.

"How is this possible!! The hair I cut off—"

Xiluo was stunned. The hair he had cut off on the ground had come alive and wrapped around his legs. Even more hair kept spreading toward him, and in an instant, he was bound tight.

"This is the end!!"

The hair behind Louis's head wound around Xiluo, binding him even more tightly. At the same time, Louis used Soru and charged forward. "Xiluo!!"

"Don't even think about it!! Louis!!"

Xiluo roared. He had never been this worked up before. "Shing!!" The hair on the right side of Xiluo's body burst open, and his right claw, gleaming with cold light, shot out. "Take this!"

A flash of cold light shot straight toward Louis's chest.

Kami-e!

Louis's body bent sharply, dodging Xiluo's attack. His fists were stacked one above the other and aimed at Xiluo's body. At the same time, a large hole opened in the hair around Xiluo's left hand.

"Rokuogan!!!"

"Alloy Cat Claw!!"

"Xiluo!!"

"Louis!!"

"Xiluo!!"

"Louis!!"

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!"

"MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!"

"There's only one reason you lost! You didn't vote!!"