Having Seen the Summit, Strive for the Summit (Part 2)

Every Haki master had been tempered through countless trials.

Earlier, when he clashed with Ivankov, his Haki had collapsed in an instant.

That was the difference in the quality of their Haki.

It was like trying to smash an egg against a rock.

Ivankov looked slightly surprised at Kuta and said, "Little Kuta, you're pretty impressive! But you'd better be careful from here on out."

"Now I'll let you witness the essence of Kamabakka's Okama Kenpo!"

As he spoke, he leaped into the air, spun 360 degrees, and landed lightly. Then he drew a character in front of himself with both hands.

As for what that character was supposed to be, no one recognized it anyway.

He relaxed his left hand beside his waist, spread his right hand into a palm, and pointed it at Kuta.

"Yahoo!"

Kuta stared at Ivankov's exaggerated performance, dumbfounded.

So this is Okama Kenpo? How childish.

Ivankov withdrew his right hand, raised both hands slightly above his shoulders, relaxed his entire body, and shouted with a smile, "All right, all right, come on over!"

"Yahoo!"

Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee? And what's with 'Yahoo'? Why not 'Heh-ha' while you're at it?

Kuta pursed his lips, gripped his sword with both hands, and swept it upward until it was raised above his head. Then he stamped his foot hard against the ground.

Whoosh—!

His body shot toward Ivankov like an arrow loosed from a bow.

When he reached him, he brought his sword down fiercely at Ivankov.

"Shave: Step-in Slash!"

Ivankov had been prepared this time. The pressure from the Space Domain could only slow him down slightly.

He countered by thrusting the tip of his hand blade toward Kuta at blinding speed.

"Okama Kenpo: Dream Strike Processing Fist!"

Clang, clang, clang...!

The blade and the black Haki-coated hand blade crashed together in a frenzy. Only afterimages and flashes of cold, silvery sword light could be seen.

In the blink of an eye—

Clang—!

The two collided once more and began to struggle for dominance.

During the brief gap in their contest of strength, Ivankov suddenly winked at Kuta below.

"Hell Wink!"

Kuta summoned all his strength and knocked Ivankov into the air with his sword. Using the recoil, he leaped backward.

Boom—!

A huge crater was blasted into the spot where he had been standing.

"Little Iva, that's not very honorable. Attacking me by surprise."

He put on an exaggerated look of lingering fear and raised his left hand to wipe nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead.

"I didn't do anything!" Ivankov roared.

Then he stared at Kuta and began winking rapidly.

"Hell Wink, Hell Wink, Hell Wink!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!

Wave after wave of shock waves swept toward Kuta.

Kuta paid little attention to the shock waves in front of him.

He expanded his domain and stretched the surrounding space, allowing the shock waves to enter it and drastically reducing their speed.

Standing calmly in place, he rapidly swung his sword and cleaved apart each incoming shock wave, as easily as slicing through bubbles.

Seeing that this move was useless against Kuta—

Ivankov planted both feet firmly on the ground and began running circles around him.

He ran faster and faster, his high-speed movement generating countless facial afterimages.

"Facial Afterimages!"

From a distance, countless enormous faces seemed to surround Kuta.

Seeing the afterimages around him, Kuta assumed a guarded stance.

A flash of red light crossed his eyes. He swung his sword rapidly at one of the afterimages.

Found you.

A silver-gray Slash pierced through the afterimage and left a deep sword mark in the beach behind it.

"Little Kuta, it's useless."

"Any one of my afterimages could be real, and every one of them could be fake."

All the afterimages opened their mouths and shouted at the same time.

"Are you ready to welcome the storm?"

"Yahoo!"

Ivankov gave him a warning, then rapidly blinked. All the facial afterimages unleashed Death Wink simultaneously.

"Galaxy Wink!"

Countless shock waves, more than ten times stronger than Death Wink, shot toward Kuta like missiles, leaving him nowhere to run.

Sensing the fluctuations around him, Kuta quickly sheathed his sword and pressed his palms together.

He had no intention of running. This was exactly what he wanted.

Kuta slowly closed his eyes, and his chuunibyou spirit erupted.

"One bag of rice has to be carried up how many floors? One bag of rice has to be carried up to the second floor. One bag of rice has to be carried for me... One bag of rice has to be washed for me..."

Just as the shock waves were about to reach him, he suddenly opened his eyes. His pupils expanded, and the space around his body instantly collapsed inward.

Then he forcefully thrust both hands to either side. An overwhelmingly powerful force surged outward in all directions at an even greater speed.

"Pseudo: Shinra Tensei!"

In truth, he had compressed the space within his Space Domain to the extreme in an instant, then released it in an explosion.

He had created this by imitating Shinra Tensei.

The two forces remained locked for only an instant before exploding with a thunderous boom.

Sand mixed with an even stronger shock wave surged outward, instantly dispersing all the afterimages and sending the real Ivankov flying.

Boom—!

Ivankov's back slammed heavily into the cliff behind the beach.

Because of his massive body, it seemed as though the entire mountain had trembled.

The people at the pier had already rushed toward the village the moment the explosion occurred.

Seeing the storm of shock waves rapidly approaching from behind, Ahua and the other children wished they had several more legs.

"Run!"

"The storm is here!"

They had only just hidden when the storm swept over them, instantly clearing the entire street.

The people hiding behind a house listened to the wind howling past and stared in stunned disbelief.

"Can humans really do this?"

"That's outrageous!"

Kuina looked outside, a trace of worry in her eyes.

Koshiro saw her expression and pushed up his glasses. "Don't worry, Kuina. Kuta is fine."

"I'm not worried. I'll always believe in Kuta."

Kuina paused, then cautiously glanced at Koshiro.

"I was just wondering how many Beli this time is going to cost us."

At that moment, a sea fish that had been blown into the sky and caught on a roof's eaves fell down.

Smack—!

It landed on Koshiro's head.

Koshiro expressionlessly took the fish off his head and threw it forcefully aside.

He stared at the gravel-covered street and the fish, fruit, and rubble rolling through the gravel.

His left hand trembled as he pushed up his glasses.

"Father, are you all right?"

Kuina looked up at Koshiro.

"I'm fine. It's only a little Beli!"

Koshiro answered nonchalantly.

But inwardly, he steeled himself. Once Kuta returned, he would make Kuta earn back twice as much.

"All right, let's go outside!"

Koshiro took a step forward and walked out.

The street outside was a complete mess. Tiles, fruit, fish...

They were everywhere.

The group stepped over the rubble and headed toward the pier.

When they reached the pier, they saw that of the dozen or so small Fishing Boats originally docked in the harbor, all except the larger ones had been blown onto the beach on the right.

Beneath where Kuta had been, a massive circular crater had formed. Seawater was slowly seeping up from its bottom.

It would not be long before a small pond formed there.

Zoro's eyes widened as he stared intently at Kuta, who was hovering unharmed above the massive crater.

His entire body trembled with excitement.

Only by witnessing the power of the peak could one work even harder to catch up. He firmly believed that he could reach it.

Sensing Zoro's fighting spirit, Kuina tightened her left hand around her sword.

She calmly stared at Kuta, her thoughts churning inside.

Is this Kuta's peak power?

It's truly despairing!

So Kuta had never been serious when he sparred with me before!

Shimotsuki Village was too small—so small that even she had nearly become invincible there.

If Zoro had not come, it would have been impossible for her to improve this much over the past year.

She could feel that it would not be long before Zoro surpassed her in physical strength.

That was simply how they had been born. No matter how unwilling she was to accept it, there was nothing she could do.

All she could do was train even harder.