Under the clear moonlight, the Monohoshizao in Kairos D. Vale's hand gleamed with a chilling brilliance. Even looking at it from a distance made one's eyes ache, as if the famed blade could sever sight itself.
"Who are you?"
Kuro turned to look at Kairos.
His vigilance rose sharply, so much so that the hairs on his body stood on end.
He couldn't sense any presence from Kairos at all.
It was as if the figure standing there wasn't a person, but a pine tree. A weathered stone.
And yet the sword in Kairos' hand radiated a razor-sharp aura.
Two completely contradictory qualities coexisted within him.
The contradiction alone made Kuro's scalp go numb.
This man could not be underestimated.
Kairos said nothing.
He merely looked at Kuro in silence, the faint smile on his face gradually fading.
The perfectly clear, tranquil heart that belonged to Sasaki Kojiro surfaced within him once more.
At this moment—
he was Sasaki Kojiro, the swordsman who stood before the temple gate and never took a single step back, not even in death.
Kairos gripped his sword and stepped forward.
Around him stood every member of both the Black Cat Pirates and the Buggy Pirates—nearly twenty vicious pirates in total.
And yet he simply walked past them with his sword in hand, treating them as though they weren't there at all, as casually as if he were strolling through a garden.
"Big Nose, let's kill him together first."
Kuro let out a cold snort and spoke to Buggy without even turning his head.
He had felt it.
The sword in Kairos' hand was humming.
A monstrous killing intent was erupting from it.
There was no chance this would end peacefully.
The man before them had come to kill.
"Work together?"
Buggy wasn't stupid.
He forcibly shoved aside his anger toward Kuro and frowned in thought.
The suddenly appearing Kairos felt like a crystal-clear lake
and at the same time like a bottomless abyss.
Those contradictory impressions flickered back and forth around him.
And they all pointed to the same conclusion.
This man was dangerous.
…Maybe I should find an excuse and run?
The thought rose uncontrollably in Buggy's heart.
And at that very moment—
the ground beneath Kairos' feet exploded apart.
Clang!
Sword light poured down like water from a lake, stirring the moonlight as it swept across the sky in a vast killing arc.
Kairos shot into the air, surrounded by hundreds of shimmering sword flashes like a god of slaughter among swords.
Kuro's eyelids twitched violently as he retreated at once with Silent Step.
"Eat this!"
Jango roared and attacked first, hurling out his chakram while activating his hypnosis at the same time.
But—
a blazing slash crashed down through the air, like a spray of lake water: clear, cold, and overflowing with murderous intent.
The chakram split neatly in two and fell to the ground.
Thud…
The muffled sound echoed softly.
Jango froze in the middle of his throwing motion.
A deep line of blood appeared between his brows.
Then his body slowly began to split apart.
Organs, blood, bones—everything inside him burst open.
Just like that chakram, Jango was cut cleanly into two with a horrible tearing sound.
Even on the half of his face that remained visible, disbelief still lingered.
It was as if, even at the very end, he had never fully understood that he was already dead.
Kairos appeared behind him.
His wrist moved.
The sword's chill shimmered once, and then he sheathed it.
Among the more than twenty vicious pirates present, not a single one saw when Kairos had made his cut.
It looked as though he had merely walked lightly behind Jango—
and Jango had died.
"A-an instant kill?!" Buggy screamed in horror. Thanks to the Chop-Chop Fruit, his eyes nearly popped straight out of his face.
"No sign of the man—only the sword light?" Mohji stood there in a daze, only capable of blurting out his shock at Kairos' unbelievable swordsmanship.
"So fast…" Cabaji felt his blood run cold, utterly dumbstruck.
Now he understood why Jango, the Black Cat Pirates' second-in-command, had died without even reacting.
Against a sword strike whose motion couldn't even be seen, Cabaji couldn't think of any way to defend himself.
"Jango!!"
Buchi and Sham stared at the gruesome scene, feeling the blood in their bodies turn icy.
Jango—
the Black Cat Pirates' second-in-command—
had just died like that?
But they had no time to dwell on it.
Kairos had vanished again, as though the one who attacked a moment ago had been nothing but a phantom. He had disappeared from sight entirely.
Then—
that lake-clear sword light came sweeping toward the two of them.
No one saw the man.
Only the sword light.
"Ru—"
Buchi never managed to finish the word "run."
His head rolled across the ground.
"Run! Run!!"
Sham turned and fled, his slender body darting like a night cat as he sprinted over rooftops and walls.
Shhk!
A streak of sword light reached his back in an instant and pierced straight through his heart like a flying swallow.
Sham had time for only a single scream before his body toppled from the roof and hit the ground dead.
The same kind of instant death played out for every member of the Black Cat Pirates.
The officers died in moments.
The ordinary crew members never even glimpsed a shred of hope.
From beginning to end, not one of them managed to catch sight of Kairos.
He seemed to have dissolved into shadow itself, hiding in any corner he wished.
No one could find him.
All they saw was cold sword light flashing again and again, mercilessly taking lives.
This—
was the martial realm Sasaki Kojiro had reached.
Presence Concealment.
"So weird… so terrifying…"
Every member of the Buggy Pirates was trembling.
Richie the lion trembled worst of all, lying flat on the ground with nothing but terror in his massive beastly eyes.
At that moment, everyone in the Buggy Pirates shared the same thought.
Thank God…
he didn't come to kill us.
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