Chapter 26: Hell's Kitchen's Fujitora
The Lucky Dragon.
Ethan and Coulson faced each other across the tea table. The air inside the restaurant had gone thick and still. Outside, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had the building surrounded — three layers deep. Snipers on rooftops. Hawkeye on standby with an arrow nocked. Everyone waiting for the word.
Coulson had noticed that Ethan wasn't remotely intimidated. He'd also noticed that John Wick and the others had slipped out of the restaurant during the conversation and returned without so much as flinching at the sniper scopes tracking them.
Coulson and Natasha exchanged another look.
"Mr. Cross," Coulson said evenly. "We came in good faith. Our people have this building surrounded. If you refuse to cooperate, we are authorized to take you into custody. Conventional firearms may not work on you, but—"
He glanced around the restaurant.
"Your restaurant isn't bulletproof. Neither are the people inside it. Neither are the people of Hell's Kitchen. And nobody in Washington is going to lose sleep over casualties in this neighborhood."
"Don't think about fighting back. If you don't cooperate today, the next visitors won't be field agents. They'll be the military."
Ethan laughed — a short, humorless sound. He said nothing. He sat back down, picked up his teacup, and drank.
He was angry. But he wasn't stupid. Wiping out a S.H.I.E.L.D. team on his doorstep would bring down a mountain of problems. If Fury called in Captain Marvel, the question wouldn't be whether Ethan could win — it would be whether Hell's Kitchen survived the fight.
But doing nothing wasn't an option either. If he rolled over for S.H.I.E.L.D. today, his people would lose faith. The rest of the underworld would smell weakness. And the agency would be back every other week with new demands.
He needed a response that sent a message without starting a war.
Coulson watched Ethan's silence and misread it as surrender. He sat down with a satisfied smile. "We generally prefer not to use force. So if you could just bring them out—"
Ethan stood. He was done talking to S.H.I.E.L.D.
He glanced at Caine. Then he turned toward the kitchen.
"Nobody takes my family. Caine — handle this."
Coulson and Natasha were already rising, hands moving to their weapons. They'd dismissed Caine before arriving — their intelligence had him flagged as a blind assassin dependent on sensory equipment. No threat.
SLAM.
An invisible force drove both their heads into the table and pinned them there. No matter how hard they strained, they couldn't lift their faces from the wood.
"Save your strength," Caine said from directly behind them. Neither had heard him move. "Just stay down."
Coulson's voice came out muffled against the tabletop. "A mutant — hiding in plain sight for decades. You kept that well hidden."
"Decades of deep cover." Natasha's voice was calm even with her face pressed into lacquered wood. Professional to the core. "Impressive."
Coulson was less composed. "Whatever trick this is, it won't be enough to fight S.H.I.E.L.D. Release us. Now."
He raised his voice toward the door: "Suspects resisting! All units — move in!"
Wade and John Wick exchanged bewildered glances. From their perspective, the two agents had spontaneously slammed their own faces into the table and started yelling.
Wade sidled up to Caine, getting uncomfortably close to his face. "Heyyy — was that you? Is this magic? Or one of those freaky mutant things?"
Caine couldn't see Wade, but Observation Haki painted a vivid picture of a scarred face approximately two inches from his own. He took a step back.
"I'm... not entirely sure. Superpowers, I suppose."
"Save the chat," John cut in. "Deal with the ones outside first."
Outside, Hawkeye received Coulson's distress call and signaled the assault. Hand gestures, coordinated movement — agents raised weapons and advanced on the restaurant.
"Allow me." Caine walked toward the front door. "I've been here long enough without contributing. Let me handle this."
Ethan had saved his daughter, given him a home, and granted him power beyond imagination — without ever asking for anything in return. And now S.H.I.E.L.D. had come to Ethan's door, threatened his people, and held civilians hostage as leverage.
Caine was furious.
He stepped outside.
Hawkeye spotted him immediately. "Fire!" An arrow flew. Agents opened up from every angle.
The snipers, notably, held their positions — Hawkeye had judged that this volume of fire against one blind man was already overkill. Keep the long guns in reserve.
A wall of bullets and an arrow screamed toward Caine.
The old Caine — the merely human Caine — would have been shredded.
But that was then.
In the few days since fusing with the Fujitora template, Caine had already achieved remarkable control over the Gravity-Gravity Fruit. Ninety percent compatibility was no joke.
He drew his cane-sword — just a quarter of the way — and opened his pale, sightless eyes.
"Gravitational Command."
An invisible shockwave rippled outward from his body.
Every bullet in the air lost its momentum and clattered to the pavement like dropped coins.
Then the agents themselves went down — slammed flat against the ground by a force they couldn't see or understand. Caine had calibrated the pressure carefully. Full power would have crushed them into paste. This just made sure they couldn't move.
On the rooftop, Hawkeye watched in horror. The blind man had said two words, moved his sword an inch, and neutralized an entire tactical team.
"Fall back! Now!"
He turned to run — and felt his body double in weight. His knees buckled. He hit the rooftop hard, palms flat, trying to push himself up. The gravity increased steadily. In seconds, he was pinned.
"Forgive the crude display." Caine slid the sword back into the cane and turned toward the restaurant.
Wade was already outside, poking at the prone agents with one finger. "That was awesome. It's kind of like Ethan's bullet trick, except everybody's doing push-ups. Do they not like sleeping in beds?"
John Wick stared at Caine, something complicated working behind his eyes. "I've known you for years. You never mentioned you had powers."
"I didn't have them before." Caine said it simply and walked past him into the restaurant to report to Ethan.
John stood very still, turning that sentence over.
Didn't have them before. Has them now.
His eyes drifted toward the restaurant door.
Because of Ethan.
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