The bar seemed forgotten by time.
The wooden door creaked as Kaku pushed it open with his palm. The smell hit first—dried blood, spilled alcohol, old smoke embedded in the beams.
The interior was steeped in shadow. Streetlight barely touched the broken floor.
Kaku stepped inside.
His boots crunched over glass shards scattered like lost teeth. His heart beat with the precision of a war clock. 'Blueno… where are you?'
The bar seemed empty.
Until he saw him.
Slumped behind the counter, half-shrouded in dimness.
Kaku approached, each step resounding like hammer strikes in the rotten silence.
Blueno's body lay with half-open eyes. Blood trickled from his open mouth, pooling black around his head. His left hand still clawed the floor, as if reaching for something he'd never grasp.
Kaku stopped.
For a moment, his lungs failed.
'This shouldn't have happened.'
The light filtering through the cracked window bathed Blueno's face in sickly gray. His torn uniform. The chest wound. The expression… of surprise.
Kaku crouched slowly.
His eyes scanned the injury. Swift. Deep. Clean.
'This wasn't a fair fight.'
His throat dried. But his trained mind was already slotting the next move.
'Priority: Report. Information. Survival.'
A faint snap cut the air.
Instinct screamed.
Kaku spun, hands already moving to defend.
But what he saw wasn't human.
A shadow unfurled from the ceiling—fluid, breaking space with membranous black wings. Claws outlined the monster diving toward him.
The impact cracked the floor behind him.
Kaku retreated two steps, eyes locked on the creature.
The bat landed.
Its wings folded like living fabric, collapsing inward.
In its place, a woman emerged.
Bare feet touched the shattered floor with cruel elegance.
Disheveled blue hair fell over her face. Golden eyes burned like embers in the dark. Her aura pulsed like molten metal vapor.
Nojiko.
She rolled her shoulder, dismissing her animal form with disdain.
The scent of darkness and blood swirled around her like a contained storm.
"You're late."
Her voice was low, raspy, as if it scraped the air itself.
Kaku steadied his stance. His left wrist twitched, ready for Soru at any moment.
"Who are you?"
Nojiko's smile was small.
But it was the kind of smile that didn't need an answer. That already knew the story's end before the first word.
"The last face you'll see."
The shadows behind her pulsed.
They slithered across the walls, stretched over the floorboards, like serpents waiting to devour.
Kaku analyzed in silence.
'Shadow control.'
'Physical transformation.'
'Unknown extent.'
His boots slid half a centimeter on the broken floor.
No tremor.
No hesitation.
'CP9 agent. Priority: adaptation.'
Nojiko took a step forward.
The air crackled around her.
Armament Haki coated her arms in liquid black. Her nails lengthened into venomous blades.
Her face was a mask of contained pain, her golden eyes sparking like unloosed storms.
'I'll end it all. I'll end you.'
She lunged.
The floor shattered beneath her bare feet.
Kaku moved in the same instant, Soru breaking space like an invisible gust.
Nojiko's claws sliced the empty air where he'd stood a second before.
A splinter of wood flew, cracking the far wall.
Kaku reappeared beside her, his leg already swinging in a lateral kick.
Nojiko spun mid-motion, crossing her Haki-hardened forearms to block.
The impact boomed like a bursting drum.
Both skidded back, scraping the blood-and-debris-strewn floor.
Kaku's smile was faint. Professional.
'Above-average strength. Decent speed. Clear emotional instability.'
Nojiko charged again.
This time, not as a woman.
But as darkness.
She dissolved into the air, reappearing above him, descending with knees wreathed in shadow.
Kaku activated Tekkai in the same instant.
Nojiko's knees slammed into his shoulder.
The floor beneath caved.
His shoulder held.
Kaku spun, sliding under her, palm open to strike.
"Shigan."
His finger pierced the air.
Nojiko dodged, her body twisting like cloth in the wind, her heel slamming the side of his hand.
The crack echoed through the empty walls.
Kaku retreated three steps, his arm numb.
Nojiko landed lightly, her eyes blazing.
'He's good.'
The shadow rose from her feet like black vapor.
Her emotions swelled, slipping from control.
The pain for her sister.
The rage against the Government.
The primal need to crush, destroy, make them feel.
She charged again.
No calculation.
No restraint.
The shadows behind her struggled to keep up, her heart outpacing her mind.
Kaku's smile curved a fraction.
'Now it's my turn.'
Soru exploded.
He vanished.
The tip of his boot struck Nojiko's abdomen from below.
The shock rippled through her body.
She staggered back, air fleeing her lungs.
Before she could recover, Rankyaku followed.
A blue wind blade sliced the space between them.
Nojiko leaped aside, the blade grazing her shoulder in a shallow, stinging cut.
Blood gleamed, splattering like small black flowers.
She growled.
Her vampiric instinct roared.
Her body tried to react—more anger, more impulse, more shadow.
But her reasoning… faltered.
Kaku remained cold.
Every missed strike.
Every unchecked fury.
Every lost inch.
Each was a cog in the machinery of defeat.
'Think, Nojiko.'
The voice echoed in a forgotten corner of her mind.
'Think like Nami would.'
But the pain was too vast.
The image of her sister's death—unseen, only felt—burned hotter than any physical wound.
She screamed.
The shadow erupted around her, hurling shards of darkness.
Kaku wove through the attack like water flowing between rocks.
Soru, Kami-e, Shigan.
Each move was calculated to the millimeter.
Each dodge.
Each strike.
Nojiko aimed for his heart.
Kaku… sought to dismantle her body with precision.
Not out of hate.
But out of duty.
His gaze was clear: an assassin who knew emotion was just another mistake.
The fight was a dance.
Death was the outcome.
Kaku's smile widened a millimeter.
'I'm sorry.'
His legs bent.
His body surged.
Tekkai hardened his skin like steel.
He appeared behind Nojiko.
His elbow descended with the weight of a verdict.
Nojiko turned at the last second.
But her rage slowed her defense.
The impact hurled her against the wall.
The crash splintered the structure.
Dust rose, cloaking everything in a haze of disorientation.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
The world spun.
The bar seemed to dissolve into echoes of pain.
But deep in her chest, something still burned.
Something still pulsed.
'Nami…'
Nojiko braced her hands on the floor, her shoulders trembling.
The shadow around her stretched like broken fingers trying to hold her.
She spat blood.
And smiled.
"I'm still here."
The shadow flickered like a furious candle.
And Kaku, for a moment, saw.
The fight was far from over.
---
Franky House
The Franky House seemed to breathe with the city.
The distant clang of hammers echoed. Children darted between the docks. Workers shouted orders, smoke rising from makeshift factories. Life pulsed, unaware that in the shadows, something was shifting.
Lucci stood atop the main building's roof.
The wind tugged the edge of his white coat, billowing behind him. His pupils sliced through the scene like honed blades.
'No unusual movement.'
The pigeon wasn't on his shoulder.
Because this time, Lucci hunted alone.
His eyes scanned the open doors of the Franky House. Grease-stained workers, the clank of chains, the smell of scorched iron. All normal. All functioning.
'No anomalies.'
His mind processed.
His body turned in absolute silence.
'Next step: bar.'
His gaze settled on the direction of the bar where Blueno and Kaku should be.
His foot slid across the roof.
The leap launched him in a straight line.
The wind whistled against his face. His coat cut the air like an invisible blade.
But he didn't get far.
Something stopped him.
A feeling in the air.
Heavy.
Sticky.
Predatory.
Lucci's eyes narrowed.
From a narrow alley, two figures emerged.
Alvida and Kaya.
The first with a massive iron mace resting casually on her shoulder, her smile sweet as venom mixed with honey.
The second with a slender darkwood bow, an arrow already nocked, the string taut not with fear—but with controlled excitement.
Kaya adjusted the bow's aim.
"This isn't the target we planned."
Alvida spun the mace through the air with monstrous ease.
The iron's hiss displaced the wind, making the ground tremble beneath their feet.
"Plans change, sweetheart."
Her gaze stayed locked on Lucci, like a panther spotting a snake larger than expected.
"Franky can wait."
Kaya took a deep breath.
The scent of salt and coal mingled with the faint sweat rising from her skin.
"You think we can handle him?"
Alvida's smile gleamed with confidence she knew was a lie—but in that moment, it had to be true.
"Together."
The air seemed to freeze for a second.
Lucci didn't move.
His boots sank a centimeter into the roof.
His right hand brushed the side of his empty holster.
No weapon.
Just him.
Just the killing machine trained from the cradle.
His eyebrows arched with faint interest.
'Two unexpected opponents.'
'Reasonable coordination.'
'A threat, but manageable.'
His heart beat like a clock buried under a mantle of ice.
No haste.
No fear.
No error.
Kaya's fingers flexed on the bowstring.
Alvida tightened her grip.
The wind carried specks of dust, swirling around the three like golden fragments of a battlefield yet to begin.
"If we wait for the perfect moment…"
Alvida's smile widened.
"…he'll kill us first."
The wind broke.
Kaya drew the arrow to her chin.
Alvida sank her leg into the ground.
The metal hissed.
And the secret war of Water 7… advanced another square.
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