"Fate saved me twice and then sent the power that belongs to the Demon right in front of me, clearly encouraging me to embark on the path of revenge."
"So, I personally destroyed everything that belonged to Masamune Itsuki."
"The dojo, family, old friends... these only made me reluctant to give up, continuing to curl up on this small island, like a pitiful creature licking its wounds, afraid to take the steps of revenge!"
"As for the lives lost at my hands over these years?"
Sakuraba Itsuki sneered, shaking his head slightly.
"Don't worry, they didn't die in vain; they were valuable. In five years, these puppet marionettes earned me over ten billion Belly, finally giving me the capital for revenge."
"Shameless! You... You... you have no remorse or shame!"
Junichi's face was pale, his finger pointing at Sakuraba Itsuki trembling, "You're truly mad! Completely insane! Turns out you were a lunatic five years ago!"
"Those two Heavenly Celestial Dragons deserved to die! I also wished to cut off their heads to avenge mother! But did you really have to use this method?! Would mother want to see you doing this? So many innocent people died for your revenge, and when you die one day, will your soul have the face to see her?"
"Watch your words, Junichi."
Sakuraba Itsuki's voice suddenly turned cold, "Five years ago, I was ready to kill you, but in the end, I softened and let you drift at sea to live or die as you would, which equals saving your life."
"But you shouldn't have, shouldn't have, just when I was about to make my exit, you returned to this island and even brought along a..."
"Little brat who loves to meddle!"
As soon as the words fell.
Hundreds of puppet strings suddenly flew out from his crown, dancing wildly in the light, transforming into countless dark yellow vines as thick as arms.
Sakuraba Itsuki's voice sounded again, as mechanical and icy as a puppet, unlike a human:
"Once or twice is tolerable, but not thrice. Junichi, since you so ungratefully squandered the chance I gave you for survival..."
"—Then simply transform into my puppets, along with this little brat!"
Swish swish!
With the sound of breaking through the air, the dark yellow vines rushed in swiftly, surrounding Shano and Junichi from all angles in an instant."
Shano looked at these thick lines twisting madly like a snake swarm.
"Do you still have the strength to fight?" He suddenly tilted his head and asked, "If you don't want to fight him, I can understand."
"...I, I..."
Junichi looked silently at the figure on the stage, suddenly wiped his tears, and gritted his teeth:
"I don't want to run away, Boss! My father, Sakuraba Itsuki, as he said himself, has long been dead. The one on stage now is just an Evil Spirit wearing his shell."
"He wants revenge? He has to wait for me to avenge my father first!"
Shano looked at Junichi with a bit of surprise.
"Take it."
He directly took out the "Masamune" sword and threw it over, "This ability is indeed a bit tricky. I'll deal with the main body, and you're responsible for chopping off those branches."
Junichi instinctively caught it and stood back to back with Shano.
Swish swish! Before he could get used to the feel, several puppet strings attacked from the side.
He immediately held the sword horizontally in front, blocking the first wave of impact, then quickly slashed down from the side, instantly severing these thick strings into two.
What a fast blade... Junichi couldn't help but be surprised. Even Koushirou-sensei's Wado Ichimonji was no sharper than this.
Shano then raised his head, squinting at the source of the puppet strings.
"Who allowed you to stay up there, pretending to be a ghost!"
He suddenly reached out both hands, firmly grasped the nearest vines, his knotty biceps suddenly bulged into mounds, pouring in violent power, and he gave a fierce tug!
"Get down here for me!"
Crack crack, that was the sound of the edge of the stage being scraped and splitting open, and Sakuraba Itsuki's withered body was instantly pulled off the ground into the air.
What an astonishing brute force... Sakuraba Itsuki squinted his eyes.
Although he had already witnessed the scene of the puppet being vulnerable when playing dead earlier, feeling it himself was completely different.
However, he was not an unyielding puppet.
With a thought, the soles of his feet suddenly opened like two small wooden doors.
Countless thin puppet strings sprang out, bore through the dojo tiles, piercing deep underground and firmly anchoring Sakuraba Itsuki's body in the air.
No matter how much force surged from below, he could not be moved an inch at this moment.
Next up should be... huh? Masamune's expression suddenly changed, and in his pupils, a shadow was rapidly enlarging. In the corner of his eye, the ground where Shano once stood was already empty!
Wha... when?
There was no time to think further. Masamune hastily initiated the complete transformation to a wooden puppet.
For those he manipulated, it meant the complete destruction of their own consciousness.
But for him as the ability user, turning his entire body into a hard wooden state, layering it on the surface of his skin, provided the best defensive armor.
Bang!
Shano grabbed the steel framework hanging from the ceiling, kicked off the support pillar behind, and used this last push to suddenly rush forward several meters.
Masamune had just completed his conversion to a puppet when Shano appeared in the air to his left.
"Caught you!"
With a twisted grin, he fiercely punched into Masamune's left shoulder, and a ring-shaped shockwave burst open.
The hardened puppet body caved in an instant, revealing the hollow chest cavity inside.
The splintering wood scraped across Shano's muscular surface but couldn't pierce through; instead, they bounced off and fell to the ground.
How could it be... Masamune's pupils constricted abruptly.
In the past, no matter how many times he tried his sword on his own body, his swordsmanship could at most penetrate the first layer of the hard wooden shell but could never reach the inside.
Yet he was directly pierced through by this kid's punch?
This is bad!
Even though he had tried to overestimate, this guy's power was still far beyond his anticipation!
A long-lost sensation of panic surged in his heart.
Before he could respond, Shano used the opportunity to plant his foot firmly on him.
The youthful face was within reach, but the grin it bore seemed demonic and terrifying to Masamune.
"Perhaps you don't know, but your texture really reminds me of the orange trees from my hometown."
Shano's grin almost reached his ears, "And unfortunately, back home during the offseason, my favorite pastime was punching orange trees."
Bang!
Before he could finish speaking, Shano mounted Masamune and unleashed a frantic barrage of punches as quick and heavy as a thunderstorm, pounding toward his chest.
He once spent every day punching those trunks or stumps, delivering hundreds or even thousands of Breathing Fist Technique routines, amounting to hundreds of thousands over a year and a half.
Sweat is never wasted.
Now, with the material being almost identical, everything proceeded with ease.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Punch after punch, in the continuous dull thuds, Masamune's breath weakened visibly.
His consciousness was gradually scattering.
No, it can't be like this... I can't fall here!
Masamune's career was clearly over!
He was supposed to start with a new identity and new name to execute his long-planned revenge!
His right hand trembled and struggled slightly, trying to control the puppet strings released from his head at the outset for a counterattack, but there was no response.
What is happening?!
Desperately, Masamune's eyes shifted downward. In the blurred corner of his vision, he could vaguely see—
Junichi, wielding a tachi, was still slashing swiftly amidst those thick vines.
With his own body restrained, he had no idea how long Junichi had been cutting, but by now, nearly all the puppet strings were reduced to fragments.
"Last punch!"
As despair surged in, Shano's low shout resonated in his ear.
Boom!
The surface of the wooden body was already shattered, and with this strike, the connection with all the puppet strings snapped completely.
Without support, the body plummeted straight from a height of seven or eight meters, crashing heavily to the ground, creating a massive dent.
Shano walked down, crunching on Masamune's knee, and turned to look at the center of the web-like cracks.
——He saw Masamune's eyes wide open, glaring begrudgingly at the ceiling. His withered body lay motionless, silent forevermore.