"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
High above Merveille, it was like two colossal beasts were locked in a fight to the death.
Every collision set off thunderous detonations and air-rending blasts. Violent shockwaves spread outward in visible rings, shredding the cloud cover into ragged tatters.
"Shihahahaha! This is fun! This is FUN!!"
Golden Lion Shiki roared with laughter, his body flickering through the air like a phantom.
Even without feet, the two legendary swords that had replaced his lower legs—Oto and Kogarashi—moved under his control as if they were living limbs.
His martial skill and swordsmanship had fused perfectly: every kick came with a terrifying cutting wave that could cleave mountains.
"Shishi: Senjindani!!"
Shiki spun hard in midair, his legs becoming a golden cyclone. Countless golden slashes poured down like a storm, sealing off every path Rain could dodge through.
"Damn it… this wasn't how the movie version went."
Rain clenched his teeth. He didn't choose to run. Yes—on pure finesse, he was still below a veteran sword master who'd lived with the blade for decades.
But that didn't mean he couldn't fight back.
His fine-grade blade turned pitch-black in an instant. At the same time, blue-white high-voltage current flowed over the steel like liquid, screaming with the piercing chorus of a thousand birds.
Then Rain surged forward—his sword turning into a thunderstorm—meeting that rain of golden slashes head-on!
"CLANGCLANGCLANG—!!"
Metallic impacts stitched together into a single continuous roar.
Every time he shattered one golden slash, it burst into a spray of sparks. With the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's extreme neural response speed and Observation Haki predicting the angles, Rain dismantled Shiki's barrage one strike at a time.
"Oh?" Shiki's eye flashed with surprise—then brightened with excitement. "You can keep up with my rhythm?"
"Then let's go faster!!"
"Whoosh!"
Shiki's speed spiked. He became a blur—appearing at Rain's rear flank in a heartbeat. His right "leg," Oto, swept for Rain's neck with a cut meant to erase him.
Fast as lightning. Heavy as a collapsing mountain.
Rain saw it—his Observation had already caught the trajectory.
But he didn't dodge. At this range, dodging would only open a worse gap.
He snapped his blade back in a brutal, awkward-but-explosive posture and blocked.
"CLANG!"
The impact drove a shock through the hilt. Rain felt his palm split.
And Shiki wasn't done.
The follow-up came instantly: his left "leg," Kogarashi, rose from below in a vicious upward cut aimed at Rain's stomach.
"So this is the advantage of two blades…"
Rain's eyes sharpened. He twisted in midair, using lightning thrust as recoil to slip past that gutting line by a hair—then drove a kick toward Shiki's face.
"BOOM!"
Shiki raised an arm to block, and the heat-plus-impact of thunder shoved him back several meters.
They broke apart and reconnected again and again—dozens of exchanges in seconds.
Rain stayed on the back foot, pinned by Shiki's brutally refined technique—forced into defense and counter.
But he was like a boulder.
No matter how hard the storm hit, he didn't move.
"Devil Fruit speed and half-baked swordplay won't beat me!"
Shiki hovered at a distance, a mocking edge in his grin. "Your Observation's good—you can see my moves."
"But your blade… can't keep up with my sword."
Then he attacked again.
This time he was nastier, every strike loaded with heavy Haki.
"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"
Each collision felt like a hammer slamming Rain's chest.
Even with lightning speed and peak-level Armament reinforcing him, Shiki's twin "living swords" still smothered him until he could barely breathe.
It was absolute technical oppression.
Every swing of Shiki's legs contained dozens of chained possibilities.
Rain blocked one… and the next came from an impossible angle, like a venomous snake slipping toward his armpit, throat, heart.
"Damn—so this is what a legendary sword master really is…"
Rain ground his teeth. Blood slicked down the grip. His blade wailed in protest.
"If I keep defending like this, I'll get ground down to death…"
His gaze hardened; a ruthless edge flashed behind his eyes.
Fine.
If he couldn't win on swordsmanship… then he'd stop pretending to play fair.
"Kid! You're slowing down!"
Shiki's grin turned feral. He caught the moment Rain's old force ran out—caught the exact instant of weakness.
Shiki inverted in midair, and Oto screamed through the air in a vicious, off-angle reverse diagonal cut, aimed straight at Rain's side neck.
A kill line.
A locked space.
"Die!!"
But—
In that heartbeat between life and death, Rain didn't look desperate.
He smiled.
His right hand still held the blade, bracing to eat the hit.
But his left hand—like a magic trick—produced a strange-looking handgun out of nowhere.
"What—?!"
Even Shiki—battle-worn and nightmare-hardened—had his eye widen.
He hadn't seen the gun appear.
But instinct screamed danger.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
No hesitation. No aim. The moment it existed in Rain's hand, the trigger was already pulled.
Three shots overlapped into a single violent crack amid the clash of steel.
Three bullets, wrapped in black Armament, flew in a triangle pattern—faster than sound—straight for Shiki's face.
"You filthy little—!!"
Shiki roared, fury and shock colliding.
At this distance, even an emperor-class monster couldn't ignore Haki-coated bullets.
He was forced to abort his sure-kill sword line.
The blade that should've taken Rain's head—Oto—stopped midair and snapped back to block.
"CLANG—!!"
The first bullet smashed into the sword body, bursting into sparks and thunder-flare. The recoil made Shiki's stump-legs numb.
But the other two were still coming.
"Too naive!" Shiki barked, trying to twist his head aside. "You think straight-line toys can hit me?!"
By any normal ballistic arc, the last two rounds should've missed.
But Rain's eyes blazed—his Transcendent Observation was already ahead.
"Who told you bullets have to fly straight?"
Rain flicked his left hand. Thin currents snapped out like invisible threads and latched onto the rounds.
In Shiki's disbelieving stare, the two black bullets bent in midair—drawing a sharp C-shaped curve.
Like someone had grabbed the trajectory and forced it to turn.
They lunged like hunting snakes, biting toward the face Shiki had just moved into.
"How is that possible?!"
Shiki's mind jolted.
He'd seen tracking bullets. He'd seen weird fruit abilities.
He had never seen someone using electricity and Haki to steer bullets with this level of microscopic control.
This was the true horror of Rumble-Rumble + high-level Observation.
With no time left, Shiki flooded his brow and cheek with Armament and took it.
"THUD! THUD!"
Two muffled detonations on his face.
The shots didn't pierce his skull—but the spin force and burning current still scorched him.
One grazed his temple and singed hair. The other hammered his brow ridge, leaving a charred mark even as it bounced away.
Not lethal.
But humiliating.
And for Shiki, humiliation was gasoline.
"You… DARE!!"
He touched the hot, blackened spot, eyes shaking with rage.
Across from him, Rain casually blew smoke from the muzzle.
Then the pistol vanished—back into the storage ring—like it had never existed.
Rain's grin was lazy, almost rude.
"War isn't a duel, old lion."
He lifted his sword slightly. "So? How'd those 'peanuts' taste?"
"Good," Shiki snarled—then laughed, the sound cracking with violence. "Very good."
His presence rose like a storm front.
"If you don't want to die with dignity under a blade, then I'll grant you what you want."
"Shishi: Rashōmon!!"
Shiki flickered—appearing above Rain.
No fancy shockwaves. No games.
He raised both sword-legs high, crossed them, and brought them down with full weight and Haki.
A guillotine from the sky.
Locked-on.
Unavoidable.
Rain's pupils tightened.
In the futures he saw, every dodge got cut. Every retreat got chased down.
So—no dodging.
Then he'd take it head-on.
His eyes sharpened.
To hell with "sword intent." To hell with "style."
He had strength. He had Haki.
And he had thunder.
Rain gripped his blade with both hands.
Lightning stopped being decoration and became pressure—crammed into the steel.
Peak Armament wrapped the blade like black water, sealing it tight.
At the end of the day, a sword is just "faster," "harder," "stronger."
If his force was big enough, if his Haki was hard enough—nothing stayed uncut.
Rain swung upward.
No fancy angle—just raw, brutal lift.
The air screamed like a cannon firing.
"BOOM—!!"
A thunderclap collision.
Rain's blade met Shiki's crossed sword-legs.
Like meteor impacts.
Shiki's expression flickered.
He felt it—a mountain of force, plus the violent push of lightning propulsion, driving him back.
"Get off me!"
Rain roared—and pushed.
"BANG!"
Shiki was forced off-balance, flipping backward through the air, thrown dozens of meters before he stabilized.
Below, Gion stared—frozen.
That arc… that feeling…
Her mind snapped back to the blood-slick beach on Gigantia.
Those bodies. Those cuts.
Smooth as glass.
She had believed it was some elegant, moonlight-sword realm.
Now she understood.
It wasn't "gentle."
It was fast beyond perception, and heavy beyond reason—so violent it looked clean.
"…So it was you."
Her grip tightened on Konpira, anger and awe twisting together.
"There was never a mysterious expert…"
"It was always you."
And then—
A crisp, slow applause drifted down from above.
"Shihahahaha—!!"
"Now that was interesting."
A pressure fell like a crown made of murder.
Conqueror's Haki.
Gion's face drained again.
The sky tore open.
And Golden Lion Shiki descended, grinning—eyes bright with madness.
Rain raised his sword, lightning whispering around him, and smiled back.
"Warm-up's over," he said.
"Now… we do this for real."
~~~
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