With his arms hanging loosely at his sides, a savage smile slowly returned to Zaraki's lips, lofty and arrogant in a way that seemed to invite his prey to struggle harder.
"Quit lying there and playing dead. Show me what you've really got. Since you've been to the Grand Line, you should at least have some trump card hidden away, right?"
Clatter, clatter—
Treasure staggered back to his feet.
Quite a few of the chains wrapped around his body had already snapped from the beating earlier, and now they hung from him like broken venomous snakes.
But instead of attacking immediately, he lowered his head and let out a cold laugh that made people's scalps tingle.
"Heh... hehehe..."
He raised a hand and wiped the bloody foam from the corner of his mouth.
His bloodshot eyes locked onto Zaraki, and the fear that had been there before was completely gone, replaced by the madness of a man staking everything on one final gamble, along with a kind of icy viciousness that made the skin crawl.
Zaraki narrowed his eyes.
'Something's wrong.'
He had seen that look before.
It was the same expression worn by mangy dogs in the depths of Grey terminal when they were cornered.
They no longer cared about winning, and they had no thought of escape.
They only wanted to tear off a piece of flesh before they died.
That kind of look irritated him.
"You really are a strong brat. Whether it's that damned strength of yours, or your Haki..."
Treasure panted heavily as he slowly spread both hands.
His fingertips moved as if he were pulling invisible threads, and the chains scattered all across the ground immediately began to slither like living things, producing a dense scraping rustle.
"If I try to fight you head-on, then even ten lives wouldn't be enough for me to survive your club. I know that better than anyone."
"So?" Zaraki tilted his head, the interest in his eyes fading fast. "You getting ready to kneel and beg?"
"No..." Treasure suddenly raised his head.
"I'm going to show you that in the world of pirates, there are games more interesting than just fists."
His venomous eyes were not fixed on Zaraki.
They flicked for just an instant toward the rear flank.
The glance vanished in a flash.
If Zaraki had not been paying attention to every tiny shift in his expression, he might have missed it.
That direction was—
Zaraki's heart skipped faintly, and a painful instinct pricked at his nerves like a needle.
Before he could even turn his head, however, he saw a grotesque smile bloom across Treasure's face.
"You'll regret this, brat."
Treasure slammed his palms together, and the roar forced from his throat sounded like the howl of a trapped beast.
"You'll regret giving me a chance to breathe—regret not crushing my throat the moment you had the chance!"
Bzzzz—
The ground began to tremble without warning.
Then, accompanied by a sharp metallic grinding, dozens of steel chains as thick as a child's arm burst violently out of the earth.
Their target was not Zaraki.
It was Carina, who had been left at the edge of the battlefield!
"Kyaaahhh—!"
Her cry was cut off halfway.
Carina, still limp on the ground, had no chance to react before the chains that burst from underground wrapped tightly around her body.
Cold steel coiled around her neck and limbs, and with a single twitch of Treasure's fingers, that purple-haired girl could lose her life on the spot.
"Despicable!"
Zoro, who stood near her, stiffened and immediately drew his sword.
Wado Ichimonji slashed straight toward the chain wrapped around Carina's neck.
Clang—!
Zoro felt as though his blade had struck solid metal.
A sharp pain shot through the web of his thumb, and Wado Ichimonji was thrown high by the violent recoil.
"It's useless! That's high-density alloy compressed to the limit! With your half-baked little swordsmanship, you won't cut it open in your whole life!"
Treasure's laughter echoed across the dock.
He looked battered, but his bloodshot eyes gleamed with cunningness.
He already knew he could not beat Zaraki.
The pirate way was to use every chip on the table and drag the strong down into the mud!
"Hey! You monster!"
Treasure's fingers clenched suddenly.
In the distance, Carina threw her head back in pain, her face turning bluish purple as her feet kicked wildly above the ground.
"You're a Marine trainee right? You can't just stand there and watch an innocent civilian die in front of you, can you?! Kneel! Tie up your own hands and feet! Otherwise I'll snap this little wildcat's neck right now!"
At the same time, the hand Treasure kept hidden behind his back was trembling violently.
All the chains he still had left had already spread silently through the shadows on the ground, forming a killing formation aimed directly at Zaraki.
As long as the boy hesitated for even a single instant because of the hostage, Treasure would have his chance to turn everything around.
"Zaraki! Don't listen to him!" Commander Domon clutched his bleeding chest and shouted hoarsely.
"That's Mad Treasure's usual trick! The moment you stop resisting, he'll kill both of you! Move—!"
Too late.
The hidden chains suddenly sprang up, and while everyone's attention had been dragged toward Carina, they tightened all at once and wrapped Zaraki up completely.
"Got you! Hahahaha! Got you!"
Wild joy burst across Treasure's face, and his whole body shook with excitement.
"What Monster? What Garp's prized brat? In front of real intelligence, you're all idiots! Die! Iron Maiden Strangle!"
The ball of chains shrank madly, screeching with metallic pressure so harsh it made people's teeth ache.
It looked as though Zaraki would be crushed into pulp.
And yet, amid that thunderous roar of metal, a calm mutter reached everyone's ears with perfect clarity.
"I'm saying... are you all misunderstanding something?"
Creak—
The rapidly shrinking ball of chains froze.
As though something inside it were forcing it apart, the mass began to bulge outward and warp.
"This swordsmanship stuff really is a pain in the ass."
Zaraki's voice came from inside, muffled and impatient.
"If swinging harder with both hands is obviously stronger, then why do people insist on dressing it up with all kinds of fancy nonsense?"
A powerful golden aura erupted through the gaps in the chains.
This power did not need technique. The moment it was released, it was already enough to force apart every restraint around him!
A broken mast beam from the wreckage was dragged up from beneath the chains and seized in Zaraki's hands.
Only this time, Zaraki held it with both hands.
It was a simple movement, nothing more than that, and yet the surrounding air seemed to come to a halt.
Half of Zaraki's face was hidden in shadow, his golden eyes burning brightly, and a savage smile slowly curled across his lips.
"Who told you... a toy sword can't kill people?"
Zaraki only poured Spiritual Pressure into the broken timber, raised it high in both hands, and hacked straight down at everything in front of him.
For a single moment, the world seemed to fall silent.
Then a golden blade aura came crashing down from the sky!
"Th-this... this can't be..."
The joy frozen on Treasure's face shattered in place.
In his eyes, the alloy chains he had trusted so much broke apart the instant they touched that pillar of golden light.
That power was too strong!
He could not even summon the thought of resistance.
'So this... was the world of the strong looks like?'
Why had he ever provoked a monster like this?
He had only wanted to find some treasure and drift through life!
"No! No! I'm Mad Treasure! I'm worth twenty million beri—"
Splurt.
The voice ended abruptly.
The golden blade aura swept through without the slightest obstruction.
The entire dock was carved open by that single attack, splitting it apart and gouging out an abyss a hundred meters long.
Seawater came pouring madly into the trench, kicking up a curtain of spray and mist.
When the mist finally thinned, Treasure was still standing there in the posture of controlling his chains.
At the center of his forehead, a thin red line slowly appeared.
Then it stretched downward.
Splatter.
With a soft sound, the pirate split neatly into two halves and dropped to the ground!
The chains that had bound Carina had already been shattered into dust by the shockwave.
Silence.
Zoro stared blankly at the abyss in front of him, Wado Ichimonji nearly slipping from his hand.
'Could a human really do something like that?'
That was no longer swordsmanship in the normal sense.
It was the most tyrannical interpretation imaginable of the very idea of cutting.
At some point, Koushirou had already walked to his side.
Looking at Zaraki in the distance as he casually tossed the broken wood into the sea, Koushirou's expression turned complicated.
He patted Zoro on the shoulder and spoke in a low voice.
"Zoro, do you see it now? In this world, some kinds of strength lie at the end of technique. And some kinds of strength... are the end itself."
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