The battle between and Zephyr-san, and then Ibis and Zero Four or whatever, had reached a stalemate.
Ibis and Zero Four's attacks couldn't hit , and Zephyr-san blocked them.
Zephyr-san's attacks couldn't hit , and they had no effect on Ibis and Zero Four.
My attacks were blocked by Zephyr-san, and had no effect on Ibis and Zero Four.
This three-way standoff ant attacks were flying every which way, making things a ss, and on top of that, fighting on a ship's deck limited our options. Factor in each side's agility, skill, and toughness, and we'd effectively reached a perpetual stalemate.
I still had a few tricks up my sleeve, but I couldn't find the right timing. With all the chaos I just described, the last thing I wanted was to play a card and have it go to waste.
That's what I was thinking when it happened.
'...Hm!? Who!?'
Right now, Zephyr-san was fighting Ibis and I was fighting Zero Four, but from behind Ibis, a single figure was approaching at a low dash.
A hooded cloak covered them head to toe, hiding their face, so I couldn't tell who it was. But clearly, this person was targeting Ibis.
No weapon in hand, but just before closing the distance, sothing like a pink aura enveloped those hands, reaching for Ibis's back...
"Return-Retu...!!"
"I see you."
Boom!
"...ngh, aaaaah!?"
But just before those hands made contact, a gun muzzle appeared on Ibis's shoulder, facing backward, and a bullet shot out, piercing the mysterious figure.
Instinctively she, the voice was female, tried to twist her body out of the way, but couldn't dodge completely and took the hit in her leg.
On top of that, Zero Four, whom I'd been fighting, aid one hand and fired a Laser as a follow-up. This ti it pierced her shoulder, and she collapsed onto her back.
The cloak fell away, and what appeared from beneath it was...
"...Huh...? Why?"
A woman.
Indigo hair with a soft, light wave to it. Fair skin. Thin, or rather, a bit gaunt? She had a sowhat unhealthy look about her.
Her face. I recognized it.
I'd seen it just tens of minutes ago. She'd been standing beside Zephyr-san.
But that person was over on the other ship right now, limp and captured by Iris's Homies, not moving.
She shouldn't be here. Unless one of them, the one over there or the one right here, was a fake.
"Two of the girl nad Ain...?"
One of the Neo Marine Executives, and an Ability User of the Return-Return Fruit: Ain.
She was over there and over here. Two of her.
Sa face, definitely.
Like I said, this one looked a bit more gaunt, and there seed to be wounds all over her body, but...
"Tch... Zwei!"
Just as I was processing that, Zephyr-san called the one over here by that na. "Zwei"?
Not "Ain" but "Zwei"? ...Wait, the German number?
Um, was this girl Ain's twin sister or sothing? ...No way, right?
"(Beep beep beep...) Identification... Neo Marine Executive, Ain."
Zero Four apparently ran facial recognition along with those electronic sounds.
Co to think of it, in the Original Work too, the Pacifista could identify individual faces and cross-reference them against wanted criminal databases. If that was its conclusion, then she really was the real deal.
The sa person appearing twice in the sa place... no, twice in the sa era...
So that ant... this girl was...!
'With a na like "Zwei," so obviously symbolic, like it was created solely to distinguish her from "Ain"... she really is the one who ca from the future, Zephyr-san's Source!'
"Ugh... ngh...!"
Ibis turned to look at the girl groaning in pain, Zwei.
Imdiately after, Ibis's arms transford with a clank-clank-clank, taking on the nacing form of twin Gatling guns. Serpen... no, never mind.
Fire those at a flesh-and-blood human, and the result would be too horrible to watch.
"The Return-Return Fruit Ability User is troubleso. Eliminating."
Murmuring those words, Ibis leaped into the air, hovering directly above Zwei.
Then the gun barrels re-aid and opened fire. A downpour of bullets rained down on the defenseless girl...
BRAKAKAKAKAKA!!
"Gnnngh... AAAAAHHH!!"
"...! Sensei!?"
Throwing himself over her to shield her, Zephyr-san cut into the line of fire and took every last bullet with his own body.
He blocked most of them with the Battle Smasher, but given the sheer volu of rounds fired, he ended up absorbing dozens of hits.
He'd been defending with Armant Haki, but it wasn't enough to escape unscathed. Blood flowed from wounds all over. The damage was far from trivial.
"Sensei, why... why would you do this for soone like !?"
"...Why, indeed..."
One of the bullets he couldn't block had grazed his sunglasses, which fell and clattered onto the deck.
Those eyes. The ones I'd seen so many tis back when he wore ordinary glasses. Sharp, yet kind. Zephyr-san's eyes, laid bare. They hadn't changed. The sa eyes as back then.
"In the end, I... I was soft too, I suppose. Couldn't throw away my heart after all. My body just moved on its own. I guess I just can't bear to lose another student before my eyes. That's probably all there is to it."
"No...! I don't matter, what happens to doesn't matter... I told you, didn't I!? I ca from the future, to this era, to save you, Sensei! So for that purpose, it doesn't matter what happens to ... I told you to think only of your goals and your convictions... I said that...!!"
"Did you, now...? Heh... when you get old, everything starts falling apart. The head's no exception. mory's getting terrible..."
Playing dumb as he said it, Zephyr-san reached out with his bare left hand and gently stroked the head of the weeping Zwei. With the tender touch of soone soothing a crying child. It looked so natural on him.
"Don't you dare say it doesn't matter what happens to you. To , you're... yes, surely... to the '' from your era, the one who's already dead, you must have been a treasure too. Heh... and here I was about to blow all of that away along with everything else in Grand Reboot, and now listen to talk. Humans are... strange creatures, aren't they..."
BRAKAKAKAKAKA!!
GAKAKAKAKA!!
rcilessly bearing down on the two of them ca Ibis's follow-up barrage.
But cutting in between them was the massive body of Zero Four, which I'd just kicked flying, acting as a shield and absorbing every single round.
"You can't pull sothing so tactless at such a tactless mont! This is the most perfect scene right now! This is exactly the problem with cyborgs and androids, the emotionless types... they either never go dere at all, or it takes forever to get there, seriously..."
"...Incomprehensible. I do not understand what you are saying."
You don't need to understand. It just slipped out.
But the feeling of not wanting anyone to interrupt these two right now was real.
They were still my enemies, Zephyr-san included. I knew that.
But from the perspective of soone who's a writer, soone whose business is imagination and fantasy, that's just how you end up feeling. Yeah, this can't be helped. Even wanting to side with the enemy of my enemy in such a textbook scenario like this, it can't be helped. (Bold assertion.)
And on top of that, I was feeling doubly good right now, so it really, truly couldn't be helped.
Not only had I witnessed a scene that resonated with my instincts as a writer, but I'd also learned that Zephyr-san hadn't beco so heartless, cold-blooded man after all. Deep down, he still truly cared about his students. He was still the kind Zephyr-san he'd always been. That's what I'd learned.
Even if he'd steeled his resolve on top of all that and beco Z, Zephyr hadn't disappeared. Knowing that made happy.
Yeah. It really, truly couldn't be helped. So...
"Ti for the uninvited guest to make a swift exit."
As I spoke, I drew Floating Cloud, the hidden blade concealed within my Japanese umbrella, and stored the umbrella, the scabbard, back inside my body. I held the sword in my left hand.
Then, with my now-free right hand, I gripped the Seven Star Sword, pulled from within my body.
It had been a while since I'd used Two Sword Style in actual combat.
But unlike that ti, this wasn't just montum and enthusiasm anymore.
I'd properly learned dual-sword fighting from Papa, and trained for it too. Against Zoro and the others.
...Oops, Zero Four, the one I'd just sent flying, was already back up.
Jumping into the air and... oh, co on. This one too.
Aiming that Laser at Zephyr-san and the others, about to open fire. I could see that future. Seriously...
"Two Sword Style..."
Before that future beca reality, I launched myself forward, raising the two swords I held high overhead.
With both blades still raised, I closed in right in front of Zero Four and...
"Twin Blade: Layered Discord!!"
I swung both blades down with everything I had.
Not simultaneously, though. With a gap of less than a fraction of a second, staggered. At the sa spot. Along the sa trajectory, two consecutive strikes.
The first blow knocked Zero Four's stance completely off balance, canceling its attack. At the sa ti, the Shockwave released as an aftereffect sliced through the deck below, carving a fissure all the way down to the sea.
And the second blow, aid right into that fissure, hamred Zero Four down into it.
Smashed into the sea by that strike, Zero Four began to sink. Or so I thought, but I could see a future where it crawled back out.
Oh, right. This thing wasn't an Ability User. It used Seastone weapons, after all. So even falling into the sea wouldn't stop it from fighting.
...Well, didn't matter either way.
"One more. One Sword Style..."
While it still hadn't erged from the water, I readied my sword again. This ti, One Sword Style.
I stored Floating Cloud back in my body and gripped the Seven Star Sword with both hands, then poured an absurd amount of Haki into it. Not just quantity, but dense, concentrated Haki, fueled by my elevated Tension for various reasons.
And then...
...Alright. Now.
"Imperial Burial: Tyrannical Heaven!!"
The slash, powerful enough to split the sea, unleashed through concentrated Emission Haki in a single focused strike, hit Zero Four dead-on at the exact mont it burst from the water's surface. That body, which had deflected every attack up to this point, was cleaved deep.
Knocked back into the sea once again, Zero Four sank, sparks sputtering from the gash like an electrical short...
...This ti, it didn't resurface.
Good. Elimination complete.
Now then, that left just one. The one flying around up there.
...Oh, but before that...
To be continued...
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