Kalon's face twisted into an ugly snarl. He raised his right hand, and a burst of chaotic, nauseating emerald light erupted from his palm. The air warped as his Sacred Gear manifested—The Metamorphic Staff of the Circean Curse. It was a wicked, gnarled staff of dark wood, topped with a shifting, prismatic gem that seemed to pulse with a sickly heartbeat.
Kalon didn't hesitate. He thrust the staff forward, his voice booming .
"The Circean Shackle!"
It wasn't a standard beam of destructive light. From the gem poured a swirling, transparent torrent of spectral beasts. Snarling wolves, squealing, bloated pigs, and massive bears formed a magical stampede, rushing through the morning mist directly at Jin.
Jin's crimson eyes snapped wide, the tomoe of his Sharingan spinning to life. He saw the trajectory perfectly. The attack was wide, but slow enough. He could dodge it instantly with a simple Shunshin.
But as his eyes tracked the spell, his peripheral vision caught the movement behind him. Valerie. She was frozen in place, her hands clutching her dress, completely unaccustomed to high-speed combat. If Jin moved, the stampede would hit her head-on.
Jin shifted his footing, dropping his center of gravity.
"Stay behind me!" he barked.
Jin crossed his arms in front of his face. He channeled his energy, coating his forearms in the glossy, pitch-black armor of Armament Haki, layering it with the dense, aura of his Touki. He braced to tank the spell head-on.
The spectral beasts slammed into him with the force of a freight train.
But it wasn't kinetic force. Jin instantly realized his mistake. His Touki—pure, physical life-force—was bypassed entirely by the chaotic, conceptual magic of the curse. The only thing standing between him and the spell was the black armor of his Haki.
The chaotic magic seeped through the cracks in his imperfect Haki, sinking directly into his forearms. The spell violently attempted to transmute his dense, lean muscle into the heavy, useless, blubber-thick limbs of a swine.
"Let's see you fight as a pig, mortal!" Kalon laughed maliciously, gripping the vibrating staff with both hands.
Jin grit his teeth as a sickening, heavy lethargy flooded his arms. The skin on his forearms bubbled and shifted, turning a dull, unnatural grey. Coarse, bristly hair sprouted for a fraction of a second. His Haki fought back against the foreign magic, but his proficiency with the Whitebeard template was still lacking; he couldn't completely repel it.
But what his Haki couldn't finish, his monstrous biology did.
Jin's brutal healing factor and unnaturally dense life-force recognized the transmutation as damage. His body went into overdrive.The grey skin peeled away, the bristles incinerated, and steam hissed violently from his arms as the blubber melted back into hardened muscle.
Kalon's triumphant laugh died in his throat. His eyes widened in absolute shock. The curse was failing.
He grunted, his perfectly sculpted face turning an ugly shade of red as he poured a massive, dangerous amount of his own mana into the staff. He desperately fought to maintain a partial grip on Jin's arms, forcing the magic to linger just enough to inflict a 50% vulnerability debuff on the human's defenses.
Sweating profusely, Kalon raised his free hand toward the sky. "Die! Double-Cast: Hellfire!"
A massive, blinding spear of condensed fire formed above Kalon's head, the heat instantly burning away the remaning morning fog. He aimed it directly at Jin's artificially weakened guard.
Jin didn't wait for the release. He dropped his defensive stance entirely.
Without looking back, Jin swept his leg backward in a low, controlled kick, catching Valerie by the hip and shoving her roughly but safely out of the blast radius.
He ignored the heavy, sluggish feeling still trying to crawl up his cursed arms. He channeled every ounce of his remaining energy down into his legs. As he bent his knees, he focused the chaotic, white sphere of his Tremor ability directly onto the soles of his boots.
CRACK.
The asphalt beneath him break . The sheer force of the Tremor-assisted launch shattered the ground and launching him forward, creating a localized vacuum that sucked the surrounding mist inward.
Jin vanished.
Kalon's massive fire spear launched, scorching the earth and hitting nothing but empty air where Jin had stood a millisecond before.
Before Kalon could even blink, let alone pivot the heavy staff, Jin was inside his guard.
Suspended in the air, Jin's body twisted with terrifying torque. His right leg whipped around in a flawless, devastating flying roundhouse kick, coming down in a vicious arc.
It connected dead center with Kalon's face and collarbone.
Kalon, a magician who relied entirely on keeping his distance, had absolutely no physical defense to handle the impact. The sound of shattering bone echoed loudly across the empty highway.
The Greek agent was driven straight down into the asphalt with the force of a meteor. The road cratered beneath him.
Jin landed lightly on his feet, the steam still rolling off his arms.
He looked down at the man struggling in the crater. Kalon's tailored suit was ruined. Blood flowed freely from his mouth and nose, and the unnatural angle of his shoulder made it clear his collarbone and ribcage were entirely destroyed.
Kalon hacked up a mouthful of blood, looking up at Jin with a mix of terror and lingering pride. "You... you are going to regret this. Lord Ares... the God of War is going to come and kill you."
Jin stared at him for a moment, his expression utterly blank. He sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Man. That line really gets boring."
He stepped closer, looking down at the broken envoy. "So, you are going to die. When is he coming?"
Kalon looked at Jin, dumbfounded. He had expected fear, or at least hesitation.
"Hey," Jin said, gesturing to the landscape around them. "We are near Rome. Isn't their headquarters supposed to be near here? Mount Olympus or something? I'm ready. Why isn't he showing up?"
From the side of the road, Valerie dusted off her dress and cleared her throat.
"Umm, Jin?" Valerie spoke up, her voice surprisingly helpful and deadpan. "The Greek God headquarters shifted a long time ago. They are in America now."
Jin stopped. He looked over his shoulder at Valerie, then back down at Kalon. "Really?"
Kalon just wheezed, blowing bloody bubbles from his lips, unable to answer.
"Well," Jin muttered, shaking his head in mild disappointment. "And here I thought I had to fight a god today. Cross that one off the list for now."
He looked at Kalon, his eyes turning cold. "And you were being this arrogant while your boss is on another continent. Tsk, tsk."
The grey, sluggish curse finally faded from Jin's arms completely. The skin smoothed out. With a sickening snikt, the bone claws sprang from his knuckles, gleaming white in the dawn light.
Kalon's eyes widened. He opened his mouth, perhaps to beg, perhaps to bargain, but Jin didn't give him the chance.
In one full, merciless swing, Jin drove his claws down, piercing and shattering Kalon's skull instantly. The Greek agent went limp, his mana signature fading into nothingness.
Jin stood back up, shaking the fresh blood from his hand. He took a deep breath of the morning air, feeling lighter than he had in years.
Valerie stepped closer, looking at the fresh corpse on the road. "Jin... what now?" she asked hesitantly. "Are you going to go back to kill my father?"
Jin pulled a rag from his pocket and began wiping his hands. "What do you think? Should I not go?"
"Knowing you," Valerie said, her voice quiet but certain, "you are definitely going."
Jin paused, looking at her with genuine curiosity. "I didn't ask what I would do. I asked what you think I should do."
Valerie met his gaze. She didn't flinch. "I don't really think you will listen to what I have to say. You are going to do what you are going to do. And honestly... even if he is my father, I have no loving feelings toward him. To him i have been nothing but a tool."
Jin stared at her for a long moment, the corners of his mouth twitching upward in a faint, approving smirk.
"You are smart, Valerie," Jin said, retracting his claws. "I have to give you that."
"So," Valerie said, glancing back toward the direction of the city. "Are we going back to Rome?"
Jin reached up and patted the inner pocket of his jacket, feeling the solid weight of the Tepes ledger. He looked out toward the horizon, where the sun was finally beginning to break through the clouds.
"No, Valerie," Jin said, picking his heavy canvas bag back off the asphalt and throwing it over his shoulder. "We are not going back to Rome. We are going back to Japan."
He turned and began walking down the highway, his steps steady and purposeful.
"I think I am finally in the right headspace to carry out my plan."