"He used the fishing rod to fly up there with that woman!"
"A fishing rod can be used like that?"
The pirates lying on the ground playing dead saw that even with a sprained foot, Tom dared to carry a woman right up to Kuro. They found him even more terrifying and spoke carefully.
"Limping on one foot and still boasting? You're just like that long-nosed liar—both full of big talk. No wonder you're helping him. It's just two pathetic people finding comfort in each other," Kuro sneered when Tom said he could finish him off even with a sprained foot. He retreated in a Z-shaped pattern, quickly putting distance between them.
Now that Tom was closer, Kuro finally recognized the fishing rod. It was the one kept in Kaya's house, said to have been bought by her late father and worth a fortune. Having been the butler for three years, Kuro had even polished it a few times. He never imagined someone would use that same rod against him, proving to be such a nuisance. The irony wasn't lost on him.
Kuro looked bedraggled. Tom's heavy punches had knocked him down several times, leaving his face bruised and swollen, covered in dust, with multiple contusions. His suit was torn, and his chest, where Tom had struck him, throbbed with pain. But Kuro was still combat-ready. Compared to Tom, who had lost his speed advantage with a sprained foot, Kuro could even be said to have a slight upper hand.
"Crouch down. Remember what I said—don't leave my side. Otherwise, you will die," Tom said to Nami beside him, ignoring Kuro's taunts.
When Tom had swung them up using the rod, even through their clothes, Nami had felt the intense heat from his hand on her waist, making her heart flutter. She stole a glance at Tom. His resolute expression, especially the overwhelming fighting spirit in his unusual, dark crimson eyes, both shocked and awed her. Does this man not know fear? And what's with his eyes?
She had been worried about his sprained foot, but seeing him face Kuro without a hint of retreat calmed her flustered heart. She did as he said and crouched.
"Be careful. Beat him up quickly. My treasure is still down there," Nami said, crouching beside him. Seeing Tom's right hand, cut and bleeding from catching the rings for her, made her feel terrible. His right hand was already badly injured. Now it's worse because of me. Maybe I should compensate him?
"Don't worry. Your treasure will be fine. I won't lose. The Grand Line is waiting for us. I can't fall here!" Tom extended his rod again, but only to two meters. He adjusted the line length to about four meters.
"With your mobility hampered, let's see how you'll use that rod against me now. Still dreaming of the Grand Line? What a foolish fantasy. You really are just like that liar who only talks big about ideals—both pitiful and laughable," Kuro said, pushing up his frameless glasses with his palm. He assumed the 'Shakushi' stance—arms hanging, swaying side to side. After a few steps forward, he vanished from Tom's sight.
CLANG! SCRAPE!
Using 'Shakushi,' Kuro's claw blades soon left over a dozen deep gouges in the ground around Tom.
With his right foot sprained, Tom couldn't use the Silent Step for quick repositioning. He couldn't adjust angles fast enough to hook Kuro with the rod. But that didn't mean he was helpless.
Nami crouched beside Tom, head buried in her arms, eyes shut tight. The constant sound of metal scraping stone—Kuro's claw blades striking the ground and walls during his indiscriminate attacks—made her skin crawl. Several times, she felt Kuro had come dangerously close. The cold wind stirred by his passing was unpleasant. But with Tom there, she managed to stay calm.
Nami, eyes closed, didn't know that if Tom hadn't shielded her, she'd have at least seven or eight gashes on her body by now. Having seen Kuro's memories and learned 'Shakushi' himself, Tom understood its mechanics. While it seemed like uncontrolled, wild attacks due to speed, Kuro subtly steered toward his intended target during the high-speed movement.
When claw marks appeared near Nami, Tom knew Kuro would soon strike her. Being able to predict this, Tom could keep Nami safe. He used the rod to block attacks aimed at her. Nami, crouching blindly, heard two loud metallic clangs, wondering if they were illusions. When blocking wasn't fast enough, Tom used his own body to take the blows meant for her.
Unbeknownst to Nami, Tom had acquired several more wounds protecting her. A few times, he almost caught Kuro's clothing, but his injured foot prevented the quick turn needed to succeed.
After several exchanges, Tom was gradually adapting to Kuro's speed. While he couldn't pinpoint Kuro's exact location, he could gauge the general area. When the claw marks started appearing farther away, Tom knew Kuro's first assault wave against him and Nami was over, and a second was coming. But Tom had no intention of giving him that chance.
His initial focus on defense was to observe if Kuro's 'Shakushi' attack pattern matched his hypothesis: striking from far to near, then near to far, in a cycle. Tom also needed to accurately gauge Kuro's speed to know the optimal distance for a counterattack.
As Tom predicted, Kuro's 'indiscriminate' attacks, in essence, were him gradually adjusting his assault angle toward a target while moving too fast to control his direction precisely. After successfully hitting, he'd repeat the process, attacking repeatedly until the target was eliminated.
Tom kept Nami close to avoid past mistakes. If something happened to her now, in his condition, he truly couldn't save her a second time. Having her nearby was the safest option.
Tom knew that with his sprained foot, this was his final chance to defeat Kuro. If Kuro targeted Nami again and disrupted his focus, it was better to keep this biggest variable by his side, even if it meant taking more hits. This way, he could concentrate fully on Kuro. He wanted a one-hundred-percent chance of victory, so he was willing to endure one more assault to completely figure out Kuro's pattern.
Honestly, just standing still for a while, Tom's sprained foot had slowly swollen, hurting terribly. New wounds covered his body. That he could still stand steadily, expression unchanged, was thanks to his far beyond ordinary willpower.
"Given up already? Should have done that from the start. I would have made your death quick. But you kept angering me. I won't let you die comfortably," Kuro's voice echoed as he maintained high speed, seeing Tom seemingly focused only on defense with no sign of countering.
"Given up?" Tom's lips curved up. His blood-moon eyes grew even redder. "You say Usopp and I are pitiful, laughable people?"
As he spoke, Tom gripped the rod with both hands. Seeing deep gouges appear on the ground about ten meters away, he raised the rod overhead and spun it rapidly.
The dark golden hook on the line whirled with it, emitting a loud humming sound. The surrounding dust was blown up entirely, creating a cloud of swirling dirt.
For a moment, a rapidly spinning circle with a six-meter radius formed around Tom. The perimeter gleamed with a dark gold hue—the hook.
"ARGH!!" Kuro cried out in pain. The moment he entered the six-meter radius, the hook caught him, sinking deep into his left hand.
"Someone like you, who claims to want a peaceful, stable life, yet clings to pirate habits for three years while looking down on pirates—you're the truly laughable one!" Tom yelled, pulling hard on the rod. He yanked Kuro off his feet, grabbed his collar as he flew forward, and executed a perfect shoulder throw, slamming him heavily to the ground.
SMASH!
Tom drove a fierce punch into Kuro's face as he hit the dirt, shattering his glasses completely. The ground beneath Kuro's head cracked.
"My plan is perfect! After today, I'll have the life I've craved for so long! How can you stop me?!" Kuro roared, his head slightly embedded in the earth. He kicked upward, sending Tom, who was trying to press the attack, tumbling forward. Tom rolled once before stabilizing.
Nami, who had opened her eyes, saw Tom kicked away and rushed over. Before she could speak, Tom shouted, "Woman! Get behind me!"
While speaking to Nami, Tom gritted his teeth against the searing pain in his right foot. As he turned, before Kuro could rise, he used the rod to pull Kuro toward him again.
"A guy who fantasizes about using some damned plan to say goodbye to his past, who can't even face who he was—what gives you the right to sacrifice other people's lives to chase the future you want?!" Tom saw Kuro's nearly one-meter-long claw blades aimed at him as he was reeled in. With no choice, Tom used the rod to fling him away with great force.
BOOM!
Kuro's body slammed into the rocky slope wall, making him cough up blood instantly. Before he hit the ground, Tom hooked him with the rod again and hurled him against the opposite wall.
CRASH! THUD!
Tom used the rod to smash Kuro repeatedly against the left and right rock walls. After over a dozen impacts, the walls were on the verge of collapse, and Kuro was left barely breathing.
The pirates below watched, stunned and speechless, bodies trembling, terrified out of their wits.
"It's precisely against someone like you, who can so easily discard his past self, that I will never lose!" Tom reeled the barely conscious Kuro in with the rod. He planted the rod into the ground with his left hand, clenched his right fist, and thrust his left foot forward. The motion sent sharp pain shooting through his sprained right foot, but Tom ignored it.
Standing atop the slope, his bloody right fist connected with all his might squarely on Kuro's face, sending him shooting downward like a rocket-propelled shell.
"Oh no! Captain Kuro really got punched away!"
"Move! He's flying right at us!"
The pirates below scrambled desperately out of the way as Kuro hurtled toward them.
"Huff... huff..." Tom's right arm dropped powerlessly. He gasped for air, slumping to the ground. The dark crimson of his eyes faded back to normal. An immense wave of fatigue washed over him, bringing near-total weakness and severe dizziness.
At that moment, Tom just wanted to lie there, think of nothing, and rest properly. He felt utterly exhausted. The agonizing pain from his many wounds was almost unbearable.
"Are you okay? It's over," Nami said. She stood behind him, bending down to look at him as he lay on his back, staring at the blue sky and white clouds. Their eyes met.
"If there are no surprises, it should be fine now," Tom said after a silent moment, unable to endure Nami's concerned gaze, which held a trace of something else.
As Nami began doing simple bandaging for his wounds, Tom heard a familiar voice. "Ow! That hurts! Who's attacking me in my sleep?!"
It turned out that after Tom punched Kuro away, the downward trajectory sent him crashing onto the huge black cat prow pinning Luffy. The force of Tom's final punch was so immense that it shattered the massive prow. Kuro kept flying, his claw blades slicing Luffy, who was still pinned beneath the wreckage.
Thus, Luffy, sleeping soundly under the heavy prow, was awakened by sudden pain.
Damn. The bottomless pit is finally awake.
Tom felt a surge of relief. He struggled to sit up, about to call out to Luffy, when a burst of maniacal laughter reached his ears.
"Kill you all! I'll kill every one of you! I can't fail! I won't fail!"
"Aren't you that bad butler?" Luffy said, seeing the tattered, wounded Kuro not far away. But Kuro seemed unaffected, acting completely deranged—eyes rolled back, screaming about killing everyone.
Damn it. Did that bastard Kuro have Jango hypnotize him?
No sooner had this thought crossed Tom's mind than he saw Kuro vanish from the spot.
He's using 'Shakushi' without the arm-swinging preamble? Just like that?
Tom was speechless. In his stunned state, several Black Cat Pirates below had already been cut down by Kuro's claw blades...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
T/N :
Support me and Access 25 chapters in Advance on my P@treon: [email protected]/GodFic