"Captain attacked you himself, which means he's fine with you getting hurt." Otoru stood tall, almost dwarfing Pablo. "Kori, you should leave." Pablo made sure she was behind him. He wasn't intimidated by Otoru because he had someone to protect. "Is that so? Do you think I'm that fragile?" she giggled.
"No," he turned around to look at her. "At least 10 people are coming here. I figured you can 'charm' them."
Taken aback, her smile dropped. But then it returned. "Smooth."
Otoru let her leave. He wanted to mess with Pablo alone anyway. "What a gentleman, sending her to fight 10 people at once." He threw a jab.
Pablo couldn't dodge it, but managed to block in time with a cross-arm guard, a move taught by Haisha. "He's strong! If I didn't reinforce my arms with mana, he'd break them!" His back hit the wall behind him.
"You blocked my attack, impressive." Otoru jumped in with a flying knee-strike. Pablo stepped aside and let his attack hit the wall. "Before you underestimate me, let me tell you something." He landed, his back facing Pablo.
"I never lost a fight." Otoru took off his jumpsuit and dropped it on the floor, leaving only his white shirt. It captured his frame well, emphasising his almost-perfect physique.
"First time for everything." Pablo raised both of his arms. Even though one hand was missing, he was intending to block with his forearms. "I can't properly swing a Zweihander with just a single hand. I need to show him what I learned!" he thought.
"They all say that. But none have backed it up." Otoru started walking and closing the distance.
"First time for everything." Pablo repeated, his attention fully on Otoru. "Smart." His earrings glowed. Otoru stood still, and yet a punch landed on Pablo's face, dazing him.
"What the hell?! I didn't even see him moving. How fast is he?!" Before Pablo could figure out what was going on, Otoru followed it up with a hook towards Pablo's face, launching him away again.
"You can't dodge this time!" He dashed with a knee-strike to the face again and all Pablo could do was block.
Only for his guard to be broken.
"You're exhausting." Otoru punched him in the stomach, cracking the wall behind him. "Tsuyoi doesn't have any friends. He only had one, and it was Captain Infamy. The rest of us hated his guts, yet the old man always stood up for him." He grabbed Pablo by the throat and threw him to the other side of the room. "And he still betrayed him."
Pablo gasped. Everything started to make sense now. The reason Infamy got so mad when he heard his name… the reason he stopped being his right-hand man… it was because Tsuyoi betrayed him.
After he got to Pablo again, he grabbed him by the hair. "You think he won't stab you in the back? That man was like a father to him. If he abandoned him, he'll for sure abandon you."
"What makes you think you're any special?" He then lifted him in the air and grinned. But that grin quickly shattered as he saw the look on Pablo's face.
Throughout years of sailing and countless brawls, Otoru has witnessed many villains, heroes, all of that.
None scared him.
After all, being afraid of a tornado would amount to nothing.
You either accepted it, or you ran from it.
Yet seeing that expression ticked something.
That was the expression of someone beyond natural disaster, fueled by anger, insecurity, and fear.
It was calamity.
Tears rained down Pablo's face; his teeth almost broke from hitting each other. The anger was almost thick enough to have a smell.
"I won't let anyone abandon me. I'll fucking kill you, no matter what!" Those words sent a shiver down Otoru's spine, and his smile faltered, which was enough for Pablo to break his grip and send him flying with a backhanded hit.
"Shit! What the hell was that look?! Why did it scare me? I thought this kid was just a lackey but-" The moment he looked up, he saw Pablo flying towards him with a flying knee-strike. "My kick?! He saw it from me and copied it?!"
But because he was driven by anger instead of conviction, it missed, hitting the wall instead.
The wall crumbled, not being able to stop his fury.
Otoru could barely breathe out of fear. "If that hit me, I could've been dead!"
A few hours ago, at the ship.
"Unarmed combat? I barely know how to. You didn't teach me shit, but Haisha did." Pablo looked at his remaining hand. "I don't remember him teaching me anything, but I know how to fight like him. I probably forgot the times he was teaching me. My brain does that sometimes."
"I see." Nasaki yawned. "That's not it. So it is true, I suspected it before, but this confirms it." He talked to himself. "You too have that talent, just like that freak…"
"...The ability to copy the movements of others, just by seeing them." He chuckled. "Even I can't do it, probably because I can't see, or maybe because I'm just not talented enough."
Nasaki looked at the sky and smiled. "Maybe it can happen. Maybe this is the generation that will surpass us and defeat the United Government."
Present.
"My kick is generic anyway. He's probably just trained well." Otoru gained his composure again and raised his guard. "But for some reason it felt like… I was attacking myself." He dashed forward.
"I won't be abandoned." Pablo's feet shuffled rapidly. "This shuffle is from Thalorien, I know it!" Instead of focusing on the footwork, Otoru delivered a kick to Pablo's right leg. "And it won't work on me, because I'm from Thalorien too!"
This surprised Pablo, who was forced to dash back while also grabbing an empty beer bottle from the ground. "Either you are dying here, or I'm dying with you. There is no scenario where I'll let you live." He ate the bottle. His ring glowed. "The ring!" Otoru braced himself for an attack.
The glass shards were shot out of his mouth. Otoru could only dodge a few of them while rushing to Pablo, but the last one sliced his left cheek.
"Come on, use your Treasure again! I won't let you land a hit this time, no matter how fast you are!" He raised his arms again, watching Otoru's movements.
"If you insist." Otoru's earrings glowed.
"Here it co-" Again, even if nothing visible happened, something hit Pablo in the face and broke his nose. "Tell me this, Mr. Psychopath. I can see you're one of those analyst-types, figuring out fights like a chess match." His earrings glowed again.
"But have you ever fought a Glitcher-type Treasure?" Several hits, seemingly coming out of nowhere, rapidly barraged Pablo.
A glitcher-type is the perfect match against someone like Pablo.
There are Treasures that defy all logic and do things considered 'impossible' or 'unlikely', giving them the classification 'Glitcher.'
These Treasures simply don't make sense.
Of course, that doesn't mean they don't have any rules. It's just that they have rules that don't match the reality we live in.
Like a Treasure that makes you win every game of rock paper scissors, or one that allows you to switch which door leads to which, like Arzt.
These are Treasures that simply make you go 'What the hell was that?'
And that's exactly what happened.
"What the hell was that?" Pablo cried out. "I even amplified my eyes with mana. I didn't even see a single speck of dust on the floor move! What did he say, a Glitcher-type? I never heard of them before!"
Otoru's Treasure, Ghostfeet, allows him to create spectral clones of himself within 2 meters. These ghosts can only exist for a second and cannot interact with physical reality, so they hit their opponent's soul instead. Their strength lessens as they get further away from their master, and they are all subconsciously controlled by Otoru.
It's as if Otoru's fighting will manifests them.
Unless someone can sense souls and interact with them, you can't see them in any way or fight back.
All you can do is hope they miss.
Its fatal weakness is that, like every other Treasure, Otoru's Treasure glows upon activation, which gives the opponent a signal to leave Ghostfeet's range.
"Let's wrap things up." Otoru cracked his neck. "I have a boss to impress."
Pablo stood up and wiped the blood from his nose upon realising he could not regenerate it due to soul damage. "And I have a friend to save. I will save him, no matter what it takes." With a declaration of will, his eyes burn with fire once again.
"If I stay outside of close-range, he'll just punish me with his Treasure! I don't know what it is, but maybe being close will help. I just need to find an opening!" Pablo got into range where he could land a punch.
Suddenly, Otoru bent his knees, drew his right fist backwards, and held it with his left. He didn't even look at Pablo.
"He's open, a blunder!" Pablo drew his fist back as well, but instead of reacting… Otoru stayed still.
His earrings glowed.
Pablo braced himself for an attack, but all he could feel was an unseeable hand holding him down.
For just one second, he couldn't move and was open to an attack.
"Again, what was that? He didn't move, but something held me down, could it be-" He looked at Otoru again, only to see a glowing fist approaching him.
"Shit!" Pablo dodged by side-stepping. It was a miracle that the punch didn't land.
Otoru's fist left behind a shockwave, sending a sound that could only be compared to the sound of a cannon.
"Lucky you." Otoru stretched and caressed his right fist after the punch. "He said his Treasure was a Glitcher-type. I doubt it was to misdirect me, but that's still a possibility. I thought it just allowed him to move fast in a split second, or help him go invisible.
But that would be a Transformation-type. And this just proved that it isn't him that's moving, or else he would've broken his stance." After the surge of mana, Pablo's legs could barely stand still.
"He's fast. If it's true that he can copy my movements, like that guy, then I must rely on my Treasure and avoid showing him anything…" Otoru was ready to attack.
"He's strong. If he uses that charged-punch again, I'm done for. I must rely on my quick movements and not let him wind up…" Pablo gulped. The fire in his eyes dimmed just slightly.
"...How the fuck am I supposed to take him down?" Both thought.