"Step aside." His voice was so low it carried a terrifying weight.
"Please, I beg you!" Hiyori dropped to her knees, forehead pressed against the ground. "My father already knows his mistake please spare him!"
Beside her, her sister Kosuzu, though clearly frightened, forced herself to sit upright. "I… I am the eldest daughter of the Kozuki family! If you must strike someone, strike me instead!"
Ritter fixed his gaze on the sisters. Without that brat Momonosuke around, at least his eyes and heart were free of annoyance. In truth, these two weren't so bad Kosuzu even showed more backbone than their father. But still
"That's none of my concern."
With a casual wave, Ritter's blood mist surged outward, condensing into two giant spectral hands that plucked the girls off the battlefield. They were tossed lightly toward Marco as though they were kittens. "Watch them. Don't let them get in the way."
Marco caught them with a sigh. "Ritter, they're just kids…"
"Kids?" Ritter sneered. "In a few years, they'll be forced to pay the price for their father's foolishness."
He turned back, planting a boot on Oden's chest. The tip of his massive sword, Black Tide, pressed coldly against the samurai's throat. "Even your daughters show more spine than you."
Oden coughed up blood, straining to lift his head. "Ritter… I…"
"Shut up." Ritter kicked him sideways, sending him sprawling. "Now you regret it? Too late!"
Raising his sword, Ritter let blood fog coil and dance along the blade, a deathly promise that in the next heartbeat Oden's head might roll.
"Wait!" Whitebeard's booming voice split the air. His bisento swung down, barring Ritter's strike. "That's enough."
Ritter inhaled deeply, exhaling through clenched teeth. In truth, he hadn't meant to kill Oden. One blow was enough to leave him battered, unconscious for months, bedridden for more than a year. Ritter was a professional when it came to controlled brutality.
He studied Oden in silence for a long moment before letting out a sharp laugh. With a flick, the blade dissolved back into mist. "Fine. For your sake."
Crouching down, Ritter grabbed Oden's hair, forcing the man to meet his eyes. They had once sailed together, once fought side by side as brothers beneath Roger's flag. That bond mattered. It was the only reason Ritter had come here to confront him at all.
"If you still have even a shred of a samurai's pride," Ritter hissed, "then get up yourself… and finish what needs to be done."
He released his grip, dropping Oden unceremoniously back to the dirt. Then he turned and strode away, blood mist rolling in his wake, leaving behind only one last warning.
"Don't make me regret sparing you."
The moment those words faded, nine streaks of blade-light erupted from the rubble.
"You won't harm Lord Oden!" Denjiro's voice thundered as the Red Scabbards descended, their blades aimed at Ritter's throat.
Ritter didn't so much as blink.
"Boom!"
A golden colossus rose from the earth, intercepting Denjiro's strike.
A heartbeat later, Tesoro's "Golden Punishment" sent Nekomamushi and Inuarashi flying, coughing blood as they crashed through walls.
"Shhhk !"
Ritter stretched out a hand, drawing his crew closer into his protection. Tesoro and Moria stepped forward, standing as his shield.
"Oi, oi," Tesoro sneered. "Not just any stray mutts get to challenge our captain."
The Nine Scabbards regrouped, their fury burning bright. Forming a deadly fan-shaped assault, their nine blades carved through the fog toward Ritter.
Denjiro's strike arrived first, fracturing into seven illusions at Ritter's throat.
"Does everyone and their mother know how to make clones now?" Ritter muttered dryly.
But Denjiro's pupils shrank in horror as he caught sight of his reflection trapped within a golden pillar. The other six illusions were crushed in an instant by golden hands that materialized from nowhere.
"Too slow." Tesoro emerged from a haze of glittering dust. Gold threads unfurled from his fingers, ensnaring Denjiro's limbs.
"Golden Shackles: Guillotine!"
"Lord Denjiro!" Kawamatsu roared, charging to help only for lightning to knock him aside mid-leap.
Enel lounged atop a floating drum, digging in his ear. "Twenty million volts: Thunderbird."
The battlefield shifted. Ritter's blood mist intertwined with glimmering dust, the air heavy with shimmering menace. Lightning danced overhead. Shadows lurched as Moria's zombies clawed their way forward.
In any other world, this sight alone would be mistaken for a nightmare realm a labyrinth born of myth.
"Protect Lord Oden!"
The Scabbards rose again, swords gleaming. Their blades rushed straight for Ritter.
"What, going straight for the king? In the Pirate King's crew?" Ritter chuckled. "Bad tactic, boys."
He waved lazily. "Tesoro. Don't kill them."
"Golden Colossus: Divine Judgment!"
Tesoro expanded his golden armor, plating compressing until it sealed him in a glimmering suit. Though unable to create gold from nothing, he had learned to compress and shape it with precision like Gaara's sand armor, yet more brutal. Ritter suspected that once Tesoro awakened his fruit, it would rival Doflamingo's string mastery.
The golden titan loomed forward, its body hardened with Armament Haki.
Inuarashi's crescent blade crashed against its ankle, sparking uselessly.
"Weak," Tesoro sneered. His giant foot slammed down, sending both dog and cat tumbling in blood, smashing through wall after wall before they lay still.
"Divine Lightning!"
Enel twirled his trident, hurling down a thunder pillar as thick as an ancient tree. Denjiro's sword was barely raised before the strike obliterated him, his body charred black as he tumbled into a ditch.
"Mortals will always be mortals," Enel smirked. "None of you are worthy of my full power."
"Shadow Lance!"
Moria's shadow erupted upward, a spear impaling Kin'emon before his fire slash could form. Kanjuro's ink beast roared only to be torn apart mid-scream by a swarm of shadow bats.
"Heh-heh-heh!" Moria licked his lips. "You dare show such disrespect to our captain?"
From the rear, Stella and Perona unleashed waves of negative ghosts, while Lina and Laboon shielded them.
One by one, the Scabbards faltered. Kawamatsu collapsed in despair. "I'm not even worth being a fish in the stream…" Raizo cowered, clutching his head. "My ninjutsu is child's play…"
Ritter remained reclined upon a throne of blood mist, cheek propped lazily on his palm.
"Lord Denjiro!" Hiyori cried, stumbling forward to reach him only for the mist to block her gently, returning her to Marco's arms.
Kosuzu's legs trembled, yet she gripped a small blade with white-knuckled hands. She lunged at Ritter, voice cracking: "Stop bullying everyone!"
Ritter flicked a finger. A burst of mist knocked her back with a playful boink to the forehead, leaving her on her backside.
"Save it, little one," he sighed. "If your father's sworn men can't even stand against my crew, how do you expect to avenge anyone?"
The Whitebeard Pirates looked on, their mouths twitching. "This… this isn't even a fight," murmured Thatch.
"Gurararara!" Whitebeard's laugh thundered across the battlefield. "See this, Oden? Your retainers are fighting with all they have!"
Oden raised his head weakly, watching his comrades bleed for him. "Enough… I said enough!"
His Conqueror's Haki surged outward, colliding with Ritter's own.
Ritter rose from his throne, blood mist scattering into the wind.
Stepping over the fallen Scabbards, he loomed above Oden.
The battered samurai forced his eyes open, meeting Ritter's gaze with the last of his strength. Before darkness claimed him, he heard Ritter's voice one last time:
"That's more like it, Oden. For a moment, I thought you'd lost your Conqueror's spirit."
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