The sea bellowed. Wind and cloud roiled. A violent surge of power swallowed the entire island.
From the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, a flood of scarlet malice kept spilling out. That evil chakra gathered at its maw as one after another black sphere of condensed destruction floated into being.
"Tailed Beast Barrage."
The dense volley screamed toward Marco. Faced with the sudden escalation, his expression turned grim and he beat his blue-flamed wings hard, climbing fast.
"Damn it. What is this thing? How can it spam techniques with that much power? Monster. Monster. Monster."
The Phoenix was seething. A Whitebeard division commander with a bounty in the hundreds of millions, and here he was being kited and pounded by a freak.
There was no describing the humiliation.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Each Tailed Beast Bomb tore forward and Marco jinked on instinct, slipping past by a hair. He barely leveled out before another shot was already on him.
"Give me a break!"
Up in the sky he had no choice but to run. Which meant he was on the back foot, a clay pigeon for target practice.
"Nine Tails, keep shelling him."
Rakuya stood on the fox's crown, calm as a spectator while Marco's figure whipped about, tattered and desperate.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
In moments, the full salvo detonated. The blasts shook the heavens. Gales screamed across scorched earth. The sky flushed blood-red as if draped in a curtain of flame that blotted out sun and cloud.
The shock waves rolled outward, endless. Beams of vicious energy bored into Marco's body and the fire swallowed him whole.
Marco the Phoenix died again.
Before anyone could exhale, a clear cry cut through the storm. Against the red glare, a plume of azure fire surged up. Marco burst out of the blaze in a panic, face a shade paler.
"What is it? Died again?" Rakuya glanced over, then chuckled at Marco's sorry state.
"What is that fox? Why does it take your orders? With that kind of power it could stake a claim in the New World on its own."
Shock had finally settled in Marco's bones. He had dismissed the fox at first. The longer he fought, the clearer it became. This thing was a monster.
Worse, the monster obeyed the man in the mask.
And a monster like that obeyed willingly.
"That?" Rakuya flicked a look at the fox and smiled. "My pet. Name's Little Nine. Ranked ninth. There are eight more like it, and the nine of them can combine into a Tenth."
"Nine of them? And they can combine?"
Marco felt his worldview tilt. If anyone else had said they had ten pets like this, he would have called them a clown. But after being personally demolished twice, he believed every word.
"Yep." Rakuya nodded lightly. "If you want to meet them, I can introduce you. One through Nine, easiest way to tell them apart is the tails. One tail, two tails."
"Master, enough chatter. Let me pop him a few more times. I've got chakra to burn and it feels so good to release it."
Rakuya stalled mid-sentence. The fox had no sense of timing at all.
"Who told you to talk?" He rapped its skull with a crisp smack. A lump bulged up at once.
"Awooo." The Nine Tails clutched its head and yelped. "I was wrong, Master."
Watching all this, Marco felt like he had been struck by lightning. Not only had he run into a top-tier powerhouse, he had run into a comedian.
Still, the man dared to hit the fox, and the fox did not dare fight back. Why?
If he tried to force it, he'd be crushed. But if he could sow discord and get the fox to defect to Whitebeard's flag, Pops would reward him handsomely.
Decision made, the Phoenix hovered at a safer distance and called out, "Nine Tailed Demon Fox, your master treats you too harshly. With your strength you should join the Whitebeard Pirates. You would be a cadre from the start. No need to suffer this abuse. I would be your good brother. With power like yours, why live under another's roof? It is beneath you."
"…Seriously?" Rakuya muttered. What a blatant poach. And right to his face?
The fox paused. Marco took it as a sign. He pressed the point. "Break free. Rule the seas. Eat what you want, play how you want, do whatever you want. Join the Whitebeard Pirates and it will be liberation and rebirth. No more beatings or insults."
"Beatings?" Rakuya's eyes widened. When did he ever beat the fox? At worst that was the Fist of Loving Correction.
Seeing the fox hesitate, Marco pushed harder. "Pops is a great man. He treats his sons like gold. With your strength you would be one of Pops' sons. We are proud to be Pops' sons. Across the seas, pirates fight tooth and nail for the chance."
"Pops' son?" To a creature dragged here from the world of shinobi, there was only one person who could claim to be its father.
"Idiot." The Nine Tails' lip curled. "What is a Whitebeard to me? Not fit to carry my master's shoes. The only ones who can be my old man are Sage of Six Paths and my current Master. You would have me betray him to his face. Are you mocking me?"
"Tch. Didn't work."
Marco's heart seized even as he yanked himself higher. In front of him, dozens of Tailed Beast Bombs were already condensing again.
"Foolish human. Try this. You dare poach in front of my Master? I will punish you for him."
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