Vice Admiral Tsuru's fury burned bright, a far cry from her usual poise.
"Rankyaku!"
She flashed in, body folding over as her heel scythed toward the left side of Rakuya's head.
"Repulsion, Divine Spike."
Rakuya didn't bother with talk. Pressure condensed in front of him, shaping the air into a spearpoint that lanced straight for Tsuru's chest.
Her kick clipped his shoulder. Instinct screamed. She twisted hard to retreat.
"Tekkai!"
Her chest blackened with Armament as the spike hit with a bell-like clang. The impact hurled her back across the sky, but she wasn't broken.
"Tsuru, for Momousagi's sake I won't kill you," Rakuya said, eyes cool. "Now get out of my sight."
Steel Bone Kong caught her and carried her back to the flagship.
He could have ended it. He didn't.
"Is my sister alright?" Momousagi's fingers knotted at his sleeve. She had left the Marines, but blood was blood.
"Relax. I held back." Rakuya tightened the arm at her waist, and from a distance it looked like she had melted into his chest.
Tea Dolphin saw exactly where that hand rested. His face went stiff, then exploded crimson like a volcano. Veins bulged at his temples.
"Hands off Miss Momousagi, you scum!"
"Soru."
"Geppo."
"Rankyaku!"
Rage twisted his already lecherous features. His goddess was in the arms of his rival, and that image shattered what reason he had.
"Out of my way."
Rakuya raised his left hand. It swelled as if catching the wind, becoming a seven- or eight-meter titan's palm that crashed down.
Boom.
Tea Dolphin's punch came like a falling mountain, blasting the sea to froth. It slammed into the giant hand with thunder, but the shockwave rippled back and swatted him from the sky.
He spat blood, a cut kite plunging. Vice Admiral Onigumo blurred in with Soru to catch him, only to be thrown back by the recoil. Both men hammered the deck hard enough to crack it open. Tea Dolphin didn't get up.
Rakuya hadn't pulled that one. Not for a love rival.
"Rakuya."
Kong's jaw knotted. His fist did too.
"What," Rakuya said without looking, unruffled.
Saint Charlos found his voice, and with it his arrogance, as if the torment inside the black hole had been a bad dream.
"Kong, kill him. He dared imprison a noble. Kill him now!"
"…My lord," Kong began.
"What are you staring at? All of you. A whole Headquarters and you can't seize one wretch? Seize him for me. I want him trampled. I want him begging for death!"
"Say that again."
Rakuya's eyes narrowed.
Charlos went cold, ducked behind Kong's bulk, then screamed from safety, "You're dead. When we take you, I'll—"
Rakuya's irises spun scarlet, tomoe unfurling into blades.
"Mangekyo Sharingan."
"Amaterasu."
Black fire blossomed on Charlos's robes.
"Aah!"
He hit the deck and writhed, the agony twisting his face into something inhuman. A junior officer dumped a bucket over him. The water caught fire too.
"What?"
Kong's pupils pinpricked. It was wrong on a level his instincts could feel.
"What is that flame?"
"Help him, now!"
"Ice Age."
Kuzan's breath frosted the air. He flash-froze Charlos into a coffin of sky-blue crystal.
The black flames kept burning.
"Sa… save…"
The words dwindled to ash with him. In a breath, Saint Charlos was gone.
The flame did not go out. It chewed through the ice, through the planks beneath, and then it spread. Black tongues licked the deck and the flagship roared to flame
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