"Ahhhhhh!! Monster, !!"
Carpenter finally snapped awake, screaming as he staggered backward while commanding his remaining puppet minions, "Stop it! Kill it! Just kill it already!"
Monster?
Was he talking about me?
It was the first time Shanu had ever been called that.
He didn't particularly like it.
But thinking carefully, deep down, he seemed to enjoy the title a little.
"Call me whatever you want!"
Grinning fiercely, he advanced, throwing a series of powerful punches, bam bam bam, sending every puppet that tried to block him flying.
One of the swordsmen charging straight at him he caught by the neck with his elbow, then drove his knee with his core strength, ripping the puppet cleanly in two with both hands.
Wood splinters flew everywhere. Through the gaps in his vision, Carpenter's face grew increasingly terrified.
Snap! Shanu leapt from the stage, landing just in front of the main gate, blocking Carpenter's escape route.
Now, the only guards still near Carpenter were the town sheriff and Major Tomte of the naval branch.
"Get lost!"
Two more punches sent them flying several meters along with their guns, collapsing unconscious to the ground.
Shanu had intentionally held back. These two weren't fully puppet-ized yet, and perhaps once Carpenter was dealt with, they could return to normal.
Crack.
Shanu's hand moved with superhuman speed. Carpenter had nowhere to dodge; Shanu grabbed him by the neck and lifted him like a chicken.
Carpenter struggled with all his might, but the boy's grip was like iron, utterly immovable.
"Cough… cough cough…" Carpenter's breathing grew rapid, his words strained through clenched teeth: "I-I'm suffocating! Let go! Let me go!"
Shanu didn't release him, disappointment in his gaze.
"You really are weak."
"Even as a Devil Fruit user, I thought you'd at least give me a challenge. Turns out, you're just a coward hiding behind your puppets."
"Without your puppets, you have no confidence at all."
"How could someone as weak as you have once controlled the eight dojo masters?"
"What nonsense are you talking! Don't underestimate me!" Carpenter hissed through gritted teeth. "At first, I couldn't win head-on, so I ambushed, didn't I? If it weren't for a non-human monster like you, who on Asakura Island would be my match…"
"Boss Shanu!"
Junichi suddenly stepped forward, wiping tears from his red-rimmed eyes, gripping a salvaged sword tightly. "Please, give me a chance! Let me kill him myself!"
"Not so fast."
Shanu held him back, eyes narrowing as he examined the middle-aged man in the lavish coat. "There are still a few things I don't understand. I need to ask first."
"Are you humiliating me?!"
Carpenter shouted indignantly. "Who said I'd answer your questions?! At most, I'd give you satisfaction! Besides, I can barely breathe! If you don't let go, how could I possibly answer you?"
"You see, that's the first clue."
When Shanu didn't fight, his consciousness seemed to return from his muscles to his brain.
He glanced at his still-clenched right hand. "I've been holding you this long. Are you really struggling to breathe?"
"…." Carpenter froze, suddenly lowering his head. He realized that his breathing was still normal, the initial feeling of suffocation had been an illusion.
Why? How could that be?
"Did you notice something? Most of the things you've said don't match your actions."
Shanu's eyes narrowed. "I ask you: you came here and exposed yourself and your ten puppets completely, why?"
"You've been working tirelessly to make money, running Asakura Island for years, and finally had it under your control. Why suddenly self-destruct today? Planning to leave and start over somewhere else?"
Indeed… why?
Carpenter felt a sudden haze in his mind, unable to comprehend it.
He had felt this before.
, When he almost understood something, a veil in his mind would scramble his thoughts.
The result of his actions would contradict his original plan, yet he would think it perfectly normal.
"No!"
Carpenter suddenly shouted. "You almost tricked me! I didn't expose myself! It was that bastard Sakuraba who dug his own grave and revealed everything!"
"But when you came in, he hadn't revealed that all seven dojo masters were already puppets!"
Shanu's voice rose sharply. "And the sheriff and that naval major? You brought them here yourself! You could have controlled him directly, interrupted him, used a thousand ways to convince the public he was fake! Why didn't you do it?"
Why?
Carpenter grew even more confused. Yes… why?
He had all the means to cover it up, continue earning his ill-gotten gains, so why suddenly tear off the mask?
He vaguely remembered something strange from before.
Even though Sakuraba's puppet was the hardest to control, occasionally showing independent thoughts, he had never fully puppet-ized him. He kept him close for the most secretive and important operations.
"Here." Shanu suddenly grabbed Carpenter's right hand with his other hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Controlling me," Shanu said coldly. "You lost eight puppets. The freed fingers can recruit new ones, right? Try using your ability to control me!"
"But… powerful people aren't so easy to manipulate. You can't control me like Sakuraba…"
Carpenter stammered, but Shanu suddenly yanked Junichi over.
"Then try him!"
"Eh? Boss Shanu!"
Junichi, previously engrossed, was now pulled in front of Carpenter, dumbfounded.
"…."
Carpenter trembled, grabbing Junichi's arm, but quickly froze.
He understood how Devil Fruit powers allowed control of puppets, but how exactly?
"You see, controlling a few puppets is the most you can really do."
Shanu returned Junichi to safety and stared at the lavishly dressed man. "Do you still think you're the 'Carpenter' who controls puppets?"
Simultaneously, Shanu slapped him hard in the chest.
Bang! The crisp, hollow sound echoed like hitting a bamboo tube.
Carpenter knew exactly what it meant.
Shanu finally released him. The man sagged to the ground.
"I… I'm not the Carpenter…"
His expression dazed, voice dry. "I… I was just a puppet all along?"
…
"So… the real 'Carpenter' is someone else?"
Junichi's head felt like it was about to explode. "Then… who? And why target my father?"
Shanu looked at Junichi with pity, sighing.
"Whoever started today's farce… that's the Carpenter."
He punched, crushing the middle-aged man's chest, then turned to the body on the stage. Low and steady:
"Am I right, Mr. Sakuraba?"
No one answered.
The clock on the wall ticked seconds by. Silence stretched for over ten seconds until a sound finally broke it.
Click, click.
The corpse's joints snapped, limbs bending ninety degrees in reverse, forcing the upper body upright in a grotesque, inhuman posture.
Amidst the clattering, Sakuraba's body remained facing away, but his head slowly rotated 180 degrees, revealing his sorrowful, gaunt face, neither fully crying nor smiling.
Junichi froze.
Cold ran through his body, a chill like never before shooting straight to his skull.
"Why…"
The gaunt face finally spoke, voice crackling like an old phonograph, wood and human vibration merging unnaturally.
"Why… did you have to discover it? Why… did you have to say it aloud?"
"Why… won't you let me give the Sakuraba identity a perfect farewell, and leave in peace?"