"So, you mean you want me to give you an explanation? You've got it backward."
Shanu sneered. "Isn't it you who should give Junichi an explanation?!"
"Junichi…"
"Don't say his name!!"
Junichi's breathing was rapid, his eyes swollen red, teeth clenched until his gums nearly bled.
"So you were the mastermind all along? You were the one secretly controlling Asakura Island? Then what were the past five years I've lived through? And that emotional act you just performed, what was that supposed to be?!"
He glanced around desperately at the corpses scattered across the floor.
"And this is only one day. In a single day, you've killed so many people. Five years… five full years… how many atrocities have you committed in secret? Why did you do it?!"
Sakuraba glanced at the corpses with an indifferent expression.
Then he let that emotionless gaze fall on Junichi and spoke in a low voice, as if from the bottom of a dry well.
"Do you remember when I once told you about your mother?"
"My mother?"
Junichi's anger flared even more. "Why bring her up now? What right do you have to even mention her! Didn't she die ten years ago during that trip with you? From illness!"
"Aya didn't die from illness. She died during that trip, but not from disease."
"Shortly after the journey began, we passed through the Kingdom of Goya. Two elegant young noblewomen boarded the ship. They became fast friends with Aya within days."
"They would often have afternoon tea gatherings and spend nights on the deck stargazing, laughing and joking, sharing everything with each other."
"Aya had been with me since my poor days, working hard for years. Except for when you were born, those days were the happiest I had ever seen her."
"Until one day…"
"The two noblewomen suddenly said they wanted to play football, but there were no balls on the ship."
"So they lost their tempers entirely, flew into rages, beating and scolding their guards, even attempting to kill the head guard and throw him overboard to the fish."
"Aya, unable to bear it, stepped forward to persuade them, saving the head guard's life. She even borrowed materials like pig bladders from the kitchen to try and make a ball."
"She spent the whole night making it, and Aya was delighted, finally, she wouldn't have to worry about the noblewomen taking their anger out on the guards anymore."
"She went to deliver the ball early in the morning. I had slept in a bit longer, then went to find her… guess what I saw?"
Sakuraba's face was expressionless, as if narrating a story unrelated to himself.
"Aya's head had been cut off. The two noblewomen were happily kicking her head around like a ball. The ball she had painstakingly made all night was discarded and trampled for being too ugly."
"Wha… what?!" Junichi's pupils contracted sharply. He stumbled backward two steps, trembling violently.
Shanu exhaled deeply, remaining silent.
He already had suspicions about the identities of those two noblewomen but chose not to interrupt, letting Sakuraba continue on stage.
In the vast, empty dojo, only that emotionless voice echoed:
"I was stunned for a long time before I snapped out of it and drew my sword like a madman, but the head guard suddenly blocked me."
"My pride in swordsmanship was a joke before him. I didn't even last a few seconds; I was trampled beneath his feet."
"At the time, I couldn't understand it. Only after a long investigation did I finally realize…"
"The two women weren't nobles of the Goya Kingdom at all, they were Celestials who secretly visited Goya without their families knowing! And the head guard Aya saved? He was none other than Vice Admiral Stainless of the Navy Headquarters!"
"So laughable… laughable… laughable!!!"
Sakuraba tilted his head back, laughing maniacally.
"Aya thought she had made two new friends, but to them, she was merely a plaything, like a kitten or puppy to be teased at will."
"And the man who knocked on her door the previous night to thank her for saving him? He personally beheaded Aya the next day!"
"And me? I was kicked into the sea like a dead dog, drifting for a month before barely surviving!"
"No wonder you were silent for months after that trip…" Junichi painfully clawed at his hair, muttering, "But after the funeral for Mother, didn't you gradually move on?"
"Move on? I never moved on!"
Sakuraba sneered. "I only pretended to move on to continue raising you, to maintain the dojo I built myself. I chose to escape and forget, continuing the role of the kind headmaster and loving father."
"The real Sakuraba, the original Sakuraba, drowned in the sea ten years ago!"
"I thought I could keep running forever. What could I do? Revenge? Against whom? Celestial Dragons? A Vice Admiral? I'm not even a master swordsman! How could I have the ability?"
He grinned.
"But fate refused to let me bow my head!"
"The shipwreck five years ago, I almost drowned trying to save someone, yet survived. Not only that, I found a Devil Fruit among the wreckage drifting from the merchant ships!"
"The rest… you mostly know."
Sakuraba finally turned fully around. The sword wound on his chest healed instantly, wood fibers knitting back together.
His expression gradually became indifferent.
"Fate saved me twice, and then placed the power of the Devil before me. It was clearly encouraging me to walk the path of revenge."
"So I personally destroyed everything belonging to Sakuraba."
"The dojo, my family, old friends… all things that would make me hesitate, keeping me trapped on this tiny island, a pathetic creature licking old wounds, afraid to take the first step toward vengeance!"
"And the lives I've taken over these years?"
Sakuraba let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head slightly.
"Don't worry, they weren't wasted. Over five years, those puppet corpses earned me over a billion Berries, giving me the capital to pursue my revenge."
"Shameless! You… you… have no remorse at all!"
Junichi's face went pale, his finger trembling as he pointed at Sakuraba. "You're insane! Completely insane! You were already mad five years ago!"
"Those two Celestials deserved death! I'd chop off their heads to avenge Mother myself! But you had to do it this way?! Do you think Mother would approve? Killing so many innocents for revenge… and then, when you die, how can your soul face her?!"
"Watch your tone, Junichi."
Sakuraba's voice turned icy. "Five years ago, I intended to kill you. But I softened, letting you drift at sea to survive. I saved your life."
"But then, when I was ready to bow out and leave, you returned to this island with a…"
"Troublesome little brat!"
The moment the words left his mouth, hundreds of puppet strings shot from the crown of his head, twisting wildly in the light, transforming into countless thick, dark yellow vines.
Sakuraba's voice echoed again, mechanical and cold like a puppet:
"One matter may be repeated twice, but never thrice. Junichi, since you do not value the life I gave you…"
", then you and this little brat shall both become my puppets!"
Shh-shh!
The dark yellow vines surged forward, rapidly encircling Shanu and Junichi from every angle.
Shanu looked at the writhing, serpentine mass of thick lines.
"Do you still have the strength to fight?" he asked, tilting his head. "If not, I understand."
"…I…I…"
Junichi stared silently at the figure on stage, wiped his tears, and gritted his teeth:
"I won't run, Boss! My father, Sakuraba, as he said himself, has long been dead. The one on stage now is just a malevolent spirit in his shell."
"If he seeks revenge, then I'll wait, let me avenge my father first!"
Shanu looked at Junichi, slightly surprised.
"Take this."
He threw the "Authentic" sword to him. "This ability is tricky. I'll handle the main body; you cut those vines."
Junichi instinctively caught it, standing back-to-back with Shanu.
Swish, swish! Before he could even get used to it, several puppet strings attacked from the side.
He immediately held the sword horizontally, blocking the first wave, then slashed from the side, cutting the thick lines in half instantly.
Such sharpness… Junichi was startled. Even Master Koushirou's Wadou Ichimonji wasn't this sharp.
Shanu looked up, narrowing his eyes at the source of the puppet strings.
"Who allowed you to keep playing tricks up there?!"
He grabbed the nearest vines with both hands, his bulging biceps surging like mountains with raw power, and yanked hard.
"Get down!"
Crack, crack! The edges of the stage split under the force. Sakuraba's wooden, branch-like body was yanked into the air.
What immense strength… Sakuraba squinted.
Though he had seen puppets fail earlier, feeling it applied to himself was entirely different.
But he was no ordinary puppet.
With thought, the soles of his feet opened like two small wooden doors.
Countless puppet strings shot out, piercing the dojo tiles, embedding into the ground, anchoring his body firmly in the air.
No matter how much the vines below pulled, they couldn't budge him.
Next… hmm? Sakuraba's expression changed. A shadow rapidly expanded in his pupils. In his peripheral vision, the ground where Shanu had been standing was empty!
When…?
With no time to think, Sakuraba hurriedly initiated full puppet transformation.
For those he controlled, it would completely annihilate their consciousness.
For himself, turning his body to hardened wood with layered surfaces became the ultimate defensive armor.
Thud!
Shanu grabbed a hanging steel frame from the ceiling, pushing off a rear support pillar, using the leverage to surge forward several meters.
At the moment Sakuraba completed his puppet transformation, Shanu appeared in the air to his left.
"Got you!"
He grinned viciously, punching Sakuraba's left shoulder. The shockwave exploded outward.
The wooden body collapsed, revealing a hollow chest cavity.
Wood splinters bounced off Shanu's muscles, unable to pierce, falling to the ground.
How…? Sakuraba's pupils contracted.
He had tested swords on his body countless times. Even his mastery could only pierce the outer hardened wood, not the core.
Yet this brat's punch pierced through in one blow?
Damn! Even overestimating, this strength far exceeded his expectations. Panic surged after a long time.
Before he could respond, Shanu stepped on him.
The boy's delicate face was close, but grinning like this, to Sakuraba, he was terrifying as a demon.
"You probably don't know, but your feel… it's just like the orange trees back home."
Shanu's grin stretched nearly to his ears. "And unfortunately, in my free time, my favorite thing was hitting those orange trees."
Thud!
Before he finished speaking, Shanu rode on Sakuraba's body, delivering a relentless flurry of heavy, thunderous punches to his chest.
He had practiced hundreds, even thousands of punching sequences on tree trunks and posts daily, accumulating over a year and a half, tens of thousands of strikes.
No sweat was wasted.
Now, the material was nearly identical, and everything was instinctive.
Thud, thud, thud! Punch after punch, the repeated thuds slowly weakened Sakuraba's breathing.
His consciousness began to fade.
No… I can't… I can't fall here!
Sakuraba's career was over!
I should be starting a new identity, new name, to execute the revenge I've long planned!
His right hand trembled, trying to control the puppet strings from his crown to strike back, but felt no feedback.
What…?!
He forced his gaze downward and, in his blurred peripheral vision, could barely see,
Junichi below, wielding his greatsword, was slashing fiercely among the thick vines.
While Sakuraba's main body was restrained, Junichi had already almost completely severed all the puppet strings.
"Last punch!"
Desperation surged. Shanu's low shout sounded in his ear.
Boom!
The surface of the wooden body shattered, severing all connections to the puppet strings.
The unsupported body fell from seven or eight meters, crashing into the ground, creating a huge crater.
Shanu stepped down on his knees, looking back at the spiderweb-like cracks.
Sakuraba's eyes widened in defiance, staring at the ceiling. His gaunt body remained motionless, completely silent.