"Old man, admit it. Your body can no longer support your ambition."
"Heh. Brat, those eyes of yours are quite something."
After fighting Mo Wu for so long, Shiki had already figured out quite a bit about the man's abilities.
Those eyes were the greatest reason this brat had managed to fight him all the way to this point.
Every strike aimed straight for his weaknesses. Somehow, every flaw in his swordsmanship had been laid bare under that gaze.
"Those unusual eyes… brat, come with me. I acknowledge your talent."
"You're qualified to serve under me."
Activating his power, Shiki looked at Mo Wu being launched upward by the rising rock beneath his feet, and genuine approval showed in his eyes.
"You remnant of the old age—just leave your life here quietly!"
"Setting Sun Transformation!"
Letting his body drop freely through the air, Mo Wu twisted mid-fall, carving a beautiful arc in the sky.
The next instant, enormous force drove the Nichirin Blade forward, blazing brilliantly as it slashed toward Shiki!
"Lion: Thousand Slice Valley!"
Shiki neither retreated nor dodged. Black-red lightning wrapped around Kogarashi like the mane of an enraged lion.
He swung upward to meet Mo Wu's strike head-on.
In that instant, the two forces collided in midair. Fire and lightning exploded outward, vaporizing the rain around them once again.
Shiki flipped backward to avoid the expanding shockwave, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"Hey, brat. That state of yours won't last much longer, will it?"
"So what?"
"It's enough to cut you down!"
"Sun Breathing: Sun Halo Dragon!"
Seeing the roaring fire dragon charging toward him, the smile vanished from Shiki's lips, and his brows locked together.
"Brats this age really are troublesome. Lion: Hundred Slashes!"
The blazing red arc slashed again toward the golden-haired lion. The Nichirin Blade screamed through the air, dragon and flame locking onto him.
Clang!
Sparks exploded. Kogarashi, like the claws of a lion, tore through the fire dragon beneath its black-red lightning and sent Mo Wu flying back.
"What benefit is there in dragging this out with me?!"
"Karp and Sengoku still haven't come. They may have already given up on capturing me!"
"If this keeps going, you'll die here sooner or later! Letting me go is giving yourself a way out too!"
Shiki's stamina was running dry.
If he wanted to use his Devil Fruit power and fly away from Marineford right now, then he would have to overdraw his body by force.
And beneath them was the sea.
If his strength ran out midway, he would fall straight into the ocean and become food for Sea Kings.
That was why the lion kept wasting breath on words. But the man before him refused to give him even the slightest chance to recover.
The moment he let his guard slip, another slash came at him.
"What exactly are you fighting for?!"
"Wealth? Power? Women?"
"Leave this place, and I can satisfy every desire you have!"
He knocked Mo Wu back once more, fury beyond description blazing in his eyes.
"An apple."
"W-what?"
As he swung Kogarashi downward and used the pressure wave to launch himself upward, Shiki was left dumbfounded.
"What did you just say?"
With the blazing sword lifting upward, Mo Wu answered in a calm voice, "I had two apples. You destroyed one of them."
An apple?
Just because of… an apple?!
"Hahahahahahahaha! Brat, I acknowledge you!"
Using the Float-Float Fruit to drift backward, Shiki's eyes fell on the flash of red visible inside Mo Wu's coat, and all the anger in them turned into admiration.
"A powerful possessive instinct. The courage to swing your blade at the strong. Greed, arrogance, pride!"
"And the freedom to do whatever you want! Brat, you should have been a pirate!"
"I'll ask you one more time—will you come with me and rule this world?!"
"Shiki, what are you afraid of?"
Mo Wu ignored the invitation completely and answered with mockery instead.
"Afraid? How could I—"
As he batted Mo Wu aside with another sword strike, Golden Lion paused, momentarily confused, before finally seeming to understand.
"Brat! Are you saying I'm begging you for mercy?!"
Black-red lightning crackled at his side—then disappeared without a trace.
Cough!
He spat out a mouthful of blood, and his expression turned incomparably grave.
His stamina had dropped even lower. The wheel in his skull was beginning to throb again, and his entire body was growing stiff.
Had he reached his limit after so many consecutive clashes?
Should he surrender?
At worst, he would just end up in Impel Down.
But when he thought of the legends surrounding that great prison beneath the sea, and the utter helplessness brought by Seastone…
Shiki fell silent.
Could he ever come back out of there?
"I won't let you go."
"Shiki, your era passed along with Roger's. You've grown old."
"Death of the body isn't the frightening thing."
Mo Wu's gaze pierced through the rain and locked onto Shiki's eyes.
"When the spirit dies, that's true death."
"A lion frozen inside Impel Down—what ambition would it have left? What freedom?"
"Better to die beneath my blade, Shiki!"
For once, Shiki did not answer with anger. Instead, a strange light flickered in his eyes.
Roger… is this the so-called new era you spoke of?
What a damned age.
"Brat, you're right." Shiki's voice was low and hoarse.
A lion should never be locked in a cage!
Only the freest pirate had the right to rule this sea!
But in the next instant, the lion's gaze shifted past Mo Wu, toward the harbor behind him, and something thoughtful entered his eyes.
Through Observation Haki, he could sense hundreds of warships approaching the harbor.
"Hahahaha! So I really did get lectured by the young."
"Brat, you're right. A lion should never be caged."
He sheathed both swords at his waist. Haki gathered around his right fist, and in a single instant he blasted Mo Wu away, blade and all.
"Tell me your name."
Looking at the man rising again in the distance, still ready to charge back in, Shiki laughed openly, without the slightest sign of dejection.
"Mo Wu."
"Good."
"Then remember this, Mo Wu…"
Rain pattered softly down.
Shiki tilted his head back and looked at the sky.
Wasn't it weather like this on that day too?
The Battle of Edd War…
Since then, how long had it been since he last revealed his true ambition?
He lifted both hands to the great wheel lodged in his skull and let out a sigh.
Perhaps the true Golden Lion, the one with a will of absolute freedom, had already died in that battle. The one still living now was merely Shiki, the user of the Float-Float Fruit.
Crack!
A sharp sound rang out.
In Mo Wu's shocked gaze, Shiki suddenly ripped the wheel out of his own head! Blood sprayed outward wildly!
"I may long for freedom, but how could I ever die under your blade?"
"I am Golden Lion!"
His will erupted.
Black-red lightning went berserk around the lion king like a raging storm. His roar shook the entirety of Marineford once more.
The wave of power blasted a hole through the dense black clouds overhead.
The rain stopped falling. Moonlight poured down, cloaking the lion in silver armor.
Golden Lion Shiki
Sin: Black
Combat Level: Second Tier High (temporary)
Talents: Lion's Heart, Float-Float Fruit
Skills: Omitted, all three forms of Haki (peak)
How… how was this possible?!
Looking at Golden Lion's skull, blood still pouring from it, Mo Wu's face filled with disbelief.
A mass of black-red energy had filled the damaged part of Shiki's brain, forcibly stabilizing his physical state.
And that was…
Conqueror's Haki!
"I've seen the future. A man with that kind of will… won't be content to remain a Marine forever."
A relieved smile spread across Shiki's face. It seemed that with his Haki raised to its utmost extreme, he had seen something incredible.
The wound on his neck split open again, blood gushing out in streams.
Golden Lion no longer cared about such things. With his face flushed red, he drew Kogarashi and Oto once more.
"Brat, let me teach you one last thing."
"Remember this—only conviction and will stand above everything else!"
"Lion's Majesty: Ten Thousand Slice Valley!"
The twin blades, wrapped in lightning, unleashed a vast slash that brushed past Mo Wu's stunned face and shot toward the sea behind him.
Black-red lightning roared inside the sword-light, and the trajectory of the slash ravaged the ocean's surface.
Countless water molecules were blasted apart into fine droplets, forming an enormous wall of mist.
Boom!
Mo Wu slowly turned his head, already guessing what had happened.
The sea…
had been cut in half!
The tremendous ocean current roared forward, devouring the warships on both sides, tearing them apart and crushing them into wreckage before sweeping the remains down to the sands at the ocean floor.
Crack!
The blades shattered.
Kogarashi and Oto crumbled away into the dust of history.
The crimson glow faded, revealing the pale body of the Nichirin Blade once more.
"Talent activation in progress."
Ding!
The familiar sound rang by his ear, but Mo Wu barely had the heart to care.
Feeling the apple in his coat suddenly grow heavier, he looked up.
There, before him, still stood a lion of freedom with his head bowed low.
"Kid, you've done something truly incredible."
Golden light flickered. Borsalino's unhurried tone carried a trace of astonishment.
"What? Jealous?"
Borsalino: …
Next time, this old man is absolutely not speaking to him first.
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