Post by BlacKitten on Jun 28, 2017 16:15:44 GMT -5
Recently, one of his former accomplices, who traveled many voyages with him, had betrayed him and had attempted to kill his little sister. She was a mentally and emotionally unstable serial killer with a Devil Fruit power of the paramecia type. He knew the day would come when that she would target both him and his younger sister next. There was simply no escaping it. It wasn’t something he could talk her out of. That woman’s name was Scarlette Grimm-Rosa. She held a strong, rooted belief that all lives are imprisoned in this world and the only way to ‘liberate’ them was to take their lives away. It was that twisted ideology immediately flashed out red flags in his mind from the very start.
After being ambushed by a surprise assault by that woman, he clashed against her in a long, hard-fought battle. Coincidentally, the marines and agents of the World Government were present at that time as they sought after the criminal with the newly established bounty of seventy-million beri. That woman had inhuman levels of pain tolerance but was still susceptible to damage nonetheless. Her scythe had been broken by none other than him, and most of her physical damage came from him. Eventually, she was taken down in battle due to massive quantity of blood loss. In the end, he triumphed at the end but lost a former accomplice since then.
However, his troubles didn’t end there. As one threat had fallen, another had risen.
By the time he searched for the Revolutionary member, Ara, and his younger sister, Rebecca, he found their bodies motionlessly lying on the deck. Their conditions weren’t as optimistic as simply being knocked unconscious. They were burning with a fever and were unresponsive to any stimuli. Evidences revealed that this wasn’t a natural cause either; someone must have done something to these two girls. The cause could be poison, venom, or a virus. He knew nothing about medicine; the area was completely outside of his scope of expertise. Whatever it was that led them to their weakened, dying states, he brought them along and gone into hiding. He went out hunting for doctors around town, but in the end, the doctors of Eldoran Island couldn’t treat the girls no matter who he had spoken to. They identified the cause as poisoning, but none of them had any way to cure it. According to one of their estimations, the girls had three days left to live. If nothing was done soon, these two would die.
He had already lost one accomplice, not that he minded seeing it was Scarlette. But, if these two were to die, then he truly would be left all alone. His purpose to live would be shattered like glass.
Only one shred of hope remained. Far out into the seas, there existed a place known as Drum Island where some of the world’s best doctors resided. That was all he needed to know. He wasted no time purchasing an Eternal Pose that would lead him to his destination. Due to his clash with Scarlette, their ship had sustained heavy amounts damage with a few giant gaping holes along the exterior walls. It didn’t take a shipwright to know that this vessel shouldn’t be used for sailing any longer, but he had no other choice.
Without wasting any time, he set sail into the seas immediately, putting every single second to good use. The girls were resting in their beds, placed in the same room where he can look after both of them efficiently. This would be the second time that he used an Eternal Pose to navigate his way through the Grand Line.
By the time Drum Island was within view, more than forty-eight hours had passed. For more than two days, he had to watch them suffer as their vitality gradually diminishes.
He would soon learn that this was a winter island, and the make matters worse, there was an ongoing blizzard storm thrashing across the snowy lands. Ara and Rebecca were under a terribly high fever, and their bodies were burning hot as a result. They were in no condition to be moving on their own. After having both of them share a single blanket that encased them like a cocoon, he ended up carrying the both of them while treading across the lands. The journey alone may very well kill the both of them, but if they had any chance of surviving, the two of them must survive this snow storm.
Impatient and frustrated at the sluggish pace of their ship, he splayed out his wings and carried the both of them in his arms as they flew across the remaining distance to the island beyond, significantly speeding up the process.
...
Strong winds continuously blew from the side as he trudged through the deep layer of pure white snow in the vast landscape that stretches beyond what could be seen. Pine trees were scattered sparsely in the area. Its prickly greenery covered in white; its roots and trunk buried completely beneath the white blanket. The crisp, frigid air carried forth powdery snow. His vision of his surroundings was constantly blurred by a gradient of white and grey; his eyes could never seem to stop squinting even with the hood blocking the top half of his face. The howling and whistling of the blizzard nearly muffled his footsteps entirely. Every breath he takes had manifested in the form of warm puffy steam that would immediately be blown off to the side.
Cladded in a black cloak, Pluto strode across the harsh climate, all while carrying two other individuals on his back. He slouched forth with each step to counterbalance the weight; his arms wrapped around and gripped tightly on the thick fabric of the blanket. He couldn’t stop panting, almost to the point of wheezing, but he never dared stopped to rest. In a battle against time, he hadn’t the luxury to care about his own wellbeing, not when both his younger sister and Ara were about to die. This was the last day.
The boy’s legs ached, yet the cold weather numbed the discomfort away. He was gradually losing feeling throughout his limbs. His teeth clattered on their own. His sweat seemed to freeze the moment that try to appear. His superhuman stamina and strength that led him this far had already proved that he was no ordinary human, but he was reaching his limits. There was only so much energy he could wield. The only fuel remaining that drove his legs to keep on walking was sheer willpower – the desire to save them. Even if it means sacrificing his own life, he would protect these two no matter the cost.
This treacherous blizzard was worse than most islands of North Blue. His tolerance to the cold may be higher than most, but he was being heavily crippled by the bitter, icy temperatures. He had very little clue as to where he was going. The natural thing to do simply seemed to be heading towards the inland of the island. There were no paths or signs to lead him; if there were any, the snow did a good job covering them up.
In the far distance, he could make out a vague sight of what appeared to be manmade structures that were covered in white. Through the thick atmosphere, there were faint lights that he could barely pick up. If he had his full strength, he could reach over there in an instant; he thought. Grinding his teeth, the boy mustered what little power he had left to take his very next step that immediately buried itself into the snow. Nature stubbornly resisted and rejected him as the frigid winds battering against him and the deep snow slowing his strides.
Almost there..., hang in there, you two.
...
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The surface of the walls appeared to be beige in color. The triangular rooftop was covered in a snow, so he couldn’t tell what its former color was. On top, there was a chimney where smoke arises and blended with the breeze of flakes. The lights informed him that there were people within this two-story tall house. The surrounding houses were followed the same architectural design.
Footsteps on the inside could be heard, and soon the door opened. A welcoming wave of warmth brushed past his face as an elderly woman stood by the doorway with an upright spine, glaring with strict looking eyes, “Hmm!?” She sharpened her scrutiny at the young man who gazed back with a look of determination. Beneath those piercing, strong violet-hued eyes was a smirk. That grin wasn’t directed towards her but a facial gesture to indicate victory. The skin of his face was very pale, and above all else, his body could no longer stand upright as he dropped to his knees that caved in under the weight of three bodies. Leaning forward, he collapsed at the doorstep.
The old woman gazed down and enlarged her eyes at the sight of two others resting on top of this young man’s back. A cold, freezing hand suddenly grasp around her ankle.
Wheezing and panting, the boy turned his head to the side and looked up, “Please! Save these two! I’ll... do anything you want.” His grip gradually weakened as his eyes slowly closed shut. The entirety of his body went numb. His consciousness soon faded.
...
Warmth flooded into his body that soaked it up like a sponge, and yet, he felt unusually heavy. Perhaps he was simply too lethargic to move, but he couldn’t seem to turn or roll over. He definitely felt that his posture involved lying horizontally on his side, resting against a soft, cushy surface – likely a bed. Sluggishly, he opened his eyes that soon shot wide open.
A pair of arms was wrapped around his torso as a smaller body pressed against him with a head tucked right beneath his chin. He could feel gentle breaths correspond to the subtle expansion and contraction of a living being that clung onto him tautly, treating him like an oversized teddy bear. Without even having to look, he could already guess who it was, but he looked anyways. His younger sister, Rebecca, had him completely under her clutches as she slept peacefully beside him. This habit of hers was nothing out of the ordinary as the youth had always been a very clingy person around him.
Normally, he would resist, but the relief of seeing her alive brought ease to his heart. Gently, he leaned up while repositioning his sister’s posture to lie on the bed on her own. The ease in which he was able to do just that only proved how weakened the girl’s state was. The healthy version of his sister would either wake up immediately upon losing physical contact of him or subconsciously tighten her grasp around him to prevent his escape.
How long was I asleep for?
A sweeping glance led him to notice that he was within someone else’s room that contained an active fireplace that filled the space in a natural warmth. There was another bed on the opposite side of the room where Ara lied on top of, sound asleep with a folded up, wet towel resting on her forehead. Knowing that she was alive eased his heart a bit more. Both of them seemed to have survived the trip through the snowstorm, but their faces were still flushed in red, still burning with the same raging high fever.
From the entrance, the elderly woman stepped in, stopping her eyes at the boy who was sitting upright. “Ah, so you’re awake,” she said with a soft smile.
“Thank you so much for taking care of them,” Pluto subtlety lowered his head as if to bow.
“Don’t thank me just yet,” her face turned grim and gloomy. “I don’t know what happened to you folks, but you’re not from around here I’m betting. Your friends here have poison coursing through them. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and without proper equipment and such, I cannot make an antidote for them. All I’ve done so far was help ease some of their symptoms.”
His face turned serious, “if you can’t cure them, then there are other doctors around that can.” He wasn’t sure if this lady was a doctor herself, but supposedly, this island was renowned for their high quality doctors.
The woman shook her head, “Sure, someone around here might know how to find a cure. But, by the time an antidote could be made, it would be too late for the both of them. They don’t have much time left.”
His face darkened. After painstakingly making it all the way here, it was all for naught. He was too slow.
They’re... going to die?
Time and time again, he had been shoved into a tight spot, but this time, it wasn’t his life being threatened here. This wasn’t a matter of taking down an unsurmountable enemy where he could solve it through combat; this was a matter of finding a way to save their lives from a deadly substance in their bodies. If there wasn’t enough time to form an antidote to save them, then was there really nothing he could do to help? His primary skillsets involved spying, infiltration, and fighting; none of which were at all useful in this situation.
“How much time do they have left?” He asked in despair while balling his hands into fists as if to embrace himself from an emotional impact.
“Hmm..., at the rate their bodies are declining, I’d say they have around five hours left.”
Only five hours!?
“I’m sorry. I’ll leave you some time to think to yourself,” the old lady turned around and left the room.
What... do I do?
The sole motivation that had driven him to reach new heights and push him past his limits was the desire to protect his younger sister. But, what good is strength and power in a situation like this? Poison? He had been so fixated on dealing against fighters and the likes that he had never considered something so intangible as an obstacle. There was nothing he could do to counteract something like poison. If it’s already too late to make an antidote, then even the best doctors in the world wouldn’t be able to save them. Was it really going to end like this? Was this the best he could do?
“Pluto...,” a meek tone called out to him. As he lifted his head up, he saw Ara lying in bed with her eyes closed, but she was speaking to him despite still appearing to be asleep. “Please..., run away.”
“?” Raising a brow, he didn’t expect her to mutter those words of all things. At first, it was questionable if she was really awake or was merely talking in her sleep. “Ara..., did you... hear all that?” His heart sank at the realization that his brief conversation with the woman could have been overheard.
“Yes,” she responded. “I’m going to die,” her tone seemed to have bother acknowledged and accepted that outcome for there didn’t seem to be any sign of fear in her words. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t protect your sister. I never got to see his face. All I remember was feeling an extremely dangerous presence right before I lost consciousness. A presence that appeared out of nowhere, one stronger than anyone that we’ve come across, it was stronger than Scarlette, stronger than Libeccio, and even stronger than Varuna.” She paused to catch her breath as talking seemed to tire her out.
Immediately, he rushed by to her bedside. All he could do was oversee her wellbeing. “Just rest..., save your strength,” he spoke out of concern and pity.
“You must run away, Pluto. He’s already here. I can sense him,” the girl opened her eyes halfway to see his face. At the very least, she didn’t mind if he was the last face she ever saw.
“What!?” The boy looked alarmed from hearing her spouting out words of warning now of all times.
“He’s outside. You need to get away from him. You cannot win. The difference in power is simply too big,” she said in a weak tone of voice.
The one who poisoned these two is outside? Then..., he followed me all the way here?
Just how long had he been asleep for? More importantly, how could such a person know exactly his location on this island? No, that actually wouldn’t be too difficult. With the amount of snow outside, all one would need to do was follow his footprints.
Without another word, he sprinted out of the room, and then jumped over the railings to land directly onto the first floor, skipping the flight of stairs entirely. Whatever amount of sleep he got seemed to have lend his body to recover quite a bit, at least enough to pull off stunts like this.
“W-Where do you think you’re going?” the old lady asked, surprised to see the boy being able to move this well already. For him to be this active, he seemed to have already recovered much of his strength. Given the pitiful state she found him in, no ordinary human should be able to recover this quickly.
“I’ll be back..., I hope,” there a mix of determination and uncertainty in his visage, but he had no other choice but to confront the poisoner. If there was a solution to all of this, then he felt that this was the only way to get close to it.
Pushing the front door wide open, the cloaked figure immediately felt the cold battling against the warmth that his body had just absorbed during his rest. Closing the door shut, he walked head on towards the ongoing blizzard that seemed even more violent and hazardous than he remembered.
Someone stronger than Varuna? Was she exaggerating?
Varuna was a fishman who ran a business of enslaving humans. Pluto had fought against him two islands ago, and the outcome as to who won was rather questionable. In the end, Ara had been the one to finish the aquatic monster off with a thrust of her spear, but he was the one who weakened the human slaver to a great extent after utilizing his last resort. Had Ara not been around, on a one on one fight, he probably would have lost back then. For there to already be someone out there right now who’s stronger than the likes of that fishman, he wouldn’t even be able to fathom what sort of a monster is out here in the snowstorm.
Ara had always seemed to have this mysterious intuition about her as if she could see or sense something that he could not. She could seemingly know where individuals are around her despite walls and obstacles obstructing her vision. From the way she spoke to him, she seemed to be able to gauge out the level of strength an individual possesses as she would warn him whenever someone dangerous was nearby. If she wanted him to run away, then that indicated someone stronger than him was close by, and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her side just like that. He didn’t plan to abandon them just like that.
Wearing his black cloak and hood on, he leered at the blur of furious white that whipped and lashed with the powerful air currents. He had gone out deep enough that even the buildings could no longer be seen under these perilous conditions. Under his hood were bat ears, honing in on his surroundings, capturing soundwaves to pinpoint anyone nearby. However, the howling cries of the winds and the rush of snow was all he could hear, loud enough to muffle any potential approaching individual.
“You must be Pluto,” a voice sounded through as an obscured silhouette approached from the front.
Without another thought, he slid one foot outwards through the snow to widen his stance, knees bending to wind up the spring to a potential lunge. Even with the ears of a bat, he had a hard time picking up any sound of the man’s breath or footsteps due to the blizzard blasting cold air all over the place. The fact that his name was known had already offered some implications. Ever since Ara warned him about this person, he wasn’t sure what to expect. “And..., who are you?”
The silhouette appeared from the gust of snow, soon revealing his full appearance as he halted with a gap of ten meters between them. Standing six feet tall, his physique was well defined by his black trench coat with a high collar and a belt. His hands were covered in a pair of black gloves. His face belonged to that of a youthful individual with pale skin, sharp narrow chin, black hair, and dark eyes.
“I am... The Plague,” this young man, who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, introduced himself in a confident and lucid manner. “Believe it or not, I’ve journeyed all the way from the New World to meet you. Well... I also had other errands to run as well, but I’ve mainly come all the way out here just for you.”
Right off the bat, Pluto could already guess what types of people are involved. He wasn’t famous or well-known for anything. Someone, who he has never met before, knowing his name was very unusual unless hired to eliminate him. His background had led many to come after for his life. As someone who had always kept a low profile in this world, only the organization from the underworld would bother with him. After all, they were the reason for him to take his younger sister and abscond from his home island. They were the ones that forced him down this path of survival. Many assassins and fighters had been sent forth to erase the siblings’ existence, but ultimately, the fact that he was still standing here meant that they had all failed to accomplish that task. With each battle and struggle to hold on for dear life and to protect the only family member he had left, he was now a completely different person than when he first left his home in terms of combative prowess.
However, upon entering the Grand Line, the term ‘New World’ had always been a legendary section of the seas in his mind. Supposedly, many of the world’s top tier pirates and the likes lurked in the second half - incomparable to the ones found in the Paradise half. After all, for this half of the line to be called ‘Paradise’ in the first place meant that in comparison, the ‘New World’ must have been more akin to hell than anything else.
“What business do you have with me?” He said in a cold, unfriendly manner.
“To put it bluntly, my profession is assassination, and the organization has sent me to kill you,” he ended his statement with a soft smile. It wasn’t a genuine smile.
Pluto’s face darkened; he also wanted to put out a certain matter bluntly, “You poisoned them, didn’t you?” The heart of the subject for him was that Rebecca and Ara were about to die because of the person standing right in front of him.
“Yes, I did,” The young man admitted without hesitance, having no need to hide such a fact. “But, as you may have already noticed, the poison doesn’t immediately kill them even though I very well could have ended their lives in a heartbeat. This isn’t just because I’m sadistic. Mainly, it’s so that you’ll take me seriously. A prey is most dangerous when he’s completely cornered.”
“And..., do you have the antidote?” His seemingly naive question served to test the waters as to how honest and open this man truly was.
“Hmm..., who knows? Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. One thing is for certain; they don’t have much time left to live. So, what will you do now?” He taunted, indirectly holding those two girls as hostage.
I’ll kill you!
Bloodlust oozed out of the boy; Pluto clenched his teeth as anger boiled internally within him. The way how this assassin treated the lives of Rebecca and Ara so lightheartedly caused every fiber of muscle in his body to want to attack. What choice did he have left? He may be dancing right into the enemy’s plan to engage in a fight, but this was the only thing left he could do. There was nothing he could bargain him for. It was his life that this man sought after, not the lives of the girls. Coming after him directly was one thing, but involving the lives of others made him feel responsible. Ara had nothing to do with this; she –at the very least- shouldn’t have to die because of his circumstances.
Immediately, he shifted his weight and compressed his legs in preparation to spring forth to attack. “UGH!” He suddenly staggered a step back as a sharp pain from his solar plexus stunned his entire body. Breathing suddenly became awkward and out of sync with the rest of his body.
W-What just happened? I’m already hit? But... he didn’t do anything.
“Humph!” A small grin grew on the assassin’s expression. “Are you confused? You were thinking about charging straight at me to attack, so I merely intercepted your commitment on that decision.”
Gritting his teeth, Pluto raised his arms to guard his centerline – one hand leading at chest level and another hand further back at abdomen level. With one foot leading the other, his torso angled out to the side, minimizing the surface area of his body that’s exposed towards the front. He wasn’t entirely sure how this man was doing it. All he knew was that he could be struck at this distance, and he left himself wide open when attacked. His mind was conflicted between cautious and the urge to take action.
“Good defensive stance,” the foe commended. Soon, he took on an almost identical stance, the difference being were that gloved hands were curled into fists. The shape of his fists was slightly off than a conventional one. The second knuckle of his index fingers protruded outwards; the thumbs were tucked right behind the distal phalanges of the index fingers. “What a coincidence. I like this kind of stance too.”
What’s up with the shape of his fists? I’ve never seen it before.
With a heightened level caution, Pluto bolted forth while maintaining his defensive posture. Swiftly, his opponent slid his stance two meters to the side before the boy even finished closing the gap. Normally, this kind of timing would be considered too early if it was meant for evading.
“ARGH!” The boy’s leading foot seemed to have spasm, leading his momentum to trip forward until he dropped onto his front knee. However, the location of where he was struck wasn’t his foot but a particular spot at the side of his lower leg. His common peroneal nerve was struck. From a ten meter gap to a five meter gap, he tried to get close, but this man stopped him half way. From the way the man’s lower arm was extended outwards, the assassin must have struck him at a distance using some form of a punch. However, the scariest aspect wasn’t the distance but the speed. Even with his well-trained eyes, it was all just a blur to him at best, and the continuous blasting stream of air and snow only obscured his vision even further. If he couldn’t react to the attack, evading would be near impossible. Moreover, in addition to that speed was an impeccable level of accuracy and precision. From being hit the second time, it became clear that this man could target his pressure points even at this distance. Hitting them at close range would be considered difficult already, but to do so at a distance with such ease was a truly impressive feat.
Sprouting from his shoulder sockets were a pair of thick, leathery black, demonic wings. The rest of his body remained human. These giant animalistic appendages overlapped themselves in front of him; its massive surface area blocked his entire body from the enemy’s field of vision. From there, the zoan-user charged straight on ahead with wings that were as hard as steel.
“Using physiology that I’m not adept at exploiting..., I see...,” The assassin soon found that he’s unable to strike at a weak point from the front anymore. Indeed, he was unfamiliar with the physiology of a bat’s wings to know of any weak points to target. This was quite an effective strategy, but...
“UGH!” Pluto arched his back as a sharp pain originates from behind. Without him noticing, his opponent was right behind him having struck him at the kidney region.
“Not a bad idea, but your wings can’t protect you from every angle.”
One of the wings swung out quickly, fanning at nothing but cold air by the time it swept at his blind-spot. His enemy evaded it with a short leap back. Turning partly around, Pluto kept his eyes locked onto his target with a sidelong glare.
He’s fast!
In all of his past battles, rarely did he struggle with the issue of being too slow. Outmaneuver his opponent was his forte, yet it was he who was being outmaneuvered here. The rest of his body soon took on the remaining transformation to reach the complete hybrid state of a human and a vampire bat. A layer of dark fur grew beneath his clothing as his hands and feet turned pitch black and his fingers and toes became claws. Taking off his hood, he revealed his large, pointed, cup-shaped ears at the top of his head. Unable to gain the upper hand as a human, he now resorted to his animalistic form. He ate the Batto Batto no Mi, Model: Vampire Bat, making him a Vampire Bat Human.
“So, I finally get to see your Devil Fruit power in its complete form,” the confident man stood idly still as the zoan-user dashed directly towards him, closing in the distance for hand-to-hand combat. With budging an inch, he took the first punch to the guts, a strike powerful enough to blow away the surrounding winds, creating a moment of peace within a small zone that isolated the two of them from the snowstorm.
What!?
As he paused in place, Pluto furrowed his brows as his fist had made direct contact, and yet, his opponent didn’t even react, not even a change in expression as his attack landed. Having fought against Scarlette, he already ruled out the possibly that this was mere pain tolerance. Against her, his attacks felt like they were hitting against normal flesh and bones, but against this man, he felt as if he just punched an iron statue.
What is his body made of?
Retracting back his fist and hammering forth his other fist, the zoan-user aimed to attack once more, but in synchrony with his timing, his adversary retaliated with the exact same move, one that matched his level of power and speed exactly as if to mock him. Two opposing fists slip past one another, crashing into the other’s torso.
“Ngh!” It really did feel as if he was struck by one of his attacks. His body began to falter, and while he landed his punch, his opponent remained unmoved. The assassin followed through with a swift second blow; hurling the shorter fighter dozens of meters away until the raging white storm obscured him out of sight.
The air in his lungs was forcefully knocked out of his throat followed by saliva and blood. That second punch was completely different than the first. While the first blow served to mock him, the second one felt several times heavier and denser. Plunging down a short snowy slope, he tumbled until his body stopped on its own as he lied on his back. His chest rose and fall; each breath emerged out as a puff of steam.
It felt like he had been repeatedly charging in while completely blind. His senses were greatly hindered due to the blizzard. Sight, scent, and sound, he couldn’t fully rely on any of them. And yet, his opponent, who doesn’t even possess animalistic senses, could perform just fine under these conditions. In the same environment, why was there such a disparity in their abilities to sense one another?
“Get up!” A voice barked through the howling winds. “You’re not done yet, right? You can do better than this, can’t you? Surely I didn’t journey all the way out here just to waste my time on a complete scrub. The organization sees you as a threat, so show me what they mean because I don’t feel threatened in slightest. If you don’t take me seriously; your friends will die!”
Twitch Form: Shadow Blitz
The assassin shifted his eyes to the side, turning around as his airborne target was aloft off the ground, appearing suddenly from behind. The speed of the zoan-user had reached an entirely different level than before. An almost invisibly fast punch struck him in the core just like before, and with greater speed came along greater power to back it up. A streak of violet could be seen as electricity dazzled out the hand upon impact. His face tensed, a sign of discomfort as his body lurched ever so slightly forward. While the hardness of his body armored him from the physical assault, it was the discharged current of electricity that he had no means to counteract, making him lose control, even stunning him a bit. His feet slid back across the snowy ground as repercussion of receiving such a powerful blow.
It didn’t stop there. Pluto relentlessly fired out a barrage of electric-coated fists at high speeds. Each of his arms was like a jackhammer, repeatedly battering the target nonstop.
Crossing his arms, The Plague soon found himself having to block in order to ease up taking on these hits. He dashed back to gain some distance, zigzagging side to side while doing so. Despite that, his adversary was able to follow along with the nonlinear path while maintaining the onslaught of zapping jabs.
Suddenly, the zoan-user broke the chained combo and backed off a short distance, crossing his arms before lashing them diagonally downwards.
Phantom Claw!
From the extremities of the tips of his claws, he unleashed a pair of five crescent slashes of wind in the formation of an ‘X’. The projection crashed into the assassin’s forearms, but with an outward swing of his arms, the man easily dispersed the attack that soon became part of the icy winds of the storm. His slicing attack left not a single mark on the man who brushed it aside. There was not even a single tear on the fabric of his sleeves.
What!? Not even his clothes are sliced!
“Is that it?” asked the man who lowered his arms. “You increased your speed and power, and yet you still can’t damage me?”
Razor Form!
Black claws on his hands, feet, and wings elongated, taking on a sharper and deadlier structure. His extremities were akin to that of blades of a knife or short sword, easily capable of slicing through human limbs with a single swipe.
Swooping in, the slicing beast slashed down from above, clashing against the man’s raised forearm. Even as he pressed the tip of his claws to scrape against the surface of the arm, it was as effective as trying to cut steel with a butter knife. Without pause, he unleashed another relentless barrage of strikes consisting of swipes from his hands and wings, but with each assault, his opponent parried and blocked with a single arm. No matter how rapid his movements were and no matter how tricky the angle of his attacks was, none of his razor-sharp attacks could make it past the single defending arm.
Why can’t I... cut him?
As he dashed in to thrust forth his dagger-like claws, his wrist was instantly snatched as the enemy shifted to the side. He was reeled in by a tugging force as a knee hammered into his guts. His body concaved, coughing out air and saliva, “GUARH!”
The assassin lowered his leg with a sharp drop, stomping his boot down on top of the zoan user’s foot; he smoothly transitioned into a rising elbow, striking the hybrid in the jawline from below. The pinning foot raised once more, thrusting out to slam the torso and hurl the winged fighter off into the distance before a crash could be heard against the snow. “It’s no use! I can foresee your attacks before you even make them. Next, you’re going to flap your wings!”
True to the enemy’s words, Pluto’s wings seemingly vanished for a moment as he unleashed a massive wall of condensed air to bulldoze anything down in its path.
“Oh?” The Plague positioned out a single gloved hand as the wind wall crashed into the palm. He remained immovable as the ranged assault dispersed into a forceful breeze. Just as the blur subsided, the zoan-user was already within range to attack after using the wall as a cover for him to close in.
Once again, he clashed his forearm against the black claws of the bat-human. “Keh!” But, his arm went numb. Violet cackling discharged from his opponent’s hands. While these claws cannot bypass his defense, they cannot stop the electricity from disrupting his muscle control. Very soon, he was forced to evade that barrage of physical assaults which rained towards him from the front. He avoided the claws entirely, having to deflect them by pressing against the opponent’s forearms as he lurched and slipped around each incoming attack masterfully.
“ARUGH!” Pluto felt a phantom force struck him once again in a pressure point. As long as his opponent points those fists at him, he could be hit in an instant even at a distance. His judgement of distance had always led him to believe that a punch that’s physically out of range couldn’t reach him; a bad habit to have against someone who can extend that range.
Within a single second, before he could even recover, several more of those pinpoint accurate punches shot forth, striking him in various spots on his body, each induced a terrible shriek of pain. “ARGHHHHH!” Every part of him screamed signals of agony; even his internal organs were acting out of whack. Dropping onto both knees and hands, he panted and sweated as his eyes twitched uncontrollably.
“If you keep getting hit in your vital spots, you’ll die,” the assassin warned.
Pluto returned back into his regular hybrid form, claws retracting back to their normal length.
Power, speed, accuracy, precision, endurance, and timing, he’s superior to me in every aspect. Ara wasn’t kidding back then. She knew that I’d be up against someone stronger than myself. Well then..., I’ll just have to surpass my own current self.
Darting straight towards his greatest foe yet, his arms were completely lowered by his sides. His face darkened. A calm bloodlust radiated from him, no longer driven by wild, untamed emotions. Abandoning any martial posture, he concentrated only on his mind.
The figure in the black trench coat extended his fist to attack to enclosing foe at a distance. His target swiftly lurched to the side, evading it gracefully before entering into range. “I missed!?” For the first time in a long while, someone managed to dodge one of his extended punches. His head swung to the side upon being hooked by a fist smashing against his face.
That wasn’t fluke.
...
The battle between Pluto and The Plague continued on for the next two hours as the blizzard continued to rampage throughout the winter island. It was a completely one-sided battle with the zoan-user on the losing end. No matter how much he was pressured by the time constraints of Rebecca and Ara’s remaining hours, his emotions could only fuel his wrath so much. By avoiding meaningless grandiose techniques that wouldn’t work on such an opponent to begin with, he had been conserving his energy for only attacks that counts, allowing him to last this long as the frigid temperatures caused his body to use up more resources to simply maintain his internal heat. He had received a myriad of blows and had been struck countless times in vital pressure points to the point that blood had escaped his mouth several times already. The accumulation of internal damage was tearing his body apart, yet he persistently proceeded to fight as if his life depended on it.
Even with two precious lives at stake here, he had enough composure to avoid fighting recklessly. As shown throughout this entire battle, if he so much as lowers his guard even a little bit, he would be mercilessly struck down. An immense amount of concentration and focus was required to keep his defense up while still being mobile enough to unleash attacks which have always ended up short in doing any real damage. His adversary was clearly not wearing any protective garment as far as he could tell, yet there seemed to be some form of invisible armor being worn. His knuckles of his hands had turned red from the constant hitting in conjunction with the cold.
If nothing else, the assassin’s breath was growing heavy, an indication that he at least felt some form of fatigue as a result of clashing with his prime target. There was something very subtle but noticeable about his opponent. Each time he knocks Pluto down, the boy would continuously stands back up as a better fighter than before. More than once, he was able to avoid his ranged punches. That tremendous potential for growth was what made this boy dangerous. It wasn’t about what he could do now; it was about what he can do in the future. “What an impressive stamina you’ve got there; I didn’t think you would last this long. But, it seems you’ve nearing your limit. It’s astounding that you’re still standing after taking so many hits to your vital spots. It seems you’ve nothing left to show me. I’ve been entertained long enough; it’s time for me to kill you seriously.”
“Are you sure?” Pluto panted as beads of freezing cold sweat flowed down the sides of his neck. “I still have my trump card.”
“A little late in the game to be using it, wouldn’t you say?”
“In case you truly carried an antidote, I didn’t want to break it by accident.”
“!” A realization soon struck the man by those words. If he thinks back at how the fight had been played out thus far, his opponent had only been targeting certain areas on his body. Beneath his trench coat, he did indeed possess other belongings; all of which haven’t suffered a single direct blow. Therefore, he just now began to suspect that his adversary had been handicapped this entire time, restricted to only being able to target certain areas on his body. His asked quizzically, “How did you know what areas on my body to avoid?”
“I can detect infrared radiation; I can sense the disparity of temperatures around your body. If a section on your body is colder than the rest, then I know you’re hiding an object beneath your clothing. For instance, I know that you have a knife-shaped object hidden in your sleeve,” the zoan-user explained one of his senses. The region of his nose was very sensitive to heat. At a close enough distance, he can ‘see’ the blood vessels coursing through the human body; that was how vampire bats know the optimal spot to impale with their fangs.
“I see...,” the assassin held a strict, self-reflecting expression on his face. “I will tell you this: I do indeed possess the antidote that can cure your friends. And, do no worry; you won’t be able to break them. Do not hold back; show me your trump card. Defeat me, and the antidote will be yours.”
Even though he was the one who poisoned the two girls, he didn’t seem to be the type to lie. As menacing as this man seemed to be, the assassin genuinely seemed intent on seeing his full strength. Despite being a distrusting person, Pluto felt like he could believe in those words. Perhaps, he was simply biased for desperately wanting to believe those words to be true, but even if that was the case, this was the only possible cause for him to fight for.
Zenkai!
Normally, a bat capable of echolocation can release hundreds of ultrasonic pulses within each second at an unexpectedly high volume from the region of the nostrils. If that bat was to be able to hear such sound, it would go deaf by the high decibel. The fact that they don’t go deaf was due to a clever biological mechanism. Within milliseconds before each emitted pulse, the bat involuntarily contracts a muscle in the middle ears to go deaf, and the muscle reattaches by the time the echoes return to its ears. Fast-twitch muscles made his process possible. By setting his echolocation into reverse and amplifying it to the extreme, that tremendous volume of pressure waves was conducted throughout his entire body, resulting in powerful vibrations.
“Hmm?” The taller fighter intriguingly watched a strange phenomenon occur as a peculiar blurry shell encapsulates the winged adversary entirely. The near-transparent exterior coating was perhaps no more than a few inches away from the body. When it first emerged, there was a strong disturbance in the air around him as if the atmosphere was shaking, but soon, it became stable as if equilibrium of some kind had been achieved. Whatever this was, it didn’t appear related to a zoan-type power in the slightest.
Twitch Form!
His muscles bulged but maintained its lithe, slim build. The ratio of fast-twitch muscle fibers and slow-twitch muscle fibers has been tampered in favor for sheer, raw speed. Violet-colored bio-electricity discharged at both hands simultaneously.
Shadow Step!
A visible ring of air expanded outwards from the spot that once stood, but in less than a heartbeat, the winged fighter had relocated directly in front his foe a fist already winded up to be released.
Crossing his arms in defense, the assassin lurched back in response to the immense speed of the approach. Upon collision, he gritted his teeth as the air around them exploded into a giant, expanding, vertical, grey disk of concentrated air. Jetting through the air, he crashed straight through several dunes of snow before smashing into the mountainside. His body remained plastered within the center of a deep and large crater. Despite having guarded that attack with his forearms, he could feel the force reverberating throughout the internals of his entire body. Even with haki, his defenses couldn’t fully handle the destructive vibrations that are conducted into him.
“What power!” He murmured in amazement after having witnessed a sonic boom. After that one attack, he came to understand the nature of that surrounding blur that engulfed the zoan-user. To put it simply, that fuzzy aura was vibration, intense enough to distort the air and become visible to the naked eye. Pulling himself free from his rocky constraints, the fighter from the New World leapt out of the crater, ready to plunge towards the ground below. A grin grew on his face. Getting struck by that attack had felt like getting woken up.
“!” From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse demonic shadow flashed at this flank. He barely had time to even fall, and being in midair wasn’t a good thing when his opponent could fly at such a fierce level of speed.
Pluto was panting heavily; there was a clear look of impatience on his face. With his black hands cupped together, the pressure waves seemed to be redistributed, flowing and concentrating into the empty space between his palms. Upon holding the ball of concentrated vibrations, he then thrust both palms outwards at close range, “Burst Pulse!”
An assault even more destructive than the last, an even larger sonic boom exploded at pointblank range, hurling the body of the assassin to shoot out like missile. Soaring across a vast distance, his body soon crashed into the earth, buried into a wide tunnel with diagonal depth. The area of impact used to just be white like the rest of the landscape, but now it was stained with the colors of brown soil.
“Hah... ha-ha!” he laughed as a stream of blood trickled down the side of his lips. His legs and arms shook while trying to stand up, yet his face was that of pure excitement. “If he hits me with a few more of those attacks, then even I’m going to be in a little bit of trouble,” he mumbled to himself. Bloodlust oozed out him; eyes sharpened as his prey made quick work to close the monumental distance that separated them.
The zoan-user charged in at full speed, roaring out as he directed his pressure waves into his right fist. Just as he was ready to unleash another technique, his opponent appeared closer than he expected. Suddenly, Pluto felt all of the energy in his body was drained away at once. The vibrations that surrounded him dispersed immediately. He hadn’t been using it for that long; he should’ve still been able to continue on fighting. He was able to stay in that mode much longer in his battle against Varuna. Why did he feel so drained? His legs felt like noodles, barely able to uphold his weight.
His eyes widened at a strange, deceptive pain. Upon lowering his head, he saw a blade being impaled deep into the center of his chest. It felt unusual. He knew what it feels like to be stabbed, yet this was different. This blade seemed to be absorbing all of the strength and energy that he has left. The hidden sleeve knife that he already knew existed, he didn’t expect such a little weapon to be used now of all times. He didn’t expect this little knife to have penetrated his vibrational armor.
The Plague had leaned forth in a wide stance as his arm outstretched itself completely. Like a fencer, his posture emphasized the length of his reach. In a single burst of well-timed strike, he had finally resorted to using his hidden blade that ended this fight in an instant. “The battle will have to end here; I’m afraid. Pluto..., you have lost!”
Blood oozed out of the wound of his chest, slowly building up until it dripped into the pure white snow on the ground. “What is... this knife?” he asked meekly as a trail of blood leaked out of the side of his lips.
“This blade is made out of Sea Prism Stone, a material that robs the strength of Devil Fruit users. It carries the same wavelength as the seas. And also..., the blade is coated in poison,” he informed in a modest tone almost out of respect for his opponent. A swift stroke, he pulled the blade out and whipped it to the side, flinging away droplets of blood that now stained the steel blade.
Pluto’s devilish form reverted back, leaving him in his human form, and soon after, he collapsed onto the ground, lying flat on his stomach.
Before either of them realized, the blizzard had died down. The snowflakes drifted slowly and peacefully from the light silvery skies. A deep sigh emitted from the older fighter’s mouth as he gazed up towards the heavens. “I guess it’s over. The organization wanted both Rebecca and Pluto dead. The poison will slowly kill both of them. Farewell, Pluto! You really were quite strong. What a pity. You have such great potential too; it’s such a waste that you’ll die in this manner.”
Upon taking his first step away, the fighter from the New World felt a hand clutching around his ankle. “Hmm?” He lowered his head, eyeing on the stabbed victim griping ahold of him. “What are you doing?”
“The antidote...,” the half-dead boy muttered out of desperation.
“Hah!? Don’t be ridiculous; you’ve lost!” He furrowed his brows at the preposterous demand of handing over the antidote to a dead man. Even if he were to hand over the antidote to him, this boy wouldn’t even have the strength left to give it to his friends.
A whimsical idea then hatched in his mind. Now that he has broken him physically; it was time to break him mentally. “Humph, fine then, I’ll give you a choice. There are a total of three that have been poisoned. I’ll administer the antidote on any two of you. In other words, one of you will have to die. So, what will it be Pluto? Who will you end up killing thanks to your decision? Of course, if you don’t make a decision, all three of you will die.” He had already made his prediction on what the answer would be. Naturally, the boy would choose himself and his younger sister, meaning the older girl would be the one to end up dead.
“Alright...,” it didn’t take him very long to come up with a response. “Take my life..., and in exchange, give them the antidote to both of them.”
The young man raised a brow, “Do you..., understand what you’re saying right now?” What kind of answer was that? Out of the three of them, this boy was the strongest, the one with the most amount of potential. Why would he kill himself over two people who are weaker than him? “You’re willing to trade your very own life for those two to live on?” He was utterly perplexed as he tried to make it clear what the consequences would be.
“That’s right..., you better not go back on your word. It looks like I win,” Pluto’s words gradually grew quieter until his consciousness faded away completely.
A grin grew on the assassin’s face which soon turned into laughter – sadistic laugh. “Interesting, very well then, in exchange for your life, I’ll cure those two.” Yet, in the depths of his heart, he couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied. He had done this many times in the past, giving his victim the choice to choose between lives. But, not a single one of them dared to sacrifice their own life and still call it a ‘win’.
...
Meekly, Pluto opened his eyes, feeling the warmth of a fire and the softness of a bed. He leaned forth into a seating position before cringing at the outburst of pain throughout his body. Flashes of the recent past caused him to panic. How long had he been asleep? Five hours must have already passed long ago. In a sweeping glance across the room, his eyes stopped at the sight of Ara who lied in bed, sleeping soundly. Her face wasn’t as red as he last remembered; no longer was there a wet towel on her forehead. She looked like she was recovering from the fever, and the fact that she was alive must have meant that she received the antidote.
Thank goodness... She’s alive. But, why am I... still alive?
The last he recalled was lying on the snow outside in the cold, defeated and poisoned, yet here he was, perfectly fine with the stab wound on his chest covered in bandages. He was sitting on the same bed as last time, but his younger sister was not in the room, and it was difficult to believe that she was already up and moving.
The old lady soon entered the room. Her eyes showed signs of concern though her smile was forced in order to mask it.
“What happened?” Pluto asked impatiently. Something was clearly wrong. This wasn’t the outcome that he had in mind. The deal was the cure the girls in exchange for his own life, yet why was it that him and Ara were still alive with Rebecca missing from the scene. If this was a happy ending, then this elderly woman would have no reason to look so disheartened.
Reluctantly, the old lady explained, “A young man came over about an hour ago and administered an antidote to the three of you. I thought it was a miracle - too good to be true. But then, I grew suspicious as to how this man came in possession of such a cure. He then took the little girl and left.”
“He took... Rebecca?” His eyes widened in shock.
The old lady walked over, handing over a black-colored envelope, “He told me to give you this when you wake up.”
His hand trembled upon reaching out to accept the item that was being handled over to him. He was supposed to protect her. He had gotten this strong in order to do just that, and yet, so easily, someone from the New World just came along and defeated him in a battle. Ara was right all along; he couldn’t win against him. The gap of both power and experience between them was simply too huge. Not even his trump card was enough to take him down.
He reread the letter many times over, scarring these words deep into his mind. His heart grew heavy, beating at a very low beat. It felt like his heart was sinking into a void. The Raven had clearly thought this through. Despite being an assassin, that man considered the advantages of keeping his prey alive. And, the usage of a vivre card set the last nail of the coffin to his life’s freedom. This was the first he has heard of such a useful sounding item; it was like a natural tracking device. Upon scrutinizing his own fingernails, his left thumb was shorter than usual, indicating that a piece of been clipped off.
I’m not supposed to be alive. Why? Why is Rebecca taken away!? Why didn’t he just kill me?
Losing his life didn’t equate to death; it meant losing his freedom. And to him, losing the most precious person to him was the same as dying. Death was too simple. As anger, sadness, and resentment boiled in his heart and no matter how much he hated himself over his own weakness, he couldn’t even kill himself because she was still alive somewhere. He can neither live nor die. Perhaps, this was worse than death.
So..., this is what a fighter from the New World is like.
Losing that fight didn’t mean anything to him. He fought to protect someone else, not to protect his pride. That crafty assassin left him in a grey area. While his sister had been taken away from him, he was still armed with the opportunity to protect her in exchange for doing whatever tasks the man wanted him to do. But, he didn’t want to live like this, and he didn’t want her to live like this.
But still...
Rebecca was gone.
After being ambushed by a surprise assault by that woman, he clashed against her in a long, hard-fought battle. Coincidentally, the marines and agents of the World Government were present at that time as they sought after the criminal with the newly established bounty of seventy-million beri. That woman had inhuman levels of pain tolerance but was still susceptible to damage nonetheless. Her scythe had been broken by none other than him, and most of her physical damage came from him. Eventually, she was taken down in battle due to massive quantity of blood loss. In the end, he triumphed at the end but lost a former accomplice since then.
However, his troubles didn’t end there. As one threat had fallen, another had risen.
By the time he searched for the Revolutionary member, Ara, and his younger sister, Rebecca, he found their bodies motionlessly lying on the deck. Their conditions weren’t as optimistic as simply being knocked unconscious. They were burning with a fever and were unresponsive to any stimuli. Evidences revealed that this wasn’t a natural cause either; someone must have done something to these two girls. The cause could be poison, venom, or a virus. He knew nothing about medicine; the area was completely outside of his scope of expertise. Whatever it was that led them to their weakened, dying states, he brought them along and gone into hiding. He went out hunting for doctors around town, but in the end, the doctors of Eldoran Island couldn’t treat the girls no matter who he had spoken to. They identified the cause as poisoning, but none of them had any way to cure it. According to one of their estimations, the girls had three days left to live. If nothing was done soon, these two would die.
He had already lost one accomplice, not that he minded seeing it was Scarlette. But, if these two were to die, then he truly would be left all alone. His purpose to live would be shattered like glass.
Only one shred of hope remained. Far out into the seas, there existed a place known as Drum Island where some of the world’s best doctors resided. That was all he needed to know. He wasted no time purchasing an Eternal Pose that would lead him to his destination. Due to his clash with Scarlette, their ship had sustained heavy amounts damage with a few giant gaping holes along the exterior walls. It didn’t take a shipwright to know that this vessel shouldn’t be used for sailing any longer, but he had no other choice.
Without wasting any time, he set sail into the seas immediately, putting every single second to good use. The girls were resting in their beds, placed in the same room where he can look after both of them efficiently. This would be the second time that he used an Eternal Pose to navigate his way through the Grand Line.
By the time Drum Island was within view, more than forty-eight hours had passed. For more than two days, he had to watch them suffer as their vitality gradually diminishes.
He would soon learn that this was a winter island, and the make matters worse, there was an ongoing blizzard storm thrashing across the snowy lands. Ara and Rebecca were under a terribly high fever, and their bodies were burning hot as a result. They were in no condition to be moving on their own. After having both of them share a single blanket that encased them like a cocoon, he ended up carrying the both of them while treading across the lands. The journey alone may very well kill the both of them, but if they had any chance of surviving, the two of them must survive this snow storm.
Impatient and frustrated at the sluggish pace of their ship, he splayed out his wings and carried the both of them in his arms as they flew across the remaining distance to the island beyond, significantly speeding up the process.
...
Grand Line: Drum Island
Strong winds continuously blew from the side as he trudged through the deep layer of pure white snow in the vast landscape that stretches beyond what could be seen. Pine trees were scattered sparsely in the area. Its prickly greenery covered in white; its roots and trunk buried completely beneath the white blanket. The crisp, frigid air carried forth powdery snow. His vision of his surroundings was constantly blurred by a gradient of white and grey; his eyes could never seem to stop squinting even with the hood blocking the top half of his face. The howling and whistling of the blizzard nearly muffled his footsteps entirely. Every breath he takes had manifested in the form of warm puffy steam that would immediately be blown off to the side.
Cladded in a black cloak, Pluto strode across the harsh climate, all while carrying two other individuals on his back. He slouched forth with each step to counterbalance the weight; his arms wrapped around and gripped tightly on the thick fabric of the blanket. He couldn’t stop panting, almost to the point of wheezing, but he never dared stopped to rest. In a battle against time, he hadn’t the luxury to care about his own wellbeing, not when both his younger sister and Ara were about to die. This was the last day.
The boy’s legs ached, yet the cold weather numbed the discomfort away. He was gradually losing feeling throughout his limbs. His teeth clattered on their own. His sweat seemed to freeze the moment that try to appear. His superhuman stamina and strength that led him this far had already proved that he was no ordinary human, but he was reaching his limits. There was only so much energy he could wield. The only fuel remaining that drove his legs to keep on walking was sheer willpower – the desire to save them. Even if it means sacrificing his own life, he would protect these two no matter the cost.
This treacherous blizzard was worse than most islands of North Blue. His tolerance to the cold may be higher than most, but he was being heavily crippled by the bitter, icy temperatures. He had very little clue as to where he was going. The natural thing to do simply seemed to be heading towards the inland of the island. There were no paths or signs to lead him; if there were any, the snow did a good job covering them up.
In the far distance, he could make out a vague sight of what appeared to be manmade structures that were covered in white. Through the thick atmosphere, there were faint lights that he could barely pick up. If he had his full strength, he could reach over there in an instant; he thought. Grinding his teeth, the boy mustered what little power he had left to take his very next step that immediately buried itself into the snow. Nature stubbornly resisted and rejected him as the frigid winds battering against him and the deep snow slowing his strides.
Almost there..., hang in there, you two.
...
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The surface of the walls appeared to be beige in color. The triangular rooftop was covered in a snow, so he couldn’t tell what its former color was. On top, there was a chimney where smoke arises and blended with the breeze of flakes. The lights informed him that there were people within this two-story tall house. The surrounding houses were followed the same architectural design.
Footsteps on the inside could be heard, and soon the door opened. A welcoming wave of warmth brushed past his face as an elderly woman stood by the doorway with an upright spine, glaring with strict looking eyes, “Hmm!?” She sharpened her scrutiny at the young man who gazed back with a look of determination. Beneath those piercing, strong violet-hued eyes was a smirk. That grin wasn’t directed towards her but a facial gesture to indicate victory. The skin of his face was very pale, and above all else, his body could no longer stand upright as he dropped to his knees that caved in under the weight of three bodies. Leaning forward, he collapsed at the doorstep.
The old woman gazed down and enlarged her eyes at the sight of two others resting on top of this young man’s back. A cold, freezing hand suddenly grasp around her ankle.
Wheezing and panting, the boy turned his head to the side and looked up, “Please! Save these two! I’ll... do anything you want.” His grip gradually weakened as his eyes slowly closed shut. The entirety of his body went numb. His consciousness soon faded.
...
Warmth flooded into his body that soaked it up like a sponge, and yet, he felt unusually heavy. Perhaps he was simply too lethargic to move, but he couldn’t seem to turn or roll over. He definitely felt that his posture involved lying horizontally on his side, resting against a soft, cushy surface – likely a bed. Sluggishly, he opened his eyes that soon shot wide open.
A pair of arms was wrapped around his torso as a smaller body pressed against him with a head tucked right beneath his chin. He could feel gentle breaths correspond to the subtle expansion and contraction of a living being that clung onto him tautly, treating him like an oversized teddy bear. Without even having to look, he could already guess who it was, but he looked anyways. His younger sister, Rebecca, had him completely under her clutches as she slept peacefully beside him. This habit of hers was nothing out of the ordinary as the youth had always been a very clingy person around him.
Normally, he would resist, but the relief of seeing her alive brought ease to his heart. Gently, he leaned up while repositioning his sister’s posture to lie on the bed on her own. The ease in which he was able to do just that only proved how weakened the girl’s state was. The healthy version of his sister would either wake up immediately upon losing physical contact of him or subconsciously tighten her grasp around him to prevent his escape.
How long was I asleep for?
A sweeping glance led him to notice that he was within someone else’s room that contained an active fireplace that filled the space in a natural warmth. There was another bed on the opposite side of the room where Ara lied on top of, sound asleep with a folded up, wet towel resting on her forehead. Knowing that she was alive eased his heart a bit more. Both of them seemed to have survived the trip through the snowstorm, but their faces were still flushed in red, still burning with the same raging high fever.
From the entrance, the elderly woman stepped in, stopping her eyes at the boy who was sitting upright. “Ah, so you’re awake,” she said with a soft smile.
“Thank you so much for taking care of them,” Pluto subtlety lowered his head as if to bow.
“Don’t thank me just yet,” her face turned grim and gloomy. “I don’t know what happened to you folks, but you’re not from around here I’m betting. Your friends here have poison coursing through them. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and without proper equipment and such, I cannot make an antidote for them. All I’ve done so far was help ease some of their symptoms.”
His face turned serious, “if you can’t cure them, then there are other doctors around that can.” He wasn’t sure if this lady was a doctor herself, but supposedly, this island was renowned for their high quality doctors.
The woman shook her head, “Sure, someone around here might know how to find a cure. But, by the time an antidote could be made, it would be too late for the both of them. They don’t have much time left.”
His face darkened. After painstakingly making it all the way here, it was all for naught. He was too slow.
They’re... going to die?
Time and time again, he had been shoved into a tight spot, but this time, it wasn’t his life being threatened here. This wasn’t a matter of taking down an unsurmountable enemy where he could solve it through combat; this was a matter of finding a way to save their lives from a deadly substance in their bodies. If there wasn’t enough time to form an antidote to save them, then was there really nothing he could do to help? His primary skillsets involved spying, infiltration, and fighting; none of which were at all useful in this situation.
“How much time do they have left?” He asked in despair while balling his hands into fists as if to embrace himself from an emotional impact.
“Hmm..., at the rate their bodies are declining, I’d say they have around five hours left.”
Only five hours!?
“I’m sorry. I’ll leave you some time to think to yourself,” the old lady turned around and left the room.
What... do I do?
The sole motivation that had driven him to reach new heights and push him past his limits was the desire to protect his younger sister. But, what good is strength and power in a situation like this? Poison? He had been so fixated on dealing against fighters and the likes that he had never considered something so intangible as an obstacle. There was nothing he could do to counteract something like poison. If it’s already too late to make an antidote, then even the best doctors in the world wouldn’t be able to save them. Was it really going to end like this? Was this the best he could do?
“Pluto...,” a meek tone called out to him. As he lifted his head up, he saw Ara lying in bed with her eyes closed, but she was speaking to him despite still appearing to be asleep. “Please..., run away.”
“?” Raising a brow, he didn’t expect her to mutter those words of all things. At first, it was questionable if she was really awake or was merely talking in her sleep. “Ara..., did you... hear all that?” His heart sank at the realization that his brief conversation with the woman could have been overheard.
“Yes,” she responded. “I’m going to die,” her tone seemed to have bother acknowledged and accepted that outcome for there didn’t seem to be any sign of fear in her words. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t protect your sister. I never got to see his face. All I remember was feeling an extremely dangerous presence right before I lost consciousness. A presence that appeared out of nowhere, one stronger than anyone that we’ve come across, it was stronger than Scarlette, stronger than Libeccio, and even stronger than Varuna.” She paused to catch her breath as talking seemed to tire her out.
Immediately, he rushed by to her bedside. All he could do was oversee her wellbeing. “Just rest..., save your strength,” he spoke out of concern and pity.
“You must run away, Pluto. He’s already here. I can sense him,” the girl opened her eyes halfway to see his face. At the very least, she didn’t mind if he was the last face she ever saw.
“What!?” The boy looked alarmed from hearing her spouting out words of warning now of all times.
“He’s outside. You need to get away from him. You cannot win. The difference in power is simply too big,” she said in a weak tone of voice.
The one who poisoned these two is outside? Then..., he followed me all the way here?
Just how long had he been asleep for? More importantly, how could such a person know exactly his location on this island? No, that actually wouldn’t be too difficult. With the amount of snow outside, all one would need to do was follow his footprints.
Without another word, he sprinted out of the room, and then jumped over the railings to land directly onto the first floor, skipping the flight of stairs entirely. Whatever amount of sleep he got seemed to have lend his body to recover quite a bit, at least enough to pull off stunts like this.
“W-Where do you think you’re going?” the old lady asked, surprised to see the boy being able to move this well already. For him to be this active, he seemed to have already recovered much of his strength. Given the pitiful state she found him in, no ordinary human should be able to recover this quickly.
“I’ll be back..., I hope,” there a mix of determination and uncertainty in his visage, but he had no other choice but to confront the poisoner. If there was a solution to all of this, then he felt that this was the only way to get close to it.
Pushing the front door wide open, the cloaked figure immediately felt the cold battling against the warmth that his body had just absorbed during his rest. Closing the door shut, he walked head on towards the ongoing blizzard that seemed even more violent and hazardous than he remembered.
Someone stronger than Varuna? Was she exaggerating?
Varuna was a fishman who ran a business of enslaving humans. Pluto had fought against him two islands ago, and the outcome as to who won was rather questionable. In the end, Ara had been the one to finish the aquatic monster off with a thrust of her spear, but he was the one who weakened the human slaver to a great extent after utilizing his last resort. Had Ara not been around, on a one on one fight, he probably would have lost back then. For there to already be someone out there right now who’s stronger than the likes of that fishman, he wouldn’t even be able to fathom what sort of a monster is out here in the snowstorm.
Ara had always seemed to have this mysterious intuition about her as if she could see or sense something that he could not. She could seemingly know where individuals are around her despite walls and obstacles obstructing her vision. From the way she spoke to him, she seemed to be able to gauge out the level of strength an individual possesses as she would warn him whenever someone dangerous was nearby. If she wanted him to run away, then that indicated someone stronger than him was close by, and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her side just like that. He didn’t plan to abandon them just like that.
Wearing his black cloak and hood on, he leered at the blur of furious white that whipped and lashed with the powerful air currents. He had gone out deep enough that even the buildings could no longer be seen under these perilous conditions. Under his hood were bat ears, honing in on his surroundings, capturing soundwaves to pinpoint anyone nearby. However, the howling cries of the winds and the rush of snow was all he could hear, loud enough to muffle any potential approaching individual.
“You must be Pluto,” a voice sounded through as an obscured silhouette approached from the front.
Without another thought, he slid one foot outwards through the snow to widen his stance, knees bending to wind up the spring to a potential lunge. Even with the ears of a bat, he had a hard time picking up any sound of the man’s breath or footsteps due to the blizzard blasting cold air all over the place. The fact that his name was known had already offered some implications. Ever since Ara warned him about this person, he wasn’t sure what to expect. “And..., who are you?”
The silhouette appeared from the gust of snow, soon revealing his full appearance as he halted with a gap of ten meters between them. Standing six feet tall, his physique was well defined by his black trench coat with a high collar and a belt. His hands were covered in a pair of black gloves. His face belonged to that of a youthful individual with pale skin, sharp narrow chin, black hair, and dark eyes.
“I am... The Plague,” this young man, who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, introduced himself in a confident and lucid manner. “Believe it or not, I’ve journeyed all the way from the New World to meet you. Well... I also had other errands to run as well, but I’ve mainly come all the way out here just for you.”
Right off the bat, Pluto could already guess what types of people are involved. He wasn’t famous or well-known for anything. Someone, who he has never met before, knowing his name was very unusual unless hired to eliminate him. His background had led many to come after for his life. As someone who had always kept a low profile in this world, only the organization from the underworld would bother with him. After all, they were the reason for him to take his younger sister and abscond from his home island. They were the ones that forced him down this path of survival. Many assassins and fighters had been sent forth to erase the siblings’ existence, but ultimately, the fact that he was still standing here meant that they had all failed to accomplish that task. With each battle and struggle to hold on for dear life and to protect the only family member he had left, he was now a completely different person than when he first left his home in terms of combative prowess.
However, upon entering the Grand Line, the term ‘New World’ had always been a legendary section of the seas in his mind. Supposedly, many of the world’s top tier pirates and the likes lurked in the second half - incomparable to the ones found in the Paradise half. After all, for this half of the line to be called ‘Paradise’ in the first place meant that in comparison, the ‘New World’ must have been more akin to hell than anything else.
“What business do you have with me?” He said in a cold, unfriendly manner.
“To put it bluntly, my profession is assassination, and the organization has sent me to kill you,” he ended his statement with a soft smile. It wasn’t a genuine smile.
Pluto’s face darkened; he also wanted to put out a certain matter bluntly, “You poisoned them, didn’t you?” The heart of the subject for him was that Rebecca and Ara were about to die because of the person standing right in front of him.
“Yes, I did,” The young man admitted without hesitance, having no need to hide such a fact. “But, as you may have already noticed, the poison doesn’t immediately kill them even though I very well could have ended their lives in a heartbeat. This isn’t just because I’m sadistic. Mainly, it’s so that you’ll take me seriously. A prey is most dangerous when he’s completely cornered.”
“And..., do you have the antidote?” His seemingly naive question served to test the waters as to how honest and open this man truly was.
“Hmm..., who knows? Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. One thing is for certain; they don’t have much time left to live. So, what will you do now?” He taunted, indirectly holding those two girls as hostage.
I’ll kill you!
Bloodlust oozed out of the boy; Pluto clenched his teeth as anger boiled internally within him. The way how this assassin treated the lives of Rebecca and Ara so lightheartedly caused every fiber of muscle in his body to want to attack. What choice did he have left? He may be dancing right into the enemy’s plan to engage in a fight, but this was the only thing left he could do. There was nothing he could bargain him for. It was his life that this man sought after, not the lives of the girls. Coming after him directly was one thing, but involving the lives of others made him feel responsible. Ara had nothing to do with this; she –at the very least- shouldn’t have to die because of his circumstances.
Immediately, he shifted his weight and compressed his legs in preparation to spring forth to attack. “UGH!” He suddenly staggered a step back as a sharp pain from his solar plexus stunned his entire body. Breathing suddenly became awkward and out of sync with the rest of his body.
W-What just happened? I’m already hit? But... he didn’t do anything.
“Humph!” A small grin grew on the assassin’s expression. “Are you confused? You were thinking about charging straight at me to attack, so I merely intercepted your commitment on that decision.”
Gritting his teeth, Pluto raised his arms to guard his centerline – one hand leading at chest level and another hand further back at abdomen level. With one foot leading the other, his torso angled out to the side, minimizing the surface area of his body that’s exposed towards the front. He wasn’t entirely sure how this man was doing it. All he knew was that he could be struck at this distance, and he left himself wide open when attacked. His mind was conflicted between cautious and the urge to take action.
“Good defensive stance,” the foe commended. Soon, he took on an almost identical stance, the difference being were that gloved hands were curled into fists. The shape of his fists was slightly off than a conventional one. The second knuckle of his index fingers protruded outwards; the thumbs were tucked right behind the distal phalanges of the index fingers. “What a coincidence. I like this kind of stance too.”
What’s up with the shape of his fists? I’ve never seen it before.
With a heightened level caution, Pluto bolted forth while maintaining his defensive posture. Swiftly, his opponent slid his stance two meters to the side before the boy even finished closing the gap. Normally, this kind of timing would be considered too early if it was meant for evading.
“ARGH!” The boy’s leading foot seemed to have spasm, leading his momentum to trip forward until he dropped onto his front knee. However, the location of where he was struck wasn’t his foot but a particular spot at the side of his lower leg. His common peroneal nerve was struck. From a ten meter gap to a five meter gap, he tried to get close, but this man stopped him half way. From the way the man’s lower arm was extended outwards, the assassin must have struck him at a distance using some form of a punch. However, the scariest aspect wasn’t the distance but the speed. Even with his well-trained eyes, it was all just a blur to him at best, and the continuous blasting stream of air and snow only obscured his vision even further. If he couldn’t react to the attack, evading would be near impossible. Moreover, in addition to that speed was an impeccable level of accuracy and precision. From being hit the second time, it became clear that this man could target his pressure points even at this distance. Hitting them at close range would be considered difficult already, but to do so at a distance with such ease was a truly impressive feat.
Sprouting from his shoulder sockets were a pair of thick, leathery black, demonic wings. The rest of his body remained human. These giant animalistic appendages overlapped themselves in front of him; its massive surface area blocked his entire body from the enemy’s field of vision. From there, the zoan-user charged straight on ahead with wings that were as hard as steel.
“Using physiology that I’m not adept at exploiting..., I see...,” The assassin soon found that he’s unable to strike at a weak point from the front anymore. Indeed, he was unfamiliar with the physiology of a bat’s wings to know of any weak points to target. This was quite an effective strategy, but...
“UGH!” Pluto arched his back as a sharp pain originates from behind. Without him noticing, his opponent was right behind him having struck him at the kidney region.
“Not a bad idea, but your wings can’t protect you from every angle.”
One of the wings swung out quickly, fanning at nothing but cold air by the time it swept at his blind-spot. His enemy evaded it with a short leap back. Turning partly around, Pluto kept his eyes locked onto his target with a sidelong glare.
He’s fast!
In all of his past battles, rarely did he struggle with the issue of being too slow. Outmaneuver his opponent was his forte, yet it was he who was being outmaneuvered here. The rest of his body soon took on the remaining transformation to reach the complete hybrid state of a human and a vampire bat. A layer of dark fur grew beneath his clothing as his hands and feet turned pitch black and his fingers and toes became claws. Taking off his hood, he revealed his large, pointed, cup-shaped ears at the top of his head. Unable to gain the upper hand as a human, he now resorted to his animalistic form. He ate the Batto Batto no Mi, Model: Vampire Bat, making him a Vampire Bat Human.
“So, I finally get to see your Devil Fruit power in its complete form,” the confident man stood idly still as the zoan-user dashed directly towards him, closing in the distance for hand-to-hand combat. With budging an inch, he took the first punch to the guts, a strike powerful enough to blow away the surrounding winds, creating a moment of peace within a small zone that isolated the two of them from the snowstorm.
What!?
As he paused in place, Pluto furrowed his brows as his fist had made direct contact, and yet, his opponent didn’t even react, not even a change in expression as his attack landed. Having fought against Scarlette, he already ruled out the possibly that this was mere pain tolerance. Against her, his attacks felt like they were hitting against normal flesh and bones, but against this man, he felt as if he just punched an iron statue.
What is his body made of?
Retracting back his fist and hammering forth his other fist, the zoan-user aimed to attack once more, but in synchrony with his timing, his adversary retaliated with the exact same move, one that matched his level of power and speed exactly as if to mock him. Two opposing fists slip past one another, crashing into the other’s torso.
“Ngh!” It really did feel as if he was struck by one of his attacks. His body began to falter, and while he landed his punch, his opponent remained unmoved. The assassin followed through with a swift second blow; hurling the shorter fighter dozens of meters away until the raging white storm obscured him out of sight.
The air in his lungs was forcefully knocked out of his throat followed by saliva and blood. That second punch was completely different than the first. While the first blow served to mock him, the second one felt several times heavier and denser. Plunging down a short snowy slope, he tumbled until his body stopped on its own as he lied on his back. His chest rose and fall; each breath emerged out as a puff of steam.
It felt like he had been repeatedly charging in while completely blind. His senses were greatly hindered due to the blizzard. Sight, scent, and sound, he couldn’t fully rely on any of them. And yet, his opponent, who doesn’t even possess animalistic senses, could perform just fine under these conditions. In the same environment, why was there such a disparity in their abilities to sense one another?
“Get up!” A voice barked through the howling winds. “You’re not done yet, right? You can do better than this, can’t you? Surely I didn’t journey all the way out here just to waste my time on a complete scrub. The organization sees you as a threat, so show me what they mean because I don’t feel threatened in slightest. If you don’t take me seriously; your friends will die!”
Twitch Form: Shadow Blitz
The assassin shifted his eyes to the side, turning around as his airborne target was aloft off the ground, appearing suddenly from behind. The speed of the zoan-user had reached an entirely different level than before. An almost invisibly fast punch struck him in the core just like before, and with greater speed came along greater power to back it up. A streak of violet could be seen as electricity dazzled out the hand upon impact. His face tensed, a sign of discomfort as his body lurched ever so slightly forward. While the hardness of his body armored him from the physical assault, it was the discharged current of electricity that he had no means to counteract, making him lose control, even stunning him a bit. His feet slid back across the snowy ground as repercussion of receiving such a powerful blow.
It didn’t stop there. Pluto relentlessly fired out a barrage of electric-coated fists at high speeds. Each of his arms was like a jackhammer, repeatedly battering the target nonstop.
Crossing his arms, The Plague soon found himself having to block in order to ease up taking on these hits. He dashed back to gain some distance, zigzagging side to side while doing so. Despite that, his adversary was able to follow along with the nonlinear path while maintaining the onslaught of zapping jabs.
Suddenly, the zoan-user broke the chained combo and backed off a short distance, crossing his arms before lashing them diagonally downwards.
Phantom Claw!
From the extremities of the tips of his claws, he unleashed a pair of five crescent slashes of wind in the formation of an ‘X’. The projection crashed into the assassin’s forearms, but with an outward swing of his arms, the man easily dispersed the attack that soon became part of the icy winds of the storm. His slicing attack left not a single mark on the man who brushed it aside. There was not even a single tear on the fabric of his sleeves.
What!? Not even his clothes are sliced!
“Is that it?” asked the man who lowered his arms. “You increased your speed and power, and yet you still can’t damage me?”
Razor Form!
Black claws on his hands, feet, and wings elongated, taking on a sharper and deadlier structure. His extremities were akin to that of blades of a knife or short sword, easily capable of slicing through human limbs with a single swipe.
Swooping in, the slicing beast slashed down from above, clashing against the man’s raised forearm. Even as he pressed the tip of his claws to scrape against the surface of the arm, it was as effective as trying to cut steel with a butter knife. Without pause, he unleashed another relentless barrage of strikes consisting of swipes from his hands and wings, but with each assault, his opponent parried and blocked with a single arm. No matter how rapid his movements were and no matter how tricky the angle of his attacks was, none of his razor-sharp attacks could make it past the single defending arm.
Why can’t I... cut him?
As he dashed in to thrust forth his dagger-like claws, his wrist was instantly snatched as the enemy shifted to the side. He was reeled in by a tugging force as a knee hammered into his guts. His body concaved, coughing out air and saliva, “GUARH!”
The assassin lowered his leg with a sharp drop, stomping his boot down on top of the zoan user’s foot; he smoothly transitioned into a rising elbow, striking the hybrid in the jawline from below. The pinning foot raised once more, thrusting out to slam the torso and hurl the winged fighter off into the distance before a crash could be heard against the snow. “It’s no use! I can foresee your attacks before you even make them. Next, you’re going to flap your wings!”
True to the enemy’s words, Pluto’s wings seemingly vanished for a moment as he unleashed a massive wall of condensed air to bulldoze anything down in its path.
“Oh?” The Plague positioned out a single gloved hand as the wind wall crashed into the palm. He remained immovable as the ranged assault dispersed into a forceful breeze. Just as the blur subsided, the zoan-user was already within range to attack after using the wall as a cover for him to close in.
Once again, he clashed his forearm against the black claws of the bat-human. “Keh!” But, his arm went numb. Violet cackling discharged from his opponent’s hands. While these claws cannot bypass his defense, they cannot stop the electricity from disrupting his muscle control. Very soon, he was forced to evade that barrage of physical assaults which rained towards him from the front. He avoided the claws entirely, having to deflect them by pressing against the opponent’s forearms as he lurched and slipped around each incoming attack masterfully.
“ARUGH!” Pluto felt a phantom force struck him once again in a pressure point. As long as his opponent points those fists at him, he could be hit in an instant even at a distance. His judgement of distance had always led him to believe that a punch that’s physically out of range couldn’t reach him; a bad habit to have against someone who can extend that range.
Within a single second, before he could even recover, several more of those pinpoint accurate punches shot forth, striking him in various spots on his body, each induced a terrible shriek of pain. “ARGHHHHH!” Every part of him screamed signals of agony; even his internal organs were acting out of whack. Dropping onto both knees and hands, he panted and sweated as his eyes twitched uncontrollably.
“If you keep getting hit in your vital spots, you’ll die,” the assassin warned.
Pluto returned back into his regular hybrid form, claws retracting back to their normal length.
Power, speed, accuracy, precision, endurance, and timing, he’s superior to me in every aspect. Ara wasn’t kidding back then. She knew that I’d be up against someone stronger than myself. Well then..., I’ll just have to surpass my own current self.
Darting straight towards his greatest foe yet, his arms were completely lowered by his sides. His face darkened. A calm bloodlust radiated from him, no longer driven by wild, untamed emotions. Abandoning any martial posture, he concentrated only on his mind.
The figure in the black trench coat extended his fist to attack to enclosing foe at a distance. His target swiftly lurched to the side, evading it gracefully before entering into range. “I missed!?” For the first time in a long while, someone managed to dodge one of his extended punches. His head swung to the side upon being hooked by a fist smashing against his face.
That wasn’t fluke.
...
The battle between Pluto and The Plague continued on for the next two hours as the blizzard continued to rampage throughout the winter island. It was a completely one-sided battle with the zoan-user on the losing end. No matter how much he was pressured by the time constraints of Rebecca and Ara’s remaining hours, his emotions could only fuel his wrath so much. By avoiding meaningless grandiose techniques that wouldn’t work on such an opponent to begin with, he had been conserving his energy for only attacks that counts, allowing him to last this long as the frigid temperatures caused his body to use up more resources to simply maintain his internal heat. He had received a myriad of blows and had been struck countless times in vital pressure points to the point that blood had escaped his mouth several times already. The accumulation of internal damage was tearing his body apart, yet he persistently proceeded to fight as if his life depended on it.
Even with two precious lives at stake here, he had enough composure to avoid fighting recklessly. As shown throughout this entire battle, if he so much as lowers his guard even a little bit, he would be mercilessly struck down. An immense amount of concentration and focus was required to keep his defense up while still being mobile enough to unleash attacks which have always ended up short in doing any real damage. His adversary was clearly not wearing any protective garment as far as he could tell, yet there seemed to be some form of invisible armor being worn. His knuckles of his hands had turned red from the constant hitting in conjunction with the cold.
If nothing else, the assassin’s breath was growing heavy, an indication that he at least felt some form of fatigue as a result of clashing with his prime target. There was something very subtle but noticeable about his opponent. Each time he knocks Pluto down, the boy would continuously stands back up as a better fighter than before. More than once, he was able to avoid his ranged punches. That tremendous potential for growth was what made this boy dangerous. It wasn’t about what he could do now; it was about what he can do in the future. “What an impressive stamina you’ve got there; I didn’t think you would last this long. But, it seems you’ve nearing your limit. It’s astounding that you’re still standing after taking so many hits to your vital spots. It seems you’ve nothing left to show me. I’ve been entertained long enough; it’s time for me to kill you seriously.”
“Are you sure?” Pluto panted as beads of freezing cold sweat flowed down the sides of his neck. “I still have my trump card.”
“A little late in the game to be using it, wouldn’t you say?”
“In case you truly carried an antidote, I didn’t want to break it by accident.”
“!” A realization soon struck the man by those words. If he thinks back at how the fight had been played out thus far, his opponent had only been targeting certain areas on his body. Beneath his trench coat, he did indeed possess other belongings; all of which haven’t suffered a single direct blow. Therefore, he just now began to suspect that his adversary had been handicapped this entire time, restricted to only being able to target certain areas on his body. His asked quizzically, “How did you know what areas on my body to avoid?”
“I can detect infrared radiation; I can sense the disparity of temperatures around your body. If a section on your body is colder than the rest, then I know you’re hiding an object beneath your clothing. For instance, I know that you have a knife-shaped object hidden in your sleeve,” the zoan-user explained one of his senses. The region of his nose was very sensitive to heat. At a close enough distance, he can ‘see’ the blood vessels coursing through the human body; that was how vampire bats know the optimal spot to impale with their fangs.
“I see...,” the assassin held a strict, self-reflecting expression on his face. “I will tell you this: I do indeed possess the antidote that can cure your friends. And, do no worry; you won’t be able to break them. Do not hold back; show me your trump card. Defeat me, and the antidote will be yours.”
Even though he was the one who poisoned the two girls, he didn’t seem to be the type to lie. As menacing as this man seemed to be, the assassin genuinely seemed intent on seeing his full strength. Despite being a distrusting person, Pluto felt like he could believe in those words. Perhaps, he was simply biased for desperately wanting to believe those words to be true, but even if that was the case, this was the only possible cause for him to fight for.
Zenkai!
Normally, a bat capable of echolocation can release hundreds of ultrasonic pulses within each second at an unexpectedly high volume from the region of the nostrils. If that bat was to be able to hear such sound, it would go deaf by the high decibel. The fact that they don’t go deaf was due to a clever biological mechanism. Within milliseconds before each emitted pulse, the bat involuntarily contracts a muscle in the middle ears to go deaf, and the muscle reattaches by the time the echoes return to its ears. Fast-twitch muscles made his process possible. By setting his echolocation into reverse and amplifying it to the extreme, that tremendous volume of pressure waves was conducted throughout his entire body, resulting in powerful vibrations.
“Hmm?” The taller fighter intriguingly watched a strange phenomenon occur as a peculiar blurry shell encapsulates the winged adversary entirely. The near-transparent exterior coating was perhaps no more than a few inches away from the body. When it first emerged, there was a strong disturbance in the air around him as if the atmosphere was shaking, but soon, it became stable as if equilibrium of some kind had been achieved. Whatever this was, it didn’t appear related to a zoan-type power in the slightest.
Twitch Form!
His muscles bulged but maintained its lithe, slim build. The ratio of fast-twitch muscle fibers and slow-twitch muscle fibers has been tampered in favor for sheer, raw speed. Violet-colored bio-electricity discharged at both hands simultaneously.
Shadow Step!
A visible ring of air expanded outwards from the spot that once stood, but in less than a heartbeat, the winged fighter had relocated directly in front his foe a fist already winded up to be released.
Crossing his arms in defense, the assassin lurched back in response to the immense speed of the approach. Upon collision, he gritted his teeth as the air around them exploded into a giant, expanding, vertical, grey disk of concentrated air. Jetting through the air, he crashed straight through several dunes of snow before smashing into the mountainside. His body remained plastered within the center of a deep and large crater. Despite having guarded that attack with his forearms, he could feel the force reverberating throughout the internals of his entire body. Even with haki, his defenses couldn’t fully handle the destructive vibrations that are conducted into him.
“What power!” He murmured in amazement after having witnessed a sonic boom. After that one attack, he came to understand the nature of that surrounding blur that engulfed the zoan-user. To put it simply, that fuzzy aura was vibration, intense enough to distort the air and become visible to the naked eye. Pulling himself free from his rocky constraints, the fighter from the New World leapt out of the crater, ready to plunge towards the ground below. A grin grew on his face. Getting struck by that attack had felt like getting woken up.
“!” From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse demonic shadow flashed at this flank. He barely had time to even fall, and being in midair wasn’t a good thing when his opponent could fly at such a fierce level of speed.
Pluto was panting heavily; there was a clear look of impatience on his face. With his black hands cupped together, the pressure waves seemed to be redistributed, flowing and concentrating into the empty space between his palms. Upon holding the ball of concentrated vibrations, he then thrust both palms outwards at close range, “Burst Pulse!”
An assault even more destructive than the last, an even larger sonic boom exploded at pointblank range, hurling the body of the assassin to shoot out like missile. Soaring across a vast distance, his body soon crashed into the earth, buried into a wide tunnel with diagonal depth. The area of impact used to just be white like the rest of the landscape, but now it was stained with the colors of brown soil.
“Hah... ha-ha!” he laughed as a stream of blood trickled down the side of his lips. His legs and arms shook while trying to stand up, yet his face was that of pure excitement. “If he hits me with a few more of those attacks, then even I’m going to be in a little bit of trouble,” he mumbled to himself. Bloodlust oozed out him; eyes sharpened as his prey made quick work to close the monumental distance that separated them.
The zoan-user charged in at full speed, roaring out as he directed his pressure waves into his right fist. Just as he was ready to unleash another technique, his opponent appeared closer than he expected. Suddenly, Pluto felt all of the energy in his body was drained away at once. The vibrations that surrounded him dispersed immediately. He hadn’t been using it for that long; he should’ve still been able to continue on fighting. He was able to stay in that mode much longer in his battle against Varuna. Why did he feel so drained? His legs felt like noodles, barely able to uphold his weight.
His eyes widened at a strange, deceptive pain. Upon lowering his head, he saw a blade being impaled deep into the center of his chest. It felt unusual. He knew what it feels like to be stabbed, yet this was different. This blade seemed to be absorbing all of the strength and energy that he has left. The hidden sleeve knife that he already knew existed, he didn’t expect such a little weapon to be used now of all times. He didn’t expect this little knife to have penetrated his vibrational armor.
The Plague had leaned forth in a wide stance as his arm outstretched itself completely. Like a fencer, his posture emphasized the length of his reach. In a single burst of well-timed strike, he had finally resorted to using his hidden blade that ended this fight in an instant. “The battle will have to end here; I’m afraid. Pluto..., you have lost!”
Blood oozed out of the wound of his chest, slowly building up until it dripped into the pure white snow on the ground. “What is... this knife?” he asked meekly as a trail of blood leaked out of the side of his lips.
“This blade is made out of Sea Prism Stone, a material that robs the strength of Devil Fruit users. It carries the same wavelength as the seas. And also..., the blade is coated in poison,” he informed in a modest tone almost out of respect for his opponent. A swift stroke, he pulled the blade out and whipped it to the side, flinging away droplets of blood that now stained the steel blade.
Pluto’s devilish form reverted back, leaving him in his human form, and soon after, he collapsed onto the ground, lying flat on his stomach.
Before either of them realized, the blizzard had died down. The snowflakes drifted slowly and peacefully from the light silvery skies. A deep sigh emitted from the older fighter’s mouth as he gazed up towards the heavens. “I guess it’s over. The organization wanted both Rebecca and Pluto dead. The poison will slowly kill both of them. Farewell, Pluto! You really were quite strong. What a pity. You have such great potential too; it’s such a waste that you’ll die in this manner.”
Upon taking his first step away, the fighter from the New World felt a hand clutching around his ankle. “Hmm?” He lowered his head, eyeing on the stabbed victim griping ahold of him. “What are you doing?”
“The antidote...,” the half-dead boy muttered out of desperation.
“Hah!? Don’t be ridiculous; you’ve lost!” He furrowed his brows at the preposterous demand of handing over the antidote to a dead man. Even if he were to hand over the antidote to him, this boy wouldn’t even have the strength left to give it to his friends.
A whimsical idea then hatched in his mind. Now that he has broken him physically; it was time to break him mentally. “Humph, fine then, I’ll give you a choice. There are a total of three that have been poisoned. I’ll administer the antidote on any two of you. In other words, one of you will have to die. So, what will it be Pluto? Who will you end up killing thanks to your decision? Of course, if you don’t make a decision, all three of you will die.” He had already made his prediction on what the answer would be. Naturally, the boy would choose himself and his younger sister, meaning the older girl would be the one to end up dead.
“Alright...,” it didn’t take him very long to come up with a response. “Take my life..., and in exchange, give them the antidote to both of them.”
The young man raised a brow, “Do you..., understand what you’re saying right now?” What kind of answer was that? Out of the three of them, this boy was the strongest, the one with the most amount of potential. Why would he kill himself over two people who are weaker than him? “You’re willing to trade your very own life for those two to live on?” He was utterly perplexed as he tried to make it clear what the consequences would be.
“That’s right..., you better not go back on your word. It looks like I win,” Pluto’s words gradually grew quieter until his consciousness faded away completely.
A grin grew on the assassin’s face which soon turned into laughter – sadistic laugh. “Interesting, very well then, in exchange for your life, I’ll cure those two.” Yet, in the depths of his heart, he couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied. He had done this many times in the past, giving his victim the choice to choose between lives. But, not a single one of them dared to sacrifice their own life and still call it a ‘win’.
...
Meekly, Pluto opened his eyes, feeling the warmth of a fire and the softness of a bed. He leaned forth into a seating position before cringing at the outburst of pain throughout his body. Flashes of the recent past caused him to panic. How long had he been asleep? Five hours must have already passed long ago. In a sweeping glance across the room, his eyes stopped at the sight of Ara who lied in bed, sleeping soundly. Her face wasn’t as red as he last remembered; no longer was there a wet towel on her forehead. She looked like she was recovering from the fever, and the fact that she was alive must have meant that she received the antidote.
Thank goodness... She’s alive. But, why am I... still alive?
The last he recalled was lying on the snow outside in the cold, defeated and poisoned, yet here he was, perfectly fine with the stab wound on his chest covered in bandages. He was sitting on the same bed as last time, but his younger sister was not in the room, and it was difficult to believe that she was already up and moving.
The old lady soon entered the room. Her eyes showed signs of concern though her smile was forced in order to mask it.
“What happened?” Pluto asked impatiently. Something was clearly wrong. This wasn’t the outcome that he had in mind. The deal was the cure the girls in exchange for his own life, yet why was it that him and Ara were still alive with Rebecca missing from the scene. If this was a happy ending, then this elderly woman would have no reason to look so disheartened.
Reluctantly, the old lady explained, “A young man came over about an hour ago and administered an antidote to the three of you. I thought it was a miracle - too good to be true. But then, I grew suspicious as to how this man came in possession of such a cure. He then took the little girl and left.”
“He took... Rebecca?” His eyes widened in shock.
The old lady walked over, handing over a black-colored envelope, “He told me to give you this when you wake up.”
His hand trembled upon reaching out to accept the item that was being handled over to him. He was supposed to protect her. He had gotten this strong in order to do just that, and yet, so easily, someone from the New World just came along and defeated him in a battle. Ara was right all along; he couldn’t win against him. The gap of both power and experience between them was simply too huge. Not even his trump card was enough to take him down.
Dear Pluto,
As promised, I have cured those two in exchange for your life. Your life belongs to me now. If you do not meet my future demands, then your little sister will suffer for it.
While you were unconscious, I took a piece of your fingernail, and I’ll use that to make a vivre card, a type of paper often used in the New World. This would allow me to know where you are at any given time. I’ll know if you’re life force is dwindling; I’ll know if you end up dead. There is no escape; I’ll always know where you are and the state of your wellbeing.
It is to my understanding that your sister is the most precious person to you. But, if for whatever reason that you decide to opt out on our deal, I’ll eliminate both you and you sister.
You will receive letters from me in the near future, containing detailed instructions on what I want you to do in exchange for keeping your sister alive.
Farewell,
Raven, The Plague
As promised, I have cured those two in exchange for your life. Your life belongs to me now. If you do not meet my future demands, then your little sister will suffer for it.
While you were unconscious, I took a piece of your fingernail, and I’ll use that to make a vivre card, a type of paper often used in the New World. This would allow me to know where you are at any given time. I’ll know if you’re life force is dwindling; I’ll know if you end up dead. There is no escape; I’ll always know where you are and the state of your wellbeing.
It is to my understanding that your sister is the most precious person to you. But, if for whatever reason that you decide to opt out on our deal, I’ll eliminate both you and you sister.
You will receive letters from me in the near future, containing detailed instructions on what I want you to do in exchange for keeping your sister alive.
Farewell,
Raven, The Plague
He reread the letter many times over, scarring these words deep into his mind. His heart grew heavy, beating at a very low beat. It felt like his heart was sinking into a void. The Raven had clearly thought this through. Despite being an assassin, that man considered the advantages of keeping his prey alive. And, the usage of a vivre card set the last nail of the coffin to his life’s freedom. This was the first he has heard of such a useful sounding item; it was like a natural tracking device. Upon scrutinizing his own fingernails, his left thumb was shorter than usual, indicating that a piece of been clipped off.
I’m not supposed to be alive. Why? Why is Rebecca taken away!? Why didn’t he just kill me?
Losing his life didn’t equate to death; it meant losing his freedom. And to him, losing the most precious person to him was the same as dying. Death was too simple. As anger, sadness, and resentment boiled in his heart and no matter how much he hated himself over his own weakness, he couldn’t even kill himself because she was still alive somewhere. He can neither live nor die. Perhaps, this was worse than death.
So..., this is what a fighter from the New World is like.
Losing that fight didn’t mean anything to him. He fought to protect someone else, not to protect his pride. That crafty assassin left him in a grey area. While his sister had been taken away from him, he was still armed with the opportunity to protect her in exchange for doing whatever tasks the man wanted him to do. But, he didn’t want to live like this, and he didn’t want her to live like this.
But still...
Rebecca was gone.