Before Kuma could react, Ritter's blood mist whip had already reshaped itself into a long spear, thrusting straight toward the massive bear's chest.
"Boom!"
Kuma's palms flared, the Paw-Paw Fruit activating in an instant. Air compressed into a shimmering shield just in time to intercept the spear's tip. The shield rippled and cracked under the pressure, but held.
For a brief moment.
The truth was simple: if admirals had fallen before Ritter, then Kuma had no chance of standing unscathed. When Ritter wanted to beat someone, there was no blocking it, no escaping it. Kuma was simply forced to take it head-on.
Ritter smirked, his voice dripping with mockery. "Come on, little bear. Stop being stubborn. Carry the weight like a good boy!"
Ritter had always been especially good at bullying younger ones. It was a skill he wore like a badge of honor.
"First lesson!" His silhouette flickered through the blood mist, reappearing behind Kuma in a blur. "If you like a girl, say it out loud! Watching you bottle it up makes me anxious as hell!"
"Whack!"
The whip lashed across Kuma's back, the impact forcing him to stumble forward with a grunt.
"Ritter! Kuma! Please stop fighting!" Ginny's cry tore through the air, her voice trembling. She took a step forward, ready to intervene, only for Dragon to place a hand firmly on her shoulder.
"Trust him," Dragon said evenly. "Your teacher knows what he's doing."
"Second lesson!" Ritter's blood mist surged, and he materialized before Kuma again, launching a whip-like kick that crashed into Kuma's torso. "Stop trying to shoulder everything alone! You're too weak for that. If you don't like it, then prove me wrong. Fight!"
"Crash!"
Kuma's body slammed into the tavern's outer wall, carving a human-shaped crater.
Ritter winced at the sight. His gaze darted toward Shakky behind the bar.
The sharp-eyed woman lit a cigarette, then flashed Ritter a wide grin. She raised a thumb, then calmly pulled out a battered abacus. Her fingers flew across the beads at lightning speed.
Ritter's cheek twitched. "Great. That's gonna cost me."
Outside, the Hancock sisters clung to the windowsill, eyes wide. From their vantage point, they watched Kuma slowly push himself out of the rubble, dust clinging to his clothes.
"…I understand, Ritter," Kuma said quietly, his voice steady despite the pain.
Ritter's smile curved into something sharper, satisfied. Yes, that's it. Stand up. Fight like a man.
He remembered too clearly how, in the original story, this gentle giant had been humiliated, reduced to a weapon, unable to protect the woman he loved. Just thinking about it made Ritter's blood boil. One day, he swore, he would kill Celestial Dragons with his own hands.
For now, though this battle was his test for Kuma.
"Pressure Cannon Hundred Barrage!"
Kuma's paw flared. Air condensed into orbs of compressed force, hundreds of them bursting out in a torrential storm. Explosions thundered across the courtyard, the ground crumbling like brittle parchment beneath the relentless barrage.
"Too slow."
Ritter's voice slithered out of the smoke. Blood mist surged upward like living tendrils, ensnaring Kuma's arms, yanking him violently into the air.
"Bang!"
Kuma's body slammed into the ground. Yet in the instant of impact, his paw struck, vanishing with a burst of compressed air. He reappeared behind Ritter, his massive palm driving forward like a hammer.
"Interesting." Ritter didn't bother to turn his head. Blood mist had already swirled behind him, solidifying into a demon-faced shield. The paw collided, but the sound was swallowed whole. Silence reigned.
Kuma's eyes widened. His attack had landed, but made no noise.
Ritter tilted his head lazily. "Welcome to the upgraded version… Fog Realm: Phantom World. A silent world."
The mist wasn't just an illusion it swallowed sound, smothered awareness. While the outside world saw only calm, inside Ritter's fog there was no peace, only suffocation.
Kuma tried again, paw lashing toward Ritter's back. But Ritter's form dissolved into mist, his real body already above.
"Too slow."
Blood condensed into a colossal hammer, crashing down. Kuma's arms crossed defensively, paw against hammer.
"BOOM!"
The shockwave ripped outward, gouging a crater ten meters wide. Kuma's legs sank into the dirt, his body trembling from the force. Ritter flipped gracefully backward, landing lightly.
The fight wasn't about victory. Ritter had already won.
Nine blood-dragons coiled around Kuma, binding him tight. Mist seeped into his pores, infiltrating flesh, mind, soul.
Kuma froze, realizing too late his Devil Fruit couldn't repel it. The fog carried something else, something toxic, a hallucinatory venom Ritter had perfected through years of experiments with Zephyr, Rayleigh, even Crocus.
Mist invaded his consciousness. Ritter's voice echoed inside Kuma's skull.
"Let me show you… what true helplessness feels like."
And Kuma's world broke apart.
Suddenly he was standing before the ruined church of the Sorbet Kingdom. A crumpled letter trembled in his hands:
[ Ginny has been released. But she has contracted Sapphire Scales. Return immediately. ]
His memories were shackled, suppressed. He couldn't tell it was an illusion. All he knew was the panic twisting his heart.
"No…" His paw trembled. He slammed it against his own chest, launching himself forward in a desperate blur.
The church doors creaked open.
"Ginny!"
Inside, Ginny lay pale and fevered on a threadbare bed. Her skin was mottled with the fatal blue hue of the disease. In the corner, little Bonney wept in a nun's arms.
Ritter's laughter slithered unseen through the illusion. Yes. Feel it. The pain I saw. The pain that broke me.
Ginny lifted a trembling hand. Her voice was weak, but tender. "Kuma… I'm so glad. I get to see you… one last time."
"No! Don't say that!" Kuma collapsed to his knees, clutching her fragile body with shaking arms. "I'll find a doctor, the Revolution has healers someone can save you!"
Her hand brushed Bonney's cheek, then guided the little girl's tiny palm into Kuma's. Her eyes glazed, her breath faded.
In the real world, Kuma's massive body shook violently, tears leaking from the corners of tightly shut eyes.
"No… no, this isn't real…" His head snapped up. Through the church's stained glass window, he glimpsed faint patterns of blood mist.
"Ritter… sir?"
The scene shattered.
"Do you see now?" Ritter's voice was everywhere. "That is the future that awaits you if you keep trying to bear everything alone."
Ritter pushed harder. The vision twisted into Mary Geoise, white-coated scientists carving into Kuma's flesh, stripping away his humanity. "You couldn't even protect the ones you love. Is that what you want?"
Reality snapped back.
"Cough!"
Kuma spat blood, falling to his knees. Ginny rushed to his side, catching him. This time he didn't push her away. His arms wrapped tightly around her trembling body.
Ritter watched silently, his grin curling at the sight. Good. Lock it in. Kuma and Ginny forever.
The blood mist dissolved. Ritter crouched, meeting Kuma eye to eye.
"Now tell me, hero. Did you see it? That future?"
Kuma's voice was ragged, but unyielding. "I will never… let that happen."
"Swearing means nothing." Ritter suddenly grabbed his collar, yanking him close. With a sharp nod toward Ginny, who was sobbing into Kuma's chest, Ritter barked, "Then marry her! Right now! Have ten kids! And when they're grown, take the whole family and burn Mary Geoise to the ground!"
Dragon's notebook slipped from his hand, hitting the dirt with a thud. "T-teacher?!"
—————————————————————————————————————————————————
Hooked already? Let me know what grabbed you leave a review and fuel the journey forward! and if we hit every 250 Power Stones, a bonus chapter drops!
Things are just heating up. Read ahead in Unbound Evolutionand stay ahead of the crowd.
[email protected]/_tey
Change @ to a.