Zoro's three swords pressed down hard on Kuro's ten blades.
Kuro's long-looking arms bulged with veins. His legs were already starting to give under the crushing force—his knees bending slightly, his heels carving two deep trenches through the grass as he was forced back inch by inch!
"I'll take him!" Zoro grit out through the deadlock, calling to Ronan and Luffy.
"Hey!" Luffy bounced on his toes in a panic. "Zoro! Didn't we say we'd fight together?!"
"No need!" Zoro roared, driving power through both his arms and his waist at once!
CLANG—!!
A surge of brute force far beyond what Kuro expected slammed through those three blades. A strange, irresistible strength crashed into him—his proud claws couldn't hold the block anymore, and he was shoved back hard!
"Step! Step! Step! Step! Step!"
Kuro stumbled back five or six steps before he barely managed to steady himself.
His arms were numb, his fingers almost unable to keep hold of the heavy claws.
Enduring the churning agony in his stomach and the numbness flooding his arms, he stared at Zoro in shock.
So heavy… This brat's strength… he's completely overpowering me?!
Kuro's heart sank.
When had East Blue produced a monster like this…? That kind of strength, that kind of swordsmanship—he wasn't some nobody.
"As someone who threw away your ambition and chose to rot on this little island, how would you know about the new rising stars in East Blue these past years?"
Ronan's voice drifted over calmly, like a narrator's commentary.
Enjoying the fivefold boost strengthening his body, he spoke leisurely, introducing Zoro to Kuro as if it were only proper.
"The swordsman you're facing is the one who's been making waves all across the sea this past year."
"The Three-Sword Style swordsman known throughout the waters as the 'Pirate Hunter'—Roronoa Zoro!"
"Hey! Ronan! You talk too much!" Zoro barked, even his face heating up at that over-the-top introduction.
"Roronoa… Zoro…"
Kuro tasted the name on his tongue, his expression darkening until it looked like it could drip.
He knew he'd run into a real problem today.
"Enough chatter!" Kuro screeched. "A fight isn't decided by who's stronger!"
He understood now—whether it was Ronan's prediction or Zoro's raw power, neither was something he could trade blows with head-on.
His only path to victory—his strongest, last remaining chance—
Was speed.
Kuro made his decision.
He bent his waist slightly, lowering his body to an extreme crouch, like a predator ready to pounce.
His knees folded, muscles drawn taut, coiled with stored power.
His clawed hands hung loosely at his sides, swaying faintly, but the blades of the "cat claws" had already spread slightly, reflecting a chilling glint under the sun.
The pressure in the courtyard dropped to a suffocating low.
The wind stopped.
The birds fell silent.
Even Luffy and Zoro unconsciously slowed their breathing.
Kuro's presence surged higher and higher, and a chaotic, violent killing intent—one that didn't even distinguish friend from foe—spilled out from him.
"Huh?"
Luffy's eyes suddenly widened.
"Where'd he go? He disappeared!"
The instant Luffy said it, Kuro vanished right in front of Zoro and Ronan.
Not like Silent Step, that point-to-point "blink"—
This was total evaporation. To the naked eye, he simply ceased to exist.
The patch of grass beneath him was blasted up by an invisible force, shredded turf and dirt exploding into the air!
"He didn't!"
Ronan's voice cut through the chaos. His eyes, at some point, had turned razor-focused—under the fivefold boost, his sharpened mind could barely catch a faint trace.
"This isn't disappearing. It's a kind of movement we can't comprehend! He's moving so fast that the naked eye can't see him at all!"
A term surfaced in Ronan's mind—
"Shakushi."
"Spoon."
It was here—Kuro's strongest move. And it was indiscriminate.
Ronan knew exactly what it was: using his maximum speed to unleash high-speed, uncontrolled slashes within a set range.
So fast that even Kuro himself didn't know what he was going to cut—and couldn't stop.
A deranged, murderous technique.
"Zoro!" Ronan bellowed. "Don't try to chase him with your eyes! He can't control himself! Hold your focus!"
"What?!" Zoro's eyes widened—but he didn't have time to understand what Ronan meant.
Because the symphony of death had already begun.
Sss—! Sss! Sss! Sss! Sss—!
Piercing tearing sounds came from every direction at once!
Kuro's body became countless gray-black afterimages, ricocheting wildly through the courtyard like a storm of blades.
His ten claws were like the scythes of death, shredding everything in their path to pieces!
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Kaya's carefully planted rosebeds, the decorative stone bench, even the tree Usopp had been hiding in earlier—
In that single instant, all of them were struck dozens of times!
Wood splintered into the air! Stone fragments blasted outward! Red petals whirled like a rain of blood!
"S-So fast!" Luffy stared in shock at the destruction. He couldn't even tell which shadow was Kuro's real body.
"Damn it…!"
Kuro's speed had already surpassed the limit of his dynamic vision.
"Hahahahaha!!"
Kuro's crazed laughter echoed from all directions, bouncing around the courtyard.
"See that, you brats?! This is my Shakushi! In this area, I'm god!"
"Where's your prediction now?! Your strength?! In front of absolute speed—none of it matters!!"
"Die! Die! I'll tear you all… into pieces!!"
Kuro accelerated again!
Wood chips flew! Stone burst apart! Red rose petals were shredded into the air, spinning like a crimson storm!
In an instant, the mansion's white walls and hard stone pillars were carved with countless crisscrossing claw marks.
In just a few seconds, the backyard went from a beautiful garden to a collapsing ruin.
"Damn it!"
Zoro raised all three swords in front of him, trying to block.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three sharp impacts rang out almost simultaneously—from his left, his right, and behind him.
Zoro felt three waves of force slam into him at once. His palms erupted in pain, his body staggering under the chaotic barrage.
He couldn't even tell where the attacks were coming from.
"Gah!" Zoro grunted.
His crisp white shirt tore open across the chest, and five gruesome blood marks bloomed into view—his front instantly stained red.
"Too fast… and the strikes are razor-sharp…"
"There's no way to tell… where he'll come from…"
"Wah—!"
On the other side, slashes suddenly appeared across Luffy's red vest as well.
His rubber body absorbed most of the blunt impact, but those razor blades still left shallow cuts across his skin.
"I can't find him at all!"
Luffy shouted anxiously, swinging his fists wildly like a headless fly—yet he couldn't even touch the edge of Kuro's coat.
"Don't panic!"
Ronan's voice rang out inside the storm. Guarding against all sides, he shouted to them both:
"Instead of saying we don't know where he'll attack from—look at what he's doing to the courtyard."
"This is indiscriminate. Which means—he can't control his own attack direction either! He's too fast. That's the weakness!"
The instant Ronan finished—
A chill so absolute it felt like it could freeze his soul surged up behind him.
A killing intent far heavier than Silent Step—
A death warning that drowned everything else.