"Ahhhh!! Monster—!"
The Carpenter finally woke up, screaming as he stumbled backward, frantically commanding the remaining Puppets, "Stop it! Kill it! Kill it now!"
Monster?
Is he talking about me?
This was the first time Xiano had been called that.
He didn't think it sounded very nice.
But upon reflection, he realized that deep down, he kind of enjoyed the title.
"Call me whatever you want!"
He sneered as he closed in, throwing a series of punches that sent the Puppets flying.
The one charging at him with a sword was caught by the neck with his elbow. Using the strength of his core, he drove his knee upward and tore the Puppet in half with his bare hands.
Wood splinters flew everywhere, and through the gaps in his vision, Xiano could see the Carpenter's face growing more terrified.
Thud! Xiano leaped high into the air from the Arena, landing right in front of the door, blocking the Carpenter's escape.
Now, only the town sheriff and Lieutenant Commander Tomte from the naval branch remained by the Carpenter's side.
"Get out of my way!"
Two more punches sent both men flying several meters, their guns clattering to the ground as they collapsed, unconscious.
Xiano had held back. These two hadn't been fully Puppetized yet, and there was still hope they could return to normal once the Carpenter was dealt with.
Crack.
Xiano reached out, his speed far surpassing that of an ordinary human. The Carpenter had no chance to dodge. Xiano grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up like a chicken.
The Carpenter struggled with all his might, but the boy's grip was like iron, impossible to break.
"Cough… cough…" The Carpenter's breathing grew labored as he forced out words through gritted teeth, "I'm… I'm suffocating! Let go! Let me go!"
Xiano didn't release him, his gaze filled with disappointment.
"You're really weak."
"You're a Devil Fruit Ability User, after all. I thought you'd at least give me a good fight, but you're just a coward hiding behind your bluster."
"Without your Puppets, you're nothing."
"How did someone as weak as you manage to control the masters of the eight Martial Arts Schools?"
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Don't look down on me!" The Carpenter snarled, "I couldn't win head-on at first, so I ambushed them! If it weren't for a freak like you, no one on Asakura Island could stand against me…"
"Boss Xiano!"
Junichi had somehow made his way forward. He wiped the tears from his eyes, his face red, gripping a sword he'd picked up. "Please, give me a chance! Let me kill him myself!"
"Not yet."
Xiano raised a hand to stop him, then turned back to scrutinize the middle-aged man in the luxurious coat. "There are still a few things I don't understand. I need to ask him first."
"Are you mocking me?!"
The Carpenter shouted in anger, "Why should I answer your questions? Just kill me already! Besides, I can barely breathe! How am I supposed to answer if you don't let go?!"
"That's exactly one of the things I'm curious about."
When Xiano wasn't fighting, his mental clarity seemed to return.
He glanced at his right hand, still tightly gripping the Carpenter's neck. "I've been choking you for this long. Are you really out of breath?"
"..." The Carpenter was stunned. He suddenly lowered his head, realizing that his breathing was still smooth, and the initial feeling of suffocation seemed like an illusion.
Why is this?
How is this possible?
"Have you noticed that many of the things you say and do lack logic?" Xiano narrowed his eyes and continued, "Let me ask you, why did you suddenly come here and expose both yourself and the identities of the ten puppets you control? What's the point?"
"Weren't you always desperately trying to make money? After years of hard work on Asakura Island, you finally got it under your control. Why do you suddenly have a self-destructive tendency today? Are you planning to run away and make money somewhere else?"
Right, why is that?
The Carpenter was in a daze, suddenly unable to figure it out himself.
It seemed like he had been feeling this way for a long time.
—Whenever he was about to figure something out, it felt like there was a barrier deep in his mind. As soon as his thoughts collided with it, he would become disoriented and lose focus.
In the end, the things he did were completely contrary to his original plans, yet he felt it was perfectly normal.
"Wait!" The Carpenter suddenly shouted, "I almost fell for your trick! I didn't expose my identity—wasn't it Sakuraba Itsuki, that bastard, who spilled everything while seeking death?"
"But when you came in, he hadn't yet revealed that the heads of the Seven Great Dojos had long been turned into puppets!" Xiano raised his voice sharply, "Didn't you bring the security officer and that navy lieutenant in yourself? When you entered, you could have directly controlled him and cut off his words! Then you had a thousand ways to make the public believe he was an imposter! Why didn't you do that?"
Why?
The Carpenter grew even more confused. Yes, why?
There were plenty of ways to cover it up and continue happily making his dirty money. Why did he suddenly decide to tear everything apart?
He vaguely remembered something even stranger about his past.
He knew that among all the puppets, Sakuraba Itsuki was the hardest to control, often having his own opinions and thoughts.
Yet he had never thought of completely puppetizing him. Instead, he had kept him by his side, entrusting him with the most secret and important tasks.
"Here." Xiano suddenly reached out with his other hand and grabbed the Carpenter's right hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Control me," Xiano said coldly. "You've lost eight puppets, so you have free fingers to recruit new ones, right? Use your ability and try to control me!"
"But... but it's not easy to control someone powerful. You're even harder to control than Sakuraba Itsuki was back then..."
Before the Carpenter could finish stammering, Xiano abruptly pulled Junichi over. "Then try it on him!"
"Huh? Boss Xiano!"
Junichi, who had been listening intently and had regained his composure, was suddenly pulled into the Carpenter's hands and was completely dumbfounded.
"..."
The Carpenter trembled as he reached out and grabbed Junichi's arm, but soon he froze in confusion.
Planting puppet strings to control others... He understood the principles of the Devil Fruit, but... how was it done again?
"Look, the maximum authority you've obtained is simply controlling these few puppets."
Xiano once again lifted Junichi with one hand and stared at the middle-aged man dressed in luxury. "Now, do you still think you're truly the 'Carpenter' who can create puppets?"
As his words fell, Xiano suddenly slapped the man's chest with a fierce palm.
Bang! The sound was crisp and short, like hitting a hollow bamboo tube.
What this meant, the "Carpenter" understood better than anyone.
Xiano finally let go, allowing the middle-aged man to slump weakly to the ground, sitting in a dejected heap.
"I... I'm not the Carpenter..."
He looked dazed, struggling to accept reality, his voice hoarse. "I... so I... am just a puppet too?"
...
"So, the real 'Carpenter' is actually someone else?"
Junichi felt his brain swelling, almost on the verge of shutting down. "Then... who could it be? And what grudge does he have against my father to target him?"
Xiano looked at Junichi with pity and finally sighed:
"Whoever started today's farce is the Carpenter."
Suddenly, he threw a punch, collapsing the middle-aged man's chest, then turned to look at the corpse on the Arena, speaking in a low voice:
"Am I right, Mr. Sakuraba Itsuki?"
No one answered.
The wall clock ticked second by second, and in the deafening silence that lasted for over ten seconds, movement finally came from the Arena.
Crack, crack.
The grating sound of wood rubbing against wood abruptly rang out. The corpse's limb joints suddenly bent backward at a ninety-degree angle, standing upright in a grotesque, biomechanically impossible posture, lifting the upper body back up.
Amidst a series of dense cracking sounds, Sakuraba Itsuki's body remained facing away from them, but his head slowly twisted 180 degrees, revealing a gaunt face that seemed both weeping and not, filled with sorrow.
Junichi froze in place.
His hands and feet turned cold, feeling an unprecedented chill shooting up his spine to the crown of his head.
"Why..."
The gaunt face finally spoke sorrowfully, the voice from its throat resembling an old phonograph skipping, w
ith human speech and the vibrations of wood eerily overlapping. "Why... why did you have to find out? Why did you have to say it?"
"Why... couldn't you let me give the identity of Sakuraba Itsuki a perfect curtain call and leave in peace?"
(End of Chapter)