Chapter 20: The Story Concludes
"You mean I owe you an explanation? I think you have that backward."
Shane sneered. "Shouldn't it be you who owes Junichi an explanation?!"
"Junichi..."
"DON'T SAY MY NAME!!!!"
Junichi's breathing was ragged, his eyes red and swollen, his teeth nearly grinding through his gums.
"So you were the mastermind all along? You were the one secretly controlling Cherry Blossom Island? Then what were the last five years of my life for? And what was that whole emotional act you just put on?!"
He looked around, his eyes falling on the corpses littering the ground in despair.
"This is just one day, and you've already killed so many people! For five years, five whole years, how many insane things have you done? Why would you do this!!!"
Sakuraba Itsuki glanced at the bodies, his expression cold. He then turned his emotionless gaze back to Junichi and spoke, his voice seeming to emanate from the depths of a dry well.
"Do you remember what I told you about your mother all those years ago?"
"My mother?"
Junichi grew even more furious, roaring, "Why are you bringing her up now?! What right do you have to even mention her! Didn't she fall ill and die while traveling with you ten years ago?!"
"Aya did die during that trip, but not from illness."
"Not long after we began our journey that year, we passed through the Goa Kingdom. Two noble ladies with elegant temperaments boarded the ship. They got along very well with Aya, and within a few days, they became friends."
"They would often hold tea parties in the afternoon and sit together on the deck at night to watch the stars, laughing and talking about everything."
"Aya had been with me since my poorest days, working hard for so many years. Aside from when you were just born, that was probably the happiest I had ever seen her."
"Until one day..."
"Those two noble ladies suddenly mentioned they wanted to play soccer, but where would we find a ball on the ship?"
"So their personalities suddenly changed. They flew into a rage, beating and cursing their own guards, and even wanted to kill the head guard and throw him into the sea to feed the fish."
"Aya couldn't bear to watch, so she stepped in to persuade them, saving the head guard's life. Then she went to the kitchen to borrow materials like a pig's bladder, wanting to help sew a leather ball."
"She spent most of the night making the ball. Aya was very happy because she thought this would stop the noble ladies from taking their anger out on the guards again."
"She went to deliver the ball early in the morning. I slept in a little before going to look for her. Do you know what I saw?"
Sakuraba Itsuki's face was completely wooden, as if he were telling a story that had nothing to do with him.
"Aya's head had been cut off. The two noble ladies were using her head as a ball, kicking it around happily. The leather ball she had worked so hard on all night had been stomped on and thrown aside because they thought it was too ugly."
Wh-what?! Junichi's pupils contracted violently. He stumbled back two steps, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Shane let out a long breath and fell silent. He had some guesses about the identity of the two noble ladies but didn't interrupt, letting Sakuraba Itsuki continue his story from the stage.
In the vast, empty dojo, only that emotionless voice echoed:
"...I stood there stunned for a long time before I finally came to my senses. I went mad, drew my sword, and charged, but I was suddenly stopped by that head guard."
"My proud swordsmanship was like a joke in front of that man. I didn't even last a few seconds before I was trampled under his feet."
"I truly couldn't understand it at the time. It was only after a long and bitter investigation that I finally figured it out..."
"Those two ladies weren't nobles from the Goa Kingdom at all. They were Celestial Dragons who had snuck away from their families to visit the Goa Kingdom! As for the head guard Aya saved, he was none other than the great Marine Vice Admiral, Stainless!"
"How ridiculous, how ridiculous... HOW RIDICULOUS!!!"
Sakuraba Itsuki suddenly threw his head back and began to laugh maniacally.
"Hahaha, Aya thought she had made two new friends, but she never knew that in their eyes, she was like a little cat or dog they decided to play with on a whim."
"And the man who had knocked on our door the night before to thank her for saving his life, personally cut off her head the very next day!"
"And me? I was kicked into the sea like a dead dog and drifted for a month before I managed to survive!"
"No wonder you were silent for months after you came back from that trip..." Junichi clutched his hair in agony, murmuring in a daze. "But after mother's funeral, didn't you slowly move on?"
"Move on? I never moved on!" Sakuraba Itsuki scoffed. "I only chose to escape and forget so I could continue raising you, for the sake of the dojo I founded. I continued to play the part of the good president, the good father."
"The real Sakuraba Itsuki, the original Sakuraba Itsuki, drowned when he fell into the sea ten years ago!"
"I thought I could just keep running away forever. After all, what could I do? Get revenge? Revenge on whom? The Celestial Dragons? A Marine Vice Admiral? I'm not even a master swordsman, how could I have the ability?!"
He grinned.
"But fate just wouldn't let me bow my head!"
"That shipwreck five years ago, I almost drowned again trying to save people, but I survived in the end. Not only that, but I found a Devil Fruit in the wreckage that floated over from a merchant ship!"
"You pretty much know the rest of the story."
Sakuraba Itsuki finally turned his body fully towards them. The place on his chest that had been pierced by the sword blade swirled with wood splinters and instantly repaired itself. His expression also gradually became indifferent.
"Fate saved me twice and delivered the power of a demon to me. This was clearly encouraging me to walk the path of revenge."
"So, I personally destroyed everything that belonged to Sakuraba Itsuki."
"The dojo, my family, my old friends... they were all things that would make me reluctant to let go, that would keep me huddled on this tiny island, a pitiful wretch licking his wounds, afraid to take the first step towards vengeance!"
"As for the lives I've taken these past few years?" Sakuraba Itsuki sneered and shook his head slightly. "Don't worry, they didn't die in vain. They had value. In five years, these puppets have earned me over a billion Belli, finally giving me enough capital to seek my revenge."
"Shameless! You... you... do you not feel a shred of remorse or guilt?!" Junichi's face was pale, the finger he pointed at Sakuraba Itsuki trembling. "You're insane! Completely insane! You've been a madman for five years!"
"Those two Celestial Dragons deserve to die! I also wish I could cut off their heads to avenge my mother! But did you have to do it this way?! Would mother want to see you do this? You've killed so many innocent people for the sake of revenge! When you die, will you have the face to see her in the afterlife?!"
"Watch your tone, Junichi," Sakuraba Itsuki's voice suddenly turned cold. "I was actually planning to kill you five years ago, but in the end, my heart softened, and I let you drift on the sea to fend for yourself. In a way, I saved your life."
"But you shouldn't have, you absolutely shouldn't have, come back to this island just as I was about to make my final exit, and bring with you..."
"A meddlesome little brat!"
The moment his voice fell, hundreds of puppet strings suddenly flew out from the top of his head, dancing and growing wildly in the light, transforming into countless thick, dark yellow vines. Sakuraba Itsuki's voice sounded again, mechanical and cold like a puppet, no longer human:
"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but a third time is enemy action. Junichi, since you cherish the life I gave you so little..."
"—Then you might as well join this little brat and become my puppets!"
Swish! Swish!
With the sound of tearing air, the dark yellow vines shot forward, and in an instant, they had completely surrounded Shane and Junichi from all angles.
Shane looked at the thick lines twisting madly like a nest of snakes.
"Do you still have the strength to fight?" he suddenly asked, tilting his head. "If you don't want to fight him, I can understand."
"...I, I..." Junichi looked silently at the figure on the stage, then suddenly wiped away a tear and gritted his teeth. "I don't want to run away, Boss! My father, Sakuraba Itsuki, is already dead, just as he said. The thing on the stage now is just an evil spirit wearing his shell."
"He wants revenge? He'll have to wait. First, let me get revenge for my father!"
Shane looked at Junichi with some surprise.
"Take it."
He directly took out the "Masamune" and tossed it over. "This ability is indeed a bit tricky. I'll deal with the main body. You'll be in charge of chopping down those vines."
Junichi subconsciously caught it and stood back-to-back with Shane.
Swish! Swish! Before he could even get a feel for the sword, several puppet strings attacked from the side. He immediately brought the blade up to block the first wave, then swung sharply from the side, instantly cutting the thick lines in two.
What a sharp sword... Junichi was shocked. Even Master Koshiro's Wado Ichimonji was only about this sharp.
Shane had already raised his head, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the source of the puppet strings.
"Who gave you permission to stay up there, playing god?!"
He suddenly shot out both hands, firmly grabbing the nearest few vines. His gnarled biceps bulged into small hills, and with a violent infusion of power, he pulled hard!
"Get down here!"
Crack! Crack! It was the sound of the stage's edge cracking under the friction. Sakuraba Itsuki's withered-branch-like body was instantly pulled off the ground and into the air.
What astonishing strength... Sakuraba Itsuki's eyes narrowed. Although he had already witnessed how easily his puppets were defeated while he was feigning death, feeling it himself was a completely different experience.
However, he was not an inflexible puppet. With a thought, the soles of his feet suddenly opened like two small wooden doors with a creak. Countless fine puppet strings shot out from within, piercing the dojo's floor tiles and anchoring themselves deep underground, firmly fixing Sakuraba Itsuki's body in mid-air. No matter how powerful the pulling force from below was, it couldn't budge him an inch.
Next should be... huh? Sakuraba Itsuki's expression suddenly changed. In his pupils, a shadow was rapidly growing larger. And in his peripheral vision below, the spot where Shane had been standing was now empty!
Wh-when?
There was no time to think. Sakuraba Itsuki hurriedly willed his body to fully puppetize. For the people he controlled, this meant the complete destruction of their consciousness. But for him, the user, converting his entire body into a state of hardwood and stacking layers on the surface was the best defensive armor.
BOOM!
Shane grabbed onto a steel beam hanging from the ceiling, kicked off a load-bearing pillar behind him, and used this final push to close the distance by several meters. He appeared in the air to Itsuki's left just as he finished his puppet transformation.
"Caught you!"
He grinned savagely and slammed a fist into Sakuraba Itsuki's left shoulder. The shockwave exploded in a ring. The hardened, puppetized body instantly caved in, revealing the empty chest cavity inside. The flying wood splinters grazed the surface of Shane's muscles but couldn't pierce them at all, bouncing off and falling to the ground.
How... Sakuraba Itsuki's pupils contracted. He had tested his own body with his sword countless times before. With his level of swordsmanship, he could at most cut through the first layer of the hardwood shell, unable to harm the interior at all. But he had been pierced directly by this kid's punch?
This is bad!
Even though he had tried to overestimate him, this guy's strength was far greater than he had anticipated! A long-forgotten feeling of panic surged through him.
Before he could even react, Shane had used the opportunity to plant his feet firmly on his body. The boy's handsome face was right in front of him, but his bared-teeth grin now looked as terrifying as a demon's in Sakuraba Itsuki's eyes.
"You probably don't know this, but you feel a lot like the orange trees back home."
Shane's grin almost reached his ears. "And unfortunately for you, when I had free time back home, my favorite thing to do was beat up orange trees."
BOOM!
Before he even finished speaking, Shane was already on top of Sakuraba Itsuki, delivering a flurry of punches as rapid and heavy as a thunderstorm against his opponent's chest.
He had once thrown hundreds, even thousands, of sets of the Breathing Fist at those tree trunks and wooden posts every day. Over a year and a half, that added up to hundreds of thousands of sets.
Sweat is never wasted.
Now, against a target of almost identical material, everything felt familiar.
Thump! Thump! Thump! With each punch, in a continuous series of muffled impacts, Sakuraba Itsuki's aura weakened at a visible rate. His consciousness was also gradually fading.
No, it can't be... I can't fall here! Sakuraba Itsuki's life is already over! I'm supposed to take on a new identity, a new name, and complete the grand plan of revenge I've plotted for so long!
His right hand twitched and trembled. He wanted to control the puppet strings he had released from his head to counterattack, but there was no response at all.
What's going on?!
Sakuraba Itsuki struggled to look down. In his blurry peripheral vision, he could faintly see—
On the ground below, Junichi, holding the tachi, was still slashing and weaving between the thick vines. While his main body was being restrained, who knows how long he had been cutting, but by now, he had chopped nearly all the puppet strings to pieces.
"Last punch!"
The moment despair washed over him, he heard Shane's low shout in his ear.
BOOM!
The surface of his hardwood body was already shattered. With this final blow, his connection to all the puppet strings was completely severed.
His unsupported body fell from a height of seven or eight meters, crashing heavily onto the ground and creating a large crater.
Shane stepped down, his feet crunching on his opponent's knees. He turned back to look at the center of the web of cracks.
—Sakuraba Itsuki's eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling, full of unwillingness. His withered body was motionless, never to make another sound.