41 Chapter 40

"Kishishishi, die together?" Crackling in laughter, Moria, placing his hands in his pockets, stared at me in amusement. Then, as his eyes shifted to that of contempt, he snarled, "Marine, don't you know who I am?"

BOOOM!

At a rapid speed that I barely reacted to, Moria slammed his huge right fist on the ground I was standing just previously.

"I'm the notorious pirate with 320 million Beli on his head—'Nightmare' Gecko Moria, the destined Pirate King!!!" Roaring in a crazed manner, he leaned down to glare at me with his bloodshot eyes, "And you... kishishishi... a worthless pile of trash whom I never heard of before, think you can fight me on equal ground?"

SWOOSH!

Immediately leaning back at quickly as possible, I dodged Moria's hand that swiped horizontally. Subsequently, I back-flipped to evade Moria's stomp, which formed a spiderweb-like crack on the floor.

'Judging by raw strength alone, he isn't wrong—!' I thought while landing on a vertical plane of wall, 'Unlike him, I still am unable to utilize Haki. Against him who fought Kaidou, my physical prowess falls off as well—'

BOOM! Leaping up from the wall, I dodged the giant scissor that slammed forth.

"Doppelman!" Subsequently, I noticed that Moria, as he stood back up with a laid-back attitude, had his own shadow wiggling in a strange manner. Then, it physically manifested and arose sharply from the ground—now gazing at me with its hollow eyes. Upon the shadow grinning similarly to Moria, I clenched my fists tight while airborne, bracing myself for the impact.

"Brick Bat!"

Then, the huge shadow of Moria suddenly dispersed into numerous shadow-made bats. From all around me, they flooded in with malicious intent. My entire surrounding was coloured black, and I sighted Moria looking down on the floor... at where my shadow was displayed by the ceiling light.

Narrowing my eyes, before the bats could launch their attacks on me,

"White Out."

I swarmed the entire hallway with dense white smoke.

"A—cough—devil fruit?!" Moria cried in surprise, just as I quickly dispersed my body into smoke and smashed all lights nearby. The shadow bats, upon their arrival to where I previously stood, found themselves biting against each other.

"Smoke, cough, I see... so you're that, cough, 'White Menace' that's been making name recently..."

Within the smoke which I could clearly see through, Moria's voice resounded,

"Kishishishi... but what difference can this useless smoke make?"

SWOOSH! Immediately after Moria's words, I felt the sudden gush of wind, so strong that—

BOOOM! The wall behind me broke from the impact, revealing the clear night sky where the bright moon illuminated the city. Simultaneously, I was sent flying back by the pressure, out of the mansion.

"Tch...!" Landing on my feet, I grimaced while focusing my attention on Moria, who lazily walked out of the dark mansion.

"Doppelman!"

And before I realized, his shadow... it was towering over me from my back.

Gritting my teeth, I quickly flopped on the ground to dodge the shadow's kick, as well as Moria's punch that was aiming for my head—

BOOM! I found my vision shaking, and by the time I realized, I was flying up in the air, with Moria, standing on the ground, having his foot outstretched.

"Kishishishi, it's futile!!" Moria, while saying so, had his eyes gleam in red.

'Observation Haki, huh...'

Repositioning myself in the air, I pointed my index finger at Moria,

'White Gun.'

BANG! A small ball of white smoke rapidly traveled at Moria, but before it could land on him, Moria simply slapped the smoke bullet away with his right hand, "Kishishishi! What was this supposed to do—"

Behind me, who was rapidly falling to the ground, Moria's doppelman appeared with its hand ready to leash out on me.

Pssss...

However, at the same time, the smoke bullet expanded into a huge volume of smoke upon Moria's hand slap.

'White Snake.' With my eyes focused on Moria and not the doppelman behind me, I tweaked my hand, and upon my will, the cloud of smoke morphed into a snake that coiled around Moria. Then,

BOOM! Just as Moria's doppelman landed its punch on my back, causing me to plummet to the ground,

'Transmutation: Black.'

BOOOM! The snake suddenly turned black, before exploding into a huge burst of fire.

"Kishishishi..." And I heard while standing back up, the amused laughter from my back, "Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)."

Moria and his doppelman swapped places. The one who faced the full-blown effect of my smoke-induced explosion wasn't Moria, but his doppelman.

And I was waiting for this moment—the moment where Moria was in proximity to me, with his guard down.

Tap.

"Eh?" As Moria expressed surprise, I, having my fist in contact with the pirate's large stomach, unleashed my technique,

"White Blow."

BOOOOM! A huge volume of white smoke blasted out of my fist, in point-blank range. The incredible pressure generated by the smoke, as well as the strength that I've been honing ever since my arrival to this world, worked synergistically to produce this outcome—

"Kishishishi! Kishishishi!!" But what I heard wasn't a pain-filled groan, but yet another laughter. When the cloud of smoke cleared, I saw that through the ripped top, Moria's stomach in contact with my fist was coated in black, signaling the use of Armament Haki: Hardening.

'Shit—'

Without any hesitation, I dashed backward to prevent myself from being gripped by Moria, however,

BOOM! I was knocked down by Moria's doppelman, who stomped on my form.

"Kishishishi! Though it's entertaining to watch a prick like you make a fool out of yourself, I don't feel like fighting any longer." Moria, holding his giant scissor, was now pinning me down with his foot, for he swapped places with doppelman, "I'm freaking hungry! So just lie here and wait until your death—huh?"

In front of Moria's face, my detached arm was floating in front of him, with the white sphere of smoke on its palm. Though I instinctively groaned from the pain of having my body crushed by a strong force, I nonetheless attacked,

'White Lance!'

"Gahh!!"

BOOOM! The dense sphere smoke shot out toward Moria at an imminent strength, in a pointy form that looked like a spear. Though its end was blunt, Moria was struck down to the ground—

"Ah, come on!"

...or not. In place of where Moria was supposed to be, his shadow was lying instead. Moria, on the other hand, was standing at some distance away from me, having swapped places with his manifested shadow.

"Why won't you just die already?!"

"Haa... haa..." Breathing heavily, I wiped the sweat off my body while standing back up and having my arm return back to my body. Then, grinning with confidence, I stated, "The answer is obvious, isn't it?

I'm stronger than you."

"...What?" Moria, frowning while gritting his jagged teeth, growled, "Me, weaker than you? Are you out of your mind?"

BOOM! Dashing at me at a rapid speed, Moria then instantly slammed his Haki-encased scissor down at where I stood, which I dodged by dispersing my body into smoke and floating upward.

SWOOSH! Taking out his stabbed scissor, Moria swung it upward vertically. His eyes gleamed red to signal its use of Observation Haki, and having predicted the movement of smoke, the vertical slash abruptly changed its direction, cutting through the dense smoke.

'I,' appearing behind Moria, was about to land a punch on him, but the one 'I' saw in front wasn't Moria, but his doppelman.

Then, Moria's Haki-encased scissor effectively stabbed through 'my' body.

Moria, grinning evilly, laughed wildly in assumption of his victory, "Kishishishi!!! Here it is, yet another—"

Poof!

"—Eh?" Before 'I' suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Rokuogan—!!"

BOOOM! And from the back, Moria was caught off-guard by a sudden attack from his back. Though his body was too strong for Rokuogan to inflict a substantial extent of damage, the patchworks on his body became undone, causing the blood to ooze out. Moria, having his currently weakened internal organs affected, coughed out blood.

"You...!!"

Quickly shifting his bloodshot eyes to his back, Moria swung his scissor rapidly, but it simply swiped through the empty air. Looking around at his surrounding, the street filled with dents here and there due to the battle, Moria still didn't manage to sight his enemy—

—me.

"Rokuogan!!"

BOOOOM!

Placing my fists on top of Moria's gigantic head, I blasted another Rokuogan downward.

"...So that's where you are." However, Moria, coating his head with Armament Haki, effectively endured my attack. With his eyes gleaming red, he then swung his scissor upward. I retreated as quickly as possible, however,

'Kurgh...!' Received a diagonal gash across my chest while doing so.

Tap. Landing back on the ground, me, who was invisible until previously, became visible once again due to losing my control over the smoke. Holding my hand over the wound on my chest,

'Black Wisp.'

Tsssss...

I generated a black smoke that combusted into the red-hot fire, burning my own skin to prevent excessive bleeding. Though the scorching pain infiltrated my nerves, I endured it and kept my eyes focused on Moria.

'...Wait,' And I found my eyes widened at the next moment, 'Where is his doppelman...?'

"Horn Blade Shadow."

Before a huge spike of shadow suddenly arose from my back, and penetrated through my chest.

"COUGH—!!" The blood flooded out of my mouth. One fatal attack from Moria was enough to render me unable to combat, and now, with my eyes headed up at the bright moon,

Clang! I heard the noise of Moria's scissor blades clanging against one another, who now stood in front of me.

"Boy, say it again." Looking down at me with crazed eyes, Moria snarled, "Who's stronger again?"

Reaching his hand down, Moria grabbed my shadow. Then, he peeled it off of the ground, and pulled by the connection with my shadow, I was now dangling upside down, as I coughed blood once more.

"If not for me being in this state, you wouldn't even have managed to land a strike on me. You used everything that you had, but no matter how hard you try, defeating me will be impossible without a doubt..." Leaning closer at me, Moria then laughed, "Kishishishi!!! Look how miserable you are currently! For what reason did you even fight me? Is it out of those boring reasons like protecting people? If so, did you succeed in doing so?"

My vision was hazy. I subconsciously knew that this battle was over. However, my will refused to yield. Grinning with my teeth stained by my own blood, I then said, "At least I didn't hide like a certain coward in front of me, did I—"

Snap. Then, Moria suddenly cut my shadow apart from me.

Thud. As I fell to the ground, I fell into unconsciousness.

__________

"Kishishishi... though your shadow is quite tempting," Moria, looking at the strangling Smoker's shadow in his grip, shifted his eyes on the unconscious Smoker, "You will be better off dead than alive."

Moria raised his scissor up, planning to behead Smoker in a single go. However,

"...Stop!"

He found himself interrupted by a young girl, Robin, who stood in front of the unconscious Smoker. Though her body was trembling from fear, her eyes held bravery as she glared at Moria, with her hands raised sideways in a protective manner.

"Eh?" Moria momentarily frowned in confusion, before bursting into laughter, "Are you stupid, girl? I mean, I was planning to kill everyone on this island, but still, who the hell would just... KIIIISHISHISHISHISHI!!!!!"

'...If only I looked in deeper and found out Gecko Moria's presence beforehand... if only...' Robin believed that there was no future to her without Smoker. She was currently weak and incapable. Saul left for his home that lied a far distance away, and if she were to be left alone in this state... she won't know what to do.

Therefore, she chose death than to live in this hopeless world.

"Then you two die together, kishishi!" Moria then swung his scissor at Robin and Smoker, with his eyes expressing delight. Robin closed her eyes tight in fright, but maintained her position nonetheless.

BOOOM!