One Piece: It All Started When I Found Shanks' Arm

Chapter 18: Without a Sword, What Will You Fight Me With?

Ten fingers, ten puppets.

The people he controlled included nearly all the top figures.

The entire Cherry Blossom Island, along with its proud Seven Great Dojos and kendo tournament, had unknowingly been reduced to tools for "The Carpenter" to make his dirty money.

"So it was all you! A despicable villain pulling the strings from behind!"

Junichi drew his sword. The memory of the bitter suffering he and his father had endured brought tears of rage to his eyes. "I will absolutely... absolutely never forgive you!"

He was about to charge at The Carpenter when the sound of wind breaking came from behind him. In an instant, the bamboo sword in Junichi's hand was sliced in half.

Junichi turned his head, stunned. The one who had cut his sword was his own father.

At this moment, Sakuraba Itsuki's face was contorted and狰狞 (zhēngníng - savage/fierce). His right hand gripped a pale pink longsword, held in a downward slash, while his other hand desperately clamped onto his right wrist to stop it.

Clearly, the target of that last slash was not supposed to have been the bamboo sword in Junichi's hand.

It was his head.

"Go... go, go away!" Sakuraba Itsuki forced a pained roar from his throat. "Get away from me, Junichi!"

"Father!" Junichi's eyes widened. Before he could react, smack, a large, powerful hand grabbed his arm and violently yanked him back more than ten meters.

"Boss Shane, let me go! I can't abandon... I have to save my father!"

"Don't be stupid."

Shane threw him forcefully against a corner of the wall and said coldly, "You're only harming him by staying by his side! You've seen a puppet show, right? There's only one way to make the show stop, and that's to kill the person controlling things from behind!"

"Do you think, with your strength and a broken bamboo sword, you can even get close to that guy?"

Junichi looked up, staring blankly at The Carpenter in the distance.

"What are you looking at, kid?" The Carpenter sneered, blowing out a ring of smoke. He abruptly waved his left hand, aiming the last two fingers of his right hand towards the south.

"These old guys are useless to me from now on anyway. Turn into complete puppets for me!"

—Swish! Swish!

An invisible ripple spread through the air. They were threads, shooting towards the first row of seats on the south side of the audience.

The seven dojo masters suddenly began to make clanking noises. They rose in unison and advanced with stiff steps, seven gleaming blades unsheathed at the same time with a shing. As they walked, their elbow and knee joints made dull, thudding sounds, like wooden balls knocking against each other. The exposed surfaces of their bodies became covered in increasingly dense wood grain, and their eyes rolled back, filled with dark yellow threads, looking exceptionally eerie.

In an instant, the seven had formed a semicircle, protecting The Carpenter while also sealing off all possible escape routes around the stage.

"And you!"

The Carpenter laughed wildly, pointing his right index finger at Sakuraba Itsuki as another dark yellow puppet string shot out. "You're pretty good at resisting, aren't you? Try resisting me now! At this distance, under my power, there's no room for you to struggle!"

"You beast..."

Veins bulged on Sakuraba Itsuki's forehead as he resisted with all his might.

But it was ultimately futile.

He could only watch in despair as circles of wood grain began to grow on the surface of his own body. His left hand lost control and slowly went slack. The right hand holding the sword began to turn, little by little, towards where Shane and Junichi were. His once-clear mind also became increasingly hazy.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he seemed to have finally made a decision.

"Puppetization is irreversible. I don't want to become a mindless monster..."

"Perhaps this... is the best end for me."

Sakuraba Itsuki smiled. "Farewell, Junichi."

"Father..." Junichi's eyes widened, as if he had suddenly realized something. He scrambled up from the ground in terror, about to rush the stage on his hands and knees, but he was held down firmly by Shane. He could only flail his arms wildly, his vision blurred with tears as he screamed, "No... No! Please don't! Father!!!"

Shk!

In a fraction of a second, the blade in Sakuraba Itsuki's hand suddenly reversed direction and plunged fiercely into his own left chest, twisting quickly.

"..." Junichi's movements froze.

In the reflection of his pupils, that bone-thin body, wearing a smile squeezed out with its last ounce of strength, crashed forward onto the ground.

His world seemed to collapse in that moment.

"Mr. Sakuraba!"

"President!"

From the audience, roars of grief and indignation erupted, mixed with sobs.

Under the spotlight, the black-haired boy had reappeared on the stage at some point. He stared at the motionless face, frowning imperceptibly, but in the end, said nothing.

Then he turned to the audience.

"What are you all still looking at?! Aren't you afraid of dying?! Do you think this is still a competition?!" Shane took a deep breath and roared with all his might, "RUN!!!"

The audience was jolted with a start.

Looking at the grim-faced Carpenter and the eerie puppets that looked like they had walked straight out of a horror movie, they finally realized what this scene truly meant.

"Go, quick!"

"I... my legs are weak... Help me, give me a hand!"

"Aaaah! I'm going to die here!!!"

In an instant, screams of panic filled the air as people scrambled towards the front and back exits. The announcer also fled through the staff passage, and before leaving, he didn't forget to grab the two trembling broadcast Den Den Mushi from the wall and carry them out with him.

Some reluctant swordsmen wanted to turn back to help fight, but they were coldly stopped by Major Tomte and the sheriff, who mercilessly riddled them with their flintlocks.

Amidst the flying mist of blood, The Carpenter casually flicked the ash from his cigar.

"I say," he said, looking at Shane on the stage, clucking his tongue in amazement. "Kid, I didn't expect you to care so much about the common folk. You can't even protect yourself, yet you still have the mind to tell them to leave first. It almost makes me want to recruit you."

"You seem to have... misunderstood something."

Shane slowly raised his head. The Carpenter was slightly taken aback. What he saw was a pair of excited, scarlet eyes, like those of a wild beast.

"—I told them to get lost simply because I didn't want them blocking the way. They would have gotten in my way!"

"Don't talk so big, kid!"

Stared at by those eyes, The Carpenter felt a little unnerved for some reason, and forced a sneer. "You said it yourself, this isn't a competition. Even if your swordsmanship is good, what can you do with that broken bamboo sword?"

Swish!

Two of the dojo masters suddenly stepped forward and attacked. With a flash of their blades, Shane's bamboo sword was easily chopped into several pieces. Immediately after, two swords were pressed firmly against his neck and chest, one from the front and one from the back.

"If you have to blame someone, blame yourself for believing too much in this tournament. As a swordsman, you didn't even bring your real sword," The Carpenter finally relaxed completely and laughed boisterously. "Now tell me, little brat! Without a sword, what's the difference between a swordsman and a lion with its claws cut off!"

"Talking to yourself... really," Shane looked at the bamboo sword, which was now just a handle, and let it go, allowing it to fall.

He looked up and grinned. "Who... the hell told you I was a swordsman?!"

BOOM!!

The moment his voice fell, two large hands shot out, pressing down on the heads of the two dojo masters beside him, one on each side, and then suddenly exerted force.

CRACK!

The skulls of the two men instantly made a sound like cracking walnuts. Their entire heads rapidly deformed under the immense pressure, their facial features gradually twisting out of place. Their skin split open, but no blood flowed from the cracks. Instead, dark yellow puppet strings, like iron-wire worms, gushed out, trying to entangle Shane's wrists. But the moment they touched his skin, they were shattered into dust by his suddenly bulging arm muscles.

"Is that it?"

The force in Shane's fingers grew stronger, more terrifying, more violent!

KRRRRAK! The hard foreheads of the two dojo masters could no longer withstand the force and were pierced with ten round finger marks.

The next moment, as if grabbing bowling balls, Shane violently threw them!

CRASH!

The two puppets smashed into the audience seats like cannonballs, collapsing who-knows-how-many rows of chairs. When the dust settled, the two bodies were twisted and folded at sharp angles, unable to move again. The wood grain covering their bodies looked waxy and pale under the spotlights.

"..."

The Carpenter stared blankly at this scene, the cigar at the corner of his mouth falling to the floor with a soft thud.

RIIIP— The sound of tearing clothes suddenly came from behind him.

He jolted and turned back just in time to see Shane crumple the expensive kendo uniform he had bought into a ball and toss it off the stage like trash.

Freed from the constraints of the clothes, his gnarled muscles broke free, writhing and expanding as if they were breathing. The heavy thump-thump-thump of his heartbeat was clearly audible. The already imposing figure on the stage seemed to swell once more, now looking down on him from above like a small mountain.

"You... you..."

The Carpenter subconsciously swallowed, his legs trembling as he stumbled backward, nearly falling.

"Warm-up's over."

The black-haired boy before him licked his dry lips and spoke with a grin. As he spoke, his cheeks twitched and spasmed—not from muscle fatigue, but from the excited shiver of a predator about to pounce on its prey.

"—Now, it's your turn."