“Foxfire Style: Fire Willow Double Flash!”
Kin’emon, leaping down from above, did not pause in his movement but continued to charge forward.
Flames ignited along the edges of the two swords in his hands. As he swung them, the fire slashed forward as well. The instant it came into contact with the poisonous mist, it ignited it, neutralizing Poker’s attack.
After that, Kin’emon’s assault did not stop. His blades cut through Poker, and the flames on them spread onto Poker’s body. In an instant, Poker was engulfed in flames.
A burning man appeared on the dark street. As the flames blazed, strange crackling noises echoed out, but to Kin’emon they sounded wonderfully pleasant.
At this moment, a pitch-black silhouette stood in the street. It still looked vaguely humanoid, but its lower half had twisted into a coiled tail-like shape.
“Hahaha! Is that all it took to kill you? A Beasts Pirates officer is nothing special after all!”
Kin’emon laughed several times, finally feeling a weight lift from his chest. Though it was a little strange that a Beasts Pirates officer had died so quickly, he didn’t find it particularly odd.
After all, this was only No. 43, not some senior officer.
The Beasts Pirates might be strong, but he, Kin’emon, was a retainer of Lord Oden. He wasn’t some helpless weakling waiting to be slaughtered.
After thinking it over, Kin’emon still walked over to where Poker’s body lay and poked the high-temperature carbonized body with his sword. After confirming that it was indeed the body of a carbon-based lifeform, he finally relaxed completely.
Kin’emon looked once more toward the direction he had been heading and felt that the future had become bright again.
“So you dared compete with me for O-Tsuru. Letting you die like this is far too merciful. Still, this works out. No one will discover it this way. I’d better get back quickly…”
Even though there was nobody around, Kin’emon muttered to himself, seemingly trying to vent his dissatisfaction. But things did not go as smoothly as he imagined.
Clack…
The sound of stones colliding came from the ground. Judging by the direction, it was not far from Poker’s corpse. A bad feeling rose in Kin’emon’s heart, and he hurriedly turned around.
Before his eyes had even settled on the source, he had already swung his weapon toward the general direction.
Clang!
With a crisp metallic sound, the sword in Kin’emon’s left hand flew from his grasp. A powerful force directly knocked his weapon away, sending it tumbling several times before it slid down the nearby slope.
“That is… Kin’emon’s Sukesan…”
At the foot of the slope, Kanjuro, who had just caught up, felt a sense of foreboding. As a Two Sword Style samurai, Kin’emon’s beloved blades were Sukesan and Kakusan, and Kanjuro could recognize them.
Having one’s weapon knocked away was hardly a good sign. He immediately rushed uphill, while Brook and Chopper had no choice but to follow.
The two of them were not as worried about Kin’emon as Kanjuro was. What they feared was that Kin’emon’s actions would affect Luffy’s plans, which was why they were in such a hurry.
Meanwhile, Kin’emon gripped his remaining sword with both hands and stared sharply toward where Poker’s corpse had been.
The charcoal-like body was still lying there quietly, yet Poker himself had already appeared nearby. It was the blade at the tip of his tail that had knocked Kin’emon’s weapon away.
“I thought you were some remnant of Oden’s faction. So you’re just a love rival who showed up because of O-Tsuru?”
Poker had no idea who Kin’emon was. His rank wasn’t high enough to participate in Kaido’s entertainment betting pool, and in the eyes of the Beasts Pirates, people like Kin’emon were no different from gnats.
As long as such tiny insects didn’t fly into someone’s face, most people couldn’t be bothered to waste the effort swatting them. After all, little bugs like that posed no threat.
Though she was older now, O-Tsuru had been considered exceptionally beautiful in Wano when she was young. Poker had seen plenty of rivals before; he just hadn’t expected this one to be so extreme.
“Impossible! That slash clearly hit you just now! How could you be completely unharmed?!”
Kin’emon looked Poker up and down. Neither the flames nor the blade seemed to have left any trace on him.
“How about you figure that out yourself? Now try this!”
Poker’s cheeks swelled, and in the next moment he spewed out a torrent of blazing fire. The fangs on either side of his mouth seemed like the sights of a gun as the scorching stream of flames shot toward Kin’emon.
“Damn you! It’s only fire! We samurai do not fear such things! Foxfire Style: Flame-Rend!”
Kin’emon slashed straight at the flames spat out by Poker. Using fire was practically the norm in the New World these days. Forget Devil Fruit Users, even rubbing one’s hands together could produce a few sparks.
The moment his blade touched the flames, Poker’s attack was split in two. The fire parted to either side of Kin’emon, while he himself burst through the divided flames and arrived in front of Poker, slashing toward his chest.
Clang!
A hard bladed tail, flexible as a whip, blocked Kin’emon’s strike. At the same time, Poker’s fist smashed into Kin’emon’s face.
Using his tail as a weapon, Poker fought Kin’emon while naturally freeing up both of his hands.
After that punch, several bloody gashes appeared on Kin’emon’s forehead, and even his face covering was stained red. The area around his eye sockets had been split open by the blow, yet he still revealed a triumphant grin.
“Foxfire Style: Fire Fox Clothes!”
As Kin’emon was knocked to the ground, another burst of flames erupted from his hand and traveled up Poker’s tail toward his body.
“This time there’s no way you can avoid—what?!”
Kin’emon had assumed Poker had evaded the previous attack through some strange method, but Poker’s actions proved that Kin’emon had merely been imagining things.
Poker’s body now began splitting apart along a seam. As a layer of skin peeled away from him, the flames disappeared with it.
“Avoid it? There’s no need to avoid an attack like that.”
The Fang Snake Pokémon, Seviper, was Poker’s ability, and his Ability was Shed Skin. [TN: Both abilities are different; one is Pokemon power like Devil Fruit power, and the other is Pokemon Ability.]
Unlike the game mechanic, where Shed Skin merely removed status conditions at random, once Seviper became an Ability User’s ability, Shed Skin gained many more applications.
At Poker’s level, while he was not among the absolute strongest, he possessed sufficient control over his body. By combining techniques similar to Seimei Kikan with the properties of Shed Skin, he could actively control the ability and use it to avoid certain elemental attacks.
What Kin’emon had seen at the beginning was merely a decoy left behind by Poker.
You can read ahead upto 75 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon.
Become a Patron!