Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Nurarihyon Form—this was Nasjuro’s ability.
The Nurarihyon was known as the Lord of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, in other words, the leader of all yokai.
As a yokai, it would quietly slip into people’s homes during the busy hours of dusk and treat them as its own. When the actual owners saw it, they would involuntarily think, “He’s the real master of this house.”
Altering cognition to a certain extent—this was one of the abilities granted by the Nurarihyon Fruit, because the Nurarihyon could infiltrate any area unnoticed while everyone was occupied.
Nasjuro could likewise make enemies overlook his existence, reducing his presence to the absolute minimum so that he could attack them without a sound.
Compared to the ostentatious appearance of Saturn’s Gyuki Fruit, once Nasjuro truly arrived on the battlefield, his presence instead became extraordinarily faint. Only at the instant he attacked would his true figure reveal itself.
“Sengoku, you’re no longer needed here. Go deal with the other pirates.”
“Yes, Saint Nasjuro.”
Sengoku said nothing. Fighting Kaido placed tremendous pressure on him as well. If Nasjuro intended to personally deal with Kaido and sent him elsewhere, he naturally would not object.
Even if he had been ordered to continue fighting, he would not have said anything. After all, this was an order from the Five Elders.
Among the Marine’s Fleet Admirals of the last three generations, Kong and Sengoku shared the same philosophy: if it was an order from the World Government, then they simply had to carry it out. Protecting the World Government was the Marine’s duty in the first place.
Akainu, on the other hand, was the one who had objected the most often. Although he still carried out their demands in practice, at the very least, he would openly question the Five Elders to their faces.
“There sure are a lot of people here today. This place is really lively. But… who were you again?”
Looking at Nasjuro before him, Kaido suddenly felt as though he had forgotten something. He had come here to fight, yet somehow, midway through the battle, he had stopped, as if something strange had interfered with it.
“You’ve also got a… very dangerous sword.”
Kaido’s attention focused on the weapon in Nasjuro’s hand. As someone who had spent his life active on countless battlefields, Kaido possessed an extraordinary instinct for combat. That sword alone was enough to make him sense something abnormal.
“It is merely a weapon belonging to the master of this house. Conveniently enough, it can be used to punish an unwelcome guest like you who barged in without permission.”
Whoosh! Clang!
Nasjuro vanished once again, but Kaido followed his body’s instincts and once more blocked Nasjuro’s surprise attack.
“Who were you again?”
It was as though the world had fallen into a loop. After that strike, Kaido did not immediately counterattack or say anything else. Instead, he simply repeated what he had said before.
“What a troublesome pirate. To still react to attacks under these circumstances… Allowing you to grow to this point truly was a complete mistake.”
With the power granted by the Nurarihyon, Nasjuro could lower his presence, even to the point that others completely ignored him, just as no one had realized when he had arrived at Marine Headquarters.
But at its core, this ability was a form of forgetting. When Nasjuro expanded its effects further, he could even make enemies forget that he was their enemy.
To an ordinary opponent, he would forever remain a stranger, and every one of Nasjuro’s attacks would be a surprise attack as far as his enemy was concerned.
“I understand. I’ll let you experience the sensation of cutting down an enemy.”
The sword in Nasjuro’s hand suddenly gave off a strange tremor, and Nasjuro spoke to the weapon as though talking to himself. But at that moment, Kaido moved first.
“Destroyer of Death Thunder Bagua!”
If Nasjuro’s attacks were silent and imperceptible, then Kaido’s were swift as thunder. Accompanied by the sound of the air being torn apart, Hassaikai, wrapped in Conqueror’s Haki, swung toward Nasjuro.
Making someone forget that he was an enemy might have been useful against others, but against Kaido, that ability was completely meaningless. Even if Kaido made no attempt whatsoever to resist it, the eventual result would remain unchanged.
Enemy or stranger, any non-allied unit that appeared on the battlefield was a target for his attacks. If the circumstances suited him, there might not even be allies in Kaido’s eyes—everyone on the battlefield was his enemy.
For a battle maniac who lived for combat, Nasjuro’s ability instead gave Kaido an endless sense of novelty.
“Worororo, your skills are not bad, Baldy. You’ve actually gotten me a little interested.”
“I should be the one saying that. Someone like you is at least qualified to serve as a shield for the Celestial Dragons. What you’ve done in the past has still remained within the limits of what we can tolerate. Compared to that man Rocks, you are far more rational.
Since you developed a commercial organization like Beasts Fruits, you should be somewhat different from a mindless beast. I can make an exception and allow you to become a member of CP0.”
The Celestial Dragons were also constantly searching for promising talents to nurture. Back then, Carmel had wanted to sell Charlotte Linlin to the Cipher Pol organization and have her trained into the strongest shield of the Celestial Dragons.
CP9, CP8, and other intelligence agencies also nurture their talents from childhood. Logically speaking, they would never recruit an uncontrollable adult, but Kaido’s strength was simply too valuable.
Others might not have been qualified to negotiate terms, but both Kaido and his daughter had displayed terrifying combat power. If they could be brought into the fold, they might even serve as a safeguard for the future.
“A shield for the Celestial Dragons? The people I hate most are you damned World Nobles. Just because you were born into noble families, you get to stand above everyone forever? My goal is to drag every last one of you down into the mire of the battlefield.
You want me to protect you? Stop dreaming. Kosanze Ragnaraku!”
In Kaido’s eyes, Nasjuro’s attempt to recruit him was nothing short of an insult. The moment he swung his club, thunder churned across the sky. As Kaido’s figure flashed past, Nasjuro’s left arm vanished into thin air, with only a cloud of blood mist on the ground proving that something had once been there.
“Hey, hey, aren’t you way too weak? You couldn’t even take a single hit?”
“Hmph. If I wanted to dodge, I could have done so at any time. I simply had no need to.”
The stump of Nasjuro’s severed arm writhed, and in the blink of an eye, a brand-new arm had already grown back in its original place. Every Mythical Zoan possessed its own formidable abilities, and as members of the Zoan class, powerful recovery was practically standard.
As a yokai, the Nurarihyon likewise possessed astonishing regenerative abilities. Moreover, when his arm had been severed, his blood had already splattered onto the sword.
“Since you have rejected this goodwill, there is no longer any need for you to continue existing. The World Government has no need for things beyond its control.”
The blade left its sheath, its surface shrouded in sinister ghostly energy and a blood-soaked killing aura.
“One of the Twelve Supreme Grade Swords—the First Generation Kitetsu. As the original Cursed Sword, once this blade tastes blood, it must be satisfied through slaughter.”
The Nurarihyon was naturally skilled with the sword, making it exceptionally compatible with Nasjuro’s own fighting style.
From the First Generation all the way down to the Third, the Kitetsu line had always consisted of exceptionally fine blades. However, their wielders had a tendency to meet violent deaths, eventually giving the swords an ominous reputation.
“Heh, a Cursed Sword? Blaming a weapon for the shortcomings of its wielder—what a ridiculous excuse. Cursed Sword or otherwise, a weapon is nothing more than a weapon.
Weapons are tools for killing, tools controlled by people. Calling something a Cursed Sword is nothing but the excuse of the weak! When you die by my hand, don’t go blaming it on some Cursed Sword’s curse.”
During their conversation, Nasjuro did not appear to be using the same ability he had employed during his earlier attacks, but Kaido did not care. He only wanted to test whether the man before him could truly regenerate endlessly.
The battle between dragon and yokai erupted across the plaza. Jack and King also reorganized the battlefield assignments. Those Vice Admirals were left to Tiger, while King and Jack turned their gazes toward the two old men before them.
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