CHAPTER 50 - Collapse
"Hmm."
Zoro stopped in his tracks and looked around. He sensed a presence fade away. That was the second one he had sensed whilst on his way through the endless corridors.
"Someone died again." He muttered to himself.
His demeanour grew graver.
He stumbled upon a room filled with ice. There were pathways above an indoor lake with broken floorboards. He realised a battle had ended not too long back. Upon his first glance, he found Shinobu and Kanao at the far end of the room. He sensed no danger around.
He was shocked to discover the lifeless Kanae laY on the wooden floor. Shinobu and Kanao were glad to see him, but couldn't conjure any greeting against the sorrow they felt for their deceased sister.
"She was one of the two." Zoro said, breaking the silence.
"You sensed her passing?" Shinobu asked. She kept her usual tone despite wet eyes.
Zoro nodded, "I didn't know who they were. There was another."
He observed their wounds and realised they had won a difficult battle.
"The opponent…"
"He was the one who had killed Kanae the first time. Then he killed her again today." Her voice trembled.
Zoro sensed regret from Shinobu's words. He observed her broad Nichirin lying on the floor alongside her older sister's blade.
"Then you did what Kanae could not." Zoro said. He had an intention of praise.
"Don't say that!" Shinobu cried. She couldn't hold it any longer. "She died protecting me once again."
Zoro leaned below and picked up Kanae's body.
"What are you doing?" Kanao cried in disbelief.
"She deserves to rest in peace. The whole idea of letting the shadow stay as long as it did might not have been a good idea. But then again, I don't care to judge Ubuyashiki, whatever he had in mind - To keep Kanae walking after she was brought back home in one piece. Same went for that old man Kuwajima."
Zoro observed Shinobu's upset eyes.
"That's what I mean." He pointed at her furious. "We are in a battle and you are letting your emotions allow you time for sentiments. Here of all places."
"You heartless brute!" Shinobu retorted.
"W… what she said." Kanao added, not daring as much as her sister.
Zoro calmed down.
"You both can banter all you like once we are out of this place."
"You are a unique person." Kibutsuji praised. "I can say the same for the green-haired swordsman, but there's something different to your fighting techniques. You fight with caution."
Law didn't reply. It had been a long battle, and he believed the time for conversations had ended. The maze twisted shape a few times during their battle, hoping for Kibutsuji to gain some advantage. Law made sure he didn't let Kibutsuji out of his sight. He couldn't afford to lose him a second-time, especially aftermath of Zoro's prior encounter.
Law's Op-Op Fruit drains his stamina with every single technique. With the extended battle, he knew better than to completely rely on his Devil Fruit abilities for long. He had compensated the said powers with his Hakis, which seemed to give him a proper edge against the Demon King's tremendous arsenal of attacks.
"I heard you became a Hashira. That's a first considering you are no Demon Slayer." Kibutsuji said. There was a pause of battle inside the room.
"The Ubuyashiki family has been trying to get to me for almost a thousand years as I progressed ahead in search for eternal life. I have heard you are a doctor. You must seek the welfare of your patients and have thought of eternal life for yourself. The Demon Slayer cause is nothing but a fallacy, meant to be extinguished as my minions have done to those Demon Slayers and Hashiras all these years. Life must come to an end, and Kagaya Ubuyashiki knows of that too well regarding his 'children'. He's employing your services for a failed cause. Join me and…"
"Are you done?" Law stopped Kibutsuji short.
"What?"
"You hard of hearing?"
"How dare you?"
"I don't mind all the destruction that you can cause in this messed up place, but all this talk of eternity is making my ears hurt. The same ideology was droned by a pirate not too long back and he came crashing down through the sky unto foiled plans. I don't know about your thousand years but if you haven't noticed, things don't look so good since we have showed up."
"Very well."
Law grinned to find Kibutsuji's irate demeanour resulting from the brief conversation.
At that moment, Kibutsuji received a distress signal. He began dodging Law's attacks, making a distance between the both of them. Law observed the Demon's face and realised it was the second time Kibutsuji decided to parry in the battle.
Master, I cannot hold him much longer. Kibutsuji realised his minion, Nakime, was in trouble.
The maze began to shake. Unlike before, there was an unusual disturbance that shook the walls like some sort of earthquake. Kibutsuji decided to check out Nakime's situation and observed through her eyes. A scream resounded through his ears.
The wooden doors in front of Nakime broke open. She wailed the moment a berserk Sasaki slammed onto her with full force. Kibutsuji was thrown off Nakime's visions only to realise he had been struck with Law's Gamma Knife.
"Hmm, he was ill-prepared." Kokushibo muttered.
A wooden portal opened up in front of them. Doflamingo observed Kokushibo walk ahead.
"We take initiative of the backup plan. The Master was too hasty on this one." The latter mentioned.
"I told him not to underestimate Law." Doflamingo chuckled.
Kokushibo jumped into the portal.
Law drew out his Nichirin blade to deal the final blow.
CLASH!
"You!" Law was surprised to find Kokushibo blocking his blade.
"Master, it's time to retreat." Kokushibo looked back.
The maze began to shake violently.
"Injection Shot!" Law lunged.
Kokushibo grabbed Kibutsuji and leaped back to avoid the quick attack.
"Takt!"
Sharp wooden boards poured in from all directions intended to impale both the Demons. Kokushibo made sure he and his master dodged the projectiles. The portal behind remained open through which Kokushibo had come in. He aimed to rush outside with Kibutsuji as soon as possible. He wondered of Law, attempting a weaker attack to delay their escape.
Maybe a desperate attempt? Kokushibo wondered, and at that moment he realised that he had made a grave error.
"Shambles!"
Law had switched himself with the wood plank closest to the Demons' position. His Nichirin blade was illuminated with his Devil Fruit energy.
"Gamma Knife!" Law plunged ahead, ravaging through Kokushibo's heart, stabbing through Kibutsuji behind as well. The pale-green illumination of the Gamma Knife engulfed Kokushibo and Kibutsuji in the form of flames. Law took no chances. He drew out the Nichirin blade and made a swift swing, cutting off Kokushibo's head.
"I was in the middle of an Operation." Law muttered in grave fury.
Kibutsuji observed Law's rage on his face. He needed to escape whilst the chance.
"Nakime!" Kibutsuji bellowed.
Taking the hopeless case of Kokushibo's body, Kibutsuji extended his vines to latch onto the portal edge, as well as, fend off Law from destroying them. But he realised better to escape than to give in to his ego. Survival was of the utmost importance within his agendas.
"Gamma Knife!" Law lunged ahead in rage. Kibutsuji used Kokushibo's body as a shield and managed to leap into the portal. Law rushed ahead to follow him, but the portal shut immediately after Kibutsuji went past.
Law broke through the closed door and found himself in another vacant room. He was furious to let the enemy escape. At that moment, he observed portals pop up in numbers and jumped through one of them.
"What the hell's going on?" Zoro muttered observing the maze in tremor.
"Look, there's a portal!" Kanao pointed ahead.
The group rushed ahead and leaped through.
"Hahahaha… That was quite a show!" Doflamingo bellowed. "Demons popping out of the woodwork!"
Akaza had come in contact with Tomioka and Uzui who proved too much trouble. The Upper Moon was on the brink of getting his head chopped off. That was, until the moment Sasaki slammed upon Nakime, letting him escape through one of the portals.
Akaza heaved as he began recovering from the wounds of the battle.
Kibutsuji showed right after along with Kokushibo's charred and lifeless head.
"Looks like he is done for." Doflamingo commented, with menacing laughter.
Kibutsuji ignored Doflamingo's remark and looked upon Akaza.
"You proved to be useless despite all the extra blood." The former mocked.
"I have no excuse, Master. I have failed you." Akaza bowed in shame.
"At least you came back alive. That rookie Kaigaku didn't last a chance." Kibutsuji mocked.
Kaigaku had come in contact with Tanjiro and his friends. Apparently, Master Kuwajima had accompanied them on the mission. Zenitsu told the others to back down, mentioning it was his fight to bring down Kaigaku, the latter who happened to be Kuwajima's disciple. The undead Kuwajima naturally took the initiative to join the battle. Kaigaku fell in battle against the two Thunder Breathing warriors.
"What is this place?" Zoro wondered, finding trees all around.
"We have escaped the maze." Shinobu said. "Come on, we need to head back."
Zoro looked back nodded.
"This is a mess." Law observed the wreck around the former site of the Ubuyashiki Mansion.
Hashiras Tokito and Himejima were wounded.
"You say a dinosaur came in and attacked?" Law asked baffled.
"The first one happened to be a saber-toothed tiger that crashed out of one of the portal gates. We tied him up but that didn't hold him for long." explained Muichiro.
"Of course not. You will need sea-prism chains to keep them at bay."
"The dinosaur showed up just a while back. This one was a Triceratops. We tried to stop him, but he was too powerful. He freed the saber-toothed human and both of them left in a hurry." Explained Himejima.
"I guess I arrived a bit late." Law mentioned. "Those two must have been Jack's men. You say they came after Zoro-ya?"
"Both of them, yes. They went inside the maze along with Zoro and the other Hashiras." Muichiro said.
"'Hashiras'?" Law asked surprised.
"Shinobu, Tomioka and Uzui."
"No wonder I felt other presences inside." Law muttered to himself.
"I was destined to die today." Ubuyashiki told Law.
"You again." Law replied.
"I cannot thank you enough. I was desperate considering my illness and I was sure Kibutsuji would have been done for good."
"It'll take more than that to get rid of him." Law said, understanding Kibutsuji's guile from their battle.
Law elaborated on his fight against Kibutsuji.
"I'm surprised you came back alive." Muichiro said.
"It wasn't easy. I had to take Zoro-ya's word for it, and had to see it for myself. But besides his bag of tricks, I was able to take down his henchman, Kokushibo. I made sure of that."
The people were surprised.
"You killed his top Demon Moon?" Ubuyashiki asked.
"It wasn't a fair fight. He came in to withdraw Kibutsuji from the maze. He paid the price for getting in the way."
The rest of every Demon Slayer involved in the maze incident gathered back up at the headquarters.
"Doflamingo's out there." Law told Zoro.
"I doubt he's going to come after us. Even if he must ally with Kibutsuji." Zoro replied.
News came in from a Kakushi.
"What?" Ubuyashiki was stunned.
"What happened?" Law asked.
"It's your ship…" Ubuyashiki muttered. "It went ablaze."
"What do you mean?" Zoro bellowed.
"It seems there was a fight between two factions. The pirates Kid and Doflamingo sought over the supremacy of your ship and that ended it in a ball of fire."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Note:- Thanks for being around till Chapter 50. New chapters shall arrive soon.
