Kuina took a step forward, slowly raising her sword toward Nezumi.
Her movement was deliberate, so slow it resembled that of an elderly person.
She wanted Nezumi to savor it. To truly feel what it was like when death came knocking.
With every inch the blade lifted, Nezumi's trembling worsened.
His eyes were locked on the shimmering steel, its reflection capturing his pitiful, terrified face.
That steadily rising right hand of Kuina's seemed to pull at his soul, like a black hole tugging his mind into despair. His stomach churned.
Then, all of a sudden, a sharp urge struck him.
Urine.
A damp stain began to spread between his legs, slow at first, then bursting forth like a flood, pooling beneath him, trickling like a stream.
Nezumi had wet himself, clearly frightened to the point of losing control.
Kuina's gaze filled with disgust at the sight of him.
The blade flashed.
With a clean, merciless strike, she brought the sword down across his neck.
Nezumi's shaking stopped immediately.
His eyes froze wide, locked in a final gaze of terror, pleading desperately for life.
He tried to move, even just a twitch, but it was useless. His nervous system had already disconnected from his body.
He could feel it. The abyss, endless and cold, was already pulling at his soul, dragging it down into the depths of hell.
Time had never felt so slow to him. That final second stretched on and on, like an entire century flashing before his eyes.
His eyelids grew heavier, and heavier still.
And only when the last glimmer of light faded from his gaze, swallowed completely by the darkness, did his soul finally vanish.
Even in death, Nezumi never figured out who this woman was or why she had been determined to kill him, bounty or not.
Kuina stood still.
With a flick of her wrist, she reversed the blade and sent the blood flying from it, splattering it onto Nezumi's body.
That single drop broke the stillness.
With a sudden jerk, his head rolled backward and fell to the ground with a dull thud.
His decapitated body collapsed like a domino, limp and boneless.
Blood mixed with the puddle of urine beneath him, the two fluids merging into a filthy stream that trickled into the nearby pool.
Kuina stared down at the bloodied stream flowing past her feet. Her eyes, once full of contempt, eased just slightly.
So this was what Nezumi's tainted life had amounted to.
Even his blood ran dirty.
She gave his corpse one last dispassionate glance, then turned to look at the two Navy soldiers behind him—both unconscious from fear.
"What to do with these two?" she muttered.
"Should I kill them?"
She paused, then shook her head.
"Forget it. I'll let Kouta handle them."
Her gaze moved on to the remaining Fishmen.
The moment they felt that same deathly cold stare on them again, panic surged through their bodies.
That demon woman... was coming for them next.
Their survival instincts kicked in, temporarily overriding their fear, and gave them a desperate burst of strength.
"AAAHHH!!"
They screamed and dragged their weary bodies toward the pool, the only possible path to salvation.
From the moment they witnessed Kouta's sword slash, they no longer held any hope that their captain Arlong could survive—let alone come to save them.
Eyes locked on the pool, veins bulging, they summoned every last ounce of strength they'd never known they had.
If they could just reach the pool... and dive into the ocean... their Fishman biology would give them a chance to escape.
But before they could reach the edge, Kuina shot forward with a sharp whoosh, propelling herself into their path.
To their horror, she was already standing there, waiting.
Their final vision was a flash of blinding steel.
And in the blink of an eye, they all fell, cut down on the path to the pool.
That was not the road to freedom, it was a straight descent into hell.
Amid the rubble of the collapsed right-side wall, Arlong still hadn't moved.
A large chunk of stone had struck his head, preventing him from rising right away.
And in those brief, dazed moments... Arlong Park had turned into a river of blood.
His comrades, his kin, were all dead.
He shook his head and slowly climbed out of the debris, his ears ringing with the sound of battle.
He looked up. His dazed vision slowly cleared.
And when he saw the massacre outside, especially the two halves of Hachi's corpse floating in the pool, his pupils shrank violently, his mind instantly sobering.
The fury in his chest reached a boiling point.
He had always looked down on humans as lowly, but he had treated his own kind with a certain level of kinship.
These Fishmen had followed him from Fishman Island.
They had come together to conquer, to live like kings.
And now they were all dead.
Even Hachi, a fellow member of the original Sun Pirates, had perished and in such a brutal way.
Arlong's bloodshot eyes turned completely red, radiating bloodlust.
His pupils contracted so tightly they nearly disappeared.
The rage boiling inside him was beyond words.
Then he looked at Hachi's corpse, and something clicked in his mind.
He turned his furious gaze toward Kuina and forced down his anger for a moment.
"Chu and Kuroobi. Did you kill them too?!"
By now, they should have returned. Yet there was no sign of them.
Their last stop had been Cocoyasi Village. And the direction these two humans had come from was... Cocoyasi.
The answer was already clear, but he had to ask.
"You mean those stink-fish freaks who were out collecting head taxes?"
Kuina's cold voice echoed across the park as she stared at him.
"They should've dried out by now. Probably fish jerky by this point."
She didn't sheath her blade. Instead, she charged forward, blade in hand.
"You can worry about them later. Right now, you should be worried about yourself."
Seeing Kuina rush at him, Arlong's veins bulged with blood. His body flushed red.
Pulsing veins wrapped around his massive frame like serpents, making his already enormous figure swell further.
He looked like a hulking, blood-colored monster.
With a furious roar, he grabbed his massive serrated blade from the rubble.
Gripping it with both hands, he raised it high above his head and swung it toward Kuina with all his might.
"Die, you lowly human!"
He believed, without a doubt, that this attack would end her.
It was nearly twice as powerful as his last strike. He was burning his life force for this.
"Rage Shark Saw!"
The air screamed as the blade cut downward.
But Kuina wasn't stupid. She had no intention of blocking it.
She couldn't take the hit head-on, but dodging it was easy.
Her eyes flashed red as her Observation Haki activated silently.
With a swift sidestep to the left, she let the blade sweep past her, its edge just grazing her nose as it sliced through the air and slammed into the ground.
BOOM!
The stone slabs beneath them shattered into shards, scattering in all directions.
The force of the strike didn't stop there. The massive blade smashed into the ground and carved out a crater deep in the earth.
*********
Hey everyone! I'll be dropping an extra 1 chapter once we hit 200, 400 power stones! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to spend some power stones. I'd really appreciate the support. Thanks a bunch!