"Uchiha Chiga."
The moment his name left his lips, a wave of oppressive pressure swept across the battlefield. Purple pigments formed around Chiga's eyes, and jet-black Haki surged onto the backs of both his hands.
Ever since his clash with Kake, he had achieved simultaneous manifestation of Busoshoku Haki on both hands. Now, standing at the edge of battle against the legendary Dark King, Chiga was in peak form.
His opponent—Silvers Rayleigh.
Even a fraction of hesitation meant death.
Without delay, Chiga launched forward with a burst of killing intent, his arms moving in a blur.
"Twelve Divine Sky Strikes!"
Twelve fist-shaped shockwaves burst outward, each glowing with compressed Haki. They sealed off every escape path, trapping Rayleigh in an invisible cage of destruction.
But Rayleigh was… Rayleigh.
Not even blinking, he raised his sword with one hand and casually swung.
Shing—!
A silver arc split the air. The shockwaves were cleanly cut in half—parting like curtains—and dissipated behind him. Though it seemed effortless, Rayleigh's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
His arm trembled.
He masked it instantly, but Chiga noticed.
"Compressed Busoshoku Haki... and something else?" Rayleigh muttered, eyes gleaming. "You're packing more than raw force."
Chiga said nothing.
The Dark King smiled—and vanished.
Too fast!
Even with his Rinnegan, Chiga barely caught the blur. But his danger sense from Sage Mode and Kenbunshoku Haki screamed louder.
He reacted instinctively—
Boom!
With a burst of Shunpo and a shockwave of Shinra Tensei, Chiga blinked a hundred meters away. A moment later, the ground where he had stood erupted. A deep fissure carved itself into the earth—bottomless, black, and jagged.
Rayleigh stood in the settling dust, sword raised.
Chiga stared at the crater.
"That… would've been annoying to survive."
The simplicity of Rayleigh's attack masked its apocalyptic force. No wasted movement, no theatrics—just mastery honed over decades.
It reminded him of Kaido's Thunder Bagua—a mere swing, yet capable of caving in skulls.
Even Mihawk was infamous for his "basic" slashes, capable of slicing through fleets.
No. Close combat was Rayleigh's domain.
Chiga knew it. Testing him there would be suicide.
So he changed the game.
Clap!
Rayleigh's brow twitched as Chiga brought his palms together.
The earth groaned.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
(He has Hashirsma'sCells)
Massive trees exploded from the ground like serpents awakened. Their trunks cracked stone, their branches twisted unnaturally—guided by will, not nature.
Vines lunged at Rayleigh's limbs, wrapping around him in a heartbeat.
The moment he touched them, Rayleigh felt it.
Drain.
They sapped stamina like leeches.
Chiga didn't let the opening go to waste. He formed seals in a flash, index fingers and thumbs touching.
He inhaled deeply—
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A sea of fire surged from his lungs, sweeping over the summoned forest.
Trees ignited instantly. The inferno spiraled upward, painting the sky in orange and red.
Even Rayleigh's eyes widened.
"Sh*t—!"
The flames devoured the battlefield. Watching from afar, Kalifa saw the inferno mirrored in her glasses, and her expression cracked.
She didn't even know what emotion to feel anymore.
'Who am I? Where am I? Is that… thing even human?!'
The blazing forest exploded—then, all at once, fell still.
BOOM!
A colossal surge of Haki erupted from the flames. The fire collapsed inward and was extinguished by a force more absolute than heat or oxygen.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Several black sword waves tore through what remained of the forest. Trees fell like toothpicks as Rayleigh emerged, singed and silent.
His upper clothes were in tatters, revealing his scarred chest. His shorts remained untouched—clearly spared by deliberate Haki reinforcement.
He exhaled smoke.
"You've got a lot of tricks... What the hell are you, Marine?"
Chiga smirked.
"Actually… I'm a ninja."
Rayleigh blinked. "From Wano? You know Oden?"
Here we go again.
Chiga clicked his tongue, irritation surfacing.
"Ninja from Wano? Don't make me laugh. Those clowns dress up in cosplay and pretend they're shinobi. You call that ninjutsu?" He scoffed. "And Oden? Trash. The worst kind."
Rayleigh's pupils contracted.
"What did you say?"
Insulting Kozuki Oden, Rayleigh's old friend and brother-in-arms, was like spitting on his own pride.
Rayleigh's grip tightened. Then he vanished—this time, faster than before.
With a flash of light, he reappeared above Chiga, two hands gripping his sword.
"RAAAAAAHHH!"
The sword came down like divine judgment.
Chiga grinned.
This is what he wanted.
"Medis!"
From a rift in the air, a dragon-serpent hybrid burst out. Her jaws opened wide, releasing a torrent of freezing black flames—halting Rayleigh midair, if only for a second.
That second was enough.
A dimensional rift opened beside Chiga. He reached into it, palm closing around a swirling fruit—the Gravity-Gravity Fruit, fresh from the auction house.
In the darkness of the rift, his Preta Path ability activated—draining the fruit's power into his body like a sponge drinking blood.
Power erupted in his core. His ocular force surged.
Chiga hissed and clutched his right eye. His Rinnegan was changing.
Rayleigh shattered the ice and flipped midair, landing gracefully. But the moment he looked at Chiga, he stopped.
Something had changed.
The battlefield fell deathly quiet.
Then—
"Ha… haha… HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
Chiga threw his head back and laughed, voice echoing through the scorched forest. When the laughter died, he lowered his hand.
His right eye was now a Rinnegan ringed with a black tomoe.
Power pulsed from his presence like a tidal wave.
In a voice low and lethal, Chiga said:
"The show has just begun… Dark King Rayleigh."
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