In Avdol's cabin, one of the Black Sperm raised its stubby arm and pointed at another that had been quietly edging toward the door.
"Hey. Where are you going?"
The one near the door had a strawberry pressed to its chest. Its outline was already beginning to blur — edges softening, form growing translucent, the specific kind of fading that happened when the source was running out.
"The main body is badly hurt," it muttered, without turning around. "I'm taking this to him."
"Wait."
The Spirit on the table stood up straighter. Its voice carried something unusual — not the usual bickering or complaint, but a clean, sharp certainty.
The one at the door paused.
"If you're about to say we don't even know where he is," it said flatly, "then don't bother."
"No." The table Spirit's tiny eyes gleamed. "I mean — let's go save that arrogant idiot together."
Silence.
Then — every Spirit in the room moved at once.
Dozens of them lifted strawberries in unison, their transparent forms flickering like dying embers, their eyes burning with something that refused to go out. Small bodies that were already barely there, holding fruit they'd decided to carry regardless.
"...Yeah."
In the next instant, the five thousand Black Sperm remaining on the ship split into eight streams — dark rivulets flowing in every direction through corridor and deck and hull — and chose the simplest method available:
Search everywhere. Find him. Bring the fruit.
Before leaving, they scratched a note onto the table in combined effort, each one contributing strokes until it said what they needed it to say:
"Sausage Mouth, wake up and go find the boss! He's almost done for!!!"
Then they were gone.
On the frozen battlefield, Shintaro shook his head violently.
The ringing wouldn't stop.
He tried to stand. His legs folded as if the bones had been quietly removed while he wasn't paying attention.
Twice he attempted it. Twice he collapsed back onto the merciless ice.
Finally — with Joseph bracing him on one side and the remaining Black Sperm pushing from below with their dwindling strength — he managed to rise to his knees.
Black Sperm swarmed over him, clinging to his limbs and body in a thin, trembling layer. Fragile. Not armor — the suggestion of armor. They left only his pale face exposed to the frost, and they were holding him up because he could not hold himself up anymore.
His Stand flickered.
Every Black Spirit felt the same fatigue bleeding outward from the same source.
Shintaro's chest tightened.
From the moment they had stepped into this graveyard, their senses had been shaved away with patient, systematic precision. Logically, he should have kept reserves. Should have maintained a personal guard. But somewhere in the fog and the fighting and the illness, he had released nearly all of them without noticing he'd done it.
"...That's wrong," he rasped, mostly to himself. "Stop scouting. Attach to Mr. Joseph and the others. Protect them first."
"Understood, boss!"
"On it!"
"Broom-head Uncle — smash that ice creep for us!"
"Hat-wearing guy! Don't die!"
Within seconds, everyone gained a thin black coating. It wouldn't stop a killing blow. But it was something between them and nothing.
Hoo—
"ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
Star Platinum launched forward, fists smashing incoming ice spikes into fragments.
Hoo—
"Hora hora hora!"
Silver Chariot's blade wove a lattice of silver light, intercepting another wave.
Hoo—
"Emerald Splash!"
Hierophant Green's emeralds detonated against crystalline projectiles, both sides exploding into glittering debris.
But their movements were slowing.
Not much. Not enough to see at a glance. But the force behind each strike had diminished. Each block required more than the last. The efficiency that had kept them alive was bleeding away by degrees, and the Ice Crystal Stand hadn't adjusted its pace at all.
Ice spikes continued to rain through the thinning Black Sperm armor, carving fresh wounds into skin that had already run out of unmarked places.
Worse — the Vitamin C from the strawberries had been fully neutralized. The bruises returned. Gums swelled. The bone-deep fatigue came back like a tide that had never fully left, only receded far enough to breathe.
Shintaro remained barely upright. There was scarcely a patch of uninjured skin on him.
Hoo—
This time — no warning. No interval.
Something inside him snapped alert before the conscious thought formed.
The target is Joseph.
The Black Sperm won't hold it.
He drew breath. Hamon roared through him one final time — and his throat tore open from the inside. The fragile lining of his bronchi ruptured again. Blood surged from his neck wound and crystallized midair before it fell, hanging for one fractured second as red-black shards.
"OVERDRIVE!!"
He threw a punch wrapped in flickering golden light.
Three ice spikes shattered an inch from Joseph's chest.
Before he could recover — the air moved again.
Now aimed at him.
He tried to summon Hamon. His body refused. He doubled forward, coughing up thick blood, and could only watch the ice spikes close the remaining distance.
"ORA!"
"HORA!"
Star Platinum and Silver Chariot crossed over him in the same instant, intercepting the barrage between their combined defenses.
Most of it.
Two slipped through.
They drove deep into his thighs.
Cold exploded upward through his legs. He hit his knees. The Black Sperm armor peeled away from everyone simultaneously — falling like shed cloth onto the ice.
"Boss... strawberry..."
At the edge of his dimming vision, a Black Spirit stumbled forward on failing legs. It rolled the bright red fruit into his trembling hand with its last coordination before its form began to fade.
"Shintaro!"
Joseph moved toward him — and a spike forced him stumbling back.
Then:
Puchi. Puchi.
The dull, specific sound of ice piercing flesh.
Shintaro's chest became frost and ruin.
He did not fall.
With fingers that shook beyond recognition, he picked up the strawberry.
He held it out toward Joseph.
"My Stands..." he said, barely audible, "are reliable... aren't they..."
His head dropped forward.
His body remained kneeling.
The Black Spirit that had brought the fruit faded. Others around him dissolved, one by one, like smoke losing its shape.
"No—!"
Star Platinum and Silver Chariot were blasted aside.
The Ice Crystal Stand advanced — cold, unhurried, absolute. It fired two spikes at Joseph, driving him back. Then it raised the guillotine blade above Shintaro's kneeling form and brought it down.
"SHINTARO!!!"
Joseph's voice cracked on the name.
Polnareff lunged — but he was too far. Too slow.
A bird's cry tore through the frozen air.
High. Piercing. Alive.
Flames erupted.
The fog didn't retreat — it evaporated, consumed by a wall of heat that expanded outward in every direction simultaneously. Ice hissed and cracked. Steam billowed and cleared. Visibility returned like something long overdue.
Within fifty meters — clear.
At the center of it — the Ice Crystal Stand burned.
Crimson fire wrapped its crystalline torso like living chains. The skull-like face, which had worn no expression since the battle began, was distorted now — twisted into something unmistakably like pain.
And behind it:
Magicians Red stood tall against the renewed night, its wings spread like a solar eruption, every feather defined by heat.
Before it — on one knee — Mohammed Avdol.
One arm supporting Shintaro's limp body with the steadiness of someone who arrived exactly when he intended to arrive.
His face was indignant.
His voice was calm.
"You have done enough."
He looked at Shintaro — at the wounds, the bruises, the frost on his eyelashes — and his voice stayed even through what was clearly fury held by discipline.
"Leave the rest to me."
Behind him, Magicians Red burned like the birth of a second sun.
For the first time since the battle began — warmth returned to the frozen field.
Real warmth. The kind with intent behind it.
[am writing a marvel gacha novel on my patreon please support]
_____________________
https://[email protected]/mrSOMEONE01234? [replace @ with a]
>>>>>I'm a student, and I'll try my best to keep uploading chapters regularly <<<<<
thanks for your support
[[READER TIER 1: translates stories {15$} ]] { RECOMENDED }
[[READER TIER 2: translated & original stories {20$} ]]
[[[[Please at least visit my patreon so I can have some traffic]]]]]
Also try
[[[Restaurant in Douluo Dalu (530+ch)]]] {6$}