Zaraki noticed the turmoil on Ace's face and considered it an improvement.
'Looks like that woke him up.'
Ace was strong and knew it, but he still carried himself like someone who had yet to discover how vast the difference between two monsters could be.
An oppressive silence had settled over the casino.
Blood spread beneath Bear King's body, and loose coins caught the dull yellow lamplight like hundreds of tiny eyes.
Zaraki turned away from Ace to find Issho standing calmly before him, eyes closed, as composed amid the wreckage and aftermath of panic as he had been at the table.
That composure interested him more than any show of bravado.
'Yeah. He's the one.'
Ace started to say his name, his voice still a little dry, but Zaraki was already approaching the blind swordsman.
He stopped several paces away and dispensed with introductions.
"Draw your sword."
Ace stared at him. Issho merely angled his head.
"May I ask what you mean by that, sir? As far as I know, there is no grievance between us."
"There isn't." Zaraki rested a hand near his sword. "I came here looking for people worth bringing with me. Before I trust somebody at my back, I want to know what they can do."
"Are you serious?" Ace stepped between them, heat rising from his shoulders. "He hasn't done anything to you."
Zaraki gave him a flat look. "I'm not executing him."
"That really isn't the reassuring distinction you think it is!" Ace spread both arms. "And he's blind."
"Look at him properly." Zaraki's mouth twitched as Ace frowned and turned toward Issho again.
This time, Ace paid attention to the man himself instead of trying to use Observation Haki to measure some imaginary reserve of strength.
Issho hadn't flinched when Bear King killed the debtor, nor had he lost his composure during the panic.
His cane sword had always been positioned within easy reach, and even now, faced with an open challenge from Zaraki, he showed no nervous change in his breathing or stance.
His hand came to rest gently on Ace's shoulder.
"I appreciate the concern, young man. However, I believe I can answer for myself."
His voice was warm, but as he spoke, the pressure around Ace shifted sideways and carried him several meters across the floor.
His boots scraped over the boards until he stopped safely clear of both swordsmen.
'Gravity?' Ace blinked at Issho, who hadn't moved his feet.
The blind man raised the cane sword that had rested across his knees and inclined his head toward Zaraki.
"If you wish to test my sword, sir, then I will oblige you."
Zaraki grinned his approval as Issho drew several inches of steel.
Faint purple light gathered around the blade, and an invisible weight descended over the casino.
The floor groaned, tables collapsed, and loose coins were pressed flat into the boards.
Ace's knees buckled before he forced himself upright.
Zaraki stood unmoved, his smile widening. "So that's your trick."
"Gravity Blade: Raging Tiger." Issho drew farther and swept his blade horizontally, distorting the air before him.
A wave of gravitational force surged through the room, crushing everything in its path downward even as its forward pressure tore heavy tables from their foundations.
Zaraki drew Nozarashi and tightened his grip on the rough katana.
"Drink, Nozarashi."
Dark-gold Reiatsu rolled outward as the guard vanished and the blade widened into its enormous, chipped cleaver form.
Pressure crawled along the edge in violent arcs that resembled lightning in appearance alone.
Ace's eyes widened as Zaraki swung.
The stroke used neither an elaborate technique nor Kidō; he met the gravitational wave with Nozarashi and an enormous concentration of force.
The collision tore the casino apart, ripping open the roof and hurling beams and sections of wall outward while the floor caved beneath them.
Ace turned to flame long enough to escape and landed beyond the wreckage as the One-Eyed Giant collapsed behind him.
Dust swept across the district, and nearby buildings shuddered.
When he could see again, both swordsmen were standing among the ruins, neither looking satisfied with the exchange.
Issho slowly sheathed his blade.
"This location is unsuitable."
At Zaraki's raised eyebrow, he turned slightly toward the town.
"If we continue here, people outside this establishment will be drawn into the battle. Hannabal may be a lawless island, but I do not intend to crush strangers merely because they chose an unpleasant place to live."
Zaraki glanced toward the streets.
Most of Hannabal's residents meant little to him, but flattening the town would complicate recruitment.
"Fine. There's empty ground outside the city."
Nozarashi remained released against his shoulder as Issho nodded.
"You two are actually continuing?" Ace asked, staring from one to the other.
Neither bothered to answer.
...
Hannabal's barren western edge offered little beyond black stone, scrub, and abandoned quarry land stretching toward the cliffs.
There were no houses, taverns, or crowds to get in the way.
Zaraki stopped near the middle of the open ground, with Issho facing him several dozen meters away.
Ace stayed well off to one side, muttering about psychopaths while making no attempt to leave. Wind moved over the quarry as Issho rested a hand on his cane sword.
"You wished to see what I could do."
"Yeah." Zaraki lowered Nozarashi and watched him draw the blade a few inches, his face tilting toward the sky.
The pull of gravity deepened, setting dust and loose stones trembling across the ground, and Ace stopped complaining.
Zaraki felt it as well: a pressure entering the sky far above them, rather than some hidden reserve within Issho.
He looked up and spotted a dark speck beyond the clouds, growing larger as it approached.
...
The speck grew with terrifying speed. What had first seemed no larger than a bird became the size of a boulder, then a house, until Ace finally recognized the gigantic mass descending from the upper atmosphere.
Fire spread over the meteor's surface as friction heated the stone, turning the night above Hannabal an ominous orange-red.
"You've got to be kidding me." Ace stared upward as the shriek of its descent carried over the barren outskirts and into the distant city.
Pirates who had followed to watch the duel from afar immediately began retreating, while Zaraki raised his head and grinned beneath his hood.
This was more interesting.
He could feel the tremendous gravitational force guiding the meteor, but there was no system percentage left to raise, no incomplete template awaiting another fraction of synchronization.
His Zaraki Kenpachi template had reached 100% long ago.
All that power was already his; using it properly, rather than wasting it through incompetence, was his responsibility.
Zaraki tightened both hands around the released Nozarashi, gathering dark-gold Reiatsu along its chipped edge.
Issho kept his cane sword angled skyward as the meteor accelerated, and Ace looked between the falling stone and Zaraki.
"Please tell me you're not planning to—"
The ground burst beneath Zaraki's feet as he launched himself upward, cutting Ace off.
Of course he was.
Raw leg strength carried him toward the meteor before a rough kick against the air corrected his course.
His Geppo was imperfect and hardly elegant, but elegance had never concerned him much.
When the meteor filled his vision, he swung.
A dark-gold flying slash tore from Nozarashi, carrying an enormous concentration of cutting force and Reiatsu along a single edge.
There was nothing dimensional about it; no matter vanished, and no scar remained in space as the slash crossed the sky and struck the burning stone.
The impact drowned out every other sound.
A thin line opened across the meteor, cracks spreading from it until the whole mass split.
Its two great halves broke apart around Zaraki while hundreds of smaller fragments scattered outward.
Below, Ace shielded his face with one arm as burning debris began to rain over the quarry.
"He cut it..." Ace had known Zaraki was absurdly powerful, but watching a meteor come apart overhead forced him to reconsider what that actually meant.
Zaraki kicked against the air to control his descent.
He had barely begun to fall when Issho raised his cane sword and arrested nearly every large fragment.
The stones hung under the pull of his gravity like a field of burning stars, suspended across the sky.
Zaraki looked down to find Issho as calm as ever.
At a shift of his sword, the fragments began moving inward, and Ace's pupils contracted as debris converged from every direction.
Issho kept the stone in simple clusters, making no attempt to shape it into a dragon or another living construct.
Overlapping gravitational forces compressed each mass as more fragments joined it.
Three enormous bodies of burning rock took shape over the battlefield, rotating slowly around one another
Issho lowered his sword and sent all three toward Zaraki, drawing a curse from Ace as the first came down.
Zaraki cut through it with Nozarashi, bursting the mass apart in a shower of burning stone.
Before the debris cleared, the second was upon him.
He twisted in midair and drove another slash through it, the recoil forcing him downward as Issho tightened his hold on the third cluster.
Stone screamed under the mounting pressure.
The remaining fragments collapsed inward, becoming smaller, denser, and far more dangerous before dropping directly toward Zaraki.
His grin faded as he concentrated, allowing Nozarashi to draw more deeply on his Reiatsu.
He gave it what the blow required while keeping the flow under control.
Dark-gold pressure gathered along the chipped edge until the surrounding air vibrated.
Drawing the cleaver behind his shoulder, Zaraki swung with both hands and released a slash broader and considerably denser than his first.
It struck the compressed mass head-on, and for an instant, neither force yielded.
Then a dark-gold line opened through the stone's center, splitting it apart in an explosion that filled the sky.
The shockwave drove Zaraki downward.
He kicked against the atmosphere, shed only part of his momentum, and hit the quarry floor hard enough to gouge out a crater.
Ace threw himself behind a rocky ridge while Issho planted his cane sword and anchored himself with gravity.
Burning debris filled the sky, but the pieces were now small enough to scatter harmlessly across the empty quarry or burn away before reaching the ground.
As the shockwave passed and the noise gradually faded, Zaraki climbed out of the crater with dust falling from his shoulders and Nozarashi still released in his hands.
Across the ruined ground, Issho stood with his robe snapping in the wind. Neither had been defeated, and Zaraki smiled at him.
"Not bad."
"I could say the same." Issho tilted his head, drew his sword again, and continued the duel.