Water 7: Red-tiled roof above the Central Business District.
Clang!
A sonic boom rippled through the air as two figures collided, trailing a shower of sparks across the rainy sky. Kaku, gripping twin long blades in a reverse hold, hovered in the night using Moonwalk. He looked down at the red-haired woman below, his eyes narrowed with the cold rationality of a master assassin.
"Incredible physique," Kaku noted. He didn't waste breath on taunts. He analyzed the facts: that massive Black Steel bone-chopper in her hand was an omnidirectional shield. Every time he struck it, the recoil made his wrists throb.
On the sloping roof ridge, Leona stood firm. She held a silver boning knife in her left hand and her massive greatsword in her right. Her breathing was a rhythmic, steady tide.
"You're flexible," Leona said, her vertical pupils tracking Kaku's aerial shifts. "Wide coverage, tricky positioning. You're a troublesome prey."
"Then try this." Kaku plummeted, his legs blurring into a high-frequency kick.
"Tempest Kick: Chaos!"
Blue-white vacuum slashes rained down like a localized hurricane, sealing every exit. Leona didn't retreat. She stomped, shattering the tiles beneath her, and erupted into the sky with her own Moonwalk.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Black Steel blade flipped in her hand, swatting the vacuum waves aside like flies. But Kaku was already closing in, his arms hardening into the density of stone.
"Iron Body: Steel Arm!"
His blades lunged for her blind spots. In the air, the sheer weight and wind resistance of Leona's greatsword began to hinder her. She was forced to twist her waist to dodge, missing a counter-opportunity as she shoved Kaku back with a whip-kick.
Both landed on opposite clock towers, reassessing.
"That heavy weapon is a perfect shield," Kaku panted, adjusting his cap. "But your power is too heavy. Competing in speed with that slab of iron is a stalemate."
"Who said I was going to use the big knife for speed?" Leona's voice turned chillingly calm.
To hunt a bird, one does not use a sledgehammer. She was the head chef of the Eclipse; her blades didn't just shatter dragon scales—they traced the delicate fibers of muscle.
Thud.
To Kaku's shock, Leona released her right hand, letting the massive Black Steel bone-chopper plunge deep into the clock tower's masonry. She shifted her grip on the slender, curved Silver Boning Knife.
"Using Moonwalk for aerial suppression? That's the first thing I learned to hunt my prey," Leona exhaled a plume of white vapor.
BOOM!
The clock tower beneath her exploded in a ring of compressed air. It was pure, raw kinetic energy.
"So fast?!" Kaku's vision blurred. This wasn't the heavy tank he had been fighting—this was a streak of red lightning. Leona closed the distance in a heartbeat, her Moonwalk steps covering ten meters at a time.
"Don't underestimate CP9!" Kaku performed a desperate backflip, unleashing a massive, building-sized slash.
"Tempest Kick: White Thunder!"
In that split second, Leona's Observation Haki and her mastery of the "Breath of All Things" reconstructed the world. She didn't see a giant blade of wind; she saw an anatomical structure. The vacuum had a seam, a point of tension where the airflow met.
"Too brittle," she whispered.
She didn't slow down. Her silver knife pushed forward, the tip finding the imperceptible gap in the "White Thunder" slash.
SHHH!
It was the sound of a scalpel through silk. Kaku's ultimate attack didn't explode—it was silently dissected. The two halves of the gale grazed Leona's ears and dissipated into the night.
Kaku's pupils shrank. "You... you dissected my Tempest Kick?!"
Leona was already inside his guard. Kaku, driven by survival instinct, spun his body into a whirlwind of steel.
"Four-Sword Style: Chaotic Whirl!"
But Leona's eyes were ice. She saw the "Dead Lines"—the inevitable gaps left by muscle transitions and shifting air currents. Her silver blade drew a perfect, effortless arc. No force. No friction. Just a fish entering water.
"Anatomy: First Blade—Silk Stripping."
Under the cold moonlight, a cluster of crimson bloomed like a winter plum blossom. The whirlwind stopped. The silver blade had severed the core tendons supporting Kaku's movement. The web of swords disintegrated.
Clang...
Kaku's blades fell from his nerveless hands. He didn't even have time to scream before he lost balance, crashing onto the hard roof ridge. A long, deep crimson groove ran across his torso, drenching the red tiles in blood. After a few ragged breaths, he went still.
Leona flicked her wrist, shaking the last drop of blood from her blade, and sheathed it. She didn't look back at the Black Steel sword she had left behind.
As a chef, she knew: no matter how thick the armor, if the prey has bones and tendons, it has a path to be unmade. Systematically peeling away the obstacle was the ultimate slash.
Exhaling a final cloud of vapor, the wild-haired chef turned away. Listening to the distant roars of the other battlefields, she vanished into the rainy night of Water 7.
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