"I see you still hold that outrageous afro dearly..." Ryma mockingly remarked as he leisurely watched Brook climb back to his feet without trying to hinder the skeleton.
"Don't you understand having such a big weakness makes you vulnerable during combat?" Ruma asked, resting Shusui on his shoulder while waiting for Brook to gather his bearing.
"Silence!" Brook exclaimed, clearly angered by the Ryuma's remarks as he brandished his weapons to the side and threw himself at the zombie.
'Laboon, do you remember us still?' Brook wondered, swinging his blade and missing Ryma as the latter dodged at the last second and prepared to launch a thrusting counterattack.
'Everyone is dead, but my heart tightens the most when I think of you, Laboon.' Brook suddenly froze, looking down as Ryma thrust his sword, hitting the pot where the skeleton's heart was before losing his flesh.
'Ah, even though I'm a skeleton now and have no heart to speak of,' Brook smiled despite himself, swinging his blade to force away Ryma, who was preparing to attack.
"Yohohoho!" Brook loudly laughed at the joke he told himself as he lunged at Ryuma. However loud as it may be, it was full of bitterness and the anguish of the past 50 years of solitude.
'As for me, I have lost everything...' Brook mused to himself while locking blades with Ryuma, images of the past flashing through his mind, of better days before he lost his flesh.
'I've lost my flesh, my face... and my dearest friends,' Brook continued to muse, unphased by the bone-shattering swings Ryuma rained upon him while recalling his crewmates and the carefree life he led alongside them as a pirate.
Although Brook's spirit was willing and his will strong, his bones begged to differ as Ryuma repeatedly overpowered him. The zombie even managed to thrust the katana into Brook's eye socket, fracturing his skull and making him fall to his knees.
'Even if we meet, will you be able to recognize me now that I'm reduced to not but bones, Laboon?' Brook couldn't help but think as he saw his reflection while staring down at his cane sword.
"Stop it! Anything but the afro!" Brook exclaimed in panic as he crawled backward while Ryuma maliciously swung his sword downward, targeting his hair, until he was forced to retreat by a swing of Brook's blade.
'I have nothing left but... but I want to protect this afro that everyone laughed at, saying it looked like your head.'
Brook firmed his resolve and stood up.
'I will protect this last remnant of who I was so that you would have something to recognize me by!'
He raised his blade in front of his face as he glared at Ryuma.
'I swear I will go to see you, so...'
Brook charged towards Ryuma, thrusting his sword forward, and the zombie replied by a thrust of his own, matching the skeleton.
'So I'd like to keep waiting at the capes...'
However, Ryma's sword was faster, and it hit Brook's bones, sending white shards flying in all directions before the skeleton's sword could cover half the distance toward the zombie.
'Where we made our promise...'
And with that, Brook fell to the ground, his sword slipping through his boney hand, barely clinging to his consciousness by a thread as he fell in defeat.
"Now, let me rid you of that ridiculous afro... Yohohoho..." Ruma remarked, trailing off as he ominously walked towards the defeated Brook, a malicious glint in his empty eye socket.
However, Ryma only walked two steps before alarm bells started ringing in his head. He raised his sword just in time to block Kozue's katana as she suddenly appeared in front of Brook, swinging her blade.
"What an impatient, young lady..." Ryuma said as he locked swords and eyes with Kozue. "May I please see your panties?" he asked, a wide grin splitting his yellow, rotted face.
"I'll make you regret spewing such profanities out of my honored ancestor's mouth, creature!" Kozue stated with a scowl on her face, clearly angered by the zombie's words.
"How harsh, yohohoho!" Ryuma exclaimed, jumping backward, lowering his stance, and lunging forward in a thrusting motion towards Kozue.
"Take care of the skeleton, Byron. I will take of the creature," Kozue exclaimed without turning to look at the musician as she charged toward the zombified Ryuma.
Ryuma thrust his sword forward, and Kozue reacted quickly, parrying it to the side. However, Ryuma quickly recovered, repeatedly jabbing at Kozue's midsection with his sword and forcing her to parry.
Putting more strength into her limbs, Kozue deflected Ryuma's sword to the ground, forcefully swinging at the back of the katana to make sure the zombie would take more to recover as she jumped backward.
Ryuma recovered almost instantly and lunged forward, thrusting his sword as he hoped to catch Kozue while she was still midair and unable to dodge.
However, Kozue merely smiled as she stepped into the air with a Geppo step, dodging the attack as she reached into her right sleeve, much to Ryuma's astonishment.
Kozue retrieved a small leather pouch with a thin, white thread at the top of it from her loose sleeve and threw it at the zombified Ryuma. She smiled as the fuze lit up and began sizzling as a fire began devouring it, heading towards the pouch.
Ryma frowned, but he quickly reacted, swatting away the pouch with the side of his katana. However, Kozue retrieved a hidden knife and threw it at the leather bag.
The knife ignited mid-flight and precisely hit the leather pouch before it could get too far away from Ryuma, causing it to explode with a loud bang, spreading flames and a shock wave that sent the zombie flaying backward.
'Thanks, Elly...' Kozue smiled as she looked at the result of Elly's handiwork, as it was the sharpshooter who had given her the strange chemical substance that would ignite with the slightest of frictions.
However, Kozue's smile turned into a stern frown as Ryma picked himself up while quickly patting away the little flames that caught his traditional samurai outfit.
"That was a real surprise..." Ryuma thoughtfully remarked while looking at Kozue. "You looked like a swordswoman, so I didn't expect something like this..." he mockingly added, shaking his head.
"Oh? Are you trying to provoke me, creature?" Kozue calmly said, raising an eyebrow as she stared at Ryuma. "It's no use. You might have Shimotsuke Ryuma's body, decaying as it may be, but you don't have his technique," she added, brandishing her katana to the side.
"You can't beat a true Shimotsuke descendant no matter how I choose to fight you," Kozue concluded, decisively shaking her head.
"Then why not prove it, yohohoho?" Ryuma asked with a mocking laugh, tilting his head to the side.
In truth, Ryuma was indeed trying to goad Kozue into fighting him only with her sword. Despite having Brook's exquisite technique, and such a strong body, he was still limited to melee range.
Fighting an opponent who could fly was beyond his means, not to mention one capable of using fire as a means to attack. He was in no way afraid of death. However, being purified by flames by an opponent he couldn't even hit and dying in a sword exchange while fighting a worthy opponent were vastly different.
It goes without saying he preferred the second option.
...
Ryuma VS Brook was one of my favorite scenes in the anime. I went all out trying to replicate it into writing as perfectly as possible, so I hope you guys enjoyed it!
Want more chapters? Then consider subscribing to my Pat reon. You can read ahead for as little as $1 and it helps me a lot!
-> (pat reon.com/wicked132)
You can also always come and say hi on my discord server
-> (discord..gg/sEtqmRs5y7- or hit me up at - Wicked132#5511 - and I'll add you myself)