"Don't worry about all these trivial matters."
"Just say it—are you up for it? I'm not afraid to keep fighting. I believe my teammates will arrive soon."
"As for you... your plan has already gone wrong. With your personality, I'm sure it'll be unbearable not to see it with your own eyes, right?"
Kaito Sakamoto's words seemed to cut straight into Kuro's heart.
"I'll kill you first, then go."
Kuro pushed his glasses down with his palm, locking eyes with Kaito. His gaze was cold, like a predator eyeing its prey.
Kaito's lips curled into a slight smile. In the next moment, he was already behind Kuro.
Kuro's composure shattered. His expression shifted to one of shock as he quickly spun around.
"This is my Silent Step."
"How could you possibly know it?!"
Kaito continued smiling, his voice light, "Guess."
At the same time, he internally muttered, What's the big deal with Silent Step? I haven't even learned it fully yet. It's nowhere near as fast as the Marines' Six Powers, Soru.
...
After his recent system upgrade, Kaito had come to understand his Copy Fruit ability much more clearly.
The ability to copy techniques and the Copy Fruit ability itself were different.
First, there was the "Sight" Copy (which only allowed him to replicate half the strength).
Copying techniques required seeing them used first, just like when Kaito had copied Beckman's skill of shooting a bottle in the Makino Tavern. He had needed to watch Beckman perform the technique once before he could replicate it.
As for the Fruit abilities, Kaito's eyes acted like a skill scanner. No matter how powerful the ability was, Kaito could see the full extent of the power the user possessed.
Fruit abilities were essentially a form of power, manifested through the user. Just by looking at the user, Kaito could copy the ability without the person needing to use it.
Then there was the "Touch" Copy (which allowed him to copy 60% of the user's power).
Touching someone bypassed the need for visual contact, allowing Kaito to copy their abilities directly, whether it was a Fruit ability or a technique. However, he could only copy one ability at a time.
The true name of the Fruit was still a mystery, as the system hadn't told him yet. It only mentioned that if it was night, the power replicated through both methods would increase by 20%.
So, at night, Sight would allow Kaito to copy 70% of an ability's power, while Touch could replicate up to 80%—already very close to the full strength of the original user.
Kaito thought to himself, Maybe once my Fruit fully awakens, I'll be able to copy 100% of an ability.
...
So, the Soru technique Kaito had stored, which was originally copied from Zoro, had only 60% of Zoro's full strength.
However, the Silent Step he used earlier was a technique he had copied from Kuro in their fight—on a crescent moon night, it was at 80% of its original power.
Even with the slight speed difference that Kuro had noticed, Kuro was still shocked by how Kaito had managed to replicate his Silent Step.
"So? Are you still up for more?" Kaito taunted.
"Dammit, Kuro."
"I think I'll wait a bit longer. Maybe my friends will show up with some villagers to visit you."
Kaito mimicked Kuro's gesture, pushing up his "empty glasses" as if to mock him. It was done on purpose, just for Kuro to see.
Kuro's face darkened, but he didn't respond. In a flash, he sped past Kaito, creating a gust of wind in his wake.
It was as if he was saying, I'm the original creator of the Silent Step. Even if you've learned it, you'll never match my speed.
Standing by the window, watching the sun rise, Kuro's expression grew darker. Without turning back, he muttered, "You'd better keep your word!" Then he shattered the window and jumped out.
Kaito looked down. Kuro was standing unharmed on the ground below, glancing up at him with a look that seemed to say, Come after me if you dare.
"Miss Kaya, stay in the room," Kaito said as he turned back to her.
"But Kaito, you..." Kaya was worried about him, especially since he still had a fever.
Before she could finish her sentence, Kaito shook his head.
"Trust us. Trust Usopp."
With that, Kaito followed Kuro and jumped out the window.
Kaya rushed to the window, watching the two figures disappear into the distance.
Finally, unable to hold back her emotions any longer, she collapsed and burst into tears. She feared that she might have caused trouble for Usopp and Kaito.
...
Meanwhile, on the slope, the battle was intensifying.
As Luffy tore off the black cat symbol on the Black Cat Pirates' ship, he was trapped under it, and the two cat brothers—the ship guards of the Black Cat Pirates—stepped into the fray: the fat spotted cat and the skinny Siamese cat.
In a display of trickery, Zoro was caught off guard and had two of his swords taken.
With only one sword left, Zoro's current fighting ability was severely restricted.
"Cat Willow Grand Attack!" one of the brothers shouted.
Zoro found himself being pressured and surrounded by the two attackers.
Nami quickly came up with a plan and ran over to help Zoro retrieve his swords.
But Zangao couldn't just stand by. He used his hypnotic device, a circular blade, to strike Nami, cutting her left shoulder. Blood splattered out.
In Usopp's moment of despair, he suddenly saw Zangao's terrified expression.
Following his gaze, Kaito and Kuro appeared at the top of the slope.