Collab bet'w Mizos & Silent
Zilia looked over at Jack and her eyes narrowed slightly as she took a look at his face.
"Jack…you don't look good," Zilia said. "I'm not sure if it's because of what the Ronin did or how our bodies are but…don't push yourself more than need be. I'll take a proper look at you after this."
She wanted to do so now but with the Ronin close that wasn't an option, she hated not being able to summon her guardians for additional help, but for the time being they were just acting as a distraction. The goal wasn't to win, just to keep busy.
"Z can I Manifest?" Luro said rotating his arm.
"Absolutely not Luro we talked about that."
"It'd be easier if I did though."
"No. Given how our bodies are we're not sure how it will act, you may actually…'change' so declined. Just hold back less."
"Kay," Luro said holding his hand out, grabbing at the air his gun manifested in his hand.
Luro rested his gun on his shoulder before holding his hand out and slowly sweeping the room, as he did so, red marks started appearing along the ground and wall, the redhead hummed as random spots in the room glowed red, and closing his hand the spots vanished from sight.
Resting his gun in both his hands he continued to silently sing as he loaded different colored bullets into the gun, tapping his boot to the song as he clicked another switch causing the gun to hum silently.
"So should we kill everyone around us, so the sword guy can't use them?" Luro said looking back at the two.
"It's amazing how you can say such things with a straight face. I'm not partial to slaughtering a whole room myself but I'll leave that call to Jack, he knows this place better than us so he'd have to bear witness to that."
Zilia spoke a few words out loud before adjusting her gloves, she spoke a few 'sharp' words, a few 'wall' words and a few 'heavy' words, taking another look around the room before nodding.
"I'll use Rewrite if it comes down to it, but it's very draining so let's avoid that if possible. Also Jack be ready to change locations, you know this place best, if we're at a disadvantage, then we may need to move."
"You're putting a lot of faith in a guy who's only been in this building twice," Jack said wryly. "And yes,
this is my second time."
Jack folded his body to the floor in a meditative position. Zilia was right: He was not feeling well. He was already pale again.
"Zilia, record this please. Just in case…" Jack's eyes lost focus as he concentrated. "I can feel his power in my body already. I felt it before we entered the Lotus Blossom. Before he afflicted you. That sword…I feel its pull. Its bloodlust…I think it has killed me the most."
His head tilted toward Luro, eyes still lost in a thousand yards of fog. "Clear the room. Preferably without killing anyone…we can't rule out he can use corpses too."
Jack's head lulled in the other direction, and he blinked enough to focus on Zilia. "Can you block his blood power? And we'll need a shield–one grade above what my haki can break through. But don't if it'll take you out of commission. I'm relying on you to keep me alive."
Zilia's eyes narrowed but she offered a nod to Jack, she listened attentively to what he was saying. She had smiled a little at his comment towards visits but her mouth was a thin line as she listened to what he was telling her.
"...I see. So his comment held some merit after all…but why you Jack?"
Zilia's brows furrowed, she couldn't feel the same pull that or she was unable to. No matter the situation, Jack was the one most affected by this, and it was another sickness she couldn't deal with. Her hands closed into her fists and she calmed her nerves, this wasn't a natural one, but something born of what some would call magic, that offered her shallow comfort, enough to focus.
"Kay," Luro responded simply to Jack's request.
Zilia watched a Luro dig into his sleeve continuing to hum to himself. Even in moments like this Luro acted the same, a smile on his face, and the normal pep in his step. Even when Jack was killed in front of him, he just pointed his rifle at his murderer with the same smile. Sometimes it bothered her, but she also knew Luro.
He was a simple person who just dealt with the problem in front of him, complicated thinking was for the others. Right now Jack was alive and they were going to be attacked, so he'd deal with it, what came after he'd just deal with that then.
She sighed a bit disliking the lack of preparation but couldn't deny that focusing on the now was most important.
Sometimes it did feel like Luro just…understood things, beyond her understanding.
She was pulled from such thoughts as Jack spoke listening to his question and request.
"I won't need to remove a limiter for the shield, I've practiced that on my own," Zilia said smiling. "The blood power…I may have to use Rewrite for that, and that will require removing a limiter, but yes… I can mitigate the effects, between the three of us it shouldn't put a large enough strain to take me out."
Luro finally dug out a small ball from his sleeve and pressing a button tossed it into the room.
"Barrier please Z," Luro said grinning.
The orb bounced on the ground a few times before green smoke burst out of the ball and started filling the room, when it did the inhabitants suddenly started staggering, coughing, and holding their stomachs, a few covered their mouths and ran out of the room before retching could be heard a fair bit away. Needless to say, since the green smoke filled the room it forced everyone out of the room immediately.
Zilia had put up a small barrier around them to keep the smoke from getting in, however, she could hear coughing nearby and noticed Shay in a bubble, they vanished out of sight afterward and she quietly apologized for not covering the servant.
"What is this Luro?"
"Poison to kill someone back when I was Imposter. It was either Alicia or Captain I forget."
Zilia's eyes twitched and Luro looked back at the two grinning.
"I removed the 'poison' part though when I woke up, so now it's just a toxin that makes you a bit sick."
"...and you just carry this on you?"
"Other me told me to bring it."
"Other…you mean the Echo Luro."
"Yep, said to have it just in case I need it in the future. I really should carry it around more, imagine how handy it would have been all those other times."
Luro motioned to the barrier before walking out of it, Zilia started to say something but Luro unaffected by the smoke held his hand out, a gust of wind came out blowing the gas away and clearing the room, granted since it went out the window, some of the people below would be in for an unpleasant surprise.
"It'll smell a bit we should be good."
"...I'm guessing you develop an immunity to it. Also, we could have used that against the Ronin!"
"Course I did, who uses poison without testing it and doesn't he have a helmet on? Not sure if it'll work. It's gotta come in contact with skin, or be inhaled. Now if I used the poison that melted metal…ah wait that'd kill everyone wouldn't it?"
Zilia sighed before snapping her fingers, as she did her barrier shrunk until it grew thin and surrounded their bodies, almost like another layer of skin.
"There's your shield," Zilia said. "If it breaks I'll have to rebuild it in real time…so try not to get hit too much."
Jack smiled, amused by their banter. Then his vision rocked to the frantic beat of his heart. Not too soon, Zilia erected their barriers. He gave her a grateful look but there was no more time for pleasantries.
He's here.
"Follow my lead," he said to Zilia. To Luro: "Hide. Now."
Zilia offered a small nod to him and Luro with a grin waved at the two before his entire body disappeared, similar to how his gun did, the redhead's precence completly vanishing.
"...he's gotten too good at that," Zilia mumbled.
She made a mental note to remind Luro not to use that trick without permission.
When the Ronin appeared in the ballroom's grand entrance, the three pirates got their first look since they'd all attacked him in the Lotus Blossom. His armor must've been dented beyond repair; he lost it, only wearing traditional ronin robes now in black and red, a white underlayer peeking out from beneath. His helmet was gone, revealing gray-black hair tied into a half ponytail. His mask remained. Red slits glowing menacingly.
The Ronin entered with practiced caution. His blade
keened in his hands, as if sensing that it's power wasn't having the desired effect. It was just Zilia and Jack sitting there in that grand, empty ballroom. He halted his progression, wary.
Jack remained silent and meditative, eyes closed. The picture of a peaceful monk.
The Ronin approached a few more steps.
Jack opened his eyes. "I wouldn't come any closer."
The warrior stopped, cocking his head.
"Invisible barrier," Jack explained, gesturing before him, "Courtesy of my friend here. Nasty stuff."
The Ronin rumbled from beneath his mask. "Zilia Vilimar, holder of the Chat-Chat fruit. I know of her power–and its limitations. You bluff." He started forward again.
"Why would I risk open confrontation with you?" Jack asked sharply, "My friends told me how you took them all on and lived. I'm not so stupid or honorable to risk a duel."
"Honorable you are not," the Ronin agreed. Yet he hesitated. Red slits roamed the ballroom, as if trying to divine this supposed barrier.
Jack brought out a cigarillo and calmly lit it. His posture and voice were relaxed, confident. No tells that he was lying. But that's what he was good at; he was a spy, after all.
"Why sit here, then?" the Ronin asked.
"I thought we could talk for once. I doubt the previous mes, if they're bad as you say, didn't allow for such luxury."
"You don't want that," the Ronin said, perhaps too quickly.
"I'd prefer it to being killed again. Or worse."
The Ronin stood silent for a long time, but Jack was patient. He waited out his foe. The Ronin relented by lowering himself to the ground, mimicking Jack's position, and laying his tachi before him.
"Fine. Talk."
Jack exhaled a column of smoke and smiled.
Zilia remained calm eyes focused on the ronin, having taken a place beside Jack. Sitting on her knees she calmly folded her hands in her lap.
At the Ronin's words Zilia's eyelids lowered slightly, a trace of apathy playing across her face.
She offered no response as Jack was better at wordplay which deluded the opponent.
Being with Yuli had aided her poker face, it was amazing what tricks a former Raven knew. Being a Devil Fruit User she was also accustomed to lying about her power.
Pretending her power was more or less than her opponent thought was second nature.
She would follow Jack's lead, and it wasn't as if she couldn't put on a show all the same. She chose to remain silent however letting Jack handle the wordplay, she adjusted her glasses letting him start with the questions, feeling he of all people deserved answers first.
"How about a name?" Jack began, "You seem to know ours after all."
"You've already taken to calling me, 'The Ronin'. That will suffice," said the Ronin.
"How about removing that mask then? It's only cordial."
"No."
Jack pouted, conjuring an image of his little brother when he's pretending to be indignant. "This is not a good start to our relations."
"We have no relations, boy," the Ronin said, too quickly, "I agreed you can talk. I didn't agree that I'd respond as you wish."
"Fine." Jack blew smoke in his direction. "Let's start in your comfort zone, then. Why do you want to kill me?"
The Ronin scoffed, a hard and sharp sound, as if he only knew how to speak in steel and violence. "You took everything from me and laughed as you did. I killed you–and I found you doing it again, and again, to many innocents and helpless people. Endless genocide across many Realms. No matter how you may have changed, the different paths you walked, always the same: killing, pillaging, raiding, spying, desecrating. Again and again and–"
Jack interrupted, voice dry with contempt, "I get the picture. You think I'm a bad, bad man. Those versions aren't me."
"Yes. I tried to believe that too, at first. Kept giving you the chance to choose the light. You never do. Inevitably, our paths cross. We fight; I kill you. This has become my cursed calling. Someone had to stop you…you, and your crew. When they decided to show their faces."
"So…you've taken it upon yourself to rid the Realms of the bad, bad pirates."
"Yes," replied the Ronin, though Jack had not made it a question.
Jack's eyes hardened. "How do you know about the Realms?"
For the first time, the Ronin moved–the slightest tension of the shoulders. "What?"
"You're obviously my Core Discrepancy. My Vagrant," Jack said, "but you're self-aware, unlike the others we've faced. You know about Facade. You know you
live in it. How?"
When the Ronin didn't answer, Jack scoffed. "Why bother agreeing to talk if you won't play along? If you wanted to fight, you would have forced it. What's the harm in sharing?"
The Ronin answered, reluctantly, "You did."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Killing you made me…self-aware."
"Why? How?" demanded Jack.
"I will not answer that. It's more merciful."
"More merciful for me? Is that how you justify the genocide of me and my family?" Jack removed the cigarillo from his mouth and it snapped between his fingers.
A rough choking sound rumbled behind the Ronin's mask. It took Jack a moment to realize he was laughing. "That crew is no family of yours, boy. Yours is dead or broken, if not both. Your history is tragic, worthy of pity, but it doesn't excuse your evil."
"How do you know anything of my family?" Jack asked, confrontational, his protectiveness rearing its head.
"I know your family intimately, boy. They're the crux to all your downfalls. Through loss, death…or worse fates. Sometimes from your own hands."
"I'd never."
"You do." The Ronin cocked his head. "Haven't I made it clear? I've seen all your futures–" He directed this at Zilia as well– "paths of destruction, each and every one. I'm here as my duty to stop you from causing more. And once I'm done, I'll go for your Echoes next."
Jack went cold; Zilia felt his anger freezing down his spine. He flicked away his cigarillo and dug into his pocket. The Ronin tensed, but Jack only pulled out his pocket watch. He fiddled with the one of three knobs on its rim, ignoring the Ronin long enough for the warrior to fidget. Only then did Jack lower the pocket watch and looked at him directly.
"Listen closely, Ronin. This is how it's going to go…"
