Chapter 19: Why Won't You Let Me Leave in Peace?

"Aaaah!! Monster—"

The "Carpenter" finally jolted awake, screaming as he scrambled backward, commanding the remaining wooden puppets while retreating, "Stop it! Kill it! Kill it quickly!"

Monster?

Is he talking about me?

This was the first time Siano had ever heard someone call him that.

He felt it didn't sound very good.

But upon careful reflection, deep in his subconscious, he seemed to quite enjoy the title.

"Call me whatever you like!"

Grinning ferociously, he closed in, throwing several punches with booming sounds that sent every wooden puppet attempting to block him flying.

The one charging straight ahead with a sword thrust was even more directly crushed; he clamped its neck under his elbow, drove his knee up violently using the power of his waist and abdomen, and tore it in two with his bare hands.

Wood chips flew everywhere; through the gaps in his vision, the "Carpenter's" face grew increasingly terrified.

Snap! Siano leaped into the air, jumping high down from the arena platform, landing precisely before the main gate to block the other's escape route.

At this moment, the only ones still guarding beside him were the Town Sheriff and Major Tomoto from the Navy branch.

"Get lost!"

Two more punches thundered out; the two men flew several meters along with their guns, groaning muffledly before crashing to the ground and fainting.

This was the result of Siano deliberately holding back; these two fellows had not yet been completely puppetized, so perhaps after dealing with the Carpenter, there was still hope for them to recover into normal humans.

Click.

Siano reached out; his speed, far exceeding that of an ordinary human, left the "Carpenter" with no way to dodge, and he was grabbed by the throat and lifted up like a small chick.

The "Carpenter" struggled with all his might, but alas, the youth's Hukou was like an iron clamp, making it impossible to struggle even a little.

"Cough... cough..." The "Carpenter's" breathing gradually became rapid, and he painfully spat words through clenched teeth, "I'm... I'm going to suffocate, let go! Let me go!"

Siano did not loosen his grip, his gaze filled with disappointment.

"You are truly so weak."

"At least you're a Devil Fruit user; I thought you might let me enjoy myself a bit, but in the end, you're just a coward who hides in the back, fierce in appearance but timid at heart."

"Without your wooden puppets, you have no confidence whatsoever."

"With someone as weak as you, what exactly allowed you to control the masters of the eight great gyms in the first place?"

"What nonsense are you asking? Don't look down on people!" The "Carpenter" ground his teeth. "At the start, I couldn't win in a direct fight, so couldn't I just ambush them? If it weren't for encountering a non-human monster like you, who on Asakura Island could be my match..."

"Boss Siano!"

Junichi had approached at some point; wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, his gaze bloodshot, he tightly gripped a scavenged sword in his hand. "I beg you, give me a chance! Let me kill him with my own hands!"

"Don't rush yet."

Siano reached out to stop him, then turned back and narrowed his eyes to size up the middle-aged man draped in a luxurious trench coat. "There are still a few things I don't understand; I must get clear answers."

"Are you humiliating me!"

The "Carpenter" shouted in shame and anger, "Who wants to answer your questions! Just give me a quick death! Besides, I can barely breathe; if you don't let me go, how can I answer your questions!"

"You see, that is one of the suspicious points."

When Siano wasn't hitting people, his cellular activity seemed to return from his muscles to his brain.

He glanced at his right hand, which was still gripping tightly. "I've been choking you for so long; are you really unable to breathe?"

"..." The "Carpenter" froze; he suddenly lowered his head and only then realized that his breathing was still smooth, and the sensation of suffocation from earlier seemed like an illusion or hallucination.

Why, why was this happening?

How was this possible?

"I don't know if you've noticed, but many of the things you say have no logic with your actions."

Siano narrowed his eyes slightly and continued, "Let me ask you: you suddenly ran here and exposed yourself and the identities of the ten puppets you control completely; what was the point?"

"Haven't you always been scrambling desperately to make money, struggling for years on Asakura Island until you finally got it in your grasp? Why do you suddenly have self-destructive tendencies today? Are you preparing to run away to another place to rake in cash?"

That's right, how could it be like this?

The "Carpenter" was in a daze; suddenly, he couldn't figure it out either.

It seemed that long ago, he had experienced similar feelings.

—Whenever he was about to figure something out, it was as if a membrane existed deep within his brain; the moment his thoughts collided with it, his mind would become muddled and turn away.

In the end, the actions he took were completely contrary to his original plans and expectations, yet strangely, he felt it was perfectly normal.

"No!"

The "Carpenter" suddenly cried out, "I was nearly tricked by you, kid! Where did I expose my identity? Wasn't it that bastard Sakuraba Ki who sought death and exposed all these matters himself!"

"But when you entered, he hadn't yet revealed that the masters of the seven great gyms had long since become puppets!"

Siano suddenly raised his voice, "Didn't you bring the Sheriff and that Navy Major in yourself? You could have directly controlled him the moment you entered and interrupted his subsequent words! Then you had ten thousand ways to make the public believe he was an impostor! Why didn't you do that!"

Why?

The "Carpenter" grew even more confused; yes, why?

Clearly, there were plenty of ways to cover it up and continue happily earning his dirty money, so why suddenly tear off the mask?

He suddenly vaguely remembered something even stranger about his past.

Although he knew that among all the puppets, Sakuraba Ki's puppet body was the most difficult to control, occasionally having its own opinions and thoughts...

... he had never thought to completely puppetize the other, and had even kept him by his side all along to handle the most secretive and important matters.

"Come." Siano suddenly extended his other hand and grabbed the other's right hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Control me," Siano said coldly. "Eight of your puppets are dead; the freed fingers can go recruit new puppets, right? Use your ability and try to control me!"

"B-but powerful people aren't that easy to control; you are even less likely to be controlled than Sakuraba Ki was back then..."

"Carpenter" stammered, but before he could finish, Siano yanked Junichi over fiercely. "Then try it on him!"

"Eh? Boss Siano!"

Junichi had been listening intently beside them, regaining his composure and pondering the doubts within, but now, suddenly dragged into the Carpenter's grasp, he was utterly dumbfounded.

"..."

"Carpenter" reached out tremblingly, grabbing Junichi's arm, but soon froze again in bewilderment.

Planting puppet strings to control others... he understood the principles of the Devil Fruit clearly, but how exactly was it done again?

"You see, simply controlling these few puppets is the maximum authority you've obtained."

Siano hoisted Junichi back with one hand and gazed at this middle-aged man dressed in luxury. "Now, do you still believe you are truly the 'Carpenter' capable of making puppets?"

As his words fell, Siano suddenly slapped hard against the man's chest.

Bang! The sound emitted was crisp and brief, like striking a hollow bamboo tube.

What this meant, "Carpenter" understood better than anyone.

Siano finally released his hand, letting the middle-aged man slide down limply, slumping onto the ground.

"I... I am not the Carpenter..."

His expression was dazed, unable to accept reality, his voice dry and raspy. "I... so I, too, am just a puppet?"

"In other words, the true 'Carpenter' is actually someone else?"

Junichi felt his brain swelling, nearly crashing. "Then... then who could it be? And what grudge do they hold against my father that they would move against him?"

Siano looked at Junichi with pity, finally letting out a sigh:

"Whoever started today's farce is the Carpenter."

He suddenly threw a punch, crushing the middle-aged man's chest, then turned to look at the corpse on the arena floor, speaking in a low voice:

"Am I not right, Mr. Sakuraba Itsuki?"

No one answered.

The wall clock ticked second by second; amidst the ticking, this pin-drop silence lasted for over ten seconds before movement finally came from the arena.

Creak, creak.

A teeth-gritting sound of wood friction suddenly rang out; the corpse's limb joints abruptly bent backward ninety degrees and stood upright, driving the upper body to straighten again in an eerie posture that defied human ergonomics.

Accompanied by dense clicking sounds, Sakuraba Itsuki's body remained with its back to them, yet his head slowly twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, revealing that withered face, full of sorrow, wearing an expression neither crying nor smiling.

Junichi froze in place.

His hands and feet turned ice-cold; he felt an unprecedented chill shoot straight from his spine to the crown of his head.

"Why..."

The withered human face finally spoke sorrowfully, the voice issuing from his throat sounding like an old phonograph with a stuck tape, human speech and the vibration of wood eerily overlapping. "Just why..."

"Why must you discover it? And why must you speak it aloud?"

"Why... not let me give the identity of Sakuraba Itsuki a perfect curtain call, and depart in peace?"

(End of Chapter)