Chapter 290
The pale-blue interface flickered faintly in front of Zaraki, looking completely out of place against the open sea and blowing wind.
Mystery Box Shop.
He stared at the words for several seconds before finally dragging the relevant information out of some neglected corner of his memory.
Ever since unlocking the Zaraki Kenpachi template, his life had more or less revolved around two things: cutting people and traveling somewhere so he could cut more people.
A system function built around gambling and probability had therefore been pushed to the back of his mind long ago.
As far as Zaraki was concerned, if a problem could be solved with a sword, there was little reason to leave the result to something as unreliable as luck.
Still, the people moving pieces around him this time included the Five Elders themselves.
Even after digging through mountains of top-secret files in the Fleet Admiral's office, Zaraki had never found a clear answer to just how deep Mary Geoise's foundations truly ran.
He trusted violence.
That did not mean he was stupid.
There was nothing wrong with preparing another card before walking into someone else's trap.
Zaraki moved one finger and followed the system prompt into the shop.
The relaxed look on his face disappeared almost immediately.
'Five thousand points?'
He stared at the price.
'System, are you serious?'
The Limited Themed Mystery Box glowed invitingly in gold, but Zaraki looked at it for less than three seconds before checking his current balance.
930 points.
He was short by exactly 4,070.
The precision of the number immediately reminded him of predatory mobile games from his previous life, the kind whose designers somehow always knew exactly how much a player had left before placing the next purchase just beyond reach.
At this point, the system might as well have written YOU'RE BROKE across his face.
Zaraki clicked his tongue and closed the interface.
For now, the Oni Slayer was still crossing open ocean. Wherever he looked, there was nothing but saltwater and the occasional large sea creature.
Even if he wanted the missing points immediately, there was no reason to assume the system would reward him for randomly slaughtering wildlife.
He would need another meaningful objective, kill, or hidden achievement before the limited shop disappeared.
Fortunately, he still had ten days.
That was at least something.
Before he officially turned against those old bastards, there was still time to trigger something worthwhile around Fish-Man Island and make up the difference.
"Zaraki."
Yamakaji approached with his cigar already burned more than halfway down, the ash somehow still clinging stubbornly to the end.
"The route has been confirmed. We should reach the designated descent zone outside the Sabaody Archipelago in about thirty minutes."
He studied Zaraki's expression for a moment before glancing toward the bottle nearby.
"You don't look particularly pleased. Bad liquor?"
"The liquor's fine."
Zaraki gave a self-deprecating smile as he stood and smoothed the wrinkles from his trousers.
"I just realized I'm poor."
Yamakaji stared at him.
He wisely decided not to ask.
Zaraki looked past him toward Gion, who was standing over a nautical chart with her brows drawn tightly together, one slender finger tracing the marked currents surrounding Fish-Man Island.
She looked so cautious that it had crossed into outright anxiety.
Zaraki found it amusing.
He walked over and, before Gion could react, reached out and thoroughly ruffled the carefully arranged hair on top of her head.
"Stop frowning all day."
His hand moved through the immaculate hairstyle without mercy.
"You'll get wrinkles."
The Marines training nearby froze.
Several wooden practice rifles hit the deck almost at the same time.
That was Vice Admiral Gion.
One of the most admired women at Marine Headquarters.
And Zaraki had just casually ruined her hair as though she were an irritated house cat.
Gion herself went rigid.
She could feel the warmth of Zaraki's palm through her hair, and the gesture was so natural despite its overbearing familiarity that her thoughts went blank for a full second.
"ZARAKI!"
She jumped backward, one hand immediately dropping to Konpira at her waist. A faint flush spread across her otherwise dignified face before irritation quickly overtook it.
"You bastard..."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Don't think becoming the world's greatest swordsman means I won't cut you!"
"Sure."
Zaraki waved dismissively and turned toward the bow.
"When we get there, I'll give you three free swings."
Gion's eye twitched.
Zaraki had already stopped paying attention to her.
"Yamakaji."
The Vice Admiral looked over.
"Have the men check every securing line again."
Zaraki glanced down toward the sea.
"We're going ten thousand meters under. If the coating breaks, I'd rather not find out how long I can hold my breath at the bottom of the ocean."
Gion stared at his lazy back.
Somehow, after all that nonsense, the tension that had been building in her chest had genuinely eased.
She clenched her teeth.
"Madman..."
The Oni Slayer gradually entered the designated descent zone.
Its specially applied coating shimmered beneath the sunlight, refracting the light into dreamlike bands of color.
The enormous anchor was raised, and moments later the ship began to sink, slowly following the downward current into the darkness beneath the surface.
...
Several nautical miles away, hidden within the shadow of a reef, someone watched.
The figure remained almost indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness, one hand tightly gripping a torn fragment of an old cloak brought back from some forgotten incident many years ago.
A low, bitter laugh escaped the shadows.
"A dog of the Five Elders..."
The fingers around the cloth tightened.
"Or the savior of the future?"
Hatred saturated every word.
"I don't care."
The figure's voice grew colder.
"As long as I can make you taste the same despair I suffered in that abyss ten thousand meters below, what difference does it make who I sell my soul to?"
The final ripples on the ocean surface gradually disappeared.
...
Several hours passed during the long descent through the deep sea.
As the Oni Slayer sank farther, the view beyond the portholes gave way to complete darkness. Only the warship's searchlights could carve narrow paths through the black water.
Then someone on deck suddenly shouted.
"Look!"
Another voice followed.
"Is that... light?!"
Zaraki opened his eyes and walked toward the window.
Far below, within the seemingly endless darkness, an enormous sphere of soft light had begun to emerge.
It looked like a sun rising from the abyss.
Its glow illuminated the strange underwater mountain ranges around it and revealed the outline of a colossal translucent sphere enclosed beneath the sea.
Fish-Man Island.
A graveyard for countless pirates.
A focal point for centuries of hatred between races.
And perhaps the next place the Five Elders intended to find out whether Zaraki could be removed without dirtying their own hands.
Yet inside the enormous double-layered bubble surrounding the island, the situation was already more complicated than the directive hidden inside Zaraki's coat suggested.