Malphegor
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HGBW: Ch. 90
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 01:05:55 +0000 UTC"You're absolutely right. Damn Op-Op Fruit."
Facing Who's-Who's broken composure and his trash talk, Tanaka smiled indifferently, completely unfazed.
Hearing this, Who's-Who went completely berserk.
"Soru!"
Whoosh!
With a piercing sonic boom, he instantly flashed behind Tanaka.
He extended his index fingers from both hands, launching a flurry of piercing attacks—like dozens of guns locked onto Tanaka, all firing at once.
A dense barrage of finger strikes completely enveloped Tanaka's body, leaving no space for him to dodge.
After suffering once from spatial displacement, even though Who's-Who was enraged, he wasn't reckless enough to use long-range attacks like Rankyaku again.
After all, if he did, Tanaka could simply repeat his trick, swapping positions, and making him take his own attack to the face.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Under the relentless assault of Shigan, Tanaka was punctured with over a dozen holes in his back, resembling a beehive.
"Ha... Hahaha! As long as I'm fast enough—fast enough to prevent him from using his abilities, I can win."
His face, originally red with anger, now carried a triumphant smile.
His earlier outburst was half real, half an act.
It was all to deceive Tanaka.
A setup for Soru and Shigan.
Pfft!
Suddenly, Tanaka, who had been pierced through, exploded into a cloud of white mist.
"A clone again?"
The unexpected turn of events left Who's-Who in shock.
Why was he so confident just now? Because he believed that Tanaka had used his Op-Op Fruit power.
Therefore, he was convinced that the Tanaka in his sight was the real one, not a clone.
But what was the result?
A whole barrage of Shigan, only to end up stabbing a puff of mist.
Whoosh!
Sizzle!
At that instant, from Who's-Who's blind spot behind him, a sword materialized out of thin air. The blade crackled with visible electricity.
Then, without anyone holding the hilt, the electrified sword shot forward like lightning, stabbing directly into his spine.
Pfft!
His body trembled violently, his eyes widened, and his gaze immediately lowered.
What he saw... was a segment of the electric blade protruding from his abdomen.
He tried to move, but with his spine severed, his brain could no longer command his body.
He wanted to struggle, but the high-frequency, high-voltage electricity spreading from the sword rendered him completely paralyzed.
"You... fu... FUCKER"
His lips quivered. A flood of curses rushed to his tongue, ready to be spat out.
Standing twenty meters behind him, Tanaka raised his left hand, palm up, and lightly flicked two fingers.
Under his remote control using the Op-Op Fruit, the Kusanagi Sword that had stabbed into Who's-Who's back immediately made a swift horizontal slash.
Crack!
Who's-Who was cut into several pieces, blood spilling everywhere.
Clang!
After finishing, he reached out and grabbed the hovering Kusanagi Sword. Like a bird returning to its nest, the sword flashed through the air, circling around him like a silver serpent before sliding back into its sheath.
"..."
Watching from the sidelines, Kalifa felt her brain freeze.
She couldn't understand... Why was Tanaka's fighting style this... dirty?
After consecutively defeating two CP9 members, he finally stepped forward to challenge Who's-Who one-on-one—only for it to turn out to be just a clone.
And that was just the beginning.
The real Tanaka had been hiding in the shadows, secretly using his Op-Op Fruit powers to teleport an electrified sword behind Who's-Who, landing a chilling, lethal strike.
As a bystander, Kalifa saw the full picture more clearly than anyone else—she understood just how terrifying Tanaka truly was.
As a CP9 agent, she felt more horrified than anyone else.
"T-Tanaka... That... Have you... always fought like this?"
Now that the battle was over, Rosinante, who had been teleported away earlier by Tanaka's Op-Op Fruit, finally walked back over.
Even though he and Tanaka were extremely close, he still couldn't help but feel that his fighting style was... incredibly dirty.
Deception.
More deception.
And even more deception.
And was the Tanaka who controlled the sword from afar even the real one?
Maybe more deception.
Three CP9 agents had been fooled from start to finish.
This made Rosinante question reality for a moment.
Was CP9 trying to ambush Tanaka?
Or was Tanaka the one who had been setting up an ambush for CP9 all along?
CP9 was an organization infamous in the pirate world for their assassinations and ruthless methods. And yet, when it came to Who's-Who, Blueno, and Jabra, they looked downright naive compared to Tanaka.
"Is there a problem?"
Hearing Rosinante's words, Tanaka looked genuinely puzzled.
What was a battle?
A fight where both sides put their lives on the line, unless it was a spar.
And if your life was at stake, shouldn't you use every possible advantage to ensure victory?
Because not winning meant dying or worse.
Honestly, Tanaka hadn't even awakened his Op-Op Fruit yet. If he had, CP9 wouldn't have even needed to see him to "die," they would've already been sliced apart by a 400-meter-long Kusanagi Sword.
"N-No, no problem at all."
Seeing how calm and composed Tanaka was, completely unaware of how dirty his tactics were, Rosinante could only shake his head.
As far as he was concerned, as long as Tanaka was safe, it didn't matter how dirty his fighting style was.
It was certainly better than standing by and watching CP9 capture him.
"Rosinante, you watched me fight just now. Did you notice any areas where I could improve?" Tanaka pondered for a moment before asking Rosinante.
He had always believed that whether it was ninjutsu, genjutsu taijutsu, or battle tactics, one should constantly improve through training and real combat.
Standing still in progress or worse, regressing—would only lead to becoming obsolete.
Why did Kaguya lose to her weaker sons back then?
First, because of sealing techniques. Quite broken.
Second, because she was utterly outmatched in strategy.
A thousand years later, why did she fall the same way a second time?
Because she had been sealed away for a millennium, never improving, and then got defeated by the same old combination of Sage of Six Paths' sealing techniques and Team 7's tactics.
An outsider saw more clearly than those involved.
Since Rosinante had witnessed everything firsthand, Tanaka believed that if he had any flaws or weaknesses, Rosinante would have been able to spot them.
Rosinante: "..."
Kalifa: "..."
All the marines: "..."
You think you aren't dirty enough?
You think your tactics aren't sinister enough?
And you still want to improve them further?
Are you really just a kid?!
At that moment, they finally understood why Tanaka, despite his young age, had already mastered such an underhanded and ruthless fighting style.
A person who constantly reflected on whether his tactics were "dirty enough", a person who tirelessly thought about how to refine and perfect his fighting style... How could he not be underhanded?
