Fires spread, engulfing the cabin, reminding Roja of his past trauma.
Sakura tapped his shoulder at this sight. "Roja, go assist those marines in the emergency exits. I doubt someone important would exit by the main entrance."
"Is that true, Shop Owner?" From the side, Smoker gripped his jitte and questioned Sakura.
'Like many stories, villains unexpectedly escape the difficult situation only to appear in the next arc...' Sakura nodded—in return, Smoker switched his gaze back and forth from Sakura to the Rock-Hard members exiting from the doors.
"Tashigi, go assist Roja out."
"Yes, Captain! Roja, follow me. I'll lead you the way," Tashigi saluted and saw off Smoker who rushed to capture the escaping gang members.
"Thank you Tashigi-chan. I will leave it to you."
"Please don't call me that way. It's our duty to protect civilians like you…" Tashigi said her face reddened.
Roja nodded. "That's why I'll be relying on you."
"Jeez… being with you messes up my rhythm," Tashigi complained but smiled inwardly.
…
The emergency exit path was connected to abandoned mines.
Inside the mine, water drips echoed down, and the stench similar to rotten eggs attacked one's nose.
The pillars supporting the mine were cracked all over, making one anxious about its safety.
"You know this reminds me of when I went to travel to a place called: "Hell" and fought against a robot with my friends," Roja whispered into Tashigi's ears.
"Hya!" Tashig shrieked instinctively, causing her voice to echo around the mine, possibly alerting the enemies.
"I-I apologize, I was surprised," Hurriedly, Tashigi fixed herself, whispering back to him.
It was a problem that they hadn't met with the emergency exit team—yet her Observation Color Haki was screaming in fear.
"You'll only tire yourself out if you tense up like that, y'know?" Roja whispered.
Looking around—fearing enemies that hadn't even arrived yet, Tashigi loosened her shoulders.
Here she was, proud of being an experienced marine soldier, but now she had a rookie civilian giving her advice. She felt ashamed, but she nodded at his words.
There was something eerie inside the mine.. She wasn't the type to be scared of darkness, nevertheless the lack of space. But here she was, overexerting her nerves, anticipating for the sudden arrival of an enemy.
"Yup, let's chill a bit until the enemies arrive… Tashigi-chan, if it's not too bad, can I ask why you joined the Marines?"
Thankfully, she wasn't alone, and her ally had the spare energy to chit-chat in this atmosphere.
"It's nothing secret. I want to collect swords all over the place. I-, I can hear them wailing, being wielded by a lawless criminal. Swords are not a tool for power, they're for protection! That's why I…"
Roja only stared at her, intently listening to her speeches. "Then you'd need the ability to defeat all the bad swordsmen in the world."
No matter how one beautified it, swords were tools for killing. Even Roja, who wasn't a swordsman, knew that...—well, mostly because Sakura said some nonsensical stuff about it.
However, what the man provided in the end wasn't his own opinion, but advice to reach her goals.
After all, his friend, Sakura Sonata, never laughed off his dreams of becoming the strongest. It must've been a difficult thing to do, especially when you know so much about this world.
"You… wouldn't laugh it off? I—this is the first time..." Tashigi said, looking down, somewhat inconfident.
"I won't-…."
As Roja tried continuing his speeches, he sensed a crowbar being thrown in his direction and changed its direction with the flexible use of his leg.
*plash* *plash*
From beyond the darkness, sounds echoed as the foot stepped into the wettened mud.
Then, the silhouette revealed itself as a man wearing a hockey mask, dragging a bruised man along with him; on his other side was a crowbar.
"That is…! Jason, The Masked Slaughterer! With a whopping 19,000,000 berries, he disappeared 3 years ago, but to think this was where he was hiding out, Mr. Roja, please hide behind me! I will protect you with my life."
"?" A question mark popped above Roja's head until he remembered their conversation earlier.
Jason silently stared at them, saying nothing. Meanwhile, Tashigi had unsheathed her swords, hands trembling, gripping the handle unnecessarily hard.
"You can't protect someone with that trembling hand," Roja said, but Tashigi couldn't stop her trembling.
Unlike three years later when she meets Zoro, the current Tashigi was only a bit better than ordinary marines and was too inexperienced to face a pirate over 10,000,000 berries. Not to mention, facing someone who was as unnaturally intimidating as Jason—she couldn't even bring up a tenth of her usual prowess, and the observation haki she obtained refused to work right now.
Roja shoved the girl behind him. Right now, she was being a nuisance. He won't have the ease to protect her if she continued to stand in the front of a battlefield like a deer in front of a speeding car.
After all, his nemesis was right in front—his trauma was revived.
Beyond the flame engulfing his family, he saw a disfigured face whose smiles reached the other sides of his cheeks—a reddened eye of a predator savoring the terror of its victim.
Roja couldn't have mistaken it.
Even if Jason was wearing masks—changed his face, or even turned into ashes—Roja would notice him, for as long as his nemesis lived, he would never forget this unending "gratitude".
"Jason, huh… So that's your name…?" Roja smiled with animosity.
Crimson-red streaks of lightning traveled across the atmosphere, trembling the air with supremacy.
Earth vibrated, causing the dust to fall over from the ceiling—hidden beneath the mask, Jason's eyes widened, trembling.
"This conqueror's haki is so intense!" Tashigi tried blocking the aura with her blade in vain.
Then, Roja placed his hands inside his pocket—shadow streaked his face—slowly walking toward Jason.
In front of Jason, at a distance, the two's faces would make contact—Roja stopped.
Due to the height difference with Jason winning overwhelmingly, Roja was looking up, but it was akin to a death reaper staring him down.
Surprised, Jason backed off unconsciously, unaware of the action he had taken.
At a moment's notice, he was enraged. It was all too wrong. He was the chosen one. Even before, even after taking that devil fruit, it was 'him'—only him who is allowed to take a look at the terrorized look of his victim.
It was his duty to savor it, an authority given to him.
Putting all his anger into that single point of his crowbar, Jason swung his arm widely as if to cleave through the very land that trapped them in this mine cave.
Roja laughed it off. "If you think about it, blades, bullets, cannon—everything in this universe could be abbreviated as balls."
"And if it's a ball, you can trap it," Roja softly parried the crowbar with his leg, 'leading' it below his foot.
*swish!*
The crowbars dug deep into the dirt as Roja trampled it over.
"Roja, I will assist you!" Tashigi came rushing forward. Sword in her hand, slashing Jason's mask.
With Jason's mask off, a disfigured face—as if it was stabbed by a thousand bees, burnt by scorching metals—was revealed, terrifying the female swordsman.
It was smiling.
In fear, feeling the presence of death, Jason was smiling, licking his lips as he looks at both Tashigi and Roja.
The figure said nothing, looking at the ceiling, reminiscing its pleasure—its past.
Pupils that were at the back of his eyes returned to stare at Roja, then his body relaxed. It was scared for nothing—it felt relieved.
If it's the relatives of those ordinary families, then their heir would be relatively ordinary as well.
'It was a coincidence.'
'I was out of my pace.'
Jason convinced himself.
Slowly, an alarming grin started manifesting of its disgusting face reminding Tashigi of a demon.
"Yes… It was like this flavor… woman, you look appetizing!"
Jason said—with a cry, he pounced over the girl.
Of course, Roja didn't just watch this as he blocked Jason's path, retaliating.
With Roja's strikes, Jason's ribs shattered.
Yet, he still rushed forward as if it didn't damage him.
Organs ruptured.
The neck rotated by 180 degrees.
Legs fractured open.
Yet, he rushed. "This guy is too weird! I'm finishing this before he makes an unknown move!" Roja shouted, swiping his legs.
Jason, who had his balance disrupted, ultimately fell over.
With Jason's head in the perfect positon where he can use Direct Shoot the strongest, Roja's leg dug deep into his neck, then severed the head away from the body.
Finally, then… did Jason's body fall over, fingers still twitching like a worm squeezing its remaining life force.
"D-did you do it?…" Tashigi said her voice was still trembling. She was down because she couldn't be of help in the fight earlier. "He isn't going to stand up like a zombie, won't he…?"
"Oh no, Boss said to be careful of these words," just as Roja speculated—Jason started standing up without a head.
"Urgh, such a pain in ass enemies, if you're so weak, just stay dead!"
As Roja tried to immobilize the leg physically—*BANG* a gunshot rang unexpectedly, unknowing where it fired off.
Fortunately, Tashigi had appeared in front of Roja and blocked the bullet's pathway with her sword using the observation haki.
"Thanks-, you…" Roja had seen it—Tashigi's sword trembling, her breath haggard.
"Oh, ohh…" Roja nodded—a light bulb lit up his head.
"Tashigi-chan, are you scared?"
"Hm? N-no, way… I'd never be scared of someone merely as 19 million berries," Tashigi said, a big words to cover her fear—but it was futile as Roja saw her through.
Sakura had once mentioned something called a "movie" called IT in his world. A villain who could be powered to become an omniversal being with enough fear factor—was marked deep into his memory.
That's why it reminded him of this guy. The unnecessarily dark underground as if to invite one's imagination. The mask stimulates one's imagination.
Then, as if to finish it, the disfigured face gave the impression that nothing could kill it.
'Could it be—this guy is being empowered by Tashigi-chan's fear?' Roja thought.
Or rather, he couldn't think of anything else, so he'd just have to test everything out since nothing worked against this guy.
"Tashigi-chan, Tashigi-chan—come to me, I have a plan," Roja gestured to Tashigi.
"Hm? Hyak—!!" A weird sound escaped Tashigi's mouth as she was embraced by Roja's chest.
The plan was that, as long as one couldn't see it, can't hear it, nothing was scary.
Usually, this plan would backfire in this type of situation, but Tashigi was far too distracted to have any stray thoughts regarding Jason.
"Wh-wha, what are you doing, Roja!?" Tashigi stuttered at Roja's chest.
"Sshh," Roja quietened her up, staring at the crawling Jason.
"Ggrrrr…" Without a vocal cord, Jason couldn't even form a proper sentence.
And just little by little, but Roja could see Jason losing his momentum.
With a trample, Jason's body finally dispersed to dust, only leaving a single head.
"What was that…? I've never seen an ability as weird as that…" Roja pondered, forgetting something important.
"Roja-san! Please let go of me!"
"Oh, my bad… I forgot about you," Roja thought, releasing Tashigi.
"Jeez… despite how I look, I'm still a girl, y'know?" Tashigi said, reddened, sending off the dust from her body.
"Still… an ability empowered by imagination… I've never heard of such a terrifying devil fruit, glad thing its user was a weakling…" Tashigi placed her chin above her hand.
"Tashigi-chan, I appreciate your thinking, but we have to find the person who fired that gun." Despite saying this, Roja looked relaxed, at least not as tense as when he faced Jason.
'Most people who use guns are weaklings. Just be careful of a person whose name ends with "pp" and Van Augur,' reminding himself of Sakura's words, Roja casually hopped to the enemies' side, even using the bullets as a training to improve his swiftness and possibly awaken observation haki.
"Maybe I got a little bit stronger," leaving only a single sentence, a quiet smile remained on Roja's face as he chased the man who entered at the corner of his vision.