When the Transformation Technique was dispelled and Shiranui Rei’s original appearance was revealed, even Teach, whose mind was deep and whose heart was filled with killing intent, couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.
The height that looked rather “short” in his eyes, along with the young appearance of someone who had barely made his debut in the world.
Judging from the information fed back by his Observation Haki, although this kid possessed some strange energy inside his body, his physical condition was so weak that it was almost laughable.
Moreover, he had never seen this kid aboard the ship and had no idea how he had managed to get on board.
Teach’s cheek twitched, and the anger in his heart intensified.
He had actually been frightened by a kid who hadn’t even grown all his hair yet?
You’ve got to be kidding!
His heavy body suddenly disappeared from where he stood.
Shiranui Rei didn’t even hear the slightest obvious sound before Teach was already upon him, carrying overwhelming force!
His right hand clenched into a fist.
The tremendous strength behind it kicked up a powerful gust of air, and in the blink of an eye, it was already hurtling straight toward Rei’s head.
At this moment, Shiranui Rei felt as though he had returned to the train platform from his previous life, standing beyond the safety line and watching a high-speed train roar toward him.
If that punch landed solidly, the Whitebeard Pirates would probably wake up tomorrow to find nothing but pieces of a smashed watermelon scattered across the deck.
Bang!
Blackbeard had overwhelming physical strength.
But Shiranui Rei had his own ninjutsu.
Smoke burst outward.
In the next instant, a wooden barrel appeared directly in front of Teach’s fist, suspended in midair.
Meanwhile, Shiranui Rei’s body landed safely several meters to Teach’s front-left.
The Substitution Technique.
It was the second ninjutsu he had mastered back when he was at the Ninja Academy.
It was still merely a basic E-rank ninjutsu.
Its effect was to replace the user’s body with an object at the instant of an attack, creating the illusion that the attack had succeeded and disrupting the enemy’s rhythm.
The technique could catch an enemy off guard and create an opening for a sneak attack or escape.
With sufficient mastery, calling it “escaping from one’s shell” wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
At the Ninja Academy, the Three Basic Body Techniques—the Transformation Technique, Substitution Technique, and Clone Technique—were made compulsory in order to ensure that young shinobi had a higher chance of surviving once they entered the world of actual ninja.
Back then, Rei had been determined to survive the Second Shinobi World War.
He had mastered these three techniques more thoroughly than anyone else!
Teach had completely failed to anticipate that his supposedly guaranteed target would turn into a wooden barrel.
At the instant his fist was about to smash the barrel apart, he pulled his punch and changed it into a claw, firmly catching the barrel instead.
The sound of the barrel being smashed could attract the attention of the crewman standing watch in the lookout post, or even wake the resting crew members inside the cabins.
That split-second decision gave Shiranui Rei the opening he needed.
Fight or flee?
He made his choice within 0.01 seconds!
After taking a step backward, Shiranui Rei formed hand seals.
Chakra surged upward from his abdomen, while the surrounding airflow was drawn into his mouth, causing his cheeks to bulge.
“Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!”
Several razor-sharp blades of wind sliced through the air, locking onto Teach’s eyes, throat, heart, and other vital points from a distance of less than ten meters.
When Rei had left the Ninja Academy back then, Jiraiya had given both him and Minato a sheet of chakra paper.
When he infused his chakra into it, one section split apart while another spontaneously caught fire.
This meant that his chakra possessed Wind and Fire natures.
That didn’t mean he was incapable of learning or using ninjutsu of other natures.
It simply meant that learning Wind and Fire Release techniques would be easier for him.
After countless battles and years of honing his skills, his Wind Release ninjutsu had long since become second nature.
“Airflow? Something like a swordsman’s slash. But how did you spit it out of your mouth…? A Devil Fruit ability?”
The Vacuum Waves were invisible in the darkness, but they couldn’t escape Teach’s Observation Haki, leaving him somewhat surprised.
Armament Haki surged across his arms.
At a speed difficult to see with the naked eye, he slapped his arms through the air in front of him, dispersing the invisible blades of wind.
Transforming into another person’s appearance and spitting blades of wind from his mouth.
These abilities naturally led Blackbeard, whose understanding was limited to this world, to classify Shiranui Rei as an Ability User.
He almost cursed aloud.
You’ve already got a Devil Fruit ability, so what the hell have you been messing around with me for this whole time?!
If the other crew members discover what I’ve done, I’m definitely dead.
But do you really think an unknown kid like you will survive?!
“Armament Haki’s defensive power is this strong?”
The corner of Shiranui Rei’s mouth twitched.
Because they were so close to each other, he could clearly see even through the dim lighting that after blocking the Vacuum Waves, Teach’s arm had only been left with faint white marks, as though someone had lightly scratched it with a fingernail.
“Zehahaha! Kid, how many times can you dodge?!”
Teach placed the wooden barrel he was holding on the floor beside him, his eyes flashing with even greater ferocity.
Now that he had put aside the negative emotions that had previously interfered with him, Teach’s Observation Haki had already seen through the young man’s strength.
Although the kid’s abilities were strange, his actual strength was far inferior to Teach’s.
Even though the environment prevented him from making too much noise, taking down this kid would still be incredibly easy!
“Hey, kid. You’re an Ability User too, aren’t you? How about joining my crew?”
Teach narrowed his eyes and actually extended an invitation at this moment.
In his eyes, although this kid wasn’t very strong, he was still young, and his strange abilities meant that he had potential.
After obtaining the Yami Yami no Mi, Teach would inevitably have to leave the Whitebeard Pirates and establish his own crew.
Naturally, he would need to recruit companions for his future Blackbeard Pirates.
However, although he verbally issued an invitation, his attacks didn’t hesitate in the slightest.
“You don’t exactly look like you’re sincerely inviting me.”
Shiranui Rei grinned, though a trace of cold sweat had appeared on his forehead under the pressure he was facing.
For some reason, he had been continuously dodging Teach’s attacks rather than choosing to block them.
But this single-minded defensive strategy was undoubtedly much more exhausting.
“Zehahaha! That’s because you haven’t accepted yet!”
Teach stepped forward again.
The shock and anger from earlier were already gone from his eyes as he calmly and effortlessly continued shrinking the space available for Rei to retreat.
Who would bother getting angry at a fish lying on a chopping block?
In his eyes, there were only two possible outcomes for his opponent.
Either Teach would hammer him into a corpse, or he would surrender to save his life and join Teach.
At this moment, Shiranui Rei seized an opportunity.
He pulled out the Fuma Shuriken that he had somehow already strapped to his back.
He gripped the circular ring at its center with both hands.
The Fuma Shuriken was essentially an enlarged and enhanced version of an ordinary shuriken.
All four blades gleamed coldly beneath the moonlight.
Although its larger and more conspicuous appearance meant that it lacked the advantage of being suitable for a sneak attack, its destructive power was far greater.
A strike to the neck could even result in immediate decapitation.
“What an ugly-looking weapon!”
Teach snorted coldly.
“Wind Release: Gale Palm!”
Shiranui Rei gently tossed the Fuma Shuriken into the air.
He then formed hand seals.
Accompanied by the howling of the wind, a fierce gale condensed around the airborne Fuma Shuriken, enveloping it completely.
Driven by the violent wind, the Fuma Shuriken’s rotation speed instantly became impossible to see clearly.
Whoosh!
The Fuma Shuriken tore through the air and shot straight toward Blackbeard.
The combination of Wind Release ninjutsu and the razor-sharp Fuma Shuriken was powerful enough to make even Teach turn his head.
But if that was all there was to it, it still wasn’t enough to stop him!
“Zehahaha! Kid, you haven’t awakened Observation Haki yet, have you?”
Teach merely tilted his head slightly.
The Fuma Shuriken, its trajectory already predicted, flew past his cheek by the narrowest margin.
It didn’t even manage to cut off a single strand of his black beard.
His patience had been completely exhausted.
As his gaze sharpened, a fierce aura as vast and deep as an abyss or ocean came crashing down upon Shiranui Rei.
“The game of cat and mouse ends here!!”