One Piece: From Picking Up Red Hair's Broken Arm

Chapter 19 Why won’t you let me leave in peace?
“Ahhhhh!! Monster—”

The Carpenter finally woke up and screamed as he retreated, commanding the remaining puppets, "Stop it! Kill it! Kill it now!"

monster?

Are you talking about me?

It was the first time that Xia Nuo heard someone call him that.

He didn't think it sounded very nice.

But when I think about it carefully, I seem to enjoy this title subconsciously.

"Whatever you want to call me!"

He approached with a sinister grin, and threw out a few punches, knocking away several puppets that came to stop him.

The one who was stabbing with a sword from the front was clamped by his elbow on the neck, and he used the strength of his waist and abdomen to push hard with his knees, and tore it into two pieces with his hands.

Sawdust flew everywhere, and in the gap between his sight, the "carpenter's" face became more and more terrified.

Bang! Xia Nuo leaped up and jumped high from the ring, landing right in front of the gate, blocking the opponent's retreat.

At this moment, the only ones guarding the other party were the town sheriff and Major Tomt from the naval branch.

"Go away!"

Two more punches were thrown, and the two men, along with their guns, flew several meters away with a muffled groan, fell to the ground and fainted.

This was the result of Shanuo deliberately holding back. These two guys had not been completely turned into puppets. Perhaps after getting rid of the carpenter, there was still hope of recovering to normal human beings.

Click.

Shanuo stretched out his hand, and his speed far exceeded that of an ordinary human, leaving the "Carpenter" with no way to escape. He was grabbed by the neck and lifted up like a chicken.

The carpenter struggled hard, but the boy's jaws were like iron pliers and he couldn't move at all.

"Cough... cough cough..." The "Carpenter"'s breathing became increasingly rapid, and he spoke with difficulty through his teeth, "I'm suffocating to death, let go! Let me go!"

Xia Nuo did not let go, his eyes filled with disappointment.

"You're really weak."

"You're a Devil Fruit user after all. I thought you could let me have some fun, but you turned out to be a coward hiding behind the scenes."

"Without the puppet, there is no confidence."

"How on earth did you, a weak person like you, manage to control the eight gym leaders?"

"What nonsense are you asking? Stop looking down on me!" The "Carpenter" gritted his teeth. "I couldn't defeat him head-on at first, but can't I sneak attack him? If it weren't for an inhuman monster like you, no one on Asakura Island would be my match..."

"Boss Shanuo!"

Junyi walked forward without knowing when. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, his eyes were red, and he held a picked-up sword tightly in his hand. "Please, give me a chance! Let me kill him with my own hands!"

"Don't rush yet."

Xia Nuo reached out to stop him, then turned around and squinted his eyes to look up and down at the middle-aged man in the luxurious windbreaker, "There are still a few things I don't understand, I must ask for clarification."

"Are you humiliating me?"

The carpenter yelled in shame and anger, "Who wants to answer your questions? I'll just kill you! Besides, I can hardly breathe. How can I answer your questions if you don't let me go?"

"You see, this is one of the doubts."

When Shanuo wasn't hitting anyone, it was as if the cell activity was returning from the muscles to the brain.

He glanced at his right hand, which was still tightly clenched. "I've been pinching you for so long, are you really suffocating?"

"..." The "Carpenter" was stunned. He lowered his head suddenly and realized that his breathing was still smooth. The feeling of suffocation at the beginning seemed like an illusion.

This, why is this?
how can that be possible?
"I don't know if you've noticed that a lot of what you say and your actions don't make any sense."

Xia Nuo narrowed his eyes and continued, "Let me ask you, why did you suddenly come here and expose yourself and the ten puppets you controlled? What was your purpose?"

"Haven't you been working tirelessly to make money? You've been working hard on Asakura Island for years, finally getting your hands on it. Why are you suddenly self-destructive today? Are you planning to run away and make money somewhere else?"

Yes, how could this happen?
The carpenter was in a daze and suddenly couldn't figure it out.

He seemed to have had a similar feeling a long time ago.

——When I’m about to figure something out, it’s like there’s a membrane deep in my brain, and when my thoughts collide with it, I become confused and disoriented.

What I ended up doing was completely contrary to my original plan, but I felt it was normal.

"No!" The "Carpenter" suddenly shouted, "I was almost fooled by you, kid. How could I reveal my identity? Wasn't it that bastard Sakuraba Itsuki who asked for death to reveal all these things?"

"But when you came in, he hadn't revealed that the seven major gym leaders had already become puppets!"

Xia Nuo suddenly raised his voice. "Didn't you bring the sheriff and that lieutenant commander in here yourself? You could have controlled him and interrupted him the moment you came in! And you had a thousand ways to make the public believe he was a fake! Why didn't you do that?"

why?
The Carpenter became more and more confused. Yes, why?

There are obviously plenty of ways to cover up the past and continue to happily make their own dirty money, so why are they suddenly going to fall out?
He suddenly vaguely remembered that there was something even stranger in his past.

I know that among all the puppets, Sakuraba Itsuki is the most difficult to control, and he will have his own opinions and ideas from time to time.

But he never thought of turning the other person into a complete puppet, and even kept him by his side, doing the most secret and important things.

"Come." Xia Nuo suddenly stretched out his other hand and grabbed the other's right hand.

"What is this for?"

"Control me." Xia Nuo said coldly, "Now that eight of your puppets have died, you can use your free fingers to recruit new puppets, right? Use your ability to control me and try!"

"But, but powerful people are not so easy to control. You are even more difficult to control than Sakuraba Tree back then..."

The carpenter stammered, but before he could finish, Shanuo suddenly pulled Junyi over and said, "Then you try it with him!"

"Eh? Boss Shanuo!"

Junyi, who had been listening attentively, regained his composure and began to ponder the doubts. At this moment, he was suddenly pulled into the carpenter's hand and was dumbfounded.

"..."

The "carpenter" reached out his hand tremblingly and grabbed Junyi's arm, but soon froze in confusion.

Planting puppet strings, controlling others... He understood the principles of the Devil Fruit, but how should he do it?

"You see, simply controlling these puppets is the maximum authority you have."

Xia Nuo picked up Junyi and took him back with one hand. He looked at the middle-aged man dressed in luxurious clothes and asked, "Do you still think you are really a "carpenter" who can make puppets?"

As soon as the words fell, Xia Nuo suddenly slapped the other person's chest hard.

Bang! The sound was crisp and short, like hitting a hollow bamboo tube.

The Carpenter knows better than anyone what this means.

Xia Nuo finally let go of his hand, letting the middle-aged man slide down and sit dejectedly on the ground.

"I, I'm not a carpenter..."

He looked dazed, unable to accept the reality, and said in a dry voice, "I, it turns out I am just a puppet?"

……

"So, the real 'carpenter' is actually someone else?"

Junyi felt his brain swelling and about to shut down. "Then... who else could it be? What grudge does he have against my father that he wants to attack him?"

Shanuo looked at Junyi with pity and finally sighed:
"Whoever started this farce today is the carpenter."

He suddenly punched out, smashing the middle-aged man's chest. Then he turned to look at the corpse on the ring and spoke in a low voice:
"Am I right, Mr. Sakuraba Itsuki?"

No one answered.

The wall clock ticked away minute by minute, and the silence, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, lasted for more than ten seconds before movement finally came from the ring.

Click, click.

A teeth-grinding sound of wood rubbing against each other suddenly rang out, and the joints of the corpse's limbs suddenly bent back to 90 degrees, and in a strange and ergonomic posture, the upper body stood up again.

Accompanied by frequent clicking sounds, Sakuraba Tree's body was still facing away from them, but his head slowly turned 180 degrees, revealing his skinny face that looked like he was crying but not crying, and was full of sorrow.

Junyi froze in place.

His hands and feet were cold, and he felt an unprecedented chill running from his spine to the top of his head.

"Why……"

The withered face finally spoke sadly. The voice that emanated from his throat sounded like an old phonograph cassette, the human voice and the trembling sound of the wood strangely overlapping, "Why on earth is this happening..."

"Why did you have to find out? And why did you have to tell it?"

"Why...why don't you let me give this Sakuraba Tree identity a perfect farewell and leave in peace?"

(End of this chapter)