Chapter 19: Why won't you let me depart in peace?

"Ahhhhh!! A monster—"

The "Carpenter" finally snapped out of his trance, screaming as he scrambled backward, frantically ordering his remaining wooden puppets, "Stop him! Kill him! Quickly, kill him!"

A monster?

Are they talking about me?

This was the first time Shano had ever heard himself called that. He didn't think it sounded very pleasant. But, upon closer reflection, he realized that deep down in his subconscious, he actually quite enjoyed the title.

"Call me whatever you like!"

He grinned hideously and surged forward, throwing a barrage of punches that sent the approaching wooden puppets flying in every direction. The one that charged straight at him with a sword was clamped by the neck in the crook of his elbow; with a powerful thrust of his hips and a sharp knee strike, Shano tore it clean in two with his bare hands.

Wood splinters flew everywhere. Through the gaps in the debris, the Carpenter’s face grew increasingly terrified.

*Thwack!* Shano leaped up, vaulting off the stage and landing squarely in front of the main entrance, blocking the exit.

At this moment, the only ones left guarding the man were the town sheriff and that Major Tomt from the Marine branch.

"Get lost!"

Two more punches landed, and the pair went flying several meters, guns and all, before hitting the ground and falling unconscious. Shano had deliberately held back; these two had not yet been fully puppetized, and perhaps, once the Carpenter was dealt with, there was hope for them to return to being normal humans.

*Click.*

Shano reached out. With speed far beyond that of an ordinary human, the Carpenter found himself unable to dodge and was plucked up by the neck like a chick. The Carpenter struggled violently, but the boy’s grip was like an iron vice; he couldn't budge an inch.

"Cough... *cough*..." The Carpenter’s breathing grew ragged, and he choked out words through his teeth, "G-gonna suffocate... let go! Let go of me!"

Shano didn't loosen his grip, his eyes filled with disappointment.

"You really are weak, aren't you?"

"For a Devil Fruit user, I expected you to at least make things interesting. Instead, you're just a coward hiding behind others, all bluster and no backbone."

"Without your wooden puppets, you have no confidence left at all."

"With such weakness, how on earth did you manage to control the masters of the eight dojos?"

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Don't look down on me!" The Carpenter gritted his teeth. "I couldn't beat them head-on at first, but couldn't I just use a sneak attack? If it weren't for a freakish monster like you, no one on Shallow Cherry Island would be my match..."

"Boss Shano!"

Junichi stepped forward, not knowing when he had approached. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, his gaze bloodshot, clutching a sword he had picked up. "Please, give me a chance! Let me kill him myself!"

"Hold on a second."

Shano raised a hand to stop him, turning back to squint at the middle-aged man draped in a luxurious trench coat. "I still have a few things I don't understand that I need to clarify."

"Are you trying to humiliate me!" The Carpenter screamed in indignation. "Who wants to answer your questions! Just get it over with! Besides, I can barely breathe—how am I supposed to answer you if you don't let go!"

"See, that's one of the points of suspicion."

When Shano wasn't fighting, his cellular activity seemed to shift back from his muscles to his brain. He glanced at his right hand, which was still gripping the man tightly. "I've been choking you for so long—are you really unable to breathe?"

"..." The Carpenter froze. He looked down abruptly, only then realizing that his breathing remained smooth. The sensation of suffocation from moments ago felt like a phantom illusion.

How? Why? This was impossible.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but much of what you say and do lacks any logic."

Shano narrowed his eyes and continued, "Tell me, why did you suddenly come here and expose yourself, along with the identities of all ten puppets you control? What was the goal?"

"You've been obsessively making money, haven't you? You spent years carefully managing Shallow Cherry Island, finally holding it in your palm. Why the sudden self-destructive tendency today? Planning to run away and find somewhere else to rake in cash?"

That's right, why?

The Carpenter felt dazed, suddenly unable to fathom it himself. It felt as if he had experienced a similar sensation a long time ago.

Whenever he was about to figure something out, it was as if there was a membrane deep in his brain; as soon as his thoughts touched it, his mind would turn fuzzy and veer off course. The final actions he took would be completely contrary to his original plans, yet he would somehow convince himself that they were perfectly normal.

"No!" The Carpenter suddenly shouted. "I almost got tricked by you, kid! Since when did I expose my identity? Wasn't that scumbag Tree Sakuraba who begged for death and spilled everything himself!"

"But when you walked in, he hadn't yet revealed that the seven dojo masters had long since become puppets!" Shano’s voice suddenly rose in volume. "Didn't you bring the sheriff and that Marine Major in yourself? You could have controlled him the moment you walked in to interrupt his words! You had a thousand ways to make the public believe he was a fraud! Why didn't you do that?"

Why?

The Carpenter grew increasingly confused. Yes, why? There were plenty of ways to cover it up and continue happily earning his black money. Why did he suddenly decide to tear off the mask?

He suddenly recalled a faint, strange detail from the past. He had known all along that Tree Sakuraba was the most difficult of his puppets to control, occasionally showing his own opinions and thoughts. Yet, he had never considered fully puppetizing him, and had even kept him by his side to handle the most secret and important affairs.

"Here," Shano suddenly reached out with his other hand and grabbed the man's right arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Control me." Shano said coldly. "You've lost eight puppets; you can use those empty slots to recruit new ones, right? Use your ability and try to control me!"

"B-but, powerful people aren't that easy to control. You're even harder to control than Sakuraba was..." The Carpenter stammered, but before he could finish, Shano pulled Junichi over. "Then try it on him!"

"Eh? Boss Shano!"

Junichi had been listening, engrossed and finally regaining his composure to ponder the mysteries, when he was suddenly yanked into the Carpenter's grasp. He was stunned.

"..."

The Carpenter trembled as he reached out and grabbed Junichi’s arm, but quickly fell into a daze. Planting the puppet strings, controlling others... he understood the principles of the Devil Fruit, but... what was he supposed to do again?

"See? Simple control over these few puppets is the extent of your authority."

Shano pulled Junichi back with one hand, looking down at the luxuriously dressed middle-aged man. "Do you still think you're really the 'Carpenter' who can create puppets?"

As his voice fell, Shano suddenly slapped the man hard in the chest.

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

The Carpenter knew what that meant better than anyone.

Shano finally let go, allowing the middle-aged man to slide down limply and collapse onto the floor.

"I... I am not the Carpenter..."

His expression was vacant, unable to accept reality, his voice dry. "I... so I... was also just a puppet?"

...

"In other words, the real 'Carpenter' is someone else?"

Junichi felt his head throbbing, as if his mind were about to crash. "Then... then who could it be? And what grudge do they have against my father to target him like this?"

Shano looked at Junichi with pity and finally sighed.

"Whoever started this farce today is the Carpenter."

He suddenly threw a punch, shattering the middle-aged man's chest, then turned his gaze toward the corpse on the stage and spoke in a low voice:

"Am I right, Mr. Tree Sakuraba?"

No one answered.

The wall clock ticked second by second. In the dead silence where one could hear a pin drop, the stillness lasted for more than ten seconds before movement finally came from the stage.

*Click, click.*

An ear-piercing sound of grinding wood rang out abruptly. The corpse's limb joints suddenly bent backward at ninety-degree angles, rising up in an eerie posture that defied human anatomy, forcing the upper body to stand straight again.

Accompanying the dense clicking sounds, Sakuraba’s body remained with its back to them, but its head slowly rotated one hundred and eighty degrees, revealing that gaunt face—half-weeping, half-smiling, filled with sorrow.

Junichi froze in place.

His hands and feet turned icy. He felt an unprecedented chill rising from his spine to the top of his head.

"Why..."

The gaunt face finally spoke with sorrow. The voice from its throat sounded like a worn-out phonograph record, with human speech and the rattling of wood overlapping in a grotesque harmony. "Why, truly, why..."

"Why did you have to discover it? And why did you have to say it out loud?"

"Why... not let me give this 'Tree Sakuraba' identity a perfect curtain call, and leave in peace?"