Hearing Kure Fuki's words, Jaden wasn't surprised in the slightest.
He merely looked at the somewhat flustered Niko and let out a helpless sigh.
"Thanks for bringing him over. As for his intentions, I heard them a long time ago."
He tilted his head slightly.
"After all, you were hiding on a distant building, right? And you announced your purpose so loudly from that distance that even a dog could've heard it."
Jaden's tone was flat and unenthusiastic.
Kure Fuki froze for a moment.
Then she stuck out her tongue, grabbed Erina, and quickly moved away from Jaden, hiding off to the side.
Jaden shifted his gaze to the man standing opposite him.
"Come to think of it, it's kind of interesting."
"Even though I'm called the strongest creature on Earth, and even the Empire recognizes me as the world's strongest..."
He paused.
"No one's ever really tried to assassinate me. No direct attempts at murder."
"I expected it back when I first became famous. But up until now-"
He looked straight at Niko.
"You're the first one who came looking for death on your own."
"Not as smart as the others."
"But much braver."
"I'll grant you that honor."
Hearing this, Niko let out a dry laugh.
Then-
He suddenly exerted force through his toes and shot straight into the surrounding crowd.
His intention was simple.
Cause panic.
Use the chaos to either attack Jaden-
Or escape.
He rushed into the crowd, grabbed someone with one hand, and killed them cleanly.
He expected screaming.
Chaos.
Panic.
But instead-
The people around him didn't move.
They didn't scream.
They just watched him with blank expressions, as if they had seen this kind of thing countless times already.
As if it didn't matter.
"...Ah."
Niko's heart skipped.
Something was wrong.
He immediately pulled a handgun from his pocket and fired at someone standing close by.
The person dropped instantly.
Niko then fired two more shots into the air.
"Get away if you don't want to die!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
But-
The surroundings were silent.
Deathly silent.
The people stared at him, blood splattered across his body.
No one panicked.
No one screamed.
Not a single person reacted.
-This was wrong.
These people weren't scared.
He was.
What was wrong with them!?
Someone had died. Gunshots had been fired.
Why wasn't anyone afraid!?
Niko's mind began to blank out.
At first, Erina frowned when she saw an innocent person killed.
But then she noticed something strange.
The two people who had died turned into golden dust and dissipated.
Niko didn't notice at all.
And the expressions on the surrounding people were... unnatural.
She turned slightly and whispered to Kure Fuki.
"Fuki... what's going on?"
Kure Fuki shook her head repeatedly.
"I don't know either. But judging from Jaden's expression..."
"I'm afraid he's the one behind all of this."
Erina nodded and didn't ask any further questions.
They continued watching.
Jaden stepped out from the crowd and stopped in front of Niko.
"What exactly are you trying to do..."
"Oh."
He suddenly widened his eyes exaggeratedly.
"You're worried that our fight might accidentally hurt others, so you're killing a few people to clear the area first, right?"
"If that's the case, you should've said so earlier~"
He snapped his fingers casually.
Snap.
The sound echoed clearly.
Then-
The surrounding crowd began to fade.
One by one, the people vaporized like illusions dissolving into mist, turning into drifting clouds before disappearing entirely.
In an instant, the bustling street became empty.
Desolate.
Like a ghost town.
The lingering vapor reduced visibility, and under the glow of deserted shop lights, the fog-shrouded street ahead looked like it led straight into the underworld.
The scene alone was enough to make one's blood run cold.
Niko was utterly terrified.
He stared at everything in front of him, unable to believe his eyes.
In sheer panic, he raised the gun and fired wildly at Jaden.
He kept pulling the trigger even after the magazine ran dry.
But-
Nothing happened.
Jaden stood there unharmed.
The bullets seemed to vanish the moment they left the barrel.
Niko froze.
Then-
He felt something warm spilling from his mouth.
He instinctively raised his hand.
Blood.
His palm was stained red.
Only then did he realize-
Several bullet holes had appeared in his body at some unknown point.
His eyes widened.
"You... you used a gun!?"
Jaden slowly walked toward him.
Then he spread his hands.
"I used a gun?"
"The gun's clearly in your own hand."
"Compared to you, I should be the confused one."
He sighed.
"Honestly, I thought you were just stupid. Maybe brave."
"But I didn't expect someone who swore to kill me to be so scared that he'd shoot himself instead."
"I get it. When facing an overwhelmingly powerful existence, instinct tells you to lower your threat level so the opponent ignores you."
"But doing that after declaring you're going to kill me..."
"That's a little disgraceful."
Jaden stopped in front of Niko.
Niko collapsed backward and sat heavily on the ground.
The closer Jaden got, the more intense the terror became.
It wasn't imagination.
His senses screamed danger.
He had thought Jaden was just a person.
That all those titles-strongest creature, world's strongest-were exaggerations.
But now-
Facing him directly-
This pressure.
This abnormality.
The incomprehensible phenomena.
The sheer existence before him-
It shattered Niko's understanding of reality.
From the moment that finger snapped, it felt like he had entered another world.
A world where everything was wrong.
Bizarre.
Terrifying.
And yet-
From his seated position, Niko suddenly noticed a flashing signal light in the sky.
In that instant-
Hope ignited.
He remembered his real plan.
That's right.
He never planned to kill Jaden head-on.
His plan was simple.
Wait for a moment when Jaden and Erina were together.
Draw attention.
Then-
Have a bomber in the sky carpet-bomb the area.
High-powered.
Wide-range.
City-destroying.
Only that kind of scale could prevent Jaden from escaping.
And even if Jaden survived-
Erina wouldn't.
Her physique couldn't endure that speed.
It would be a forced choice.
Live-
Or abandon his lover.
This was Niko's plan.
He had brought many disciples, launched attacks in multiple areas, all to create chaos and allow fighter jets to fly overhead.
This moment-
Was the culmination.
Even in extreme fear, when Niko saw the signal flare, it reignited everything.
But-
Before hope could fully bloom-
Jaden raised a finger.
He didn't even look up.
Electric current flowed from his elbow, coursing into his finger, compressing into a small sphere of light.
Swoosh.
A blue beam shot into the sky.
The world flashed blue.
An explosion echoed from above.
The signal light vanished.
So did Niko's hope.
Jaden lowered his hand, as if nothing had happened.
He smiled and squatted in front of Niko, looking into his empty eyes.
"Using a bomber against me was a good idea."
"But it's not enough."
"Niko."
"How about this?"
"I'll send you to the Empire."
"They'll even let you drive the most advanced tank."
At this point, Niko could no longer even process words.
His eyes were vacant.
Then-
He began to giggle.
Drool slid from the corner of his mouth.
He had gone limp.
Seeing this, Jaden looked mildly disappointed.
"...That's an ugly way to end."
"You've completely killed my desire to kill you."
"Kure Fuki."
"Send him to Arkham."
Kure Fuki nodded, though a bit reluctantly.
Meanwhile, inside, Niko was secretly laughing.
He wasn't crazy.
He wasn't scared senseless.
He was acting.
No matter how strong you are, Jaden-
You can't read minds, right?
If you can't read minds, there's always a chance to deceive you.
Lock me up.
Forget about me.
I'll escape sooner or later.
No prison can hold me forever.
As for revenge-
He had no such courage left.
He would change his identity.
Disappear.
Never provoke this monster again.
What Niko didn't know-
Was one simple thing.
-Jaden possessed the highest level of Observation Haki.
Did he really not read minds?