The Man from the Moon - A One Piece SI fic
- Thread starter TheLandMaster45
- Start date
The OP himself stated Ryoma doesn't know about Onigashima, so basically he won't know about King's existence either at the moment.
Ryoma would be in for a surprise when he meets a fellow Lunarian in person.
- Location
- Japan
I asked because the last chapter Ryoma read got King's first appearance. There's a low low chance of him remembering King.
Also, yeah. Ryoma would be surprised to see another like him. Also, if he didn't know king was from Kaido, and King himself doesn't mentioned it, what are the chances of him following King unknowingly to Wano?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
While King was shown during Wano before chapter 925, it was just a one page thing introducing the other Lead Performers, so not something VITAL.
... Then again, I just realized I had Ryoma recite Oden's story, which only came AFTER chapter 925... AND I mixed up the chapter numbers, Page One showed up on 929, not 925...
Goddammit...
Might have to do a mulligan on that, then
Possibly, King would want Ryoma follow him as fellow Lunarians got to stick together and also ensure Big Mom ain't taking him as she wants a Lunarian in her collection.
Not part of her family to marry one of her daughters, but a collection filled with rare species put and nailed inside a giant book.
Or King would respect Ryoma's choice if he wants to remain independent, already strong enough to handle himself and carve out his own path in the world.
To show the world why the Lunarians are not to be caged by the World Government and why they used to be the Kingdom of Gods for a reason with their power.
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To be fair, I wanted to wait for more information before I commented about that. I also wanted to add more sketches and drawings of Ryoma to my sketchbook. Because I now have ideas.(The proposed outfit/armor reminds me of Shaka)
Oh I know about that. King is one of my favorite characters because of this. (One of my favorite quotes too) Makes me think of how he probably views fights always being a life or death thing or at least "A threat, is still a threat, unless it's dead" type mindset. Very realistic for someone with his background. I was just focusing on that King mainly uses his fire as an extension of his weapons, body, sword, or otherwise, but never just plain fire. It is possible that it's failed him before and so he uses it in conjunction with something else; that way he will still impact damage regardless if his flames go out.
Big News Morgan is gonna spin it that way to make the news sensational and embellish it just like in canon where he made Luffy being the mastermind (not Bege, the real perpetrato) of an assassination attempt on Big Mom and successfully got away with it from Whole Cake Island in the News Coo for example.
What did you mean by dawn esque clothes? @TheLandMaster
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You only needed to ask once, my guy, this ain't Discord.
Canopy of Dawn refers to Bondrewd's clothes
To all you plebes who didn't know that, go read Made in Abyss
God-tier manga
Patience, don't rush the author and let him cook.
Chapter 3
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Couple of things to cover before the chapter proper:
First, just as I did with Titanomachy, I decided to put out the first half of this chapter as is, and later reupload it with both halves together. This is so people have SOME content to enjoy, and because frankly, I've taken too long to post it.
Secondly, I have already started the rewrite of Discarded Blade, Renewed Purpose. Working title so far is Among the Stars, Drift with Purpose, though I'll probably make that the definitive title. That one will take a little while longer to publish, since I had to play through more of Duviri to find out a couple of things (who knew maxing Opportunity would yield such a FASCINATING little tidbit of lore?~ c: ), but I do intend to get it done, hopefully enough, until the end of may.
Finally, since COVID took away a LOT of my memory, a little reminder for readers and for myself: Ryoma arrived on the One Piece world 26 years before the start of canon, already at six years old.
This means that he, at the time of this chapter, is 17 years old, spent eleven years in Mary Geoise, and by the time canon starts and Luffy sets out, he'll be 32 years old, with the timeskip thus making him around the range of 34-35 years old, if we consider the pre-timeskip events to take one year total.
Ergo, we have 15 years to fuck around with canon. And believe me… canon's getting twisted around c:
For now… lessgo.
An oni sitting inside his demonic palace stopped his guzzling of sake, and instead turned a curious eye out the window of the skull he had claimed as his home.
An old, punished elder momentarily halted in his steps, his sunken eyes shifting but unseen beneath the dark pits they had long receded into as old wounds flared to life.
Beneath the waves of the Calm Belt, creatures of fathomless strength and age stirred from their almost apathetic lives, not the least of which was the living landmass that had for so long grown placid to the world around her, and whose size dwarfed even the kings she could call children compared to her age.
And in a single movement unknowingly synchronized across the entire globe, every living reptile across the entire globe turned their heads towards the same direction, their unblinking gaze peering intently at what they knew had come to pass.
That, for the first time in thousands of years, the god of serpents had once more been reborn onto this world.
In a manor further away from the cataclysmic explosion caused by the newly made Zoan's transformation, a kneeling figure felt his cell shake, dust and a few stones coming loose from the ceiling and raining down upon his body, though no harm was inflicted upon him by this. Blearily, the figure opened his dull-red-colored eyes, and took in the sight of the guards frantically running past his cell door.
So, with a muted groan of strain, the figure rose to his feet, and lightly pulled on the chains binding his wrists in place. Just as another knight stopped to check on the inside of the cell, the figure's silhouette was lit up as electricity began coursing all over his body, while two large ghostly gauntlets formed above his body.
And before anyone could react, the soon-to-be-former-prisoner let the lightning he had held for so long erupt freely.
Being tossed around by a blast with enough impact force to shatter the walls of the mansion into sawdust and throw everyone around it like ragdolls, all without being unable to feel the impact itself or any of the immediate and aftereffects, was not an experience I ever saw myself going through in my life.
Then again, I had never expected to either be sent to the world where one of my favorite manga took place in, or that I'd end up with a front-row seat for the atrocities and barbarisms a human could sink to for over ten years, so my perspective was very much skewed.
Besides, if you were to ask me… I didn't remember much of those brief moments of chaos. As soon as the glow started, and my feet left the floor, all I could keep in mind was focusing on the flames on my back, keeping them alight and myself invulnerable as I tried to weather the storm. And to make extra sure I was one hundred percent focused on that, I even closed my eyes and let myself be taken by the wind, leaving me dead to the world until finally, I chanced opening my eyes to see if everything had finally ended.
But instead of the open world I expected from such a destruction, I was met with darkness kept at bay solely by the flames still burning on my back, and the sight of rough stone and wood piled atop me.
If I had the time to panic, I would have. But right now, I had people I needed to save, a hell to escape… and answers to get over whatever the hell was happening. Thankfully, even with the starvation diet the World Nobles ran us all through, my own biology kept me healthy enough that I had plenty of strength to spare, injured arm be damned, so with enough bracing I slowly managed to heave the stone and wood that kept me pinned down, allowing beams of blood-orange light to peek through the cracks bit by bit until finally, with one last heave, I managed to toss aside the last giant piece of concrete trapping me.
What awaited me… was hell. Not the metaphorical and emotional one I had gone through as a slave, however, but instead a quite literal one: ruins both large and small that dotted the landscape with bodies both living and dead scattered about, huge burning gouts of flame that seemed to rise all the way to the skies, and trenches wide and deep enough that they seemed as if the ground had been carved up by the devil himself with a gigantic finger… were it not for the actual culprit being in clear view, overtaking the horizon with their— with her body as a gigantic golden wall, glistening under the lights of the downright biblical destruction she was bringing to Mary Geoise, and dozens of serpentine heads that roared and shrieked as they continued to carve through the holy city and its land with abandon.
Even if, in a small corner of my mind, I knew Hancock was doing little more than lash out in anger and revenge, all of it caused by her sudden Zoan transformation and the impact of all the trauma she had gone through coming out at once… I couldn't help but be frozen. Frozen in awe, shock and fear. A primal kind of fear, something that grew from the very bottom of my heart, filled every inch of my body, and threatened to extinguish these fires that I had grown so trusting of with nothing but a single, effortless breath.
I didn't know what Hancock had become, but deep down, even if I couldn't give words to describe it… I knew, instinctively, what she was capable of.
The fact she was a good four or five kilometers away (or, rather, that I had been blown away that distance) didn't diminish that dread at all.
Still, there was still one feeling that anchored me to reality enough that I managed to, at last, get my legs moving once more: the fact that, right now, this was it. It might have been a year earlier than intended, but the slave breakout could… no, it would happen. One way or another, me and every other god-forsaken soul in this hellhole would escape.
But first, I had to find the others. Fisher Tiger, Aladine, Sonia, Mari, Tesoro, Stella, Koala, Hancock… I'd get them all out.
No one was getting left behind.
So, doing my best to ignore the titanic, multi-headed serpent raging on the horizon, I began running all over the wrecked landscape, checking every body that I came across and shoving rubble out of the way. By some miracle, many of the slaves I found were still alive, though plenty of them had injuries, some worse than others… and just as many were unmoving.
Some weren't even intact…
I'd have time to mourn later, though.
I did notice that there were no guards around us, whether dead or living ones, but frankly that would only serve to our advantage. Even if, technically speaking, we did outnumber them easily, said numbers were composed mostly of starving and abused slaves. Sure, desperation and adrenaline could help bridge some of that gap, but that would mean more deaths, and these people deserved to make it out of here.
And speaking of said people, amidst my searching, I finally found two of my priority targets underneath a huge pile of boulders and debris: Tesoro and Stella, the former covering the latter with his body to keep the debris away from her body, though judging by the number of bruises and cuts covering his body, Tesoro wouldn't have lasted much longer.
"Easy, I got you," I called out to them just as I pushed the last piece of debris away, Tesoro collapsing in a heap the second the rock was no longer atop of him. "Can you move?"
"Y-Yes, I can…" gasped out Stella in return, the woman shakily lifting herself from the ground to sit on her legs, only to quickly begin to worry over her erstwhile lover. "Oh, Tesoro…"
The man, in turn, weakly rolled over and smiled tiredly at her, shakily reaching out to touch her cheek. "S-Stella… I'm… so glad you're safe…"
"How are your injuries, Tesoro?"
"N-Not… that bad… I'm just… exhausted…"
That wasn't true, even I could tell that much. Tesoro might have become a massive threat later with his Devil Fruit, but here and now, he was just a normal human. Granted, a human native to the Grand Line, but still baseline at best, and Stella had been a prisoner just as long. These two wouldn't be any help in a fight… and we had plenty of it to go through.
"Oi, you three!"
That's when, miracle of all miracles, another voice called out to us, and which a quick turn of my head showed me was the best person I could have asked for the situation at hand: Aladine, moving as fast as he could on land with his tail, holding a (most likely pilfered) knight spear in one hand, and a dangling ring of keys in the other. "How hurt are you?" asked the merman promptly, his eyes flitting between the three of us as he took in whatever injuries he could see, a grimace quickly making itself at home in his face as he eyed the still bleeding hole of where the harpoon had punched through my arm, but I made sure to turn the wound away from him.
"I'm fine, but he's hurt badly," I replied quickly, motioning to the prone Tesoro. In a flash, Aladine was by his side, moving keys as he searched for the correct one to remove the collar. "What about the others?"
"About as bad as I expected, though most are mobile…" With the right key found, Aladine quickly unlocked the collar around Tesoro's neck, and let the explosive hunk of metal drop uselessly to the floor, before passing me the key ring. "Here, undo yours and hers, I need to check up on him."
So, with ease I could believe was practiced and routine to him, Aladine checked over Tesoro's body, his hands gently prodding and moving Tesoro's limbs as far as the man could take it, which as it turned out wasn't much, but the fact they could be moved at all was a blessing. "Hmm, his wounds aren't light, but they're not life-threatening, at least… he won't be able to walk, however."
"Can you carry him?" I asked as I finally managed to remove Stella's collar, before handing her the keys to open mine. As I expected, though, Aladine shook his head, the merman's expression dead serious as he turned to stare at the growing mob of slaves, just as my collar came free from my neck and dropped uselessly to the ground.
"Not if I want to help in the frontlines. We'll need every fighter we can get to escape."
"… I'll do it, then."
To my shock, however, and before I could offer myself or try and find a solution, Stella stepped forward with an utterly resolute look on her face, even as her legs faintly trembled. "I'll carry him out of here."
And it seemed it wasn't just me and Aladine who were surprised. In a supreme show of effort, Tesoro pushed his torso up with his elbows, and gave his future lover a pole-axed look of shock, pushing through the pain and strain of keeping himself in that position. "S-Stella… what are you—"
But the blonde did not let him finish, instead cutting him off with a raised hand and a shake of her head. "Tesoro… all this time, you've fought to keep me safe. Even all those years ago, I know how hard you struggled to buy my freedom." And with a strained, but radiant smile, Stella crouched down and caressed Tesoro's cheek with one hand. "So please, just this once, let me be the one to carry your burdens. Let me be the one who'll save you."
And in the face of that, all Tesoro could bring himself to do… was cry. Cry, and smile weakly as tears of pure joy streamed down his face, before slowly raising one hand to cover Stella's own. "Oh, Stella…"
As the two lovers had their moment, I pulled Aladine aside, and gave the merman the most serious look I could, one hand resting on his shoulder. "We need to find Tiger. He can rally everyone and get an escape going."
The merman, in return, gave me a firm nod, his grip on his stolen spear growing tighter as he stared at the now-gathering slaves. "Agreed. Are you going to look for him?"
"No… I got someone else to take care of."
At first, Aladine was confused by my statement. But when he caught me staring at the gigantic serpent tearing the horizon apart, he instead went completely bug-eyed, shock quickly overtaking his emotions. "Are you out of your mind?!" he cried out, motioning to the devastation surrounding us. "Look at what she's done already! You wouldn't survive a second up close, especially wounded like that!"
"You're wrong," I replied curtly, and my cutoff was so abrupt, Aladine almost stumbled with his words. "I can survive. In fact, out of all of us, I'm the only one who can survive this." Just as I finished that sentence, a thought flashed in my head, of three young girls huddled close to one another and me inside a dark, dreary cell, and my hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. "And… there's still people I need to save back there."
Aladine, however, did not reply to my declaration. Instead, the merman merely stared with that same hardened gaze, until finally he huffed out a sigh, then gave a resolute nod, before moving over to help Stella place Tesoro on her back. Right as they did so, a string of explosions went off not far from us, around where I knew the guard house and armory for them was located, from all the times I had carried the Nobles around in their palanquins. "That has to be Tiger…" muttered Aladine with a grin, while Stella and Tesoro merely stared at the nascent plumes of smoke and flame. Seeing that his intended target had been found, the merman turned back one last time to me, before promptly taking off towards Tiger's likely location, Stella and the other slaves following close behind.
And thus, I was left alone once more, with nothing but the sounds of Hancock's rampage and the resulting destruction echoing all around to keep me company.
Another flash of my time with the Boa sisters came to mind, and that was enough to finally get my legs moving.
That didn't mean it was easy to get there, however. Five kilometers was still five kilometers, and though I couldn't suffer fatigue with this body, traversing the terrain while earthquakes constantly made everything constantly shake and tremble was still a struggle, one that once more made me curse the fact I still couldn't properly use my wings to fly up to Hancock. At least the wound on my arm wasn't keeping me down, and the bleeding had started to slow, probably because of my metabolism or something.
So, onwards I went, dodging obstacles and ignoring the dead bodies I came across as best as possible (though a sick sense of satisfaction went through my head when I started coming across the few World Noble corpses I could spot), readying myself for whatever could end up coming my way.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
Which, admittedly, still did not mean much when I was blindsided by the massive electrical discharge that happened to my right, large and powerful enough that for a second, I actually wondered if Eneru was here, only to remember that was blatantly impossible.
And as much as I wanted to ignore it, if someone or something was causing a problem, it would be much better if I did something about it before I reached Hancock, regardless of how badly I wanted to go looking for her sisters. If the thing was an enemy, and I was caught with my back turned at the wrong moment, then we'd ALL pay the price for my negligence.
What I found waiting for me at ground zero, however, was most definitely not a potential enemy.
Instead, I saw a group of knights desperately trying to wrestle down a lone slave, flinging chains, ropes and hooks to try and bring him down to the ground, while the slave pulled and struggled against the bindings, flinging knights around like ragdolls while lightning coursed all over his body, and two huge ghostly gauntlets punched away with abandon at the surrounding enemies.
The slave had a… curious appearance. His hair was a long, wild pale blue mane, and his arms were covered in an intricate pattern of tattoos that ran from his shoulders to his hands, something that contrasted heavily with the heavy but ragged shirt and pants he still wore, of much better make than any of the clothes we had for ourselves. All in all, he looked like no one I remembered from One Piece, but right then, that didn't matter one bit. He was fighting the World Nobles' knights, he needed help, and I was gonna give it.
Right as I made to move towards him, however, one more detail became apparent to me: there was a tiny figure curled up at the slave's feet, unconscious and covered in scrapes.
The moment I saw Koala, my entire world went RED. I didn't even think, I just acted, immediately changing my sprint towards one of the knights, the flames on my back flowing into me and towards my arm, and making it slowly begin to glow orange and white.
Here's the thing about my fire: as long as it's burning, I'm downright invincible, but almost all my feelings are cut off. I can still hear and see, but smell, touch and taste become downright muted. It's like existing in a sensory deprivation tank, walking through the world with barely any way to feel anything.
But when my fire was gone, the opposite was true.
All my senses worked in absolute overdrive, assaulted with information it didn't have to process before. Every inch of my skin could feel the air, dust and heat a hundred-fold, sounds blared dozens of times louder to my ears, smells became overpowering no matter how minute they were, I could see further and clearer than ever before… and pain became acute, flaring my nerves like they were struck with hot iron.
But chief of all, the entire world would slow down to a crawl, whereas my speed would skyrocket.
I found that out by accident, while I was sitting inside my cell trying to practice with manipulating my fire. One time, I accidentally melted a part of the wall off, and in my panic, I shot to my feet and stupidly made to run towards it to try and do something about it. Instead, I blitzed through the entire cell and through the half-wrecked wall in the blink of an eye, and only stopped when I went through the wall from the cell neighboring mine.
It was an unreal speed, and I had yet to try and use it in a fight. But right now, consequences be damned, I would put it to use.
So, in a burst of speed that either matched or eclipsed a mastered Shave, I leapt right up to one of the knights, my hand already reaching for his head as the heat's glow grew even brighter.
"Wha—"
"DIE!"
I didn't have an attack name. I didn't care for that. All I wanted was to hit these people, hurt them, make them pay for the eleven YEARS that I had suffered under them and the Nobles, that I had to watch people suffer and die for the amusement of self-important scum. My hand wrapped all around the knight's helmet, and before he could even blink, I let the flames in my arm flow free.
A stream of fire shot out from my hand and enveloped the knight's head, illuminating the small battlefield with its fiery glow as the man's helmet flash-melted from the sheer heat, and his body spasmed in his few remaining living moments, his weapon and the chain he had been holding falling uselessly to the floor, while his comrades stood and watched in shock, and the unknown man stared in surprise. I don't know how long I kept up the fire, but by the time I pulled my hand back, nothing remained of the knight's head but smoke and ash, his body collapsing forward in a heap as the smell of carbonized flesh wafted from the stump.
At first, no one managed to quite react to my entrance. But soon, the shock wore off, and the knights began to move once more to try and attack me and their previous target. But against a beyond-human opponent and a clearly skilled fighter, and without the help of all the restraints they had on us until then? It was a losing battle from the start.
The long-haired man wasted no time in stepping forward and slamming the hovering gauntlets against two knights who made the mistake of getting close. Their insensate bodies were left buried in craters on the ground, their armors cracked and fractured and blood shooting out of their mouths. Another knight, who seemed to have a few more brain cells, tried to shoot down the man with his rifle, but to his utter shock, rather than striking flesh, the bullet instead ricocheted off a number of small translucent circles that appeared out of thin air, until it finally was bounced back towards the knight himself, who barely had time to start dodging before the projectile flew right between his helmet's view slit and pierced through his skull, dropping the knight with nary a scream of pain.
As the corpse fell, the man crossed his arms in front of his torso, an action that made the gauntlets retreat close to his body once more and hover over his shoulders. Suddenly, lightning began coursing over the man's arms, something that was mimicked by the ghostly limbs above, and a translucent dome covered both him and Koala…
"Grande! Relámpago Salvaje!"
Before a veritable storm of lightning erupted from the dome, shooting out indiscriminately and striking any knight unfortunate enough to be within its radius. The warriors spasmed and convulsed as their bodies were assaulted by hundreds of thousands of joules, the smell of cooked meat slowly wafting into the air, until finally the attack subsided, with both the lightning bolts and barrier disappearing, leaving the man free to dash forward and once more begin to pummel the knights with both his own hands and the gigantic gauntlets flanking him.
As for me, I allowed my flames to remain away from my back and focused instead on both my arms, leaving me free to dash amidst the knights at speeds they couldn't hope to match or perceive, striking them with impunity with my superheated fists. And with my senses overclocked, I felt every second of metal and bone crumpling under my blows, the smell of cooked flesh almost driving me crazy as their insanely loud shouts of pain rumbled against my ears.
But still, I didn't let that stop me, as I kept jumping from one knight to the other and I continued to wail on them as much as I could. There was no technique or finesse to my blows, I didn't have any training, nor did I have time to do any in captivity, even when I was forced into the gladiatorial fights. Instead, I simply punched and kicked like a madman, lashing out with blows that would definitely have been useless against any serious fighter, but that these knights could do nothing against but sit there and take them until they dropped, dead or dying. More than once, the control over my flames slipped, but rather than shoot out fire, my punches instead exploded against the knights' bodies, sending them charred and flying with their armors falling to pieces.
In all, the "fight", if you could even call it that, lasted barely four minutes. And by the end of it, me and the man were left standing and panting for breath, while the knights laid scattered around us, broken, dead or dying, with their weapons uselessly lying next to them in various states of destruction. Only when I made sure that no more guards were trying to attack us did I let my flames return to my back, dulling my senses once more and leaving me free to focus solely on the only other person still conscious amidst the carnage.
With confident strides, the other man walked towards me, Koala now safely held in his arms, until he stood at arm's length from me and looked up to my face. "Thanks for the help, friend," he said with a friendly smile, offering me a hand which, after a moment of hesitation, I took hold of and shook once.
"You're welcome," I replied, only to quickly turn my attention towards Koala, and feeling relief flood me when I saw her chest rising softly with every breath she took. I'd have to deal with that later, however. "Who are you?"
"Name's Adio, Adio Suerte. And you?"
"Ryoma."
"Glad to meet ya, then! Still, kind of strange you're running back in rather than away. Any reason you're doing that?"
I turned towards the snake still rampaging across the land, and Adio followed my line of sight, giving a quick hum of understanding as he took in the sight of the giant snake. "I see… is that someone you know?" asked the man, and when I nodded, he gave another hum in return. "It may be dangerous, even for a Lunarian. You know that, no?"
"I don't have a choice," I replied, refocusing my attention on him. "It's not only her I need to save, there's other people waiting for me." Just then, I realized the opportunity at hand, and I decided to take a blind shot. "Have you seen two slaves nearby? Two women, young, with green hair and orange hair, or snakes with that color?"
It was admittedly a non-sequitur, but thankfully Adio rolled with my question well enough, cupping his chin with one hand as he thought. Sadly, however, his response to my question was a shake of his head, even as he adjusted his grip on Koala. "No, can't say that I did. I got away from my cell and just tried to get to the armory to arm up. Only reason I stopped was because I saw her being manhandled by the knights.
"Alright… do you know where the armory is?"
"Of course."
"I'll go with you, then. If we can grab some more weapons we—"
"Tempest Kick."
A blade of wind bigger than either of us hit me full force on the back, toppling me before I even realized what was going on. A second blade passed over my prone body and slammed directly onto Adio, who barely had time to raise his free arm to summon a gauntlet into a makeshift guard to block the attack, pushing him a solid foot back away from me. The second I hit the ground, I pushed my body to the side and rolled…
BOOM!
Just in time to dodge the human missile that tried to slam against me, the attack kicking up a large dust cloud and cracking the ground even more. Quickly, I shot to my feet and took a sorry excuse of a ready position, hands raised to defend myself…
"It seems our information was correct."
Only to instead have my panic skyrocket as the dust cleared, and I caught sight of the figure clad in a pristine white suit staring at me through his mask, one hand buried thoroughly into the ground. "There indeed was a Lunarian amongst the slaves," continued the CP0 agent as he effortlessly pulled his jet-black hand free and rose to his full height. "And the Wanderer has escaped as well… No matter."
If I was aware of how absolutely shit out chances of winning were beforehand, it only became worse once five more agents landed next to the first one, all of them standing at the ready. It took all of my self-control to keep my flames wrestled and active, and even then I couldn't keep the tremor in my hands and legs away as I stared down the six deadliest people in this entire god-forsaken country, who were here seemingly just to bring me and Adio back in chains.
"Aegis Zero… shouldn't you be safe-keeping the World Nobles?" asked my erstwhile ally with a scowl, the apparent wanderer shifting his stance ever so slightly so that he was covering Koala's body with his own.
"Our mission does not concern you, prisoner. All you have to do is obey orders," answered another Cipher Pol, the man calmly withdrawing a pistol from within his coat. "And your orders are to surrender, and submit to punishment, as you deserve."
I barely had time to raise my arms before the gun was aimed at me and fired, the bullet smashing against my forearm with a loud CRACK. The dull grey seastone bullet fell to the floor, thankfully without leaving any wounds, but leaving me unable to react to the two Finger Pistols to my chest that two agents slid under my guard, the blows lifting off my feet and throwing me back with all the force of a cannonball, just in time for a third agent to Shave right over my flying form and launch a Tempest Kick that punched me into the ground. The remaining two agents, meanwhile, chose to move against Adio, their limbs blurring into indistinct masses as they threw attack after attack against the man, who only barely managed to block the attacks with his summoned gauntlet, though it was a stop-gap measure at best, considering all the nicks and gashes that the agents slowly but surely began to leave on his body.
I, however, did not have time to worry about that. The moment I was buried by the agent's attack, he flew down with a kick of Moonwalk, one hand once more outstretched in a Finger Pistol, this time aimed squarely at my eye. Before the attack hit, I jerked my head to the side, just in time for the digit to bury itself onto the soil instead of my eye, leaving the agent hanging in the air for the briefest of moments. In that split second, I reached up to try and grab his head or neck, only for him to instead kick off my body and disappear back to the surface, one last Tempest Kick being sent towards me and breaking against my torso as uselessly as the others. It still served its likely intended purpose, that being keeping me pinned down, but thankfully I still had strength in my limbs to pull myself free from the soil and jump up to the edge of the crater I'd been left in, grasping the edge with both hands before hoisting myself back to the surface.
The second I was out, I shot to my feet and scanned my surroundings for Adio. Just as I caught sight of the man, however, two CP0 agents blurred into existence right in front of me, their arms reared back and poised to strike.
And in that moment, out of pure desperation, I did the stupidest thing I could think of: I suppressed my flames.
The second I did so, the world once more slowed to a veritable crawl, only this time my opponents were still moving, and at something worryingly close to "normal" speeds, which only made me push even harder to dodge between them. Their legs came up to intercept, the air shimmering around the limbs as the Tempest Kicks began forming, so instead I dove over them and clumsily flapped my wings as best as possible, giving myself just enough airtime to fly over the limbs and land behind them. The feeling of rock and dirt scraping against my skin felt like heated sandpaper, forcing me to grit my teeth and snarl in pain to keep myself under control as I made a mad dash for Adio.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
Even with my speed and senses supercharged, the damned CP0 agents still kept up with me, flinging attacks that I was always just a sliver of a second early to dodge, probably because I only now realized they very likely had Observation Haki. Maybe not the future sight version of it, but the fact they could still anticipate my moves was bad enough, so instead of making good progress I was instead forced to zig-zag like crazy to avoid having my limbs lopped off.
And to make matters worse, if I brought back my flames to make myself invulnerable again, then I'd be too slow to avoid them, and we'd be stuck on the same song-and-dance of before. If I wanted to help Adio and Koala, I had to get to them now.
The sight of the building amount of blood coming from Adio's fresh wounds only made me push my speed harder still.
I couldn't afford to slip up…
"Flying Rapid Finger Pistol."
Until I did.
One of the agents attacking Adio twisted around midway through a kick aimed at the wanderer, and fired off four Flying Finger Pistols at me, right as I had pivoted away from an axe kick aimed at my head. Without any way to correct my fall, the strikes hit me right on my back, all four piercing through my skin and gushing blood into the air.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
And with my heightened sense of touch, the pain was EXCRUCIATING.
As I toppled to the ground in agony, reflex forced my flame to come alight again just so I could make the pain go away, and that was all the opening CP-0 needed. In a flash, three of the agents pinned my arms, legs and head down, forcing my face against the dirt and gravel and blocking any movement I wished to make. And every time I tried to make my fire explode to try and strike them, my instinct to keep the pain AWAY pushed right back, keeping the flames squarely on my back as I tried to wriggle against their grasp.
"It's over," intoned one of the agents atop me, his voice just as neutral as before, as he withdrew a pair of cuffs from his coat. "You lose."
And though I tried to struggle and trash against their hold, I couldn't do anything to stop them. All I could do was watch as, as if in slow motion, the two other CP0 agents finally broke through Adio's fragile guard, rending his arm with a large slash that makes the man hiss in pain, the ethereal gauntlet disappearing in a flash, and forcing him to drop Koala. My blood ran cold as I watched the little girl bounce off the ground like a ragdoll, and one of the agents turned minutely towards her, his hand already aimed at her fallen body and his finger reared back to put a hole clean through her head.
"S-Stop…"
And all I could do…
"Stop it!"
Was scream.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
That was when the world suddenly stopped moving.
I… I don't know if it was a metaphorical or a literal statement, but I still remember how acutely I felt when everything around me and everyone just seemed to freeze, and an almighty pressure fell on top of us like the heat of the sun itself. Even the Aegis Zero agents seemed to have felt it, if the way their hold on me slackened was any indication, but sadly I was too busy reeling from what felt like a full-scale mental assault to properly take advantage of that. Hell, even my focus on my flames waned completely under the strain, and even then, the sensory overload was left completely forgotten as, as slowly as I could, I craned my head up, and caught sight of everyone still awake all staring towards the same direction.
And when I pushed myself to follow their gaze, I felt my breath hitch in my chest as I took in the sight that had garnered everyone's undisputed attention. And really, who could blame them? Because when one is met with the sight of dozens of golden snakes, staring directly at you with those gigantic, pitiless emerald eyes that seemed to carry an entire world within themselves… what else can you do, but freeze up like a mouse?
None of us moved, not even twitched, as we stared up at the impossibly massive being… and then I blinked.
When I reopened my eyes, the space once occupied by the Aegis Zero agent who had been about to shackle me became devoid of his presence.
And faintly, on the horizon, I caught sight of one of the snake heads tossing a battered and bloodied white-clad body far off into the horizon, that soon disappeared amidst the choking smog.
The earth-shakingly loud cry from the remaining heads was all the warning I got before the rest of the agents scattered all around us with wordless Shaves, just as the snake heads went chasing after them, leaving me and Adio to watch as the battle unfolded above us.
Though truthfully, calling it a fight would have been a misnomer. Oh, Aegis Zero didn't lie down and let themselves be taken out, obviously, I would expect nothing less from the strongest Cipher Pol unit, responsible for keeping the World Nobles safe, and their professionalism in attempting to fight back against the monstrous Zoan that outweighed and outsized them by uncountable orders of magnitude was begrudgingly commendable… but it could only take them so far.
Whatever Zoan Hancock had been fed, it was leagues beyond any other Zoan I had seen in the anime or manga, to an almost ludicrous degree: the golden snake heads became metallic blurs as they chased after the jumping agents, each missed attack releasing shockwaves on the air and carving great gouts off the ground, and even then these misses were so near that the CP0 agents were slowly starting to lose pieces of their clothing to close-call bites. In contrast, all the attacks they launched against Hancock simply harmlessly bounced off her scaled body, be they Tempest Kicks, Flying Finger Pistols or even Haki-enhanced punches and kicks, with not even the tiniest of scratches to show for their effort.
And to my utter shock, soon, they started falling.
I saw one agent be slammed against a passing head, the man having just enough time to raise his jet-black arms in front of him in a makeshift guard before another head came flying in and slammed against him, both heads grinding against one another and letting loose sparks, until suddenly, a splash of blood spurted from between both, leaving a large smear on the side of each head.
Another agent continuously Moonwalked all around, firing wild Flying Finger Pistols and Tempest Kicks at any inch of Hancock's body he could target, when suddenly he was forced to dodge a passing head, only to have his upper half bitten off by a second head, leaving his legs to shoot up uselessly into the sky.
Yet another agent tried to dodge the attacks instead by going downwards instead of up, moving away from the multitude of heads still attacking his fellows, only to have his escape route cut short when Hancock's tail blurred into existence right above him and slammed him the rest of the way down with enough force to cause an earthquake, launching stone fragments of insane sizes up like they were pebbles, and forming a crater large enough to swallow down an entire warship.
The last two agents remaining, however, seemed to realize that death was not an acceptable outcome, and instead chose to try and retreat from the battleground, both of them combining Shave and Moonwalk to try and leave the area as quickly as possible. As if to try and aid on their escape, both agents fired off a combined Tempest Kicks, the wind blades fusing with one another into one massive projectile aimed at—
… At us.
I scrambled to my feet, pushing as much strength to my arms and legs as I ran towards both Koala and Adio, my wings flaring outwards to try and shield them from the attack, while Adio himself used his good arm to summon his ghostly gauntlet once more to strike back against the incoming blade of compressed wind.
SKRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
Only to be completely bowled over when, from out of nowhere, one of Hancock's heads passed right over us and slammed head-first against the blade of wind, breaking it into miniscule wisps of air that dispersed uselessly around her, before pushing forward once more with enough speed to cause a shockwave over us, aiming straight at the two agents.
And before either of them could dodge, the giant snake head collided head-on with the two…
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
And launched them far off into the distance, both agents turning into white streaks on the smoke-choked skies, before quickly disappearing over the horizon.
Slowly, I raised myself from the ground once more, and carefully eyed the perfectly-still multi-headed snake shadowing us from above. Once I noticed that Hancock did not seem keen to move just yet, I trudged over to where Adio and Koala had landed, and was met with the sight of the man tightly clutching the little girl against his chest, his slashed arm hanging limp at his side, and blood flowing down his face from a cut across his temple.
"Can you move?" I asked breathlessly as I propped his body up as best as I could against myself.
"Yeah… yeah, just about," grunted back the wanderer, a ragged cough punctuating his statement as he did his best to stand up. "Thanks for the help…"
"No problem."
Once I was sure Adio wasn't about to keel over, I glanced back up to Hancock, only to feel my blood freeze when I realized that she was now staring directly at us, the multiple heads hovering above us and turning the skies into an ever-shifting mass of golden scales and brilliant emerald eyes peering down at us. Even without a sense of touch, I somehow felt a chill travel down my back, my grip on Adio growing tighter as I heard him swallow dryly.
"This is the part you say you're very good friends with them, Ryoma…" muttered the wanderer with no small amount of nervousness, his grip on Koala tightening just a smidge more as he shifted his footing by the slightest amount. "For both our sakes…"
"I am," I replied sotto-voice in return, my attention never wavering from the gargantuan Zoan towering over us. "I just hope she remembers that…"
And so, we waited… and waited… until…
… Rrrrrruuummmmmbbbbllllleeeee…
Before our very eyes, the snake's enormous body began to move and shift in a sea of dizzying movements, the heads shifting around as, one by one, they began to just… vanish. Not in the usual Zoan way, either, they simply dissolved into so much gold dust, all the while the snake's main body encroached upon us with a bone-shakingly loud rumble. Just as the last head began to fade away, the body finally reached us just in time for it to begin dissolving into dust as well.
And from within the disappearing body appeared three people whom the sight of almost made me tear up in utter relief: Hancock, Sandersonia and Marigold, all huddled together. The latter two were as beaten and battered as I expected, even if they were surprisingly still awake, but Hancock… She was completely unscathed. There was not a scratch or bruise upon her body, even if the young woman looked dead on her feet out of sheer exhaustion, her rags looked ready to disintegrate under the slightest breeze, and her eyes, rather than the normal black, were shining just as emerald as the colossal serpent's had been moments before.
Wearily, the three Kuja stumbled towards us, their legs shaking the entire way through, until finally, they stopped just a few steps away from me and Adio, all five of us just… staring at one another, at an utter loss of words…
"… Ryoma…"
That is, until Hancock finally spoke up, her tone soft and weak, almost a whisper… but doing nothing to diminish the utterly relieved smile that graced her face, even as tears slowly welled up on the corner of her eyes.
"You… came back…"
Sonia and Mari, in turn, remained stoically beside their sister, even as their arms began to shake, and their own tears began to fall freely to the ground.
In the end, it was just... too much, even for me. So, as soon as I felt Adio push himself away from me with a grunt of effort, I took one step closer to the three Kujas.
It was all I had time to do before the sisters threw themselves forward with what little strength they still had on their bodies, leaving me just enough time to kneel and pulled the three into as gentle a hug as I could manage, while they in turn did their best to wrap their arms around my larger body, and my wings folded forward to envelop us all in a black, feathery blanket.
And in that moment, against every instinct that had been drilled into me by my life so far… I willed my flames away. I let my senses come back, flooding me with all the pain and fatigue that I had accumulated until now in my desperate fight brawl only minutes ago, a rolling tide of sensations that would have thrown me into shock at any other moment.
I felt all that, and then pushed it all away, letting myself be focused instead on the warmth of the three young women who I had come to save, on the wetness their tears left on my skin… and that my own tears, falling free and falling plentiful, left across my face, as I pressed my head against theirs.
"… Thank you…" whispered Sonia, just loud enough for me to hear, but that seemed to give her just enough strength to give me one last squeeze.
"You're welcome…" I answered back, somehow keeping my voice level even as I dug a hand through her hair, feeling the grimy, rough locks slide past my fingers. "I'd never leave you behind, never…"
That comment drew a sob from Marigold, who pulled back just enough to raise her head and look me in the eyes, her eyes watery and puffy from the crying. "We know…"
Sadly, as much as I wished for the moment to last forever, it was quickly interrupted when, off in the distance, a positively titanic explosion sounded, at the same time a large cloud of fire and smoke rose high above. As one, we all turned our heads toward it, though Hancock almost toppled to the ground with that simple movement, thankfully kept from doing so by the tight grip of her sisters and me. The damage, however, was done, and the moment I pulled Hancock back to her feet, the young Kuja had already gone unconscious, her breathing thankfully still even and controlled.
"That came from the docks… the slaves must be headed there," said Adio aloud, the man shifting himself until he stood completely upright, all traces of weariness pushed aside in lieu of blazing and firm determination. "There's tons of pleasure ships there, we can steal one and escape. But first we have to hit the armory."
With a nod, I pulled myself away from the sisters' embrace, and reignited my flames, finally allowing the returned pain to vanish into nothingness. Then, with utmost care, I shifted my grip on Hancock until I had her on a bridal carry, before I turned to the sisters and gave them a slow nod. "Let's go."
Sonia and Mari, in return, gave me shaky but determined nods, before slowly closing their eyes. A moment later, their bodies morphed and shrunk until both had once more become the green anaconda and orange king cobra that they had previously turned into, and who promptly slid over my body until they had wrapped around my torso and arm, respectively.
With that done, I turned back to Adio, and watched as he placed Koala on the ground, took off the remains of his ragged shirt, and then tore that into two large pieces of cloth, one of which he wrapped around his bleeding arm with only a minor wince of pain, and the other of which he tied into a crude but large sling that was tied around his torso, the larger side of the cloth upon his back. With that done, he then turned towards Koala, and stretched out his good arm towards her.
"Médio."
Once again, an ethereal gauntlet appeared out of the air, this one smaller than the ones he had been using to fight, and floated over to gently grab Koala, before carefully placing her between the cloth and his back. With that done, Adio dispelled the gauntlet, and gave the makeshift sling one final tug to make sure the girl on his back was secured, before giving me a nod. "All set."
"Let's go, then."
And so, Adio took off in a sprint, with me following closely behind.
First, we'd arm up. Then, we'd rain hell on whatever guards were left.
We were getting out of here, no matter what.
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
With a wrathful roar, Fisher Tiger brought down the stolen claymore against the haft of the knight's spear, breaking the wooden pole in two and driving the blade through the gap between the torso and arm plating. Blood spurted into the air as the claymore sliced into the man's shoulder, forcing him to drop his ruined weapon with a scream of pain.
Said scream was abruptly interrupted when, in taking advantage of the brief window, Tiger withdrew his pilfered pistol from its holster, took aim at the helmet's visor, and fired. The heavy round tore into the knight's head and exploded out the helmet's back, ending the man's life and making his corpse drop like a stringless puppet to the ground. Beside him, Aladine used his newly appropriated trident to punch right through the neck of another knight, and quickly followed up by hoisting the body up and throwing it at the line of entrenched defenders still trying to keep them away from the docks.
"Them", of course, being Tiger himself, and the veritable horde of freed slaves doing their best to drown the knights in bodies and weapons. And "drowning" was an apt description for what the slaves were currently doing.
Rounding them up and galvanizing them into revolting had been, surprisingly enough, the easy part of the process. Given the chance at freedom, and seeing the dead bodies of their torturers, most of the slaves had been more than willing to revolt and strike back. Those too broken to keep going had been instead carried by the slaves with more strength left in their bodies, particularly the giants, who had taken armfuls of people on their laps and were doing their best to shield them from harm.
The rest, after having raided what armories and security rooms they could find for every single firearm, melee weapon and explosive stashed in them, had devolved into a mass of wrathful revenge, screaming and howling like animals as they charged out into the open. And at the helm of the horde had been Tiger himself, hefting his own stolen weapons and charging at the few knights who still stood to stop them.
Run! All of you, run now! Be free! Make for the gates, and don't look back! And if you can't escape, then die! Die and find freedom in death!
It had been his rallying cry, and it had been one they had taken to with fervor. Any opposition, any obstacle, any hurdle on their path, they had trampled over with abandon: barricades were broken through, knights were dogpiled or shot on sight, and any mansions they came across were put to the torch and sacked, their slaves freed.
And it was not only Tiger's band who was taking advantage of the appearance of the giant Zoan to escape: across Mary Geoise, explosions and fires blossomed intermittently, the sounds of battle filling the air as a macabre background orchestra to their revolution, and showing that others had grown just as bold.
That is not to say, however, that all of them had survived so far…
BOOM!
"AAAAAAARRRGHHHHHH!"
A fact that was punctuated by another score of slaves being blown back (and some apart) by a battery of cannons the knights had managed to set up at the final gate, the last one before their goal: the Celestial Dragons' personal docks, where all their pleasure ships were docked.
And befitting a vessel meant for World Nobles, they were ostentatious, packed with essentials… but most importantly, they were big. The perfect getaway ships, once they took them into the canals leading to the Grand Line. But first, they had to get to them. And that meant getting through the blockade.
When the knights tried to ready the cannons again, they were met with a full volley of rounds from the slaves' plethora of guns. And while they scored few kills due to the enemy quickly diving under cover to protect themselves, it did mean they had bought enough time for some of the slaves to dive under cover themselves behind the rubble and makeshift barriers they had started lifting, with Tiger himself quickly sliding up to a particularly large piece of masonry that had landed down on the halted travelators.
"Tiger!"
The call of his name heralded the arrival of Aladine by his side, the merman still clutching his new trident, but also pressing against a gash on his side. Along with him, however, was another face that Tiger had seen a few times during his "stay" on Mary Geoise: Stella Argenti, who was carrying both her companion, Gild Tesoro, on her back, and was hefting a long automatic rifle she had pilfered from the arsenal.
She hadn't yet missed a shot with it.
"Still going strong, I see," said Aladine with a lopsided grin, though his confidence was undercut by the sudden grimace of pain that crossed his face. "Better than some of us, I guess…"
"How bad is it?" asked the seabream Fishman, glancing at his ally's bleeding wound even as he holstered his pistol, and instead unslung one of his bazookas.
"I can keep going, if that's what you want to know. Damn grapeshot…"
"Better keep your heads down, then," called Stella with a huff as she adjusted her grip on her rifle, sweat and blood caking her body in equal measures. Suddenly, the woman pushed herself up and fired her rifle towards the barricade, before quickly crouching back behind their cover, the screams of pain her attack had caused being promptly silenced by the rapport of the knights' own guns. "Dammit, they're too entrenched…" Letting out a weary sigh, the woman then turned her attention to the man on her back, her face shifting from anger to concern in a flash. "Tesoro, dear?"
"Still… still awake, Stella," replied the man, even as he weakly grabbed another magazine from the bag of ammo slung around Stella's waist, now significantly lighter compared to when it had been found, and offered it to the woman, who promptly took hold of it and used it to reload her weapon. "I'm not… letting you do this alone…"
"Thank you, Tesoro…"
"It still won't mean much if we don't get past them," said Tiger gruffly. Just then, the four saw another group of slaves rush the barricade with guns blazing, all of them with wide-eyed looks of insanity and panicked screams. While they did make good headway towards the gate, some shots even downing a few knights who had been caught out-of-place trying to reload the cannons, their charge soon met its match when the cannons that had reloaded fired once more, and the slaves were cut down to the last by the storm of metal shrapnel, their bodies disappearing amidst the smoke and fire. "Dammit…"
"The giants are too busy keeping the slaves safe, they can't help us either," said Aladine, his statement punctuated by another round of cannonade erupting from the gate's direction, only this time it was aimed over the gathered attackers, and at their far larger allies huddled close to one another far behind their lines. As expected of full-blooded giants, they weren't even fazed by the explosive rounds, but they did press themselves even closer, their backs turned to shield the slaves on their laps from any harm. "We need to charge them all together, it's the only way."
"I won't make these people kill themselves for our sake. Human or not, they still deserve freedom!"
"Neither of you are wrong—"
BOOM!
"But we need an answer now, or we're all dead."
"ATTENTION ALL KNIGHTS!"
Sadly, before any of the four slaves could continue their train of thought, their attention was caught by an extremely nasal, pompous, and most of all infuriating voice echoed over the battlefield from the direction of the gate.
And who else could the speaker be, but a Celestial Dragon, waving an ebony-and-gold pistol on one hand, and a spiked cat o' nine tails on the other. His clothes were torn and burnt, and his face was a mass of bruises and cuts, but his sneer was still unmistakable, and the blatant arrogance the man exuded was enough to make Tiger grind his teeth in anger, and Stella's grip on her rifle tremble.
"THESE DETESTABLE HEATHENS DARED TO STRIKE BACK AGAINST THEIR MASTERS!" screeched the Celestial Dragon as he waved his gun around, taking potshots at whatever group of slaves the muzzle happened to be pointing at. "KILL THEM ALL! I WANT THEM DEAD, I WANT THEIR CORPSES STRUNG UP ON THE WALLS OF MY MANSION! DON'T STOP UNTIL ALL THIS SCUM IS CRUSHED BENEATH YOUR BOOTS!"
"Tch… arrogant--!!"
"Stella WAIT--!!"
Just as she peered over to fire her rifle at the very conspicuous target, Stella was toppled onto the ground by Tesoro pressing all his body's weight down onto her. Before his beloved could voice her anger, however, Tesoro was proven extremely correct in his course of action, for the moment Stella disappeared behind the masonry once more, dozens of bullets whizzed past the space her head had been occupying previously and buried themselves behind the group, one even scraping against Tesoro's arm and leaving a bloody gash on the limb, though the only reaction from the man was a wince.
With a growl, Tiger aimed his bazooka blindly over their cover and fired a wild shot in the general direction of the gate. And while his attack was rewarded with a very cathartic cry of pain, the return fire from the cannons made their cover shudder and crack, something which drew a wince from Tiger. "Dammit… alright, listen up—"
Before he could voice what his plan was, however…
BOOM!
Another explosion rang out. And two things actually grabbed his attention regarding this explosion: that it had happened on the gate…
And that whoever made that shot, they hadn't been nearby.
"WHAT?!" came the shrill scream from the World Noble standing atop the gate, the man almost falling off his perch atop the gate. "WHO DARES--?!"
The answer to that question, as it turns out, was quickly given to those present when another round of explosions blasted the knight line, this time much closer to the cannons and their powder reserves, even as several more knights were sent back from the direct hits, and the World Noble was finally tossed back behind the gate, leaving the erstwhile leaders of the rebellion free to follow the smoke trail of the rounds to their source.
It was all of these things that led to Fisher Tiger and his allies seeing two more slaves, one with black wings and flames burning on his back, and another with a mane of pale-blue hair, charging towards the gate with a small band of screaming slaves, both of them carrying injured girls (and two snakes wrapped around the winged one's body), and toting guns of their own: the former, a large shoulder-propped bazooka, the other a multi-barrel pistol.
"FORWARD!" roared the winged slave, even as he tossed aside the bazooka and pulled a large-bore triple-barreled rifle from behind his waist. "RUN THEM DOWN! KILL THEM! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!"
"Ryoma!"/"He made it…" breathed Stella and Tesoro in utter relief. However, said relief was quickly challenged by the sound of a new volley of gunfire roaring over from the gate, no doubt from the guards trying to put down these new reinforcements.
And while some rounds did find their mark, and downed handfuls of slaves onto the ground…
"GRANDE!"
Just as many more were halted by the pair of gigantic glowing gauntlets that suddenly sprung to life between the slaves and the approaching gunfire. Bullets and cannonballs halted in mid-air as they collided with the gauntlets, the wild-haired man's face contorting in concentration as he pulled back his lightning-coated arms.
"BALA TEMPESTA!"
Before promptly throwing them forward, launching the ordnance back at its origin.
The results were, naturally, explosive: cannons and gunpowder exploded in storms of fire and metal shards, knights screamed as the suddenly much faster returning rounds and burning shrapnel that erupted from all around them, and the gate itself buckled and groaned under the sheer number of detonations. And though the massive doors did not fall, the damage was done: the knights' defensive line had been broken, and the path was finally open.
"Figures he wouldn't croak that easy," said the merman, before turning his attention back to Tiger, grinning. "We got our back up, let's make it count."
With a grunt of agreement, Tiger shot to his feet and fired off another shot at the knights, before unsheathing his sword and swinging it towards the gate. "FORWARD, NOW! ONE MORE PUSH AND WE'LL BE FREE!"
"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The primal, all-encompassing ROAR of response from the slave horde seemed to shake the Red Line itself, and heralded the beginning of the quaking stampede as the thousands of escapees rushed towards the beleaguered gatekeepers, rattling and firing their weapons wildly as they went. There was no cohesion, no organized lines, simply the mob mentality and desperation to be free driving these people forward towards the gate, and towards the few knights left standing who had just enough time to lift their weapons, before the slaves were upon them.
They didn't last seconds. Any weapon the knights could bring to bear could only take out a slave or two before they were mobbed by the rest of them, and their armor could only protect them for so long before the blades and bullets found their way into the gaps. Soon, even the newly arrived slaves had reached the gates, and started to bang against the massive wood-and-metal slabs, while Tiger and his allies stood back and watched as the so-called Ryoma and his companions approached.
"Glad to have you back, Ryoma," said Stella with a tired smile, only for her eyes to widen when she caught sight of the blood running down the sides of his body. "You're hurt!"
"It doesn't hurt, trust me," he replied with nary a wince, even as the two snakes wrapped around him slithered down from his body and, right in front of their eyes, transformed into two young women dressed in the same slave garbs as most of them. "Sonia, Mari, everything alright?"
"We're fine… just need to get out of here…" replied the green-haired one with a grimace. Her attention then shifted to the unconscious girl still held in his arms. "Hancock--?"
"Safe, for now."
"We'll save the introductions for later, then," cut in Tiger gruffly, the fishman stepping up to stare down (quite literally, as it turned out) at the winged slave. "There's ships on the other side of that gate, once we get through, we can get out of here."
"How are ships going to help us, we're on top of the Red Line," asked Ryoma incredulously. "Shouldn't we head to the elevators?"
His companion was quick to answer said question, quicker than Tiger even, by pointing past the gates with his pistol. "The elevator isn't the only way out of this place, Ryoma," said the man. "Celestial Dragons won't let their ships stay on 'plebeian' docks, so they bring them up here by elevator, and when they need to go down, they ride down the Heaven Falls."
Once the man finished his part, Tiger gave him a nod, then turned back to Ryoma. "There're canals for the ships to return to the Grand Line, and they're fast enough that we can lose any pursuers. All we need is to break through." As if to punctuate that statement, the cries of the slave mob grew even louder, many of the slaves that had stopped to kill the last knights now joining on the effort to push the gates open. Yet still, shockingly, the gates held firm under the onslaught, with nary a groan to show for the effort, something that elicited a frustrated growl from the fishman. "Dammit…"
"Let me handle that."
With that confident declaration, the blue-haired man strode forward, flexing his fingers as he approached the door, and his ghostly gauntlets appeared over him once more.
"Grande. A Jien Te!"
In a flash, both gauntlets flew forward, and sank into the gate's doors, which soon became enveloped by the same lightning as the man's arms. His face quickly turned into a scowl as, slowly but surely, the man began to draw his arms back, his hands trembling all the while, blood starting to seep into the makeshift bandages wrapped around his injured arm. And, just as slowly, the gates began to open, until finally, after an agonizingly long wait, the doors swung open, leaving the path to the newly-revealed boats open.
But the mob did not rush through immediately. No, they instead were frozen by the sight of what awaited them past the gates, aside from the boats…
Celestial Dragons.
The one that had been shooting at them from atop the gate was still on the floor where he had fallen, one leg bent at a strange angle, and his weapon nowhere to be seen. But along with him, several more had been caught midway through running away, standing atop ramps leading to their ships, or whipping what few slaves they still had under their thrall to carry their excesses onto the pleasure ships.
But the most damning thing that the slaves became acutely aware of was the fact that there were no guards present. Something that, judging by the blooming dread on their faces, the World Nobles themselves seemed to be quite aware of.
Still, even more shocking than the previous wait, was the one currently happening. Neither slaves nor World Nobles moved, simply staring at one another… until someone moved.
It was Ryoma.
The young man paced slowly to the forefront, movements eerily calm, and his grip on the unconscious girl on his lap still firm. He walked until he stood right in front of the injured noble on the ground, face hidden from the slaves.
But in the end, Tiger knew what was about to happen.
They say revenge is empty.
That it leaves you unfulfilled, purposeless, and makes you no better than the person you took revenge upon. And to be honest, people are right, for the most part. The thing about revenge, is that you need to have something past it, a goal to guide you and serve as an anchor for the future.
But something that people don't, and really couldn't consider, is that this only applies in a world that is… civilized. Normal. Right.
None of which applied to the world I was in.
None of which applied to the things I had lived through, ever since I'd gotten here. The things I'd seen and heard, even when I couldn't feel those done to me.
Revenge… revenge felt like the perfect retribution against the thing currently at my feet. The injured, fearful, hateful thing that had been the reason for my torment.
For everyone's torment.
I could just… reach down and snap his neck. Torch him with my flames, beat him to a pulp, shoot him dead… I had so many options on how to do this…
But I knew, I just knew none of them would satisfy me. Because this… I wouldn't feel anything from it. Not now. Someday, maybe, when I regained my humanity, but not now.
Still… there was something I could do. Something that would be far more satisfactory to other people. So, without a word, and ignoring the indignant stare the injured noble had aimed at me, I hefted him up with a single hand…
And threw him back to the mob behind me.
The Dragon bounced once he hit the ground, his head scraping against the ruined dirt until he finally stopped, right in front of the slaves… who were all, to a one, staring at the prone Noble with wide, trembling eyes. Eager eyes.
I then turned back to the remaining Dragons, the ones halfway to their ships, and gave them all the same dead-eyed stare that I had held for all the time under their ownership.
"… They're all yours."
The sound that followed my borderline whispered words didn't have a proper single descriptor to it. No words, adjectives, or expressions could properly give it justice, not without having witnessed it yourself, heard it crash against you like an all-consuming wave.
It was… it was the sound of pure, final vindication.
What followed was the horde of slaves running past me like rabid animals towards the remaining Celestial Dragons, almost piling atop one another to get to the Nobles who were now scrambling to try and get away. Some made it a few steps before being dogpiled.
Others were, ironically enough, held in place by the very slaves they had decided to abuse one last time.
But I didn't pay much attention to it, or even let myself get distracted. I simply clutched Hancock closer to my body, and wrapped my wings around us both. Even without a sense of touch, I hugged her as tightly as possible against me, until finally, I raised my head and took off running towards one of the closest ships, the one where I could see Tiger, Aladine, Stella, Tesoro and the Boa sisters running towards. About halfway there, I was joined by Adio, the man still with Koala hanging from the sling around his chest, and an unhealthy amount of blood covering his arms up to his biceps.
"You're tagging along?" I asked, shouting just enough to be heard over the sounds of the mob.
"Kehahahaha! Something like that," he laughed back in response, his eyes glinting with a strange danger to them. "Consider this me returning the favor for helping me out. Still got some business to solve, but let's talk later!"
With a simple nod as response, I refocused my attention on the ship we were running towards, one of the many oversized galleons loaded with enough guns to match a light warship, and which many of the slaves were already piling aboard of. We both quickly ran up one of the ramps leading to the deck (while also ignoring the blood stains leading into water next to the ramp), with Adio running off to prepare for takeoff, passing by Sonia and Mari doing the exact same. Since I lacked any sailing knowledge, I instead rushed to Aladine, and gently handed Hancock over to the merman, who promptly took off to below decks, no doubt to keep her safe and to treat any injured, leaving me standing on the deck, watching the slaves continue to rush aboard.
It was this that allowed me to watch up-close as the three giants I had seen carrying slaves stepped into the bay, walked over to some of the other ships, and carefully placed the armfuls of people down onto the deck, allowing the slaves still unoccupied to carry them to the ships' interiors. I was just about to call out to them, ask how they would join us…
BOOM!!!
That is, until a MASSIVE explosion bloomed off in the distance. One that, worryingly, made the giants' heads turn towards it, grimaces clear on their faces.
I barely had time to register that fact before, with an almost imperceptible nod, the three rose to their full height once more, and began walking back.
Towards the explosion.
After another moment of gaping, I managed to unscrew my thoughts, and ran down the ramp again until I was back on the shores. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! WE HAVE TO GO, NOW!" I roared as loudly as I could, my voice cracking midway through.
"No can do, little one!" shouted back one of the giants, a bearded one that apparently was the leader of the trio. "We got trouble headed our way, and someone has to keep it busy!"
"And we're the toughest ones left that can fight!" said another giant, a younger-looking man with arms covered in scars. "We'll cover your escape, so get going!"
"NO! WE CAN STILL MAKE IT, COME ON! WE JUST NEED TO--!!"
But no matter how hard I thought… nothing came to mind. I couldn't think of a plan, an excuse, anything to convince them to come. And worst of all, I knew they were right. Whatever was coming for us, we wouldn't be able to stop it, unless someone stayed behind as a distraction.
"… Just… need to…"
It was a death sentence… but it had to be done, and it made me clench my hands in frustration as I let my gaze fall to the ground.
"… Dammit…"
"Little one."
Before I could spiral any harder, however, my head was gently lifted by a finger several times my size, making me stare at the grey eyes and almost matronly smile of the third and final giant, a woman with short red hair and a scar running across the bridge of her nose.
"You and the others still have a long life ahead of you all," she spoke softly, far more than I thought a giant possibly could. "We all lived a lot, already. And we made peace with dying a long time ago."
"Besides, there's nothing more honorable than falling in battle while holding the line against a great foe!" added the bearded one with a boastful, almost cheerful tone. "They will sing songs about us in great Elbaf! Glorious songs!"
"A deed worthy of granting us a seat amidst our forefathers in Valhalla," finished the younger one with an eager grin, even going as far as pumping his fists together.
The giantess in front of me gave her two companions a nod, then turned back towards me, her smile never wavering an inch. "Indeed… so don't worry, little one. Go, and live your life free, away from these walls."
And with that, she stood to her full height once more, turning back towards Mary Geoise and moving to stand beside her companions once more. Just as she was about to reach them, however, she turned back once more to me, this time with a hint of sadness on her face. "Little one… may I ask one last favor from you?"
"… Yes?" I barely croaked out, fighting the urge to turn away from her.
"If… no, when you reach Elbaf's shores… tell my son…" she took a shuddering breath, then steeled herself once more, her nails digging into the palm of her hands so tightly that I even caught sight of a trickle of blood running down her fingers. "… Tell them… tell them that Jord, Baugi and Billingr died with honor. And… tell my son Thor that I… that I love him."
"… Of course…"
"… Thank you."
And that… was that.
I didn't dare cry, even as I turned back towards the ship, and ran full tilt back aboard, just in time for the anchors to be raised and the sails to be dropped, the hot winds of the inferno raging behind us quickly pushing our ship, and all the others, forward.
There were no guards manning the sea gate that tried to stop us. Maybe they never expected someone to try and run away through here, it didn't quite matter. It still meant the path was open for us all to reach the Heaven Falls and make our escape.
As they watched the ships rush away from this accursed land, Baugi, Billingr and Jord felt lighter than they ever had been for the last thirty years. The three giants turned back towards where the explosions had come from, and consequently, where their Observation Haki could tell was a group of enemies of a caliber they were quite aware they wouldn't survive against.
"Heh… ever thought you'd die while standing atop heaven, Billingr?" asked Baugi with a grin, the older giant cracking his neck as he spoke. In return, the younger giant gave a rueful chuckle, and slapped his older comrade's back.
"Urohrohroh! Never, old man! Though I guess I am surprised we both got here at the same time! Thought you'd get there first, what with you being such a fossil!"
"Bah, cheeky brat. I'm only a hundred ahead of you, and it means I got a hundred years more worth of accomplishments than you do!"
Watching her two last companions she'd have for the future bicker as if they weren't facing their death, Jodr couldn't help but chuckle, hands on her hips as she shook her head. "Leave it to you two to ruin the moment…" she said with amusement, though a moment later, said feeling vanished in lieu of focus. "… Are you both ready?"
And just like that, both giants steeled themselves, Billingr even going as far as thumping his chest with his fists, while Baugi merely let out a wistful sigh, before raising his head once more towards the heavens. "Ah… what a day… What a lovely day!"
"We ride eternal, we ride glorious, and we ride with fury!" continued Jodr, the giantess' voice rising with every word, while beside her, Billingr stomped his feet against the ground.
"If we're to die, we'll die historic, with our ancestors' eyes to watch over us!"
"WE ARE THE ONES WHO GRASP THE SUN, RIDING TO VALHALLA!"
Their voices rose with every word, the three giants stepping forward as each of the three spoke, their footsteps slowly but surely growing stronger and quicker as they began to run, towards the greatest fight of their lives.
Towards the most glorious, most honorable of deaths.
And so, with an earth-shaking roar, the last giants in Mary Geoise entered the defaced holy land once more, ready to die for the future of others.
For though they may die, they would die fighting.
And to them, that was enough.
Looking back, without the weight of everything hanging over my head, I can still recall how honest-to-goodness majestic the canal was: the safety railings lined with gold from top to bottom, the ivory arches towering over even the ships we had stolen, the roar of the water flowing down towards the seas below… It reminded me of Reverse Mountain, in a way, and at least once I caught myself wondering if perhaps one had been built to emulate the other.
How fitting, then, that we were escaping to the Grand Line in such a manner.
The wind whipped around us like a tornado, the waters of the canal splashing past the hull and onto the deck, toppling some of the weaker slaves and drenching the ones who still could stand from head to toe. Those of us who had sea legs and hadn't yet forgotten them were still moving around, manning the rigging and sails as best they could, or in Adio's case, manning the helm to keep us from bouncing against the walls of the canal… or, as it turns out, against other ships.
For all the canal was wide enough to fit ships comfortably, the builders probably never expected so many ships to ride it down simultaneously. More than once, our ship either bumped the one in front of us, or was bumped by the one behind, sometimes to the point of pile up.
And if this kept going…
CRASH! SPLASH!
Then losing the ship's figurehead would be the least of our troubles.
"Keep us steady! We'll sink at this rate!" shouted Mari as she pulled on the sails' ropes alongside Sonia, their arms shaking as they fought against the furious winds.
"Easier said than done!" grunted Adio in return, and judging by the fact his arms were wrapped in his gauntlets as he gripped the steering wheel, he wasn't lying. "Best I can do is make the less-important bits hit!" As if to punctuate his statement, the ship behind us struck our own vessel, far rougher this time, sending almost everyone off their feet and making both Sonia and Mari spit out a string of curses when their grasp on the ropes slackened, causing it to rub their hands raw before they finally got it under control. "Dammit--!!"
"How much longer?!"
"End point coming! Brace yourselves!"
Mari's question was quickly answered, as it turns out, by Tiger, the fishman's shout carrying over the roaring wind by his powerful voice. And indeed, when I finally managed to wobble up to the prow, I caught sight of the end of the canal, and beyond it… the open sea.
Freedom. It was right there.
…
And so was the pile-up of ships that had only now started to move out of the way.
"BRACE YOURSELVES, NOW!"
There was barely a moment for us to hold onto whatever anchor was near us, before our ship crashed into the water. The whiplash was brutal, and regardless of my lack of tactile senses, I was almost launched clean over the railing of the ship, the only thing saving me being my chest colliding with said railing. Behind me, I could hear the rest of the "crew" being tossed to the ground…
SPLASH!
"SONIA!!!"
As well as a panicked cry that made my blood freeze.
The ship had barely stopped gliding across the water, but I was already running to where Marigold was standing, staring down at the sea with naked horror. And I only took one second to look at the small patch of rippling water that I was sure had been where Sandersonia had fallen, before I leapt off the ship and dove into the sea.
It was a strange sensation, to hit the water, but feel no cold from the water or it lapping against my skin. The fact that it was still nighttime meant that it should also be dark, but surprisingly, the flames on my back were doing a surprisingly good job to illuminate my surroundings, and the lack of irritation against my eyes meant I could see shockingly well underwater.
Which meant I could clearly see Sonia quickly sinking to the bottom of the sea, motionless.
I don't know if it was panic, or natural strength, but when I started diving after her, I found myself swimming a lot faster than I ever did before in my life. I can't quite describe the feeling of pushing nothing out of your way to move forward, but that was exactly what it seemed like I was doing, not to mention the fact that I had yet to feel any effect from lack of oxygen, especially considering how much air I was letting slip out while I dove. In the back of my mind, a miniscule memory echoed about a Lunarian "being able to survive in almost any environment", but I was too busy trying to save my friend from dying to care.
Finally, I managed to reach the insensate Sonia, and wrapped both my arms around her torso, and flipped us both around until I was facing upwards. However, when I tried to swim back up, I found my efforts significantly more difficult than before, as if I was carrying an anvil in my arms.
It was my first experience with what a Devil Fruit user went through on the water, and it was about to cost the life of my first friend in this hellhole of a life.
Not like this… I'm not letting this end here!
Those words bounced around my head, over and over, as I pumped my legs and, out of sheer desperation, flapped my wings against the ocean, trying to eke out any extra scrap of distance to the surface that I could… but it wasn't working. I was too slow, too slow to save her, I needed help—
Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a shape larger than me swimming towards us incredibly fast, and before I could react, said shape swum around and behind us, and two large red arms wrapped around both me and Sonia. A second later, we were both being carried back up to the surface blindingly fast, the faint moonlight above us quickly coming to view until, at last, we breached the water's surface. Almost immediately, Sonia began hacking out water from her lungs, the Kuja gasping for air as best she could, and her hair clinging like seaweed to her face.
A moment later, the two of us and our rescuer were lifted off the water by two very familiar glowing gauntlets that carried us back to "our" ship, where we were gently deposited back onto the wooden deck. I barely had enough time to try and move my own wet hair off my face, before a ballistic missile of a body collided with me and Sonia…
A missile that, I realized, had been Marigold, bawling like a child as she clung to both Sonia, and by extension, me, her arms awkwardly wrapped around us both as she pressed herself as closely as she could.
And as I let my wings drape around us to shield the two from the winds, I looked to the side, and saw Fisher Tiger sitting right beside me, a neutral look on his face, before I gave him a tired smile.
"Thank you…"
"… You're welcome."
And at long last, it was finally over.
The years of torment that I, and all these people had suffered under the heel of the Celestial Dragons, ended as we sailed away from the Red Line. There were no cheers, tears, or even shouts as the fleet of ships spread apart and drifted away from the massive continent. Only the sound of sails unfurling and the wind blowing heralded our departure, until finally, one by one, we all disappeared into the fog of the sea.
Amidst the ruins of Mary Geoise, Saint Figarland Garling wiped the blood off his sword as he stared down the three massive corpses of the slaves that had dared to try their luck against him, while around him, the rest of the Holy Knights rounded up both the living World Nobles they could still find, and the slaves that were to be executed for their unforgivable crimes.
For none who challenged the gods, could be allowed to live.
Atop Pangaea Castle, one of the few buildings left intact from the rampage of the newly made Zoan, the Five Elder Stars strode with purpose towards one of its deepest rooms. Once they arrived, the five waited as the massive white-and-gold doors opened to them, and once they did, the Elders entered the sprawling chamber that held one of the most sacred objects in all the world: the Empty Throne, the greatest symbol of the peace and order brought by the World Government in all the planet, and where in front of which rested nineteen weapons, symbols of the rulers from centuries ago that pledged to never let the world fall under the thrall of a singular being.
And as they neared the foot of the stairs leading to the Empty Throne, as one, the Five Elder Stars kneeled.
Warrior God of Science and Defense, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn.
Warrior God of Agriculture, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter.
Warrior God of Finance, Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro.
Warrior God of Environment, Saint Marcus Mars.
Warrior God of Justice, Saint Topman Warcury.
The five most powerful men on the planet, who decided the fate of nations daily, the highest authorities in all the World Government, kneeled… to a figure, cloaked in shadows, sitting upon the Empty Throne.
Answers were needed… for the world's true ruler demanded them.
"Lord Imu… there has been an incident."
In an unremarkable ruined corner of Mary Geoise, undescriptive from the rest of the wasteland most of the country had become, one of the most dangerous women on the planet walked amidst the rubble, unperturbed by the carnage still present around.
By all accounts, there was nothing that should be of interest to this woman here. After all, Celestial Dragons they may be, their fate was very much deserved for everything they had done to the people they had enslaved. Regardless of her position as a CP-0 agent, the double agent clone had no love lost for the Nobles slain here, and for all they were rich, Vegapunk's mole would never stoop as low as outright stealing from their treasury to finance her creator's experiments… or at least, not when it could compromise her mission or cause Vegapunk any trouble.
However, there was one prize that she could acquire that would mean everything to this woman.
And as the Aegis Zero agent Stussy finally stopped on an unremarkable point in the ruins, she smiled, as she stared down at said prize…
A single harpoon, half-buried and standing upright where it had sunk on the ground.
And the still-fresh blood that covered half of its length.
Hell, there was even supposed to be the start of an "epilogue" of sorts showing the reactions of the rest of the world, but I decided to keep it out of this chapter, either so it goes into chapter 4, or just not have it… we'll see.
For now, here it is! The finished third chapter, whole once more!
Thank fuck I got my vacation month, it let me write a lot more, even if I got kinda busy with stuff at home… still, here it is!
Now, to celebrate the fact I got art done for the protagonist of my Gundam fic, I'll do the next chapter for that next, then go back for another chapter of Drift with Purpose. After that… probably Titanomachy, but only after I do some rewrites to Special Delivery.
Call of Soul might go on hiatus, due to my sadly diminished interest in it right now… not permanent! But paused nonetheless…
But for now, it is 4am, I need some fucking sleep.
See y'all next time!
First, just as I did with Titanomachy, I decided to put out the first half of this chapter as is, and later reupload it with both halves together. This is so people have SOME content to enjoy, and because frankly, I've taken too long to post it.
Secondly, I have already started the rewrite of Discarded Blade, Renewed Purpose. Working title so far is Among the Stars, Drift with Purpose, though I'll probably make that the definitive title. That one will take a little while longer to publish, since I had to play through more of Duviri to find out a couple of things (who knew maxing Opportunity would yield such a FASCINATING little tidbit of lore?~ c: ), but I do intend to get it done, hopefully enough, until the end of may.
Finally, since COVID took away a LOT of my memory, a little reminder for readers and for myself: Ryoma arrived on the One Piece world 26 years before the start of canon, already at six years old.
This means that he, at the time of this chapter, is 17 years old, spent eleven years in Mary Geoise, and by the time canon starts and Luffy sets out, he'll be 32 years old, with the timeskip thus making him around the range of 34-35 years old, if we consider the pre-timeskip events to take one year total.
Ergo, we have 15 years to fuck around with canon. And believe me… canon's getting twisted around c:
For now… lessgo.
~O~
It was a silent awakening that echoed across the world. To almost all living beings, it could easily have been ignored, for the very simple reason that they couldn't have known about it. But to those who could and did feel it, it rocked them to their core.An oni sitting inside his demonic palace stopped his guzzling of sake, and instead turned a curious eye out the window of the skull he had claimed as his home.
An old, punished elder momentarily halted in his steps, his sunken eyes shifting but unseen beneath the dark pits they had long receded into as old wounds flared to life.
Beneath the waves of the Calm Belt, creatures of fathomless strength and age stirred from their almost apathetic lives, not the least of which was the living landmass that had for so long grown placid to the world around her, and whose size dwarfed even the kings she could call children compared to her age.
And in a single movement unknowingly synchronized across the entire globe, every living reptile across the entire globe turned their heads towards the same direction, their unblinking gaze peering intently at what they knew had come to pass.
That, for the first time in thousands of years, the god of serpents had once more been reborn onto this world.
-O-
In a manor further away from the cataclysmic explosion caused by the newly made Zoan's transformation, a kneeling figure felt his cell shake, dust and a few stones coming loose from the ceiling and raining down upon his body, though no harm was inflicted upon him by this. Blearily, the figure opened his dull-red-colored eyes, and took in the sight of the guards frantically running past his cell door.
So, with a muted groan of strain, the figure rose to his feet, and lightly pulled on the chains binding his wrists in place. Just as another knight stopped to check on the inside of the cell, the figure's silhouette was lit up as electricity began coursing all over his body, while two large ghostly gauntlets formed above his body.
And before anyone could react, the soon-to-be-former-prisoner let the lightning he had held for so long erupt freely.
-O-
Being tossed around by a blast with enough impact force to shatter the walls of the mansion into sawdust and throw everyone around it like ragdolls, all without being unable to feel the impact itself or any of the immediate and aftereffects, was not an experience I ever saw myself going through in my life.
Then again, I had never expected to either be sent to the world where one of my favorite manga took place in, or that I'd end up with a front-row seat for the atrocities and barbarisms a human could sink to for over ten years, so my perspective was very much skewed.
Besides, if you were to ask me… I didn't remember much of those brief moments of chaos. As soon as the glow started, and my feet left the floor, all I could keep in mind was focusing on the flames on my back, keeping them alight and myself invulnerable as I tried to weather the storm. And to make extra sure I was one hundred percent focused on that, I even closed my eyes and let myself be taken by the wind, leaving me dead to the world until finally, I chanced opening my eyes to see if everything had finally ended.
But instead of the open world I expected from such a destruction, I was met with darkness kept at bay solely by the flames still burning on my back, and the sight of rough stone and wood piled atop me.
If I had the time to panic, I would have. But right now, I had people I needed to save, a hell to escape… and answers to get over whatever the hell was happening. Thankfully, even with the starvation diet the World Nobles ran us all through, my own biology kept me healthy enough that I had plenty of strength to spare, injured arm be damned, so with enough bracing I slowly managed to heave the stone and wood that kept me pinned down, allowing beams of blood-orange light to peek through the cracks bit by bit until finally, with one last heave, I managed to toss aside the last giant piece of concrete trapping me.
What awaited me… was hell. Not the metaphorical and emotional one I had gone through as a slave, however, but instead a quite literal one: ruins both large and small that dotted the landscape with bodies both living and dead scattered about, huge burning gouts of flame that seemed to rise all the way to the skies, and trenches wide and deep enough that they seemed as if the ground had been carved up by the devil himself with a gigantic finger… were it not for the actual culprit being in clear view, overtaking the horizon with their— with her body as a gigantic golden wall, glistening under the lights of the downright biblical destruction she was bringing to Mary Geoise, and dozens of serpentine heads that roared and shrieked as they continued to carve through the holy city and its land with abandon.
Even if, in a small corner of my mind, I knew Hancock was doing little more than lash out in anger and revenge, all of it caused by her sudden Zoan transformation and the impact of all the trauma she had gone through coming out at once… I couldn't help but be frozen. Frozen in awe, shock and fear. A primal kind of fear, something that grew from the very bottom of my heart, filled every inch of my body, and threatened to extinguish these fires that I had grown so trusting of with nothing but a single, effortless breath.
I didn't know what Hancock had become, but deep down, even if I couldn't give words to describe it… I knew, instinctively, what she was capable of.
The fact she was a good four or five kilometers away (or, rather, that I had been blown away that distance) didn't diminish that dread at all.
Still, there was still one feeling that anchored me to reality enough that I managed to, at last, get my legs moving once more: the fact that, right now, this was it. It might have been a year earlier than intended, but the slave breakout could… no, it would happen. One way or another, me and every other god-forsaken soul in this hellhole would escape.
But first, I had to find the others. Fisher Tiger, Aladine, Sonia, Mari, Tesoro, Stella, Koala, Hancock… I'd get them all out.
No one was getting left behind.
So, doing my best to ignore the titanic, multi-headed serpent raging on the horizon, I began running all over the wrecked landscape, checking every body that I came across and shoving rubble out of the way. By some miracle, many of the slaves I found were still alive, though plenty of them had injuries, some worse than others… and just as many were unmoving.
Some weren't even intact…
I'd have time to mourn later, though.
I did notice that there were no guards around us, whether dead or living ones, but frankly that would only serve to our advantage. Even if, technically speaking, we did outnumber them easily, said numbers were composed mostly of starving and abused slaves. Sure, desperation and adrenaline could help bridge some of that gap, but that would mean more deaths, and these people deserved to make it out of here.
And speaking of said people, amidst my searching, I finally found two of my priority targets underneath a huge pile of boulders and debris: Tesoro and Stella, the former covering the latter with his body to keep the debris away from her body, though judging by the number of bruises and cuts covering his body, Tesoro wouldn't have lasted much longer.
"Easy, I got you," I called out to them just as I pushed the last piece of debris away, Tesoro collapsing in a heap the second the rock was no longer atop of him. "Can you move?"
"Y-Yes, I can…" gasped out Stella in return, the woman shakily lifting herself from the ground to sit on her legs, only to quickly begin to worry over her erstwhile lover. "Oh, Tesoro…"
The man, in turn, weakly rolled over and smiled tiredly at her, shakily reaching out to touch her cheek. "S-Stella… I'm… so glad you're safe…"
"How are your injuries, Tesoro?"
"N-Not… that bad… I'm just… exhausted…"
That wasn't true, even I could tell that much. Tesoro might have become a massive threat later with his Devil Fruit, but here and now, he was just a normal human. Granted, a human native to the Grand Line, but still baseline at best, and Stella had been a prisoner just as long. These two wouldn't be any help in a fight… and we had plenty of it to go through.
"Oi, you three!"
That's when, miracle of all miracles, another voice called out to us, and which a quick turn of my head showed me was the best person I could have asked for the situation at hand: Aladine, moving as fast as he could on land with his tail, holding a (most likely pilfered) knight spear in one hand, and a dangling ring of keys in the other. "How hurt are you?" asked the merman promptly, his eyes flitting between the three of us as he took in whatever injuries he could see, a grimace quickly making itself at home in his face as he eyed the still bleeding hole of where the harpoon had punched through my arm, but I made sure to turn the wound away from him.
"I'm fine, but he's hurt badly," I replied quickly, motioning to the prone Tesoro. In a flash, Aladine was by his side, moving keys as he searched for the correct one to remove the collar. "What about the others?"
"About as bad as I expected, though most are mobile…" With the right key found, Aladine quickly unlocked the collar around Tesoro's neck, and let the explosive hunk of metal drop uselessly to the floor, before passing me the key ring. "Here, undo yours and hers, I need to check up on him."
So, with ease I could believe was practiced and routine to him, Aladine checked over Tesoro's body, his hands gently prodding and moving Tesoro's limbs as far as the man could take it, which as it turned out wasn't much, but the fact they could be moved at all was a blessing. "Hmm, his wounds aren't light, but they're not life-threatening, at least… he won't be able to walk, however."
"Can you carry him?" I asked as I finally managed to remove Stella's collar, before handing her the keys to open mine. As I expected, though, Aladine shook his head, the merman's expression dead serious as he turned to stare at the growing mob of slaves, just as my collar came free from my neck and dropped uselessly to the ground.
"Not if I want to help in the frontlines. We'll need every fighter we can get to escape."
"… I'll do it, then."
To my shock, however, and before I could offer myself or try and find a solution, Stella stepped forward with an utterly resolute look on her face, even as her legs faintly trembled. "I'll carry him out of here."
And it seemed it wasn't just me and Aladine who were surprised. In a supreme show of effort, Tesoro pushed his torso up with his elbows, and gave his future lover a pole-axed look of shock, pushing through the pain and strain of keeping himself in that position. "S-Stella… what are you—"
But the blonde did not let him finish, instead cutting him off with a raised hand and a shake of her head. "Tesoro… all this time, you've fought to keep me safe. Even all those years ago, I know how hard you struggled to buy my freedom." And with a strained, but radiant smile, Stella crouched down and caressed Tesoro's cheek with one hand. "So please, just this once, let me be the one to carry your burdens. Let me be the one who'll save you."
And in the face of that, all Tesoro could bring himself to do… was cry. Cry, and smile weakly as tears of pure joy streamed down his face, before slowly raising one hand to cover Stella's own. "Oh, Stella…"
As the two lovers had their moment, I pulled Aladine aside, and gave the merman the most serious look I could, one hand resting on his shoulder. "We need to find Tiger. He can rally everyone and get an escape going."
The merman, in return, gave me a firm nod, his grip on his stolen spear growing tighter as he stared at the now-gathering slaves. "Agreed. Are you going to look for him?"
"No… I got someone else to take care of."
At first, Aladine was confused by my statement. But when he caught me staring at the gigantic serpent tearing the horizon apart, he instead went completely bug-eyed, shock quickly overtaking his emotions. "Are you out of your mind?!" he cried out, motioning to the devastation surrounding us. "Look at what she's done already! You wouldn't survive a second up close, especially wounded like that!"
"You're wrong," I replied curtly, and my cutoff was so abrupt, Aladine almost stumbled with his words. "I can survive. In fact, out of all of us, I'm the only one who can survive this." Just as I finished that sentence, a thought flashed in my head, of three young girls huddled close to one another and me inside a dark, dreary cell, and my hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. "And… there's still people I need to save back there."
Aladine, however, did not reply to my declaration. Instead, the merman merely stared with that same hardened gaze, until finally he huffed out a sigh, then gave a resolute nod, before moving over to help Stella place Tesoro on her back. Right as they did so, a string of explosions went off not far from us, around where I knew the guard house and armory for them was located, from all the times I had carried the Nobles around in their palanquins. "That has to be Tiger…" muttered Aladine with a grin, while Stella and Tesoro merely stared at the nascent plumes of smoke and flame. Seeing that his intended target had been found, the merman turned back one last time to me, before promptly taking off towards Tiger's likely location, Stella and the other slaves following close behind.
And thus, I was left alone once more, with nothing but the sounds of Hancock's rampage and the resulting destruction echoing all around to keep me company.
Another flash of my time with the Boa sisters came to mind, and that was enough to finally get my legs moving.
That didn't mean it was easy to get there, however. Five kilometers was still five kilometers, and though I couldn't suffer fatigue with this body, traversing the terrain while earthquakes constantly made everything constantly shake and tremble was still a struggle, one that once more made me curse the fact I still couldn't properly use my wings to fly up to Hancock. At least the wound on my arm wasn't keeping me down, and the bleeding had started to slow, probably because of my metabolism or something.
So, onwards I went, dodging obstacles and ignoring the dead bodies I came across as best as possible (though a sick sense of satisfaction went through my head when I started coming across the few World Noble corpses I could spot), readying myself for whatever could end up coming my way.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
Which, admittedly, still did not mean much when I was blindsided by the massive electrical discharge that happened to my right, large and powerful enough that for a second, I actually wondered if Eneru was here, only to remember that was blatantly impossible.
And as much as I wanted to ignore it, if someone or something was causing a problem, it would be much better if I did something about it before I reached Hancock, regardless of how badly I wanted to go looking for her sisters. If the thing was an enemy, and I was caught with my back turned at the wrong moment, then we'd ALL pay the price for my negligence.
What I found waiting for me at ground zero, however, was most definitely not a potential enemy.
Instead, I saw a group of knights desperately trying to wrestle down a lone slave, flinging chains, ropes and hooks to try and bring him down to the ground, while the slave pulled and struggled against the bindings, flinging knights around like ragdolls while lightning coursed all over his body, and two huge ghostly gauntlets punched away with abandon at the surrounding enemies.
The slave had a… curious appearance. His hair was a long, wild pale blue mane, and his arms were covered in an intricate pattern of tattoos that ran from his shoulders to his hands, something that contrasted heavily with the heavy but ragged shirt and pants he still wore, of much better make than any of the clothes we had for ourselves. All in all, he looked like no one I remembered from One Piece, but right then, that didn't matter one bit. He was fighting the World Nobles' knights, he needed help, and I was gonna give it.
Right as I made to move towards him, however, one more detail became apparent to me: there was a tiny figure curled up at the slave's feet, unconscious and covered in scrapes.
The moment I saw Koala, my entire world went RED. I didn't even think, I just acted, immediately changing my sprint towards one of the knights, the flames on my back flowing into me and towards my arm, and making it slowly begin to glow orange and white.
Here's the thing about my fire: as long as it's burning, I'm downright invincible, but almost all my feelings are cut off. I can still hear and see, but smell, touch and taste become downright muted. It's like existing in a sensory deprivation tank, walking through the world with barely any way to feel anything.
But when my fire was gone, the opposite was true.
All my senses worked in absolute overdrive, assaulted with information it didn't have to process before. Every inch of my skin could feel the air, dust and heat a hundred-fold, sounds blared dozens of times louder to my ears, smells became overpowering no matter how minute they were, I could see further and clearer than ever before… and pain became acute, flaring my nerves like they were struck with hot iron.
But chief of all, the entire world would slow down to a crawl, whereas my speed would skyrocket.
I found that out by accident, while I was sitting inside my cell trying to practice with manipulating my fire. One time, I accidentally melted a part of the wall off, and in my panic, I shot to my feet and stupidly made to run towards it to try and do something about it. Instead, I blitzed through the entire cell and through the half-wrecked wall in the blink of an eye, and only stopped when I went through the wall from the cell neighboring mine.
It was an unreal speed, and I had yet to try and use it in a fight. But right now, consequences be damned, I would put it to use.
So, in a burst of speed that either matched or eclipsed a mastered Shave, I leapt right up to one of the knights, my hand already reaching for his head as the heat's glow grew even brighter.
"Wha—"
"DIE!"
I didn't have an attack name. I didn't care for that. All I wanted was to hit these people, hurt them, make them pay for the eleven YEARS that I had suffered under them and the Nobles, that I had to watch people suffer and die for the amusement of self-important scum. My hand wrapped all around the knight's helmet, and before he could even blink, I let the flames in my arm flow free.
A stream of fire shot out from my hand and enveloped the knight's head, illuminating the small battlefield with its fiery glow as the man's helmet flash-melted from the sheer heat, and his body spasmed in his few remaining living moments, his weapon and the chain he had been holding falling uselessly to the floor, while his comrades stood and watched in shock, and the unknown man stared in surprise. I don't know how long I kept up the fire, but by the time I pulled my hand back, nothing remained of the knight's head but smoke and ash, his body collapsing forward in a heap as the smell of carbonized flesh wafted from the stump.
At first, no one managed to quite react to my entrance. But soon, the shock wore off, and the knights began to move once more to try and attack me and their previous target. But against a beyond-human opponent and a clearly skilled fighter, and without the help of all the restraints they had on us until then? It was a losing battle from the start.
The long-haired man wasted no time in stepping forward and slamming the hovering gauntlets against two knights who made the mistake of getting close. Their insensate bodies were left buried in craters on the ground, their armors cracked and fractured and blood shooting out of their mouths. Another knight, who seemed to have a few more brain cells, tried to shoot down the man with his rifle, but to his utter shock, rather than striking flesh, the bullet instead ricocheted off a number of small translucent circles that appeared out of thin air, until it finally was bounced back towards the knight himself, who barely had time to start dodging before the projectile flew right between his helmet's view slit and pierced through his skull, dropping the knight with nary a scream of pain.
As the corpse fell, the man crossed his arms in front of his torso, an action that made the gauntlets retreat close to his body once more and hover over his shoulders. Suddenly, lightning began coursing over the man's arms, something that was mimicked by the ghostly limbs above, and a translucent dome covered both him and Koala…
"Grande! Relámpago Salvaje!"
Before a veritable storm of lightning erupted from the dome, shooting out indiscriminately and striking any knight unfortunate enough to be within its radius. The warriors spasmed and convulsed as their bodies were assaulted by hundreds of thousands of joules, the smell of cooked meat slowly wafting into the air, until finally the attack subsided, with both the lightning bolts and barrier disappearing, leaving the man free to dash forward and once more begin to pummel the knights with both his own hands and the gigantic gauntlets flanking him.
As for me, I allowed my flames to remain away from my back and focused instead on both my arms, leaving me free to dash amidst the knights at speeds they couldn't hope to match or perceive, striking them with impunity with my superheated fists. And with my senses overclocked, I felt every second of metal and bone crumpling under my blows, the smell of cooked flesh almost driving me crazy as their insanely loud shouts of pain rumbled against my ears.
But still, I didn't let that stop me, as I kept jumping from one knight to the other and I continued to wail on them as much as I could. There was no technique or finesse to my blows, I didn't have any training, nor did I have time to do any in captivity, even when I was forced into the gladiatorial fights. Instead, I simply punched and kicked like a madman, lashing out with blows that would definitely have been useless against any serious fighter, but that these knights could do nothing against but sit there and take them until they dropped, dead or dying. More than once, the control over my flames slipped, but rather than shoot out fire, my punches instead exploded against the knights' bodies, sending them charred and flying with their armors falling to pieces.
In all, the "fight", if you could even call it that, lasted barely four minutes. And by the end of it, me and the man were left standing and panting for breath, while the knights laid scattered around us, broken, dead or dying, with their weapons uselessly lying next to them in various states of destruction. Only when I made sure that no more guards were trying to attack us did I let my flames return to my back, dulling my senses once more and leaving me free to focus solely on the only other person still conscious amidst the carnage.
With confident strides, the other man walked towards me, Koala now safely held in his arms, until he stood at arm's length from me and looked up to my face. "Thanks for the help, friend," he said with a friendly smile, offering me a hand which, after a moment of hesitation, I took hold of and shook once.
"You're welcome," I replied, only to quickly turn my attention towards Koala, and feeling relief flood me when I saw her chest rising softly with every breath she took. I'd have to deal with that later, however. "Who are you?"
"Name's Adio, Adio Suerte. And you?"
"Ryoma."
"Glad to meet ya, then! Still, kind of strange you're running back in rather than away. Any reason you're doing that?"
I turned towards the snake still rampaging across the land, and Adio followed my line of sight, giving a quick hum of understanding as he took in the sight of the giant snake. "I see… is that someone you know?" asked the man, and when I nodded, he gave another hum in return. "It may be dangerous, even for a Lunarian. You know that, no?"
"I don't have a choice," I replied, refocusing my attention on him. "It's not only her I need to save, there's other people waiting for me." Just then, I realized the opportunity at hand, and I decided to take a blind shot. "Have you seen two slaves nearby? Two women, young, with green hair and orange hair, or snakes with that color?"
It was admittedly a non-sequitur, but thankfully Adio rolled with my question well enough, cupping his chin with one hand as he thought. Sadly, however, his response to my question was a shake of his head, even as he adjusted his grip on Koala. "No, can't say that I did. I got away from my cell and just tried to get to the armory to arm up. Only reason I stopped was because I saw her being manhandled by the knights.
"Alright… do you know where the armory is?"
"Of course."
"I'll go with you, then. If we can grab some more weapons we—"
"Tempest Kick."
A blade of wind bigger than either of us hit me full force on the back, toppling me before I even realized what was going on. A second blade passed over my prone body and slammed directly onto Adio, who barely had time to raise his free arm to summon a gauntlet into a makeshift guard to block the attack, pushing him a solid foot back away from me. The second I hit the ground, I pushed my body to the side and rolled…
BOOM!
Just in time to dodge the human missile that tried to slam against me, the attack kicking up a large dust cloud and cracking the ground even more. Quickly, I shot to my feet and took a sorry excuse of a ready position, hands raised to defend myself…
"It seems our information was correct."
Only to instead have my panic skyrocket as the dust cleared, and I caught sight of the figure clad in a pristine white suit staring at me through his mask, one hand buried thoroughly into the ground. "There indeed was a Lunarian amongst the slaves," continued the CP0 agent as he effortlessly pulled his jet-black hand free and rose to his full height. "And the Wanderer has escaped as well… No matter."
If I was aware of how absolutely shit out chances of winning were beforehand, it only became worse once five more agents landed next to the first one, all of them standing at the ready. It took all of my self-control to keep my flames wrestled and active, and even then I couldn't keep the tremor in my hands and legs away as I stared down the six deadliest people in this entire god-forsaken country, who were here seemingly just to bring me and Adio back in chains.
"Aegis Zero… shouldn't you be safe-keeping the World Nobles?" asked my erstwhile ally with a scowl, the apparent wanderer shifting his stance ever so slightly so that he was covering Koala's body with his own.
"Our mission does not concern you, prisoner. All you have to do is obey orders," answered another Cipher Pol, the man calmly withdrawing a pistol from within his coat. "And your orders are to surrender, and submit to punishment, as you deserve."
I barely had time to raise my arms before the gun was aimed at me and fired, the bullet smashing against my forearm with a loud CRACK. The dull grey seastone bullet fell to the floor, thankfully without leaving any wounds, but leaving me unable to react to the two Finger Pistols to my chest that two agents slid under my guard, the blows lifting off my feet and throwing me back with all the force of a cannonball, just in time for a third agent to Shave right over my flying form and launch a Tempest Kick that punched me into the ground. The remaining two agents, meanwhile, chose to move against Adio, their limbs blurring into indistinct masses as they threw attack after attack against the man, who only barely managed to block the attacks with his summoned gauntlet, though it was a stop-gap measure at best, considering all the nicks and gashes that the agents slowly but surely began to leave on his body.
I, however, did not have time to worry about that. The moment I was buried by the agent's attack, he flew down with a kick of Moonwalk, one hand once more outstretched in a Finger Pistol, this time aimed squarely at my eye. Before the attack hit, I jerked my head to the side, just in time for the digit to bury itself onto the soil instead of my eye, leaving the agent hanging in the air for the briefest of moments. In that split second, I reached up to try and grab his head or neck, only for him to instead kick off my body and disappear back to the surface, one last Tempest Kick being sent towards me and breaking against my torso as uselessly as the others. It still served its likely intended purpose, that being keeping me pinned down, but thankfully I still had strength in my limbs to pull myself free from the soil and jump up to the edge of the crater I'd been left in, grasping the edge with both hands before hoisting myself back to the surface.
The second I was out, I shot to my feet and scanned my surroundings for Adio. Just as I caught sight of the man, however, two CP0 agents blurred into existence right in front of me, their arms reared back and poised to strike.
And in that moment, out of pure desperation, I did the stupidest thing I could think of: I suppressed my flames.
The second I did so, the world once more slowed to a veritable crawl, only this time my opponents were still moving, and at something worryingly close to "normal" speeds, which only made me push even harder to dodge between them. Their legs came up to intercept, the air shimmering around the limbs as the Tempest Kicks began forming, so instead I dove over them and clumsily flapped my wings as best as possible, giving myself just enough airtime to fly over the limbs and land behind them. The feeling of rock and dirt scraping against my skin felt like heated sandpaper, forcing me to grit my teeth and snarl in pain to keep myself under control as I made a mad dash for Adio.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
Even with my speed and senses supercharged, the damned CP0 agents still kept up with me, flinging attacks that I was always just a sliver of a second early to dodge, probably because I only now realized they very likely had Observation Haki. Maybe not the future sight version of it, but the fact they could still anticipate my moves was bad enough, so instead of making good progress I was instead forced to zig-zag like crazy to avoid having my limbs lopped off.
And to make matters worse, if I brought back my flames to make myself invulnerable again, then I'd be too slow to avoid them, and we'd be stuck on the same song-and-dance of before. If I wanted to help Adio and Koala, I had to get to them now.
The sight of the building amount of blood coming from Adio's fresh wounds only made me push my speed harder still.
I couldn't afford to slip up…
"Flying Rapid Finger Pistol."
Until I did.
One of the agents attacking Adio twisted around midway through a kick aimed at the wanderer, and fired off four Flying Finger Pistols at me, right as I had pivoted away from an axe kick aimed at my head. Without any way to correct my fall, the strikes hit me right on my back, all four piercing through my skin and gushing blood into the air.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
And with my heightened sense of touch, the pain was EXCRUCIATING.
As I toppled to the ground in agony, reflex forced my flame to come alight again just so I could make the pain go away, and that was all the opening CP-0 needed. In a flash, three of the agents pinned my arms, legs and head down, forcing my face against the dirt and gravel and blocking any movement I wished to make. And every time I tried to make my fire explode to try and strike them, my instinct to keep the pain AWAY pushed right back, keeping the flames squarely on my back as I tried to wriggle against their grasp.
"It's over," intoned one of the agents atop me, his voice just as neutral as before, as he withdrew a pair of cuffs from his coat. "You lose."
And though I tried to struggle and trash against their hold, I couldn't do anything to stop them. All I could do was watch as, as if in slow motion, the two other CP0 agents finally broke through Adio's fragile guard, rending his arm with a large slash that makes the man hiss in pain, the ethereal gauntlet disappearing in a flash, and forcing him to drop Koala. My blood ran cold as I watched the little girl bounce off the ground like a ragdoll, and one of the agents turned minutely towards her, his hand already aimed at her fallen body and his finger reared back to put a hole clean through her head.
"S-Stop…"
And all I could do…
"Stop it!"
Was scream.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
That was when the world suddenly stopped moving.
I… I don't know if it was a metaphorical or a literal statement, but I still remember how acutely I felt when everything around me and everyone just seemed to freeze, and an almighty pressure fell on top of us like the heat of the sun itself. Even the Aegis Zero agents seemed to have felt it, if the way their hold on me slackened was any indication, but sadly I was too busy reeling from what felt like a full-scale mental assault to properly take advantage of that. Hell, even my focus on my flames waned completely under the strain, and even then, the sensory overload was left completely forgotten as, as slowly as I could, I craned my head up, and caught sight of everyone still awake all staring towards the same direction.
And when I pushed myself to follow their gaze, I felt my breath hitch in my chest as I took in the sight that had garnered everyone's undisputed attention. And really, who could blame them? Because when one is met with the sight of dozens of golden snakes, staring directly at you with those gigantic, pitiless emerald eyes that seemed to carry an entire world within themselves… what else can you do, but freeze up like a mouse?
None of us moved, not even twitched, as we stared up at the impossibly massive being… and then I blinked.
When I reopened my eyes, the space once occupied by the Aegis Zero agent who had been about to shackle me became devoid of his presence.
And faintly, on the horizon, I caught sight of one of the snake heads tossing a battered and bloodied white-clad body far off into the horizon, that soon disappeared amidst the choking smog.
The earth-shakingly loud cry from the remaining heads was all the warning I got before the rest of the agents scattered all around us with wordless Shaves, just as the snake heads went chasing after them, leaving me and Adio to watch as the battle unfolded above us.
Though truthfully, calling it a fight would have been a misnomer. Oh, Aegis Zero didn't lie down and let themselves be taken out, obviously, I would expect nothing less from the strongest Cipher Pol unit, responsible for keeping the World Nobles safe, and their professionalism in attempting to fight back against the monstrous Zoan that outweighed and outsized them by uncountable orders of magnitude was begrudgingly commendable… but it could only take them so far.
Whatever Zoan Hancock had been fed, it was leagues beyond any other Zoan I had seen in the anime or manga, to an almost ludicrous degree: the golden snake heads became metallic blurs as they chased after the jumping agents, each missed attack releasing shockwaves on the air and carving great gouts off the ground, and even then these misses were so near that the CP0 agents were slowly starting to lose pieces of their clothing to close-call bites. In contrast, all the attacks they launched against Hancock simply harmlessly bounced off her scaled body, be they Tempest Kicks, Flying Finger Pistols or even Haki-enhanced punches and kicks, with not even the tiniest of scratches to show for their effort.
And to my utter shock, soon, they started falling.
I saw one agent be slammed against a passing head, the man having just enough time to raise his jet-black arms in front of him in a makeshift guard before another head came flying in and slammed against him, both heads grinding against one another and letting loose sparks, until suddenly, a splash of blood spurted from between both, leaving a large smear on the side of each head.
Another agent continuously Moonwalked all around, firing wild Flying Finger Pistols and Tempest Kicks at any inch of Hancock's body he could target, when suddenly he was forced to dodge a passing head, only to have his upper half bitten off by a second head, leaving his legs to shoot up uselessly into the sky.
Yet another agent tried to dodge the attacks instead by going downwards instead of up, moving away from the multitude of heads still attacking his fellows, only to have his escape route cut short when Hancock's tail blurred into existence right above him and slammed him the rest of the way down with enough force to cause an earthquake, launching stone fragments of insane sizes up like they were pebbles, and forming a crater large enough to swallow down an entire warship.
The last two agents remaining, however, seemed to realize that death was not an acceptable outcome, and instead chose to try and retreat from the battleground, both of them combining Shave and Moonwalk to try and leave the area as quickly as possible. As if to try and aid on their escape, both agents fired off a combined Tempest Kicks, the wind blades fusing with one another into one massive projectile aimed at—
… At us.
I scrambled to my feet, pushing as much strength to my arms and legs as I ran towards both Koala and Adio, my wings flaring outwards to try and shield them from the attack, while Adio himself used his good arm to summon his ghostly gauntlet once more to strike back against the incoming blade of compressed wind.
SKRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
Only to be completely bowled over when, from out of nowhere, one of Hancock's heads passed right over us and slammed head-first against the blade of wind, breaking it into miniscule wisps of air that dispersed uselessly around her, before pushing forward once more with enough speed to cause a shockwave over us, aiming straight at the two agents.
And before either of them could dodge, the giant snake head collided head-on with the two…
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
And launched them far off into the distance, both agents turning into white streaks on the smoke-choked skies, before quickly disappearing over the horizon.
Slowly, I raised myself from the ground once more, and carefully eyed the perfectly-still multi-headed snake shadowing us from above. Once I noticed that Hancock did not seem keen to move just yet, I trudged over to where Adio and Koala had landed, and was met with the sight of the man tightly clutching the little girl against his chest, his slashed arm hanging limp at his side, and blood flowing down his face from a cut across his temple.
"Can you move?" I asked breathlessly as I propped his body up as best as I could against myself.
"Yeah… yeah, just about," grunted back the wanderer, a ragged cough punctuating his statement as he did his best to stand up. "Thanks for the help…"
"No problem."
Once I was sure Adio wasn't about to keel over, I glanced back up to Hancock, only to feel my blood freeze when I realized that she was now staring directly at us, the multiple heads hovering above us and turning the skies into an ever-shifting mass of golden scales and brilliant emerald eyes peering down at us. Even without a sense of touch, I somehow felt a chill travel down my back, my grip on Adio growing tighter as I heard him swallow dryly.
"This is the part you say you're very good friends with them, Ryoma…" muttered the wanderer with no small amount of nervousness, his grip on Koala tightening just a smidge more as he shifted his footing by the slightest amount. "For both our sakes…"
"I am," I replied sotto-voice in return, my attention never wavering from the gargantuan Zoan towering over us. "I just hope she remembers that…"
And so, we waited… and waited… until…
… Rrrrrruuummmmmbbbbllllleeeee…
Before our very eyes, the snake's enormous body began to move and shift in a sea of dizzying movements, the heads shifting around as, one by one, they began to just… vanish. Not in the usual Zoan way, either, they simply dissolved into so much gold dust, all the while the snake's main body encroached upon us with a bone-shakingly loud rumble. Just as the last head began to fade away, the body finally reached us just in time for it to begin dissolving into dust as well.
And from within the disappearing body appeared three people whom the sight of almost made me tear up in utter relief: Hancock, Sandersonia and Marigold, all huddled together. The latter two were as beaten and battered as I expected, even if they were surprisingly still awake, but Hancock… She was completely unscathed. There was not a scratch or bruise upon her body, even if the young woman looked dead on her feet out of sheer exhaustion, her rags looked ready to disintegrate under the slightest breeze, and her eyes, rather than the normal black, were shining just as emerald as the colossal serpent's had been moments before.
Wearily, the three Kuja stumbled towards us, their legs shaking the entire way through, until finally, they stopped just a few steps away from me and Adio, all five of us just… staring at one another, at an utter loss of words…
"… Ryoma…"
That is, until Hancock finally spoke up, her tone soft and weak, almost a whisper… but doing nothing to diminish the utterly relieved smile that graced her face, even as tears slowly welled up on the corner of her eyes.
"You… came back…"
Sonia and Mari, in turn, remained stoically beside their sister, even as their arms began to shake, and their own tears began to fall freely to the ground.
In the end, it was just... too much, even for me. So, as soon as I felt Adio push himself away from me with a grunt of effort, I took one step closer to the three Kujas.
It was all I had time to do before the sisters threw themselves forward with what little strength they still had on their bodies, leaving me just enough time to kneel and pulled the three into as gentle a hug as I could manage, while they in turn did their best to wrap their arms around my larger body, and my wings folded forward to envelop us all in a black, feathery blanket.
And in that moment, against every instinct that had been drilled into me by my life so far… I willed my flames away. I let my senses come back, flooding me with all the pain and fatigue that I had accumulated until now in my desperate fight brawl only minutes ago, a rolling tide of sensations that would have thrown me into shock at any other moment.
I felt all that, and then pushed it all away, letting myself be focused instead on the warmth of the three young women who I had come to save, on the wetness their tears left on my skin… and that my own tears, falling free and falling plentiful, left across my face, as I pressed my head against theirs.
"… Thank you…" whispered Sonia, just loud enough for me to hear, but that seemed to give her just enough strength to give me one last squeeze.
"You're welcome…" I answered back, somehow keeping my voice level even as I dug a hand through her hair, feeling the grimy, rough locks slide past my fingers. "I'd never leave you behind, never…"
That comment drew a sob from Marigold, who pulled back just enough to raise her head and look me in the eyes, her eyes watery and puffy from the crying. "We know…"
Sadly, as much as I wished for the moment to last forever, it was quickly interrupted when, off in the distance, a positively titanic explosion sounded, at the same time a large cloud of fire and smoke rose high above. As one, we all turned our heads toward it, though Hancock almost toppled to the ground with that simple movement, thankfully kept from doing so by the tight grip of her sisters and me. The damage, however, was done, and the moment I pulled Hancock back to her feet, the young Kuja had already gone unconscious, her breathing thankfully still even and controlled.
"That came from the docks… the slaves must be headed there," said Adio aloud, the man shifting himself until he stood completely upright, all traces of weariness pushed aside in lieu of blazing and firm determination. "There's tons of pleasure ships there, we can steal one and escape. But first we have to hit the armory."
With a nod, I pulled myself away from the sisters' embrace, and reignited my flames, finally allowing the returned pain to vanish into nothingness. Then, with utmost care, I shifted my grip on Hancock until I had her on a bridal carry, before I turned to the sisters and gave them a slow nod. "Let's go."
Sonia and Mari, in return, gave me shaky but determined nods, before slowly closing their eyes. A moment later, their bodies morphed and shrunk until both had once more become the green anaconda and orange king cobra that they had previously turned into, and who promptly slid over my body until they had wrapped around my torso and arm, respectively.
With that done, I turned back to Adio, and watched as he placed Koala on the ground, took off the remains of his ragged shirt, and then tore that into two large pieces of cloth, one of which he wrapped around his bleeding arm with only a minor wince of pain, and the other of which he tied into a crude but large sling that was tied around his torso, the larger side of the cloth upon his back. With that done, he then turned towards Koala, and stretched out his good arm towards her.
"Médio."
Once again, an ethereal gauntlet appeared out of the air, this one smaller than the ones he had been using to fight, and floated over to gently grab Koala, before carefully placing her between the cloth and his back. With that done, Adio dispelled the gauntlet, and gave the makeshift sling one final tug to make sure the girl on his back was secured, before giving me a nod. "All set."
"Let's go, then."
And so, Adio took off in a sprint, with me following closely behind.
First, we'd arm up. Then, we'd rain hell on whatever guards were left.
We were getting out of here, no matter what.
-O-
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
With a wrathful roar, Fisher Tiger brought down the stolen claymore against the haft of the knight's spear, breaking the wooden pole in two and driving the blade through the gap between the torso and arm plating. Blood spurted into the air as the claymore sliced into the man's shoulder, forcing him to drop his ruined weapon with a scream of pain.
Said scream was abruptly interrupted when, in taking advantage of the brief window, Tiger withdrew his pilfered pistol from its holster, took aim at the helmet's visor, and fired. The heavy round tore into the knight's head and exploded out the helmet's back, ending the man's life and making his corpse drop like a stringless puppet to the ground. Beside him, Aladine used his newly appropriated trident to punch right through the neck of another knight, and quickly followed up by hoisting the body up and throwing it at the line of entrenched defenders still trying to keep them away from the docks.
"Them", of course, being Tiger himself, and the veritable horde of freed slaves doing their best to drown the knights in bodies and weapons. And "drowning" was an apt description for what the slaves were currently doing.
Rounding them up and galvanizing them into revolting had been, surprisingly enough, the easy part of the process. Given the chance at freedom, and seeing the dead bodies of their torturers, most of the slaves had been more than willing to revolt and strike back. Those too broken to keep going had been instead carried by the slaves with more strength left in their bodies, particularly the giants, who had taken armfuls of people on their laps and were doing their best to shield them from harm.
The rest, after having raided what armories and security rooms they could find for every single firearm, melee weapon and explosive stashed in them, had devolved into a mass of wrathful revenge, screaming and howling like animals as they charged out into the open. And at the helm of the horde had been Tiger himself, hefting his own stolen weapons and charging at the few knights who still stood to stop them.
Run! All of you, run now! Be free! Make for the gates, and don't look back! And if you can't escape, then die! Die and find freedom in death!
It had been his rallying cry, and it had been one they had taken to with fervor. Any opposition, any obstacle, any hurdle on their path, they had trampled over with abandon: barricades were broken through, knights were dogpiled or shot on sight, and any mansions they came across were put to the torch and sacked, their slaves freed.
And it was not only Tiger's band who was taking advantage of the appearance of the giant Zoan to escape: across Mary Geoise, explosions and fires blossomed intermittently, the sounds of battle filling the air as a macabre background orchestra to their revolution, and showing that others had grown just as bold.
That is not to say, however, that all of them had survived so far…
BOOM!
"AAAAAAARRRGHHHHHH!"
A fact that was punctuated by another score of slaves being blown back (and some apart) by a battery of cannons the knights had managed to set up at the final gate, the last one before their goal: the Celestial Dragons' personal docks, where all their pleasure ships were docked.
And befitting a vessel meant for World Nobles, they were ostentatious, packed with essentials… but most importantly, they were big. The perfect getaway ships, once they took them into the canals leading to the Grand Line. But first, they had to get to them. And that meant getting through the blockade.
When the knights tried to ready the cannons again, they were met with a full volley of rounds from the slaves' plethora of guns. And while they scored few kills due to the enemy quickly diving under cover to protect themselves, it did mean they had bought enough time for some of the slaves to dive under cover themselves behind the rubble and makeshift barriers they had started lifting, with Tiger himself quickly sliding up to a particularly large piece of masonry that had landed down on the halted travelators.
"Tiger!"
The call of his name heralded the arrival of Aladine by his side, the merman still clutching his new trident, but also pressing against a gash on his side. Along with him, however, was another face that Tiger had seen a few times during his "stay" on Mary Geoise: Stella Argenti, who was carrying both her companion, Gild Tesoro, on her back, and was hefting a long automatic rifle she had pilfered from the arsenal.
She hadn't yet missed a shot with it.
"Still going strong, I see," said Aladine with a lopsided grin, though his confidence was undercut by the sudden grimace of pain that crossed his face. "Better than some of us, I guess…"
"How bad is it?" asked the seabream Fishman, glancing at his ally's bleeding wound even as he holstered his pistol, and instead unslung one of his bazookas.
"I can keep going, if that's what you want to know. Damn grapeshot…"
"Better keep your heads down, then," called Stella with a huff as she adjusted her grip on her rifle, sweat and blood caking her body in equal measures. Suddenly, the woman pushed herself up and fired her rifle towards the barricade, before quickly crouching back behind their cover, the screams of pain her attack had caused being promptly silenced by the rapport of the knights' own guns. "Dammit, they're too entrenched…" Letting out a weary sigh, the woman then turned her attention to the man on her back, her face shifting from anger to concern in a flash. "Tesoro, dear?"
"Still… still awake, Stella," replied the man, even as he weakly grabbed another magazine from the bag of ammo slung around Stella's waist, now significantly lighter compared to when it had been found, and offered it to the woman, who promptly took hold of it and used it to reload her weapon. "I'm not… letting you do this alone…"
"Thank you, Tesoro…"
"It still won't mean much if we don't get past them," said Tiger gruffly. Just then, the four saw another group of slaves rush the barricade with guns blazing, all of them with wide-eyed looks of insanity and panicked screams. While they did make good headway towards the gate, some shots even downing a few knights who had been caught out-of-place trying to reload the cannons, their charge soon met its match when the cannons that had reloaded fired once more, and the slaves were cut down to the last by the storm of metal shrapnel, their bodies disappearing amidst the smoke and fire. "Dammit…"
"The giants are too busy keeping the slaves safe, they can't help us either," said Aladine, his statement punctuated by another round of cannonade erupting from the gate's direction, only this time it was aimed over the gathered attackers, and at their far larger allies huddled close to one another far behind their lines. As expected of full-blooded giants, they weren't even fazed by the explosive rounds, but they did press themselves even closer, their backs turned to shield the slaves on their laps from any harm. "We need to charge them all together, it's the only way."
"I won't make these people kill themselves for our sake. Human or not, they still deserve freedom!"
"Neither of you are wrong—"
BOOM!
"But we need an answer now, or we're all dead."
"ATTENTION ALL KNIGHTS!"
Sadly, before any of the four slaves could continue their train of thought, their attention was caught by an extremely nasal, pompous, and most of all infuriating voice echoed over the battlefield from the direction of the gate.
And who else could the speaker be, but a Celestial Dragon, waving an ebony-and-gold pistol on one hand, and a spiked cat o' nine tails on the other. His clothes were torn and burnt, and his face was a mass of bruises and cuts, but his sneer was still unmistakable, and the blatant arrogance the man exuded was enough to make Tiger grind his teeth in anger, and Stella's grip on her rifle tremble.
"THESE DETESTABLE HEATHENS DARED TO STRIKE BACK AGAINST THEIR MASTERS!" screeched the Celestial Dragon as he waved his gun around, taking potshots at whatever group of slaves the muzzle happened to be pointing at. "KILL THEM ALL! I WANT THEM DEAD, I WANT THEIR CORPSES STRUNG UP ON THE WALLS OF MY MANSION! DON'T STOP UNTIL ALL THIS SCUM IS CRUSHED BENEATH YOUR BOOTS!"
"Tch… arrogant--!!"
"Stella WAIT--!!"
Just as she peered over to fire her rifle at the very conspicuous target, Stella was toppled onto the ground by Tesoro pressing all his body's weight down onto her. Before his beloved could voice her anger, however, Tesoro was proven extremely correct in his course of action, for the moment Stella disappeared behind the masonry once more, dozens of bullets whizzed past the space her head had been occupying previously and buried themselves behind the group, one even scraping against Tesoro's arm and leaving a bloody gash on the limb, though the only reaction from the man was a wince.
With a growl, Tiger aimed his bazooka blindly over their cover and fired a wild shot in the general direction of the gate. And while his attack was rewarded with a very cathartic cry of pain, the return fire from the cannons made their cover shudder and crack, something which drew a wince from Tiger. "Dammit… alright, listen up—"
Before he could voice what his plan was, however…
BOOM!
Another explosion rang out. And two things actually grabbed his attention regarding this explosion: that it had happened on the gate…
And that whoever made that shot, they hadn't been nearby.
"WHAT?!" came the shrill scream from the World Noble standing atop the gate, the man almost falling off his perch atop the gate. "WHO DARES--?!"
The answer to that question, as it turns out, was quickly given to those present when another round of explosions blasted the knight line, this time much closer to the cannons and their powder reserves, even as several more knights were sent back from the direct hits, and the World Noble was finally tossed back behind the gate, leaving the erstwhile leaders of the rebellion free to follow the smoke trail of the rounds to their source.
It was all of these things that led to Fisher Tiger and his allies seeing two more slaves, one with black wings and flames burning on his back, and another with a mane of pale-blue hair, charging towards the gate with a small band of screaming slaves, both of them carrying injured girls (and two snakes wrapped around the winged one's body), and toting guns of their own: the former, a large shoulder-propped bazooka, the other a multi-barrel pistol.
"FORWARD!" roared the winged slave, even as he tossed aside the bazooka and pulled a large-bore triple-barreled rifle from behind his waist. "RUN THEM DOWN! KILL THEM! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!"
"Ryoma!"/"He made it…" breathed Stella and Tesoro in utter relief. However, said relief was quickly challenged by the sound of a new volley of gunfire roaring over from the gate, no doubt from the guards trying to put down these new reinforcements.
And while some rounds did find their mark, and downed handfuls of slaves onto the ground…
"GRANDE!"
Just as many more were halted by the pair of gigantic glowing gauntlets that suddenly sprung to life between the slaves and the approaching gunfire. Bullets and cannonballs halted in mid-air as they collided with the gauntlets, the wild-haired man's face contorting in concentration as he pulled back his lightning-coated arms.
"BALA TEMPESTA!"
Before promptly throwing them forward, launching the ordnance back at its origin.
The results were, naturally, explosive: cannons and gunpowder exploded in storms of fire and metal shards, knights screamed as the suddenly much faster returning rounds and burning shrapnel that erupted from all around them, and the gate itself buckled and groaned under the sheer number of detonations. And though the massive doors did not fall, the damage was done: the knights' defensive line had been broken, and the path was finally open.
"Figures he wouldn't croak that easy," said the merman, before turning his attention back to Tiger, grinning. "We got our back up, let's make it count."
With a grunt of agreement, Tiger shot to his feet and fired off another shot at the knights, before unsheathing his sword and swinging it towards the gate. "FORWARD, NOW! ONE MORE PUSH AND WE'LL BE FREE!"
"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The primal, all-encompassing ROAR of response from the slave horde seemed to shake the Red Line itself, and heralded the beginning of the quaking stampede as the thousands of escapees rushed towards the beleaguered gatekeepers, rattling and firing their weapons wildly as they went. There was no cohesion, no organized lines, simply the mob mentality and desperation to be free driving these people forward towards the gate, and towards the few knights left standing who had just enough time to lift their weapons, before the slaves were upon them.
They didn't last seconds. Any weapon the knights could bring to bear could only take out a slave or two before they were mobbed by the rest of them, and their armor could only protect them for so long before the blades and bullets found their way into the gaps. Soon, even the newly arrived slaves had reached the gates, and started to bang against the massive wood-and-metal slabs, while Tiger and his allies stood back and watched as the so-called Ryoma and his companions approached.
"Glad to have you back, Ryoma," said Stella with a tired smile, only for her eyes to widen when she caught sight of the blood running down the sides of his body. "You're hurt!"
"It doesn't hurt, trust me," he replied with nary a wince, even as the two snakes wrapped around him slithered down from his body and, right in front of their eyes, transformed into two young women dressed in the same slave garbs as most of them. "Sonia, Mari, everything alright?"
"We're fine… just need to get out of here…" replied the green-haired one with a grimace. Her attention then shifted to the unconscious girl still held in his arms. "Hancock--?"
"Safe, for now."
"We'll save the introductions for later, then," cut in Tiger gruffly, the fishman stepping up to stare down (quite literally, as it turned out) at the winged slave. "There's ships on the other side of that gate, once we get through, we can get out of here."
"How are ships going to help us, we're on top of the Red Line," asked Ryoma incredulously. "Shouldn't we head to the elevators?"
His companion was quick to answer said question, quicker than Tiger even, by pointing past the gates with his pistol. "The elevator isn't the only way out of this place, Ryoma," said the man. "Celestial Dragons won't let their ships stay on 'plebeian' docks, so they bring them up here by elevator, and when they need to go down, they ride down the Heaven Falls."
Once the man finished his part, Tiger gave him a nod, then turned back to Ryoma. "There're canals for the ships to return to the Grand Line, and they're fast enough that we can lose any pursuers. All we need is to break through." As if to punctuate that statement, the cries of the slave mob grew even louder, many of the slaves that had stopped to kill the last knights now joining on the effort to push the gates open. Yet still, shockingly, the gates held firm under the onslaught, with nary a groan to show for the effort, something that elicited a frustrated growl from the fishman. "Dammit…"
"Let me handle that."
With that confident declaration, the blue-haired man strode forward, flexing his fingers as he approached the door, and his ghostly gauntlets appeared over him once more.
"Grande. A Jien Te!"
In a flash, both gauntlets flew forward, and sank into the gate's doors, which soon became enveloped by the same lightning as the man's arms. His face quickly turned into a scowl as, slowly but surely, the man began to draw his arms back, his hands trembling all the while, blood starting to seep into the makeshift bandages wrapped around his injured arm. And, just as slowly, the gates began to open, until finally, after an agonizingly long wait, the doors swung open, leaving the path to the newly-revealed boats open.
But the mob did not rush through immediately. No, they instead were frozen by the sight of what awaited them past the gates, aside from the boats…
Celestial Dragons.
The one that had been shooting at them from atop the gate was still on the floor where he had fallen, one leg bent at a strange angle, and his weapon nowhere to be seen. But along with him, several more had been caught midway through running away, standing atop ramps leading to their ships, or whipping what few slaves they still had under their thrall to carry their excesses onto the pleasure ships.
But the most damning thing that the slaves became acutely aware of was the fact that there were no guards present. Something that, judging by the blooming dread on their faces, the World Nobles themselves seemed to be quite aware of.
Still, even more shocking than the previous wait, was the one currently happening. Neither slaves nor World Nobles moved, simply staring at one another… until someone moved.
It was Ryoma.
The young man paced slowly to the forefront, movements eerily calm, and his grip on the unconscious girl on his lap still firm. He walked until he stood right in front of the injured noble on the ground, face hidden from the slaves.
But in the end, Tiger knew what was about to happen.
-O-
They say revenge is empty.
That it leaves you unfulfilled, purposeless, and makes you no better than the person you took revenge upon. And to be honest, people are right, for the most part. The thing about revenge, is that you need to have something past it, a goal to guide you and serve as an anchor for the future.
But something that people don't, and really couldn't consider, is that this only applies in a world that is… civilized. Normal. Right.
None of which applied to the world I was in.
None of which applied to the things I had lived through, ever since I'd gotten here. The things I'd seen and heard, even when I couldn't feel those done to me.
Revenge… revenge felt like the perfect retribution against the thing currently at my feet. The injured, fearful, hateful thing that had been the reason for my torment.
For everyone's torment.
I could just… reach down and snap his neck. Torch him with my flames, beat him to a pulp, shoot him dead… I had so many options on how to do this…
But I knew, I just knew none of them would satisfy me. Because this… I wouldn't feel anything from it. Not now. Someday, maybe, when I regained my humanity, but not now.
Still… there was something I could do. Something that would be far more satisfactory to other people. So, without a word, and ignoring the indignant stare the injured noble had aimed at me, I hefted him up with a single hand…
And threw him back to the mob behind me.
The Dragon bounced once he hit the ground, his head scraping against the ruined dirt until he finally stopped, right in front of the slaves… who were all, to a one, staring at the prone Noble with wide, trembling eyes. Eager eyes.
I then turned back to the remaining Dragons, the ones halfway to their ships, and gave them all the same dead-eyed stare that I had held for all the time under their ownership.
"… They're all yours."
The sound that followed my borderline whispered words didn't have a proper single descriptor to it. No words, adjectives, or expressions could properly give it justice, not without having witnessed it yourself, heard it crash against you like an all-consuming wave.
It was… it was the sound of pure, final vindication.
What followed was the horde of slaves running past me like rabid animals towards the remaining Celestial Dragons, almost piling atop one another to get to the Nobles who were now scrambling to try and get away. Some made it a few steps before being dogpiled.
Others were, ironically enough, held in place by the very slaves they had decided to abuse one last time.
But I didn't pay much attention to it, or even let myself get distracted. I simply clutched Hancock closer to my body, and wrapped my wings around us both. Even without a sense of touch, I hugged her as tightly as possible against me, until finally, I raised my head and took off running towards one of the closest ships, the one where I could see Tiger, Aladine, Stella, Tesoro and the Boa sisters running towards. About halfway there, I was joined by Adio, the man still with Koala hanging from the sling around his chest, and an unhealthy amount of blood covering his arms up to his biceps.
"You're tagging along?" I asked, shouting just enough to be heard over the sounds of the mob.
"Kehahahaha! Something like that," he laughed back in response, his eyes glinting with a strange danger to them. "Consider this me returning the favor for helping me out. Still got some business to solve, but let's talk later!"
With a simple nod as response, I refocused my attention on the ship we were running towards, one of the many oversized galleons loaded with enough guns to match a light warship, and which many of the slaves were already piling aboard of. We both quickly ran up one of the ramps leading to the deck (while also ignoring the blood stains leading into water next to the ramp), with Adio running off to prepare for takeoff, passing by Sonia and Mari doing the exact same. Since I lacked any sailing knowledge, I instead rushed to Aladine, and gently handed Hancock over to the merman, who promptly took off to below decks, no doubt to keep her safe and to treat any injured, leaving me standing on the deck, watching the slaves continue to rush aboard.
It was this that allowed me to watch up-close as the three giants I had seen carrying slaves stepped into the bay, walked over to some of the other ships, and carefully placed the armfuls of people down onto the deck, allowing the slaves still unoccupied to carry them to the ships' interiors. I was just about to call out to them, ask how they would join us…
BOOM!!!
That is, until a MASSIVE explosion bloomed off in the distance. One that, worryingly, made the giants' heads turn towards it, grimaces clear on their faces.
I barely had time to register that fact before, with an almost imperceptible nod, the three rose to their full height once more, and began walking back.
Towards the explosion.
After another moment of gaping, I managed to unscrew my thoughts, and ran down the ramp again until I was back on the shores. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! WE HAVE TO GO, NOW!" I roared as loudly as I could, my voice cracking midway through.
"No can do, little one!" shouted back one of the giants, a bearded one that apparently was the leader of the trio. "We got trouble headed our way, and someone has to keep it busy!"
"And we're the toughest ones left that can fight!" said another giant, a younger-looking man with arms covered in scars. "We'll cover your escape, so get going!"
"NO! WE CAN STILL MAKE IT, COME ON! WE JUST NEED TO--!!"
But no matter how hard I thought… nothing came to mind. I couldn't think of a plan, an excuse, anything to convince them to come. And worst of all, I knew they were right. Whatever was coming for us, we wouldn't be able to stop it, unless someone stayed behind as a distraction.
"… Just… need to…"
It was a death sentence… but it had to be done, and it made me clench my hands in frustration as I let my gaze fall to the ground.
"… Dammit…"
"Little one."
Before I could spiral any harder, however, my head was gently lifted by a finger several times my size, making me stare at the grey eyes and almost matronly smile of the third and final giant, a woman with short red hair and a scar running across the bridge of her nose.
"You and the others still have a long life ahead of you all," she spoke softly, far more than I thought a giant possibly could. "We all lived a lot, already. And we made peace with dying a long time ago."
"Besides, there's nothing more honorable than falling in battle while holding the line against a great foe!" added the bearded one with a boastful, almost cheerful tone. "They will sing songs about us in great Elbaf! Glorious songs!"
"A deed worthy of granting us a seat amidst our forefathers in Valhalla," finished the younger one with an eager grin, even going as far as pumping his fists together.
The giantess in front of me gave her two companions a nod, then turned back towards me, her smile never wavering an inch. "Indeed… so don't worry, little one. Go, and live your life free, away from these walls."
And with that, she stood to her full height once more, turning back towards Mary Geoise and moving to stand beside her companions once more. Just as she was about to reach them, however, she turned back once more to me, this time with a hint of sadness on her face. "Little one… may I ask one last favor from you?"
"… Yes?" I barely croaked out, fighting the urge to turn away from her.
"If… no, when you reach Elbaf's shores… tell my son…" she took a shuddering breath, then steeled herself once more, her nails digging into the palm of her hands so tightly that I even caught sight of a trickle of blood running down her fingers. "… Tell them… tell them that Jord, Baugi and Billingr died with honor. And… tell my son Thor that I… that I love him."
"… Of course…"
"… Thank you."
And that… was that.
I didn't dare cry, even as I turned back towards the ship, and ran full tilt back aboard, just in time for the anchors to be raised and the sails to be dropped, the hot winds of the inferno raging behind us quickly pushing our ship, and all the others, forward.
There were no guards manning the sea gate that tried to stop us. Maybe they never expected someone to try and run away through here, it didn't quite matter. It still meant the path was open for us all to reach the Heaven Falls and make our escape.
-O-
As they watched the ships rush away from this accursed land, Baugi, Billingr and Jord felt lighter than they ever had been for the last thirty years. The three giants turned back towards where the explosions had come from, and consequently, where their Observation Haki could tell was a group of enemies of a caliber they were quite aware they wouldn't survive against.
"Heh… ever thought you'd die while standing atop heaven, Billingr?" asked Baugi with a grin, the older giant cracking his neck as he spoke. In return, the younger giant gave a rueful chuckle, and slapped his older comrade's back.
"Urohrohroh! Never, old man! Though I guess I am surprised we both got here at the same time! Thought you'd get there first, what with you being such a fossil!"
"Bah, cheeky brat. I'm only a hundred ahead of you, and it means I got a hundred years more worth of accomplishments than you do!"
Watching her two last companions she'd have for the future bicker as if they weren't facing their death, Jodr couldn't help but chuckle, hands on her hips as she shook her head. "Leave it to you two to ruin the moment…" she said with amusement, though a moment later, said feeling vanished in lieu of focus. "… Are you both ready?"
And just like that, both giants steeled themselves, Billingr even going as far as thumping his chest with his fists, while Baugi merely let out a wistful sigh, before raising his head once more towards the heavens. "Ah… what a day… What a lovely day!"
"We ride eternal, we ride glorious, and we ride with fury!" continued Jodr, the giantess' voice rising with every word, while beside her, Billingr stomped his feet against the ground.
"If we're to die, we'll die historic, with our ancestors' eyes to watch over us!"
"WE ARE THE ONES WHO GRASP THE SUN, RIDING TO VALHALLA!"
Their voices rose with every word, the three giants stepping forward as each of the three spoke, their footsteps slowly but surely growing stronger and quicker as they began to run, towards the greatest fight of their lives.
"WE LIVE, WE DIE, WE LIVE AGAIN!"
Towards the most glorious, most honorable of deaths.
RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
And so, with an earth-shaking roar, the last giants in Mary Geoise entered the defaced holy land once more, ready to die for the future of others.
"WITNESS US, FOREFATHERS!"
For though they may die, they would die fighting.
"WITNESS!!!"
And to them, that was enough.
-O-
Looking back, without the weight of everything hanging over my head, I can still recall how honest-to-goodness majestic the canal was: the safety railings lined with gold from top to bottom, the ivory arches towering over even the ships we had stolen, the roar of the water flowing down towards the seas below… It reminded me of Reverse Mountain, in a way, and at least once I caught myself wondering if perhaps one had been built to emulate the other.
How fitting, then, that we were escaping to the Grand Line in such a manner.
The wind whipped around us like a tornado, the waters of the canal splashing past the hull and onto the deck, toppling some of the weaker slaves and drenching the ones who still could stand from head to toe. Those of us who had sea legs and hadn't yet forgotten them were still moving around, manning the rigging and sails as best they could, or in Adio's case, manning the helm to keep us from bouncing against the walls of the canal… or, as it turns out, against other ships.
For all the canal was wide enough to fit ships comfortably, the builders probably never expected so many ships to ride it down simultaneously. More than once, our ship either bumped the one in front of us, or was bumped by the one behind, sometimes to the point of pile up.
And if this kept going…
CRASH! SPLASH!
Then losing the ship's figurehead would be the least of our troubles.
"Keep us steady! We'll sink at this rate!" shouted Mari as she pulled on the sails' ropes alongside Sonia, their arms shaking as they fought against the furious winds.
"Easier said than done!" grunted Adio in return, and judging by the fact his arms were wrapped in his gauntlets as he gripped the steering wheel, he wasn't lying. "Best I can do is make the less-important bits hit!" As if to punctuate his statement, the ship behind us struck our own vessel, far rougher this time, sending almost everyone off their feet and making both Sonia and Mari spit out a string of curses when their grasp on the ropes slackened, causing it to rub their hands raw before they finally got it under control. "Dammit--!!"
"How much longer?!"
"End point coming! Brace yourselves!"
Mari's question was quickly answered, as it turns out, by Tiger, the fishman's shout carrying over the roaring wind by his powerful voice. And indeed, when I finally managed to wobble up to the prow, I caught sight of the end of the canal, and beyond it… the open sea.
Freedom. It was right there.
…
And so was the pile-up of ships that had only now started to move out of the way.
"BRACE YOURSELVES, NOW!"
There was barely a moment for us to hold onto whatever anchor was near us, before our ship crashed into the water. The whiplash was brutal, and regardless of my lack of tactile senses, I was almost launched clean over the railing of the ship, the only thing saving me being my chest colliding with said railing. Behind me, I could hear the rest of the "crew" being tossed to the ground…
SPLASH!
"SONIA!!!"
As well as a panicked cry that made my blood freeze.
The ship had barely stopped gliding across the water, but I was already running to where Marigold was standing, staring down at the sea with naked horror. And I only took one second to look at the small patch of rippling water that I was sure had been where Sandersonia had fallen, before I leapt off the ship and dove into the sea.
It was a strange sensation, to hit the water, but feel no cold from the water or it lapping against my skin. The fact that it was still nighttime meant that it should also be dark, but surprisingly, the flames on my back were doing a surprisingly good job to illuminate my surroundings, and the lack of irritation against my eyes meant I could see shockingly well underwater.
Which meant I could clearly see Sonia quickly sinking to the bottom of the sea, motionless.
I don't know if it was panic, or natural strength, but when I started diving after her, I found myself swimming a lot faster than I ever did before in my life. I can't quite describe the feeling of pushing nothing out of your way to move forward, but that was exactly what it seemed like I was doing, not to mention the fact that I had yet to feel any effect from lack of oxygen, especially considering how much air I was letting slip out while I dove. In the back of my mind, a miniscule memory echoed about a Lunarian "being able to survive in almost any environment", but I was too busy trying to save my friend from dying to care.
Finally, I managed to reach the insensate Sonia, and wrapped both my arms around her torso, and flipped us both around until I was facing upwards. However, when I tried to swim back up, I found my efforts significantly more difficult than before, as if I was carrying an anvil in my arms.
It was my first experience with what a Devil Fruit user went through on the water, and it was about to cost the life of my first friend in this hellhole of a life.
Not like this… I'm not letting this end here!
Those words bounced around my head, over and over, as I pumped my legs and, out of sheer desperation, flapped my wings against the ocean, trying to eke out any extra scrap of distance to the surface that I could… but it wasn't working. I was too slow, too slow to save her, I needed help—
Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a shape larger than me swimming towards us incredibly fast, and before I could react, said shape swum around and behind us, and two large red arms wrapped around both me and Sonia. A second later, we were both being carried back up to the surface blindingly fast, the faint moonlight above us quickly coming to view until, at last, we breached the water's surface. Almost immediately, Sonia began hacking out water from her lungs, the Kuja gasping for air as best she could, and her hair clinging like seaweed to her face.
A moment later, the two of us and our rescuer were lifted off the water by two very familiar glowing gauntlets that carried us back to "our" ship, where we were gently deposited back onto the wooden deck. I barely had enough time to try and move my own wet hair off my face, before a ballistic missile of a body collided with me and Sonia…
A missile that, I realized, had been Marigold, bawling like a child as she clung to both Sonia, and by extension, me, her arms awkwardly wrapped around us both as she pressed herself as closely as she could.
And as I let my wings drape around us to shield the two from the winds, I looked to the side, and saw Fisher Tiger sitting right beside me, a neutral look on his face, before I gave him a tired smile.
"Thank you…"
"… You're welcome."
And at long last, it was finally over.
The years of torment that I, and all these people had suffered under the heel of the Celestial Dragons, ended as we sailed away from the Red Line. There were no cheers, tears, or even shouts as the fleet of ships spread apart and drifted away from the massive continent. Only the sound of sails unfurling and the wind blowing heralded our departure, until finally, one by one, we all disappeared into the fog of the sea.
-O-
Amidst the ruins of Mary Geoise, Saint Figarland Garling wiped the blood off his sword as he stared down the three massive corpses of the slaves that had dared to try their luck against him, while around him, the rest of the Holy Knights rounded up both the living World Nobles they could still find, and the slaves that were to be executed for their unforgivable crimes.
For none who challenged the gods, could be allowed to live.
-O-
Atop Pangaea Castle, one of the few buildings left intact from the rampage of the newly made Zoan, the Five Elder Stars strode with purpose towards one of its deepest rooms. Once they arrived, the five waited as the massive white-and-gold doors opened to them, and once they did, the Elders entered the sprawling chamber that held one of the most sacred objects in all the world: the Empty Throne, the greatest symbol of the peace and order brought by the World Government in all the planet, and where in front of which rested nineteen weapons, symbols of the rulers from centuries ago that pledged to never let the world fall under the thrall of a singular being.
And as they neared the foot of the stairs leading to the Empty Throne, as one, the Five Elder Stars kneeled.
Warrior God of Science and Defense, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn.
Warrior God of Agriculture, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter.
Warrior God of Finance, Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro.
Warrior God of Environment, Saint Marcus Mars.
Warrior God of Justice, Saint Topman Warcury.
The five most powerful men on the planet, who decided the fate of nations daily, the highest authorities in all the World Government, kneeled… to a figure, cloaked in shadows, sitting upon the Empty Throne.
Answers were needed… for the world's true ruler demanded them.
"Lord Imu… there has been an incident."
-O-
In an unremarkable ruined corner of Mary Geoise, undescriptive from the rest of the wasteland most of the country had become, one of the most dangerous women on the planet walked amidst the rubble, unperturbed by the carnage still present around.
By all accounts, there was nothing that should be of interest to this woman here. After all, Celestial Dragons they may be, their fate was very much deserved for everything they had done to the people they had enslaved. Regardless of her position as a CP-0 agent, the double agent clone had no love lost for the Nobles slain here, and for all they were rich, Vegapunk's mole would never stoop as low as outright stealing from their treasury to finance her creator's experiments… or at least, not when it could compromise her mission or cause Vegapunk any trouble.
However, there was one prize that she could acquire that would mean everything to this woman.
And as the Aegis Zero agent Stussy finally stopped on an unremarkable point in the ruins, she smiled, as she stared down at said prize…
A single harpoon, half-buried and standing upright where it had sunk on the ground.
And the still-fresh blood that covered half of its length.
-O-
The events that would come to be known to the top echelon of the World Government as "The Razing of the Holy Land", would mark the darkest day in the history of the World Government until then.
In total, the casualties amidst the Celestial Dragons totaled fifty-five dead, sixty-seven injured, and twelve missing. Of the two thousand knight guards present, four hundred and two were killed in action, another five hundred were left in states of grave injury, and four hundred and fifty suffered light-to-medium injuries, leaving only six hundred and forty-eight knights able for immediate duty.
As for the slave population, over one thousand slaves were killed during the revolt, two thousand three hundred and sixteen slaves were recaptured, pending punishment, execution or reincarceration, and eight hundred and fifty-five slaves committed suicide rather than suffer retribution.
The escapees, in total, numbered three thousand, six hundred and eighty-two slaves, who managed to steal forty-four personal Celestial Dragon ships.
Material losses, including loss of buildings, weapons, raw materials, treasures and assorted, totaled sixty-four billion beris, along with the projected reconstruction cost of eighty billion beris. As a result of the devastation, the Reverie would be canceled, with plans to relocate it temporarily to Marineford pending authorization from both Fleet Admiral Kong, and the Five Elder Stars.
More critically, however, even if it would forever be unknown to any but the Elder Stars and their master, was the loss of three potential avenues for strengthening their hold on the world:
The captured member of the Wandering Tribe, Adio Suerte, and the key to the island of Waford and its ultimate treasure, the Divine Breath.
The legendary Mythical Zoan, Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Ananta Shesha, somehow acquired by a World Noble who remained completely ignorant of its irreplaceable power.
And the only-second confirmed Lunarian survivor on the planet, who could have proven invaluable for their research division.
And in the coming decades, all three of these avenues would return to both haunt them, and destabilize the world even more…
~O~
Welp, this took a while… mostly because I shifted through several different versions of events.The events that would come to be known to the top echelon of the World Government as "The Razing of the Holy Land", would mark the darkest day in the history of the World Government until then.
In total, the casualties amidst the Celestial Dragons totaled fifty-five dead, sixty-seven injured, and twelve missing. Of the two thousand knight guards present, four hundred and two were killed in action, another five hundred were left in states of grave injury, and four hundred and fifty suffered light-to-medium injuries, leaving only six hundred and forty-eight knights able for immediate duty.
As for the slave population, over one thousand slaves were killed during the revolt, two thousand three hundred and sixteen slaves were recaptured, pending punishment, execution or reincarceration, and eight hundred and fifty-five slaves committed suicide rather than suffer retribution.
The escapees, in total, numbered three thousand, six hundred and eighty-two slaves, who managed to steal forty-four personal Celestial Dragon ships.
Material losses, including loss of buildings, weapons, raw materials, treasures and assorted, totaled sixty-four billion beris, along with the projected reconstruction cost of eighty billion beris. As a result of the devastation, the Reverie would be canceled, with plans to relocate it temporarily to Marineford pending authorization from both Fleet Admiral Kong, and the Five Elder Stars.
More critically, however, even if it would forever be unknown to any but the Elder Stars and their master, was the loss of three potential avenues for strengthening their hold on the world:
The captured member of the Wandering Tribe, Adio Suerte, and the key to the island of Waford and its ultimate treasure, the Divine Breath.
The legendary Mythical Zoan, Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Ananta Shesha, somehow acquired by a World Noble who remained completely ignorant of its irreplaceable power.
And the only-second confirmed Lunarian survivor on the planet, who could have proven invaluable for their research division.
And in the coming decades, all three of these avenues would return to both haunt them, and destabilize the world even more…
~O~
Hell, there was even supposed to be the start of an "epilogue" of sorts showing the reactions of the rest of the world, but I decided to keep it out of this chapter, either so it goes into chapter 4, or just not have it… we'll see.
For now, here it is! The finished third chapter, whole once more!
Thank fuck I got my vacation month, it let me write a lot more, even if I got kinda busy with stuff at home… still, here it is!
Now, to celebrate the fact I got art done for the protagonist of my Gundam fic, I'll do the next chapter for that next, then go back for another chapter of Drift with Purpose. After that… probably Titanomachy, but only after I do some rewrites to Special Delivery.
Call of Soul might go on hiatus, due to my sadly diminished interest in it right now… not permanent! But paused nonetheless…
But for now, it is 4am, I need some fucking sleep.
See y'all next time!
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Farewell, Baugi, Billingr and Jord. You have fought well and died with honor, and holding the line against Garling til the end had bought enough time for Ryoma and all his fellow former slaves to sail with their freedom far, far away from Mariejois.
May you three Giants be welcomed to the halls of Valhalla!
May you three Giants be welcomed to the halls of Valhalla!
- Location
- usa
good update well done looking forward to reading more of this story.
- Pronouns
- Male
Did they die with chromed mouths at least? That last little battle chant was awesome for real
- Pronouns
- He/Him
... Fuck, you actually got a point...
Will remedy that once he delivers the message to Jodr's son.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
At the moment? No
As the chapter made clear, for now the Reverie is canceled, and as an out-of-universe point, I'm still considering if it should happen later on at Marineford, as the chapter's end stated.
Little peek into the future, but as far as people know, a colossal slave revolt happened in Mary Geoise, and that's it.
The Five Elders are strangling the information pipeline to not let anyone know just how BAD it really was, regardless of what Morgans would like to know.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hey fellas, how you doing?
Since I spoil you all way too much, because frankly I don't know any better, here's another moment of that!
Between these two concepts, which I am having a difficult type picking from, which would you rather see?
A- Frog
B- Puppet
There's more to it, yes, but for now you're only getting these c:
So, which one looks more appealing?
Since I spoil you all way too much, because frankly I don't know any better, here's another moment of that!
Between these two concepts, which I am having a difficult type picking from, which would you rather see?
A- Frog
B- Puppet
There's more to it, yes, but for now you're only getting these c:
So, which one looks more appealing?
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Puppet I guess? I have no idea what the purpose of this vote is for but I guess I'm voting
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Gotta go frog here definitely.