Shiki flew down the halls of Merveille, occasionally dodging a rubber fist or busting a hole in the wall, floor or ceiling to fly around a shimmering barrier that boxed him in. Contrary to appearances, he wasn't really running away. The confined corridors of his palace simply didn't provide the most advantageous battlefield against the Straw Hat brat and his unexpected companion. The barriers were a constant reminder of that. Out in the open, though? Well. Then they would die.
The one fly in the ointment was that he did have a few other loose ends to tie up before killing those two, and they were doing a good job at sticking to his tail like glue. What he needed was a diversion…
A grin spread on Shiki's face as he recalled a certain gambit he'd used on Garp more than once back in the day. Yes, it would do nicely, especially since his pursuers definitely took after the Hero in temperament.
And so, picking up speed, Shiki shot out of the palace and immediately ducked behind a corner before stripping off his jacket. A simple application of the Float-Float fruit, and the jacket shot off deep into the floating islands, well away from both his hiding spot and where he needed to go.
A few seconds later, stomping feet and voices rewarded him.
"Damn! Where did he go?"
"There! Floating off way over there!" A pause. "Wait, how are we gonna follow him?"
"Lemme try something…"
Curious despite himself, Shiki glanced around his hiding spot to see Straw Hat and Sharktooth jumping after his coat on platforms made from a shimmering barrier. Perfect.
"Puru puru puru puru!"
"OF ALL THE TIMES!" Shiki hissed, withdrawing a snail from his pocket and pointing it at the nearby wall. One of his skilled navigators appeared on the view, looking rather nervous.
"Navigation to Captain Shiki! Come in, Captain! It's urgent!"
"It had better be, or else your head's going to part ways with your body!" Shiki snapped.
The navigator cowered fearfully. "S-Sir, we need to turn toward the east! A storm is coming!"
"Oh, that's just what I needed…" Shiki grumbled, giving an offhand gesture of acknowledgement before making to terminate the connection. Then he paused and turned a more attentive eye on his navigator. "By the way, while I have you, what's the damage thus far?"
The gulp he got wasn't reassuring. At all. "Ah… with all due respect, I don't think I can say anything good, Captain. All of the Straw Hats are still going strong, the prisoners have escaped, Dr. Indigo and Scarlet have both been defeated, the snail transceiver has been stolen, and the Daft Green barrier has been destroyed. And the palace… the cyborg and the skeleton hijacked a group of monsters and have them strung up like… like motorcycles! They're tearing the whole palace apart!"
Murder sang in Shiki's heart. But he could still salvage everything that he needed to. First, however, he had revenge to deal with.
"Where is the witch?" he growled.
"A-A-Ah… sh-she's in the throne room with Jeremiah Cross and Roronoa Zoro, but they look like they'll be moving on any moment!"
"Moving on to the next world, that is," Shiki snarled, terminating the connection and flying back the way he came as fast as he could, barely sparing enough attention to heed his navigator's request to redirect the islands to the east.
The Golden Lion scanned the flaming wreckage of his palace—his palace, that he had spent twenty years constructing, twenty years planning, preparing—!—searching for hide, hair or otherwise of any of the blaspheming bastards who were wrecking the monument to his greatness, but he came up snake eyes, and instead came upon the half-collapsed husk of the throne room first.
A husk filled with utterly defeated pirates, at that.
Shiki's already trench-deep scowl twitched violently as he took in the supposedly 'best and deadliest' pirates in all of Paradise, the pirates he had personally chosen to act as his soldiers, to represent him, laid low by a band of pathetic, worthless, East Blue weaklings.
"You. Incompetent. Scum," Shiki hissed, if only for his own benefit. Then, without a trace of concern, he shot his arm out to the side, gathered up a goodly mass of the fallen snow, and coalesced it into a snarling lion's head hovering above the hall.
"I will burn the East Blue," the Golden Lion swore imperiously, as though delivering a mandate. "I will conquer the world! And I will let nothing slow my path! Not trash like them…" Pure madness shone in Shiki's eyes as he dropped his arm, and the lion dropped with it. "AND NOT TRASH LIKE YOU!"
The leonine flurry roared Shiki's fury to the world as it descended, intent on shredding each and every last one of the traitors who had so stupidly forfeited their right to live by sullying his reputation with defeat.
And the construct would have achieved its goal, too, had Shiki's age-old instincts not suddenly blared to life, prompting him to snap his arm out and backhand some kind of explosive ordinance away from him, halting the Lion's descent in the process.
Quite unfortunately for Shiki's fraying-to-nonexistent temper, he didn't have to wonder where the projectile had come from.
"We'd really prefer if you didn't do that, if you don't mind!"
Shiki snapped his attention down towards the source of that voice, and indeed, it was exactly who he expected: the annoyance, Jeremiah Cross and his pest pet, the captain's mutt, Roronoa Zoro… and her.
Before he could deal with the traitor, however, Cross's ever-present leer quirked up into a direct taunt. "It might sound counterintuitive, but the thing is? Our crew prefers to leave our enemies alive. Let you bastards stew in your failure, see? So!" He spread his arms invitingly, his mutt-cannon weighing heavily on his arm. "If you could do us all the massive favour of shoving off?"
"Or just lay down and die, if you don't mind," Nami invited with a frigid smile. "That'd be great."
To make a very long, if simple, story short, something in the back of Shiki's mind snapped.
"You first," he rumbled, and his lion redirected itself at the Straw Hat officers.
It was close, so close to chomping down on them and ripping them to shreds, but alas, not close enough.
"GUM-BARRIER CANNONBALL!"
Because he had to suddenly rip apart the snow golem in order to throw up a snow barrier to stop the ballistic rubber man that was flying at him. And then, before he could crush the persistent little brat, a cackling ball of shimmering energy barrier plowed through the snow like it wasn't even there, hitting him full body and jarring every bone in his body.
Momentum transferred, Shiki hit the ground and skidded, the impact giving him something to focus on. And none too soon.
"GEAR SECOND! GUM-GUM JET AXE!"
He got his wits back just in time to shoot away from a red-skinned, steaming Luffy, or more accurately, his sandalled foot, which neatly obliterated the section of ground where Shiki's head had been a half second before.
Floating upright again, Shiki scowled mightily when he found that Luffy and Barto had put themselves between him and that traitor, their intent clear.
"Fine," he bit out. "You want to die first? I can oblige that."
Luffy glared right back. But when he opened his mouth, it wasn't to Shiki.
"Cross."
"Keep ripping the place, snatch everything not nailed down, rip up what is, then set the place to blow and GTFO?" the loudmouth ventured.
"Go."
"Goin'!"
And with that, the three mates hightailed it out of there. Shiki didn't pursue. So he would be doing things out of order. Whatever. He could take out his frustrations on the two people who had oh-so-kindly put themselves in his way. Slowly, he began to float higher into the air.
-o-
'Black Bart' Bartolomeo, for the first time since Luffy and company had arrived on Merveille, felt nervous. The reason was that slide maneuver Shiki had pulled off to evade Luffy-senpai's Gum-Gum Jet Axe. If he could pull off something like that on a dime… well, Barto knew he wouldn't be matching that maneuver on his barriers even on his own. Supporting Luffy on top of that? Hopeless.
"That's a problem, Luffy," he pointed out as Shiki continued to rise.
"Yeah, I need a better platform," Luffy agreed.
High above, Shiki flicked his leg, an air slash flying down towards them. It splashed off of Barto's barrier, Luffy responding with a Jet Pistol. Unfortunately, the punch didn't reach Shiki before it started to arc down.
"Jihahahahahaha!" Shiki cackled. "Too bad, boys!"
Gritting his teeth, Barto jumped up and onto his barrier, then pushed off, cancelled the first, and jumped to a new one. He repeated this the many times it took to get to Shiki's height - at which point Shiki merely floated above the haymaker Barto threw and then floated down and slammed his knee right into Barto's gut. Stunned, the pirate ragdolled down until he hit the ground hard enough to embed his silhouette in it.
"Well, that didn't work…" he groaned, scratching his mohawk miserably.
"COME DOWN HERE, BASTARD!" Luffy roared, glaring hellfire at the object of his ire.
Surprisingly, however, it was not Shiki who responded.
"Hey, ah… do-do you think I could lend a hand?"
Luffy blinked clean out of his Jet-enhanced state as a brand new voice interrupted his train of thought, and he looked up to discover a familiar entity perched on a nearby eave.
"Billy?" the rubber man gaped.
The electro-fowl glanced skyward at Shiki before looking back at Luffy with a shaky but determined frown. "I-I-I ran away with Nami, I-I ran away at the village… and if I run away now, I know I'll never stop! S-So I'm not running away anymore!"
Billy hopped down next to Luffy and extended his wing, staring upward in fierce defiance. "I'm not running away from my fears anymore… I'm charging headlong at them! Though, uh…" Billy shot a shaky sidelong grin at the rubber man. "I don't quite have the firepower for that. Think you could help me out with that?"
It only took Luffy a second to make his decision, and once he did, he grinned eagerly and hopped on Billy's back. "Hell yeah!"
Bartolomeo, however, was notably more resigned in his enthusiasm as he gave the duck a once-over. "Eh…" he tentatively raised a finger. "Don't suppose you've got some spare seats on ya or somethin'?"
"Or you could always take your own ride."
Barto spun around at the voice behind him, then blinked slowly, wondering how the hell two tons of dragon had snuck up on all of them. He gave the dragon a once-over before doing the same to the duck, and ultimately, he came to a simple conclusion:
"Mine's bigger."
"Shiki's still un-clobbered," Luffy pointed out.
"Message received, getting on the fucking dragon!" Barto crowed, doing just that. Luffy hopped onto Billy's back, and then they soared into the sky after Shiki.
And they weren't the only ones who took to the skies; with phrases such as 'your master will prove who is reallythe strongest' and 'I'LL DEAFEN YOU AT MINIMUM, and this time there's jack all YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT' ringing in their ears, every last one of the Golden Lion's golden eagles took to the increasingly stormy skies, they and their snails submitting to the Voice of Anarchy and ensuring that Shiki got exactly what he wanted: all the world watching him.
-o-
"Well, it looks like his monopoly on aerial combat just expired," Helmeppo said with a smirk.
"Feeling bold, Helmeppo?" Garp asked with a hint of warning.
"Either Shiki loses or the East Blue dies. I'm not going to apologize for hoping that it's the first one that happens," the apprentice responded.
Garp considered that… and shrugged. "Eh, fair enough."
On screen, Barto and Luffy and their respective mounts closed in with Shiki, the odd duck-like bird soaring ahead. The feed abruptly switched to one closer to the action, allowing the Marines to watch as Luffy threw himself off Billy, fist reared back. Naturally, Shiki lazily floated above the punch - at which point Luffy spun in mid-air and, with a cry of "GUM-GUM SPEAR!", launched his clapped-together feet into Shiki's gut.
Oh, and then Shiki was squashed against a barely-visible barrier. All present winced.
Billy snatched Luffy out of the sky a moment later, leaving Shiki to try and slice up Barto instead. The attack, however, splashed against a new barrier, and with that, the combatants were on the move again.
"Ah, Vice Admiral?"
Garp and Helmeppo looked at Coby, who was staring at the screen in confusion.
"With how much experience Shiki has… he has to have Haki, right?" he asked hesitantly. "So, why isn't he using it against Luffy and Black Bart? That attack Luffy did, the kick to the gut… either Observation or Armament Haki would've countered that move. So… does he not have it?"
"He does, but it doesn't matter."
All eyes turned towards a grim-faced Sengoku. "Everything that this man is doing, he's doing because of his lingering grudge against Roger, his shame from losing to a man from the weakest sea in the world. Now the man who is increasingly considered his successor has stepped up against him… and he's only in Paradise. The Golden Lion has long since missed his chance, in his mind, to use Haki to beat the Straw Hats."
The two apprentices looked confused, and Garp took over.
"There are only two reasons that someone proficient in Haki would use it against someone who can't use it themselves: their opponent is so far beneath them there's no point in dragging out the fight, or their opponent is too strong to win without going all-out. Shiki has had too many chances to snuff out the Straw Hats at this point; now that it's come to the crunch, the entire world is watching him, and Luffy has surpassed any expectations he had. If he went all-out at this point, he might win in deed, but in spirit it'd be a complete defeat. He'd never forgive himself if he resorted to Haki to win against a couple of rookies from the weakest sea, so he's left with his wits and his Devil Fruit."
The Vice Admiral grinned wryly. "And something tells me that that's just not going to be enough to beat my stupid grandson."
Sengoku sighed, removing his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose, eyes squeezed shut. "So, I'm reduced to hoping that the Straw Hat Pirates, who have caused me more stress than anyone in my life, will be able to defeat Golden Lion Shiki and prevent a massacre in the East Blue. I am—"
"Conflicted?"
Opening his eyes to give Garp a glare, Sengoku said flatly, "Too old for this shit…and conflicted, yes."
Garp chuckled to himself. "Well, I won't deny that I wish it were us handing him his head like the good old days… but if this is the only way, then there's only one thing for me to do."
Sengoku knew that he should have turned around and not given Garp another look for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, as the image of the snail was in one place, it left him vulnerable to the sight just within his peripheral vision: Garp raising a large foam finger with "East Blue #1" written on it and his two apprentices doing the same.
He groaned even as they began cheering like cheerleaders. He groaned more as the image of Garp in a cheerleading outfit crossed his mind. That would be taking the place of Akainu taking over for him as Fleet Admiral in the 'screaming nightmares' rotation.
-o-
The current maneuvering phase only lasted a few minutes, but that was long enough to take the combatants into the outer islands of Merveille. And Shiki wasted no time demonstrating why he'd taken the fight out there.
He came to a stop and threw both hands out to the side. Barto and Luffy had only the barest of warnings—the sounds of splintering wood and rock—before a hail of stone shrapnel and splintered tree trunks shot off the nearest islands like the world's largest shotguns. Bartolomeo immediately threw up a barrier to halt the trees, but his attempts to curve it around were agonizingly slow. So, Lindy and Billy did the only thing that would save them.
They went vertical.
Unfortunately, being neither psychic nor experienced enough to be near-psychic with each other, they went in different directions. Billy flew down, Lindy flew up.
Which was what Shiki wanted all along. The speed with which he dove for Billy meant nothing else.
"Shit! Lindy, dive dive dive!" Barto roared the minute he saw that. Luffy, of course, tried to counter with a Gum-Gum Gatling, but Shiki once again smoothly flowed out of the way of the attacks and stuck out one leg, dive-bombing the Straw Hat. Billy dodged - and then Shiki borrowed Luffy's earlier trick by spinning and launching an air slash back up at his opponent.
That splashed against a barrier. But this time, Shiki didn't get angry. He instead spun again and launched another air slash at Barto. With his barrier still protecting Luffy, and Lindy already committed to the dive and unable to easily pull out, it seemed like he would take the full brunt of the attack.
But it was not to be. Gritting his teeth, Barto jumped off Lindy's back at just the right angle to let the slash carve a nasty gash in his side rather than slit his belly open. Diving down, he reared back his own fist. Shiki evaded, of course, which was when Barto rematerialized his barrier and jumped off of it, planting his fist in Shiki's cheek right as Luffy, red and steaming again, slammed his foot into Shiki's ribs.
The Golden Lion, staggered, fell several feet. But it was not long before he again caught himself and soared around to go on the attack again, large rocks ripping themselves off a nearby island to orbit around him. Luffy didn't wait, tapping Billy to charge straight at him, leaving Barto behind to get back on Lindy.
The past and present of the Pirate Age rumbled towards each other like armoured knights in a joust, closing at frankly painful velocities. But a direct clash was not to be. The ring of rocks orbiting around Shiki suddenly switched to shooting themselves straight at Luffy. And while Luffy himself, with his rubber body, could weather an attack like that no problem, Billy was made of much less ductile flesh.
"GUM-GUM JET GATLING!" Luffy roared. His fists lashed out and smashed the rocks into gravel that harmlessly brushed off both him and his mount.
And then Luffy spun around, just in time to take a sword to the gut, grunting in pain.
"End of the line, brat!" Shiki roared, bringing his other leg around to chop Luffy's head off. Instead, Luffy caught his opponent's leg, and to the Golden Lion's dismay, the grip was ironclad.
Luffy's other hand, meanwhile, was shot behind him. "Gum-Gum…"
Frantically, Shiki slid his other leg-blade out of Luffy.
"Jet Bullet!"
"Comin' through!"
Too late. Luffy's fist hit Shiki square in the nose, and half a second later, Barto slammed into him from behind, the cow-catcher-shaped barrier raised once again. The Golden Lion shot off into the distance.
"A third of the Supernovas, the first Pirate King, the next one too, and the birthplace of all three crews that once and currently are punting your tail! Not bad for the 'weakest sea', huh!?" Barto shouted after him.
Perhaps fortunately for Shiki, the time it took him to recover from the blow and regain his wits prevented him from hearing Bartolomeo's taunt. When he had his head straight again, he didn't go on the offensive or start another gambit. All that had gotten him were two wounds—albeit serious ones—and a collection of contusions for himself.
'What am I doing trading punches with them?' he mentally demanded. Some need to prove their superiority? Raw rage that needed to be expressed?
Well, whatever the reason, he was done with it. Now, he would be fighting smarter.
The facts were thus: close combat devolved into mutual exchanges, something the rookies were… better suited to handle. Because there were two of them, and for no other reasons. Black Bart was covering Straw Hat; he needed to get both at once. And Straw Hat kept charging after him.
Shiki glanced down at the island below. Perfect.
Drawing on the power of the Float-Float fruit, Shiki fired off more impromptu projectiles at the pair. They missed or were blocked, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Straw Hat and that stupid pea-duck were now flying straight at him again. Surreptitiously lowering one hand, Shiki levitated a large ball of water out of the small lake below him. And then, when Straw Hat was close enough, he sped it up.
The look on Straw Hat's face when the water engulfed him was a soothing balm to his embittered soul. As was the shocked yelp Black Bart let out. Granted, the bubble barrier the traitor had managed to create around the two of them, preventing them from immediately drowning, was annoying, but from the water-leaking cracks, that would not last long.
"Jihaha… JIIIHAHAHAHAAAA!" he cackled, floating his way around the ball of water as he basked in the glory of his victory, the glory of the brats' defeat! "You think you can come here to my island, my kingdom, and do whatever you want, hmmm!? You brats! You rookies! YOU FAKE PIRATES!"
Shiki's already present smirk widened as the brats froze in their panic, their attention locking onto him. That had gotten their attention something fierce.
"You actually listening for once?" he asked mockingly. "Good, then open up your ears!" Shiki swept his arms out wide. "Let me educate you on just how the world truly works!"
-o-
"It's really quite simple, you know. So simple even a pair of total morons like you can understand: the strict rule over the weak!" Shiki raised his palm before his face, fingers clenching and unclenching menacingly. "We in the world who have power, we who stand head and shoulders above the weak, are granted this ability because we are worthy! Because we are inherently better than our lessers! To take what we want, when we want, solely because we want it and because we have the ability to take it! This is our right! The right of the worthy!" Shiki's hand snapped into a fist. "THE RIGHT OF THE STRONG!"
A murderous growl erupted from X. Drake's throat as he snapped his titan-sized jaws at the screen, positively itching to tear his fangs into the real thing rather than a simple simulacrum.
Because right then, in that moment, there was truly nothing Drake desired more than to devour the monster who so thoroughly reminded him of the other monster that had slaughtered the first family he knew in his life.
Or perhaps more accurately, he wanted to slaughter the monster that reminded him of his first family, full stop.
Bottom line… Drake wanted Shiki dead.
And he wasn't alone.
-o-
"And as for the weak?" Shiki's leer turned sadistic. "The only right they have is to be crushed beneath the might of the strong! To serve at the beck and call of the ones whom they have no right to stand against, whom they should face with the utmost reverence by having the utter benevolence to allow them to set foot upon their dominion day by day… and then to perish as soon as it would benefit the strong ones best! The world is full of weaklings who will never amount to anything, a waste of space and breath for those who can make so much better use of it. The only worthwhile thing they can do with their existence is serving and nourishing the strong!"
"That son of a bitch…"
A good number of incredulous eyes turned toward the punk-like speaker. He met them with a scoff.
"You honestly think I can put up with this? Please!" He waved his hand dismissively. "I'm no hypocrite, I agree with what he said about strength. I don't have a problem with killing. I don't have a problem with pillaging and burning. It's how I live my life, and it's how I'm going to reach for One Piece."
Kid glared bloody murder at the screen.
"But… blind reverence? And this chickenshit having the utter gall to demand it!?" The kid's fist split the wood of the table. "Fuck that. I want enemies, or I want loyalty, and both ways, that shit's earned. This asshole? He wants a flock of sheep." Loudly clearing his throat, Kid spat the resulting loogie right onto the screen. "Makes me fucking pissed off that I'm lumped in with him."
-o-
"And the strongest of all in the world? Why, there's no doubt about it!" Shiki flung his arms wide with a mad cackle. "It is us pirates! We, who fly our own flags and allow no limitations to hinder us! We, who cast off the shackles of the world, and are nations unto ourselves! There should be no doubts, no misgivings! We pirates, we conquer storms that send the meek fleeing for the shores! We defy all who stand in our way, be they beast or man!"
Shiki soared above the bubble, his face a rictus of rage as he glared down towards the world below. "WE FACE ALL DANGERS WITHOUT HESITATION! WE SAIL BEYOND THE HORIZONS THAT THE MEEK DARE NOT CROSS! THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!" Shiki shot his finger downward. "I TELL YOU NOW THE TRUTH I TOLD THAT FOOL ROGER, ALL THOSE YEARS AGO: THE SEA BELONGS TO US, AND US ALONE! AND I, AS KING OF THE PIRATES, WILL BE THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD! THE OCEAN WILL BELONG TO ME! JIHAHAHAHAAAA!"
"Twenty years of isolation have clearly not done the man's sanity any favours," the greatest swordsman in the world dryly stated, one hand reaching for a glass of wine. "Honestly… a veteran of the New World should know better than to assume he could actually get away with something like this."
"You know, up until that last line, I was actually prepared to agree with every word he said," the youngest of the Four Emperors concurred, a jug of sake in hand. "But you've got the right of it, Hawk-Eyes. He's completely lost it."
"He lost it when the captain died by a hand that wasn't his, brat, if not long before that," the Dark King groaned into his cup. "The world's just seeing it on display for the first time."
The three men exchanged looks, shared the same emotions, and drank deeply from their respective vessels.
"So, are you ready to set out, then?" Mihawk posed, cracking his neck in preparation.
"SHUT UP, SHIKI!"
Their attention was redirected to the screen as an infuriated roar shook dust loose from the rafters.
"…Not yet. We'll see this fight to the end first," Shanks said firmly.
"I expected nothing less," the swordsman sighed. "You still hold the hope that your protégé can triumph over one such as Shiki?"
"You just said it yourself: his pride has inflated to the level of insanity."
The younger superhumans turned to the older, who was studiously observing the fight.
"He has the willpower, the potential, and he's not alone. All of that gives him a chance against Shiki."
-o-
It happened all at once. Rather than collapsing, Barto dropped the barrier of his own free will, so that at the exact same time, Luffy could throw a punch at Shiki - and to the shock of everyone watching, his hand managed to shoot out of the bubble, grab Shiki's collar and haul himself out of the aquatic prison, laying a punch on his opponent. There wasn't much force behind it, but the Golden Lion's face still twisted in pure, incandescent rage. Well, more so than before.
"Accursed brat!" Shiki roared, bringing up one of his legs. Counterintuitively, Luffy simply let go and then punched the empty air to his left. Those few viewers with training in the Six Powers recognized the half-assed Moon Walk for what it was; everyone else was simply left gobsmacked by Luffy punching the air to dodge. This included Shiki.
That was when Barto and his dragon blindsided him.
Rookie and legend slammed together, Barto's barrier shimmering between them as Lindy gave him the velocity he needed to knock Shiki out of the sky. Gathering his wits, the veteran slipped out from under Barto, only to catch Luffy's sandal blasting him in the face.
Stars burst in his eyes as he flew back, taking the time that he needed to regain his sight. He turned his gaze back on them. And then his vision faded again as a blinding, crackling blur seared across his vision.
"A VALKYRIE?!" he exclaimed, open-mouthed.
"Not far off, you bastard."
With Nami's voice in his ears, Shiki snapped back to furious. "What have you done, witch?!"
"Tonight's weather forecast for Merveille is showers, thunderstorms, and cyclones, with a 100% chance of the entire archipelago falling back to the sea where it belongs, drowning and crushing every last monster that the last twenty years have spawned. This could have been avoided had a certain lion-bastard realized that his navigator was being held at gunpoint to lie to him and lead his base into certain destruction. And now, here's Straw Hat Luffy with the news."
"YOU'VE LOST, SHIKI!" Luffy roared, slamming his knuckles together.
"You only wish," Shiki drawled, spreading his hands. At first, it seemed as though nothing was happening. Then Nami spoke up again.
"You… You're lowering the islands?" she gasped in horror.
"And you call me an idiot," he responded with cold smugness. "My powers will uphold these islands until the day I die… but I will admit that if too much force from the Grand Line's weather struck an island and sent it falling, my weapons would perish. But thanks to your warning, we are now at an altitude that should ensure that at least the strongest of them will survive. Any further advice, baby girl?"
"… Luffy? Break him."
Roronoa Zoro and Jeremiah Cross's voices spoke alongside Nami's for the final words, and their captain raised his head with a ferocious scowl.
"You were wrong, Shiki," Luffy said firmly.
-o-
Shiki's entire being twitched at the accusation, and he shot a positively evil look at the other pirate. "Care to run that by me again?" he rumbled, a vein pulsating on the side of his neck.
Straw Hat shook his head in disgust. "You've had your head in the clouds for so long that you've forgotten all about the sea. It actually shows just how stupid you are: you can fly, and you don't even realize the most important thing in the world. You talk about strength like it's everything, but it's nothing compared to freedom. You say that the ocean belongs to you? Belongs to pirates!?"
Luffy flung his arm out in denial. "YOU'RE WRONG! THE OCEAN… IT BELONGS TO EVERYONE! There's nothing standing in the way of sailing from your home to the end of the world; you're free to go wherever you want to go. No matter what comes our way, no matter how much it hurts, we can still sail on! THE POINT OF BEING A PIRATE ISN'T TO BE STRONG!"
Luffy spread his arms and bared his teeth in bestial defiance. "PIRATES ARE FREE! THAT'S WHY I'LL BECOME THE KING OF THE PIRATES! SO THAT I CAN BE THE FREEST MAN IN THE WORLD! ME! NOT YOU!"
In the relatively new secondary commander's office in the fortress of Navarone, an imposing violet-haired man let out a low growl in response to the rookie's words. The words that, almost against his will, cracked ever so slightly through the cloud of hatred that the Kid Pirates had cast over him, and allowed him to look upon the rubber kid with something other than loathing.
But it was only hearing him say those feelings of the sea, the feelings that he himself agreed with, that caused 'non-loathing' to grow into what he was barely able to consider respect.
Behind him, his most loyal lieutenants wore softer expressions as they, too, observed the fight between the two pirates.
"…he's… different, isn't he?" the woman mused. She rolled her eyes as her comrades snapped accusatory looks at her. "He's still a pirate, I'm not denying that, but…" She jerked her chin at the screen. "If nothing else, this Straw Hat Luffy, he's certainly shown he's nothing like Kid or Shiki, hasn't he?"
A tense silence fell. Then her superior let out a lengthy sigh before inclining his head the slightest amount.
Just as slightly, the corners of Ain's mouth turned upward.
"You… YOU!"
Apparently, however, not everyone was of the same opinion.
-o-
"YOU! LITTLE! BRAAAT!" Shiki all but literally erupted, raw fury blazing from his person, glaring at the rookie with unbridled hate. "YOU'RE AS DELUSIONAL AS ROGER WAS! But you know what? That's perfectly alright! THIS IS MY WORLD! A WORLD WHERE MIGHT MAKES RIGHT! WHERE STRENGTH MEANS EVERYTHING! YOU WANT TO PROVE ME WRONG?!"
Shiki put his arms out to his sides, a grimace of pain coming over his face. The reason why became clear a moment later as blood erupted from his lower half where his knees once were, the stumps no longer stopped. Then, just as suddenly, the blood flew back where it came from. Shiki hardly heeded this, more focused on the trade-off of leaving him legless once more; without a flinch, his hands reached out and closed around the newly freed hilts of Oto and Kogarashi for the first time in twenty years.
"THEN LET OUR CAUSES FACE ONE ANOTHER HEAD ON!" he roared.
"My freedom," Luffy snarled, pumping his legs and causing steam to course over his body as he swung his pipe out viciously.
"My strength," Shiki growled, effortlessly taking on one of his old fighting stances.
"I'LL PROVE IT'S RIGHT!"
And with that, the two shot at each other, each swinging their weapons.
Right from the start, Luffy was driven back, Shiki hooking the pipe out of the way with one of the swords and nearly taking Luffy's head off with the other. Only a frantic duck prevented the latter, and only an ironclad grip prevented Shiki from twisting the pipe out of his opponent's fingers barely a second later. Out of position, Luffy had to have Billy outright fly off to avoid the follow-up flurry of stabs. He still had to add a few thin cuts to the balance sheet.
Circling around, this time Luffy went on the offensive, swinging his pipe in a wide arc at Shiki's head. Shiki's swords flashed up, one neatly pushing the pipe out of the way and the other stabbing for Luffy's throat. Another frantic dodge saved his life, though the cut on his neck was still dangerously close to the all-important blood vessels.
"Jihahahaha, too bad!" Shiki cackled. "A sheet of paper more, and you'd have been dead!"
"Yeah, well, I'm still here!" Luffy roared. But he didn't order Billy in again. Instead, he pulled back to where Barto had unsuccessfully been circling for an opening. Shiki, for his part, let him, either confident in his chances or unwilling to risk hopping on the close-combat pain train again. Or a bit of both.
"This isn't working," Luffy grumbled.
"Well, I've got a new move to try out," Barto replied. "Should be able to brute-force through his guard. If you can get him to loosen his grip on his swords…"
Both pirates grimaced in thought. Then, Luffy blinked as something occurred to him.
"Hey, he's probably using his power on those swords in case he drops 'em or something, right?"
Barto frowned, turning that over. "Yeah, probably. Why?"
For the first time since the fight had started, Straw Hat Luffy smiled. It was not a nice smile.
"One loosened grip coming right up!" Luffy declared, tapped Billy, and charged forward again, pipe raised high.
"The same thing again? How primitive!" Shiki scoffed, bringing up his swords in preparation for the attack.
Once again, Luffy's straightforward haymaker was brushed aside by Shiki, just on a different spot on the pipe. But this time, Luffy adeptly spun the pipe so that the other end tapped Shiki's other sword.
And suddenly, Shiki flinched and nearly fumbled the hilts out of his hands.
-o-
Back on the Sunny, the rest of the crew, who had by now finished their work and reconvened on the ship to watch the fight, had mixed feelings about the maneuver.
"LUFFY DID WHAT!? HE DOES REALIZE THAT ONE BRUSH WITH SHIKI AND WE'D HAVE FACEPLANTED ON THE OCEAN, RIGHT?!"
But with every iota of their attention trained on the brawl, and with the noise of the storm around them, none of the Straw Hats noticed that for a good while now, Soundbite's eyes had been blanked out, and static sang in the air.
-o-
Shiki stared at his swords. They'd gotten… heavy. Heavier than they'd been since Impel Do—
Sea prism stone! How had he forgotten that the brat's pipe was reinforced with sea prism stone!?
"Yo, Shiki!"
Glancing up, Shiki beheld a gleaming, barrier-made sword - the size of a galleon's mainmast and three times as wide. And it didn't hide the shit-eating grin on Barto's face.
"Take this! Barrier-Barrier Buster!"
With a heave of his arm, Barto sent the barrier-sword hurtling down. Shiki crossed his swords and caught the blade on them, intending to deflect it out of the way. But they were heavier than they'd been in twenty years. The weight distribution was entirely off.
"Gah!"
The result was that the massive cleaver knocked the swords clean out of Shiki's hands, also opening up a nasty gash in his left shoulder.
As he watched his beloved companions plummet down through the clouds to the sea below, Golden Lion Shiki felt… numb. For a little while, at least. Pretty soon, it was overtaken by blinding rage. And then… then it passed from blinding back into numb. Oh, the anger was still there, but it was ice in his veins instead of magma.
So it was with calm and forethought that he executed his next move. He stretched his power further than he had since lifting Merveille into the sky, pulling four specific islands closer to him. From the Winter Island, he drew the snow that fell and compacted there. From the Summer Island, he drew sand hot enough to burn and rock the colour of a setting sun. From the Fall Island, he drew scraps of leaves and wood, ignited by the lightning that witch had summoned. And finally, from the Spring Island, he drew air, and the cherry blossoms that wafted within.
And these elements, drawn from the four seasons, shaped themselves before the East rookies' eyes into lions of snow and sand and fire and air, nothing at all like the beast Shiki had summoned earlier to squash the witch.
"Celestial Emperors: Elemental Lions," he intoned, before jabbing his finger at Straw Hat and Black Bart. "Kill."
Luffy, Barto, and their mounts all tensed up as the lions charged at them. The Wind Lion arrived first, splashing against and then around Barto's barrier. As Luffy prodded Billy to take the rear position, Barto shifted his barrier against the Sand and Ice Lions, wincing as they butted heads with his barrier. The Fire Lion followed that by breathing a gout of flame that also harmlessly splashed against his barrier, allowing the other two Lions to flow around his barrier.
"Luffy, you've got incoming!" Barto barked.
"I know, but the Wind Lion's run off, and—!"
Both rookies froze as a terrible thought came to them.
"Taking a few moments to think about it, I realized that I've been doing this all wrong," Shiki said with an icy smirk. "If I'm going to crush you brats… I need to crush your spirits first!"
"The Sunny!" Luffy cried out in horror, spurring Billy on. Barto would have followed had the Fire Lion not again thrown a fireball at him, and it didn't matter. Luffy's attempt to disengage was met by a rain of projectiles that forced Billy to hurriedly change course.
"Go ahead and see if you can stop them. But as soon as you turn your back, I'll shishkebab you," Shiki drawled, curled javelins of rain and earth floating around him.
"Hey, dumbass? You're supposed to learn from your enemies' mistakes."
The grin fell off of Shiki's face as Boss Dugong's voice reached him.
"Forewarned is forearmed, and in case you forgot, the rest of us are still in fighting shape. Three Sword Style: 108 Calibre Phoenix!"
"Coup de vent!"
"Aperitif!"
"Typhoon Lash!"
"Sekhmet's Might!"
Two wind cannons erupted from the Thousand Sunny, tearing through the form of the wind lion and leaving it to disperse. Two smaller ones followed, the remaining Lions having enough forewarning to dodge… right into a bracket pattern of explosives that tore the Sand Lion to shreds and batted the Ice Lion around like a rock in a tumble dryer.
Assured that his crew could take care of themselves, the panic melted from Luffy's face, leaving behind only the icy rage that had held him the entire fight. "I'm not going to let you threaten my crew again," he said evenly.
Shiki's only response was to hurl the projectiles of earth and rain that he'd collected. But instead of hitting, or harmlessly flying by, they instead hit Barto's barrier - and the Fire Lion was still plastered to the front of it. The earth, of course, was no harm to it, but that much water put out its flame with a hiss of steam.
"Ewps…" Barto drawled, shoving a finger up his nose.
Roaring in frustration, Shiki pulled more ammunition from the islands and from the sky, throwing it indiscriminately at the two rookies so determined to vex him. And to Shiki's delight, some of them actually hit, drawing blood as they stabbed in. How? Their mounts were flying slower, and the fighters were less nimble in dodging and deflecting; Barto often moved his barrier off himself and in front of Luffy to his own detriment. Grinning, Shiki upped the tempo, only to have his opponents duck behind an extra-large barrier and charge straight at him.
Rolling his eyes, he merely floated out of the way, only for the barrier to vanish and then appear right in front of him, too close to dodge. The collision was painful, and disorienting, and the kick that thundered into his kidneys even more so.
Whirling around, Shiki did one thing he almost never did: he grabbed Luffy by the leg, yanked him in, and punched him in the face. It didn't cause much injury, but it allowed Shiki to claw for distance.
"We're wearing him down!" Barto declared as Lindy flew up next to Billy and Luffy. "Heh. Good thing he didn't think to just, y'know, wrap up the Sunny in rock or tilt it into the ocean or something. Or heck, he's touched it before, he could—"
Suddenly, a low, grinding rumble caught their attention, and the two pirates looked around for the source.
"What the heck?" Luffy wondered. "It's like Cross' stomach after he's eaten a biscuit."
"Uh, Luffy?"
Drawn by the uncharacteristic tone of fear in his usually cocky voice, Luffy looked where Barto was looking. His immediate conclusion?
Yeah, fear was the appropriate response to someone—almost certainly Shiki—ripping an entire mountain out of a nearby island.
"JIHAHAHAHAHA!" Shiki laughed, obviously at the very dregs of his sanity, drawing the pirates' attention back to him. "LET'S SEE YOU TRY BLOCKING THIS!"
Luffy grimly eyed the massive mound of stone now flying towards them with deceptive speed. "Can you block this?" he asked Barto.
Barto also eyed the stone, trying to ignore the headache driving railroad spikes into his skull. "Yeah, I can," he reluctantly groaned. "But I'm probably going to be useless after."
"…Thirty seconds." Once again, Luffy bit his thumb. "Gear Third!"
Gritting his teeth, Barto threw up the widest, thickest barrier he could. The sheet of light then folded in on itself, doubling the barrier's thickness, heedless of the railroad spikes in the caster's brain, upgrading to steam-driven piles.
Then the barrier folded in on itself again, making it four times as thick.
And once more, for a barrier eightfold stronger than any Bartolomeo had ever produced.
"Barrier… Barrier…" Barto groaned in agony before roaring and throwing his arms wide, which expanded the blockade to the size of a small fortress. "BASTION!"
The agony was all but literally blinding, and that was before the rock actually hit. Beyond the headache, Bartolomeo's arms were what supported his barriers and were the physical connection. And under such a strain… they snapped, in multiple spots. Combined with the headache, it was a wonder Barto didn't pass out on the spot.
Instead, his arms and the barrier fell, the mountain falling to the ocean in shattered pieces. "FINISH HIM!" he roared.
Luffy's arm inflated, the air this time travelling down his body, into his foot. This required him to hop onto one foot and use his hands to direct Billy to soar at Shiki… and also do something the duck hadn't done in the fight yet.
"GUUUUM-GUUUUM…!"
"I refuse!" Shiki howled as Billy weaved between the projectiles he haphazardly flung at the rookie. "I refuse, I refuse, I REFUSE! YOU CAN'T WIN! GRAGH!" The Golden Lion clawed his hand forward, throwing a chunk of rock at an effigy. "YOU ARE ALL NOTHING! YOU! YOUR DREAMS! YOUR OCEAN! ALL OF IT, WORTHLESS! DESTINY, FATE, DREAMS!? PAH! ALL DIRT! THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IN THIS WORLD! RAAAAGH!" An entire cliff tore itself from the coast of Merveille and started splintering as it shot itself skyward. "ALL WORTHLESS IN THE FACE OF POWER!"
For all that there was a variety of projectiles, however, they meant naught when they couldn't hit their mark. The majority were inaccurate enough as it was, but the few accurate projectiles were easy for Billy to dodge.
Meanwhile, Luffy, grunting with exertion, sent his foot into the sky, piercing through the clouds.
And given how the battle was taking place in the middle of a cyclone…
KEE-RACK!
There was only one logical outcome.
"HOLY—!" Bartolomeo flinched away as a full-blown lightning bolt struck Luffy's foot, the astral light dancing over his idol and illuminating him in the darkened sky.
But where Barto was shocked into silence by the display, Shiki only got louder.
"JI—JIHAHAHAHAAAA!" Shiki roared in hysterical joy, his face the picture of madness at the spectacle before him. "DO YOU SEE, STRAW HAT!? EVEN THE GODS REJECT YOU, THEY SMITE YOU DOWN! THIS IS MY VICTORY! MY STRONG WORLD! ALL MINE TO RULE! ME, AND ME ALONE!"
"No. Not you. Never you."
Shiki twitched as his voice whispered harshly in his ear, but before he could respond—
"Don't you remember, Golden Lion Shiki? Remember the last time Luffy fought God?"
The synapses fired in Shiki's brain, and horror set in. "No…"
"GIANT!" Luffy's voice echoed throughout the heavens.
"No—!"
"Yes."
"THOR!"
"No no no no—!"
"Yes, yes, and forever yes. The gods haven't rejected Luffy, you braggart. They. Reject. You. This is the end."
"NOOOOOOO!" Shiki wailed, desperation, terror and denial mixing in equal parts in his voice as he threw as much stone, as much power, as much of his Strong World as he could manage at Luffy. He dug deep, he threw it all…
"AAAAAAXE!"
And it was all for nothing, as the judgment came down.
Shiki stared in horror as the titanic limb descended on him, wreathed in light and energy. The attack couldn't have lasted more than five seconds, but to the Golden Lion, it was an eternity of hell. For in that eternity, he could not stop hearing, and he could not stop seeing.
"SHIKI!" Straw Hat Luffy's voice roared out, divine fury lacing his every word.
Shiki's eyes widened as the axe fell, but not because of the actual attack.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY CREW!"
"No… You can't… You can't do this to me!" Shiki howled, screaming at the heavens in desperation. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!"
"AND STAY AWAY!"
"NOT AGAIN, DAMN IT!" The Golden Lion wailed, shoving as much earth forward as he could, trying to block what was coming, what he knew was there, to shield himself from the reality. "I CAN'T LOSE TO YOU AGAIN! NOT TO YOU! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! YOU CAN'T!"
But no matter how he tried to block it, how he tried to deny it… His desperation just wasn't enough.
"FROM THE EAST BLUE!"
Stone shattered, his will shattered, he shattered.
And so did Shiki the Golden Lion lose, once more, to a man from the East Blue.
And as he lost, as the light of the divine judgement burst through his defenses and laid him low, the entire world bore witness as the Golden Lion's wrath, his despair, his misery, the totality of his being manifested itself in one final scream, cursing the name of the one who had somehow, against all odds, bested him all those years ago.
The name that had started everything.
"ROGER!"
And then, with his pride conquered, everything fell.
-o-
It would be a surprise to nobody that the Straw Hat Pirates had set up a plan in the eventuality—inevitability, in all honesty—that Merveille would fall toward the sea. The moment that the palace was emptied of valuables and enemies and set to explode, they had returned to their beloved ship, strung the biggest piece of cloth in the palace that they could find to it, and braced themselves.
To be blunt, 'having the ground pulled out from under you' was an idiom for a very good reason.
"That parachute had better work!" Sanji yelled out in more than a little panic as gravity reclaimed its hold on the land, dragging it and everything upon it back toward the sea below.
"What, you don't have confidence in my ability to sail us through hell and high water?" Merry sardonically called out from the helm.
"My lack of confidence is the only thing keeping us from dropping like a stone," Sanji clarified, shooting a nasty look at their makeshift parachute.
"Ah c'mon!" Cross cackled with a careless wave of his hand as he yanked hard on a line that kept Shiki's flag secure. "If there's one thing we can take confidence in, it's how much effort Shiki would have put into reinforcing his own ugly-ass symbol!"
"Personally?" Merry added. "I'm not exactly enthused about Big Bro going through that scare that Cross put me through after Skypiea!"
"I said I was sorry!" Cross spread his arms in a show of innocence, though his shit-eating grin said otherwise.
Mrrrr…
The tactician flinched as the ship growled. "OK, fine, ya called my bluff, but in my defence—!"
"He's not talking about you!" Merry cut him off with a shocked look. "Sunny just said that Perona isn't on board!"
"WHAT?!" Nami yelled, shooting a look back at the land that they were slowly sliding off of before running to the side. "WE HAVE TO—!"
"IT'S TOO LATE, NAMI!" Usopp interrupted, both verbally and physically as he shaved behind her and grabbed her forearm. "WE'RE ALREADY FALLING, THERE'S NO TIME LEFT TO GO BACK!"
Nami made no attempt to struggle, the cold truth of Usopp's words persuading her against her will. A moment later, a firm hand grabbed Nami's shoulder, and she looked at Zoro's unflinching expression.
"She can take care of herself," he said.
Nami cast a tortured look at the shore, and for an agonizing minute, it seemed like she'd actually fight to disembark the ship.
And then she snapped her head away and marched back to the center of the Sunny, eyes screwed shut. "BRACE FOR—!"
"Hold it!" Cross-cut in. He then readopted his shit-eating grin as he brought his mic up to his mouth. "Well, loyal viewers, there you have it. One week ago, Shiki the Golden Lion, a former rival of the Pirate King himself, attacked our crew, stole one of our crewmates, and threatened our home sea, the East Blue. And not even he managed to get away with it; by the efforts of my captain, Straw Hat Luffy, and another rookie from the East Blue, Black Bart Bartolomeo, Shiki and his twenty-year plan are going down in flames. With the East Blue and our crew safe and sound, it's time to head back to the sea of adventure, and you can also look forward to the SBS resuming its regular broadcasting once we've managed to get some well-needed R&R! But for now, this is Jeremiah Cross!"
"And Soundbite!"
"SIGNING OFF!" Cross and his snail crowed in concert as he slammed the connection shut, jabbing his finger at Merry. "ALRIGHT, HIT IT!"
"YOU HEARD HIM!" Gin roared from the deck of the galleon parked next to the Sunny. "WE CAME, WE SAW, WE KICKED THEIR ASSES! NOW LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! CREW!"
"EVERYONE!" Nami concurred in the same breath.
"SET SAIL!"
With that, the sails of the Thousand Sunny and the Cannibal unfurled, and the rushing wind of their descent seized on them immediately. In short order, the ships tipped over the edge of the island, and for the next several seconds, they were free-falling.
Hirahirahira—FWUMP!
And then, as a final insult to the Golden Lion, the fall of the two crews that ended his and his ambitions was arrested thanks to the flags that they had stolen from Shiki's flagship. And as the aftershock of the snap wore off, both crews got to their feet and turned their attention back toward the falling islands.
"Where are they?" Usopp muttered. "Come on, Luffy, come on…"
"Barto, I swear to hell, if you actually died to that bastard—!" Gin snarled around the thumb he was chewing on.
Despite themselves, most of the Straw Hats and Barto Club were holding their breath.
"THERE! HERE THEY COME!"
Then, barely visible in the distance, a speck of yellow appeared, which slowly grew into the familiar forms of Billy and Lindy. And on their backs, exhausted from their ordeal but still very much alive, was the slumped and groaning Bartolomeo and the panting and shrunken but grinning Monkey D. Luffy.
"Hey, guys! I'm alive!" the miniaturized rubber man greeted as exuberantly as his shrunken vocal cords would allow.
"Why do you say that like it's a good thing, dumbass…" Barto groaned, his limbs swinging lifelessly at his side. "I swear to heck, my arms feel like they're gonna fall off, so if you guys could be real gentle about getting me—WA-AAAAAGH!" Barto cut himself off in a pained and panicked yelp as Lindy bodily bucked his captain from his back.
The Barrier-man spent a second writhing in utter agony from the impact before shooting a scathing glare at the dragon. "Fucking fuckstupid fucking fuck why the fuck would you fucking fuck that!?" he hissed viciously.
"Well, that demonstrates the flexibility of that word…" Robin muttered.
Lindy's response was to flash a cocky smirk. "Cause I felt like it," he rumbled without a hint of remorse.
Barto's profanity-laced response was without a hint of censorship.
A round of laughter echoed across the two ships, relief and good humour lighting everyone's spirits—
"Wait, what about the villagers?!"
Until Vivi's exclamation killed the mood hard and prompted them all to turn back toward the falling island. Thankfully, it wasn't long before more silhouettes came into view, like a flock of birds. Amazingly, it was by all appearances the villagers, gliding through the air with the feathers on their arms.
"…How?" Carue asked through a dropped beak, his tone weak.
"I should be surprised by this. I really should. Buuut after a few weeks with you guys, I'm not," Perona shrugged her shoulders with a defeated sigh.
"Agreed," Robin nodded in, well, agreement.
"I wonder if I'll be able to do that with my new wi—ERK!" Conis started to muse as she fluttered her wings before yelping as a large, gorilla-esque hand grabbed the once-vestigial limb.
"Not until we've recovered from this mess," Chopper firmly stated.
"Y-Yes, Doctor!"
"He does raise a good point," Su said, flopping onto the deck as she kneaded her paws into her temples. "Now that the fight's over, I just wanna sleep…" She cracked an eye and glared at their current interloper. "But first, care to explain what you think you're doing, Ghost Princess?"
Those who hadn't already realized who the second speaker was turned towards the floating form of the lolita.
"Perona!" Nami gasped in relief, running up to the ghost with tears in her eyes. "Oh, thank God, you're still alright! Look, just tell us where you are, and, ah—Billy!" The navigator waved at the electro-duck. "Billy, get ready to fly, we're going back for—!"
"Ah, actually?"
Nami was interrupted by Perona, who'd floated before Nami and was wearing an… actually contented smile.
"I'd… really prefer if you didn't do that? Please?" the Ghost Princess asked politely.
Nami blinked, utterly dumbfounded. "Wh-What? Perona? Why on earth—?"
"And I'd prefer you not do that, because… well, as fun as our time together has been…" Perona's smile became slightly sheepish as she floated back, off the edge of the ship, and in the direction of the falling Merveille. "I'd really rather not leave."
The navigator's mind flat-out stalled as she tried to process just what on earth she was hearing. "Perona?" she breathed.
"Horohoho… what, did you already forget?" Perona tucked a lock of hair behind her ear in an almost shy manner. "I never planned on joining your crew to begin with, remember? And, don't get me wrong, after the past few weeks, I can definitely understand how it could have happened, how in another life, maybe… and even now I probably wouldn't mind…" The spirit trailed off for a moment before shaking her head with a wry chuckle. "But… But no. No, I have other plans in mind now. So… Sorry. But I won't be coming back."
Perona then turned towards Luffy and curtsied, tugging her skirt out in an overly cutesy display of deference. "And as such, thank you, Straw Hat Luffy. You had no reason to trust me, no reason to let me stay on your ship… but you did anyway. You showed me unconditional kindness, and every time someone wanted something from me, you were there. I honestly can't thank you enough for that. And, when the day comes that you're crowned as King… I'd very much like to be there to see it."
"Shishishi!" the newly restored rubber man chuckled. "Mah, no problem!"
Perona nodded gratefully. She then turned towards Nami with a tearful smile. "And Nami…" She shook her head with a hiccup. "God, where do I even start? Thank you for being my friend, Nami. You-You aren't just the first friend I've ever had, you're the best I could have asked for. And I am… going to miss you so much."
"You're…" Nami rubbed the tears from her eyes with a heavy sniff. "Y-You're sure you don't want to come with us? W-We could let you keep the crow's nest if you want!"
"Veto!" Zoro and Cross interjected.
"Horohorohoro!" Perona chuckled. "I'm sure, Nami. But as it is, I have different arrangements in mind. A palace perfectly empty for me to move into… and a load of cute new pets just begging for my love."
Nami blinked in confusion. And then Perona pointed skyward; Nami looked up and promptly paled as she caught sight of the trio of giga-birds circling high overhead.
"Peronaaaa," Nami breathed numbly. "What exactly were you doing during the raid?"
"Ohhh, this and that, this and that," Perona giggled with her more normal impishness. Her expression then softened kindly. "Goodbye, Na—ah!"
Perona jerked back in shock as Nami lunged forward and threw her arms around the ghost in the closest approximation to a hug she could manage. Once she got her wits about her, however, the Ghost Princess returned the hug in the same capacity.
"We would have raised hell together, wouldn't we?" Perona whispered through her tears.
Nami hiccuped a laugh of her own, drawing in even closer to the ghost…
"We still could," she breathed in her ear.
Perona blinked in surprised confusion, but before she could do or say anything, Nami hissed a string of numbers in her ear before drawing back, a smirk and a finger on her lips.
The Ghost Princess blinked a bit more. She then readopted her smile and nodded.
"Goodbye, Straw Hats," Perona breathed in farewell. "Till we meet again."
And with that, the Ghost Princess… dissolved, her astral form collapsing into motes of ectoplasm and wafting back to the plummeting island.
Chopper let out a sigh as he kneaded his brow. "I would have appreciated a chance to make sure my treatment was working. Well… alright, let's see what the damage is this time, Luffy," he said, fond exasperation in his face as he retrieved Luffy and laid him down on the grassy deck. "Nami, you're next."
"Right," the navigator nodded fearlessly, directing her attention to the rest of her crew, and then slumping down. "It looks like we won't be navigating anywhere until we touch back down… I think I'm just going to take a little rest."
"Heheh, trust me, I think we could all use some rest," came a new voice from beside the Sunny. A quick look revealed one of the last people either crew ever expected.
"Ever?" several voices inquired.
"Who?" was the question that several more asked.
"Ah, she was one of the slaves working at one of Shiki's bases," Robin explained with honest surprise.
"Yeah, one of the slaves who went free with all the rest!" Valentine gaped in confusion. "Ever, shouldn't you be back with your family!?"
"Oh, I went back to them, alright!" Ever nodded in confirmation, beaming with unbridled positivity. "Found them after our village was wrecked, had the whole tearful reunion bit, very dramatic…" She smirked confidently as she cocked her head to the side. "Aaaand then I joined the bandwagon a lot of others were hopping on."
"And by 'bandwagon', you mean…?" Goldenweek trailed off curiously.
"Weeeeell," the winged woman pointed up at the sky. "You see everyone splitting off here and there?"
The pirates looked up and saw that, indeed, while there were plenty of citizens of Merveille circling above the island, waiting for it to land in the ocean, clusters were splitting off and flapping away.
"Seeee, we were all trapped on that island under Shiki's rule for twenty years," Ever explained, grimacing. "Meaning that some people, like me, have never actually had the chance to live free. So now that Shiki's gone? A lot of people just want to leave, see the world, and never look back. People like me. And while most folks are winging it on their own… weeell…" She smirked as she folded her arms behind her head. "I thought that I'd save myself the effort and hitch a ride."
"Wait, you want to join us!?" Donny sputtered in shock.
"Them, specifically," Ever said, jerking her thumb at the Cannibal with a flat look. "No offence to you guys, but you all are a whole 'nother brand of crazy that I don't feel like dealing with. I'll settle for 'relatively deranged', thank you very much."
"Preach it, sister," Goldenweek deadpanned as she held out her knuckles to the feathered woman, who promptly bumped them with her own and a grin.
"You've got spirit, Ever," Bartolomeo rasped, pinning Ever with a serious look. "But can you actually fight? I run this crew like I ran Loguetown: I can't let you join if you're going to be dead weight in combat. Everyone on this crew needs to be able to hold their own against the other monsters of the Grand Line."
Ever returned Bartolomeo's gaze evenly for a few moments. Then she flapped her arms, flipped herself in the air and brought one leg down in an axe kick aimed straight at his skull.
SKRANG!
She winced as it made contact with a barrier instead, and withdrew her leg with a pained flex.
"Ffffucking hell, I think that broke my heel, you bastard," she grumbled with half-hearted acid.
"There's a reason I say that they're indestructible, seeing as it took Shiki using mountains to break them, and even then, my arms are what broke first," Barto snorted with a snaggle-toothed scowl, which he shoved in Ever's face. "And besides that, how the hell do you think that attacking me while I'm exhausted and nursing two broken arms would do anything to convince me that you were capable of lasting in a real fight on this ocean?"
The Merveillan shook out her foot a bit more before looking at Bartolomeo with a pleasant smile. "Oh, no, I attacked because I knew you'd be able to put it up, even while looking like some of the nastier beasties back home had chewed you up and spat you out."
"And if I couldn't?"
Ever rolled her eyes dismissively. "Well then, you'd hardly be worth following, wouldn't you?"
Bartolomeo processed that with a carefully blank face.
"…heh… hehahaha… HEHAHAHAHAHA!"
Then he started laughing. It only lasted a few seconds before a spasm of pain cut him off, but the message was clear even before he shot Ever a grin.
"That's good enough for me!" he said. "You'll have to carve your place out amongst our band of bozos by hook, crook, and whatever other cheap shots you can throw, and if someone pisses you off or something, then don't bother coming crying to me, but other than that?" He shrugged, wincing his way through the pain. "Welcome aboard, Ever."
Amongst the Straw Hats, Sanji chewed on his cigarette doubtfully as he leaned in close to Robin. "Nnnooot to tell somebody how to live their life, but… she is a beautiful young girl with limited life experience signing on with one of the roughest and most certifiable crews alive. Shouldn't we… I don't know, say something?"
Robin was about to answer, but was cut off by Ever leaping onto the Sunny's railing and shooting her fist in the air.
"LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE STUCK WITH ME, BITCHES!" she crowed, basking in the round of boisterous cheers that erupted from the Cannibals.
Robin let a playful smile play across her face. "Counterpoint," she purred. "She's a young girl whose entire life experience comes from serving as a waitress in a pirate bar. I think she'll be just fine." She patted Sanji on the cheek as she walked off. "It's cute of you to act so concerned, though."
Sanji's head hung with a groan. "On the one hand, I love being touched by a beautiful woman. On the other hand, even I can't just brush off being stepped on that badly…"
"If you've gotten over that by tomorrow, Sanji, I need to talk to you about something," Cross said, tilting his hat over his eyes as he reclined on the grassy lawn, armour shed beside him. "You too, Donny."
"Huh? Uh… OK?" the Dugong in question agreed before returning to resting with his siblings.
"HEY, LOOK! IT'S THE MARINES!" Apis called.
All eyes turned downward, where a fleet of battleships could be seen, turned toward the ruins of Merveille as they settled.
"Oh, this should be good," Barto leered viciously. "What do you say to a little taunting about beating them to the—?"
"No."
All eyes snapped toward the supine rubber man, who had a firm frown on his face.
"What do you mean, 'no'?"
"They came here to stop Shiki. They came here to fight for the East Blue. They came here to fight for the same reason that we were fighting." Luffy closed his eyes. "We would have been on the same side. Why would we make fun of them for wanting to help save our home?"
"…There he goes making way too much sense again," Usopp heaved his shoulders in a sigh. "But hey, if they leave us alone, then—!"
BOOM!
All attention snapped back down below, and Usopp brought down his goggles to see what had happened.
"…Kind of anticlimactic. Yes, they're firing at us, but we're still too high for their cannonballs to reach us," he said.
"MEEHH, and we're not close enough for me to taunt anyone anyway," Soundbite crossed his eyestalks in consternation. "SO FRUSTRATING!"
"Eh, I don't mind it," Merry yawned, idly steering the Sunny with a few stray taps on the woodwork. "We've kicked enough ass and torn apart enough psyche for tonight. Let's just enjoy the trip down…" She hopped up onto the nearest railing and leaned back on her palms as she gazed out at the horizon, a lazy smile on her face. "Man… never thought I'd ever be lucky enough to see this again."
Everyone else stilled at the musing, and the crews all wandered over to gaze over the edge and off into the distance.
"This is impressive," Mr. 5 whistled, eyeing the ocean below. "I guess you see this all the time, Miss Valentine?"
"Hmhm," Valentine giggled, leaning on her umbrella. "This is a whole different scale, Mr. 5."
With that, the two crews eased into relaxation. Which, for the Straw Hats, soon turned into rest, which just as quickly turned into straight out collapsing so that they could sleep off the fatigue of the last week and the final fight against Shiki. This, in turn, led to no small amount of panic from their erstwhile travel companions.
As ever and always, not a quiet moment on the deck of the Thousand Sunny.
-o-
A few hours later, on an uninhabited island not far from the ruins of Merveille, a bloodied, legless form cracked open a bloodshot eye. Ragged gasps tore out of his throat as consciousness rudely intruded. Memories of recent events coalesced in his mind, and as he felt the stumps where his legs once were, now bereft of his precious swords, hatred crystallized in his heart.
"Monkey D. Luffy," he snarled, forcing himself upright. "I've lost everything to another rookie from the East Blue… no."
A mirthless smile came over his face. "No… I still have my powers. That's all I need. I'll take the time I need to clean my wounds."
He turned his gaze upward. "I'll fly to the White-White Sea; nobody will be able to find me there. I'll form a new plan, new weapons, a new army… and next time, I'll break his spirit first. I'll find his home, and I'll slaughter those he cares about most! Ji… JIHAHAHA! JIHAHAHAHAAAA!" Shiki threw his head back and roared with laughter, heedless of the blood he was spitting with every guffaw. "I HAVEN'T LOST YET! I'LL HAVE MY REVENGE! I'LL BE BACK! DO YOU HEAR ME!? I'LL BE—!"
"You shall not, cretin."
CRACK!
A Haki-enforced heel slammed into his skull, sending Shiki back into blissful unconsciousness. A red and white serpent bound him in its coils before moving back toward its master, who had a Transponder Snail out and in her palm.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, I have located the fallen form of Shiki the Golden Lion," Pirate Empress Boa Hancock announced with a prim sniff. "And quite fortunately for your Government's reputation, he is still alive; you may retrieve him and do with him whatever you will."
The line was silent for a few moments, the snail's expression slightly wide-eyed. Then…
"…I am grateful for your assistance, Boa Hancock. But I thought you generally made it a rule not to care about anything outside the Calm Belt?"
Hancock tossed her hair dismissively. "I decided to make an exception."
"That's the best I'm getting out of you, isn't it?" Sengoku sighed, grimacing. He forged on before she could reply. "And if I asked you to extend that 'exception' to the Straw Hats?"
KALICK!
Hancock smirked as she pressed her finger into the receiver's cradle. "I suspect that that will suffice as an answer."
"Honestly, some men, they just can't be satisfied with what they get, can they?" Marguerite sighed wistfully.
"Indeed, indeed," Marigold snickered before giving her sibling a contemplative look. "Though… I am curious, sister. Why did you decide to intervene when we never have before?"
"Did you not hear me, Mari?" Hancock raised her chin as she strutted past her larger sibling, Salome at her heels. "I decided to make an exception. But, quite unlike what Sengoku believes, I did not make this exception for the sake of this," she sneered as she snapped a kick across her captive's jaw. "Pathetic wretch. Rather…"
Boa Hancock turned her gaze skyward, smiling fondly as she recalled the sight of a pair of ships gliding into the sunset as she had seen a time ago.
"I made an exception," she breathed warmly. "For the sake of an exceptional man."