The air in the dimly lit room tasted of dust and desperation. Igaram's hands trembled as he clutched the edge of the table, his polished armor seeming to mock his current helplessness.
"Without your aid," he whispered, the words scraping from his throat, "Princess Vivi will die. Alabasta will bleed."
Nami leaned back, the gold-lust in her eyes warring with a flicker of something softer. The map of the Grand Line on the wall behind her seemed to pulse with silent danger. "A royal guard begging pirates for help. How the mighty have fallen." She tapped a finger on the wood. "The risk is astronomical. So is my fee."
"Name it."
"I will," Nami said, a sharp smile touching her lips. "But not to you. I'll negotiate payment with the Princess herself. After we deliver her safely to Alabasta."
Igaram's shoulders slumped in relief and shame. "Agreed."
"Good." Nami's gaze swept the room, landing on the snoring mound of straw hat and rubber limbs in the corner. She dismissed Luffy instantly. Her eyes found Zoro, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, a scowl already forming. "Zoro. You're with me. We're fetching a royal package."
Zoro's eye snapped open. "Hell no. Your money scheme, your problem."
"Our problem," Nami shot back, her voice dropping to a dangerous, honeyed tone. "The contract is with the Straw Hat Pirates. All of us. Or did you forget you're part of a crew?"
"I didn't forget you charged me three hundred percent interest on a loan for new swords," Zoro grumbled, pushing off the wall. "This is your circus."
"And you're one of the monkeys," Nami retorted, stepping closer. The air crackled between them. "Fine. You want a tangible reason? Help me with this, and I'll wipe the slate clean. The two hundred thousand Berry interest from Loguetown? Consider it… a retainer."
Zoro went very still. The phantom weight of debt, a nuisance he carried as stubbornly as his swords, seemed to lighten for a moment. He saw the cunning calculation in her eyes, the deal that was too good to be true and exactly what she knew he couldn't refuse.
"You're a devil woman," he spat, turning toward the door. "You won't have a peaceful death."
"I'm counting on a wealthy one," she called after him, the smile fading as he vanished into the night.
Igaram sank into a chair, his head in his hands. "I should be with her. I am sworn to give my life for hers, and yet I send a stranger…"
"That stranger," Nami said, her voice uncharacteristically gentle, "is monstrously strong. He'll get her back."
"She must live," Igaram pleaded, looking up with hollow eyes. "Not just for a father's love. Alabasta's future hangs by the thread of her survival."
---
The thread was fraying.
Vivi clung to Carue's feathers, the duck's panicked "Quack!" echoing through the narrow alleyways of Whiskey Peak. The ship behind Cactus Rock was a phantom hope, too far across a town turned hunting ground.
"Your effort is… quaint," a bored voice drawled from the rooftop above.
Mr. 5 landed in front of them with a soft thud, adjusting his sunglasses. Miss Valentine descended gracefully beside him, her parasol spinning. "Running just makes you sweat, darling. It's so unladylike."
"Please," Vivi breathed, her voice raw. "Let my people go. It's me you want."
"We want everyone who fails Baroque Works," Mr. 5 said. A sudden, hulking shadow interposed itself between them.
Miss Monday, her face bruised but determined, cracked her knuckles. "Get to the ship, Princess."
"M-Monday? Why?"
"The boss won't forgive any of us for losing to that green-haired swordsman anyway," she grunted. "Might as well go out with some pride."
Mr. 5 sighed, a sound like grating stone. "Disappointing." He didn't even move his feet. As Miss Monday charged, he simply extended an arm.
Thwump.
His forearm clotheslined her across the throat. The impact didn't just hit—it detonated.
BOOM.
A concussive blast of air and smoke hurled Vivi from Carue's back. She hit the ground, ears ringing, watching in horror as Miss Monday crashed through a stone wall and did not rise.
"W-What…?"
"My body is a weapon," Mr. 5 explained, walking calmly through the dissipating smoke. He picked his nose with deliberate, grotesque slowness. "The Bomu Bomu no Mi. I am a human bomb. Every part of me… explodes."
He flicked his finger.
A single, hardened bogey shot toward Vivi's forehead like a cannonball—the Nose Fancy Cannon.
Time slowed. Vivi saw her death in that flying piece of filth, an ignoble, explosive end to a princess's journey.
Shing.
Three silver slashes crossed the night air.
The bogey split into four harmless pieces an inch from Vivi's face. They sailed past her and struck the buildings lining the street.
KABOOM-KABOOM-KABOOM!
A chain reaction of eruptions tore through the facades, showering the street in stone and fire. Through the raining debris, a figure stepped forward, three swords gleaming in the inferno's light.
Zoro didn't even look at her. "You the package?"
Vivi could only nod, choking on dust and relief.
Mr. 5 tilted his head. "The swordsman. The one who defeated a hundred agents."
"You talk too much for a bomb," Zoro said, lowering his blades into a ready stance. "You're supposed to go off, not give a speech."
Miss Valentine giggled, floating higher on her parasol. "Oh, he'll go off. On you."
Zoro's eye flicked to Vivi, then to the distant dock. The path was blocked by two Devil Fruit users and a street rapidly becoming a ruin. Carue was cowering. The Princess was shaking.
"Get on the duck," Zoro commanded, his voice leaving no room for argument.
"But they'll—"
"I said," he growled, "get on the duck."
As Vivi scrambled onto Carue, Mr. 5 dug a finger deep into his other nostril, preparing a volley. "You think you can block them all?"
Zoro's grin was a feral thing in the firelight. "Try me."
But Miss Valentine was already moving, not toward Zoro, but in a wide arc—heading straight for the fleeing Vivi and Carue. "The client said dead or alive, darling! I prefer efficient!"
Zoro moved to intercept, but Mr. 5 fired. Not one, but a rapid series of explosive pellets from his fingertips, stitching a line of blasts at Zoro's feet, forcing him to leap back.
He was pinned. Protect the Princess, or defend himself from the blasts that could level the block.
He made his choice.
As the Nose Fancy Cannon volley rained down and Miss Valentine closed in on her target, Zoro crossed his swords and took a breath that seemed to draw in the very light from the flames.
"Santoryu…"
Across town, Nami suddenly clutched her chest, a sharp, inexplicable dread piercing her mercenary heart. The deal, the money, the retainer—it all evaporated into one terrifying thought.
What if the monster wasn't strong enough?
And on the burning street, as Zoro unleashed his technique and the world dissolved into a storm of steel and fire, a final, gloved hand emerged from the shadows of a collapsed building behind Vivi—a hand dripping with molten wax, reaching silently for the Princess's unprotected back.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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