"He's getting faster and faster... I can't keep up with all his attacks."
It grazed me! I know it grazed me, you hear!?
"And yet, there's no cloud in your smile... Interesting. It's been a while since I've found a head so worthy of taking."
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
Seriously, what is this!? What is he!? What is my destiny!!?
His slashes keep scraping the skin around my neck and throat! It's so hot! Aaaahhhhhh!!!
That was too close! I thought it was all over!
I'm moving at the absolute limit of what my eyes can track, but every time I land a kick, he just smiles wider and starts to predict my moves! He even cut off one of my cat-claws! What is going on!? He's definitely using Haki now! He's serious about killing me!
Robin and Toya's team worked so hard to make this for me, you bastard!
What is with my second life!?
Did I do something wrong!?
Sure, when I was starting out, I hung some jerks who tried to sell me upside down, poured oil on them, and set them on fire, but that was just a small thing, right!? It was self-defense!
Help me! Please, just lower the difficulty of my life for once!
"That's what makes it a shame. If you had mastered Haki, you would have been an even greater opponent."
So why don't you just let me go then!? Huh!!?
"In that case, how about a little bet, Marine Hunter?"
The only good thing about this is that, unlike with Moria, there isn't a huge difference in our weight. It's still tough because his attacks are so fast I have to stay focused just to see them, but being able to knock his attacks off course like before is a big advantage.
"You are stronger than me."
"That's right. You lack a finishing blow."
Right.
I've been thinking and training so hard that I'm strong enough to handle any Marine in the West Blue, so why do I keep running into monsters like you and Moria?
"In that case,"
"If I can keep you completely focused on me until my crew deals with things below and comes back, will you promise to let them go?"
This is pathetic, but I have to be ready to die and beg him just to let my crew escape. I honestly want to beg for my own life, but I know he'd just chop my head off if I did. To protect my crew, I have to bet everything I have, except them, against this grim reaper.
...
Yep! Looks like I'm going to die!
The moon is so beautiful tonight. It's almost too perfect a day to die!
Hahahaha! I'm gonna kill you, God!!
"...Very well. Come."
"Yeah, here I come."
The perfect darkness and silence of the night. And the sound of Hawk-Eyes, which I've learned to hear from focusing so hard.
I think... I can do this.
"——Shakushi."
–
"Lord Daz! You're too far ahead! It's pointless to draw all their attacks if your allies can't keep up!"
"Grr...!"
After finding the entrance to the basement under the destroyed building, Daz and his team were tearing through the enemy's defenses.
The maze-like passages were mapped out by Perona's ghost scouts, and Robin used her powers to relay the information, allowing them to find their way. With this advantage, Daz and the Black Cat Pirates' combat team pushed forward.
They still had some weaknesses, but the former Marines of the Black Cat Pirates were different now. They were determined to fight as pirates—as Kuro's crew. The hired soldiers guarding the path were no match for them. Daz acted as a shield, while Hack and Amisu's team coordinated attacks from behind.
But even as they won battle after battle, Daz looked more troubled than ever before.
"Amisu."
"Yes."
"That man... is he strong?"
"...He's probably stronger than anyone the Captain has fought before. I heard a story before I was captured... it sounded like a lie, but they said he cut a Vice Admiral's ship in half..."
Daz remembered the zombie user they had fought before. More specifically, he remembered the wrecked smuggling ship with a huge hole in it that he saw before that fight.
"...We'll clear out these small fry, rescue the pioneer group members, and get out of here as fast as we can. Forget about taking any cargo for now."
"For now?"
"If it's clear outside, we can come back for it later."
Daz kicked down the final door.
"Damn it! They made it! Those guys were completely useless!"
Inside, they saw a man lying on the ground with a bleeding head, another man in an expensive-looking suit cursing beside him, and many mafia soldiers standing behind them. They also saw the captured fish-men and some girls who looked to be about their own age.
"You made a mistake by having only one way in and out of your secret warehouse to keep the prisoners from escaping. Now you're the ones who are trapped."
The man in the suit yelled back at Daz, "Shut up, you little brat!"
"Men! Kill every last one of them! This room is lined with sea-stone! Their ghost tricks and sprouting limbs won't work in here!"
The mafia man thought the Black Cats' success was all thanks to their Devil Fruits. He wasn't entirely wrong. He wasn't. If you had to name the most valuable member of the Black Cat Pirates, it would probably be Perona, the powerful Devil Fruit User.
"So what?"
But the ones who understood this best were the members of the Black Cat crew themselves. The veterans who fought against Gecko Moria and his army knew that there were enemies against whom Devil Fruit powers were useless. That's why every one of them had been working on their own skills.
"It's true that Perona and Robin can't help us in here."
They all knew that without strength, everything would be taken from them. That's why they had all been training since they raised their flag—no, even before that.
"But that's all it means."
"Don't think that the likes of you can stop us."
–
To the girls, pirates were warriors. Warriors had to be strong. If you weren't strong, you weren't a warrior. The strong were allowed to take, and the weak were not allowed to resist.
That's why she had trained so hard that she was allowed on a ship even as an apprentice. She would crush the weak, take everything from them, and earn honor as a warrior in her homeland.
But even she could not defeat nature.
Seeing that the Marine forces in the Grand Line were moving slowly, her island's empress—the pirate empress—decided it was a good time to advance into the New World. But the weather and currents were far worse than they had imagined. She and her sisters fell overboard and were lost at sea.
They were lucky to survive, but what awaited them was a life in chains, something she had never imagined. They were held by two sets of restraints, one of sea-stone and one of a special metal, so they couldn't fight back. If they even opened their mouths, things were thrown at them. To avoid scarring their faces, which would lower their value, they were whipped and beaten on their stomachs and backs instead.
She was forced to learn what it meant to be the one who is taken from. And she knew that they had no future.
That's why she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"What... is happening..."
"I told you. You can't stop us."
The men who had terrified them, who ruled over them and were about to hand them over to an even worse fate, were all defeated in an instant.
"Just because you have more men and more weapons doesn't mean you'll win."
"Damn... you... playing hero of justice... you brats..."
The fantasy she had imagined to escape the pain—that she and her sisters would be at full strength and could fight back—was happening right in front of her.
"Mr. Hack, I found the keys! Let's free everyone right away!"
"I'm sorry. Everyone, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting! We've come to rescue you!"
One by one, the strange-looking people who had been captured with them were being set free.
"I'm sorry. Was it scary? We'll get you out of here now, okay?"
A woman in a black suit with short hair ran over to them and tried to unlock their chains.
"Lady Amisu, my comrades say their keys are inside that safe. We need the key to the safe!"
"Understood. Everyone, once the enemy soldiers are tied up, start searching!"
"We're not heroes of justice. To use the Captain's words, we are also people who live by taking from others", said Daz.
He must be a Devil Fruit User. He was a boy about her age, and bullets and blades passed right through him. He had turned his own hands and feet into blades and sent man after man into a sea of blood. Now, he was looking down at the man who had hurt them so much.
"We're pirates."
--
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