Vivi had always known that this reckless venture might end in her death—or in something worse. But she loved Alabasta and the people of her country far too much to sit idle while some unknown enemy destroyed the world she knew. Vivi and Igaram had joined Baroque Works for one reason alone: to discover who stood at the head of the organization. An organization that, for three years now, had been steadily guiding her country toward a bloody massacre, deceiving the people of Alabasta into turning against one another. And now, when she and Igaram had finally achieved their goal, when only one last step remained before her country could be saved, they had lost. One day! No—only a few hours! A few more hours, and they would have left Whisky Peak! Why was fate so cruel? Perhaps it was simply her age, but despite all the dangers waiting for them, Vivi had always believed that, in the end, they would win. And naturally, no one would die! Not her, not Igaram, not the people of Alabasta! No one! Reality had turned out very differently.
"P-please… please… I don't want… I don't want to die…"
Her trembling, blood-soaked fingers scraped weakly against the blood-covered piece of wood. Saying that you were ready to die was one thing. Slowly dying while feeling your own life literally slipping through your fingers was something else entirely. Blood—Vivi had never imagined there could be so much blood inside her! It was everywhere. It ran slowly down her arms, over her chest and stomach, across her trousers, bubbled in red foam on her lips, and dripped to the ground from the end of the wooden stake protruding from her body. The world before her eyes alternated between darkness and light. Every time it began to darken, a savage wave of primal terror swept over Vivi. She was horrified by the thought that the light might never return. She was not even sixteen yet! Only after feeling death's breath upon her did Vivi understand that she was not ready to die at all.
"D-Dad… Dad…"
Sobbing miserably and trembling, she looked more than ever like the ordinary little girl she had, in truth, always been. At that moment the light returned again, and Vivi tried to look around. Igaram. Igaram could help her! He always helped her! He had done so since she was a child!
"Igaram… where… Igaram…"
The town was burning. Whisky Peak was literally drowning in fire. The glow could be seen from anywhere on the island and for many miles beyond it, while inside the town itself the heat was infernal. No—Whisky Peak looked more like a city torn straight out of Hell. Heart-rending screams could be heard even through the deafening crackle of burning houses, and bloodied bodies lay everywhere in the streets—sometimes whole, sometimes not. Sitting on the ground with one shoulder resting against the wall of a burning house, Vivi could only stare at the Hell that had opened around her.
To be honest, she had no idea how she had ended up there, beside the wall of that house, or why the town was burning. Her last coherent memory was of dozens of hunters opening a storm of gunfire on the pirates sitting on the sofa. Then there had been a powerful explosion, and her memories ended. When she regained consciousness, mind-shattering pain was the first thing she felt. It was probably only because of that pain that she had awakened at all. Otherwise, she would have died without ever coming to. And perhaps that would have been better—she would not have had to be afraid or suffer before death.
"NO, NO!!! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!!!"
"RUN!!! RUN!!! RUN!!!"
In the direction Vivi was looking, two silhouettes appeared among the burning buildings. Within seconds they resolved into a pair of men in their thirties, fleeing some unknown danger with eyes bulging in terror. Vivi knew them. Their names were Dal and Kirk. Ordinary bounty hunters who also happened to be members of Baroque Works. Had they not taken part in the conspiracy against her country, she might even have said they were decent men.
Had been. Because they did not have long left to live.
Now Vivi could see what had frightened two grown men so badly. A predatory grin on his face and bloodied swords in his hands, Yosaku 'the Butcher' seemed to be strolling lazily after the desperately fleeing men, yet somehow, contrary to all logic, he was steadily gaining on them. The outcome, however, proved unexpected.
"AAAAAAAH!!!" Another scream joined the cries coming from every direction.
As Kirk ran past one of the houses, a hand wreathed in flame smashed through a stone wall and seized him. The one to whom the arm belonged followed, demolishing the rest of the wall as he emerged from the burning building. Black scales covered his body instead of skin, separated by thin lines of fire. His blazing eyes had vertical pupils. His teeth were sharpened to points. A long tail, three or four meters in length, ended in a large rectangular spiked club. And flames enveloped the demon's entire body.
The picture of Hell around them became complete. What kind of Hell would it be without demons and devils?
And a succubus.
While Kirk rapidly turned into a well-roasted corpse in the fire demon's grip, Dal surged forward with three times his previous speed. At that very moment, from a direction Vivi could not see, she entered her field of vision. She walked as though she were a model on a fashion runway rather than crossing a burning town strewn with corpses.
In person, the 'Queen' was countless times more beautiful than even her finest photograph in all the magazines and newspapers. Vivi fully understood why reverent silence had descended upon every hunter in Whisky Peak the moment the Queen came ashore. She understood why the town's most notorious womanizer, when standing near her, began behaving like a virgin schoolboy who had lost the last of his brains over a classmate. If even women who looked at the Queen began feeling heat in certain interesting places—including Vivi herself, who had never before noticed such inclinations—then what could anyone expect from men?
The girl's slowly fading consciousness clung to any thought, no matter how absurd, if it could keep her from finally going dark. Another spell of unconsciousness would bring only death.
"OUT OF MY WAY!!!"
This time, upon seeing the Queen walking toward him, Dal somehow forgot to stop and admire her beauty. Mindless terror did a remarkable job of clearing love fever from the brain. So remarkable, in fact, that the fear-crazed man did not slow down as he swept his sword in a broad arc, less concerned with wounding or killing the girl than with removing her from his path by any means necessary.
Vivi did not see the staff held in the Queen's hand. Dal did not notice it either. He certainly felt it, however, when a casual blow sent him flying sideways. His body punched through a stone wall and vanished into a burning house.
"AAAAAAAH!!!" Another agonized scream rang across the rapidly dying town.
Vivi could no longer see the Queen's face, but her runway-model stride did not change in the slightest, as though someone else had dealt with Dal in her place. What Vivi also failed to see was Johnny and Yosaku exchanging knowing looks. Although, with the former partially transformed into a dragon, not everyone could correctly read the expressions on his face and in his eyes. In that state, all he had to do was look at someone to create the distinct impression that he intended to eat them alive.
As for the glance the two men exchanged… It was highly unlikely that Nami would ever become a complete female copy of Luffy—her nature was far too kind for that—but her personal Luffification was undeniably continuing.
Only a few months earlier, she had hesitated over killing Arlong, whom she had hated deeply for half her life. Now, without batting an eye, she could send some random enemy to burn alive and never think twice about it. Very much in Luffy's style, and perhaps Zoro's as well.
Johnny and Yosaku themselves had killed plenty of people, but they were never indifferent. Genuine indifference toward one's enemy was required for that. If Nami had not been attacked, she simply would not have struck back. She would have let the hunter escape because she truly did not care whether he lived or died. That was real indifference.
The men could not do that, and there was no guarantee they ever would. They would have killed the hunter simply because he was a comrade of the other hunters on the island—the ones who had possessed the nerve to attack them. Not them personally, of course, but their family as a whole. That unquestionably deserved death! How was anyone supposed to remain indifferent to that?
"Ryu, what happened to your transformation this time?" Nami asked Johnny first upon noticing his new appearance. "And throw that thing away. He's been dead for ages!"
The man obediently discarded the charred corpse he had continued holding by the throat.
"Cool, right?" Johnny growled, flattered despite the complete absence of any compliment. "Just look at how powerful my tail is!"
The tail in question immediately curved into an arc, then snapped straight toward the nearest house. A wave of air spread out in a vast semicircle, noticeably beating down the flames on every building in its path. The house Johnny had selected as his target, in the finest traditions of Zoro, was sliced cleanly in half.
"That's one hell of a tail!" Yosaku whistled involuntarily at the aftermath of his friend's attack.
"You bet!" Johnny beamed even more broadly.
"Isn't it difficult to control?" Nami asked curiously. "You've never had a tail before, after all… Only a useless little end."
Nami had never liked Johnny and Yosaku's excessively lecherous behavior, which was why she reminded them of it at every convenient opportunity. Her problem with them was not even that they were both incorrigible womanizers—even Zoro, almost always indifferent to women, had not escaped that fate—but rather the way they lost the last remnants of both their brains and their dignity whenever another pretty face appeared on the horizon. From Nami's point of view, Sanji was much better! Not only an incurable womanizer, but a gentleman as well. A slightly defective gentleman, perhaps.
"Ha-ha. Very funny," Johnny said dryly in response to the jab. "And no, it isn't difficult to control at all. Personally, it feels as though it has always been part of me."
To prove his point, he began forming various shapes with his tail.
"I've got a feeling you'll end up a real dragon by the time this is over," Yosaku pronounced.
"Luffy-aniki has been saying that for ages! By the way, Nami, your Den Den Mushi is ringing."
The agonized screams had almost vanished, but the crackle of burning wood was so loud that it completely drowned out the already quiet voice of the tiny snail. Johnny had heard it only because of the characteristics of his fruit in general and his current transformation in particular.
"Purururu… purururu…"
Nami tugged the top of her bikini slightly away from her chest, and a tiny snail emerged into the light from 'the deep ravine between two hills,' never ceasing its purururu. Thanks to long practice, Johnny and Yosaku needed only a few seconds to put their brains back where they belonged and begin breathing again. The behavior had long since become so natural to Nami that she no longer considered the effect it had on those around her.
"Boys and girls, I've got a billion-berry question for you!" the little Den Den Mushi began without preamble in Luffy's voice. "You haven't happened to run into a young blue-haired girl, have you? The one who kept hanging around the transvestite during the party? Maybe you noticed her? And if you did, I hope you didn't kill her?"
At the words 'young blue-haired girl,' Johnny, Yosaku, and Nami all turned toward the person in question—Vivi. They had noticed her long ago, but since none of them had a habit of killing or finishing off beautiful girls, they had collectively ignored her. Luffy's training had always been comprehensive, so he had taught them to notice small details quite some time ago. And although Johnny personally had constant trouble with that—the most curious yet least observant member of the family—he would not have been himself if beauty like hers had escaped his gaze.
"What do you need her for?" Before giving Luffy bad news, Yosaku decided to clarify the details, just in case.
"I already told you, it's a billion-berry question! That little idiot is actually the princess of Alabasta! That's a country, in case you didn't understand, and the idiot infiltrated… Anyway, I'll explain why she infiltrated later. First we need to find her! God forbid she goes and dies!"
"…Luffy-aniki, I'm afraid I have bad news for you," Yosaku said after the three of them approached Vivi and examined her closely.
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