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Robin lunged against her chains. The metal bit into her wrists but she didn't stop pulling. "She has a Devil Fruit!" The words tore out of her throat. "She'll drown! You have to—"
Kaku pressed the pistol harder against her temple. "Sit. Down."
"The ocean will kill her! She can't swim! You need to—"
The compartment door slammed open.
Rob Lucci filled the doorway. His white suit was immaculate despite the chaos, his face carved from stone. The pigeon on his shoulder ruffled its feathers once, then went still.
"What happened." His voice was flat. Not a question. A demand.
Kalifa straightened, one hand still cradling her burned palm. The blisters were already swelling, skin red and weeping. "There was a complication. The target—"
"I can see the hole in my train car." Lucci stepped inside. His eyes tracked from the torn metal wall to Kalifa's injuries to Robin still straining against her chains. "Where is she."
"In the ocean." Kalifa's voice stayed level but her good hand trembled slightly at her side. "She broke free of the seastone and attacked. I neutralized the threat by—"
"You let her fall." Lucci crossed the compartment in three strides. Stopped directly in front of Kalifa. His face showed nothing. His eyes showed less. "Our orders were explicit. Secure Nico Robin. Secure the Ra Ra no Mi. Do you remember those orders, Kalifa?"
"Yes."
"Then explain to me why the holder of that Devil Fruit is currently sinking to the bottom of the ocean."
Kalifa lifted her chin. "The fruit can still be recovered. When a Devil Fruit user dies, the power reincarnates in the nearest normal fruit. We have a collection box prepared for exactly this situation." She gestured to a wooden crate near the far wall. "Given the time elapsed and the depth of these waters, she's almost certainly dead by now. The Ra Ra no Mi should already be waiting in that box."
Lucci's gaze didn't shift from Kalifa's face. "Kaku. Check it."
Kaku holstered his pistol and crossed to the crate. Pried the lid open with his long fingers. Inside, dozens of fruits packed in straw. Apples, oranges, pears, bananas. He lifted them one by one, examining each for the spiral patterns that marked a Devil Fruit.
Robin watched him work. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Nami was dead. Had to be dead. No Devil Fruit user survived the ocean. The water drained them, pulled them down, filled their lungs until—
"It's not here." Kaku's voice cut through her spiral. He turned, holding up an unblemished apple. "Every fruit is normal. No reincarnation."
The compartment went silent except for the rhythmic clack of wheels on tracks.
Lucci's head tilted slightly. "Repeat that."
"The Ra Ra no Mi is not in the box." Kaku set the apple down carefully. "Which means either the target is still alive, or there was a fruit closer to her body than this collection."
"Impossible." Kalifa's voice rose slightly. "She fell into open ocean. There are no fruits out there. And even if she survived the initial impact, the seawater would have—"
Lucci moved.
His hand shot out and closed around Kalifa's throat. Lifted her off the ground like she weighed nothing. Her feet kicked uselessly at empty air.
"I should kill you right now." His voice stayed perfectly calm. Conversational, almost. "You understand that, don't you? The World Government gave us one job. Retrieve the woman who can read Poneglyphs and secure a Mythical Zoan fruit that hasn't been seen in centuries. You made us lose one of them."
Kalifa's fingers clawed at his wrist. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Her face turned red, then purple.
Robin stared. She could see it in his eyes that Lucci was a cruel man, but she would not grieve for that woman, she was almost waiting to hear a snap.
"However." Lucci's fingers loosened slightly. Just enough for Kalifa to drag in a wheezing breath. "You're needed for the second part of this mission. Director Spandam's interrogation methods require your particular skills." He opened his hand.
Kalifa hit the floor hard. Collapsed to her hands and knees, gasping. Her glasses had fallen off, lying crooked on the metal plating.
Lucci turned away from her like she'd ceased to exist. Faced Robin instead. His dark eyes met hers with all the warmth of a frozen lake.
"Get used to your new home, Nico Robin." He adjusted his tie. "Enies Lobby will be your last stop. They'll extract everything you know about the Poneglyphs, and then they'll extract your usefulness entirely." His head tilted. "Unless you'd like to cooperate willingly. Save yourself considerable pain."
Robin's brief flash of hope guttered out. Nami might be alive. Might. But Robin was still chained. Still being carried toward a place where people went to disappear. And even if by some miracle Nami had survived, what could one person do against CP9? Against Enies Lobby itself? She knew there was only one seatrain, and the only way for Luffy and the others to reach them is if Luffy used his devil fruit to create the flying sphere he had once used in the Sky Island, but that sphere was much slower than a seatrain, and Luffy had told them that he could only use it for three hours before he got tired.
"I'll cooperate." The words tasted like ash. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know."
"I know you will." Lucci's smile was worse than his blank face. "Everyone does, eventually."
He walked to the torn section of wall. Looked out at the dark ocean rushing past beneath the train. Steam rose from something in the distance. Probably just the natural heat of the water mixing with cooler air.
"Kaku. Increase speed. I want to reach Enies Lobby before dawn." Lucci glanced back at Kalifa, still kneeling on the floor. "And someone patch that hole. We're losing cabin pressure."
He left without another word. The pigeon on his shoulder cooed once as the door slid shut behind them.
Kaku moved to help Kalifa stand. She shook him off, retrieving her glasses with her unburned hand. When she looked at Robin, something ugly flickered in her expression.
"This isn't over." Kalifa's voice was hoarse, damaged. "If she survived, if she somehow comes for you, I'll kill her myself. Slowly."
Robin said nothing. Just let her head fall forward, hair curtaining her face.
In the distance, golden light flickered across the ocean's surface. But none of them were looking.
Monkey D. Luffy
The Rocketman screamed across the ocean like something dying. Every joint groaned. Every rivet shook. The whole train felt like it wanted to tear itself apart and scatter across the water in pieces.
Luffy stood at the front platform, hands locked on the railing. Wind tore at his hair and coat. Salt spray stung his eyes. The ocean ahead was worse than anything he'd seen outside of a real storm. Waves three times the train's height rolled toward them. Whirlpools opened and closed like mouths trying to swallow the tracks. The whole surface churned white with foam.
Aqua Laguna. The annual storm surge that had nearly destroyed Water 7 before Tom built the Sea Train. These waters would crush any normal ship. Even the Rocketman was barely holding together.
The train hit a wave wrong. Tilted sideways. Metal shrieked and someone inside screamed. Then they were through it, back on track, accelerating again.
Luffy's fingers tightened on the railing. Three hours to Enies Lobby. They'd been riding for maybe two. Three more hours of this. Three more hours while Robin and Nami got further away.
He turned his head. Nojiko stood a few feet behind him, one hand braced against a support beam. Her face was set in hard lines. Water vapor condensed around her fingertips, dripping onto the metal deck.
"How good are you at controlling water?"
Nojiko looked at him. "Decent. Why?"
"These currents." Luffy gestured at the chaos ahead. "Aqua Laguna's making everything worse. If you can calm the water around us, we might actually make it to Enies Lobby without shaking apart."
"Might?" Nojiko's eyebrow went up.
"Probably. Maybe." Luffy met her eyes. "Can you do it?"
Nojiko stared out at the violent ocean. Another massive wave rolled toward them. The Rocketman hit it head-on and shuddered from nose to tail. "I formed a water dragon against Akainu in Mock Town. Held it together long enough to attack. And I pulled poison from your blood after Aokiji nearly killed you." She looked back at Luffy. "But this? I've never tried controlling this much water. Not even close."
"For Nami and Robin."
Something shifted in Nojiko's expression. Her jaw set. "For Nami and Robin."
She moved to the center of the platform where she had room to work. Planted her feet wide. The train lurched beneath her but she rode it out.
Nojiko spread her arms.
Water vapor exploded around her. It condensed from the air itself, from the spray kicked up by the train, from moisture Luffy couldn't even see. It wrapped around her like fog.
The ocean changed.
Not all at once. Not dramatically. But Luffy felt it. The waves directly ahead started calming. Still rough, still dangerous, but not actively trying to kill them anymore. The whirlpools lost some of their pull. The Rocketman's violent shaking decreased to something closer to a normal train ride.
Behind them, voices rose in confusion.
"What the hell is happening?"
"The water's calming down!"
"How is that possible?"
Luffy glanced back. Half of Franky's crew had climbed onto the platform, clinging to whatever handholds they could find. They stared at Nojiko with wide eyes.
"Is she doing that?" One of them pointed. "How's she doing that?"
"Devil Fruit?" another suggested.
"Can't be. She was swimming in the canals back in Water 7."
"Some kind of martial art then?"
"What martial art controls the ocean?"
Nojiko ignored them all. Sweat beaded on her forehead despite the cold spray. Her arms trembled slightly but stayed extended. The water vapor around her grew thicker.
Luffy turned back to watch the ocean. Let her work.
The meeting room was cramped. Barely enough space for the five of them to stand without bumping elbows. Zoro leaned against one wall, arms crossed. Sanji lit a cigarette near the opposite corner. Chopper clutched his medical bag with both hooves. Vivi stood by the door.
Luffy pulled his shirt up.
The mark sat in the center of his chest, right over his heart. It pulsed with faint light. A stylized storm cloud crossed with a crown.
Zoro pushed off the wall. Leaned in close to examine it. "What does it do?"
"I don't know." Luffy let his shirt drop. "But my Devil Fruit isn't working."
Silence. Then everyone started talking at once.
"What do you mean it's not working?" Chopper's voice rose to a near-shriek. "Your fruit is gone? How can it be gone? What are we going to do?"
"Calm down." Luffy held up a hand. "The fruit's still there. I can feel it. I just can't use it. Whatever Shamrock did with that mark, it locked my powers away."
"So we're going into Enies Lobby with our captain's primary weapon disabled." Sanji took a long drag. Blew smoke toward the ceiling. "Fantastic."
"Nothing changes." Luffy's voice cut through the worry starting to build. "I still have my Haki. Armament, Conqueror and Observation work fine. I trained for years before I ever ate that fruit. I can fight without it."
"Against regular Marines, sure." Zoro's hand rested on Wado Ichimonji's hilt. "But CP9 aren't regular Marines. And Enies Lobby isn't some backwater base."
"I know." Luffy met Zoro's eyes. "This isn't like Alabasta. When we went after Crocodile, we were attacking a Warlord. Dangerous, but still just one man and his organization. Enies Lobby is different. It's sacred ground for the World Government. No one really knows why, but attacking it is going to bring consequences we haven't seen before."
"Maybe they will send two admirals this time?" Sanji asked.
Luffy shook his head. "If an Admiral was involved, they would have hit us in Water 7. Why wait at Enies Lobby when they could have stopped us before we even left?" He flexed his fingers. Tried not to think about how empty his hands felt without the crackle of electricity. "No. Whatever's waiting for us there, it's not an Admiral."
"What about that red-haired bastard?" Zoro's expression turned dark. "I have never met the man before, but that red bastard looked identical to Shanks."
"He is." Luffy's jaw tightened. "Says he's Shanks' twin brother. Figarland Shamrock."
Vivi's eyes widened. "Emperor Shanks has a twin?"
"Apparently." Luffy couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. "News to me. Shanks trained me for three years and never once mentioned having a brother. Then Gramps took me to meet Ace and Sabo, and I haven't seen Shanks since." The mark on his chest pulsed. "But Shamrock's real. And he's powerful. Stronger than anyone I've fought except maybe the Admirals."
"So what's the plan?" Sanji stubbed out his cigarette. "We get to Enies Lobby, fight through however many Marines are waiting, grab Robin and Nami, and run like hell before the Government can bring real forces down on us?"
"That's about it."
"Simple plans are the best plans." Zoro grinned, sharp and dangerous. "I like it."
Chopper made a small, worried noise but nodded. Vivi nodded as well.
"Once we get them back, I'm calling Shanks." Luffy looked at each of them in turn. "He's got questions to answer about his brother. About why Shamrock's working with the Government. About what the hell that mark is doing to me." The pulsing grew stronger, like something responding to being talked about. "But that comes after. Right now, we focus on—"
Light exploded through the windows.
Golden. Blinding. Bright as sunrise. The whole train car lit up like someone had opened a door to the sun itself.
"What the hell?" Sanji moved to the window.
Luffy was already running. Shouldered through the door and sprinted for the ladder leading to the roof. Behind him, footsteps. The others following. Voices from the Franky Family members scattered through the train, all shouting variations of the same confused question.
He burst onto the roof platform. Wind hit him like a fist. He caught himself on the railing and looked up.
A sun hung in the night sky.
Not the real sun. That was still hours from rising. This was something else. A sphere of golden light hovering above the ocean, so bright it hurt to look at directly. Heat radiated from it. Luffy felt it on his face even from this distance.
The Franky Family members were panicking.
"What is that thing?"
"How can there be a sun at night?"
"Is it a weapon? Are we under attack?"
"Someone tell me what I'm looking at!"
Zoro appeared beside Luffy. Then Sanji. Vivi. Chopper. They all stared upward with identical expressions of shock.
But Nojiko was smiling.
She stood at the front of the platform, arms still extended, water vapor thick around her. The golden light reflected in her eyes. "That's my sister."
"Nami." Her name came out as a whisper. Then louder. "Nami!"
Luffy watched as she started flying, but not towards them, she was flying further away from them, towards the same direction that the train tracks were leading them.
"Give them hell, Nami," Luffy said with a smile.
Nami - Minutes Earlier
The ocean pulled her down into darkness.
Cold. So cold it burned. Nami's limbs felt like lead. Her broken fingers throbbed with each useless kick. The surface was already gone, lost somewhere above in black water that had no end.
This was how Devil Fruit users died. Weak. Helpless. Drowning in the one thing their powers couldn't fight.
Nojiko's face. Younger. Maybe six years old. Laughing as they chased each other through the tangerine grove behind Belle-mère's house. Sunlight filtered through the leaves. The fruit hung heavy on the branches, filling the air with that sharp citrus smell that meant home.
"Catch me if you can!"
Nami saw herself. Small. Happy. Running with her arms spread wide like she could fly if she just ran fast enough. No tattoos on her shoulder. No maps staining her fingers. No weight pressing down on her chest that said one hundred million berries, that's the price, that's what your freedom costs.
Belle-mère appeared. Standing in the doorway of their small house, hands on her hips but smiling. That smile that said she'd had a hard life but found something worth protecting. Something worth dying for.
"Dinner's ready! And if you two don't wash up first, you're eating outside with the chickens!"
The memory dissolved.
A ship on the horizon. Sails marked with a grinning shark. Nami remembered standing on the beach, watching it come closer. Not understanding. Not yet.
Then the screaming started.
Fishmen poured into Cocoyashi Village like a flood. Arlong's laughter cut through everything else. That wet, rasping sound that still lived in her nightmares. Buildings burned. People ran. Marines never came.
Belle-mère stood in front of the door. Nami and Nojiko behind her. The gun in Arlong's hand looked small. Toylike. It cracked once and Belle-mère fell, blood spreading across the floor in a pool that reflected the ceiling.
"No!"
Ten years compressed into heartbeats. Drawing maps until her hands cramped. Stealing treasure from pirates who would kill her if they caught her. The tattoo being carved into her shoulder, claiming her as property. One hundred million berries. That's the price. Just keep drawing. Keep stealing. Keep believing the lie that she'd ever be free.
The Marine captain's face. She saw it again, clear as the day it happened. His crisp white uniform. His professional smile. The way he counted Arlong's bribe without a trace of shame.
"Pleasure doing business."
Hope died that day. The World Government didn't care about justice. They just wanted their cut.
Nami felt herself sinking deeper. The memories were drowning her worse than the water.
Then his smile.
She was sixteen again, on Going Merry, sitting on his bed. Rain poured down hard enough to sink the ship, but Going Merry was no ordinary ship. Her knees hit the wood. She couldn't hold herself up anymore. Couldn't keep pretending. Couldn't keep fighting alone.
"Luffy."
His face appeared above her. That straw hat shadowing his eyes. He'd been smiling a moment before but now he just looked at her, waiting.
"I need your Help me."
He took the hat off. Placed it on her head. The brim was too big, falling forward to hide her tears from the rain.
"Of course I will."
Four words. Said with such absolute certainty that something in her chest cracked open. Let light in for the first time in ten years.
The memory shifted. Forward. To Arlong Park burning. To Luffy standing over Arlong's broken body. To Nami's maps scattered across the ground, no longer chains but just paper. Just ink. Nothing that could hold her anymore.
"You're free now."
The water around her began to warm.
Nami opened her eyes. She was still sinking. Still drowning. Still dying. But something burned in her chest that refused to go out.
"I am a pirate." Her voice made no sound in the water. "I chose this life. I chose freedom."
The warmth spread. Through her ribs. Down her arms. Into her broken fingers.
"I am Free."
Golden light exploded from her body.
The ocean boiled. Water turned to steam in curtains that rose toward the surface. Heat poured from Nami's skin, from her bones, from somewhere deeper than flesh. The cold vanished. The weakness vanished. The fear of drowning vanished.
A voice spoke. From within. From the fire that lived in her chest where her heart should be.
"Then rise."
Nami stopped sinking.
Her legs kicked once. Not the weak flailing of someone drowning but a powerful thrust that drove her upward. Golden light streamed from her shoulders. Wings began forming, blade-like feathers unfurling in the water. They shouldn't work underwater. Nothing should work underwater. But the ocean itself seemed to be burning away around her. The water was no longer around her, just steam.
She rose faster. The surface appeared above, a distant barrier between water and air. Nami aimed for it like an arrow shot from a bow.
She burst through in an explosion of steam and golden fire.
Water vaporized. The ocean for a hundred meters in every direction turned to mist. Nami kept rising. Her wings spread fully. Massive. Blazing. Each feather edged like a sword, golden light pouring from them hot enough to make the air shimmer.
Her legs caught fire. Not burning. Wreathing. Golden flames wrapped around her from ankle to hip, crackling with power that felt like the sun had taken root in her body.
Nami hung in the sky. A second sun burning in the darkness. She could feel the heat radiating from her.
Below, the ocean steamed. Above, stars faded in the golden light she cast.
She looked toward the horizon. Saw the Sea Train in the distance, racing across the tracks toward Enies Lobby.
"Never." The word came out wreathed in fire. "I will never be caged again. Not by the Government. Not by fear. Not by the ocean itself."
The wings beat once. The air screamed. Nami shot forward faster than ever before. The ocean blurred beneath her. Wind tore at her face but couldn't slow her down. She left a trail of golden light across the night sky, a burning line that marked her path.
The Sea Train grew larger. Closer.
The wings folded slightly, increasing her speed. Golden flames intensified around her legs.
She'd been saved once. Luffy had saved her.
Not this time.
This time, she would save herself and her friend. And anyone who tried to stop her would burn.
The first train car rushed up to meet her. Nami spread her wings wide and dove.
The first train car's roof crumpled under Nami's impact. Metal buckled and tore. She landed in a crouch, wings folded tight against her back, golden flames still wreathing her legs.
Thirty Marines stared at her. Maybe more. Hard to count when they were packed this tight. Rifles. Swords. Standard issue uniforms that marked them as cannon fodder. Not threats. Just obstacles between her and Robin.
They froze. Training forgotten.
Then one raised his rifle.
"Fire!"
The gunshots were deafening in the enclosed space. Bullets streaked toward her.
They melted before reaching her skin. Turned to liquid metal and dripped onto the floor, hissing where they hit. The heat around Nami's body was too intense. Nothing that close could stay solid.
She moved forward. Her wings snapped open, filling the narrow car from wall to wall. Golden feathers scraped against metal with a sound like swords being sharpened.
The first soldier swung at her with his blade. Probably thought he was being brave.
Nami's left wing swept across at waist height.
The blade edge, white-hot and sharper than any steel, cut through him without resistance. His torso separated cleanly. The top half slid sideways, intestines spilling out in loops that were already cooking from contact with her wing. The smell hit immediately. Burning meat. The bottom half of his body stood upright for a heartbeat before the knees buckled.
Blood splashed onto the floor near her feet. Boiled on contact. Steam rose.
Two more rushed her together. Trying to overwhelm with numbers. As if that would help.
Nami's right wing lanced forward like a spear.
Punched through the first soldier's sternum. Kept going. Through his spine. Through the second soldier's chest. Both bodies jerked as the golden blade erupted from their backs. She lifted her wing slightly. Their feet left the ground, boots scraping uselessly at empty air. Skewered. Blood ran down the golden feathers in rivulets that sizzled and evaporated. Some of it made it far enough to stain the wing red before burning away.
Nami flicked her wing to the side.
The bodies flew. Crashed into the wall with impacts that broke whatever ribs weren't already shattered by the wing piercing through them. They slid down, leaving red smears, and didn't move again.
The remaining soldiers were screaming now. Some firing wildly. Others trying to run. Nowhere to go in the narrow car.
A ball of purple flame formed above Nami's head.
She felt it gathering. Different from the golden fire that wrapped her legs.
The purple flame split. Divided into smaller orbs that hovered for a moment. Then shot forward.
Each one found a target.
The first hit a soldier center mass. Burned through his uniform, through skin, into muscle. It didn't explode. Worse. It stuck. Spread. The man clawed at his chest, trying to scrape it off. His fingers caught fire. Burned down to bone while he watched. The purple flame ate through his ribcage. He was still screaming when it reached his heart. Then nothing.
Another soldier tried to run. Got three steps before purple flame hit his back. Burned straight through his spine. He collapsed, legs suddenly useless. But the flame didn't stop. Kept spreading. Kept burning. He felt all of it. Screaming until his lungs filled with smoke.
The smell was worse now. Burned flesh and melted metal.
Nami walked forward. Her wings swept left and right almost casually. Each movement cut through bodies. Cleaved through multiple soldiers at once. Limbs separated. Heads rolled. One man tried to block with his rifle. The weapon melted where her wing touched it. Then his arms melted. Then his chest caved in from the heat alone without her wing even making contact.
Bodies everywhere. Thirty men reduced to corpses in less than a minute. Some still twitching. Blood pooled and boiled. Steam rose in curtains that obscured the ceiling.
Nami reached the connecting door to the second car. Didn't look back. Didn't need to. Eight cars left. Robin was in the ninth.
She folded her wings slightly. Stepped through the doorway. The wings snapped open again on the other side.
More Marines. These ones looked terrified. They'd heard the screaming. Heard it stop. Now they were staring at the thing that made it stop.
"Please." One of them dropped his rifle. Held up his hands. "We don't want to fight."
Nami studied him. Young. Maybe nineteen. Shaking so hard his knees knocked together.
"Then don't." She kept walking.
They scattered. Pressed themselves against the walls. Let her pass. She didn't bother killing them. Wasn't interested in slaughtering people smart enough to surrender.
Movement ahead. Fast.
Nami pulled her wings forward. A sword struck them with a clang that rang through the car. The force drove her back half a step. Impressive. Most things that hit her wings melted before they could transfer momentum.
She looked up.
A man towered over her. Two meters tall at least. Marine Vice Admiral from the markings. Wearing a helmet with a cross design welded to the front. He carried a greatsword nearly as tall as he was. His stance was professional. Disciplined. Not like the cannon fodder in the first car.
"In the name of law and justice, I will stop you here."
Nami smiled. "Law and justice. Those words again." The temperature around her body increased. Air rippled. The metal walls began glowing dull red. "I've heard them before. From Marines who took bribes while my village burned. From Government agents who kidnapped my friends." Her wings spread wider. "Your justice is just another word for chains. And I'm done wearing them."
The Vice Admiral's eyes narrowed behind his helmet. "Then you leave me no choice."
He attacked. Brought the greatsword down in a powerful overhead strike that would have split her in half.
Nami crossed her wings above her head.
The blade met golden feathers. Metal screamed. Then the Vice Admiral's sword started melting. Steel turned liquid at the point of contact. Ran like water. Dripped molten metal onto the floor where it pooled and cooled.
His eyes widened with shock.
Nami didn't give him time to adjust.
She rushed forward. Closed the distance before he could pull back. Her right wing extended. Transformed from shield to spear in a motion that felt natural as breathing. Hundreds of blade-like feathers fused together. One massive cutting edge wrapped in golden light and heat that made the air itself burn.
The wing-blade lunged forward.
Pierced through the Vice Admiral's stomach. Punched through his back armor like it was wet paper. Through his spine. The tip erupted from his back in a spray of blood and burning flesh.
He screamed.
Not dignified. Not brave. A shriek of pure agony that hurt Nami's ears in the enclosed space. She lifted her wing. His body rose with it. Impaled. His boots kicked uselessly at air. Blood poured down the golden feathers.
The Vice Admiral tried to grab the wing. Pull himself off. His hands closed around the superheated metal. Flesh stuck. Melted. The smell of burned meat intensified.
Nami looked at him. No pity. Just a cold assessment. He was in her way. Now he wasn't.
She swept her wing to the side with one powerful motion.
His body flew off the wing-blade. Crashed through the window. Glass exploded outward. His body tumbled through the night air, trailing blood. Splashed into the ocean. Gone.
The remaining Marines in the second car dropped their weapons. Put their hands up. Nami walked past them. Through the third car. Empty. Just cargo crates. Fourth car.
Someone blocked her path.
Nami's wings came up defensively. This strike was different. Faster. More skilled than the Vice Admiral's.
She studied the man in front of her.
Ugly. That was the first thing she noticed. Fat lips. Two black horns protruding from his head. Except they weren't horns. Hair. Styled and stiffened to look like horns. Who did that? The black suit marked him as something other than regular Marines.
His stance was casual. But ready. Like he'd been waiting for her.
"My name is Blueno. This is as far as you will go, filthy pirate." He said with clear confidence.
Nami smiled, a flirty smile. "Won't a gentleman like you let a beautiful woman pass?"
The man's expression didn't change. If anything, he looked irritated by her words. "You will not move past this car."
"Really." Nami's smile widened. "That's disappointing. I was hoping you'd make this easy." The temperature spiked. Her wings spread wider, filling the car. "But I suppose fish need to eat too. You'll make decent food once you're at the bottom of the ocean."
The man glared at her and moved to attack.
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