chapter Prologue Serial ・ Lovesickness ・ SSSSSSSS...
In Kuja City, on the duel arena platform, Mari of the Gloriosa Tribe displayed overwhelming strength, effortlessly knocking down one Kuja warrior after another who dared to challenge her. Thunderous applause echoed from the surrounding stands...
Hancock rested her chin on one hand, seated atop the high throne. Her face was emotionless, bored to the extreme. Her eyes appeared to be watching the arena, but her gaze lacked any real focus. Her long black hair had transformed into agile, snake-like tendrils, serpentine creatures baring their fangs and flicking their tongues, as they slithered in sinuous S-shaped patterns across the back of the woman beside her…
Feeling the constant, winding movements on her back, Bonney gritted her teeth and didn't dare move a muscle, terrified that Hancock's snake-hair might suddenly bite down hard.
…
A small, thin figure suddenly plummeted from the sky, landing precisely before the gathered villagers at the edge of the village.
But when the person hit the ground, there was no bone-crushing thud, no gruesome splatter, not even much of a sound.
Koala landed askew, and just before impact, her body automatically dissipated into wisps of gas, absorbing the massive force, and then reformed into the appearance of an ordinary brown-haired girl.
She even still carried her original backpack. This was thanks to the power of her Devil Fruit, the Cover-Cover Fruit. The user could transform a defined range of their body and belongings into an elemental state. It worked on the same principle as Robin's Hana Hana no Mi, which replicated a user's body along with their clothing when manifesting additional limbs.
The villagers were astonished to see such a small figure fall from the sky unharmed. Once they recognized her face, their astonishment turned to utter shock.
"Koala!!"
A woman screamed and rushed out from the crowd.
Koala's eyes instantly welled with tears. She shouted, "Mom!"
She ran toward the woman rushing to embrace her, but before she could take more than a few steps, a blade-like impact came crashing down from above, cleaving her body in half from top to bottom.
The horrifying and abrupt twist of fate shocked the villagers into stunned silence.
Koala's mother, who had been just steps away from her daughter, watched in horror as Koala was split in two before her eyes. Her body went limp, and she fainted by the roadside.
"You damn brat! Where do you think you're going?!"
A furious voice roared from the sky, followed by a deafening "BANG" as a tall, black shadow crashed down, leaving a giant crater in the ground upon impact.
"W-what is that?!"
The villagers had never seen such a scene before. Fear rendered them speechless.
From the billowing smoke emerged a figure over two meters tall, a strikingly handsome young man. He carried a thick iron staff, and the fierce glint in his eyes made people afraid to even look at him.
"Koala? That pathetic little slave girl!" the man, Liam, grinned wickedly. "My bounty is high enough to make you piss yourself, and you still thought… you could escape my grasp?"
Bounty?
He was a pirate!
The villagers quickly understood. After all, they lived on an island in the Grand Line. This kind of awareness was basic survival.
Poor Koala, she had just made it back to her village, hadn't even had the chance to embrace her mother, and was then brutally murdered by this wicked pirate!
That was the villagers' second thought.
An old village elder trembled as he stepped forward, blocking Liam's path. He shouted angrily, "Pirate! You're not welcome here! That child… you already killed her. Now get out!"
The old man raised his walking stick and swung it at the approaching Liam.
Hunched and frail, barely 1.4 meters tall, the elder stood nearly a full meter shorter than Liam, who towered at almost 2.4 meters. His head barely reached Liam's knees.
Crack, the old man's quivering cane struck Liam's waist.
The other villagers were so tense they were practically suffocating. It felt like the very next second, this tall pirate would smash the old man to pieces with his iron staff.
"Old man... are you blind?" Liam sneered coldly, glaring past the crowd behind the elder. "Who said that filthy little brat… was already dead?"
"No!" Koala's voice suddenly rang out.
"What the hell just happened?!"
"Koala, she… she was clearly… split in two just now, wasn't she?!"
"She's not dead?!"
Only now did the villagers realize, with shock and delight, that Koala, who had just appeared to have been sliced cleanly in half, undoubtedly dead, was now standing there completely unharmed.
The little girl knelt beside her unconscious mother, biting her lip as tears welled in her red eyes. She looked at Liam with a face full of grievance.
"Heh…"
Liam hefted his iron rod, grinning widely. In the blink of an eye, before anyone even saw him move, he had casually walked through the crowd, heading straight for Koala.
"You think just because you ate a Devil Fruit, you can take me down, brat?"
He raised his iron rod and swung it straight down at her.
In that instant, the villagers' hearts leapt into their throats, but in the very next second, they all breathed out in relief. Somehow, the pirate's brutal iron rod passed right through Koala's body. It didn't strike her at all, as if her body didn't exist. Like she was made of cloud or mist.
"A Devil Fruit! Koala's become a Devil Fruit ability user!" A young man in the crowd shouted and rushed forward to block Liam. "Koala made it back alive from his hands, that proves he can't hurt her! We don't have to be afraid!"
"That's right! Let's get him!"
The villagers, already hostile toward Liam, finally found their courage and stepped forward.
"We can't let him hurt Koala!"
The able-bodied villagers surrounded Liam and shoved him around. Unsteady on his feet, Liam roared in frustration and broke free from the crowd. With a loud crash, he sent several of them crashing through windows and slamming into walls, some even ended up hanging from rooftops.
Then Liam let out another roar, raised his iron rod, and slammed it hard into the ground, crack! A massive fissure split the earth, the shockwave surging forward and once again slicing Koala in two. The surrounding villagers were thrown off their feet by the blast.
Seeing how savage this pirate was, the villagers were terrified, yet their hatred and resolve only grew.
Koala fled with Liam close behind. She continued to cry, maintaining her elemental gas form. Liam's staff and fists passed through her over and over, unable to land a single blow, but she knew, if Giorno-elder brother truly wanted to, he could have caught her in this form and even injured her.
After all, this Gasu Gasu no Mi (Gas-Gas Fruit) had been given to her by Giorno-elder brother. If anyone could counter it, it was him.
"Ugh…!!"
Suddenly, the pirate, who had been rampaging like a humanoid beast, clutched his throat, face flushed red, gasping for breath.
He stumbled back two steps, took a huge gulp of air, and cursed, "Damn Devil Fruit user! You evacuated the oxygen?! What a wicked move… such a pain in the ass…"
Koala stood with tear-filled eyes. This was a technique Giorno-elder brother had mentioned to her before she returned to the village, a tactic for using the Gas-Gas Fruit.
But she knew all too well… she hadn't even had time to practice it yet.
One of the bruised and battered villagers exclaimed with joy, "It worked! Koala, I don't know what trick that was, but do it again!"
Others surged forward, shouting, "Yeah! Everyone together! Drive this pirate out!"
"Come on then, brat!"
Liam shoved the onrushing villagers aside with a single sweep of his massive hand, knocking many down in a heap, but he also seemed a bit shaken by their assault, stumbling back several steps.
Koala sniffled, wiped away her tears, took a deep breath, and strode boldly toward Liam.
Liam shouted again, as though suffocating in some invisible vacuum. With each step Koala took, he clutched his throat and backed away.
"Go, Koala!"
The bloodied villagers cheered from where they lay. Even the old village chief, panting heavily, banged his cane in support.
Koala forced the towering pirate to retreat again and again. Her lips trembling, eyes red, she watched him retreat dozens of meters outside the village boundary, until she saw Giorno-elder brother give a faint smile in the distance.
Furious, Liam shouted: "You damn brat! Don't think this is over! One day we'll meet again! Just wait, you little, "
Without another word, he turned and stormed off, not looking back.
The villagers erupted in joyous cheers. To them, the pirate had been thoroughly defeated, fleeing in disgrace. It was beyond satisfying!
(End Of This Chapter)
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