[~1400 words]
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"A whip? Okay! I'm needed again!"
As the user of the Weapon-Weapon Fruit, Baby-5 transformed without hesitation. With a quick twist of her body, she turned into a long, elegant whip decorated with frills from her maid outfit.
The whip coiled around James several times before tightening firmly around his waist.
James curiously ran his hand along the length of the whip a few times. Baby-5 let out a soft, embarrassed hum and swayed awkwardly.
"Don't do that, James-sama~ It tickles so much!"
"Interesting~" James murmured with a smirk. "This Weapon-Weapon Fruit has some fun potential…"
He could already imagine Baby-5 transforming into an electromagnetic cannon, capable of obliterating entire islands in one shot.
James shook his head lightly. He would explore the full capabilities of her Devil Fruit with her later, when he had more time.
Locking onto a distant cloud in the sky, he flashed forward with the three women and headed straight toward Nami's location.
At the same time, in a shadowy corner of the Bullfighting Arena, a hooded gladiator watched Violet and James with a complicated expression.
He was none other than the former king of Dressrosa, Riku Doldo III, currently going by the alias Ricky.
His face darkened as he whispered almost inaudibly,
"Scarlett… Violet…"
.....
The massive seawater rain summoned by Jinbe and the Sun Pirates had not been in vain.
The SMILE Factory now had a new owner. Gedatsu and a squad of Divine Soldiers had taken control, while the Tontatta Tribe continued their diligent work undisturbed. Without specific orders from James, Gedatsu saw no reason to stop them.
Queen and Senior were tightly bound face-to-face with Sea Prism Stone chains, courtesy of Gedatsu's mischievous sense of humor.
Senior had been the first victim of the sea rain. While swimming and maneuvering around Gedatsu, he was suddenly drenched by the falling "rainwater." A wave of weakness hit him instantly, and Gedatsu ambushed him, knocking him out cold.
To this day, Senior still couldn't understand how, as fellow Devil Fruit users, he had been weakened while Gedatsu remained completely unaffected. Could the rainwater somehow distinguish between friend and foe?
On Lovers' Avenue, Machvise had also been easily taken down by Shadley after the seawater drained his strength. He now lay pinned to the ground with Sea Prism Stone stakes driven through his body.
Poor old Lao G fared no better. With his teammates defeated and himself outnumbered, he was beaten so badly by Shadley and Ohm that he began to question his entire existence.
Even his ultimate secret technique—'Geo-Kinetic Fist: Combat Preservation Fist'—proved useless. In the end, he could only shout desperately,
"Young Master!! I did my best!"
Moments later, the two priests sent him flying straight to the heavens in the heat of battle.
Not far northeast of King's Heights, Buffalo was first soaked by the seawater rain, causing him to crash helplessly. He then took a direct hit from Nami's "Cloud-Cloud: Oni-chan Power!" The unlucky Buffalo was knocked unconscious, his mind drifting, while Vivi used her Sand-Sand powers to restrain him firmly in place.
Gladius had suffered a similar fate. Drenched by seawater and finished off by Gloria's powerful spring-loaded slap, he now lay sprawled with a broken expression beneath his mask, tongue lolling out foolishly.
Only Pica was still stubbornly resisting under the coordinated siege. His subordinates had already been wiped out by the Divine Soldiers, and his sharp, furious roars rang out in impotent rage.
"Damn it! You invaders! I'll bury every last one of you in the rocks!"
His fierce words were undermined by his comically high-pitched, thin voice, which clashed horribly with his massive stone form. It only made the situation funnier.
"Hahaha… Listen, his voice is so funny~"
Gloria bounced around energetically, taunting him mercilessly in an attempt to rattle what little composure he had left.
"Hahaha…"
The laughter of the Divine Soldiers cut into Pica like sharp knives, mercilessly stabbing at his deep-seated inferiority complex.
Enraged, he roared and swung his enormous stone arm toward the densest cluster of enemies.
The Divine Soldiers dodged nimbly, then swarmed around the giant arm, clinging to it tightly and wrestling against Pica's strength.
"Everyone, attack together!"
Just then, a swirling sandstorm drifted in around Pica, sweeping away the surrounding rocks and debris. Within the storm, a suspicious puddle of sand moved with purpose, drifting toward the back of the stone giant before attaching itself firmly.
Vivi's lips curved into a confident smile. She pressed her right hand against the stone giant and shouted in her heart,
"Sand-Sand: Erosion Reincarnation!"
Like father, like daughter—even Vivi's attack names carried the same dramatic flair as James's.
An invisible wave spread rapidly through the stone giant. Pica froze for a moment, sensing something wrong as the massive form began to tremble.
*Puff puff puff…*
"Nani!?" Pica cried out in alarm, desperately pouring more power into his Stone-Stone Fruit to stabilize the giant.
It was already too late.
The next moment, the entire stone giant disintegrated into fine sand.
"Cloud-Cloud: Rising Winds and Surging Clouds!"
Nami waved her hand immediately afterward. A powerful gust of wind swept across the battlefield, carrying Pica's sand far away and preventing him from reforming.
Unfortunately for him, the Stone-Stone Fruit was a Paramecia type—it could only assimilate rocks he touched, not create them from nothing.
"Negative Hollows!"
While Pica was still stunned and confused, Perona's Negative Hollows phased straight through his chest.
He collapsed to the ground, mumbling regretfully,
"I'm so sorry… A pathetic little rooster like me, who makes weird noises when he talks, shouldn't even waste the Donquixote Family's food…"
Strike while the iron is hot.
Gloria's legs transformed into powerful springs. With a loud *bang*, she launched herself high into the sky using the recoil.
She descended like a meteor, gripping a Sea Prism Stone nail, and drove it fiercely into Pica's left chest, pinning him to the ground.
A wave of weakness washed over him. The Divine Soldiers grinned as they snapped Sea Prism Stone handcuffs onto his wrists.
"Take him away! Take them all away!"
"You did well~"
Praise rang out as James descended from the sky, Baby-5 wrapped tightly around his waist like a living belt, with Violet and Sugar still in his arms.
He signaled to Vivi with his eyes, then flew smoothly onto Nami's floating cloud.
"Oni-chan~ You actually have time to visit your little sister~" Nami teased the moment she saw the two women with him. She was already used to this sight and seemed quite amused.
"I brought these three over so you can all get to know each other," James replied with a smile as he gently set Violet and Sugar down.
He moved ahead and warmly welcomed Nami, Robin, Perona, and Vivi, who had returned, each individually.
"Three?" Robin asked, raising an elegant eyebrow as she looked at Violet and Sugar.
"Yes, and her," James answered. He pulled the whip from around his waist and gave the order.
"Baby-5, I need you to change back."
"Alrighty!"
With a quick twist, Baby-5 transformed back into her human form, still dressed in her cute maid outfit. The sudden change left all the women staring in astonishment.
"This… What is this?"
"I'm a user of the Weapon-Weapon Fruit!" Baby-5 explained cheerfully. "I can transform into all kinds of weapons!"
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