Marya moves across the island's surface like a blade through silk. Each step carries her forward with impossible speed, her boots finding purchase on jagged rock and twisted metal alike. Behind her, cyborgs fall in her wake—some bisected, some simply collapsed, their red eyes flickering and dying as they hit the ground.
Nisshoku sings in her grip, the obsidian blade drinking what little light filters through the volcanic haze. She doesn't slow. She doesn't look back.
---
Bepo's paws tremble as he holds his defensive stance. His white fur bristles, every instinct screaming at him to run, to hide, to find somewhere safe. But he holds his ground. He always does.
Clione stands back-to-back with Hakugan, their blades raised. The cyborgs surround them—a ring of rusted metal and grinding gears. Fish-Men with mechanical fins. Minks with cybernetic limbs. Humans whose faces have been replaced by featureless plates of steel.
Clione's voice cuts through the tension. "I am NOT going to be taken down by an ugly toaster!"
Hakugan's reply comes without hesitation. "A broken ugly toaster!"
Bepo's ears flatten against his skull. His stomach growls. "Stop talking about toast. It's making me hungry."
Clione's head whips around. "How can you be HUNGRY at a time like this?!"
The cyborgs surge forward.
Bepo braces himself. His claws extend. His teeth bare. He's ready to fight, ready to die, ready to—
The world goes still.
A thunderclap rolls across the island, but there's no lightning. No rain. Just the sound—deep, resonant, shattering—and the pressure that follows.
Bepo's ears go flat against his skull. "Uh, guys..."
His voice trails off.
The wave of Haki hits them like a physical force. Not Conqueror's—something older. Something deeper. It sweeps across the island in a rolling tide, and the cyborgs caught in its path simply... fall.
Their bodies crumple. Their red eyes flicker and die. Debris explodes outward from the point of impact, sending metal fragments spinning through the air.
Bepo, Clione, and Hakugan stand frozen. Their mouths hang open.
The dust settles.
And there she stands.
The leather jacket. The Heart Pirates insignia grinning from her back. Raven hair sweeping across her from like a cloak of shadows. She stands tall, Nisshoku still in her grip, the obsidian blade humming with satisfied hunger.
Bepo swallows hard. His voice comes out in a stutter. "M-M-Marya."
Marya grins, looking over her shoulder as she sheathes Nisshoku against her back. She spins to face them, her golden-ringed eyes warm. "Hey, Bepo. Clione. Hakugan. It's been a while."
Bepo blinks. Tears well in his eyes, fat and unashamed.
He charges.
"MARYA!"
His arms wrap around her in a bear hug that lifts her off her feet. Clione and Hakugan follow suit, piling on, sandwiching her between their bodies.
Marya chuckles, her voice muffled by fur and fabric. "I missed you too."
Bepo pulls back, wiping his face with the back of his paw. His cheeks are wet. He doesn't care. "What are you doing here?"
Marya's smirk returns. "Same as you. Got sucked in. Trying to find a way out."
Clione's brow furrows. "Are you alone?"
Marya shakes her head. "No. My crew is here too."
Hakugan's eyebrows climb toward his hairline. "Your crew?"
Marya's smile softens. "It's a long story. A lot has happened."
Bepo, Clione, and Hakugan exchange glances. Then they chuckle—the kind of laugh that comes from shared exhaustion, shared relief.
Hakugan's voice is warm. "Us too."
Bepo perks up, his ears snapping upright. Panic floods his features. "We have to find the others! We got separated and—"
Marya's hand finds his shoulder. "I know where they are."
Bepo cocks his head, his expression shifting from panic to confusion. "You do?"
Marya nods. "But we should regroup. Come up with a plan to get off this rock."
Clione's brow furrows. "How do you suggest we do that?"
Marya's smirk returns. "I have an idea."
She begins to shift.
Her form wavers, distorts, expands. The air around her grows cold. The shadows deepen. From her body, nine figures emerge—tall, skeletal, draped in tattered robes. Three wear gold masks and carry scythes of starlight. Three are half-rotted, their bodies held together by floating scales. Three are horned skeletons, their chains dripping with molten heat.
Clione and Hakugan cower behind Bepo.
"What the hell?!"
Bepo's voice is barely a whisper. "Scary."
Marya ignores them. Her voice echoes in layers, each syllable carrying the weight of eternity. "Go."
The nine Grim Reapers nod in unison. They jet off in different directions, their forms dissolving into mist as they vanish from sight.
Marya looks over her shoulder at Bepo, Clione, and Hakugan. Her echoing voice commands them. "Come."
Hakugan peeks out from behind Bepo's massive frame. "I think we'll take our chances with the cyborgs."
As if on cue, the sound of footfalls thunders toward them. Another small army of cyborgs charges from the shadows, their red eyes blazing.
Bepo, Clione, and Hakugan swivel between Marya's awakened form and the incoming horde.
Clione's voice is flat. "On second thought."
Marya nods, already moving. She takes the lead.
Bepo glances over his shoulder as they run. The first cyborgs have reached the rear guard—but one of the Grim Reapers hovers above them, its starlight scythe flashing. The creatures fall apart, their components scattering across the ground.
Bepo's fur stands on end. "Really scary..."
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