"It's better to prove yourself with a gun than with a knife."
Victor Shaw grabbed Nami's right hand, which was clutching a bloodied dagger. With a swift motion, he disarmed her and tossed the blade to the ground.
Before Nami could even protest, a gleaming golden flintlock suddenly appeared in her palm.
"Come on, I'll teach you how to take down a fishman."
Victor wrapped his arms around Nami, guiding her from behind. His right hand rested over hers, steadying the gun.
"Raise your arm… pull the trigger…"
He gently directed her finger and bang!
A gunshot rang out.
A fishman, mid-charge, suddenly staggered into view and then collapsed hard onto the ground.
The force of the headshot from the golden flintlock, combined with the momentum of the fishman's own dash, sent him tumbling in a twisted heap.
A trail of dark blood slowly spread beneath him.
Nami stood frozen in Victor's arms. Her knees felt weak. Her mind blanked.
Did… did she really just kill someone?
She stared at the smoking barrel. She had shot and killed a fishman with her own hands!
"See?" Victor's voice was soft, almost comforting. "Instead of letting yourself break from the pain, go wild. Make them feel it."
Nami, still trembling but quieter now, blinked as Victor adjusted her aim again.
"No !"
Bang!
Before she could resist, the gun fired again.
Another fishman fell. Blood splattered across the dirt. His body crumpled in a heap, unmoving.
"Double kill!!"
Victor chuckled, congratulating her like it was a game.
"Nice job. You got two!"
Nami's tears had stopped. Even the burning ache in her wounded arm had faded from her mind.
All she could think about was the two fishmen she had just taken down.
"You said the fishmen murdered your mother," Victor said calmly. "Now I'm giving you the chance to take revenge."
He let go of Nami's hand, reloaded the flintlock with a click, and began walking toward Nojiko who stood stiff and silent, just beginning to process what she had witnessed.
When Nojiko finally realized what was happening...
She was already in Victor Shaw's arms positioned exactly the same way Nami had been moments earlier.
Nojiko's fingers wrapped around the golden flintlock, feeling its unexpected weight.
"Y-Your Majesty, I…"
Nojiko could feel the warmth of Victor's breath behind her, his steady embrace pressing against her back. Her voice trembled in confusion and panic.
Like Nami, she had inherited Bell-mère's kindness gentle at heart, full of compassion.
Taking a life? She had never imagined doing such a thing.
Bang!
The shot rang out, crisp and echoing.
Nojiko's body flinched. But the tremble in her heart slowly faded.
Another fishman appeared in her sights and then collapsed in the dirt.
She had pulled the trigger.
She had taken a life, just like her sister. Even if Victor had been the one guiding her hand, the blood was still on her conscience.
Victor smiled softly.
"Well then. Now that you've both proven yourselves, you're officially my subjects."
That was his way of erasing the final traces of Arlong's control over them. By having Nami and Nojiko take justice into their own hands, Victor gave them the power to reclaim their past.
Nojiko blinked as the haze lifted. She looked at Victor with wide eyes grateful, overwhelmed.
But as she stepped away from his embrace, a strange emptiness washed over her.
To her, Victor was a king lofty, noble, far above them all.
Even someone as spirited and strong-willed as Nojiko couldn't suppress the flicker of self-doubt creeping into her chest.
She wasn't royalty.
Could she really…?
But before she could linger on the thought, the sea stirred.
The royal fleet from the Goa Kingdom had finally arrived on the shores of the so-called "Arlong Empire."
A wave of armed guards surged onto the beach, forming a tight perimeter around their beloved king.
Bounty hunters, mercenaries, and soldiers Fan Oka, Eric, and the others hurried forward, each trying to prove their loyalty, fearful of earning Victor's displeasure.
"Eighty-eight fishmen… all exiled. Their scattering distance is at least 200 meters…"
Fan Oka scanned the field, noting the dozen or so corpses sprawled nearby. The rest? All banished scattered far beyond reach by Victor's terrifying power.
He remembered the whispers circulating across the Goa Kingdom the legend of the "Five Hundred Killings."
If the stories were true, Victor Shaw could exile up to 500 people at once… across a distance of 500 to even 1,000 meters.
And now, after watching Victor launch enemies into the sky like cannonballs…
Fan Oka did the math.
Victor's effective exile radius must be close to 1,500 meters.
The idea that Victor could banish someone from over a kilometer away sent a chill down his spine.
Even under the bright sun, Fan Oka couldn't stop the cold sweat creeping down his back.
This Devil Fruit ability was simply outrageous.
Watching the fishmen vanish into thin air and another one get his head blown off by Victor Shaw Eric felt an overwhelming chill creep down his spine.
This power… it was terrifyingly strange.
He had no idea how to defend against it.
The only option was to keep as much distance from the king as possible.
That thought burned itself into Eric's mind, solidifying his plan to stay far, far away from both the Goa Kingdom and its mysterious monarch once this mercenary job was done.
···
At present, Victor Shaw's effective range with his ability seemed to span nearly a full kilometer.
It reminded one of the infamous Ope Ope no Mi Trafalgar Law's Surgical Fruit.
That ability could not only lift and fling warships over a hundred meters long, but its ROOM radius extended multiple times that.
Law had even swapped the hearts of the Straw Hat crew from afar and yanked Smoker's heart out of his body effortlessly and from a distance.
He once split the entire Punk Hazard research facility, bisected Vergo, and even sliced through the surrounding snow-covered mountains all within the scope of his ROOM.
The scale was terrifying.
And later, during the Onigashima War, Law had transported fighters like Zoro, Luffy, and Kidd across the fortress through thin air. He had even rescued the battered Nine Red Scabbards from Kaido's assault and moved them off the island.
Now, the future king's Field of Time Victor's unique domain was shaping up to be no less expansive than Law's legendary ROOM.
It might even surpass it.
If not already capable of enveloping an entire island, then at the very least, a ten-kilometer radius seemed well within reach.
···
"Your Majesty, where's the enemy? What are your next orders?"
Fan Oka stepped forward respectfully, head bowed, awaiting commands.
"Your Majesty, release those fishmen," Eric added eagerly. "Let us finish them off."
Both men were clearly trying to prove themselves, anxious to complete the job and earn a clean exit.
Victor didn't answer right away.
He holstered the golden flintlock at his waist and, with a subtle motion of his left hand one that vaguely resembled the iconic pose of Brother Sen from the Axe Gang a royal guard captain stepped forward.
He respectfully presented a lavish, ornately engraved golden cannon.
"This so-called 'Dragon Empire' had the audacity to name itself after dragons," Victor said slowly, lifting the cannon onto his shoulder with casual ease. "That annoys me."
"What do you suggest we do?"
"Obviously, destroy it."
As Victor adjusted the cannon's sights and aimed toward the ocean, Eric and Fan Oka snapped to action.
"Of course kill them!"
Fan Oka immediately raised his prized sniper rifle, Thousand Road, and locked onto the last known location where the fishman leader had vanished.
He waited, finger on the trigger, anticipating Victor's signal.
Eric clenched his fists, summoning sharp blades of compressed wind between his palms. He, too, aligned his aim with Victor and Fan Oka's direction.
"Three…"
Victor's voice was low, steady.
"Two…"
Everyone held their breath.
"One…"
"Fire!"
Victor Shaw didn't hesitate.
He pulled the trigger on the golden cannon.
Fan Oka, in sync with his king, fired immediately after with precise, practiced aim.
Eric, lagging slightly behind, unleashed a flurry of slicing wind blades pouring in as much force as he could to make up for the firepower gap between him and the other two.
Boom!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Swoosh swoosh swoosh~
The fishman warlord who had just surfaced again on the open sea was struck head-on by the golden cannon.
This wasn't any ordinary weapon. It was a custom Celestial Dragon model, a cannon so potent that a single shot could reduce a small ship to splinters.
The blast hit with terrifying force.
The dragon-headed fishman was obliterated in an instant his body torn apart midair, pieces flung into the sea.
Then came the three sniper rounds.
Fan Oka's bullets pierced through the airborne remains with surgical precision.
Finally, the wave of wind blades arrived, slicing through the remains and churning the sea into bloody foam. Ripples and crimson trails spread out like a violent painting.
On the shore, Nami, Nojiko, and the rest stared wide-eyed at the surreal spectacle unfolding on the horizon.
"That fishman haul him out."
Victor casually tossed the golden cannon back to the nearest garrison captain, as if it were just a toy, and began issuing orders to the soldiers around him.
Moments later…
A bloated, mangled fishman corpse was dragged ashore.
It reeked of burnt flesh and seawater its face unrecognizable, its body limp and torn.
Sure enough… in this world, the true meaning of firepower was like Schrödinger's paradox.
When death came knocking, even a so-called master could be erased by a single bullet from a flintlock rifle.
Think about it
Ashura Douji. Pedro. Warriors of incredible willpower and strength. Both were felled by explosions.
Even Kuina who had once bested Zoro in every duel was defeated not by a sword, but by something as mundane as a staircase and a whetstone.
Such was the cruel irony of this world.
···