The Sky Bleeds Black
[Perspective: Nico Robin]Location: Central Deck – Hyperion
Robin's fingers trembled — not from fear, but recognition.
Assassins.No — not just assassins. Shadows, grown in the dark.
She had read about them once — a banned fragment from an erased journal:
"They do not bleed. They do not scream. They only complete."
Her heart beat faster, not because she doubted Vegito… but because this was the past come to kill her again. Cipher Pol. Heretical successors to the monsters who ended Ohara.
"Deploying the Lotus Array," she murmured to the ship, activating a layered defense system based on plant-shaped clone limbs. "And… alert the rest. Quietly."
[Perspective: Kuina]Location: Starboard Rail – Shadow Interception Point
Her blade was already drawn when the sky split.
She hadn't spoken a word in over ten minutes. Didn't need to. The wind was her conversation partner now.
Her sword trembled in her grip — not because she feared the enemy, but because she feared losing her place.
Not in strength.
In his eyes.
"Vegito's trusting us," she whispered, more to herself than anyone. "Then I won't fall behind. I'll never be just someone you protected."
Her aura gathered, invisible and precise, like a blade being honed across silence.
[Perspective: Nami]Location: Navigation Chamber
Nami knew something was wrong the moment her weather patterns became unstable.
Not because of storms. But because the air pressure changed unnaturally — controlled. Manufactured. She gritted her teeth.
"Artificial microfronts. Wind distortion. Someone's cloaking an approach vector," she muttered. "Cowards."
Even with her Electro-Clima Tact in hand, her heart pounded with more than just battle adrenaline.
I'm not just the navigator.I'm his navigator.And if they think I'm just eye candy — they picked the wrong damn ship to attack.
She keyed into the internal comms:
"Lyra, Nojiko — we're pulling Spiral Defense Pattern Theta. We let them in… then strike."
[Perspective: Vegito]Location: Above the Hyperion – Airborne Combat Zone
He floated in the sky, arms loose, tail swaying with rhythm.
Only five of the twelve CP-0 Black agents remained airborne. The rest had been vaporized by the initial barrage or sent falling through thunderclouds by Kuina's long-range strikes.
But those that remained… were different.
Their silence was deeper.
Their presence — colder.
And one had begun to mirror his movements. Not just attack — but copy.
Vegito's eyes narrowed.
"Learning me?""No… predicting me."
He smirked.
"You'll need more than that."
[Perspective: Lyra]Location: Lower Deck – Arcane Nexus
The intruders slipped through Phase Shift Veils.
She felt them before she saw them.
Lyra inhaled deeply, drawing mana from the ship's integrated leyline reactor — a gift from Vegito, who had adapted it from a parallel world's magic core.
She wasn't afraid. But she was angry.
Because they think we're just his women.
They had no idea what Vegito had done for her. No idea how close she'd come to death before he gave her life again.
No idea how deeply she needed to stand at his side — not behind him.
Not anymore.
[Perspective: Nojiko]Location: Mid-Deck – Medic Bay
She wasn't a combatant — not in the same way.
But she was the one who held the line when the others fell. And if anyone touched her shipmates — her family — she would kill without mercy.
She had trained in pressure point techniques and now carried shock-needle gauntlets.
The first enemy slipped through the floor.
She caught his jaw mid-strike and drove two needles into his throat.
One for Arlong. One for the World.
[Back to Vegito]
He moved faster now — faster than light.
Each strike was a lesson. Each dodge a prediction broken.
One of the Black agents — now shapeshifting using partial Zoan-fusion — lunged at him with tendrils of liquid mercury. Another turned to ash and attempted to suffocate him in midair.
He surged his ki, compressed it into a tight gravity well, and detonated it like a starburst.
"You're not alive. You're not even real."
"But I am."
"And I don't lose."
[Deck: Robin vs. Infiltrator]
Robin faced a dual-sword style mimic.
She countered each strike not just with hands — but with memory. Every technique she used was a reconstruction of her travels, her pain, and her desire.
And then… she whispered something.
"…Clutch."
Bones snapped.
[Deck: Kuina vs. Shade Assassin]
Her opponent was lightning-fast — blinking between shadows, using Moon Step fused with Phase Shifts.
She let him strike three times.
Then, she stopped his blade with her teeth.
Her Haki-coated sword pierced through his heart the next instant.
[Below Deck: Lyra's Arcane Seal]
She locked down the lower level with a rune chain that inverted space.
The assassin chasing her fell into himself.
Her hands were burned — her mana strained — but her smile was victorious.
[Nami's Trap]
Three agents finally breached the navigation chamber.
She was gone.
What they didn't know was that the entire room had been rigged with weather nodes.
A hyper-compressed thunder trap exploded.
They never saw her smirk.
Finale: Vegito vs. Shadow Prime
Only one remained.
A mimic. Nearly perfect.
It looked like him.
Fought like him.
It even spoke like him.
But it wasn't him.
Vegito launched a final attack — one he hadn't even practiced.
Dragon Flash: Gravity-Twined Final Kamehameha.
The clone didn't even scream.
Aftermath: Silence Returns
The Hyperion floated in the clouds, cracked but standing.
The crew reassembled slowly.
Robin, bruised but smiling. Kuina, arms crossed. Nami and Nojiko, shoulders linked. Lyra, exhausted, head on the railing.
Vegito stood at the center of the deck. Quiet. Proud. A little shaken.
But he looked at them all — each one — and said:
"You didn't survive. You didn't win.""You proved it.""This world doesn't need saving.""It needs replacing."