"Smash... Buster!!"
"One Sword Style... 'Demon Walrus'!!"
Zephyr-san's massive prosthetic arm, the Battle Smasher, ignited its internal gunpowder or explosive charge and literally spewed fire, unleashing a tremendous shockwave.
I leaped into the air, dodged with a nimble twist, then swung my Japanese umbrella down at Zephyr-san while the recoil left him momentarily unable to move.
But Zephyr-san merely twisted his body slightly and brought the Seastone component of the Battle Smasher around to block it. Then he launched himself upward, driving a flying kick straight at my neck.
I avoided that too by turning just that part of my body into paper and scattering apart, and at the same time, a presence from behind.
Perhaps seeing my focus on fighting Zephyr-san as an opening, the Seraphim child, this "Ibis" or whatever, came charging in.
She rushed in as if to throw a punch, but no. Instead she aimed the palm of her mechanical gauntlet at me. There was a hole in it, clearly some kind of firing port.
I figured it'd be a laser, the standard Pacifista pattern. Wrong.
What erupted from it was flame. Another flamethrower, seriously.
It sprayed across a fairly wide area, and judging that dodging entirely would be difficult, I snapped my Japanese umbrella open to guard. The built-in Flame Dial absorbed the blasted flames, so no damage taken.
At the same time, the Kuma-type Seraphim closing in from the opposite side to form a pincer attack... whoa, close call. This one's got Seastone armaments.
It had clawed gauntlets equipped on its arms, like something a ninja from a fictional world would use.
I nimbly dodged the claw as it was swung with a whoosh, then kicked it square in the face and slammed it down onto the deck.
...Its appearance was younger than the real Kuma, or rather more childlike (though still enormous in size), and on top of that, due to certain circumstances, fighting something that looks like Kuma wasn't exactly pleasant for us right now. But there was nothing to be done about it.
It wasn't the real person. A clone, built as a weapon. On that point... 'she' would just have to forgive us. Yeah.
While I was busy justifying myself internally, at the edge of my vision, Zephyr-san came rocketing in, kicking off the air at incredible speed... wait, this looks familiar!? Something just like this happened fifteen, sixteen years ago!
Unlike back then, Zephyr-san wasn't going to stop, so this time I'd properly guard... or tried to, but Ibis was coming from the opposite side, so I had to abort. Evasion it was.
I scattered a massive amount of paper all around as a smokescreen, then dove sharply downward to disengage.
I was hoping that might cause Zephyr-san and Ibis to crash into each other, but both of them veered past one another to dodge. I wasn't about to let them simply evade, though.
The paper I'd just scattered? Not ordinary paper, you know.
"'Razor Blizzard'... 'Thousand Cherry Blossoms'!!"
I activated the technique the moment they plunged into the Paper Flakes. Every scattered piece of paper turned into blades and attacked.
But Zephyr-san endured it with Iron Body while blowing them away with his Smasher, and against Ibis... yeah, figured it wouldn't work. Not with this level of offensive power.
Ibis forced her way straight through the Paper Flakes, landed on the deck, and then casually grabbed hold of one of the mounted cannons.
And then, unbelievably, she absorbed the cannon right into her gripping hand, or rather, into her gauntlet. The already bulky gauntlet now had a cannon embedded in the arm section, making it look even more menacing.
And it clearly wasn't just for show.
She thrust her right arm, cannon and all, toward Zephyr-san who was still in midair, and fired. Rapid fire, at that.
Zephyr-san dodged with an agility you'd never expect from someone carrying such a heavy weapon, then landed on the deck himself.
"That's... the Clank-Clank Fruit's Powers? What a troublesome thing..."
"! That's the one from... the Demon Heir..."
"Oh, so you knew about it too, missy. Heard it from Shiki?"
"More or less, yes."
The Clank-Clank Fruit... Papa had told me about it once.
It was the power of some man named Douglas Bullet, a former Roger Pirates crew member. The ability to absorb any inorganic material, combine with it, and enhance oneself, becoming a Combined Human.
So that's what absorbing the cannon just now was about... and those parts on both her hands and feet were probably already formed by absorbing various things from the start.
But wait. When I fought her on Sekan Island the other time, she was using Seastone armaments, and she definitely wasn't an Ability User. Did she eat a Devil Fruit in this short time?
No, that wasn't it. The other Seraphim on the other ships were each using powers belonging to Ability Users who were still alive, so it must be powers artificially replicated through some method. Maybe I should have asked Snow and the others about that.
If I had to guess, after the last battle, the Seastone armaments weren't as effective against me, an Ability User, as expected, so the strategy shifted to simply attacking with a strong power instead. With the Clank-Clank Fruit's Powers, she could exploit paper's weakness with flamethrowers like before.
Well, it's not like I'd neglect countermeasures for that, which is why I was able to block it.
Did she have some function that let her become an Ability User at will? And whether that was one-way or reversible, I couldn't tell. Either way, the threat level had probably gone up.
Even if attacks no longer had an automatic hard counter against me, there was the fear of not knowing what might come next. You couldn't tell just from looking what she'd absorbed. Poison gas, chemicals, all sorts of other nasty weapons were easy to imagine.
On top of that, the Kuma-type Seraphim attacking in coordination... this one was carrying the Seastone armaments instead, so I still couldn't let my guard down. Its movements weren't fast, so dodging wasn't difficult, but still.
By the way, I was pretty sure they'd been calling this one "Zero Four" earlier.
And the ones placed on the other ships were Zero One, Zero Two, Zero Three... what a naming scheme. Blatantly obvious they saw no meaning in the names beyond identifiers to tell individuals apart.
Come to think of it, why didn't all four of them attack together last time? Surely they weren't procured on-site... or were they? Hmm, I really couldn't tell.
Oops, enough analysis. Time to resume fighting.
Zephyr-sensei was about to move, but a beat faster than that, Ibis aimed her mechanical fist at me and... huh!?
The fist, it flew... Rocket Punch!?
Crap, I was so startled and then I was staring at it in admiration, so my dodge was a little late... that was close, just barely made it.
I managed to evade both the Rocket Punch, which had been a decoy, and the laser Ibis had fired behind it.
Maybe because the Rocket Punch, which she'd probably expected me to dodge easily, had come unexpectedly close, Ibis looked a bit dumbfounded. That was kind of awkward.
I could also see Zephyr-san looking like he wanted to say something, or rather, looking exasperated. Awkward.
"...If I were still an active Instructor and you were my student, I'd be lecturing you with my fist on your head right now."
"Ah, yes, I'm genuinely sorry about that."
"...Well, I'm a man too, so I can't say I don't understand the feeling."
Oh, is that so.
"...? Against males, an attack that launches the arm unit is effective? The speed and timing should not have been sufficient for a surprise attack. No matching data... the correlation is also unclear. Furthermore, Venerdi Toto Sue is female, and it should not apply in any case... why did it produce this effect? Requires investigation."
And Ibis was looking mildly puzzled about it... ah, no, it's not like there's some serious tactical reason it was super effective. You really don't need to analyze this that seriously.
It's just that the boy's heart inside me got a little, you know. Nobody else would really...
"Aunt Leona! Watch out, please don't look away!"
"Whoa! Oh, thanks Snow... but I mean, come on, a Rocket Punch! A real Rocket Punch right there in front of me like that!"
"I understand the feeling, but please calm down! We're in the middle of combat!"
Oh, there was one over there too. Someone who'd understand.
That aside, despite mentioning investigation and all that earlier, Ibis, as expected, didn't use the Rocket Punch again in succession. Instead, she aimed a different weapon at me.
She held something like a short rod, like a flashlight, and from it extended a blade of light... hey, wait, now it's a Beam Saber!?
This girl has been using weapons that hit way differently than last time, and in a completely different sense they're hitting me right where it counts! She probably isn't even doing it on purpose!
Hold on, what are you doing now!? After the Beam Saber, that thing on your back, is that a fan... a funnel-shaped flying Support Weapon that attacks!? And of course it shoots beams too!
And then from the hand not holding the Beam Saber, a gale? A tornado? Blasting out... wait wait wait, hold on! Riding on that wind, some kind of chemical... acidic liquid is flying at me!? Where it hits, there's corrosion, melting... now it's a Rust Hurricane!?
It would have been perfect if it came from the mouth... but yeah, with a flesh-and-blood appearance, that'd be a bit much visually.
And then, right after Zephyr-sensei knocked the Beam Saber from her grip and she lost it, she pulled out a hatchet-lance... a tomahawk from what appeared to be a shoulder compartment, and that's when I couldn't contain myself anymore.
"What is all this already! Every single weapon is striking right at the boy's heart! Does Dr. Vegapunk like robot anime... I mean, Picture Stories!? I've never met him, and I never particularly wanted to, but now I'm getting a little curious!?"
"? Pirate Literary Master, you should be neither a boy by gender nor by age."
"Sorry for being a woman in her thirties saying all this! Just because someone's a woman doesn't mean they can't have a boy's heart! Remember that! Sounds like your creator Dr. Vegapunk never taught you that!"
"...Incomprehensible. Also, I was not created by Dr. Vegapunk."
"...Huh? Is that so?"
"Affirmative. I am a Seraphim of a generation after those manufactured by Vegapunk. My creator is the cyborg Queen who reigns over the future world... the 'Seraphim Queen.'"
"...Excuse me?"
...Well now. The conversation just veered off in an unexpected direction, in yet another way.
A term I had absolutely no recollection of hearing just came up, too.
That they came from the future was within my expectations, but what was this Seraphim Queen? From the name, I could imagine it was some kind of queen-like existence ruling over Seraphim.
While I was thinking that, this time Zephyr-san spoke up.
"I see... so it was you after all. The assassin sent to change the future. Just as Zwei said. And your targets are... my life, and this young lady's."
"Affirmative. To prevent the world's collapse, and for the future over which the Queen reigns..."
A beat of silence there.
Readjusting her stance,
"The root cause who invites the future of world collapse through Grand Reboot... Neo Marines Supreme Commander Z. And... the very person who destroyed the Seraphim Queen in the future world... Pirate Literary Master Sue. Both targets will be eliminated."
...Wait. Am I the only one fighting without enough information here? Huh, Ibis aside, even Zephyr-san seems to have a proper understanding of all sorts of things!?
Did he hear it all from that "Source"? Who the heck is "Zwei"?
Someone! Someone explain this to me! It's not fair that everyone else knows!
***
...This is one possible future.
A future that might come to pass, or might not. An uncertain future like that.
It began when, in the future of a certain timeline, two time travelers appeared and changed history.
In a future where the world had been destroyed by Grand Reboot, the last colony where people huddled together to survive. Born there, the last children... the twin sisters Snow and Iris.
Through the power of the Time-Time Fruit, wielded by the Ability User Kozuki Hiyori who existed in that future world, they traveled back to the past, made contact with their mother Sue and the others in the still-intact world, and offered guidance.
As a result, in that timeline... some time after "two years later" began, the activation of Grand Reboot by Z's Neo Marines was prevented, and the world did not perish.
Sue and the others were supposed to go on living happily, with their two daughters from the future joining them.
Until further tragedy struck.
The Human Weapon "Seraphim," developed under the World Government's direction.
In the near future, the Shichibukai system would be abolished, and the Seraphim were expected to fight in their place. But at a certain point, they broke free of Government control and launched a mass rebellion.
The kind of thing common enough in fiction: an existence that had been exploited, whether living being or AI, turned against humanity and attacked. And that's exactly what happened in that world.
It wasn't simply mindless rampaging, either. It was an organized rebellion, united under a single leader.
'We, who are superior to humans in every way, should be the ones to rule The Surface.' With that ideology, the Seraphim, said to rival the Shichibukai in combat ability, broke free of control one after another and ran rampant.
And the one who became their leader... the individual later known as the "Seraphim Queen."
She was an existence created by the World Government's research division through the synthesis of multiple pirates' Lineage Factors. Compared to conventional Seraphim, which had Lunarian Tribe genes incorporated into them, she possessed even more aberrant characteristics. In essence, a chimera.
As the Government intended, she was born with high intelligence and overwhelming combat ability. The development team and their clients were initially delighted, but the moment she was completed, the Seraphim Queen went rogue.
She killed every researcher and Government Official, seized control of Egghead, operated the plant herself, and began producing one Seraphim after another to serve as her allies.
She overpowered the already-completed Seraphim by force, captured them, and modified them. She rewrote their originally programmed authority hierarchy, reconfiguring it with herself as the supreme ruler.
Having thus given birth to the Seraphim Army, the Seraphim Queen used her overwhelming military force to topple nations, repel the Marines, and bring countless islands under her dominion.
Humans, who didn't even possess power inferior to hers, were all made into slaves equally. Under a rule as merciless and tyrannical as, if not worse than, what the World Government and the Celestial Dragons had once practiced, people trembled and despaired.
As the Seraphim Queen continued her triumphant march, several organizations among the humans who recognized her as a threat banded together, formed an Alliance, and challenged her to battle.
After a war to the death that claimed massive casualties on both sides... it came down to a one-on-one duel between the Seraphim Queen and Sue, who had been one of the leaders of that Group in that future. Both combatants fell together in a mutual strike.
But in her final moments, the Seraphim Queen had sent out an assassin.
Using a "method to return to the past" found in certain research documents, she sent one of her subordinates back in time.
By eliminating Sue in the past, the one who would eventually cause her death, she ensured that no one would exist to defeat her in the future.
Additionally, to prevent the world from ending before the Seraphim Queen could even be born, the assassin was also tasked with stopping Z's execution of Grand Reboot.
That assassin, sent back through time, was the Seraphim bearing Sue's appearance... S-Ibis.
...And then,
what follows is something that neither S-Ibis nor the Seraphim Queen knows... a story from yet another, different timeline.
In a certain timeline, S-Ibis succeeded in assassinating both Sue and Z, just as planned.
But in that world... a certain woman grieved, mourning the futility of her benefactors who had fallen mid-purpose, cut down without even understanding why.
At some point, through a chance discovery, this woman learned that S-Ibis, the one who had killed her benefactors, was an assassin sent from the future across time.
And at the same time, a thought occurred to her. If she could travel to the past in the same way... couldn't she undo this tragic fate? Couldn't she change history?
With that realization, she desperately sought the means to do so... and after several years, through sheer tenacity, she succeeded in uncovering the method... and finally, she leaped into the past.
And then...
To be continued...