'Good grief, she's grown into one terrifying woman... Should I say "as expected of Shiki's daughter" or something?'
In the distance where Z's gaze was fixed, Sue, wielding two swords, was locked in a spectacular aerial battle against S-Ibis, who had absorbed Weapons across her entire body to fully arm herself.
Sue flew at speeds the eye could barely follow, swinging her blades. Whether the enemy's attacks were gunfire or physical blows, she didn't flinch, didn't hesitate. She cut through everything.
She sliced apart fired shells, explosion and all.
She struck down every last bullet in a hail of gunfire with the shockwaves from her swords.
She bisected steel fists as they slammed down.
She cleaved through massive blades as they swept toward her.
She cut through Lasers, slashed apart streams of flame, blew away poison Gas, and to top it all off, she began sensing attacks before they were even launched, destroying the Weapons the instant they manifested.
With the airspace within a radius of several meters completely under her control, Sue's torrent of sword strikes stripped away S-Ibis's composure, shaving it down piece by piece.
On top of that, countless Paper Flakes danced around her like blades, swooping in to attack in concert with Sue's slashes. Their offensive power wasn't extraordinary enough to breach S-Ibis's defenses, but they served as blinds and shields with ever-shifting versatility.
Even with the full might of the Clank-Clank Fruit's Powers, S-Ibis was completely on the defensive.
"But..."
Z, looking up at the spectacle, didn't voice what came after.
'She really is different from Shiki. If she'd come at me with that intensity, going all-out from the start... I would've lost the battle on Sekan Island long ago. She's herself, through and through, in the end.'
Before he realized it, the dangerous aura he had constantly worn while fighting as "Z," that ferociously aggressive air that went beyond merely menacing, had vanished.
One of the reasons for that was, no doubt, the student crouching beside him right now, desperately trying to administer first aid.
"Please don't move, Sensei. The wound is shallow, thank goodness... I'll be done soon."
"Don't worry about doing it properly. Either way... my time left in the spotlight is a few hours at best."
"Don't say things like that! I... I want you to live. All of you. That's why... that's why I...!"
More than being overcome with emotion, Zwei seemed to be barely holding back feelings that threatened to spill over at any moment. Even as she spoke, her hands never stopped treating Z's wounds, and just for an instant, her gaze drifted upward.
Toward Sue, who was relentlessly cornering S-Ibis.
"...You sure you don't want to say something to her?"
"Huh?"
"You came to this era not just to save me... but to save that Missy's life too, didn't you? She saved you when you were about to be killed... She's the one you owe your life to."
"..."
"That Missy hasn't noticed you're here. Well, can't blame her... you were still a child when she saved you, and it's been sixteen years. Everything about you has changed, your whole presence, everything. No, in your case it's even more than that. ...The Ain of this era was agonizing over it too. Wanting to say something, but unable to bring herself to."
"...I'm sure she was. She probably felt guilty, and sorry. ...So did I. Because..."
Zwei looked up at Sue again. In her line of sight, the beautiful woman twisted her Paper body to dodge an attack, then swung her sword. At the corner of Zwei's eyes, a single tear welled up.
"The reason that person became a Pirate... was because she saved me. An Intelligence Agent from the Government was trying to kill me to keep me quiet, and she... she let me escape... and handed me over to you, Sensei...!"
It was sixteen years ago now.
In a certain Port Town, a covert deal had taken place, an off-the-books transaction between a figure from the underworld and an Intelligence Agent from the Government.
To ensure no information could possibly leak, and so it could be made to look like the work of Pirates, everyone inside the Inn where the deal was conducted was being slaughtered indiscriminately, civilians included. In the midst of that, she had happened to return to the Inn, and had fought the Intelligence Agents to rescue Zwei.
As a result, Zwei had apparently been overlooked due to her young age, but she... she had been "made into" a criminal. The guilt over that had never gone away.
Someday, Zwei had always wanted to say it. To thank her for saving her life, and to apologize for forcing her to throw away a "normal life" because of it.
But in the end, right up to the present, she'd never been able to.
Unable to say it, they had been parted by death.
That was the story of the "future" she wanted to erase, wanted to undo.
And yet...
'There's no way I can say it now... Even after coming to this era, I ended up siding with Sensei, becoming that person's enemy... and despite all that, here I am again... again! Being protected by her...!'
She would probably never be able to say it again.
Unable to say it, unrecognized, everything would simply end.
That was the feeling Zwei held in her heart, something close to resignation.
***
"Venerdi Toto Sue... combat capability exceeds projections. Techniques and power not present in prior data... difficult to counter. Temporarily disengaging to regroup and..."
"As if I'd give you the chance to regroup! I'm not about to set up a 'next time' for you like some predictable storyline!"
Determined to allow absolutely no interruption, Sue pressed her attack with enough force to settle the fight then and there. The instant S-Ibis fired the thrusters on her soles and back to attempt an escape, Sue launched a Flying Slash into the blast, cutting through the explosive force and killing the momentum. She would not permit retreat under any circumstances.
What's more, with each passing moment, Sue's slashes grew heavier and sharper.
Incredibly, parts of S-Ibis's body other than those merged through the Clank-Clank Powers, the flesh-and-blood portions possessing the physical durability of the Lunarian Tribe, were beginning to sustain damage, little by little.
Judging the situation untenable, S-Ibis suddenly darted sideways to dodge Sue's attack, manifested Laser emitters in both palms, and fired off a rapid barrage of Laser shots.
But her hands were not aimed at Sue. They were pointed in a completely different direction.
The target was not Sue, but...
"You...!!"
Zephyr and Zwei. A storm of Lasers rained down on the two of them, immobilized in the middle of treatment.
They may not have been caught off guard, but even so, the onslaught that descended upon them was virtually a complete ambush, and its killing intent was undeniably extreme. There was no time to raise the Battle Smasher in defense. Unarmored, even guarding with Haki wouldn't be enough to escape unscathed; the force would likely inflict critical injuries.
Fortunately, given the timing, Sue was just barely in a position where she could dive down and intercept the shots.
A split-second descent to intercept. That would protect Zephyr and Zwei. For someone of Sue's caliber, including the instant decision-making required, it was possible.
S-Ibis had been counting on exactly that from the start. Predicting that Sue would never abandon those two, the attack was launched solely to buy a few precious seconds for escape.
...But...
'...?!'
That prediction missed its mark spectacularly.
Though startled by S-Ibis's sudden attack targeting Z and the others, Sue didn't even glance in their direction. She charged straight for S-Ibis in a beeline.
As for S-Ibis, the brief moment of post-firing lag from the large-scale, high-output attack left her unable to dodge or even defend. The plan had completely backfired. She would not be able to block Sue's attack, coming mere fractions of a second later.
And yet, the seemingly abandoned Zephyr and Zwei...
"Reflection! I juuust knew they'd pull something like this. Mom's prediction was spot on!"
Alice had leaped in to intercept, and her Powers reflected every last Laser right back at the sender.
A few minutes earlier, just before launching her full offensive, Sue had folded a single paper airplane and sent it flying.
It was no ordinary paper airplane, of course. It was a sheet of paper on which she'd scrawled a letter, or rather, a memo of instructions, written in an instant with her prized pen speed, then folded into shape.
"They'll probably target Zephyr-san and the others, so protect them," it read, sent flying to Alice.
That prediction proved perfectly accurate, and the crisis brought about by the ruthless tactic was transformed into the greatest possible opening.
"Two-Sword Style, Secret Sword: Falling Sun Crimson Sky."
And the blade reached the throat of the drowning strategist.
"Dual Valor: Crescent Spear!!"
Both swords, each wreathed in both Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki, scattered red light in every direction as Sue swung them horizontally in nearly identical arcs, sweeping sideways.
The red trajectories traced by the two blades merged into one, forming the shape of an enormous red crescent moon, and S-Ibis's body was carved deep, as though the arc had bitten into her.
Having taken damage that could only be called fatal, S-Ibis lost the ability to maintain flight and crashed onto the deck.
The damage was severe, but S-Ibis, whose pain receptors had been numbed from the start, showed no sign of faltering beyond what the injuries themselves caused. Mentally, at least, she remained calm, still calculating what to do next.
But before she could arrive at an answer...
BOOM!
"...!?"
"Your guard's down... you grotesque cyborg."
A single gunshot, and a bullet fired by Z.
Immediately after, the strength drained from S-Ibis's body, and she collapsed, defenseless and powerless.
What had been fired was a single bullet. One that wasn't even imbued with Haki.
An ordinary bullet should pose no threat whatsoever against the physical durability of a Seraphim. It could be ignored entirely without consequence.
But the bullet Z had fired was one he usually described as "only good enough to work on cocky Rookie Ability Users": a Seastone bullet.
And it had been fired precisely into the spot where Sue had just slashed open a large wound. Pinpointed into that exact location, the Seastone bullet magnificently robbed S-Ibis of her power. Having acquired the Clank-Clank Fruit's Powers, this weakness was absolute.
Unable to muster any strength, her body completely immobilized, S-Ibis could only lie there as a single figure approached with heavy, injury-laden steps.
S-Ibis noticed the approach but could do nothing with her body refusing to move. And then...
"Return-Return...!"
The power of Zwei's, and Ain's, Return-Return Fruit reversed any living or non-living thing it touched by twelve years, making it twelve years younger. In other words, it "returned" things.
For example, if Sue, currently thirty-four and almost thirty-five, were hit by it, she would revert to her twenty-two-year-old self.
But what would happen if it struck someone under the age of twelve, someone for whom "twelve years ago" didn't exist? They would vanish. They would cease to exist, as if they had never been there to begin with. Not erased from others' memories or various records; purely the disappearance of the individual, leaving no trace behind.
And what would happen if a Seraphim, built upon a clone cultivated in a short period of time, were struck by this power while still in the early stages after activation?
The answer was written in the empty space that now spread before Zwei's eyes, beneath her outstretched palm.
To defend against the Powers of an interference-type Devil Fruit, one needed to cloak oneself in sufficiently strong Haki.
A Human Weapon with scarcely anything that could be called a heart, and therefore no connection to a strong "will," had no hope of using such a defense.
In that moment, the assassin from the future, S-Ibis, was erased from this world forever.
To be continued...