In the center of Loguetown Plaza, the sky looked as if a massive hole had been torn through it. Torrential rain poured down, shrouding the entire world in a gloomy, grey veil.
Thunder rumbled continuously, acting as a grim countdown to the execution.
"WAHAHAHA!!"
High upon the execution platform, Buggy slammed a foot onto Luffy's head, raising his gleaming cutlass high. Ignoring the downpour, he cackled with the madness of a victor at the dense crowd below.
"You red-eyed brat!! Watch closely!" Buggy roared toward the rooftops. "This is what happens when you cross the Great Me!!"
"It's all over! Straw Hat! You want to be the Pirate King?! Do it in your dreams!!"
Below the platform, despair began to spread like a plague.
"MOVE!!"
Zoro, with Wado Ichimonji clamped between his teeth and eyes bloodshot, swung Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri with feral desperation, cleaving through two pirates blocking his path.
"Luffy!! Dammit... I'm not going to make it!!"
The distance was too great. Ahead of him was a thick wall of humanity composed of Buggy's circus crew and swarms of Marines.
"LUFFY!!" Sanji kicked a Marine away, but more enemies immediately filled the gap. It was a distance defined by hopelessness.
Yet, in this moment between life and death, Luffy—immobilized in the stocks—looked through the curtain of rain at his comrades fighting desperately to reach him. There was no fear. No plea for mercy.
Luffy's lips curled upward, and he let out his trademark grin.
"Sorry, Viktor, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp..." He shouted with a laugh, "I'm dead!"
That smile was pure and serene, as if death were merely the start of a new adventure.
"DEAD MY ASS!!!"
The moment those words left Luffy's mouth, a shadow blurred atop a high clock tower at the edge of the plaza. Utilizing chakra to stick to the slick, wet walls, a figure scaled the tower like a gecko, reaching the summit in an instant.
Viktor was drenched, his black hair plastered against his forehead. His scarlet Sharingan pulsed with a heart-stopping crimson light in the cold rain, locking onto the scene on the platform. He glanced up at the abnormal thunderclouds gathering terrifying energy.
As someone who knew the story, his logic told him that Dragon would intervene. In the next second, the "Bolt of Destiny" would strike, saving Luffy. Theoretically, he just had to watch.
But when Viktor looked down and saw Buggy's cold blade already pressing against Luffy's neck—
BOOM!
An irrepressible surge of rage broke through the dam of his reason. Viktor's face, usually masked by a lazy smile, became incredibly feral.
Leave his comrade's life to someone else? To "fate"? He couldn't do it.
"Don't screw with me..."
Viktor didn't wait for the so-called Lightning of Destiny. He kicked off the top of the clock tower, soaring through the air like a black hawk. Mid-air, with the wind and rain howling past him, his hands became a blur of afterimages. Forty-four signs were woven together in mere seconds.
"All this rain... all this water on the ground..."
Viktor felt the water element around him, reaching a peak of abundance. The chakra within him surged like a burst dam. This was the perfect battlefield for a Water Style master.
Suspended in the air, Viktor let out a roar that shook the entire plaza:
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!! BUGGY!!"
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!!!"
ROOOOAR—!!!
It didn't come from his mouth. At this moment, Viktor commanded the very forces of nature. The torrential rain seemed to obey a king's decree, freezing and converging in mid-air. The water on the ground surged upward like an inverted waterfall.
Vast volumes of water compressed and coiled before Viktor, forming a terrifying, ten-meter-long dragon made of churning azure currents!
"ROAR!!!"
The dragon let out a deafening cry and, carrying the weight of ten thousand tons of pressure, carved a terrifying arc through the sky. Arriving just before the blade could fall, it slammed into the towering execution platform!
"Wh-What is th—"
Buggy, prepared to strike, looked up in horror at the blue dragon blotting out the sky. His eyes nearly flew out of his head. Before he could finish his thought—
"KABOOOOM————!!!"
The impact was devastating. The execution platform that had stood for twenty-two years—the symbol of the Great Pirate Era—was as fragile as a paper toy before the raging water dragon. It shattered instantly. Massive timber snapped; wood chips flew like shrapnel.
"WAAAAAAAGH!!!" Buggy and Alvida shrieked as they were hit head-on by the terrifying water pressure. They were washed away like pebbles, sent flying hundreds of meters until they vanished into the far end of the streets.
And in the very next second after the dragon tore the platform apart—
CRACK-BOOM!!!
The green lightning that had been gathering in the clouds finally fell, a heartbeat too late. The lightning that was meant to hit the platform instead struck the swirling vortex of water and debris where the stage had just been!
BZZZZT-BZZZZT!!!
Water is the ultimate conductor. The violent electricity raced through the currents, forming a massive high-voltage net that covered half the plaza.
"AAAAAGH!!" "I'M NUMB! I'M NUMB!!" "STAY BACK!!"
The surrounding Marines and pirates were caught in the surge. They collapsed into the puddles, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
To the onlookers, it was a miracle—a youth descending from the heavens, summoning a dragon to destroy the gallows, and calling down the lightning of the nine heavens simultaneously.
Like the descent of a God of Thunder and Rain.
In the ruins, Luffy tumbled down with the broken planks. Because he was made of rubber, the lightning had no effect on him. Though he wasn't toasted, he was thoroughly soaked by the water dragon.
"Pwah!"
Luffy crawled out of the puddle, spat out a mouthful of water, and grinned as he scooped up his straw hat and put it back on. "Shishishi! I lived!"
Before he could celebrate—
"POW!!!"
A fist wrapped in chakra slammed unceremoniously into the top of Luffy's head.
"OW! THAT HURTS!!" Luffy clutched his head, tears pricking his eyes.
Viktor stood before him, soaked to the bone. He shook the water from his hands, and though his Sharingan had faded, his expression was still terrifyingly dark.
"Laughing? You're still laughing?" Viktor grabbed Luffy's cheeks and pulled them apart with a vengeful grip, growling through gritted teeth. "Don't just throw the word 'death' around so casually!"
Luffy stared at him, dazed by the mixture of fury and lingering fear in Viktor's eyes. A few seconds later, he adjusted his hat and, even with his face being stretched, let out an even brighter smile.
"Shishishi! Sorry, Viktor!"
"Because I knew... You guys would definitely come save me!"
"..." Viktor's hand stiffened for a moment. He sighed, letting go of the rubber boy. "I really can't win with you."
The dust and mist began to settle. Although many had fallen, more Marine units were closing the circle.
" 'Crimson Lotus' Viktor..." Not far away, Smoker held his jitte, his cigars soaked through by the rain. His sharp eyes pierced the veil of rain, locking onto Viktor's back.
"Was that... a Devil Fruit power? No, it looked like a trick to control water... and he can summon lightning? On top of his flames..."
"This guy... just who is he?"
And in a dark alley at the corner of the plaza, a tall figure in a deep green cloak watched silently. Rain slid off the fabric. Beneath the hood, the man with the red square tattoos on his face let out a meaningful smile.
"What an... incredible gaze." Dragon looked at Viktor, then at Luffy, before turning back into the shadows. "Luffy, you've found yourself a very reliable man."
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