Nami's POV;
It was hard for me to concentrate on the Waver-Skates while being under fire. Noji has had no such problems, she was riding on her cloud with ease and firing her strange rifle at the Marine soldiers that were trying to shoot us down.
Her rifle was rapidly switching between targets and from what I could see each shot hit where it was intended to. I have quite a bit of trust in Ussop's skills as a sharp-shooter and yet I don't think he can beat Noji in a competition.
Suddenly, three people flew past me with such a high speed that they disturbed the air. It almost made me fall. Yosaku was laughing and had his massive sword ready to crash into the deck of the large battleship. Jonny and Fiara were more graceful, they landed easily and then both blurred before a trail of falling bodies was formed.
Now it was also my time to land, I unfolded my Clima-Tact and jumped off of the cloud. In front of a Marine that tried to raise his rifle. However, I landed with my feet right in his face. He was instantly knocked out and I would have jumped in joy from this move.
Had I not fallen on my ass right after. Three Marines were taking that chance and aimed their rifles at me. I tried to activate my shoes and bring myself out of their line of fire, but just before I managed they all fell down.
Noji has also jumped off of the cloud and gave each of the Marines a clean headshot. Blood splattered in my face and I could only dumbly stare at her. From the corner of my eye, I could see how Yosaku was beating a huge man with a mace. Jonny was fighting a group of three women and Fiara was using her flamethrower to light the ship.
Suddenly, someone grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Nai-chan, are you okay?” My eyes refocused and I could see the concerned face of Noji. She was worriedly looking at me, while still shooting Marines without even looking.
When has my sister become this strong?
“I knew that it was too early, Lara should have known as well,” she muttered. “Come Nai-chan, I will bring you back to the Raptor,” she then said to me.
What? Does she want to go back? That's great, I can leave this fight.
I was about to stand up and leave when I stopped. This, exactly this situation. It is nothing new for Noji and her friends. It will be nothing strange once we reach this New World. I remembered how useless I was when the Admiral came, how none of us could do anything.
I don't want to feel the same ever again.
I won't feel the same ever again!
I stood up and shook my head. “No Noji-chan, I need to do this.” I swung my staff, activated its air function and send a blast of wind at a group of nearby Marines.
They were trying to run to the large man that was fighting Yosaku, but my blast of wind caught them unprepared and they were thrown overboard. I quickly looked for someone else that I could fight and found a lone Marine on his way to attack Fiara's back.
A tap of my boots was enough to activate them. They launched me over to the Marine and I gave him a massive smack with my staff. He got knocked out and didn't stand up again. However, while I was shooting over to him I had missed a second Marine that had seen me and was now too close to evade.
He raised his sword and smiled cruelly before the side of his whole body got lit up in fire. Fiara had turned around and was shooting a wall of fire at the man. I caught the smell of burned hair and flesh and almost gagged.
“Die Cat Burglar!” I spun around to face the man who shouted death threats at me. My hastily raised staff came up to a block but was useless. The Marine was holding two pistols and was in the middle of pulling the trigger when suddenly his head rocketed to the side.
He fell down as if his strings got cut and a puddle of blood formed near his head. “Nai-chan, don't run off like that!” Noji was standing suddenly next to me and looked worriedly for any wounds, even now she was shooting without looking.
I realized that even when I am willing to fight it is still not enough. I would have died three times already if Noji and her friends weren't looking out for me.
“Sigh, stay close to me okay?” She asked again. This time I nodded and got ready to help if someone gets too close.
I had taken out the third man that came too close when suddenly a body flew past me. It crashed into a wooden wall and vanished from sight. I turned my head to see who has thrown him and saw Yosaku raising a fist. “Take that fatzo,” he shouted and then casually batted a group of five approaching Marines into the sky.
“How much longer do you want to play, cut the ship up,” shouted Noji at him. He saluted and raised his sword up, before bringing it back down. His sword cut through the wood and the cut continued forward. A large trench got cut into the ship.
“Fiara, it's all yours,” he then shouted.
I was about to look at Fiara to see what she will do, but Noji spoke up. “Nai-chan, I will throw a group of cloud dials over to the next ship, the moment they begin to form you are to jump on and race over.” She then threw a group of three dials through the air and clouds began to form in their wake.
I jumped on one of the clouds and did as Noji said. She too was close behind me and already shooting at the second ship. They had spotted our clouds and a group of cannons was aiming at us.
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They fired and a line of five cannonballs came flying at us. I raised my staff and activated my air dial again. I don't know if my staff has enough power, I have never tested this, but it was better than doing nothing.
The air blast hit three of the five cannonballs and took them out of the sky. The other two were aimed too wide and missed us. Their explosion threw a wave of fine mist at my back, but nothing else.
A second later a massive arc of blue light flew over our heads. It looked almost like the attacks Zoro could shoot off with his sword. The blue arc flew right at the line of cannons and cut into the ship. Wood and metal got cut and destroyed a large part of the ship.
Noji landed on a cloud next to me and pointed into the open ship. “We'll use that to get inside the ship. Let Yosaku and Jonny take out the guys on deck.” She then increased her speed and jumped inside the hole.
I followed and saw how she landed right in front of a Marine officer. She was too close to use her rifle and the officer was already swinging a fist at her head. But Noji simply bent backwards and allowed the fist to miss her.
She then came back up and was pushing her finger into the chest of the man. “Finger Pistol!” It was as if the man got shot and he stumbled backwards, his chest now has a hole.
He fell to his knees and then on his face, but I wasn't giving him any more attention. A second officer has come inside the room and was rushing at Nojiko. “Die BITCH!” He was going to kick her stomach.
“Tekkai!” Noji got extremely stiff, just before the foot connected and then took the hit without showing any strain. She did not even skit backwards from the force.
She smiled at the dumbfounded looking Marine. “Not strong enough.”Her leg was then suddenly up in the air and a blue arc, similar to the one that took the cannons out, got shot off from her foot. It hit the Marine right in the chest and he got bisected.
Noji looked once for more Marines and then began to take dials out of a pouch on her hip.“Okay, that was the last one. We should have a few moments until reinforcements arrive. Better switch weapons.”
She pulled the two dials on her rifle off and placed two other dials in their place. One was red like fire, the other had an X-Cross on its shell. “Are you familiar with a pistol?”
“No, I have only ever used a Bo-Staff or my Clima-Tact,” I answered with a shake of my head. Noji frowned and muttered something, but I couldn't understand it with all the battle noises coming from the upper deck.
I was about to ask how we should proceed when suddenly a huge explosion happened next to us. The other ship, the one we just came from, was lit aflame and missing large chunks out of its middle section. It was already in the process of sinking.
Then without warning the door that led further inside the ship got kicked open and a group of three Marines stormed inside. “Attack!” They rushed forward with raised swords. But Noji has already seen them and was aiming her rifle loosely at them. “BANG!” A burning X flew out of her rifle and cut into the two front soldiers.
The X cut into their body and lit their clothes up at the same time. They fell burning and bleeding to the ground. Another bang rung out from Noji's rifle and the last man got shot down.
She then handed her rifle over to me. “Here, take this then, it's easy, just loosely aim at them and pull the trigger. But beware, the recoil is strong.” Had I not seen her using the same finger attack as the CP 9 I would have protested. But after seeing her fight I don't think there is a single Marine on this ship that can beat her. That's why I took the rifle and test shot it out into the sea.
The recoil was strong and I had to take a step back to prevent myself from stumbling. A second shot showed me how much strength I put into my stance and I nodded at Noji. She smiled and the took the lead.
“We have to get on deck, there's nothing worthy inside the ship. I just want to show you how to fight inside an enclosed space. Lara will go through this with you later, but seeing it once might be good.” She explained while we walked through a corridor.
We were just about to turn around a corner when Noji stopped me with a raised hand. “There are five Marines in the next corridor. Another two are hiding in rooms that connect to the corridor.
However, they are positioned in such a way that the two can ambush us once we are close enough to fight the other five.”
I didn't know how she knew that, can she now even see into the future? “It's called Observation Haki, I can feel their presence. The rest is only logical thinking.” She answered my unasked question with a knowing smile.
Must be something the twins have taught her. “Then what are we going to do?”
“I'll attack the five and you'll take out the two the moment they try to help,” she answered, before turning back around. “Okay, on three. One, Two, Three!” She rushed around the corner and I quickly followed.
By the time I could see the five Marines Noji was already next to them and had killed two of them the same way she killed the Marine Officer. But that was all I could see of her fight because two doors that led out of the corridor.
I raised the rifle and aimed at the back of the closest man. With the pull of my trigger, the X-Cross flew out of the rifle and into the back of the Marine. A deep X mark cut into his back and turned his body aflame at the same time.
His friend heard the screams from behind and turned around. She spotted me and ducked behind her door for cover. I nonetheless aimed at the door and pulled the trigger. An X mark got cut into the door and lit it up. Simultaneously, a short high pitch scream of shock rung from behind the door. But it lasted not even a second and there was no further movement afterwards.
The opened doors prevented me from seeing how Noji's fight was turning out. I knew that this was not a good idea, never was whenever I happened to be in the same situation, but I still slowly walked over to the first door.
The man I first have shot was dead, his body was badly burned and cut open from the rifle shot. “What is this thing firing with?” I muttered silently and in wonder. With a raised rifle I spotted around the opened door and over to the halfway destroyed second door.
There still was no movement, so I approached the door and with one smooth move turned around the door.
There was no Marine waiting for me, ready to shoot or stab me to death. There was only half of a face and a body corpse. Splinters have pierced into the woman and shredded her front, while the attack took half of her face off.
I have never seen anything like this and the contents of my stomach couldn't stay down any longer. I threw up right over her dead body. I was dry heaving when a hand landed on my shoulder and patted me softly.
“I know, it was the same for me when I first saw something like this,” spoke Noji softly into my ear. “It is something you have to get used to. The Grand Line is dangerous, you were lucky so far. With all its wonders it also brings a very dark shadow.”
I don't know if I want to get used to this. But...but the image of Kuma jumped into my mind. It was again the fear of never seeing my friends again. I don't want to be easily defeated after our reunion. If I have to get used to this to prevent it from happening again I am willing to.
“Thank you, Noji-chan. But I am okay, I have to become stronger if I don't want to be protected by my friends any longer. I don't want to lose them again,” I said and in the end more declared this to myself than her.
She smiled at me with a sad smile. But her eyes also told me that she believes in me. “Then let's continue. We have to reach the deck before Fiara comes up with the idea of turning this ship into a torch.”
I looked one last time at the dead female Marine and then gripped my rifle tighter. I'll become strong for my crew.