Lara's POV;
“I always wanted one of these, but we were never able to find one”, I explained Sabo why I stole the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. There were no more guards during our walk through the corridor, so we could leave the building without any problems.
On the outside, we found a whole platoon of Marine soldiers. They had their rifles aimed at us, they spotted us but did not shoot instantly. “Slicer Lara and Sabo of the Revolutionary Army, in the name of the World Government, you are under arrest. Surrender now!” Spoke a commanding officer through a megaphone.
I was just about to tell him to fuck off when a massive explosion rocketed the whole island. From the direction of the harbour, I could see a giant ball of fire. Exactly where our ship might have been.
Whatever it was, it couldn't have been a normal cannon.
I quickly killed the Marines, not bothering to do anything fancy. I simply kicked off and send a force blade with my leg at them. It killed half and they fell into chaos. I was gone before one of them could do anything. Using Soru, Geppo and Haki at the same time to reach the harbour faster. Sabo was unimportant now.
I was greeted by the burning remains of the Shadow. I tried to see one of the crew, but couldn't spot anything but the burning wreckage. So I used my Observation Haki, there were a lot of auras around me. Many in my back, but only three in the front. And another two in the air. The three were weakened and on the quay. One of them was my Lia.
Another Soru brought me next to the three auras. It was a heavily bleeding Jonny, he was holding onto Lia and Yosaku. The later has had lost the lower half of his body. “What happened?”, I asked in shock and anger. Yosaku will die, Nojiko, Noa, Josef and Fiara are most likely already dead. And my Lia was not conscious.
Jonny kept staring at the quickly dying Yosaku, shaking like a leave. His head turned around when he heard me and he began to cry, he spoke without emotions. “Sis Lara, it...Yosaku, he...there was this Marine...he was Kizaru by Josef... he fired a laser at Lia. Mrs Chicken Wing jumped into the fire and stopped it, but four more came directly after, Mrs Chicken Wing tried to defend us...but there were too many, one came through... Yosaku grabbed Lia but the laser has cut his legs off. Then the ship exploded.
Lia can't swim and Yosaku was half dead when I found them...I don't know where the others are...,” he was about to say more, but something crashed into the wall next to us.
The rubble was flung aside and Mrs Chicken Wing came out. Her whole body black, some of her feathers were white and had a flame pattern. She must be using advanced Armament Haki. She was also missing a wing.
“Ooooh, the captain shows herselllff, then its tiiimmmee to end thiiisss”, drawled a bored-sounding Kizaru from behind me. I was just about to turn around when a laser shot past my shoulder and into Lia. It punctured her heart and cooked her insides. She died instantly.
I lost it.
For the first time since Rufu's death, I lost any and all control. [Calm Mind] could not stop what I was feeling. Lia is dead, died without being able to do anything.
The ground began to tremble, quakes began to rip the island apart and things around me began to vibrate at such a high frequency and strength that they simply began to disintegrate. Jonny was the first victim of the rage I was feeling. His body turned to ashes before he could even move. The corpses of Yosaku and Lia were the same.
I jumped at the yellow fucker. My whole body enhanced with the same Armament Haki that Mrs Chicken Wing was using. He evaded by turning into a yellow light. He rematerialised next to me, is leg already coming down for a kick with the speed of light.
His leg started to disintegrate. Only his fast reflexes saved him. Still, the trousers and skin were already gone. His whole leg was a bloody mess and the muscles were also partially disintegrated.
He did not show any pain and I was too angered to think anything but the desire to kill him. I absently noted that the island was already only rubble and that a massive tsunami was coming towards us.
“How dangerousssss.” His slow, drawling voice increased the haze of hate I was feeling. I used another Haki increased Soru to rush at him. He was just about to evade again when Mrs Chicken Wing blurred behind him. Her remaining wing coming down at his neck.
Kizaru leaned backwards and kicked out at me. He lost his foot, but also hit me with enough force to shoot me off like a cannonball. I crashed into the remains of the harbour and created a crater large enough to fit a warship inside.
I shot out of it not a second later. I reached him the moment he shot one of his lasers at Mrs Chicken Wing. She blocked with her wing, but he powered his attack up and it pierced through her remaining wing.
I reached him directly after, my mind too enraged to use a blade or any weapon at all, I simply punched him in the gut. He was also already fully coated in Armament, but it was not strong enough to stop me. My fist first disintegrated his suit, then his skin and then muscle. The force behind my hit knocked his body out of the air before I could destroy more.
I used a Geppo to follow after him. He met me with a laser, I did not evade. It hit my left shoulder, took some time to burn my skin and then started with the flesh and bone. My Haki was strong enough to endure his attack.
I reached him, still under fire from his laser, and punched him in the face. This time he evaded somewhat and I was only able to disintegrate the lower half of his left face. It too was quickly encased in light. He must be using his light to stop the effect of his wounds.
“Really, really dangerous,” he said. For the first time no longer drawling. The next split second he was gone and the world turned into light. I was about to stop the light waves from moving when something started to burn through the Haki on my arms and legs.
I began to lower the frequency of the light, it should stop the damaging effect of his attacks, but it was too late when I finally succeeded. His attack was fast enough and strong enough to cripple me. The brightness stopped and Kizaur's body reformed out of light. He still had his light coating over his wounds and was panting.
"You've maaaddde wayyyy more troubleeee than what aaaa Paradiiiseee pirate shoullld have beeen able to dooo", he was drawling again.
I will kill him!
I opened my inventory and took something out that had no other use than being for my suicide. A large, highly advanced, bomb fell to the ground, right next to me and Kizaru. He looked at it and was just about to do something when a clacking sound signalled it's activation.
The world turned white again. The 600 megaton bomb will do the rest. The Zar bomb, tested during the cold war was only 57 megaton. And that one made tremours that were recorded in the USA. Kizaru might survive this with his body being made out of light and radiation, but this island and the surrounding sea will be gone.
The User has Died!
Lara's POV;
“I always wanted one of these, but we were never able to find one”, I explained Sabo why I stole the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. There were no more guards during our walk through the corridor, so we could leave the building without any problems.
On the outside, we found a whole platoon of Marine soldiers. All of them had their rifles aimed at the entrance and there were even three cannons with them.
I grinned widely and turned my head back to Sabo. “Use Geppo the moment I attack.” I then lowered my centre and shot a force blade off with one swift draw and followed sheathing of my sword. The attack wasn't enhanced by my Devil Fruit. I don't want to level the houses on the street.
Some Marines were quick enough to shoot, but the bullets were easily evaded with Kami-e. Sabo did also as I told him and was already out of the line of fire.
My own attack raced towards the surprised Marines and began to cut through their ranks. The first line was beheaded, they were kneeling for a better aim. It positioned their heads at a perfect height for my attack. The second line, those who were standing, got a deep cut into their stomach.
It took most of them out and killed at least 15 men. However, more were coming from the streets, so I jumped after Sabo and used my own Geppo intermixed with a few Soru to catch up to him.
And right in time, Smoker the old cancer stick was on his way to intercept Sabo. Sabo might still be good enough to beat him with only his legs. And while I kinda want Sabo to feel pain, I did say that I will protect him. So I blocked the smoke fist with the scabbard of my blade and deflected the follow-up Jute pierce with a hit to his outstretched arm.
I greeted the hovering Smoker with a bright smile and a cheerful tone. “Smokey, what did I tell you about interfering? Have you forgotten what happened when you fought Lia?”
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“She used my subordinates to get a hit in. That won't happen this time”, snarled Smoker. He might have said it in his normal tone, or in an angry one, I'm not sure.
What I'm sure of is that Smoker is by far too weak to fight me. Smoker couldn't even use Haki, there is no way that he will be able to win.
But Lia asked me not to play around with my enemies, and I just had the 'stupid action' talk with her. There is no way that I am now going to do the exact opposite of what I want her to do in such a situation.
That's why I drew my sword and coated it, as well as my arms, in an especially dense Haki. I recently learned that an extremely concentrated Haki is way stronger than a normal coating. The colour of my Haki turned into a darkish green with a flame-like pattern where it stops. The increase in strength is tremendous, but so is the strain it takes to keep it up.
I'm easily able to keep a normal Haki coating up for four hours. But this one, only on my arms or legs, tires me out completely after only an hour. I can keep up a whole body coating for five minutes, not more and then I'm almost knocked out. Still, if used on the whole body then I am able to move under Lia's maximum 45g pressure with ease.
If used on my hands then I can defend or deflect any of Lia's pebbles up to the sea stone pebbles. Those leave some bruising. The others either get deflected, crumble to dust or do nothing at all.
But back to the fighting. He used his smoke to propel himself forward, the Jute positioned for a piercing attack. Smoker was assured of his victory and has quickly crossed the distance by half. “Give up Lara, you can't escape justice!”, shouted Smoker mid-attack. I scoffed, what does he know.
I stopped the molecular movement of the air under me and created a solid platform for me to stand on. I then waited until he was in range and then let my sword race down. He did manage to move his Jute from a piercing position into one of a hasty block. That was all he could do.
Not that it did him any good. His Jute did resist my sword momentarily but was then cut in two. His expression was of pure shock, he must not have thought this to be possible. The shock changed into pain soon after.
My sword has not lost all of it's cutting power when I had cut through his weapon. If I'm honest then not even half of its strength was lost. However, I still don't want to kill Smoker, I only cut as deep as it was necessary to take him out of the fight.
I gave him a diagonal cut from the top right of his shoulder all the way down to the bottom left of his hip. Blood flowed freely and he lost his control over his smoke. Smoker quickly began to fall down and crashed through the roof of a house.
I should ask him about his real name, there is no way that he really is named Smoker. That would be a stupid name for a child. And quite ironic if a child with such a name also manages to eat the smoke fruit.
I released the Haki coating and started to deflect a series of bullets that were shot at us from the good three dozen Marines on the ground. Their aim was pitiful and only the huge amount of bullets forced me to deflect any at all.
“Yeah, definitely don't want to fight you in close combat”, muttered Sabo from behind me. He was not doing anything but keeping afloat with his Geppo.
“I made sure that he can survive. That wasn't enhanced by my Devil Fruit”, I replied and motioned for him to keep going.
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Sabo's POV;
Lara's skill with Haki is above my own, way above. I have only ever seen this form of Haki on the Boss, and he said that it takes a huge strain on the user's body.
She cut through the sea stone Jute with relative ease. I know that that could have been my hand. Fighting Lia was hard enough, I don't, really don't, want to fight Lara when she sees me as an enemy.
“The King is intelligent, he isn't sending any of his own troops after us. And even their ship is still anchored. Well, he did say that he knows how to act accordingly to the strength and reputation of others”, mused Lara. She was right behind me, taking care of the few bullets that came dangerously close.
“It's a show. He's part of a major slavery ring. He is training pleasure slaves for Sabaody Archipelago. They are taken from the orphanage”, I replied. That was our main objective, finding and securing proof for his crimes. With them, we will start an underground resistance that might grow in strength until we can topple this regime. “That's also how he can free pirates of their bounty. He has high friends that buy his slaves”
Lara didn't look shocked or repulsed by this kingdoms dark side. “Huh, he didn't come over like that. The conversation I had with him was rather pleasant. He asked about the Sky Island we visited. What about the soon to be slaves?” Her question about the slaves was almost asked as a side note.
I remembered Hack's report about them. It still makes me angry. “Too far gone, it's a long time business. They raise them to accept slavery and sex as how the world works. We also don't have the capacity to free them, at least not now. Still, Hack killed their trainers. It will take time until the King can start again.” She again did not show any signs of empathy. Wasn't she a slave as well? Well, she was too young to remember her times in slavery, but her parents do. Haven't they warned Lia and Lara? Or did they want to keep them unknown of the very dark side of the world?
Yet, they are pirates for some month now, they must have seen some parts of the darker side. Is she this uncaring or am I just not able to read her good enough? Maybe she is hiding it, not wanting to get distracted while we flee.
Whatever it is, I'll have to think about it later. We're just about to reach the Shadow. Their stolen Marine ship was ready to leave the port. And from our higher position, I could already spot the coming Marine ships. There were twelve in total, grouped into squads of four.
A Warship accompanied by three smaller ships. They would soon box the Shadow in and then we would either lose the ship or have to fight hundreds of Marines.
The harbour itself was also full of Marines. This Tashigi was one of them, shouting commands and ordering soldiers to man the cannons. Those who did bring the cannons were quickly keeling over. They seem to have been shot. Back on the Shadow, I could see Nojiko with some kind of rifle in her hands. It wasn't a standard model, it looked kinda strange and had a shell attached to it.
The crew of the Kage Pirates spotted us and the Shadow began to move forward. The ship was gaining speed faster than what should have been possible. Is that Lia's work as well, how many uses do these two have for their fruit?
The ship was still not fast enough to leave us behind and both of us landed on deck without problems. Lara was instantly walking to the front of the ship, where I could see Lia and Fiara.
They had a strange three barrelled cannon next to them and the Tontatta girl was happily filling them with different looking cannonballs.
“Were there problems?”, asked Koala suddenly from my side. She and Hack were now standing right behind me.
“None, we grabbed the prices and then left quickly after,” I answered. Two days ago I would have considered asking the Kage Pirates to work with the Revolutionary Army, but now I'm not so sure.
They do have the strength to do good, but neither their captain nor the second in command is still on good terms with me. And then there is Lara's utter lack of concern for the mistreated and her readiness to kill her opponents.
Sure, killing your enemy is something that has to be done, but she did so as well during the tournament. And Lia wasn't friendly as well. There were quite a lot who would have survived if they held back more.
I'll have to ask Dragon about this.
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Lara's POV;
I was telling Lia what has happened, of course after giving her an inspecting look to see if she is okay. “There are twelve ships inbound, four from each side. I'll think we should take our leave to the left. It's away from Water 7, if we change our course after leaving them behind, we will be able to reach the island without pursuers.”
Lia nodded and Fiara, who has by now finished loading the cannon with hyper explosives, saluted eagerly. “Could you take care of the warship? I'll take out any cannonballs that may reach us. And Fiara can shoot the three smaller vessels.”
“Sure, give me a moment to concentrate.” Answered Lia. “Will do captain, these evil men won't survive the day!” Declared Fiara. It was a good idea to tell her that 'evil men' are trying to kill her and that they should die before they can harm her or anyone she likes.
I turned around and spotted Nojiko behind the oar, she must have come down from the crows nest. “Nojiko, we're going to take the left side. Try to evade the ships, there will be some wreckage.” She gave me a nod in confirmation and began to steer the ship to the left.
We left the port and were instantly shot upon by a dozen Marine ships. The cannons of their warships were shooting massive explosive balls of death at us, followed by their smaller friends, who were not stingy in sending deadly metal as well.
They came from the front, the right and from behind. Only the side of the island was free of incoming cannonballs. Our own ship has four cannons on the front. The warships have three massive ones and another three on each front side. So over 60 cannonballs were shot, all of them roughly aimed at us and at least 10 would hit us directly. That's what Lia said.
Each of them exploded roughly five hundred meters away from our ship, that's my maximum range for so many attacks, without concentrating too hard. Any further away and I won't be able to influence them all.
Forcing them to explode increased the strength of the explosion, maybe giving them two or thrice times the normal power. The heat was felt on our ship and the firewall blocked any view of our attackers. Lia also had to stop the shock wave that would have shaken us.
The firewall was a problem, now I could only make out the next volley when it flies through the rest of the fire. It left me less time to react and forced me to use a different, more taxing method. This time I still made them explode, just not on their own. Instead, I used the same method I use to stand on air and stopped the molecular movement around them. They were enclosed by a box of unmoving atoms. The box kept the explosion inside and there was only a small light and then smoke. Less bright, less loudly and less epic.
Still, we were now too far away from the four ships that came from the right. The ships from the front have to change course and the ships from the left, who were now at our front, were the only ones left that could shoot freely.
That still left over twenty cannons the chance to sink us. Chances we did not want, so I gave the command to return fire. Our own four front cannons were shot. Only one of them would have hit, but it was shot out of the sky by a Marine captain with a specialised gun.
Still, now it was Fiara's turn. She aimed our stolen special weapon and shot the first explosive, rapidly followed by the next one and then by a third. This would have been the end a month ago when we got the cannon.
However, then we did not have an engineer. Fiara took a good look at our three-barrelled cannon and explained how it is meant to be used. The weapon should have three people manning it. One who aims and fires, one who reloads and one who brings the next cannonball. This way it can fire almost continuously.
Yet we don't need three men. Fiara alone could to it. One arm reaches out for the next projectile, one was loading and the remaining two were aiming. She had nothing to do at all. Her arms, who were kinda self-aware, were doing all the work.
The first shot of our special weapon missed. It created a massive water fountain. The second was hastily shot down by the same Marine captain that also took out the cannonball that would have reached his ship.
Still, the firing did not break off and a third cannonball hit the front of the utmost left ship. It had the same size as ours. The explosion was massive, it ripped a third of the front off and left the rest to quickly sink. That would have happened if there wasn't a fourth already incoming. It flew directly into the middle of the ship and ripped the ship apart, the ammunition must have been hit as well because dozens of smaller explosions followed. The force of the explosion pushed its neighbouring ship to the side and almost toppled it. Fiara laughed gleefully, her robot arms already in the motion to realign the cannon.
Another volley of high explosives began to fly off. This time the Marines knew what will happen if they get hit. Some jumped off of the ship that was targeted. Others tried to shoot the tiny ball of fiery death out of the air. But it was for nought, one of them hit the deck of the second ship. The explosion destroyed all three masts and killed everyone on deck. Another one hit it in the front and the ship began to sink.
Only one smaller ship and the warship were left. That was until Lia finished her attack. She had concentrated on the warship for some time now and was now finished with her attack. She placed a pressure bomb directly inside the ship. There it grew in strength until she stopped the containment of the air. Its desire to expand showed itself in a massive explosion. The whole ship, one that was four times our size, simply ceased to exist. Only fine splinters were left.
The shock wave capsized the last ship and we had a free path to sail through. “That was fun!”, chirped Fiara happily. Her arms had stopped with the loading of the cannon and were now already doing the clean-up.
“Good aim Fiara seems like cannons are your thing”, I praised her while patting her head. I noticed that she really liked that. It might look as if I am training a dog, but a Tontatta needs to be manipulated with care. Or else you'll have a gullible deadly tiny human against you. I'm trying to imprint into her that we are the good ones and that everyone else can die if they are against us.
So far she is eager to kill our enemies if it is from far away. She still isn't very eager to fight them up close. “Tehe, thanks, Lara. Those evil men won't be able to harm us now!” Her arms lifted the more than three-ton heavy cannon before she skipped off inside the ship. Probably to her workbench, where she is always tinkering with the dials. Something for our new ship she said. It's something that she and Noa are working on together.
“I'll increase our speed. We will escape them in five minutes”, announced Lia and the ship made a sudden leap forward, before speeding off. It was now four times faster than its Marine counterpart. This speed kills our sails quickly, and is also damaging to the ship, but is also a hell of a fast escape.
“That was great, what kind of cannon was that? Its ammunition had a massive firepower”, asked Koala suddenly. She, Hack and Sabo came over once the fight ended. Sabo stood in the back, silently watching and trying to not get into focus of Lia.
That's why I discreetly started to give his intestines some tremors. It didn't take more than five seconds to show its effect. He started to look increasingly uncomfortable, he suddenly let out a loud fart and then his face became panicked. He raced inside the ship while holding his ass as if he wants to stop something from coming out. His panicked shouts of, “Only a few metres, no, no, NO!,” told me that he didn't make it in time.
Lia knew what I have done and was smiling at me. Koala was snickering and Hack was facepalming. “Stupid Sabo. Anyway, thanks for boxing us out as well. This many Marine ships would have been really difficult to evade,” began Koala anew.
“Consider it payment for your time as a pacifier”, I replied and stared at her hands. Tiny hands that were begging everyone to suck on them.
She placed her hands behind her back and smiled weakly. “So, what kind of Devil Fruit did you get?” She then asked, her tone was forced and she was leaning away from me.
“Oh right, let's get inside with everyone. It's a cool one, I might eat it if Jo does not want to.” I said and grabbed Lia by the hand before calling out to the rest of the crew to meet me in the kitchen.