"Don't go near those two! If you get caught up in it, you're done for!"
"Leave the Pirate Literary Master to the Pirate Empress! We don't stand a chance... Don't engage!"
Shouts like that from every direction.
The Marines were keeping watch from a wide perimeter, observing from a distance while making absolutely sure not to come any closer.
The reason was simple. Just like they were saying, they were terrified of getting caught up in the fight between Hancock and me.
...Well, whether they kept their distance or held their fire, we were going to drag them into it anyway.
Both me and Hancock.
"Love-Love Disc!"
A circular, pink blade of energy.
Spinning at high speed above Hancock's raised hand with a vicious hum, she hurled it at me with tremendous force. I dodged it with room to spare.
Naturally, the Marines standing in its path got caught up in it, sliced apart, and then it exploded.
It wasn't just an energy blade. She'd packed Love Flame into it too, scattering fire and blast waves that swept up even more Marines and sent them flying.
In return for the Kienzan... er, I mean the Love-Love Disc, I gathered wind blades and compressed them in my hand.
Spinning at equally high speed, what took shape was a four-bladed shuriken.
With a quiet whoosh that still made your ears ring, it spun in my hand. I wound up with a full throwing motion and let it fly.
"Paper Wind Shuriken!"
Hancock dodged it, of course, and it struck the Marines behind her, detonating with a boom.
The Sickle Wind generated by the high-speed rotation, combined with paper flakes sharp enough to cut on their own, scattered in every direction, unleashing hundreds, thousands of tiny slashing blows as it burst apart.
Marine after Marine went sailing through the air from the blast wave and the barrage of cuts. I could see it all clearly.
This was how Hancock and I were fighting. Deliberately dragging Marines into every exchange.
"Slave Arrow!"
Hancock's barrage of heart-shaped arrows that turned anyone they hit to stone. A wide-area attack.
I ran to dodge, but the Marines nearby took hit after hit and turned to stone.
"Paper Razor Blizzard... Thousand Cherry Blossoms!"
Thousands of paper flakes, each sharper than a blade, swirled upward and attacked.
Hancock either dodged or burned them away with flame-wreathed kicks, but the Marines around her got caught up in it as usual. And some of them also got caught up in Hancock's kicks (the Marines, that is).
"Bomb Kiss!"
Hancock's blown kiss traced an arc through the air toward me.
I deflected it with my sword, and it flew on to detonate in a massive explosion wherever it landed.
"Death Wind!"
I compressed paper into a chain-sickle (the chain was paper too, and it could cut), then swung it at high speed in every direction, wildly, shredding everything in range. Hancock dodged all of it. Everything else got shredded.
"Mine Kiss!"
"Lion Paper War Cry!"
"Passion Femur!"
"Kirigami!"
"Slave Bit!"
"Paper Fang: Absolute Bite!"
"E-Enough already, you two! Stop dragging everyone around you into every single attack!!"
One of the Marines who'd been desperately fleeing the rain of stray fire finally snapped and screamed that at us, but...
"I know not. It is your own fault for standing where you are in the way."
"Nope. Gonna keep dragging you in."
'''These two...!!!'''
Nearly every Marine in the vicinity went slack-jawed in unison, then continued fleeing in a half-crying panic.
Good, good, that's the spirit. Now then, let's keep ramping things up!
***
[Third-person perspective]
"Ooh, ooh... what a ferocious rampage. That daughter of Shiki's."
"Between her and the Pirate Empress, they're dragging Marines into it left and right. It's fortunate they're far from the front line, but at this rate our reserves will be whittled down to nothing."
Two men had been watching Sue and Hancock's distant battle from atop the execution platform: Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Vice Admiral Garp. They observed with a mix of admiration and exasperation, and sighed.
"Still, asking someone to stop that is a tall order. Ye'd need to throw five or six Vice Admirals at them before it'd make any difference. And if we did that..."
"I know. Our Main Camp's defenses would be stretched too thin. Show that kind of opening and Whitebeard would never let it pass. The unexpected stroke of luck here is that the Pirate Empress, who we assumed would join the fight but not actually try, is actively engaged. We just need to let her keep the Pirate Literary Master pinned down."
"That may be so, but..."
Garp glanced once more toward Sue and Hancock's battle.
"Ye don't suppose those two are deliberately fighting in a way that drags everyone around them into it?"
"You mean they're colluding to inflict casualties on our Marines?"
"It's only based on sighting reports, but there have been indications those two have crossed paths and interacted on several occasions in the past. There was also something small involving that gaudy gold ship in the New World... what was it called?"
"Gran Tesoro? Ah, yes, there was intelligence to that effect. But that fight being an act? I can hardly believe that."
Where Sengoku directed his gaze, the two combatants had shifted to close range. A sword of light clashed against the Jade Sword, and a ferocious exchange of slashes was unfolding at breathtaking speed.
If anything, it was even more intense than the long-range and area attacks from before. An unrelenting back-and-forth of sword strikes that left absolutely no room for anyone to intervene.
Each blade ruthlessly targeted vital points, and considering they were almost certainly imbued with Haki, any hit that landed would be instantly fatal, or at minimum devastating.
And amid all of that, pink energy blasts and paper shuriken, Paper Lions and pink bombs flew through the gaps between sword strikes.
A battle where a single small mistake by either side could mean death. Calling that an act was... indeed, even Garp couldn't see it that way.
"Besides, it's not impossible that it's something else entirely."
"Hm? What do ye mean?"
"I don't understand it myself, but a relationship where two people can talk casually like comrades while simultaneously trying to kill each other as enemies... that's something you see fairly often in the pirate world. As a matter of fact, Roger and Whitebeard, or Red Hair and Hawk-Eye, were exactly like that."
"Ah... ahhh, right, so they were. Now that ye mention it..."
Something came flooding back to Garp's memory. He let out a heavy sigh, and at that very moment...
DOOM!! CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK...!!
With a tremendous roar, Sue and Hancock collided for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
The simultaneous Clash of Conqueror's Haki radiated outward, blowing Marines away and causing others to foam at the mouth and collapse on the spot.
Watching that unfold, Sengoku and Garp sighed in unison this time.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere... behind the battle lines.
"Ooh, ooh, Mom and Hancock are really going at it... Hehehe, they're both so pretty... I could just eat them up."
Standing on a thin stretch of ice that still remained, Alice gazed at the two figures exchanging what looked like sparks on the distant battlefield, a dreamy expression on her face.
She had changed out of her leotard aboard the warship on the way here and was now dressed for battle.
Like Sue, it was a black-based Japanese-style outfit.
Hers had no jacket, though, and the outfit itself was sleeveless with nothing covering the arms. The back was cut wide open too, making the whole design look even more suited for freedom of movement.
Combined with Alice's own mannerisms, it gave off a strangely bewitching air.
Her cheeks faintly flushed and warm, she told herself to hold back for now, and turned her gaze downward.
Below were the Pacifistas, continuing their advance from the rear after finishing off those who'd escaped the encirclement, driving the pirates before them.
Merciless Human Weapons that shrugged off attacks with terrifying durability and felled pirate after pirate with Lasers fired from their hands and mouths.
At least ten of them were visible in her range of sight alone, wreaking havoc.
After observing the scene for a while, Alice spoke.
"That defensive power, and the firepower of those Lasers... and on top of that, they can mass-produce this many identical copies of a human being. This Dr. Vegapunk I've heard rumors about really must be an incredible scientist. ...I wonder if I brought one or two back, could Dr. Indigo take a look at them?"
Murmuring that to herself, she leaped down from the ice.
Several Pacifistas were about to fire their Lasers at pirates under Whitebeard's umbrella when Alice cut in between them and...
"Reflection!"
Every Laser that struck her body was deflected back, hitting the Pacifistas that had fired them in what amounted to self-destruction.
"Whaaaa... huh?"
"O-Oh, we're saved! Thanks... wait, a girl?"
"What's a kid doing in a place like this? And more importantly, was that just now your doing?"
Grateful to have been saved, sure, but even more bewildered to find a child with an appearance far too delicate and pretty for a battlefield standing there.
Paying them no mind, Alice eyed the Pacifistas, which apparently hadn't escaped that volley unscathed, and grinned.
"If there's no Haki behind it, it's nothing to be scared of. Now then... here we go."
She picked out one whose movements had grown sluggish, marked it as her target, and leaped onto its shoulder.
Then she drove her fingers into the wound, gouging deeper, and made contact with the flow of blood.
"If you're a Human Weapon, you need to maintain at least basic bodily functions to keep fighting... or rather, to sustain any activity at all, right? So if I do this... Blood flow, Reversal!"
In that instant, blood erupted from every orifice on the Pacifista. Its eyes, mouth, ears, nose, every opening it had.
Its body shuddered and convulsed, then it crumpled from the knees and couldn't get back up.
"...Critical damage to biological tissue... Life support compromised to unsustainable levels... Error... Combat continuation... im...possible..."
After that, it neither spoke nor moved again.
'Yes, it works! ...Oh, whoops!'
The other Pacifistas, apparently deeming Alice a threat after she'd taken one down, fired their Lasers at her in unison. They didn't hesitate to catch the now-disabled Pacifista in the crossfire. But just as before, none of them could harm Alice. Every shot reflected right back at them.
Alice immediately sprang into action, touching wound after wound and triggering Reversal after Reversal, or reversing Lasers at the instant before they fired so they detonated inside the Pacifistas' own mouths, disabling and destroying them one after another.
"Wh-What the hell is that kid?! Taking down Pacifistas that easily..."
"Whoa there, you ain't getting past us!"
"We will not allow you to interfere with Lady Alice."
Sentomaru, the commander of the Pacifistas, moved to intervene himself at this crisis, but two maids, Lupus and Yuri, stood in his path and wouldn't let him through.
All of them were Haki users. Sentomaru's broad axe clashed against Yuri's gauntlets and Lupus's polearm, something like a combined axe and sickle, sending sparks flying.
The exchange looked even, but one glance past the maids at the Pacifistas being shut down one after another made it abundantly clear which side actually held the advantage.
"Okay, next, next, next!"
"Tch... What is that kid? She's stopping Pacifistas like they're toys...! Damn it... the war's already reaching its climax!"
It wasn't just Alice in the rear who had sprung into action.
Anomalies were erupting everywhere.
BOOM! KA-BLAM!
"?! What?! What just happened?!"
Several gun emplacements mounted on the Encircling Wall exploded without warning.
It happened at the very moment they had begun, or rather, were about to begin shelling the pirates who had lost their footing and been thrown into the sea.
"What the hell?! The cannons... misfired?!"
"R-Reporting! The barrels of the Encircling Wall's cannons are clogged with massive amounts of mud! They cannot be fired in this state!"
"Mud?! What are you talking about? Get it cleared out, now!"
"The problem is, the mud has gotten into not just the barrels but also the mechanisms for aiming and loading shells! We'd have to disassemble and clean or replace all those components before the cannons would be functional again... Repairs will take at least fifteen minutes! The gun emplacements will be out of commission until then!"
"What... at a time like this... Get on it immediately!"
In yet another location, Marines were desperately defending the gaps in the Encircling Wall where sections had been broken through.
"Where are the reinforcements?! Aren't they here yet?!"
"W-Well, according to Headquarters, they departed twenty minutes ago... Even accounting for them going around through the back streets of Marineford to avoid the battle lines, they should have arrived by now..."
"What are you talking about?! Do you see anything like that anywhere around here?! Don't be ridiculous!"
"Just hurry them up! At this rate we'll be overrun... The whole encirclement is going to... Hurry...!"
"What the hell is this mist?! Damn it... I can't tell which way we're going..."
"Getting lost in Marineford, the Marines' own stronghold, and at a time like this? It's not even funny! Our guys are waiting for reinforcements! ...Urgh?!"
"?! Hey, what happ... GYAAH?!"
"We've been shot?! A sniper?! That's impossible, in this mist... AAAAGH?!"
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
"Damn it, the reinforcements... GYAAAHH!!"
"AAAAGH?! Sh-Shelling?! And from the warships in the bay... Why?!"
"We just got a report! That warship was seized by the pirates... The ones on it now are the prisoners from Impel Down!"
"What?! Then that means..."
"D-Damn it, they're breaking through... AAAAAAAGH!!"
"Gurararara... Things are getting chaotic, aren't they? Nothing ever goes quite the way you plan, does it, Sengoku...!"
'Those prisoners are doing damn good work for us... We've got a real shot at this. Time to make the most of it...!'
"Jozu! The trump card!"
"Yeah!"
"Everyone, get ready! We're charging the plaza!!"
"""UOOOOOHHH!!!"""
To be continued...