Author's Note:
This time, I've got a development where I pulled out some occult-ish stuff using depictions from the movie version, with a bit of my own interpretation, or maybe a stretched interpretation. Apologies if it feels off. Here's Chapter 177. Please enjoy.
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No, that's not what happened.
Seriously, it wasn't on purpose. Friendly fire. I'm telling you, friendly fire.
Luffy called out to me at the absolute worst possible timing. I turned around, and the thing just went flying off on its own.
Hancock had a similar thing going on too, and then on top of that, both our attacks combined at the point of impact and turned into some kind of combo Secret Art. Who could've predicted that?
Well, it ended up saving Luffy big time, so... all's well that ends well, I guess.
Looks like the only ones who took real damage were the Marines.
Some pirates got blown away or knocked over by the shockwave too. Sorry about that. Forgive me.
While I was busy thinking all that, the situation had already started moving again.
Seizing this once-in-a-lifetime chance to push forward, Luffy's group and the Whitebeard Pirates all surged ahead at once. But the enemy was the Marine elite, and they lived up to the name. Though thrown into momentary chaos, they quickly poured in to rebuild their defensive formation, and while they'd been pushed back considerably, they once again blocked the path forward for Luffy and the others.
...During all of this, I could've sworn a considerable number of them were shooting resentful glares our way. I graciously pretended not to notice.
"Well then, doesn't seem like there's much point fighting here anymore. I'm heading out."
"Wait, Sue. Take this with ye. It's the key to Fire Fist Ace's shackles. Give it to Luffy."
...Hm?
Wait, wasn't that something Hancock was supposed to hand to Luffy pretty early on in the war in the Original Work?
Yeah, if I remember right, it was when she saved Luffy from getting tangled up with Smoker-san. Did that not happen in this world?
Which means right now, Luffy doesn't have the key to the shackles. Uh, isn't that bad?
Oh, but in the end, even in the Original Work, Kizaru destroyed the key so it was useless anyway, and Mr. 3 ended up making one for him... wait, WHAT!? Mr. 3 isn't at the execution platform either!? The butterfly effect reached even here!?
Well, I guess it's not that surprising, considering how much I went wild and tore things up from Impel Down onward.
Beyond just the direct "going wild" part, the number of escaped prisoners went up by an entire digit, Bon-chan made it out safe, and my daughters and the Maid Squad are participating in this war too.
...Yeah, at this point, there's no use trying to think about what happens in the Original Work!
"Got it, thanks Hancock! I'm heading out!"
I sprouted wings from my back and took off from the spot...
"STOP IIIIT!!"
Thud... thud... THUD!
Whoa!? That startled me!
Ah, they were about to execute Ace, and Whitebeard couldn't stop it, but then Luffy unconsciously unleashed Conqueror's Haki and stopped them.
It hit right as I was taking off, so I nearly crashed. Close. Way too close.
"All of you! Back up Straw Hat Luffy with everything you've got!!"
On top of that, Whitebeard's Command rang out, and the division commanders along with all the Whitebeard Pirates and their allied crews surged forward together, fighting to protect Luffy.
Barriers that Luffy could never have broken through alone were pried open one after another, and he sprinted toward the execution platform without stopping.
He crossed the bridge that Crab-chan, Inazuma, had created and charged up toward the execution platform.
Vice Admiral Garp stood in the way, but Luffy punched him aside. Who could blame Garp-san for what he did in that moment. Finally, at the execution platform... Luffy reached Ace.
...Oh wait, that's right, Luffy doesn't have the key! Even after getting all the way there, he can't free Ace!
Ahhh, this is bad, Fleet Admiral Sengoku just transformed!
It's too far! Can I make it in time!?
***
[Third-person perspective]
"Wait... did you think I would let you escape!?"
"Huh!? Whoa, what the hell!?"
"...! Sengoku...!?"
Luffy had traversed the path to the execution platform, a path that could truly be called impregnable, with the help of Whitebeard's allied pirates and the escaped prisoners from Impel Down.
But the final obstacle standing between him and Ace's rescue was the supreme commander of the Marines, waiting right there.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku the Buddha activated the powers of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Daibutsu, transforming into a massive golden Buddha. He poured Haki into his clenched fist and wound up for a massive swing.
There was no time to grab Ace and escape.
Luffy shielded Ace behind him and moved to bite into his thumb to activate Gear 3, but he couldn't.
Sengoku brought his enormous foot down on both Luffy and Ace, pinning them and sealing their movements. Unable to move his arms, Luffy couldn't blow air into his Bone Balloon.
"No one escapes...! With my own hands, I will execute both of you, right here, right now!"
"Ugh, grk... Luffy...!!"
"Dammit... Gum-Gum... Balloon...!!"
Even without Gear 3, Luffy desperately sucked in air and inflated his body to absorb even a fraction of the impact, trying to form a cushion to protect Ace.
But an attack imbued with Haki, even a blunt strike, could not be stopped by Luffy's rubber body.
Knowing this, Ace realized instinctively that Luffy would die if things continued. He struggled desperately to break free, but his body wouldn't move at all.
What's more, looking around, it was likely a contingency measure. Aimed at the execution platform, numerous cannons and bazookas were trained and ready, prepared to destroy them along with the entire platform at any moment.
Even if they survived Sengoku's fist, there would be no defending against that second wave.
Checkmate.
Death.
Not just himself, but his little brother too. Right here.
That worst possible future flashed through Ace's mind.
And then, Sengoku's fist came swinging down toward the two of them, utterly helpless...
The rumble of rolling thunder... then, BOOM!!!!
"""""...What?"""""
No one could believe the sight before their eyes.
The fist that had been about to come crashing down.
The two lives that should have been snuffed out a second later.
Lightning struck that very spot.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku took the direct hit, and the impact locked his body rigid.
The bolt then reached Luffy too, but as a Rubber Man, the damage was zero.
With Luffy's body serving as a perfect shield, Ace took zero damage as well.
The shock shattered the execution platform, and the planking where the three had stood cracked apart and fell...
"Made it in tiiiiime!!"
***
I just witnessed some incredible miracle, but whatever! I made it, so it's fine!
By a hair's breadth! Snatched up Ace and Luffy and made off with them.
Felt like a bird of prey doing a dive-hunting run.
Ah... wait, we're not safe yet!
"Wha, what just... and you...!"
"Ah, Sue! Than—"
"Keep your mouths shut, you'll bite your tongues!"
"Fire! Shoot them down!"
I pulled up sharply, banked, dove, accelerated hard, braked hard, over and over.
The Surface below was unleashing a barrage of cannon fire and bazookas at us, trying to shoot down Ace and Luffy.
"What the hell was that just now!? Lightning struck the execution platform!?"
"Impossible... there's not a thundercloud in sight! It's clear skies across all of Marineford!"
"Fleet Admiral! Fleet Admiral Sengoku, are you all right!?"
"Well now... so these things really do happen, don't they..."
"A miracle... a miracle just happened...! Straw-chan and Big Bro... they're safe...!"
"...I feel like I've used up a lifetime's worth of shock just from this morning, capbull... Straw Hat Boy, just how much does heaven love you...!?"
"First Loguetown, and now this again... what the hell is going on here...!?"
"Ca... Captain Buggy!? What's wrong!? You look pale..."
"Yeahhh... it's just, I suddenly remembered somethin' I reeeally didn't wanna remember..."
Amid all the chatter flying around, I was dodging up, down, left, right, forward, and back, feeling like I was playing a bullet hell game. I needed to land somehow... oh crap, incoming, can't dodge that one!
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Laser-based real bullet hell is too much!
A bit rough, but I dropped straight down to the ground. Sorry about this, but I dropped Luffy onto the ground first, "GUEH!?" then dropped Ace on top of him as a cushion!
"Owow..."
"Sorry Luffy! Here, the key to Ace's shackles!"
"Ah, Sue... wait, the key!? For real? Than—"
Without waiting for him to finish, I pressed the key into Luffy's hand, made him grip it tight, then immediately sprang to my feet and swung my sword.
The downpour of Kizaru's beams raining down, I managed to fend off with Wall Paper and Lion: Valley Cutter... ah, no good, the Wall Paper is getting straight-up pierced. The penetrating power is insane.
Fine, I'll cut them all! Slash every last one!
Pyupyupyupyun!!
Slash-slash-slash-slash!!
Emptying my mind, purging all thought until it was practically pure reflex, swinging the sword over and over...
BOOM!! CLANG!!
Over and over... whoa!? What was that? Something just came flying in from a completely different direction!?
I cut it down on reflex, but that had some serious weight behind it!?
Wait, that was probably a ranged slash attack. Who the hell!? Don't tell me...
"Oh... you blocked it."
I shot a quick glance toward the source, and there stood a man in the follow-through of a swing, holding a black blade I recognized all too well.
You, Hawk-Eye!?
Give me a break! Crashing the party while I'm dealing with an Admiral? I could literally die! Good thing I managed to block that!
"Mmmm, you're a stubborn one, Pirate Literary Master... oops!"
"Don't go doing something as boorish as ruining a brothers' reunion, yoi!!"
Marco cut in from the side and kicked Kizaru away, saving me.
Five more seconds and I might not have been able to keep blocking. That was a genuine lifesaver. My deepest gratitude.
...And then, the very next moment.
On the battlefield, with a roaring whoosh, a massive pillar of fire erupted skyward.
It blew away the barrage of cannon fire and everything else the Marines had aimed at us on the ground. Not letting a single shot through.
"Seriously... you're always like this..."
The Marines looked up at those flames with faces full of shock and frustration. The pirates gazed up with faces full of joy.
"Ever since we were kids... you never listened to a damn word I said..."
Standing at the center of it all was, of course...
"Always doing reckless crap!"
Fire Fist Ace himself.
"AAAAACE!!"
"Fire Fist Ace has... been freed!?"
"Don't let them escape! Kill them here at all costs!"
"This is being broadcast live! If they get away now, it'll be an unprecedented catastrophe!"
"YEAHHH! AAACE!"
"His little brother actually pulled it off!"
"Following up Impel Down... the guy delivers, capbull!!"
"That girl did great too!"
"She's incredible, the Golden Lion's daughter... the Pirate Literary Master!!"
Screams and angry shouts from the Marines, cheers from the pirates. Flames erupting from his body, Ace stood back-to-back with Luffy, and they grinned at each other.
"Ready to do this, Luffy!?"
"You bet!"
...Um, excuse me, could you maybe, right about now...
"Sorry, but could you maybe remember there's a Paper Human standing right next to you, Fire Fist Ace-saaaaaan!?"
""Oh, sorry.""
Hot! Burning!
Well, okay, I came prepared with "countermeasures" just in case, so I might not actually catch fire... but it's still hot!
It's not just Akainu, you're a weakness of mine too!
I'm properly grateful that you shielded us from the cannon fire and everything, and I do thank you for it, but show some consideration!
I'm pretty confident I worked hard to rescue you two, so could you be just a tiny bit more considerate!? The bare minimum... just enough that I don't get hurt, please!
***
"Looks like it went well... was that satisfactory, Lord Boss?"
"Perfectly done. Good work. Thanks. Seems I had to trouble ye to clean up after my careless daughter's loose ends."
"Not at all. I'll be in your care from here on, so consider it a trifle. Besides, I too had no interest in seeing that one die here. That Rubber Man... I need him to stay alive until the day I settle my score with him."
"Jihahahaha, is that so... the connections between people sure are strange things. Regardless, meeting someone like ye was a stroke of fortune for me too. Welcome aboard, Former God."
"Now, now, please stop that, Lord Boss. That's a title I now understand to be nothing but laughable. ...Still, how to put it..."
"?"
"This war... they say it's the decisive battle of the Blue Sea. There seems to be no shortage of things worth watching and learning from, so I intend to enjoy it thoroughly to the very end. ...Ah, you were right all along, wo... no, Pirate Literary Master...!"
"The Blue Sea is... the unknown is... this terrifying, and yet... this fascinating! My curiosity knows no end... the Four Emperors! Haki! The New World! The time when I can encounter them, when I can learn about them... I look forward to it now more than ever! Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
***
Now then.
Rescuing Ace was well and good, but there was no room for complacency.
The Summit War's most critical stretch lay ahead. You could even call it the grand climax.
From here, rapid developments piled on top of rapid developments. And they did.
Whitebeard's final Captain's Command.
Leave me behind, everyone retreat, and return to the New World. That order echoed across the battlefield.
Hearing it, some wept, crying that they couldn't leave Pops behind. Others choked back their grief and started running, telling the rest to follow orders.
Pulling along those who wanted to stay, the Whitebeard Pirates began their retreat. Leaving Whitebeard himself behind.
The Marines pursued, determined not to let them escape, aiming to execute Ace, Luffy, and me. We fought them off and ran...
"...Take back what you just said!!"
Run, you idiot!
Well, I kind of figured this might happen, but still.
Damn it, the moment I didn't want to come has arrived!
But fine. If I'm being honest about how I feel, it's not like I didn't want this to happen at all.
Because of this old man, I'd been thrown into Impel Down, and for a decent stretch of time, I'd suffered through pain, agony, and humiliation. Absolutely miserable.
While it's true I "grew" from the experience in the end, I'd been wanting to pay a little visit to return the favor if I could.
...And I'd actually been doing some quiet "preparations" with exactly this in mind.
Perfect timing. Time to pay that return visit.
...Just a quick one, though!
"Bring it on...! Let's go... lend me your power, Seven Star Sword...!"
***
[Third-person perspective]
"Whitebeard dies as a loser! A fitting end for an outdated king of the scrapheap, wouldn't ye say!!"
"Pops is... the Great Pirate who built this era! The name of this era... is Whitebeard!!"
Mid-retreat, whether it was intended as provocation or not was unclear, but when Admiral Akainu declared that "Whitebeard is a loser of the old era," Ace flew into a rage, stopped in his tracks, and charged him head-on.
However, despite both being flame-heat type Logia Ability Users, against Akainu's Magma powers, Ace's own ability was in a "hierarchical" disadvantage. His fist and his arm were burned, and he dropped to his knees.
"Yer bloodline is already a 'great sin'! Even if every other soul escapes... ye brothers, I'll never let get away! Watch closely!"
"...! Hey, wait...! Run, Luffy!!"
He would never let the brothers escape.
Having declared as much, Akainu turned, right before Ace's eyes, toward Luffy, who had finally hit his limit and sunk to his knees, swaying, and wound up a red-hot magma fist.
Whether caught off guard or simply unable to move anymore, there was no sign that Luffy would dodge.
One second from now, at this rate, a sight no one wanted to imagine would unfold.
Realizing this, Ace's body moved before his mind could think...
But at that instant, a shadow overtook Ace from behind, shoved him aside with a forceful push, slipped between Luffy and Akainu, and caught the fist.
CLANG!!
"...! That so... careless of me, I was. I shouldn't have forgotten ye couldn't be let go either... Pirate Literary Master!!"
"Still the same hot-headed old man, I see... and on top of that, trying to kill the little brother right in front of the big brother? Real classy. Keep the yakuza stuff to the tattoos and the look, would ya."
Sue caught the magma fist on her Haki-clad Jade Sword, then immediately deflected it with a sweeping parry, grabbed the collar of the immobile Luffy, and leapt backward.
"Sue...! Than... but you, Paper...!"
"Get moving, Luffy! You too, Ace! I'll hold this guy off for now!"
Hearing that, Akainu's face twisted with displeasure.
Or perhaps that expression was less irritation and more genuine incomprehension. A look of "what is this fool talking about."
"...Big talk is all well and good... but isn't that a stretch? It wasn't that long ago ye were rolling around in front of me, making a right pathetic spectacle of yerself... surely ye haven't forgotten. Have ye now... Paper Human, whose weakness is heat!!"
Not so very long ago, when Sue had been lured into a trap and encountered Akainu lying in wait, what unfolded there was not a fight but a one-sided massacre.
Sue's Paper-based attacks had been completely ineffective against Akainu. Worse, Sue's Paper body didn't even need to be hit. Just getting close to Akainu was enough for the searing heat radiating from him to ignite her, to make her smoke.
The moment she drew near, she risked death. A truly hopeless mismatch.
Recalling that, Sue gave a wry smile, but showed no sign of retreating, instead leveling her sword and taking a stance. Seeing this, Akainu's irritation only deepened, and he clenched his fist.
"Fine... my task doesn't change regardless. If ye're so eager to die... then I'll gladly oblige!!"
The instant he finished speaking, Akainu's right arm transformed into Magma, bubbling and swelling with a sickening sound.
In moments, the clenched mass had grown into a colossal fist exceeding Akainu's own height. It radiated such ferocious heat that merely standing near it seemed enough to burn. Even Luffy, sitting on the ground behind Sue, was gripped with dread at that level of heat.
Weakness or not, that fist could instantly reduce any ordinary person to cinders without even allowing them to defend. Akainu thrust it forward with full force, intending to punch straight through Sue and Luffy behind her...
...But,
THUD... CLANG!!
"...What!?"
The fist was stopped again. Deflected.
By the Jade Sword that Sue swung through.
There were three reasons Akainu's eyes went wide.
The first: simply that Sue had received his attack without burning up, without igniting, without smoking, without even flinching.
In their previous fight, even when she'd blocked with a Haki-imbued sword or dodged entirely, smoke would rise, flames would catch. Her Powers had been nothing but a liability. She shouldn't have been able to so much as approach him.
The second: unless his eyes were deceiving him, the sword Sue held had stopped and deflected his fist without actually touching it.
And the third...
"What the hell is that... green fire!?"
Enveloping Sue's entire body, vivid green flames flickered like a thin but unmistakable aura.
They were flames, yet not flames. They did not burn her. Rather, they appeared to be shielding her from the heat of Akainu's Magma.
And unless he was imagining it, those flames rose most intensely from the blade of the Jade Sword, and the seven points of light set in the blade, which looked like gemstones, seemed to be glowing brighter than before.
'The massive amount of Fireproof Paper I absorbed, plus the mysterious Jade Flames from the Seven Star Sword's occult power...! It's not like I feel zero heat whatsoever, but it's probably given me strong resistance at least! Plenty enough to work with!'
Feeling the "preparations" she'd made for this very moment functioning exactly as planned, Sue celebrated inwardly, showing nothing in her voice or expression.
At the same time, she didn't let it go to her head and start thinking she could "win."
'Even so, my opponent is a Marine Admiral... someone flatly above my level. At best, my odds went from negative to slightly positive. Unless I pile on more advantages from here, no matter how I play this, I'm dead... so then...'
"Time for some tricks...!"
As she spoke, Sue released a massive eruption of Paper Flakes from her body, surging upward like a geyser.
Though caught off guard by Sue blocking his fist, Akainu watched the display and could only grimace with irritation, thinking, 'Pointless...'
No matter how much Paper she produced, it couldn't possibly work against his Magma. Even clad in Haki, it wouldn't change the material's nature. The best she could hope for was to scratch a single layer of skin before it all burned away.
And that was exactly how their previous fight had gone.
Paper-based attacks were completely ineffective. They either ignited and vanished before making contact, or even with powerful Haki, barely left so much as a scratch.
...Which is precisely why,
"Paper Razor Blizzard..."
He failed to notice her true aim hidden within that attack.
"...Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo...!"
To be continued...