"It's about time you got here," Miss Doublefinger sighed as her partner showed up. "I told you to be patient."

Mr. 1 had just made himself known in the abandoned Alubarna street. With their ducks now safely away, Zoro, Pearl, Amethyst, Greg, Petrea, and Nami now stood alone against the most deadly pair of killers Baroque Works had to its name. The man with the shaved head grumbled something and looked over his opponents, causing Greg and Nami to inch back slightly.

"Paula, we really don't need to do this!" Petrea pleaded to her former companion. "There's no point in fighting! Crocodile was defeated not even two hours ago!"

"Really?" Miss Doublefinger asked sarcastically. "That's the best you got, Miss Valentine? Do you honestly expect me to believe that your ragtag band of pirates here took down a Shishibukai by themselves?"

"But it's true, Baroque Works person!" Pearl stepped forward while keeping her eyes on Mr. 1. "We took down your boss in the desert and then handed him over to the Marine! See for yourself!"

She touched her forehead and allowed the group to witness the defeat of Crocodile first hand, from Sardonyx's entrance to the fight on to dropping him off on Smoker's ship. It was the first time the Straw Hats saw the duel and witnessed a Fusion in action. Greg, however, almost choked on his own spit when he saw his son fuse with Luffy.

"Gah! That's what Steven looks like fused with the captain?" He sniffled a bit. "My little man's growing up!"

The two Officer Agents, however, did not seem to accept Pearl's explanation despite seeing the action play out in front of them. Miss Doublefinger took a long drag of her pipe and sighed. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm not buying it. Where were you when you captured this fight on...on whatever that is on your forehead?"

"My gem," Pearl corrected, shutting off the footage. "This would be my gem. But I was half of Sardonyx, that giant warrior with the laugh. You know 'ho ho ho!'" Pearl tried to weakly imitate her fused form, causing Greg and Amethyst to start laughing.

"...what do you mean by 'half?'" Paula shook her head. "I don't follow. Actually, you know what? I don't care. We already received our orders from Miss All Sunday, and I'm sure she would have told us if Crocodile was captured by this point."

"Her?" Nami, who was now further down the alley away from the others, called to them. "What did she say?"

"We'll tell you when you are bleeding out at our feet, okay?" Paula gave a false, cheerful smile.

She started to walk towards them, with the others keeping their guards up. However, Paula walked right by the group and stopped at Greg, who was doing what he could not to shake in fear. "Hello, darling. You seem nervous."

"Um...hello yourself, scary blue-haired lady?" Greg gave a weak wave. "I...I don't suppose you just want to talk?"

"First rule of assassination, darling," she smiled. "Target the weak links first."

Reaching to his side, Greg pulled out his lightsaber and ignited the blade, causing Miss Doublefinger to step back slightly in shock, which turned to interest. "Stay...stay back! I have a lightsaber and I know how to use it! It can even cut your sea-foam cage things, so don't think about messing with me!"

The woman let out a light chuckle and waved her finger. "That doesn't seem fair to me. Guess I'll have to shift the odds in my favor; okay?" She then pointed her finger right at the hilt of the blade and extended it into a needle, piercing the weapon and causing it to shut down.

Greg looked down at his sword, pressed the ignition button a few times and gulped. "...I'm totally useless now, aren't I?"

She nodded and blew smoke right into his face. "Seems like it."

"...and you can probably kill me with your finger, can't you?"

"Sure can."

"Ah," he nodded. "Well, it was nice meeting you. Good luck, Gems and pirates! I think I hear Steven calling. Exit, stage right!" With that he ran straight towards Nami, who got the message and ran for her life with him.

"What a lovely bunch you are traveling with now, Miss Valentine," Paula called as she continued after them. "I can't wait to get to know them better!"

"GREG!" Pearl called out in shock. She went to stop her, but Amethyst was already on it. She summoned her whip and lassoed it around the Baroque Works Agent, who was caught off-guard.

"What's this?" she asked. But before she could react, Amethyst threw her through several buildings, looking surprised at the strength of her action.

"Whoops. Too hard?" Amethyst asked to the others. However, Petrea held tightly to her parasol and jumped up.

"Not hard enough to take down someone as powerful as she has to be. Come on!" Petrea directed her floating to the area where Paula got thrown to. "Nami! Greg! If you can't fight then get out of here! We'll cover you!"

"I don't think so," Mr. 1 responded as he made a lunge to follow the two Straw Hat allies, but found himself blocked by Pearl's staff and Zoro's sword. Amazingly, though his attack was stopped, the pillar behind him started to fall apart, sliced vertically in four perfect pieces.

"How did that just happen?!" Nami asked from the sideline.

"Isn't it obvious?" Zoro smirked. "He's eaten a Devil Fruit. Go on. Get out of here!"

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Greg said, grabbing Nami's hand and running away from the three of them.

"Devil Fruits again, eh?" Pearl smirked and tried to hide her excitement. "These things are beginning to fascinate me! Tell me, criminal...how did you do that?"

Saying nothing, Mr. 1 merely slashed down his arm, forcing Zoro to meet it with his sword. Before their eyes, Pearl and Zoro witnessed his arm turn into a sharp blade, stopping the attack with no damage or alarm.

"I ate the Dice-Dice Fruit," Mr. 1 elaborated. "I can produce steel blades anywhere along my body. It's unfortunate for you two, since I've never been injured since eating it. A pity."

However, Mr. 1 kept looking at Zoro until his eyes widened. "Ah, now I've figured out who you are: the great 'Pirate Hunter' Roronoa Zoro. You're the one who took down the Millions in Whiskey Peak...and killed the former Mr. 7 when he asked you to join us."

"...'killed?'" Pearl asked, clearly not approving of Zoro's past.

Sensing this, Zoro elaborated. "It was a long time ago. It's not like he gave me much of a choice. I told him I'd join your stupid group only if I could be the leader. He didn't like what I had to say, and I didn't like him trying to kill me."

The green-haired swordsman began to chuckle. "Tell you what...I'll give you the same offer I gave him. You all are presently without a leader and I seem to already have three of your number on my side already. Why don't you come work for me?"

"Hrmph," Mr. 1 grunted. "I'd rather duel you to the death."

"That can be arranged."

Mr. 1 started cracking each of his knuckles and moved menacingly toward the former pirate hunter. Zoro, eagerly awaited him, but found that his new Gem partner still wished to give him one final chance not to fight.

"You will go no further, criminal!" Pearl declared as she stepped in front of Zoro. "If you will not yield from your criminal ways, you will be forced to submit to our might!"

"...did you just say 'submit to our might?'" Zoro asked. "Really?"

"You can do better?" Pearl raised an eyebrow. "Be my guest, Zoro."

"I was doing fine on my own!" Zoro argued.

Wasting no time, Mr. 1 karate chopped Pearl, assuming she was the weaker link of the two. Unfortunately for him, Pearl met the attack while still bantering with Zoro, keeping her cool and batting it away with an air of grace.

"Clearly not if he is still attacking," Pearl sighed, barely registering the attack. "I suppose he's left us no choice."

"...you..." Mr. 1 regarded her with admiration and anger, staring down at his own bladed hand and smiled. "I think I'm going to have fun with this."

*AGITR*

Nami and Greg continued to run for their lives until Greg realized he could run no more. Gasping and wheezing, the man directed the two of them in an abandoned building to give themselves a moment to catch up and reflect their current situation.

"So, let's back this up: a woman who can turn her body into spikes and a man who can turn his body into steel knives are presently trying to kill us," Greg panted. "And we are being targeted because we are the weak ones?!"

"Greg, we need to calm down and focus!" Nami tried to appeal to him. "Yes, we might not be the heavy hitters on our teams, but we need to show them that we can hold our own."

"...did you not see the scary lady ruin my only chance of being useful?"

Nami frowned. "I'm sure you can be useful beyond some kind of alien weapon, Greg."

"I know music! I know how to fix cars! My skill set doesn't particularly lend itself well to fighting!" Greg bemoaned. He started to pace around frantically. "This thing was my only chance to actually be a help to the Gems...to my son! Do you think I like being the dead weight of the team? I feel like the girlfriend in Back to the Future, who has to get knocked out because the writers had no idea what to do with her since she offered nothing to the plot!"

"...what?"

"What I'm trying to say is...I'm afraid, man. I'm afraid that I'm going to let them all down...that I'll lose him again right after I just got him back..." Greg slumped on a nearby wall, staring at his broken weapon. "Bet I sound pathetic, don't I?"

Nami joined him on the wall and put her hand on his shoulder and clapped it. "You're not the only one. I'm the brains of this crew, not the brawn. These guys are way out of my league, but do you know what? I realized that if I was going to do this, I would have to learn to depend on myself to do the right thing. Do you realize what we are doing?"

"Running away and hoping the others will take care of it?"

"Exactly. All of these people, all of our friends, your son...they are all fighting and suffering to bring about what they believe in...and here we are running away. It forces me to remember why I'm doing this and what I believe in. Do you know what I believe in?" Nami asked, smiling. "I believe in you, Greg!"

"Me?" Greg asked. "Why the heck would you believe in me? You haven't even known me longer than a day!"

"But you made the choice to go after Steven," the navigator pointed out. "You made the choice to save us from Crocodile, even though it put you in the line of fire. You even made the choice to come out here and take on Baroque Works with us!"

"...I did, didn't I?" Greg found the strength to chuckle. He stared down once more at the damaged hilt and gripped it tightly. "Still...we need some kind of pla...what are you fiddling with?"

Nami had pulled out a piece of paper and three blue rods from her desert outfit. She began to stare at the paper and back to the rods as if following a puzzle. "This? This is my Clima-Tact. I had Usopp make it for me when we had some downtime on the ship. I told him that I wanted to be a contributing member of the party, so he came up with this to give me a fighting edge. Now I just need to figure out how it works."

"No kidding! Mind if I take a peek at the instructions? I'm pretty good at this kind of stuff," Greg offered as Nami handed it over to him.

The man started to read Usopp's notes and started to frown. Finally, after a long moment, the color drained from his face and he regarded his new companion. "...you told Usopp that you wanted to be a 'contributing member of the party,' right?"

Nami nodded. "Yeah...why?"

"You used those exact words?"

"...Greg, I don't like where this is going..."

He sighed and pointed to several passages in the instructions. "I think he took the part about a 'party' a bit differently than you were hoping."

"What?! What the hell does that mean?! I..." Nami started to get angry before snatching the instructions out from the elder Universe's hands. Her eyes followed the piece of paper until she hit the part Greg was referring to. She was no longer angry.

She was livid.

"USOPP!"

She started to configure the weapon in various positions, first causing pigeons to fly out from it and then a bouquet of flowers. As this was going on, Greg continued to stare at the lightsaber, trying to think of a way to use the tool to his advantage. "This is hopeless! Half of this instruction manual is just party tricks! How am I supposed to use this in battle?!"

"For what it's worth, I believe in you," Greg gave a weak smile. "Maybe you need to get to the heart of the weapons. Check each individual comp..."

The man stopped his thought mid-sentence and widened his eyes. "Holy mackerel! I think I've got something!"

"What? A use for this damn staff?" Nami continued to read the instruction's backside, reaching the section titled Usopp Bubbles: For When You Want To Liven Up Your Party The Cool Way.

"No! I need a screwdriver or something to get this thing open!" Greg pointed to the lightsaber. "I was going to give this to Steven for his birthday in a few weeks, but this is more important! Help me look through these houses; this might just be it!"

"What are you talking about?" Nami was not following along at all.

Greg merely smirked. "I think Miss Doublefinger wasn't as cracked up as she thought she was, because her last attack is gonna blow up in her face!"

"...I don't follow."

"Just roll with the puns, Nami," Greg started to search house after abandoned house. "It will all make sense in time!"

*AGITR*

Mr. 1 was actually feeling an emotion: excitement.

Since eating his Devil Fruit, he had been offered no real challenges from any of his opponents. He killed and maimed for a living and, while that was a good way to relieve stress, after a while it stopped being interesting. The closest thing that compared was the fun game of guessing if his target would run or stand their ground.

Yet here were two people who dared to challenge him with such conviction that it caused Mr. 1 to reevaluate his initial thoughts on them. Upon realizing Zoro's identity, he figured he would be an interesting fight, but a short one regardless. The girl was the wildcard. He had underestimated her but once and she had managed to swat him away like he were a cat toy.

He would not do so again.

Turning his leg into a blade, Mr. 1 slashed down on Zoro, who met the attack with both of his swords. Wasting no time, he jumped backwards and went for a low strike, forcing Zoro to focus on deflecting kick after kick.

"You can't keep this up forever," Mr. 1 told him.

"You can't either!" Zoro grinned.

Switching tactics, Mr. 1 turned his each of his fingers and palms into knives and started to scratch at him, keeping Zoro continuously moving. As this was happening, the woman was standing by, watching the action and commenting on it, further annoying the Baroque Works assassin.

"Zoro, keep your right arm straight! When you are able to, aim a swift forward slash! That will allow you to maintain good footing while giving you the propulsion needed to strike!" she critiqued.

"IS THIS REALLY THE TIME TO..." Zoro started to complain before Mr. 1 attempted to knee him, making Zoro jump and roll away. The swordsman readopted his stance and proceeded to grab his third sword and put it in his mouth.

"What?" the Gem gasped. "The third sword wasn't just for show?! What could you possibly do with three swords?"

"Oni..." Zoro started as he ran towards Mr. 1, who looked surprised at the oncoming assault. "Giri!"

The assassin flew into the air and hit the ground hard. For a split second, Mr. 1 had thought he was about to be hurt. As usual, the attack did nothing but hold him back.

"I have never seen anyone fight with three blades before!" the Gem was saying as Mr. 1 started to get up. "The immense dedication to training your jaw must have been...well, it's more than I have expected from a human! I...it can't be!"

"I don't get it," Zoro shook his head, clearly shocked at the sight of the unharmed Mr. 1. "You don't have a scratch on you...nobody has ever withstood my 'Oni Giri' attack!"

"You haven't fought me before today. I already told you, my Devil Fruit power makes me invincible. In order to cut me, you would have to learn to cut steel itself," Mr. 1 boasted. "Go ahead, cut me already."

Mr. 1 started up his kicks again, focusing on Zoro once more as the woman studied his techniques in awe. The swordsman was indeed doing an admirable job of blocking his moves, but it was time to end it. The man opened up his palms and pushed them out at Zoro, who caught them with his swords. "Sparkling Daisy."

As with the pillar before, the building behind Zoro started to slice in equal portions. The swordsman knew that he was done for, and Mr. 1 took little pleasure in what he was about to do. "Blow away."

Zoro proceeded to fly directly into the wreckage, crashing into hard debris that now crumbled on top of his bleeding body. Mr. 1 assumed that he could easily get out of there, but he knew that he had struck a deadly blow to his morale.

"Zoro!" Pearl called out. "ZORO!"

"Let him be, woman," Mr. 1 sauntered over to her. "He needs time to lick his wounds like the dog he is. You've been on the sidelines for too long. Show me your moves."

The woman's forehead started to glow and a second staff appeared that was identical to the one in her hand. She twirled them around a bit and bowed to him. "Gladly. And the name is Pearl, 'Mr. 1!'"

"Good to know," Mr. 1 allowed her to make the first strike, anxious to see if his feelings about her were correct.

She would be the one to give him a challenge. He knew it.

*AGITR*

As Mr. 1 was fighting Zoro, another fight was taking place further down the Alubarnan streets. Unfortunately for the Straw Hats and Gems, it was faring just as well as that fight. Specifically, it wasn't faring well at all.

As Petrea's powers were geared toward physical contact, any attempt to strike Miss Doublefinger would be just as painful as the blow she was dealing out. Bruises covered her body as she took the worst of what Paula dished out. However, this did not stop her from fighting her former coworker.

She was also not fighting alone. Amethyst was fighting just as hard as her, but Petrea noted that her body could take a lot more damage than it let on. Stab after stab, Amethyst was not going down.

"You just don't quit, don't you?" Miss Doublefinger asked, both impressed and irritated.

"I can keep going all day, baby!" Amethyst laughed. She started to roll herself incredibly fast and went to strike the Baroque Works with her spin dash. However, Miss Doublefinger was ready for such an attack.

"Stinger Hedgehog!" Paula cried as she rolled up into a ball and began to roll directly into Amethyst's oncoming attack. As she rolled, spikes grew out of every part of her body, ready to stab the Gem.

The two near identical attacks struck each other at the same time. Though Paula was hit by Amethyst's superior speed and energy, her spikes managed to dig themselves into purple woman's skin, causing major damage to her physical form.

Finally, Amethyst staggered back and clutched her body. The Gem started to cough and gave a weak thumbs-up to Petrea. "You've got this!" With a laugh, her body burst into smoke. The purple gemstone in her chest started to spin on the floor, leaving Petrea in tears and Miss Doublefinger returned to her natural state.

"AMETHYST! NO!" the blonde wailed out as she watched the gemstone finally stop moving.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that," Paula chuckled. She raised her foot up and prepared to crush the last remains of Amethyst under her heels.

"10,000 Kilo Kick!" Petrea yelled as she kicked Paula in the stomach. Just as she connected her blow, Paula created a spike that penetrated her foot cleanly, causing the former Miss Valentine to scream. She fell to the floor and dropped her parasol.

"Ugh," Miss Doublefinger rubbed the wounded area and wiped the blood off of it. "You might have cracked a rib there, Valentine...but at what cost? Your foot is practically useless now. Do you know what that means? It means you're going to die...even if I don't do it myself."

Petrea continued to clutch her foot as she started to reach for her parasol. 'If I can reach that, I can float away and...'

"Aw. You want this, don't you?" Miss Doublefinger walked up to it exaggeratedly and kicked the parasol further out of reach. Petrea's face whitened as she realized that she was done for. "I don't get it, hun. Why throw away your life so recklessly? Don't you know you'll end up like that purple woman: dead?"

"I'd rather die...than forsake any of them. They trusted me...and I'm not about to betray that. Amethyst died protecting...protecting these people...and she didn't even know them!" Petrea winced as she tried to get up. Unfortunately, Paula merely stabbed her other ankle, keeping her grounded. "AHH! No matter how many times you can stab me...it doesn't compare to the pain I helped inflict on this country."

"You picked a lousy time to grow a conscience," Miss Doublefinger sighed. "It doesn't matter. You're just lucky the orders aren't to kill you...still, I can do a lot more without killing you."

"Stop it!" a male voice yelled from the end of the street. Petrea forced herself to keep her eyes open as she saw the outlines of Greg and Nami made themselves known. Greg was clutching his broken laser sword and Nami was doing the same with the staff Usopp made for her.

"Darling, I was wondering where you went," Paula was surprised. "And look! You brought the cutie too. How adorable. I'm a little busy at the moment, but if you give me a second, I'll be right with you."

"No...run...!" Petrea pleaded. "She...killed...Am...Amethyst!"

"What?!" Greg scanned the street and saw Amethyst's gemstone and frowned. "No, she didn't!"

"What?" Paula whipped around and stared at the rock. "She's clearly just a rock now!"

"Like this one?!" Greg yelled as he threw a crystal-looking object at her with all his might.

The blue-haired woman sighed and shook her head. "A rock. Really?" She pointed her finger to stab the little rock before it hit her. "You've lost it, haven't you?"

The second her spiked finger penetrated the crystal, it exploded, kicking up a dust cloud and causing Paula to cry out in unspeakable pain. "AHHH! My hand!"

"What you just stabbed was a kaiburr crystal: the heart of a lightsaber," Greg explained before the smoke cleared, seemingly terrified, concerned, and confident at the same time. "I never could have gotten it, but you exposed the thing when you damaged the hilt earlier."

"You...you...!" Paula roared in anger. The smoke cleared and Greg witnessed the full extent of the damage he just caused: Paula's hand was extremely damaged and burned, her other good hand clutching the remains of the limb. His eyes grew wide and he started to stutter.

"Ahh! I wasn't expecting it...I mean I...I didn't know it would destroy your hand! I just wanted you to pass out or something! I never...I...what is with lightsabers and hands?!" Greg freaked out, discarding the broken metal hilt he was clutching.

Paula, ignoring Greg's cries of forgiveness, went to lunge at the man, but found herself instead facing Nami, who pointed her weapon right at her. Two of the rods were stacked on each other while the third was placed on top, resembling an uppercase "T."

"Get out of my way, girlie!" Miss Doublefinger demanded, fighting through the pain to turn her good hand into a long blade.

"I don't think so. Didn't you hear? We've got a tornado warning in effect!" Nami smirked at she pressed her weapon. "Tornado Tempo!" Two mechanical birds appeared and started to fly around Paula's arms, tying themselves around them.

"What is this?!" Paula cried before the top of the staff started to twirl around, taking the Baroque Works operative with her. Finally, Nami kept her aim steady as she fired the woman into the wall, causing her to fly through a set of buildings once more.

"Give...give me the par...osal!" Petrea asked Greg, who was still freaking out over the damage he caused another human being.

"Gah! I mean...what? Why do you need this?" Greg was curious but nevertheless knew not to argue with a woman in her condition.

Clutching the object, Petrea floated in the air, barely keeping a solid grip on the curved handle. As she floated above the still form of Paula, she shifted her weight and crashed on top of her, knocking the woman out once and for all.

"That...that was for Amethyst," Petrea smiled before passing out herself.

Greg and Nami ran over to collect the woman, leaving Miss Doublefinger on the ground, alone and broken. "This looks bad," Nami frowned. "We need to get her bandaged up fast. Chopper should be near the main gate."

"Hold on, I need to get Amethyst!" Greg searched the debris until he pulled out the purple gemstone. He examined in and sighed. "Oh, thank goodness; it's not cracked."

"Is...is she...?" Nami asked, trying to pick up Petrea. Greg handed her the stone as he bent down and picked her up himself.

"She'll be fine. When Gems get too damaged, they retreat into their gemstone to heal. Give her some time and our Purple Puma will be back to her old self," he forced himself to chuckle.

The man gave one final look at his fallen opponent and followed Nami. Paula's fallen form was still and lifeless, but miraculously she was still alive. Greg considered it a small miracle, but then again he didn't know much about fighting. He didn't feel right about his actions, but he knew that they were necessary to save the people he cared about.

Hopefully Pearl and Zoro were holding up as well. He didn't want to abandon the area, but Petrea's life depended on it.

*AGITR*

Pearl was barely holding her own against Mr. 1.

The man had created several spinning blades on his arms, which not only functioned as a weapon but also as a way to defend his chest. The blades turned faster as faster, causing even her own magical spears to merely connect as oppose to slicing through to her target. Regardless of Pearl being able to cut steel or not, Mr. 1 was not allowing her any chance to get that to happen.

"You rely too much on your abilities!" Pearl taunted. "Fighting is more than spinning blades and tricks! It is about knowing your weapon...being your weapon!"

She went in for a double-staffed strike, but had her weapons swatted away by the assassin, preparing his hands to drill directly into Pearl's chest.

"You forget: I AM my weapon," he growled.

Just as Mr. 1 struck Pearl, Zoro managed to free himself from the rubble and pushed the Gem away, taking the full assault himself. Pearl looked mortified as the blades tore open his chest and sprayed blood all over the ground, losing all of his swords in the process.

"You should have stayed down," Mr. 1 told him.

"There's...no honor in that," he smiled before collapsing.

Pearl walked over and checked Zoro's pulse, confirming that he was still alive. The Gem's face contorted in anger and created three new staffs, putting the third one in her mouth like her fallen comrade.

"What's this? A pathetic show of respect?"

"This is a showing of unity and pride!" Pearl spat out. "My comrade may be down, but you are dealing with a Crystal Gem! You lost just by accepting to fight!"

"Funny; you didn't land a single blow on me," Mr. 1 reminded her. "You've yet to show me that there is any offensive skill behind your boasting."

As he was speaking, Pearl moved faster than she did before. Struggling to use the third staff, it was rough at first until she found her rhythm. Mr. 1 was now on the defensive, swatting away the newly formed weapons and being forced back until one of the grazed his cheek.

He started to bleed.

"WHAT?!" He could not stop his blocking or else he would have felt the blood dripping from the small cut. "Nobody has ever cut me before..."

"You haven't fought a Crystal Gem," Pearl smirked. "A true swordsman can feel the breath of the steel...the breath of everything around them. I..."

"That...that's what this is then?" a weak voice managed to get out as the two fighters stopped and regarded its source. Zoro, despite losing more blood then humanly possible, had managed to stumble towards the two clutching one of his discarded swords. "I can hear it...the breath of all things."

"How are you still alive?!" Mr. 1 started to lose composure. "Why won't you die?!"

"Zoro! Stay down!" Pearl commanded.

"I'm ending this!" Mr. 1 spat, kicking away the Gem and running towards the warrior. Zoro, however, held himself together and held onto his sheath.

"Single Sword..." Zoro said as he unsheathed his sword, swiped it at Mr. 1's chest and resheathed it back. "...Lion's Strike!"

A burst of blood erupted out of Mr. 1's chest. The man looked shocked, as not only had he not bled at all until that day, but here he was getting cut twice in one day. "You...you...what's next? Slicing diamonds?" he laughed, coughing up more blood. "I accept my defeat…thank you...for a good fight!" He used his last energy to chuckle, collapsing in a pool in his own blood.

"Thank you...for being a worthy opponent," Zoro took a knee himself, being caught by Pearl.

"What do you think you were doing?! You've lost too much blood! You could have been killed!" Pearl started to fret over her companion.

"None...none of that matters...because I am a man who cut steel!"