Assault
After Luffy dropped down inside the Front Gate of Enies Lobby Fox finally climbed off his back, drew both her swords and ran ahead of him into the gathering Marines, blades coated with the terrible force of her Devil Fruit Power. As she danced, circled and cut down all who stood in her way with fluidity and precision she let the darker side of her power buoy her up, drawing her towards the larger knots of marines so she could take down more at a time.
Aged thirteen, Fox had been fed an unknown Devil Fruit because she was part-mermaid and her owner had wanted to see exactly how much it would change her, but also because he hadn't known what it was. As it happened, what the arrogant fool had forced down her throat had been one of the legendary Logias, the Mei Mei no Mi: the Life-Life Fruit which granted awareness of and control over vitality. Fox could heal by sharing her own never-ending life-force with others, but she could also kill by taking away from others or even simply by disrupting or overloading their bodies with it.
Fox rarely ever used that aspect of her power: her teacher had always made clear that though she was an assassin, killing should always be both deliberate and require effort of some kind; you are prematurely ending a person's life so it should mean something. Fox' powers made it too easy to kill, so easy she could –and had in the past– do it accidentally in her sleep. She had trained herself not to use that aspect of her power to the point that it required deliberate effort to counter the mental block, which in her opinion was as it should be. However now her captain was attacking the front step of the world government and she needed to take down as many people as possible without showcasing too many of her more exotic and recognisable skills, so she used what her shishou had termed 'the Death Touch', the ability to steal away the life-force of others at the moment she came into contact with it. As she could project this aspect of her power over her blades, her reach was long and the bodies piled up very quickly indeed.
Behind her lay a trail of bodies, some dismembered, others barely grazed, and ever-increasing panic expanded around her like ripples in a pool. She circled the built-up area in a wide circle, leaving the main square to Luffy and ruthlessly destroying all the reinforcements she came across. Later she would go over the body count and honour those who had fallen to her, but as she called down Death to Enies Lobby she thought of nothing save striking down those who opposed her captain's will.
There was no shortage of them, though many tried to flee her now they knew what she could do. Not that they could run far; the Front Gate kept them in just as well as it kept other people out. A lot of them were screaming about 'shinigami' even as they fell before her; a distant part of her mind wondered if it would end up on her bounty poster.
The rush of life-force enhanced her strength, reflexes, metabolism and recovery time, so as she cut a crimson swath through the forces of the World Government she did not tie at all. In fact she had so much energy to burn she began to do flashy acrobatics and sing. Her choice of song did nothing for the morale of her opponents: if anything it made them run faster.
"I'll sing you one, oh,
"Green grow the rushes, oh!
"What is your one, oh?
"One is one and all alone
"And ever more shall be so!
"I'll sing you two, oh,
"Green grow the rushes, oh!
"What is your two, oh?
"Two, two, the lily-white boys
"Clothed all in green-i-oh!
"One is one and all alone
"And ever more shall be so!"
Fox had a powerful and fairly pleasant singing voice and she knew this particular song backwards and forwards, it having been the only properly child-friendly song her father knew that wasn't related to the either alphabet or counting. Plus, this song could be sung at whatever speed she chose and messed about with at her leisure. It was an old song with obscure religious connotations but her father had, in a desperate attempt to keep her in line, come up with new lyrics as she got older and wanted to learn more about the Grand Line. Thus, when she had got all the way up to twelve and back down again with the original words she started again:
"I'll sing you one, oh,
"Red flows the blood, yo ho!
"What is your one, oh?
"One is Death who comes to all
"And ne'er will be escaped, oh!
"I'll sing you two, oh,
"Red flows the blood, yo ho!
"What is your two, oh?
"Two are the halves, the Grand Line has,
"Wild are they to sail upon!
"One is Death who comes to all
"And ne'er will be escaped, oh!"
She loved the 'new and improved' versions; after finding out about them Shanks had come up with a few more piratical nursery rhymes for her which were very catchy and his crew had naturally contributed a whole lot of obscene ones which even now she was gaining new insight into. Truly, there was nothing like a pirate crew for giving a girl a thorough education.
"… What is your three, oh?
"Three, three, the Admirals,
"Two are the halves, the Grand Line has,
"Wild are they to sail upon!"
She sang on as she danced, her twin swords beginning to make a slight dent in the ten thousand men stationed on the island who were forced towards her by their superior officers.
"Four for the Pirate Emperors…" Any song about the Grand Line needed the Yonko; she also had a tamer version about the rest of the ocean which had 'Four for wide Blue Seas' in this bit.
"Five are the elders in Mariejois…" The Gorosei had a mention in her list for the incredible power they wielded.
"Six for the levels in Impel Down…" The Government's infamous prison needed a mention in any song about sailing the sea.
"Seven for the warlords wandering free…" The Shichibukai of course.
"Eight for the Cipher Pol cells…" The official ones, anyway.
"Nine for the hidden killers…" CP9, the people she was here to see today.
"Ten for the floating Islands…" Not including the Sky Islands of course, but there were ten islands on the Grand Line that moved, all of them in the New World.
"Eleven for the hour when the King was killed…" Gol D. Roger needed a mention in any nautical ditty worth its salt.
"Twelve for the living Ds…" She knew; she'd counted them. They weren't exactly hard to find once you knew what to look for either.
Fox had got up to "Sixteen divisions in Whitebeard's crew" and was slaughtering her way through the newly-arrived Hou-Bantai when the Franky Family and the Gallery-La trio arrived through the Front Gate, forcing her to pay a bit more attention to her surroundings than just 'don't kill the captain by accident'. They were followed by the Runaway Sea Train and the rest of her crew flying over both Gates, so Fox just left the field to them and hurried after Luffy instead.
Over two thousand men had fallen to her swords and Ability in a little under fifteen minutes.
Fox shows how deadly she can be and demonstrates how being raised by dangerous and powerful people can warp your personality.