Chapter 31
Mina screamed until she felt bleeding from her throat.
She felt herself choking with her own tears.
The sound of the explosion still echoed in her ears and still heard a slight high-pitched beep in her eardrums.
She knelt down and doubled over, dropping her head onto the floor. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth.
"No ..." she repeated to herself out loud over and over, trying to deny what had just happened.
She remembered her partner's last words.
"I leave you the rest."
She looked up and looked for Sabo, who was in complete shock, like the day he learned of his brother Ace's death in the newspapers.
She watched the blood dripping steadily from her arm and closed her eyes.
Mina walked barely until she reached the blonde and slapped him so hard that it caused Sabo to come to his senses.
Sabo looked stunned at his friend.
-If you fall apart now, then his sacrifice will be in vain.
Sabo looked at Mina. Her eyes were red from crying, and she trembled from the enormous suffering of seeing her friend explode himself before her eyes. The place where her right arm should be, was leaking blood.
"How painful it must be... and all because of me" Sabo thought.
Yet there she was, standing before him, looking him in the eyes with extreme sadness hidden in that expressionless, but still noticeable face.
-It's all my fault, I'm not strong enough... I don't deserve to be the chief of staff, I'm not even able to protect my nakamas!
Mina grabbed the blonde's cheek and forced him to look her in the eyes.
-You swore to me that you would change the world. And I decided to keep living because of you. I want to see that world of yours.
-I was so stupid. There's no way something like that would ever happen! Look around us! Everyone is dying because I can't protect them!
-That's not true. We trust you and Dragon-san with all our will!
-Everyone trusts me because I'm their chief of staff! But... I just don't know if I can do it... I don't know if I will live up to everyone's expectations. I will end up disappointing everyone!
Sabo saw that Mina was smiling at him.
-You really don't know why everyone chose you as chief of staff?
Sabo didn't reply back.
-Even if the fire consumes everything, and even if everything collapses, there's no pain that we can't overcome. You're not alone Sabo. You have us all.
Sabo looked up and saw Koala, Ivankov, Inazuma... all the members of the Revolutionary Army looking and smiling at him.
-We're all still here because we trust you - Mina smiled - Even if that means dying for you.
-Are you dumb!? I don't want you to die for me!
-Then, get up and fight back.
Sabo began to hold back his tears. His voice was still shaky.
-Will you stay by my side? Even if the sky falls above us? Or even if they take everything away from us?
-I will stay next to you until the day you die, as I promised you that day. All of us will.
-Even if we win, I won't have anything to give everyone. I cannot guarantee you a good life after the war.
-And still, we'll stay by your side.
Sabo looked at Mina perplexed, but immediately came to his senses.
-And If I lose... Will you learn to leave me, or will you give me one more try again?
-I'll still being next to you - Mina replied while wiping away his tears.
Sabo smiled.
-Next to me... huh? Do you know how long we have been together? How much have we had to endure together? And you're still here wiping away my tears?
-Because we're friends. Isn't it obvious?
-And I don't plan dying any time soon. So fuck off, don't even think about dying, I just got to meet Luffy again!
Mina laughed as Sabo smiled at her.
Sabo ripped off a piece of his own clothing to cover the bleeding wound on her arm.
-A promise is a promise. I will never abandon you, you will never abandon me. Even if that mean we have to die, right?
-But you can't die. You can't make Luffy cry again - she replied smiling.
-You're damn right! I can't leave my cute little brother alone!
Suddenly, they heard a loud noise that made them stop talking.
They both looked at the man in front of them. The person underneath that beast.
-Im.
It was him. That monster that had attacked them was Im. What kind of power was that? Was it really the Ancient Weapon or a Devil Fruit?
-So adorable~ - answered the man with the spiral eyes - Isn't it about time you learned that it is better to surrender? After all, you are nothing to me.
Mina and Sabo looked at him with hatred.
-Oh come on, don't look at me like that - he said happily - You two were nobles. You know why I do this.
Law looked at the pink-haired girl confused. Was she royalty? If that was the case, many things then made sense, but ...
We're revolutionaries, everything else was left behind a long time ago.
Im laughed.
-You can be whatever you want, but you can't deny your own blood - he approached Mina, who didn't answer back.
-Seeing how low the Donquixote family has fallen makes me even feel sorry for you. You were the noblest House of all, and even received my favor for centuries. And look at you now - he laughed - You're just a joke from the past.
The pirate froze.
-D-Do you have something to do with him? - Law asked shocked, even knowing that he wouldn't like the answer.
She ignored the pirate's words. Mina didn't have the time or the desire to answer that question.
-Doflamingo fell, the idiot Mjosgard too - Im looked at her with a twisted smile - Only you still remain. Wouldn't it be better if you disappeared once and for all?
Those words echoed in her mind. The sound of that voice flooded her thoughts.
"Wouldn't it be better if you die?"
She had already been asking herself this many times.
Mina was grateful that she could not have children, because otherwise that child would also be destined for misfortune. As long as that blood continued to pass from generation to generation, the tragedy would continue.
"Maybe that's why Doffy had no children" he thought smiling.
She looked at Im with a determined smile.
-Don't worry, I plan to end this, I will be the last person with the last name.
-It's a shame~ - Im tried to annoy her - You're attractive people, I would have liked that one of you had been my wife. Our children would have been the kings of the world. They would have gotten the secret of immortality.
Something connected in the head of the revolutionary. She remembered all those portraits of women just like her in the Donquixote mansion in Marijoa. All of them, even being Tenryubitos, died in lamentable and mysterious ways, always surrounded by Im-sama for some reason.
-You... What the hell is wrong with my family? - she asked shocked.
-Hm? Oh, I suppose you mean all of them - he smiled - She should had being mine, you know? - Im changed his smile to a completely terrifying grimace - But she never understood.
Did she mean the first of all? She heard from Mjosgard that it was a member of her family that indirectly caused the 800-year-old war to break out, but she thought something like that was stupid.
-Everything... was because a woman? - she couldn't believe that a simple heartbreak could unleash an 800-year dictatorship. It was just pathetic.
Was that patient trying to find that unrequited love in the descendants of that woman who was his predecessor? Forced a whole lineage to commit incest for 800 long years for genes to give to a similar woman?
Mina smiled.
And then she started to laugh.
-All this - pointed to a huge pile of corpses - Is it because of a woman... who rejected you?
Im-sama froze.
-Oh, I see! Millions of deaths were caused because a man was abandoned! How pathetic!
Im-sama started to rage.
-Little bitch - he looked at her with hatred.
-You murdered them all thinking that someone like her would love you, but they all rejected you! - Mina smiled at him - Rejected for 800 years by the same face, fufufu ~ Hasn't it been humiliating enough already?
Im tried to hit her, but he blocked the attack with her sword.
-Don't look down on me - she continued with his twisted smile - I'm not like them. I know how to defend myself.
-You will fall for me like all of them!
-You're wrong - she rested the point of the sword against the ground and looked at him with pride - Because I am a General of the Revolutionary Army.
Mina smiled.
-And of course, I will be the one who decides how I will die and where I will die! Not you!
Law and Sabo looked at the pink haired girl.
-So awesome!
Mina looked at Sabo.
She had spent a lifetime fighting for other people's causes. By unknown people, by third party battles.
But it wasn't going to continue like this. From the day Sabo reached out to her in that field of sunflowers, she knew she would start living again. This time, she would fight for her own benefit. To keep on living.
-And I will die being free.