Chapter 127:
Separation
Air whipped past the klabautermann as she gripped the back of the Rosy Life Rider she was hitching a ride with. The den-den on her wrist was open, but Merry only gave it and her surroundings half a mind as she focused on her crew-based Mantra, trying to locate their wayward crewmates. Five minutes of flying so far left them with nothing. The archipelago can't have been /that big, for Goda's sake!
"Feel anything, Merry?" Robin asked over their shared call. None of those they were looking for had answered, setting a uneasy aura over the group.
"Not yet," Merry replied with a scowl. Her happy-go-lucky attitude had dwindled over the aerial ride as she noticed how much the marine presence of Sabaody increased, a sure response to Zoro's earlier actions. With all the government and Navy people around, their situation only got more dire.
"I can see them!" Brook's voice cried over the snail suddenly. "Dear me! Bartholomew Kuma is there with an older man!"
"Kuma?!" Merry and a cacophony of other voices demanded.
"Brook, where are they? Tell us what's happening!" the klabautermann continued.
"Grove 24," Brook answered. "Kuma and the man are fighting the others!"
"We're super on our way!" Franky yelled, the rest of the crew mirroring the sentiment behind his words. Merry's flying fish shifted direction.
"Brook," Grace muttered, loud enough to be heard. "Is Coby with them?"
"I'm sorry," the skeleton replied, too solemn for bone puns. "He isn't."
"Damn," Merry hissed as her mount sped toward their new destination. She closed her snail, knowing she would meet her family in battle soon. "Hurry up! We need to get there!"
"We're going as fast as we can, Lil' Miss!" her driver responded. "Grove 24 is on the opposite side of the archipelago."
Knowing there was little she could do, Merry settled into her seat, worry making her vibrate. The mangroves blurred by as their numbers dropped from 62. Her mind wandered. Brook had mentioned an old guy fighting alongside Kuma, but that could be any number of marines. Still, none of the Admirals and few of the captains they knew of were that old. However, that was little comfort knowing they could still show up.
"FIST OF LOVE!"
"THAT'S ACTUALLY AN ATTACK?!"
"Paw Missile."
"GODA!"
"Guys?!" Merry yelled as the spots she knew to be her family buzzed at the edge of her Mantra's range, drawing closer. She recognized all the voices, even the one she didn't expect. "Guys?! Hang in there!"
Her ride banked around a tree, revealing the crater-strewn battlefield of Grove 24. She wasn't the last one to arrive, but it was close. Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Gin were arrayed before Kuma and Garp, the rest of the crew sans Amy, Chopper, Grace, Coby, and herself behind them. Chopper, Amy, and Billy were off to the side away from the fight, Chopper rapidly treating the woman, wrapping bandages slathered with some medication around her arms.
"Take me in close," Merry ordered her driver, a fierce glare silencing the protest on his lips. The fish tilted, diving toward the old marine. Garp looked up as Merry jumped, rapidly somersaulting through the air before extending her leg. "Anchor Fall!"
Seeing an opportunity, Sanji and Zoro charged while Luffy and Gin moved to distract Kuma. It felt like Merry kicked solid steel as her heel landed in Garp's blackened palm. His other palm grabbed Zoro's Demon Slash, leaving his torso exposed to the chef's Diable Jambe. Zoro and Merry flipped away from the resulting fire, the latter with a little more fear than the former. Zoro was panting—a bad sign if there ever was one—as Sanji landed between them. The remainder of the crew didn't trust the smoke from the fire that hid the marine, spreading into a circle surrounding their foes.
"Sky Dragon Star!" Usopp called, launching two of the attack, one at each enemy. His companions with ranged attacks followed his lead.
"50,000 Watt Lightning Shot!"
"180 Caliber Phoenix!"
"Adubade Right-Hand Strike!"
"Pellets Left!"
"Thunderbolt Tempo!"
"Color Trap: Acid Rain!"
The last one came as a surprise, Grace leaping from her mount over Kuma and Garp, fat drops of her black paint falling. Powerful Garp and Kuma were, but they could not avoid every attack at once. Kuma saw rather than felt Brook's thrust pierce his side and the acid that began eating away at the fake skin of his shoulders. Garp spat blood and smoke as Zoro's slash cut across his right thigh, Nami's lightning catching his slowed form.
"Really?" Garp coughed, exhaling a little smoke. "Is that any way to treat your grandpa-in-law?"
"This is getting tedious," Kuma said, just a hint of irritation in his otherwise flat voice. Robin scanned the clearing, ripping her piece of the vivre card Shakky gave them and beginning to distribute its pieces to those yet to get them.
"Third Gear!" Luffy yelled, blowing air into his thumb. "Giant Pistol!"
Garp stepped back from his grandson's punch, allowing Kuma to lift his palm. The paw pad on the Warlord's hand reflected the force of Luffy's punch, blowing him backwards.
"Doce Fleur: Hold!" Robin called, twelve arms sprouting from Garp's back. They reached for his arms, trying to pull them behind his back while another two attempted to force the marine to his knees. The Vice-Admiral would have none of that, quickly breaking out of her grip. He rapidly ducked afterward, dodging the Strong Right Franky threw.
"If you brats would just listen-!"
"Ta what?" Gin interrupted. "Ya gonna tell us ta surrender er summin? Not a chance!"
"All we wish to gain is Roronoa," Kuma said.
"And we aren't giving him to you," Robin shot back.
"I have your cabin boy," Garp announced, the proclamation making every Straw Hat stagger. "Tri-Horn. One of the Supernovas gave him to me. You can have him back if Roronoa surrenders himself to us."
The fight stalled, the pirates taking a moment to process the words. Robin has suspected as much, taking the moment of calm to stuff the life papers into the pockets of Luffy, Nami, Amy, and Billy.
"Who gave him to you?" Franky hissed.
"Damn Drake, Ah bet," Gin scowled.
"Give Coby back!" Grace demanded.
"I..." Zoro began, internally weighing his ambition versus his care for his student. "Fi-"
"You're stupid, Grandpa," Luffy blinked.
"You're the last person who can say that!" Garp, Nami, Grace, Sanji, and Amy roared.
"I mean," Luffy amended, "we stormed a Marine base to get Robin back when she didn't want us. What makes you think we won't do it again for my second-ever crewmate?"
Kuma's head turned. "He is correct. That answer was obvious."
"I had to try," Garp shot back before sighing. "No more kiddie gloves, brats. Kuma, do it."
"I will ask again," Kuma said, his sensors taking in each Straw Hat and running several dozen calculations. "If you could take a vacation, where would you go?"
"Ah'd take ya ta Hell with me!" Gin yelled, lightning crackling around him as the Logia charged the Warlord's back. "This is for Thriller Bark, you bastard! Spinning Death: 6,000 Watt Slam!"
"Gin, no!" Sanji called. Kuma turned in a split second, his hand smacking the reckless pirate.
Gin vanished with a pop.
"GIIIINNN!" the pirates cried, nothing left where the Logia had stood but a small puff of dust.
"He's gone!" Usopp cried. "Kuma j-just erased him!"
"That power," Brook gasped. "There's not even a body."
"Th-That's what he d-did to Perona!" Nami realized. "Back on Thriller Bark, he made her just vanish like she never existed!"
"You bastard!" Zoro and Sanji yelled.
"Demon Aura: Asura! 600 Pound Cannon!"
"Diable Jambe: Flambe Shot!"
Having forgotten about Garp in the wake of Gin's disappearance, Sanji was ill prepared for Luffy's grandfather to Shave before him, a fist wrapped in Haki coming down on the chef's torso.
"Fist of Love!"
"Ack!" Sanji tasted the metallic aftertone of blood as the marine's fist crushed him into the dirt. Zoro's attack, having been reflected, slashed through the air over Garp's head.
"Multiple Flame Star!"
"Jet Rifle!
"Adubade Right-Hand Strike!"
Garp leapt away from the incoming attacks with a scowl, watching Kuma vanish out of the corner of his eye. The crew and marine only had a moment to turn and see Kuma standing behind their archaeologist.
"Someone save me!"
"Robin!" the crew yelled, Zoro reaching for the scholar. The move was in vain as Kuma's palm came in contact with her. She, too, vanished.
"NOOOO!" Luffy cried, a wave of pressure racing out from his body. Garp recognized the pressure instantly, a similar and stronger wave from the older Monkey canceling out the pirate's.
"You son of a bitch!" Zoro swore. "Nine Heaven's Slash!"
Suddenly, Zoro was gone, too.
"Bastard!" Chopper yelled, running into the fray. "Rumble!" The Zoan forwent his usual procedure, throwing three Rumble Balls into his mouth at once. His cry turned into a deep roar as he began growing into his Monster Point, but Kuma didn't let him finish, a single touch sending the reindeer away in an instant.
Luffy's eyes widened. Four of his friends were gone in less than a minute and another captured already.
"We can't win," he whispered. "We can't win. Everyone! We can't win! Run!"
"Sorry, brat," Garp stated. "This is how it has to be. You can't get away." Instantly, Garp and Kuma were at opposite sides of the battlefield. The cyborg Warlord opened his mouth, two quick beams eliminating the remaining escape routes off the grove.
"W-W-What do we do now?" Usopp demanded.
"I guess we have to fight," Franky snarled, locking his T-bar into place between his forearms and aiming at Garp. "Coup de Vent!"
Garp's eyes widened as the wave of air blasted him in the gut, blowing him backwards. Seeing a path, the remaining Straw Hats rushed for the open bridge. Just before they could reach it, however, Kuma appeared, reaching for the closest pirate.
Merry screamed as the pawed hand reached for her. Usopp, in a burst of protective courage, pulled his surrogate/adopted niece-maybe-daughter away from their foe. Kuma's hand twisted at the last moment and the sniper vanished.
"Uncle Usopp!" Merry cried.
"I have cut you," Brook muttered, slowly sheathing his cane-sword behind Kuma. "Three Verse Humming Arrow Notc-"
"You missed," Kuma corrected, the skeleton's eye sockets widening.
"Well that's bad. No bones ab-" The Warlord barely glanced at the undead before he, too, disappeared.
"Shit, shit, shit," Sanji cursed as he charged the cyborg. "Diable Jambe: Flambe Grill Shot!"
Kuma chose not to move as the chef's flaming kicks pounded into his chest. They had no effect save for a few footprints on his jacket. The chef swore again as he fell to the ground, cradling his shin.
"Farewell," Kuma said. The third Supernova of the crew vanished.
"Coup de Vent!" Franky yelled, using up the rest of his cola in a desperate move. Kuma defected most of the air, but what remained was enough to push him backward. Luffy, Nami, Merry, and Franky ran back away from him, catching up to Billy and Amy. Grace placed herself before the Warlord, a snarl on her face.
"You take my crew. You take my family. You take my talk. You take and take and take and ruin everything, and you expect to get away? FUCK! YOU! Colors Trap: Art is an Explo-!"
Poof!
"GRAAAAACE!" Amy wailed, the pain of her arms forgotten under the drugs, rage, and adrenaline. She jumped from Billy and charged Kuma. "You walking hunk of Goda-forsaken scrap! Bring her back! Master Fist!"
Poof!
"Run," Franky ordered as he stopped following Luffy, Nami, Merry, and Billy, pulling the flesh-like covering off his right hand. "Go! I'll super hold him off."
"No!" Luffy cried as Nami grabbed his chest, dragging him along. Merry had tears rolling down her face as she jumped on Billy, the four fleeing. Luffy struggled only a little against his wife's hold as he watched the battle of the cyborgs.
"Franky Boxing!"
"Why are you making everything so tiresome?" Kuma asked over the thunk, thunk, thunk of Franky's fists pounding his metal chest.
"Because Luffy is the man who will be the super King of the Pirates! Strong Hammer!"
Kuma's face didn't change as his palm caused Franky to disappear.
"Where do you think you're going, brat?" Garp questioned, the group of four skidding to a stop. The marine stood over them, his arms crossed as he eyed the married couple, the bird, and the fairy.
"Wh-Why are you d-doing this to us?!" Merry cried as her tears redoubled. Electricity sparked from Billy's metal talons, charing the grass beneath his feet.
"This is how it has to be," Garp answered. "You chose to be pirates and you chose to attack the Celestial Dragons. See, Luffy? This is why you should have joined the Mar-"
"FIIISSSTTT OOOOFFFF HHAAAAAATTTTTEEEEEE!"
Garp had taken a lot of hits in his long life, but little compared to the fist of pure rage that broke his nose that instant. Luffy's punch was so quick and instinctual, Garp's Observation Haki didn't pick up on it until the knuckles were already brushing his skin.
Garp flew, his aged body slamming into the tree of Grove 25 with enough force to crater the trunk into the center of the mangrove. He didn't move, a mixture of physical and emotional shock leaving him sunk in the living wood.
In that moment, Luffy hated him, and Garp didn't know how to react.
Kuma did not have the emotional crisis the Vice-Admiral did, his powers allowing him to cut off the remaining pirates' exit. Luffy grabbed Nami and rolled, getting away from the Warlord, but too late did he realize Billy didn't have reflexes like his and Merry, even if she did, was in no state to take advantage of them.
The gigafowl and weeping Wood Fairy disappeared in a cloud of dust.
"Everyone," Luffy whispered, tears of his own starting to wet his cheeks. Nami tried to pull him along, but Luffy was dead weight. "E-Everyone's gone."
"Come on, Luffy!" Nami urged.
"There is no use trying to run," Kuma said, reaching for the navigator. "Just accept your fate."
Luffy moved, grabbing the Warlord's wrist inches from Nami's skin. The metal under his fingers creaked from the force of Luffy's grip. He glared at the taller combatant from the shadow of his hat, the pressure from before reappearing, but Garp wasn't there to stop him this time. Kuma's mouth twitched, a bead of sweat rolling from his brow.
"You. Will. Not. Touch. My. Wife."
"Believe it or not, this is for your own good."
"You've already stolen my crew from me," Luffy hissed, the pressure building. Kuma's wrist cracked. "I won't let you take her, too."
"My apologies." Dropping his composure, Kuma kicked Luffy in the face with a Haki-coated boot, driving him into the dirt.
"Luffy!" Nami yelled, spinning her Clima-Tact. "Tornado Tempo!"
Air swirled around the cyborg, threatening to lift him from the ground, and it did pull him off the pirate captain. He didn't rise much further before Kuma launched himself out, tearing a hole through the atmospheric phenomena.
"Nami!" Luffy yelled, reaching for his wife. Her eyes widened as she realized she couldn't see Kuma anymore. She reached for the man she loved.
"Luffy, I-"
And then she was gone.
"NAAAAMMMIIIII!"
Luffy didn't move from the ground as Kuma towered over him. He didn't have a reason to anymore. Within minutes, the Warlord that had let them go on Thriller Bark had decimated them. His friends, his crew, his family that had come to help bail them out had paid the price. He couldn't place the blame on anyone other than himself.
"I'm too weak."
Luffy's words came out as a whimper as he remembered all his fights and what led to that moment. This wouldn't have happened if Zoro hadn't cut the Celestial Dragon, but Luffy didn't blame him. Luffy knew himself well enough to know if Zoro didn't do it, he would have at some point.
"I'm sorry, everyone," he sniffed, his fists beating the dirt under him "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry! I'm useless! I couldn't save any of you!"
"That's enough of that," Kuma said with his same blank voice.
"Shut up! You've taken everything from us!"
"They are not dead."
"They... They aren't?" A glimmer of hope sparked to life in Luffy's soul, but he quickly curved his growth. He didn't have a reason to trust Kuma. The Warlord turned, scanning the surroundings before nodding to himself. The cyborg dropped to one knee and leaned over the Supernova, lowering his voice.
"I am not the Marine dog you think me to be," Kuma admitted, still scanning the area. "But I will be lost soon, and become what I despise. Your crew is strong, but not strong enough for the challenges you will face in the New World. Each of them may not be in the best place, but they are where they need to be. Two years should be enough. Grow stronger and return, Monkey D. Luffy."
"You destroyed us," Luffy whispered. "I can't trust you."
"You have no choice. Viva libertas et conversio, Straw Hat. Vigiliis exspectanti Draconem."
Luffy only had a moment to stare at Kuma, his eyes wide, before the man's paw-palmed hand filled his vision. 'Straw Hat' Luffy, like all his crew before him, vanished.
Just like that, Kuma was left standing on Grove 24 alone, only the craters and slashes of the ground to show the pirates were ever there. His eyes scanned the battlefield and rose to where Vice-Admiral Garp was still lodged in the Hussle Muscle mangrove one Grove over. Too much evidence, he decided.
"I wanted to talk to the kid, you know," a voice Kuma had never heard commented. The cyborg turned, an old man with white hair and a beard standing behind him. Kuma's eyebrows rose. Somehow, this person had avoided his Observation Haki. Either the man was so weak he had no presence, or he was so strong he knew how to hide his presence. Either could be bad.
His sensors caught up a second later.
"'Dark King' Silvers Rayleigh," Kuma breathed, ranking the old man's strength far above his own. That explained the frost coating the edges of the man's coat, the remains of his fight with Aokiji. "The rumors of Straw Hat's hat are true then?"
"He wears the crown well," Rayleigh admitted, "not that I would have told him. I wanted to see for myself what sort of successor Shanks chose. It's a shame I didn't get to."
"You are being pretty open with a Warlord of the Sea," Kuma commented. "How can you be certain this information you're telling me won't reach the Marines?"
"It won't. I can feel it. Viva libertas et conversio. Long live freedom and revolution, right?"
Kuma raised his arms, the air condensing into a large outline of a paw. It shook, shrinking.
"I must clear the evidence," Kuma said. "Leave, civilian." Rayleigh said nothing as he disappeared under his own power, leaving Kuma to his devices. The paw continued to shrink until it fit in his hands, the compacted energy inside shining with white light. He pushed his hands forward, allowing his ultimate attack to clear the battlefield.
"Ursa Shock."
The Thousand Sunny roared, the sound startling Hachi, Camie, Paupagu, and the Rosy Life Riders on her deck. The call echoed through her hold and over the Grove nearby before dwindling away.
"W-What was that, Mr. Handsome, sir?" one of the men asked from the tangerine orchard. They still weren't sure how or why the trees were there, but the Straw Hats were insistent they needed watering.
"I don't know," Duval answered, turning to the fish-people. "You know anything?"
"I haven't seen or heard anything like that before," Hachi shrugged.
A couple minutes later, Sunny roared again, this time clearly from the figurehead. It was strong, powerful, resounding, but only for a moment. The roar twisted into a wail, emotional and sad. That wail turned into a whimper. Then, before two fishmen, a mermaid, a bull, and over two dozen humans, the ship revealed her true feelings; the feeling of a young, smart being with little to her name, who knew everything they ever wanted was ripped from them in an instant.
She did what those on-board thought impossible.
Thousand Sunny, the ship of the Straw Hat Pirates, cried.
End of Chapter 127
This is the last chapter of the Sabaody Arc, and I'll admit we reached this point too early for my liking. My plan for the future includes writing my take on Amazon Lily before substituting Impel Down with the adventures of the new Straw Hats where they landed (and I do know where they landed, i just need to type it out). The adventures of the Canon crew follow Canon unless specified. After that, we'll roll into the Paramount War. Until then~!
Read and Review!
-SwordOfTheGods