Chapter 24
Gigantic Power
Arbiter, the supposed empress of the Sirens, was floating high in the air above Delta Island, reclining within the mouth of her rigging that resembles a shortfin mako shark.
Looking at a holographic computer screen that appeared out of thin air before her, she said, "Looks like Purifier, Scavenger, Smasher, and Tester Beta are all wiped out, but at least they're still alive. Seems that we've greatly underestimated the people of this world… Matters not, because through these experiences, we have already obtained data that will be useful to us in the future! How about we crank up the chaos level to even higher heights?"
She smiled evilly as she switched to a different screen and pressed a button there.
Out at sea, some pirates have managed to get back onto their ships and were setting sail, and Marine ships that spotted them immediately attempted to stop them from escaping by firing cannonballs at them, so the pirates had to fight back.
As they were doing so, golden portals appeared out of thin air, and battleships colored black with red highlights came out of them. Needless to say, everyone was confused and surprised by what they saw.
The newcomer ships began firing energy projectiles, missiles, and torpedoes at Marine and pirate ships alike, not to mention aiming their attacks at the island, striking those on shore. Everyone was screaming his or her head off while running around to avoid the incoming gunfire from these strange ships.
"What the heck?! What are those ships?!" cried a Marine onboard one of the Marine ships. "They just came out of some strange portal!"
"My… Things are getting more complicated than it already is, huh?" said Kizaru as he watched those new ships launching attacks all over the place. A Marine then approached him with a Transponder Snail, saying that one of the ship girls had something to say to him regarding this. He picked up the phone and replied, "Yes?"
Ayanami could be heard coming from the other side. Back on shore, she ran into a Marine who was trying to contact Kizaru regarding this, so she told him that she wanted to talk to the admiral. "Those are mass-produced Siren ships, admiral! The presence of the Sirens here is likely responsible for their appearance!"
"I see… I take that you have battled them before?" Kizaru asked her.
"We have, and I can at least say that despite their sizes, they are actually easier to take down than actual Sirens," Ayanami told him. "Their behavior is more akin to wild animals, acting on instinct, but with a clear goal in mind that involves the destruction of anything not related to Sirens."
"Got it," Kizaru said to her. "We'll try what we can on our side, and I hope you can try to do something about this too, since you know more about them than we do."
"We will, admiral!" Ayanami told him, and then the conversation ended.
"What do we do, admiral?" a Marine asked Kizaru.
"Aim the cannons at those Siren ships," commanded Kizaru. "Let's show them that they've invaded the wrong world!"
Zoro got lost, obviously. After defeating Zuikaku, he tried to get back to the Thousand Sunny, but without knowing where it is and combined with his tendency to get lost, even with the clearest directions, he found himself wandering all over the island for quite a while instead.
He was standing at the shore when the Siren warships showed up. "What the heck are those?!" he said. "Those ships are attacking both pirates and Marines!"
He saw an energy projectile fired in his direction, so he jumped out of the way. The small-sized warship that fired at him then headed in his direction while continuing to fire at him, clearing having set its sight on him.
"Darn it! Stop attacking me!" said Zoro in frustration. He then swung all three of his swords so strongly that multiple giant wind blades were fired at them. "1080 Calibur Phoenix!"
The wind blades struck the ship, cutting it to pieces and blowing it up. He saw more ships out there, some of which had taken notice of the destruction of one of their own and were now coming after him. Zoro got ready to take on them again when suddenly a massive shockwave shot across the sea and cut through several ships at once. All those ships were immediately destroyed.
Zoro turned to the source of the attack in shock and with a good idea on who was responsible for it. Marines and pirates who saw it were surprised at the source of the attack. "It's Hawk Eye!" they cried out.
Mihawk was responsible for the attack earlier, having arrived on his boat and taking action when he witnessed those warships. Perona was next to him, saying to him, "Shouldn't we check to see whose side those ships are on first?"
"It matters not," he replied. "Anything that is an annoyance to me, I will cut down. I didn't even want to come here in the first place, but it's my job after all." He then turned his eyes to where Zoro is as if knowing he is there.
Zoro grumbled in frustration. "Tsk… I'll get to your level one day!"
Taihou and Hood ran into each other and were now traveling together towards the shore. They had heard about strange warships showing up out at sea, and figuring that they might be Sirens, they were on their way to the shore to clarify things themselves.
Hancock ran into them on the way. Taihou immediately recognized her from pictures previously seen back at New Marineford. "Oh, if I'm not wrong, she's the Boa Hancock whose beauty has been constantly praised!"
Hancock stopped before them when she heard herself being mentioned. "Yes, I am indeed the most beautiful woman in the world, so much that anyone will forgive anything I do because of my overwhelming beauty! And you are?"
Hood did a curtsy and replied, "We are Marines, fighting to bring down the pirates of this place. It is an honor to meet a Shichibukai such a you here! Surely you are here to lend your power to us, am I correct?"
"I care not about lending a hand to the Marines just because I'm a Shichibukai! I'm only here because I heard that my beloved Luffy is here!" replied Hancock, sounding a bit annoyed. "If you do not have any other business with me, then I am off to find my beloved before he gets hurt!" She then rushed off while calling out Luffy's name.
The two ship girls watched her leave, and Hood look confused because of her behavior. Taihou, on the other hand, said with a smile, "Ah… The power of love! I can understand such a thing very well!"
Luffy was engaged in a fierce battle against Enterprise and Bismarck. The latter had showed off the new power she received from the golden Wisdom Cube by transforming her rigging into a tank with multiple turrets on its body and also shark heads with long, extendable necks on both its sides.
The tank fired black projectiles that transformed into miniature black holes whenever it struck something, and if the black hole disappeared after hitting the ground, a crater would be left behind.
Luffy was fast enough to dodge the incoming projectiles, and the pulling force of the black hole wasn't strong enough to pull him in.
All the while, Enterprise was using her wings to fly around, shooting Luffy with energy arrows and also sending out miniature jets that bombarded him nonstop.
Luffy used his observation haki to foresee where the attacks would be coming from and dodged them, and he would occasionally throw punches at his opponents. Enterprise moved at a fast speed, enough to get out of his punches in time.
When Luffy threw a punch at Bismarck, whose upper body was sticking out of the top of the tank. However, one of the shark heads got in front of his fist and chomped down on his arm, making him cry in pain. An energy blast came out from within its closed mouth, burning Luffy's arm. Luffy pulled his hand back from the shark head when the mouth opened and blew against his hand to put out the burning pain.
"You're finished!" Bismarck shouted as she had all her guns fired at him. Luffy jumped back, and the shots all struck the place he was originally on together. The black holes created all merged together to become a large one with a more powerful gravitational force that, strangely enough, only affected Luffy and nothing else.
"This one's stronger than before!" he thought as he planted his feet firmly against the ground to avoid getting pulled towards it.
Luffy suddenly an attack coming from behind, but his attacker, Enterprise, dashed at him too fast for him to avoid, and being too concentrated on fighting against the black hole's pulling force also hindered his ability to dodge. Enterprise was able to cut him in the waist with the sword coming out of her flight deck.
Luffy fell to the ground in pain and was then pulled towards the black hole, screaming in shock. The rubber pirate disappeared into the ball of darkness, which imploded after a few seconds, releasing black lightning in various directions while doing so.
When the implosion ended, Luffy was seen lying at the bottom of the crater left behind by the attack. He slowly pushed himself back up and said, "I actually felt like I was going to get crushed to death just now… Good thing I'm made of rubber, so I can't really be crushed…"
Enterprise suddenly dropped down onto him, trying to impale him with her blade again. Luffy rolled out of the way in time, but then the ship girl reached out to him, caught him by the shoulder to keep him from getting away, and thrust her blade at him. Luffy was able to harden himself with haki in time to block the otherwise fatal attack.
Luffy then gave Enterprise a headbutt to her forehead, but the ship girl endured it before giving him her own headbutt. Luffy was surprised that she actually hurt him, despite not sensing her using haki.
Luffy then punched her hard in the guts to make her let go, and when he jumped out of the crater, he was immediately caught by the body in the jaws of one of Bismark's shark heads.
As the shark head bit down on him hard, Luffy endured the pain and threw a punch at Bismarck, and in response, she thrust her sword into the incoming fist. Because he didn't use haki this time, the tip of the blade went through his fist, bringing him great pain.
The shark head then dropped Luffy onto the surface of the tank. Bismarck stepped onto the surface of the tank and held her sword over him while he was down on his front. "I sentence you to death!" she shouted before bringing down the sword.
However, Luffy coated his body with haki just in time to block the attack, and then he stood up against the sword being pushed against his body, much to Bismarck's surprise.
Luffy punched her in the guts hard, but Bismarck was able to withstand it before slamming her fist into his face with such a force that he actually felt pain, despite being rubber. Enterprise dived at Luffy afterwards, kicking him in the body and knocking him off the tank. The jets she previously sent out then dropped bombs onto him, blasting him.
"You're finished this time!" Bismarck shouted as her tank aimed all its guns at him. The shots were fired, but seconds before Luffy got hit, he disappeared, and a rock reappeared in his place, taking the blasts to itself. "What?!"
Luffy found himself next to Law all of a sudden, and he said to the latter, "Thanks, Law!"
"I can't believe I just saved you…" Law said with a somewhat annoyed look. "You look like you should be able to handle this by yourself!"
Enterprise wasted no time in preparing an energy arrow to fire at Law, only to be interrupted when Hancock came flying into her and kicked her away by the face. "I won't let anyone hurt my beloved Luffy!" the Pirate Empress angrily said.
"Hancock! What a surprise to see you here!" Luffy happily said to her.
Hancock's angry expression immediately turned to a happy one when she heard Luffy and turned to him. "Luffy! I'm so glad you miss me! Did these evil women hurt you?"
Bismarck noticed Hancock and said, "Isn't she one of the Shichibukai? What is she…?"
"Shark Brick Fist!" A powerful shockwave was shot through the air, colliding into Bismarck and her tank and pushing the whole thing away. In fact, it flipped over to its side, and Bismarck tumbled out onto the ground. She looked at her attacker and saw that it was Jinbe.
Jinbe rushed up to Luffy, who was standing alongside Hancock and Law, and said to him, "I hope you are all right, captain."
"Jinbe! It's good to see you fine! Are the others all right?" Luffy asked him.
"They are fine when I left, and I trust that they can take good care of themselves," replied the fishman.
"Don't worry; I made sure that they are indeed in good hands," said another voice. Sabo suddenly dropped into the place.
Luffy was surprised and happy to see him. "Sabo! What a surprise to see you here! I didn't know you were coming!"
"Brothers always stick together!" Sabo told him. "I figured you would be coming here for something as big as Roger's treasure."
Enterprise went over to help Bismarck up. "This is bad…" said Enterprise. "We can't defeat all of them by ourselves!"
"Those scoundrels!" said Bismarck angrily. "They won't get away with this!"
"My… It looks like you are in the deep end of things," said a woman's voice. The two ship girls looked up and saw Arbiter floating down with her shark rigging. The others present noticed her as well.
"Who is that?" wondered Jinbe.
"The Siren Empress!" Enterprise said in shock before readying her bow and arrow. "So you Sirens are indeed here!"
"Don't get so aggressive just yet," Arbiter told her. "I'm actually here to help."
"What sort of help can you give us?!" Enterprise asked her.
"You did receive new powers from our golden Wisdom Cube, right?" Arbiter said to her. "I see that it is still not enough to help you defeat your foes, so I'm thinking about giving you even more power!"
"What are you up too? This is too good to be true! There's no way you would just give free power to your enemies!" said a skeptical Enterprise.
"I don't care what your plans are, but if it will help us defeat our enemies, then give it to us!" Bismarck said to Arbiter, much to Enterprise's surprise.
"Bismarck! This is too dangerous! This has to be a trap!" Enterprise said to her.
"Either I give you something that can let you fight back against those people, or you continue to fight them in your current state, which I guarantee won't end well for you," Arbiter said to them.
"Then give it to us!" Bismarck demanded her. "But don't think we're letting you off the hook just because of this! After we're done with those pirates, we're coming for you Sirens!"
Arbiter chuckled and then said, "I'll be waiting! It would actually pain me to see you fall by the hands of someone else other than us!" Holding up her hand, the golden Wisdom Cube appeared out of thin air on her palm. "Well then, it's yours! Hope you use it wisely!"
She threw it to Bismarck, who caught it with both hands. Enterprise was still worried and was going to say something to Bismarck when suddenly the cube released bright light that engulfed both ship girls. Arbiter laughed as she flew back into the air.
Luffy and the others were surprised at what they saw, and the light before them began growing in size. "What's happening?!" said Luffy.
Elsewhere on the island, all the others could also see the bright light, and they wondered what that was.
The light continued to grow in size, and if one were to look at it using shades, they could see some kind of construction going on inside.
Luffy and co. and watched in awe as the light grew to its maximum size, and then a loud mechanical roar was heard as the light began to die down.
"What in the world…?!" said Law in shock.
Standing before them was a gigantic robot about 150 meters tall. Its head is similar to a shark's but at the same time resembling a dragon's. Its feet are literally a pair of battleships. Its right hand has long, red claws, and on its right arm is a large flight deck. Its left hand is a shark head that has a cannon inside its mouth. Sharp spikes ran down its back and all the way to tail, which has an anchor at its tip. A large amount of guns can be seen decorated on various parts of its body. Lastly, there is a pair of large wings on its back. The entire thing is dark gray in color with red highlights.
The pirates were at a loss of words at what they saw. They had never seen anything like this before. Even Luffy, who was normally excited by giant robots, was horrified at the sight before him.
"I can't believe this…!" said Jinbe.
"I've heard about the Marines having secret weapons of some kind recently, but this isn't what I expected at all! How did they make something like this?!" said Sabo.
Because of the giant robot's massive size, everyone else on the island could see it from where they are, and they were all shocked at the sight of it.
"What on earth is that?!"
"What the heck?!"
"It's a monster!"
Bismarck and Enterprise were located inside the chest of the robot, which was a control room with seats for the both of them, as well as a screen in front showing the point of view of the robot.
Enteprise looked around in awe and said, "This… This is incredible…!"
"So this is the power the Sirens bestowed on us…" said Bismarck in disbelief. "This sort of power… With it, we can surely crush all those who oppose us!"
Hearing this, Enterprise feared that Bismarck was getting corrupted by power, so she said to him, "Bismarck! Don't lose your head! We mustn't abuse this sort of power! We have to use it on what is necessary! The Sirens are clearly trying to tempt us with this sort of thing! We mustn't give in to them!"
"Relax, I won't fall for the Sirens' schemes again," Bismarck assured her. "They will soon be regretting that they gave us something like this! Once we're done with the pirates, they're next!"
Bismarck then looked down at the pirates before her and broadcasted her voice for everyone on the island to hear. "You see? This is the power we possess! Do you think you can still stand against us? All those who oppose Azur Lane shall die!"
The ship girls were surprised when they heard Bismarck's voice, as they didn't realize the robot was related to her at first. "Was that Bismarck speaking just now?!" asked Shigure.
"How did she get something like that all of a sudden-nya?!" said Akashi in shock.
"It must be the Sirens!" said Zuikaku. "They must've used the Wisdom Cube to create something like that!"
Akashi had previously ran around looking for the downed ship girls and used her new power to restore them to a good condition.
Bismarck continued her broadcast while holding up the small treasure chest containing the Eternal Pose. "You all want this, right? After all, an Eternal Pose that leads you directly to Laugh Tale is surely something valuable coveted by you pirates!"
Everyone was shocked when they heard what she said.
"That thing contains an Eternal Pose leading to Laugh Tale?!"
"Impossible!"
"Roger left behind something like that?!"
"Dang! I really want it now!"
"You will never have it! This does not belong to the likes of you!" Bismarck said to the pirates. "Even in death, I will see to it that you never get your hands on it! YOU WILL ALL DIE HERE!"
The giant robot began moving, lifting one of its massive battleship foot into the air and taking a step forward. It landed with such a force that a shockwave was released, and the pirates were pushed back a bit but managed to maintain their footing.
"That thing is huge…!" said Luffy.
"But you know what they say," said Sabo. "The larger they are, the harder they fall!"
"There's got to be a weak spot," said Law.
As the group of five were wondering how to fight the giant robot, a quick and short sandstorm whipped up, and Crocodile materialized out of the sand next to them. "An Eternal Pose leading to Laugh Tale, huh?" he said with interest. "Now that's something worth fighting for!"
"Crocodile!" Luffy said in shock upon seeing him.
"Mama will surely be pleased to hear something like that," said Katakuri as he came over to the group. "I will be taking it no matter what!"
"Katakuri!" Luffy said in shock as well upon seeing him, and also in anger.
"Hold your horses," Katakuri said to him. "Normally, I would be here to fight you for that Eternal Pose, but considering that we have a massive enemy who has it in her hands currently, we should all concentrate on dealing with her instead."
"He's right," Law said to Luffy. "Whatever beef you have with him, save it for until after we take down this thing."
"For the sake of Luffy's success, I am willing to lend him a hand, even if I have to fight against the Marines!" said Hancock with determination.
The group of seven looked up at the gigantic robot. Luffy cracked his fists and said, "All right! If you all say so, then let's work together to take down this thing!"
Up in the air, Arbiter was grinning almost maniacally as she looked at the giant robot. "I have to admit… that even I am amazed by what I saw! This is much more than I expected! Yes, embrace this power! Let such a power flow through you and use it to cause as much destruction as you want! Show the world what you are capable of! Unleash all the chaos you can! Set the oceans of this world on fire! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
TO BE CONTINUED
Here we have the replacement for Bullet's stone giant made using his Clank-Clank Fruit! I got the idea for this giant robot from a piece of fan art. To find it, go to Danbooru and search Azur Lane and Pool: What Has Science Done?!, and it will show you the only picture there. Check it out for yourself!
As you know, Smoker and Buggy are part of the seven participating in the final battle in the movie, but I replaced them with Jinbe and Katakuri. It wouldn't make sense for Smoker to face off against what is basically an ally of the Marines, and Buggy wouldn't be able to do much anyway.
And now the climax of the story approaches! Makes you wonder who you should be rooting for and who is the bad guy here, right?
