Part 3

There were those that called Enies Lobby a Bastion of Justice. There were those that called it a Symbol of Oppression. The one fact that everyone could agree on was that Enies Lobby was impressive.

It was also a mockery of everything that Naruto and Sasuke had thought to be true about the world they lived in.

Simply put, the island itself was a city-sized slab of rock suspended in the air over an immense hole in the ocean. It defied common sense and natural law equally. The island had only one natural connection to the outside world: a single slim finger of rocky land that supported the far larger central island, serving as its one and only anchor to the sea shelf. Ships, as well as the great Sea Train, could dock at the point where that finger of rock submerged beneath the ocean, but sailing anywhere else meant either crashing into the great defensive fence that surrounded the island, or falling into the endless waterfall.

Sasuke tried to ask why the waterfall basin didn't just fill up with the ocean, but no one had any explanation that didn't leave him scowling in irritation.

For that matter, the Straw-Hats knew when they were approaching Enies Lobby because the sun, which had just finished setting, suddenly rose again. When Sasuke had started asking bewildered questions about how this could be possible, the rest of the crew had shrugged and said something about 'Afternoon Islands' and how on some islands in the Grand Line it was just always day-time, no matter what time of day it actually was. Eventually, Sasuke gave up on his naive attempts to argue the concept of a round planet rotating underneath the sun, but on the inside he just felt like swearing.

So it was that the Straw-Hats came to land at the docks just half-a-mile away from the Marine Battleship that they had been following so fruitlessly before. Despite their expectations, the Navy ship did not fire or move to engage them. Numerous soldiers glared at them from a distance, but nothing more happened, even when Naruto began taunting them. Bolstered by this sudden display of good luck, the Straw-Hats immediately advanced along the approach to the city of Enies Lobby, only to find that combat had already begun. They had been beaten to the punch by the arrival of a small army of thugs known as the Franky Family, who were here with two enormous sea-monsters in an attempt to retrieve their imprisoned boss.

Luffy ignored all of this, charging in at maximum speed and scattering all resistance.

None of this was truly important to Naruto and Sasuke, however. While the rest of the Straw-Hats began their assault on the gates, the two ninjas would have a very different job to do.

-Enies Lobby-

-Marine Battleship-

It was several minutes after the Straw-Hats had departed the docks that Commodore Flounders boarded his subordinate's captured ship and rescued Captain Weber. The man was bruised, but had survived his encounter with the notorious pirates more or less intact.

When Weber asked why, exactly, the Commodore had refused to engage either set of invaders as they had landed, Flounders had responded by slamming one gloved hand into a bulwark. His veins were displayed against the muscles of his neck as he restrained himself from any further display of violence.

"Captain Weber…" he said, biting back his words, "We are currently under the jurisdiction of Naval Intelligence, and we have direct orders from CP9's Chief Spandam that we are in no circumstances to interfere or offer aid. It seems he 'lacks confidence' in us after the recent breakout, and he wants credit for this incarceration to lay solely on his shoulders. The little goblin actually said that last part out loud."

Sebastian chuckled. "I see… Well, then. Are we to retreat and rendezvous with our missing ship?"

"No," grumbled the Commodore.

"We're staying here? Why?"

Flounders stared off into the distance at the far-off view of the Tower of Justice, mighty and regal, as it presided over the city. Slowly, he shook his head.

"Because we need to be ready for when he screws this up," he said.

-Enies Lobby-

-Tower of Justice-

-CP9 Director's Office-

Cipher Pol 9 was a fearsome institution with both a prestigious history and an undeniably incompetent leader. CP9's Chief, Spandam, was a man whom no one could love except for himself. He was an ugly, weak, selfish, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cowardly sociopath who not only lacked any positive character traits at all, but to whom any such traits were completely alien. Surely even his own mother had filed for emancipation as soon as he had clawed his way from the womb.

So, of course, Spandam had rapidly and efficiently climbed the ranks of power in World Government politics. Those same character traits made it the most natural thing in the world for him.

Now, Spandam looked over the assembled members of his legendary force of assassins, grinning without reservation.

"My faithful subordinates," he said, his scratchy voice aggravating the nerves of everyone present, "We stand at the end of a long and successful mission. Thanks in part to all of you, I am sure to be promoted! Rejoice! Rejoice in my promotion! Now, I know it has been many years since CP9 has all gathered together, so why don't we all reintroduce ourselves?"

"First of all," started a weaselly-looking bald man in a gaudy red-plumed hat, "My apologies for interrupting, but I'd just like to thank all of my wonderful seniors here. It's an honor to finally be part of this group."

"Sea-Weasel" Nero

Occupation: CP9 Intern

Power Level: 215

"Who is this man and what is he doing in our briefing room?" asked Rob Lucci, "I don't recall seeing his face before."

"Manslayer" Rob Lucci

Occupation: CP9 Assassin

Power Level: 4,000

"Don't mind him, Lucci," said the repulsive man wearing a leather corrective mask, "He's here as a favor to a powerful friend! Treat him kindly, will you?"

"Waste of Skin" Spandam

Occupation: CP9 Chief

Power Level: 9

"Hey, should we really be sitting here chewing the fat?" asked a well-tanned young man with a right-angled face, "All those young'ns are assaulting the island as we speak, you know?"

"The Killing Breeze" Kaku

Occupation: CP9 Assassin

Power Level: 2,200

"YOYOI!" yodeled a massive man with white kabuki face-paint and a mane of wild, light-pink hair, "Don't underestimate the power- AH! I say, the POWER of this fortress! If those despicable pirates truly wish to walk the Path of Blossoms to the stage, then with my Dear Mother's blessing they shall be swept away as if by a divine wind!"

"Leonine Sage" Kumadori

Occupation: CP9 Assassin

Power Level: 810

"God! Shut your damn warbling face, you freak of nature!" cursed the man with the Fu-Manchu mustache and long, black, queued hair, "I don't need you reminding me that I won't get to sink my teeth into their bodies today."

"Hunting Wolf" Jabra

Occupation: CP9 Assassin

Power Level: 2,180

"How dare you talk about my body in the workplace," chastised a woman with honey-blonde hair and a black fishnet dress, adjusting her glasses with one hand, "That's sexual harassment."

"Queen of Calamity" Kalifa

Occupation: CP9 Assassin

Power Level: 630

"CHAPAPA!" the high-pitched laughter came from a horribly rotund creature with lank green hair and a yellowed zipper for his teeth, "The joke is funny 'cause he wasn't even talking about your sexy body! But now I am! CHAPAPA!"

"'Silent' Owl" Fukuro

Occupation: CP9 Assassin

Power Level: 800

Spandam cried out in surprise as a phone rang right behind his head, his coffee flying everywhere around him. Lucci's pigeon, seeing a blob of coffee approaching its master, launched itself from its perch on his shoulder, deflecting the mid-air drink with one flap of a mighty wing. "Coo!" it called.

"Eagle-Hunter" Hattori

Occupation: Pigeon

Power Level: 22

Sputtering, Spandam got up from his seat, grabbing the Den-Den-Mushi. "Yes? Hello? Report!"

*kssshh* "Sir! This is the Island Gates! We-" *ksshh* "-the giants are-" *ksshhh* "We've got eyes on Straw-Hat Luffy! He's taken out more than five hun- AGH!"

"Ensign" Marine Soldier

Occupation: Cannon Fodder

Power Level: 10

"What? Five hunagh?! What are you talking about?! Five? He's taken out five soldiers? Don't waste my time!" Spandam slammed the receiver down, but failed to end the connection, rendering the line busy and useless. "Useless, all of them! Why the hell are they worrying? We're as good as invincible here!"

"Sir," said Lucci, "Perhaps we should move on with the prisoners? Surely we're done here."

"No, wait, I have something else for you all. Now that we're all here..." Spandam paused and looked around the room. "Wait, isn't someone missing? A big guy?"

"No, it's your imagination," said Lucci. "Get on with it."

Spandam shook his head, grabbing two inlaid boxes from a nearby table. "Right. Kalifa. Kaku. I have a gift for you two in celebration of a job well done..."

As the two assassins watched, Spandam opened the lids, revealing the two strange and mysterious fruits inside.

"AH! SHIT!" screamed Jabra, jumping away in fear, "That's a Devil Fruit! The hell are you bringing 'em in here for?! Don't get it near me!"

"Jabra," asked Kaku, picking up one of the fruits, "What's the gosh-darned ruckus about?"

Jabra raised his sunglasses, his scarred eye now clearly visible in his fear-stricken face. "IDIOTS! Don't you know there's a devil in these fruits?! I've already got one! You get that thing near me and they'll start fighting! Everyone knows that!"

Kaku looked around in confusion. "You think so? I haven't heard anything like that before."

"Jabra, don't be fooled," said Lucci, shaking his head in exasperation. "That's only a problem if you eat two of them. That was proven a long time ago. For that matter, you should know better than to believe in such frivolous superstitions. There are no demons. It's just a name, nothing more."

As Jabra sputtered and sweated, the two agents with the Devil Fruits nervously eyed their new prizes. These Fruits could change their lives, and even Spandam didn't know what was in them. Which, admittedly, was probably just a result of Spandam's staggering incompetence, given that there were books with almost every Devil Fruit listed by its appearance.

Nevertheless, it wasn't like it would make them weaker.

Picking up a knife and fork, Kalifa and Kaku ate the Fruits.

The events of the Straw-Hat's advance to the roof of the Grand Courthouse hardly need to be restated, and they will in any event later come to be retold in numerous stage-adaptations by subversive Revolutionary theatre companies throughout the known world. The overwhelming number of Marine soldiers were defeated in the dozens by the advancing efforts of Straw-Hat Luffy, but it all served as mere backdrop to Usopp's accomplishments, as he recognized that the two Giant gatekeepers Oimo and Kashi, had been kept in eternal servitude by a lie. Step by step, the entire island fell as territory was lost until even the Grand Courthouse's Judge, Jury, and Executioner was ground beneath the joint advance. This assault might have gone quite differently, too, if the most powerful defenders on the battlefield, CP-9, had been allowed to sortie.

Alas, they were led by a buffoon.

Every one of these losses would become well-known in the future as symbols of the vulnerability of the apparently invincible World Government. And, of course, regardless of one's pro-government or revolutionary sentiments, in a couple years' time it would become difficult, if not impossible, to find someone who didn't know how this particular assault ended, even if they knew nothing else about it.

But all that comes at the end, which would make no sense without the beginning. For now, the Straw-Hats and the Franky Family drove in like a spear straight for the vitals of the Judicial Island, overturning every defender that stood in their path, just like it had happened in the stories.

This isn't a story that attempts to re-hash that legendary advance. This tale has a slightly different focus.

-Meanwhile-

-Enies Lobby-

"Sasuke?" asked Naruto. All around them the two boys could hear the deafening roar of falling water. The ground beneath their feet was solid, featureless rock, that was only adorned by the occasional patch of slippery moss.

"Yeah, Naruto?" replied Sasuke, stepping carefully as he tried to avoid looking at what was looming above them.

"This place is weird," said Naruto.

"Yeah… Yeah it is..."

A careless step by Naruto kicked loose a small fragment of rock below his feet. In defiance of common decency, the rock fell upward, disappearing from their view. Unable to help himself, Naruto followed its path with his eyes. Everywhere on the horizon a gargantuan, all-encompassing waterfall poured what seemed to be the entire ocean into its basin.

That wasn't the problem. Waterfalls and ninjas went together like kunai and explosive seals; they were a perfect match! Both of the boys were fine with waterfalls!

It's just that they generally preferred their waterfalls to be pouring downward rather than, say, upward.

The two young ninjas were suspended underneath the island of Enies Lobby, moving upside-down along the rocky under-belly. With gravity no longer their friend, they relied solely upon their chakra to keep them stuck onto the 'ground' beneath their feet. If they lost concentration for even a second they would find themselves plummeting into the swirling tempest of ocean water that roared above their heads.

As it turned out, despite being one of the most well-guarded fortresses in the world, Enies Lobby had never been built to protect against ninjas.

"So, like, where does all this water go, anyway?" asked Naruto, rehashing Sasuke's earlier arguments, "I mean, I know what I'm seeing, but can you even have a waterfall in the ocean? Like, in real life?"

Sasuke grit his teeth. "Naruto, I really wish you wouldn't bring this up right now."

"Yeah, but, really! Normally a hole in the ocean gets filled in by water and it just becomes, you know, like, more ocean, right? Where's the water going?"

"Gee, I don't know, Naruto. Maybe it goes off to fairy-land, or the clouds, or maybe the world's really a big turtle or something and it drinks all the water, or whatever other ridiculous explanation the people out here have for how their world works!"

Naruto laughed. "Man, this is really bothering you, isn't it? You were the one who suggested we try going underneath, you know."

"You don't worry about me," muttered Sasuke. "Worry about yourself."

"Me? I'm fine, man. I can run upside-down all day!"

"Yeah, but the last time you said that you ended up falling off the cliffside half-an-hour into the stake-out. Do you see that whirlpool? Do that here and you'll drown."

"Hey, that was a sneeze, man! Cut me some slack, I'm a lot better now than I was then."

"Come on," said Sasuke, "We need to pick up the pace. Everyone's counting on us to get ahead of Robin's jailors."

Slowly acclimating to the upside-down terrain, the two ninjas increased their speed. It wouldn't be long before they reached the other side of the island where the Tower of Justice lay, and then the really tricky stuff would begin. Everything that was happening above was little more than a distraction for what was going on below.

With grim determination, the two young men readied their ropes.

-Tower of Justice-

-Director's Office-

Robin had been beaten, slapped, and dragged across the floor by her seastone handcuffs, but the thing that hurt the most was the reminder of what she had done. What she was. At every turn she had been forced to relive how the Straw-Hats had abandoned her.

Of course, she herself had prayed that the group would avoid death by abandoning her, but it still devastated her to know just how quickly she had been able to crush the last seeds of her silly friendships. It had only taken a few words, and now she had to deal with the consequences of having that hope torn from her grasp. This was it. She has finally reached the lowest point in her life.

Then the CP9 briefing room had shaken from an impact, and she realized the miseries available to her could drag her down just a little bit lower.

"ROOOOOOBIN!" screamed a very familiar voice.

Luffy was here, bringing her face-to-face with the consequences of her failure. In her weakness, she hadn't driven them away, and now they were going to die right in front of her eyes.

"What the hell?!" screeched Spandam, rushing over to the windows, "Straw-Hat?! He got past the soldiers! Did he just dash straight here without fighting anyone?! Lucci, do something about this!"

Lucci let out a sigh. "We have an intern. Let him take care of it."

Nero was already up, a confident smile on his face. "I'll be back in a minute."

Saying this, he dashed to the balcony and leapt off toward the Grand Courthouse. Five seconds later, Nero came crashing back through a window, slamming into the wall in a shower of glass and then sliding bonelessly to the floor, completely unconscious.

Lucci closed his eyes. "How very prompt of you."

"ROOOOOOBIN!" screamed Luffy again, still from the roof of the Grand Courthouse.

"Bu-wha?!" cried Spandam, "How the?! What the?! He was a super-human!"

"He was nothing," said Lucci, contempt dripping from his voice.

While Spandam dealt with the throes of a mild panic attack, Franky turned to Robin. Though she was restrained with just a pair of seastone cuffs, Franky's entire torso was wrapped in thick chains. There was no easy solution when it came to imprisoning a cyborg.

"Hey… lady…" he whispered. "I don't know what kind of deal you think you made with the government, but it should be pretty damn obvious by now that that Spand-ass isn't gonna honor it."

Robin clenched her teeth, her nails digging into her palms.

"Why the hell're you looking so damn depressed?" he continued. "No offense, but you're acting like a worthless piece of crap here. You afraid your friends are gonna die or something? They're already here, aren't they? That means that ship's already sailed. They're either gonna win or they're gonna lose, so for you it's time to shit or get outta the kitchen, you understand me?"

Robin swallowed, still saying nothing.

"Okay then, fine. I, at least, am gonna get the hell out of here, and if I can drag you to your friends by force, then all the better, huh?"

Finally reaching a decision, Spandam concluded his freak-out session and segued directly into giving orders. "Alright! We're getting out of here! Let's bring the prisoners straight to the Gates of-"

"Chief Spandam, sir!" shouted a nameless henchman nearby, "Look at Franky's ass! It's enormous!"

"What the hell are you… GYAH?!"

It was the truth. Franky's rear-end was ballooning to ridiculous proportions, now at least ten-feet wide and still growing as the seconds stretched on.

"Hey, Spandaman," said the cyborg, looking over at the CP9 Chief with the eyes of a man who had nothing left to lose, "I've come to a decision. A life in prison is a life not worth living, so I've chosen self-destruction instead."

"AHH! NO! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" screamed Spandam.

"Sorry, but it's no use talking me out of it," said Franky, rocking gently back and forth on his expanding keister, "It's far too late for that. I'm afraid everyone in a three-kilometer radius is already in range of my ass-blast."

Spandam continued his horrified search for safety as Franky counted down from three. Rolling over, the cyborg grasped Robin between his legs. Then, he exploded.

[COUP-DE-BOO]

A catastrophe of vented air blasted Spandam and every one of the henchmen away, and Franky and Robin rode the aftermath straight out of the building. They crashed out onto the balcony in a heap, Franky's chains shattering from the force of the explosion. Ahead of them they could see the several-hundred foot gap that separated the Tower of Justice from the mainland. In between the Tower of Justice and the Grand Courthouse roof there was nothing but a long drop into the ocean.

"Hah!" crowed Franky, standing up and helping Robin to her feet. "Awesome! I've still got just enough cola to get us to the other side. You ready for this, lady?"

Over on the Grand Courthouse roof, Luffy caught sight of them.

"ROOOOOBIN!" shouted Luffy, "I see you! I'm coming over there right now!"

"NO!" screamed Robin, staggering over to the edge of the balcony. "GET OUT OF HERE! YOU'RE WORTHLESS TO ME, LUFFY! I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACES AGAIN!"

Franky's jaw dropped. "Lady, what the hell are you smoking?! Don't you-"

Whatever he would have said was interrupted. The square-nosed Kaku shot like an arrow out from the briefing room, slamming Franky into the stonework with a flying knee to the small of his unarmored back. Crying out in pain, Franky went down to the ground in a squirming heap.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Robin shouted down across the empty void that separated the Tower of Justice from the mainland.

"Not gonna!" shouted Luffy.

She tried again. "GO AWAY! LET ME DIE! I DON'T WANT TO LIVE LIKE THIS!"

As Robin cursed and screamed down at the young man, she could feel everything slipping away from her. Her cries were falling on deaf ears. Luffy didn't budge an inch.

Beside her, CP9 assembled on the balcony, the better to look down on the intruder. Spandam strutted about the stonework, finally recovered from the nearly-fatal ass-blast, screeching about this and that. Occasionally he would stride up to Robin and hit her, or grab her hair and shove her to the floor. His words didn't matter. The only thing that mattered here was that her friends got as far away from CP9 as possible.

However, instead of retreating, the Straw-Hats arrived one-by-one, lining up below them upon the roof of the Grand Courthouse. Eventually, only Naruto and Sasuke were missing from the lineup. Not that she could blame them. Now, Robin stood at the edge of a chasm. On one side, all of CP9 were arrayed on the balcony of the Tower of Justice. On the other, the Straw-Hats stood defiantly upon the rooftop of the conquered Grand Courthouse.

In between was a three-hundred-foot wide and one thousand-foot deep drop that represented the very last barrier in place between her friends and their certain death.

"What the hell are they even thinking?" asked Spandam. "They came after this pathetic shit of a woman? Do they wanna die? I mean, maybe that's what they're going for, huh? Wouldn't that be hilarious!"

Though Luffy had remained completely silent during her subsequent plaintive pleas, he finally decided to speak. "Robin!" said Luffy, as the Straw-Hats stood beside him, "You really wanna die?! Really? Well, you know what? That's fine with me!"

For a moment, her heart twisted in an unfamiliar direction.

"But here's the thing," he continued. "You can't make that choice up there! Dying or living, even though its your choice to make, you're only gonna get to make it once you're back over here with us! Which means we're gonna rescue you anyway, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it!"

As she twisted her hands in her clothes, tearing at the fabric in her nervous desperation, Spandam laughed to see this interplay. "You bastards think you stand a chance at bringing her back alive? You think she even wants to be rescued? You might as well just jump off this cliff right now!"

From the side, Jabra could be heard muttering, "Hey, I got an idea… Why don't we just go over there right now and kill 'em?"

Spandam ignored this. He had selective hearing when it came to suggestions that would leave him less safe. "You dumbasses have no idea how idiotic you look down there! We've got the entirety of CP9 here, the elite of the elite! We stand before the mighty Gates of Justice that connect us straight to Marineford! Moreover…"

Reaching into a pocket, he held aloft his treasure. A gold-plated Den-Den-Mushi adorned with a single red button placed in its shell.

"Behold! This was granted to me by the Admiral himself! Do you see it?! Look damn close, you filthy scum, because with a single press of this button, I can summon down a Buster Call, bringing a dispatch straight from every nearby Marine base to wipe your little band of misfits straight from the map!"

He turned to Robin, lovingly stroking the red button. "You see it? It's the same thing that obliterated your home island twenty years ago, isn't it? Why yes, I believe that it is!"

"STOP THAT!" she yelled, "That's not a toy, you oaf! Do you even know what will happen if you press that thing?! We'll all die! Twenty years ago, everything in my life… everyone I had ever met… was annihilated. Every person killed just to be sure that everything they knew was gone from the world. That was the Buster Call. If you press that button, you'll die along with us!"

Spandam grinned like a loon, stepping down from his perch on the balcony and advancing on her with malice.

"Huh?!" shouted Spandam, winding up and slugging her in the face. She fell to the ground, being barely strong enough to stand.

"And what the hell would you know about it, woman?! This is a weapon that the World Government entrusted with me! They're not so incompetent that they'd fire on me as well, you ignorant bitch!"

Robin shook her head, climbing slowly back to her feet as she spoke. "That's what you don't understand, Spandam. It's not meant to be a weapon! It's meant to be the last line of defense in an information war that was started long before anyone here was born. It's a sterilization technique. They teach their ranking officers just enough to recognize the presence of heretical information, and give them just enough ruthlessness to make the call."

Now she was trembling. "Then, everything is erased in fire... They won't hold back those flames for you or anyone else! That's the point of it!"

"YOU MORON!" he screamed, raising the golden Den-Den-Mushi above his head, "This is a symbol of STATUS! It's the proof that I've made it in this world! The Admiral wouldn't have given it to me if he didn't trust my discretion!"

Robin laughed, weeping bitter tears, "Don't you see? It wasn't given to you because of your status. It was given to you because of me. Because they trust you'll press it if things go wrong. If you press that button, they'll assume I'm getting loose, and they'll know that you might have been compromised. After all, who even knows what I might have said."

Robin looked out across the distance to the roof of the Grand Courthouse where her former friends stood arrayed in a line.

"That weaponized calamity is now… being aimed at my friends… my family that I've finally found… But it's just more of the same cursed life. No matter where I go, the threat of who I am will always loom over me… and everyone near me..."

Robin hadn't ever complained about her lot in life before. Who would have listened? More importantly, who would have listened without betraying her? Now she turned to the Straw-Hats, addressing them directly, honestly, perhaps for the first time ever.

Why were tears coming to her eyes now, after all these years of endurance?

"Do you see this?! My enemy is the world! There's nowhere safe for me, because my enemies lurk in every shadow! They're willing to burn entire islands to the ground because I might have said the wrong thing in the wrong place! I know that's too heavy of a burden for anyone to bear! How many times can you have calamity visited upon you before you throw me away as well?!"

She sobbed, no longer able to see the people arrayed before her. "I just want my life to end before you tire of me, just like all the others. Just let me die now, while I still have something good to remember," she finished.

"Bahahahah!" laughed Spandam, "Of course! Of course! I mean, who wouldn't feel that way?! No one sane would keep something like you around if they had the choice, huh?!"

Spandam pointed up, up, and up, to the fluttering flag that adorned the top of the tower. Five black circles set into a cross marked the symbol of the World Government.

"You see that, Pirate scum?! That mark represents the union of more than one hundred and seventy nations across all five oceans! This is the mark of the World! You lot never stood a chance with the world as your enemy! Do you get that?!"

Slowly, Luffy nodded, considering the flag and all that it represented. "Yeah, I get it. I really do. Usopp."

"Yeah, Captain?" asked the sniper.

"Shoot down that flag."

Swallowing a lump of fear, Usopp raised his staff-sling, readying the massive new weapon. He loaded a large pellet and took aim.

[HISSATSU: FIREBIRD STAR]

The incendiary chemicals he had gathered on the Marine ship ignited in a sudden blaze, transforming the attack into a winged jet of intense flames. It was a rising phoenix that swept upwards, crossing the gap in a second and striking the World Government flag flying proudly over the Tower of Justice. The flag was consumed in a second, burning with surprising ease.

War had been declared.

A/N: Given the state of things, the Straw-Hat side of this encounter proceeded very close-to-canon, and didn't bear relitigating. Blueno is absent, and Nero was defeated here instead of on the sea-train. On the plus side, this is where everything would go off the rails.

Also: The-canon-power-levels-presented-in-this-chapter-are-internal-to-CP9-and-should-not-be-construed-to-represent-real-world-performance-data-except-in-cases-representative-of-the-artificial-performance-measurement-solution-used-to-obtain-this-data.-These-numbers-should-not-be-used-to-assign-power-level-data-to-any-other-entities-based-on-fighting-performance-or-any-other-competitive-results.