-Enies Lobby Support Bridge-

-Luffy-

Two men faced each other at the halfway-point between the docks and the city. One was a massive twelve-foot tall leopard-man who was built more like an ox, panting from exertion but clearly in a superior position. The other was Luffy, who was bleeding from claw wounds all over his body, swaying on his feet from the exertion of sustaining the overwhelming force of his Gear Second transformation.

Fighting had been fierce, but now, finally, Lucci felt as though they were reaching an end.

"You've fought admirably just to get this far," he said, "and I applaud your effort, but you must know this is all meaningless. What were you even thinking? You split yourselves up- and for what? Scattering and escaping is a strategy meant so that even if some must die, some must also slip through the cracks."

He chuckled, an odd growl echoing in his throat.

"But that's not why you did it. I can see you for what you are now. You don't even have the resolve to sacrifice a single one of your comrades here. So what, exactly, was the point? Were you hoping every single one of them would make it through the city unscathed?"

"I trust them!" shouted Luffy. "Each and every one!"

"Then you're a failure as a captain. That's what's truly pathetic about this. I witnessed each and every one of your comrades on my way to find you, and do you know what I saw? They were losing. Every one of them failed to stand up to our assassins."

Luffy's eyes darkened, his teeth grinding together.

"For that matter, while it's admirable that you stayed to fight me alone, you've led me straight to here- the one place that any escapee must pass to leave the island. Straw-Hat, you've doomed all of them. The only battle that matters now is this one."

"No," said Luffy. "You're wrong. Every single battle matters today, and I believe that each of them will win..."

-City-

-Sanji-

"You know…" Sanji said, taking a last drag on his cigarette and then flicking the remnant aside, "As a chef, one of the things I despise is an over-cooked meal. I can't keep track of the number of times someone asked me for steak well-done, and I had to go out there and give them a piece of my mind…"

The two combatants stared down at each other from the tops of two buildings, and though Sanji's clothes were torn and sporting the telltale signs of blood and scattered impacts, the wolf-man's body seemed more or less unharmed. His powerful iron body was the most specialized in all of CP9. As Sanji spoke, Jabra laughed across at him. "Sounds like you're a pretty terrible cook, then! Don't get me wrong- I'm a raw and bleeding kind of guy myself, but even I know the customer's always right."

"No, you're right," said Sanji, tapping his shoes on the ground as if testing their fit. "The customer's wishes always come first. That's a fundamental rule."

Then, Sanji smirked. "Of course, sometimes you gotta make sure the customer knows what wishes to avoid if they wanna go home with all their teeth."

Jabra barked with laughter, starting to circle around the other man. "Man, you really are a terrible cook, aren't you?"

Apparently satisfied with the state of his shoes, Sanji nodded to himself. "See… but sometimes you gotta work with what you've got. A real chef doesn't always get the grade-A meat or grade-A customers. Sometimes you just gotta turn up the heat and go with it."

"Alright, man. I'm done hearing about your kitchen stories. If you wanted to calm me down, talking to the wolf about meat wasn't the right way to do it."

"Alright, alright," said Sanji, looking up with an unfriendly grin, "See, the point is- I learned something from a couple of special friends recently. All that heat and passion I have in my heart? It's real, and I can let it out whenever I want."

Kicking the ground, Sanji spun in place on one leg, twisting faster and faster at each kick. The world became a blur. He had always known there was a fire inside him, and he also knew he hadn't really needed the help of two shitty ninjas to teach him how to burn, but now he knew exactly what he was looking for. The heat of the friction served as the seed of flame and then he felt his energy transform inside of him. As the speed increased an intense flame blossomed from around his leg.

[DIABLE JAMBE]

Stopping, he controlled his dizziness and turned to stare back at the shocked wolf-man.

"It's been awhile since I've had to serve such a shitty customer, much less cook such a shitty a wolf," said Sanji, feeling warmed by the heat that somehow didn't burn him. "And you? You've got the look of an infested animal. Gotta make sure we cook you deep."

"How the hell did you do that?" asked Jabra, frowning in consternation at the man who was suddenly wreathed in flames.

Sanji ignored him. "So, my esteemed shitty customer. How would you like your meat done today?"

Battle started immediately as Jabra dashed to the left, but stopped dead as Sanji spun, a wave of flame licking out from his kick and flying across the intervening distance.

[DIABLE JAMBE: ARROSER]

Changing directions, the wolf tried again, only to be boxed in by another wall of fire. Sanji danced forward step-by-step, each kick washing the battlefield in front of him with waves of fire. Jabra's attempts to attack from the side were stymied, and then he gave up as he took the first hit from the flame whips, burning his fur and skin. Instead, he switched to offense, dashing straight into the maelstrom.

"I already told you my Iron Body technique is the greatest in CP9!" he roared, silhouetted by the fire. "If your damn kicks couldn't hurt me before, they can't hurt me now!"

Jabra burst through a flame barrier with the smell of burnt fur, eyes screwed shut but claws bared, and Sanji dropped to the ground right in front of him, pivoting on his free foot. As the wolf swung his claws, the burning leg shot upwards like a spear, striking directly in the assassin's chest. For a moment, flames were visible shooting up from the wolf's back.

[DIABLE JAMBE: RÔTI BIEN-CUITE]

The kick struck the wolf's chest and the claws raked into Sanji's side before both combatants disengaged. For a moment it looked like the flaming leg had done just as little as his earlier attacks.

Then, with a gasp and widened eyes, the wolf-man opened his mouth, belching a cloud of smoke and steam. He hit the ground in a smoking pile, his insides roasting from the stored heat as his transformation ended.

The battle won, Sanji turned, beginning to walk away as he favored his bleeding side. Solemnly he lit a cigarette, taking a long drag before saying anything.

"Should have listened to the chef's advice, Monsieur Bad Wolf."

-City-

-Franky-

The fighting between Franky and Fukuro had been furiously stupid, and Naruto was still kicking himself for watching all of it. As time had passed, more and more people had poured into the street where the two warriors were duking it out, and it appeared the majority of them were gang-members allied with Franky. Cheering and jeering swelled as the size of the crowd grew, the Franky Family eager to show their support for their beloved boss who was still dueling in horror-horse form.

Then, just when things couldn't get any weirder, a tremendous toad landed in the street with them. It had brown skin, black hair, and a scarred belly.

Naruto frowned at it, not recognizing the unfamiliar creature that was barely even paying attention to him.

"Hey, do I know you?" he asked.

"Gero!" replied the toad, focusing instead on the battle.

"What the- wait, are you even one of the ninja toads at all? Which one of me summoned you, anyway?"

The frog turned an annoyed glance his way before saying, "Gero-Gero!" and hopping further away, studiously ignoring him after that.

"Well screw you too, then!"

This was ridiculous. In fact, as the two fighters clashed again, Naruto finally realized that he just couldn't stand any of this any more.

"Holy shit!" he shouted, "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen! I keep expecting to get used to that dumbass centaur form of yours, but it's no good! It still makes me wanna puke! How the hell are you still alive?"

Both fighters were breathing heavily as they separated once more, sporting bruises and dents from the vicious attacks. Franky, however, seemed to be firmly on the losing side.

"You're an idiot, Cutty Flam," squeaked the monstrous, green-haired CP9 assassin. "You might have gotten stronger and faster somehow, but that centaur form is no good in a fight. You'd be much better off if you cancelled the transformation right now. SHIT! I said that out loud!"

Panting, Franky removed his newly-shattered pair of sunglasses, replacing them with a spare. Unlike the concern that the situation seemed to warrant, he didn't look upset at all. In fact, he was wearing an open-mouthed grin.

"Well, don't get your speedos in a twist, buckaroo! You can't talk shit about this transformation until you've seen its Final Form!"

"...Final form?" asked Naruto.

"FINAL FORM?!" cried most of the Franky Family, in unison.

"Gero-Gero?!" croaked Yokozuna.

"F-Final Form?!" exclaimed Fukuro, backing up uncertainly from the confident declaration. "No! No, that can't be right! You're just bluffing! CHAPAPA!"

"Oh, it's no bluff, buddy. In fact, you're gonna get a personal ride on the pain train right now!"

As Franky began emitting steam from his joints, terror entered Fukuro's expression, and then he shouted his battle-cry.

"NOT IF I STOP YOU FIRST!"

Fukuro shot forward with the superhuman speed of his training, but it was too late to stop the transformation.

[BATTLE FRANKY 36: KENTAURUS: BI-PED]

Clanking and clunking, Franky's centauroid form latched closed just in time for him to dodge the flying CP9 member's attack. Suddenly using only two legs for an incredible increase in mobility, he nimbly side-stepped the attack, allowing Fukuro to blast past him. In the moment Fukuro flew by, Franky grabbed him by the leg.

Pulled along by the CP9 member's momentum, both fighters soared into the distance and collided with a building, bringing it tumbling to the ground in a shower of rubble.

Naruto watched this in stupefied silence. All the cyborg had done was de-transform.

When the dust cleared, Franky had both of his fists buried deep in the other man's enormous mouth, and he was grinning from ear to ear. Meanwhile, Fukuro's eyes were wide, his arms flailing back and forth uncontrollably.

"Whoa there!" exclaimed Franky. "Don't move, skippy, or I might just go off!"

"Whayyou 'hink yer 'oing?!" shouted the suddenly-sweating Fukuro, forced to talk around the metal fists.

"Told you my Final Form would turn this around. You see, with two legs I'm much faster, aren't I? It's a true evolution in fighting technology!"

"atsh 'ot 'rue! 'atsh ihposhiful!"

"Oh, it's very possible. And you know what?" Franky brought his wide grin in closer, staring the fat man straight in the eyes as his voice lowered to a threatening rumble. "I've never let anyone live who's seen my Final Form..."

Naruto honestly began leaking tears at this point. He couldn't help it. This world was just too stupid.

"'o! 'on't kill 'e!" Fukuro pleaded.

At this, Franky burst into open laughter. "Bahahahah! I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna kill you, pal!"

As soon as Fukuro looked relieved, Franky continued. "We're just gonna go on a nice, romantic, balloon-ride together- that's all!"

"...What?" asked Naruto.

"WHAT?!" asked the Franky Family.

"Gero?!" asked Yokuzuna.

"...'ut?" asked Fukuro.

"-and you're the balloon!" finished Franky. His arms expanded to several times their normal size, jamming the assassin's mouth wide open in the process, and then all hell broke loose.

[COUP-DE-VENT]

Franky's Coup-de-Vent was a blast of air capable of sinking ships, and now he funnelled it directly into Fukuro's open mouth.

"AGAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed, instantly expanding to three times his normal size, his cheeks and round torso bulging and warping from the titanic intake. Then the air escaped in one long, horrible burp that sent Fukuro flying up over the buildings, and a cackling cyborg rode the man off into the distance.

Everyone left behind could only watch in shock. A long moment passed.

Then, Naruto turned to the assorted figures of the Franky Family who were watching with popped eyes and dropped jaws. He brought one hand up in a wave. "Well guys, have fun with that."

Then he brought his hands together and disappeared.

-City-

-Nami-

Nami knew she was in a bad spot. The battlefield before her was covered with patches of bubbles, and the attacks she had already sustained had smoothed away parts of her features. In particular, part of her chest and one of her forearms were now flat, shiny, and useless, which was making the use of her Clima-Tact rather difficult.

Still, she thought, looking across at the haughty woman who stood before her, she wasn't out of this fight yet. Now was the time to turn this around. She had finally figured out this woman's weaknesses, and all she needed now was a distraction.

As if in response to her thoughts, a cloud of smoke burst into existence behind the assassin, who turned in shock to face the unexpected arrival.

"Hello, my ladies," said a smooth voice from inside the cloud. "We're so sorry for keeping you both waiting, but it took a short while to finish our preparations."

The smoke cleared in a suspicious gust of wind, revealing what lay underneath. As they watched, Kalifa's eyes went wide, her jaw dropping. A second later, Nami's followed.

[NINPO: GYAKU-HAREM NO JUTSU]

[NINJA ART: REVERSE-HAREM TECHNIQUE]

From inside the cloud stalked a bevy of young men, each one of them with a fit build, a devilishly handsome face, and sporting a confident smile. Some were clothed in fashion that could have come out of magazines while some were half-naked, but each one of them was focusing their deadly gaze directly on the black-clad assassin.

"I take it we meet your approval?" asked another one, a blond boy who was beaming an innocent and defenseless grin towards the woman. "It would be a shame if we failed to meet the desires of such a beautiful lady."

Nami watched with an amazement that turned to horror as the small army of handsome young men descended upon the baffled Kalifa until they had her completely surrounded.

Then, Nami shook her head, realizing that she was supposed to be doing something about this. Instead of gawking, she moved to complete her plan as the clones distracted the other woman.

Meanwhile, the assassin had made no move to attack, spinning in place from one beautiful boy to the other, her mouth wide open in shock. Finally, she managed to settle her beating heart long enough to speak, haltingly gasping the words in a breathy voice.

"That's... sexual... harassment..." she said.

The clone that looked the most like Sasuke stepped in, clasping her hand in his and using the other to lift her gently resisting chin. In a sultry voice he murmured. "Yeah... yeah it is..."

As he looked deep into her eyes, a mist of rain began to fall around them, wetting their hair and trickling beads of moisture down their faces.

Kalifa had just a moment to remember that it never rained on Enies Lobby before the entirely inappropriate grips of several of the young men tightened around her.

"Okay, Nami! I got her!"

Head spinning in shock, Kalifa looked up to see Nami standing at the top of the fountain, firing a continuous jet of high-pressure wind straight into the output nozzle. Up and down the street, the ground was buckling as pipes burst from the strain, causing sprays of water to cover the whole area in a drizzle that broke down all of the woman's supernatural bubbles. In moments all of the bubbles were gone, and as the water covered her as well, the patches of Nami's skin that had earlier been smoothed away gradually expanded to their normal contours.

Returned to fighting form, Nami smiled down upon them.

Kalifa boggled as she struggled to escape from the firm grips of the clone harem. "What? What is this? Playing with an innocent maiden's heart?! You scum! You won't get away with this!"

"Yeah, I'll tell you how this is going to go," started Nami, descending from the fountain one step after another. "See, I'm going to pretend that none of this ever happened, and you're going to pay for trying to kill me and my friends."

One of the clones who hadn't glomped over the assassin approached Nami to offer her a hand down from the rim of the fountain, which Nami ignored as she leapt down and then kicked him in the crotch. The clone disappeared with a pained expression that was soon shared by the other watching clones.

"Naruto, if you try that shit on me, I'll do that to your real balls, alright?"

The next-nearest clone just laughed. "You'll have to catch me, first, lady. So, what's it gonna be? Thump on the head? Lightning bolt?"

Nami shook her head as she stepped up in front of the wide-eyed woman who was now on her knees, two clones on each limb to prevent her from using her strength.

"No… No… See, I might not look it, but I think I'm the least kind among our little group. Even Zoro and Sanji don't care what they do to you so long as it gets you out of their face, but I think this situation calls for a little more than that. So, we're gonna keep this simple."

In one smooth motion, Nami spun her staff down to point the end straight at the female assassin. The clones got just a moment to go wide-eyed before Nami depressed a button and a blast of flame shot from the end of the device.

"HOLY SHI—"

Everyone in front of her screamed as the fire washed over them, Nami continuing to hold down the button until each of the clones had evaporated. When the flames finally extinguished, Kalifa crashed limply to the ground, her hair burnt off, her skin steaming, and her clothes ruined.

Suddenly alone, Nami smiled, straightening her outfit and resuming her run to the City Gates.

-City Gates-

-Usopp and Naruto Group-

"RASENGAN!" shouted Naruto, running along while miming punching with a ball of wind in his palm. "-and then he went, 'AHH! UGG! ARG! KABLAMZO!'"

"Wait, Naruto, what? What are you doing?" asked Usopp, still wearing his black Tengu mask as they continued their run to the gates.

"Huh? I'm doing the voices and sound effects, dude."

"No, with the hand thing, what was that?"

"The Rasengan? I make this swirly ball of wind and hit people with it, like *KABOOM*!"

It was hard to tell behind the mask, but Usopp's skepticism shone through nonetheless. "You really think people are gonna buy that? Wind doesn't go 'kablamzo!'"

"Hey, come on, dude! It's like my ultimate attack! I even used it back at the tower! Everyone else saw it! It's super cool!"

Usopp rolled his eyes. "Sure it is, Naruto. Well, we're making up a story anyway, so you might as well say whatever you-"

"Screw you!"

Usopp laughed in response. It was even harder to stay serious since Naruto had decided to upgrade his white face-paint with some red streaks. There hadn't been any particular reason for this- it had just been something that Naruto had wanted to do.

"Anyway, aren't you gonna take off that mask now?" asked Naruto, still sulking.

"What, this thing?" Usopp paused, fingering its black-lacquered wood surface that was adorned with red streaks, its long nose, and its evil, grinning mouth. "No… no, you know what? I think I'll keep it."

"Okay, man, suit yourself."

"Hey, listen, Naruto. Is everyone else alright? We don't need to get help for anyone, do we? Can you do the clone thing and look around a bit?"

Smiling, Naruto shook his head. "No need, man. I learn everything my clones know when they disappear. The only ones still in the city are us, Nami, Zoro, and Sanji. Nami… uhh… she just won her fight, more or less, so she's coming after us. Zoro's up ahead at the gates. Sanji... I dunno about him, but I'm sure he's fine. Everyone else is out of the city and on their way to the docks."

Then Naruto looked up. "Oh, and there's Franky."

"Franky?" asked Usopp, "That big guy from back at the tower? Where is he, and why should I care about him?"

"No, I mean, there's Franky!" he responded, pointing into the air.

Off in the distance, a cackling cyborg rode a rapidly-deflating assassin like a rocket off towards the docks. Usopp watched with fascination.

"Wow!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, he's cool. Oh, and speak of the devil, we're almost at the gates now."

Usopp looked down and pointed far off towards the City Gates. "Hey! It's Zoro! He's fighting the giraffe!"

There was a moment's pause as a gust of wind blew through the streets, and then both of the young men screamed.

-City Gates-

-Zoro-

If there was one thing that Zoro thought would never define his life it would be dueling a giraffe to the death. Surely his path to becoming the greatest swordsman in the world wouldn't lead him to stand, bleeding from numerous wounds, before a dual-bladed were-giraffe. And yet, here he was. Funny how life worked sometimes.

"Look at you," said Kaku, looking down upon his opponent from his giraffe-granted height, "I know they talk about the vitality of youth, but there are limits. You're bleeding all over, Roronoa Zoro."

Zoro said nothing, eyes closed, and his three swords at the ready as he steadied his breathing.

"You know, you need to start thinking about giving up. You're not getting Nico Robin out of here alive. I should know. I cut down every ship out there personally."

"You did what?" asked Zoro, frowning at the new information.

"Oh, it's just something us old-timers are used to thinking about, that's all," said the young CP9 giraffe. "See, we go on and on about 'super-humans,' or 'martial-arts techniques,' or 'Devil-Fruits,' but really the greatest assassination technique out there is painfully simple."

He smiled, the grin wrapping itself around his oblong snout, "All you have to do is destroy the ships! Pirates can only survive in this world by running, after all. Just running away whenever the authorities come. Kill any chance they had of running and they'll die, sure as eggs is eggs!"

Zoro's expression darkened, annoyance replacing his earlier intense focus. Just what Kaku wanted.

"It's the same for Nico Robin, you know? She scurried about like a rat for years and years, running onto a ship every time they had her cornered. Now that we've stopped all of you from running, this infestation is going to stop right here... 'Course, she never left anywhere without sticking a knife in someone's back, did she? She left with your captain, correct? Boy, I sure hope he knows to be careful."

Zoro's grip tightened, teeth clenched around his sword.

"Yep," said Kaku, "The world's gonna be a better place after she's rotting in prison."

A blast of wind washed over him and down the streets, ruffling his short fur, and he blinked, his ears flicking back and forth in confusion. Something was happening to Roronoa Zoro.

For a moment, Kaku perceived a sense of both intense rage and intense calm from the man in front of him. Zoro's head was down, his eyes hidden by his green bandana, but a wicked wind was shaking the air around his body, permeated throughout with a dark green energy.

Blinking, Kaku tried to clear his eyes of a hallucination. It almost looked like the man had three heads and six arms, each holding a sword, but that was just ridiculous. Only after a few seconds of focus passed did he realize that it wouldn't go away.

"What… what is this?!"

[KIKI KYUUTOURYUU: ASURA]

[DEMON SOUL NINE-SWORD-STYLE: ASURA]

This… this was no illusion! Before his eyes, the hallucination solidified, waves of darkness-tinged green wind pouring down over a man with three heads and six arms. In moments, Zoro began to spin, clearly preparing for some ridiculous attack.

Kaku had to do something about this. Falling to the side and landing on one arm, he himself began to spin in the opposite direction, his massive neck serving as a counterweight to the most powerful spinning attack he could perform. His Rankyaku had already been a source of pride, and now with his giraffe strength it would be unbreakable.

It was a pity that much of the city would likely suffer the consequences of this attack, but weakness or hesitation were luxuries that all of a sudden he could not afford.

[RANKYAKU: AMANE-DACHI]

[STORM LEG: CIRCUMFERENCE SEVER]

He kicked, and the world in front of him exploded in a wall of white that rushed forward to engulf the other swordsman.

An instant later, the unbreakable Rankyaku broke, parting for the spinning three-headed demon's nine blades. Kaku stumbled in place as his attack was cancelled, and that moment of defenselessness was enough.

[ASURA: SHIN TATSUMAKI-SENPUU-KEN ]

[ASURA: TRUE DRAGON WHIRLWIND BLADE]

Before Kaku could parse what he was seeing, Zoro became the center of a roaring cyclone of energy, writhing and clawing outwards faster and faster. Barely able to get his balance in time, Kaku jumped backwards, only just keeping ahead of its rapid expansion. Suddenly with his back to the city walks, he leapt into the sky, cresting the tops of the ramparts and kicking off of the incoming wall of air to avoid the attack.

In a moment of stomach-churning surprise, the evil winds refused to support him, and then he was pulled inside.

The winds whipped him about, cutting at his skin, his clothes, and his face as Kaku struggled to escape. The roaring hurricane was a turbulent hell, with eddies of intense pressure forming directly next to sudden vacuums, and he just couldn't get out. It was actively resisting his escape. Flying around and around, the attack seemed to be covering a not-insignificant section of the city, tearing buildings into rubble that slammed against his hardened body.

He winced, fighting to regain control or even to orient himself upwards. He couldn't take this much longer. Gathering his will for one intense effort, he performed a giraffe-powered Geppou straight inwards, aiming for the eye of the storm.

He broke through the wall with surprising ease, and there was peace at the heart of it all. All except for in one place. Zoro was waiting for him balanced on the point of a toppled boulder, all six eyes closed. Then his eyes opened, each head turning upward to stare at the intruder as he breached the wall.

His body was covered in an aura of black and viridian, each of his nine swords warping from the distortion of strange winds that were coiling about him.

Kaku drew his blades, summoning his energy to defend himself as he turned his fall into an attack, kicking off the air to dive straight into the chaotic storm of energy around the other swordsman.

For a moment even that chaos was calm. Everything became as silence.

Zoro leapt into the sky without a single noise. Not from the windstorm, or the drawn blades, or the beating of blood in their ears.

Both swordsmen struck, the steel refusing to ring as their blades clashed in the deathly quiet.

They passed.

Kaku landed.

Time seemed to stand still as Kaku took stock of their shared stroke. He had bled Roronoa Zoro, sneaking a blade between the man's nine swords, but none of Zoro's attacks had hurt him in return.

He had won.

Kaku turned with a sneer, seeing the bleeding form of Zoro step down to the ground. The giraffe released his Tekkai, preparing to finish the job.

The windstorm walls collapsed around them.

Then, Zoro sheathed his blades, one after another, as the sounds of the storm and combat returned in one crashing wave of wind and steel.

[ASURA: KUROUDAI]

[ASURA: NINE GREAT ELDERS]

In unison with the sounds of the crashing storm, Kaku was struck nine times in quick succession, overwhelming his attempts to regain his iron form. Each strike cut deep into his hide, arriving in time with a blast of wind that crushed him in one direction after another. Flying back and forth, he finally returned to human form as the last blade was sheathed, collapsing in a bleeding heap.

Aside from sheathing his swords, Zoro had remained motionless.

A demon stood among the falling rubble. One blink and then a man stood in his place, blood dripping to the ground.

Without a word, Zoro turned to the ruins of the formerly great City Gates, which had been torn completely from their place to fall in pieces to the ocean below. Placing one tired foot after the other, the man passed over the threshold to find his friends.

Off in the distance, Usopp and Naruto emerged from a pile of rubble, spitting out the large quantities of brick-dust they had captured in their open-mouthed staring.

So it was that the Enies Lobby invasion force returned to the City Gates.

-Enies Lobby Support Bridge-

-Luffy-

In the distance, a crowd gathered. As each of the warriors assaulting Enies Lobby finished their fights, they returned here, and now every one of them was cheering Luffy or jeering his opponent. Of course, none of them would dare try to cross the thin finger of land that supported the island while Luffy and Lucci were engaged in their superhuman duel, so instead they watched and waited.

"LUFFY!" shouted the high and reedy voice of Usopp, face still hidden by his Tengu mask, "BEAT HIM! THEN WE'RE ALL GOING HOME!"

Luffy smiled, still panting and out of breath, but Lucci just laughed.

"Look at them, Straw-Hat. They think they've won. They've fought through Enies Lobby, and now they think they're in the home stretch. But you and I know better… don't we?"

As Luffy's stare focused, Lucci's lips twitched upward, exposing his teeth. "I'll say it again. This is the only battle that really mattered. None of that lot can stop me, not even working together, so the conclusion should be clear."

"When this battle is over," he said, his eyes filled with a murderous lust, "I will go over there and slaughter every single one of them."

Summoning new reserves of strength, Luffy screamed to the sky, his body once again entering the high-powered state of Gear Second. He attacked, and even a hundred feet away his sweeping foot arrived in the blink of an eye.

[GOMU GOMU NO JET WHIP]

Lucci leapt over the attack and prepared to close the distance between them once again, but then Luffy appeared above him, his face a mask of rage. Suddenly face-to-face, both fighters struck at the same time.

At the sidelines, the observers felt the shockwave wash over them. Lucci fell like a meteorite, making a crater in the earth of the rock pillar, while Luffy flew far up into the sky. Then, Luffy screamed, and this time everyone heard it.

All across the island, fighting stopped.

The Franky Family, Galley-La workers, and the assembled Straw-Hats looked up, mouths open. At the docks, Flounders and Sasuke turned in surprise. On a stage inside a conference building, Kumadori faltered in the performance of his seventeenth consecutive suicide scene, unsure of what had distracted him.

Far in the air, Luffy took a deep breath, blood streaming from his wounds. The whipping winds filled his lungs, and then he bit down into his thumb-joint.

[GEAR THIRD]

Blowing fiercely into his own body, the bones and muscles in his arm expanded to gargantuan size. Whereas normally the addition of air would lower the density of his body, the magic of the Fruit scaled up his limb's mass to reflect its increased volume, allowing him to expand his muscles and bones in all directions at the same time. As he shouted wordlessly at the world below, Luffy's silhouette expanded to fifty times that of its original size.

Below, many of the assembled onlookers turned and ran, now beginning to worry about things such as 'minimum safe distance' from the impact of what looked like a very dangerous attack.

High above, Luffy stretched, his left leg shooting straight up to the clouds. With a constriction of muscles, the air passed into his torso, inflating him like a balloon. Finally, tearing his clothes, the air traveled into his foot. As his sandals exploded, his right leg became the size of a house- and just as massive.

Roaring his attack, he brought his cloud-touched foot down towards the rock isthmus below him.

[GOMU-GOMU NO GIGANT PILE DRIVER]

The foot descended, and Rob Lucci snarled, whipping his head upwards, his leopard fur matted with blood and dirt. He stood at the thinnest part of the great rock-bridge that supported Enies Lobby itself, and there was limited room to move. Seeing the giant's foot approaching, he stood up and raised both hands, solidifying his body with his most powerful defense.

[TEKKAI: GOU]

[FIERCE IRON BODY]

He took the stamping strike on both hands, his teeth slamming together from the force of the impact. Then, abruptly, the ground gave way beneath him and Rob Lucci was driven like a steel rivet down into the rock below him. Luffy's foot dug a deep crater, but Lucci dug in even deeper. His remaining clothes tore themselves to shreds on the rocks, but his body refused to give out, cutting further and further into the bedrock.

Finally he came to rest a hundred feet below ground-level, surrounded by rock on all sides.

At the moment he released his Tekkai, he immediately coughed up a bit of blood, his bones shaking to recover from the immense compression they had just been forced into.

Doing a quick inventory of his physical state, he found that his legs had been broken. More importantly, the rock around him was crushingly tight, trapping him in place. Struggling, he fought to move, buried deep in the earth with absolutely no leverage. Above him, he could hear the stomping and cheering that signified that every one of the pirates and thugs trapped at the City Gates were now thundering past, as well as a few larger crashes that must have been the giants. As the rumbling vibration continued, dirt showered down the cracks in the earth, pouring over him until it was packed in tighter and tighter.

He couldn't breathe.

After the exhausting fight, he could only struggle for a breath that wouldn't come. With desperation he thrust his arms an inch or two from side to side, shattering the stone around him, but this only allowed even more dirt to pour in to replace it.

His lungs were bursting. He could not breathe.

Was this how the story of the greatest fighter in the history of CP9 would end? He was going to die of suffocation, being trampled to death by ants? With little freedom to move, none of the Six-Techniques were suited to getting him out of this before he fell unconscious.

No. Wait. There was one.

Slowly, he reformed his fists, bringing them slightly forward through the cascading dirt.

[ROKUSHIKI OUGI: ROKUOUGAN - SAIDAIRIN]

[SIX TECHNIQUES ULTIMATE: SIX KINGS GUN - GREATEST RING]

Lucci's leopard fists shot forward, needing only an inch to accelerate to the proper speed, the force of his attack travelling in a supreme wave up and outward, shattering rock all around him. The king technique of his arsenal obliterated a tremendous arc of stone, converting it to dust and freeing him from its prison.

This may have been a mistake.

Aboveground, the island shook again, and a fountain of rock and dirt exploded from the impact crater. Shockwaves spread all around as the mountain-shattering strike spread its devastation.

To describe the noise that echoed across the island at that moment as a 'snapping' would be entirely misleading.

Pencils snap. Bones snap. Trees snap.

Islands aren't supposed to snap.

Lucci felt the moment when the rock to one side of him shifted, and then the island of Enies Lobby slipped a few inches off-kilter. A moment later, the rock pillar that supported the island gave way completely. As the rock opened up to air behind him, Lucci scrabbled in the falling dirt, lacking anything to grab hold of.

He gasped, finally able to breathe, and it had been the most destructive breath ever taken by a human being.

Screaming in rage, the final defender of CP9 fell, and the island fell with him.

As the Judicial Island plummeted into the ocean, anything that didn't involve staring in shocked horror at the spectacle stopped dead. Jaws were dropped, screams were voiced, and- especially on the island itself- pants were wet.

Then it hit bottom.

The noise of a mountain-sized boulder striking the rocky, hole-riddled sea-floor was deafening. A titanic cracking sound signalled the breaking of some of the complicated structures underneath the island, followed by a cresting splash of water that erupted in a ring some two miles wide and more than a mile into the air, coming down as a rain that shrouded the ever-day island in its first darkness in ages.

From her position at the Island Gates, Robin watched the mighty fortress literally fall into the ocean with her mouth open in confusion. Above all of the destruction loomed the barely-visible shadow of the Gates of Justice that covered the horizon, barely visible through the clouds and blue sky. It was a monument to the power of the World Government even now.

But, in the end, the Straw-Hats had gone up against the world for her, and the world had lost.

In the distance, every one of the invaders was charging back down the path on the way to the docks. Usopp had picked up Luffy as they ran back, their young captain being completely immobilized after the stress of his attack. Despite him being unable to move, Robin could still make out his voice all the way from here as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"ROOOOOBIIIN! WE'RE GOING HOME!"

Omake:

CP9 Chief Spandam exploded from underneath the churning waters of the ocean pit, grasping and clinging onto one of the immense pieces of driftwood that littered the waters. Miraculously, he had managed to survive. Gagging, he coughed up seawater until he could breathe once more.

"Those idiots! I'll have them all executed!" he shouted, gasping and coughing. "I know people! I'll make sure those incompetent assassins get bounties! They'll be hunted till the day they die! No… wait, I still have the Golden Den-Den-Mushi! I can make them all pay!"

Startled out of his enraged trance, Spandam noticed the sky darkening. Funny, it wasn't ever supposed to be night-time on this island. He looked up.

Spandam had three seconds to scream as the entire island of Enies Lobby crashed down on top of his head, and he used all of them to their fullest.

A/N: Phew. All the input I got pushed me really hard to make this better than I originally thought I could. I can officially say this is giving me exactly the sort of experience I wanted from all this writing. I have more ideas to fix some things earlier now, but I'm more focused on moving further.

Also, this is what the chakra stuff much earlier was leading to. Zoro and Sanji upgraded their elemental power greatly compared to canon simply by knowing the depths of what was possible. They can develop that further as well. They'll never use ninjutsu, but now they can feel their chakra.

Today's Zoro food-pun was Kuroudai, corrupting Kurodai, which is a Black Sea-bream that is very popular in Japan. For the kanji I used "KU" for the number nine, "ROU" for aged or old, and "DAI" for great. Pretty straightforward compared to his normal puns, but there you go.

Sanji's techniques were a term for a well-done roast, and 'arroser,' a word in french cuisine for basting meat with hot oil or butter by pouring it on top. He now has a mid-ranged fire attack to complement his melee attacks, and while it's not precise, it is effective. Especially since ninjas often fight at mid-range.

Oh, but we're not actually done with this arc, yet.