Where had it all gone wrong? The treasure hunter thought blindly. It had all gone so horribly wrong. Just minutes before; she, Zoro, Luffy and the others had been laughing at the bad memories of the Human Slave Auction; and now it was a hellish mess.
Standing painfully on a strained foot, Jiru watched as the real Kuma reached for the swordsman in front of her. She couldn't give anymore…her body was unable to move another inch. Her slowly-recovering eyesight was a huge handicap; she had been blinded by the light of Admiral Kizaru – the DF user of light – minutes before.
The avalanche of bad events was all her fault; if she hadn't turned around to tease Zoro for the eighth time as they ran away from fighting Sentoumaru and his fake Kumas, then she wouldn't have been caught off-guard. But she had turned around and had missed the incoming mass of light who was the Logia-DF-user Admiral Kizaru. The admiral had caught her by the neck and used a brilliant flash of light to take out her eyesight before she knew what occurred. Zoro attempted to rescue her and ended up paying the price. Kizaru had kicked the swordsman in the gut and on the ground, sending him writhing in pain from his half-healed wounds from Thriller Bark.
It was terrifying to hear and not see what Kizaru would do to them. He was first going to kill Roronoa Zoro and then her. From the horrified screams and pleas from Luffy and the others, the admiral was holding to his promise. Jiru, however, used her Reiki powers and attempted to push the grounded Zoro away from Kizaru. That worked, only for a minute; then the light-light man warped his light-made body to pin the swordsman on the ground feet away, cutting her effort short. This left her free, gasping for air and completely blinded. She watched, more like sensed, as Kizaru was about to kill Zoro.
It was utter relief when Ray-sama came to the rescue and saved Zoro from death. Sanji and Brooke had come to hers, the skeleton helping her to her feet and ending up carrying her while Usoppu lugged the injured Zoro away from Kizaru. Sanji jumped in as her group was reft of its main protection; Zoro. The glade was full of confusion and battles. They had all split into three groups, running away from the marine bastard, Sentoumaru, who had tracked them down and engaged in battle. Everyone was screaming at one another, shouting for them to all run away.
That was what they were trying to do; but Kizaru, his nephew Sentomaru and the Paficistas all got in the way. Now, she, Zoro, Sanji, Brooke and Usoppu were at the mercy of the real Bartholomew Kuma. Her blindness made her a blundering idiot; and Zoro had jerked her back, stopping her from colliding with the titan who suddenly appeared in front of them.
It had been too high a price; as the narrow tunnel of returned vision granted her the sight of Kuma killing Zoro. Zoro was standing there one moment and the next, he was gone, vanished – dead to her Reiki senses. The only way for Zoro drop completely from her small-radius of Reiki sense in a heartbeat was to die. Zoro was gone; and he had tried to protect her.
So she stood there, unable to move, unable to process what just occurred. Behind her, Usoppu was screaming Zoro's name, then hers, then Sanji's.
Standing dead still, Jiru didn't even shiver as Usoppu's Kabuto launched attack after attack; each deadly projectile flying by her inert body by mere centimeters. It was all worthless, however, as the real Kuma was just too strong.
Sanji propped himself up on his elbows, panting and hurting from the previous wounds he gained from trying to help out the trio. Behind him were Brooke, Usoppu and his precious Jiru. He was enraged for Jiru; seeing Zoro vanish into thin air had disabled the treasure hunter, leaving her very vulnerable and wide open for attack. The cook was not going to have any of that and stepped up his game.
"So…is this guy finally the real Kuma?" Sanji asked himself. "I mean…we've fought with three of these guys, already!"
"WHERE'S ZORO?" Usoppu barked, still enraged. "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU SEND HIM? ANSWER ME! YOU BASTARD!"
Behind Usoppu, the PX-1 was preparing to fire another beam, this time from his mouth. Its sights were set on the sniper and treasure hunter. Only Sanji noticed enough to react.
"Usoppu, Jiru!" Sanji cried. "Look out behind you!"
Before cyborg could attack the two unaware Mugiwaras, the real Kuma tapped the paficista with his paws, causing the cyborg fake to disappear.
"Don't interfere…" the real Kuma said, simply.
"He just made one of his own disappear!" Sanji exclaimed, as the battle kept taking twists and turns enough to confuse him.
Across the clearing in which the Mugiwaras were fighting various forces set against them; Luffy was facing against Sentomaru. The axe-wielding sumo-weighted marine-in-training gasped in surprise when he saw what the real Kuma did with PX-1.
"What?" Sentomaru hissed in annoyance. "He touched PX-1? What the hell is he doing? KUMA! WHY ARE YOU MAKING ONE OF YOUR OWN DISAPPEAR?"
"RUN FOR IT, YOU GUYS!" Luffy shouted, unable to do anything for his far-separated nakama. "WE HAVE TO GET OUTTA HERE, NOW! WE'LL THINK OF SOMETHING ONCE WE'RE SAFE FROM THESE GUYS!"
"But Luffy, what about Zoro and Jiru?" Nami asked from next to him. The other group who had parted ways – Robin, Franky and Chopper - all viewed how the treasure hunter had just shut down after Zoro vanished.
"He said we'll worry about it later, Sis!" Franky answered. "Now let's scram!" With that, the Straw Hats prepared to run, once again.
"C'mon, Jiru!" Usoppu said as he tried to get the treasure hunter to move. "That last beam only grazed me! Just grab onto my shoulders! Hurry up!"
Beside the begging sniper, Sanji struggled to stand on his feet, determined to protect the unresponsive treasure hunter. Mere feet away, Brooke staggered to his feet to see Kuma approaching the weary and slow retreating trio, the Shichibukai had his hand raised. The fighting skeleton gasped before he threw himself in between the Warlord and his three escaping comrades.
"Look out, you three!" Brooke said gallantly. "I shall protect you three with my life!" the musician said. "Even though I am already d-"
Before Brooke could finish his little joke, Kuma repelled the skeleton him, causing him to also disappear. In the sky, another bubble popped.
Jiru gasped, her body twitching by reaction; the sickening feeling that formed in the pit of her stomach told her another one of her friends had died. Brooke had also vanished from senses, gone from the spot she just had heard him talk in. Her vision slowly came back as she turned around. What she viewed was hell: there was no Zoro and no sign of Brooke; and beside her, Usoppu and Sanji were trying to get her to run.
"BROOKE! ZORO!" The treasure hunter's heart-rending screams made the Mugiwaras all flinch. The scream was full of fear and desperation.
Next to Jiru, Sanji growled in frustration as he began to grab his hair, his nails digging into his scalp. Hearing Jiru's soul-wrenching cry drove him to the brink of insanity. His precious Jiru-chwan was in mortal anguish and there was nothing he could do to help her.
"Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed. "What the hell am I doing, just standing here? Two members of our crew got erased RIGHT in front of my eyes! USOPPU, JIRU! RUN!"
"Don't talk like a maniac, Sanji!" Usoppu said, trying in vain to get Jiru to move. "We've got to run! You have to come with us!"
"YOU DAMN PAW-BASTARD, HOW DARE YOU MAKE JIRU-CHAN CRY!" Sanji shouted as he charged at Kuma. The cook had had enough, and launched a flame-footed Diablo Kick, but Kuma blocked the cook's heel with his paw, flinging Sanji into a nearby tree root. Sanji tried to get back up, but as he lifted his head, he saw, to his horror, that Kuma was now trying to attack Usoppu and Jiru.
"No!" Usoppu cried, stepping in front of Jiru. "Stay back! Stay away from me! Special Attack: EXPLODING STAR! EXPLODING STAR!"
The frantic sniper shot two Exploding Stars at the threat, but shots had no effect on the Shichibukai at all. Before the sniper could react again, Kuma pressed his paw against his chest. Yet another bubble burst in the sky as Usoppu vanished. Sanji gasped and Jiru had screamed incoherently again. Three crewmates had vanished and he couldn't do a damned thing about it. Kuma was now looking at Jiru; who hadn't moved since Usoppu had dragged her three feet.
"JIRU-CHAN, RUN!" Sanji shouted before he got up and charged at Kuma once again; trying his best to protect his treasure hunter. "DAMN YOU!"
Charging the gigantic Shichibukai, Sanji launched himself into the air and prepared a deadly kick for Kuma's eyes. However, the cyborg plainly saw it coming and reached out with his ungloved hand and swiped his paw at Sanji, and the cook was the next to disappear.
Four. Four of her closest friends were dead; gone from her senses like they were never there: Zoro, Brooke, Usoppu and Sanji. Looking up as the shadow fell over her, she viewed Kuma. The Shichibukai was calmly walking towards her. She didn't care; couldn't care; her heart was raw from losing her friends. If they couldn't escape Kuma; how could she?
Her muddled senses vaguely registered Luffy's panicked screams at her to run, but she couldn't do it. There was no possible way she could physically out-run this threat. Turning her body towards Luffy's voice, her returning eyesight locked with his for just a moment before she felt Kuma's paw on her back.
"I'm sorry, Luffy-chan-" She managed to whisper before she too, was gone.
Grove 12 of the Shaboady Archipelago in the Grand Line; it was there, on that day, that the Straw Hat Pirates, led by Monkey D. Luffy...had been eradicated.
To be continued…