Chapter 24: I do not own One Piece.
Christmas has been! And now New Year has gone. … By the way if you like one of my stories or one of the chapters please give it a review so that I know what it is that my readers find most interesting when reading my stories.
HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE! For the start of 2014!
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Tashigi's Heart: Justice is Taken
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SNAP... CRACK... SNAP
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I scream in agony, and hear the sound of my leg being dislocated, twisted pushed back in place then broken again. And then there was silence.
SCRATCH … SCRAP...
That was the sound of feet her feet walking by me.
No! she had to be stopped.
Instinctively I reached out after her, I got a hold of her boot. "I won't let you go!" I looked up into her cold eyes. (looking back at this, I think that was a pretty stupid move to make, but I wasn't really thinking much at the time)
"How many times must you try this before giving up?" Nico Robin's glare was like knives cutting into my soul. Almost instantly I felt her hands on my throat again not squeezing out what little oxygen I had left, but digging her fingers into my windpipe making me choke and cough.
I managed to roll over once the hands had magically disappeared again and turned onto my stomach and watched helplessly as they walked past me into the distance.
"Nico... Robin..." I tried to pull myself up. I felt so dizzy. "I promise I shall Capture you …" I managed to inch my way forward just a bit on my elbows as I tried to get my eyes to focus and my head to clear.
My leg doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt.
"Cuph!... Cuphpf!..." I coughed on the dry air and sand that was being blown into my mouth.
"Humh." I turned my head around to look behind me.
"Crocodile? It's you."
"Hahu hahu hu!" He looked down at me confidently with a mocking smile. "It looks like Nico Robin made short work of you. I must say I never excepted the marines to follow me to the city. Where's your boss? Did that Smokey idiot run away and leave you all alone?"
No it wasn't true. It wasn't. My fingers scrapped through the dust. What am I doing here?
"Justice is only for the people who take it. That is the kind of world we live in girl." He reasoned with a smirk. "So why don't you go back to your base and talk about justice until you're ready to fight for it." He turned his back on me and walked away laughing.
Crocodile! One of these days you won't be laughing at other people's expense. You will be laughing at your own foolishness for thinking you can take this kingdom from a marine's prison cell.
I hadn't even be worth killing. What was wrong with me? When people see me do I have an invisible barrier around me that says can not kill, that is visible to everyone but me?!
I reached for Shigure, and gripped her. I felt so ashamed.
I was worthless. I really had done nothing to help anyone. I sat back onto my knees and got ready to stand up. They were so painful, but surprisingly it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would have...
"CROCODILE?!" a loud voice broke through my thoughts. I looked up and saw bare feet covered in blood, dusty blue jeans, grubby red shirt and black hair. I know this person.
"Strawhat!" I acknowledged. Just what I needed another pirate to beat me up, and not kill me, but leave me laughing.
"Crocodile where is he? Which way did he go?" Wait he's just after Crocodile?
"TELL ME RIGHT NOW! WHICH WAY DID HE GO!" Strawhat Luffy yelled in determination.
There was no reason to fight him now. I was no match for Nico Robin, or Crocodile. What was my reason for even being here? I dropped my defences. 'Justice is only for those who take it.' I couldn't take it for myself, but this person might. He is the lessor of two evils.
"Towards the temple. That way." I leant forward on my right hand to try and balance my body and pointed with my left hand in the direction that I had just seen Nico Robin, the king, and Crocodile go.
"That direction?! Thank you!" He said and ran off in the direction I had shown him. The sound of his feet patting on the coarse sand quickly vanished from my hearing. How could he be running? How can he have such faith in himself?
"What Justice is there!" I yelled and hit the ground at my feet. Was Luffy going to take down Crocodile?
"To hell with Marine Head quarters." I really hadn't done anything useful yet.
"I don't usually take anyone's side except for the Marines." I know what I had to do, but it was still going to be hard to achieve.
"Good luck Strawhat." I pulled myself up again, and stood up. We still needed to find that Bomb that would go off in the square. That's what I needed to focus on.
"Sergeant?" The young man I had sent off earlier had come back. "What happened?!"
"There's no time for that now. The Strawhats know what has been happening in Alabasta and have already started opposing Crocodile. I want you to inform all groups that they are to assist the strawhats in finding the bomb that will be going off in the square."
"But Sergeant Major!" he began to protest, but was intrupted by a bang that was close by. I looked up and saw the glare of a flare that had just been lit.
"Hurry! Maybe someone has found the location of the bomb!"
"Yes, Sergeant!"
We sprinted to the spot and noticed there was a message written on the ground right underneath the tail projectory line of the flare.
I read aloud. "Clock Tower?" was all that was written, "That must be where the cannon is." I looked around for Jotess, " and remember what I said before about the Strawhats, tell them."
Jotess nodded.
"...and tell them if they see Zoro to give him very precise directions. He has a lousy sense of directions."
"Yes, Sergeant Major. If your sure?"
"Yes," I replied. For once I am quite sure. "We need to put the citizens safety ahead of law upkeep."
"Sergeant? Is that the princess?" Jotess had a good eye, through the thick dust cloud in the square he was able to catch glimpse of the princess and the pirate beside her. Behind them was a massive group of civilians chasing them. Wait were they civilians? They were chasing the princess.
"They're not Civilians!" I pulled out Shigure and ran after them. "Cut down all the men who are chasing the princess!"
As we got closer to the group we could hear them better.
"Don't let them get away! Our Promotion is around the block!..."
unforgivable! I cut them down, and their weapons dropped.
The pirate with the long nose look up at us in shock. "uh thank you?."
"We're not here to fight we're here to help you. Now go and stop the explosion in the square! Okay!" They looked gob smacked. "Now go, Quickly!"
"Let's go Ussopp, come on hurry." The princess spoke to the pirate, and then yelled back, 'thank you'
More of my men had gathered. And I repeated my previous order. "Your orders are to assist the Strawhats in any way you can. Move out!"
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"Baroque Works? I haven't even heard of such a company, are you sure it even exists? We're just ordinary citizens of Alabasta." "You wouldn't want to hurt good citizens just because there's a rebellion."
I cut him down.
"Wait! Sergeant Major? They were.."
"Shut Up! Why were you hesitating Marine? If you wait for proof you wouldn't prevent anything. You should be able to tell who the enemy is immediately!"
"Yes, Sergeant! Sorry Sergeant."
We only have until 4:30 we are running out of time. I looked up at the clock...
"The Clock?" I said aloud. Weird, it was swung open like a door.
We were out in the open and had to occasionally had to dodge a few attacks and deliver some fatal blows, but I was at a vantage point where I could see exactly what was happening in the clock. Or in want of a better phrase what was behind the clock face. Now anyone who happened to get distracted enough to stop fighting and look up could see it, a monstrous cannon aimed for the square. I wasn't sure, but from this distance to the tower, the height of the tower, and the width of the clock face's opening, the cannon looked like it had a radius of 3 meters.
Please say my sight is failing me again. If that went off the entire city would be destroyed. I'm no expert, but that was massive and would cause far to much damage to this area everyone within sight range of it would be blown away.
"Come on Strawhats what are you doing?" they had better pull through. Come on you can stop this.
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It was already overdue, 4:30 had been and gone and the bomb still hadn't gone off. Maybe the strawhats had already done it and defused it. If so then what was this bad feeling I was still getting though as if the danger had not yet passed.
"Sergeant, have the strawhats taken care of it do you think?" Good question... I glanced up for another look at clock tower risking my eyes seeing through the dense sandy air. Wait? There was a bird flying from the tower clutching a massive … in … it's … claws.
"Down! Everyone down! There's a bomb!" I yelled and everyone who was around me ducked down. I looked up and was able to catch the last glimpse of the bird in the sky souring upward higher and higher until it was engulfed in light.
The bomb had been released.
Wind ripped through the crowds of blood-thirsty warriors, the gush of fast blowing sand pushed everyone over.
They seemed to stop in awe for a few seconds, but when the moment was passed they all stood up again and carried on fighting.
I can't believe this.. "Stop it are all of you out of your minds!" They weren't even aware of what they had just been saved from. I started to move forward to one of the groups in me.
"No Sergeant." Jotess held me back. I know, I know, it's stupid to try to stop an angry mob let alone two sides of a war who hate one another.
Madness. Why aren't they stopping?
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There was an Earthquake that seemed to threaten to tear the ground up from beneath the fighting men, but hat still did not stop them.
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Pit... pat...
Pit... pat...
I held out my hand in astonishment as it received a drop of water. "Rain" I spoke to myself. I looked up at the sky which had miraculously started to gather clouds. It was raining. It was really raining.
The madness has finally stopped their beginning to hesitate, and then died down altogether. So much so that one voice could be heard over everyone.
"LISTEN TO ME!" a voice called out from the clock tower.
"It's the princess." I heard people exclaim and murmur amongst themselves. I laughed at the irony, these people paid no heed to their danger from an explosion from the sky, or from the danger of an earthquake, but would stop fighting just to bear witness to the rain falling.
The princess carried on, "The rain has returned and it will fall again as it used to. The nightmare is over."
"Our Nightmares are not over!" Just as soon as the peace had come it went. I let a heavy sigh slip through my lips.
"Sergeant Major!"
"What is it?"
"It's Captain Smoker, he wants to talk to you. It's of absolute importance. You must come immediately." and so I left.
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"Yes sir, Understood Captain Smoker." I hung up the transponder snail, and walked back into the crowd. Some of the men had heard calls of shock and surprise coming from the crowd that had apparently seen Crocodile fall from the sky.
They led me to him.
This was a long time in coming. We finally had the proof we needed to take him in.
I broke through the circle that had surrounded Crocodile, and it seemed that some of them had discovered the truth whilst I had been gone. Shock and disbelieve were in their eyes.
I spoke loud and clear to make sure everyone around could hear what I was about to say. "I have just been informed that a Baroque Works' ship has just been seized. One that makes artificial rain using dance power. You being the Baroque Works President I have been ordered to tell you this, "Crocodile, one of the seven warlords of the sea. By the authority of the World Government I hereby strip you of your authorization to capture enemy ships as well as your titles and the rights that have been bestowed upon you by the world government. Additionally you and all Baroque agents are under arrest."
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What I love about this episode in the anime is that Zoro get lost and outside the palace and city in under two minutes and then gets back in less than one minute and climbs the Clock tower before anyone else gets there, and his directions for getting there were 'go north!' 'Go North!' Which is why he climbed the tower. Because North in his head means up.
Welcome to the world of One Piece where Gravity and time is slowed down. Where you can think and construct and say a sentence while still in mid air before you fall.