Chapter 12

The celebration was short-lived. A disturbing quiet fell upon the island as all the citizens stared at the new terror. Only a small tremor was what alerted them. A giant hand clutched the edge of the hole Doflamingo had fallen into. It had crushed a few buildings in its wake but that was not what made everyone terrified. The hand had no flesh to it whatsoever. It was made entirely of tightly bound strings. The strings were clear, creating a shine of blues and reds from the sun.

Everyone screamed and hurried for the ports in mass panic. They scraped and clawed at one another just to increase their speed. They all thought Doflamingo wasn't defeated yet, for those were surely his strings. They had no knowledge of Uzuru's existence.

The rest of the body soon came after the hand. A faceless monstrosity rose from the hole and stepped onto the level ground, shaking the entire island. The head moved from side to side in search of someone and cast a long shadow over the entire island. It turned and turned in hopes of seeing its target.

"What the hell is that?" Law shouted.

Law, Kat, Rebecca, and Viola stood on a stone slab that moved along the ground. Kat sat and concentrated most of her energy into moving it so quickly to the ports. Law was thankful that they all could rest, but he was concerned Kat was exerting more energy than she was leading on. "That is Uzuru," she answered, her voice soft and parched. She looked over her shoulder to glance at Law. "From what I've been told, he likes to do this to intimidate his opponents." Her eyes moved from Law to every rooftop in sight. With Claire only having been a few blocks away from where they were initially, she couldn't have been very far. She wouldn't have been surprised if her devil took over already and was roaming the streets. "I just hope they don't start right away," she added.

"Claire would want to reduce the casualties as much as she possibly could," Law interjected. "She wouldn't start until most everyone is evacuated."

Kat locked on to a lone figure atop the corner of a building. They stood as stiff as a board, facing the string monster, and appeared to have the same silhouette as Claire. "That would be if she was fighting," she shot back. "Claire won't be fighting that thing."

"Who will be?" Rebecca asked.

A flash of movement caught their eyes. The silhouette was gone, but Uzuru smashed a building to pieces and sent debris flying towards them. A stone wall rose behind them to meet the rubbage and block it. "We need to get out of here right now," Kat said. She turned forward, and the stone platform beneath them moved faster.

As they made their way to the port, Viola and Rebecca scooped up the injured and slow-moving and let them rest on the platform. Their speed decreased when they approached the loading ships. Kat stepped off the platform first and moved to the marines. They were ushering scared citizens on to their ships and tending the injured. With high tensions and mumbled curses, gladiators and pirates helped those having trouble.

Kat walked to Vice Admiral Bastille and smiled. "How have you been?" she asked.

He paused in giving his directions to inspect her. A slight smile of recognition played on his face, and he gave her a tight hug. "It's good to see you-dara," he exclaimed. "Are you here to help-dara?"

She nodded, and her mouth become a tight, straight line. "I know what will be happening here in the next couple of hours," she admitted. "I know I'm asking a lot for you to blindly trust me, but you need to do exactly as I say as fast as you possibly can."

Bastille paused. The muscles under his mask twitched in thought. "I know you are Admiral Yukimura's daughter, but I'm not sure I can trust you with that amount of authority-dara," he admitted.

Kat squinted at him. She wondered how much she could push him before he either arrested her or gave in. Standing straighter, she held her chin up high. "Are you questioning my knowledge about my own kind?" she accused.

Bastille flinched back. "No, that's not it at all-dara!"

The sword by Kat's side hummed, tickling her to be unsheathed. "Then what? Are you questioning how well my parents have educated and trained me? You and I both know that my father won't let anyone get away with doubting his abilities in anything." She hated seeing Bastille back down before her, his head bowed and turned to the side.

"I'm sorry-dara," he whispered. "With your father's worsening condition, I think we're all still on edge-dara."

A strike of pain ran through Kat's heart. The last episode her father had, he had to be held in a cell for three days and heavily sedated. She figured he must have exponentially regressed if Bastille was mentioning it. "I understand, but my father and his health are very different than my calculations of what will happen if we don't hurry," she reminded him. "So will you please accept my commands?"

Bastille's gaze moved to Kat, and he poked his finger into her upper sternum. "If anyone dies because of your plan, then I will have you arrested-dara." Kat nodded. "So what do we do first-dara?"

"Open all ships to everyone, including pirates. We can use a temporary pardon to bargain with them," she ordered. Bastille stared at her, baffled. "If we use only marine ships, there won't be enough space for any crew to even sail each ship. And the pirates all need to restock before they even leave, so they wouldn't be able to take the citizens hostage," she explained.

Bastille crossed his arms and thought about this command for a while. Soon, he shook his head for her to continue.

Kat moved around on her good leg, trying to keep an ample supply of blood flowing through it. "King Riku needs to speak with his people as soon as possible. I want you to pack him onto a ship as if he was a normal person and put Admiral Fujitora on that ship, too." He seemed to wonder why she wanted those two on the same ship, but he trusted her word anyways. "Once everyone is on, we need to sail everyone out a couple hundred meters in a large cluster. It'll be easier to protect everyone if we're all together."

"Is that all-dara?"

Kat nodded, then added, "Can I see a medic?"