Schwarz ran as fast as he could through the streets of Lant, sword drawn, desperately looking for Piedmont Street after receiving Zinnia's distress call about Shaska of all people being incapacitated. At this point, the streets were clear of civilians, the only people left being the combatants of Worldwide Smoke and the Marines, who had begun clashing at numerous places throughout the city.

"Dammit! This city is huge! How am I gonna find one street in all this—" Schwarz began thinking. But before he could finish that thought, he was intercepted by a squad of Marines.

"Halt! By order of the World Gov—" the commanding officer began shouting, but he was interrupted by Schwarz yelling back.

"Oh, stuff it, you peasants! My crew's getting the shit kicked out of them! I need to help!"

"'Noble Ninja' Johann Schwarz! You are under arrest for—"

"NO!" Schwarz yelled at them. He spawned a giant portal under the Marine squad and teleported them as far away as he possibly could, then continued running seemingly aimlessly.

"C'mon, it has to be around some—bingo!"

He found a sign that said "Piedmont Street". By happenstance, he ran into Ren as well, who had been coming from the opposite direction, rifle slung over her shoulder. She blushed at the sight of him, but quickly regained her composure as they turned onto Piedmont together.

"Ren! Did Zinnia call you too?!"

"Yeah! Marine who destroyed my town is here!"

"Not only that, Shaska's apparently out of the fight!"

"What?! But she's strongest on crew!" shouted an incredulous Ren.

"I know! Crap, I hope we all make it out alive! Birdson was right, this is a suicide mission! And Minus World hasn't even shown up yet!"

The pair rounded a corner, where they found Puerco and Johnson, the latter having his shoulder wound tended to by the former.

"You two, what are you doing?!" Schwarz yelled at them.

"What's it look like?" Puerco asked, tying off the last suture.

"We're in trouble!" Ren declared. "Zinnia and Shaska are apparently getting stuffing kicked out of them!"

"Crap," said Johnson. "I think I'm out of the fight for now. Puerc, you go on ahead. I'll try to help the grunts, at least."

Puerco nodded, and took off with Schwarz and Ren down Piedmont Street toward the sound of Shaska's continued screaming.

"Schwarz!" Ren shouted. "Warp me up to rooftops! I can get better shot from there!"

"On it!" Schwarz responded.

A portal opened up right in front of Ren. She ran through it, and without breaking her stride, continued on the rooftops of Piedmont, effortlessly hopping from roof to roof.

As he ran, Schwarz pulled out his transponder snail and dialed up Lulupo.

"Yes, darling?"

"Lulupo! All the officers are heading to the south end of Piedmont Street! Get there ASAP! Apparently even Shaska's having trouble!"

"Oh dear! I'll be right over!"

Caaaaalick

Lulupo put his transponder snail away. "Oh dear, I don't know where that is, though," he mused. "I suppose I'll just follow the sounds of the carnage."

He hopped from roof to roof across Lant, crossing streets as he did so.

"Hold on tight, darlings! Charles Lulupo doesn't let anyone die!"

—

Minus World continued its march up the highway toward Lant.

"Are ve zere yet?" Rusila asked.

"No," replied von Esens.

"Are ve zere yet?" Rusila asked again.

"No," replied the archangel, Michael.

"Are ve zere yet?" Rusila asked for an additional time.

"No…" replied the blue-haired archangel in the short black dress, growing testy.

A brief moment passed before Rusila yet again asked "are ve zere yet…?"

She was met with the entire army shouting "NO!"

Twenty minutes remain until Minus World reaches Lant.

—

Shaska's screaming finally quieted down. She was left kneeling on the pavement over her sister's lifeless body. Her tears dried up. All she could do now was occasionally mumble "Korla…"

Izmena took note of this. As she towered over Roxanne, Zinnia, and Ruth, she turned around and saw Shaska no longer crying.

Turning back to Vryzk, Izmena ordered "watch over the criminal scum, okay?", to which Vryzk saluted. She casually sauntered over to Shaska, and lifted the mermaid's head with the tip of her sword.

"Hey, look at me," Izmena ordered. Shaska said nothing, just looked at her with a thousand yard stare.

"Anything to add? Any last quips before I kill you and your crewmates?" she asked, face contorting into a twisted smile. Again, Shaska didn't say anything.

"You should be proud, Shaska the Greedy! I lost an arm to one of your little girlfriends!"

Shaska kept silent.

"Hmph. It's more fun when they cry and beg for their lives," Izmena commented. "But I suppose you're all cried out, huh?"

Izmena pulled her sword back, and Shaska's head fell again; she didn't even seem to notice Izmena.

"Hmhmhm… it seems I've completely broken you, Shaska. No matter, you'll bleed all the same."

Izmena raised her sword in preparation to behead Shaska. Then, a gunshot rang out, and Vryzk howled in pain.

Everyone else (except Shaska) looked in the direction the sound came from: it was Freddie and Delilah, the latter of whom was holding a smoking rifle pointed directly at Vryzk, who had been shot in the lower back.

"What the? Marines?!" Izmena shouted. She used her Shave technique to teleport over to the two grunts. Lacking a free hand, she sheathed her sword, then picked up Delilah by the collar of her uniform.

"WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION, SOLDIER?!" Izmena roared. "SHOOTING A COMMANDING OFFICER LIKE THAT! WHY AREN'T YOU ON THE FRONT LINES?!"

Tears began welling up in Delilah's eyes, but she quickly choked them back. She gritted her teeth and growled "because I'm not a government dog like you."

Izmena was briefly taken aback by her boldness. Then it all clicked in her head. "I see… you must be the one who started this whole mess… I heard through the grapevine that it was a Marine who attacked that Noble. But now I see you're just a Worldwide Smoke spy."

She slammed Delilah into the ground as hard as she could, leaving a visible crater and causing her to hack up blood.

"I'm gonna have a lot of fun torturing you," Izmena said.

"Delilah!" Freddie cried, raising his gun. Izmena was quicker, though. She drew her sword in a flash, and before Freddie could even blink, he was being impaled on it and then kicked through a wall.

"Freddie!" Delilah cried in turn, trying to get up. Izmena, for her part, stomped on Delilah's leg as hard as she could, shattering her bones and causing her to scream in agony.

Izmena then began repeatedly kicking Delilah in the gut with all her strength, each kick causing the grunt to hack up more and more blood.

"KNOW! YOUR! PLACE! CRIMINAL! SCUM!" Izmena shouted, punctuating every word with a kick to Delilah's gut.

The uncoordinated distraction paid off. A portal opened up right above Izmena, and Schwarz dropped through, slashing her back open.

Izmena reeled from the pain, then swiveled around to slash at Schwarz, who dodged by backflipping onto a wooden barrel in the street.

"Vryzk! Backup! Now!" Izmena shouted.

Vryzk obliged. He formed a wheel of fireworks in his hand and threw them at Schwarz.

"Catherine Wheel!" he called as the fireworks flew at Schwarz.

Schwarz simply threw up a portal, and the fireworks flew into Izmena's face, where they exploded, stunning and temporarily blinding her.

Vryzk gasped and shouted "Vice Admiral!"

He began to hobble toward Schwarz, but before he could even close the gap, he was met with a bullet through the skull from Ren, stationed on a building up above.

As Izmena's vision became restored, she saw Vryzk's corpse bleeding out into the street, and the rage truly began to build in her.

"You're next…" Ren muttered as she lined up her next shot.

Izmena wasted no time. "Looks like we're getting serious now," she growled as her eyes flashed red. She got a 360 degree vision of everyone in the area: behind her were Schwarz and Shaska, the latter of whom was still unable to fight and kept muttering "Korla…". In front of her was Delilah, also unable to fight but so weak compared to her that that was a non-issue anyway. But above her was Ren, taking aim and desperate for revenge. The choice was clear.

Izmena Shaved up to the rooftop and grabbed Ren by the collar. "Hello," she said with an unnerving calmness.

Ren said nothing and attempted to reach for a grenade on her belt, but Izmena chucked her off the roof to the pavement three stories down. Then, she transformed into her full rhino form, and chased after her, landing right on top of her.

What she didn't account for, however, was Ren shattering into glass upon impact. As Izmena transformed back to her human form, she began shouting "dammit! Dammit dammit dammit! You have a Devil Fruit now?!"

The pile of broken glass didn't respond.

"ARABESQUE BRICK FIST!" Puerco called, having arrived on the scene with his fist pulled back.

Izmena's eyes continued to flash red, and she Shaved behind Puerco with her sword drawn. Instead of playing with him (torturing him), she just slit his throat.

Puerco collapsed, and Izmena stepped over his "corpse", slowly walking toward the rest of the Worldwide Smoke officers with death in her eyes.

Ren reformed to her human state and slung her rifle back over her shoulder, drawing her pistols now. Roxanne and Zinnia struggled to their feet, while Schwarz hopped off his barrel and stepped forward to line up with his compatriots. Shaska remained in the back, still catatonic.

"I'm going to kill you. All of you," Izmena said. "And I'm going to enjoy it. And when Minus World gets here, I'm going to kill them too! And I'll make it to admiral! And then fleet admiral! And soon, the whole world will bend to my justice…!"

She sheathed her sword and pulled out her transponder snail.

"This is Izmena. I need backup at—"

Schwarz spawned a portal next to Izmena and grabbed the snail right out of her hand.

Caaaaalick

Izmena's rage boiled over, and she began to scream. She attempted to charge at Worldwide Smoke… only to find her feet were trapped in honey.

"Sorry, sweetcheeks, you're not going anywhere!" Puerco exclaimed, back on his feet, surrounded by a swarm of bees.

Izmena screamed a berserker's scream. She ripped her feet out of her boots and tore her way down the street toward Shaska, only drawing her sword and not even bothering to use her Shave technique. The only thing on her mind was blood.

As the Worldwide Smoke officers squared up to protect their boss, Lulupo dove off a building and jammed his foot right into Izmena's back, slamming her into the ground with a visible crater. He punctuated the attack by stomping on the back of her head, leaving another crater within the crater.

"LULUPO!" the other officers cried in unison (except Zinnia, who was a bit late with a "Mister… Miss… Lulupo!").

"Sorry I'm tardy, darlings. I just have a habit of being fashionably late to a party," he said with a flourish.

Izmena began to twitch, but was unable to rise from under Lulupo's heel. "Criminal… scum…" she growled. She quickly fell unconscious, her sword falling out of her hand with an audible clinking sound.

"Now, who wants to fill me in on what happened to Shaska?" Lulupo asked.

Zinnia gestured to the officers to follow her. They quickly surrounded the catatonic Shaska and the corpse in front of her.

"This corpse is Miss Shaska's long lost sister. And she was killed almost immediately after they were reunited."

Though sounds of fighting could still be heard in the distance, the air around the officers was incredibly still and somber.

"I can't believe I feel sorry for Shaska…" Roxanne thought to herself.

She crouched down and wrapped her arms as best she could around her boss, who began to silently weep again. Lulupo followed suit.

Schwarz and Ren, for their parts, holstered their weapons, then walked over to Delilah's crater and found her panting heavily, barely hanging onto consciousness. Schwarz squatted down next to her.

"What's your name, soldier?" he asked.

"D… Delilah…"

"Delilah… we saw what you did back there. How you stood up to that psycho Marine, even though you had no chance of beating her yourself. That was incredibly brave."

"We heard how you started this whole situation," Ren added. "But after that, we might be able to talk boss into letting you stay."

Tears began pouring down Delilah's face, and she gave a weak thumbs up.

"I'm… I'm glad…" she gasped. "Now… I'm in… a lot of pain… so… I'm just… gonna pass out now…"

And she did.

Schwarz beckoned Puerco over and said "hey, Puerc. Out of all the grunts who'll need treatment after this is done, make sure she gets a bit extra, okay?"

"Roger that."

"Korla…" Shaska muttered.

"We're not exactly in the best shape right now," said Schwarz, taking charge as second in command. "Who here's still unscathed after that encounter?"

"I'm fine, darling. I just got here," said Lulupo, standing up.

"I can fight," said Ren.

"I am injured, but I would like to continue the battle once Minus World arrives," said Zinnia. Ruth hissed in agreement.

"I… wouldn't…" said Roxanne, also standing.

"This is a bad situation," said Puerco.

"Where's the bird?" Schwarz asked.

"Also injured, but I patched him up and he's on the front lines at the moment," said Puerco.

"It pains me to say this, but I think it might be best to make a tactical retreat before Minus World gets here," Schwarz explained. "Our leader and strongest fighter can't move, and half of us are pretty banged up. We don't even know how many troops the enemy's gonna bring."

Schwarz paused, then added "let's use what time we have left to get the hell out of here. Get the grunts and scram."

The other officers nodded. Lulupo helped Shaska to her feet. She still wasn't talking beyond the occasional "Korla…"

It was then that, at the tail end of Piedmont Street, a familiar fanfare sounded. A deep, booming voice cut through over the sounds of fighting in the distance. The blood of the officers collectively ran cold.

"Friends! Dear lost sheep! Lend me your ears! Ze time for refolution hass come! Und a new day vill dawn upon ze vorld! Rejoice! As your king has arrived!"

TO BE CONTINUED