The Marine Demon's War Diary

by Zweiil

"Live as long as possible, if you lose your life again, there will be no possible resurrection." This is the ordeal that Being X imposed on Tanya during her second life. And that's exactly what she will do without asking for help from the individual she considers an impostor, despite all his schemes.

13. Chapter 12 : Marineford at War Part 2

N/A : Hi guys, I hope you are in good shape?

I wanted to apologize to you for my delay, and especially the fact that I kept my rhythm only one week.

Well, don't say too much, don't worry, I'm still as motivated to write the sequel, I don't have the blank sheet syndrome, I just changed jobs very recently, and I'm learning new things that take a lot of my personal time. Also, as you may have noticed, these last chapters are much longer than the usual ones, which is part of the reason why I'm behind.

I'm going to give myself a week and a half from now on to write the chapters of the Marineford Arc, so I can continue to revise quietly. (sorry about the work before :) )

Once the chapters get shorter again, the pace will be easier for me to keep up.

Kisses.

POV Tanya Degurechaff

Contemplating the fall of the ship and its crew, Tanya caught her breath after screaming at the top of her lungs. She had come to accept the strangeness of this new world, but it was still hard for her to take it all in. It was as if everything she believed was being challenged at every turn, which was becoming morally exhausting.

"What the hell is the possibility that a huge ship could fall from the sky?" the girl wondered as she followed the fall with her eyes until it met the frozen ground of the bay. She closed one eye and winced, expecting a huge impact given the mass of the ship. But to her surprise, the ship did not hit the ice, but the seawater in a huge crater that had formed in the ice during the fighting.

The crew of the ship wasn't Marine soldiers as she expected, but rather a band of prisoners judging by their outfit. Tanya quickly made the connection between these men and the recent events at Impel Down prison. These men, most of them still stunned, were trying to stay afloat in order to avoid drowning by clutching at anything they could get their hands on, others were trying to climb the carcass of the boat that couldn't reach the bottom of the bay, probably blocked by the surrounding ice. The girl was pulled out of her observation by the ringing of her Den Den Mushi which was ringing from her pocket.

"To all team leaders, we are entering the second phase of our plan, please make arrangements with your respective teams. Over."

"We're already in phase two, which means the plan is going smoothly for now." Tanya thought as she tucked her Den Den Mushi into her pocket. The plan itself was quite simple, the goal was to lure the vast majority of the pirates into the heart of the bay and then surround them with the reinforced wall of the bay that was still submerged for the moment and the numerous Marine battleships that would close the bay once all the pirates were inside. All the officers, including Tanya, had been summoned a few hours before the beginning of the operation in order to keep them informed of the plan. The ungraded weren't invited in order to reduce the risk of the plan leaking to the pirates, thus increasing the chances of success of the operation.

Turning her attention back to the wreckage of the flying boat, Tanya could see that the vast majority of these outlaws had gathered on what was left of the ship's bow. The vast majority of these men were unknown to her, however, she had no trouble recognizing some of them. The most recognizable was Jimbe the Sea Paladin. He had a stocky build similar to that of a sumo wrestler and a face commonly resembling the Onis. His yellow eyebrows and sideburns were shaped like those of these demons, in addition to a bulbous nose and an angular lower lip pointing upwards. He had a lightning bolt shaped scar that started from his left sideburn and extended above his left eye. He also had two conical lower fangs resembling tusks, the rest of his teeth in the upper and lower rows were about the same, though much smaller. He had a severe underbite, which makes room for his huge fangs.

He had long, two-tone black hair, with two long gold-colored bands that started from the roots on his forehead and went down his back, a bun and a tuft of hair on his chin with a slight green tint. This man was known to have renounced his title of Warlord a few days earlier for reasons that were not yet known.

At his side stood another former Warlord: Crocodile. He was a tall man with a broad chest, muscular arms and thick legs and neck. He had pale skin and black hair with purple highlights neatly slicked back. He had a few battle scars, probably from previous battles, a scar that cut his face horizontally and a gold hook on his left hand. His eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes were half closed and he had a wrinkle on his forehead. He was also smoking a large cigar. His long fur coat was reminiscent of the Italian mafia godfathers that Tanya had seen many times before in many movies. He was wearing a black shirt and a green scarf, black pants with shiny highlights, black polished shoes and a black fur coat.

Finally, next to them was a young boy with black hair that Tanya took a while to recognize. His outfit was relatively simple for a pirate, red shorts and a yellow shirt. What allowed Tanya to identify him was the curious straw hat that he wore and which earned him his nickname that he made known in the whole world: Monkey D. Luffy.

"Are these Whitebeard's reinforcements? From what I could gather, Crocodile seemed to be very genuinely hostile to him... Why would he join his fleet?" wondered Tanya as she eyed the new arrivals with interest."

She quickly swept her gaze over the battlefield, the bulk of Whitebeard's troops who had not reached the gap generated by the giant's corpse were running as best they could in his direction. The artillerymen positioned on the wall continued their bombardment, while the soldiers who had descended into the bay gradually began to retreat in accordance with the orders received from HQ. As for Whitebeard, he had not moved an inch, he had remained on the bow of the ship in the middle of the bay.

"So there are no snipers in this world? If he had done the same thing on the Rhine front, he wouldn't have lasted a minute standing like that in the middle of the battlefield. If only I still had my rifle." lamented the girl, "one bullet in the head and this war would have been over as quickly as it began."

Looking back at the three men she had seen earlier, Tanya noticed that the former gold-hooked privateer had disappeared and was replaced by a cloud of sand that was heading in the direction of Whitebeard. Once behind him, this cloud took the form of Crocodile who, once his body was fully materialized, tried to kill Whitebeard with his hook. His attempt might have succeeded if Straw Hat hadn't intervened by kicking his hook at high speed. Tanya then understood that the latter also possessed the powers of a demon fruit of the logia type. Tanya noted instinctively in her small notebook, which started to become a small encyclopedia, what she had just seen.

Having realized her weakness against this type of power, she noted all the information she could get on the users of logia demon fruit and that she could use against them in case of confrontation. By dint of observing this type of power, Tanya had developed a theory about them. Since demon fruits had transformed the body of their users into the matter they represented, therefore, their weakness should be the same as their element. Taking Admiral Aokiji, her weakness should theoretically be heat. She also took care to inform her observations about the pirate responsible for the chaos and the escape of hundreds of prisoners from the most secure prison of this world.

"Given the elasticity observed during the battle of Marineford, everything leads me to believe that his body was modified to take on the properties of a stretchy material, such as rubber for example. Based on my knowledge of physics/chemistry, his weaknesses would probably be due to high heat, or possibly UV light, which can be effective against certain rubbers." She then closed her small notebook, which she then put away in the pocket of her pants.

Having an overview of the situation, Tanya took the direction of the staircase leading to the interior of the wall in order to join her squad, which still had to watch the breach and prevent a new pirate intrusion. Once down the stairs, Tanya headed for her squad when she was interrupted again by her Den Den Mushi. Hearing the ringing, the soldiers all turned their heads in her direction and stood at attention. It is while answering the call that Tanya made a sign of the hand indicating them the breach meaning that it had to remain concentrated on their objective.

"This is Lieutenant Degurechaff, to whom ... "

"Lieutenant!" The young officer almost instantly recognized the grainy voice of her superior officer, which unconsciously made her face tense. "I want you to meet me at the Golden Clock Square located downtown, I have a special mission for you."

"And what should I do with my men, sir? Do they have to accompany me on this mission?"

"No, they don't need to" Then the Admiral cut the conversation short, leaving his interlocutor in a complete blur. Tanya saw that her men were looking at her with envy, even with a certain jealousy. It was not every day that one of the most important officers of the organization contacted directly the small fish. However, she didn't think so. The few exchanges she had had with this man had made her quickly understand that staying under his command would be dangerous for her career as well as for her own life.

Not wanting to attract the wrath of this tyrannical Admiral, Tanya rushed in the direction of the nearest service door in order to be able to join the Oris square. It is after having crossed several corridors as well as descended several staircases that she was able to leave outside the wall. The sudden and violent opening of the door had surprised some soldiers who were on their guard, positioned in front of the service door. Seeing that it was not a pirate assault, they relaxed while staring at the little girl who had just appeared before their eyes. Some looked at her with fear in their eyes, while others looked at her with great curiosity, most likely wondering what a child was doing on a battlefield.

It didn't matter to her, she was used to being stared at when she appeared in front of the soldiers... She ignored them, not wanting to waste her time with them, and continued her way to the city center.

The atmosphere of the city was very different from what she had known since her arrival on the island, usually full of life, the atmosphere of a prosperous city in full activity had given way to an atmosphere of ghost town. The streets had been deserted of its population. Normally, it was very difficult to get from point A to point B without being interrupted, especially when you got close to the city center and its big golden clock.

By arriving in the park for children situated in the middle of the place, Tanya swept of the glance the big place in which she was, there was no soul who lives, no child in the park, no customer in the terraces of the restaurants, no pedestrians in the surroundings in the usually very passed streets. The stores in the center had all closed their blinds and put their displays away, probably to avoid any risk of looting or damage from the pirates.

Taking advantage of the absence of her superior and the surrounding silence, the girl took the opportunity to choose a bench to rest. After letting her mind wander for a few moments, she took out her small notebook from her pocket and started to leaf through it. Originally, it was only meant to be used to record information about her training with Vice Admiral Garp, but as she met him and gathered information, it was slowly becoming a survival guide. She began to reread her information about the demon fruits, because it was certainly the most useful information in this notebook, after her plans and the notes on the development of her techniques.

Her reading was interrupted by the arrival of the Admiral, who had given her an appointment here thanks to the DenDen Mushi. Seeing his face completely closed as soon as he arrived, she immediately understood that the man in front of her was in a very bad mood, and in order not to irritate him more, she simply stood at attention and waited for his next instructions.

The man moved in her direction and positioned himself in front of her. The size difference between the admiral and the girl was impressive. He looked at the girl with a stern and hard look, as if he had very high expectations from the Lieutenant.

Without even concealing it, he huffed to show his annoyance and addressed Tanya who was still looking straight ahead without meeting his gaze.

"Lieutenant, if I have summoned you out of sight and out of mind, for we are going on a special mission to strike a crucial blow against this pirate scum."

"On a special mission, sir?"

"Follow me, you'll understand everything when you get there"

Admiral Akainu turned his back and headed for the bay, followed by Tanya on his heels.

"Besides being really dangerous, this man is really unpredictable. I really don't understand why he didn't ask my squad to escort us on his special mission. Even though we're theoretically on the same side, I'd better keep my guard up."

The path was surprisingly very quiet, even as they approached the bay. The closer the duo got to it, the more the sounds of fighting could be heard. What was strange was the behavior of the admiral, who did everything to avoid being seen. The question was, who was he hiding from? From the pirates? From the DenDenMushi broadcast? Or from his own allies? Which would explain why the admiral had arranged to meet him so far from view.

The more time passed, the more curious the Admiral's behavior became. Several questions formed in the girl's head, making her more and more suspicious. The most astonishing thing was when the duo reached the end of the wall near the sea next to the moored ships and the admiral entered the wall which had been deserted by the soldiers following the order of the HQ which had ordered the personnel to come in reinforcement at the level of the breach formed by the giant.

While advancing in the maze of corridors, thousands of scenarios were built in the head of the young officer who tried to determine the next movements of the enigmatic Admiral. But in view of his movements, of his will to remain discreet and not to put his allies in confidence, an idea came to her mind. In order to be sure, she suddenly stopped and decided to ask directly to the main person concerned.

"Sir, under your respect, may I know the objective of our mission? I do have an idea of what we are going to achieve, but I would like to have your confirmation so that I can best prepare for our mission."

The Admiral turned and looked into her eyes. He didn't seem annoyed, or even annoyed, he was obviously curious to know if the girl had actually guessed his plan.

"I'm listening Lieutenant, what do you think our mission would be?"

Surprised by her superior's request, Tanya took a deep breath in order to clear her mind and be able to set up her argument.

"I don't pretend to have guessed anything sir, it is according to me the most probable idea considering the information I have at my disposal. But if I consider our meeting place, the fact that there are only two of us and therefore no reinforcements, and that we have done everything to avoid any encounters until now, I conclude that it is a secret infiltration mission.

As far as the objective is concerned, since we are obviously going behind enemy lines, I imagine that we should meet an important contact very soon. However, I don't know the proof that it is a pirate. The only grey area in my reasoning would be the motive for this meeting, which I don't know. But in general, this kind of mission is either to retrieve material or give material, or if it is not material, it can be information that we can retrieve or leak to the enemy."

Contemplating the face of her interlocutor, Tanya saw that the man was likely impressed and surprised by her officer's reasoning.

"Impressive Lieutenant, your reasoning is correct, especially with the lack of information. Indeed, we will make contact with one of the captains of Whitebeard's crew, although having to talk to pirate vermin disgusts me to the core. But rest assured Lieutenant, our action will allow us to strike a decisive blow against our enemy... "

POV Admiral Sakazuki "Akainu"

Upon arriving at the rendezvous location, the admiral could see that a man was already waiting for them, standing leaning against a ship trapped in the ice. This man was rather thin with a rather pale complexion and of average height. The top of his head was bald and had just long pink hair that fell around his head. He had a tendency to stick his tongue out of his mouth and had extremely sharp teeth. He had a tattoo of a spider on his forehead, hence his nickname "Spider of the Maelstroms". He was dressed in a long gray coat, a white shirt, a scarlet scarf and black pants. He also wore a dark red tie around his neck, and black high-heeled boots with a white cloth folded over them.

He didn't look worried, but rather angry and indignant, even knowing the nature of the encounter he was about to experience. Obviously, the message that Sakazuki had sent some time after the battle had begun seemed to have reached him. Seeing that the pirate was starting, the senior officer of the Marine moved towards him while fighting his deep disgust for this vermin and his irrepressible desire to kill him on the spot, followed by the very young lieutenant Degurechaff. Curiously, she didn't seem worried or even afraid of this mission, only impassivity mixed with a look as cold as Kuzan's powers were in her eyes. That's what Sakazuki appreciated in the young girl, her ability to maintain a self-control and to obey the orders while showing a great intelligence. Moreover, their vision of justice as well as the means to apply it seemed to be similar.

When they appeared in front of the pirate, their contact stood up, abandoning the boat he was leaning on, and stared at the two soldiers, visibly surprised by the presence of a subordinate and moreover a little girl behind the navy officer. Seeing that Sakazuki hadn't come alone, the pirate began to look at them with distrust and challenge.

"Calm down Squardo, we are not here to fight, we just gave as promised the information you wanted"

While waiting for this, relaxed and also advanced cautiously towards his interlocutors.

"And how could I know if what you are telling me is true or not? You are navy soldiers after all."

"Because if you came, it's because you already credit the information we can give you" Sakazuki retorted without flinching at the pirate's accusing tone.

After a short reflection, certainly weighing the pros and cons, the pirate invited the senior officer of the Navy to continue.

"As you can imagine, Portgas D. Ace's life is very valuable to Whitebeard, especially now that his true identity has been revealed to the world. But even for the strongest man in the world, throwing himself into a battle against the main Navy base on Grand line is suicide, he knew that. Why do you think he asked all the pirates in his fleet to join him in a losing battle?"

"To increase our chances of victory, of course!" Replied the pirate in an indignant tone, as if the admiral had asked him a stupid question.

"Of course not! Your only presence here is because Whitebeard needed a bargaining chip for the life of Portgas D. Ace."

Sakazuki left a long silence after his last statement, the time for the pirate to assimilate the news. He took advantage of this time of reflection to take a look at the girl behind him who was wearing a terrifying smile, having obviously understood the strategy of his superior officer. When he focused again on the pirate, he saw that the latter seemed to be in a state of shock in front of the shattering news that he had just learned.

"If his goal was indeed to form a strong enough strike force to bring down Marineford, why do you think he needed to split his main crew and fleet into two separate groups? Why did he order the allied fleet not to follow him into the bay and to stay back in front of the bay? He is already aware of our plan, and he deliberately placed you here so that you would not mix. Our leaders have asked us to target only the pirates in the fleet, which represents a much more interesting capture for us, as your cumulative bounty far exceeds that of the original crew."

"That's not possible, Father would never do such a thing... He has always stood by us and protected us in the face of danger, why would he change now?" asked Squardo with tears in his eyes.

"Because he is the son of Roger, his lifelong rival. That is why our respective leaders have agreed to eliminate all of you except his crew and Portgas D. Ace."

Akainu was annoyed by the fanaticism and blind faith that the Whitebeard pirate had, so much so that he was about to lose his patience and kill the fool on the spot, but the ringing of a DenDen Mushi allowed Sakazuki to concentrate and focus on his original goal. Looking at the source of the ringing, he saw his lieutenant walking away, apologizing for the disturbance.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm perfectly opposed to this plan, those who don't know the truth consider Whitebeard a legend and place him on a pedestal. Whitebeard is nothing more and nothing less than a bastard who made a deal with the top leadership of the Navy in secret just to protect his own interests and betray and sell out his own allies. He is a disgusting being whose legend is nothing but hot air.

The one who must die here today is Whitebeard. There's no way he'll get away with it this time. If you cooperate, I will spare you and the pirates of the alliance.

"And what are your conditions for the alliance and me to survive?" asked Squardo warily.

"I want you to turn your weapon against Whitebeard."

With these words, Squardo began to tremble, he was probably wondering if Sakazuki's words were true or if it was a trap. Moreover, the idea of attacking one of the four Emperors himself must surely have terrified him. The pirate then fell into a very long silence while looking at the ground. It won't do me any good, I suspected that these pirates were cowards like all the others, I should kill him now and think of another stratagem. He then warmed his fist to prepare to execute this vermin when he was interrupted by a small voice coming from behind him.

"Sir, we have received the agreement from the HQ, we can start step three of the plan, Whitebeard has informed us that he is ready for the next step."

Akainu was at first very surprised by the statement of the little girl who had approached the two men to stand in the middle, but seeing the horrified face of Squardo, he was very satisfied with his intervention. He hadn't expected her to be so helpful. Originally, he had asked the girl to follow him because her small appearance would serve to lower the pirates' guard in case of confrontations, since they would probably not dare to engage in a fight with a child, and if captured, they would most likely take her to a division commander or to Whitebeard himself, thus giving a perfect opportunity to strike a fatal blow to the enemy.

"Well, you can launch the operation, I did not manage to make a deal with the Maelstrom Spider ..."

"Wait!" Squardo shouted, "I'll do it... I'll do what you asked!"

"Good, as soon as I see any action from you against Whitebeard, I will honor our agreement by sparing you all the pirates of the alliance."

With nothing more to add and hoping that the Lieutenant had read between the lines, he and the girl took the direction of the city center by way of the path taken earlier and cutting through the wall. On the way, neither the lieutenant nor he had said a single word. It was only when they reached the city center that Admiral Sakazuki broke the silence by congratulating the young officer for his intervention and asking him who had tried to reach her during their exchange.

"I thank you sir. As for the call I received earlier, it was from Chief Petty officer Taka keeping me informed of the progress of the troop withdrawal and the fact that no pirates have been able to penetrate the western wall again."

"She will make an excellent senior officer as well as an effective right hand. After the war, if she manages to survive, I will make sure that she remains under my command even if promoted to another department."

"Well Lieutenant, we are now resuming official missions, so that operations can run smoothly, I will give you your next assignment."

He then handed the girl a map of Marineford on which he had marked the various objectives with red crosses before they met. Seeing that she was beginning to consult the map, the Admiral then began his explanations.

"As you know, the time of the execution of the prisoner has been moved up, and as soon as the alliance pirates have set foot in the bay, we will begin the final phase of extermination. But for this, Admiral Sengoku insists that the DenDenMushi scattered throughout the bay be recovered and that their transmissions be interrupted so as not to shock the public with the scenes of unprecedented violence that will soon take place. So I entrust you with this part of the plan. Get the DenDenMushi and kill as many pirates as you can on your way. Is that understood?"

The girl nodded silently without complaint. She took the direction of the wall as soon as the Admiral gave her permission to go. Gradually moving away from the central square.

"I forgot!" The girl turned and gave her superior an inquisitive look. "If during your search you come across any traitors trying to escape the fighting, I want you to get rid of that vermin."

The little blonde bowed respectfully and set off in earnest down the small streets of the city to begin her mission.

POV Tanya Von Degurechaff

"As you know, the time of the prisoner's execution has been moved up, and as soon as the alliance pirates set foot in the bay, we begin the final phase of extermination. But for this, Admiral Sengoku insists that the DenDenMushi scattered throughout the bay be recovered and that their transmissions be interrupted so as not to shock the public with the scenes of unprecedented violence that will soon take place. So I entrust you with this part of the plan. Get the Den Den Mushi and kill as many pirates as you can on your way. Is that understood?"

Out of reflex, Tanya nodded without saying anything, but deep down she was furious. "This sicko sends me to do R&D in the middle of a battlefield, he wants me to go back to HQ in a box?" She put away the map the Admiral had given her and headed for the wall once her officer gave her permission. When she took the road, she did her best to get away from him as quickly as possible while keeping a natural gait, wanting to avoid any possible remarks from him.

"I forgot!" When she heard her superior's voice, Tanya stopped and turned around in Admiral Akainu's direction. "What does he want from me now? That during the mission I get rid of Whitebeard myself?"

"If during your search you come across any traitors trying to escape the fighting, I want you to get rid of that vermin."

As soon as she heard the final instructions, Tanya bowed respectfully and took the first alley she saw to get away from the man. "Well, in addition to his suicidal mission, he's asking me to play the role of the Military Police. It gets better and better..."

Once far enough away from her superior, Tanya consulted once again the map that had been given to her a few minutes before. The map showed Marineford from an aerial view, the main building was easily recognizable because it was the largest structure on the island. The bay was also very easy to identify because it looked like a crescent moon. On this map had been hand-drawn about twenty red crosses, making it look like a pirate treasure map. Tanya could easily deduce that the red crosses symbolized the exact location of the DenDenMushi scattered all over this island. There were about ten crosses all along the great wall. The most curious thing about this map was the position of the last DenDenMushi, which were located in the middle of the battlefield. "How the hell did those damn snails end up there in such a short time? And more importantly, how did they end up here?"

With the city center near the eastern wall, Tanya decided to start her search from the point of the wall next to the ocean and work her way up the entire wall to the other point of the western wall on the opposite shore.

As she took her first steps into the eastern wall, the first thing Tanya heard was the sounds of fighting raging inside the infrastructure. She took out her map one last time to locate all the DenDenMushi present in this part of the wall. It appeared that they were fairly evenly distributed, five in the eastern wall and just as many in the opposite wall. They were positioned at several gun positions, probably so that the gun crews could retrieve them in case of emergency. Only two DenDenMushi were located on the roof level platforms.

It took only a few minutes for the girl to reach the first DenDenMushi, which was positioned on a small wooden platform a few centimeters next to the gun. It had a direct view of the left side of the huge Whitebeard ship still trapped in the ice of Admiral Aokiji. The gunnery team that was still there, seeing the young girl arrive, stood directly at attention to salute their superior officer.

"Dismissed soldiers! Resume your mission, I am just passing by." Once her order was given, she walked over to the little snail that was still looking in the direction of the bay, grabbing the little animal and slipping it into a shoulder bag retrieved from a small armory on her way.

The second DenDenMushi was retrieved just as easily as the first, the only difference being that the gun crew was no longer at their post for some unknown reason. As with the first, she gently picked up the little snail and placed it in the bottom of her bag with the other one. Having met neither allies nor enemies on the second objective, Tanya took advantage of the small moment of respite proposed by this situation to take out again her map in order to locate the exact position of her next objectives.

"Well, if I summarize the situation a bit, the next one should be at the end of the corridor in the next artillery room, the other two should be on the upper platform at the roof level." After summarizing the situation out loud, she took her small pencil and marked on her map the two objectives that had just been reached. Suddenly, a loud scream from the other side of the hallway reached Tanya's ears. She hurriedly put away her equipment and ran towards the origin of the noise.

When she got there, she could see that the last gun crew was also

attacked by pirates who had obtained riot shields. The soldiers had taken refuge behind wooden crates to avoid being shot at by their opponents, who were advancing inexorably in their direction.

"I don't have time to waste with these people, if it were up to me, I would have simply dodged the fight, but orders are orders... I'll make sure I earn my pay."

After a long sigh, Tanya brought her hand up to the hilt of her rapier and calmly drew the blade from its scabbard, as she began to slowly make her way towards the group of pirates who were in tight formation. She then concentrated a large amount of mana into her rapier as she used to do on the bayonet of her old rifle, except that the area of concentration was much larger than usual. Once the amount of mana was sufficient and stabilized, Tanya placed the blade of her rapier over her left shoulder in order to give a horizontal blow as she used to do, except that this time she put into practice her recent training as well as the advice of the man looking like a musketeer and gave a sharp blow of her rapier to the right while doing as if she was using the [Rankyaku] with her hand, but using the extension of her rapier.

The effect was immediate, a horizontal blade of wind surrounded by mana shot out at high speed towards the group of pirates, cutting off everything in its path and continuing down the hallway. She repeated the experience by sending a vertical wind blade diagonally.

The Marine soldiers, seeing three wind blades coming from behind them, turned around almost instantly, visibly surprised and grateful to have been saved from the ambush. They all hurried in the direction of the girl to thank her for saving them.

"Thank you for coming Lieutenant, you saved our lives, without your intervention we would probably all be dead by now."

"Don't thank me soldier, I'm just doing my job, I'm glad to see that no one was hurt on your side" retorted the girl with a big almost merciful smile while handing the man in front of her some bandages for his squad as well as his water bottle. "Take care of your men with the little I can give you and go back to your posts, our comrades are counting on us."

"Yes ma'am" shouted in chorus the soldiers who hurried towards their post in order to resume the bombardments.

Tanya took advantage of the last DenDenMushi of this floor and went into the dark corridor, where a few minutes before, a complete team of pirates was standing. Of this team, nothing remained, although equipped with shields, nothing could prevent the blades from accomplishing their mission. All the pirates were either sliced in half or even in thirds, giving the impression that they were moving through a slaughterhouse.

She glanced back quickly to make sure the gun crew was okay and then back up to the stairs leading to the roof while continuing to have the same smile she wore in the presence of the soldiers.

"Nothing better than adding a heroic rescue of a bombing unit with no casualties to your report... Excellent, just excellent. Plus, I finally got to test my new technique and it looks really deadly, I won't be defenseless against logia demon fruit users now."

Once she arrived at the roof, she very quickly retrieved the last two DenDenMushi when a huge explosion attracted the attention of the girl. Fortunately, the detonation came from the battlefield. Not having followed the evolution of the fight for a while, Tanya took the opportunity to sit on the railing separating the paved path from the wall and the void in order to rest before finishing her search for DenDenMushi in the western wall and start her research in the city...

POV Portgas D. Ace

The more time passed, the harder it became to contemplate the horrific scenes unfolding before his eyes. No matter where he looked, countless allies and friends he had come to know and appreciate were dying one after another. Looking away, Ace saw his grandfather sitting cross-legged to his right, obviously very concerned about his adopted grandson and his other grandson who was on the battlefield below as he frantically moved his right leg up and down.

As he looked around for his brother, he recognized some of his close friends who were fighting for their lives, but also some of the enemies that Ace had faced in the past. It was only after a few minutes of visual search that Ace was finally able to find the young boy in the yellow shirt and straw hat. He was in the midst of a confrontation with an opponent at least three times his size: Gecko Moria, the Warlord. Ace had never faced this person personally, but rumors have it that Moria was a psychopathic monster who had no qualms about confronting people much weaker than himself. Moreover, he possessed a curious power that allowed him to summon waves of zombies that were not particularly strong, but that took advantage of their numbers to attack.

Little by little, Luffy was surrounded by a horde of living dead controlled by Moria. Although the young boy was able to fend them off without much difficulty, arriving as a Navy officer made his survival much more uncertain. Creating in Ace a very unpleasant feeling of helplessness deep inside him because there was nothing he could do to help him, his brother who was doing everything he could to come and save him, the marine seastone chains that were attached to his wrists prevented any movement, and especially the possibility of materializing his powers. No matter how many times he tried, the result was always the same: nothing happened, and each attempt made him feel like he was drowning in the coldest and deepest ocean in the world.

Seeing the number of opponents accumulating around him, Ace's nerves gave way and he began to yell at his younger brother: What are you doing Luffy, don't try to come and save me and save your life! You know that, we are pirates, each one of us has to make his own way, I live my own adventures, I have my own companions, so I don't need you to interfere. If a runt like you came to save me, do you think I'd be happy? I'd die of shame... Go away Luffy!

Seeing that his words had no effect on him as he continued his fight without flinching, taking blow after blow and putting out as many enemies as possible. Ace clenched his fists until he dug his nails into his skin, "Why did you come?"

"BECAUSE I'M YOUR BROTHER!"

His words had the effect of a bomb. It was as if the whole battlefield had frozen in time, no more screams, gunshots, cannon fire, all were shocked by the statement of his little brother. Only Moria's zombies continued their attacks against the young boy until Luffy, under the effect of fatigue, began to stagger, while the flesh monsters continued their attacks tirelessly, getting up each time they fell to the ground. Luffy was able to get out of this situation thanks to Jimbe's intervention and his manipulation of the ocean, which had directed a huge quantity of seawater towards the zombie horde. This water seemed to greatly affect these zombies because once hit, they remained on the ground inert. Luffy took advantage of the opportunity created by Jimbe to continue on his way.

Ace took the opportunity to give a small smile of satisfaction when he saw that his friend had kept his promise to protect his little brother. The gaze of the commander of the second Whitebeard fleet was suddenly drawn to the Navy chief, who had approached the edge of the platform with his DenDenMushi in hand.

"What are you waiting for!?" demanded Sengoku to his men, "You let a miserable little kid interrupt the battle?"

Ace then redirected his gaze to Luffy, who had just gotten rid of a giant of the Navy. He was proud of his little brother's evolution, since his last encounter in Alabasta, Luffy has evolved a lot and has become much stronger than a few months ago.

"This boy is a real threat to our future, he grew up alongside Ace, he is his spiritual brother and to top it all off, so his father is not Gold D. Roger, but Monkey D. Dragon, the current leader of the revolutionary army!"

As if in response to the Navy leader's statement, the pirates of the Whitebeard alliance finally landed in the frozen bay. This was finally good news for the crew, as it brought new blood and reinforcements to a crew that was running out of steam.

But his relief was short-lived as he had a very bad feeling. The Navy's guns had stopped firing for a few minutes already, and this was certainly not due to a lack of ammunition. Looking more closely, Ace noticed that the soldiers who were present on the wall had completely disappeared. The number of soldiers in the bay seemed to have diminished considerably... Ace scanned the horizon, looking for the cause of this mysterious disappearance... As he looked out over the ocean, he noticed several ship silhouettes in the distance. It took Ace only a few seconds to recognize the navy battleships that were sailing in their direction and that were about to surround the pirates in the bay preventing any possible retreat, the huge wall of ice around the island prevented anyone from considering this possibility...

POV Sergeant Koby

The intensity of the fighting had got the better of Koby's will, accompanied by Hermep, his comrade since his beginnings in the Navy, had taken flight by slipping away discreetly from their platoon when the latter was called in reinforcement in order to protect the scaffold. They had been running for a few minutes without stopping, as much as they could.

At an intersection, they stopped for a few seconds to catch their breath. Running for training was one thing, but running for your life was another.

Breathing heavily, neither of them said anything, only the sound of fighting in the distance could be heard. It was only after a few moments of respite that Hermep finally spoke.

"Do you think we are far enough away now? I have no desire to fight with these monsters..."

Koby nodded, but he felt guilty. In order to save his brother, Luffy had thrown himself into this terrible battle without even hesitating for a moment to save his brother. He felt like he was breaking the promise he and Luffy had made during their last meeting. Once the pressure was off, tears began to appear in the corner of his eyes. The weight of his guilt, however, had not lessened.

Before he could say anything, Koby was pulled by the scarf by his friend into a dark recess. Looking his friend in the eye, Koby told him to be quiet by pointing a finger in front of his mouth and pointed to something behind him in the intersection.

He then followed the direction of his friend's finger and saw a soldier, visibly frightened, walking backwards. What could terrify an elite Marine soldier so much, Koby asked himself with an almost unhealthy curiosity.

The answer soon appeared. In front of him stood Admiral Akainu, the most stern and uncompromising of the three admirals. Keeping as quiet as possible, Hermep and Koby watched the scene unfold before their eyes.

"I'm sorry I left my post, but I have a family back home, my daughter, my unborn child and my wife are waiting for me, I can't afford to die today."

The Admiral's face was completely closed, nothing the soldier seemed to say could reach him. It even caused the opposite effect. Every word that soldier said made the Admiral's eyebrows furrow as he seemed to sink into a dark anger.

"In this world, pirates are the worst scourge and deserve to be exterminated to the last man. But there is still something much worse than these scum... Men and women who claim loudly to fight for justice and who, at the slightest difficulty, turn their backs on their comrades to run away do not deserve the title of navy soldier..."

The admiral's fists and then quickly his arms began to burn and turn into magma. Once his arms were dripping with magma, the Navy executive began to walk towards the soldier in a very threatening manner.

"Those who desert deserve only one thing, to be executed for flouting justice."

As if to put his money where his mouth was, the admiral raised his right arm and engulfed the poor soldier under a huge amount of molten magma. The screams of the dying man were very hard to hear. Each scream caused Koby to shiver horribly.

He didn't need to look at his comrade to know that he was just as frightened as he was, trembling with fear. After some time of observation, the Admiral turned around and went into the opposite alley.

After a few minutes, Hermep and Koby came out of their hiding place and walked towards the soldier's smoking body, at least what was left of it, because the poor soldier's corpse was now lying under a shapeless mass of glowing magma.

"We have to be careful from now on, we shouldn't cross his path again if we don't want to end up like this poor man..." whispered Hermep to Koby.

"You want to keep running," Koby gasped. "You want to keep running after what we just saw?"

"Maybe you want to go back and face Whitebeard and his henchmen?"

Remembering the bloody battle that awaited them in the center of the island, Koby shuddered as he thought of the power of the old man waiting for them on the other side of town. "No way," Koby replied before resuming his run, Hermep on his heels.

Heading towards the west of the city, the duo walked through the smallest and darkest alleys they knew in order to avoid any bad encounter until they came to a crossroad. To the left, all seemed quiet, but when he glanced to the right, he recognized a familiar figure. To stop Hermep from continuing on his way, Koby raised his arm in front of him, indicating with a shake of his head what he had just seen.

Hidden behind a wall, Koby and Hermep looked down the right path. Tanya was in the middle of the path, facing three other soldiers.

Well, what are you gentlemen doing here?

Although Koby could only see her back, he could guess what a frightening face she must be making right now, and seeing the look on the soldiers' faces, he knew he wasn't wrong.

"We're trying to get home..." stammered one of the soldiers before being cut off by his superior, obviously a colonel Koby had never seen.

"Who do you think you are Lieutenant, you do not know how to respect the hierarchy, the HQ will hear about this affront."

In response, Koby saw the girl reach into her pocket with her right hand and pull out a DenDen Mushi.

"Sir, I seem to have stumbled upon three deserters... One of them insists on reminding me of his rank of colonel, what are your orders?"

Admiral Akainu's voice came out of the little snail and communicated his instruction, "As I said earlier Lieutenant, get rid of all traitors whatsoever. Over."

As soon as the Admiral's voice interrupted, Koby saw the girl make a small leap, and with a long horizontal movement of her right arm, decapitated the three men in one blow under the horrified gaze of the two sergeants.

Still in shock, Koby knew that his classmate was talking to him, but it was as if his brain had switched off to escape this reality. The only words Koby could hear were those spoken by his comrade after he was elbowed in the ribs in an attempt to get him to react.

"... I warned you that she was extremely dangerous, do you believe me now?"

Not wanting to witness or even be a part of this kind of scene anymore, the two men took the direction of the center of the island again, great cold sweat running down their spines.

POV Tanya Von Degurechaff

Tanya didn't like the role of the military police, especially when it gave her the mission to execute her comrades. But to succeed in her goal, she had no choice, although the idea of killing or being killed was very repulsive to her.

Unfortunately, these three men crossed paths with the wrong person at the wrong time. During the recovery of the last DenDenMushi in the city, Tanya had caught these three men sneaking through the alleys. At first, she really wanted to ignore them, not wanting to add "the execution of traitors" to her report. But, at the bend in an alley, they unfortunately crossed paths, forcing Tanya to carry out the orders of her superior...

After this tragic incident, Tanya was heading towards the bay before being interrupted by the ringing of her Den Den Mushi.

"To all units, this is HQ, phase 3 of the plan is underway, I repeat phase 3 is underway. All personnel are requested to evacuate the bay so that Phase 4 can begin. Complete."

"Finally some good news," she thought as she jumped for joy. This order from HQ meant that he could avoid the combat zone and stay safely in the rear.

Her joy was short-lived when she met Admiral Akainu on her way.

"So, Lieutenant, tell me how your mission is going?" His tone of voice was harsher than usual, he must have certainly been in a bad mood, it was best not to piss him off any further.

"I have recovered fifteen devices out of the twenty, sir, however, after the counter order from HQ, I did not commit to the bay, which still leaves five DenDenMushi in place."

Seeing his eyebrows furrow, and his gaze turn black, Tanya took a step back for fear of being attacked for insubordination. But to her surprise, the tall man in the red shirt did not move.

When I give orders, especially to you Lieutenant, I want you to obey blindly in order to bring justice to this world. So no matter what HQ orders, you are going to get me those broadcast devices and faster than that!" He spat out his last words, raising his voice to show his displeasure.

Not wanting to end up on a firing squad, Tanya nodded and ran off in the direction of the bay without asking for her rest, swearing to herself to notify in her report all the instructions given by this tyrant who shamelessly scorns the individual freedom of each person. She also promised herself to apply for a transfer as soon as possible and to be assigned to another department as soon as possible in order to increase her chances of survival.

"This nutcase is sending me to certain death," Tanya grumbled under her breath. "If phase four goes off and I get stuck between the walls and the bunch of pirates in the bay, I'll be screwed..."