The air in the ruined plaza, already heavy with the scent of rain, ozone, and blood, grew colder. An almost visible frost began to creep across the shattered cobblestones at Reina's feet, spreading outwards in intricate, deadly patterns. The tattered remnants of market stalls stiffened, coated in a thin veneer of ice. The very breath of the remaining conscious Marines and the battered Straw Hats began to mist before their faces, despite the humid, storm-lashed air.
Reina's smile, that terrifyingly serene predator's grin, widened. "Indeed," she repeated, her voice a silken whisper that promised untold pain. "The lesson… continues."
She didn't rush. She didn't need to. Each step she took towards Nami was deliberate, measured, the ground beneath her boots cracking faintly with frost. The pressure emanating from her was immense, a physical weight that made it hard to breathe, hard to think.
Nami, fueled by Umarekwa's divine, twenty-minute surge, met that pressure with a defiant blaze in her golden-lit eyes. The pain from her shattered limbs was a distant, gnawing thing, overridden by the torrent of borrowed power that made her feel like a living conduit for a thunderstorm. Every nerve ending sang with a wild, exhilarating energy.
Twenty minutes, the System had said. Master proficiency. She had to make every second count.
As Reina closed the distance, Nami exploded into motion. Not with a reckless charge, but with the fluid, predatory grace KF23 had beaten into her, now amplified to an inhuman degree. She feinted with her left, the arm that had landed the 'Tempest Knuckle', then spun, her body a low, coiling whip, her right leg, despite the agony from Zoro's earlier ordeal, lashing out in a "Muon Taifū Kyaku!" aimed at Reina's knee.
Reina's reaction was instantaneous. She didn't block; she flowed. Her body shifted with an almost liquid grace, her knee bending just enough for Nami's kick to whistle past, ruffling the fabric of her bloodied and egg-stained coat. At the same time, Reina's left hand, fingers extended like talons, jabbed towards Nami's exposed ribs.
Nami, her combat instincts screaming, twisted in mid-air, contorting her body with a flexibility she hadn't known she possessed. Reina's fingertips grazed her side, sending a shockwave of icy pain through her, even through the divine augmentation. It felt like being stabbed with icicles.
But Nami used the momentum of her spin, her augmented 'Master Proficiency' kicking in. She didn't try to disengage. She pressed the attack. Her right arm, broken and twisted, shot out in a desperate, impossibly fast "Tasogare Kiba!" – a knife-hand strike aimed at the side of Reina's neck.
CLANG!
It wasn't the sound of flesh meeting flesh. It was the sound of Nami's hand connecting with something as hard as steel. Reina had brought her own forearm up, deflecting the blow with an almost casual ease. But Nami saw it – a flicker in Reina's ice-blue eyes, a minute tightening of her jaw. The impact had registered. Even if it hadn't broken through, it had registered.
"You are… surprisingly resilient," Reina admitted, her voice a low growl. Her other hand, the one that had jabbed Nami's side, swept upwards in a vicious open-palm strike aimed at Nami's chin.
Nami ducked under it, the wind of its passage cold on her face. She retaliated with a flurry of close-quarters strikes – elbow jabs, palm heels, desperate, augmented 'Twilight Fangs' aimed at Reina's torso, her joints, any opening she could find. Each blow landed with a satisfying, bone-jarring thud, a testament to the borrowed power coursing through her.
But Reina was a fortress. She absorbed the blows, her body swaying, yielding, then redirecting the force with an effortless grace. A few strikes clearly got through, eliciting a faint grunt, a tightening of her lips. Nami saw a small bruise begin to form on Reina's cheekbone where a wild elbow had connected.
I'm hurting her! The thought was a wild, desperate surge of hope.
[HOST AUGMENTATION DURATION: 17 MINUTES REMAINING. PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS LEVELS APPROACHING CRITICAL THRESHOLD DESPITE DIVINE INTERVENTION. CONTINUED EXERTION AT THIS LEVEL WILL RESULT IN CATASTROPHIC SYSTEMIC FAILURE POST-AUGMENTATION.]
Nami ignored the System's warning. She didn't have the luxury of worrying about "post-augmentation." She had to win now. Or at least, survive now.
She pressed her assault, a whirlwind of desperate, augmented attacks. She was fighting on pure instinct, on the muscle memory KF23 had so brutally ingrained, now supercharged. She wasn't thinking, just reacting, her body a weapon honed by a god's whim.
Reina, however, was beginning to adapt. Her movements became sharper, more economical. She was no longer just deflecting; she was actively countering. A swift kick to Nami's already injured leg sent a fresh wave of agony through her, almost making her buckle. A backhand strike to Nami's jaw made her teeth clack together, stars exploding behind her eyes.
Nami stumbled back, gasping for breath, the taste of fresh blood in her mouth. The divine power was still there, but it was like trying to hold onto a raging inferno with bare hands. It was burning her out from the inside.
"You fight like a cornered animal, child," Reina observed, her voice laced with a cold disdain. She took a step forward, then another, her pristine white (though now stained) coat swirling around her like a shroud. "All fury, no finesse. You cannot win."
"Maybe not!" Nami spat, wiping blood from her lips with the back of her good hand. "But I can sure as hell make you remember me!"
She launched herself forward again, not with a flurry this time, but with a single, focused attack. She poured every ounce of her remaining augmented strength, every bit of her desperate will, into one last, definitive "TEMPESTO NAKKURU!" aimed squarely at Reina's chest.
Reina met the attack head-on. She didn't try to deflect it. She didn't try to absorb it. Her own fist, clenched tight, shot out to meet Nami's.
Fist met fist.
KRA-KOOM!
The sound was like two mountains colliding. A shockwave, even more powerful than before, erupted from the point of impact, ripping up the cobblestones around them, sending a fresh shower of debris flying. The remaining Marines, even Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp, were thrown back by the sheer force of it.
Nami screamed, a raw, animalistic sound, as an agony beyond imagining shot up her arm, through her shoulder, into her very core. It felt like her entire being was being torn apart. The divine augmentation flickered, sputtered, then died, leaving her with nothing but her own shattered, exhausted body and the full, crushing weight of Reina's power.
Her fist, the one that had delivered the 'Tempest Knuckle', was a mangled ruin. Bones crunched, tendons snapped. The force of Reina's counter-punch traveled up her arm, dislocating her shoulder with a sickening pop, then slammed into her chest, cracking ribs, driving the air from her lungs in a single, brutal exhalation.
Nami's eyes rolled back in her head. She collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut, landing in a boneless heap at Reina's feet, unconscious before she even hit the ground. The faint golden glow that had surrounded her vanished, leaving her pale and still.
Reina stood over Nami's fallen form, her own fist smoking faintly. There was a thin trickle of blood seeping from between her knuckles. Her chest rose and fell with slightly heavier breaths than before. Her ice-blue eyes, fixed on Nami, held a strange, unreadable expression – a mixture of grim satisfaction, and perhaps, a reluctant, almost imperceptible, respect.
"Persistent," Reina murmured, more to herself than to anyone else. She then looked up, her gaze sweeping over the remaining conscious Marines who were staring at her with a mixture of awe and terror. Her expression hardened, turning to one of utter, implacable authority.
She took a deep breath.
And then, she unleashed her will.
It wasn't a shout. It wasn't a physical attack. It was… a presence. An overwhelming, crushing wave of pure, indomitable spirit that rolled across the plaza like an invisible tsunami. The air thickened, became heavy, unbreathable. The already battered Marines, their morale shattered, their bodies weary, simply… collapsed. Some foamed at the mouth. Others just went limp, their eyes rolling back, unconscious. Only the strongest-willed among them, a handful of officers including the Vice Admiral, managed to stay on their feet, but they were pale, trembling, their eyes wide with a primal fear.
Zoro, propped against the wall, felt the wave wash over him. It was like being drowned in pure, unadulterated killing intent. His own will, as strong as it was, buckled under the pressure. His vision greyed. He fought it, grit his teeth, but the darkness was too strong. He slumped forward, unconscious, Wado Ichimonji slipping from his grasp.
Sanji, already on the verge of blacking out from his injuries, succumbed instantly, collapsing with a soft groan.
Usopp, who had been trying to reload his slingshot with shaking hands, just stared blankly for a moment, then his eyes rolled up and he pitched forward, out cold.
The plaza fell into an eerie, unnatural silence, broken only by the soft patter of the rain and the distant, mournful cry of a lost seagull. Reina stood alone amidst the carnage, the only one left standing, her white coat a stark beacon in the desolate ruin.
She looked down at Nami's still form, then at the unconscious forms of Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp. "So much effort," she mused, her voice a quiet whisper. "For so little." She then turned, her gaze fixed on the distant shipyards. "Now… for the true source of this disruption."
Miles away, in the derelict shipyard district, the air was thick with the smell of brine, rust, and the acrid tang of Smoker's Logia fumes. Rain still fell, but the unnatural storm had largely bypassed this area, leaving behind a damp, oppressive gloom.
Monkey D. Luffy, his clothes torn, his body covered in bruises and faint electrical burns, was not having a good time.
"Damn it!" he yelled, his fist passing harmlessly through Smoker's swirling, smoke-formed torso. "Your smoke body is so annoying! How am I supposed to hit you?!"
Smoker reformed, his ever-present cigars clenched in his teeth, his Jitte held ready. "That's the point, Straw Hat. You can't hit what you can't touch." He lunged, his Jitte, tipped with the dull grey of Seastone, whistling through the air. "White Snake!" A tendril of smoke, solidifying at the last second, lashed out like a striking serpent, wrapping around Luffy's arm.
"Gomu Gomu no…" Luffy began, trying to pull free, but the moment the smoke-tendril, which now felt as strong as steel rope, made contact, a wave of weakness washed over him. "Ngh! What… what is this stuff?"
"Just a little something to even the odds," Smoker grunted, yanking Luffy off balance. He followed up with a swift strike from his Jitte, the Seastone tip grazing Luffy's side.
"GYAAAH!" Luffy screamed, a genuine cry of pain. The touch of the Seastone was like fire and ice combined, sapping his strength, making his rubbery body feel heavy, unresponsive. He stumbled back, clutching his side, his usual indomitable grin replaced by a grimace of pain.
"That hurt, Smokey!" Luffy panted, but there was a new wariness in his eyes. "What'd you do?"
"Seastone," Smoker said, advancing slowly. "The bane of Devil Fruit users like yourself. Nullifies your powers. Makes you weak as a newborn kitten." He spun his Jitte. "Now, are you going to come quietly, Straw Hat, or do I have to drag your rubbery hide back to Marine HQ piece by piece?"
Luffy grit his teeth. Damn it, I must see Nami and the others… and get out of this island! He couldn't be captured here. Not now. He had to get back to his crew. He had to get to the Grand Line.
He launched himself forward, ignoring the weakness spreading through his limbs. "Gomu Gomu no PISTOL!" His fist shot out, aimed at Smoker's face.
Smoker simply dissolved into smoke, Luffy's fist passing through him. Then, he reformed behind Luffy. "Too slow." His Jitte slammed down onto Luffy's back, the Seastone tip making full contact.
Luffy screamed again, a raw, agonizing sound that echoed through the deserted shipyards. His legs buckled. His vision swam. The familiar, comforting elasticity of his body felt… gone. Replaced by a leaden weakness, a profound, terrifying vulnerability. He felt like he was drowning.
"You're strong, Straw Hat, I'll give you that," Smoker said, his voice a low growl. "Resilient. Stupidly optimistic. But you're still just a rookie pirate playing in waters far too deep for you." He raised his Jitte, the Seastone tip glinting malevolently in the dim light. "And this is where your little adventure ends."
He brought the Jitte down, aiming for Luffy's head. Luffy, his strength failing, his body screaming in protest, barely managed to roll aside, the Seastone weapon striking the damp earth where his head had been, sending up a shower of mud and grit.
Luffy scrambled backwards, trying to put some distance between himself and Smoker, but his movements were sluggish, uncoordinated. He felt like he was moving through molasses.
"Nowhere to run, Straw Hat," Smoker said, advancing relentlessly, his smoke tendrils coiling around him like ghostly serpents. He cornered Luffy against the rusting hulk of a derelict freighter, its peeling paint and barnacle-encrusted hull a grim backdrop to Luffy's impending doom.
Luffy looked around desperately. Trapped. Weak. His crew… he didn't even know if they were okay.
Smoker raised his Jitte one final time, its Seastone tip aimed directly at Luffy's chest. "It's over."
The Jitte descended.
Luffy closed his eyes, a single, desperate thought flashing through his mind. Nami… Zoro… Sanji… Usopp… I'm sorry…
Then, a searing, unholy agony as the Seastone made contact, not a glancing blow this time, but a solid, direct press against his skin, right over his heart. His rubbery body, usually so resilient, offered no defense. His Devil Fruit powers seemed to scream in protest, then wink out, extinguished by the stone's accursed touch.
His world exploded into pure, undiluted pain.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!