Torrential rain poured down from the sky, the dense curtain of water turning the entire city hazy and indistinct.
"This is really strange..."
The orange-haired navigator sat on the ground, looking up at the sky. Her somewhat revealing dancer's outfit, now soaked, clung tightly to her tender skin, perfectly accentuating Nami's exquisite curves and radiating an astonishing allure. If a certain lovesick cook could see this beautiful scene, who knows how much of a nosebleed he would spray...
"...I clearly didn't sense any change in the climate. How can it be just like the sea here, raining at the drop of a hat?"
As an exceptionally gifted navigator, Nami could perfectly predict upcoming weather changes relying solely on her intuition and the airflow around her. But this rain was indeed too bizarre.
(But having said that, Usopp's invention does have its merits.)
Glancing at Miss Doublefinger, who had passed out not far away, Nami struggled somewhat to stand up.
"Hiss..." Perhaps irritating the wound on her foot, the navigator sucked in a breath of cold air.
Inside a civilian house used for shelter.
"Usopp! Wake up, Usopp!"
Hearing a voice calling him through his daze, the long-nosed brother, who was wrapped like a mummy in bandages, slowly opened his eyes. What entered his vision was a large, cute deer head.
"Chopper? How... what happened to me?... Ah! It hurts!!!" Usopp cried out in pain.
"You're finally awake! Usopp!" The little reindeer excitedly smiled through his tears. "It's okay, the injuries you just sustained aren't that serious. It's just that multiple bones throughout your body are shattered, plus your blood loss is slightly over the lethal limit, and your internal organs are slightly damaged, your spine... other than these, there's nothing to worry about."
"Nothing... to worry about?"
Listening to the blue-nosed reindeer's words, Usopp's eyes went wide and his face grew increasingly ugly. Upon hearing the final sentence, the long-nosed gentleman simply passed out cold.
Although he had luckily defeated Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas, the long-nosed brother's current state really couldn't be described with "nothing to worry about"!
Or perhaps, in Dr. Chopper's eyes, these kinds of injuries were simply not an issue?
A street that had been almost completely dismantled into ruins.
Mr. 1 looked up at the inexplicable heavy rain, then looked again at the green-haired swordsman before him who, despite being heavily injured, still stood proudly. In his usually cold and emotionless eyes, a rare hint of appreciation flashed.
Although this man was his enemy, the number one assassin of Baroque Works had to admit that this swordsman's tenacious will truly seemed to be cast from steel.
Unbreakable! Uncrushable! Unseverable!
(However, this is as far as you go...) Mr. 1 thought silently in his heart.
Opposite him.
Zoro stood bathed in blood amidst the pouring rain, letting the water soak his clothes.
His miserable state at this moment was surprisingly similar to when he faced that Gale Swordsman, Yasuo, on Little Garden. In both instances, he was approaching his physical limit, his consciousness beginning to blur, looking as if he would collapse at any second.
Similarly, this close encounter with death gave the green-haired swordsman a new realization.
Although his vision was becoming blurry, Zoro's intuition had become surprisingly powerful—even stronger than when he used his Mind's Eye. Even with his eyes lowered, he could still sense the movement all around him.
Quiet. The surroundings were surprisingly quiet. So quiet that Zoro could even hear breathing sounds he had never heard before.
The breathing of the trees, the breathing of the stones, the breathing of the rain...
The Breath of All Things!
For a long time, the strongest swordsmanship Zoro pursued was: To cut through anything.
And he had always worked unremittingly toward this goal.
But many years ago, his master, Koshiro, had warned him that the true strongest swordsmanship isn't simply about being able to cut through anything, but rather [cutting nothing].
Back then, the young Zoro couldn't understand the meaning behind his master's words at all.
But now...
(The meaning of cutting nothing is actually to integrate one's will into the blade, to control one's power freely.)
Shing! With a crisp sound, a cold light flashed as Wado Ichimonji was suddenly unsheathed.
(Protect what you want to protect!)
The sharp blade, capable of blowing a hair against its edge and cutting it, swiftly swept across the nearby leaves. Yet, those thin leaves appeared as if they were merely brushed by a gentle breeze, completely undamaged.
(Cut what you want to cut!)
Crack! A giant boulder snapped into two pieces in response, the cut as smooth as a mirror.
Zoro felt as if he had opened a door to a new world. He murmured to himself for a moment, then pointed the sharp blade in his hand toward Mr. 1, whose expression had changed drastically in the distance. A habitual smirk curled up on his dirty face.
"A pity... you won't be able to see my heroic form when I cut steel." After speaking, the green-haired swordsman slowly sheathed Wado Ichimonji, his face devoid of sorrow or joy.
"You guy..." Mr. 1 inexplicably felt a sense of threat he had never experienced before coming from the green-haired swordsman. His heart gave a sudden thump, and he gritted his teeth and roared:
"Stop talking big!" Having said that, the man whose entire body was as hard as steel turned his arms into sharp blades and rushed rapidly toward Zoro.
"Whether I'm talking big or not, you'll find out soon enough." Zoro slowly reached for the hilt of Wado Ichimonji, looking at the rapidly approaching Mr. 1 with a face of indifference, his heart as calm as still water.
(I hear it. The breathing of the steel.)
Then...
One Sword Style · Iai · Lion's Song!!!
In that instant, the torrential rain seemed to freeze for a few seconds, as if it had been forcibly severed by a fierce slash of sword energy.
In the battle on the plaza in front of the Royal Palace, the Royal Army had clearly fallen to a disadvantage.
Even with the rain pouring down, the water filling the sky still couldn't extinguish the anger in the hearts of the two groups engaged in a bloody battle; the fighting was still raging like fire.
General Gasparde looked with apprehension at the handsome man wearing silver-rimmed glasses before him.
His tall and slender figure was wrapped in an extremely well-fitted black trench coat. The coat remained motionless in the wind and rain, like steel. A pair of pitch-black eyes were indifferent and calm, as if the white-hot battle surrounding them and the great pirate with a bounty of 95 million berries before him couldn't weigh on the mind of these eyes' owner at all.
Before the raindrops filling the sky could land on him, they were bounced aside by an invisible field. From a distance, it looked as if a transparent sphere was wrapping around this bespectacled man.
"Is a guy like you a Devil Fruit user too?" the tall Marine scum asked in bewilderment. "Also, why did you help that Straw Hat kid just now?"
Just a moment ago, right when Gasparde and Luffy were fighting inextricably, a large bird carrying this bespectacled man had suddenly flown in from the distance. After the latter exchanged a few words with the Straw Hat kid, Luffy took that large bird and flew toward the Royal Palace, and Gasparde's opponent changed to this calm-faced man with glasses.
"Because although that guy is a bit dumb, he is still my Captain," Sherlock gently pushed up his glasses. "And isn't helping the Captain resolve difficulties exactly what a crewmate should do?"
After speaking, Sherlock looked the tall man up and down. Using the intelligence he had swiped from Smoker's ship back then, the Sorcerer quickly recognized this guy's true identity, and he couldn't help but frown slightly.
(Paramecia-type Candy-Candy Fruit. Is it an ability close to elementalization? That's a bit troublesome. It seems my plan has encountered variables again...) Thinking of this, Sherlock shook his head with a bitter smile.
The layout was already drawing to a close. Although the development of events was largely proceeding according to Sherlock's "script," and Sherlock had done his best to consider everything beforehand, he was unfortunately not an omniscient and omnipotent god. Thus, two unforeseen variables had still appeared.
Vivi's father ordered the Royal Army to launch an all-out attack on Rainbase. This not only made Crocodile's remedial plan easier to implement but also left the capital's defenses extremely empty.
Crocodile had incorporated the pirates imprisoned in the G-17 Fortress, and the strength of this group of pirates was unexpectedly high. If not for the help of the Straw Hats, Alubarna probably would have fallen long ago.
"Resolving difficulties for the Captain? You're quite loyal for a subordinate," Gasparde said mockingly. This greed-driven man had absolutely no concept of "partners" in his heart; therefore, in his eyes, Sherlock was merely a convenient shield for Luffy.
"Heh, a newly recruited dog of Crocodile like you doesn't seem qualified to say that." Sherlock chuckled lightly, then raised his right hand slightly. Ability activated.
—Infinite Gun Works!
One by one, identical long-barreled muskets suddenly appeared out of thin air. The dense cluster of muskets gathered above Sherlock's head, floating up and down like a cloud constructed of firearms.
"Wh-what is this ability?" Faced with the dark muzzles of hundreds of muskets, even though he didn't fear physical attacks like bullets, the Marine scum was still startled into a cold sweat by the Sorcerer's unheard-of and bizarre ability.
After all, the unknown is the most terrifying!
"Hmph, do you think you can harm me with lead bullets just by relying on numbers? How naive!" Gasparde shouted at the Sorcerer not far away, looking fierce but faint of heart, because he himself wasn't sure if these wicked muskets could actually damage his body.
"Harm? You?" Sherlock took out a small paper packet and used his finger to dip and taste a little of the sugar-like white powder inside.
—Transmission Mirror!
An invisible fluctuation radiated from Sherlock in all directions, instantly enveloping the entire plaza. Simultaneously, the scene of the entire battlefield flooded continuously into his mind. The specific location, movements, and even the appearance and expression of every single person—the Sorcerer knew it all like the back of his hand.
After tasting the hellish flavor of Insomna, Sherlock once again experienced that wonderful sensation bordering on omniscience.
With an extremely dashing wave of his hand, like a conductor standing before an orchestra, the muskets in mid-air turned their muzzles—which had originally been aimed at Gasparde—in unison toward the nearby enemies engaging the Royal Army. The uniform sound of bullets being chambered was so distinct in the pouring rain that it faintly drowned out the shouts of killing from the thousands of people nearby; it was extremely eerie.
"When did I say I was going to use these guns to shoot you?"
After speaking, a cold glint flashed through Sherlock's eyes behind his clear lenses, and he clenched his right hand tightly.
Bang! Bang! Bang! A series of rapid gunshots instantly rang out in mid-air. It seemed as if the plaza was experiencing another type of rain: a rain of bullets.
Amidst the spewing of hundreds of tongues of fire, countless bullets roared out of the barrels, carrying a gale that tore through the surrounding air and rain. Hitting the enemies' vital points at extremely tricky angles, they took away fresh life after fresh life. And what was even more magical was that such a wide-range strafing run miraculously didn't result in a single stray bullet injuring the Royal Army.
At this moment, the Mirror-Mirror Fruit once again demonstrated to the world its astonishing power in legion-scale chaotic warfare.
Gasparde watched as his "friendly forces" were turned into sieves by Sherlock amidst miserable screams. He was so angry his eyes nearly popped out. He then glared viciously at the Sorcerer, who was concentrating on controlling the muskets.
"You... you bastard!!!"
Perhaps discovering that Sherlock seemed completely defenseless at this moment, the Marine scum transformed his right hand into a sharp spike, then lunged forward without hesitation...
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