A/N: It's my birthday on the 23rd of March ✌😑. If any of you feel like blessing me early for my birthday [ko-fi.com/tenten100].
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The festive noise of Grove 31 had not truly returned.
Even after Saint Donquixote Mjosgard and his entourage had passed, the carnival still felt wrong. The lights were still bright, the rides still turning, the food stalls still smoking, but there was a stiffness to the people now, a fear that clung to the grove like damp air.
Giovanni walked with his hands in his pockets, though his eyes were less playful than before. Shanks, beside him, still wore his easy smile, but there was a quiet sharpness behind it now. Limejuice walked just a little ahead of them, glancing around like a man who knew that on Sabaody, peace never lasted long.
"So," Shanks said lightly, as if trying to push the mood away, "rollercoaster first, right?"
"Obviously," Giovanni said.
Limejuice groaned.
"You two are actually insane. We just saw a World Noble."
Shanks shrugged. "And?"
"And?" Limejuice repeated. "And you should be trying to stay as far away from them as possible!"
Giovanni clicked his tongue. "You really know how to ruin an atmosphere."
Limejuice turned around and pointed at him. "No, you ruin atmospheres! You were about to glare a hole through that guy's skull just now!"
Giovanni smirked. "And yet I didn't."
"That does not comfort me!"
Shanks laughed.
The three of them kept moving through the grove, slipping between clusters of shaken civilians and slowly returning merchants. But then—
A desperate scream cut through the air.
The three pirates stopped.
Another cry followed, this time clearly a woman's.
"Please—! Please don't—!"
Giovanni's eyes narrowed instantly. Shanks' smile faded. Limejuice turned toward the sound with dread already building on his face.
Then they saw the crowd forming.
People weren't gathering to help. They were backing away, creating space out of pure fear.
At the center of that widening circle stood Saint Mjosgard.
Still wearing his ridiculous clothes. Still with that same ugly sneer. Still with the clear bubble over his head, like the air of ordinary people was filth not worth breathing.
Beside him stood the same masked CP agent as before.
And in front of him—
A woman was on her knees, sobbing.
She clutched a little girl to her chest so tightly it looked like she was trying to fold the child back into her own body. The girl couldn't have been older than six. She was crying too, little hands gripping her mother's dress with all the strength her tiny frame could muster.
Mjosgard looked down at them with bored annoyance.
"This one," he said, pointing lazily at the little girl. "I've decided I want her."
The mother's face crumpled even further.
"No… no, please… please don't…"
Mjosgard's expression darkened.
"I said," he repeated slowly, like speaking to an animal, "I want her."
The mother pressed her forehead to the ground and screamed through her tears.
"She's my daughter! Please! Please don't take her away!"
The little girl buried her face into her mother's chest and cried harder.
Mjosgard wrinkled his nose.
"How irritating."
He lifted one foot and kicked the mother in the shoulder. She cried out and nearly lost her grip on the child, but still held on.
"She should feel honored," Mjosgard said. "I'm allowing her child to become my wife."
The surrounding civilians lowered their heads even more. Some trembled. Others turned away completely.
No one moved.
The slave that had been ridden like a horse earlier still knelt nearby, chains around his neck and wrists, breathing weakly, face bloodied and empty.
Limejuice saw Giovanni take one step forward.
Then another.
His stomach dropped.
"Gio," Limejuice said sharply.
Giovanni didn't answer.
"Gio."
Nothing.
Limejuice moved fast, grabbing Giovanni by the shoulder. "Don't."
Giovanni stopped walking, but only because of the hand on him. He turned his head slightly, enough for Limejuice to see one eye.
It was cold.
Not angry in the loud, explosive way Giovanni often was.
It was worse, quite.
"He's taking a child," Giovanni said.
Limejuice swallowed.
"I know that."
Giovanni turned forward again.
"And everyone is kneeling, not lifting a finger to help."
"Because that's a Celestial Dragon," Limejuice hissed. "This isn't something you should get involved with. Even if it is hard to witness. You have to ignore it!"
Giovanni took another step anyway.
Limejuice pulled harder.
"Listen to me!"
That was when Shanks moved.
For one brief second, Limejuice thought Shanks was going to help him stop Giovanni.
Instead, Shanks calmly reached out… and caught Limejuice's wrist.
Limejuice froze.
He looked at Shanks in disbelief.
"Shanks—?"
Shanks' expression was unreadable.
"Let him go."
Limejuice stared at him.
"Shanks, are you out of your mind?!"
Shanks' voice stayed soft.
"Probably."
Then he gently but firmly pulled Limejuice's hand off Giovanni's shoulder.
"Still," Shanks said, eyes on the scene ahead, "I'm not stopping him."
Limejuice stepped back, stunned.
Giovanni didn't look back. He just kept walking.
Across the clearing, Mjosgard had finally grown tired of the mother's begging. He raised his cane and brought it down toward her head.
The hit never landed.
A blur moved through the crowd.
Then—
BAM.
Saint Mjosgard's head snapped violently to the side.
The sound of flesh meeting fist cracked through Grove 31 like cannon fire.
The bubble helmet shattered.
Mjosgard's body left the ground.
He flew several meters before crashing through a stall, splintering wood and scattering food and bottles across the street.
For one impossible heartbeat—
The entire grove forgot how to breathe.
Giovanni stood where Mjosgard had been, fist still extended, eyes blazing.
The mother stared up at him in total shock.
The child stopped crying, only because she was too stunned to keep going.
The civilians all around them looked like they had just watched the sun fall out of the sky.
Then the CP agent moved.
[Shave]
He vanished from beside the slave and reappeared behind Giovanni, blade drawn, which slowly turned black, aiming straight for the back of his neck.
But someone was already there.
Shanks.
He stepped into the strike like he had known it was coming before the agent himself did. His saber flashed free in one smooth motion.
A single slash.
Black lightning-like wisps of Haki crackled faintly along the blade as it passed through the agent's weapon, through his guard, and into his chest.
The CP agent's eyes widened.
Then rolled back.
He dropped instantly.
Shanks flicked the blood from his sword and slid it down to his side.
"Thanks Shanks," Giovanni muttered without turning.
Shanks grinned. "I got you Gio."
Limejuice was holding both sides of his head.
"You two are insane," he whispered. Then louder, much louder "YOU TWO ARE INSANE!"
Mjosgard groaned from the wreckage, half-buried in shattered wood, blood streaming from his mouth and nose. He looked up, dazed, one eye swollen shut.
"You…" he slurred. "You hit me…"
Giovanni turned toward him and started walking again.
Shanks passed him, heading instead for the chained slave.
The man looked up weakly, barely able to process what was happening.
Shanks crouched beside him.
"Hang on."
He placed two fingers lightly against the chain at the slave's neck.
Then the air changed.
Invisible power condensed into one impossible point.
A pulse of advanced Armament Haki flowed from Shanks' fingers into the metal and without him physically squeezing or tearing it—
The chain broke.
The collar snapped open.
The wrist restraints followed a second later, cracking apart and falling to the ground in pieces.
Shanks quickly picked up the shackles and threw them in the air before they exploded.
The freed man stared at his own hands like they belonged to someone else.
Shanks stood back up.
"You're free to go," he said simply.
The slave's lips trembled. No words came out.
Giovanni, meanwhile, had reached Mjosgard.
The World Noble tried to crawl backward through the wreckage, panic finally overriding arrogance.
"Stay away from me! Do you know who I am?! Do you know what will happen to—"
Giovanni kicked him in the ribs.
Hard.
Mjosgard screamed.
"AAAAAAA!!"
Then Giovanni punched him again.
And again.
And again.
There was no elegance to it.
Just righteous violence.
The sort that only came when a line had been crossed so badly that words no longer deserved to exist.
Mjosgard's silk clothes tore. His face swelled. Teeth flew.
Every punch echoed through the silent grove.
Shanks didn't stop him.
Limejuice didn't dare.
The mother clutched her daughter and wept even harder now, not from terror, but from the overwhelming impossibility of being saved.
Then—
A horn sounded.
Another answered it.
And another.
From every direction, boots pounded against the walkways.
Metal clattered.
Voices barked orders.
The Marines were mobilizing.
Fast.
People screamed and scattered as armed forces poured into the grove from every street and mangrove path. Riflemen took positions. Swordsmen formed a perimeter. Officers shouted for civilians to clear out.
Within moments, the entire carnival district was surrounded.
Giovanni finally stopped punching.
Mjosgard lay limp beneath him, barely conscious.
Shanks looked up toward the rooftops and the roads beyond, where more and more Marines were appearing by the second.
Limejuice slowly lowered his hands from his face.
"…Well," he said weakly, "there goes the day."
The circle around them tightened.
Steel. Guns. Fear. Chaos.
And at the center of it all stood the Red-Haired Pirates.
As the Navy completed its encirclement of Grove 31.
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