Grand Line — Sabaody Archipelago
The battlefield had gone quiet.
There was still the crackle of broken machinery from the ruined Pacifista. Still the distant noise of Sabaody all around them, shouting in far-off groves, bubbles drifting through mangrove light, the low groan of roots bending under too much force.
But around Tenjin and the fallen Straw Hats, there was a different kind of quiet now.
The kind that came after overwhelming force had already spoken.
Luffy was on one knee, breathing hard, his hands planted against the ground as he tried to push himself back up. Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brook had all been thrown aside and beaten down in quick succession, the force of Tenjin's assault having scattered them across the broken clearing.
Tenjin stood in the middle of it all.
Unbothered.
His coat rested over his shoulders as though the whole exchange had been nothing more than a warm-up. Broken roots and cracked stone spread around him in all directions, and the smell of earth, splintered bark, and scorched metal hung in the air like the remains of a storm.
He looked at Luffy.
And Luffy looked back.
Then—
From opposite ends of the clearing—
Two figures arrived.
One from above.
One from the side.
Zoro landed first, dropping from a thick mangrove branch overhead with his swords already drawn, boots slamming onto the broken root below with enough force to crack it slightly under his weight.
Sanji came in a heartbeat later, skidding in from the side with smoke still curling faintly from one leg, his suit a mess, his face carrying the familiar irritation of someone who had already been having a bad day long before seeing the scene in front of him.
They both froze for exactly one second.
Just long enough to take it in.
The fallen crew.
The shattered Pacifista.
Tenjin at the center of it all.
Zoro's eyes narrowed.
Sanji's expression darkened.
Luffy looked up and let out a breath of relief.
"Zoro. Sanji."
Tenjin's gaze shifted.
He studied the two of them for only a moment.
Then smiled faintly.
"So these are the missing two."
Sanji lit a cigarette with practiced ease despite the tension.
"You look pretty pleased with yourself," he said.
Zoro rolled one shoulder, blade lowering slightly into position.
"You the Marine who did this?"
Tenjin looked from one to the other.
"Yes."
That was enough.
The tension in the clearing changed.
Because unlike the others, these two did not rush in immediately.
They read him first.
Measured him.
And Tenjin, for his part, read them back.
There was no carelessness in their posture. No panic in their breathing. No wasted movement.
Good.
That was interesting.
Sanji moved first.
No warning.
Just a blur of motion and the instant flare of heat across his leg as he came in from the side, his foot slicing through the air in a flaming arc.
"Diable Jambe!"
Fire ignited around his kick, sharp and bright, the heat distorting the air around it as he drove it straight into Tenjin's flank.
This time—
There was resistance.
The impact connected through a burst of bark and shattered wood, but unlike the earlier attacks from the rest of the crew, Sanji's fire actually bit into Tenjin's body. The smell of burned plant matter exploded into the air as Tenjin was forced half a step sideways.
His eyes sharpened instantly.
'So fire really does work.'
At the exact same moment, Zoro came in from the front.
Three swords.
A horizontal slash, fast and brutal, cutting through the roots Tenjin had summoned at knee level while another blade drove toward his upper body.
"Tora Gari!"
Wood split.
Tenjin's hastily raised bark defenses were cut apart in clean, hard lines, pieces of trunk and root tumbling across the ground as Zoro's blades carved straight through them with raw cutting power.
The message was immediate.
To Tenjin.
To the Straw Hats.
To the audience of terrified bystanders and watching pirates hidden around the grove.
Zoro could cut him.
Sanji could burn him.
For the first time since arriving at this battlefield, Tenjin had found opponents who could actually fight him.
He took another step back.
Then laughed.
Interested.
"Well," he said, "that's better."
Luffy grinned despite the pain running through him. "I told you they'd make it."
Zoro didn't look at him.
"Save the talking for later."
Sanji exhaled smoke through his nose, one leg still burning.
"We're kicking his ass first."
Then all three moved.
Luffy surged forward from the middle while Zoro and Sanji flanked from either side, the battered but very real core of the Straw Hats' offense finally assembled in one line.
For a moment—
The pressure they created together was real.
Luffy attacked first, moving in with Gear Second speed.
"Gomu Gomu no Jet Pistol!"
His fist blurred toward Tenjin's chest.
Tenjin let it pass through one half of his body as he shifted into wood and leaf matter again—
But Zoro was already there to cut the reformation point.
"Shishi Sonson!"
The draw-slash flashed.
Tenjin had to twist his whole upper body sideways, bark and wood splintering away from the attack as the line of the cut tore through part of his shoulder and sent fragments of trunk-like flesh spinning into the air.
Before he could stabilize, Sanji came low from the blind side.
"Flanchet Strike!"
The flaming kick drove into Tenjin's ribs and sent him skidding across the ground, the impact lighting part of his coat and forcing him to tear it free from one shoulder before the flames spread too far.
The trio pressed.
Luffy's speed.
Zoro's cutting power.
Sanji's fire.
For a few precious exchanges, the rhythm of the battle actually belonged to them.
Luffy attacked high.
Tenjin shifted.
Zoro cut through the exposed growth.
Tenjin blocked with a wall of roots.
Sanji burned straight through the side of it and drove another kick into his guard.
Tenjin answered with roots bursting from the ground, but Zoro cut them apart before they could fully close. Luffy bounced over another wave of wood and slammed both feet into Tenjin's chest.
"Gomu Gomu no Jet Stamp!"
Tenjin hit the ground hard enough to crater the root beneath him.
The clearing shook.
The fallen Straw Hats looked up, there was hope.
But only for the first time.
Because when the dust broke—
Tenjin was already standing again.
And his smile was gone.
Not because he was angry.
Because he had stopped playing.
The roots around the battlefield changed.
They stopped bursting out wildly and started moving with purpose.
The same way a swordsman's stance changed when he stopped testing and started cutting.
Tenjin planted one foot down.
The entire ground responded.
Roots erupted in concentric rings, not at random but in layered timing that instantly broke the trio's formation apart. Luffy had to leap backward. Zoro pivoted to cut one ring apart only to find a second coming in from below. Sanji burned through a wall of bark and was immediately met by a thick trunk-like arm smashing in from above.
Tenjin blurred through the center of it.
He was suddenly in front of Sanji.
One bark-reinforced backhand smashed into Sanji's guard and sent him launching through a mangrove root hard enough to split it.
Luffy roared and came in with both arms stretching wide.
"Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka!"
Tenjin crossed his arms.
Not to block.
To summon.
"Wood Wall."
A slab of hardened bark and trunk erupted in front of him. Luffy's attack blasted into it and shattered the first layer—
Only for a second and third layer to surge up behind it.
The momentum died.
And Tenjin came through the broken wall with a root-covered fist that drove straight into Luffy's stomach.
Luffy coughed and folded, the breath torn from him.
Zoro came in at once.
"Nigiri Toro Samon!"
Three slashes tore in from different angles, sharp enough to cut through the bark armor Tenjin raised. They did cut.
But Tenjin took the blows and answered with a forest-grown arm exploding up from the ground beneath Zoro like a giant hammer.
The impact launched him.
Zoro twisted midair and landed badly, skidding through shattered stone before stopping on one knee, one sword planted to keep himself upright.
Tenjin did not let the pressure ease.
He came for Luffy again.
Sanji reentered from the side, flame spiraling around his leg with greater intensity now.
"Concassé!"
The kick landed.
It burned.
And Tenjin immediately answered by catching Sanji's leg in a mass of roots and slamming him downward into the ground hard enough to burst the earth apart around him.
Tenjin adapted too fast, controlled too much of the field, and once he understood their angles, their rhythm, and the limits of what they could sustain, the difference in battlefield control became enormous.
Luffy went down first.
Not fully unconscious.
But beaten into the dirt by repeated root-assisted blows and one final bark-wrapped strike to the chest that sent him bouncing across the broken grove.
Sanji followed after taking too much accumulated punishment, his burning leg dimming as he hit the ground hard and tried, unsuccessfully, to force himself back up.
Zoro lasted longest.
Of course he did.
He always looked half-dead anyway.
He cut through more roots, carved apart more wooden armor, and forced Tenjin to respect his sword every second of the exchange. But in the end, even Zoro couldn't keep pace when the entire battlefield itself was against him.
Tenjin trapped one leg, broke his footing, and then drove a crushing root-grown fist into his midsection that folded him over his swords and sent him crashing down beside the others.
The clearing went still again.
Tenjin stood alone.
Breathing slightly harder now.
A few burns.
Nothing fatal.
He looked over the three strongest Straw Hats with calm approval.
"They're good," he muttered.
Then—
Light gathered.
A golden flash crossed the battlefield so suddenly that even Tenjin barely had time to turn before the kick hit him.
Kizaru's foot slammed into Tenjin's side with the speed and force of a cannon fired at point-blank range.
Tenjin's body tore through wood, bark, and physical form all at once, blasted across the grove and through three giant mangrove roots before finally crashing down in a spray of splintered debris.
The air hummed with residual light.
Then Kizaru landed where he had stood.
Hands still in his pockets.
Expression lazy as ever.
He glanced in the direction Tenjin had gone flying and sighed.
"You really do whatever you want, don't you~?" he drawled.
Dust and bark drifted slowly from the shattered roots where Tenjin had landed.
Kizaru adjusted his glasses.
"That kick," he said, voice unhurried, "was for disregarding orders."
---
Find early chapters and daily updates on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]
Follow me on Instagram [www.instagram.com/tenten100_?]