The air crackled with the aftermath of violence. Luffy stood tall, his straw hat casting a defiant shadow across the manicured lawn now scarred by battle.
"So it's true," Jango breathed, his hypnotic pendulum momentarily still. "The rumors… Devil Fruits are real."
"Yep!" Luffy grinned, stretching his arm out to impossible lengths before letting it snap back. "Ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Made me rubber!" He said it with the casual pride of a child showing off a new toy, a stark contrast to the terror around them.
From the mansion's shattered doorway, a voice, cold and precise as a surgeon's scalpel, cut through the tension. "Jango. Your distraction is noted. Deal with the girl and her little fan club. The rubber fool is mine."
Captain Kuro adjusted his glasses, the lenses flashing white, hiding the predator's gaze beneath.
Zoro moved before the order was finished, a green blur placing himself between Jango and the trembling Kaya. "You're not going anywhere."
"Wrong, swordsman!" A roar erupted as Buchi, a mountain of bruised fury, launched himself from the shadows. He became a cannonball of muscle, fists aimed at Zoro's head.
Zoro smirked. "Same old trick." He'd seen this aerial assault before, defeated it before. He shifted to parry.
*CRACK!*
The air itself seemed to fracture. Buchi's fist missed Zoro's skull by a hair's breadth, but the shockwave of the blow hammered into the ground, exploding dirt and rock at the swordsman's feet. The impact was ten times heavier than before.
"You see?" Kuro's voice was a dry commentary. "The beast doesn't know his own strength. Only his rage."
Buchi pressed the advantage, a relentless tide of brute force. He drove Zoro back, slamming him against the stone retaining wall of the sloping garden. Stone cracked under the pressure. Zoro's muscles corded, veins standing out on his neck as Buchi's weight pressed down, threatening to crush him.
"You think…" Zoro grunted, his three swords digging into the earth for leverage, "…I'd lose to the same man twice?" With a raw shout of effort, he pushed, not with technique, but with sheer, stubborn will. Buchi stumbled back, surprise flashing in his animalistic eyes.
It was all the opening Jango needed. He sidestepped the struggling combatants, his polished shoes clicking calmly on the path toward Kaya.
Usopp stood frozen, his legs locked, his heart a frantic drum against his ribs. He saw it all in horrifying slow motion: Kaya's pale, determined face; the three boys of his "pirate crew" shaking but holding their ground; Jango's hand dipping into his coat for another of those lethal rings.
*Move!* Usopp's mind screamed. *MOVE!*
His body refused.
But his voice didn't.
"Ninjin! Piiman! Tamanegi!" The command tore from his throat, sharper than he knew it could be. "Your captain's order! Get Miss Kaya to the forest! Protect her with your lives! That's the most important mission in the world right now!"
The Usopp Pirates snapped to attention, fear overridden by duty. They formed a tight shield around Kaya, their small bodies suddenly looking less like children and more like a desperate honor guard. "Come on, Miss Kaya!" Ninjin urged, pulling her toward the tree line.
Jango's lip curled. He flicked his wrist, a silver ring singing as it cut the air—aimed directly at Kaya's retreating back.
*TWANG!*
A pebble, launched from Usopp's slingshot with desperate accuracy, struck Jango's hand a fraction before release. The ring went wide, embedding itself in a tree trunk with a sickening *thunk*.
Jango slowly turned his head, his neck creaking. The manic glint in his eyes now focused entirely on the long-nosed boy who dared interrupt him.
"You," Jango hissed.
"Jango!" Kuro's voice cracked like a whip from across the lawn, where he now circled Luffy. "The girl. Now. Or do I need to remind you of the consequences of failure?"
Snarling, Jango spun back toward the forest and vanished into the deepening shadows after his prey.
In the woods, the only sounds were the ragged breaths of the fleeing group and the crunch of leaves underfoot.
"Is… is he gone?" Piiman gasped, risking a glance over his shoulder. The path behind them was empty, dappled with uneasy sunlight.
Kaya stumbled, her fine dress snagging on brambles. "I'm slowing you down. Leave me—"
A sound like a hundred angry hornets screamed through the trees.
*SHIIINK! SHIIINK! SHIIINK!*
Jango's rings weren't aimed at them. They were aimed at the forest itself. Trunks to the left and right of their path were sheared clean through, ancient wood groaning as trees began to topple, crashing around them in a thunderous hail of splinters and leaves. One massive oak slammed down inches behind them, blocking their retreat.
From the darkness ahead, Jango's voice floated, calm and utterly terrifying. "Run all you like, little lambs. I will happily carve this entire forest apart, piece by piece, until there is nowhere left to hide."
His chilling promise echoed through the woods, reaching all the way back to the bloodied coastline.
There, Kuro paced before Usopp, who was now backing toward the trees. "Sentiment is a currency for the poor, boy," Kuro said, cleaning his cat-claw gloves with fastidious care. "I feel nothing for the girl. If, by some miracle, she survives this day, she might even thank me. Her role in my three-year scheme was… instrumental."
That was the final straw. The fear in Usopp's gut crystallized into a single, burning purpose: *Save Kaya.*
He turned and ran for the forest.
"Buchi!" Kuro snapped.
The hulking first mate disengaged from Zoro with a roar and lunged, a living battering ram aimed to intercept Usopp's path.
But steel flashed.
Zoro stood in his way, two swords drawn, a fresh cut on his brow leaking a trail of blood down his face. He was breathing heavily, but his stance was unbreakable. "Your fight," he growled, his voice low and deadly, "is with me."
Behind Zoro, Usopp disappeared into the dark maw of the woods, the sounds of destruction and Jango's taunting laughter guiding him toward a nightmare.
And on the coast, as Luffy cracked his knuckles with a grin that promised pain, and Kuro's glasses glinted with murderous intent, Zoro faced the enhanced, raging Buchi alone.
He raised his swords, the sun catching the steel. "Let's finish this," he said.
But as Buchi charged, a new, sharper sound joined the chaos—not from the forest, but from the cliffside above the mansion. The distinct, metallic *shing* of a blade being drawn.
And a familiar, refined voice, dripping with venomous amusement, called down:
"My, my. It seems the party has started without me."
Zoro's eyes widened a fraction. He knew that voice. *Cabaji? No…*
**From the cliff edge, the agile swordsman of Buggy's Pirate Crew, thought long gone, smirked down at the battle, his balance perfect on the precipice. And behind him, emerging from the tree line with a cruel chuckle, was his captain—Buggy the Clown, his red nose glowing, his body already separating into floating, deadly pieces.**
**"Did you miss me, Straw Hat?"**