Crimson Fang Island
The wind howled across the blood-red cliffs of Crimson Fang Island, where jagged rocks split the tide and storms never truly rested. Thunder rolled above. The sky was bruised with dusk, as if nature itself sensed the confrontation to come.
They stood on the scorched arena floor—pirates, royals, killers, warriors—each one infamous in their own right.
And across from them stood only four.
Hope, still as death.
Nico Robin, her arms crossed, unreadable.
Nami, calculating, stance taut with storm-hardened confidence.
And Yoon Min-ah, cloak fluttering like dragon, her smirk razor-sharp.
Min-ah's voice rang out, smooth and daring "Earn your place. Or be left behind."
It began with silence. Then chaos. Opening clash Yamato charged first, fiery with purpose, her kanabo trailing lightning as she roared toward Hope.
"Let me see if you're worth following!"
Hope didn't flinch. He stepped into her strike and met it with bare fists, his Armament Haki igniting black as ink. The impact shook the surrounding area, shattering the nearby cliff face, tree, ground and rocks. Yamato skidded back, blood on her lip but grinning.
Behind her, Freya and Sif flanked Min-ah. Freya conjured blades of energy and hurled them like divine spears, while Sif called upon a war aura that cracked the earth beneath her.
Min-ah's eyes shimmered gold.
She opened her mouth and shouted:
"FUS RO DAH!"
A blast of sheer compressed force erupted. The Dragon Shout tore through the air like a tidal wave. Freya's blades disintegrated mid-flight. Sif's war cry was swallowed, her body hurled like a missile into a jagged cliff.
Lilith rocketed in next, her Vegapunk-enhanced tech lighting up. "How's this for collection, hag!" Her palm split open, firing a repulsion cannon.
Min-ah countered with another shout:
"LOK VAH KOOR!"
Her body shimmered — invisible.
Lilith's blast missed entirely. Min-ah reappeared behind her, grabbed her by the collar, and flung her into the dirt.
Nami & Robin Enter the Fray
Kalifa and Rebecca came at Nami, whose Clima-Tact sparked with preparation. Kalifa used her soap fruit to try and slip past, but Nami split the storm clouds with a lightning-charged Mirage Tempo.
The result was a dozen illusions of her, all firing off lightning bolts at once. Kalifa shrieked, slipping in soap and smoke.
Rebecca lunged through the mist, her sword flashing — only to be snared mid-air by a dozen massive arms erupting from the earth.
Robin's Gigante Mano twisted and slammed her down gently but firmly.
"Control is power," Robin whispered.
With Hope
Bonney wasn't holding back. Her rage boiled into action — she twisted her body, morphing into her adult prime form, clad in Armament Haki, her speed nearly vanishing from sight.
"Try to chain me now, monster!"
Hope didn't move. When she struck, he caught her wrist with two fingers.
"I don't need chains," he said flatly.
Then he slammed her into the ground with a sound like thunder.
Perona screamed, unleashing waves of Hollow ghosts, draining morale and willpower. Hiyori came in from behind, slashing with a hidden blade.
Hope released a burst of Conqueror's Haki — a wave of black lightning exploded outward. Perona's hollows dissipated. Hiyori dropped to one knee, her sword clattering.
Even Boa Hancock, watching with narrowed eyes, looked shaken.
Turning Point: Shirahoshi
Then came Shirahoshi. She didn't fight — not with force.
She stood tall amidst the rubble and destruction, tears in her eyes.
"I don't want more pain… I don't want to fight anymore…"
Hope paused, gazing at her, unreadable.
"You won't have to," he said. "You're not here because you're a warrior. You're here because you're a symbol. That's more powerful than any weapon."
And with that—she stepped back.
She had chosen.
Final Moment Stussy, Yamato, and Viola
Stussy, bleeding from a cut lip, joined Yamato. "He's proving it, whether you like it or not."
Viola, face bruised but burning with insight, whispered, "He's not just strong… he's truthful. And dangerous. But maybe that's what we need."
Hope's shirt was torn. His fists bloodied. Min-ah's cloak had long since been ripped away, revealing runes burned into her skin, glowing faintly.
But they stood victorious.
"Those still standing," Hope called out, "you passed. Not because you're strong—because you refused to quit."
"Now, we begin."
AFTERMATH
The battlefield was quiet now. Crimson Fang Island—scorched, cracked, littered with fragments of shattered boulders and scorched metal—lay still under the pale moonlight. The once-roaring storm had quieted, as if nature held its breath in the wake of something irreversible.
Scattered across the ground, the once-defiant stood—bloodied, bruised, but breathing. Some nursed burns. Others leaned on swords like crutches. Yet in every gaze, something deeper
flickered: not defeat, but reckoning.
Yamato sat cross-legged on a cracked boulder, wiping blood from her temple. "That bastard hits like Kaido... but cleaner. Focused." Her lips quirked. "I hate how much I respect him already."
Lilith lay in a crater, groaning. "They cheated. That woman screamed magic dragon words. What the hell kind of fruit is that?"
Stussy, leaning against a fractured tree, chuckled. "The kind that breaks kingdoms."
Freya, standing tall despite a torn cape, spoke calmly, with experience "He didn't just win. He made sure we remembered why."
Near the edge of the cliff, Bonney sat quietly, arms resting on her knees, still breathing heavily. Her lip was split, her pride even more so. She didn't turn when Hope approached.
"You fought well," he said.
"Don't," she growled.
"I know who killed your father," he continued, voice like a knife drawn slow.
That made her freeze.
"It wasn't pirates. It wasn't rebels. Under orders from the Five Elders. They wanted him silenced before he exposed their slave trade in the South Blue." Bonney looked up, eyes wide, fury igniting like an inferno.
"You're lying."
"I don't lie," Hope replied. "Not about this."
Across the battlefield, Shirahoshi, still trembling, clutched the edge of her robe.
Min-ah knelt beside her gently. "You don't have to fight. But you deserve the truth."
Hope approached, voice lower now. "Your mother, Queen Otohime—she was assassinated. Not by a random human."
Shirahoshi's eyes welled. "Then who?"
"The Celestial Dragon. Same one who enslaved your kin."
The girl gasped. A beat passed. Then she whispered, "Why... why would they do that?"
Hope's voice was solemn. "Because a world where fishmen and humans are equal... terrifies them."
Shirahoshi looked down, her knuckles white.
"I want to believe in peace," she whispered.
"So do I," Hope said. "But peace must be protected. And sometimes that means war."
BONNEY'S MEMORY
Later that night, Bonney sat alone beneath a broken statue. The wind picked up, scattering ash like snow.
She remembered her father's laugh—loud, full, unruly. She remembered how he'd pull her onto his shoulders and yell "The sea belongs to the free!"
Then she remembered the day the Marines came. The black coats. The silent men. How her father had been smiling one moment… and gone the next.
She always believed it was pirates. Always blamed the wrong people.
But tonight, Hope's words didn't ring like manipulation. They rang like… something else.
A chance.
Bonney looked up at the stars and whispered, "Old hag... is this what you wanted?"
Behind her, Min-ah's voice came softly. "You already know the answer."
Bonney didn't turn. "I'm not a hero."
"No one here is," Min-ah replied. "We're monsters. Rebels. Survivors. But maybe that's the only kind of people who can burn the old world down."