The battle in the plaza had reached a fever pitch.
Friend and foe were mixed in a chaotic brawl where the tide turned by the second, allowing no time for even a single breath.
It was into this chaos that Usopp's amplified voice had cut through just moments ago.
Chopper, in his Heavy Point (Human-Beast Form), sent enemies flying with just his left arm as he looked up in a spare moment. Nami happened to be nearby, so he called out to her, unable to suppress a grin.
"Hey, Nami! That was...!"
"Usopp, right? He does something cool once in a while."
A short distance away, people were being tossed through the air. As they mowed down enemies, Sanji and Zoro were also exchanging words.
Without looking at each other, they maintained an air of composure even as they fought.
"Assuming a few hundred thousand enemies got in, what's the quota per person?"
"I'll cut down a hundred thousand. Your limit is probably one or two."
"Hah!? If you're doing a hundred thousand, I'm doing a hundred and one thousand!"
"I'll cut a hundred and twenty thousand."
"Hundred thirty thousand!"
"Hundred fifty thousand."
"I'll kick two hundred thousand of 'em all at once!"
"That's obviously impossible, idiot."
"Snap!? Bring it on! I'll prove it with the guys right here! Though it's probably impossible for you!"
"Don't be stupid. I'll cut them all down before you can."
It seemed Usopp's speech didn't have much to do with them.
Having raised their own morale, they swept through the enemy with even more terrifying momentum, blowing them away not so much to change the tide of battle, but simply to defeat one more enemy than the other.
Meanwhile, Vivi, wielding her own weapons to fend off the sparks falling her way, rubbed her eyes fiercely. Miss Monday and Mr. 9 were right beside her, fighting off enemies with desperate resolve.
"Miss Wednesday, save that for when the fighting is over. It ain't finished yet."
"Yeah, don't worry. We're with you till the end."
"Yes... Yes!"
Lifting her head, Vivi looked at the battlefield with strong eyes.
Just a little more. It should be just a little more.
The morale of the soldiers was high, and thanks to the superhuman struggles of Zoro and Sanji, the enemy's momentum had been completely broken. The flow of battle was firmly in the Royal Army's hands. If this continued, victory might be theirs.
Everyone wished for the battle to end. Regardless of status—soldiers fighting, royalty, citizens present—everyone sincerely prayed for this conflict to cease.
That was exactly why they had to swing their weapons and defeat the surging enemy without letting a single one escape.
Steadily, surely, the battle should have been approaching its end.
Then, in the sandstorm-shrouded plaza, Chopper suddenly looked up.
"What is that...?"
His small mutter reached no one. He didn't intend for it to.
"The clock... is open."
He was looking up at the clock tower overlooking the square.
Before anyone realized it, the clock face had moved, revealing the space behind it. The angle prevented him from seeing deep inside, but he felt an ominous atmosphere.
Standing in a position invisible from the plaza were a man and a woman.
Both were dressed eccentrically, holding strangely shaped pistols and laughing.
"Hey, listen, Mr. 7. This is definitely a major mission. If we succeed, there's no doubt we'll get incredible status, honor, and rewards within the organization."
"Hmm, that's right, Miss Father's Day. That's likely the plan. So, we absolutely cannot afford to fail, that's the plan."
"Gero gero gero."
"Ohohohoho."
They were the sniper pair, Mr. 7 and Miss Father's Day.
Behind them sat a massive cannon. It was enormous, loaded with a single gigantic shell, waiting for the moment to spit it out.
Their role as snipers was to fire that shell.
Consequently, their objective was to wipe out everyone in the plaza.
"If we fail, we get erased, you know~."
"If we succeed, we gain much, that's the plan."
They checked the clock, peered down at the situation in the plaza, and then looked at each other.
"Hey, listen, Mr. 7. I think it's about time. Time to erase them all."
"Ohohohoho, that's the plan. The nuisances will all disappear, that's the plan."
Moving in high spirits, they looked down at the fuse.
Then, holding a match, they smiled at each other, ready to light it.
"Ignition standyyy-by."
"Let's get this job done quickly, that's the plan. Ohohohoho."
Just as Miss Father's Day was about to light the match.
Suddenly, the door to the room was kicked open.
Reflexively, the pair raised their guns with lightning speed. It was an ingrained action, trained to counterattack instantly against any surprise assault in any situation.
Kicking off the ground hard, the figure that flew in was Kiri, wrapped in his white coat.
The pair was surprised by his appearance, but they did not hesitate to attack.
They squeezed their triggers instantly, firing bullets.
Mr. 7's "Yellow Gun" and Miss Father's Day's "Gero Gero Gun." They fired oddly shaped bullets that were designed to burst upon contact with each other, increasing their destructive power.
Kiri knew this information.
Facing the incoming bullets, he waved his fingers, and paper tentacles extending from his coat deflected the shots.
"W-What!?"
"Damn it, how did you find this place!?"
They moved to fire another shot, fingers on the triggers, but Kiri's attack reached them first. The paper tentacles that had deflected the bullets grabbed the pair, carried them to the wall at incredible speed, and slammed them against it.
In the moment the impact knocked the wind out of them, pieces of paper swiftly plastered over their noses and mouths.
Unable to breathe, the two struggled for a while, but eventually lost consciousness and stopped moving.
Releasing the unconscious pair and laying them on the floor, Kiri muttered quietly.
He knew they couldn't hear him, but he intended it as an answer.
"Of course I knew. I was the one who prepared this."
Speaking coldly, he turned back to the entrance.
He called in Hikoichi, the Spot-Billed Duck wearing a straw hat and rain cape who had come here with him. The bird approached with light steps, showing no hesitation, and stood beside Kiri.
"Take these two and go down ahead of me. I'll be right there."
Hikoichi stared intently at Kiri's face. He seemed worried, or perhaps suspicious of something. He simply stared silently without quacking.
Kiri gave a wry smile and stroked the duck's beak.
Immediately after, he used his paper to move the two fallen bodies onto Hikoichi's back.
"I'm counting on you."
Saying no more, he entrusted the task to him.
Hikoichi nodded and, showing a hint of reluctance, left the room.
Remaining in the room, Kiri looked at the cannon again.
It felt nostalgic. He had installed this here himself under Crocodile's orders.
He knew of the plan to blow up the plaza. At the time, he thought it was just a precaution; he never imagined he would be the one to stop it. Life is funny, he chuckled.
He moved to a position where he could see the muzzle and peered inside the barrel.
He could hear a ticking sound.
The shell was a time bomb; even without being fired, it would eventually cause a massive explosion.
He knew the structure. If he wanted to stop it, he could dismantle and neutralize it. However, unfortunately, that would require a significant amount of time, and it wasn't something easily taken apart. Furthermore, it was designed to explode easily if subjected to clumsy shock.
Kiri climbed into the barrel.
Since it was a time bomb, the remaining time should be displayed. When he got close and checked, he couldn't help but smile wryly, even though he had expected it.
Kiri sat inside the barrel.
Facing the silent, massive shell, he muttered to no one in particular.
"I thought so... Was this calculated too, I wonder?"
As expected, there was no time left to dismantle it.
Crocodile had likely set it shorter than the original time. Looking at the remaining time, it would be difficult to even transport it to a safe location, let alone dismantle it. But if he left it here, it was easy to imagine that the explosion would kill the majority of the people in the plaza.
He had to dispose of it by means other than dismantling or transporting it to the desert.
He sighed deeply.
To be honest, most of the events leading up to this point hadn't gone according to calculation.
He felt pathetic. He felt incompetent.
Even coming here... if he had moved more quickly, something might have changed.
This battle had become one of many regrets.
"I wanted to take down a few more agents if possible, but that seems impossible now too."
If there was no time, it couldn't be helped. He would have to leave the rest to his friends.
Fortunately, his friends were all reliable people. He wasn't worried.
He listened to the ticking sound.
There was no time. But it seemed he needed a moment to steel his resolve, so he sat still for a while.
"I'm a useless Vice Captain... In the end, all I can do is rely on my friends."
His smile faded into a lonely expression as he spoke alone in the empty space.
He stood up with slow movements.
Manipulating the paper that had transformed into his coat, he grabbed the only handle available to move the shell.
(But... at least I'll take care of this thing.)
He dragged the massive shell, moving it out of the tower.
The moment he stepped out into the open space, countless sheets of paper gathered in one place to form a giant bird, spreading its wings. It grasped the handle of the shell with its feet and began to fly.
Kiri himself rode on the bird's back, his right arm thrust into the paper body as if integrated with it, holding on.
Immediately after escaping the clock tower, the paper bird flew vertically, aiming for the sky.
Catching the wind with its large wings, it carried the shell away from the plaza.
Its massive presence naturally drew the attention of those fighting in the square below. It had suddenly appeared from the clock tower and was heading straight up into the sky.
It was no wonder people stopped what they were doing; everyone saw it.
Among them, only a few recognized who it was.
Only those who knew of Kiri's existence spotted him.
Because they didn't understand the situation, they couldn't immediately grasp why he was flying into the sky in such a hurry, or that the object he carried was a shell. They just wondered at the sight.
(They'll be fine. No matter what happens, they'll figure something out.)
As he ascended, Kiri smiled with relief.
Though ashamed that he hadn't been very useful, he felt happy to have friends he could rely on.
(Luffy will definitely win in the end. If I can just dispose of this, all the uncertain elements should be gone. There's nothing left for me to do—)
Thinking alone as he gazed at the sky, Kiri seemed to realize something and let out a chuckle.
"What do you know... my role was already over, wasn't it?"
There hadn't been anything to worry about.
He smiled with satisfaction.
Realizing that there was nothing more he could do made his body feel strangely light. The only thing he could do now was, at best, try not to die.
He knew it would be difficult, but he didn't intend to die from the start. He hadn't been afraid from the beginning.
It was different from before.
Different from when he was transporting this shell to the clock tower.
Now, he had friends he could trust with his heart. That alone felt like enough.
In a fleeting moment, Kiri looked down at the town of Alubarna.
It wasn't just that it was terribly broken. He saw a scenery different from when he used to live in this town.
Suddenly, he pulled his arm free and threw himself into the air. The giant paper bird flapped its wings toward the sky, moving away without looking back, carrying the steadily ticking shell.
Kiri watched it go as he fell.
The paper remaining in his hand was scant. But that was fine. This was his choice.
He was ready. Not to throw his life away, but to continue living.
He was different from before.
Just acknowledging that seemed to give him a strange sense of pride.
"Boss... It's our loss."
Feeling the strong wind as he fell from the sky, Kiri stared into the vast blue.
Wearing a satisfied smile, he closed his eyes.
"And," he added, spinning words meant for someone to hear.
"It's our win, Luffy."
The giant bird reached the limit of his ability's range and began to disintegrate on its own. Reverting to mere paper, the sheets began to scatter here and there, carried away by the wind.
And the moment the last sheet separated from the shell, the time came.
A massive explosion engulfed the sky above the plaza.
A colossal fireball covered the heavens.
The resulting blast wind was incomparable to a sandstorm, strong enough to wipe out the dust devils that existed there.
The clock tower, the tallest structure in the square, was particularly affected; its upper section was caught in the blast and blown away along with the gun turret, and the structure rocked violently from the shockwave that assaulted the entire area.
The shock was such that no one present could remain standing.
People were blown through the air like paper; weapons were dropped as bodies rolled across the ground.
The explosion halted the battle, if only momentarily.
The fireball dominating overhead lingered, and while it was there, no one could move. Unable to comprehend what had happened, they stood in silent shock.
A heavy silence spread, a time where not a single person could move.
However, amidst that, those who realized, realized.
They had definitely seen him go up into the sky.
In the plaza filled with countless people, only a few stared at the sky with desperate hope, scanning the surroundings.
The person who should have been there, the person who must be there, was nowhere to be found.
After a while, the appearance of the sky began to change, and clouds began to gather from nowhere.
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