Clang—!
Tashigi drew her blade Shigure, the sharp edge gleaming as she leveled it at the female pirates. She assumed a fighting stance, though a smudge of ice cream cream still lingered on the corner of her lips.
"Stop right there!" she declared. "Alvida, Mikita, and… whoever you are—I am Petty Officer Tashigi of Marine Headquarters! I order you to surrender immediately!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku had already instructed Smoker and Hina that the plan to invite Davy Jones into the Shichibukai had changed. With a more suitable candidate—Marshall D. Teach, "Blackbeard"—now available, there was no longer any need to court Jones so actively.
And Tashigi, having received the relayed order, acted all the more forthright.
Had she encountered Jones' crew before this shift, she might have respectfully detained them in order to secure an audience with Davy Jones himself.
But now—the situation was very different.
Alvida, Mikita, and Porche flinched at first, then exchanged baffled glances after processing the young marine's words.
Sigh…
Tina exhaled lightly. This child—after all these years under Smoker's wing, she was still just as rash. Perhaps she had simply chosen the wrong teacher?
Pushing aside the round café table in front of her, Hina rose and stepped to Tashigi's side.
Both wore plainclothes. If Tashigi hadn't declared her identity, none of the surrounding civilians would have realized they were marines.
Sensing a brawl about to erupt, the townsfolk—eager for spectacle but wary of getting too close—voluntarily cleared the street, leaving a wide open space.
A fight between women—such a thing always drew keen eyes, young and old alike.
"Petty Officer Tashigi of Headquarters?" Alvida frowned, pursing her crimson lips. She didn't recognize the name. But when her gaze fell on Tina, her memory sharpened. "Ah—it's you. 'Black Cage' Hina!"
That encounter remained vivid in her mind—the day Smoker and Hina had overwhelmed them in an instant.
"Yes, it's Hina." She raised a gloved hand to shield the breeze as she lit a cigarette, a plume of smoke curling upward.
Tashigi pressed again: "Surrender now. You are wanted pirates. Dead or alive, you have no legal rights."
Under normal circumstances, Porche would never have dared to stand so openly before marines. But with Alvida and Mikita flanking her—two who had dealt with marines time and again—she borrowed their courage, standing taller than she would alone.
"Oh my, we don't even know what 'surrender' means," Porche cooed coyly, though she shrank back behind Alvida and Mikita.
"In that case," Tashigi adjusted her glasses, "I will regard you as continuing to defy the law of the World Government, and under statute—"
But Hina cut her off.
"That's enough, Tashigi. Hina thinks they've understood you perfectly well. All we need do is arrest them and send them to Enies Lobby."
Here in Water 7, arrests flowed seamlessly into prosecution—Enies Lobby was only hours away by sea train.
"Yes, Captain Hina!" Tashigi answered promptly.
Hina studied the three pirates. Strangely, none of them seemed inclined to flee. Could it be that traveling too long with Davy Jones had made them believe they no longer needed to fear the Marines?
What had the world come to, when pirates no longer feared the Navy—and sometimes the Navy feared pirates?
A pity, Hina thought—she hadn't brought her special "Prison Bullets." Against two Devil Fruit users, they would have been highly effective. Still, she judged that she and Tashigi together were enough to capture these three.
With that decision, she stripped off her black gloves. Both hands transformed into iron cage-bars, spreading wide like a fisherman's net as they swept forward.
Mikita, with the light tap of her toes, used her fruit power and a small leap to float skyward on her umbrella, evading the black cage.
Porche retreated quickly to a safe distance.
Only Alvida remained where she stood. Tina's cage closed around her—but Alvida's slippery body slid free with ease.
Tina's brows furrowed. That ability was indeed troublesome. She was slipping free even more easily than during the Reverse Mountain Battle.
"Hah—!"
Tashigi shouted, slashing Shigure down diagonally from above. But Alvida swung up the spiked iron mace from her hip, meeting the blade head-on.
CLANG!
The ringing of iron resounded. A terrifying force surged down the blade into Tashigi's arms, flinging her back.
Only then did she realize—this was no longer the same Alvida once worth a paltry 5 million. Now, her bounty was 55 million—eleven times higher.
She was about to crash into one of Water 7's canal rivers, about to become a soaked mess—when Hina's black bars caught her at the waist and hauled her safely back to the quay.
"I'll take the lead. You follow my signals," Hina ordered.
"Yes!" Tashigi, still shaken, replied at once.
Hina tapped her toe against the ground—Soru! In a flash, she appeared before Alvida, jabbing at her chest with a Shigan coated in Armament Haki.
Normally, Alvida would never have dodged. With her "Smooth-Smooth" body, she trusted her invulnerability.
But this time, some instinct made her shift aside. The Shigan pierced her shoulder instead.
Squelch!
Blood spurted from the hole as Hina's finger thrust through her shoulder blade.
Alvida staggered back, clutching the wound—stunned at first, then remembering what her captain often used in battle, what Buggy had explained to the crew: Armament Haki.
No matter how strong her body was, Armament could breach it. Not even Logias were safe from it—how much less so Paramecia or Zoans.
Hina herself was startled too. By all rights, that strike shouldn't have been avoidable.
Observation Haki?
Judging by the movement, Alvida wasn't proficient yet—only barely at the entry stage.
Still, it was shocking. Hina had seen countless marines from all the Blues, and even from Paradise, die without ever learning Armament or Observation—let alone the fabled Conqueror's.
And yet this pirate woman… had begun to learn them?
No time to dwell. Hina's own Observation screamed warning. She vanished with Soru, just as Mikita swooped down from above.
BOOM!
The impact shattered the cobblestones, leaving a crater in the street. But she'd missed, so it was wasted strength.
"Too bad," Mikita muttered in her doll-like singsong, flashing a false smile as she rose again into the air.
Hina glanced from Alvida to Mikita, weighing her options.
"Mikita—watch out!"
Almost at once, Alvida guessed her intent and shouted.
Hina vanished from the ground with Soru, stepping through the air with Geppo. Before even closing the gap, she lashed out with a whip-like kick—sending a crescent-shaped Rankyaku flying!
The azure slash gleamed. Mikita's eyes went wide. She hastily increased her weight, but before gravity could drag her down, the slash struck.
SHRRK—!
Her umbrella shredded, her body plummeting to the ground, a deep gash tearing from shoulder to abdomen.
Alvida rushed to shield her fallen comrade, mace in hand.
But Hina pressed forward. The situation favored her—if Alvida protected Mikita, she left herself exposed. If she defended herself, Mikita would be finished.
One of them was going down.
Yet in the next instant, Hina abruptly twisted away, springing back toward Tashigi with Soru. Her black bars lashed out, batting aside a cluster of razor-sharp "Petal Shuriken" that had been aimed at Tashigi's back.
That unknown pirate woman—Porche—had circled behind unnoticed.
Tashigi gasped, realizing Hina had just saved her from a fatal ambush.
Porche withdrew her baton and swung it again, firing—not shuriken this time, but a puff of pollen!
It hit Hina square in the face, leaving her faintly dizzy.
"Captain Hina!"
Tashigi cried out, throwing herself forward. She raised Shigure just in time to block a crushing overhead blow.
Alvida was upon them, mace crashing down.
And now, her strength was greater than before. A light twist disarmed Tashigi, Shigure flying from her grip. A kick followed, hurling her bodily through the air.
Under the pollen's haze, Hina staggered. She tried to use Observation again—but what she saw left her blood running cold.
Through her haki's vision, Alvida's body writhed with terrifying black aura, dozens of tendrils wriggling about her. Her face warped into a monstrous visage—like a second Davy Jones himself.
It was as though last night's nightmare had crawled into daylight.
Her breath caught. She barely managed to harden her body with Tekkai before Alvida's mace slammed into her.
CRASH!
The wall of a nearby shop exploded. Hina crashed to the ground, pink hair strewn in disarray, sunglasses shattered. Her cigarette lay tossed aside, its ember glowing faintly… then dying out.
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