Sleep offered no escape for Kaya. It was a dark, suffocating place filled with twisted echoes of the day's terrible events. In her nightmare, she was running through the dark halls of her own mansion, but the walls felt like they were closing in. She heard Klahadore's cold voice whispering in her ear, "…filthy pirate blood…"
She turned a corner and saw Usopp. But it wasn't the kind, funny storyteller she knew. His face was contorted in a mask of rage, his eyes burning with a hateful fire. He lunged at her, his hands outstretched. "You insulted my father!" he screamed, his voice a demonic roar. "You insulted my pirate blood!"
Kaya woke up with a gasp, drenched in a cold sweat. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The silence of the vast mansion felt heavy and menacing. She needed reassurance. She needed the calm, steady presence of her loyal butler.
"Klahadore?" she called out, her voice a trembling whisper.
There was no answer.
She slipped out of bed, her bare feet cold on the polished wooden floor. She lit a single candle and began to search, her small light pushing back the oppressive darkness of the hallways. The mansion had never felt so empty, so… wrong.
She made her way to his study. The door was slightly ajar.
"Klahadore? Are you in there?"
She pushed the door open and the scene that met her eyes made her blood run cold.
The study was a complete wreck. Furniture was overturned, books were torn from their shelves, and the walls were covered in deep, terrifying gashes, like the marks of some giant, savage beast.
And there, lying in a pool of his own blood in the center of the room, was the servant, Merry.
"Merry!" Kaya cried, rushing to his side. She knelt down, her hands trembling as she tried to find a pulse. He was alive, but barely.
"Miss… Kaya…" he coughed, his voice a weak, raspy whisper. He slowly opened his eyes, and they were filled with a terror she had never seen before.
"You… you must run…" he gasped.
"What happened? Who did this?" she asked, tears streaming down her face.
Merry struggled to speak, each word an agony. "It was… Klahadore…"
Kaya froze. "No… that's impossible. Klahadore would never…"
"He tried to kill me," Merry continued, his voice shaking. "Usopp… Usopp-san… he was telling the truth. Everything he said… was the truth."
The world seemed to tilt and spin around Kaya. Klahadore, her gentle, protective guardian, was a monster. And Usopp, the boy she had called a liar, the friend she had slapped and scorned… he was a hero.
"He really is a pirate," Merry whispered. "The infamous Captain Kuro…"
The full, crushing weight of her actions slammed into Kaya. She had rejected the only person who knew the truth. She had sided with the monster who had lived under her roof for three years. She had called her savior the worst person she knew.
"No…" she sobbed, not from fear, but from a profound, soul-crushing guilt. "What have I done? I chased him away… He was trying to protect me…"
As if things couldn't get worse, Merry delivered the final, chilling piece of news. "Miss Kaya… he sent all the other servants away yesterday. He told them it was a paid vacation."
They were completely alone in the mansion. Trapped.
Merry, seeing the despair on her face, tried to offer a sliver of hope. "He's after the treasure, Miss Kaya. Your inheritance. That must be his only goal. If you just… give it to him… maybe he will spare your life. Maybe he will leave the village in peace."
Outside the village, huddled in the darkness, the Usopp Pirates were having a crisis of faith.
"Do you think…" Piiman began, "that maybe the Captain… wasn't lying about his lie being a lie?"
"You mean, you think he was telling the truth?" Ninjin asked.
"He did look pretty serious," Tamanegi added. "And he got hurt…"
Their admiration for their captain, which had been shaken, was now reforming into a new, more profound respect. They had thought he was a great liar. But maybe, just maybe, he was a real hero after all.
As they debated, a lone figure emerged from the gates of the mansion. It was Kaya, wrapped in a cloak, a look of grim determination on her face. She was heading out of town.
Back at the coast, the battlefield was littered with the unconscious bodies of the Black Cat Pirates. Luffy was still out cold under the wreckage of the ship's figurehead. Nami and Usopp were tending to their wounds.
The only one left standing, ready for a fight, was Zoro.
And a fight was coming.
From the deck of the pirate ship, two new figures leaped down, landing with the silent grace of cats. One was tall and lanky, the other short and stout. They were the Nyaban Brothers, Buchi and Sham, the guardians of the ship and Kuro's deadliest fighters.
Zoro tightened the grip on his two remaining swords. He was outnumbered, but he stood his ground.
Sham, the lanky one, began to walk towards him. He was trembling, his face a mask of theatrical fear. "Oh no, no, no! It's the Pirate Hunter!" he cried, his voice a high-pitched whine. "I'm so scared! Please don't hurt me!"
He broke into a clumsy, cowardly-looking run, his arms flailing.
Zoro watched, his single eye narrowed with suspicion. 'What is this idiot doing?'
But just as Sham was about to reach him, everything changed.
In the blink of an eye, the fear vanished. The clumsiness evaporated. Sham's body language shifted from a terrified coward to a cold, confident predator. He moved with an impossible burst of speed, a silent, lightning-fast dash that was more of a blur than a run.
Nukiashi.
Zoro felt a slight gust of wind whip past him. That was all.
He spun around, his swords at the ready.
Sham was standing behind him now, a triumphant, cat-like grin on his face.
And Zoro felt a sudden, strange lightness at his hip.
He looked down.
His scabbards were empty.
He looked back at Sham. The lanky pirate was now holding Zoro's two katanas, casually slung over his back. He had stolen them in the single moment it took him to pass by.
Zoro stared, his mind struggling to comprehend the sheer speed of the man. He was now facing two deadly opponents, armed with only the single, precious sword left in his mouth.