Zoro glared at the lanky cat-man, his single eye burning with frustration and rage. Wado Ichimonji was held firm between his teeth, but his hands were empty. He was a three-sword style swordsman with only one sword.
"Give me back my swords," he growled, his voice muffled by the hilt.
Sham the cat-man just laughed, a high-pitched, mocking sound. "And spoil all the fun? I think not." With a flick of his wrists, he tossed Zoro's two katanas far to the side, where they clattered against the rocks, well out of reach. "I want to see what the great Pirate Hunter can do when he's at a disadvantage. It'll be much more entertaining that way."
Zoro's patience snapped. Enraged by the disrespect, he lunged forward. He was a blur of motion, a single, powerful slash aimed to end the fight before it began.
SWISH!
The blade connected. Sham let out a theatrical cry of pain. Zoro, believing the fight was over, immediately turned to retrieve his swords.
But a chilling laugh stopped him in his tracks.
"Too bad for you, Pirate Hunter…"
Zoro spun back around. Sham was standing there, his shirt sliced clean open from shoulder to hip. But his body… was completely unharmed. He was impossibly, unnaturally skinny, almost like a skeleton wrapped in skin. The blade had passed through the space between his ribs and his outstretched arm without touching flesh.
"…all you managed to cut was my shirt!" Sham finished with a triumphant sneer.
Before Zoro could react to the deception, a second figure charged in from the side. It was Buchi, the stout brother, moving with surprising speed for his size.
"CAT BROS ATTACK!"
He threw a powerful punch, but Zoro managed to parry it with his sword. The force of the blow still sent a jarring shock up his arm. As he was occupied with Buchi, Sham pounced, his long claws extended, pinning Zoro's shoulders to the ground. Buchi raised his meaty fists for a ground-shattering finishing blow.
Thinking fast, Zoro used all his strength to kick Sham off him, sending the lanky pirate flying. He then rolled desperately to the side just as Buchi's fists came crashing down.
CRACK!
The ground where Zoro had been a second ago exploded, stone and dirt flying everywhere. Buchi's punch had left a small crater.
Zoro scrambled to his feet, panting. He was now facing both of them. 'Damn it,' he thought, his mind racing. 'One of them has monstrous strength, the other has speed and tricks. Fighting them both with only one sword… this is bad.' If Buchi landed a clean hit like that, every bone in his body would break.
The brothers didn't give him time to think. They attacked in unison, a furious whirlwind of cat-like scratches and pounces.
SHING! CLANG! SHING!
Zoro was pushed onto the complete defensive. Sparks flew as he desperately used Wado Ichimonji to block and parry the relentless assault from two directions. Their claws raked at him, tearing his clothes and leaving shallow cuts. He was a lone wolf holding off a pack of hyenas, and he was losing ground.
From the top of the slope, Usopp watched in horror. He had to do something. "TAKE THIS!"
He fired his slingshot. A small lead pellet, a Namari Boshi, whizzed through the air, aimed directly at the Nyaban brothers.
It was a futile gesture, but it was all he could do.
Zoro saw the pellet coming. He knew it wouldn't do any real damage to the cat-men, but he also knew what would happen if it hit. They would immediately turn their attention from him to the much weaker Usopp and Nami. He had seen it happen a thousand times in his bounty hunting days: when the going gets tough, predators always go for the weakest prey.
He made a split-second decision.
He deliberately moved into the path of the pellet. It struck him hard in the shoulder, the impact minor, but enough to make him flinch and break his defensive posture for a fraction of a second.
It was the opening Buchi needed. He landed a powerful, clawed strike that sent Zoro staggering backwards, a fresh set of gashes on his chest.
"USOPP, YOU IDIOT!" Nami screamed, slapping him on the back of the head. "You just got him hurt!"
"I was trying to help!" Usopp cried.
"STAY OUT OF IT!" Zoro roared at them from the thick of the fight, his voice a furious command. "If you interfere, they'll come after you next! Just stay back!"
He was protecting them. Even in this desperate situation, he was taking on the burden of being the crew's shield.
Nami watched, her heart pounding. She looked at Zoro, struggling against two opponents, then at his two swords, lying uselessly on the ground. She made her own decision.
She started to sneak along the edge of the slope, her eyes fixed on the discarded katanas.
But she wasn't the only one who had been watching.
"And where do you think you're going, little missy?"
Jango, his chakram spinning in his hand, moonwalked silently to block her path.
SLASH!
He lashed out with the razor-sharp ring. Nami cried out in pain as it sliced across her side, tearing through her clothes and leaving a shallow but painful cut.
"I don't think so," Jango said with a smirk.
Suddenly, a strange, palpable chill fell over the entire battlefield.
It was a feeling of pure, absolute dread.
The Nyaban brothers, who had been lunging at Zoro with savage glee, froze mid-pounce. The blood drained from their faces, their cat-like confidence replaced by the wide-eyed terror of a mouse that has just seen a hawk's shadow.
Jango stopped spinning his ring, a bad feeling making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He slowly turned.
Everyone—pirate and protector alike—looked up towards the top of the slope.
A lone, tall figure was standing there, silhouetted against the morning sun. He was dressed in a formal black suit, his spectacles glinting. He was pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with the palm of his hand, a gesture that was once precise and butler-like, but now seemed infinitely menacing.
It was Captain Kuro.
He looked down at the chaotic scene, at his own crew, battered and beaten by a handful of kids, and his expression was one of utter, cold disappointment.
He spoke, and his voice was not a shout, but a low, chilling whisper that cut through the silence and froze the very blood in their veins.
"Jango."
"Dawn has passed. My plan was to be in motion an hour ago."
"Why," he asked, his voice dropping even lower, filled with a murderous calm, "are you all still playing games here?"