The waves rolled quietly against the ruined docks, indifferent to the blood and chaos spreading across Cocoyasi Village.
A wind swept through the wreckage, carrying smoke, dust, and the faint scent of oranges crushed beneath boot and claw.
Arlong's roar shattered the momentary calm.
"Lower lifeforms!" he bellowed, his jagged teeth gleaming beneath the sunlight. "You dare challenge me? You dare defy your betters? I'll wipe this entire village from the map!"
His voice rumbled like thunder across the burning fields.
Kuina didn't flinch. Her blade hung loosely at her side, its tip trailing a thin scar across the dirt. Her silver-blue hair stuck to her face, streaked with soot and blood. Her breathing was calm — too calm for a twelve-year-old standing before a monster.
She looked at him with that same icy clarity that had unnerved pirates, bounty hunters, and even her own allies.
"That depends," she said softly. "On whether you're strong enough to do it."
For a moment, Arlong's grin faltered. Then he threw back his head and laughed — a harsh, rasping sound that shook the air.
"Strong enough?" he growled. "You humans never learn."
He lunged.
The ground cracked under his weight. His shadow swallowed Kuina whole. She raised her blade — Bloodsong — and steel met scale.
The clash rang like a bell across the village.
The shockwave shattered nearby walls. Dust and debris spiraled into the air. Kuina slid back several feet, her boots carving trenches into the ground, but her blade held firm against Arlong's jaws.
The fish-man's teeth clamped around her weapon, grinding sparks between his monstrous fangs.
He sneered, voice muffled through steel and blood. "Not bad… for a child."
Then came the sound of snapping enamel.
Kuina twisted her wrist sharply.
Crack!
Arlong jerked backward, clutching his mouth. Shards of broken teeth scattered across the dirt. He spat, spraying fragments like bullets.
Kuina spun her blade once, resetting her stance. "You talk too much."
Arlong touched his jaw — and laughed again, louder this time. "Useless, girl! You think breaking my teeth will help you? We fish-men are stronger than steel!"
As if to prove it, he clenched his fists and tore two of his own remaining fangs from his mouth, holding them like curved daggers. Blood dripped between his knuckles, but his grin only widened.
"Now… I'll show you what a real predator looks like."
He charged again, faster, wilder. His hands slashed through the air like twin scythes. Each swing carved deep grooves into the ground.
Kuina moved like smoke — sidestepping, ducking, letting his strikes miss her by inches. Sparks exploded whenever his teeth-blades brushed her sword. The air between them crackled with killing intent.
From the sidelines, Tashigi (Tina) watched with her arms crossed, still breathing hard from her own fight. The corpses of Arlong's men littered the square. Croobi and Chew — the last of his lieutenants — lay unconscious or broken at her feet.
The villagers had stopped trembling. They were staring now — at two human girls standing against monsters.
"Unbelievable…" Bell-mère whispered, gripping her rifle tight. "She's still just a kid."
Tashigi smirked faintly. "That's no kid. That's Kuina."
Arlong's claws raked across Kuina's sleeve, tearing the fabric open. A shallow cut traced her upper arm, a line of crimson blooming across pale skin. She hissed softly, tightening her grip.
"Bleeding already?" Arlong mocked. "You'll make a fine corpse."
Kuina said nothing. Her eyes narrowed, her breath slow and measured.
Inside her chest, her pulse slowed — calm, deliberate. She focused not on Arlong's words, but on rhythm. Movement. The way his muscles coiled before a strike. The way his tail flexed before he leapt.
Every attack had a heartbeat.
And in that heartbeat… she found her opening.
"Bloodsong — Flowing Edge."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
She stepped forward once, then vanished.
The next instant, the world went still.
A thin line appeared across Arlong's chest. Then another. And another. Seven slashes, each so fast they left only faint traces of light behind them.
Arlong froze mid-motion. His grin twitched. For a heartbeat, he looked confused.
Then the blood came.
He stumbled backward, his roar turning into a strangled gurgle. The scales on his chest split apart like cracked stone. He crashed to one knee, slamming a fist into the dirt hard enough to shake the ground.
Kuina exhaled, blade still gleaming. "You said we were weak. Looks like you were wrong."
But Arlong wasn't finished yet.
With a snarl, he lunged again — wounded, but not defeated. His massive hand wrapped around Kuina's torso, lifting her clean off the ground. His grip crushed against her ribs like iron bands.
"Got you, little girl!" he snarled. "Let's see if your bones break like the rest!"
Her sword slipped from her fingers, clattering to the dirt. Arlong squeezed harder, veins bulging on his forearm.
For the first time, Kuina's breath hitched. Pain flared through her chest, sharp and suffocating.
Tashigi took a step forward. "Kuina!"
But Kuina's voice came through the strain, quiet and deadly. "You… made a mistake."
Her eyes snapped open, cold as the blade she had forged her will upon. Her right arm twisted, slipping between his fingers just enough to grab the hilt of her sword — still impaled in the dirt below.
Then she drove it upward.
The blade pierced through his palm, through his wrist, through flesh and scale and bone — and burst out the back of his arm.
Arlong's scream tore through the village.
Kuina wrenched her blade free and landed in a crouch, blood splattering across her cheek. She looked up, expression unreadable.
Arlong staggered backward, clutching his ruined arm. His rage had become desperation — animal, blind.
He charged one final time.
Kuina straightened, both hands on her sword. Her aura rippled — a pressure that silenced everything around her. Even the villagers felt it, a weight pressing against their chests. It was more than killing intent. It was focus.
One strike. That was all she needed.
The air thinned. Time slowed.
"—Draw Style: Crimson Flash."
She moved.
No one saw the blade. Only the result.
A red arc split the sky — a clean, perfect line.
Arlong stopped mid-charge, eyes wide. For a heartbeat, he stood there, mouth open in shock.
Then his body fell apart — cleanly cut from shoulder to hip.
The halves of his corpse hit the ground with a wet thud.
Silence.
Then, slowly, the villagers began to breathe again.
Some wept. Some laughed. Most simply stared — unable to believe that the monster who had enslaved and slaughtered so many was gone, felled by the sword of a human girl not yet grown.
Kuina stood in the center of it all, her blade dripping red, her face unreadable. She turned to look toward the hill — toward the faint glow of Jin's forge in the distance.
"Sensei," she murmured. "You were right. Strength isn't in blood or race. It's in the blade you forge for yourself."
Her vision blurred for a second — exhaustion and adrenaline crashing together.
Tashigi reached her first, catching her shoulder. "Easy," she said softly. "It's over."
Kuina glanced at her, her voice hoarse. "Over? No… not yet."
Tashigi smiled faintly. "Then rest while you can. The next storm will come soon enough."
Kuina let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "You're starting to sound like him."
Tashigi shrugged. "Maybe he's rubbing off on me."
Their eyes met — tension fading into quiet understanding. It wasn't intimacy in the romantic sense, but the kind of closeness that could only be born from shared battle, from knowing the other would fight — and bleed — beside you.
For a moment, neither said anything more.
Then Kuina straightened, sheathing her sword with one smooth motion. The faint click of steel locking into scabbard echoed through the still air.
Far above, on the hill, Jin lowered his hammer.
He had felt it — the sudden release of killing intent, the stillness that followed. He smiled faintly, his face streaked with soot and sweat.
"So," he said quietly, looking toward the village. "She's done it."
He set the unfinished blade down beside the forge and wiped his hands clean. "Looks like my student doesn't need saving after all."
He stepped outside, the wind cooling his sweat. From here, he could see the faint silhouettes of villagers gathering around the square, the shape of two women standing over the fallen monster.
The forge's glow flickered behind him, painting his shadow long across the dirt.
The storm had passed — for now.
But Jin knew better than anyone: peace never lasted long in a world ruled by the sea.
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T/N :
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