Aria's Pov
I had seen this moment a hundred times on a screen. Nothing—absolutely nothing—prepared me for how it felt in person.
I got to witness the epic entrance of Luffy first hand, while I hid behind him—very deliberately behind him—already regretting every decision that led me here.
And then I saw Ace.
Chained to the execution platform, sunlight hitting his chains like something out of a holy tragedy. He looked tired. Angry. Resigned.
He saw us
Then he saw me.
Our eyes met.
His widened—"Why are you here?" written all over his face.
My return expression was something like:
"I don't know, don't ask me, I'm in too deep please send help."
Meanwhile, Marineford itself was…
Loud.
Blindly bright.
Exploding every five seconds.
Full of monsters in human form far above my pay grade and I wasn't getting paid.
Whitebeard's pirates clashed with Marines, shockwaves blasting the air like someone was punching reality. I barely had time to breathe before something else exploded. Or screamed. Or flew overhead.
I took one step forward—and immediately needed a survival plan.
That survival plan was Luffy.
More specifically: clinging behind Luffy like a panicked tick.
Luffy, gods bless him, thought this was teamwork.
"Aria! Stay close! This place is crazy!"
"Wow, really?" I yelled, dodging a cannonball by wishing myself two meters left. "I hadn't noticed."
From that point on, I became his personal danger radar.
Admiral charging an attack?
Wish, appear beside Luffy, yank him backwards by the vest.
Pacifistas charging beams at us?
Wish → kick him in the ankle because that's all I can reach.
Random Marine trying to stab him?
Wish, scream, save him.
Then I kept teleporting away from him so I didn't get blasted by people aiming for him.
"Nope nope nope, too close to the admiral, absolutely not, you're on your own Luffy—"
I helped others as well. I shoved Inazuma out of the way of a cannon blast.
I even teleported myself and a Whitebeard commander mid-air.
The commander stared at me like I'd handed him a baby he didn't order.
"…thanks?" he said.
"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING," I yelled back as gravity reclaimed us.
He patted my head like I was a weird, trembling pet gremlin before leaping back into battle.
Luffy saw that and screamed proudly, "Aria's so strong!"
I wanted to evaporate.
Sweat trickled down my back. My legs were shaking. At this point I regretted ever leaving my room on Earth, let alone stepping foot into an anime war.
Then I made the mistake of teleporting mid-flail—
—and landed right in front of Mihawk.
Oh good. Just the world's greatest swordsman. The man who can slice mountains. Wonderful.
He looked down at me with slow, calculated disappointment.
"You do not belong here."
"I know," I snapped. "Do you think I chose this?"
He blinked once, as if reconsidering the entire concept of human stupidity, then stepped around me and resumed whatever he was doing.
I was offended.
Later, I tripped while saving Luffy again and almost face-planted directly into Crocodile.
He looked me up and down with all the grace of a man inspecting a cockroach.
"You're going to die if you keep running around like a headless goat."
"Oh wow," I panted, "thanks, sir. Very useful observation there."
He clicked his tongue and turned as someone tried to ambush him. They never got the chance.
Crocodile's sand whip sliced the attacker in half.
I stared at him.
Does that count as indirectly saving me too?
He left before I could open my mouth.
Didn't even look back.
Jeez, why did Oda have to write all this men so nonchalant?
But the universe wasn't done laughing in my face.
Because when I turned—
Boa Hancock was ten feet away.
I froze.
She froze.
We stared.
Flashbacks of Amazon Lily, tests, sweat, lust and bad decisions played in my head.
I hovered near Luffy, and she aimed a glare at me so sharp it could slice seastone.
Okay. Cool. So she hated me now.
But then a Marine tried stabbing me.
And Hancock kicked the man so hard he became a star in the sky.
Okay, so some part of her… cared?
I gulped.
She immediately went back to ignoring my existence.
The chaos built and built.
Mr. 3 slipped into place.
The wax key was ready.
Everything was aligning exactly like the anime.
I looked at Luffy, then at Ace.
I could teleport Luffy straight to him.
I could skip a whole chunk of danger.
But then he wouldn't punch Garp.
And I needed to see that.
For the culture.
For the satisfaction.
The moment was coming.
Everything was converging.
The executioners lifted their blades.
My breath hitched—
—and that's when a voice boomed across Marineford:
"BEGIN THE EXECUTION!"