In a town under pirate attack, I was fighting two pirates at once.
The woman with her child who'd been here moments ago needed to escape outside the town, so I was holding these two back. Of course, I fully intended to take them down if I could manage it.
At first, the two pirates treated me like some foolish, reckless child. But after I attacked without hesitation using a real blade, and after they barely dodged a strike aimed straight at their vitals, they finally understood I was genuinely trying to kill them. From that point on, they drew their own swords and fought back in earnest.
I'd wanted to take at least one of them down while they were still careless, but...
"Damn this brat... got some nerve!"
"Hold still, ya little punk, or I'll kill ya dead!"
I moved carefully, dodging the wide, sweeping saber strikes they threw at me, deflecting them with my sword when I couldn't dodge.
The one I'd cut earlier had only gone down because he'd underestimated me, thinking I was just a child. He let his guard down, and I exploited that opening to finish him in a single blow.
But once they were on guard, breaking through was a different matter entirely. Fighting two of them at once made it even worse. Just making sure I didn't leave myself open to a surprise counterattack was all I could manage.
'They're weaker and slower than the Kuja, but they're still plenty strong, and two at once is brutal... Plus, if I don't get out of here soon, the rest of the pirate crew will...'
I wrestled my rising panic back under control with sheer willpower, forced myself to stay calm, watched carefully, read the trajectory of an enemy blade... and the instant one of them followed through on a swing, I slashed at the opening.
Blocked. He'd hastily repositioned his sword just in time. Steel clashed against steel with an ear-splitting ring.
But I'd anticipated that. I quickly reversed my grip, reset my stance, and shifted my attack into a thrust.
The pirate seemed startled by my unexpected resistance, but that surprise twisted into irritation fast. He swept his sword sideways in a broad slash. I ducked low under it, made myself small, and swung my sword again on a low trajectory.
I'd learned in training that people have a harder time reacting to attacks from below than from eye level or above. Using a child's small frame to full advantage...
'Target... the leg!'
The blade I swung caught one pirate's leg and sliced through.
"Gaaah!?"
"Wh!? ...You little...!"
The other pirate, blood rushing to his head at the sight of his wounded comrade, raised his saber high and brought it down at me with killing intent.
I'd read that too. I shifted half a step to the side to dodge, and as he stood wide open from the follow-through, I reset my sword and thrust it straight at his throat.
A heavy, wet impact.
But my aim was slightly off. Or maybe the pirate twisted his body at the last instant. Either way, my sword didn't pierce his throat. It plunged into his shoulder instead. Even as his face contorted in agony, the rage burning across his features outweighed the pain.
"Nrgh...!"
That look on his face, the fury and killing intent radiating from him, made me flinch.
And to make matters worse, I tried to leap back and put distance between us, but the sword embedded in his shoulder wouldn't come free. I couldn't pull away. Maybe the angle of the stab was bad, or maybe the pirate had clenched his muscles to trap the blade.
I should have let go of the sword right then. Put distance first.
But I hesitated at the thought of releasing my weapon, of being left unarmed. I stubbornly kept trying to wrench the blade free, and... because of that, I didn't notice the other one, the one I'd slashed across the leg, had closed in right beside me.
"You little brat!"
"Wai... aghaaah!?"
By the time the realization hit, it was already too late.
With a sickening crunch, the pirate's boot sank deep into my solar plexus, and my body was launched through the air like a kicked soccer ball.
I hit the ground and tumbled. Everything hurt. Where I'd been kicked, the places that slammed against the ground on impact, all of it screaming.
Worse still, since the kick had landed square on my solar plexus, I couldn't breathe properly. Suffocating.
The impact had knocked the sword from my hands, leaving me unarmed in the worst possible way. ...Though even if I'd held on, I was in so much pain I doubt it would have done me any good.
"Hey, you alright, partner?"
"Ow ow... Yeah, this much is nothing. What about you, your leg okay?"
"Ain't a big deal, just a little hard to walk. Tch, that damn brat... biting back like she's got some nerve. Maybe I oughta kill her."
The two pirates approached slowly. I couldn't open my eyes through the pain, but I could hear their footsteps. I had to run. If I didn't run, they'd kill me. Move. Move, body!
I tried to crawl away, desperately forcing my limbs to work, but I could barely move at all.
...And yet, at the same time, I suddenly realized no follow-up attack had come. I couldn't even hear their footsteps getting closer anymore.
Puzzled, I managed to move my aching body and push myself up. The two pirates I'd been fighting weren't looking at me. They were staring past me, at something behind me.
I turned around. Standing there was a massive, bald man who had to be at least three meters tall. His face, the very picture of a villain's, was twisted with displeasure as he stared down at me. The sheer pressure of his presence made my throat catch with an involuntary sound.
"Hey, the hell are you two doing screwing around with some brat?"
"S-sorry, Captain... This kid was rougher than we expected, gave us more trouble than..."
"W-we'll tie her up right now!"
It wasn't just me. The two pirates were clearly terrified of this man too, their Captain, apparently. They scrambled to seize me, desperate not to anger him further.
But their momentary panic was my last chance. That woman and child had long since escaped, so there was no reason for me to stay. I forced my stiffened body and my still-sluggish lungs into action, staggered to my feet, and broke into a run.
Away from the two pirates and their Captain. Both of them. My goal was the entrance to a narrow alley branching even deeper off the back street I was in.
The passage was so cramped that a child could slip through easily enough, but even an average-sized adult would barely fit through single file. No way the broad-shouldered pirates could follow me in there. A voice shouted "Hey, wait!" from behind, but I ignored it and ran. If I could just make it inside, I'd be free. That was all I could think as I sprinted with everything I had.
But then, in the next instant,
A tremendous crash.
"Gah... hh, ghk...!?"
Something slammed into me from the side with terrifying force, striking my flank dead-on.
The impact folded me in half and sent me flying, tumbling across the ground. My ribs screamed in protest, and it felt like every last bit of air had been knocked from my lungs. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
What had even just happened? Fighting through the agony, I managed to move my eyes just enough to look, and the answer was immediately obvious.
The pirate Captain. His appearance had changed drastically from moments before. His entire body was covered in thick fur, his frame swollen to roughly twice its previous size. The teeth visible beneath his lips were sharp as a wild beast's fangs, and his face was no longer anything human. This form... a gorilla? No, more precisely, this was clearly...
"There it is! The Captain's Ape-Ape Fruit, Model: Mountain Gorilla!"
"He's still crazy fast and strong even at that size...!"
'So it really is... a Zoan-type Devil Fruit...!'
Looking at the Captain, now transformed into a massive gorilla, and his posture, arm still extended from its follow-through, more like he'd swatted a bug than delivered a real blow... that single strike from that arm was what had sent me flying.
"Kah... hah... ughh...!"
And to make everything even worse, the pain in my stomach had been so overwhelming that I hadn't noticed, but apparently I'd hit my head when I struck the ground. A sharp, stabbing pain lanced through my skull, and my consciousness began to slip away. Strength refused to return to my body. The world before my eyes was going dark.
"Hmph, struggling with a brat like this."
"Sorry, Captain. She was quicker than we expected..."
"Forget it. Just haul her off already. She's easy on the eyes, should fetch a good price if we sell her."
"And after that, hurry up and strip this town of anything valuable."
"Yes sir!"
The Pirates were talking about something. I could hear them, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The words reached my ears, somehow, but nothing registered.
A strange sensation of being grabbed by the scruff of my collar and lifted up was the last thing I faintly felt... before my consciousness sank deep, deep down.
To be continued...