Autumn wind swept yellowed leaves along the coast, the chill of winter close behind.
Six months had passed in the blink of an eye.
Under the full-force tutelage—and brutal polishing—of Newgate, the top-tier powerhouse, Charlotte Linlin had mastered every advanced technique of Haki. Yet Haki was, at its core, power born of will, and her own Haki, especially her Haoshoku, still lagged noticeably behind Newgate's.
Newgate's words still echoed in her mind:
'Girl, your Armament and Observation are nearly ready; all that's left is tempering them in real battles! But your Haoshoku… it still lacks the crucial spark.'
'Whether you want to become the Pirate King, protect those behind you, or rule the world like Rocks, only when you're ready to stake everything on that goal will your Haki reach its summit.'
'Stake everything, huh…' Charlotte Linlin stood at the prow, gazing at the rolling sea and murmuring to herself.
'Captain!' Mia's crisp voice came from behind.
The once-aristocratic girl had weathered countless storms; her brow had shed its greenness and gained steadiness and keenness.
'Stores counted and moved. Also, we found a group locked up as Slaves in the hold. Those merchants… same as usual?'
Charlotte Linlin looked back and nodded. 'Deal with them. The abducted go to the nearest island, as always.'
'Understood, Captain~' Mia answered with a grin.
Charlotte Linlin shot her an exasperated glance; the girl had grown far too familiar. Without another word she turned toward her cabin.
Over the past half-year, besides sparring with Newgate, she had led her crew several times to do what pirates do. In the New World, the name of the Heavenly Calamity Pirates was beginning to spread.
'You can't kill me! I work for the World Government!' Across the deck, a merchant-dressed man wailed.
Bang!
A cold gunshot answered him.
It was a merchant vessel; at first Charlotte Linlin had had no intention of attacking it—merchants, she felt, were just ordinary folk trying to survive.
Then, during a raid on a pirate band, a rescued woman revealed she hadn't been seized by pirates; she'd been cargo taken from a merchant ship.
From that day on, every ship that crossed these waters became a potential target for the Heavenly Calamity Pirates.
Among them were honest traders, but far more were other forces in disguise: traffickers in Slaves, arms smugglers… they had even intercepted a devil-ship trafficking organs.
In the process they freed many people, some of the branded Slaves choosing to stay.
Now the Heavenly Punishment Pirates numbered fifty; a few rescued men had asked to join, but Charlotte Linlin had refused.
The abducted men were all good-looking; she wanted no needless trouble on her account.
Even with more crew, however, manning the giant Giant Race pirate ship remained difficult.
Looking at the crowded heavenly tribulation, Charlotte Linlin decided it was time to recruit new hands—or perhaps find a Giant.
...Night, inside Heavenly Punishment Hall, her private chamber.
She sat cross-legged; an unsharpened purple tachi appeared, its blade quietly glowing purple—its name: musou isshin.
She stared at the blade as if peering through it at a certain figure.
'Now that I can coat my attacks with Haoshoku… I should be able to beat you, right?'
With a thought she laid musou isshin across her knees, closed her eyes, and sank her mind inward… 'Will you stand against me?'
A clear, majestic voice echoed in the mental space. A purple-haired, Horsetail-tailed woman of peerless beauty sat cross-legged in the air.
In her deep violet pupils lightning seemed to rise and fall; about her lingered eternal solitude and supreme divine might.
She was the Raiden Shogun, divine radiance and absolute pressure filling the realm.
'Yes. So I have come.'
Charlotte Linlin's form appeared; she raised her right hand and took a blade in her mouth. This was her trial—her second trial.
Here the opponent possessed the same physique and basic stats but no Haki—the key reason she had won the first trial.
Victory in the previous trial had granted her the sniper-rifle form of the Seven Thunders of Retribution: Narukami.
At that moment she gripped the nodachi "Mu" in her left hand, black arcs of lightning flickering faintly; in her right she held "musou isshin," purple threads of thunder coiled around the blade; clenched between her teeth, the tachi "Narukami" blazed with the wildest crimson lightning!
"Dragonize!"
Haoshoku burst from her body, forcibly carving out her own domain within the enemy's might.
High above, Raiden Shogun unfurled her form, stepped upon the void, and walked forward slowly.
A purple, long-handled naginata—mirroring Murakumogiri in shape—materialized in her grip: this was the Grass-Cutter of the Rice-Light!
The blade quivered, its hum filling the space as a sea of lightning roiled through the violet realm.
"Then I shall enshrine you within the statue."
Battle erupted in an instant!
Raiden Shogun swept her naginata; three colossal purple thunder-slashes raced forward with mountain-cleaving force, leaving Charlotte Linlin no room to evade.
"Three Sword Style: Dragon Hunt—Nine-Fang Flash!"
Charlotte Linlin's low cry rang out as all three blades danced, cleaving nine fierce arcs wreathed in black, purple, and red lightning!
Boom—!
The sword-energies collided, annihilated one another, and blossomed into a sky-filling blaze of thunder.
Before the aftershock could fade, countless bolts of lightning crashed from the heavens.
Scarlet light flashed in Charlotte Linlin's pupils; Observation Haki pushed to its utmost let her foresee every bolt's path, and she ghosted through the gaps of the tempest, evading every strike, then flashed straight in front of Raiden Shogun!
Charlotte Linlin surged like a tide; her three blades became a storm that tore space itself, attacking from impossible angles.
Yet Raiden Shogun, wielding only that single naginata, kept a guard without the slightest opening.
Her movements were graceful and precise; each blow carried titanic force and boundless thunder, turning aside every attack with ease, her consummate skill steadily overwhelming the equally mighty Charlotte Linlin.
Steel rang on steel, spraying countless brilliant sparks of lightning.
"As expected, pure swordplay can't beat her… but it should be about time." Amid the fierce exchange Charlotte Linlin's thoughts raced.
At that moment Raiden Shogun's naginata began to spin faster and the thunder about her flared wildly.
"Myriad Thunderclaps, Home to the Vault!"
Charlotte Linlin shot back without hesitation, opening a hundred-meter gap in an instant!
Almost simultaneously, a hundred meters around Raiden Shogun became a pure inferno of lightning, ruinous bolts hammering every inch of space.
Cracks of ruptured space appeared everywhere—though this was only her inner world.
"Next… Future Sight—activate!" Charlotte Linlin stilled her mind.
Raiden Shogun leveled her naginata at the sky; above, a vast thunder-eye opened, gazing down indifferently.
"This eye surveys the floating world."
Countless denser, swifter lightning rained down! Pushing Observation Haki to its limit, Charlotte Linlin shifted in the tiniest of spaces, each time barely dodging the strikes as though dancing on a blade's edge.
Seeing Charlotte Linlin escape the killing blow unscathed, Raiden Shogun showed no change, merely continuing her onslaught.
Her pressure climbed again, and the Grass-Cutter of the Rice-Light blazed with a radiance that filled the entire inner world!
"Where the lightning shines is the land of eternity!"
Omnidirectional, inescapable devastation rolled in like a tide of thunder.
"Dragonize: Lightning-Resist Mode!"
Charlotte Linlin roared; white dragon-scales across her body darkened to deep purple, greatly increasing her resistance to lightning and boosting her physique. Armament Haki hardened over every inch of her skin.
This was her Devil Fruit's adaptive power: it could switch forms based on the primary damage type previously taken, granting resistance—but only for ice, lightning, or fire.
Boom—!!!
Endless thunder swallowed her. Terrifying energy battered every part of her body; even with her monstrous physique and dual defenses, her organs felt torn and her blood churned.
(Good thing this is the inner world… if this were real, my clothes would be ash and my body covered in scorched marks…) Charlotte Linlin mused, feeling her state.
The lightning gradually faded; Charlotte Linlin coughed up a mouthful of blood, but she had no time to rest.
Now!
In the instant Raiden Shogun's technique ended and her rhythm shifted,
"Three Sword Style Secret: Three-Thousand Calamities!"
She vanished like a teleport, reappearing behind Raiden Shogun the next instant! Black, purple, and red lightning on her three blades intertwined, compressed, and erupted in an unprecedented blast—a torrent of ruin that tore through the inner world and slashed down!
Boom!!!
Raiden Shogun's figure froze, then slowly toppled forward.
Charlotte Linlin panted heavily, scorch marks and fine lacerations covering her body, her dragon-scales dulled. Gazing at the fallen Raiden Shogun, she said grimly:
"Phase one—finished."