Shivering, Rika was waiting for the sound of firing rifles, for the pain to come.
'I'm Sorry onee-chan, it's all Rika' fault. If I had listened to mommy, you wouldn't have to kill the bad wolf.'
The scene of what had to lead them here was replaying in her mind, her going out even when her mother had told not do, that the son of newly arrived Captain Morgan was in town with his pet wolf. She knows her mother was worried for her, but she was also knowing that she would be alright after all marines protect the people, right?
That when she learns that she was wrong. Captain Morgan was only there from a week when his son came down in town, are pet wolf and two marines at his side. Unleashed, the wolf had bitten more than one, child and adult, alike.
She had exited the restaurant with a dried piece of jerky, munching on it when she came across them. Smelling the meat, the wolf had pounded on the poor little girl, nearly biting her face off, until it own head roll on the floor.
That when she saw her, she was yelling at the marines to let vicious wild animals roaming the city. She hadn't understood what the boy in those horrible clothes was meaning but she didn't seem to like it, with how much she yells back at them.
After than everything had gone wrong, gentle onee-chan that had save her have been taken away by the marines, leaving her in the street. Her mother has been angry when she heard about it and she had been punished, banned to go see her.
This time she had to listen, she had never seen her mother so angry at her. She had needed a month to gather her courage, make some onigiri and sneak off to the base, prying she would be able to found the gentle onee-chan and give her the onigiris as thanks for saving her life.
She was happy to have found her, and for a week, she had sneak here, giving her the onigiris, but today, everything had gone wrong once again, she had been caught and her onee-chan was going to be punished at her place. The mean boy even tear of her clothes!
While she didn't understand yet why they were speaking off, she understands that she was going to be shot down. The cruelty of Morgan had rapidly spread among the adults and she knows he was feared, but everything didn't matter anymore, she was going to be shot down, her onee-chan punished and her mother sad.
'Mommy, I sorry, Rika should have listened to you.'
She waited for the rifle to shoot but nothing came. When she hears two thuds, she risks it and tried to peek at what was happening, only for a fluffy thing wrapping around her head, hiding her eyes.
She feels two gentle arms take her, slight dizziness, then, she was able to see again. Looking around, she sees the most beautiful oni-chan she ever sees.
"Rika? I know you are worried about your onee-chan, but can you stay here a little, it will be short."
She could only nod, before losing consciousness.
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Kuina POV
Kuina was looking desperately at the shivering Rika, if she couldn't save her, she would at least take responsibility and look her to the end. As much as she tries the past month of deprivation had weakened her, leaving her nearly powerless.
She looks powerless, tears running from her eyes at the two were about to shout the poor girl.
'It all my fault, if only I was stronger!'
Then she saw it, as the two marines were about to shoot the innocent girls, she catches the glimpse of shining metal sail through the air before slamming into the two seamen. She didn't know if it was because of their sharpness, the power being the trows or both, but the blade sinks until the hilt, the tip exiting from their back by at least fifteen good centimetres, before they were trows backwards from the shock, the rifle clattering on the ground.
Snaping her gaze from the two downed marines to Rika, she had felt the sudden air change, becoming bone-chilling. She feels her heart skip a beat, out of nowhere, a towering man adds appear, completely silent, his artic blue eyes blazing with fury, looking at the scum that was Hermep.
More than his mesmerizing eyes, what caught her attention was the long tail that had wrapped around Rika head, hindering her sight at the gruesome scene of the two-man choking on their blood.
Again he disappears, and to her greatest relief, taking RIka with him.
'Thank you.'
Rika was safe, no matter what happens next, she would be alright. But before she could even think of her fate, he appears again, jumping from behind the wall of the base, not too far from where they were.
"You! You killed two marines!" Hearing the winning voice, she turns her head, seeing that the worthless worm had risen from his previous position on the ground, falling on his butt when the two had been skewered by the blades.
"No, I killed two worthless lapdogs following the order of a piece of trash." She shivered at the chilling tone, feeling the surrounding temperature lowering dangerously, her instinct screaming at her that he was dangerous.
"I will have my daddy executed you." Snaped out of her frozen state, she could only watch at the pitiful boy and shake her head.
He was not understanding the danger of being standing in front of him. Even with just his presence alone, it should have warned him. His physic wasn't for show, she could feel the power humming from under his skin, ready to be unleashed at any second.
Then it came, nearly too fast for her to see, he broke into a sprint, appearing in front of him in less than a second. Coming into a stop, only for his foot to strike like lightning. She could hear the boy' breast bones being crushed by the power behind the feet, before sending him screaming, flying through the air.
She couldn't see it anymore, but barely three seconds later, she hears something splattering against a hard surface, the sound eerily similar to the one of butcher' meat slammed into the work station.
Then came the below of Morgan from the base and she knows that the Captain had just discovered his splattered son on the walls of his base. During all this time, she didn't tear her gaze out of the towering man looking straight at the base.
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Morgan POV
"Faster, I want this statue fixed before lunch! You, do you think I didn't see you scrap my hand on the wall!" Yelled Morgan at the men pulling on the ropes, trying to rise the large stone statue of himself on the roof of the highest tower on the base.
"I'm sorry Captain!"
Had it not for the boy need to rise the statue, he would have cut the boy open right here. Oh, he would, but only once his job was done.
Stroking the side of his axe subconsciously, while thinking of the grunt soon future, he looks at them, slowly raising the glorious sight of his magnificence that would soon tower above anything on this island, anchoring his power over those inferior.
His musing was cut short when whistling sounds where hears, before something slam against is barely statue. He could only look agape as the red smears spread on it, before the transferred energy bring it down again, broking the stone when it came in contact with the edge of the tower.
He could only look like the debris of what was his head, arms, and upper torso fall meters lower, on the grounds. As his gaze shift from them to the smear he barely recognize as his son corpse, something snap in his mind, releasing a loud bellow.
"What are you waiting for! Found the worm that dares to desecrate my statue! Now!"
Barely caring at the marines falling one above others to try and exit the roof, his gaze follows the trajectory from where his dead son came. Looking down in the courtyard, he could see the bitch that had defied his authority, tied on her post, and who must be the culprit.
His target now identified, he hurries down, feeling the slight tingling in his right arm, between the flesh and the cold metal of his axe.
'Soon, you will feel the blood run on your blade.' A deranged gleam in his eyes as he stroke the sharp blade' side.
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"You shouldn't have done this." Hearing the rasping voice on my side I look at Kuina.
I don't know how long she was there but she was in very bad shape. Angry purples and blues bruises marring her starved torso. Her face wasn't any better but I could still see the brightly burning spirit in her eyes.
Taking the dirty rag that was her t-shirt before, I transmute it anew, before tearing the ropes keeping her to the post. Catching her body before she falls on the ground, I give her the new t-shirt while gently putting her on the ground.
"How did you do this?" From here astonished gaze, she didn't have the slightest idea of devil fruit or didn't suspect it was one. As expected from the weakest sea.
"Are you familiar with the terms of devil fruits?" From her widening eye, I could guess she is. "There are tribes in the grand line, that are descendant of fruit user, who have developed physical change because of said fruit. While a lesser-powered change, it did give them at least a part of the change without being weakened as any eater would. My case is similar, I had obtained power originally from a devil fruit. It allows me to deconstruct and reconstruct 'dead' physical structure, be it organic or mineral.
As for Morgan, the man is far from being a threat, while a colonel, he had gained his rank through promotion, not by strength. Marines in the blues are weak, here more than any other seas."
"What do you mean here more than any other?"
"East blue is known to be the weakest of the four blues, let alone paradise of the new world. Here the normal bounty turn around what 3,000,000?" I see her nod bad, at least this was similar than cannon."You have some stronger fish like Kreig, Baggy, and Arlong. I had just trashed Alvida before coming here, and she had a 5,000,000 one. In the other blues, there are way higher than this."
I don't know if she is a woman version of Zoro, but she seems at least was unaware of the outside world as he was.
"You're not from here, are you?" At least she isn't a muscle head like Zoro.
"No, I'm not, I was born in the grand line, Paradise, I think, before traversing the calm belt and landing here."
She was about to ask another question when the sound of stomping feet hastily making their way could be heard. Looking at the twoer side, armed marines came rushing out of it, followed by Morgan.
Like described in the manga, the man was tall, more than me for a good thirty centimetres, short blond hair, is lower jaw covered in iron. The large axe on his right hand looked sharp but was utter garbage in other seas.
"Your criminal, for the crime of standing against me, colonel Morgan I condemn you to death!"
"That it? No trail, direct execution?"
"I am the highest-ranked here! Rank is everything in this world, and as the highest-ranked here, my words are laws! Men fire!"
There was the second difference than the manga, even if I could see the fear in their gaze, it wasn't from me but Morgan. One of the two-line of ten marines kneel with one leg, they didn't hesitate and shoots. A second tail sprout from my back and the two wraps around the two downed marines corpse, rising them before me and Kuina, the bullet didn't pass through the meat shield.
Trowing them after the first salve, I keep in their shadow, before striking the first line of kneeling. While the second line of standing men was able to dodge the corpse, the one hadn't the time. As three of them were trapped under they still bleeding fallen comrade. I sink my blade in the two nearer, before jumping on the side, dodging Morgan axe, who cleave through two others.
Jumping back, I throw my knives at two of the last three still kneeling man, before taking my M1 out and shoot the last one.
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3 view POV
It was complete pandemonium, after the first salvo, three were rent momently unable to fight, and the seven other die, two by Morgan own hand. Having missed they first salvo, the men's empty rifle were useless, draws their blades and charges at Alex. By the time they were near enough to cut him down, he had shot another three.
Storing his rifle, his last tail sprout out and his five limbs came in action. In a single second, five necks were snapped, leaving only two marines facing him, three further and an incoming Morgan.
Using the crumbling form of the marines, he briefly takes support on them, kicking the two last at Morgan.
Sweeping his axe down, he cut down two others of his men. The brief moment he was hindered by them, Alex strikes. Mustering all his strength into a single punch, he strikes the larger man straight in the chest. His fist sinks in as the bones breaks, looking at him he could see his eye bugle slightly before blood starts to seep from Morgan' iron jaw.
Not leaving him any reprieve, his three tails wrap around his neck before clenching hard, snapping his spine like a twig and crushing his windpipe.
As the man crumbles behind him, he takes out his rifle once again, shooting the last three marines dead before coming in front of them.
Retrieving his knives, he stores everybody, transmuting the ground to erase any trace.
Turning to the shell shocked Kuina, he says.
"I plan on cleaning the base, do you have something in?"
"My katana, Hermep had taken it," says her, her voice slightly shaking. Nodding back he moves to the tower.
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Alex POV
The entire base was a large complex and I haven't time to search it all. In the manga, it was shown that Hermep room was in the tower. Rapidly climbing the stair until the roof, I store the cannons on it, before putting a hand on the roof while standing on the edge.
Jumping down in, I put a hand on the nearest wall, transmuting all the other connected to it and storing them. The new free space around me was soon cleaned before I resume it on the other walls and floors below.
In less than five minutes, the entire tower had vanished, leaving only the basement staircase visible. Peeking in, I saw nothing more than empty jail. Stealing the bars, I leave the structure behind, returning to Kuina.