Black Cage Hina

"How is that possible?"

The air seemed to freeze. Countless cracks spread through it like patterns of frost, each one forming a flat plane. Those planes passed through the iron spears without appearing to do anything.

But when it was over, every spear broke where the cracks had crossed it. The dozens of ship-breaking iron spears launched from the five warships shattered all at once.

The cry had not come from the Marines. It came from Simon, who stood behind Rogge and had seen everything.

He was right there on the ship, close enough to Rogge to feel it firsthand. If those spears struck the deck, he would die too.

He had been ready to jump overboard when he saw what Rogge did. It was so incredible that, for a moment, he seemed to forget why he had come aboard.

"So it's her." The iron spears had looked familiar to Rogge. Only Hina used a weapon like that among the Marines. Her Cage-Cage Fruit could create things resembling iron cages. Rogge did not know exactly how her power worked; in the anime and manga, he had only seen her use it once, when she tried to capture Luffy during the Marineford War, only for him to dodge with the speed of Gear Second.

She had first appeared in Alabasta, pursuing Luffy and the others and capturing Bon Clay. She had used this same method back then, turning the Going Merry into a pincushion.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

The iron spears fell into the water in pieces. Once submerged, they vanished. Clearly, they were not real metal but something created by a Devil Fruit power.

It was the same principle as Tesoro's gold: contact with seawater made it disappear. These objects had been created by a Devil Fruit User, and seawater countered all Devil Fruit powers. Naturally, such constructs vanished when they touched it.

"Five warships. This won't be an easy fight." Ham pulled on his gloves.

"Ares, watch the ship. The five of us will take one warship each. Simon, can you use the ship's cannons against the Marines?" Rogge asked.

"No problem." Simon raised his rifle and nodded.

For some reason, Simon no longer had any other plans. He had stopped thinking about how to take Rogge's head. That punch Rogge had thrown from the bow had done more than stop the iron spears. It had struck Simon deep down and shattered his resolve.

"This is close enough. I'm going over." Rogge leaped from the bow.

"Hey! You'll fall into the sea from this far away! Let me give you a—" Cook's expression changed when he saw Rogge jump. The Marine warships were still over two hundred meters away. How could Rogge possibly make it? Cook's concern cut his words short as Rogge seemed about to fall into the water.

Boom!

A muffled blast sounded in the air. Rogge fractured the air beneath his feet and used the force rebounding from it to leap again, carrying himself dozens of meters farther.

"What..." Hina frowned aboard the warship. She knew that movement all too well. It was unmistakably Geppo, one of the Rokushiki. Rogge might have achieved it with his Devil Fruit power, but the technique behind it was not something a pirate from the Four Blues should know.

Boom!

Another loud blast rang out. Compared with Geppo, Rogge made far too much noise. That was how Hina knew he was not actually using the technique.

Rokushiki demanded extraordinary bodily control. Iron Body, Finger Pistol, and Kami-e required precise control over the body's flesh and muscles. Soru, Rankyaku, and Geppo required equally keen control over the legs and even the air, allowing a user to leap through the sky with the slightest foothold.

Without his Chop-Chop Fruit power to fracture the air, Rogge would have needed at least several years of training to learn Geppo himself.

As for how Sanji had mastered it, he had trained his kicks beside Zeff from an early age and had always fought with his feet. All he needed was a push, and the drag queens had finally given him one. It proved the old saying: people could do amazing things when they were pushed hard enough. (No, not like that. Don't get any ideas. (￢_￢))

Rogge had thought of this move as soon as he discovered that his Chop-Chop Fruit could fracture the air, and he had trained to use it. Even so, he had not been particularly skilled at it until now. Leaping out over the sea and seeing the water below had filled him with fear, forcing the move out of him—and this time, he controlled it perfectly.

Rogge skipped through the air like a dragonfly skimming water. Four leaps brought him to the warship, where he landed on the muzzle of a cannon and looked at the fleet's commander.

"Black Cage Hina. It really is you." The pink-haired woman confirmed Rogge's suspicion.

"So you're no ordinary petty thief. Hina wondered who it was. Turns out you're the thief who tampered with the Heavenly Tribute." Hina studied Rogge and recognized him.

"So I have a reputation, just not much of one." Rogge spread his hands.

"Headquarters sent word. The Heavenly Tribute wasn't lost. Only the three Devil Fruits meant for the Celestial Dragons were stolen," Hina said.

Rogge raised a hand. A ring of light filled with cracks appeared around it. He smiled. "This is the power I got. You saw it just now."

"It certainly is strong. Hina is impressed," she said.

"Sorry, but I don't want to drag this out. I need to finish the fight quickly. Fighting you Marines is the most boring thing." Rogge placed his power-wreathed hand on the cannon beneath him.

"Hina can't let you leave." Hina raised both hands. Two iron bars extended from her sleeves, with smaller bars hanging beneath them like a fence.

Black Cage: black described its color, and cage described its shape. Hina's epithet said plenty about her power.

"Cage-Cage: Feather Cage!"

Two rows of iron bars closed in on Rogge from either side.

Clang!

Hina had been a little faster. The two rows snapped shut around Rogge, and the bars hanging from them trapped him.

"Is that all? Hina is a little disappointed." She exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Smoking is bad for your health." Rogge's body shuddered, and the black cage around him shattered across the deck.