Pirates: Invincible from the Start

The rift stretched all the way out to sea. From a distance, it looked as though someone had sliced through a giant slab of jelly.

Seawater poured into it from both sides, and the rift showed no sign of closing.

"Hachi!"

Only then did the Fish-Men staring at the mound of earth around Arlong come to their senses. They shouted toward Hachi in the waterway.

Then they all turned toward Kuta, trembling from head to toe, eyes bulging with terror.

"A Great Swordsman?"

"He's a Great Swordsman!"

They had never met a Great Swordsman, but they had heard of them!

They were monsters who could split mountains, cleave the sea, and cut ships in half.

Even in the terrifying New World, they could become figures of consequence!

They stood frozen, cold all over. They knew they were going to die.

Kuina paid no attention to what was happening behind her. As long as Kuta was there, all she needed to do was keep moving forward.

She looked down at Captain Nezumi, who lay on the ground, and utter disgust flashed through her cold eyes.

Captain Nezumi stared up at Kuina and went rigid with fear.

Trembling, he propped himself up on his hands and pushed with his feet, inching backward.

He cried out,

"I..."

"I..."

"I'm a Marine! If you kill me, you'll be wanted!"

"I'll be wanted?"

Kuina tilted her head and shrugged.

"Then let them put a bounty on me."

Ready to Fall into Endless Hell? Kuina stepped forward and slowly raised her blade toward Nezumi.

She moved slowly this time, as slowly as an old woman.

She wanted Nezumi to savor the feeling of death drawing near.

As Kuina raised her blade, Nezumi began shaking even harder.

His gaze locked onto its gleaming edge. In the polished steel, he saw his own wretched, terrified face.

Kuina's steadily rising right hand held his attention like a black hole. His stomach churned.

Then a sudden urge to urinate seized him.

A wet patch spread between Nezumi's legs, growing larger until urine poured out beneath him and ran away in a stream.

Kuina had frightened him so badly that he had wet himself.

Disgust filled Kuina's eyes. Her blade flashed, and she brought her raised right hand down in one clean stroke across Nezumi's neck.

His trembling stopped at once.

He stared ahead, eyes wide with terror and desperate longing to live.

He tried to move, but it was useless. His brain could no longer reach his body.

He felt boundless darkness closing in, tugging his soul, inch by inch, into the abyss of hell.

Time had never felt so long. To him, that single instant stretched into a century.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Only when the darkness had swallowed his soul did the last glimmer fade from his eyes.

Nezumi died without ever knowing who they were or why they were so determined to kill him, even at the cost of becoming wanted criminals.

Kuina stood still and flicked her blade, spattering the blood on it across Nezumi's body.

That spatter broke the stillness of his corpse.

His head slid backward and hit the ground with a thud.

His headless body toppled like a domino, collapsing onto the ground.

His blood mixed with his urine and flowed like a stream into the nearby pool.

Kuina quietly watched the bloody stream pass her feet. Some of the disgust in her eyes faded.

Wasn't this a fitting end for Nezumi's filthy life?

Even his blood was filthy.

Kuina gave Nezumi's corpse a cold glance, then looked at the two Marines behind him who had already fainted from fear.

"What should I do with those two?"

"Kill them?"

She thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Forget it. I'll leave them to Kuta."

Then she looked at the remaining Fish-Men.

They felt that familiar, deathly cold gaze settle on them again.

They knew the demon woman had come for them.

Their instinct to survive briefly broke through their fear, lending them strength they had not known they had.

"Aaaah!"

They roared and forced their exhausted bodies toward the pool as fast as they could.

It was their only way to survive.

After seeing Kuta's slash, they no longer believed their boss, Arlong, would live to save them.

Veins bulged across their bodies as they threw every bit of strength they had into reaching the pool.

If they could reach its edge and jump into the sea, they could escape as Fish-Men.

When Kuina saw them run, she pushed off the ground and shot after them with a whoosh.

They were almost at the pool when, to their despair, Kuina appeared at the end of their only escape route.

A flash of steel was the last thing they saw. In an instant, every Fish-Man fell on the way to the pool.

It had never been a way out. It was the road to hell.

Amid the rubble of the collapsed wall to the right,

Arlong lay motionless.

A huge rock had struck his head, keeping him from getting up right away.

In the few dozen seconds he lay dazed, blood had flooded Arlong's domain, and all his compatriots had fallen dead.

Shaking his head, he crawled out of the rubble as a series of crashes sounded around him.

He raised his head and opened his bleary eyes. At the sight before him, his dilated pupils contracted sharply, and his mind cleared at once.

The Fish-Men's bodies littered the ground. When he saw Hachi split in two in the pool, rage consumed him.

Arlong considered humans an inferior race, but he cared for his own kind.

These Fish-Men in particular had all come with him from Fish-Man Island.

They had come to enjoy themselves and rule as they pleased.

Now they were all dead.

Even Hachi, who had been in the Sun Pirates with him, had died—and in such a gruesome way.

Blood flooded Arlong's eyes, turning them red with a savage, bloodthirsty gleam.

His pupils had shrunk until they were barely visible.

He looked at Hachi. Then, as a thought struck him, he turned to Kuina and forced down his anger enough to ask,

"Did you kill Kuroobi and Chew too?"

By now, Kuroobi and the others should have returned, yet they were nowhere to be seen.

Their last stop had been Cocoyasi Village, and these two humans had come from that direction.

He was almost certain Kuroobi and Chew were dead, but he could not stop himself from asking.

"You mean those stinking Fish-Men who went to collect the head tax?"

Kuina stared coldly at Arlong as she answered.

"They've probably dried out in the sun by now."

She did not sheathe her blade. Instead, she charged at Arlong with it in hand.

"Worry about yourself."

At the sight of Kuina rushing toward him, Arlong's blood raced and his whole body flushed red.

Bulging veins wound over him like pythons.

His already towering body swelled even larger, making him look from a distance like a walking blood-red monster.

He yanked his great sawblade from the rubble, gripped its hilt with both hands, and raised it overhead before bringing it down hard on Kuina.

"Die, you inferior human!"

He was certain she could not withstand this strike.

It carried nearly twice the force of his last blow. He was burning his own life to deliver it.

"Rage Shark Sawblade!"

Kuina did not try to meet the sawblade tearing through the air above her.

She was no fool. She could not withstand its force, but dodging it was easy.

A red glint flashed in her eyes as she quietly activated Observation Haki. She turned lightly to the left, letting the blade sweep past the tip of her nose and crash into the ground.

Bang!

The hard stone paving shattered, sending fragments flying.

The sawblade kept going, blasting a deep crater into the earth beneath the paving.

Arlong Was Just Another Dead Fish The tremendous crash behind her did not slow Kuina.

She stepped forward beneath Arlong's arm, bringing her blade up toward his exposed chest.

The moment his strike missed, Arlong knew he was in trouble.

But he had fought on the Grand Line and had plenty of experience. Knowing he could not dodge Kuina's blade, he did not even try.

A vicious look filled his eyes. He lowered his head and thrust it at Kuina, trying to pierce her with his long, serrated nose.

"Die!"

If he struck her, taking her slash would be worth it.

But Kuina gave him no chance.

A red glint flashed in her eyes. She stopped her advance early, turned right, and took a small step back, coming to stand at Arlong's left side.

Her blade completed its arc and slid back into its sheath.