In One Piece, Watching Roger's Execution at the Start

Ekrum watched the pirate ship shatter into fragments and corpses bob across the water. He cursed aloud—not because he cared about his men.

He could always recruit more men. But the last of their treasure had sunk to the seabed beneath Atlas's slash, taking his dream of a comfortable retirement with it.

"Ekrum! Calm down!"

Wells, who had survived beside him, tried to restrain the furious Ekrum. The once-mighty pirate crew had been reduced to the two of them, and they did not even have anywhere to stand. Most of their bodies were submerged in seawater. Fortunately, neither was a Devil Fruit User.

Before long, they found a large piece of wreckage and hauled themselves onto it, finally escaping the indignity of soaking in the sea.

Atlas watched their struggle from the air. Holding herself aloft with Geppo consumed enormous stamina, but with her seemingly bottomless reserves, it hardly mattered.

"Please, Marine, could you let us go? All I want now is to retire and live in comfort."

After witnessing Atlas's terrifying strength, Ekrum had calmed down and begun to beg. But Atlas's keen Observation Haki still caught the murderous intent radiating from him.

"Hah! Listen to a beaten dog whine."

Atlas sneered and raised Sandai Kitetsu once more...

"Hey, wait! I'll go to Impel Down! I surrender!"

"Spare me! Arrest me and send me to Impel Down!"

"You damned Marine! I won't let you off, even in death!"

"You filthy Marine..."

Atlas ignored Ekrum's pleas and curses. Why bother arguing with a dead man?

One Sword Style: Crescent Moon!

Dense Armament Haki coated Sandai Kitetsu, and a crescent-shaped slash flew from its blade.

Whoosh!

A line of blood slowly appeared across Ekrum and Wells. The enormous slash carried on past them, cleaving the crimson seawater in two.

A faint sea breeze blew.

Their bodies suddenly parted at the waist along those bloody lines. Their upper halves slumped onto the sea while their lower halves remained seated on the wreckage.

From a distance, they looked like...

...a pair of beaten dogs.

Shattered pieces of ships floated across the sea. Blood stained the blue water crimson, and mutilated corpses lay everywhere. A vulture or two circled overhead from time to time, waiting for lunch...

Atlas surveyed the carnage. Her Observation Haki swept the battlefield again and again. She would leave no survivors. Evil had to be rooted out completely.

The voyage back was uneventful.

After roughly a day at sea, Atlas returned to the G-8 fortress harbor on a crisp morning, greeted by a gentle sea breeze.

She first went to the Staff Office to report the battle to Major Drake, then headed to the mess hall for a proper meal. She had lived on rations for the past two days, and her mouth was desperate for something with flavor.

"What? You wiped out the entire Ekrum Pirates by yourself?!"

Drake's roar rang through the Staff Office. He had been bracing himself for news of Atlas's death. Only yesterday, he had complained about how reckless everyone was—even Vice Admiral Jonathan had not objected to Atlas's mission. Now she had returned with a surprise for him.

"Come on, don't make such a fuss."

Atlas dug a finger into her ear and spoke as though it were nothing. Ekrum was just a failure, and his bounty had been wildly inflated. He had probably earned most of it through murder, arson, and plunder.

"Come on, walk me through exactly how you fought." Drake calmed down a little and sat back in his chair. Suppressing his excitement, he questioned Atlas in a gentler tone.

Drake now fully believed Zephyr's assessment of Atlas. This was a pirate with a bounty of two hundred million Beli, backed by a crew of pirates with bounties of their own. Yet the young woman before him had wiped them all out single-handedly. Even if she had worn them down in a drawn-out fight, that would have been remarkable.

And suspect Atlas of falsifying her achievements? What a joke. The Marines' intelligence agency was not there for decoration. A pirate crew that large could not vanish without a trace. Wherever people went, they left evidence behind.

"Well, I walked up and slashed once, then slashed again. Yeah, that's about it." Atlas lifted an arm and demonstrated for Drake with an utterly serious expression.

"That's it?!" Drake had been ready for a lengthy account and could only stare at her. He had settled in for a grand tale, and that was all he got?

"All right, then. I'll report to Vice Admiral Jonathan. You can go." Looking at Atlas's calm face, Drake had so many things to say that he did not know where to begin.

After leaving Drake's office, Atlas returned to her quarters for a shower, then hurried to the mess hall. Perhaps it was because she had arrived at mealtime, but the place was crowded and the line took a while. By the time she had collected her food and started looking for a seat...

"Holy crap, is that her?"

"She's so young!"

"No wonder she came out of Headquarters' elite training camp!"

"She's downright terrifying!"

The chatter kept reaching Atlas's ears. With her current physical abilities, she could hear the smallest sounds around her clearly even without Observation Haki. Besides, the soldiers were making no effort to keep their voices down.

After "eavesdropping" for a while, Atlas understood why they were talking about her. Vice Admiral Jonathan had announced her exploits throughout the fortress. She simply had not been paying attention. By now, she was famous across G-8.

Once she had eaten her fill, Atlas slipped out through the mess hall's side door. She had no desire to sit there while everyone gawked at her like some kind of spectacle.

"Ah, Atlas! I was just looking for you. Vice Admiral Jonathan wants you in his office."

Atlas had barely left the mess hall when she ran into Drake. He had been wondering where to find her, and now she had appeared right in front of him. He promptly called her over.

"Yes, sir!"

Knock, knock, knock...

"Come in!"

Atlas pushed the door open. Vice Admiral Jonathan, the base's commanding officer, was fiddling with his beloved fishing rod. When he saw her, he gently set it aside and interlaced his fingers on the desk.

"Well, you really are the monster Zephyr said you were. You took down a pirate worth two hundred million Beli with ease."

Jonathan's tone was mild. He was a laid-back commander, though not in Borsalino's work-shirking way. His calm came from having everything under control. Strangely, he was also a close friend of a hardliner like Sakazuki. That alone suggested this unassuming vice admiral had far more depth than he showed.

"I was lucky. Besides, he didn't live up to his bounty," Atlas said modestly.

"No need to be modest. I have a mission for you." Jonathan waved a hand. A bounty of two hundred million Beli was no small thing, however undeserved it might seem. Ekrum had come from the New World, after all, even if he had ended up a miserable failure.

"What mission?"

At the prospect of another assignment, Atlas immediately grew serious.

"Several pirate crews have been hanging around Alabasta lately. I'd like you to go and see what's happening."

"Alabasta? Isn't that outside our jurisdiction?" Atlas raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, it is. But the branch responsible for those waters sent us a request for help. I can't simply ignore it."

"And..."

"A Shichibukai may be involved." A knowing glint appeared in Jonathan's eyes, though his expression remained unreadable.

"A Shichibukai? Crocodile?" Atlas was surprised. When she thought of Alabasta and the Shichibukai, Crocodile was the first person who came to mind. She had not expected him to set his sights on Pluton so soon.

"How did you know? He vanished after Whitebeard taught him a lesson. I never expected the next report on him to place him in Alabasta."

"I don't know what he's after. Deal with those pirate crews, and see what Crocodile is plotting while you're there."

"Yes, sir. I'll get it done!"

Sea Circle Calendar 1505. Marine G-8 fortress, the vice admiral's office.

Atlas had already left. Jonathan, with his wine-red hair and black mustache, leaned back in his chair and made himself comfortable. In his hand was a newly delivered report detailing Atlas's entire battle with the Ekrum Pirates.

"No survivors... That really is her style..."

Jonathan stared at the closed office door, lost in thought. He did not even notice the report slipping from his fingers.

After saying goodbye to Jonathan, Atlas spent several hours training hard in the base's training room, then enjoyed a good night's sleep. She had to leave for Alabasta in the morning.

This time, of course, she would not be alone. Vice Admiral Jonathan had assigned her a warship and crew to handle the aftermath. Though she was only a captain, she had temporary command of the vessel.

—The next day—

The warship departed the fortress harbor on schedule and followed its course toward Alabasta. A dedicated Marine navigator handled the route. Navigators were scarce at sea because most people in the pirate world had little education; many could not even read.

The Marines, however, had schools with a complete education system. Soldiers without much physical talent could be trained for desk work instead. There was no question that the Marines were the strongest force on the seas.

"Ah, it's so much nicer when someone else sails the ship!" Atlas stretched, remembering her days drifting across the sea alone. The food had been bad, and she had not even had anyone to talk to.

"Adjutant, how long until we reach Alabasta?" Jonathan had assigned this adjutant to her personally. He was also a captain, the same rank as Atlas. She found G-8's command structure baffling: Jonathan was the vice admiral in charge, yet his second-in-command was only a major—Drake.

Atlas even suspected Jonathan had promoted Drake to second-in-command just so the major could handle the mountain of paperwork while he relaxed and went fishing.

"Captain! We're approximately three days from Alabasta!" The adjutant made a rough calculation and gave Atlas a middle-of-the-road estimate.

Captain—that was her temporary position aboard the warship.

"Right. I'll be in the training room for a while. Keep an eye on the ship, and call me if anything goes wrong!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

That evening, Atlas emerged from the training room just in time for dinner.

Suddenly, the ship began to rock violently beneath her feet. The jolting shook everyone aboard, drawing startled cries from the Marines.

"What's going on?" Forgetting dinner, Atlas hurried onto the deck to find out.

"Captain! A Sea King is attacking!" the adjutant reported as soon as he saw her.

A red glint flashed in Atlas's eyes. Observation Haki—activated!

Through her senses, she detected an enormous shape swimming back and forth beneath the dark water. Waves churned around it, tossing the warship from side to side.

Crash!

Without warning, the Sea King lurking below surged toward Atlas's ship like a shark catching the scent of blood.

The warship's powerful searchlights finally revealed the creature attacking them.

It resembled a huge tiger-headed fish, its body covered in striped markings. Savage frenzy gleamed in its narrow eyes. Rows of sharp teeth filled its gaping maw, and a foul stench rolled over the deck.

"Damn it!" Despair filled the adjutant's eyes. "That thing has to be at least nine hundred meters long. It's nearly as big as some of the medium-sized Sea Kings in the Calm Belt. Our warship isn't equipped to fight it. We can only..."

"Fight with everything we have." The adjutant turned to Atlas. "Ma'am, please order an evacuation immediately! We have a few lifeboats aboard. We'll hold that monster off as long as we can and give everyone else time to escape..."

Before he could finish, Atlas used Geppo to rise into the air. She met the giant Sea King's gaze and grinned.

"Bad luck, big guy!"

The adjutant's eyes widened. He even rubbed his ears, wondering if he had misunderstood her. Surely they were the unlucky ones. Why did the captain sound as though the Sea King was in trouble?

Before the adjutant could recover, Atlas drew Sandai Kitetsu. Black-and-red Armament Haki swiftly coated her arm and blade. Armament Haki—hardening!

Atlas had mastered this technique long ago. Unlike projecting Haki outward, coating a weapon with it was something most people could learn once they had awakened Armament Haki and practiced using it.

One Sword Style: Dragon Tail!

A horizontal slash sent a blood-red blade of force through the night, sweeping across the Sea King's open maw.

Shhk!

The sheer sharpness of the strike nearly severed the Sea King's lower jaw. Blood poured down, staining the dark sea an eerie red...

Roar!

In pain, the huge creature thrashed even more wildly. Towering waves surged around it, nearly capsizing the warship.

Atlas saw how dire the situation had become and held nothing back. She gripped her sword with both hands. Her muscles swelled, her biceps and triceps bulging as the thick muscle along her forearms hardened like cast steel. Every muscle fiber stood out as dense Armament Haki wrapped around them.

One Sword Style: Martial God Arm: Starfall!

Scattered slashes fell like meteors, striking the Tiger-Striped Sea King with devastating force. Its enormous body was soon torn open. It gave a final, despairing roar, but the massive blood loss drained the life from it. Slowly, it floated to the surface...

Across the warship, more than a hundred soldiers watched and let out long breaths of relief. The danger had passed.

Clang!