𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 21

It all happened in a flash. Nanko separated from his coworker, brought meat skewers for the stomach on legs that would no doubt be delighted by the offerings and headed in said child's direction.

He was walking down the busy streets, in his joy not noticing the faint smell of gasoline drifting from the guards, nor their number that was too important to be ignored. Had he been fully on guard maybe he would have noticed the odd pattern, the wary glances sent his way.

Unfortunately, he was too preoccupied by his thoughts, an unadulterated joy coursing through his veins. After all he hadn't seen his little brother in a few months — had been busy providing secret data to the Revolutionary Army under the very nose of the Marine.

Thus on his merry way to see his brother, he was unfortunately stopped at the edge of what could be considered to be the slums. The pungent smell of the garbages laying in piles behind the soldiers permeated through the air, while through the barricades, he could see nothing but a wasteland stretching for a while before the edge of the forest where he knew his brother and his friends lived.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I can't let you go any further than that," he paused, as if gauging his reaction, "We're doing a bit of a clean up. Come back tomorrow." When he saw Nanko remain passive, his tone grew stronger and more confident, though his gaze remained fixated on the sharp edge of Nanko's katana that was visible. With a glance at his clothes though, he deduced Nanko wasn't very high ranked and wouldn't cause him much problems.

Nanko started to feel like something was wrong, his gut instincts told him to send the guard flying without a care in the world, however, he knew better than to blow up his cover just for a gut feeling. He immediately regretted having kept his appearance as Nanko because he thought he would be able to undo the henge in the forest.

"I need to go through-" Nanko stopped dead in his sentence, his face freezing as the atmosphere suddenly dropped. His gaze turned sharp as a razor blade while his blade was already unsheathed. In a split second, he slashed at the ground, making the dust rise up and when it dropped, the guard laid dead on the ground, eyes wide in fear and incomprehension.

A painful ache spread around her heart at the thoughts forming in her head. The link between her and around a dozen butterflies situated in the forest was severed one by one. While the ones still alive reported pictures of a massive fire spreading around, engulfing trees and people alike while the soldiers stood impassively in front of the pleas.

Nanko stepped further into the barricade, seeing but not looking at the dozens of guards that had rushed toward his direction at the sight of his kill. His henge dropped and at the sight of Konan, an uproar rose, and immediately a soldier ran away to update her file. That would probably upgrade her bounty by quite a lot as such perfect disguises were deadly and would require a throughout change in the administration to find possible spies.

However, she didn't care, she had dropped the act so she would just have to make sure no witnesses would live to tell the tale.

Papers detached themselves from her body and her katana turned back into its original form. Deadly blades rose up from her, and with a wave of her hand thrust in their direction. A flurry of blades left no survivors in their wake.

Without anyone to stop her anymore, she ran into the forest, with drops of blood adorning her clothes, and leaving behind her a pile of corpses, killed without mercy. It was a one-sided massacre, they didn't have the time to defend themselves. There was no place in her heart for what could be considered her possible coworkers.

While rushing through the forest, she saw people running in the opposite direction, fleeing in the direction of the gates she had just liberated. She didn't have the heart to silence them too, even though she knew that mass-killing would easily be linked with her. For once, she didn't care about covering her tracks.

She heard cries for help all around her, she saw people emerge charred with skin melting off, she could hear trees falling on people. Still all she could think about was if Luffy was amongst them. She couldn't help but feel relieved with each corpse she found that wasn't him.

After having scoured a good part of the burn forest with papers protecting her from the heat, she felt a sense of dread and desperation settle in. She closed her eyes and let her Haki spread. No signs. Further, further, further, even further. Till she coughed blood and felt her ears ring, till her vision became blurry, she spread her Haki throughout the entire forest, hoping to find that warm and endlessly kind light shining through the dark.

Finally, she found it, wavering a bit but alive still. Beside it, a stronger but familiar stubborn light shone, Ace.

A sudden wave of energy made her wince and recoil. That broke her out of her own observation Haki. Even though she had never experienced it before, she could easily guess what it was. A surge of powerful willpower that demanded obedience from all, conqueror's Haki, the Haki of a king. And Ace had just summoned it.

The papers scattered around fluttered back to her, forming giant paper wings. In a swing, she was flying above the forest. This time however, there was none of the previous childish joy from the little boys, there was only a silent fury that simmered, waiting to burst out and explode.

She couldn't remember the last time she felt that type of anger, nothing had ever triggered her wrath. But at the thought of losing the precious little brother who slowly melted her cold exterior, she saw red. She felt herself turn back to the emotionless killing machine she was in her previous world.

"How did you do that?" The soldier shouted in anger as he looked around to his fallen comrades who were surrounding the two pesky children.

Ace looked up in awe as he saw what he did, only to frown again when he saw the head of the soldiers still standing perfectly fine, his gun pointing to his little brother. Luffy didn't seem to notice as his back was to the officer and instead loudly cheered when he saw all the enemies down and his big brother well.

A loud bang resounded and Ace saw the bullet launch toward Luffy. He immediately pushed Luffy out of the way, closing his eyes and waiting for the pain. Only to be caught in warm and familiar arms. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Konan with her arm stretched in the direction of the bullet, her skin taking a faint purplish tint.

"Who the fuck are you?" The officer boomed, taking a more guarded stance at the unexpected arrival. He could clearly see the majestic wings stretching from her back and the blood splattered on her clothes. What attracted his attention however, was the purple Haki covering her arm, precise and quick control, she wasn't to be underestimated.

"Na-chan‼" Luffy shouted, a big smile stretching on his face while he rushed toward her. The wings slowly dispersed, letting him pass through to jump in her arms.

"Glad to see you too, Luffy!" Konan smiled warmly at the little ball of energy that jumped in her arms. She didn't spare a glance at the man that was fuming across the field.

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