The Time God Slayer

Chapter 33

Hikari can't breathe. Water filled her lungs as she flailed in the water. Her eyes stung and the world around her was blurry and silent.

"Lavender!" Hikari frantically looked around for the kitten, spotting the feline trying to swim up. Hikari quickly grabbed Lavender by her scruff and tried to swim upwards, ignoring how her own lungs screamed for air and how her vision is growing dimmer and how blackness is encroaching in her vision.

Hikari felt hands grip her and she felt herself panicking. There's nothing she could do though. She doesn't have enough strength to fight in the water. That would lose precious time that she needs. Her panic quickly turned to relief when the person tugged her upwards and both Hikari's and Lavender's head broke the surface of the water.

Both of them took deep gulps of air and coughed up water. Hikari feels for a rim to latch onto but there was nothing but a hard steel cover. Hikari's fist began to be enveloped in a bright light with tendrils of darkness as she prepared a spell.

"Time God's Punch!"

The steel cover popped straight up and fell down to the ground, rusted and bent. Hikari automatically grabbed onto the rim of the glass tank, making her guild mark visible to the crowd, and put Lavender there too, the feline's front legs hanging out of the tank. Water streamed off their heads and onto the wooden floor.

"Sh-...c-.......-t?!"

"-ey!......-t.."

".....-ds!..."

"...o?.....-at....-ere...?

Hikari couldn't register the voices, mainly because she's still recovering from almost drowning and there's still water in her ears. She wiped her eyes, blinked through the water dripping from her head, and tilted her head sideways to get rid of the water. A comical amount of water rushed out of her ears and onto the floor, making the people in the room sweatdrop. Satisfied that she got the water out and her hearing is back again, Hikari looked at the feline. Lavender looked much thinner with the water making her fur stick to her frame but of course, still a healthy figure.

Lavender was blinking water out of her eyes and used her hind legs to push herself up to jump down from the tank and onto the floor. However, her hind legs drenched in water would not create traction against the glass tank so her hind legs are just uselessly moving against the tank, furthering the feline's already foul mood.

"Hikari, nya." Lavender's eyes sharpened into glints. "Get. Me. Out. Of. This. Tank."

Not wanting to be on the feline's bad side any longer (even though it wasn't really her fault that they ended up in water), Hikari pushed Lavender's hind legs up and the kitten wasted no time jumping out of the tank with a thump and a spraying of water drops. Hikari gripped the rim and followed, landing on her feet and immediately wringing out her shoulder length hair. As petty revenge, Lavender purposely shook herself and splattered water on Hikari, making Hikari deadpan.

Hikari needs a tissue or at least something dry to wipe her eyes with. Using her wet hands doesn't exactly help keep the water out of her eyes. Thus, Hikari kept her eyes shut and concentrated on feeling the ethernano and haki, which is similar to how ethernano feels. Feeling a sense of how many people there are, Hikari feels a cold, numb feeling in her heart.

Out of all the places the two of them ended up in, they ended up in the auction house. She can identify an angry Luffy at the stairs, along with a few familiar haki signatures although she couldn't place the name to it. There's also that one knocked out haki signature near the top of the stairs. Hikari suspects that Luffy might've had a hand in that. Then, there's the injured haki signature right next to Luffy. Rayleigh's haki signature came as a surprise to Hikari, peeking out from back stage among what she assumes are slaves, judging by the dim, almost depressed feeling haki. The haki that feels kind is the closest to her in the tank. Hikari makes a mental note to properly thank the mermaid later for saving them from drowning. And of course, the arrogant, bitter feel of the nobles and arrogant, wealthy people are also among the crowd, the two auction house guards are among who she senses closing in on her.

Lavender flicked her ears and started licking herself. "What are you waiting for, nya? The guards are going to restrain you."

Right after Lavender finished her telepathic sentence, Hikari felt an unfriendly hand on her shoulder and a gravelly, uneven voice. "You have tried to free the mermaid put on auction that rightfully belongs to Saint Charlos. That is a crime and you will be punished." The guard tightened his hold on Hikari's shoulder. Come with us."

Hikari immediately punched the guard's face, followed by a kick to his solar plexus that launched him across the stage and into the wall, creating a human shaped figure in the wall after the unconscious guard slid down and faceplanted. The other guard's horrified shock at seeing his partner get knocked out in two moves and launched across the room caused him to stay rooted where he was, eyes filled with disbelief. Hikari took advantage of the guard's shock and roundhouse kicked the guard, also launching him across the room to the same exact area of the human-shaped figure in the wall. The same guard fell off and landed on his partner, creating a cloud of dust. The auction house's wall grew more cracks that spread into a bigger spider web.

The crowd gawked at her in either surprise, disbelief, horror, intrigue, relief, awe, or happiness, depending on whether they are a noble, pirate, or world noble. The announcer trembled with dreaded fear and started inching his way off the stage, clearly done with this job for today. He's not going to risk his life; a dead man makes no money so he might as well run and do his job another day in another auction house, a day where crazy people don't appear in the auction house and beat people with their eyes closed. Once he reached the end of the stage, he ran like his life depended on it out of the auction house. No one stopped him.

Lavender, finally finished with licking herself dry, jumped onto Hikari's shoulder. Hikari wiped her eyes one last time before she slowly opened them, revealing familiar silver orbs to people who know her and gorgeous silver moonstones to people who know her as "Shirokage" the model.

"Oh my!" One of the wealthy people from the audience pointed at Hikari. "You're Shirokage, the famous model from Maniart!"

Hikari blinked at the noble. "Unfortunately." She deadpanned, making the crowd sweatdrop and think, "Unfortunately? She doesn't like being a famous model?"

Saint Charlos' father, despite seeing how his son was beaten by a pirate, commanded the guards to capture Hikari and bring her to him. She will make a great present for his family as an investment. He will take Hikari as compensation for his son getting hurt in the auction. His statement caused anger to elevate in Luffy and his crew members once again and discomfort in Law and Bepo. Hikari, however, stared at the noble with a neutral expression although the anger in her eyes was apparent. "I am not an object to be bought and sold."

The wall trembled and giant fingers poked through the steel wall, making the hole bigger for a giant to fit through. Footsteps echoed throughout the auction house. A figure made himself known as Rayleigh. He surveyed the audience, his keen eyes picking out Hachi and his injuries and the Straw Hat Pirates that, he presumed, rescued Hachi. Then, his eyes landed upon Hikari.

"Hikari! It's been a long time! We have a lot to catch up on later." He grinned.

"Agreed." Hikari nodded.

After a burst of Conqueror's Haki that left the audience members unconscious except for the three pirate crews unconscious, Hikari walked up the stairs towards Luffy. Now that she was in front of him, she placed a hand on his hat and patted it. A small smile on her face, Hikari greeted Luffy's surprised gaze. "Hello, Luffy. Long time no see."

"Shiro!" Luffy stretched his arms, wrapping it around Hikari in loops and hugging her, dissipating the tense, cautious atmosphere of Rayleigh's powerful presence. "I've missed you!" Luffy bopped Lavender's head with his head. "I've missed you too, Lavender!"

The Straw Hat Pirates merely looked at the scene with curiosity while also trying to figure out why Hikari looked so familiar. In Nami's case, she recognizes Hikari because she's a famous model and makes a lot of money. However, she feels that she met her before as a kid, back when Bellemare was alive and they were living happily in Cocoyashi Village. The other crew members had similar feelings of familiarity with the woman, thinking that they might've met her or seen her before when they were younger. Law and Bepo haven't forgotten Hikari even though it's been a long time since they first met. After all, she was the one who helped them train.

Lavender huffed and nuzzled Luffy, making him laugh and nuzzle back. Hikari lets the moment prolong a bit until she pats his back for him to let go and face the marines outside.

"Be careful, Luffy."

"Shishishi! I will!"