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“Release the Roswald family right now! The Admiral will arrive soon, so we recommend that you surrender immediately!” The Marine voice over the loudspeaker is crackly, breathless. “We won’t be held responsible for what happens, rookies!”
Linlin adjusts little Katakuri in her arms and scoffs. “Like I’d set that sort of example for my children.” She huffs. “I’ve had my fill of this place. None of those slaves were husband material, anyway.”
“Finally, something to do,” whines Kaidou the Beast, nearby. He stands, stretches. “About time.”
That crazy little bastard Straw Hat just grins, cocks his head to listen to Dark King Rayleigh explain that he will now be removing himself from the situation, steps up to join Linlin and Kaidou at the doorway. Eyes the wide-eyed infant in Linlin’s arms with a fascination Linlin will not be putting up with.
Hm, she’ll want both hands for this. She hands Katakuri to Streusen, but leaves Daifuku and Oven in their slings on her back. It’s good for a child to get a taste for battle as early as possible. Straw Hat watches her curiously as she readjusts her shirt. Has he never seen a nursing mother before?
“Stand back, rookies,” says Kaidou. He grins. “Don’t get your hands dirty. I’ve been waiting all day for a battle like this.”
“I can handle myself,” says Linlin back. He may be a few years older than her, but in every other way she has him beat. “You wait here. Rookie.”
Straw Hat blinks up at them both. Steps outside without saying anything, the little bastard, so they have to scramble to catch up to him and end up all in step with each other as they pause to take in the blockade.
Predictably, the Marines all start shouting.
“There they are!” Yes, there they are.
“Take aim!” Linlin rather doubts they’re capable of that.
“Those three are all captains!” Well, yes.
“They’re going to spearhead the attack!” And finish it, too, if Linlin has her way.
“It’s a 300 million—” As Linlin understands it, the little bastard Straw Hat earned that number by audacity alone. “—315 million—” Yes, and Linlin will shortly be demonstrating why she has the highest bounty among these so-called Supernovas, thank you. “—and 200 million counting from the right!” Kaidou makes a face.
“Jealous?” says Linlin. “You’re shorter than me, too.” Straw Hat’s minuscule stature is irrelevant to the question at hand. Linlin thinks he must be like some sort of vicious rodent in battle.
Kaidou snorts. Tightens his grip on his club and, hilariously, stands a little straighter as though that’ll prove her wrong. “You’ll be jealous when I kill you.”
“Ooh, scary,” says Linlin, waving him off. “I’m sure that’s why your bounty is less than two-thirds mine.”
Kaidou growls at her, but that’s when the little bastard Straw Hat finally speaks up.
“You guys can stay back,” he announces, crossing his arms. Oh, Linlin’s so going to kill him when she’s done with Kaidou.
“I already said, this is my battle,” argues Kaidou, hefting his club.
Linlin glares at them both. “Step back inside. I don’t need you.”
“Mortars! Fire!”
Ah, there’s a cannonball whizzing her way. Linlin grabs Napoleon off her head and swings. He does the rest.
Beside her, Straw Hat blows himself up like a balloon, and Kaidou shifts into a scaley zoan hybrid form and blocks with a sweep of his forearm.
Three cannonballs, three explosions among the Marines. Catch and return. Easy. Linlin smiles despite herself. This might even be fun.
“Be careful!” shouts the Marine in charge. “Cannons won’t work against them! All three of them have devil fruit powers!”
He doesn’t have to sound so panicked about it. What do they think bounty posters are for, decoration? Well, that’s their loss.
Linlin can see the fear creeping into their eyes. That’s her win.
That little bastard Straw Hat leans around, poking at Napoleon, saying, in a tone of mild curiosity, “You guys have got some strange powers.”
“Yours is the strangest,” Linlin tells him. Rubber, really? She snatches Napoleon away from him. The sword sighs in relief. “And mind your own business.”
“Rude,” complains Straw Hat. Can he hear himself?
Oh, the Marines are shouting again. Cannons this, reputations that, “We have to hold them back until Admiral Kizaru arrives!” the other.
“Show some respect to a nursing mother,” she shouts back. Gestures over her right shoulder. “Oven’s napping. If you wake him up, I’ll slice you up and feed you to my ship!”
“Who cares about your brats?” mutters Kaidou. Then he goes back to shouting. “We’ll be flying free well before Kizaru arrives!”
And he’s off swinging, wading into the crowd in hybrid form like an untouchable beast. Huh. Well, good to know that nickname of his is accurate.
Straw Hat blows his arm up (does he only have one trick with his fruit, or what?) and starts throwing it around like a battering ram, concussing Marines with a giggle on his lips.
Which leaves Linlin in the middle of the field, exactly where she wants to be. There are eyes on her. She must look weak to them, two infants strapped to her back, keeping her distance, Napoleon in hand. She takes two steps closer. Swings. Napoleon extends out and cleanly decapitates the nearest soldier.
Everyone starts shrieking again. Tch. She steps closer again, and that quiets them.
“I told you to shut up. Do you fear me?” growls Linlin. The Marines shake in response, and she holds out a grabbing hand. “That’s right. Hush… or life?”
That starts them screaming again. Idiots. She closes her outstretched fist, and they fall to the ground, useless withered skeletons, as Linlin drinks in the sweet energy of their souls.
Some Marine or other is screaming, shouting: “What are we supposed to do against them?”
“Die. Or run,” Linlin answers, grinning. She jumps into the fray, ducking under Kaidou’s spiked club, stepping over Straw Hat’s massive arm, letting Napoleon do his job. Oh, it is fun to stomp on ants sometimes.
The air is full of blood and smoke. They’re all invulnerable, the three of them, ricocheting bullets off their bodies unharmed, laughing and shouting. Linlin’s looking forwards to the fights to the death she’ll be having with these rivals in the New World already.
Eventually they all find themselves back at the center of the clearing, surrounded by corpses and disturbed earth. Daifuku is crying on Linlin’s back. He must not have liked the loud noises, but there’s nothing to be done about that. He’ll have to get used to battle eventually.
“Shut your brats up, Charlotte,” whines Kaidou, as she pats Daifuku on the head. Oven, a surprisingly sound sleeper today, isn’t making any noise, so she doesn’t know why Kaidou’s working in plurals.
Straw Hat, meanwhile, has somehow become even smaller. All his lankiness is gone. His hat is too big for him. He looks like a chubby child. “Cute,” says Linlin.
He scowls up at her. “Shut up! I’ll be back to normal in a minute.”
Kaidou laughs, a long, rolling thing. “Blockade’s gone,” he says. “Anyone else want to fight an admiral?”
“Don’t be an idiot, Kaidou,” says Linlin. She glances behind herself. Their crews have finally stepped outside, led by Straw Hat’s eclectic bunch. Streusen has Katakuri and Compote, and Perospero toddling beside; Kaidou’s small hooded shadow and larger eccentric are darting towards him.
“They’re going to run!” shout the Marines. “Don’t let those kids get the better of you! Our reinforcements will arrive soon! We have secured the three hostages through the back entrance! Use mortars and aim for the ones that don’t have devil fruit powers!”
Oh, no, they’re not shooting cannonballs at her children. Not on her watch. “Streusen! To me! We’re going.”
“Riflemen! Position in the rear! All hands! Full fire! Destroy those pirates!”
Streusen and her children come up behind her as a haze of bullets fill the air. She takes most of them, pathetic little pebbles of things, and Streusen turns a stray one into a cute little bonbon as it zips past her head. Napoleon eats another.
Straw Hat pops back to his usual height as his crewmates gather to him, grinning. Kaidou’s eccentric shoots at some unlucky Marines with a laser beam (which makes Straw Hat’s own eccentric turn towards him in excitement; boys), and his shadow comes up next to him.
“Kaidou, please,” insists the shadow. The voice is young. Is this a child? It’s covered completely, in big loose black robes that don’t quite hide the shape of wings on its back, and hooded, although Linlin can see a trace of long, curling white hair that’s escaped confinement. There’s a mask on its face, floral-patterned. Fascinating. “You promised we wouldn’t take on the government yet. Not until we go back.”
Kaidou pauses, swings his club back up to rest on his shoulder. “True enough, King,” he says. “Won’t be dying today, I suppose.”
King sighs. Kaidou turns his head. “Glad I got to meet you, Straw Hat,” he continues. “Your insanity is infectious. And terrible to meet you, Charlotte. I’d like you better without the brats.” He laughs, wororororo. “When we meet in the New World, we’ll all be enemies.”
“I’m excited!” Straw Hat grins, vicious and free. “But I’m going to be the one who finds One Piece!”
Linlin laughs herself, startled. Mamamama! “Saying that to our faces? You’re a brave one, Straw Hat!” Napoleon takes care of a cannonball for her. “But we’ll all have to be to survive what’s ahead. Let’s meet again in the New World!”
The assembled pirates cheer. Linlin hefts Napoleon and goes back to plowing through Marines, Streusen dropping Perospero onto his shoulders behind her.
The coming years, she decides, giddy on adrenaline, are certainly going to be interesting.