A New Path - Chapter 185

Rebel army versus the royal army. The fighting was escalating every second and since the leader of the rebel army had been shot while waving the white flag together with the royal army, chaos ensued. In the middle of the battlefield sat the Straw hat crew. They were all hurt and exhausted, and they were waiting for development from up in the clock tower where Vivi and her royal guardian, Pell stood. They stood together with a bomb that Crocodile had planted there.

Nami looked at Zoro, the Vice-captain of the crew, and most of the time the most logical thinking member of the crew. “What’s happening up there, Zoro? i can’t see anything!” She was distressed and her tone was panicky. None of them had experienced a war like this before so they’re emotions were running high. “If you can’t see anything, how do you expect me to see anything?!” He grunted back quietly.

“I don’t know! You’re inhuman, so do some inhuman stuff, tell me what’s going on up there!” The more she spoke the more demanding and unreasonable her tone became. Sanji nodded along. “You heard her! You better tell her now!” He glared at his arch-enemy.

“Shut up, both of you! We all need to calm down or we won’t survive this!” Zoro didn’t take the abuse lying down. He roared back at them while his wounds acted up and started spewing blood. “Shit! Look at what you did!” He sat down on the ground with a pained expression. From behind them, a gunshot was heard and Sanj flew backwards and landed on his back. “SANJI!” Nami screamed out loud after blood from where the bullet penetrating him spewed onto her face.

“Crew members of Monkey D Luffy, correct?” A woman with a monotone voice asked as she lowered her gun down to her side. Beside her, she had seven other people, all dressed in white suits. And one distinct feature they all had were the white masks on their faces with a small sun overlapping the hole over their right eye.

“Who the hell are you!?” Zoro was quick to his feet, but his wounds didn’t make it easy for him to stay standing. “Chopper, check on Sanji! Nami, help him with anything he needs. Usopp, stay out of the way!” Zoro looked at the masked woman who shot Sanji. “Now, it’s time for some answers!” He drew his swords and took a stance against them.

“Eleven, you’re enough for this man, make it quick.” The woman said to a tall and slim man standing right behind her.

“Thank you for this, Ma’am!” The masked man had a lot more emotions when speaking than the woman had. On the back of his right hand, he had the number eleven. The woman who ordered him was also numbered, she had the number eight written on the back of her hand.

“You guys need to escape far away from here!” Zoro said before taking a heavy and bloody step forward. He pushed off the ground and flew towards agent number eleven. “Oni Giri!” As he flew he crossed his three swords and prepared to cut agent eleven into pieces.

‘He doesn’t know haki!’ Agent eleven raised his arms and defended against the [Oni Giri] and with that, he stopped Zoro in his tracks. “What?!” The green-haired swordsman watched as his swords were stopped by two hands, but as they collided, he could swear on the fact that it felt like he was clashing with swords and not hands.

“You’re overreaching, kid!” Agent eleven said and planed a kick that sent Zoro flying and skidding across the ground. “ZORO!!” Chopper and Usopp yelled at the same time. Their yelling attracted the attention of agent eight. “Better to eliminate threats early!” She raised her gun and shot Nami, but before the bullet could penetrate her, a black blur appeared and a second later more blood splattered on her face as Sanji once again took a bullet for his crew.

“hm, how fascinating. The boy is barely conscious, but still, his body moved to protect her.” Agent nine said with a cheerful tone. Agent Eight raised an eyebrow and once again pressed down on the trigger. Before the bullet left the barrel, a tiny rock flew at incredible speed straight into the barrel and caused the gun to explode on itself. “AHH!” Agent Eight fell on one knee in pain. “What happened?” Eleven turned around as he was walking towards Zoro. He saw Eight sitting on the ground growling in pain,

“A malfunction, most likely!” Agent ten answered Eleven.

“No! My guns do not break! Someone interfered!” Eight looked up with rage and heavy killing intent radiating off her. “Spread out! Search the surroundings, FIND THEM!” Her rage grew quickly and her finger broke apart the ground as her grip was iron tight.

“No need, Sweetheart! I’m right here!” A low-pitched voice sounded out from above them. All the agents looked up, and so did the Straw hats. What they saw on the roof was a dwarf-sized man with half his body scarred from what looked like a burn injury.

“Genma!” Eight hissed while holding her hand that needed immediate medical attention. Genma smiled back at her and jumped down from the roof. He landed on the ground in front of the half-dead Sanji and terrified Nami. “You three,” Genma glanced over and Nami, Chopper and Usopp and said. “Stay put, let us handle this!”

“W-Who are you?” Usopp asked, scared out of his mind. This short man radiated power. He was more scared of this man than he was of Crocodile.

“Friends, that’s all you need to know!” Shiryu had appeared behind them, and with him, he had most of the Zero division Inner Circle members. Everyone except Minerva and Annabelle as they were away dealing with another affair.

“Why are people like you allying with rookies like them?” Eight said. She had a hard time controlling her tone of voice. You could hear the extreme pain and hatred she was experiencing.

“Who said anything about allies? Do we need a reason to fuck over your operations?” Rick, the tall and slim man with hundreds of scars on his body said happily. Albion, the giant man that looked like one big muscle nodded to Rick’s words. “On top of that, we just love killing you guys, so you better prepare yourself for death, Eight!” Said the giant with a smile. Zoro finally managed to stand on his feet again. “Guys! You okay?” He yelled worriedly. Even more, people had joined now and he didn’t know if they were friends or not. Eleven that had temporarily forgotten about him dashed towards him with the intent to kill.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Genma raised his finger and the ground in front of Zoro rose and created a natural barrier blocking Eleven. “Rick!” Genma said and immediately, the scarred swordsman spun around on one foot and springboarded off that foot to fly towards Eleven. He appeared by Eleven’s side quickly and the agent was forced to abandon Zoro to defend against Rick. “Nice to see you again!” Rick said as they pushed against each other, sword against fists.

“Can’t say the same!” Eleven stopped pushing, forcing Rick off balance for a single moment. “Die!” He raised his fist and prepared to kill Rick. “I’m just baiting!” Rick said and right then Shiryu’s blade came and cut Eleven into two pieces.

‘W-Who are these people?’ Nami thought as she watched the brutal killing of agent Eleven. She woke up from her trance when Genma spoke to her. “Girl, you should hurry to save your friend or he will die. We will take care of them so focus on keeping him alive.

“Eh, Y-YES! Thank you!” Nami said and turned to Chopper. “Come on, we can’t let Sanji die!” She said and Chopper nodded and started working on Sanji.

——————————————-

End