“Thank you, young lady, thank you so much.” The old woman was wrinkled and withered, with reading glasses perched on her nose, looking very kind and gentle.
“Thank you.
I told them we shouldn’t have come to Loguetown, but Barto and the others insisted…
Oh dear, is this divine retribution?
It must be divine retribution!
Oh my, this is such a sin!
Oh, young lady, your forehead is all swollen.
Let me teach you a folk remedy: find some ice cubes, then wrap them in a cloth…”
Once the old woman started talking, she was practically unstoppable, so Vivi hurriedly pushed her aside.
“Granny, go rest over there for now.
I still have people to save, you just go rest…
No, no, no need for your help!
You’re at such an advanced age, just rest well!”
Vivi considered herself quite capable, and with her loyal Duck saving its master, she still ended up battered and bruised.
Yet this elderly woman, aside from slightly messy hair, was completely unscathed.
It had to be a miracle!
For a moment, she even suspected this was an expert living in seclusion in the East Blue, but looking closer, she didn’t seem like one…
Vivi spent quite a bit of effort finally pulling her unconscious pet Duck Karu out from a pile of broken planks.
She was drenched in sweat, her water-blue hair covered in dirt, and her right arm and left knee were red and swollen.
In the process of saving the Duck, she also happened to rescue a bunch of people, including the younger brothers she had just taken on, Johnny and Joseph.
“Johnny, get up quickly!”
“Joseph, your big brother Zoro is here!”
As the group and the Duck slowly regained consciousness, she let out a long sigh and sat on a broken plank.
Her “kazuhou” and the famous sword she had just picked up were placed to the side.
Her eyes were unfocused, staring blankly ahead.
After regaining a bit of energy, she began to calculate a way to escape.
She first observed her surroundings.
She didn’t see the Golden Lion in her line of sight; that guy didn’t seem to worry about them escaping at all.
Vivi looked down from the floating island.
The height must have been over ten thousand meters, right?
Many of the physical rules in the Pirate King world were very peculiar.
Someone like Eneru, without any protection, could fly to the moon in a big ship.
The little robots were even more impressive; they could go to the sky just by holding balloons.
Vivi sighed heavily.
At an altitude of ten thousand meters, asking Duck Karu to take her and jump down—wasn’t that too hard for a Duck?
“Quack?…” While she was looking down from the floating island, Duck Karu also stretched its neck to take a look.
Wow!
So high!
That scared the Duck to death!
It snapped its head back and happened to meet Vivi’s “scientific exploratory” gaze.
Terrified, it raised both wings to its chest and forcefully gestured an “X” shape, meaning no, no, absolutely not!
Your idea is extremely dangerous!
Vivi shook her head inwardly, also feeling it was too difficult…
Johnny and Joseph were quite passionate; even now, they still had the energy to help ordinary people rescue the wounded.
Because of Vivi’s early command and late rescue, their ship had the most survivors.
The other merchant ships were full of corpses, with blood and severed limbs everywhere.
Most people had died when the ships collided.
“Huh?
Old Fan, why are you here too?” Vivi unexpectedly saw the sniper Van Auger in the crowd.
Perhaps there had been some hostility before, but in the current environment, that bit of hostility was really not worth mentioning.
Van Auger accepted this “Old Fan” nickname.
The top sniper’s velvet cloak had been torn into shreds, and his clothes were tattered.
From head to toe, only the monocle on his right eye and the long rifle in his hand remained intact.
He looked at Vivi with a rather complex expression, but in the end, he swallowed what he wanted to say and pointed his left hand toward a mountain col not far away: “I don’t know the reason, but I know that guy is likely targeting those Marines.
We were just grabbed along as collateral.
Perhaps those Marines know more information.”
The Marines are here too?
Vivi didn’t have Van Auger’s sharp eyesight.
She had been bragging with Johnny and Joseph inside the cabin at the time and had no idea that a Marine warship was following far behind.
Seeing that Old Fan had no intention of moving, and that her side consisted entirely of civilians, Vivi could only go over to negotiate herself.
She wanted to ask if the Marines had a Den Den Mushi with them.
If they did, it would be best to contact Marineford immediately and have them send an Admiral to save them!
If an Admiral couldn’t make it, then a Vice Admiral would do—for example, Luffy’s grandfather, Garp, would be quite suitable.
She arrived at the mountain col and looked at the scattered, defeated soldiers everywhere.
For a moment, she couldn’t find where the Marine officer was.
A young lady sitting on the ground caught her attention.
The wailing soldiers were all wearing standard Marine uniforms.
There wasn’t a single officer wearing a “Justice” cloak on the scene, only this young lady in plain clothes.
Most importantly, Vivi saw calluses on the web of her hand from sword practice.
“Hey, this is your sword, right?” Vivi asked from a distance, holding up the famous sword she had “picked up” on the way.
Having been taken out in one move by the Golden Lion, the sense of powerlessness in the heart of the female Sergeant Tashigi was indescribable.
She was just too weak!
Hearing the word “sword” out of the blue, as someone determined to collect all the famous swords in the world, her attention was immediately shifted.
She looked up at Vivi.
“Ah!
That is…
that is mine…”
Vivi threw the sword to her.
Upon learning that the young lady was Sergeant Tashigi, stationed at Loguetown by Marineford, she asked with some delight: “You are Tashigi?
The female swordsman in the Marines?
I’ve heard so much about you…
Is Colonel Smoker also on this mission with you?
Where is he?”
Vivi remembered that Smoker was a user of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit.
The Gas-Gas Fruit allowed flight, so there was no reason the Smoke-Smoke Fruit couldn’t.
Now that they were at an altitude of ten thousand meters, it would be perfect to have Smoker turn into smoke and fly down, while bringing along a few citizens.
For instance, a delicate young lady like her and a Duck were in dire need of rescue!
But what Tashigi said next made her heart sink halfway.
“Colonel…
the Colonel was captured by that weirdo!”
Tashigi’s tone, sounding like “The master has been captured by a demon,” sounded particularly dejected.
Vivi lowered her head and thought seriously: “What about the Den Den Mushi?
Who has the Den Den Mushi that can contact your headquarters?”
Seeing Vivi’s aggressive Aura, Tashigi forgot that she was an officer and the other was a civilian.
She answered somewhat weakly: “It should also be in the Colonel’s hands…”
Vivi couldn’t spare the time to curse Smoker for being a weakling; her mind was full of trying to find a countermeasure.
What should she do?
Have the Duck start practicing flying from now on?
Learn from Guo Jing and collect clothes to make a parachute?
Or notify the Alabasta kingdom and have the Bird-Bird Fruit user, Pell, fly over to save her?
Just as she was pondering, a very rough voice sounded from the side.
“Women are just useless…
Hmph!
What’s there to be afraid of!
The glory of the Marines is waiting for us to protect it!
Since the soldiers from Marineford are useless, then watch us soldiers from Branch 153!
I was caught off guard before, but now that I’m standing firm, if that guy dares to come again, I, Monta, will hack him to death with one axe!”
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”