"How reckless… mother and daughter alike," Enel said, voice smooth with contempt. "Do you still believe you can fight me? If you'd simply run away then, I might have been willing to overlook it… Yet you come strolling back just to offend me further?"
"..."
Sue didn't answer.
Enel let out a long sigh. There was only a trace of irritation in it, but it rode the breath all the same as he muttered, "Fine."
"I'm in a foul mood right now… and playtime is already over. I have no time to indulge you."
As he spoke, he formed the spheres of Divine Punishment again—this time creating two at once, one in each hand.
'How they blocked my lightning just now does intrigue me… but it was probably that so-called "rubber," or something similar. In that case, all I have to do is strike with something too large—too wide—for that little trick to stop.'
"You look like a Paramecia type… but to think you can challenge a 'god' with that level of power and petty tricks—how ridiculous. Know your place, little girl…!"
He drew back, about to unleash two lightning blasts at once—enough to gouge the earth—
Crack.
Before he could fire them, Sue's flying kick drove straight into Enel's face.
"…?!"
Pain came second to bewilderment. He didn't react at all—he was simply kicked away, and the lightning he'd been storing in both arms scattered and vanished.
"W-Wait—Sue just…?"
"She kicked Enel…? Like Luffy…?"
Aisa and Nami—no, everyone—stared, stunned, as Sue stepped in without hesitation and raised her Japanese umbrella over her head.
Just before it came down, Enel snapped back to himself, recovered his posture in midair, and moved at lightning speed.
He dodged—and in the same motion tried to slip behind Sue and fire a shock into her back—
But Sue had already placed herself there, a half-step ahead. Her spinning back kick slammed into his torso.
His breath caught. He staggered—and Sue rode the momentum of that turn, bringing the tip of her umbrella down into his stomach with a clean, brutal hit.
Enel went flying sideways, smashed through a wall of the ruins, and speared into the wreckage.
'Why…? Why is her attack landing on me…?!'
He tried to rise, still reeling with disbelief, but the damage was worse than what Luffy had done earlier. His legs shook violently, refusing to cooperate.
Even so, he glared back in defiance.
Sue stood where she'd finished her swing, still and composed—staring at him with eyes so cold they didn't even flicker.
"What… are you…?"
"I don't owe you an explanation," Sue said flatly. "Die without understanding."
She slid her hand to her sleeve and produced hundreds of paper flakes, scattering them in a glittering burst. With her ability, she drove them forward in a single surging swarm, rushing Enel like blades.
Normally, Enel would have mocked such an attack. Bullets, flame, explosions—he wouldn't even bother dodging. He would let the opponent witness his absolute defense and collapse into despair.
But now that he'd accepted his defense could no longer be trusted as absolute, Enel dodged again—moving at lightning speed, slipping above Sue's head.
He dropped another Divine Punishment—
And again, it was blocked with ease by the umbrella.
In the same instant, the paper flakes snapped back and swarmed him.
His premonition was correct. He couldn't nullify them. Cuts opened across his body—one after another.
It had been so long since he'd felt this particular pain, the pain of being sliced, ever since he obtained the power of lightning.
Grinding his teeth, Enel transformed into lightning and moved.
Even in that state, he couldn't completely block the paper's cutting edge—and he froze for a heartbeat at the absurdity of it.
But then he saw it: paper charring at the edges, blackening under the heat of his electricity.
So his attacks weren't useless. Not entirely.
'A paper ability user…! I still don't understand how she's blocking my lightning, or how her blows are reaching me… but unlike that rubber man, it's not as though my attacks don't work at all. No—if anything… the weakness here is even more severe.'
This time, Enel didn't create distance.
He charged straight in.
Sue caught the thrusting spear with her umbrella—
And at once, a hiss rose. Smoke curled upward.
The electrical heat stored in Enel's spear was scorching the paper surface of the umbrella little by little.
"So paper really is weak to heat," Sue said quietly. "Unlike that man, slashes probably won't work… but even so, this is more than worth it."
She was knocked back with a metallic clang, but Enel didn't let her breathe. He stayed close, unleashing a relentless barrage of spear thrusts.
Every clash scorched her umbrella further. Even wrapped in Haki, the basic nature of the material didn't change—she couldn't completely erase the weakness to heat.
To anyone watching, it might have looked like Enel had the advantage.
But beneath his smug grin, the one panicking was Enel.
'Why…? Why can't I break through her defense?! No—more than that… why isn't my Mantra working?!'
One of the absolute differences between him and everyone else—aside from his Priests—was the ability to read hearts, to steal the first move every time.
And now it wasn't working at all.
Normally, he would have been able to take the next step before his opponent even thought of it—especially against someone with such a clear weakness.
Yet he couldn't read what Sue would do next.
She wasn't doing anything like Luffy's reckless, thoughtless fighting—nothing like "attacking without intent."
She looked like she was fighting him normally.
And still, he couldn't see it.
Without realizing it, the composure drained from Enel's expression—
And in that moment of hesitation—
Wham.
Sue's uppercut landed perfectly, twisting his face with the impact.
Enel's body lifted, light for an instant—
And the moment he reached the perfect height, Sue swung her umbrella in a full arc, sending him flying back into the ruins again.
Stone shattered. The wall broke. The structure collapsed, burying him under rubble.
Even greater shock ran through the onlookers than when Luffy had dominated him in hand-to-hand combat.
"…Now!" Nami shouted. "While we can!"
Leaving the others to hold the line, she bolted toward the swamp where Luffy had been sunk—desperate to pull him out.
But the one who caught her movement was the woman beside her with a gun raised—watching, prepared in case Enel's wrath turned on them without warning.
Raki.
"Wait—hey, you! Don't you dare jump in!" Raki snapped, grabbing her. "That's probably Gedatsu's Swamp Cloud! It's not like those ordinary Sea Clouds you can swim through. If you dive in without a Shooter or Dial gear, you'll sink and drown!"
"Even so, I have to save him!" Nami fought back, twisting in her grip. "He can't swim! If we leave him there, he'll die!"
Right as Nami wrenched to break free—
Something surged up from the swamp with a loud splash.
Raki and Nami both whipped their heads around.
"Sanji-kun?!"
"Cough, cough…" Sanji gasped, dripping and blackened, as he dragged himself up. "Whew… Ah, Nami-san… thank goodness you're safe. Oh—also… I managed to retrieve this."
In one arm, he held Luffy—who should have been at the bottom of the swamp. In his other hand, he clutched a rope.
And on the far end of that rope was Usopp—also burned black from head to toe.
"Sanji-kun… Usopp too…" Nami breathed. "Are you both okay?! You were hurt so badly…"
"I'm fine, Nami-san," Sanji declared at once, voice fierce with devotion. "How could I sleep when you're in danger—especially after you so graciously removed your shirt— I mean, when you're in a critical situation! I can't! Absolutely not!"
"I woke up while Conis was taking care of me," Usopp said, still coughing, "and I just ran out—so I had no choice but to chase you! Hey, Sanji! What about Luffy?! He's alive, right?!"
"He's alive," Sanji said. "He swallowed a lot of water, though."
Nami's shoulders loosened, relief rushing out of her in a single breath.
Once she knew Luffy was safe—at least for now—she turned back toward the battle.
Right then, Enel shoved rubble off his body and emerged.
But the arrogance was gone. There wasn't even a scrap of ease left in his face.
"Who… are you?"
"..."
"How can you block my lightning…? How can your attacks reach me?! Why isn't my Mantra working?!"
"She's blocking even Mantra…?"
"She punched him bare-handed… It's not 'rubber' or Sea Prism Stone… and it doesn't look like a simple ability matchup either. So how is she doing this—how is she overwhelming Enel so completely…?"
'She's strong—I knew that much… She's fighting with a Japanese umbrella, but she's a swordswoman. Still… it's not just swordsmanship. There's something else. Something that lets a simple punch reach that lightning bastard… Damn it. I can't even guess what it is…'
As confusion churned through Enel and everyone watching, Sue spoke at last—eyes cold, voice calm.
"Did you really think that once Luffy was gone, the world would be yours?" she asked. "That as long as the 'rubber' ability user—an anomaly among anomalies—was out of the way, no one could beat you? You lack imagination."
"…What?"
"You saw a few Sky Islands and decided you understood the whole world?" Sue's gaze didn't waver. "For some reason, you Blue Sea people have a habit of looking down on us. But that Blue Sea… is crawling with monsters stronger than Luffy, stronger than you, stronger than me. They're everywhere."
It wasn't only Enel who flinched at those words.
Wyper and Gan Fall couldn't tell if it was bluff or truth—but they couldn't hide their shock either. Almost reflexively, they turned toward Zoro.
"…Hey. Is that true?" Wyper demanded. "What she's saying."
"I don't know much about them," Zoro admitted, voice tight. "Never met them… but yeah. They're out there."
The first face that flashed through his mind was the world's strongest swordsman—the one who'd carved an unhealing scar into Zoro's chest.
Then came his captain's brother, the man who could turn his body into flame—his back marked with the symbol of the Great Pirate said to be the strongest in these seas.
And then the others. Even if he'd never met them, he'd heard the names—the monsters whispered about as fact.
Pirates, yes… but also Marines, the Shichibukai… people in every corner of the world.
And because he knew that—
Grit…
'Damn it…'
Zoro clenched his teeth, frustration and impatience boiling in his gut.
Sue's words stabbed clean through him, too—because they reminded him of how utterly helpless he'd been against Enel.
They were being told—at least, as we are now—that the seas ahead would swallow us whole.
And the worst part was… even now, he couldn't explain what was happening right in front of him. He couldn't even begin to understand it.
He'd spent all nineteen years of his life in the East Blue, seeing the world through the scraps of information that reached that quiet sea—and now, he was being forced to realize just how much he didn't know.
How much he needed to know.
"In a world that vast, that terrifying," Sue said, "being satisfied with only what you know… staying ignorant… do you understand how frightening that is? How wasteful?" Her voice remained steady. "I'll teach you myself."
"Don't get cocky… you little brat!"
Enel's face twisted with rage. Electricity snapped around him in wild bursts as he pushed himself upright.
"You impudent fool… don't get cocky!" he spat. "You're nothing but a little Paramecia girl. With the power of the strongest kind—the Logia—there's no way I can't crush you!"
Lightning branched again and again, splitting into layered forks—like a tree of lightning—striking from every direction at once.
There was no blocking that with an umbrella.
So Sue released an enormous amount of paper from her body.
Each sheet folded and shaped itself into a bird, whipping through the air at high speed. They intercepted every single bolt—knocking them down one after another—then converged in unison, surging straight for Enel.
Enel swept them away with a combination of electricity and shockwaves—
But by then, Sue had already closed the distance. Her umbrella was raised high, ready to strike.
Enel thrust his spear out instinctively, trying to catch it—
CRACK!!
The spear snapped cleanly in half.
Enel was hurled backward, his torso bending into a sharp, unnatural curve.
"Logia users who mistake themselves for invincible," Sue said coolly, "tend to die young."
Enel spat blood and air as he flew—yet on landing, whether out of stubbornness or sheer pride, he forced his stance back into place at once.
The golden staff in his hand was now only half of what it had been.
With it, he struck the four thunder drums on his back in rapid succession—DO-DO-DO-DO-DON!
Whether his head had gone hot with anger, or he simply had no breath left for words, he didn't argue.
He gathered lightning—compressing it into a massive surge.
"120 million volts…!! Lightning Beast Frolic (Gan Da Varuna)!!"
The lightning changed shape.
Birds. Wolves. Tigers. Lions. Snakes. Dragons—
Countless beasts formed out of electricity, and they rushed Sue all at once.
Each carried a voltage far beyond the branching lightning from before—far too intense for paper birds to knock down. They charged like a vengeful army, intent on burning their hated enemy to ash.
The light alone was blinding.
And yet Sue didn't flinch.
She drew the concealed blade from her Japanese umbrella and took her stance.
She let out one slow breath, steadied her mind, and focused—
Then, in the next instant—
"…Direct Transmission—"
The hand holding the sword blurred, vanished—
"—Lion Hurricane!!"
Every lightning beast was cleaved apart in a single moment—erased without leaving a trace.
Enel stared, stunned.
That heartbeat of distraction became a fatal opening.
By the time he realized—
Sue was already right in front of him.
Goooooaaaaaaarrrrrrr…!!
A vast amount of paper spiraled in Sue's hand, forming the massive face of a lion, blackened with Armament Haki.
And the "mane"—the area around it—was spinning at impossible speed, like a windmill.
No—a screw.
The rotation sucked in air violently, generating a gale like a tornado. For something that had happened in an instant, it was absurd that he hadn't noticed her approach sooner—the roar of it was deafening.
It looked like an air cannon—tipped with a lion's face.
"W-Wait—"
"Lion Hurricane—"
"—Scramble!!!"
A sound tore through the air—not quite an explosion, but the earth-shaking GOOOOON!!! of something massive colliding—
And a typhoon-like wind ripped outward, shredding the surroundings.
And even that was only the aftershock.
The place where Enel had stood an instant earlier was empty.
In its place, the ground had been gouged out violently, carved away as if a colossal spear had pierced through the earth and erased everything in its path.
In truth, it was as though an ultra-compressed tornado had been forged into a lance—ripping up cobblestone streets, punching through stone walls, blasting away Island Clouds—
And continuing on, straight to the horizon.
Far in the distance, those with sharp eyes could faintly see it: a Sea Cloud erupting upward into a towering pillar of water, like an explosion turned into a geyser.
To be continued...