By the time Adam and Anna reached Grove 50, it was already in chaos.
A cannon blast thundered somewhere ahead.
Civilians screamed.
Bubbles, those beautiful, harmless Sabaody bubbles floated lazily upward through absolute chaos, reflecting firelight and flashing steel.
"Move!" Anna barked, shoving past a pair of panicked merchants dragging a crate between them. "Get away from the main path!"
Adam followed close behind her, boots pounding against the mangrove-root pavement. Marines clashed with pirates in the open plaza ahead. Blades rang. Gunshots cracked. Someone cried out in pain.
And in the center of it all.
Their Captain.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Coat flaring behind him as he fought with twin sabers in a relentless rhythm.
Opposite him stood a thickset pirate with wild dark hair and a jagged metal contraption strapped over his right forearm. It looked like a fusion of a gauntlet and a serrated sawblade, rotating with a shrill metallic sound whenever he swung it.
"HAHAA!" the pirate roared. "Is that all the Marines of paradise got?!"
Adam recognized him from a Wanted poster instantly.
Sawhand Merlin.
A bounty of
50,000,000 Berries.
Made it all the way from the West Blue. Brutal reputation. Known for carving ships apart, sometimes with crews still aboard, civilian ones.
The Marine Captain parried a vicious spinning slash and shouted without looking back
"WHERE THE HELL YOU BEEN?!"
His blade locked against Merlin's saw-arm, sparks flying.
Anna replied. "We were.."
"No matter!" the Captain barked, shoving Merlin back with a heavy kick. "Help the civilians stay away from here!"
Merlin laughed, dragging his rotating blade across the ground and sending sparks spraying everywhere. "Focus on me idiot!"
Adam stood there for half a moment, watching.
And a strange thought surfaced in the quietest part of his mind.
'Why am I not afraid…?'
A pirate with a 50 million bounty.
Blades everywhere, Blood on the ground.
He felt alert.
Focused. But not afraid.
'Right… my mixed memories..'
The memory of Marineford surged faintly in his chest.
Sky-splitting shockwaves.
Giants falling.
Admirals reshaping the battlefield.
After witnessing that
After standing in that nightmare
This felt smaller.
Manageable.
"Why are you spacing out in a time like this?!"
Smack.
Anna's palm connected cleanly with the back of his head.
Adam blinked, stumbling half a step forward.
"Ow!"
She glared at him, gray eyes sharp with frustration. "C'mon! Let's follow orders!"
Another explosion rattled the plaza.
A Marine was sent crashing through a wooden stall to their left.
Adam's eyes tracked the movement of the pirate crew.
There were maybe fifty of them.
Disorganized and loud.
Strong by normal standards, but not monsters.
He flexed his fingers slowly.
The sword at his hip felt… familiar.
"No," Adam said quietly.
Anna froze. "No?"
"I want to test my current strength."
Her stare sharpened dangerously. "Are you serious right now?"
He kept watching the battlefield.
"Besides," he continued, voice calm, "civilians won't follow orders in this kind of chaos. And the people of Sabaody are used to this sort of events."
A man nearby was already dragging his own friend away without Marine instruction.
A shopkeeper was frantically pulling down metal shutters.
No one was waiting for guidance.
Anna looked at him like he'd grown another head.
"You want to test yourself? During an active engagement?"
Adam glanced at her.
For a split second, something in his red eyes looked different.
Awake.
"I need to know where I stand."
She opened her mouth to argue
But he was already moving.
"Adam!"
Too late.
He rushed forward, boots kicking up dust as he darted between two Marines and straight into the fray.
"Damn it!" Anna hissed.
She hesitated only half a heartbeat.
Then she sprinted after him.
"Wait, Adam!"
A pirate swung wildly at Adam the moment he entered range.
Adam's body reacted before his thoughts did.
Steel rang.
His sword was in his hand.
He didn't even remember drawing it.
He blocked the strike cleanly.
The impact vibrated through his arm.
Not bad. Not overwhelming either.
The pirate's eyes widened slightly. "Huh?!"
Adam twisted his wrist and pushed the blade aside, stepping in and striking with the flat of his sword against the man's ribs.
The pirate crumpled with a wheeze.
Adam stepped back instinctively as another attacked.
'Let's see where I stand right now in this world.'
A gunshot cracked past his ear.
He ducked without thinking.
The smell of gunpowder burned his nose.
Anna slid in beside him, rifle raised, firing a precise shot that knocked a pistol out of another pirate's hand.
"You absolute idiot!" she snapped. "You don't just charge in!"
Adam parried another strike, feeling the rhythm settle into his muscles.
"I'm not alone," he replied evenly.
She clicked her tongue. "That's not the point!"
A larger pirate charged them both, swinging a heavy club.
Anna jumped back.
Adam stepped forward.
He caught the club's descent with his blade
The force drove him a few inches into the ground.
His teeth clenched.
Strength-wise
They were stronger than the average paradise pirate.
But nowhere near the monsters of the war of the best.
He pivoted sharply, sliding his blade down the club's length and slashing across the pirate's forearm.
The man howled and stumbled back.
Anna stared at Adam for a split second.
He moved differently.
Cleaner, more decisive. A man with less hesitation than she remembers.
"You've been holding out on me?" she muttered under her breath.
Another explosion shook the far side of the plaza.
In the center, the Captain and Sawhand Merlin clashed violently again, their weapons grinding against each other.
Merlin roared, spinning his saw-arm and forcing the Captain back step by step.
Adam's gaze flicked toward them.
Fifty million bounty.
West Blue veteran.
If he was going to measure himself
That was the standard for now.
Anna followed his gaze.
"No," she said immediately, reading his mind. "Don't even think about it."
Adam didn't answer.
He adjusted his grip on his sword.
The battlefield noise faded slightly in his perception.
Not because it stopped but because he was focused on his target.
'This world runs on strength.
On will.
On monsters disguised as men. That much I know.'
He took one step forward.
Then another.
Anna grabbed his sleeve briefly.
"Adam," she said, voice low but urgent, "please don't be reckless, there is no reason to try and prove yourself, are you still doing this because of.."
He looked at her.
And for once
He smiled faintly.
"Relax," he said. "Trust me."
Her grip tightened for half a second.
Then she let go.
"…Alright," she muttered.