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"Astolfo?! You're the woman -- no, the man -- Lord Ikki was talking about?!"
Sadi stared at Astolfo, caught entirely off guard.
Two things had thrown her at once: the sheer unexpectedness of Astolfo appearing in the middle of a battle, and the simple, undeniable fact that nothing about his appearance could ever be mistaken for masculine.
"What, Ikki can't even call me a cute girl?"
Astolfo pursed his lips into a pout.
"Tell me why you've brought me here," Sadi said, drawing herself upright. "One moment I was fighting Bullet, and then suddenly I'm here. What exactly do you want from me?"
She faced him squarely, her expression composed and serious.
"It was your unwavering will that awakened me," Astolfo said, clasping his hands behind his back as he walked toward her with an easy smile. "And beyond that, I want to meet this Ikki myself. So I've decided to take this opportunity to lend you my power."
"Lend me your power?" Sadi's eyes sharpened immediately, and she took two quick steps forward, closing the distance between them. "What kind of power are we talking about? Can you actually help me fight Bullet? That devil's descendant?"
"Bullet, that'd be the big one outside, right?" Astolfo tilted his head. "I'll admit, I'm not exactly a power-type. But what I'm about to give you will be more than enough to deal with him." He paused, his smile taking on a slightly coy edge. "There is one condition, though."
Sadi's brow creased. "A condition?"
"Don't make that face. You'll have no trouble meeting it." Astolfo's tone was light, almost teasing. "I want you to grow stronger. As fast as you can. Master everything I'm giving you completely."
Sadi frowned, not yet understanding. But Astolfo didn't leave her waiting long.
"Once you've fully mastered my power, Ikki will be able to summon me. The Throne of Heroes is dreadfully boring. I want to come and see this world for myself." He laughed, bright and unguarded.
Something in Sadi's expression shifted. The puzzlement faded, replaced by quiet, iron resolve.
"I understand," she said. "You don't have to tell me to get stronger. I was already going to. Because I want to do more for Lord Ikki."
She clenched her fists, and in that moment her face was utterly serious.
"Hehe, I love that look." Astolfo reached out toward her. "Then I'll hand over my other Noble Phantasm to you now."
The name of the Noble Phantasm is -
A beam of light shot from his outstretched hand and poured itself into Sadi's body.
Back in the outside world -- Impel Down.
The battle between Sadi and Bullet had grown savage enough to leave its mark on the surrounding prison cells. Walls and bars had taken damage from the overflow of their clashes, and over time the destruction had opened enough gaps for the pirates locked inside to start moving. One by one they rose, flexing their fists, eyeing the path past the two fighters toward the open corridors beyond.
Domino's fear mounted with every passing second. Without Magellan here, her gaze kept drifting helplessly toward Sadi.
Then, without warning, light erupted from Sadi's eyes. A powerful, otherworldly aura began radiating outward from her in waves.
"Noble Phantasm -- unfold."
"O spinning wheel, devoid of reason -- Casseur de Logistille."
The cry left her lips in a sharp, clear shout. The physical energy coursing through her body transmuted in an instant, converting entirely into magical power. Blue-white light rose from her form, and she launched herself at Bullet.
Bullet blinked. She was charging into his punch.
His grin twisted into something cruel, and he poured more force into the blow.
"Haha -- die!"
His fist came down, Armament Haki hardened black across his knuckles, aimed straight for her head. Sadi made no move to block. No move to dodge.
And then something impossible happened.
The fist passed through her.
Bullet froze. Even the momentum of his swing faltered, the follow-through dying as his mind tried to process what his eyes had just seen.
Then Sadi's body fractured, splitting apart into dozens of identical phantoms that scattered across the cellblock, leaping and weaving in every direction.
The escaping criminals, who had been edging past the fight, went completely still.
They had written Sadi off. She was small, she was a jailer, she was in the way. But watching what she had just done to Bullet, watching the exchange that had been unfolding since this fight began, most of them were forced to quietly admit that she was on a different level from them entirely. Now that they finally had a shot at freedom, the last thing any of them wanted was to draw her attention.
The problem was that Sadi had already decided to give it to them.
One after another, her phantoms swept through the cellblock in fluid arcs, blades flickering. In moments, more than ten criminals had been sent crashing to the floor.
"Damn woman, you can't even focus on me?!"
Bullet's roar echoed off the stone walls. He pushed his Observation Haki to its limit, casting it wide across the room, trying to feel out which of the countless small figures in front of him was real.
Nothing. He couldn't tell.
Snarling, he lunged for the nearest one and swung. His fist tore through empty air, just like before, passing through her as though she weren't there at all.
Then, the moment his fist had passed, a smirk crossed Sadi's face. She spun, and her sword came around in a clean, cutting arc aimed directly at Bullet.
He almost ignored it. Almost. But the blade kept coming, and the pressure rolling off it reached him before it arrived, a genuine, biting force that his body recognized as a threat before his mind fully processed it.
"Tch."
Instinct took over. Bullet hardened Armament Haki across his body just in time to meet the strike. The impact drove him back a step, a single step, but a step nonetheless.
It made him furious. He wheeled and drove his fist through another phantom.
Not far away, Domino stood watching in speechless shock, unable to move, unable to look away.
What… what is this?
There is a saying that the observer sees more than the player, and it was never truer than now. From where Domino stood, removed from the chaos, the picture was achingly clear.
Every one of those countless Sadis looked real. Every single one. There was no shimmer, no tell, no flaw that let the eye pick the true body from the copies. And yet the pattern was unmistakable once you had the distance to see it: whenever an attack came for her, she became a phantom, insubstantial and untouchable, the blow passing through her like mist.
The moment the attack had passed, she solidified again and launched her own strike from the opening left behind.
Untouchable when struck. Lethal when she struck back.