Chapter 23: The Leopard Returns
Year 1516 - Water 7, Galley-La Company Headquarters
Robin ran through Galley-La's corridors, using her Hana Hana no Mi to create eyes around every corner, mapping the building's layout in real-time. Behind her, she could hear Aiko's battle—the sounds of ice shattering, bodies colliding, the controlled violence of high-level combat.
But ahead, she sensed something worse.
A presence like a predator. Patient. Lethal. Waiting.
She burst into Iceburg's office to find it empty—or so it appeared. Her Observation Haki screamed a warning, and she threw herself sideways as a Shigan thrust pierced through where her heart had been.
Rob Lucci emerged from the shadows, his hybrid leopard form even more terrifying than she remembered. Yellow eyes fixed on her with the focus of a hunter who'd found prey.
"Miss Nico Robin," Lucci's voice was calm, clinical. "The Devil Child of Ohara. It's been years since I've seen you. Still running, I see."
"Still surviving," Robin corrected, her arms crossed defensively. "Where's Iceburg?"
"Already eliminated. His body will be discovered later, along with evidence framing a convenient scapegoat—perhaps a pirate crew, perhaps rebel forces. CP doesn't leave loose ends." Lucci's claws flexed. "You should understand that better than anyone. You've been a loose end for twenty years."
"Then why am I still alive?"
"Because you've been useful. Leading us to other criminals, other threats. Every person you've associated with became a target. Every organization you've joined has been infiltrated." Lucci smiled—a predator's expression. "Did you think you were running free all these years? You were on a leash, Miss Robin. We simply hadn't decided to pull it tight."
The words hit like physical blows. Twenty years of careful survival, of paranoid isolation, of never trusting anyone—and she'd been monitored the entire time?
"You're lying," she said, but uncertainty crept into her voice.
"Am I? How do you think we knew about Crocodile's operations so quickly? How we knew the Snow Admiral was coming to Water 7?" Lucci's Observation Haki flared, reading her reactions. "Every step you've taken, we've watched. Every connection you've made, we've documented. You've been the perfect tracker, leading us to everyone who'd dare investigate the Void Century."
"Then why attack now?"
"Because the game's changed. The Snow Admiral isn't just another criminal—he's a genuine threat. He's gathering forces, reading Poneglyphs, exposing truths that should stay buried. And you're helping him." Lucci's stance shifted, becoming something more dangerous. "So the leash ends today. You and him both. One convenient accident in Water 7, and two problems solved."
Before Robin could respond, the wall exploded inward.
Aiko stood in the hole, his white coat singed, blood trickling from a cut on his cheek, but his eyes blazing with determination. Behind him, three CP agents lay frozen in various states of unconsciousness.
"Robin," he said, not taking his eyes off Lucci. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. But Iceburg—"
"Is alive," Iceburg's voice came from beneath his desk. The shipwright emerged, looking shaken but unharmed. "Though it was close. Lucci had me cornered when explosions started. He got distracted, and I hid."
"Smart," Lucci acknowledged. "But ultimately futile. This building is surrounded. More CP agents are converging. Even if you defeat me—unlikely—you'll never escape Water 7."
"Then I guess I'll have to make it quick." Aiko drew Yukikaze, the blade already coated in Conqueror's Haki. "We've fought before, Lucci. I know your techniques, your patterns, your limits. And I've gotten stronger since then."
"As have I." Lucci's transformation completed, his hybrid form bulging with muscle, his Tekkai making his skin harder than steel. "I've spent months training specifically to counter your abilities. Your ice, your Haki, your awakening—I've developed responses to all of it."
"Prove it."
They clashed.
The speed was incredible—both fighters moving faster than normal eyes could track, their Observation Haki predicting attacks before they landed, their bodies flowing between assault and defense in microseconds.
Lucci's Rokushiki had evolved. His Shigan could now strike from a distance, compressed air carrying the technique's force. His Rankyaku had doubled in power. His Geppo let him move three-dimensionally through the office space, attacking from ceiling and walls as easily as from the floor.
But Aiko had evolved too.
His ice techniques were more refined, creating barriers that adapted to attacks in real-time. His Observation Haki had sharpened through countless battles, seeing not just seconds ahead but reading intent and emotion. His Conqueror's Haki coating was smoother, more efficient, wasting less energy.
The office became a war zone. Furniture shattered. Walls cracked. The floor froze, then broke, then froze again in different patterns.
"Shigan: Oren!" Finger Gun: Yellow Lotus!
Lucci's technique fired dozens of Shigan thrusts in rapid succession, each one capable of piercing steel. Aiko became snow, letting them pass through, then reformed behind Lucci.
"Hyōsō: Rengeki!" Ice Burial: Chain Strike!
Yukikaze moved in a series of precise cuts, each one aimed at joints and tendons, each one coated in absolute zero temperatures. Lucci's Tekkai held against most, but two strikes got through, drawing blood.
First blood to Aiko.
"Better," Lucci admitted, landing on the opposite wall, his claws digging into stone for purchase. "You've refined your techniques. Made them more efficient. But efficiency isn't enough against overwhelming force."
"Rokuogan!" Six King Gun!
The ultimate Rokushiki technique—all six forms combined into a single devastating attack. Lucci's palm strike sent shockwaves that shattered Aiko's ice defenses, cracked his Armament Haki, and sent him flying through another wall into the corridor beyond.
Robin rushed to follow, but Lucci was faster, appearing in front of her, blocking her path.
"Your turn, Miss Robin. I've been authorized to use lethal force. Unlike last time, when we needed you alive." His claws rose. "Any last words?"
"Yes." Robin's voice was steady despite the fear. "Behind you."
Lucci's Observation Haki screamed a warning, and he spun to find Aiko already recovered, already attacking, his awakened powers fully manifested.
"Yuki no Mai: Hyōkai—Hakuchō no Mai!" Snow Dance: Frozen World—Swan Dance!
The technique was new, developed specifically for confined spaces. Instead of freezing the entire environment, it created a sphere of absolute zero around Lucci—maybe twenty feet in diameter, but within that sphere, physics itself seemed to slow.
Lucci's movements became sluggish, his Soru barely faster than normal running, his Tekkai weakening as cold penetrated even his hardened skin.
"This is..." Lucci struggled against the technique. "...you've learned to localize your awakening. Focus it into smaller, more intense areas."
"Learned it from fighting you the first time," Aiko admitted, approaching carefully. "You're fast, but speed requires heat. Muscles need warmth to contract efficiently. Remove heat from a localized space, and even the fastest fighters become manageable."
He attacked, and this time Lucci couldn't fully dodge. Yukikaze found gaps in the leopard-man's defense, each cut spreading frost, each wound slowing Lucci further.
But the CP0 agent wasn't done.
"Life Return: Full Body Enhancement!"
Lucci's technique let him control his body at a cellular level, redirecting blood flow, forcing muscles to work despite the cold, generating heat through sheer metabolic intensity. His speed partially recovered, and he counterattacked with renewed fury.
"You think cold can stop me? I've trained in conditions that would kill normal humans! I've mastered pain, fear, hesitation! I am Cipher Pol's perfect weapon!"
"No," Aiko said, parrying a claw strike. "You're a person who was trained to be a weapon. There's a difference."
"Semantics mean nothing in combat!"
"They mean everything." Aiko's Conqueror's Haki intensified, not as an attack but as a statement. "Because weapons don't have will. They don't choose. But you do, Lucci. Every mission you accept, every person you kill, every order you follow—those are choices. You're responsible for them."
"I follow orders because order is necessary! Because without structure, civilization collapses!" Lucci's conviction manifested as his own Haki, weaker than Aiko's but still potent. "You think questioning authority makes you righteous? It makes you an agent of chaos!"
"Then chaos is better than your order!" Aiko's ice sphere contracted, temperature dropping further. "Because your order requires executing scholars, enslaving innocents, hiding truth! That's not civilization—it's tyranny with better public relations!"
Their philosophies clashed as intensely as their bodies. Every strike carried ideology, every defense represented conviction. This wasn't just combat—it was a debate conducted through violence, each fighter trying to prove their worldview superior through force.
Gradually, impossibly, Aiko gained the upper hand.
Not through superior strength—Lucci was still physically more powerful. Not through better technique—the CP0 agent had decades more experience. But through something simpler and more fundamental:
He believed in what he was fighting for.
Lucci followed orders because he'd been trained to. Aiko fought for principles he'd chosen himself. And that difference—that tiny margin of conviction—made him stronger where it mattered most.
"Yuki no Mai: Saishū Gishiki—Zettai Reido!" Snow Dance: Final Ritual—Absolute Zero!
The technique that had wounded Kizaru, that had defeated Crocodile, that represented Aiko's ultimate expression of his Devil Fruit powers. The localized sphere of cold intensified beyond anything he'd done before, approaching the theoretical minimum of thermal energy.
Lucci's movements stopped. Not from paralysis, but from physics itself denying motion. His Tekkai couldn't protect against temperatures where molecular motion ceased. His Life Return couldn't force muscles to work when the biochemistry required for contraction was frozen solid.
The CP0 agent fell, his hybrid form reverting to human, ice spreading across his body.
"This... isn't... over..." Lucci gasped through frozen lips. "More agents... are coming... you can't... win..."
"Maybe not," Aiko admitted, breathing heavily from the exertion. "But I'll keep fighting anyway. Because that's what people with principles do—we fight even when victory isn't guaranteed."
He turned to Robin and Iceburg. "We need to leave. Now. This building is compromised, and—"
An explosion rocked the structure. Not from combat, but from something else. Something deliberate.
Through the windows, they saw Marine ships in the harbor. Dozens of them. And at their head, a battleship bearing Admiral colors.
"Oh no," Robin breathed. "Not him. Anyone but him."
Standing on the lead ship's deck, his yellow suit unmistakable, his casual demeanor somehow more threatening than any battle stance, was Admiral Kizaru.
"Ohhh my~" His voice carried across the water, amplified by Den Den Mushi. "What a troublesome situation~ The Snow Admiral in Water 7~ CP0 agents attacking~ And look, there's Miss Robin too~ How convenient that everyone's in one place~"
He raised a glowing finger, light concentrating at the tip.
"Hina and the other Vice Admirals said I should try to capture you alive~ But that seems like so much work~" The light intensified. "Wouldn't it be easier if this whole building just... disappeared? Problem solved~"
The beam fired—not at them specifically, but at Galley-La's foundation. A light-speed attack with enough force to demolish the entire structure.
Aiko's Observation Haki saw it coming, saw the trajectory, saw that he couldn't stop it in time to save everyone.
But Robin could.
"Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano!" Thousand Flowers: Giant Hand!
Her Devil Fruit powers erupted, creating hundreds of arms across the building's exterior that combined into massive hands, catching the light beam and dispersing its energy across a wider area. The building shook but didn't collapse.
"Oh? Miss Robin protected the building~?" Kizaru sounded genuinely interested. "How kind of you~ But can you do it again~?"
He fired another beam. Then another. Each one targeting different structural points, each one requiring Robin to extend her powers further, draining her energy faster.
"I can't... keep this up..." Robin gasped, her face pale from overuse of her Devil Fruit.
"Then we use the confusion to escape," Iceburg said, pulling out building blueprints. "There's a maintenance tunnel that leads to the aqua roads. If we can reach water level—"
"You're not escaping," Lucci said, somehow standing despite being mostly frozen. "Even if... you defeat me... even if you avoid Kizaru... CP has this city surrounded. Every exit is monitored. Every—"
Aiko's Conqueror's Haki knocked him unconscious mid-sentence.
"Robin, can you move?" Aiko asked.
"Barely. But I won't be able to use my powers effectively for hours."
"Then I'll carry you. Iceburg, lead the way. We're getting out of here." Aiko looked at the frozen Lucci, at the chaos outside, at the impossible odds of escaping both CP0 and an Admiral. "And we're taking him with us."
"What?" Robin and Iceburg spoke simultaneously.
"Lucci knows too much about CP operations. If we can turn him, make him question his loyalty, he could provide intelligence worth more than his capture." Aiko lifted the frozen CP0 agent over his shoulder. "Besides, leaving him here means he'll just hunt us again. Better to keep him where we can watch him."
"That's insane," Iceburg said.
"Probably," Aiko agreed. "But we're kind of specializing in insane lately. Now let's move before Kizaru decides to get serious."
They fled through Galley-La's maintenance tunnels as the building shuddered under Admiral-level attacks. Behind them, more CP agents were recovering, organizing, pursuing. Ahead, an uncertain escape route through a city that CP claimed was completely surrounded.
But as they ran, as chaos erupted across Water 7, something else was happening.
In the western districts, Isra's team had found Franky—the other of Tom's apprentices. A massive cyborg teenager with blue hair and an attitude that matched his appearance.
"You're saying CP is attacking because of Pluton blueprints?" Franky's voice was loud even by normal standards. "Those bastards killed my master! And now they're attacking his city? Oh, they're gonna get SUPER sorry they did that!"
"Can you fight?" Isra asked.
"Lady, I'm a SUPER fighting machine! Built myself into a weapon specifically to protect Tom's legacy! Let's show these government goons what real SUPER engineering can do!"
In the harbor, the rest of Aiko's crew mobilized. Doc prepared the Hakusetsu for emergency departure. Koji positioned himself for long-range support. Marcus, Yuki, and the others began systematic evacuation of civilians from combat zones.
And in Mary Geoise, Im-sama watched through means beyond normal perception.
"The Snow Admiral keeps collecting allies," one of the Five Elders observed. "Nico Robin. Revolutionary forces. Now potentially Tom's apprentices and the Pluton blueprints."
"Good," Im replied, voice ancient and patient. "Let him gather pieces. Let him build his coalition. Let him believe he's succeeding."
"But the blueprints—"
"Are irrelevant. I destroyed the original Pluton eight hundred years ago. The blueprints are a contingency plan that will never be needed." Im's attention remained on the chaos in Water 7. "What matters is that the boy continues to grow, continues to gather threats in one place, continues to believe change is possible."
"Because when you strike—"
"I will eliminate not just him, but every person he's inspired, every ally he's collected, every hope he's created. The lesson must be absolute: there is no alternative to our authority. No resistance we cannot crush. No light we cannot extinguish."
Im's ancient eyes gleamed. "Soon. But not yet. Let the game continue. Let the Snow Admiral feel hope a while longer."
"Because hope makes despair so much sweeter."
END OF CHAPTER 23
Next Chapter: "Escape from Water 7 - The City Burns"