The smell of blood filled the sea and Lucia saw the red flows floating around her, suspended in the water. The movement of a falling body made her teeth grind. The bubble structure she was deploying was still too small, she would not make it in time. Luffy and Shiraoshi joined her and she saw that he was talking to someone on a snail phone. She listened and understood that the soldiers of the royal army had a plan, they wanted to use their air tank to create a new bubble to envelop the Noah. Good, that's a plan I like.
"Luce you stay with the weak princess while I take care of the other one!" ordered Luffy.
"But-"
"There's no "but" about it Luce! I don't want you in my way!"
Facing them, Hody ingested a new handful of tablets which upset his body and deformed him completely, transforming him into a monster of artificial power. Lucia swallowed. Fukabaushi's voice came through the snail phone:
"Fukabaushi, where are you? I come to look for you!" declared Lucia.
"No, no, stay where you are... listen well... I know... I know who Hody Jones really is..."
Lucia then approached the snail phone:
"Fukabaushi, can you make the one in charge of the new bubble able to hear me?"
"Of course..." confirmed the man-fish.
"This is the control room, what's going on? We are in the process of sending an alert message to warn the island and order them to evacuate the kingdom!"
"Very well", announced Lucia. "I'm going to swim towards the bubble you're preparing for the ship, I should be able to influence the currents a little bit to prevent the bubble from deviating too much from the trajectory and stabilize it."
"Can you do that?"
Lucia nodded before remembering that they couldn't see her:
"Yes."
"Very well, we count on your support!"
Luffy looked at Lucia and nodded:
"Take care of you!"
"You too!"
Without hesitation, Lucia dashed to the other side of the ship and swam as fast as she could to reach the huge bubble. Without her knowing it, the conversation that was between the air tank and the pirates was broadcasted in the whole kingdom. The voices of the straw hat pirate, the young woman and the mermaid princess resounded in all the kingdom, pulling the smiles of the pirates on the spot and raising the stupor of the men-fish who did not understand anything any more. Then it was Fukabaushi's voice that pierced the air, that crossed the water, and that reached the ears of all those who were watching the battle. Lucia deployed her Observation Haki to the maximum and took in every syllable that echoed against the water particles around her.
"I understand... that Hody is a monster that was created by our society, it was hatred that created the savage beasts that are the members of the new Fishmen crew. Fearing that their resentment would be forgotten, fearing that their anger against humans would dry up, our ancestors insidiously transmitted their anger into society, hoping that this hatred would outlive them because it could motivate the holy war they had decided to wage against humans. They needed a scapegoat and humans were seen as the source of all their ills. These bloodthirsty fish-men did not want our people to live in peace, that is the truth!"
Lucia cashed in these words, her heart destroyed by the sorrow that pierced the prince's voice.
"Their hatred", he continued, "is purely gratuitous and without foundation since no human has directly hurt them. They claim nothing. They are nothing but empty shells."
In the meantime, Lucia had arrived at the level of the air tank and approached the bubble that was still inflating. She passed in front of the window through which she could see the soldiers and waved at them, to which they responded with a thumbs up. She pivoted and brushed against the bubble, waiting for them to eject it, watching for Noah to fall, listening to Fukabaushi's words.
"It was already far too late for an uprising, the fishman district had ceased all dialogue with us, it was a district of unrest cut off from everything else on the island. We let hatred and resentment build up in its depths. We pretended not to see. I felt... that on the surface everything was fine, that we were making progress. But we should have faced our demons, our hatred and anger. Clearly, what killed my mother was the resentment that had been building up in the minds of the fish-men for decades. The feelings of the dead belong to them, the hatred is only an illusion amplified by the living. We allowed animosity to develop in this district because we ourselves had a grudge against the humans and when we realized it was too late. What will destroy the island of the Fishmen is our hatred. Straw hat, Lucia, I beg you, we don't need such a past, reset the counters and eliminate the ghosts of the past that keep our island away from the sun !"
With a thud, the bubble that the post was preparing darted towards the Noah. The hands taken out of her protection, Lucia diffused currents of fresh water that came to surround the immense bubble and that accompanied her until the boat. She made it rise and slow down so that it came to encompass the ship. She smiled with satisfaction at the success of the operation.
"We're going to help you," Lucia said loudly enough to be heard. "It would be the worst crime to leave you in such a mess!"
"After all, we are friends, aren't we?" replied Luffy with a smile.
She went downstairs and joined her friend and Shiraoshi who were still pursued by Hody.
"Good job Luce !"
"I let you take care of him", added Lucia. "I'm protecting the princess!"
"Alright"
Shiraoshi let go of Luffy in front of Hody while backing away, accompanied by Lucia. She looked at him, worried. He used his second gear and struck a blow in Hody's abdomen which made him move back. The latter made a speech in which he declared that his power came from the sky. Lucia clenched her teeth, having the unpleasant impression to hear the speech held by the Celestial Dragons and the world nobility. We'd better keep the sky out of our bullshit. Luffy stretched his arm to the limit, covered it with Armament Haki and, using the friction of the rubber, created a cloud of flames that hit Hody in the head. For a moment, Lucia had the impression to see the "burning fist" of Ace and was stunned. Then a smile stretched her face and she even let escape a cry of joy by seeing Hody going to smash against Noah.
"Weak Princess, take me to the Noah!" ordered Luffy. "It's not over yet!"
Lucia's enthusiasm quickly faded as she realized that they still had the problem of the giant ship that was heading towards the island and threatening to destroy everything. Luffy threw himself on the deck of the ship while Hody got up again, boosted by an extra handful of drugs under the horrified look of Fukabaushi. The pirate captain was not intimidated and started the fight again, more at ease than in the water. Lucia watched the fight without intervening, forcing herself not to hinder Luffy's movements in spite of his cries that turned her stomach.
"Luffy!!" shouted Shiraoshi.
"It's going to be okay", Lucia reassured her. "He's strong, he'll make it."
Seeing Hody's dentures stuck in Luffy's arm lifted her heart but she didn't flinch. Go Luffy... go...
"Weak princess, go to the shelter ! Lucia, you too !"
Shiraoshi accepted without flinching and moved away but Lucia had more trouble, frozen in place, refusing to leave him behind. He took all tHody's attacks with full force. His body slipped along the bridge and fell on the ship. The hands plated on the mouth, Lucia stifled a howl. Suddenly:
"GEAR THIRD !"
Luffy got up and prepared his fist, which he increased tenfold in size and brought it down on Hody. Without waiting, he did the same with his second fist and shot them without stopping on the ship. Lucia frowned. Hody is certainly already out of it so why he is trying so hard... Suddenly she understood, Luffy was simply trying to destroy the Noah, putting aside the order that Fukabaushi had given him not to damage the ship. Her blood ran cold. She rushed to the front of the ship, diving towards the island. She noticed the upper bubble surrounding the island and landed on it, making her body intangible and merging with it so that she could create resistance. She anchored herself deep into the thin water surface and stood with her palms facing forward. She breathed in, breathed out and closed her eyes. She felt every bubble, every tiny particle of water that surrounded her. She took into account the gravity, the pressure, the density of the water. Then without hesitation, she attacked:
"Fishmen karate! WAVE OF THE SEVEN THOUSAND SEAS!"
Lucia projected the palm of her right hand towards the Noah, creating a huge shock wave that reverberated in the water and hit the bow of the Noah. The phenomenon slowed down the ship's course and came to pose a resistance to Luffy who was trying to hit him. She then transformed her two arms into water that she projected directly towards the ship, forming two immense aquatic hands whose fingers tightened around the wood.
Her water limbs were covered with an opaque white film, her Haki. Lucia gritted her teeth and tensed all the muscles in her arms to maintain her pressure. She carried the ship at arm's length, taking its fall and the repeated blows of Luffy. She felt her knees bend and her arms fold, she used all her resources to hold on. The bubble on which she was so solidly supported began to quiver and a multitude of waves passed through it. She simply had to slow down the fall, slow it down to give Luffy time to destroy that ship. She gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the ship.
"The water... and my body... are one. Every particle of water that comes off my skin is just an extension of me, I can give it any shape and strength I want, so if I've decided to stop this pile of wood, I'm GOING TO DO IT!" she shouted to herself, not knowing that her words were heard all the way to the island.
Around her arms, the sea currents began to quiver slightly and then, set in motion by the pressure she was creating herself, began to swirl around, creating a new resistance to Noah's advance. Fukabaushi was amazed:
"She is stopping the Noah with the strength of her arms... she is so powerful that even the sea moves because of her. And then..."
The prince opened his eyes wide when he could make out what was happening on the bow of the ship.
"Straw Hat is trying to destroy the Noah while the Elementalist is absorbing the water in the wood of the ship."
Indeed, without realizing it, Lucia was gripping the front of the ship so tightly that she had begun to draw all the water contained in the wood of the Noah to herself and was gradually drying it out. The planks cracked under her pressure, the splinters of wood pierced the bubble and drifted in the ocean, the hull was flying in pieces, as fragile as a twig in front of Lucia's strength. In the water, Luffy's and Lucia's howls of rage rose up while the people of the fish-men shouted the name of the Straw Hat to encourage him.
"STOP YOU BOAT !!"
"STOP YOU NOAH !!"
The screams of Luffy and Lucia stunned Shiraoshi and Fukabaushi, in the front row of this terrifying spectacle. Lucia felt the smell of blood spreading in the water but did not pay attention to it, totally concentrated on her task, to slow down Noah at all costs. Suddenly a voice reached her ears:
"Stop~"
Shiraoshi's shout followed:
"Stop, both of you, the boat has stopped!"
Lucia looked up to the sea and was stunned... the sea monsters, the kings of the seas, were looking at them while holding the ship with its chains. Gasping, Lucia put her aching arms back into her bubble, her mind numb. These titans of the seas did not look aggressive, they simply held the ship and stopped its fall. Lucia finally noticed the blood that was flowing. Understanding the urgency of the situation, she rushed towards Luffy but her legs refused to move. Then new voices reached her ears, she looked at the sea monsters who were talking with the mermaid princess. But wait... I UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE SAYING? Lucia was stunned, having no idea what was going on. One of them turned his gaze towards her and it seemed to her that he was almost smiling.
"You too, little one, you can hear us, do you... you can hear the voice of everything~"
"I-" Lucia began.
She interrupted herself when she saw Luffy fall and, ignoring the weakness of his body, propelled herself towards him to recover him, understanding that it was absolutely necessary to look after him. When she entered the bubble that still covered the ship, her own protection vanished but she didn't pay attention.
"LUFFY!" she shouted.
When she saw his shoulders wound she almost screamed. He was losing a lot of blood. She put her hands on his chest and, with tears in her eyes, tried to make the blood circulate as well as possible and prevent it from coming out of the open wounds.
"Come on, don't let go..."
She did not pay any attention to the kings of the seas, concentrated on her task, obliterating the sounds and the external elements. She finally looked up when she felt the bubble subside, being absorbed by the island's bubble. It sucks... if I let go of Luffy he'll die... and at the same time I have to make a bubble or we'll drown... Not knowing what to do, Lucia just hugged Luffy even closer to her and closed her eyes. She felt hands lifting them and carrying them. She discovered Shiraoshi who held them in the hollow of her palms then she took a big breath before being immersed in water. The heaviness of the water knocked her out completely and she had to fight not to faint. She focused all her energy on Luffy's body, increasing her attention tenfold as blood continued to filter through the wound and flow down her body. She could feel that her efforts would not be enough. Suddenly Shiraoshi penetrated the layer of the bubble that covered Fishmen Island and Lucia could breathe again. She inhaled deeply without taking her attention off Luffy for a second.
"Please princess... it is necessary to make quickly", she begged her.
Shiraoshi screamed as she realized how much blood was pouring from the pirate's body:
"I beg you, help him! He's losing blood all the time!"
Once back on dry land, Luffy was lying down, his head resting on Lucia's thighs, whose hands had not left his friend's body for a single second. Chopper was working in all directions, helped by Robin, multiplying the anti-hemorrhagics to look after his captain. Drops of sweat beaded on Lucia's forehead as anguish and fear took hold of her. He needed a transfusion, he needed type F blood. Immediately all the members of the crew called for a donor, for someone to come forward and agree to give blood. With tears in her eyes, Lucia felt Luffy's life slipping through her fingers, in spite of all her concentration she felt that her heartbeat was a little weaker than before because of the lack of blood. A sob crushed her throat. Images of Marineford came back to her memory. She saw Ace again, with his bloody chest. Luffy screaming to death. Her own tetany. Her own helplessness. She had trained for two years, two years to make her stronger so that she could lead her brother on the seas of the New World, and now it was happening again. The law forbids them to give blood. Faced with bowed heads and guilty looks, Lucia couldn't take it anymore and started to scream:
"I beg you! Don't force me to witness this again! Don't force me to attend helplessly to the death of one of my close ones! I beg you, we need blood!"
Her words shocked both the pirates of Luffy's crew and all the fishmen and mermaids, who could not face her tear-filled eyes and desperate tone. Sobbing, she put her forehead on Luffy's and kept repeating:
"I beg you... I beg you..."
A voice rose in the middle of the heavy silence. Lucia raised her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. Jinbei stood before them:
"You can take my blood, I'm F. Take as much as you want. I am a pirate, the law does not apply to me."
He looked at Lucia:
"I won't let him die, dry your tears Lucia."
"Thank you... thank you... thank you..." repeated the young woman tirelessly, a relieved smile on her lips.
During the transfusion, she tenderly caressed Luffy's hair, observing the blood that passed from the body of the fish-man to her friend. She was waiting for him to wake up.
"Open your eyes... I beg you... "
A smile stretched then the lips of Luffy who articulated with difficulty:
"Jin... bei..."
"Luffy", exclaimed Lucia, tears in her eyes.
The pirate opened his eyes and faced the marked face of Lucia then his smile widened:
"I am here!"
Lucia nodded with a small laugh before resting her forehead on his.
"EH, JINBEI!" called Luffy. "Would you like... to join my crew ?"