Konan barely had time to register that the Tower, where Usopp was, received a cannon ball as she saw the fleet of marine boats arrive to commence the Buster Call. She vaguely heard that Usopp survived as she understood that the fleet would soon be bombarding the whole island regardless of all the people still on it.
She could easily survive if she was alone, but that wasn't the case. If she chose to leave, many would die. If she stayed, some might get to live another day. The decision wasn't hard to make.
"Robin, take care, alright?" She walked backward, her wings unfolding rapidly before quickly propelling her in the air and toward the fleet. She wouldn't be able to stop them all, but she had to slow them down to help the Straw Hats at least escape.
She unfolded her wings, sheets of papers detached themselves and floated above the boats. Strange red markings adorned them. The marines watched puzzled as the seemingly inoffensive papers fell down and attached themselves to the hull. Then like a beautiful firework, explosions were triggered one by one, causing giant waves and sinking the first row of ships.
Konan frowned, knowing her chakra reserves were depleted by half. She had been careful not to use them too much but using clones and this attack just now was quite taxing. But the worst sucker of energy was her other self who possessed a good part of her reserves at the moment—Nanko.
"You dare attack our fleet?" A man appeared, bringing his sword down, his slash cut through the air to reach Konan.
She avoided the attack, recognizing him as a vice-admiral. In the corner of her eye, she recognized about 5 vice-admirals gathered. These weren't odds she liked when fighting, but this time she didn't have any other choice, she could see Luffy still fighting against Lucci on one of the boats while the rest of the Straw Hats were running to their escape boat.
In that split second she made her decision, she made Nanko disappear from sight and made him disperse. She needed to be entirely focused on this fight to not make any mistake.
The tall swordsman started attacking her, his sword slashes forming a net that didn't allow any escape. He frowned as Konan dispersed into papers that slipped through the net. He had a feeling this enemy wouldn't be an easy one. Apart from the fact that she had the gut to face a full fleet by herself, he was also concerned by the fact that he couldn't remember ever hearing about such a pirate before. She was using a devil fruit he had never seen before.
He glanced at the other vice-admirals and sent them a signal to attack together. The buster call took priority over everything else, they had to be quick and eliminate the threat at all cost. And he had a gut feeling that he alone wouldn't be enough to face her.
Konan frowned when he jumped up to attack her—in an instant a black katana appeared in her hand to parry. Just as her sword clashed with his, she felt a chill down her spine and instinctively jumped away, just in time to avoid a flurry of attacks. The other vice-admirals had joined in the frenzy.
She tried to send another wave of explosive papers down to the ships that were beginning to fire again, but one of them destroyed all the papers with a slash. Thus the ships fired and the screams ensued. She was vaguely aware that Luffy's fight had ended in his victory.
As she looked at her opponents, she saw a blatant lack of care, a rigid obedience to the orders and a complete disregard for the massacre they were causing.
She knew that look, had seen it plenty of times to justify massacres; they disconnected themselves from their actions and focused solely on their missions. It was an all too familiar look, having seen it plenty of times in the mirror.
There was no righteousness possible in a battlefield, merely a side to be taken, and sometimes she found that hard to accept. While avoiding their attacks, she looked down at the ships she had sunk—she tried to only attack the ships but casualties were unavoidable. And it wasn't enough to stop them.
She had grown soft and the screams behind her were the price she had to pay.
She hated what she was about to do, hated that they forced her to become someone she had long discarded. Yet what she hated the most was that given the chance, she would do it again.
The vice-admirals' attacks quickened and worsened as they saw a flurry of papers gradually detach themselves from Konan. They slashed and slashed but the white wall grew at a very visible rate, soon growing to the size of a tsunami. As they saw the explosions papers mixed in, fear grew in their hearts for the first time. They tried to attack Konan, and they did manage to injure her, but nothing stopped the wave forming.
Konan grunted under the brunt force of their attacks; she couldn't fully protect herself as she concentrated on forming the wave. But she didn't care, the pain was a silent reminder of the sin she was about to commit. Numerous lives would probably be lost, for the only reason that they stood on the opposite side of hers.
Her chest was wounded, and slashes covered the rest of her body. She avoided none.
"I'm sorry," she opened her eyes, and raised her arms before bringing them down like the blades of a guillotine.
The world seemed to stop for the marine officers below as they watched, frozen, the wave that overshadowed even the sun. They started dropping their weapons, as they recognized the imminent catastrophe that was about to befall them. They couldn't fight against such a thing.
And then, the clock started ticking again, and the wave moved. In an instant, it crashed against the first row, continuing its path through the rows, sparring no ship, destroying everything it encountered.
The vice-admirals were also washed away without being able to resist. Only one managed to avoid the wave at the last second by being the closest to Konan. He watched, stunned, the spectacle before his eyes, unable to understand what was happening.
When the wave finally settled and the papers began sinking down the sea, he finally reacted. He turned to Konan who was panting heavily. "You-" His grip on his weapon weakened, "You're a monster." He ran away.
Konan looked behind her, to see that the Straw Hats were on a boat, watching her with varying degrees of shock. They were safe. With that thought in mind, she let herself go—her wings fell apart as she began freefalling toward the sea.