Fighting Back

The allied force surges toward the courthouse entrance. From inside the chaos come the orders, "Get into the court-house!!!" "Break the door!!!" and "Don't fall behind!!!" Yokozuna, battered but still fighting, throws himself into the crowd with froglike cries of "Ge~~~... ro~~~!!!" and "Gerorororororooo~~~!!!" while the attackers answer with shouts and impact sounds. This is the ground-level push behind the Straw Hats: while Luffy faces Robin across the gap, the Franky Family, Galley-La, giants, and allies keep smashing forward so the courthouse routes and drawbridge can be opened.

Yokozuna pants, "Haa haa..." and the allies urge him on: "Keep it up, Yokozuna!!" He answers with "Gerooo!!!" as the courthouse defenders are battered aside. Then new figures step through the smoke: the Guilty Jurors. They speak with flat judgment, "Guilty." "Guilty." Someone recognizes them in alarm: "Ooh!! It's the 'Guilty Jurors'!!!" Yokozuna murmurs "Gero...!!!" as one of the enormous jurors orders, "Step aside... we'll reach a verdict on the frog's crime." The page turns the courthouse into a living legal absurdity: even a frog ally blocking the entrance is treated as a criminal to be judged.

Inside the Courthouse Right Tower, the battle becomes vertical. Kiwi is warned, "Kiwi!! Watch out!!!" just before a heavy black ball smashes through the tower wall with a thunderous impact. Debris and bodies are flung outward as the tower erupts; someone screams, "Oowaaaah!" Below, the Guilty Jurors continue saying only "Guilty." "Guilty." One ally cries, "Guys!!!" as the force of the attack scatters the team. The path to the drawbridge lever is not just blocked by soldiers; the courthouse itself is being torn open by absurd weapons and unstoppable judicial enforcers.

In the Courthouse Left Tower, Mozu and the others are exhausted and surrounded. The Guilty Jurors loom over them, repeating "Guilty." while Mozu breathes, "Haa... Haa..." The allies are shaken but refuse to yield. Someone shouts, "Bastards!!" and another yells, "Don't falter...!!!" A Franky Family member sums up why they cannot stop: "If we can't get past this, we can't lower the drawbridge!!" Another says, "We've entrusted our bro to the Strawhats," and Mozu insists, "So we shouldn't be hindering their footsteps here!!!" The page makes their role clear: they are not trying to win glory, only to keep the route open for the rescue.

In the courthouse courtroom, Baskerville explains the island's twisted justice system. Someone says, "First off, I never even knew that they had a presiding judge on this island!!" and another adds, "I heard that once suspects are brought here, they're considered criminals, and that all they do here is just pass through an untouched courthouse." Baskerville objects: "That's wrong, pirates...!!!! This courthouse is the most just, and has the greatest authority in the world. The trial determines verdicts on people, fair and square!!!" Then the truth undercuts him: "Except... the 'jurors' who decide who's guilty or not guilty are condemned criminals who were originally pirates, and they are hoping to drag you down with them!!!" That is why, as the heads yell, "That's why there's never been a verdict of 'not guilty' in the past!! At all!!!"

Upstairs in the courtroom, Zoro has already cut through the obstacles in his way. He stands among fallen enemies and asks, "... Where the heck are they?" then concludes, "They're lost again... We don't have time..." In his own perfectly inverted logic, he mutters, "Oh, yeah. That's right... I just have to go up by any means, right...?" Elsewhere in the same upper levels, Nami and Chopper find fallen jurors and ask, "What are they!!?" as the bodies still mutter "Guilty." "Guilty." The page keeps the chase comic and tense at once: everyone is climbing toward the roof, but the crew is still scattered and navigating the courthouse in their own chaotic ways.

Nami tries to direct Chopper and herself through the fight: "Let's go, Chopper!!!" then corrects herself, "No, I mean, go, Chopper!!" Chopper is alarmed: "Ack, by myself!?" The Guilty Jurors continue their blank verdicts of "Guilty!!" as Zoro's attack rips through the battlefield. He calls "Tatsu" and "Maki" -- with the note that Tatsumaki means tornado -- and the resulting vortex sends enemies, floorboards, and debris spinning. People cry "Eh!!?" and "What's downstairs!!?" while someone warns, "Hey, this floor isn't safe either!!" The courthouse is collapsing in layers as the Straw Hats force their way upward.

At the courthouse entrance, Yokozuna headbutts a massive steel ball over and over, standing between the guards and the door. Someone shouts, "Yokozuna~~!!!" while another stares in disbelief: "He took that steel ball head-on so many times...!!!" A defender calls it "absurd...!!" Oimo watches the struggle and is moved by it, saying, "You..." before the fight surges again. Then he turns against the Government troops: "I'm your opponent, idiot guards!!!" and declares, "Ha ha ha... Don't even try! We still have more than 6000 guards." The allies answer with action: "Knock down the pirates!!!" "Guys, rush into the court-house!!!" Yokozuna's stubborn defense has bought enough time for the assault to keep moving.

The entrance battle widens as Oimo and Kashii stand like walls over the Government forces. One ally says that holding off so many guards is "incredible," and another asks why the giants are here at all. Sogeking's role is remembered in fragments: "... Ah!! You're one of the Strawhats...!!" "King of Snipers!!" and "Making the giants follow you... impressive!" Someone tells him, "You should hurry there, all your nakama headed for the roof earlier." Sogeking answers with confidence, "... Leave it to me." The giants roar "Kaa-shii~~!!!" and "Oimo~~!!!" as the defenders are overrun. The page shows the support structure of the rescue: Luffy may be facing Robin, but the rest of the battlefield is being held open by people who now believe in the Straw Hats.

Across the gap between the courthouse and Tower of Justice, Luffy hears Robin's words and repeats them in disbelief: "You want to die!!?" Robin answers from the balcony, "That's right!!!" For a moment there is only distance, wind, and the broken architecture between them. The paneling stretches the silence, making the emotional gap as large as the physical one. Robin has finally said aloud the despair behind her surrender, and Luffy has to answer it not as a tactic, but as her captain and friend.

CP9 and Spandam mock the scene from above. One suggests, "Couldn't we just go down there and wipe 'em out so that'd be the end of the story?" but another savors the situation: "Well, just wait... A captain being rejected after coming this far to rescue her... Have you ever seen anything funnier than this?" Spandam laughs, "Wahaha-haha...!! Listen to his grievous scream!! I wonder what the look on his face is while saying that...!!!" He taunts, "Robiiiin!!! Is death what you want?" Luffy's answer is not grief but fury. Picking his nose with complete disrespect, he snaps, "What the hell are you talking about!? You!!!" The mockery fails because Luffy refuses to perform the tragedy they expect.

Robin and the enemies stare as Luffy's reaction turns blunt and practical. Spandam is shocked enough to shout, "He's picking his nose!!!" Luffy plants himself in the rubble and calls, "Listen, Robin!!!" Then he points at the fact that matters: "All the way here!!! We've come all the way here!!!" The rest of the Straw Hats are still fighting and landing across the courthouse routes, but Luffy's message is clear before they all arrive: "So, we're gonna rescue you anyway!!!" He adds the condition in his own uncompromising way: "And... if you still wanna die, then die afterwards!!" Robin hears him, and the force of the rescue is no longer abstract. They came here first; any decision about death comes after she is free.

The crew begins arriving one by one. Zoro stands near Luffy and sighs, "Sigh... this's what I should've done to climb up from the start." Someone calls, "Zoro!!" but the fight is still dangerous: a huge attack, "Dash!!! Shishinabe Shot!!!" with the note "Boar Hot Pot," barrels through the battlefield. Sanji lands and complains, "I knew it was you!! We're still alive only because we took an indirect hit! If we'd been hit directly, we'd be dead by now!!" Then he immediately turns his arrival into a declaration to Robin: "I'm definitely the first one to get here...!!! Now, Robin-chan, you've been waiting...!! I've come here to rescue..." Zoro cuts him off with "Moi!!!" The reunion is messy, painful, and perfectly Straw Hat.

Zoro and Sanji immediately start bickering despite the crisis. Sanji yells, "Marimo*! How'd you get here before me!!?" and Zoro answers, "Ah, you're late. Did you get lost?" Sanji fires back, "Oh...!! Oh... ohohoh ohohoh...!! And where did you learn that word!!?" Nami, Chopper, and others react as Sogeking suddenly flies into view. Chopper shouts, "Sogeking!!!" and Nami says, "He's flying!!" Zoro wonders, "What's he been doing all this time?" while Chopper worries, "I wonder if he can land safely?" Sogeking crashes down with a huge "Crash!" and a trailing "Wooosh..." Kaku observes, "Oh-ho, one after another..." as more of the Straw Hats reach the roof.

With the crew gathering across from her, Luffy makes his plea plain: "I beg of you, Robin...!!!" Then he rejects the false choice that has trapped her. "I don't care what you want, whether you choose to live or to die...!!!" he shouts. "But whatever you decide... say it while you're with us!!!" The others join him from below and beside him: "Robin, come baaack!!!" and "That's right, Robin-chan!!!" Robin's face trembles under the words. The rescue is no longer a question of whether she is allowed to want death or life; Luffy demands that she make that choice only after returning to the people who came for her.

The Straw Hats finally stand together on the courthouse roof, facing the Tower of Justice. Nami, Zoro, Luffy, Sogeking, Sanji, and Chopper line up in the wind, battered but steady, while Franky stands apart with them nearby. Luffy speaks for all of them: "Now, leave everything to us!!!" The page gives each face a moment -- Nami's confidence, Zoro's focus, Luffy's fierce grin, Sogeking's nervous resolve, Sanji's smile, and Chopper's determination. After all the scattered routes, collapsing floors, jurors, guards, giants, and arguments, the crew is finally assembled in front of Robin. The rescue has stopped being a rumor, a shout, or a promise; it is now a line of friends standing where she can see them.

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