Buster Call

Franky sorts through the keys as Robin watches, exhausted and still marked by the violence of the bridge. One by one the wrong keys fail: "NUMBER 1... NUMBER 3... NUMBER 4..." Then he reaches the next one. "NUMBER 5." The lock answers with a decisive "CLACK!!" and Franky shouts, "THEY'RE OFF!!!" Robin stares at her freed wrists, hardly able to believe the weight is gone. Sogeking cries, "I-IT'S THE REAL KEY!!?" and Robin can only breathe through the shock, "HAA... HAA... ...!!!" The seastone handcuffs that chained her to execution are finally off.

The moment Robin is free, Franky and Sogeking almost collapse into disbelief. Sogeking stammers, "NO WAY...!!" and Franky snaps at him, "HEY, HEY, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER." Sogeking struggles to accept what just happened: "... YOU MEAN," then blurts out, "NO, IMPOSSIBLE!!! I BET YOU SOMEHOW STOLE THE KEYS AND RAN!! DAMN IT!!!" Franky answers from the bridge with the truth: "YOU DEFEATED ALL THE MEMBERS OF CP9 IN THE TOWER OF JUSTICE!?" The announcement carries across to the others below: "NICO ROBIN'S HANDCUFFS!!!" and "I UNLOCKED" them. Sanji and Zoro look upward from the ruins, and Chopper calls out, "THIS IS FRANKY!!" while someone adds, "HEY, NAGAPPANA!!" The impossible rescue has become real because every key was won.

Relief breaks over the Straw Hats and their allies. Zoro, Sogeking, and Sanji answer the news with a fierce "ALL RIGHT!!!" Robin turns toward the distant tower and says, "NAGA-HANA-KUN," then gives the thanks she had been denied for so long: "THANK YOU!!" Sogeking answers in the language of the hero he pretends to be: "IF YOU'RE TO EXPRESS YOUR GRATITUDE, DO IT LATER, TO EVERYONE WHO WORKED HARD TO COLLECT THE KEYS." He adds, "YOU ARE TRULY LUFFY AND THE OTHERS' NAKAMA!!" and tells her, "DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!!" Robin faces the soldiers again, no longer chained. When Sogeking asks, "EH!?" and "WHAT!!?" she calmly says, "YES." Then she raises her power: "SEIS FLEUR." The bridge changes because Robin is no longer a prisoner waiting to be dragged forward.

Robin's answer is action. Her sprouted arms strike Spandam in a brutal slap that sends him crashing, the impact marked with "SLAP!!!" and his broken cry, "HAGEK!!!" A Marine shouts, "CHIEF, SIR!!!" while Sogeking immediately turns to the next task: "I'LL PREPARE THE ESCAPE." Robin, smiling through the pain on her face, declares, "I WON'T... HOLD BACK!!" The Marines panic as she runs free: "CATCH HER AGAIN!!!" and then realize the danger has changed: "NO!! THE CRIMINAL'S KAIROUSEKI HANDCUFFS ARE OFF!!" From the tower side comes the urgent call, "ROGER. HURRY AND COME DOWN, SOGEKING!!" Sogeking pauses because something has reached his ear: "HRM? I HEARD SOMETHING JUST NOW."

The sound Sogeking hears becomes a blast across the sea. A shell slams into the water and erupts near Enies Lobby, throwing spray and smoke into the air. The bridge, the island, and everyone still standing there feel the scale of what has arrived. Sogeking reacts, "EH...?" Sanji and Zoro look toward the explosion with alarm: "WHAT!!?" The Marines also turn, stunned into silence. The Buster Call is no longer only an order, a threat, or a memory from Ohara. The warships have begun firing close enough for everyone to understand that the island is now inside the bombardment.

The allies recognize the truth as another shell screams in. "BOMBARDMENT FROM THE WARSHIPS...!!?" someone says. Sogeking protests, "CAN'T BE!!" and the impact shows why: the fence around the island has already been shattered. "THE FENCE...!!!" A voice explains, "THE FENCE AROUND THE ISLAND IS BROKEN...!! THAT WAS A HUGE-ASS EXPLOSION!!" If many warships come this way, they will raze the island with a firestorm of bombs. The sea itself has changed too. Someone points out, "AND LOOK AT THE SEA." The whirlpools that protected the currents are gone: "UP UNTIL A MINUTE AGO, THERE WERE WHIRLPOOLS." "THOSE SHIPS WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO GET IN, BUT THEY'RE ALL GONE NOW." The reason is clear: "IT'S ALL BECAUSE THE GATES OF JUSTICE WERE FULLY OPEN FOR THE ATTACK...!!!" The huge gates had been creating the whirlpools, and now the path to destruction is open.

The danger turns directly toward the tower. Sogeking hears his name shouted, "SOGEKING!!" and someone urges, "THIS IS URGENT!!! JUMP DOWN FROM THERE!!!" Even he can only answer, "THAT'S INSANE..." Then the next strike lands. The Tower of Justice erupts in smoke and stone as the bombardment blows into it. The allies scream, "USOPP!!!" and the Marines below stare at the collapsing tower: "THE TOWER OF JUSTICE!!!" The man who had just saved Robin from an impossible distance is now trapped at the exact point the Buster Call has chosen to destroy.

Smoke rolls from the Tower of Justice, and the people on the bridge can only wonder whether Sogeking and the others survived. "I WONDER IF THEY'RE OKAY!!" one voice says. Then another shell hits: "LOOK!! IT HIT THE TOWER OF JUSTICE THIS TIME!!!" The soldiers understand the pattern now. "THIS IS A BOMBARDMENT!!!" one shouts, while another admits, "I KNEW IT...!! THAT WASN'T JUST A NORMAL EXPLOSION EARLIER, EITHER!!" Panic spreads through the ranks: "HURRY AND GET OFF THE ISLAND!!!" Buildings tear away from the cliff, and whole sections of Enies Lobby fall as the Buster Call begins to dismantle the battlefield piece by piece.

The remains of the tower crumble into the abyss as Robin looks on, stunned. "EH?" she breathes, hearing only the smoke and the collapse. Below, the others stare at the destruction and beg reality to change: "HEY... TELL ME THIS ISN'T TRUE..." The silence is broken by a voice from the falling debris. "DID YOU CALL FOR ME!?" Usopp comes dropping down through the smoke, and Robin cries out with all the fear and relief in her chest: "HEY!!! USOPP~~~!!!" His survival turns the dread of the ruined tower into a desperate, living hope.

Usopp lands alive, and the first reaction is furious relief. "YOU'RE ALIVE, DAMN IT!" someone yells before scolding him, "DON'T YOU HAVE THE KINDNESS TO CATCH THE HERO WHO RISKED HIS LIFE AND JUMPED OFF OF THE ROOF!!?" Robin and Franky begin to move away from the bridge. Franky tells her, "FRANKY, ROBIN-CHAN, WE'RE SAFE HERE!!" and "WE'LL HEAD OVER THERE NOW!!" Robin answers softly, "OH, GOOD..." Then she turns to the practical escape. "DO YOU SEE THE CONVOY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE...? DON'T YOU THINK THAT'S THE KEY TO OUR ESCAPE?" Franky asks if she can still fight: "CAN I COUNT ON YOUR FIGHTING POWER?" Robin answers, "OF COURSE." As Marines shout, "CATCH THEM BEFORE THE BOMBARDMENT GETS SERIOUS!!" she decides, "I GUESS THERE'S NO OTHER WAY THAN STEALING THAT SHIP."

Elsewhere, Nami, Chopper, and Chimney's group run through the underground passage marked as a shortcut to the Gates of Justice. Nami suddenly says, "I JUST FELT A HUGE VIBRATION...!!" Chopper understands what it means: "IT'S FINALLY GONNA BEGIN." Someone cries, "BOMBARDMENT--BOMBARDMENT--" The location shifts to the interior prop of the Bridge of Hesitation, then to the wrecked chamber where Luffy and Lucci are fighting. Lucci launches his razor-like movement, "KAMISORI," and Luffy is driven across the ruined floor. The Buster Call has begun outside, but the duel inside still decides whether Luffy's friends can pass.

Lucci presses Luffy with sharp, relentless movement, striking and vanishing through the wreckage. Luffy is battered, knocked back, and left panting, yet he keeps forcing himself upright. The fight is mostly motion and impact here: Luffy's breath comes as "HAA...!!" and "HAA," while Lucci's attacks hammer him from angles he can barely follow. Even with the island shaking and his body worn down from Gear Second, Luffy stays between Lucci and the passage his friends need. The page makes the fight feel less like a clean duel and more like Luffy enduring punishment because moving aside would expose everyone behind him.

Lucci finally understands what Luffy has done to his own body. Seeing the steam and the exhausted rhythm of his breathing, he says, "I SEE..." and then, "... SO IT'S LIKE DOPING..." He explains the technique with cold precision: "YOU USE YOUR LEGS AS A PUMP TO ACCELERATE YOUR BLOOD CIRCULATION... CREATING BLOOD PRESSURE THAT COULD TEAR YOUR HEART." For a normal body, Lucci says, it would break a person "INTO PIECES," but Luffy's rubber body makes it possible: "FROM ENTRAILS TO BLOOD VESSELS, IS MADE OF RUBBER. IT REALLY IS A TECHNIQUE JUST FOR RUBBER MEN." Still, he warns that the price is deadly. "EVEN THOUGH YOUR PHYSICAL ABILITIES INCREASE BEYOND THEIR LIMITS, YOUR STAMINA IS UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THOSE REINFORCEMENTS...!!" Luffy has chosen power by shaving away his own life.

Luffy answers Lucci's warning with a grin that is almost frightening. "IT'S BETTER THAN LOSING SOMETHING IN FRONT OF MY EYES!!!" he says. Lucci calls it reckless: "YOU'RE GETTING YOUR HOPES UP TOO MUCH!!" Luffy replies without hesitation, "I'LL DO ANYTHING I CAN!!" Lucci then reveals that the explosions outside may already have sealed the fate of the others. "DID YOU FEEL THE EXPLOSIONS EARLIER? WARSHIPS FROM THE MARINE HEADQUARTERS PROBABLY TRIED A TEST FIRING." He adds the threat plainly: "... WITHIN A FEW MINUTES, A BURST OF SHOTS WILL START... YOUR NAKAMA IN THE TOWER OF JUSTICE WILL DIE." The page turns Luffy's exhaustion into a race against both Lucci and the approaching warships.

Lucci moves to destroy the route itself. Luffy reacts with alarm, "!" as Lucci says, "... IN CASE ANYONE IS RUNNING IN THE UNDERGROUND PASSAGE TO GET HERE..." He fires a "RANKYAKU" into the structure, blasting open the wall and letting seawater surge into the passage. The flood crashes through the corridor with people and debris in its path. Luffy stares in horror as Lucci explains, "THE SEAWATER WILL FLOOD INTO THE PASSAGE, AND WHOEVER IS IN THERE WILL SURELY DROWN." Then he turns the accusation on Luffy: "YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING RIGHT, STRAWHAT..." The fight is no longer only about defeating Lucci. Luffy's delay may now mean his friends are trapped in water.

Luffy screams, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?" Lucci answers with cruel patience: "LET ME LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING HOW MUCH OF YOUR FOOLISH WISH TO SAVE AND ESCAPE WITH EVERYONE WILL COME TRUE." On the Bridge of Hesitation, the Marines keep chasing Robin and Franky. Orders fly: "HURRY!!!" and "ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CATCH NICO ROBIN AND GET HER ON THE CONVOY. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME. WARSHIPS ARE COMING!!!" At the same time, the underground group faces the seawater Lucci unleashed. Someone shouts, "H-HEY, DON'T RUN! WAIT!!!" while another cries, "UWAA-AAAH!" Chimney sees the danger first: "I SEE SHADOWS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE!!" Robin, on the surface, realizes the timing is already terrible. "AH...!!!" she says, while the Marines conclude, "IT'S... TOO LATE ALREADY..." The warships are arriving before the escape can close.

A fleet of Marine warships fills the sea before Enies Lobby. The command rings out over their massive hulls: "BUSTER CALL WILL COMMENCE!!!" and the sight is answered by the realization, "A FLEET OF WAR-SHIPS!!!" The ships are enormous, lined with cannons, and their officers stand ready in grim silence. The final image makes the scale unmistakable: this is not a single enemy, not one cannon, and not one escape route closing. It is the World Government's annihilation order made visible, bearing down on the island while Robin, Franky, Usopp, Luffy, and the others are still scattered across the battlefield.

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