Nami vs Kalifa

Kalifa's room is still shattered from Monster Chopper's entrance. The enormous Chopper rampages through the smoke with a huge "BUDOOOH," while Kalifa, watching his size and antlers, asks, "Zoan user... Is that your trump card!?" Nami, still changed by Golden Hour, protests, "Hey, I've already told you that's not me." Kalifa studies the shape and says, "What kind of fierce animal of user are you...!?" before springing away with "Geppou." Even in the chaos she fires "Rankyaku" and the slicing kick cuts through the air. Nami sees the hat and the mark and refuses to accept the monster as a stranger: "Although... this appearance... It does look like a reindeer... And I'm sure the hat with that mark is his. But I can't believe... That this is Chopper...!!!"

Nami calls up at the huge form, trying to reach the friend inside it: "Chopper!! Hey, you're Chopper, right?" She asks, "What... happened to your appearance...!?" and then shouts, "Hey!! Stop that!!!" Chopper does not answer. He keeps destroying the room, his body slamming down with "BUDOOH," and Nami realizes he is not reacting to her voice. The next instant, he sweeps through the wreckage and Nami cries, "WAH!!!" as she is knocked away. The scene is frightening because Nami is not facing an enemy's strategy alone; she is also standing near a crewmate whose power has gone out of control.

Nami lands hard with "UGH!!!" and tries to speak to Chopper again. She wonders, "Does he not recognize me because I look like this? Or is he not Chopper!?" Then she snaps at herself: "Let me tell you this: I knew that wasn't you, okay!?" When Chopper still ignores her, she screams, "Ignore!! Chopper---!!" Kalifa hears the desperation and finds it insulting: "How insolent!!" Chopper roars "BUDOOH" and keeps smashing through the room while Nami, small and slick from Golden Hour, yells directly at him: "Chopper, what happened!? Look at me!! It's me, Nami!!" The tragedy is that the right words reach the wrong state of mind.

Chopper's rampage tears through Kalifa's room and the tower around it. Nami shouts, "Chopper...!!!" and then, "Chopper, stop it!!" as broken walls, furniture, and smoke fly everywhere. When Kalifa looks down at the destruction, she wonders, "I wonder where this monster came from." Nami corrects her with fierce loyalty: "Don't touch him!! He's my nakama!!!" She also notices a clue in the wreckage: "Sanji-kun is supposed to be under that staircase---!!" The page makes the danger layered: Chopper is destroying their battlefield, Sanji may be buried below, and Kalifa still stands ready to exploit every opening.

Monster Chopper's body smashes through the tower with another huge "BUDOOH." Nami cries "KYAH!!!" as debris and pressure blast across the room, and even Kalifa has to endure the shock with "!!?" Chopper wheezes heavily, "wheeze... wheeze..." but does not calm down. Then his massive body crashes out and begins falling down the side of the tower, the vertical panel stretching the drop into a black, terrifying descent. For a moment the battle against Kalifa is swallowed by the larger question of whether Chopper can survive his own transformation.

The room goes quiet except for falling dust and the distant sound of Chopper's descent. Nami, breathing hard, asks, "What happened to Chopper...!?" and decides, "I've gotta hurry up and stop him...!!" Kalifa blocks that path. "That's your nakama? You pirates sure keep a creepy pet!" Nami calls, "Chopper...!!" but Kalifa's insult only hardens the fight. "How insolent!!!" she snaps, while Nami tries to ignore her and move. Kalifa refuses to allow it: "It's none of my business how you stop that monster. But my duty here is to stop you. So I'll just end this quickly!!" She prepares "Rankyaku"!!!

Kalifa fires the Rankyaku and Nami realizes her body is still too slippery to move normally: "Now that I'm slippery all the way to the bottom of my feet, I can't dodge her attack..." Kalifa shouts, "Shoot!!" and the strike slams down with a sharp impact. Yet water from the earlier destruction splashes around Nami. She notices, "Ah! Only one foot... but it's back to normal...!!!" and Kalifa sees the change too: "Why? What triggered it...!?" Nami touches the wet floor and understands: "It's wet... Oh, because of the mess earlier...!! I know!!!" Water is the key to washing off the soap effect.

Nami leaps toward the spray and confirms the solution: "It's the water!!! I can wash off the soap effect with water!!!" Her recovery is not complete, but it is enough to move. She dodges and lands a hit on Kalifa with a hard "OUCH!!!" Kalifa is startled, and Nami struggles up, still breathing, "ugh... ...!!" Kalifa smiles through the situation: "... Hoo hoo, aren't you a little too simple-minded? Even though you figured out how to undo the 'Golden Hour,' there's no way I would let you do that...!!" Nami has found the weakness, but Kalifa still controls the battlefield full of bubbles.

Kalifa spreads the bubbles again with "Hitsuji-Gumo" and "Relax Hour"!!! The sheep-cloud foam sweeps across the ruined floor. Nami thinks quickly: "I'll just blow them away with wind!!" She snaps the Clima-Tact together with "GACHA!!!" and begins "Cyclone..." but the bubbles reach her first. "Ack!!" she cries as the foam drains her strength and knocks her down with "THUD..." Nami realizes, "No good; I can't feel my strength...!!" The page shows that knowing the weakness is not enough; if Kalifa touches Nami with the bubbles again, Nami loses the ability to act.

Nami refuses to waste the Clima-Tact's setup. She thinks, "...!! The tact...!!" as Kalifa attacks with "Bending Shigan!" The flexible finger strike whips toward her, but Nami swings the Clima-Tact into motion: "Whip"!!! The weapon and her body spin with a sharp "SHURU!!" and she slips around the attack. Kalifa reacts, "!!?" as Nami is flung clear. The motion is clumsy and desperate, but it works: Nami turns the Clima-Tact into both a dodge and a way to create distance, buying herself enough space to keep fighting.

Nami lands, shaken but alive, and says, "You saved me...!!!" Then she turns Kalifa's advantage into a plan. "If you keep blowing me away like that, the troublesome bubble on my body will be blown away, too!!" Kalifa answers, "You're bluffing... if you wish. I can continue blowing you away until you die." Nami raises the Clima-Tact and declares, "The weather is 'cloudy.' 'Cloudy Tempo'!!!" She sends clusters of cloud bubbles into the room. Kalifa notices immediately: "Clouds... are you planning to create more lightning?" Nami replies with confidence, "It's no longer gonna be a magic show like in the past!!"

Kalifa tries to reason through the weather trick: "Lightning won't be created from such thin clouds." Nami answers, "Instead, I'll condense it!" and begins building the attack: "Cool Ball!" She says, "The weather is 'rainy'!!!" and fires "Rain Tempo"!!! Water bursts from the clouds and falls through the room. Kalifa stares, "No way...!! No way she can do it!!" but Nami keeps shaping the conditions, calling, "Rain down!!!" The rain expands into a circular storm pattern, turning the room's air and moisture into a weapon setup rather than a simple visual trick.

Rain falls over both fighters. Kalifa tries to mock the result, saying, "I made your skin shiny and all... You're not very cute, are you?" Nami, still distorted but grinning, answers, "If being cute means not resisting, then I'd rather not be!" She then launches "Cool Charge"!!! Kalifa watches the moving air and water, but Nami slips away into "Mirage Tempo"!!! with a soft "suu..." Kalifa says, "Eh!?" and then, "She's gone!!" This time the illusion is not only a decoy; it is part of a weather system Nami is actively controlling.

Nami appears high and stretched by illusion, saying, "I understand... your ability." Kalifa answers, "Eh!?" and Nami adds, "As well as 'CP9's strength. That's why I... try to catch you off-guard!" With "Mirage Tempo!" more Nami images rise and bend around Kalifa, each one moving with "NYON!" Kalifa is surrounded by distorted bodies and asks, "What... Is this!?" The room fills with flexible, wavering reflections of Nami, and the real Nami is hidden among them, using confusion instead of raw power.

Nami names the stronger illusion: "Fata Morgana"!!! The page fills with five versions of her: tall, small, wide, stretched, and normal. Kalifa reacts, "!!?" and works through it: "...!! The mirage from earlier... I bet there's only one real body!" Nami confirms the rule while keeping the advantage: "That's right. Only one is real. The other four are illusions... that came from the layer of air that gets distorted by strong, cold air...!!" Kalifa prepares to attack them all, but Nami's weather science has turned the room itself into cover.

Kalifa faces the five Namis and Nami fires "Thunder Ball"!!! The crackling balls fly from the illusions' positions, forcing Kalifa to react with "!!?" Nami says, "Only 20% of my attack... is real...!! Why don't you try dodging it?" Kalifa, sweating, realizes the trap: "...!! Shoot, my guard!! Hack!!!" The real strike hits her guard and body with a violent "ARGH!!!!" The chapter ends with Nami having turned her weakened, altered body into bait and her weather illusions into a tactical guessing game Kalifa can no longer read cleanly.

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