Revelations

A couple minutes ago...

All six of us lifted our heads up.

"Our project is doing something."

"Perhaps we should go and make sure he doesn't have any issues and stays pristine."

"How about we be the ones to take care of this for him? Keeping his abilities as pristine as possible could be beneficial, as to not give US more work before we leave."

"Maybe it's that Buggy brat. If it is, we can see what was causing the difference in souls later after we take him out."

"I want to make sure, you want to use our 'Soul Command', right?"

"Yes, if it is a person, and that Buggy child, we should use it, study it, learn from it, and become stronger from it as well."

The six of us nodded our heads in agreement and started to head towards Grim.

I realized too late that something was wrong. Not only was everyone gone, Rem had come to find me, without Buggy. She came running up to me in a panic, and spoke quickly while out of breath "Uh... Ro-... Ro... He ran off.. *Huff* I don't know why *Huff* but musta been important... *Huff* ...to go that fast."

'What? He just ran off?'

"Do you know where he headed? I have a little doubt that he just left to the ship. Unless something major happened while he was off the ship to... Taki... Rem? Did he say anything about someone named Taki?"

"*Huff* Taki? No... Not even a peep of that..."

'What could've happened to cause him to do such a thing?'

"Was he maybe freaked out?"

Rem stopped heavily breathing for a second.

"Um... We-well, yeah. His soul showed he was a bit freaked out.. why?"

After hearing that, I started to head towards the ship at a speed walk, as if telling Rem to follow me. She stood for a second, still catching her breath, and then realized I had left, immediately running after me.

"Ro-Ro! YOU CANT JUST DO THAT TO ME! I NEED SOME *HUFF HUFF* WARNING BEFORE RUNNING AGAIN!"

I yelled back to her as she was catching up "SORRY REM! I DO NOT WANT TO RUN THE CHANCE OF SOMETHING BEING WRONG, I WOULD RATHER NOTHING BE WRONG THAN SOMETHING!"

And then we ran for a while, running out of the castle, through all of the ruins, and through the fog. Part way through, the fog started to become less thick, enough that we could see farther, and as we continued running, it dissipated, which shouldn't have been right.

"REM! WAS THE FOG ALWAYS LIKE THIS?"

"NO! IT WASN'T! SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG!"

And then, through the almost see through fog, I saw lightning swirling around in a circle, and I didn't know what the cause of it was.

Finally getting out of the fog, I was able to witness something I had hoped was never going to happen.

Buggy was standing in front of Taki, who was on the ground unconscious. Surrounding the both of them were many orbs of what I could tell was compressed air with lightning mixed in. They didn't give Buggy a single outlet to escape, and I knew he couldn't do anything, especially with an unconscious Taki, just by how he was standing.

A voice came from my right. "GO AHEAD GRIM, TEST OUT YOUR NEW POWERS ON AN ACTUAL OPPONENT, LEARN OF YOUR TRUE POTENTIAL WITH OUR MODIFICATIONS!"

I turned quickly to find where the rest of us had disappeared, coming here. And then, processing what they said, I turned quickly to see the man named Grim cause all of the orbs to explode out into a beam, all heading towards Buggy.

"BUGGY!" Slipped from my mouth, but it was too late for anything to be done.

'NO! I DIDNT GET TO MAKE ANY AMENDS!'

I could feel a tear falling down my face as I watched the beams get closer to Buggy.

And then, the unthinkable happened.

Some sort of energy erupted from Buggy as I heard him say "I WILL survive, and I WILL GO OUT ON MY OWN TERMS!"

That same energy that burst out from him forced the beams to stop and get pushed away, like they were nothing. Along with the beams getting pushed away, as soon as Rem, the other six, and I, felt the energy, we all shivered in unison.

'WHAT WAS THAT? WHY WAS IT SO POWERFUL?'

I was shocked about such a thing, and continued to watch events unfold.

'Why was his Conquerers so much stronger than mine?' Is what Grim thought as soon as his attacks were nullified.

Grim spoke to Buggy "I was not expecting such a young and weak person to manifest such strong Haki. Bravo, you have given me more reason to kill you."

I was so impressed by my newfound Conquerers to ignore Grim for a second, allowing me to think.

'I DIDNT THINK THAT I HAD IT! It's such an asset, seriously! I never would have expected it either! I can't think about how to use it later, I've gotta figure out how to defeat this guy!'

And then a fist appeared in front of me, coming straight for my face.

"WOAH! STOP, IM NOT READY!" Is what came out of my mouth as I ducked, leaning backwards just fast enough to dodge Grim's attack. I nearly fell on to Taki, but decided this was an opportunity to get her out of the battle.

That was when I realized Rosalina was nearby. I looked at her, and yelled "ROSA! GET TAKI OUT OF HERE! I CAN'T FIGHT AS WELL IF I HAVE SOMEONE UNCONSCIOUS!"

I watched as Rosalina shook her head vigorously, and then smacked herself, all before She yelled back "OKAY! I CAN TAKE HER!"

I used Soru and Geppo to get out of there, almost forgetting Taki in the process.

'Wait, Rosa isn't under the control of someone incredibly strong, I can use my Devil Fruit now!'

Immediately detaching my hand, I reached for Taki, planning on throwing her to Rosa. I found Grim trying to attack again, this time, readying another beam, aiming right for me and Taki.

'Whelp, time to try to make another attack off the top of my head.'

My hand was detached, holding Taki in the air to throw her, and my arm was in a position as if my hand was attached, ready to throw.

"Chop-Chop: Not Fishman Shoulder Throw!"

And I pulled Taki with one hand, throwing her straight at Rosalina from behind me and over my shoulder, and I could tell she was confused, most likely by my hand being detached, but she didn't question it, as Taki's unconscious body flew straight towards her, immediately crashing into her, nearly making her fall over.

'Finally, I just need her to get out of here, and I can unleash as much as I can, and figure out how to defeat this guy!'

I could tell what Grim was doing behind me, and it wasn't good. He was preparing a massive beam, and aiming straight at me. I slowed down everything, perceiving things faster, but the massive beam was suddenly released, and I could see that it was moving faster than I had slowed down my own perception.

'What do I do here? A beam is aimed at my back, and if I dodge, it would risk hitting Rosa, Taki, and Rem, who I've grown a small connection to. Guess I'll have to take this at full force, hopefully something comes up in time.'

I tried to move so I could attack the beam itself, readying to move as quickly as I could to turn and face the beam head on.

'Can't I just use Conquerers again? Um.. how did I use it in the first place? It was a show of my sheer will to survive, so can I just do that again?'

The beam neared my back on the right side, as I was still trying to figure something out.

'Wait, can I try to cut it using Surya? I just need to imbue it with as much Haki as I can, right?'

I could feel the heat from the beam getting closer, and Surya was on my right side, so I used Quickdraw to get Surya out of it's sheath as quickly as possible, using momentum to turn around, but my plan did not go smoothly.

As I moved out of the way, planning to cut the beam, I was moving slower than the beam itself, which I could feel searing my skin, but I fought through the pain, as I had a plan coming into existence.

Making sure I could perceive my next moves, I put as much Haki as I could to try and cut the beam, turning the blade black for a second. When I went and stabbed the blade into the beam, I saw the blade turn back to it's normal color, and felt a little more drained, all while I was trying to use Conquerers.

'I WILL SAVE THEM! I CANT LET BOTH TAKI AND ROSA GET KILLED BECAUSE OF ME! NOW I HAVE TO SURVIVE FOR THE BOTH OF THEM!'

Those thoughts caused a smaller burst to come out of me, and while it wasn't as strong, it definitely caused the beam that has passed by me to dissolve into the air, or that's what I thought.

While the beam had been stopped, it didn't dissolve into the surrounding air, but rather, it headed towards Surya, and I felt my own Haki reserves shrink. Surya had taken my Haki, Grim's Haki, and lightning, all into itself.

I landed, and looked directly at Surya's blade to find that there was no issues with it, even after somehow taking in Haki and Lightning.

But there was a more pressing concern.

When that beam started to sear my own body, it didn't just pass by, it hit me. The adrenaline I had was numbing the pain entirely, and while the beam dissolved, that didn't mean it hadn't caused damage.

My right arm, and a little bit of my right side, were gone.