Chapter 342: Sacrifice

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'sample'

Author notes -sample-

Disclaimer: One Piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

Chapter 342: Sacrifice

"Luffy!" The exhausted crew exclaimed.

"You better go beat this guy now! Do you have any idea what we went through?" Usopp complained.

"Do we have any conscious doctors? Zoro is not moving," Nami asked.

"Law is out," said Sanji.

"Chopper too." Robin was carrying the little dear in her arms.

"Bring them here! I know first aid!" The old shinobi shouted from the entrance of the castle.

"Okay, everyone! Let's get the wounded out of here," Vivi ordered.

"I'll stay with Luffy." Ace looked extremely tired and injured but refused to move.

"Ace, I don't think that's a good idea…" Vivi commented.

"I'll stay with my brother." Ace's eyes were filled with determination.

"Okay… Don't die," she turned to the other crewmates. "Let's go!"

As they moved away from the fray, she saw that Luffy had already transformed into his Gear 4 form and was exchanging blows with Kaido.

She knew that Luffy was not in perfect shape now, but neither was Kaido.

That man may be an incredible monster, but he has been fighting with her entire crew plus Ace for the last hour.

It may not show it, but he is definitely tired and injured.

They arrived at the door where a large group of people were staying now.

All were now looking at the fight that raged in the sky.

Kaido had transformed into his dragon form, and Luffy was running over his body.

"Bring them here." The shinobi had set up a place to leave their injured.

So far, Zoro, Chopper, Law, and Drake were unconscious, while the rest were hurt but in better shape.

"What do you think?" Nami got closer and asked her in a low voice.

Vivi didn't need to ask what she was talking about.

"I don't know…"

Nami glanced at the sky. "What do we do if he…?"

"There isn't much we can do. In our current state, I don't think we could even escape, at least not all of us," Vivi said.

"What do you mean, not all of us?" Nami frowned, not liking where this was going.

"Some of you are in better shape, like you and Usopp. If things get bad, Sanji can take you to the Sunny," Vivi said.

"What about you? I'm not leaving you… No, I'm not leaving anyone. I refuse to leave if it's not with everyone," she said firmly.

"Then let's hope it doesn't get to that."

Vivi heard some people gasp and returned her attention to the fight.

Luffy was hit and fell from the sky.

Kaido went back to his human form and pursued him.

Their captain landed on the ground and lost his transformation while breathing hard.

"Straw Hat! You are done!" Kaido coated his weapon with his conqueror haki and performed a powerful vertical swing.

"Hiken!" Ace's fire fist pushed the Emperor away.

"Ace… I'm sorry… I lost my balance for a moment," Luffy stood back up. "I'm fine."

"I'm tired too, Luffy. Let's fight him together," Ace suggested.

Normally, Luffy would reject an offer like this. But even he knew that this was too much.

The duo of brothers confronted Kaido the best they could while everyone observed, unable to do anything to help.

"Oh no!" Usopp was the first to see it.

Ace was sent tumbling to the ground and couldn't move.

Luffy had been pushed away and was desperately running back.

His blood ran cold when he saw Kaido lift his metal club and bring it down upon Ace.

"Noooo!" Luffy screamed. "Ace!"

"Shit!" Sanji ran as fast as he could to stop the attack, but it was too far.

They all thought they were about to see Ace die, but… someone managed to arrive in time.

"This can't be!"

Luffy had somehow arrived in time to block the attack with his body.

"Ace!" Ace saw as his brother got in front of him and received the blunt force of Kaido's attack in his stead.