Understand

Nico had finished taking care of the warriors on her side, all that's left was to wait for Imai to take care of the warriors on her side, and they would be done.

She watched Imai with sweat dripping down her neck and gulped in nervousness. The way Imai killed them, she recognized the swordsmanship. It was during the Dressrosa where Imai had slaughtered countless marines and fought off admirals. Nico was still part of Cipher Pol that time and was there to watch the new emperor.

Nico could see the resemblance of Imai's past and current self. It was as if they combined together and formed something even scarier. The way she slaughtered without hesitation, the wide grin when the enemy was helpless against her, and how Nico could tell that Imai was delighted when the enemy was begging for their life to be spared.

It was a brutal one sided fight. The battle was over once Imai had unsheathed her blade. Truly, the Empress of the Blade was even worse than a monster. She was a demon…the red eyes that looked down on the enemy.

"Twelve, that's all of them." Imai said. Both her blades were dripping with thick blood. "How about you? Is everything taken care of on your side?"

"Yes, they've been taken care of." Nico replied. She couldn't bring herself to look Imai in her eyes just yet.

"Alright, to Upper Yard we go then. But first, our ride there is about to appear." Imai said.

On cue, a giant snake monster appeared from the ground, and hissed at Imai. She simply smiled and flared her Conqueror's Haki at the snake who was once worshiped as a god. However, facing the superior being, the snake couldn't help but to lower its head.

"This snake will take us past the cloud trails and onto the Upper Yard. Once we arrive, we should be where you said Conis was." Imai said as she helped Nico onto the head of the snake.

"Thanks." Nico said. "Though using the snake that was worshiped as a god as a ride is a bit…"

"Is there a problem? No one is worshiping this snake anyway. If I didn't force it to come to me, then it would've stayed in the ground forever."

"What do you mean by summoning it?"

"The King's Haki. I basically challenged it to a battle of who's Haki was stronger and I won."

"I see."

As they traveled through the trail of clouds on the snake, Nico felt the urge to ask Imai questions, but she convinced herself that she should hold back instead.

Suddenly, Nico heard Imai laughing.

"What're you laughing at?"

"Your face!"

"What do you mean, my face?" Nico asked with a frown.

"Ah, you look like you're thinking about something very hard, then you give up, and then you're back to thinking about it again. It was honestly pretty fun seeing your expression change."

Nico felt her face heat up.

"Don't look or talk to me!"

Once again, Imai laughed at Nico.

"If you have something you want to ask, then ask away. I'll answer anything if I know the answer to it so you don't have to be nervous." Imai said.

"I…okay." Nico muttered as she let out a sigh. "Back there, against the warriors, what was that?"

"What do you mean?"

"The way you slaughtered the enemy, that was unlike a human. It was too brutal, merciless, and you did it without batting an eye. What was that?"

Nico couldn't read the smile that was on Imai's face. It wasn't just that, she couldn't read Imai as a person at all.

"Oh, you mean the way I killed them. It was the first step into becoming myself again."

"Become yourself again?"

"Yes, becoming me. After my seclusion, I hated who the Empress of the Blade was. She, who used strength to subdue anyone, and mercilessly slaughtered countless enemies. She, whose sword techniques had surpassed everyone. I hated her."

"So then why?"

"It's because I am reminded of what type of world we live in. In this world, strength was everything. You should understand that too, Nico. After all, part of the reason why Ohara was destroyed was because the World Government didn't want them to learn about the poneglyphs and gain access to ancient weapons was because they feared that the people residing in Ohara would destroy them."

There was a moment of silence before Imai continued talking.

"So in order to truly reach the peak of my own abilities, I combined my past, and what I had learned during my seclusion. Then to surpass my current self, there is the future me who will master the abilities of the Goro Goro no Mi."

"You will become strong enough that you would basically be invincible. No one would be able to stand up against you."

"No one would if they fought one on one with me. That's why they need to throw away their pride and fight me altogether."

"Imai, tell me, what exactly do you want to do after you master the Goro Goro no Mi. What are you trying to do with the world?"

"I believe I've said this before. I want to simply destroy the world and recreate it with me at the center of it all."

"As I thought, I can't understand you at all. To destroy the world and recreate it? What the heck are you even talking about?"

"It's just an inspiration I received from a fictional story. It's about some guy who did everything to save his little sister. It moved my heart quite a bit."

"I'm now even more confused, how did a story about a guy who wanted to save his little sister get into this conversation?"

"Nevermind, but when the time comes. You will understand."

Nico sighed and gave up thinking about it. She didn't want to have a headache before meeting Conis.

"Oh? It seems like we're here." Imai said as she stared at the island of clouds in front of them.

Imai and Nico both got off of the snake.

"Let's go see Conis now."