A Thousand Treasures (One Piece)

Nineteen

To get to the palace. That was her next goal. Nexus leaned against her side, an added measure to give him peace of mind. They moved through the battlefield. Squinting against the clouds of dust.

"Usopp!" Breaking through the crowd, she spotted Nami whack a beaten sniper on the head with some kind of pole. "Who asked you to create a prop for parties?"

"Hey! You're standing!" Zoro shouted.

"Party prop?" She mused, "it'll be useful later at least."

"I-Illyria-san!"

"Gah! Ria!" Chopper ran towards her, "you're full of holes!"

"Just some flesh wounds," she dismissed with a smile. "Hurts a bit to breathe, but I've had worse. See to Zoro first, he's got it worse than I do."

"Nami-san and Illyria-tan both. You guys don't know what you're doing!" Sanji shot glares at both Zoro and Usopp. "You're supposed to protect ladies!"

"Usopp." A hand found her hip. "Sorry I left ya."

"Yeah! You did!" Cocooned arms flailed about. "I said to not underestimate how weak I was, but you still left!"

"To go after someone more troublesome than Mr. 2." A sigh moved stiff shoulders. "He's eliminated now, so it's all good."

"It's so not!"

"I should gut the both of you!"

"Sorry, guys." Luffy stood ahead of the group, his arms stretched to the top of the palace. Right where Crocodile stood. "I lost against him once. So... So... I won't lose again! I'll leave the rest to you!"

"Just go already."

"If you can't win then... who can?!"

"If you want to beat my bounty, Luffy. You can't afford to lose to someone like Crocodile." Illyria smirked. "You might not have much in there but remember to use your head."

"Yeah. I will. I'll go and put an end to all this!" He tightened the bands of his arms then shot off the ground. "You bastard!"

"Everyone." Their attention turned back to Vivi. "Listen carefully, this situation is about to get a whole lot worse." She went on to explain how a cannonball would be shot into the square in exactly ten minutes. To cause a blast that would wipe the surrounding five kilometers. In that distance, both armies would be blown to pieces.

"That damn gator," Sanji spat.

"Wh-what do we do?"

"Find the cannoneer," Zoro stated.

"It won't be that easy," Usopp brought up. "For a five kilometer diameter, we'd need to search at least 2.5 kilometers away from here in ten minutes."

"No." A thumb rested beneath her chin. "The entire rebel and royal armies, and the entirety of Baroque Works is here. Crocodile won't have any use for any of it once he gets his hands on what he wants. We're not looking for a cannoneer. We're looking for a suicide bomber."

"Illyria-san's right." Vivi agreed.

"Restrict our search to the interior of the city-no, the center of the blast." A finger circled the air beside her. "Fifty meters at most from the square, somewhere in that radius. We'll find our cannoneer."

"He doesn't care if his men die?!" Chopper shouted.

"None of them have names." Illyria pointed out. "Billions, number agents. They all use aliases. To Crocodile, they're nothing more than the numbers on their heads. Once you get rid of all of them, you're left with Zero." She looked at Chopper, "Crocodile was going to be the only one to walk away from the blast."