One Piece: Undying Dream

"The whole island. Leave nothing standing." The black haired man dashed off.

"Intel says that the vault will be beneath the central compound in the North" the captain continued, addressing the others. "Once our young friend has created sufficient... distraction, we'll retrieve what we came for and depart."

The blonde man smiled thinly. "And if Marine headquarters has ships in the vicinity? We're far from friendly waters."

"Then we'll give them a proper greeting," the captain replied, his grin returning with savage intensity. "It's been too long since I've had the pleasure of killing a…

Suddenly, the central figure—a man with wild, untamed hair that seemed to defy gravity itself—paused mid-sentence. His head turned, slowly and deliberately, until he was looking directly at Roku's hiding spot in the tree line.

Their eyes met across the distance.

"Oh shit," Roku breathed, his blood turning to ice.

He didn't wait to see what would happen next. Instinct took over as he scrambled backward, staying low, then turned and sprinted through the jungle toward the slave quarters. Branches whipped at his face and arms as he ran, heart hammering against his ribs.

How had the man spotted him? Roku had hidden in the densest part of the foliage, completely concealed from normal sight. Yet those eyes had found him instantly, as if Roku had been standing in an open field waving a flag.

"Someone interesting?" asked the giant woman, noticing her captain's distraction.

The wild-haired man grinned, an expression that could freeze the blood of hardened warriors. "Just a rat in the bushes. This island is crawling with them."

The mustached giant and the pink-haired woman exchanged a troubled glance but said nothing more. The massive woman merely laughed again, while the blonde man watched the captain with calculating eyes.

13:20 - Edge of Eastern Sector

Roku emerged from the jungle at a dead run, eyes scanning for the quickest route back to the slave quarters. With the guards distracted by the pirate incursion, he took a risk he'd never dared before—leaping onto a low storage shed and from there to the rooftop of a guard barracks.

His feet barely made a sound as he raced across the rooftops, jumping from building to building with acrobatic precision. Years in the fighting pits had honed his body into a weapon, but also a tool for survival. Where other slaves would have to navigate the chaotic streets, Roku could move above the fray.

He was halfway to the eastern quarter when it happened.

A deafening boom split the air, so powerful it seemed to crack the sky itself. The entire island shuddered beneath him. Roku's next leap faltered as the building he was aiming for suddenly tilted, its foundation crumbling.

He twisted in mid-air, barely managing to catch the edge of an adjacent roof. The shock wave rippled through the island, buildings swaying as if made of paper rather than stone. Roku clung onto the side of the rooftop, watching the southern horizon in disbelief, as a massive plume of fire and smoke rose from the direction of the harbor.

The destruction had begun.