"Damnit, where could they be?!"
Wham!
"I don't know, but Zoro better hurry up!"
Crack!
"I just hope he can find Luffy before the rest of these guys do," Usopp commented, loading another jagged, hard stone into his slingshot.
Sanji brought his heel down with a sickening thump onto a fat pirate's head, and his cutlass fell from his hand. The pirate's body fell in a lump on the ground, following after the cutlass. "Don't worry about it, he can take care of himself, remember?"
"I'm not sure that it's him I'm worried about," Nami cut in, warding off a club and a sword or two with her climo-tact. The three looked up just in time to see a large dirty cloud of smoke rising from behind a bunch of buildings that looked to be on the other side of town.
The group looked each other in the eye for just a moment or two before they simultaneously went back to cutting through the colorful and soon to be bloody and unconscious sea of pirates.
"You can't do anything right, can you?!" Rei screamed angrily through the smoke, covering her mouth with her hand and coughing uncontrollably.
"Oops, sor—"
"I brought you to help me save the freaking town, not destroy it you moronic rubber freak!"
More coughing.
"Hey, I said I was sor—"
"Anyways," she continued. At last the two spotted each other through the clouds of dust and smoke. "We need to get to the docks as soon as possible. I have a vague feeling that the root of our problems is at the harbor, along with the rest of this crew of yours."
Luffy nodded in response. "Right."
"But first..." she said softly, almost to herself. She turned suddenly and kicked one of the downed men that lay at her feet. Her kick nailed him right in the side and the man doubled up in pain. Resting her foot on top of his chest, Rei leaned her elbow onto her knee. "Ok, you slime, who do you work for and why are you here?"
"Blast you, demon; our captain Devout will surely send you back to hell where you belong."
Rei put more weight onto the man's chest by leaning forwad. The man yelped helplessly in pain as she pushed harder on his freshly broken rib that Rei had inflicted upon him.
"Well, you've answered one of my questions. Now be a good boy and tell me the other part. Then maybe I'll let you like long enough to go crawling back to this saintly captain of yours."
"Like hell you will!" came a snarl from somewhere off to her right.
Rei looked up just in time to see the glare and shining iron of a sharp sword slicing the air in between it and her head.
There was a muffled clang, and a pair of dark eyes hid a delightfully wicked smirk within each. The skilled redhead stood, a small length of rope held between her two clenched fists, stretched out just inches from her face. It was holding the sword at bay, despite the strength of the buff bearded man behind it holding the hilt.
The attacking pirate's eyes widened considerably. "H—how? It's just a tiny little piece of str—"
"You like it? I made it myself. I wove it out of a sea king's fur and indestructible, yet microscopic steel wire. There's no better thing for fending off a blade." Her eyes seemed to glow with pride, almost like that of a parent toward their child.
"Amazing!" Luffy exclaimed, his jaw dropping to the ground.
"Well, what do you think Luffy?" she glanced back over her shoulder at the enthralled boy. "How should I get rid of him? Send him flying? Or just decapitate him and get it over with?"
But Luffy didn't have the time to answer her question. Another wall of blade and club toting pirates had formed between them and the destroyed wall of the building they were in, the one way leading to the street and eventually leading to the harbor and the captain of the band of misfits.
It didn't seem to even pose a challenge to the two fighters though. With just two subtle flicks of the wrist, Rei sent the man in front of her flying. He in turn took out at least three of his comrades blocking their exit.
Suddenly, as the pirates moved in to fill in the whole after a moment of shock and surprise, Luffy suddenly had one of his bright ideas.
"Oi, Rei, I got an idea, grab on to me!"
She merely rolled her eyes and gathered up her rope into a loop and tossed in over her shoulder. "Why do I have a feeling it's not one of your good ideas?"
But she didn't refuse. Luffy stretched his arms out to both sides of the room where their enemies stood. He grabbed firmly onto two big slabs of rubble and took half a dozen steps backwards, and Rei hooked one arm around his neck and the other across his chest. She half feared what would happen, and also half wanted to know what exactly was going to transpire.
"GUM GUM..." his feet left the ground, and so did he and Rei. "...SLINGSHOT!"
The two flew at lightning speed, with Luffy feet first and Rei hanging onto him from behind for dear life, swearing up a storm.
There was another small explosion as bodies went flying everywhere, some into buildings, and some into the sky, where they became no more than screaming specks among the clouds. The two escaping teens exploded out of the building and the dust and smoke, Luffy smiling and holding his hat to his head, and Rei screaming and holding on for dear life.
"Yahooooooooo!" Luffy cried as they flew through a narrow alleyway that on a normal day would have to have been calculated into the plan long before it was put into action. But in this case, anyone, including Rei, could tell it was nothing more that dumb luck; sheer, stupid, blind, incomprehensibly dumb luck.
It was all too good to be true though. Gravity reached out at them with its cruel invisible fingers and pulled the two down from their jet speed flight through the town. Luckily for Rei, Luffy was between her and the ground, so she was able to ride him like a sled on the hard concrete and cobblestoned ground for a while.
But to her dismay, one of his hands shot out from under her and grabbed onto a doorframe nearby. Luffy stopped, but unfortunately, she didn't. Rei hit the ground and bounced brutally down the street, and then rolled a long distance. She immediately covered her head with her hands and tucked her elbows and bag into her chest; she straightened her legs out so as to minimize the damage to her body until she could come to a complete stop.
So when she finally rose to her feet after a moment lying dazed on the ground, she was virtually unharmed but for a few bumps and bruises. Her attitude was just a little more than that though.
Once she had brushed herself off as much as possible, she lit into the straw hated boy like there was no tomorrow coming for quite a long time. However, Luffy heard not one word of her yelling and swearing; he was still dazed and recovering from their poorly constructed attempt at landing. Rei could almost literally see the stars swirling around in his eyes.
Finally realizing her yelling was doing her no good, she merely sighed and threw her battered and bruised arms up into the air in submission. Then quickly she lowered them and slid her hands into her pockets, checking to see if all of the important contents had survived the impact intact.
Her harmonica was safe, so she sighed and let the whole ordeal go. "I swear you're only here to cause me trouble and pain," she told herself.
"Rei Rei?"
Suddenly she spun like an agile ballerina at the soft whisper of her name.
There, hiding behind a crate in between two buildings stood a small child that couldn't have been any more than six or seven years of age.
"Missy?" Rei stuttered, her eyes softening.
She took a step toward the girl, and then stopped, her eyes widening. "Why aren't you inside?" she inquired harshly. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out here?!"
The girl in question shrunk back slightly in response to Rei's raised voice. "I—I just wanted to make sure you knew they were here..." she answered quietly. "Like when you defeated those pirates last time and saved out village..."
"That doesn't mean that I can always prevent them from killing..." she stopped suddenly, and fell to one knee. "Come here Missy," she commanded softly, outstretching her arms. The little girl ran into her arms and hugged her tightly. "It's ok," Rei whispered, hugging the child back.
But then she took Missy by the shoulders and held her at arm's length. "Now look, Missy," she said, gazing deep into her eyes with a serious tone and expression. "I want you to find the nearest unlocked building, or some kind of hiding place, and stay there, until I or someone you know comes to get you."
She nodded timidly.
"Understand? Not before then."
She nodded again.
"Ok," she spun the little girl around and pushed her gently away. "Now get going." Missy took a few steps, then turned back around to face Rei. "Go on, I'll only be gone a little while," for the first time that day, Rei smiled. A real smile, not a smirk.
Without another word, the dark haired little girl ran off down the street and soon disappeared into the town. The redhead sighed and then got to her feet, dusting off the dirt from her pants and knees.
"Come on," she said, turning to Luffy. "Let's go."
One body went flying, then another. Two more fell to the ground. One stumbled back, screaming as tobacco sauce exploded in their eyes. Nami, Sanji, Usopp and Chopper were going a fine job holding their own, but the pirates just kept pouring in from nowhere. Where one went down, three more fell in and took his place.
Then suddenly the attack stopped.
Boom!
Silence.
Boom!
"Why haven't you maggots seized this town yet, you good for nothing dogs!"
All four sets of eyes widened in unison. He was at least three times the size of a normal man. His long dark brown hair was tied back behind his head, and hung at least to his waist. A colorful pair of goggles was strapped across his head, and the lenses were colored a bright yellow, so the color of his eyes could by no means be determined. It could only be assumed they were of a very dark color.
He wore a long dark blue over coat, much like the style of a high ranking naval officer. The shoulders were embroidered with golden thread that sparkled and shined so much that one could mistake it for the real thing.
Other than his coat, his chest was bare of clothing, but covered in many scars instead. It looked as if he had been tossed into a blender at some point in his life and had gotten out just in time, before he was shredded into ribbons.
In contrast with his royal attire, the giant man wore army camouflage pants and gargantuan thick black steel toed boots. He seemed able bodied enough to lead millions upon
millions sufficiently. The way he held himself seemed only to amplify this appearance as much as tenfold.
All of the pirates that had come off the intricate ship that had sailed in with various trumpet fanfares to the harbor stepped out of the way, and as they did, they placed their left hands on their chests and bent considerably at the waist, bowing before their highly esteemed captain. He seemed to take no notice of them, and took a few large steps toward the straw hats his crew had been fighting.
The large and intimidating man seemed as much as, or more than twice his originally estimated size to the four shrinking misfits that continued to try to defend the Going Merry. Three of the four straw hats took a step or two backwards in response. Usopp hid behind everyone else, but their yellow haired comrade did not give the giant even an inch. Sanji merely took another long drag on his cigarette that was resting loosely between his first and second fingers of his left hand and his thin lips. The cool cook stared lazily at their newest enemy, but he could tell that it would be an interesting fight, in the least.
"Jes' four'v em?" the giant boomed in a loud voice full of raw disgust and underestimation.
An older man with a rather large amount of facial hair stepped forward, bowing even lower to his captain.
"We are ever so sorry and ashamed My liege, please spare us and find it in your wonderfully great and powerful heart to forgive us and our ineptitudes. We shall promise never to disgrace you with this kind of failure again and win your grace's favor back."
The large oddly dressed man rested his chin in his right hand and his right elbow on his left arm which was across his chest. Simultaneously all of the cowering crew fell to one knee and bowed their heads.
In unison, they pleaded, "Please forgive us Lord Devout!"
Then suddenly, a light breeze blew from the south, and it seemed to capture this 'lord's attention. The wind caused his royal colored coat to dance and rustle quietly along with the whispering trees in and beyond the town.
It was then that a confident female voice interrupted the tense scene.
"I don't think it's him you should be asking for mercy."