Okay, so in a long bout with writers block I have finally succeeded and begun to write again and I'm glad I could finally begin writing for this story again. So let's pick up where we left off with Knight Thomas and the Cooro Pirates!
One Piece: The Knight!
Matthew descended the stairs of the restaurant rapidly. Upon reaching the bottom he approached his captain, and drew his knife to stand with their new addition, "Your grandfather is going to be fine, but I'm just hoping my captain didn't drag you into something crazy." He said with a sigh, "He can be such an airhead."
"Shut up!" Cooro cried at his "brother". "The old man was nice enough to feed us, and these guys are taking away his money, so we're gonna put things right!" He said with a chuckle.
"Well whatever the reason," Thomas began as he walked towards the door, "We can't let them wreck this place; it was my grandfather's dream to build a restaurant where people could laugh and enjoy one another's company. He hasn't been able to live his dream for a long time, and we're going to set it right." He finished as they stepped out into the sunlight to be greeted by the legions of pirates standing before them.
"I guess we have our work cut out for us…" Matthew said taking a wide stance and gripping his knife tightly with a spin.
"Eh, I could take em all." Cooro added with a grin as he reached for his swords.
"I'll make you a deal," Thomas said, "You take the one hundred in the middle and I'll take the fifty on the left, Matthew can have the fifty on the right."
Cooro looked at them quizzically, "I'm actually tempted to sit this one out to see how you all fight." He added, "But what captain would I be if I wasn't there with you all! Kaahahahahaha!" He laughed loudly as he drew the blades and rested them at his side before taking his stance, the right blade raised above his head and the left tucked into his right side. "Crow Style: Hunter Dive!" He cried as he rushed through the mass of pirates knocking them up into the air. He gripped the blades tighter and he swung upward, "Icarus Shoot!" As the flying sword strike demolished the pirates weapons, they plummeted to the ground and ran in fear. While the other's were distracted, Matthew and Thomas made their move. Matthew rushed right to the center of his group and before they could register what happened he began his assault. He was in constant motion as he flipped, kicked, slashed, and punched his opponents into submission. He used their attacks against them as he dodged bullets and cutlasses letting them strike one another as he moved.
Thomas however took a more direct approach, "Maglio Sferico!" He yelled as he swung his leg outward, the limb shrinking as all the mass transferred to his foot which became shaped like a ball and was very dense. It struck the other pirates with great force as it sent them flying away. But he wasn't done there; the leg whipped back into place and resumed it's shape, and he picked up some bullets from the nearby pistols and swallowed them, his hands taking the shape of pistols, "Le Pistole!" He cried as he fired off the bullets from his hands in rapid succession. The pirates scattered with cries of fear as the bullets exploded around them.
"Well that was too easy," Cooro said sheathing his swords, "And I gotta say guys you are awesome! How'd you learn to fight like that Matthew?"
"My father was an expert in hand to hand combat, he trained under Garp the Fist when he was younger but was never as strong as the vice-admiral. When he came back he taught me what he knew and I learned how to use knives and swords from Jarvis." He said as he sheathed his knife and walked over to join his captain.
"Then how'd a guy like that get defeated by a weakling like Papa Stormy?" Cooro asked in complete surprise.
"Originally Thunder and Lightning and a few other pirates attacked and we held them off. So one day during a raid, Stormy showed up and began firing on our town. Many marines were killed and Jarvis sounded the retreat despite my father's orders to hold the line. Outnumbered, he fought them off by himself until Stormy showed up with reinforcements. He was wounded and subdued and when Stormy declared his regency Jarvis submitted, but my father said he would rather die with his head held high." Matthew said recounting the events of the assault as he sat down.
"Damn," Thomas added joining, "Sounds like we've both lost father, but hey let's not get too distracted now. Those were just the grunts, the real problem will be dealing with the Captain and his men."
"Bring 'em on!" Cooro cried, "We can take 'em no problem!"
The High Top
"Some kid's did what!?" The captain of the Carnival Pirates screamed.
"I-I'm sorry sir, I just…" The grunt stammered before a pistol silenced him with three shots.
"M-maybe y-y-you shouldn't b-be so h-h-hard on them C-c-captain Woode." The first mate Mumbles tried to say.
"Ah, shut it you clown! Sergei, Jacques, let's go. We're gonna rip their little heads off!" The captain cried as his officers followed behind him.
Knight House
Cooro was lying on his back enjoying the rays of the sun as he waited for his opponents when he sensed the murderous voices on the horizon, "Here they come." He said as his eyes snapped open.
Thomas looked around, "I don't see them."
Matthew walked up to his captain, "How can you tell?"
"Kenbunshoku Haki that my mother taught me, it helps me tell where things are. Dad said that with enough training one can use it to predict people's movements in battle, so there's that too." Cooro finished as he stood up, "But as a Logia user there's not a lot that can hurt me so I try not to worry about it."
Matthew readied his knife, "That confidence is going to be your downfall there Captain."
"It's not just that, it takes a lot of concentration to read one's moves I bet." Thomas added, "And our airheaded captain probably doesn't have the patience."
"Exactly!" He cried, "Hey, wait a minute."
"Oi! Are you the brats putting the stiff on my operation?" A strange voice called.
Cooro looked down the road to see the three men approaching him. The man in the middle was a fat man in the middle wearing a red and white striped shirt with a large black jacket, brown trousers, and sandals. He had a skull and crossbones bandana and wore a jesters hat. On his hand was a little pirate captain puppet with a hat that had their flag's emblem on it, a skull with a jester's hat and two batons rather than bones. The man on the left wore a unitard and had a large hammer in his hand. The man on the right was a mime in a beret with two knives in each hand.
"So that's their captain eh?" Cooro said eyeing the fat guy, "He doesn't seem so tough."
"No, Captain Woode is there!" Thomas cried pointing at the puppet.
Cooro looked him over thoroughly, "What, behind the fat guy?"
"No you son of a bitch, he means me!" The puppet cried shaking his fists in rage.
"Their captain is a puppet?" Matthew said, "You're kidding right."
"Shut up kid! Oi stupid, kill these fools will ya!" The puppet cried at the fat man.
"Y-y-yes sir. S-sergei c-c-crush the swordsm-man, Captain W-woode wishes t-t-to make an example out of the Knight b-boy. Jacques k-kill the other b-b-boy." The fat man stuttered.
"With pleasure comrade!" Sergei yelled as he raised his hammer and swung down, Cooro easily sidestepping the blow.
"Come on giant, you're going to have to try better than…" Cooro didn't get to finish before the hammer slammed into his left arm and sent him flying into a house, which was heralded by a scream from the resident.
"No way," Matthew stated before the mime was in his face, his fingers a flurry of motion as he daggers spun like pinwheels of death. Matthew blocked each one with great panic, "Get up Cooro!"
The captain returned from the house with his arm hanging limp at his side, "How did you…"
The giant stood over him with his hammer raised and Cooro dove for cover as the hammer crushed the floorboards where he was standing. "It is a nice hammer, no? Forged from sea-stone we got from the hull of a Navy warship!" The man mountain said as he raised it again.
Cooro dove away and readied himself to face the giant. Meanwhile Thomas was having a harder time with the enemies captain as despite his size, the fat man jumped and bounded like a professional acrobat. "Maglio Sferico!" He missed and broke a lamppost, "Lancia!" His leg shot out like a spear and missed the fat man in the air. "Rampino!" He yelled as his arm became a grappling hook that latched onto the man's ankle and yanked him down towards Thomas.
"N-n-n-no!" The man cried.
"Martello!" He yelled as his leg from the knee down folded into a hammer and he smashed it into the man's gut.
Mumbles dropped the puppet, and the cries of the captain's rage were heard. "Goddamn it you walking pile of blubber retrieve me!"
Thomas approached the captain, "If I'd had others who would stand with me we would have run you out years ago. Later captain, Grande Piede!" His foot doubled in size and he smashed the wooden puppet into nothing but splinters.
"Y-y-you k-killed him." Mumbles stuttered as he looked at Thomas in rage before bellowing and charging him.
"Give it a rest big gu…" Thomas tried to get out before the large man's fist rammed into his chest almost tearing through the other side. Blood spewed from Thomas' mouth in a hacking cough as the large man raised his fists. "Guscio…" Thomas coughed as his back hardened into a turtle's shell which held up against the blow for the most part.
"Gufwahahahaha! Looks like your chef will die a little earlier today!" The mountain man cried at Cooro. He met the young man's gaze and saw the rage spread across Cooro's face. He raised his hammer and swung at the boy.
Cooro held his right sword steady as he looked at the man, "One Sword, Hawk Style: Mighty Talon!" With a mighty swing the hammer and sword collided, and they stayed that way as a shockwave of wind whipped through the town. The strong man watched in horror as his hammer split and the slice kept going all the way through the street for 50 yards. He dropped his hammer and raised his fist to strike. "Wing Beat." In a flurry of movement, the boy was on the other side sheathing his blade and wounds opened up all over the large man. Cooro walked over to the ruins of the house to retrieve his other sword and looked over at his crew.
Matthew danced around the mime as the two engaged in a dance of death that only one would win. The mime may have had more blades, but Matthew was faster. He parried and slashed and drove the mime back into a wall and disarmed him. He put his hands up and motioned that there was a wall in Matthew's way and smiled with smug confidence before Matthew punched him in the face and he crumpled to the ground. Thomas however was on the ropes with Mumbles as he had gone from the offensive to the defensive. "Matthew!" Cooro yelled as he ran over. "That hammer buy dislocated my arm, I need you to put it back into place so I can help Thomas!"
"Okay, but keep your wind thing under control." Matthew positioned the arm and then quickly applied a lot of pressure to the location and heard it re-align with a sickening pop. Cooro winced and tried to move it, but it was still rather tense.
"It'll have to do for now." Cooro said as he rose and walked over to the man of blubber. "Hey, there you ape. Leave my nakama alone."
Mumbles turned and rushed him in a fury of sheer rage, but Cooro took his stance, "Tempesta: Sky Ride!" He screamed as he landed the blow with the man's gut and forced as much wind into it as he could sending the man into the air. "Crow Style: Dance of the Sky!" He cried as he leapt up after him and struck eight blows on the large man before falling to the ground with his blades spread like wings. The man struck the ground with a thud and he panted heavily, "Man, that guy was heavy."
After a few hours the pirates were rounded up and kicked out of town, and the Cooro Pirates were given a place of honor at that night's celebration of freedom. Cooro and his friends repaired the damages that were caused to the town and celebrated their victory over the corrupt pirates that had extorted this town. It wasn't until the next day that the partying stopped and Cooro and Matthew packed up and prepared to leave with their new stocks of food. But for Thomas there was still one last thing that needed to be done. "Grandfather?" He asked as he knocked gently on the door.
"Come in boy!" The older man called from his room. Thomas entered and walked up to the old man, "Restaurant's going to be pretty busy now that those damned pirates are gone. I think we should get ready for some Marine business finally." He said with a smile.
"Grandfather, I'm going with Cooro to become a pirate!" Thomas said as he stood rigidly.
The old man looked at him and simply laughed, Thomas was shocked by these events, "I'm not joking!"
"I know you're not boy, but that serious face you made was priceless! Your father made the same face every time he wanted to do something he thought I wouldn't let him do. So I'll tell you the same thing I told him. Life is full of adventure Thomas, it's full of joy and pain, good times and hardship. But no matter what path you take, so long as you follow your dreams and always wear a smile, I will always believe in you." The old man said with a smile.
"But what if I wanted to become a murderer or a cannibal?" Thomas said in shock.
The old man laughed again, "So long as you're eating the bad guys I don't care!" He laughed louder, "Now get out! I have a restaurant to run!"
Thomas rushed to the docks to meet his new crew who awaited him with smiles and a sail ready to be unfurled. He hopped on board their ship and grinned wide, "Let's go on an adventure! By the way, have you heard the one about the pirate and the Sea King?"
Well that was fun, I really did want to hear the one about the Pirate and the Sea King though. Well I guess to find out we'll have to keep reading and maybe review or follow?