Asa: You know what I like?
Ang3l: What?
Asa: The people who have reviewed! And not just them, everyone who has favourited and followed as well!
Ang3l: They are pretty awesome aren't they! Okay, so this chapter isn't one of the longest... but I'll make it up to you and make the next one even longer! I've caught up to the amount I've written for this story so far so the updates might be less frequent.
Asa: Well there is only so much you can do!
Ang3l: I guess... I wasn't to sure about this chapter... I don't know... It felt kind of rushed and I may not have explained everything but it was kinda hard to keep track of all the stuff that was going on in the scene.
Asa: If it's really bad then you can just go through and reconstruct it, no biggy.
Ang3l: Well I have rambled on enough. Please enjoy and if you don't let me know so I can fix it!
Chapter IV
Blowing Myself up (again) and Waxy Situations
I frowned as I walked through the forest by myself. Grumbling each time I would accidentally scratch my arm or face on the unusually sharp branches. How did I even end up here? I mean seriously, it was only a few minutes ago that Dorry got back up to fight his next battle, dropped a mountain on Luffy, Ussop showed up, these weird guys-who I think were Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine- beat the hell out of us and Luffy told me to run because I was the only one who could still walk at the time.
Wow, that was an eventful few minutes…
I sighed and bit my lip, continuing to trudge through the foliage. Why did I leave them? I mean, I know Luffy ordered me to go but he isn't my captain so it wouldn't have been breaking any laws if I had disobeyed him… right? I really wanted to be a part of the crew, but how could I expect Luffy to want me to travel with them if I just abandoned them? What kind of a friend does that?
I growled in self anger, tightening my hands into fists. Before I registered what I was doing, my fist flew out and punched the nearest tree with all the power I had. To be honest I really hadn't expected anything to have happened, besides me having a swore hand. To my astonishment, the tree started to turn a rotten black colour. Its bark peeled and fell like wet paper, leaves disintegrating into nothing. I backed away as the now dead tree could no longer hold its own weight and fell, hitting the ground with a hollow thud.
"What. The. Hell." I uttered, completely stunned. It was just like what happened at the river…
Before I could think too much on it, a loud commotion sounded from somewhere to my left.
I'll worry about this later, Luffy and the others might need my help.
I took off running in the direction of the sound. In no more than 5 minutes I came through a clearing.
Multiple things caught my eye when I looked up.
Luffy standing on some sort of black symbol, a little girl having a picnic, a weird dude with a weird hairdo shaped like a 3, and most of all, a giant spinning pumpkin that was slowly turning Nami, Zoro and Vivi into wax statues.
Wow they're already at this point? How long was I wandering that damn forest?
"Man, that was a long run!" I huffed, trying to catch my breath.
"Asa! Hurry, you need to help us!" Nami shouted "There's something wrong with Luffy!"
I gave the giant pumpkin a critical look as if I were assessing it. "Yep. See I told you Vivi! Very deadly indeed…" I ignored Vivi's look of shock as I turned my attention to Luffy.
"Hey, Luffy!" I gave him a wave and ran over to him. No one tried to stop me because Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine ran off to get Ussop and Mr. 3 probably thought I wasn't a threat. Well boo him...
"Hi Asa!" He said back, but he had a faraway look in his eyes.
"Okay, let's get right to it. Luffy, promise me you won't save your nakama, no matter what." I said, my hands on my hips.
"WHAT!?" Nami, Vivi and Zoro shrieked.
Luffy looked at me. "No." He said stepping forwards out of the symbol. You have to appreciate reverse psychology sometimes. The moment his foot left the paint he seemed to snap out of whatever trance he had been in. "Huh? I kinda felt weird there for a minute. Oh? Asa? You're here too?" I gave a light smile and waved.
"Luffy! Hurry!" Vivi reminded him.
"Okay, I'll save you guys right now."
I saw it coming before anyone did, so I did the first thing that came to mind. I threw myself between Luffy and Ms. Goldenweek as she tried to paint a symbol on the raven haired boy's back. Instead it was painted on the front of my tank top. Luffy turned around in time to see me bend my head down and start shaking.
"O-Oi Asa? Are you okay?" He was just about to reach for my shoulder when I dropped to my knees, exploding in uncontrollable laughter.
Really?! Laughter yellow?! Out of all the options!
"I-I-I… I'm f-f-fine! Ha ha ha ha! J-Just help… them!" I managed through my laughter. Luffy nodded in determination, leaving me to roll around on the grass laughing so hard I thought my lungs would erupt. I noticed Mrs. Goldenweek through my tear filled eyes about to try another trick on Luffy so I rolled in her direction, still laughing, and tripped her. Ha! I call that attack 'The Steamroller'! Her paint splattered uselessly on the grass and the mark on my shirt smudged, relieving me of the horrid laugh attack.
Luffy was just about to attack the pumpkin when Mr. 3 came out of nowhere and grabbed me by the throat, lifting me off the ground. I choked and clawed at the idiot's hand trying to get some oxygen. Really, would I ever get a chance to just freaking breath?! Luffy held back and looked positively livid at the cowardly move. I caught Luffy's gaze and shook my head as best as I could, begging for him to save his friends. They were almost completely covered in wax by now.
"Well Straw hat? What'll it be? This stupid girl or your precious friends?"
Something cold and hard wrapped around my neck in place of Mr. 3's hand. I was raised higher off the ground by a long tendril of wax that was quickly growing over my shoulders. Any longer and I would be just like the others.
"L-Lu—ffy," I managed to choke out. "S-save… t-th-em. I'll b-be fine!" Luffy's expression changed between shock, confusion, anger and determination so fast if I had blinked I would have missed it.
The wax spread around my stomach tightly and I groaned. My lungs burned, begging and pleading for any amount of oxygen to reach them. I couldn't hold out much longer.
Then everything seemed to happen at once. Ussop broke through the tree line riding Carue and shot a flame star at Mr. 3. The attack was so sudden it caused the baroque agent to release me and I dropped to the ground. The wax shattered and I gasped for precious air.
At the same time Luffy had turned back to the giant pumpkin but was attacked by Mr. 5's snot bomb attack… thing.
Luffy then engaged in a fight while Ussop took care of Ms. Valentine.
There had to be something I could do! I looked around and spotted the oil slicked rope that Ussop was supposed to use to burn the cake down. He must have dropped it. But that didn't happen in the anime. My breathing came out in short raspy gasps, my throat was swore and dry but I got up and ran to the rope. Grabbing it, I proceeded to circle the cake multiple times, wrapping the rope around it as I went. When I was done with a layer I would climb up and continue on the next one, coughing on the falling wax.
"Hi Nami! Hi Zoro! Hi Vivi!" I said as I passed them. They couldn't hear me but I figured 'why not'.
When I reached the end I looked over at Ussop but he was totally incapacitated by the blonde weirdo who likes lemons.
Damn it! How am I gonna light this? Mr. 3 is still out from Ussop's fire star... which also didn't happen in the anime...
…
I hate coming up with plans… this is gonna hurt… again.
I stood over the tip of the rope and turned towards Luffy's fight.
"Oi! Mr. Exploding Guy!" I yelled over to Mr. 5 gaining the attention of both him and Luffy. "I just wanted to let you know, I think your devil fruit is the dumbest one I've ever heard of. Also Luffy is gonna kick your ass and we will also take down that stupid boss of yours. What was his name? Sir Infantile? Sir Reconcile? Hmm… Oh yes! Now I remember it was Sir Cro-"
"How could you possibly know the identity of our boss!? None of the agents are allowed to know!" He yelled cutting me off.
I shrugged casually. "Maybe I'm just smarter then you."
And that's what did it. Before I could react he flung a ball of snot at me (grossest attack ever by the way) and it exploded when it hit right at my feet. Despite the pain I felt as I was hurtled backwards, I smirked.
The explosion had caught the rope on fire and it now acted like a wick. In no time at all the whole pumpkin tower cake thing-a-ma-jig was up in flames.
Well according to the plot line the others should make it out just fine. I thought as I lay on the grass trying to catch my breath because blowing yourself up, having a laugh attack, being choked, running in (big) circles and again blowing yourself up wasn't the healthiest thing for your lungs... or the rest of you for that matter. I was vaguely aware of Nami and Vivi saving Ussop from having his head crushed by Mrs. Valentine and Zoro taking out Mr. 5.
Seeing the Straw hats in real life was so much different than the anime. Especially seeing them fight! The anime didn't do these guys justice!
I thought occurred to me as watched the billowing smoke rise into the sky. Could I keep doing this? This whole situation wasn't one to be taken lightly. I nearly died on multiple occasions today, most of which because of stupid ideas… but still. This is just the beginning, if I can't even fight then how am I supposed to get through Drum? And Alabasta? I'll die before I get the chance to find some way home!
But if I left the Straw hats… then… I'd be alone again...
Okay. I'll do this. The moment we get to Drum Kingdom I'm going to thank the crew for their help and leave. Besides, I've only known them for a little while so it won't be a big deal if I left right? Plus if I stayed then I could hurt one of them.
These strange powers or whatever they were, had been on my mind since we got here. Since the water. I didn't know what was happening to me and that scared me. It scared me more then I'd like to admit.
With my mind made up I groaned and rolled over to stand. Finally having caught my breath I looked around and noticed Luffy was just starting to emerge from the forest with Carue. He must have gone after Mr. 3.
Nami, Zoro, Vivi, Carue, Luffy and Ussop were standing around the two giants. The two giants that I had failed to notice when I first showed up…
Give me some credit though! A lot was going on!
I walked over to stand beside Nami.
"But the reason they initially came to this island was because of me…" Vivi said. Man, I hate showing up in the middle of a conversation.
Nami reached over and pinched Vivi's cheek. "Would you cut that out?" the navigator said.
"She's right, Vivi!" I looked at Luffy who was eating Mrs. Goldenweek's left over crackers with Ussop and Carue. But it wasn't the crackers that made me drool. Luffy was shirtless! Yum...
I mentally slapped myself.
Jeez stop staring ya pervert!
I giggled when Luffy and Ussop tried to Kanpai with the crackers, only for them to shatter. Nami flinched and rubbed her stomach. Looking at her, I just realized she wasn't wearing a shirt (am I slow today or what?). I looked down at myself and the shirt Nami lent me was pretty much torn to shreds so I just took it off, leaving me in my black bra.
Zoro also turned his attention to Nami. "What's that?" He asked, regarding the red mark on her stomach.
"It's nothing, just a bug bite." She said dismissively.
"Man, having to wait another year for the log to set to the next island is pretty serious…" The swordsman sighed.
"Yeah it is. I don't think Vivi's country can wait that long." I put in, frowning.
"We are in your debt. There must be some way we can express our gratitude." Broggy said.
Luffy jumped up on a nearby rock and pointed up to the giants. "Okay then, Giant-ossans, do something about our Log!"
Dorry sighed. "The Log is the one thing we can do nothing about."
A familiar voice caught everyone's attention. "Nami-saaaan~! Vivi- chwaaaan~! Asa-chaaaan~! And the rest of you jerks!"
"Oh! Hey Sanji!"
"Everybody's safe, right!? Thank goodness!" The cook said as he walked over to us with his arms wide open, like he was expecting a hug.
Nami sweat-dropped. "Where has he been anyway?"
Sanji noticed Dorry and Broggy and ran up to them, glaring angrily. "Hey are you Mr. 3?" He yelled.
"Um, hey Sanji? How do you know about Mr. 3?" I asked, even though I already knew about his talk with Crocodile.
The moment Sanji turned his eyes on me they turned into hearts.
Great, back into ero-cook mode.
"Asa! You look as lovely as ever!"
"Really because I feel like I was blown up twice. Oh wait! I was." I deadpanned.
Sanji offered me his jacket but I denied and he gave it to Nami instead. "Well then, I just had a talk with Mr. 0 on the Den Den Mushi."
"The Boss!? You talked to him!?" Vivi exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yeah. There was this weird-ass hideout in the middle of the jungle. Seems he mistook me for this Mr. 3. So I went ahead and told him I'd finished you guys off."
"So he thinks you're all dead right? That puts you guys at the advantage." I said, not missing the pointed look from Luffy. Apparently he hadn't missed the fact that I didn't include myself.
"Why is it that when nobody's looking for us, we can't leave!?" Ussop complained.
"We can't leave? Do we still have something to do here?" Sanji said then reached into his back pocket. "And after I went through the trouble of bringing you this thing." He pulled out the object and revealed it to be a Log Pose to Alabasta.
Everyone's jaws hit the ground (except for mine).
"It's an Eternal Pose to Alabasta!" Luffy yelled as he, Carue and Ussop jumped around cheering. Everyone else had a ridiculously large smile on their face. "We can set sail!"
Vivi ran over to Sanji and gave him a big hug, thanking him over and over again. The cook himself looked like he had died and gone to heaven.
I gave a sad smile as I watched their small celebration. I was going to miss this when I was gone. These guys had a way of getting under your skin, even after such a short time. They made being here in this world – away from home – a lot easier to cope with.
But you can't risk their safety.
And the fact that I had to keep them safe from myself, hurt.
Ang3l: Hmm... Luffy shirtless...
Asa: Oh no.
Ang3l: *Dreamy sigh*
Asa: *Waves hand in front of face* Well, Ang3l has stopped functioning so... We hope you liked it, but let Ang3l know how she did because that's the closest thing she's done to a fight scene. She will show the actual fights in Drum though so don't feel disappointed or anything, just be patient!
What else am I forgetting... Oh! *Snaps figures* CallmeEevee I reward you with a cookie of heavenly tastyness! Also, Thanks to SilentScreaming1944 for the OC. Two more spots open people!
Until next time!