Black Whirlwind


III: Fake Feather

"You're awfully heavy for a so-called smoke-man."

Smoker growled at the humanoid bird-like being. "Well, you're currently suppressing the powers of the Devil Fruit with this stupid chain."

"This Demon's Chain suppresses any and all special abilities, including your Devil Fruit powers," the being traced a claw on the glowing chain that was definitely not Sea Stone as it flew overhead to the spire of the island's mountain. "Crow Sama will know what to do with you."

A red, blue and black blur flashed overhead, a small bird perching itself on the larger being shoulder as it chirped something.

"Ah, so Crow Sama has found his friends," the being noted.

"Crow?" Smoker echoed around the stubs of cigars still in his teeth. "Bird-bastard, where're you taking me? My subordinates are going to come soon, you know. Do you know that it's a punishable offence, attacking a Marine ship?"

"Your human governments have no sway here, and cannot reach here," the bird-being chirped in reply. "Even if you escape, how would you find your way back? How you got here will be rectified, and then I will throw you into the sea. Let's see if you can still swim. If you can, then I'm not Black Feather, Sirocco the Dawn!"


"Food!" Luffy made a running jump towards the long table of food laid out. "Food!"

"Stop!" Usopp whacked him. "What if it's human flesh...?"

"Don't care! I'm hungry!"

"You and your demonic appetite!" Usopp yelled at him.

"Don't worry, this is beef," Sanji poked at a slab. "Still bloody though... and lobster?"

"Why are these bottles all thin in the neck?" Zoro growled.

"We're birds, does it look like we have human mouths?" A green-headed blue bird crooned as it landed clawed feet on the long table. "Crow Sama!"

"Gale, I told you, enough with the formality!" Crow scolded lightly. "We have a lot to talk about, Yusei, Aki. These guys are?"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, I'm a pirate!" Luffy chirped, drooling at the salmon fillet which was about the length of his forearm. "I'm the captain!"

"You're the captain?" Crow yelled. "You're an idiot!"

"Yes, he's an idiot, but he's the captain," Ace nodded. "Portgas D. Ace, Luffy's big brother. My apologies for this idiot."

"Sadly, yes," Nami sighed. "Nami, navigator."

"Zoro, swordsman," Zoro chugged down half a bottle. "Hey, this is good!"

"Sanji, chef," Sanji cut out choice cuts of salmon. "Nami Swan~! Robin Chwan~!"

"Nico Robin, archaeologist and researcher," Robin offered. "I do know that most birds are primarily herbivorous, so I do hope that you did not have to resort to killing one of your own to feed us."

"Stop with the morbid speech!" Usopp yelled. "Ah, I'm Usopp, sniper. Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Chopper, and I'm the first doctor!" Chopper grinned. "Aki's the second doctor!"

"I'm the super-shipwright that built the Sunny, Franky!" Franky posed.

"My eyes!" Crow screamed.

"Yohoho, my eyes would pop out, but I have no eyes! Ah, I am the musician, 'Just Dead Bones' Brook, also called the Soul King! Yohohoho!" Brook laughed.

"And I'm Crow Hogan, Yusei's old friend!" Crow smiled at them. "Yusei... we have a lot to catch up on... such as how you joined a pirate crew led by an idiot..."

"Yeah, there's a lot that happened..." Aki nodded in agreement.

"I'm hungry!" Luffy whined.

"Ara, Crow, you've brought in quite the group this time," A feminine voice echoed through the dry high-ceiling caves where the Black Feather made their homes as a tall woman entered. "First time I've seen them."

This woman wore her dark hair long and wild like a bunch of feathers, a contrast to the slim black, white and red dress with a Chinese collar she had. Her head was covered with a gold hood edged with teeth to show only her sharp, angular features and hooked nose, and her eyes gleamed red in the dark light provided by the bare torches that burned around the cave.

"Mellorine~!" Sanji waltzed around. "You elegance knows no bounds, my lady!"

"Yes, he does this all the time," Yusei answered the expression on Crow's face.

Crow sighed, slapping his forehead. "Just take that form already."

The woman smiled faintly, and winds whipped as she was enveloped in a dark tornado that quickly died down to reveal...

"AHHHHHH!" Sanji back-pedalled as he was faced with a beak-like mouth edged with lots of teeth, a slender serpentine body, and large feathery wings of black and white that matched the looks of the woman earlier.

"Apparently, here, in Messiah Draconis, the powers of the Signer Dragons extend to taking a human form," Crow sighed as the dragon faded to be replaced by the elegant woman again. "So, Black Feather Dragon is apparently a woman."

"What a surprise," Aki nodded. "I thought you referred to Black Feather Dragon as a 'he'."

"When talking about dragons, who would think it was a girl?" Crow commented.

"Sexist!" Black feather whacked him upside the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Cool! You're a dragon, right?' Luffy exclaimed. "Do you-?"

"Do not!" Sanji kicked him in the face. "My lady, your beauty and elegance is such that it cannot belong to a mere human! I should have realised that!"

Crow twitched. "Yusei, exactly what kind of friends did you make...?"

"A bunch of pirates," Black Feather sighed. "Imagine my surprise when I was summoned not to a Duel Stadium, but to a battlefield."

"A battlefield?" Crow yelped.

"Oi, this is really good!" Luffy interrupted, waving a whole lobster claw about. "Try it!"

"We should eat first," Yusei offered. "Otherwise he'll eat the whole table."


"So, you charged into a war against what, a hundred thousand people with only four thousand or so pirates, this guy," Crow pointed to Luffy, "and Aki, to rescue that guy's brother?" He sighed. "And, how many times did you nearly die in the process?"

"Ah, that should cover everything," Yusei considered. "Or maybe there was the two years I spent-"

"No thank you." Crow shot back. "I'd rather not have a heart attack from the numerous death-defying stunts you put yourself through."

"Oi, Yusei, you forgot the giant dragon!" Luffy yelled.

"You've never talked about Marineford," Nami muttered.

"You never asked," Yusei replied. "No one did."

"He was so cool!" Luffy began to sparkle from awe again. "Even against that giant gold Buddha, that dragon just charged straight into the Oris Plaza! Everyone was stunned!"

"That guy pulled off a real miracle there, charging into the Navy HQ like that to live..." Ace mused. "Hey, this sake is good!"

"And there was a whole lot of dragons too!" Luffy continued excitedly. "It was awesome! We should do it again!"

"Idiot captain, we nearly died there! Not everyone's made of rubber like you!" Aki whacked him lightly. "Ace, discipline him!"

"Luffy..." Ace began rather calmly, right before he erupted. "Dammit, don't give me a heart attack every time you do crazy things!"

"Yusei, you too!" Crow lightly punched his shoulder. "After that Arc Cradle thing back home, we all thought you died! Don't scare everyone like that! Do you know what Jack will do when he realises you're still alive?"

"Jack?" Usopp echoed. "Another old friend, Yusei?"

"We're in another world," Yusei pointed out.

Crow gave him a look. "This is Jack Atlas, the guy with the burning soul and willpower even though he's got no skills outside of Duel Monsters and fighting. Do you really think the fact that we're in another world would stop him? If Aki and I can get here, so can Jack."

"Oh, right," Yusei realised.

"Hang on, this Jack only knows fighting, and this game, right?" Usopp pointed out.

"Won't stop him," Yusei frowned. "I grew up with that man. If there's a goal, he'll reach it even if he has to go through hell."

"So, he'll find his way here by sheer power?" Nami asked. "Why?"

"Jack, has only ever seen Yusei as a rival," Crow pointed out as Yusei excused himself. "You know, Jack is number one in the Pro Leagues, and undisputed King in the Leagues. That is, he's acknowledged as king, but officially he's not."

"Eh? Why?" Zoro growled. "If he's so strong then he's king, right?"

"That's because... to be King, he needs an undefeated record," Crow answered. "And Jack has one person he has never won in a Riding Duel..."

"There's one person even stronger than this Jack?" Chopper squeaked.

"Yusei," Crow nodded. "Whether official or not, Jack has never won against Yusei in a Riding Duel."

"Never? As in, never never?" Usopp exclaimed. "So Yusei's another monster as well..."

"Well, we're a crew of monsters too," Luffy wisely nodded. "He fits right in, don't you think?"

"So, what does Yusei do with you guys anyway?" Crow asked.

"He's the handyman," Luffy chirped. "He's really reliable!"

"Caw, we're back!" a large bird-human in a red smock arrived, a thick something slung over one shoulder. "There's a human warship docked on the beach. This is their in-charge."

"Yo, Smokey!" Luffy grinned as Vice-Admiral Smoker was unceremoniously dumped onto the ground.

"Strawhat!" the man growled in answer. "Untie me this instant so I can beat that guy!"

"So, what do we do with him, Crow?" Black Feather lounged in her winged-back chair, eyeing the Marine with distaste. "He's a security risk."

"Hell if I know," Crow shrugged. "What do you guys usually do?"

"We just drop them from the mountain," Gale chirped.

"Are you crazy?" Crow yelped, eyeing the entrance to the cave. "It's what, about five hundred metres? He'll die!"

"Actually, it's six hundred and fifty metres," Sirocco volunteered. "And them dying was pretty much the plan. After all the Black Feathers who died protecting our treasure..."

"Treasure?" Nami's eyes sparkled. "Where?"

"Here," Crow snidely drew a card from his pocket. "Treasure of the Black Feather, or Cards for Black Feathers."

"How is that a treasure?" Nami screeched at the bird.

"Black Feathers tend to use up the hand quickly, so this card is necessary," Yusei answered. " In a Duel, the next chance could represent a chance to turn the game around and win. It's a chance at victory, that's why it's a treasure."

"You're this Crow, right?" Smoker growled. "You're affiliated with the Straw Hat Pirates?"

"Yusei's a friend," Crow replied sharply. "And, I hate authority figures, blah."

"Shooting Star!" Smoker bellowed. "Untie me so I can throw you into the brig!"

"Can't that guy turn into smoke?" Zoro commented.

"Demon's Chain," Sirocco pointed. "We borrowed it from Crimson Fire a while back."

"Crimson Fire?" Yusei echoed, slightly disturbed.

"It's one of the six main island of the archipelago, Messiah Draconis," Black Feather interjected, giggling. "Back to the Marine we have captured here. What about the warship?"

"The rest of them are being watched, Black Feather Sama, Crow Sama," Sirocco answered.

"Enough with the formality already," Crow yawned. "Couldn't we just send the ship on its way?"

"This gateway is protected pretty much by fear, and the Shadow Mists that surround it in the middle of the Eye of the Typhoon," the dragon-turned-human sighed. "If it were that simple, then every ship that comes here wouldn't be sunk by us."

"S- Sunk?" Usopp squeaked.

"So, why are we an exception?' Franky bluntly asked.

"Because you had two Signers with you, and the Marks are that of our master," Black Feather explained.

"Marks? Didn't they all- Ah! Yusei, when did that come back?" Crow jumped as Yusei peeled off his glove to show the Head of the Dragon.

"Ah! There was a huge round mark on his back too!" Luffy used a finger to draw in the sauce of the plate he was holding. "It looks like..."

"That's definitely not the mark," everyone said as Luffy showed his masterpiece. The result was a cross between an Escher painting and watercolours gone wrong.

"So you took on that destiny again..." Crow sighed, a weary look in his eyes.

"Then, maybe we could have them under our protection for a while?" Chopper asked.

"They're Marines, an enemy of pirates," Zoro growled. "They're not going to accept our protection."

"Maybe I'll just sink the ship," Black Feather daintily replied.

Her declaration got mixed response from the crew present. "Oi!" Luffy protested.

"Black Feather!" Yusei protested.

"That sort of thing-!" Usopp followed up.

"That's evil!" Chopper accused.

"Good and bad are human concepts, so something that is not human cannot be classified as neither good nor bad." Black Feather replied evenly. "Even in this form, remember, little reindeer, that you and I are not human. We are monsters."

"Anyway, the fate of these guys are in my hands, right?" Crow asked.

"As a Duellist of the Black Feather, you know that answer already," An elbow was propped on the table as Black Feather leaned forward. "What will you do, Crow? Humans who step on the island will be killed by the Killer Tomatoes running around, or fall prey to Kogarashi or Jin. This is a haven of Duel spirits, and the only mortals allowed are those we chose and their friends."

"Dammit, don't you dare try anything with my ship!" Smoker retorted.

"...get them off the island." Everyone started from Crow's words. "It's against my principles to murder, so get them away from the island. Problem solved. Sirocco."

"I will execute this!" Sirocco bowed as he dragged the tied-up captain off. "Maybe we can drop them in a typhoon first..."

"Anyway, Yusei," Crow turned to the dark-haired mechanic. "I got a problem."


"He's here! He's here!"

"Yay!"

"The fires of my soul are burning, hot!"

"Well, let's all try to calm down and arrange a welcome party, okay?"

"Roar."

"Yes, Debris, we know. Be patient, my own. When Yusei comes, he will take his place with us... a place in immortality."

"He well, Mistress? He is stubborn..."

"He is ours. Why ever not?"


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