Brand New World

Ch. 7: Right in the Balls

Sanji, Luffy, and Usopp were concerned about Conis, but I could tell she`d be fine. Anyway, I decided to meditate for a little while and try to perceive and changes in my body which may have caused me to weaken. It didn`t really help. The only thing I learned was that there was nothing wrong with my body besides the fact I felt about twenty times heavier, and that my Ki didn`t diminish, it was just harder to control and manipulate, so simple techniques took more Ki to use.

We finally got the entrance to Upper Yard, and the forest was amazing. Usopp got scared of the entrance and the skulls and shipwrecks around us. I thought it was pretty cool, and I pulled out a pad of paper and a sharpened pencil, so I could draw the landscape as best I could. Then all of a sudden, the others got excited and used the oars to move faster. Then I felt a wind blow by me, and when I looked behind I saw a guillotine blade had swung where we were. "Oh, look, a guillotine blade," I said calmly.

"How can you not be scared!" Usopp and Sanji screamed in my ear.

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled. "THAT ALMOST HIT US!"

"You just noticed!" Usopp and Sanji yelled at me.

"Did I forget I can be a little absent-minded and lose focus?" I said nervously with my hand behind my head. "Uh guys, there`s more blades up ahead," I said as I pointed in front of us.

"Paddle as fast as you can!" Luffy yelled as the blades began to descend on us. Somehow we managed to avoid them all.

"What the hell is going on here!" Sanji said as another blade we couldn`t dodge came at us.

"Luffy, hit the brakes!" Usopp yelled. 'There`s another one coming!"

"I got this!" I said as I jumped up and turned around facing behind us.

"You`re supposed to aim this way," Usopp said as he pointed to the blade.

"Just keep going," Luffy said looking serious.

Ki began to charge in my hands as I took a very certain stance. Like I said, my Ki manipulation was hard, not impossible. The blue and white blast in my hands was fully charged in about two seconds, and I readied myself. "Ka-Me-Ha-Me-HAAAAA!" The blast shot out of my hands towards the ground, and we rocketed above the blade as it swung where we would have been. "I have always wanted to use that move."

"That was too close," Usopp said calmed down now. "The entrance is so far away."

"How about we get off now?" Luffy said bluntly.

"Idiot! We`ll die!" Usopp yelled at him.

"I was thinking the same thing," Sanji said. After a sky Lamprey attacked us, Sanji realized that we had to keep going, or we`d die. Then we came up on a gate that looked like a large statue. It had four gates, each leading to a trial: The Trial of Swamp, the Trial of Iron, the Trial of String, and the Trial of Balls. Whichever one we went through, we were gonna be tested. We ended up deciding on the Trial of Balls, but we still had to be careful. We drove through the tunnel, and we ended up choosing the path that drove off a waterfall. Of course.

When we landed, we were all pretty relieved. "I really thought… I would fall 10,000 meters…" Usopp said slowly.

"Did you say that misleading stuff on purpose, YOU BASTARD!" Sanji yelled at Luffy while he was kicking his head.

"Uhahahaha! I was scared!" Luffy said laughing. "I thought I was gonna die for sure!"

"That was pretty fun," I said with a big grin on my face.

"You`re just as crazy as he is!" Sanji and Usopp yelled at me.

"So, where are we?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Look at all the balls!" Luffy said in astonishment.

"They`re all made from island cloud," I said in astonishment.

"So cool!" Luffy said excitedly. " They look like giant snowballs!"

"The Milky Road goes through all the trees…" Sanji said in awe.

"What kind of trial is in this place?" Luffy asked.

"Who knows?" I replied.

"It`d be nice of nothing happened," Sanji commented, "but that`s not likely."

"Did we make it? Did we pick the right one?" Luffy asked insistently. "We`d probably suffer some gruesome fate right now if we had chosen another entrance!"

"Yeah!" Usopp said coming out of the fainting spell he had. "That`s probably true!"

Anyway, we began to move on, and Usopp and Luffy opened their lunchboxes. I was thinking there were four priests weren`t there? Then each gate should lead to one priest. By the look on his face, Sanji was thinking the same thing. Then Luffy and Usopp were playing catch with one of the clouds. I began to sense Ki from it, strangely enough. "Uh guys," I said, "you might want to…" And then a snake popped out of the ball, scaring us all shitless. Luffy kicked it away, and another popped up, and Sanji tried to kick it away. And it exploded. Nice. Then this retarded ball-shaped guy pops out of nowhere and tells us this is his Trial of Balls and the clouds are called "Bikkuritama" or "Surprise Balls". And then he danced on top of one, meaning that one was safe.

"Oi, Dango," Sanji yelled at the priest, "Are Nami-san and the others alright?"

"…You mean the sacrifices?" The priest answered. "In that case, I don`t know. They`ll probably die if they are left alone. But if they escape, they`ll still die…"

"What did you say!" Sanji yelled at the priest.

"You should be more worried about yourselves," the priest said almost in a mocking tone. "I`ll say it clearly; if you can`t beat me, you can`t move forward." Then he jumped off his perch, and Luffy wound up to hit him with a Gomu Gomu no Pistol.

"Hoh?" the priest said. "Stretching?"

"Wait, what did he say?" I yelled quickly. The fatty just barely dodged Luffy`s attack, and then face-palmed him, sending him flying into a tree. "How the hell did he do that? That was just a punch, right?"

"Punch?" the priest said. "There`s a little difference."

"What`s the difference?" Sanji said jumping at the priest.

"Hoh hoh!" the priest said. "An upper right kick…"

"Collier… What?" Sanji said as he was about to kick the priest.

"Again?" I said.

He dodged again, and put his palm on Sanji`s face. "A power given only to those who practice the art – Mantra!"

"This guy can predict our movements!" Sanji said before he was sent to the ground too. Usopp soon followed, and just as he was about to attack me, I wound up for a sneeze.

"Oh no," I thought. "Why do I always have to sneeze like this?" His palm was right in front of my face when I sneezed loud enough for the entire island to hear me. At the same time, a huge gust of wind blew the priest away from me, and me off the Karasu-maru.

"My name is Satori!" the priest said as he landed on top of one of the Bikkuritama. "I`m one of the priests who serve the almighty God, Enel. The vearth in this forest of illusions is under my control."

"Forest of illusions?" Luffy repeated inquisitively.

"Yes," Satori replied, "In this forest, one of the illusions is your boat."

"AAH!" Usopp screamed. "The boat is moving by itself!"

"From now on," Satori said calmly, "it will drift aimlessly on the Milky Road and will eventually exit the forest by itself. I`m sure you already understand, but without this Dial Boat, you can`t get to the sacrificial altar. You have to get back on board before it leaves. Of course, these surprise clouds and I will not allow you to succeed. Welcome to the forbidden holy land, Upper Yard. In this forest of illusions, the chance of survival is 10%! It`s the Trial of Balls!"

"Hey if we don`t get the boat back," Usopp said quickly, "if it`s really gone in this huge forest, it`ll be difficult to locate!"

"Wait, Usopp!" Sanji yelled to Usopp. "If we don`t stick together, the result will be the same! Luffy! Kakusei!"

"Go stop the boat!" Luffy said staunchly.

"And you two?" Sanji asked.

"We`ll kick this guy`s ass!" I said as Luffy and I cracked our knuckles.

"I don`t think so!" Satori said. "I have luck and honor on my side! Huhuhuh!"

"We need to distract him," Sanji said while running off. "Don`t be reckless! I`ll be back after I catch the boat!"

Luffy latched onto a tree branch and fired a Gomu Gomu no Pistol at Satori. He dodged it and grabbed Luffy`s arm, and began to swing him around in a circle. I jumped thinking "now`s my chance," but he slammed Luffy into me, saying, "That`s not gonna happen." I flew backward into the ground, and he kept swinging Luffy and promptly slammed him into a tree, getting him stuck headfirst in the trunk. I got up and he said, "Don`t panic. Take it nice and slow. Now… where are the other two? I won`t let anyone escape." I could not let him get to the others without a fight. "Found them, found them!" He jumped off a little ways after Sanji and Usopp. I struggled to get up as he kicked another Bikkuritama towards Sanji. I tried to warn Sanji, but the cloud banked off two other clouds and headed straight for Usopp. I thought it was going to explode, but a flower popped out instead. Usopp fell backwards from trying to run away.

"There`s gotta be a way to hit this guy in a way he can`t predict," I said aloud, but not loud enough for him to hear.

"You bastard!" Luffy said as he ran forwards and used his Gomu Gomu no Gattling technique on Satori. Satori dodged and Luffy`s attack sent Bikkuritama all over the place. While I was dodging, I remembered a few tricks that might help against Satori. I also realized I couldn`t keep copying techniques forever, and I needed a few new attacks of my own. I remembered that Ki, in its original concept, could control the elements. Water, earth, and fire were scarce right now, and the forest was a little too tangled to figure out which tree was which. So I had one option left, which may be very possible, due to what happened earlier with my sneeze. I stopped moving and began to satuate the air with my Ki. The wind began to shift around me, and held all the Bikkuritama which had not activated in place, not activating them luckily. "What`s going on?" Luffy asked.

"Why`d they stop moving?" Sanji asked as he looked around.

"What is he doing?" Satori asked. "Does he think he`s a god? He can`t control the elements."

"Here goes nothing," I said as the wind shifted again to spin around me. I formed a small tornado with the closest Bikkuritama spinning around me, while the rest just went on their own way. I got to the max speed I thought I could spin the wind, and shot the tornado at Satori. "GEIRU TATSUMAKI (Gale Tornado)!"

"He summoned a tornado!" Satori yelled as he ran to dodge the tornado. The tornado hit him and the Bikkuritama activated all at once in a giant chain reaction. A few exploded, some had harmless animals pop out, and others popped out elements like fire and water, or weapons like spears and swords. Unfortunately, most of the damaging orbs did not hit him. "Looks like I do have luck on my side," he said relieved and gaining his composure back. Usopp took the chance to try to get the ship back with a belt-mounted grappling hook. He almost made it, but he forgot to make a release device for the rope. After Sanji got the Usopp and Luffy together and beat them up for screwing around in a battle situation, Satori palmed him again. "One down, three to go."

A little later, Satori had made a dragon out of some of his Bikkuritama and a dragon mask. We were pretty beaten up from his weird palm slams. Somehow I was the only one left standing, barely. "You don`t have any more tricks do you?" he said mocking us. "Your boat is going to exit the forest soon. When that happens, you`re completely doomed! Unless you guys fly like birds, you will never leave this place!" I could, but the guys couldn`t, and I wasn`t about to leave them behind. Luffy got up as Satori said, "You will wander around this forest until you die! Hohohohohoho!"

"I won`t let that happen!" Luffy said as he shot another Gomu Gomu no Pistol at Satori. He dodged it and sent his Tama Dragon after Luffy. The Tama Dragon was made of a fire Bikkuritama, and ones that had bombs, gunpowder, and blades. If we hit the one with the explosives, it`d set off a chain reaction, much like the one I made earlier. Satori chased Luffy up a tree, and right onto the rope he was using to control the Tama Dragon. Luffy broke the rope and Satori stupidly pulled Luffy and the Dragon towards him, breaking his concentration. Now was my chance to nail him. I decided to try another wind-elemental attack, but a little different. I began to have the wind circle around my right forearm, forming a small tornado. The tama Dragon exploded sending bladed weapons everywhere, but I kept my focus while dodging. Man, was this technique taking a while. Luffy was on Satori`s back after the explosion, and surprised him.

Sanji was sitting on a Bikkuritama nearby, and started a monologue that suited him perfectly. "Don`t let go, Luffy! Don`t let that meatball move no matter what…"

"Ah, Sanji, you`re still alive!" Luffy said bluntly.

"No thanks to YOU!" Sanji yelled "Check the surroundings before you do stuff like that! Now then, Meatball Man, you kept talking about trials, but we are completely innocent. I don`t care that we have to go through this damn trial, because there are two helpless ladies awaiting my rescue. In other words, THIS IS A TRIAL OF LOVE!"

"Is this guy and IDIOT TOO!" Satori thought to himself as I walked up with a tornado surrounding my right fist.

"Oi, Sanji," I began calmly, with an almost evil gleam in my eye, "after you nail this guy, send him over to me. I wanna try something out."

"Sure," Sanji said with a similar gleam in his eye.

"DAMN YOU!" Satori said fearfully. "You`re really despicable! This is a three-on-one!"

"Despicale? You guys kidnapped our nakama…," I said slowly.

"…Made the cute angel cry," Sanji continued, "and then TRIED TO KILL HER! You`re in no place to call us cheap!"

"Yeah! That`s right!" Luffy interjected. "It`s really cool you can read our movements, BUT… if you can`t avoid it, there`s no point in mind reading!" Satori looked like he just crapped himself.

"Ah!... You IDIOTS!" Satori said begging for mercy. "STOP! IDIOTS! I am a priest of god! Let go of me! Hey, do you hear me! In this country, if you are not judged by a priest, you become a first-class criminal! Attacking me is the same as declaring WAR on the almighty Enel himself!"

"Shut your mouth or the flavor will escape," Sanji said calmly. "For example, if you want to cook using peppers, the most important thing to do is to brutally, swiftly, and completely dice the peppers! That way, the amazing flavor will be released swiftly into the powder!" Sanji began to spin rapidly in a vertical orientation.

"STOP, STOP, STOOOP!" Satori yelled in futile desperation. "The PAIN! It`ll hurt A LOT!"

"CONCASSER!" Sanji yelled as he bashed Satori on the head with his heel.

"I… I`ll… still… beat… you," Satori said weakly, missing a few teeth and bleeding from his nose.

"Luffy," Sanji said taking a drag on his cigarette, "I think you can let go now."

"Right," Luffy said he unwound.

"Oi, Kakusei," Sanji said winding his leg back, "you ordered the doggy bag, right?"

"Yeah," I said winding my fist back, "I did."

"Puh… please," Satori said sounding like he was ready to collapse, "duh… don`t."

"Order UP!" Sanji said shooting Satori right at me.

I wound up my punch as Satori flew right at me. As soon as he got in range, I nailed Satori right in the stomach with a right corkscrew punch. "GEIRU NO TASTUMAKI KEN! (Gale Tornado Fist)" The punch connected, with the wind surrounding my fist adding to the power of the corkscrew punch. The wind then spiraled even faster, spinning Satori right into a huge tree at high speeds, pinning him to it, while the wind almost flattened his body into a pancake. He was stuck to the tree for a few seconds before he fell to the ground, leaving an imprint of his body on the tree trunk.

"LUFFY! SANJI! KAKUSEI! I found the boat!" Usopp yelled to us. "HURRY! It`ll leave the forest soon! HURRY!"

"Hey, it`s Usopp," I said calmly pointing to him.

"He`s alright," Sanji said just as calmly. "I thought he was blown to bits because he disappeared after the explosion. Heh."

"Hey! He said something about the boat!" Luffy said in his normal excited tone of voice. "Let`s hurry and get there!"

"So he found it," I commented. Usopp caught up and grabbed onto the boat with his grappling belt, and then we grabbed into him so we wouldn`t lose the boat. Bad idea. We bounced around the trees like a ragdoll. "Usopp, if you ever try that again…" I said slowly, "I`ll use you as a punching bag."

"S`all good… s`all good," Usopp said as slowly as I did.

"You punk…" Sanji said slowly as well, "I`ll remember this."

"Next time…" Luffy said just as slowly, "I`ll just stretch my arm." We relaxed a bit and watched Luffy do some impressions of our friends.

"Oi, Kakusei," Sanji began to say, "how did you pull those tricks with the wind?"

"Yeah, I was wondering the same thing," Usopp interjected. "Are you a Devil Fruit user?"

"I don`t think so. He wouldn`t be able to swim is he was," Luffy said showing a momentary lapse of brilliance.

"I think Luffy`s right for once," I said a little surprised at what Luffy said. "Besides, I know for a fact I used my Ki to control the wind. Ki is actually a pretty versatile concept, and a great technique when trained. Still, I feel pretty wiped from that. I better not try anything like that for a while. I should still be able to use some pure Ki techniques though."

"You have got to teach us how to use Ki!" Luffy said almost yelling. "That would be so cool!"

"It would be helpful in battle," Sanji added. "Not a bad idea, Luffy."

"Why not," I said, "but after we kick this Enel guy`s ass. That way, we can have plenty of time to work on our ability to control our Ki."

"That`s fine," the others said in unison.

Then we came to a plain in the Milky Road with some skulls on some sticks. And then some warriors showed up who looked like a cross between angels, the Aztecs, and Native Americans. They were obviously using Dials for their equipment, and among them was the guy who tried to kill us when we first got here. He shot a cannonball at us, and Luffy sent it back with a Gomu Gomu no Fuusen. I heard one of the others call him Wiper, and he was warning us not to go on. "So you are the ones," he began, "the citizens of the Blue Sea who caused a racket in Skypiea. If you don`t want to die, go back to the Blue Sea. If you try to do anything weird on this island, I`ll treat you like Enel, and eliminate you too!"

"Bastard!" Luffy yelled at Wiper. "What`d you say! Come on and fight!"

"Stop! Don`t say anymore!" Usopp said almost whining.

"The raiders and God are enemies?" Sanji queried.

"Seems so," I replied.

"…That is, if you have the strength to escape from here," Wiper said before he and his comrades left.

"What`s their problem?" Luffy and I asked at the same time.

"…One thing is for sure," Sanji said, "They`re that god, Enel`s enemy, but are they our enemy too?"

"Damn it," Luffy said, "What`s this island`s problem?"

"Let`s just move on," Usopp said almost depressed or monotone.

"Agreed," I said, "we need to get back to the others. Anyway, Sanji, what was that about the 'Trial of Love'?" After Sanji blew up a little, the rest of our trip was pretty smooth, nothing happened after that meeting with Wiper and his comrades. After a little while, we got to an opening in the trees. "Hey, isn`t that the Merry?"

"It is!" Luffy said excitedly."Oi, guys!"

"That must be the altar," I said waving to our nakama.

"Nami-san! Robin-chan! I have finally passed the Trial of Love!" Sanji said with hearts in his eyes. I almost wanted to hit him.

"That`s all the trial was?" I said surprised. "That was pretty easy."

"Were you scared?" Usopp said with a spirit of defiance and courage he only has when there is no danger. "Well, Captain Usopp is here. You can relax now!"

Well, the mast was gone due to Chopper`s fight, and after Usopp basically forgave him, he lit on fire through sheer determination, I think. Gan Fall was pretty beat up due to him protecting Chopper. We decided to wait until tomorrow to go back to Angel Island, so we set up camp on the island.