Chapter 9: 108-pound cannon


Dusk crept upon the island at a steady pace, blanketing the land and turning the sky different shades of gray with brilliant streaks of orange highlights from the setting sun.

Nami would normally have given pause and ate the scenery up, but she barely noticed the onset of night, so preoccupied she was by her tumultuous thoughts. It wasn't like her to grow attached to someone easily; she had always been repulsed by the mere notion of relying on someone else. She prided herself for being independent and self-sufficient, but there was something about Luffy that got under her skin and made her feel... Skittish.

Was it how trusting he was? Or was it his undying loyalty and absolute confidence in his nakama? His rage-inducing antics? His untarnished outlook on the world and its inhabitants?

Whatever it was, she didn't like it. She felt as if she could let down her guard around him because he'll be there to make everything right, and that will only induce a sense of complacency which she didn't want or need. After all, it was only a matter of time before they both went their separate ways and she was back to her lonesome.

That thought elicited a pang in her chest which she promptly ignored.

"Nami? We're here."

Luffy's voice roused her from her reverie and Nami blinked a few times to orientate herself. Darkness had fallen almost completely in her few minutes of musing, the thin threads of dying sunlight the only illumination in the otherwise pitch black forest. The vegetation had got sparser a few metres back until it opened up into a gigantic clearing right at the literal edge of the island. Beyond the steep drop was a one-way trip to oblivion, with sharp jagged cliff edges lining the sides and gigantic waves crashing onto the thin strip of shore far below.

Nami shuddered. She had always despised heights. Moving away quickly, she fixed her eyes on the large, decrepit building that might have been a bustling factory in the past. Now, the jungle had taken in the structure like one of its own, with monstrous vines and plants of the likes she had never seen before sprouting and crawling up the peeling concrete walls, using it as their support.

The pair made their way over cautiously, Luffy in the lead and Nami a few steps behind. It irritated her slightly that he always instinctively put his body in front of hers without a word, no doubt to act as a shield in the possibility of an unforeseen circumstance. She didn't need to be babied. She had been able to take care of herself just fine for the past decade or two, thank you very much. However, she found it hard to voice out those thoughts to her bubbly captain, primarily because a part of her that was inherently female was stupidly pleased by the show of protectiveness and the thoughtfulness of the gesture.

She didn't like it. It was a foreign feeling; not entirely unpleasant, but it rubbed her the wrong way, making her wary of the emotions that might follow.

Luffy stilled suddenly and Nami almost bumped into him. "Wait." The single word left no questions about the seriousness of the situation and Nami reprimanded herself mentally for drifting off... Again. This wasn't a time to think about how infuriatingly caring and selfless her captain was!

Temporary captain, she purposely corrected herself for the second time in that quarter of an hour.

The entrance to the monstrous building was, curiously enough, made of reinforced steel. Nami wondered what the factory was used for in the past that warranted such measures to be set in place. Luffy had a pensive look on his face as he regarded their destination. Nami got a distinct feeling that he wasn't looking at the door, but beyond it and into the building.

"The person we're looking for is here," Luffy confirmed, his voice low and taking on a husky baritone that had Nami shivering in response, rubbing her arms with her hands. She told herself that it was the chill in the air and nothing more. ""I can't tell where he is exactly. His presence seems... Insubstantial. Ethereal. I can't get a good reading on him."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know." Luffy shook his head. "There are thousands of Devil Fruits, each with their own unique ability. All we know for sure is that he or she has consumed one. We'll just have to improvise from here onwards."

She must have had a grim look on her face, because Luffy smiled and nudged her with the side of his shoulder. "It'll be fine. Trust me. I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not that." Nami scowled. "I can take care of myself, you know. I don't need you to watch over me like I'm a newborn child!"

Luffy rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grimace. "I know, I know, but I can't help it. I don't want anything to happen to you."

The last comment was disarming, because it meant that he cared about her. He probably treated all his friends that way, she chided herself. She wasn't special.

She pursed her lips and stifled the sound of annoyance coming up her vocal chords. Why was she even thinking along this line? Did she want to be special? Dear Sea Devil, she hated all this uncertainty and second guessing herself. What happened to the independent Nami that took no shit from anyone not that long ago?

Luffy must have taken her silence as anger and refusal to speak to him for he pouted and whined, "Are you mad at me? I'm sorry, Nami. I can't promise you that I won't worry about you because I'll never be able to do that, but I can – "

"Stop." Nami silenced her captain by placing a finger on his lips. Big mistake. His lips were soft, moist and yielding and she recoiled as if struck. It took her a moment to regain her composure and when she did, she swallowed past the tight lump in her throat before continuing. "Luffy, there's something I, uh, have to talk to you about. It's important. I need to clarify certain something because it's really, really bugging me."

Luffy cocked his head to the side in puzzlement. "What is it?"

"I... It's about you, Luffy, and my future. But the timing isn't right." Nami lowered her gaze, unable to look Luffy in the eyes when concern was etched all over his youthful face. The night helped; she couldn't see him clearly anyway. "We can talk about it after we're done with all this."

"This?"

"After we bring down the culprit and save the town."

"Oh." Luffy smiled again, but this time it wasn't with the same wattage as before. "Sure thing. I also have something to tell you, Nami, so that's convenient."

"Oh," she echoed dully. The atmosphere was tense, so she let loose a joke to lighten the mood. "Nothing bad about me, I hope." But Luffy didn't crack a smile. Instead, his expression remained stoic and somewhat aggrieved, which triggered warning bells in her head. "Luffy?"

"It's about you," he said finally, tugging his straw hat low over his eyes. "But it's nothing bad. Uhm, I guess it depends on how you look at it."

Her hands felt clammy. "Oh, really?" she tried for a smile but it came out more like an uncontrollable twitch of her lips. "That's great. I mean, we haven't talked enough. We don't know each other well either. This is perfect. We can really acquaint ourselves with each other. Learn what makes us, us." She was blabbering, and she knew it, but Nami found that she couldn't stop. "Like you know, I'm very curious about the extent of your abilities. I'm actually still quite clueless about it, and you really should enlighten me because I was so worried for you back there when that bounty hunter fired at you - I'm sorry, I should shut up now." She felt compelled to add something when Luffy didn't reply. Maybe he did, but she couldn't hear him over the roar of blood in her ears from embarrassment. "Anyway, I can't wait to hear what's bothering you about me."

As soon as those words left her mouth, she mentally kicked herself. She should have just kept her trap shut. An awkward silence followed, oppressive in its intensity. The cool evening wind did little to ease the heat creeping up Nami's neck and she thanked all the deities above and in the sea that it was too dark for Luffy to notice. What was she thinking?

Well, she clearly wasn't.

She realised that when it came to her captain, her brainwaves functioned a little differently.

Luffy spoke up first, cutting through her self-deprecation. "You're right, this is hardly the place and time. Let's discuss this later." He chuckled lightly and scratched the back of his head. "Why am I more concerned about this talk than what's going to happen next?"

Despite herself, Nami smiled. Luffy was just too adorably honest sometimes. Oh God, did she just use "adorable" and "Luffy" in the same sentence? Yep, she was officially going insane. "Focus, Luffy. The lives of many are at stake here." You too, Nami. Pull yourself together!

"Of course. No more playing around." The energy boy sucked in a deep breath and heaved it out. "You ready to kick some ass, Nami?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Her confirmation voiced out, Luffy nodded and reached out to push at the single steel door. It was well-oiled and opened surprisingly easily, indicating that the building wasn't as abandoned as they once thought. It was completely dark inside without a sliver of illumination, unlike the outside where pale moonlight peeked through the gaps of the rustling leaves in the breeze. Nami could barely see her hand in front of her face - it was that complete of a darkness.

Luffy took a tentative step forward into the unknown, testing the strength of the floor with a few stomps and grunted in approval when the resulting sound revealed that it's hardened concrete. "Stick close to me," he instructed to the redhead, and Nami didn't need him to tell her twice. She latched onto his forearm as if she was trapped in a never-ending nightmare and he was her only salvation.

Restlessness clung to her like a second skin as she followed closely behind her captain. They proceeded with caution, Luffy stopping every so often for a few seconds to presumably ensure that they were on the right track before continuing. Nami felt like an unsuspecting deer that had walked right into the lion's lair - except that this time, the deer had walked in on its own accord, knowing very well the risks involved.

The darkness was incredibly suffocating, and it only got worse as they went further inwards. Every minute felt like an eternity, compounded by her severe disorientation and blinded senses. The only thing that was grounding her was the feel of Luffy's warm skin beneath her fingertips and the belief that he'll get them both out of this intact.

If only they had prepared a source of light, she groused to herself. Anything would do. She'll settle for a small candle at this point to make it more bearable. A thought suddenly occurred to her in a moment of startling cognizance. "Wait, Luffy. What are your abilities again? If I recall correctly, I remember hearing Coby mention something about energy manipulation?"

"Uhh, yeah. That's basically it, though it's way more complicated than – "

"Then," Nami interrupted impatiently, the familiar threads of anger infusing into her voice, making it emerge hissed and with just the appropriate sprinkle of spite and ire, "why the fuck are you not making some light to guide our way?"

A good few seconds elapsed in complete, bewildered silence. Then, a quiet, contrite "oh" filled Nami's ears at the same time an orb of light appeared atop of Luffy's palm, illuminating their surroundings.

"LUUUUUUUUFFFFFFFFFY!"


Zoro hit the ground unceremoniously with a garbled curse, his blades miraculously missing him by a bare margin as they too fell from the sky and buried themselves in the sand.

Damn, he definitely hits hard.

Struggling past the dizziness to get to his feet as fast as possible to face his adversary, Zoro glanced up in time to catch a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye. Before he could even dislodge the swords on the ground, his abdomen was greeted by a sweeping roundhouse kick that sent him staggering a few feet back, all his breath leaving him in a shocked exhale from the blow. He didn't have anytime to recover as Coby wheeled on him again, this time with his right fist drawn all the way back to deliver the knockout blow and Zoro reacted on instinct, desperately throwing up both his hands in a cross to protect himself.

The impact jarred him to his very bones. This time, he wasn't merely sent flying. He soared so high off the ground he collided with multiple branches that snapped and cracked upon meeting his back before ending his flight when he crashed mutedly into a thick, sturdy trunk and slid slowly to the ground in a haze of red.

Get up, Zoro. You can't lose like this. Not to a measly punch.

Black spots swam across his vision, appearing and fading one after another. His entire body ached like a bitch, and he was sure he had broken at least one of his ribs – the agony was so fucking intense he was close to passing out. It was so incredibly tempting; to succumb to the beckoning oblivion, to escape from the throbbing torment with every beat of his palpitating heart. But Zoro refused to give up. If he threw in the towel, he'll be admitting defeat. Allowing his lifelong goal to go up in smoke.

And to be the best swordsman in the world, he cannot know defeat.

Blood roared in his ears and adrenaline pumped strongly through his veins as he gritted his teeth to stop himself from screaming at the pain that immediately stabs at every part of his body when he mulishly pushed himself to his feet with his back against the trunk of the tree. It took him close to a full minute to be upright again, and then, teetering unsteadily on his numb legs for a short few seconds, he promptly collapsed face-first to the ground in a boneless heap, his body no longer able to withstand anymore punishment.

And even then, at the brink of total shutdown, he clenched his fists and attempted to get up once again, his nails digging into his skin but he was past the point of registering the pain. There'll be hell to pay the moment the adrenaline drained from his system, but as long as he could still draw breath, as long as he could still move a finger, he will not fucking stop fighting.

"You actually survived a punch at point blank range infused with Haki? At the very least, you should be immobile or rendered unconscious. I have to say, Zoro, you have outstanding stamina and astonishing will to even try to get back up after that."

Despite his crippled condition, Zoro couldn't help but smile into the dirt, his neck muscles not responding so he was unable to raise his head to face the pink-haired pirate. "Save your compliments, pirate. You're making it sound like the fight has come to an end and it hasn't. I'm still going to beat you down."

A light chuckle. "I respect your perseverance and spirit, but part of being strong is knowing when you have lost. Admit it, Zoro, you've lost. You can hardly move a finger, much less do anything to me."

Zoro growled. "Give me a minute and I'll be back on my feet – "

"You don't get it, do you?" Coby must have hunkered down next to him because his voice got distinctly clearer and louder. Zoro tensed and readied his battered body for another hit that could very well finish him off once and for all, but it didn't come. "There's a gulf between us that you cannot hope to close as of now."

"Bull fucking shit," Zoro spat out, his voice slightly muffled by the fact that his mouth was still pressed against the loamy soil. "Don't feed me that kind of fucking nonsense. I've come this far; a minor setback like this is nothing."

"Right." Coby's amused tone angered Zoro past any rational thought. "Not being able to move your body is just a minor setback. Admit it, Zoro, you've lost – "

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." Strength he never thought he possessed swelled and blossomed within his chest, urging him to get back up and prove that arrogant piece of shit wrong. And that's exactly what he did. He took great satisfaction in the way the expression on Coby's face twisted from one of rueful gaiety to wide-eyed disbelief before settling on wariness. "You have no idea what I'm capable of. And even if I'm going to lose to the likes of you, I won't go down without a fight to my last breath." A wave of pain roiled over him as Zoro erected himself to his full height and he swayed unsteadily, his hand seeking for the trunk of the tree to balance himself.

"It's taking all you have to just stand up, isn't it?" Coby sighed. "I'm not going to ask you to give up though; I can see that it's going to be a waste of my breath. You have earned my respect, Zoro. It'll be an honour to fight beside you, if you would consider joining our crew. We need a swordsman of your calibre on our journey."

"Don't bother." Zoro spat a generous amount of blood onto the ground, leaving the grass a vivid red. "I will never join a crew of vile pirates. Fucking villains, every last one of you."

Coby raised an eyebrow at his open belligerence. "You're generalising. Not all pirates are the vermin you think they are. There are still noble ones that play by the rules and follow the code of conduct."

"I don't care." Limping over to where his blades lay half planted in the ground, he pulled them out in a smooth, familiar motion and inserted the hilt of the third blade between the clutches of his teeth. "Your mere existence annoys me. That is why I must eradicate you at all costs."

The young pink-haired pirate looked mildly annoyed. "That's enough, Zoro. I don't want to have to kill anybody today, especially not an individual as brilliant as you."

Zoro cackled like an insane man in the asylum, his grip on his treasured swords so hard his knuckles were turning white. "That's a crying shame, then. Because I definitely want to kill you. Santoryu." Drawing in a ragged breath – the simple motion causing a sharp jolt of discomfort – Zoro raised both his swords in his hands above and behind his shoulders horizontally, in line with the third blade in his mouth. He smiled at how Coby took an involuntary step back, wary and alert for whatever was coming next. "Phoenix of the 108 Earthly Desires. 108 POUND CANNON!"

Cutting down to form a circular motion with all three blades, Zoro unleashed a violent shockwave in Coby's direction, decimating the soil in its line of travel and leaving giant gouge marks behind. Before he could even witness the destruction of the cocky pink-haired teenager – he did, however, hear the explosion that stung his eardrums and the outwards radiation of heat – he sunk to his knees in a sudden loss of strength, gasping for air and cursing his ineptitude brought on by his lack of motivation to get better. At least now, he thought with a weak grin at the small clearing once alive with green shrubbery and towering trees now entirely obliterated, a giant smoking crater where Coby was last standing, I have faced an adversary that makes me feel inadequate. This near-margin victory is nothing to be jubilant over.

"Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."

Surprise had Zoro's head snapping up and seeking the source of the droll voice. It couldn't be… how did he…?!

Coby was standing beside him with a slight wince as he clenched and released his fist tentatively, his clothes looking a little worse for wear but otherwise in the pink of health. The right shoulder of his pale blue jacket was torn off, leaving it totally sleeveless and there were small blotches of sear marks along the upper portion of the top. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of Zoro's stomach as he surveyed his opponent – how had he managed to escape almost unscathed? His only comfort was that Coby's hand seemed to be injured in some manner, but that little silver lining did nothing to soothe his hurt ego. That was my ultimate technique, and he just shrugged it off like it's nothing?

"How did you survive that? You should be nothing but dust now," Zoro gritted out. He didn't want to admit defeat, but he was pretty sure that inexplicable burst of renewed energy a minute ago wasn't going to occur again. Miracles didn't happen twice. He had lost. For some reason, he couldn't conjure up the ire he had always thought he'll feel when he finally discovered the meaning of that word. He was oddly at peace with himself; he had come up lacking but at least he had given it his all.

He had no regrets. He had simply bitten off more than he could chew, and that's all he wrote.

Sure, he was bitter. He didn't envision himself going out like this, but fate was a cruel mistress.

"I should be," Coby agreed, and Zoro re-focused on him. "If I hadn't used armament Haki to fortify my forearm, I would be toast. That packed one hell of a punch, Zoro."

He couldn't hold in his curiosity any longer. "What the hell is this Haki that you've been going on and on about? How do you "fortify" your forearm? What does that even fucking mean?"

Coby responded with a non-committal sound to his question before pegging him with a probing stare. "You lost, Zoro."

"I know," he snarled, glaring at the pink-haired pirate. Refusing to submit to the pain, he clenched his jaw and straightened his body, baring his torso to the victor. "It's considered honourable to die by the hands of the victor, but only if I see my death approaching. There's no need to stab me in the back. I will not resist. Kill me."

An indeterminable amount of time passed, so lost in the haze of agony Zoro was. He was slipping in and out of consciousness, but he forced himself to narrow his vision at Coby only to find him shaking his head in ostensible mirth. "What are you doing?!" he demanded. "KILL ME ALREADY, COBY OF THE STRAW HAT PIRATES!"

"No."

"What was that?!"

A weary sigh. "No, I'm not going to kill you, Zoro the Pirate Hunter. I want you to join the Straw Hat Pirates, and I'll prefer it if you remained alive so we can recruit something more than a corpse into our crew."

"I already told you, I will never join – "

"Don't you want to get stronger? Don't you want to meet opponents that'll push you to your absolute limits so you'll never stop pushing yourself? You're more like me than you realize, Zoro. Your thirst, your drive, your goal."

"Don't put me in the same category as you. If you're only striving for the same thing as I am, why did you become a pirate? You don't have to join a pirate crew to become stronger," Zoro pointed out defiantly.

"It makes things infinitely easier. A crew helps you to grow not only as an individual, but as a team player as well. You learn to care for the well-being of one another, and believe it or not, this trait encourages you to keep improving yourself to protect the people around you who might not be as gifted in the art of battle and are vulnerable. Furthermore, being in a pirate crew gives you the chance to sail the world, to visit places you've only heard about in songs sung around the campfire and face enemies who can crush you in the blink of an eye." Coby smiled at how Zoro was blinking rapidly, trying to digest that long-winded explanation. "To sum it all up; adventure."

"Annnnd… You're curious about what this Haki I've been mentioning is right?" Coby dangled the question in front of him like the juiciest of baits. "I'll tell you, but only if you join us. I can even try to impart some of my knowledge to you. Trust me, once you're able to use it, you'll be horrified you haven't tried to awaken it before."

Zoro wasn't going to lie; his resolve was crumbling in the face of such a tempting offer. The way Coby had so eloquently put it… He would never improve if he stuck around on this deadbeat island – or this sea, for that matter. The past few years were evidence enough. And that Haki thing? Curse the Sea Devil, if promise of ridiculously powerful enemies hadn't been convincing enough, that definitely tilted everything in that damnable pirate's favour. But… "It all sounds very good," the swordsman hedged grudgingly, "but all that still doesn't warrant being part of a villainous family that marauds and destroy people's livelihood for a living!"

Coby closed his eyes and glanced up at the sky for briefly as if seeking patience from the Gods above. "How many times have I told you, Zoro? Not all pirates are the villains you imagine them to be! You know what? How about I bring you to my captain, and you can decide after you talk to him. Maybe you'll find it easier to understand then."

Zoro narrowed his eyes. "What's so special about your captain?"

Coby's lips quirked slightly, his apparent amusement lost on the swordsman. "It'll be rude for me to spoil the surprise." He walked over to him and offered him a hand. "Come on, let's catch up with the rest of my crew. They're probably getting worried." He glanced at the setting sun and the brisk descent of night.

Zoro hesitated for a heartbeat before scowling and grabbing Coby's hand. The pink-haired pirate hauled him to his feet forcefully and Zoro almost fell over, his stubborn pride refusing to let him hit the ground again. His legs barely held up, but he somehow managed to rise to his full height and plod after Coby who had already started strolling off.

The pink-haired pirate glanced back at him from time to time to ensure that he was following. "Need a shoulder to lean on?" he asked with a perfectly neutral expression, but Zoro detected the plain notes of playfulness.

"Fuck you."

Coby chuckled. "I thought so."

They walked along for awhile in quiet, the sound of birds roosting for the night and leaves rustling their sole accompaniment music. It wasn't very tense, but neither was it comfortable. The silence was somewhat strained, and Coby must have felt the need to fill it because he soon asked, "Am I right to assume that you're hired muscle?"

He didn't really like that term; it made him sound like someone who bowed easily to orders - and for money, no less. He wasn't that sort of person, but recently, cash was tight with the decline in pirates stirring up trouble, no doubt due to the news of Marines tightening their security and the increasingly frequent patrols. "I guess you can say that," he grunted, "but I only accepted because I had nothing else to do."

"So, have you met the guy that hired you?"

"Yeah. Some short, creepy guy. Always has a cloak draped over his head. Doesn't talk much, but when he does, the stuff that comes out is some fanatic gibberish about taking over the world with a modified Devil Fruit."

Coby slowed down his gait to fall into step next to him. "What kind of power does he have?"

"I'm not entirely sure. He didn't elaborate, but we had no reason to ask either." Zoro shrugged and winced when that motion caused him quite a bout of discomfort. "My best bet is that he has some sort of affinity with darkness, because he has this weird fetish where he always wants the room he is in to be pitch black. He also normally only appears after the cover of night - he refused to meet the bounty hunters he hired until after night fell."

"That's strange." The only Devil Fruit Coby was aware of having abilities related to darkness was the Yami Yami No Mi, and that had been consumed by Blackbeard, who doesn't fit the description at all. Besides, that rampaging tyrant would never bother himself with small islands such as this in the weaker seas - he had bigger fish to fry in the Grand Line. "Are you sure he's short?"

"Sure looks that way. It was dark, so I might be mistaken, but I doubt so."

Coby hummed thoughtfully. "Anything else about him that you noticed? Something he was talking about, perhaps?"

Zoro tried his hardest to recall something from his fragmented memories. It took a while, but he remembered something the cloaked man had said. "The Mozaru Hantas," he echoed, thinking back to the odd sounding name that had sent the other bounty hunters into a frenzy. "He said that they - "

"Wait. Did you just say the Mozaru Hantas?" Coby had halted entirely, his mouth agape. "Please tell me that I've suddenly developed some sort of hearing deficiency and you did not just say the Mozaru Hantas."

Zoro just looked at him like he's a blithering idiot. "That's what I said."

Coby's worried expression told him more than he could ever say. "That's not good. We need to get there and help Luffy and Nami, now. Do you know the way there?"

The reply emerged with utter conviction from Zoro. "Of course. Follow me."

The duo dove back into the forest in the opposite direction from which Luffy and Nami had taken just a few minutes ago.

TBC


A/N: Hello people. Hope you've been having a good week, because I sure as hell haven't. Lost my fucking wallet, and now I'm going through the hassle of replacing every single fucking thing in it. Oh well, learn from mistakes right?

Anyway, sorry for the wait. I was really, really busy the past few days making calls and asking around, so I didn't have much time to really work on this story. That being said, here's the conclusion to the fight between Zoro and Coby (might be a tad bit anti-climatic, I understand. I initially wanted to make this fight really epic, but the characters didn't seem to want it that way. A fight to the death just didn't seem right at this moment.)

If you guys are disappointed, I apologize, but I promise that the fight between this "commander of darkness" and Luffy will be pretty damn epic in the following chapter, so hold your horses and stay tuned!

Reviews

Darth Prime: Always a pleasure to read your reviews. Hmm, so, from what I've gathered from some reviews, there are differing opinions about how the fight went. Personally, I feel that the only way to make this story interesting is to have Coby, Zoro and Sanji around the same level. They'll be the monster trio, but Coby will have just this little edge over them because of his experience with Haki. And you're absolutely right - I couldn't allow Coby to decimate Zoro, because what's the point of recruiting him then? He has to see something in Zoro to offer him a spot on their crew.

Oh, you couldn't begin to imagine what I have planned in store for Luffy and Nami. Heh. And that's before the next girl makes her appearance.

I'm not sure if I've already revealed this before, but yes, Vivi is one of them. Hancock is too, no big secret. The last one, I'll keep it a mystery for now. All of them are good guesses though! One of them might be right, you never know...

Regarding the Sea Prism stone theory, I've come up with my own one that makes sense. It has to do with direct and indirect contact which affects the rate the prism stone depletes one's energy reserves. When in direct contact with a prism stone, it just drains the energy at such a rapid rate that it seems like it's an IMMEDIATE loss of abilities, when in actual fact, it's a process. So when indirectly touching the prism stone through use of one's abilities, it will still be draining, but at a much slower rate. This might explain how Law did the switch-a-roo with his ability but not the strings of the cage. (Surface area, perhaps?)

AkaiArashi: I understand what you're getting at, but bear in mind that Coby trained and travelled with Shanks for 7 years. I've actually mentioned this in the first or second chapter. He also has a natural flair for it, so he picks it up at a faster pace as compared to others. He doesn't have full mastery over armament Haki, hence the need to utilize his enchanted possession, but he is more or less competent at observation haki as he has practiced it for many years. I don't really think that's too far-fetched, considering the length of time he had to train. Regardless, thanks for your input! :)

Devlin Dracul: Ahhh, glad you enjoyed it! It's honestly a real pain in the ass to write fight scenes. The same descriptive words keep popping up in my mind and I have to make a conscious effort to switch them up if not it gets too dull :/ oh dear, I don't actually think that the lemon will be coming soon, it's actually still quite a long time away if everything goes according to plan. (but y'know, they normally don't...) There's still certain issues between Luffy and Nami standing in the way, and their relationship hasn't developed to that stage yet. I'm honestly looking forward to writing it too. Heh! ;)

David Teague 3950: Did she? I don't really remember that anymore.. but yeah, it makes sense. Will have to keep that in mind! I really think so. Look at it from this way - the moment someone takes a bite of the fruit, no matter how small, he or she gains the Devil Fruit's ability. I don't think that the ingestion of the fruit is the key though; it's probably the person or in this case, the object that comes into contact with the flesh within. If a fruit is used to cut into the flesh, the fruit will gain the power of the fruit because if not, technically a "bite" has been taken but the power is still within the fruit, which doesn't make sense. It has to go somewhere, so why not the object that pierced the skin? That's how I'm viewing it anyway, and with this theory, it's going to make my story more interesting because I plan to put these animate objects to good use! That'll be awesome. I might actually adopt that idea for use in this story, if you don't mind! :P

Corinthians: Hello, new reader! Thanks for all those reviews and wonderful compliments. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

So that's about it for now. Thanks to everybody who read, favourited or left a review. Keep doing it - it encourages me to continue writing!

Until next time, ciao.