Long time no see! School is FINALLY over, and that means more updates! This is, sadly, the second to last chapter of We'll Meet You At Diablo Mountain. This one's a long one! Nearly 3,000 words, and that the story alone! Enjoy! (PS: Check out my new story, Wonderland.)
Commencing: Fanfiction: We'll Meet You At Diablo Mountain: Chapter 11
Chapter 11
The glowing pink light shot out of Akuma's hands before Zoro could warn anyone. "Luffy!"
Too late. The captain was mesmerized by the ray's deep pink glow, the magenta light reflecting in his eyes. He didn't do anything to stop the beam, in fact muttering "It's fine, Zoro."
"Are you stupid?" The rest of the crew joined in on Zoro's warnings. Though technically, Zoro thought, the captain was rather on the stupid side.
"Luffy!" Franky yelled, wincing as his sudden outburst caused more blood to seep through his bandages, much to the anger of Chopper. "What the hell are you doing, Luffy-bro? That guy's the SUUPER boss!"
"Zoro." Luffy said and Zoro sighed, recognizing the determined tone in the boy's voice.
"Fine." Zoro said to the others, who were gaping at him in amazement, no doubt impressed that he had given in to the captain's wishes with just one word. "Hey, it's his fight. His fault if he gets himself killed."
Sanji the amnesiac cook (Zoro smirked- that made a good nickname,) stuttered in protest- much out of character, as Sanji was always the one to agree with Luffy's decision after Zoro. "Are you sure? I mean, he's, uh, o-our captain right?"
"Sanji-san," Robin said, drawing the cook's attention back to her. "There are some orders a crew just cannot disobey. You used to understand this the most, back in your… previous life."
"Really?" Sanji blinked and his face turned fifty shades of red. He sat back down, feeling rather awkward. Who were these people? From what the pretty dark-haired woman had said, these eight people were a pirate crew. And he was their cook. It was all very confusing, but Sanji had eventually come to accept it. Though he felt that the atmosphere was still very awkward whenever he spoke. He turned back to the battle.
The beam caught Luffy by his chest, illuminating the captain's face with a light pink glow. Luffy stared at it, curious and wondering if it would hurt him or not. It was really cool! Like one of those things in the comics he saw at the windows of comic book stores! The light passed through him and Luffy felt his body droop, his brain shutting down. He yawned and gave in, slumping down on the floor and snoring. After all, it had been days before he had actually gotten a good nights' sleep.
Luffy awoke in cold sweat, in an arena that was almost identical to the one he had just been in. "Where am I?"
"A dream world," A voice answered and Luffy jerked up from his position on the ground as the black-haired man, Jones Akuma, materialized before him. "I've eaten the Yume Yume No Mi*, a fruit that allows me to send others to the dream world and control it."
"So we're sleeping?" Luffy shook his head. He never liked thinking. It hurt his head too much and made him dizzy. He liked to leave the thinking to brainiacs like Robin or Nami.
"Precisely. However, any wounds you receive here will be automatically transported to your real body." He went on, rambling useless information that made Luffy's head hurt and his ears ring. The young captain clamped his hands over his ears and yelled, "Shut up!"
The man stopped and Luffy sighed with relief. He removed his hands and pointed at the man, his expression a mask of determination and anger. "I will never, ever forgive you for what you've done." He pointed at the man. "You. Me. 'Till the finish."
"Accepted," The man said and no one said anything afterwards. They braced themselves, hands curled into fists, eyes glaring, teeth grinding. It was like this for a few minutes or so, completely silent.
Then a bird's high-pitched call, bright and clear, pierced through the silence as a warning call and as one, Luffy and Akuma lunged for each other.
Luffy ducked Akuma's swipe and lashed out, feeling grim satisfaction flood through his body as his hand connected with the smug captains face. He vaulted over the man, planning to strike from behind when the man's hand shot out, gripped his ankle and yanked the young captain to the floor.
Luffy leapt to his feet and swiped out with his foot, his assault once again avoided. He felt his body seize up in frustration and determination and he flipped back, catching his breath.
"I told you," said Akuma, "this is dreamland. I rule everything here, because it is my dream."
Luffy mumbled, trying to get his head around the entire 'mystery dream' thing. "But it's my dream too…"
Akuma narrowed his eyes as Luffy drew to the conclusion. "Sooooo… I rule it too!" The black-haired boy's eyes sparkled with glee. "Cooool!" He scrunched his eyes up, focusing on a specific thought with much concentration. "Robot…. Robot… Please…" Luffy wasn't even aware of the change, but when he opened his eyes, his limbs were replaced by metal gears that whirred and sparked, claws that snatched and scooped and…. ROCKET LAUNCHERS! Luffy was about to explode with happiness. "This is sooooooo COOOL!"
"Uhhh…" Akuma watched the boy prance around, firing out rocket launchers and occasionally yelling 'Luffy Radical Beam!' "You do know you're still fighting me, right?"
"Huh?" Luffy, totally caught up with the awesomeness of his new robot body, had forgotten that he was fighting to the death. "Oh, yeah, I forgot." He glanced sadly at his robotic body. As much as he liked it, he wasn't used to moving around with a metal body like Franky was. The metal body disappeared in a puff and Luffy was back with his own body. "Eerr, where were we?"
"When I'm about to kill you?" A gleaming spear with a shaft of pure titanium tipped with a head that radiated energy appeared in Akuma's hands. With much ease, he threw it and it hurtled towards Luffy with a speed that was unnatural for any human to throw.
Luffy only had time to turn before the spear sliced across his chest, drawing sticky, dark red blood that splattered the marble floor.
Zoro's eyes bulged as a large gash suddenly appeared on the unconscious Luffy's chest, and Akuma's sleeping form let out a large gasp of pain. "The hell is happening?"
"I think they're fighting," Nami said. "In dream-world. Or something."
"Woah, seriously?" Usopp said, impressed. "That's really cool. That means Luffy can control his dreams!"
"Wow!" Chopper said, his reindeer eyes perking up with excitement.
In the midst of the bickering and conversing of the Strawhats, hardly anyone saw Vie Aetern breathe his last, his neck twisted at an odd angle.
Sanji gasped and doubled over suddenly, wrenching himself from the grasp of Robin, panting. He shook his head, trembling, and wretched as if choking on something invisible.
"Sanji-san?" Robin knelt down next to the shaking Sanji, who stiffened as his body was gripped by another spasm.
"Robin-chwan?" Sanji stared at Robin, her face oh so close to his. He felt a nosebleed push at his nose and it got through, spouting like a blood fountain out of his nose and into the air. It splattered everyone and Chopper screeched in alarm.
"What the heck, Sanji! I didn't bring enough blood bags to substitute for the blood you lost! That's way too much!"
"Sanji-san's back!" Brooke shielded himself with his umbrella (how he got it has yet to be known), marveling at the height the nosebleed had achieved.
"Oooow!" Franky struck a pose. "Looks like Aetern-bro popped his clogs! After all, every calendar's days are numbered! Supaah!"
The straw-hats (excluding Chopper, Brooke and Usopp and Sanji, who was still fawning over Robin-chwan) face-palmed at Franky's horrible pun. Nami giggled a bit at the pure stupidity of it, while the rather immature members of the crew laughed themselves silly.
Zoro grunted with annoyance and turned back to the battle (eerrr…), frowning slightly as a few more gashes appeared on Luffy's sleeping form.
"Gomu Gomu No… Red Hawk!" Luffy's flaming fist shot at the lean figure of Jones Akuma and the man shifted his position, easily dodging the blow. The flame caught his jacket and it burst into a flickering, dancing fire. Akuma shed the burning jacket and charged on.
He hardly noticed the steaming (and pink) fist heading towards him in his hurry to kill and it burrowed into his face, sending him tumbling.
"Gomu Gomu No: Jet Pistol!"
Luffy took the time to examine his wounds, and he noticed his breaths were coming in pants. Not good. He caught a glimpse of his hands, nicked and slashed by Jones' choice of weapons, and the opponent had opened a few heavy and deep wounds. Check that. A lot. Luffy felt woozy and he gripped his hand to shake him back to reality. Blood loss. Not good at all. Luffy really wanted to try on the robot suit again, but he resisted his urge. Well, maybe an arm or so… At least both of them had their equal share of wounds.
Jones had a few broken bones, all his ribs broken, though his broken limbs functioned perfectly, as if he was not aware at all of the pain or the fracture. A part of his skull had been dented in (courtesy of 'Elephant Gun') and his skin was horribly scorched and burned with Luffy's last attack.
"Gear Third!" Luffy bit down on his thumb, hard, drawing blood. He took a deep breath and blew into the cut his sharp teeth had made, huffing and puffing and soon the fist had swollen to over twenty times its' normal size. "Armament!" His fist hardened and gleamed black. He leapt up in the air. "Gomu Gomu No…"
Akuma, struggling to his feet, caught sight of the gigantic fist and promptly collapsed in shock and dismay.
"Elephant Gatling!" Luffy rained fury down on the man and formed a huge crater in the floor of the arena. His fist shrunk back to normal and he found out that the man had managed to land a few blows. There were cuts and slashes pouring with blood from his fingers and knuckles, and Luffy had to give it to Akuma. Cutting his fist, even when it was in the middle of an attack and reinforced with Haki? Not bad.
"Shoot!" The world dimmed for a moment and Luffy realized how bad his condition was. The floor was stained with his blood. Why hadn't he noticed it before? He caught sight of a sword heading for him and he twisted just in time.
A searing pain shot through his body and he realized that Akuma's attack had missed its mark- his heart, but he still wasn't fast enough to avoid it. It impaled itself in his back, narrowly missing his lungs and heart.
"Argh!" Luffy screamed as Akuma grabbed the sword and twisted it, expanding the wound. He lashed out with one hand, catching the man with the back of his hand. Luffy wrenched the sword from his chest, ignorant of the pain and he shot a look of determination and anger.
"Why won't you fall?" Jones said angrily, conjuring up yet another titanium spear.
"Because," Luffy said, "you hurt my nakama. No one ever hurts my nakama." He cast the sword aside and for once Jones looked genuinely afraid. He backed away slowly, as if Luffy was a stalking leopard, ready to pounce on the single sight of a sudden movement.
Luffy approached just as slowly and after a few minutes of backing away, Jones' nerves gave out and he turned tail and ran for all he was worth.
"Gear Second!" Hot steam started rising from Luffy's body and he blurred for a second, appearing right in front of the captain, eyes flashing murderously.
"W-wait-stop! We...W-we can n-negotiate!" Akuma backed away even faster, but Luffy didn't listen.
"Arnament Hardening: Gomu Gomu No Jet Gatling!" The fists, clenched with fury and anger, rained upon the cowering Jones and he screeched as Luffy's fists nailed every part of his body. Luffy yelled and increased his attacks, and with his battlecry he poured in all his emotions from the previous few days. Anger, hate, frustration, determination. These were his fuel for power.
The man moved no more and Luffy ceased his attacks, breathing heavily. He slumped to the ground and collapsed and gave way to the darkness. The steady rhythm of his breath grew fainter and fainter until it stopped completely.
The barrier wavered and broke and the little girl's enchanting voice drifted over to Sanji's ears. "The battle. It's done."
"It's done?" Zoro said. "But they're not up yet…"
"Or…" Usopp said and Sanji glared at him, daring him to say the worse. The long nosed sniper gave a little squeak and quieted down.
"Chopper!" Sanji yelled and leapt over the railing and towards the limp form of Luffy. Chopper nodded and followed him, and the rest of the crew did likewise.
"Oh, shit…" Sanji shook Luffy but the captain didn't stir, and he forced himself to look away from the gaping hole in Luffy's chest. "…Chopper?"
The reindeer was shaking, one hoof pressed on Luffy's wrist. "I've checked his pulse… it's gone…"
"What?" Zoro grabbed Luffy and peeled open an eyelid. A glazed, dull pupil gazed back at him. "No…." He grasped Luffy, blinking over and over again, convinced that it was a dream, just a nightmare, that Monkey D. Luffy was definitely not dead. "Luffy… Wake up…."
Hands eased the body out of Zoro's grip and Chopper shook his head as Robin handed Luffy to him. "Don't say that," Chopper said, though the reindeer himself was biting back tears. "He could be still alive…"
"Y-yeah," Franky bit his lip, tears streaming down from his face. "If anyone can nurse Luffy-bro back to life, it's you Chopper-bro!"
"T-thanks…." Chopper carried Luffy towards the exit of the arena. "I'll try my best…." The rest of the Straw Hats milled out, either crying or silent with grief. Sanji said nothing and lit a cigarette. Well at least now, he thought sadly, We'll never run out of food again.
"My, my." Robin said, and Nami was shocked to see the corners of the archaeologist's eyes wet. She knew that both of them shared one thought- with a gaping wound like that, Luffy was not going to survive. "I guess we'd… better get a funeral prepared…"
With that, Nami burst into tears and burrowed her face into Robin's shoulder.
End of Chapter 11
*Dream Dream Fruit
I like angst. Maybe too much? So does Luffy die? -.0 Find out next chapter! Reviews greatly appreciated! And feel free to ask me questions about the story or the Devil Pirates! I'll put in the answers next chapter.
-Veratican Justice