Pirates of the Grand Line

The Curse of the Thousand Sunny

Chapter 12

By Wakback


Orange silently climbed up the side of the ship once she arrived to the Sunny. She was going to need help, and she knew just where to find it. As she rose she paused to look through a cannon panel to see two pirates staying to guard the ship. They were sitting at a table they set up and on it were many a manner of delicious delicacies.

"So, which would you choose to eat first?" one of them asked. "I think we should decide now. Just so we're ready when the time comes."

"I was plannin' on the Pie," the other admitted as his greedy eyes glazed over the pie before them. Suddenly the first stabbed a knife into the table.

"That's just what I was plannin'!" he said angrily. He then smiled as he shifted the knife to the other. "You slice."

By that time, Orange already reached aboard the boat. She quietly looked around and saw nothing else. Once she calmed herself, she stepped aboard. At this time, Wakback's pet monkey, Luffy, popped in front of her. Screeching at her in his skeletal form. Orange was startled for a moment, but then her face became stern with sarcasm. This caused the Monkey to stop and cower a bit. It was actually cute, even with it being in skeletal form.

A moment later, the two pirates were cutting the pie, when beside them outside the monkey landed on the cannon in the general private area. And let me tell you, that hurt!

"What was that?" both pirates asked simultaneously. They looked to the side to see the Monkey slide off and fall into the water. They stuck their heads out in confusion. Then they heard a gasp from above and they slipped back in. They grabbed nearby weapons and ran up the stairs to the top deck, transforming into their skeletal figures when they arrived in the moonlight.

When they went up, Orange went out of her hiding place from the bottom of the stairs they just used and made her way to the brig. She arrived to see the amazement of the crew.


Meanwhile, aboard the Dragoon, things went from bad to worse. The pirates barely being affected, and each of the Marine soldiers were being killed off one by one. One injured soldier had crawled to a bell on the ship used for signaling others. He pulled on the rope and rang the bell. He did so for a few times until a pirate noticed him. And to say the least, the bell then rang no more. But it still got the message across as Kaku and his group turned to see and hear telltale signs of a fight.

"Back to the ship!" he commanded to the groups.

As they rowed furiously, Mage and Soge, who had arrived on the ship, began to use their own cannons to blow Kaku's men out of the water. Kaku's face just darkened as he remembered an important aspect that he forgot in his plan. Never trust a pirate, especially Luffy.

Aboard the ship, Matt kept in the captain's quarters. He breathed heavily as he tried to remain calm. Suddenly the face of a dead soldier slammed against the window as a skeletal pirate face followed it. He ducked and crawled away on instinct as skeletal hands broke through the door windows one after another. Then one got lucky enough to reach and grab Matt's hair. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming in pain as he grabbed a Candlestick that rolled up to his foot. And with a well-placed Whack, the arm was broken off and fell to the floor, but it was still far from lifeless.


Wakback and Luffy continued to exchange attacks as Luffy made a good Gomu Gomu no Stamp to Wakback's gut; this made Luffy fall to the floor with a patch of moonlight behind him. Wakback lowered his bone-sword as he caught his breath.

"You know you can't beat me Luffy," Wakback panted.

Luffy just renewed his determined look, rose and then shoved his sword straight through Wakback's stomach. He didn't even flinch as he sighed in exasperation. He pulled out Luffy's sword and did the same to him. His breath caught and became ragged as he shook. A look of pain shocked crossed his face. Luffy stumbled backwards into the moonlight, causing him to turn skeletal. This was to the shock and amazement of everyone, even U.B. who stopped his battle to stare. Luffy raised his left hand to the air as he looked is awe.

"...That's interesting." Luffy then raised my right hand and juggled the coin he secretly took in his fingers before tucking it back in his sweat ban, then gave a bony grin to Wakback. "Sorry, I couldn't resist mate." Now Wakback was beyond pissed as he flung treasure at him to distract him, and they went back to their dance of blades.


The canons continued to fire on Kaku's groups as they made steady progress back to the Dragoon. On the ship, the soldiers continued to rapidly dwindle. In the ship, Matt continued to whack the skeleton arm that crawled towards him. Soon, the arm stopped. He sighed in relief as he picked it up carefully. Then the arm sprang back to life reaching for his face. He kept it away long enough to shove it in a drawer in the nearby desk. But the desk began to shake as the arm tried to break out. He closed his eyes tightly as he thought on how this could possibly have gone so wrong.


Back in the cave, U.B. barely kept up with the bomb pirate, as he was good with a sword as well as bombs. U.B. dodged to the side as he sung forward, causing the pirate that was sneaking up behind him to have the sword stuck in him. Said pirate then swung a few times at U.B. who was behind the other pirate, and with a stab the sword became caught in the pirate. U.B. ran away as the pirates saw that they had each other's sword in themselves now. They pulled them out and gave chase.

Meanwhile, Wakback and Luffy were still fighting until they crossed blades and he suddenly used the momentum to slam Wakback into a wall.

"Sorry!" He screamed as he ran off with Wakback not too far behind.

He quickly caught up and we continued to clash Attacks. Eventually, Luffy and found themselves in open spot and so they prepared for a fist fight as they put away there swords.

"GOMU GOMU NO…"

"HAKACHI…"

"GATTLING GUN!"

"BONE RUSH!"

Fists went flying as the dust around them started to pick up. U.B. Stopped their fight again as they stared in awe as both Wakback's and Luffy's fists where going so fast, it was as if they both had 10 arms. However, Luffy's attacks began to wane Wakback a bit as he was pushed back and fell with a good punch to his thick jaw. He landed on the mound in the moonlight with the chest on top. His skeletal form looked up to Luffy exasperated.

"So what now Luffy? Two immortal souls locked in combat for now till judgment day and after."

"…Or you could surrender." Luffy said with a smile.

He then charged and there positions did a 180 and Luffy then leaped off the rock to dodge his swings. He ran off with Wakback chasing him and battle cries rang out.


Back on the Sunny, the two pirates continued to search the deck in search of their intruder. They then heard an unnatural rope swing they turned around to see one of the rowboats knock into them scattering their parts into the water. Orange and the crew shouted in victory as Orange went to the boat.

"Okay everyone! U.B. is in the cave and we have to save him!" she spoke as she grabbed a rope on the boat to shove over to the water. "Ready and …Heave!" She then noticed that only she was working the boat. They turned to the crew that just stood there. "Come on! I need your help!"

"Squawk! Any port in a storm." Sherms Parrot Squawked out on Sherms's shoulder.

"Sherms is right," Zoro spoke. "We've got the Sunny."

Orange stood dumbfounded. "And what about Luffy?" Orange asked. "He's your Captain, are you really just going to leave him?"

"He owes us a ship." Chopper spoke.

"He owes me two ships." Nami muttered.

"Plus there's the code to consider." Zoro added.

"…The code?" Orange asked in disbelief. "You're pirates! Forget the code! Forget the rules! …They're more like guidelines anyway!"

"…"


"Bloody pirates," Orange cursed as she rowed as fast as she could to the cave.

Meanwhile, back at the Dragoon, Mage paused from his battle to see the Sunny beginning to sail away.

"...Hey!" he shouted to Soge. "Is it supposed to be doing that?"

Soge looked in surprise as his masked face convulsed to anger. "They're stealing our ship!"

"Bloody pirates!" Mage shouted.

However, they didn't have time as Kaku and his group arrived at the ship. They charged the pirates with their weapons at ready. But it wasn't even 30 seconds before men began to drop. Amid all of this, Kaku charged the leader of this group and began to clash blades with Jyabura. Another soldier swung a hook at another pirate. But it was ready and ducked. As for the hook, it continued to go until it hit Soge in the back of the head. This caused his Mask to fall off and Soge to quickly crawl on his knees to fetch it. Finally, Jango and Fullbody climbed up to the deck being the last to come from the boat. They saw the undead pirates as the slaughter continued. The two looked at each other for probably the last time before they shook each other's hands. They shouted and entered the fray.


The bomb pirate shouted as he threw his namesake. The explosion forced U.B. to jump away to the ground as treasure scattered everywhere. Wakback and Luffy paused to see this before continuing to battle. U.B. quickly got up in time to see the pirate about to swing down.

"I'm going to teach you the meaning of pain!" he shouted.

"You like pain?" a new voice asked. The pirate turned to be smacked in the face by an oar being held by Orange. "Try wearing a corset."

She then came up to U.B. as they panted from tiredness. They then turned to see Wakback and Luffy in the moonlight, and thus in there skeletal forms. They continued to watch as Luffy spun Wakback around to punch him in the back of the head. He screamed in pain as he turned to attack again. Orange easily was confused.

"Just whose side is he on?" she asked.

"At the moment?" U.B. clarified.

She nodded as they turned again to see that a pirate that had a gold cup on his head the whole time had finally got it off. U.B. and Orange then started to smack the pirates in succession with the oar. After a few times smacking them, the pirates were in a line and they shoved the oar through them all. The pirates struggled in the moonlight with this problem until U.B. took a bomb from them, lit it, and then shoved it in the bomb pirate.

They then shoved the pirates out of the moonlight, making them human once more. But the bomb still inside, the bomb pirate scratched rapidly against his chest but to no avail. More smoke came out of his mouth than usual as he spoke his last words. "...No fair."

BOOM!

U.B. and Orange ran away as the bomb was set off. Wakback turned and looked on in shock. Luffy took the chance to slit his palm with the medallion in it. After that, he quickly charged Wakback again while he tossed the bloodied coin to U.B. who made his way to the chest.

Wakback's face became stoic as he drew his pistol, aiming it straight at mew. He had come too far to fail now. All were frozen seeing as how he had won.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out, as Orange's face became shock. U.B. was looking in disbelief, and Wakback remained the same. Then he looked confused and turned his head to Luffy. There he was, with his smoking pistol in hand, his one shot that he held on to for 10 years was now gone and buried deep into Wakback's chest. The shot was straight at the heart, and would've been fatal had he not have been immortal.

"…HAHAHA!," Wakback laughed with a smile. "For 10 years you've carrying that shot and now you've wasted it."

"He didn't waste it!" U.B. shouted.

They all turned to him. He stood before the chest holding a bloody knife in his hand. In the other, it was opened to show his slit palm, and the last two of 882 pieces of cursed blood money fell into the chest. Wakback turned to Luffy in surprise. He looked down at his white shirt to see a dark red hole in his chest, and it was rapidly bleeding and pouring out his blood. He looked back up to Luffy with a face of happiness and relief.

"...I feel... Cold."

His eyes then rolled back as he fell backwards onto the treasure mound. His entire body was now calmed and his face that still showed happiness as a Green Apple fell into the water. Rocko Wakback, former captain of the Thousand Sunny, was finally alive and then at last dead.


Out on the Dragoon, the battle came to a screeching halt. The pirates looked down at themselves to see they were as human as can be. They looked up to see that in the clear light, the moon shone brightly upon them. Their humanity was confirmed by the dropping of the now dead Jyabura who was unlucky enough to be fatally stabbed after the curse was lifted. The pirates then all dropped their weapons as they surrendered. Soge finally caught his Mask and fitted it back on his nose and face. He then rose beside Mage and now they were both facing down the barrel of a loaded gun. Mage was only able to say one word.

"Parley?"

Kaku just smirked. "The ship is ours gentlemen."


In the cave, U.B. came up to Orange. They smiled at each other as their faces came close. Then it was all broken by the sound of glass shattering. They both looked to Luffy as he was tossing random pieces of treasure behind him looking for anything of interest. They then faced each other again.

"…We should return to the Dragoon," Orange said with a shrug.

"…Your fiancé will be happy to know you're okay," he said with obvious fake happiness.

Orange nodded in sadness as she turned to head out. Luffy then came by him and he was covered with all manner of priceless jewelry from the treasure on him and even a crown on over his hat and a gold goblet in one hand.

"…You know, if you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it. Now if you'll be so kind as to drop me off my ship, I'll be on my way."

Later outside the cave, Orange, U.B. and Luffy were making there way to the Dragoon in a rowboat. But what was wrong was that the Sunny was long gone.

"…I'm sorry Luffy," Orange apologized. "I really did try."

"…They've what was right by them. You can't expect much else from pirates."

It was the last words that were said between the three of them on that long trip to the Dragoon.