Chapter 19:

Chopper was still in his small form. He heard the taunts from around the room: people thought he was weak, they said he was small, they ridiculed his fifty beri bounty. He wasn't going to let them get to him though. If he had, he would have just transformed immediately to prove his worth, but he wanted to fight smarter than that.

Don't show all your cards in the first round, it had been his strategy the whole time, but the sight of the mist before him put him on edge. I don't know if I'll be able to beat him without showing everything I've got!

The countdown started and the mist was clearing. Inside it, Chopper could make out a form, not much bigger than himself. It was fatter than he was, and the more it became visible, the easier it was for Chopper to see the greenish tint to Fu's skin.

"What is that?" Sanji asked. Everyone was leaning forward to try and see the shadow inside the mist. It was barely three feet tall, but it was also three feet wide. Its legs were crouched so his knees were on either side of his face, meaning if he were to extend them, he would be average height for a human.

However, this thing was far from human.

Zoro was staring through the mist intensely and couldn't help but feel a little worried for their doctor. He had felt a twinge from his Observational Haki at the top of the ice section stands, but when he looked up there the creature was already gone. How it made it to the arena floor without anyone noticing was beyond him, and what's up with that mist? "Robin," he muttered. The woman on his left didn't look to him and spoke in a normal tone while they watched Chopper prepare down on the stone section. "Do you know why his bounty is so high?"

Having a bounty of two hundred million and not being the captain was an impressive feat, even for a member of Kaido's crew. The supernovas two years ago on Sabaody mostly had bounties less than Fu's, and he'd witnessed a few of them fight impressively now. As the form became clearer, he only wondered more why this person could have such a high bounty.

"The Silent Mist," Robin started and the others were listening while they watched the mist clear ever so slightly, revealing the surprisingly young face of Chopper's enemy. "He's known as one of the best assassins in the world." Everyone instantly became twice as worried for their comrade, so Robin tried to reassure them. "However, an assassin usually has time to study their target, learn where they're going, who they talk to," the others were now slowly turning to Robin and a few of them had disturbed looks on their faces. She continued... "What they eat for breakfast, when they go to the bathroom, so that the assassin knows the perfect time, place, and tactic to execute their target. Chopper-san's foe has deposed several country's leaders, and I believe he uses this method."

The countdown was about to hit zero, but Robin just gave half the people there shivers with her detailed instruction on how to assassinate someone. When they turned back to the arena, their eyes opened wide as they got a good glimpse of Fu for the first time. "He's," Sanji started with wide eyes.

"A frog?" most people in the room questioned at the same time. There was a young man's face on the frog, but his eyes were still situated on top of his skull like a frog's would be. He also had human-like arms with webbed fists at the end that he had firmly planted on the ground between his two crouched legs.

Its skin was light green with a tint of gold running down his back. Fu wore a yellow pair of shorts that seemed to stretch with his legs as if they were made for him, (which they were), but besides that he had no clothing on. His arms were shaded bright orange with light blue dots scattered down them, and his legs looked the same below the shorts.

The second the countdown hit zero, the crouched frog sprang off the ground with so much force that the ice cracked beneath him and left a crater where he was just standing. The boy had a straight face the whole time he was examining his next target, but after he pounced, he smirked. This is going to be an easy first round, it's my next opponent I really have to look out for.

In fact, most people in the room were thinking the same thing as the frog flew through the air at tremendous speeds. He turned after springing, so his legs were now in front heading straight for Chopper. Fu was crouching them in midair so he could get another powerful kick as soon as he collided with his enemy. The Frog Boy was about to release his kick when suddenly his body jolted to a stop and then the pain registered as he slammed into the side wall of the arena before the stone stands.

Almost every single person in the room leaned forward in their seats in shock. The tiny, cute reindeer with the light blue and pink hat and small blue nose, exploded out into an enormous ball of protective fur the size of Capone Bege's huge cannonball.

Kumadori of CP9 shook in his seat and then tried to stab himself as it was dishonorable to feel fear. Yet he couldn't stop himself from shaking as he remembered the monster that destroyed him back at Enies Lobby.

The Straw Hats broke the stunned silence by cheering at the top of their lungs and then a lot of the crowd joined in as well. Chopper smiled down on the arena as he dropped back into his small cute form that had more than one use. Brain Point, he thought to himself, happy he made it so he didn't have to use a Rumble Ball to accelerate his mental processing anymore. From the second he stepped down on the stone section, he was looking for his opponent's weakness. It would have been hard to find one in the short amount of time it took from Fu to pounce to when he would have hit the Human Reindeer, but Chopper had ten whole seconds to find a weak point, and then plan out how he was going to use the weakness to his advantage.

The frog with the boy's face lifted himself out of the rubble, and as Chopper ascertained, his opponent was not as durable as most of Kaido's crew. The small stature and weak looking skin gave it away, but the reindeer also had an extensive knowledge of biology, and frogs were delicate creatures.

The assassin was not used to getting hurt, when it wasn't inflicted from their own captain. He assassinated, he killed his opponents and then disappeared without a trace with the mist he could create with his larger lungs. Fu tried to calm himself and reached up, brushing some blood from the corner of his mouth and then making eye contact with the reindeer waiting for him. I saw it. Right before I hit him, he took a step towards the lake before transforming, so that he could send me crashing straight into the wall. That transformation of his isn't actually dangerous, only defensive. At this moment he's probably worried about me using my mist to hide, but that's not the only use for my lungs!

The Frog Boy closed his mouth and his neck puffed out. His chest seemed to grow larger and he was getting larger in the front. Chopper stared straight at him without fear and the unnerved creature hesitated for a split second before croaking and spitting a fast glob of bright green spit at Chopper. The reindeer was preparing for this and his legs grew four times as long and muscular in the split second it took him to crouch. "Jumping Point!" he flew up high in the air and did three front flips.

The flips looked showy, as if he was doing it to entertain the audience or intimidate his opponent, however the reindeer was not thinking about this. While he was flying in the air, he used the flips to look back down where he was standing and witness the effects of the spit. Four seconds to collect that much spit, and it's easily dissolving through stone. "Kung Fu Point!"

"Fu?" the frog said, the first word it said the entire battle. Chopper almost messed up his transformation he was stunned so much by how low his childlike opponent's voice was. The frog didn't understand for a second why his opponent shouted his name, and then the words clicked with him and he witnessed a third transformation into a chubby human-like form that was coming down straight at him.

The assassin on Kaido's crew didn't have enough time to crouch his legs, so instead he just forward rolled out of the way as Chopper crashed down with a hoof in front of him. The hoof crashed into a large piece of stone and it cracked in two, but the reindeer didn't pause at all and pushed off the rock, flipped back and smashed both legs towards the ground where his opponent was rolling.

Fu opened his mouth and Chopper knew he hadn't been charging spit, but the frog wasn't going for that. A long red tongue shot out of Fu's mouth and wrapped around the reindeer's left leg on its way down, flinging him over his head and right towards the lake where Chopper was in a perfect arc to land on the water.

"It's over!" Usopp exclaimed and covered his eyes. He peeked between his fingers because he had to watch, but it was tough. The sniper thought Chopper was in control of the match from the beginning, but right here looked like the end.

Crap! Stupid mistake, Chopper transformed back to his Brain Point in midair to come up with a solution, and then he smiled, realizing he'd already found it. The sudden change in weight meant Chopper wasn't going to come down as fast, and the flick from Fu's tongue shot Chopper all the way over the lake where he landed on sand.

Fu was still rolling right after the flick and fell into the large crater created by Jozu's attack earlier. He didn't see it coming because he was focused on Chopper at the time, but now he was tumbling down fast towards the shallow pool of water at the bottom that had seeped in through cracks in the lake.

The frog panicked and stopped his roll right before touching the edge of the water. He crouched and sprang up in the air quickly, looking down to see where his enemy was. Fu grinned madly when he saw the surface of the lake and saw ripples heading out from a spot where someone recently splashed into. The green boy landed on the large rock chunk on the ice section and full extended his legs so that he was standing straight up. When he wasn't crouched down so far, he didn't look much like a frog at all, the weirdest thing about him was that his legs were longer proportionately to the rest of his body. That and his eyes.

Fu looked up at the ceiling and around at the speakers, but it had been a few seconds and no one had called out yet. He has a Devil Fruit, so why isn't the announcer calling the match? Fu looked around and the eyes in his head bumps widened as he saw many people looking over at the sand section. His eyes darted that way and he scanned the area quickly. Sometimes in missions there would be unexpected variables and he would have to adapt to them or retreat, but in this situation he had to adapt fast, and he noticed the hole in the ground a second before he felt the vibration on the rock he was standing on. He can dig?!

Chopper smashed through the surface of the rock just as Fu was jumping in the air. If the frog had been crouched before feeling Chopper coming up from beneath him, his jump would have been enough to avoid the reindeer. However, Chopper planned on this from the moment he stood up on the sand and saw he was out of the sights of his enemy. He chucked a piece of stone that found its way to the sand section into the water to make the ripple, then transformed to Horn Point and dropped underground. When he first resurfaced to find his opponent, he peeked his head barely out of the ice and saw the frog watching the water, which told him the plan was working and gave him a measurement for how far he had to dig before coming back up.

When he smashed through the rock surface, his horns made him look like a stag beetle and he kept crunching them together as he lifted up and caught his foe between the rock crushing horns. One crush was all it took for Chopper to hear crunches inside his opponent's body. It made him wince hearing that, but it made his opponent roar out in pain in a voice far too low for his body.

A smart fighter would have opened the horn jaws, and then crunched them again just as hard, and Chopper was a smart fighter, but he didn't do it. Zoro frowned when he watched Chopper transform into Kung Fu point and frontflip into a downwards kick on his falling opponent. He slammed Fu back into the stone chunk on the ice hard, hard enough to crack it in several spots and send the frog all the way down to the snow below, but a lot of people realized he didn't crush his opponent with his horns a second time, perhaps to save him from potential crippling injuries.

Chopper fell out of the air and landed on one foot on the rocks below him. He held his arms up in a Kung Fu stance, preparing for his opponent to stand up. First an orange hand lifted out of the rubble, and then the next, much larger hand reached out.

Chopper's eyes got wider along with most of the audience who stopped cheering for a second and just stared as large rock chunks were starting to get pushed aside. The one Chopper was standing on was hit by the rapidly growing foot and the reindeer had to leap off as it was brushed aside like it weighed nothing at all.

The frog's chest and entire torso were getting wider and wider, turning him into a large spherical ball of green and gold. His arms were getting fatter and his legs were too, while maintaining a crouch. Even with this sudden strange transformation, everyone witnessed the frog cough and red blood splatter out of his mouth. This shook the frog's foe back into the game and Chopper remembered he had a fight to win, turning back into his small form and hiding behind a large stone chunk while he watched the enemy get bigger and bigger until he was almost as big as Chopper's guard point.

Fu can't collect his acidic spit this quickly, unless he was holding back earlier which is unlikely, so what is he doing? If he's using his lungs to do this, then it may have something to do with the mist, so I need to prepare for that. Chopper transformed into Horn Point while he was still out of sight of his enemy and dropped down beneath the rock and into the stone section he found himself on.

Not even a second after Chopper decided to go underground, Fu released his mist. Instantly the room was full of noise as thousands of people couldn't see what was going on anymore. The white mist filled the room so fast that most people didn't see it coming, they were just suddenly shrouded.

Chopper felt the cold air hit him in the butt while he was tunneling, so he turned and saw the mist behind him, encroaching slowly. I can handle this, he tunneled down, then right, left, farther down. The mist was falling back slower and slower as there was nothing forcing it farther into the tunnel except that it was the area with less white mist. Once Chopper was a good distance away, he decided to take a break and stopped digging down. As he stopped, his horns clanked on something and he froze, that hurt. My horns should have been able to cut through steel if I hit the bottom.

The reindeer reached his hand down to where his horns hit and it was definitely harder than rock. The material quickly made Chopper pull his hand back as he felt all his energy draining, Kairoseki! He thought and instantly knew how all of Enel's attacks managed to stay on this side of the arena and not break into the mess hall. How much of it do they have here? he wondered and then heard an explosion up on the surface that reminded him of what he was hiding from. Focus on that later, I need a plan...

Meanwhile on the surface, Fu was sneaking through the mist getting more and more annoyed by the second. An assassin had to have an enormous amount of patience, but the crowd was seriously pissing him off. Everyone was screaming about how they couldn't see the fight anymore so his hearing was useless; there was no way he could hear footsteps or breathing over the yells of over a thousand people. He could see through the mist, but that was useless when his opponent could go underground. I have no idea where he'll surface, but he doesn't know where I am either, or does he?!

The Frog Boy was freaking out because he had no idea how Chopper could have found him. When he jumped up in the air, there was no one above ground, which meant that Chopper had already gone inside the hole he made on the sand section. Which means he didn't see me land on the stone, so how did he pinpoint my location? Vibration? If so I have to tread carefully, he crept around the arena and the match was getting dragged on longer and longer.

He puffed out his neck and it took him longer to charge this kind of spit, but it was all he could think of to drag his enemy out from underground. I have to collapse the tunnels, he spat the glob towards the lake, and the second it touched water, the reaction with it caused the glob to explode and shake the arena.

Chopper was far enough underground that the vibration wasn't felt as much by him as by the rest of the audience, but some pieces of ceiling were falling around him as he dug and he knew he had to work fast, while also wondering what was causing those explosions.

"Is the match finished?"

"Who won?"

"This is cutting into my lunchtime!"

"Just kill him already!"

The crowd was getting impatient but it looked like the announcer was going to wait until it was clear who the victor was before calling anything. Actually, it didn't look like anything, considering everyone in the room was pretty much blind.

Sanji looked behind him and saw Nami-san a little better than he did a minute ago, which means the fog is clearing. The chef wanted to see how Chopper was faring down there, but the fact that another explosion just went off let him know that neither of the two were finished yet.

Fu felt the ground beneath him shake, and wondered if one of his explosions had caused the tunnels beneath him to collapse. That seemed to be the case as the ground shook again and the elevation of the sand section he was standing on started to sink, causing loose sand to start sliding on a slant. The mist was clearing slowly, but a lot of people in the front rows were starting to see shadows inside the fog. The sand section wasn't the only part of the arena shaking, and Chopper's opponent was starting to get nervous.

Chopper was deep underground, still tunneling fast in circles around the arena, moving deeper and closer to the lake with every crunch of his horns. The elevation of the arena was starting to show a lot more effects of Chopper's moves, as the entire place started to look like a funnel. The outsides of the arena Chopper barely dug down at all, while he was digging deeper, and farther and farther in, and making a wider dig each time that caused more of the ground to collapse.

Fu felt the ground he was standing on start slanting and then a large tremble made him lose balance and hit the ground rolling. He flicked out his tongue and wrapped it around a stone chunk higher up on the sand section, but that rock started to slide down and wasn't going to be a good tongue-hold for much longer. It held him long enough for him to get to his feet though, and then he had to spin out of the way as the large rock tumbled past him and into the water.

The pirate from Kaido's crew spun hearing the splash far too soon after the rock went past him and he saw the water from the lake was getting higher up the arena. His eyes widened and he knew he didn't do that.

Underneath the ground, Chopper knew he had to be careful around the lake so when he reached the wet sand and dirt and knew he was getting close, he picked up the pace and raced around the bottom of the lake in record time, destroying its edge's supports, and letting the water spill over onto the other lowered sections. He raced past the flowing water as it flooded his tunnels and kept moving with the water right behind him.

As soon as he finished circling the outer edge of the lake, Chopper dug back in and up to the surface of the arena. He sprang up in the large crater on the stone section and peeked his head over the side of it. He saw his opponent through the thinning mist over on the sand section. The sand was sliding down so every step Fu took away, he was still getting dragged towards the center. And with all the rocks and loose debris falling into the lake, more water was getting displaced covering more of the arena with it. It won't keep rising for long though, the reindeer thought, once it hits this crater, it will stop rising and start filling in here, and Fu will have a moment to think. I can't give him that moment!

Fu had sweat dripping down his face and he had no idea what was going on. Where was his opponent? Why was the arena suddenly shifting and changing form? Why was the water level rising? WHERE WAS HIS OPPONENT?! If he stopped to think for a second, he could probably answer all of these questions, but his mind was more focused on not sliding with the sand towards the water.

The Beast Pirate tried to stay calm and got an idea he wished he'd thought of ten seconds ago. He crouched down to get more power in his legs, and even with the moving ground beneath him, he still got enough force to spring himself across the arena towards the dirt section. The looser pieces of rocks on it had already rolled into the water, and it was more sturdy than sand so it would be a good place to regain his composure.

The reindeer he was versing was hoping for this, and was already high in the air transforming into Heavy Point from Jumping. Kung Fu Point incorporated both Jumping and Arm, but he was planning on ending this here, and Heavy was now his strongest form he could get to without using a Rumble Ball since it merged part of Arm Point as well. Fu reached the highest point in his arc before he noticed the large shadow coming down at him from the air. He looked straight up and the lights on the ceiling coming down at Chopper made his form almost entirely black to the froggy assassin who could only croak in surprise as Chopper lifted two huge arms above his head and put his fists together.

Here goes! Chopper smashed down as hard as he could on top of the frog and the creature's eyes almost popped out of his head. His head got squished down and his whole body shook for a second on Chopper's fists before getting shot out of the air so fast it took the remaining mist around them and shot it down with him. He slammed into the surface of the lake, which now covered a quarter of the lowered arena, and the splash was almost as high as the point Chopper smashed him down from.

The reindeer angled the attack to shoot his enemy down that way, so he fell straight down and still managed to land on the rock he sprang off of originally during the moment when his opponent was crouching. Chopper was panting hard, but he smiled and took a deep breath to calm himself down, transforming back into his small form as he did. The speakers turned on and the announcer started talking, probably saying that Chopper won the match, but no one could hear him.

The cheers for Chopper were so loud that the little reindeer stumbled back and fell off the rock he was standing on. In the last few minutes, he not only destroyed the arena, but he completely proved wrong the fifty beri bounty the government had on him. This was the underdog match of the day, and no one even cared that it ran for so long and they couldn't see a lot of it; the parts they did see were intense enough!

The fog had cleared enough by the time Chopper emerged from the crater, that everyone in the stone section saw him appear and went dead silent. No one wanted to ruin the reindeer's strategy and they watched as Fu had no idea of the approaching threat. A lot of other people saw him appear when he jumped straight into the sky and almost touched the roof, but there were still a few people who only saw him when he transformed and smashed his opponent out of the sky.

"Chopper you're amazing!"

"Great job!"

"I never thought he could win!"

"That was the most impressive thing I've seen all day!"

The reindeer down on the arena was shaking and everyone on the Straw Hats could see what was coming. "SHUT UP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, with the widest smile on his face that anyone had ever seen. He started dancing around and waving his arms to the side while people kept cheering. "Saying all these nice things doesn't make me happy you dumbasses!" A female guard wearing purple who had long red hair jogged past Chopper to dive in and get Fu, but when she ran past she smiled at the happy little guy and congratulated the reindeer who became even happier.

Finally the cheers got quiet enough that the speakers could be heard. "...I know there's still one more match in the first sixteen for today, but we can start back up after lunch with Ricky versus Scratchmen Apoo!"

"I forfeit!" King Riku shouted and the parade that was starting for Apoo ended with a lot of moans from their section. Most people were still cheering on Chopper, but a few started booing the gladiator who put on his helmet when he stood up since everyone would be looking his way.

"Oh, okay then," the announcer sounded like he was rustling some papers and he called out, "Well that concludes the first sixteen of this second half of round one! There have been a lot of great matches this morning, and we'll return after the break with the next match! Since Gyaro has left early..." Sai growled remembering his fishman opponent who left the day before, but the announcer continued, "We'll start with the match after his, Heat versus Paulie! Have a great lunch everyone, and I'll see you in an hour!"

A/N Hey everyone thanks for reading! YAY CHOPPER! I hope you enjoyed the battle because I enjoyed just writing it. I've had complete control over Kaido's crew, and it has been fun creating different characters and Devil Fruits, leaving me only Kaido to still write in. Before anyone comes at me yelling about bounties, I am not saying Chopper is worth 200million+,(though I'm not saying he isn't either) I figured I dropped enough hints about the reason why his opponent's bounty was so high, you know, killing Kings and whatnot. Yes there were a couple of forfeits here at the end, but after watching the first around fifty fights, a lot of people have realized they don't stand a fighting chance in this tourny. XD See you soon!

LittlemissTrafalgar

I think my mind are blocking the other things that are about to happen in this story and just cheer for Chopper in the moment~ Go Chopper! I can't wait for his fight, I have a strong faith that Chopper is a really strong reindeer! He's the only animal with eight level transformation! And damn! Isn't he awesome?! I wish him best!

PS. So did Brother 3 really died? Poor him! I hope Buggy and Luffy take revenge for his lost and the other contestant that died because of the greediness of those "men" who set this tournament up.

Haha I think that's what's happening to a lot of people here. Many have their concerns about what's going on, but the tournament is keeping them all distracted from what's really happening! Five of six Straw Hats pull through with a 'W' so that's pretty good, and Chopper's got all those transformations, of course he's gonna win! Woohoo! About the P.S. *sniffles* yeah, 3 kicked the bucket. Loved the guy but now you're right, Buggy and Luffy are gonna be pissed, and I'm looking for the "Impel Down unstoppable duo" to get into action and discover what happened to their friend! Thanks for reviewing!

Guest

I hope chopper wins, I mean he does have his monster point

Didn't even need it! I don't think Chopper got a single scratch that whole match. Guess he was able to save some of his cards for a later round after all!

Legendary Cryptid

I'm surprised Sanji of all people woukd be worried about Catarina Devon, considering how ugly she is, and how she's part of Blackbeard's crew. I guess his chivalry will even defend the worst women...

Sanji stopped Lola from getting attacked... LOLA! The huge fat zombie pig, and when he did it was obvious the penguin was his shadow, because he would be worried about any lady in danger. He wasn't drooling over her, because she's ugly, but he wouldn't use ugly as an excuse not to defend her.

Son of Whitebeard

Devil Fruit hunting seems to be a popular sport

Yeah I saw some Devil Fruit hunters in a great story I read called Nine Minutes, and I figured I'd incorporate a similar idea in my story with the fruits reappearing in a nearby fruit.

Guest

Fu might be a siren, or this witch-ish legend we have in Denmark that is responsible for creating bogs. I don't know its english name. Either way, i'm excited as usual, and rooting for Chopper!

Fu the Frog, not as cool as the things you described, but I liked the guy. Never figured out what his Devil Fruit was called, and who knows we may never know, (It's the Frog Frog Fruit: Model Poison Dart Frog) or something like that XD! Yay Chopper! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed and gave feedback! Till next time!