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Rebirth of the Straw Hat
Chapter 25
As soon as team CFVY and Luffy arrived in Forever Fall, they started their search in one group so they could watch each others' backs. Splitting up wasn't a logical choice considering that they are looking for the source of the influx, which means they could stumble upon it on accident and become overwhelmed by a horde of Grimm.
Better to take them on starting as a whole team instead of two or three members.
"Kinda sucks that your Observation Haki can't sense the presence of Grimm, huh." Coco commented to the two Haki users. Luffy's eyes lit up on the topic.
"Oh right. How are you guys doing so far?" he asked the team. The four looked a bit sheepish as they don't know if they made any progress at all.
"That's... hard to explain. What did you do to train the others?" Fox inquired in hopes of learning an effective training method. The only way he could think of was how Fujitora taught him, which was intense focus on your surroundings. He was blind, so he wasn't left with much choice on how to perceive the world.
"I just blindfold them and swing a bat at them." Luffy explained casually, causing the three non-Haki users to wince.
They can't imagine the number blows to the head that teams RWBY and JNPR took in an effort to learn one of the Haki types.
Although, people tend to say 'no pain, no gain'.
"Sounds... reasonable. But lets say one of us wants to learn Armament, then what?" Yatsu spoke up, hinting on his desire to obtain the other Haki type. His fighting style heavily relies on his strength, making Armament a great addition to his arsenal.
"Then you add some spirit when you're in a tough battle." Luffy answered vaguely before demonstrating what Armament would look like by imbuing it to his arm, turning it black.
The action slightly startled the them, but realized that they only seen that happen once before.
Back when Luffy infused Nora's hammer with his Haki during their match against team CRDL.
"He means that you cover your limb in literal fighting spirit... I think." Fox tried to go further into detail, but wasn't really sure himself. The rest sweatdropped at the lack of detail on their explanations.
All they got from that was that they had to focus their will to fight into their attacks, and that's not much to go on. They still don't know how to actually go about it and how much they have to add.
Velvet's musings were broken by the sounds of growling that invaded her rabbit ears. She stopped in place as she hones in on where it's coming from, gaining everyone's attention.
"Grimm?" Coco wondered, earning a nod from her teammate.
"Yay! Walking around and not finding anything was getting boring." Luffy stated as he cracked his knuckles before bringing out Black Kabuto along with the Sniper Bond. The others grinned at his excitement for battle.
The rest brought out their weapons, ready to confront the Grimm. Coco simply holds her bag, which is actually her weapon of choice. Yatsu draws a large curved sword that is bronze in color. Fox enters a combat stance with arm blades attached at the wrist. Velvet does the same, but refrains from using the box on the back of her waist.
The black beasts started to pour into their vision, varying in size and species. Beowolves dominate the wave in terms of numbers, but Ursas and Boarbatusks also have a fair amount. The largest threat amongst them would be the lone King Taijitu slithering along with them.
Luffy preemptively started the fight by loading the slingshot with a black pellet before shooting it at one of the Ursas. A loud blast was heard as soon as the small orb made contact with its head, eradicating any evidence that it was there. The surrounding Grimm turned to their headless comrade before giving low growls at the offender.
"That pellet would be so destructive if it was shot from my minigun." Coco muttered in interest, scaring her team at the thought of her weapon shooting a ridiculous amount of explosive bullets. Luffy perked up at the mention of her weapon.
"Ehh! You have a minigun!" Luffy exclaimed in childish wonder. The fashionista smirked before showcasing the transformation of her bag, which morphed into its minigun form with a huge drum holding the ammo. Luffy's eyes immediately turned to stars at the sight.
"A-awesome! That gun is huge! You have to be pretty strong if you can carry it around like that." Luffy noticed. If the woman can carry around a large weapon in its compact form with one hand, it goes to show that her physical strength isn't something to joke about.
The three observers sweatdropped as the two conversed in the middle a seemingly threatening situation.
The approaching Grimm broke them out of their thoughts as Coco switched back to her bag.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot that they were there." Luffy said sheepishly, not feeling threatened by the horde. Sure there were a lot, but they weren't anything special like the B.K. The group fanned out to fight the Grimm.
Yatsu waited for the Beowolves to foolishly lunge at him before severing each of them with a single swing of his sword per unit, displaying incredible feats of strength. It even went as far as bisecting an Ursa, whose bulky body would prove to be difficult to cut through.
He performed an overhead swing to the ground, leading to a powerful shockwave that lifted the surrounding creatures into the air as well as shattering the ground. Luffy takes advantage of their airborne state and jumps up to them. He spins rapidly, stretching and wrapping himself with his arms and legs until he looked like a rubber ball.
"Gomu Gomu no Hanabi (Fireworks)"
The ball unwraps itself, sending a flurry of both punches and kicks in every direction. The Grimm were helpless as they were pummeled by the many fists and feet that landed on them, killing them as they fell back to the ground.
Yatsu smirked at Luffy for wordlessly capitalizing on the set up, to which the boy returned with a grin.
Fox enters the fray and starts hacking away at the Grimm by spinning and flipping with his arm blades, serving an onslaught of slashes. With his Observation hindered, he could only rely on his hearing, reflexes, and the brief premonition from their killing intent.
A Boarbatusk rolled towards him, but he hopped over it. The boar Grimm made a U-turn and charged again, to which Fox was prepared for after hearing the Beowolves behind it.
Through great Aura manipulation, he slammed both fists against the rolling foe. The shockwave stopped it in its tracks before sending back, leaving the Beowolves to be steamrolled by the launched Grimm. The Boarbatusk crashed into a tree before it suddenly exploded to bits.
"So cool! He did that Aura thing like Ren." Luffy commented. Based on what he heard from Nora, he's able to connect between the explosion before him and how Ren caused the head of a snake to do the same by using its own fang.
Luffy jumped over a Beowolf that snuck up on him before delivering an axe kick to its head. He sees a large number of its friends charging at him in unison while huddled together.
Deciding to use his slingshot more, he sets up another shot with a green pellet.
"Tempest Wolf Star"
The small orb was released, transforming into a large canine made of compressed air. The attack rushed through the horde, sending them flying from the intense air pressure.
Luffy grinned at his handiwork while an Ursa Major was about to strike him with his paws.
However, it was interrupted by a kick from Velvet. She continued her attacks, landing one kick after the other as the bear Grimm failed to respond. The Ursa Major had enough and tried to sweep the rabbit faunus's feet, only for her to do a backflip to dodge while also nailing it in the jaw with her foot.
Luffy stared curiously at her fighting style, discovering a strong similarity to Sanji's.
The Ursa roared in anger of the nuisance, keeping its attention on Velvet without paying any heed to its surroundings.
A fatal error on its part...
"Ice Shuriken Star"
Velvet relaxed as four moderately sized ninja stars forged from an ice pellet whizzed by her and dug into the Major's flesh, eliciting a pained howl.
She rushed in and used the cold weapons as a foothold before leaping high above the weakened Grimm. Velvet somersaults a few times before landing a heavy axe kick on the bear Grimm's noggin, similar to Sanji's Concasse but weaker due to her own strength.
She kept herself perched on its shoulders as a blue hard light weapon was projected out from the box on her back waist, creating a weapon that was familiar to Luffy.
It was a copy of Soul Solid.
She grabs her hard light copy and draws it before plunging it into the Ursa's head with the thin blade. Luffy could only stare in shock and amazement of his usually shy friend.
He begins using Observation Haki to sense Coco's whereabouts to see how she's doing. That and possibly to see her minigun tear Grimm to shreds.
The straw hat boy was able to pinpoint her location, but Beowolves seem to be on the pathway. Luffy pouts at the obstacles before twisting his legs several times, and then hops off the ground to let his legs unwind really fast. The action created a spinning blur on the bottom half of his body, which is also allowing him to hover.
"Gomu Gomu no UFO"
Luffy starts his march through the veil of Grimm, kicking any unfortunate enemies that happened to be too close.
"Lets go, Velvet." Luffy called out, earning a nod from the rabbit faunus. He stretches his arm out and pulls her up to his shoulders, allowing her to ride on them for the time being.
Velvet lets out a sigh of relief for the quick breather as she doesn't want to stay here fighting Grimm any longer.
"We seem to be on the right track if there are this many out here." Velvet observed.
"Yeah, but we're wasting too much time. What was that back there, though? It looked so cool!" Luffy added his two cents before suddenly switching on to the subject of her fighting style.
Velvet was about to tell him to wait till after the fight, but she began to notice that the Grimm are staying away from the duo in fear of getting hit by the hovering discus.
Not only that, the hoard looks less populated due to all of the fighting.
She doesn't see the harm in talking with him if the threat has shrunken down considerably.
"I use my camera to capture pictures of someone's weapons, and then I create physical copies of them to fight. But the process to prepare them takes a lot of time, and they only last a number hits before breaking." Velvet explained her peculiar weapons in detail.
"Huh... then shouldn't you be saving them for the tougher battles?" Luffy wondered in curiosity, causing her to slump. He didn't even bother to wonder when she shot a picture of Soul Solid.
Coco often told her the same thing about conserving her frail weapons, and now she's going to berate her for using a copy to kill a Grimm that Luffy could've easily taken care of. She also feels guilty for sneaking into his sparring classes to spectate his fights in order to gain intel on his fighting style without his knowledge.
Even she can admit that it sounds like she was stalking him.
"So how were you fighting like Sanji?" Luffy asked further, breaking her out of her thoughts.
"O-oh right. My semblance lets me mimic a person's style of fighting to an extent. I already know some martial arts based on kicking, so Sanji's style compliments it pretty well." Velvet informed him. Thankfully, Luffy used Sanji's bond during the fight with the bullies, so Velvet managed to gain some insight on the chef's techniques.
Luffy couldn't help but think that her semblance is similar to his own. They both focus on using skills that belonged to someone else.
The two started to hear the sounds of gunfire, causing Luffy to grin as he sped up towards the source of the sound.
They entered the scene to witness a pissed off Coco mowing down the rest of the Grimm with her minigun, much to Luffy's joy. Even the King Taijitu was left in pieces from the brutal massacre.
Luffy halts his UFO, which allowed Velvet to dismount.
Velvet quirked a brow at her leader's behavior until she caught sight of a tear on her brown shirt.
"Ohh... that's why she looks mad. One of them nicked her clothes." Velvet muttered as if she solved a mystery.
"She gets like that over her clothes? That's pretty scary." Luffy said with a blank look. He can't really blame her since he does the same for his hat. Thinking about his treasured possession forced a small smile as he remembered handing it to Yang, knowing that she'll take good care of it.
Fox and Yatsu joined them just as Coco stopped shooting, leaving a legless Alpha Beowolf at her mercy.
The fashionista struts up to the immobilized Grimm and stares down at it with disdain.
"You wrecked one of my favorite shirts. You'll pay with your life." Coco threatened in a low tone before caving its skull into the ground with her bag, cratering the dirt below its head.
The area was supposedly clear of hostiles, but Luffy and Fox turned their attention to another presence. The others got the message, but were confused when they recalled that Grimm couldn't be sensed.
What living being could be out here besides them?
They soon got their answer as a large timber wolf with a scar across its snout came into view. It was snarling at them as it circled them defensively. They had a feeling that this one was the alpha of the pack after noticing the scar.
Velvet squeaked in nervousness due to her faunus heritage, seeing as wolves tend to eat rabbits. Much like how a cat faunus feels uneasy in the presence of a dog.
"Cool! That's a big wolf. He looks tasty." Luffy said with drool in his mouth, causing the wolf to growl in hostility of the boy's intentions. Team CFVY sweatdrops at his priorities.
"We don't have time for eating wildlife, Luffy. Besides, that wolf unlocked his Aura." Fox speculated, surprising the rest. It was usually common for domesticated animals to be trained in Aura use, but to find a wild animal that has Aura was very rare.
To Observation users, a living being with a dormant Aura would appear as a simple silhouette. Those with their Aura unlocked have a radiant glow about them, which dims as they lose Aura.
Luffy found himself staring into the wolf's eyes, as if feeling his suffering and desperation.
"I changed my mind. I'm going to tame him." Luffy declared suddenly with a grin.
"Huh!" the team yelled in unison. Before they could argue, Luffy lets out a burst of Conqueror's Haki. The timber wolf stopped growling, completely pacified by his strong will.
They could only stare in wide eyed shock as the now docile wolf walked up to him, letting the straw hat boy pet him.
"He honed his Conqueror's Haki to the point that he could tame them effortlessly." Fox figured in awe.
"You and your friends must've been kicked out of your home, huh Timber." Luffy deduced with a sad smile, earning a whine from the wolf named Timber. They quirked a brow in wonder if he was able to communicate with animals. They doubt that Chopper's bond will help, seeing as Luffy would still be left with noises and gestures from the animals since he's not naturally born an animal.
'He gave it the same name as its breed.' Yatsu noted dully in his thoughts. Velvet was still reluctant on approaching the predator, something Luffy noticed.
"What's wrong, Velvet. He's not going to bite. See?" Luffy emphasized his point by grabbing her hand and pulling the appendage to Timber's head. Velvet lets out a squeak at the sudden pull, her heart racing uncomfortably as Luffy made her hand pet the wolf's head. Timber did nothing but allow her to brush her hand over its fur, which caused the rabbit faunus to relax a bit.
It was like the wolf was already domesticated.
After a bit of deep thought, an idea suddenly clicked to Coco.
"That... is actually a good lead. Can you lead us to your home?" Coco asked the wolf, who turned to Luffy.
"Don't worry, we'll get your home back." Luffy told the wolf, earning a happy tail wag. Timber walked away from them, but barked as if telling them to follow. The others took a moment to realize the lead they had.
Grimm only grow hostile towards animals when it comes to claiming territory. The pack of timber wolves must have been forcefully vacated from their home when the Grimm started pushing their boundaries forward.
There's a great chance that the influx of Grimm are playing the role as the spearhead of their invasion.
With that knowledge in mind, they began to follow Timber towards wherever its home was.
"This has been quite a mission so far." Yatsu concluded on their progress with the rest nodding in agreement. They got into a skirmish with Grimm and they just witness their extra team member tame a timber wolf with ease.
Just as Luffy's group was following Timber, teams RWBY and JNPR are tailing behind Yang as she lead them to an informant she's acquainted with. They were starting to have doubts when they entered the more questionable part of Vale.
However, Ruby seems to know where her straw hat wearing sister is taking them to.
"Are you sure that he has what we need?" Jaune asked skeptically, feeling very uneasy with his surroundings. While they do have safety in numbers, it didn't do anything for his anxiety.
"Yup! If we need to know of anything related to crooks and other shady stuff, then he's our guy." Yang said in optimism. She would sometimes visit him to get an update on something else she's searching for.
"Not like he'll do anything to us since you made a mess of his bar so many times." Ruby deadpanned, causing others to raise a brow. Yang gave a light chuckle at that.
It wasn't just her, Luffy was tagging along with her a lot of those times.
"Of course it would be a bar." Weiss muttered. Putting the blonde's tastes into consideration, they should've known that they're heading to a club.
"It's not like we have any leads to find Buggy and his gang. We have until nightfall before they strike another store." Pyrrha added her two cents. They seem to be the kind of group to hit a store and then move to another hideout, indicating that their movements are hard to track.
In a way, that would sound more pirate-like since pirates don't usually stay on an island for very long.
Yang stole a glance at her partner to see that Blake has remained silent for quite a while. Even though that's the norm with her, the black haired girl looks a bit out of focus. As if thinking about something... or someone.
"What's wrong, Blake? Worried about Luffy?" Yang teased, but Blake shook her head.
"Not really. He has Velvet and her team." she responded coolly, earning a pout from Yang.
Not exactly the response she was aiming for, even though she's pretty sure that is the case.
Blake was glad that the blonde didn't press any further. She was in fact a little worried about Luffy's wellbeing. For all she knew, he could be in the middle of fighting tooth and nail against new species of Grimm that they have never encountered before.
But she refuses to give telltale signs of that to Yang, who would undoubtedly press on with the teasing.
"Not like worrying will make it any better anyways. I'm sure he's breaking the legs of all the new Grimm right now." Nora cheered, but the statement caused Ruby to hang her head in sadness.
"I almost forgot about that. Makes me wonder what he's going to fight exactly." Ruby wondered, dispirited about missing out on new Grimm. The rest sweatdropped, but can't help but think of the possible foes.
While they were stuck in their musings, they stopped in front of a building that they could only assume is the club.
"I don't suppose this is the club you mentioned, is it?" Ren asked the blonde while pointing at the building.
"Yeah, that's right. This is one of my usual Yang outs." Yang punned, earning a series of groans in response.
"You know, it's times like this that I want Luffy to be with me when I make any puns." Yang said with her head hung in defeat. There won't be an end to the puns, but it's really encouraging when she gets a laugh.
Having done enough fooling around, the two teams entered the club. The inside of the building was huge with a dance floor decorated with four pillars and a bar off to the side. There wasn't many customers inside at this time of day, but there sure are a lot of low rank grunts. Ruby recognized the black suits and fedoras they were wearing, recalling the night of the robbery.
They turn to their guide only to see her staring at the four figures at the bar.
One was a man that stood a full head taller than Yang with grey eyes and short black hair matching his beard and moustache. His outfit gives off the vibe that he at least owns the club with his white dress shirt under a black vest, a red tie, black gloves, and black dress pants.
Another was blonde man in his seat having a drink. Said blonde man was about the same height as the possible owner with a muscular build with an attire that consists of an open blue vest, black pants, and brown shoes. He also has that grin plastered on his face.
And the last two are twin sisters wearing strapless dresses. One of the twins was wearing a mix of white and cyan with long black hair, while the other is adorned in red and black with short black hair.
The students approached the bar with the silent agreement to let Yang do most of the talking since she has a strong influence within the club.
The black haired man looked up at the source of footsteps and groaned to himself.
"What the hell do you want, Blondie?" the man growled, not wanting anymore trouble from the brawler.
His words brought the others' attention to the students with the blonde man eyeing the hat Yang is wearing while the twins look at her with narrowed eyes.
"I can't even come to pay a visit, Junior. I was wondering if you have anything on this." Yang gets to the point as she shows Buggy's jolly roger to him. Junior spared a look to the image before grunting.
"Yeah, I recognize it. No good bunch of misfits that do as they please, thinking they have all the power. Tough luck finding them, though. They're bouncing all over the place." Junior gave what info he could, but he's sure that Yang was displeased with the amount.
Yang found herself in a bad mood, but before the blonde could grill him for more info...
"If I may ask, does that belong to Straw Hat Luffy?" the blonde man asked suddenly as he gestured to the said accessory resting on Yang's head, catching everyone off guard. They don't know this man one bit, but he's very familiar with the straw hat for some reason.
"Who's asking?" Weiss countered with her arms crossed as she was on alert. This person could be a friend or foe to her friend, unless Ruby or Yang can verify him by name.
"Bellamy the Hyena." he replied, earning a surprised look from Ruby.
"You became friends with Luffy in Dressrosa, although you were his enemy before that." Ruby remembered, but muttered the second half to herself. The confirmation calmed them down as they realize that this Bellamy person bears no ill will against Luffy.
"Heh, that's him alright. I'm guessing you have a deep connection to him if he's letting you hold onto that hat." Bellamy observed.
"It's more than some connection, me and Rubes are his family." Yang informed him, to which Bellamy hummed in response.
He's glad to know that a person he respects is alive and doing well for himself. From his observations, he could tell that these kids are training to be huntsmen.
'So he wishes to be a huntsman this time.' Bellamy thought, feeling indifferent on Luffy's choice. The two may become enemies again, but that's fine by him.
"I might be able to give you a hand with this." Bellamy said, earning him a lot of raised brows.
"I may be just some lone wolf thug on the street, but I hear a lot of rumors." Bellamy continued with his trademark grin. The students looked skeptical of the sudden generosity, as if there was an ulterior motive.
"Why help us? What do you have to gain from this?" Pyrrha inquired. She really doubts it has anything to do with having a common friend.
"Are you planning something that the cops won't like?" Blake asked further. Bellamy huffed at their skeptical gazes.
He could understand their point of view. If he was approached by some random guy that was a friend of your friend, he'd be in disbelief of the guy's kindness too.
"All that racket they're causing is making the cops a bit jumpy. It feels suffocating to walk the streets with the law enforcement covering every inch of the city." Bellamy reasoned.
"Well, if that's all there is to it, then we'd appreciate the help." Ruby accepted nonchalantly, stunning her partner and Bellamy with her naivety.
This girl was going to accept that at face value? She's just as naïve as Luffy in that regard.
"Are you serious! He may be Luffy's friend, but he's-" Weiss tried to rebuke, but Ruby cuts her off.
"Trustworthy. I'm willing to bet he means no harm to innocent people. He's not unreasonable." Ruby defended him. Weiss could only sigh in frustration as she begrudgingly accepted her leader's decision.
"Not like we have much of a choice anyway. Without him, we may as well be back at square one." Ren pointed out. Yang's informant didn't have anything useful, and that was their only chance.
"I guess so. Where's Jaune by the way?" Pyrrha wondered, causing the others to look for her leader. Their eyes found him trying to flirt with the twins, but went unsuccessful as they turned away in disgust. Jaune looked crestfallen at the rejection, which prompted his team to comfort him.
"Ugh... there's never any good guys like that Luffy kid, right Miltia." the white dressed girl complained to her black wearing twin.
"He may be an idiot Melanie, but he does have a cute face. Then there are those rubber powers of his." Miltia agreed.
Yang and Blake gave the twins an annoyed look as the two could feel their lustful intentions, yet they both don't know that either of them are giving the same look. Yang's was out of clear disapproval of the two, while Blake was bothered about the girls' infatuation with the boy.
"Looks like he's as popular as ever." Bellamy noted with a sweatdrop, earning nods from the rest of the group as they all left.
When the coast was clear, Junior lets out a sigh of relief as his club has escaped unscathed from the blonde brawler. Better news was that her obnoxious cousin wasn't with her to help with demolition.
End of Chapter
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