Disclaimer : I do not own One Piece or RWBY.
Rebirth of the Straw Hat
Chapter 26
He finally made it to Vale.
After many days of walking, destroying terrorist encampments, and a peaceful ride across the sea courtesy of his travelling companion, Zoro has arrived in the bustling city.
He and Perona left the vessel that brought him here while overhearing some of the sailors' chatter.
"What in the hell were those ghosts? They keep following our ship for no reason." the first sailor wondered, unnerved by the strange anomaly.
"Who knows. They didn't do anything to us, so why should it matter." the second sailor waved off.
As soon as they set sail, the crew caught sight of silly ghosts hovering around their ship. At first, they were frightened by the specters' existence. But when they noticed that the things weren't malevolent, they just started to ignore them.
Even though they were still creeped out.
"Haven't you noticed though? Those creepy ghosts were all around us, yet we never got attacked by Grimm." a third sailor piped in. Zoro couldn't help but smirk at Perona's handiwork.
"Hmph, they should be grateful to my ghosts. Were it not for them, our ship probably would've sunk." Perona muttered. The main purpose of the Negative Hollows was to keep watch and lure the seafaring Grimm away should they get close.
"It's a miracle they can even make it in one piece on their own." Zoro added.
The duo continued to walk through the streets, looking for a way to Beacon. A sudden thought occured to Zoro concerning the ghost girl.
"What are you going to do after I reunite with Luffy, Perona?" Zoro asked. The ghost girl stopped in her tracks as she put thought into it, unaware that Zoro moved somewhere else.
She could go back home, but there won't be anyone there. She doesn't like the thought of being alone in a dark and eerie castle.
"I'll... figure out something." Perona answered in uncertainty. She didn't hear anything from him and dreaded the worst as she turned to where he's supposed to be.
No green hair in sight...
She clenched her fists in growing frustration for his disappearance.
"That... moron." she glowered. Negative Hollows sprung into being and dispersed to find him, not paying any mind to the freaked out civilians around her.
Zoro walked away from the pink haired girl after he caught sight of something as it went around the corner. He saw a woman with blonde hair, but that wasn't what got his attention.
It was the straw hat she was wearing. Not only that, he spotted some others that he recognized within the group.
"There's no doubt about it. That was Luffy's hat. But why are Bellamy and Mistral girl with that woman?" Zoro wondered, puzzled by the sight of the group.
He could only assume that the person wearing the boy's hat was one of the girls in the photo Qrow showed him.
The swordsman weaved through the crowd in an effort to catch up. Right now, that group is the only lead he has to finding Luffy's exact location.
He comes to an intersection and takes a random turn. He looks around in a frantic search for either the blonde hair or the straw hat. Alas, he couldn't find any signs of such.
"Damn! They got lost." he muttered. He turns back to find Perona and ask her for some assistance, but he went in a direction other than where he came from.
"You say they're lost, yet you can't even find your own way back!" Perona shouted at him from above. Before he could respond, a Negative Hollow phased through him, causing the swordsman to fall to his knees.
"I'm not worthy enough to lick your shoes." Zoro mumbled in depression, but recovered shortly after and glared at the perpetrator.
"Now before you start barking at me, I found those group of kids you're looking for." Perona informed him, which did well to soften his demeanor.
"Where are they headed?" Zoro asked impatiently.
Jaune instinctively turned around and scanned the area behind him. For some odd reason, he had the feeling someone was following them.
'Weird... I thought for sure there was someone there.' he thought in bewilderment.
"What's wrong?" a voice broke him out of his thoughts. He turns his attention to the others staring at him.
"Just... imagining things." Jaune told them, shrugging off the sensation. They accepted his answer before continuing their march to what would be the enemy stronghold.
They kept following Bellamy until he stopped in in front of them.
"According to the rumors, this should be the place. A lot of people were mentioning some odd folks coming here." Bellamy informed the group. They look ahead of him to see an abandoned warehouse in the industrial district.
While the location seems stereotypical for robbers to store their stolen goods, there were too many to search through in the coastal city given the size of its port.
"Odd folks?" Yang quirked a brow.
"For one, they saw a beautiful woman passing through this district. Now why would such a pretty face be here, I wonder?" Bellamy asked rhetorically. With the exception of Ruby, the girls had half lidded eyes at the description.
'Alvida.' they thought in a dull tone, still feeling jealous of her devil fruit's passive function.
"I'll go check to make sure they're in there." Blake insisted as she climbed on top of a container below a window. Yang found herself taking in the sight of her partner's butt.
"Damn, she's got a great ass. With that in mind, she shall be nicknamed 'Bellabooty'." Yang muttered in awe, resulting in many sweatdrops and a shudder from Blake.
"Is she bisexual?" Jaune whispered the blunt question to Ruby.
"No, she's straight. Yang just likes to admire any attractive part of the body, boy or girl." Ruby replied, not bothered by how crude the inquiry was. She knew a fair amount of people that questioned her sister's sexual orientation.
Blake ignored the feeling of being ogled and peered through the window. She immediately spotted a group of five around a table, four men and one woman who she would assume to be Alvida.
Alvida herself has wavy black hair, dark green eyes, and also uses nail polish and lipstick. Her clothes consist of a white cowboy hat with a red plume, a bikini top, a purple coat, tight Capri-length pants in pink, and a pair of sandals.
One of the men had a unique hairstyle where half of his dark green hair covered his face while the other half was parallel shaved. He wears a large scarf with a blue and white checkered pattern, a sleeveless coat that reaches to his knees, and a sash above his white pants and shoes.
The one next to him was... bizarre. He wears a pair of blue pants with a yellow sash and shoes that resemble paws. What caught her attention was the small vest of white fur along with his white hair in the form of a lion's mane. He also has a lion's tail, showing that he's a faunus.
'That vest looks like it's clung to his body, which means that it might actually be his hair. Gross.' Blake thought in disgust. Having chest hair is one thing, but having enough to pass as a piece of clothing glued to your body is just disturbing.
She moves on to the next person, which was a frail looking man wearing glasses. His attire is simple with a button collar shirt and pants. But his hair has a topknot in the shape of the number three, making her assume that he was Mr. 3.
The cat faunus could only wonder how they didn't find them with something like that to give him away.
The last person must be Buggy, given that his outfit has some resemblance to a clown. It's hard to miss him with his big red nose along with his blue hair and make up on his face. His garbs include a hat with his jolly roger over a striped bandana, a fur lined coat over his striped shirt, cartoonish gloves, loose pants reaching his calves, and pointy shoes.
The rest of the occupants were more of your traditional thugs with their bandanas of varying colors. Once she finished her scouting, Blake hopped of the container and returned to the others.
"What's the word, Blakey?" Yang half shouted to keep themselves from being heard.
"The three devil fruit users are definitely inside, but there are two other high ranking members." Blake explained. She then gave a description of what each of the five look like, receiving disgusted looks for the lion faunus' hairy body.
"Great... so do we just take them by storm, or what?" Nora asked with vigor as she held Magnhild. Yang and Bellamy were accepting of the idea with their grins, while the remainder are hesitant on the guns blazing tactic.
While they did receive intel on the devil fruit powers they're up against, they can't ignore the possibility of an annoying semblance.
"Can we at least split our group to handle the five with optimal performance?" Weiss suggested to the reckless fighters.
"We don't have time to worry about a strategy. It'll work out as we fight, alright." Yang disapproved.
Before the two could argue, a loud noise was heard. Thinking the chaos would distract their targets, Nora smashed the main entrance with her hammer. The two men guarding the entrance failed to respond to the swinging doors before making contact with them, knocking them out.
Weiss sighs in exasperation as they have no choice but to proceed without a proper strategy.
"Ehh!" the grunts shouted in surprise as they are caught between two sources of intrusion. On one side, they have the huntsmen in training plus one thug. The other side is occupied by just two people who sliced a hole in the metal building.
"Zoro! I told you they were on the other side of the building. We could've walked around it." Perona berated him for cutting himself a doorway.
"This way's faster." Zoro replied. He looks ahead to see everyone is staring at him with wide eyes. Although, Yang was drinking in the sight of his muscular body with a pervy grin, much to his annoyance as he recalled the same grin on the cook's face.
'He looks so much hotter in person.' Yang swooned.
"Well, well. If it isn't Pirate Hunter Zoro." Bellamy grinned at the new arrival.
"Tch. Didn't think he'd be working as a huntsman." Buggy said in annoyance, earning a confused look from the swordsman.
"Huntsman? I'm not here for you, Buggy. I came here to look for Luffy, and those guys are the only ones that know."Zoro explained as he shifts his gaze over to the students.
Yang blinked a few times until she realized how he would be certain of that. She's so glad that she has her cousin's hat with her. It got them a lead for their mission, and now Buggy and Zoro are going to see proof of her connection to Luffy.
Buggy and his alliance turned to the group and took notice of the straw hat.
"Huh? That does look like Straw Hat's." Mr. 3 concluded as he cups his chin.
"Oh? So he's here after all. Guess I'll have to pay him a visit." Alvida said in a sultry tone, ringing alarms in Yang and Blake. Did she have some attraction to Luffy?
"Just the sight of it is giving me a headache!" Buggy ranted, recalling his mishaps with Shanks and Luffy.
"Long time no see, Zoro." Pyrrha called out from across the room with a polite wave.
"Yo, Mistral girl." Zoro returned casually.
"We're in the middle of something, and you two just greet each other like nothing is happening! Don't screw with us!" Buggy yelled. The students ignore him in favor of the first mate.
"S-sorry, Zoro. Luffy isn't with us right now. But I can promise you that you'll get to see him after we finish this." Ruby said. Zoro sighed at the development, feeling like he just missed his captain.
"It can't be helped then." Zoro said as he summoned a normal sword and unsheathed both of them.
"Just so we're clear, we got the five at the table so stay out of our fight." Jaune claimed, causing everyone to look at him. With both Bellamy and Zoro, the fight would be a cakewalk if the two focused on the strongest members.
"Who do you think you are, telling us what to do?" Bellamy questioned in a threatening tone. The blonde flinched at the former pirate's voice, but stood strong.
"We didn't come all this way to have someone else do the fighting for us! I won't accept a completed mission when we haven't done anything!" the boy declared. The declaration stunned his friends as well as the incarnates siding with them. Bellamy and Zoro soon found themselves smirking.
That sounded like something Luffy would say.
"Fine by me." Zoro agreed. He understands where Jaune is coming from. This was a matter of pride, and he would do well not to tarnish it. The boy also earns some points for boldly speaking out against two guys that can beat his ass with little effort.
Buggy and his crew laughed at the Beacon students out of arrogance.
"Oh please... a bunch of kids like you think that you can beat us." Buggy said as he drew several knives from his coat and held them between his fingers.
This prompted everyone else to draw their respective weapons. Alvida slung a huge spiked mace over her shoulder, displaying some deceptive strength. The man with the large scarf drew his saber while hopping on a unicycle, and the lion faunus brings out a whip made of flexible metal. Mr. 3 appears to be unarmed, but he might have a trick up his sleeve. The grunts assembled around their superiors, forming a wall of bodies armed with swords and simple firearms.
"You're gonna have to get through us first." one of the grunts said. Bellamy's grin grew feral as he knelt to the ground and turned his legs into springs, causing the students to back away from him in surprise.
"Whoa! Is that your devil fruit power!?" Nora asked in childish wonder.
"You got it. I ate the Spring Spring fruit, making me a spring human." Bellamy explained. The springs compressed further until he was satisfied.
"Spring Snipe"
Bellamy launches himself into the group with incredible velocity before nailing one of the cannon fodder with his fist. He continued to fly until he bounced off the wall, changing his trajectory. Another unfortunate soul got grabbed by him as he passed by, unable to break free when Bellamy slammed the grunt's head against a support beam.
"Should've guessed that he would fight like a barbarian." Weiss commented on Bellamy's brutality. The grunts were too stupid to realize that he's easily predictable with his straightforward attacks, and they also lack the quick reflex to counter him and his speed.
On the other side, Zoro slowly walked towards the other half of the grunts while Perona floats somewhere else.
"You can have all of them to yourself. I'll just sit back and watch." Perona told him. Zoro didn't reply as he held a bored expression to the approaching grunts.
While he's sworn himself not to intervene, it doesn't erase the fact that the low level grunts are not going to excite his thirst for battle.
"Taka Nami (Hawk Wave)"
A great gust of wind was launched, blowing away a portion of the enemy forces. He rushes into the fray with two swords in hand and starts his onslaught on his boring foes.
With the exception of Pyrrha, the students were astounded by his skill as he keeps cutting down grunts one by one with superb finesse.
"He really is his first mate, huh?" Jaune said in awe. He could learn a thing or two from his fellow swordsman.
"We can gawk at his swordsmanship later. Right now, we have business to take of." Blake reminded as she had her attention on Alvida, who's smiling seductively. The others nodded their heads as they selected their opponents.
"Gentlemen... who is the most beautiful woman in the world?" Alvida asked the remaining grunts as she flaunts her looks. The grunts who were not close to either incarnate turned to her with hearts for eyes and pointed at her.
"That would be you, Lady Alvida!" they cheered in unison. The seventeen year old girls seethed in anger of her arrogance, but have a hard time denying her beauty. Pyrrha looks over to Jaune to see him ogling the woman's revealing attire before pulling on his ear, earning a yelp from him.
'If they think she's pretty, wait till they see Hancock and Shirahoshi.' Ruby sweatdropped as she remembers two other women that Luffy mentioned being friends with. Alvida was just your normal pirate with a devil fruit that changed her appearance, which means nothing compared to both the Pirate Empress and the mermaid princess.
She'll have to remember to ask Luffy for an illustration.
"I think it's time to start our flashy circus acts. Mohji... Cabaji, keep them busy." Buggy ordered, earning eager nods from the lion faunus and unicyclist respectively. The two subordinates rushed towards them, but were blocked by Jaune and Pyrrha.
"You guys take care of the devil fruit users, we'll handle this." Pyrrha assured. The other six nod in agreement before splitting off into teams of two. Weiss hands Blake a magazine of elemental Dust for her Gambol Shroud as they parted, causing Blake to raise a brow.
"Wha-"
"For that woman over there. Attacks may slip off of her, but that can't mean every attack." Weiss explained. She could only make guesswork based on knowing only one DF user, but she would assume that each of them have a limitation to their abilities.
One such example being Luffy's attack range, where he can't just stretch indefinitely under normal circumstances.
According to the team compositions: Weiss and Ren vs. Mr. 3, Blake and Ruby vs. Alvida, then Yang and Nora vs. Buggy.
While that was going on, the remaining two are dealing with the non-DF users.
Chaos ensued within the confines of the warehouse, multiple individual battles were taking place in random parts of the building.
Jaune vs. Mohji
Jaune was doing well dodging Mohji's whip, much to the tamer's ire. Little did he know that the boy was imagining the whip as a stretchy fist, as if convincing himself to deftly dodge the weapon.
"I guess you're more annoying than I thought." Mohji said in growing anger as he missed another strike. Jaune found an opening and charged at him, but Mohji proved just as confident on the defense by using his whip to block his attacks.
"Special Sideshow"
Mohji kicked him away and wrapped him around the waist with his whip before tugging on it, causing Jaune to lose balance from the spinning. The blonde suffered several lashes of his foe's weapon.
"Beast Call"
The tamer lets out a loud whistle, resulting in the manifestation of a lion made of Aura.
"Oh come on... you can form a lion." Jaune groaned at his predicament. Now he's stuck in a two on one, making his approach far more difficult.
"They don't call me the Beast Tamer for nothing. Richie, tear him to shreds." Mohji commanded with a smug grin. The Aura beast lets out a fierce roar before charging at him.
Jaune grits his teeth as he steels himself for the beast. Richie swiped at him, but he ducked under and managed to sever the offending limb. Jaune was mystified at how easy that was as he saw the severed limb disappear, only to witness the stump on the lion grow another leg.
"Oh come on! He can regenerate!" Jaune comically cried at the unfair advantage. He brought up his shield when he saw Richie trying to ram him with its head, but was immediately knocked off his feet from the force. He flew back until he crashed into a steel pillar, forcing a pained grunt from him.
Richie didn't stop as it slammed Jaune's side with its paw while he was descending. The blonde went flying until he crashed into a pile of wooden crates, destroying them on impact.
Jaune stuggled to stand up as he was enveloped in pain from being tossed around, his sword and shield laying next to him.
"This is the end for you." Mohji grinned at his assured victory as Richie lunged at the boy with its fangs. Jaune stares in defiance, not giving up so easily. He shifts his gaze to his shield, coming up with an idea.
'You know, Cardin... your bullying is going to save my life.' he thought in irony of his plan. He quickly grabs his shield and switched it to its sheath form before holding out to halt the lion's bite. Still holding strong, Jaune switched it back to shield form, holding Richie's jaw open due to its size.
Relieved to know that the shield is stuck, Jaune rolled out of the way while picking up his sword.
Mohji looked on in shock as his partner was struggling to remove the obstruction from the hinge of its jaw. His shock soon turned to horror as Jaune went to town on the vulnerable lion.
No matter how many cuts Jaune was delivering, the wounds regenerated soon after. Team JNPR's leader was about to stop his futile assault, but noticed Mohji's expression.
'Why is he horrified that I'm cutting an Aura beast that regenerates. Unless..." realization dawned on him that there is a limit to the healing factor. Surely enough, the recent wounds given were healing at a slower rate than normal.
Mohji suddenly lashed out with his whip, forcing Jaune to back away from Richie.
"Dammit, you suffered too much damage." Mohji grimaced at Richie's condition before placing a hand on his loyal companion.
"Beast Union"
The damaged Richie was absorbed into Mohji, His muscles started bulking up in size and the hair on his body was wavy. He threw his whip as well as kick the fallen shield that was freed at the time of the lion's absorption.
His canine teeth grew more pronounced and his hands were enveloped in Aura in the form of a lion's arms, complete with sharp claws.
'Oh shit!' Jaune thought as he stood in fright of his imposing opponent, never expecting this transformation.
"Scared, aren't you? Me and my partner are of one body now. If you're not careful, you might just get torn limb from limb." Mohji threatened in a deeper, more feral voice.
Jaune widened his eyes at the explanation. If those two shared an Aura based bond like Luffy's semblance, then that would explain Richie's healing factor.
The regenerative ability is the result of Mohji transfusing his Aura into the lion. Since it was made out of Aura, the beast had a very effective healing ability. The slower regeneration was possibly due to Mohji running low on Aura himself.
Jaune regained his composure as he figured that Mohji is low on Aura. A few more hits and that empowered state will disappear. A short endurance test could also be an option.
His musings were interrupted by the sight of the powered up Mohji leaping high in the air. He comically dived to dodge his fist, which sent a shockwave that blew him away as well as kick up a lot of dust. Jaune tumbled across the ground a bit before recovering, staring in shock of the destructive strength.
"Oh man, that was way too close. My bones would've been crushed if that hit me, even with Aura." Jaune said in a shaky tone. The smoke cleared to show a huge crater with a growling man in the center. It was as if he became a feral beast himself.
"You did well to evade it, but don't think that you'll get away a second time." Mohji said before running towards him. Jaune gritted his teeth in frustration, knowing that he can't remain on the defensive with that much power. His only chance is to counterattack without getting struck by him.
'If I remember right, Pyrrha mentioned that Zoro could launch blades of air by swinging his sword with a bit of strength and speed.' Jaune thought, putting his hopes on a skill he hasn't tried to perform. He knows that he's slowly getting stronger, but is it enough?
Holding his sword over his head, Jaune prepares for the final charge from Mohji. His body tensed as he gambled everything on this attack.
If he creates a flying slash, he'll hit the lion faunus before he could get close. If he fails... then he's as good as dead.
He lets out a roar as he pours every ounce of energy into his swing. Much to his joy, he succeeded to create a small flying slash. Not exactly as great as intended, but it'll still get the job done.
Mohji stared in surprise of the distant attack, leading to him receiving a hit from the sharp projectile. There wasn't any serious damage, but it depleted the rest of his Aura. Without it, his semblance deactivated, returning him to his original physique. Mohji was suddenly hit with fatigue as a drawback to his enhanced state, causing him to fall to his knees in exhaustion.
"D-dammit. How could I lose to a wimpy kid like you?" Mohji glowered, feeling shame in his loss. Jaune was panting heavily as he made his way to his shield and sheathed his sword.
"I'm too tired to explain, so I'll settle for knocking you out for good measure." Jaune said as he brought his sheathed sword down on Mohji's head, creating a lump. Mohji collapsed with his eyes rolled back while Jaune fell back and tried to catch his breath.
One down, four more to go.
End of Chapter
Sorry to leave you with just one of the fights. I'm gonna be fitting the rest of the Buggy Gang fights in two chapters at most.
On another note, Zoro has finally arrived and met up with Ruby and co.!
If anyone could come up with a semblance for Cabaji, that would be appreciated since I'm drawing blanks for his.
Please leave reviews for feedback.