The Clumsy Bodyguard!
Grand Line: Marine Ship
"Come on now recruits! Is that all you've got?!" Captain Dexter patrolled around the deck of the ship, watching the marine recruits perform practice swings with wooden swords. He had woken up the recruits early today per Commodore Bullock's instructions, and he ordered the recruits to perform practice swings until their arms fell off…metaphorically of course. Though it seemed quite easy for them at first, after the first few hours had passed, more than half of them had dropped out of the race. And as a penalty for dropping out too early,
Going in order it was Jord, Dimitri, Wyatt, Meridia, Dagger, Maruchino, and Christian. The only three remaining recruits were Corona, Lucy, and Harper. Both Corona and Lucy were visible exhausted. They were covered in sweat and their breathing was impaired. It appeared that either one of them or perhaps both of them would drop at any given moment from fatigue.
While Harper on the other hand seemed perfectly fine. Although she had been swinging her sword like everyone else for the past few hours, she was not covered in sweat and her breathing was in sync with her sword swings. For someone who had practiced with swords for all of her life, exercises like these were nothing to her. She could possibly swing her sword all day if she truly felt like it.
Harper looked over and checked Corona and Lucy's progress. It was no secret that both recruits were exhausted. At any given moment one of them was going to drop their sword and let their arms fall limp to their side. She smiled to herself and continued to focus on her own sword swings. She didn't want to get distracted.
"Ugh…damn it!" Lucy cursed silently after her arms finally gave out. She dropped her sword onto the deck and then dropped down onto one knee. She then looked up to Corona who looked at her with a concerned expression.
"I didn't say stop!" Dexter directed his words to Corona. Corona looked away from Lucy and continued with her sword swings. It was down to just those two now. While Corona and Harper continued with their practice swings, Lucy walked over to the other recruits while rubbing one of her arms.
"Agh…my arms are so sore. I feel like they'll fall off at any moment." Lucy whined as she stopped in front of her comrades.
"You're telling me. I'm a Fishman. I'm ten times stronger than you humans and yet I still lost this test of endurance." Christian sighed in defeat and lowered his head.
"Not many of us use swords as our primary fighting style. Harper is the only one of us recruits that does." Dagger looked over to Harper. He squinted his eyes and focused on her chest. He grinned perversely each time her breasts bounced with each sword swing she preformed.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Meridia smacked Dagger across the back of his head, breaking his concentration on Harper's chest.
Some of the recruits laugh at this before they return their attention onto their sore arms. Noticing the interaction between her comrades, Corona allowed a sigh to escape from her mouth. Her arms were killing her while her friends sounded like they were having a good time. The strength in her sword swings were definitely dwindling. Both Dexter and Harper took notice of that.
"Your swings are getting weaker. You're allowing your mind to wander off the task at hand." Harper snobbishly announced to Corona. "Perhaps you should set the sword down and go have fun with your friends while we true marines focus on our training."
Corona frowned at her words and angrily swung her sword, exerting more force than necessary with each swing. Dexter shook his head and looked away from Corona while Harper smiled. They both knew that at any moment Corona would drop out of the race for overexerting herself in her exhausted state. And in no time at all it happened. Corona dropped her sword and collapsed onto the deck of the ship, leaving Harper as the winner of the competition.
"That ends today's practice swing session. The winner is Harper Valentine." Dexter announced. Harper then ceased with her practice swings and smiled as she looked down to Corona.
"Now why is it that you look better beneath me rather than beside me? Let this be a lesson to you that every time you oppose me, this will be the ending result." Harper put away her practice sword and headed below the deck of the ship, leaving the other nine recruits to clean the deck of the ship as punishment for losing. Dexter handed the recruits their buckets of water and mops and then left them to clean the deck until the ship reached the island.
"This sucks. How does Captain Dexter expect us to clean the deck with our arms in such sore states?" Jord complained.
"He's helping you build some muscles in your arms." All of the recruits looked to Lieutenant Commander Tides. He was positioned on the railing of the ship, polishing off his rifle with a smug grin. He had watched the recruits perform their practice swings and enjoyed every minute of it. Seeing the recruits do this reminded him of his days as a recruit back at the marine base.
"Have you seen me or Christian? We have plenty of muscles in our arms." Maruchino stated.
"And yet you two still lost to a girl with hardly any muscles in her arms at all." Tides commented, taking notice of the defeated expression on Maruchino's face. "Don't take it to heart though. She must have been practicing with a sword at an early age. Soon this type of training will be nothing to all of you."
"But until then we're stuck cleaning the deck for the next hour or two." Dimitri looked ahead to the island in the distance. "Can't we make this ship move faster? My arms can't take it anymore."
"Quit all of your complaining and keep mopping. You're only wasting precious time by complaining." Wyatt said as he quickly mopped the deck. Even though his arms were sore, it didn't mean that his legs were. He glided around the deck and continued to clean.
All of the remaining recruits followed his example and cleaned the deck of the ship. They managed to finish in about an hour's time, leaving them with another hour to rest up. None of them wasted that precious hour. All of the recruits returned to their respective quarters and rested until they were all eventually called to the deck of the ship by Commodore Bullock. Everyone gathered on the deck of the ship and listened carefully to the orders being given to them.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. We have just reached our first island in the Grand Line." Bullock applauded his subordinates. All of the marines looked around nervously and then slowly clapped as well. They weren't nervous about Bullock's upbeat attitude; they had grown use to that by now. They were however nervous about the condition of the island in front of them.
A black fog filled the air around the island. The soil was black as well and the grass was dying. Most of the buildings around the island were destroyed and ruined. Whatever occurred on this island concerned all of the marines staring at the horrific sight.
"I'm sure you've all noticed the state that this current island is in. It appears that some epidemic has occurred." Bullock explained to his subordinates. "I advise that all of you wear protective face masks so that you don't get infected by whatever is killing the life on this island." He snapped his finger and then watched Dexter, Jays, and Tides distribute the face masks to all of the marines.
"Would you take a look at those vines around the island? I bet this epidemic is coming from them." Lucy whispered to Corona.
"How could a bunch of vines do this to an island? It doesn't make any sense at all." Corona whispered back. She grimaced at the sight of the island. She didn't know what was waiting ahead on that island, but she knew that she didn't want to set foot on it. However, despite her feelings, she had to set foot on the island. It was clearly in trouble and it was her job to help no matter what.
"Ugh…what a terrible stench…" Dagger pinched his nose closed and averted his eyes away from the island.
"What's your problem?" Wyatt inquired.
"None of you guys smell that? It's rotting." Dagger answered.
"The island is rotting?" Dimitri asked.
"…Kind of. I'm not really sure if it's the island itself, but there certainly is something huge on that island rotting. And it's really irritating my nose." Dagger complained.
"Then let's make it a mission to find whatever is rotting on this island and properly dispose of it." Christian suggested. "We should help this island in any way that we can."
"I doubt whatever is rotting on that island is the main problem. It's clearly the vines." Maruchino pointed to the vines. "We should destroy those vines."
"Let's not jump to any conclusions yet." Meridia spoke up. "Until we actually set foot on the island and properly assess the situation, we shouldn't make any rash moves that will only damage this island even more."
"Ahem!" Dexter cleared his throat loudly and forced the recruits to turn their attention back onto Bullock.
"Now then, we're not sure what exactly is causing this epidemic. So for now our mission is to find the source and dispose of it." Bullock announced.
"You are all to break off into as many groups as necessary and properly investigate the cause. Should you find anything you are to report directly to Commodore Bullock and me before making any further moves." Dexter said.
"That's all for now. Form up into your groups and have fun investigating." Bullock folded his arms behind his back and then headed back to his room alongside Dexter.
All of the marines formed up into their groups and docked onto the island to begin with their investigation. The first group consisted of Corona, Lucy, and Wyatt. The second group consisted of Dagger, Harper, and Christian. The third group consisted of Dimitri, Jord, Maruchino, and Meridia.
Each group went their separate ways and investigated different parts of the island. Corona's group searched the nearest town towards the docks. The place appeared to be a ghost town. It was awfully quiet and there were no people in sight. Well there were people, however they were corpses. Wrapped up in the vines were dried up corpses of some of the townspeople.
"Oh my god…" Corona expressed her disgust at the sight. She averted her eyes away from the corpses and continued down the street with her comrades.
"Now I can see why Dagger thought that the island was rotting." Lucy said. "There is nothing but corpses in this town. Did the vines do this to the people here?"
"Why would a bunch of vines want to kill people? It doesn't make any sense at all." Wyatt sighed. "There must be another force at work here. Vines really wouldn't kill people unless…"
"You three have some nerve trying to steal from us!" Corona, Lucy, and Wyatt stop walking and follow the sound of the mysterious voice. The marines continue down the street and then look down an alleyway to see a group of men with weapons surrounding three people; one male and two females.
The male is a man of average height and a fair skin tone. He has short black hair and brown eyes with three scars on his right cheek. He is wearing a dark t-shirt with a leather vest worn over it, a pair of dark pants, and brown shoes.
The first female is of average height with a lightly tanned skin tone. She has long brown hair and blue eyes. She is wearing a light green and white dress with white shoes.
And the second female is taller than the other two. She has a slender yet muscular figure, brown eyes, and shoulder length black hair which she has kept in a ponytail. She is wearing a white tank top that stops above her naval, a black dress shirt opened at the torso with the sleeves rolled up to her forearms, black pants, and black leather shoes.
"We were just stealing what you pirates had stolen from us!" The second female remarked. She then earned herself a smack across the face by one of the pirates.
"Norma!" The man and woman watched the girl fall to the ground while holding her cheek.
"How rude of you! We didn't steal anything from you!" The second pirate chuckled.
"Yes you did! You stole our ship and you're keeping us here on this island against our will!" The man frowned.
"We're doing this to protect you. This is the Grand Line after all." The third pirate stated. "Dangerous creatures lurk around these seas and they won't hesitate to kill you people. This island is the only place where you'll be safe."
"Safe?!" The woman expressed her disgust by the pirates' words. "This island is being sucked dry of its life because of you pirates! Anything is better than being stuck here!"
"How dare you speak ill of our hospitality!" The pirates drew their weapons and pointed them at the man and woman. Seeing this, Norma stood up and stepped in front of the man and woman.
"Lower your weapons this instant pirates! I will not allow you to harm these two!" Norma said with much conviction. The pirates exchanged glances with each other before breaking out into fits of laughter.
"Oh please! Like you're in any position to talk big!" The pirates pointed and laughed at Norma. Norma puffed her cheeks and frowned.
"It wouldn't be wise of you to underestimate my strength!" Norma warned the pirates. The pirates ignored her warning and continued to laugh, not feeling threatened by her whatsoever.
"We should step in and help them." Corona took a step forward and prepared to attack the pirates. However she was immediately held back by Lucy and Wyatt.
"Hold on. We should look before we leap." Wyatt said.
"Well that was a good laugh. But now it's time to get back to business and bring you three in to the Captain." The first pirate reached his arm out and attempted to grab onto the woman behind Norma.
"You're not allowed to lay a hand on them!" Norma firmly grabbed the hand of the pirate. She then added pressure to her grip until the pirate's arm turned purple. The pirates struggled to break free from her grasp but it proved to be futile. Her strength far surpassed his. And she proved that fact by easily breaking his arm as if it were a twig.
Norma released her hold on the pirate's arm and watched his drop down onto the ground writhing in pain. The remaining pirates wasted no time in retaliating against her. One of them stepped forward and swung his hammer down towards her while letting out a roar of anger. Norma pushed the man and woman out of the way before she lost her balance and fell face first onto the ground.
The pirates take advantage of the fallen girl and each attempt to strike her down with their respective weapons. However Norma recovered quickly and rolled out of the way just in time to watch the weapons miss her entirely. While their backs were turned, she stood up and attempted to kick one of them. But she unfortunately slipped, lost her balance, and fell back against the side of a house. The house shakes and the tiles from the roof come loose and fall onto the heads of the pirates.
Three of the pirates were immediately rendered unconscious by the unforeseen attack while the remaining three staggered back while holding their now bleeding heads. They expressed their anger and recklessly charged toward Norma with great killing intent. Norma took notice of the killing intent and turned around to flee from the area. The moment she turned around and attempted to run, she lost her balance again and fell to the ground seconds before the pirates' weapons could make contact with her. Her leg shot up during her fall and she landed a swift kick across the chin on one of the unsuspecting pirates, knocking him unconscious immediately.
While Norma was bringing herself back onto her feet, the two remaining pirates calmed themselves down and proceeded to fight with caution. They circled around Norma and gave each other a nod after coming up with an attack strategy. The first pirate pushed Norma from behind while the second pirate held his sword out waiting for her to fall right on it. However Norma shifted her weight to the side and only grazed the sword. She then held her arm out during her fall and clotheslined the pirate, knocking him out instantly.
"And then there was one." Norma quickly returned to her feet and dusted herself off. The last pirate looked around to his unconscious comrades and his body began to tremble.
"This isn't over! The Captain won't stand for this! You three are dead for sure! No one gets away with messing with the Carnage pirates!" The pirate announced before he ran off in the opposite direction. Norma prepared to give chase but then stopped after the man and woman stepped in front of her.
"That's enough, Norma. There's no need to involve ourselves with them anymore." The man said.
"We should hurry up and get off this island while we still can." The woman sighed.
"But how are we going to do that? Our ship is still with those pirates. Even with Norma's strength, it's too much." The man stated.
"Perhaps we can be of some assistance." The group looked over to the other end of the alleyway to see Corona, Lucy, and Wyatt approaching them. Norma stood firmly in front of them and took an offensive stance.
"Hold on! We're not here to fight you! We're here to help!" Wyatt raised his hands into the air, trying to prove that he meant no harm to the group.
"Marines? What are they doing here on this island? Did they not see the flags with the Carnage pirates' jolly roger?" The woman whispered.
"The Shichibukai's claim to this island should be more than enough to keep marines away from the island." The man whispered as well.
"Then that means these marines aren't actually…" The woman took a step back alongside the man.
"Norma! Take care of them!" The man ordered.
"Right away!" Norma nodded and lunged towards the marines. Wyatt stepped in front of his comrades and crossed his arms in front of himself in a defensive manner, preparing for whatever the woman had in store for them. Norma tripped again and accidentally slammed her head against the bridge of Wyatt's nose, knocking him unconscious immediately.
Corona and Lucy stepped aside and watched their comrade hit the ground. They sprung into action and attacked Norma in unison, showing much precision to not hit each other with their respective attacks. However it proved to be ineffective as Norma stepped back and blocked each of their attacks with the palm of her hands.
As the two marines went for their final strike, Norma leaned back to evade. However she leaned back too far and lost her balance. She swept her legs up and landed swift kicks against both of them marines before she fell flat on her back alongside Corona and Lucy. All three of the females quickly recovered and stood back up onto their feet to continue with the battle.
"Wait! Why are you attacking us? We're trying to help you escape from the Carnage pirates!" Corona said in a desperate attempt to stop the fight from proceeding any further. The real enemy was clearly the pirates, not a group of strangers that she had just met. There was certainly some misunderstanding here and she wanted to clear things up before things got too out of hand.
"Like we'd believe that story! No marine would be foolish enough to oppose the Shichibukai! You'd upset the balance of the world if you did that!" The woman spoke up harshly.
"Show yourself Cipher Pol! We will not be deceived by your tricks!" The man yelled.
"Cipher Pol?" Lucy tilted her head.
"Should I kill them now, Daisuke? Henrika?" Norma asked. Before they could answer, everyone covered their ears in pain after hearing a ringing sound. Everyone felt a sudden pain course through their heads and their vision began to blur.
Lucy dropped down onto one knee and attempted to block out the sound by covering her ears. She recognized this technique before. She slowly turned around and looked over to Wyatt. He had regained consciousness and flicked the bells hanging on the end of his earrings.
"Wyatt! Stop already!" Lucy yelled. But Wyatt refused to listen. He flicked the bell one more time and watched Daisuke, Henrika, and Norma succumb to his technique. They dropped down onto their knees and then eventually collapsed onto the ground.
"Now I'll stop…" Wyatt panted before he collapsed again himself, leaving Corona and Lucy to handle the rest themselves.
"What was that?" Corona removed her hands from her ears and then checked to see if they were bleeding. She then let out a small sigh of relief after finding no traces of blood anywhere. However Daisuke, Henrika, and Norma weren't so fortunate. Blood trickled down from their ears and dripped onto the ground.
"One of Wyatt's bell techniques. This is my first time experiencing it for myself. It hurts like a bitch I'll tell you that." Lucy groaned.
"What was with those people? Why did they want us dead?" Corona asked.
"I have no idea. But I think we should bring them back to the ship and have Bullock question them. They might know something." Lucy suggested.
"I'll grab Wyatt and the man. You can take the women." Corona said.
"Fine." Lucy and Corona take their respective people and head back towards the ship.
Meanwhile Christian, Dagger, and Harper decided to search the outskirts of the town for the source of the foul smell that Dagger was complaining about. The closer they drew to the source, the worse Dagger looked. Due to his devil fruit powers, his heightened sense of smell was becoming his greatest weakness at the moment. It was taking everything he had not to pass out from the foul stench plaguing his nose.
"Why must you torture me so? This stench is unbearable…" Dagger whined as he continued down the path towards the mountain. He kept close to Christian and Harper since the black fog was beginning to grow thicker.
"Hang in there, Dagger. Once you find the source we promise that we'll get rid of it properly." Christian said. "Until then follow your nose."
"My nose is going to fall off at this rate. How about you two lead the way instead? You should be able to smell it by now." Dagger looked to Christian and Harper. Both of them averted their eyes away from him.
"Well you see…my nose won't be able to pinpoint the exact location like your nose will." Christian nervously said.
"And as if I would run the risk of ruining my sense of smell by allowing such a foul stench to enter my esteemed nostrils." Harper bluntly said.
"….Hate you…hate you both." Dagger held in his anger and continued forward. He decided that after he found the source of the stench, he would just force Christian and Harper to clean up the mess themselves since he's the one doing all the hard work by risking his precious nose to find the source of the smell.
The marines continued down the road until they eventually reached the foot of the mountain. It was there the marines located the source of the foul stench plaguing the island. Resting at the foot of the mountain was the decaying corpse of a massive creature. After examining the bones, it was confirmed to be that of a dragon, which shocked the recruits.
"A dragon…what's a dragon's corpse doing on this island?" Dagger stammered.
"Dragon's actually exist? I thought they were only myths." Christian voiced his input. Harper on the other hand remained silent on the matter. But she was indeed just as surprised as they were.
"Well unless this is a horned alligator with wings…it's definitely a dragon." Dagger cringed and stepped away from the decaying corpse once he noticed the toxic sludge around the corpse. "And the sludge isn't helping the smell at all."
"This explains why the island is dying then." Harper spoke up. "The decaying body of this dragon has spread disease in the soil."
"That doesn't explain the vines though." Christian commented.
"Speaking of the vines, how do you think Maruchino's group is doing dealing with that situation?" Dagger asked.
"Probably better than us." Christian sighed.
"We have to travel through that?" Jord looked ahead to the thick forest of vines blocking their path. He stood and watched as Dimitri and Maruchino forced their way through by forcibly removing the vines and creating a path for them to enter.
"This place has the highest concentration of vines. If we wish to rid this island of them, then we must deal with the source." Meridia said.
"I have no problem with that. But this forest of vines is quite scary." Jord's body began to shake a little at the thought of carelessly entering the forest of vines.
"Damn…it's about time." Maruchino leaked out a sigh after he and Dimitri had finished opening up a path for the marines to enter. "Hey! We can enter through here! Be careful though, who knows what could lurking in this forest!" He called out to his comrades before he entered into the forest. Dimitri, Jord, and Meridia quickly followed after him, not wanting to be separated so quickly from each other.
Upon entering the forest of vines, the marines kept close together. It was no secret that they had just entered into a dangerous and unknown environment with little to no preparation whatsoever. But unlike the other groups, there were four of them. So they weren't that worried about something happening to them inside of the forest.
"So what exactly are we looking for here?" Dimitri asked.
"The source of all these vines. It's clear that they're becoming a problem for this island and we need to exterminate them." Maruchino replied.
"Good to know that our first mission in the Grand Line is to be weed killers." Jord complained.
"They're not weeds." Meridia corrected him.
"Are you seriously complaining? Our mission is to help people." Maruchino spoke with much conviction. "Who cares if we just have to take care of a bunch of vines? These vines are a problem and we're going to take care of them."
"Yes, yes." Jord nodded and then followed the group in silence. He then stopped and turned around after hearing a strange noise. Unfortunately he saw nothing behind him. He was now more on edge.
"What are you standing around for Jord? Come on." Dimitri and the others stopped after they realized that their comrade was lagging behind.
"Did you guys hear that noise?" Jord asked nervously. Dimitri and the others exchanged glances before shrugging their shoulders.
"What noise?" Meridia asked.
"It was some kind of slithering sound." Jord replied.
"It was probably a snake or something. This is a forest after all. There are probably some animals still living here." Maruchino said.
"Yeah…yeah that must be it." Jord continued to walk with his comrades further into the forest. Every now and then he would look over his shoulder just in case something was indeed following them.
"So how far are we going to have to walk before we even find something other than vines?" Dimitri asked, having grown bored of the uneventful walks throughout the forest.
"Who knows? Since there are only four of us, we can't afford to break off into teams to widen our range of search." Meridia explained.
"Yeah and…" Maruchino stopped and listened carefully after hearing faint voices in the distance. He motioned for his comrades to follow him further into the forest. After brushing through more vines, the marines entered a large, open area. The first thing that caught their attention was the number of ships entangled within the vines. And hanging around the vines were lifeless bodies.
"Oh my god…" Maruchino muttered.
"What the hell happened here?" Dimitri stepped forward and attempted to help the bodies down. But Meridia placed her hand on his shoulder and stopped him.
"Don't do anything reckless. Whatever caused this is probably still around here." Meridia said.
"Of course it's around here. The culprit is these damn vines." Maruchino frowned.
That's the end of the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! Here's the preview for the next chapter!
Next time on One Piece: The Fight for Justice!
The Tiger's Pawns!
Corona: You might as well speak up now and make it easier on yourselves.
Bullock: We'll take them with us. I'm interested in them and what they know.
Dagger: I don't like the looks of this guy. He reeks of trouble.
Harper: You devil fruit users are disgusting. I'll clean this island of your filth.
Maruchino: You did all of this for recognition?!
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