A/N: Uh... I've really nothing to say. Sorry.

Chapter 36

Vikings? Pirates?

"Why are we in such a hurry?" Harry asked Beckman as he and Spaz helped the first mate lower the main sail. The other pirates were scrambling around, trying to complete their own chores to hasten raising the anchor.

"Well, the other pirate crew seemed pretty mad," Beckman spoke around his dying cigarette. "We'd like to get into open waters first, so we'll have to be quick in order to beat them in their wrath-induced swiftness." His fingers nimbly untied several knots before he signaled Harry to release the sail together.

"But you know," Spaz yelled up towards them as he bounded his way across the lower pole on the mast to catch the falling sail and tie the corners down. "Shanks doesn't seem the type to ever do strategic retreating, no sirree, so this is really strange, y'know?"

Beckman laughed as he descended from the netting. "True enough," he agreed. "But we aren't really retreating – just finding a more suitable battle grounds. The Captain knows enough by now that it's very rude fighting in places where it's easy to do a great of property damage. Goodness knows Mihawk has pretty much banished us from his island for that very reason. Anyway, we'll be fighting soon enough. Perhaps the two of you should head down below?"

Harry and Spaz traded looks.

"I don't really care," Spaz replied with a shrug. "'Cause it's not like there'd be the same problems as with fighting marines, no sirree, and it's been a long time since I was in a real fight and it might kinda fun, y'know, yes sirree!"

"Then we'll be staying up," Harry decided. "The sooner this fight is over, the better. I've something to tell your captain about hurrying to headquarters. I dare say Luffy's in a spot of trouble," he informed Beckman with a sigh.

Beckman looked at him a little oddly at that, more than likely confused about how Harry could possibly know such a thing when they were sailing a solid week's travel from Luffy's village, but there was no time for clarifications. The sails soon caught wind and the ship was pulling away from the port.

"RED-HAIR!"

The hollered call flew through the distance between the Shanks' ship and the dock where another pirate ship was hastily raising anchor.

"How amusing that you should run from us, the great sea rovers of the North! Who's the coward now?" the voice continued.

Harry scowled a bit at that. Really now, calling Shanks a coward? That was nothing short of ludicrous – the man's vocabulary simply didn't contain the word fear – even if he did understand why it might appear that way what with how Shanks bolted so quickly. Never mind, though, Harry thought to himself. The true reasoning behind Shanks' actions would be obvious soon enough, and both he and Spaz were eager to take advantage of the opportunity to test their skills against some nameless outlaws.

Shanks climbed onto the figurehead of the ship as his crew steered it around to face the approaching vessel.

"Come at me," he challenged, "if you think you don't fit the bill!"

By some unspoken agreement, neither ship fired upon the other, both waiting until side by side on open waters.

The enemy's ship was longer and thinner, and from what Harry could see on the deck, their crew was larger. Particularly of interest though was the captain of the pirate vessel. He was tall and broad, a muscular man with thick facial hair. He was dressed in fur with a red cape and all in all looked a bit more like a Viking lord than a pirate.

Briing-brring, brrring-bbrri-

Harry gave a little start at the sound coming from his pocket before he realized what it was.

Digging out a small snail, Harry held it in his palm and raised it to eye level.

"Er, hello?" he asked tentatively. He was still a bit confused about how these snail telephone things worked, really (and why the heck did they ring just like the phones back home?). It was also somewhat startling just how many Roxy owned, that he could just hand them out like party-favors.

"Harry!" came the enthusiastic reply, the snail's face contorting itself into an appropriate smile and wink. "Good to know it's working. Mind telling me exactly what your captain plans on doing from here on out? I'd like to know just how far away I should have Kor place us if there's going to be a fight."

"Oh, there's going to be a fight, alright. From the looks of it, the other guy likes a good brawl as much as the next pirate," Harry informed the former marine. "And he's not my captain," he added.

The baby snail, er, den-den-mushi Harry thought they were called, snorted. "Of course not," Roxy placated, as if he could see Harry's current scowl. Who knew, maybe he could through the den den mushi? "Are you staying down below again then? You should've come with us. Watching from afar on deck is bound to be better than waiting in some dark corner to avoid trouble."

"No," Harry denied. "In fact, both Spaz and I will probably take this opportunity to go all out and join the fight. The marine fleets from before have backed off pretty far so there's no worries about attracting attention from them. As for revealing too much to the pirates, well, they're pirates. No one important's going to believe them."

"What? You'll be doing magic?" the snail exclaimed. "Korr!, Korr! Sail us back; I have to go watch Harry do magic!"

Harry groaned. "Don't be ridiculous! What exactly are you supposed to do aboard a ship in the middle of a pirate battle as a former marine who's currently stalking a magician for no other reason than to catch a glimpse of the next trick? Just stay put and watch the fighting through your creepy snails. I know you've got almost the whole ship bugged by now – don't try to deny it! Korr, if you can hear me, keep your foolish former superior in hand!"

"Of course," came the monotone reply after a small scuffle of undecipherable grunts and static where Korr presumably stole the den den mushi from Roxy.

"Neh, do you mean it?" Spaz asked, swinging from the netting above Harry's head as the wizard tucked the now sleeping baby den den mushi back into his pocket.

"About the going all out? I think it's a good idea," Harry replied. "You need the experience I think, if you're ever going to master your Six Styles."

So far, training hadn't been too hard to get for Harry. Greg has continued tutoring the basics in hand to hand combat in addition to the weekly spars from any volunteers in Shanks' crew. Add to that the past few days of sword duels with Roxy and Harry was getting more combat training than even during the war.

Spaz however, seemed reluctant to display his physical prowess to the pirates and kept his training to himself, either during visits to deserted islands, or to late night and early morning practices. The boy didn't hide that he was a Rokoushiki user, but neither did he request any spars with the pirates. He was willing to spar with Harry when offered, but there was only so much a wizard could do to properly challenge a martial artist.

"It would be interesting to see how good I'd be against a pirate, yes sirree, since, y'know, that was kinda the whole point of learning such a difficult style, yes sirree. I'd like to try it out, Harry!" Spaz concluded, growing increasingly more excited at the idea. "Hey, hey, Harry – I bet you can't take down more pirates than me, no sirree, whatcha' think?"

Harry snorted with a grin. "Not a chance. You just watch, Spaz. You're about to see exactly how much of an advantage magic really is when fighting a large mob of muggles."

With a disillusionment charm in place, Harry used his ghost form to pass through the crowd of brawling bodies to better positions. Every time he emerged in a small clearing behind a group of enemy pirates, the wizard returned to his material form, stunned as many people as he could before they turned around to counter attack, and escaped once more as a ghost. Over a dozen men had fallen victim to this hit-and-run tactic when Harry – quite literally – ran into his match.

"Who was that?" the pirate roared, drawing a sword and sweeping it wide around him in search of the unseen body which collided into his side. Harry cursed and retreated, hoping that the man only used the Color of Armaments and not the Color of Observation as well.

After swiftly scanning his surroundings for a clear space, Harry apparated behind a small group attacking Dino, Al, and Greg. Shifting back to his material body, the wizard opened fire with a series of stunners. With the sudden loss of half their numbers and the resulting confusion, the Red Hair pirates made quick work of the half dozen remaining attackers.

"Harry?" Greg asked out into open air.

"Yep," the wizard confirmed with a silent finite to lose the disillusionment. "How'd you know?"

Greg shrugged. "I'm getting a lot better at the whole Color of Observation thing. That was quite a light show, though," the pirate observed, referring to the red Stupefy's.

Harry shrugged sheepishly at the pointed stare Greg was giving him. The kneazle was out of the bag now – Harry's magical ability goes far beyond what he admitted to that day Greg confronted him.

"I found you, you filthy pirate!" came a familiar voice.

"Bloody hell!"

The Haki user from earlier charged towards Harry with his blade held above his head. The wizard rapidly conjured his own weapon and raised it above his forehead in a reverse-grip to block the attack. Three flimsy throwing blades flew from Harry's other hand towards the attacker's torso, the resulting dodge giving Harry room to breathe.

Backing up while he had the chance, Harry vanished his sword and carefully reconjured it. Objects created spur of the moment had a nasty tendency to be weak and short lived. If Harry was going to be involved in a sword duel – and it was looking like he'd have to since his ghost power was useless in escaping a Haki user – he wanted a proper weapon.

Readjusting his grip on his double-bladed sword, the pirate looked calculatingly at Harry, planning his next attack. The man was taller than the wizard, and more muscular too, but not overly so. His lean structure allowed for better agility, as favored by swordsmen, and his brown hair was cropped short to keep out of his hazel eyes.

Narrowing said eyes, the pirate lunged forward with a thrust which Harry easily parried and followed up with a pair of throwing knives. His opponent merely raised an armored fist and punched them away. Harry had little time to do anything but scowl at how easily his second attack was neutralized when the enemy sword swung from the side. A diagonal block deflected it, but was soon followed by a horizontal cut to the neck. Slash after slash, cut after cut, the pirate released a barrage of attacks on the wizard.

Both fighters wielded their weapons with one hand, but Harry was still the weaker man and was forced on the defensive. Theoretically he could make up for this deficit by catching his opponent off balance with random attacks from throwing knives, but from such close quarters, it was hard throwing them with enough momentum to pierce the thick leather hide the pirate wore wherever wasn't covered with fur. Merlin, wasn't he hot in all that?

It was just as Harry was mentally bemoaning his inability to cast spells with his left hand when an arm snaked around his waist and pulled. Within seconds, Harry tumbled to the ground nearly a dozen meters away from his fight.

"Are you alright, Harry, I'm sorry, I couldn't really control the Shave too well with the change in weight but you aren't hurt are you, I'm sorry, really, Harry, I didn't mean it but-"

"Spaz!" Harry interjected loudly when he got his breathe back. "I'm fine, really, but why -?"

The boy fidgeted a bit. "Well," he bit out, "it looked like you were losing."

Harry snorted. "Okay, well, maybe I was, but really Spaz? Pulling me out of the fight? You realize I could've dropped my sword to attack with magic if things got too out of hand?"

"Oh, right, well, I knew that, yes sirree, but, y'know, I wasn't sure you'd have the space to do something like that when he was attacking so close and you were getting awfully close to another fight that was going on behind you and I didn't know if -"

"Alright, Spaz, alright, I get it!" Harry chuckled as he watched his friend's face grow increasingly flushed as he attempted to spit out his explanation without pausing for breath towards the end. "Then I suppose I should say thank you," Harry smiled, "though I doubt the guy is gonna –"

"You cannot hide from me!"

"- give up," Harry finished. "Oh look, he brought a friend."

A rather pissed off friend, to be exact. Holding a round shield in one hand and a hammer in the other, the new man was a muscular tank who was randomly bashing out with his weapon towards Harry's persistent enemy's head, clearly upset for some reason. Glancing down at the man's cut-up fur shirt, Harry had a pretty good guess as to why.

"There!" the Haki user yelled, dodging another attack from his fellow pirate's hammer. "No more running away you coward of a pirate! Draw your weapon so I can chop you up into bits!"

Spaz was up first, raising a leg to kick at the attacker when the man with the hammer intervened with a roar. He swung his weapon forcefully, and Spaz aborted his attack to avoid the incoming block of metal. "Sorry boya," the man smirked, "but if you intervene with Eric's fight he'll get all pissy and won't buy me a replacement shirt when this is all over, so you'll just have to play with me instead."

In the meantime, Harry was getting rather irritated at being insulted as a pirate when the insulter was the only pirate between them. He withdrew his wand and aimed. "I'm a wizard, damnit – Stupefy!" A beam of red light shot out from his wand tip and slammed into his opponent's raised fist. The armor glove was useless against the magic and the pirate was out like a light, to Harry's shock.

Huh. That was kind of anti-climactic. It seems that Haki offered a person no resistance against magic, which was good to know.

Harry turned to look at Spaz and couldn't help be chuckle. The poor Viking-pirate was cowering behind his shield and hammer as the hyperactive teen Shaved circles around him, darting in and out to deliver quick jabs.

"Don't play too long!" Harry teased, as he noticed most of the fighting around him winding down to a halt, the Grand Line pirates under Shanks making quick work of the weaker enemy.

Just as Spaz Moon-Stepped to deliver a dizzying blow to his opponent's head, a great splash could be heard.

"R-RED HAIR!" the V-pirate captain spluttered from where he fell overboard into the sea. "You haven't heard the last of us!" he yelled spitefully as the rest of his crew began to retreat.

Shanks just laughed and invited them to chase them to the Grand Line if they were interested.

"Eric!"

Spaz's opponent recovered from his vertigo and darted over to swing his friend onto his shoulder. He turned back to glare at Harry and Spaz. "What kind of dirty trick did you use on him, eh, you nancy pirate? Don't think this means you're better than us! You just got lucky, fighting in this stupid hot weather. We'd hammer you pirates into pirate pancakes on an iceberg!" And with that rather absurd excuse, he turned to run after his other comrades.

"Oi! We're not pirates!" Harry scowled, but no one was listening anymore. "Filthy pirates this, pirate pancakes that," he muttered irritably. "Idiot Vikings and idiot insults."

"Vikings?" Spaz asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Never mind," Harry brushed off, realizing he had likely just used an irrelevant historical reference. "It looks like recovery time again," the wizard said, changing the subject. "Let's start cooking. We can tell Shanks about Luffy's situation over dinner."

A/N: I'm starting to come to the unfortunate realization that although fights in the manga can stretch for a dozen chapters, it's practically impossible to do the same in writing. But I suppose that just means more time for development of my nonexistent plot, haha.

Many thanks for my beta, PyromanianBlackWings, for sticking with me despite my many impromptu hiatuses.

713 reviews today, 7/25/12

Thanks everyone :)