Read or Die
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece.
Kilnorc: Title is reference to Read or Die anime...they're fighting in a library...get it? GOOD!
"So, a Buster Call is on it's way? Man, this is not our day. We're low on time," Axe looked around, "We need more room to fight,"
Lucci turned to Mara, "Why don't you take him in another place to play, Mara?" he asked coolly, "Let me deal with Straw-Hat alone,"
"You got it, Lucci-kun!" Mara smiled widely, And when this is over, I'll be going down the aisle, a soon-to-be Mrs Rob Lucci...
"Mara...,"
Snapping out of her thoughts, Mara nodded and leapt into the air. Axe's eyes followed her and saw her retreat through a hole in the ceiling where a ladder led into a room above them. He took once last look at Lucci, flipped him the bird and followed Mara.
As soon as he passed through the opening, Axe had to duck in mid-air because something large was coming his way. Grunting, he landed on the floor and skidded to a halt, "What the hell was that?" he hissed under his breath. He looked up and soon became madder than he was before.
Mara was standing on the other side of the room, spinning Axe's diamond weapon around and around with one hand.
"Where the hell did that come from?!"
"Does that really matter?" Mara stopped its spinning and planted it firmly into the floor, "What matters is that I slaughter you while Lucci-kun takes care of Straw Hat,"
Axe grinned and cracked his knuckles, "You're going to have a difficult time, Mara...I won't go down easy!"
"We'll see about that!" Mara smiled cruelly as she slowly began to change, "We'll see...,"
The hell? Axe frowned as Mara's body grew by a bit, grew yellowish fur with black flower-like spots (or rosettes), and even a tail that curled up behind her.
He tilted his head, "Two things. One, how the hell did you get Lucci's Devil Fruit. Two, why?"
As if I didn't know the answer...
Mara laughed as she stretched in her new form, "This is my Devil Fruit! I chose this for Lucci-kun! Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Jaguar!"
"Alright, that adds two more things," Axe held up two fingers, "Three, you're just copying Lucci and four...well, four is that you're just freakin' outta your mind...,"
"Where is everyone?"
"Don't ask me!"
Pingu and Sora stood in a long hallway, looking from side to side. They were looking for their nakama, but had gotten lost somewhere along the way. As they stood there, a panicky looking Government soldier was seen running towards them. No doubt he had heard about the Buster Call and was trying to escape. As he passed by, he noticed the two animals and skidded to a stop.
He squatted down, staring at Pingu.
"What the hell you looking at?" Pingu honked, annoyed.
The soldier tilted his head, "I've seen you before. You're that pet of the Axe-Heads! Yeah, I saw your poster earlier, the one worth a hundred Beli!"
"Hehehe, loser," Sora snickered, looking away while Pingu gave a glare at the soldier.
"A wanted 'pirate penguin', huh?" the soldier smiled and poked Pingu, "Guess that means I gotta take you in,"
Pingu slapped his finger away.
"Oh ho, you want to fight, huh? You wanna butt-kickin' little fella?"
A short time later, Pingu and Sora ran down the hallway, passing a large hole in the wall where the now unconscious soldier lay.
"All too easy,"
Chizuru flew through the air and plowed into one of the many bookcases, knocking countless books to the floor in the process. She winced and fell to the floor, getting buried by the rest of the books.
"You're under-developed...," Tabetha chuckled as she used her mental abilities to lift Chizuru out from under the pile, suspending her above the ground, "Perhaps I'll keep you alive and help you?"
Chizuru glared at her, "Help?"
"Yes, help. You see, we psychics? We are a rare kind of people, and most of us use their abilities to earn money as fortunetellers, or something else at a carnival on the sidewalks. Me? I use my gifts for the good of the world and the World Government,"
"What kind of help do you think you could give me?!"
Tabetha tilted her head as she lifted Chizuru higher with ease, "All kinds, Chizuru Ukita. Did you know that there are some forms of psychic abilities that allows one to create weapons out of mental power? People can create knives, and fire 'psychic bullets', journey into one's mind for a longer period of time, etc etc,"
"From what you're telling me, all psychics who can work for the World Government are trained killers!"
"I suppose you could say that. I've had my share of killing with my abilities, but I've also learned so much about so many things over the years, Chizuru. You are the first psychic I've come across in a long time, and I am offering you a chance to grow, to learn and to develop the gifts you received the moment you were born! I think the first lesson you'll need to learn is how to see the Mind's Eye,"
Mind's Eye??
"I'm surprised you don't know of that, Chizuru," Tabetha put her hands behind her back and began to walk around the suspended pirate, "Everyone has a Mind's Eye, or Third Eye, located here," she stopped and placed a finger in the middle of Chizuru's forehead, "Those who have our gift, are different than most people in this area specifically. You see, everyone has a Third Eye, but only we psychics can see them. Well, those who have developed their skills enough to actually see them can,"
"Good for you...,"
"I'm not done. When I see people's Third Eye, they are closed all the way, but when I see people like us, they are at least opened a little bit, and that let's me see how strong they are in their abilities, no matter what they are," she smiled and leaned inward, just inches from Chizuru's face, "Your Third Eye, is as if someone was half-asleep: it's open, but not even halfway open. What does that say to you?"
Chizuru was silent for a few moments, then smiled and gave her a mental reply.
Tabetha frowned and slapped Chizuru hard in the face.
The navigator felt her cheek grow hot and the stinging from the slap came quickly, but she ignored it.
"I think I will keep you alive and take you to the place where I was trained in the mental powers. there, you will learn how to use your powers properly for the right people and learn respect for people who save your life and turn you down the right path in life,"
"I am on the right path in my life!"
Tabetha snorted, "Yes, sailing the seas under the leadership of Samuel D. Axe!" she flipped her upright, "I've seen the minds of you and your so called nakama, Chizuru. I know that he has lied, kept secrets, and put you all in danger because of it!"
"Captain Axe may not be the perfect man out there, let alone the perfect captain, but I've seen his reasons for doing that, and I forgive him! I have sworn my loyalty to him, and I will always be by his and the others sides when they need help from nakama!"
The psychic CP9 agent sighed and shook her head, "Alright. It seems like I won't be convincing you otherwise, so let's just get to the execution, hm? Let's hurry along, I need to get out before that damn Buster Call arrives,".
She snapped her fingers and everything went black.
Moments later, another finger snap was heard and Chizuru found herself bound to a wooden pole in a large courtyard. The navigator looked down at herself and tried to get loose, but she was unable to do so with either physical or mental means.
"Welcome to the Execution Grounds, Chizuru Ukita!"
She looked up to see Tabetha standing across from her, hands at her side and a solemn look on her face. Chizuru scowled, "I know this is some kind of mental mind-game, Tabetha! I've had my own share of toying with people's minds from time to time, so don't even try to fool me!"
"Oh, I'm not trying to fool you, it's just that this is one of my favorite things to do with a criminal's mind. The Government has been executing criminals by firing squad for as long as I can remember,"
"Don't you need a gun for a rifle or pistol for this?"
Tabetha smiled, "I have plenty of guns at my disposal. For example...," she raised a foot, "Rankyaku - Kohane," (1)
Chizuru watched as the CP9 agent's leg became a blur and dozens of small, glowing air blades soared towards her. Unable to dodge or use her gifts, Chizuru was forced to take the attack and screamed as each blade cut into her body.
Lowering her leg, Tabetha looked straight at her, "That wasn't meant to kill you, but to give you a taste of what it feels like. Now," she raised both hands and held them out, "I'll give you the real means of your execution, Chizuru. It's a shame that you couldn't see the error of your ways the generosity of my offer. Oh well, I'm sure I'll come across another psychic sooner or later,"
No way I can let it end like this! Chizuru grit her teeth as blood dribbled down her body, I have to try something, there's got to be something that I can use against her!
"I thought you would've learned to keep your thoughts to yourself, even in your final moments, but that was just wishful thinking," Tabetha sighed, "Tobu Shigan - Bachi,"
Chizuru let out another set of screams as air bullets erupted from Tabetha's fingers and shot through her body, much like the small air blades did moments before. Tabetha lowered her arms and watched as Chizuru's head fell forward while her body went limp.
Wanting to make sure her job was done, Tabetha scanned her mind and saw a tiny flicker of activity in her head.
Those wounds are too much even for her. I can just let her die here while I meet up with the others, she turned and walked over the mess they had made while the room shifted back from a courtyard to the library from before, Goodbye, Chizuru Ukita.
"This must be the first time ever that I've actually had to try and rely on what was given to me," Chizuru ran her hands through her hair, "And now here I am, talking to myself...," she looked at a small girl with fire-red hair and a strange look on her face, "Literally,"
The girl looked up at her, "You need to beat her,"
"I know,"
"You're not strong enough to do that,"
"I know...,"
"You can be though,"
Chizuru scowled and knelt down to the mental representation of her childhood self, "What are you talking about?"
Chibi-Chizuru smiled, "You don't remember, though that's not surprising,"
"Remember what?"
"When you first found out you're psychic,"
"Yes, I do, I was-,"
"That was a safeguard that we made for you,"
"Who is we?"
"We are you, and you are us," Chibi-Chizuru giggled, "Silly, don't you understand your own mind yet? You call yourself a psychic, but you hardly know anything,"
The scowl deepened, "I prefer to use my natural abilities, and not my mental ones,"
"But you can't keep them from surfacing from time to time. We have watched you for years, and we know that you love to read people's minds to get the information and answers for the questions you have," Chibi-Chizuru walked up to her and floated to be at eye-level, "You have a lot of power, but it's locked away,"
"Why?"
"Because of what happened the first time. You had such a large amount of raw energy in your, the first time you experienced it, it was set loose at full power,"
"...then...what happened?"
"You hurt a lot of people, and you destroyed a few buildings. Of course, you didn't remember it, neither did anyone remembered what the cause of the disaster was, but the point is that you have a lot of power under lock and key, and we think that you are ready to use it,"
"Because I'm close to dying?"
"That and you've gotten stronger since then. You didn't think you were getting headaches for no reason, did you?" the Chibi-Chizuru turned and pointed to the side, "Look,"
Chizuru turned and saw a large iron door appear out of nowhere from the blackness that she and the chibi stood. Around the door were dozens, maybe even hundreds of chains and locks. She glanced back at the chibi, "This...this is where-?"
Chibi-Chizuru nodded, "The rest of your power lays in there, and it's waiting for you to unlock it. But a warning to you: when you grant this power of yours freedom, you will become incredibly powerful, even more so than the woman you're up against. You will be so strong that when you are finished, you must get it under control immediately, or else you will go insane at the power rush and destroy everything,"
Chizuru turned back to the door and walked up to it, running her hands along the chains. She took a deep breath and placed her forehead against the cool door.
"Remember. With great power, comes great responsibility,"
The navigator sweatdropped, "That's a lame piece of advice,"
Tabetha came to a halt and turned around, staring at the unmoving form of the pirate navigator she had just put down. She was on her way out of the library when she heard some kind of...echo, coming from behind. Curious, but cautious, she went back and nudged Chizuru with her foot.
There's no way a girl with that level of power could still be alive, Tabetha rubbed her eyes and sighed, I can't stick around, I need to get to the Gates of Justice, or else I'll suffer a Buster Call.
Before she even took another step, Tabetha felt a hand touch her shoulder and she froze.
It's...not possible! she slowly looked over her shoulder and was stunned to not only see Chizuru standing before her, but she could see things about her that was very different than before. For one, Chizuru's Third Eye was all the way open, like hers was, but it seemed to pulsate. Also, Chizuru's body was enveloped in a torrent of blue fire.
"What...the...hell?"
"Not Hell...not yet!" Chizuru raised her hand and sent Tabetha flying across the room like a rag doll. The CP9 female hit the stone wall and fell to the floor, leaving a huge crack in the material from the impact.
Not wasting a second, Chizuru unleashed more of her newfound power. She picked up Tabetha and threw her into everything in the library, breaking furniture, bookcases, and creating more cracks in the surrounding walls.
Now, this is power! the navigator couldn't help but smile as she returned the punishment that Tabetha dealt to her, "How do you like it, Miss CP9? How do you like it when your opponent shows no mercy, shows no remorse!"
"Rankyaku - Karasu!" (2)
A large, bird-shaped air-blade shot through the air, aimed right for Chizuru. The red-haired woman held up a hand and as soon as it made contact with her hand, it cut into her flesh. However, it wasn't as strong as normal Rankyaku were and just after it cut into her flesh, it split apart into two halves and flew off to the sides of the room. Chizuru looked down at the large gash in her now bleeding hand.
Now that's interesting...
"What...? H-How...?"
Chizuru looked up to see Tabetha standing a few feet in front of her, a stunned look on her face. The navigator tilted her head and looked at an open eye that rested on the agent's forehead.
"So that's your Third Eye...,"
Tabetha stared at her, panting after being tossed around like that. She saw the blue fire, Chizuru's Third Eye opened wide and what she had done to her Rankyaku.
"What...what power is this?!"
Chizuru smiled, "This? This is my power!" she raised her arms and Tabetha watched as the numerous books and torn papers of the large library began to hover around her.
"Now what?!"
"You'll see," Chizuru closed her eyes and the large amount of paper began to circle her, gaining speed with each passing second. The papers spun around and around, creating an odd looking barrier around Chizuru's body. Tabetha tried firing different attacks at her, but they all were shattered on impact of the strange shield.
This is impossible! Rokushiki techniques are capable of cutting through stone very easily, but this girl's managing to stop them with just bits of paper!
"Tabetha," Chizuru's voice echoed from inside the barrier, "You said I was under-developed, and that I needed to learn new things in order to bring about my full potential. But in reality, I had everything I need all along. All I needed...," she trailed off all the pages of paper stopped instantly, revealing Chizuru more easily, "...was a push,"
The papers seemed to gleam for a brief second and each one shot towards Tabetha like a bullet. Wounded and shocked, Tabetha couldn't flee, but she tried to deflect the oncoming paper projectiles. She did manage to get rid of a fair number of them before the rest either grazed her or cut deep into her body. One page even flew right across her throat.
Immediately, Tabetha's hands went to her now bleeding neck, gurgling as blood oozed down her neck. Chizuru took a deep breath and stood still until the blue flames around her died away. With a heavy sigh, Chizuru teetered to one side and caught herself on a broken piece of a bookcase, looking at her enemy.
"If you hurry, you can stop the bleeding and get to a place where you can get it patched up," she smiled, "Does it hurt, Tabetha?"
The agent glared at her as she tried to stop the bleeding.
"It should hurt. They say that papercuts are the worst kind of pain out there,"
Kilnorc: Man, that was interesting and fun to do at the same time. I've always wanted Chizuru to fight another psychic in One Piece, so when the time came for a CP9 OC, and with some help from Crazy-Fishie, this is the end result. I know there wasn't a whole lot of psychic stuff with Tabetha's part, but I think it came out well. I'm sure there are those out there reading this who are curious about Chiz's past with psychics and I'm pretty sure I haven't explained that, so at a later time, I'll go more into that.
(1) "Rankyaku - Kohane," : Literally, Rankyaku - Small Feathers. Tabetha unleashes many, small, feather-like air blades at high speed.
(2) "Rankyaku - Karasu!" : Literally, Rankyaku - Raven. Pretty much the same thing to Gaichou of Lucci's, except it's in the shape of a raven.
On the next chapter of Secret Power...
Axe: Why is it I run into people with cat Devil Fruits? I must have a furry magnet or something...
Mara: If I kill you, I'll so win Lucci-kun's love!
Gamera: You have some skill, I'll admit that, but I've trained under many masters and have trained for decades.
DJ: D-D-Dusty-chan?!
Go the Distance
DJ: This is my biggest test yet...I can't fail!
