Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
"Take this!" Manowat screamed. He came breaking through the cloud with his mace held up high, aiming at Bard.
I don't really trust my Tekkai to protect me yet Bard thought. Better just leave.
"Soru!" and Bard was away as the mace came swinging down and crashing into the stone ground. The smoke cloud had a small opening in it and a long trail leading up to the roof of one of the housing barracks. There Bard loomed over the awning of the building like a gargoyle.
"Get you down from thither!" Manowat roared.
"Screw you!" Bard shouted back. He made a jump into the air and held his hands up in front of his face, parallel with each other and flexing his arm muscles. "Rankyaku!" and now he started violently kicking through the air at Manowat. Razor blades of invisible air started cutting into the ground. Manowat brought his fiendish mace up to block the attack. The blades arced away from his tarnished and tattered metal weapon and tore up the ground all around him.
"Fool!" Manowat shouted. "This great hammer of mine was crafted by the most educated weapon smith in all the world! It came to my hands with all its cracks and crevices, as they allow it to sail through the air with no resistance! Your demonic technique of cutting the wind has no effect on me!"
"Crap!" Bard said, still kicking up a storm. Suddenly the wind picked up from the north. Bard's fighting genius started clicking the gears in his head rapidly. He let himself fall, but not without a short hop before reaching the ground. Even without knowing it, his Geppou stopped his feet from a devastating impact. Bard took his wide legged, sprinting-tackle position with one arm straight and far back with the other flexed before him.
"A frontal assault now?" Manowat eagerly seethed. "What fortune! Without knowing it, thy life shall be a true mark of honor for mine righteous weapon! You shall be the thousandth knave to fall before me, Pirate-man Bard!"
"Don't count your chickens, dude" Bard said slyly. He disappeared. The smoke trail that clinged to him even now was stretched all over the grounds until it dissipated completely. Now Bard rushed around invisibly, taking long steps in Soru before stopping short of his own battlefield boundaries. Manowat grinned menacingly as his head darted around, trying to track the light-speed dash of Bard in vain.
"How now?" Lancelish called from the sidelines. "Art thou lost in thy own fight, Manowat?"
"Hn!" Manowat grunted happily. "Nay! Tis but the beginning of this great battle!"
"Really?" Bard's voice said from impossible angles. "I'm pretty sure we're just about done!"
"So sayeth thou!" Manowat screamed. He started maniacally swinging his mace around like a mad man in all directions. "Take this! Black Sunrise!!!"
"So you can swing it fast" Bard said, "big deal. My legs are much faster!" From the north, Bard made his last dash. He only used his one leg to kick, giving him a phantasmal, blurred appearance as he shot forth. His right leg was out in front, and he tucked it back so the knee was at his chest. "Rankyaku:" Bard started. With the wind at his back and the mace in a chaotic motion, Bard's chance revealed itself. The cloth frock of Manowat's leggings at his crotch billowed slightly in the wind. "Spear!!!" Bard's right leg kicked out, his whole body laid straight, and he trusted his flying kick to be delivered in the right place.
"Futile!" Manowat screamed. His mace continued to swing about, creating a sort of vacuum where it didn't slice the air. That spiraling patch of empty air is what the blue wave of Rankyaku sailed into, curving up from his groin and following the wind straight into his solar plexus. Manowat's eyes went white and his mace stopped.
"Finisher!" Bard shouted. He took a Soru-step and s tarted spinning through the air quicker than one could follow with both legs out. "Tekkai!" Bard shouted. His whole body now like iron and spinning with tornado velocity at Manowat's startled face, the fight was over! "Mountain Crashing Hurricane KICK!!!" And so Manowat lost his thousandth prey, along with more than half his teeth with one gigantic attack!
Bard hit the ground a few ten meters behind his target who just now finished rolling across the ground. It looked like the hubris of Bard's own ability had gotten the better of and he was walking slowly away, bearing his huge muscles as a sort of silent growl to those behind him. Then, he started turning back around...then he walked to either side and dizzily fell to this back.
"Oh crap" Bard said. "I'm gonna vomit..." The Paladins stared at him with a mix of awe and terror. He had walked away scatheless form a fight with their most brutal and horrific fighter and all he could do was dance drunkenly form his spinning attack and puke in the bushes.
In the castle on the island, word was finally reaching the nobles and aristocrats of the penniless isle about the invasion and fighting at the militia barracks. A young man of brittle frame went running through the hallowed and hollow halls of the magnificent castle. The walls themselves looked old but well kept. The floors were swept umpteen times daily, although the heavier prints still remained in the cobblestone floors. The rugs and carpets had frayed edges and tattered sides with the odd rip from someone running far to fast at once.
The young messenger man continued to break through the halls to the central throne chamber with the most dire message for his king. The family emblem of the isle's ruler was plastered and embroidered on every applicable piece of cloth and silk in the main hall. Even the walls had a carven image of the likeness of two lion heads facing away from each other as a shield with a shining sun at the center. Completely out of breath the young messenger stopped just short of the king's royal red carpet.
"Who may dare to intrude upon our king!?" a royal guard shouted.
"I..." the messenger started, unable to continue past his deep breaths.
"Be gone, ye!" The guard shouted, getting his spear ready. A meaty hand reached up and stopped him by the shoulder.
"That shall be enough" a booming, elder voice said. "Allow him to take his time."
"My king..." the boy started desperately. "Fighting...barracks...Argent Hand and...PIRATES!!!" Then his body fell down onto the carpet. "I apologize for my hasty report, but I can't seem to breath at the moment."
"Quite alright!" the regal voice boomed. "Guards, please take this young man to the infirmary and see that he gets his breath back before continuing with his report."
"Yes, your highness" the guards said. They went over, scooped up the man's breathless body, and went off through the castle.
"Ah, youth" mused the great, bearded king in his throne. "What a devilish charm we have here! Mohohohoho!" Such sat King Rupert of the Lioncrest family. Rulers of the island for over three hundred years! He was a big man in mirth and girth. His belly was well hidden under the red and purple robes lined with lynx fur. His lower half was garbed in royal plate mail lines with still more fur. Such a hearty man as he should have a thinner frame from all this fur, one would think, but his rosy cheeks and aged smile said different. He looked like a quite jolly man for a tyrant.
"Maid!" he called to one of the waiting women in his room. "Could you please got and fetch Gretta for me? I wish her and I to have a talk about these pirates."
"As you wish, my lord" she responded. She went dashing off for the sky-high tower where said princess stayed. A quarter-hour later, she breathlessly reached the top. From within the gilded door to the spacious and lavish bedroom of the princess the careful strumming of a harp was heard. The waiting woman rapped lightly on the door and waited for a response. "My lady...the king required thy presence." The harping stopped and the door was opened.
"What is it?" Gretta asked. She was the princess, with her white hair in a rose-like bun and her pale skin wrapped neatly in gorgeous lace and silk. Her piercing, unamused eyes were bloody red, and they stared at the girl who approached her with a seething sort of impatience. "Make it quick, will you? I have asked already for utter peace whilst I practice."
"The king" she repeated, "requests thy presence."
"Hmmnn..." Gretta sighed. "Very well. I shall be down tomorrow."
"No, right now" the lady said.
"...fine" Gretta growled. She walked over to the bronze railing of the spiral stair case so many stories high, sat on it, and started sliding down.
"My lady, wait for me!" the waiting woman called. She started running down the stairs after the princess who sped on down with perfect balance.
I certainly hope you are well she said in a mental letter, Mr. Demon...In the clearing of the Ghost Killers, Rez and Zan were forgiven do to their standing among the ranks of their pirate brethren. Zan was an accomplished enough man for even exiles to hear of him and Rez's hands of light-speed drawing were known by any man who seriously wielded a gun. Through it all, however, the captain continued to be unamused and apathetic to his crew's apparent condition. He paced through the clearing with hands in tattered pants pockets, as if he was looking for something he dropped ages ago.
"Hey, Ramone!" Rez called. "What're you guys still doing here? Get on a ship an leave!"
"Gggg..." Ramone groaned. "There ain't any ships that come here. This is a desert island as far as the World Gov't knows."
"What?" Zan said. "But they have a flag!"
"That's a fail-safe, I guess" Ramone said. "In case the actual Marines come across this island they won't attack it out of respect to their flag. I heard that there hasn't been any outside contact here for over a century."
"That's messed up" Rez added.
"Well, we have a ship" Zan said. "It's kinda stuck right now, but we're working on getting it back out onto open water while we're here."
"You won't have a ship for long" Ramone pointed out. "The swamp waters around here are nefariously known for the high salt content. Soon the wood from your hull will get dried out and washed away by the one-two hit of the waters. No ship can survive docked at this island for more than a few days unless you dock right at the village's edge. Of course, then you have completely different problems to deal with."
"What kind of village is it?" Rez asked.
"We'll tell you this, duelist" one of the pirates said, "you've got them technologically beat by about a hundred years with what you're carryin' right now."
"Wow" Rez said. "So they're about the same as anywhere else?" he asked, showing his greatest pride as obnoxious hubris.
"Ghost Killers!" Ramone shouted, donning his captain coat and studded leather leggings. "Suit the hell up. We've got to move. Now that our position has been compromised and more pirates are here, we're initiating our original plan."
"What plan is that?" Rez asked. Even Ramone's crew looked about curiously.
"That flag on their castle" Ramone started, turning with wide glaring eyes, "we're gonna burn it down!"
"What!?" Zan shouted. "Just out of spite, you're declaring war on the World Government?"
"This isn't just spontaneous rage" Ramone said. "This is years of pent up hatred. Besides, it's my business anyway, so just butt out of it."
"Captain Cervantes" the girl shyly spoke up again. "Please, none of us are in any shape to help you right now. Most of us are dying!"
"Then stay here" Ramone shouted. "Like I need sick guys dragging me down..." Rez started seething at the cruelty he showed his crew, but Zan recognized the reverse psychology method. Either he wanted his crew to pick up and start fighting with him on their own, or his humanity was actually showing in his concern for the health of his men. Zan kept his answer on their first choice, as this didn't seem to be the man who had humanity within him.
"Like it or not" Rez said, "I'm joining you." Ramone, Zan and the present crew all looked strangely at him. "My captain's currently doing something stupid in that village, and I have to stop him from overdoing it. It's my duty as the first-mate to help out!"
"Then..." Coleen started, "I'll go as well!" Ramone looked back at her and shrugged.
"It's your life, kid" he said. "You wanna risk it with me, go on ahead. The rest of ya, hold the fort if you ain't coming." Zan watched the girl jog after her captain faithfully, and then he awed at the legion of men that started following after him and Rez. Only the ones who truly couldn't move stayed behind.
"I guess I'll go too" Zan said. "No reason an assassin can't fight a ground war..." So the heretics and demons started marching through the swamp toward the village, a self-righteous trek to commit an unwinnable war!
