Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Couldn't think of much to say about this chapter or my feelings...I guess if your going to start a new chapter read a chapter of a book first especially when it's a nice sunny day...and maybe this chapter is more action packed than the last one...but longer.
X_X_X_X
"Cain, knock that Marine out quick while he's immobilized!" She ordered.
Even though Elsha wasn't the captain he charged into the barracks where Dambo tried to take the sword lodged in his crack out.
"Strong Fist Style: Uncomfortable Uppercut!"
As the name implied, Cain hit him with an uppercut so strong it knocked the wind out of him, but since his body was as strong as iron it really scrapped the skin off Cain's knuckles.
No sooner was he knocked out than a battle robot with rubber boxing-esque fists, wheels for feet, spindly metallic legs, and multiple iron bars with multiple slits to see through crash through the wall on the right side. Piloting the mech-it was the watchdog with the blond hair.
"I see you took down Dambo. If you think I'm as stupid as him to fall down as easily you've got another thing coming...I'm another kind of stupid."
While he looked dumbfounded and bristled thinking about how he should have picked his words better, a lavender pink Marine moved with her feet at the same time without lifting one foot over the other first towards the battle robot-and the four pirates.
"Since you won't make it out of this base alive, allow me to give you three the pleasure of knowing our names." She said. "My name is Katia and this is Syne. We are the Watchdog's—we trained to be at the strength of an Admiral just so we could spend all our time watching an ailing old man bark "How many more fins do we have?". You don't know how much I'm going to relish hurting all of you."
"Well, I see nothing to be afraid of." Yukine said.
This was all just him acting brave because the moment he raised his fists the exhaustion from fighting Dambo had him collapsing on the spot. Elsha quickly turned to Erik.
"Take him somewhere that has a bed, please. Then also get yourself some sleep. You're going to need it."
"Right. Friends first punching later. You can count on me, Elsha."
Raising his friends head up high so he didn't hurt his noggin being dragged, he pulled him away from the action to a room he didn't know where. Cain and Elsha got into their fighting poses: Cain keeping his fists close together for punching and Elsha spreading her legs while extending her right palm out.
The soft trilling of the engine turned into a blazing inferno as the machine charged towards Cain. In quick time Cain grabbed the bars of the machine and held on with one hand while reaching for the driver with his other hand. The machine veered right incidentally crashing through the wall.
Elsha and Katia were all alone-not a man in sight since Dambo was unconscious in the opaque corner of the desolated barracks. Katia moved a little, Elsha was still on guard, but then she raised her hands and spoke in a calming voice.
"Fighting shouldn't be a formality for two people who've never met before. Why don't I treat you to something in the cafeteria...and then one of us turns the others guts into garters."
Elsha hesitated, her gaze so dark it had an ominous killing intent, but then she relaxed and spoke to her calmly as well.
"Sure."
X_X_X_X
Cain gave up trying to reach in and pull on the neck of the driver. The velocity of the machine was too fast and the bars made it hard for him to strangle the driver.
And just when he was starting to get a good punch in and out on the machine, he parked his machine sending Cain flying off. Cain managed to roll before getting himself back up. Cain's opponent vroomed fast trying to ram Cain over while he was down, but Cain managed to roll away with seconds before his foot was nearly squashed into a pancake or in more realistic way a mini pancake since the treads on the machine weren't that big.
After nearly running him over the machine turned around to ram him even while he was standing up again. Cain closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and waited for when his target was in close range.
"Strong Fist..." The machine only needed five seconds to run Cain over, but he only needed four seconds. "Perforating Punch!"
His fist was moving so fast he could shatter his bones if he didn't plan how he was going to hit his target. He hit the machine just under the bars guarding the driver, then when he saw how unscathed the machine was...he froze. The machine hit him and he went flying backwards.
"Cool, isn't it?" The driver teased. His machine was gyrating it's metal between its legs now just to mock Cain. "This baby can withstand a cannonball if it was fired from our most powerful artillery's. It's the amalgamation of Marine weaponry."
"Weapons? That's good and all but what's your plan for after I break it?" Cain said, blood covering the right side of his face.
"That's easy. Wait until our commander removes from his illness, finally get some more cabin boy's here maybe even some top notch Admirals like me and the other Watchdogs, and always have someone who can fix it for me."
Cain found the humor in that statement. "So all I need to do is break it now and you can't get it back up and running. Works for me."
"I'll pummel you until you get holes through your organs before that!"
The machine squatted it's spindly legs down so all that could be seen were two extended boxing glove fists and its little wheels that didn't match it's 3 metric tons body. It vroomed back to life, but this time was thrusting out its boxing gloves trying to hit Cain.
Cain was dodging sharp air thrusts made by the gloves of the machine. Blocking them was easy, he just had to think of them as the inmates fists he was blocking when he was stuck in that shithole of a place for something that wasn't his fault. He blocked twenty-eight punches, not unwounded from the small slits in his arms and the blood sputtering from those slits, when the machine changed from punching to raising its rectangular cockpit up and crashing it down ontop of Cain.
Fortunately, Cain rolled out of the way before the cockpit could squish him. However, the legs were helping the machine come back around continuously trying to squash him. He ran to a wall.
"Strong Fist: Opening Outboxer!"
With a strong right fist he made a crater in the wall before the plaster crumbled for him. He ran through the wall...the machine crashing through it as well. Cain ran to the next wall.
"Strong Fist: Opening Outboxer!"
He crashed through this wall like he did before, and he was being tailed by the machine again. He tried breaking through a third wall to get away.
"Strong Fist...not worth it."
Cain looked like he was going to punch through a wall for a third time, but right when the machine caught up to him he spun around and leaped for the bars before its bump rammed into his torso. Cain held on even when the head crashed through the wall and was now holding onto the bars just like before only he wasn't wasting his energy trying to grab the pilot of the machine, who had a snide face seeing Cain back in his prior predicament.
"You never learn, do you?!" He taunted.
A small, flitting smile spread on Cain's face as he reached into his pocket. He startled Syne with what came out of his pocket: onions, knife, and hot sauce.
"I do learn...and I learned to strike when the onions are ready." He exclaimed.
With one swift motion of his hand with his knife, he minced the onion after he hurtled it towards Syne-slicing it midair while moving-and let the small onions hit him in his sensitive eyes. Then-he opened the hot sauce and sprayed his eyes with the spicy sauce. Syne was howling in pain from the stinging in his eyes as well being blinded by them.
He whirled before he spin knocking Cain off the machine. Cain believed the battle was won when his opponent was blind, but it seemed Syne was so angry... he wasn't going to let their quarrel end like that.
"That's IT! I'm using my trump card on you, you stinking weasel!" He roared. From the sides of his machine long nuzzles with small pentagon shaped aligned from top to bottom came out of the machine. They looked like a flamethrower like the ones people use against wild animals in the forest. "Time for you to see the irony of being COOKED!"
Before Cain could guess if being cooked was considered to be ironic or not, a flamethrower roared at him. He evaded it first by jumping back but he was against a wall. Even if he broke down this one it was only a matter of time before the flames spread through the building...suffocating his friends with the smoke entailed in a flame or the flame itself. So, with uncertain thinking and just hoping for a deus ex machina...he took off his shirt and put it back on over his face and eyes.
After he was completely blinded he jumped back to where the bars of the machine were, sprayed directly by a long spewing flame.
"You really think that coat is going to save you from being roasted alive?" Syne mocked. "Fine, let that coat be your coffin."
The whole room was filled with scorching fire as his aim wasn't that precise. He was however fulfilling his wish to burn Cain. However, while Cain was on fire he was also mending through the bars with herculean strength. Syne's eyes widened in fear.
'He's using my own fire to turn my steel into putty. Is this boy really an idiot? I-Is he even human?!'
At last, Cain had his hand around Syne's collar before he tossed him out of the cockpit. Syne's machine was the only thing that encumbered Cain against him. With one thrust of his fist, Syne was hurtled into the air. He flew into the wall so fast he crashed through it. This action should've killed him, but all it did...was nearly kill him. He was bloody in the face, his spine felt like it just survived a sledgehammer, and yet he was still awake...only to see the silhouette of a young boy walking through the raging fire.
"W-What kind of demon are you?" He stammered.
His eyelids were half closed and his breathing was rasp; by the time Cain made it up to him he was already out cold.
"A cook who never backs down from a fight."
X_X_X_X
The cafeteria was very sterile. Despite there only being a few Marine's in the base it looked like the whole cafeteria was cleaned thoroughly with lots of soap and antibacterial sprays. Elsha was eating a lot of fish while Katia was drinking a piping hot cup of tea with steam still seeping out of the cup.
Katia didn't talk much. The only real thing she asked about was what she wanted to eat: trout, salmon, mackerel, flounder, slab of meat from a leviathan, basilisk, Sea King, and all kinds of sea creatures in a Calm Belt. It seemed the only real food they had around this base was fish-not that Elsha mind that, beat being on a ship only eating fruit.
Steam still came out even after Katia drank all the tea; she was finally asking the young dazzling pirate a question.
"Tell me, how many Marine's do you think it takes to guard this base?"
Elsha stared around the cafeteria. She counted at least eight long tables that could hold sixty-five people at least individually. With her best guestimate, she answered the question.
"Three hundred 'n' twenty-three?"
"Close, more in the two hundred numbers, but as you can see we don't have that many here. We used to, enough Marine's to build a small country if a few ever decided to breed out of wedlock-what happened though was what happened to our wise commander. He woke up one morning barely able to breath.
"We took him to a bed of course; he kept yelling at us to move faster even though he complained he could barely breath. Even on the verge of death he was a pain in the neck.
So the doctors tested his blood and found what looked like, well, if you made a chimera out of a snail and a shark...and that was in his body. He was in no condition to stay on the island but his bullheaded demeanor made him stay while exiling hundreds of other Marine's. He kept us four-the Watchdog's-because it was in our job description to watch him even before he was infected. And he kept three others who were our cook, interior decorator, and the doctor who found this infection because...he's cold blooded."
By the time she finished her explanation Elsha had already eaten all the fish in front of her face.
"Could you imagine being lead by someone who gets so upset losing a game of Pente they flip the board just to say they didn't?"
"Well, my captain has a few shortcomings of his own and is so obsessed with becoming stronger he sails us to dangerous islands just so he can take down a four armed bear or an Anaconda Dragon." She said slightly incredulously.
"Speaking of Pente, why don't we have a match?" Before Elsha could answer a small blue bag was already hurled at her while another one dropped to Katia's side. "You can be blue and I'll be green."
Elsha figured she had no say in this, but at least she wasn't challenging her to a fight to the death. Thusly, she put her stone in the center of the board to begin.
Elsha kept putting her pieces diagonally from the center piece trying not to align her pieces so Katia couldn't put hers next to her two adjoined pebbles and steal them. She waited until her opponent had three pieces in a row since if she got four in a row it was game over. First she put a stone on the end then Katia, figuring out putting four pieces together was pointless put a stone next to her middle ones.
Elsha moved her stone on top of where Katia moved her stone. Katia moved a stone so she could get three in a row. Katia moved a stone on the right left side. Elsha moved a stone again to the right side while Katia moved hers to block the stone. Katia moved down trying to make a three in a row line again. When she got to three Elsha moved her stone away from the line.
"I'm going to get four in a row. It's going to be game over next turn." Katia bragged moving her stone to the right side.
Elsha moved her stone two diagonally squares down from Katia's line. Since two of Katia's stones were boxed in Elsha got to steal them.
"Or not." Elsha tittered.
"That was pointless." Katia admitted.
Where she lost a pebble she put a new one exactly where hers was giving her another four in a row. But then Elsha moved her stone two spaces up stealing another two stones; one from where the four line was.
"It cannot be." Katia said incredulously.
She moved her stone back to where she lost it, then Elsha moved her stone diagonally two squares down to the left from where she put her top stone. Once again Elsha stole two stones.
"Two more steals and I win." Elsha tittered.
Katia was impressed. Although she shouldn't be surprised a stranger was able to outthink her. Usually in the base she would play against the other Watch Dogs and only one of them had the skills to beat her(—except their games didn't happen as often since he was positioned next to their leaders' throne.
Learning from her mistakes she placed her stones far away from the spot Elsha kept stealing from her. Elsha spent her two moves placing stones to prevent Katia from getting five in a row while Katia kept making a diagonal line. On the third line Elsha put a stone on one side but two spots down were another of her stones and one of Katia's. With one stone placed over Katia's she stole two stones. Elsha followed this up placing a stone in the exact spot it was taken from.
Katia placed one stone in a diagonal spot. Elsha looked at her side placing stones there, even managed to steal another two stones. Katia managed to keep placing stones next to the one she last used to steal from Elsha until she managed to get three in a row with one empty spot adjacent to another of her stones, but on Elsha turn she managed to steal another two stones.
"It looks like I win."
"Well me winning was doable too but good for you." Katia said putting her stones away.
Katia looked calm and Elsha knew since even after an enjoyable game they were still on opposite sides; her smile just the calm before the storm. Without letting herself took a glimpse off her Elsha put her stones back in her own bag. When all the stones were accounted for she gave the bag back to Katia. The seconds it took for Katia to slip the bags back in the box and put the lid back on felt like time itself was tightening around her heart. Finally, she put the box under the table and smirked.
"Now then..."
Elsha leaped off her feet right before a katana could slash her head off at a blistering speed. Elsha landed on the tabletop of the table behind her. She felt a stinging pain in her calcaneus after making that landed; a reminder of how close she came to death in her last fight. But there wasn't any time to regret that fight...Katia leaped with both hands on the hilt of her blade and slammed it hard down on her!
Elsha blocked her blade with a blade of her own: a sharp bent blade appendage appearing out of her body.
This newfound power surprised Katia but it wasn't daunting in the least.
"So even plebians can obtain Devil Fruits. Usually their buried on dangerous islands or given to Marine's that show promise." She kicked her scabbard with her foot spinning it towards Elsha. She moved back, but was stabbed in the humerus by Katia. "Good thing Devil Fruit's like yours are no match for an expert thinker and manipulator. Did you really think I played that game with you just to try to be friends with you? It was to get to know you(—finding out how your inner strategies."
With a raise of her hand while holding the blade tightly, Katia cleaved through the table of the lunchroom. Without even moving her hands the tables were send flying at a velocity so fast they could crush Elsha if they plowed into her.
'If I was at full strength I could just slash through these things.' Elsha lamented.
She jumped over one table but the other spun around and knocked into the first one while her feet were touching it. She lost balance and fell...right into Katia in a stance keeping her legs apart and her hands both on the hilt of her blade.
While Elsha was making a move to free herself from falling into a trap, Katia saw five transparent pebbles where Elsha's arm was. They were in a straight line until the middle one moved slightly up. Katia comprehended this very quickly blocking a spinning slash from Elsha's appendage.
"It's thanks to you I can tell everything you will do." Katia amused. "Like the countless stars in the sky the amount of moves I can see are endless."
With one little push of her palm her blade went right into Elsha's kneecaps. She fell, she wailed in pain, but the writhing pain was only momentary when her body could heal faster than a normal person; she felt no pain just knew there was a hole in her leg that would take another hour to seal up.
In Katia's mind she saw three pebbles lined up diagonally on the right with two pebbles on the left side between a gap in the middle. This was a sign her opponent wasn't sure what to do-so Katia would act first and act fast to finish her before she could. She prepared a killing thrust, but before she could even move Elsha's appearance started to change.
Her skin turned coffee brown, her eyes shrunk to 1/3 the size they were but adjacent to both eyes were other eyes all pink with yellow irises, her right arm was skinny in the middle from her now tiny baby arm to her brown shoulder while her left arm was the same structure but with a scythe-esque appendage jutting from her elbow. She was now bald, had a small mouth in her midsection, and her feet...looked completely like donkey feet.
Katia wasted no time charging in and slashing her blade. She saw emanating from Elsha was a slash from her appendage in a straight pebble line. Instead, something nocked right into her right shoulder. She went from offense to defense, even though her predictions on the left arm were accurate, jumping back. On closer expectation: she saw the small arm could fold it's fingers to look like a lip with four slits while what was originally the fifth finger became an arrow-esque spike she could nock at command.
Katia blinked in deep thought before she laughed outright.
"Your a Demon Fruit user?! You actually found one of those damnable fruits created by a Misotheism?" She stopped laughing for a second to point at her feet. "And judging by the look of things...you didn't get a very good one."
Her mocking did nothing to dissolve the nonchalant look on her demonic face. This only goaded her to use her bladed appendage over her launcher one. She charged like she was gliding; a duck moving south. She jumped in the air and crashed down swinging her blade, but Katia did a backflip. It became an onslaught where she would swing her blade at Katia who continuously jumped back until she pushed through the door to the kitchen.
When Elsha moved into the kitchen an apple was chucked at her head. Without flinching she shredded the apple midair. Instead of apple slices though it burst like a balloon into apple juice.
Katia was throwing metal objects in a microwave while letting a small flame in a stove burn. Soon, she turned on the microwave while letting her katana be held over the burning flame. Instantly, the microwave exploded sending sparks everywhere, some flaking on Elsha's left shoulder and arm.
The burning sensation was distracting and was the perfect moment for Katia to plunge her burning blade into the very same shoulder the flame touched. The meat sounded like it was put over a barbecue after she stabbed her, but there was barely any reaction from Elsha.
'She may seem tough now but she won't be when I make my counter move.' Katia thought, cockily.
She could see a straight five pebble line for her right arm, a diagonal five pebble line for her left appendage, and one pebble on top of a four pebble square for her head; expecting a headbutt. No matter what Elsha tried Katia believed she had a counter strategy for it. Elsha finally made her move, moving her head like Katia expected, and she...
Katia was taken aback, frozen in confusion. She was always able to predict someone's moves after a game of Pente, so why was she surprised by this outcome? As of now Elsha's mouth void of any lips were pressed against her lips. Not only was she embraced in a long kiss, Elsha was even wrapping her arms around Katia.
Katia was so confused, she both liked it and hated it at the same time. But all the comfort this bizarre thing made her feel was replaced with pain from Elsha tightening her arms around her back. Soon, Elsha let go letting Katia take a deep breath before blood spurted from her mouth. Then—Elsha let go letting Katia tumble down to the floor in a hard fall.
While she was sprawled there, her mouth letting drool build a puddle around her, Elsha used her blade appendage to rip off the back of Katia's uniform. What she saw, other than a plain yellow brassier strap, were multiple black marks swelling on her where she squeezed the Marine. While fixated on the marks, Elsha slowly reverted back to her old form until she was the innocent looking teenage girl again.
"You need a doctor." Elsha admitted. She grabbed Katia by her torso and heaved her off the ground, moving her out of the cafeteria room like she was baggage, "I'll take you to an infirmary. Maybe when your rested, you can learn how to have fun."
X_X_X_X
The interior decorator didn't stay in the castle hunting for the intruders like the rest of his associates. His plan to stop them and get promoted from his role as janitor was to find the ship the pirates sailed on and torch it so they cannot escape.
His idea had just one conundrum: he couldn't find any ship in the sea. There used to be at least a few naval vessels in the sea but the superiors of the superior ensconced in his chair decided they wouldn't need to leave the island until a cure for their commander was feasible.
"If there's no ships in this part of the sea...I'll just have to walk around and find one in the other direction."
He didn't walk too far before he heard the stampeding footsteps of more than one person running in his direction. He was a little afraid it would be the pirates after they slaughtered everyone in the base or something, but it turned out to only be his fellow "Triplet's" the doctor and the cook.
"Good work getting out of there!" The doctor enthused. "Those pirates are so volatile they created a war zone in our base."
"I bet their destroying all your medical tools just like that big dumb one destroyed my kitchen." The chef curtly mentioned.
"And the worse off is me," the interior decorator said. "I worked fourteen hours a day seven days a week for six months just to help with the interior of that base and now their making holes in the walls, breaking portraits, and probably tumbling the ceiling down. So for a little vendetta I tried to burn down their ship. What do I get for this idea? The realization they don't have a ship and I'm befuddled how they got here to begin with."
What the Triplet's didn't know was the answer to his problem was camouflaged right beside the sea-and it was even snoring.