Short chapter, but hopefully loaded. I heard no complaints about the last mess of a chapter, so I guess we're all good?

I'm a bit early, but Happy Valentine to you all. Happy Friendship day to the Finish readers :) Happy Every Heart's day to the Swedish ones :D If your language says something other than "Valentine" on the 14th of Fabruary in your language, I'd love to learn ;)


Part 4: A Candle for a Giant

Chapter 3/6: A warrior who doesn't heed the call to battle is no warrior

The sound of the explosion was muted inside the giant, and Vivi couldn't understand what happened at first. Dorry coughed up blood and smoke and he went down with a hand clutching his chest.

"… what? What was that?! What happened?!" the princess cried.

"Dorry-ossan!" Ruffy cried desperately and didn't hesitate to run up to the enormous man. "What happened? Why are you hurt? Vivi?! What's wrong with him?"

The barrel in Dorry's hand… no the ale inside it was popping and burning. The realization had Vivi grow cold. She'd heard, once, a person die because his stomach had burst. His cries still haunted her nightmares.

"I… I think the ale was loaded with explosives that detonated inside his stomach," the princess explained as calmly as she could, fighting the adrenaline coursing through her.

"The ale? Inside him? But it's from my ship! How is this possible?"

"It's too cruel," Vivi agreed. "You think the other giant…?"

To her, it was the most logical explanation. Because if you fought you were enemies. For the life of her Vivi couldn't understand how anyone could fight for any other reason.

But before she could even fishing talking Ruffy was on her, grabbing her clothes and shaking her with blazing gold eyes.

"Where did you lose your eyes?! As if someone who've fought honourably for a hundred years would suddenly pull something like this! Can't you see the other giant is Dorry-ossan's dearest friend?!"

Vivi was gripping Ruffy's arms tightly, fighting the shaking. It was true that she couldn't see how the giants were friends, but she wasn't blind. She'd watched them just now. She'd seen how Dorry had had a light fill his eyes when he went to battle, watched the brutality of it, and how content he seemed upon returning. It was her ingrained instinct to keep people from fighting, so of course she couldn't understand. Still. Ruffy was right. Dorry laughed wholeheartedly. If he'd been filled with hatred, how could he laugh like that?

"If so, then who…?"

"You."

The girls looked up. Dorry was in pain, blood flowing from his lips in torrents, but fury burned in his eyes.

"This… is your doing," he said. "We are proud warriors of Elbaf. This can only be your doing!"

Ruffy growled and grit her teeth. She grabbed her hat, pressed it into the princess's arms and threw her out of the way in the same movement. Vivi rolled, feeling the sting and burn of rocks and roots on her skin. But she was alive. If Ruffy hadn't pushed her she would have been crushed under Dorry-san's fist!

He coughed up blood.

"Dorry-san, wait! Calm down! If you attack, your injuries…!"

Ruffy reacted much faster. As soon as the giant's fist hit the ground she was on his arm, rushing up it, hands on her sword. Dorry might be a giant, but it was a common misconception that they were slow. All he had to do was move his arm away and the girl stumbled and started falling. Dorry slapped her into the jungle. The sharp pain in his hand was ignored as he quickly turned his head towards the other girl.

"Thanks, Shodai," Ruffy wheezed and adjusted mid-air to have her feet in the direction of her flight. She hit a tree, young and springy, and Ruffy dug into herself with all the anger from Dorry's heart.

"Cursed power."

Dorry had fisted his hand and was about to strike the other girl when his head whipped back towards the jungle. The tree rebounded and Ruffy came flying back.

"Arrow!"

She hit Dorry just below his breastbone, above the armour, exactly where he was hurt from the explosion, and with the added pressure on his lungs, Dorry passed out.

"Forgive me, Dorry-ossan," Ruffy said as she climbed around the giant on his armour, so she wouldn't be under him when he hit the ground, face first.

Vivi ran up to her. "Ruffy-san, are you okay?"

"Fine," the pirate said, trying to wipe away the nosebleed with little success. Even with Shodai's protection Dorry had put real power behind his strike. A normal human would have been a wet spot on the giant's palm. She sank down on the grass. Now that Dorry was unconscious, the pressure from his heartbeat had lessened considerably. But not enough.

"I think Dorry-san will be okay, as long as he gets some rest," Vivi said after examining the giant's face. "You did the right thing," she added quietly to Ruffy. "That was probably the only way to calm him down."

"I can't hear anything!"

Vivi blinked down at Ruffy who was rubbing her head ferociously.

"It's too loud! The giants and the island. The heartbeats are too loud! I can't hear anything else!"

Suddenly, Vivi had a flash of inspiration. Maybe what Ruffy was hearing was like what Chakra had once told her about; that some people hear "voices" from the souls of others, even from a distance. She wondered why Ruffy would call them "heartbeats".

She kneeled beside Ruffy. "What are you trying to hear?"

"The others," the pirate hissed, pulling at her hair. "The one who did this. It wasn't the other giant, it wasn't any of my men. There's someone else here, and I can't hear them at all!"

Vivi studied the frustration on Ruffy's face, how anxious it seemed to make her, and her worried glance towards Dorry-san.

Ruffy cared about him, Vivi realized with surprise. They hadn't known each other for more than two hours, tops, and she cared this much? How? Why?

The volcano suddenly erupted.


When Mr 3 had returned to the hideout, Miss Golden Week was fast asleep in the nook he'd made for her in the house. Sighing at his lazy partner, the agent started to prepare a pot of tea. A good spy knew when to pull back and lay in wait.

The kettle whistled and Mr 3 calmly poured the hot water into the pot to let it set. He'd just leaned back in his chair when Mr 5 and his partner showed up.

Both of their faces were tense, bruised, bandaged in Mr 5's case, and the way they glared at him, Mr 3 didn't need them to tell him what they wanted. Not that it mattered to him. Boss had already handed this mission over to him directly.

"Hm, so you're here, Mr 5," he said indifferently and relaxed into his seat.

Mr 5 sneered and pulled his shoulders back, as if Mr 3 would be intimidated.

"Your power's quite nifty, making a house here in the middle of a dinosaur infested jungle. I suggest you sit tight in here while I finish my mission."

"We won't screw up again," Miss Valentine added, unintentionally breaking whatever dignity Mr 5 tried to rebuild.

Mr 3 almost laughed. "Screw up? You are mistaken. You are weak."

"We were just careless!" Miss Valentine sputtered. "How were we supposed to know the princess had pirates guarding her?"

Mr 3 glanced at the aggravated pair. "Excuses," he sniffed. "We are Baroque Works. We are professionals. To lose to the enemy, to leave corpses behind, leave any hint of our existence for the world to find, is unacceptable."

The bespeckled man poured a cup of tea for himself, and blissfully held it to his face where the aroma could wash over his senses.

"But," he continued to the pair rooted by the door, "since you've showed persistence and actually followed the targets here, seeking me out, saving me the trouble of hunting you down…"

Mr 3 smirked wickedly when Mr 5 jerked, just to realize he actually couldn't move. For the two of them to willingly walk straight into such an obvious trap, it only proved Mr 3 was right about this pair being all muscle and no brains. This house was made by his power, even the floor was coved by wax, and it was a small thing for Mr 3 to let Mr 5 and Miss Valentine become parts of the walls.

"Don't look so startled. Sit down and enjoy some tea, I have a suggestion that will allow you both to live and walk away with a little bit of profit. There's a lot of money to earn on this island, and I'm willing to let you have thirty percent of it."

As a generous host, Mr 3 even took out a couple more teacups and poured tea. Mr 5 and his partner stiffly accepted them, but remained standing. The man didn't dare drink, but Miss Valentine took a careful sip. Mr 3 sat back down and picked up an unmarked folder.

"Now, we of course have your original mission: capture and eliminate Princess Nefertari Vivi," Mr 3 started and placed the file with accompanying picture of the princess on the table. "Then we have the pirates who learned Boss's identity."

Mr 3 placed another three pictures down, showing two girls and one man. Interestingly, of all three pirates, only the youngest was wanted by the government. Her name was also getting a raised eyebrow, but the descendants of that name were popping up every now and then so there might not be any actual connection to the marines there. That hero's last family was supposedly lost several years ago.

"Then there are the giants on this island."

Mr 3 placed one wanted poster with two pictures on top of everything else and let it sink in. Mr 5 and Miss Valentine were not the sharpest, but this was easy calculation.

"What's the meaning of this? Are these even valid?" Mr 5 demanded. Good, so he wasn't a totally lost case.

"Of course, I checked. The bounty today is a hundred million for each. Two hundred million for both."

"T-two hundred million?!"

Mr 3 just nodded. "I'm already way ahead of you, of course," he said with cool confidence. "So all you two have to concentrate on is capturing the princess and bring her to me. With the giants and pesky pirates out of the way, that should be easy enough for you to handle without another mishap."

"Consider it done. But are you certain you can deal with both the pirates and a pair of giants alone?"

Mr 3 huffed. "Who do you take me for? Of course I can. The giants are already taken care of, and the pirates I'll simply lure out one by one."

Mr 5 stood stiff. The man before him, with the looks of a harmless librarian, was definitely not good to have as an enemy.

The sound of a volcano erupting had Mr 3's attention. "Duty calls. Go grab the princess and bring her to me. I don't need to tell you failure is unacceptable, now do I?"


Brogy looked up at the central volcano, blinked as he confirmed it was indeed an eruption, and laughed happily. Twice in the same day. It had been ten years since that last happened.

"Call to battle. What a great day!"

In front of him his tiny guests, or the young boy at least, looked a little shaken.

"You're going to fight?! But your wounds!"

"So what? It's the same for him. In a fight to the death there is no rest and no excuses!" He laughed, not expecting the humans to understand. Not when they were so young. Still, the young boy smiled brightly up at him.

"Good luck Master Brogy!"

It was unnecessary, but Brogy accepted it with grace, concealing his humouring of the boy. "Thank you, young Usopp. This time I'll bring him down for sure!"

Nami stared after the giant, feeling only exasperation. "How can someone be so happy about useless fighting?" she voiced her opinion.

Usopp immediately rounded on her. "HOW DARE YOU?! DON'T SAY SUCH FOOLISH THINGS!"

"Whatever, let's go back to the ship. It's ridiculous the log takes a whole year to reset. We need to work out a new plan with the others."

"Wait. Just wait! I don't stand a chance against the dinosaurs! Thusly it's impossible for us to make it back to the ship through the jungle!"

Nami just stared at him. So he wanted to stay here? Watch a meaningless fight between two brainless men where the outcome had been the same for a hundred years?

"Didn't you just say you'd become a brave warrior or whatnot?" Nami retorted.

"That was just my thinking out loud."

Oh, really? Nami almost rolled her eyes, but Usopp ignored her.

"What I meant was: I want to be a man who can be proud about his life!"

That's when Nami stopped listening. She grabbed hold of Usopp's satchel and simply dragged him along as he went on dreaming about what kind of man he wanted to die as. It made Nami realize, offhandedly, that it was strange how Usopp could think about his dying breath when Nami had spent most of her life trying to keep breathing steadily, putting off her and everyone else's last breath for as long as possible.

"Good, good. Now hurry up kick your bravery awake already."

That woke Usopp up to reality at least, and since they were well into the jungle at this point, he had no choice but to walk himself.


Dorry felt them: Elbaf's words. They were in the earth, shaking with the eruption of the central volcano. So this was it. He'd lost the favour of his God and this was it.

'I accept your sentence, God Elbaf," Dorry said in his heart and started to stir.

"Mr Dorry! Don't go! Please lay down, if you get up you might die!"

"So what?!" he spat. "I am Dorry… Warrior Dorry. And I will fight in the name of Elbaf!"

"This battle has been tarnished!" the other girl roared, and those words stung. "Someone else has…!"

"Ruffy-san! Mr Dorry?! What are you…?"

Dorry had closed his fist around Rayla and was looking around. The mountain he lived by was made of chalk and mostly hollow, not too heavy. He had to keep this one down and away from the fight. He couldn't let Brogy find out about Elbaf's judgement. The words of God were personal. But what would a human understand? So young, unable to feel the age carving their skin and what they lived for.

So he lifted the chalk mountain with his free hand and threw the girl with the straw hat in underneath it. She was slippery though, almost escaping, but her hips got caught.

"What's the big idea!? Lift this mountain off me!" she shrieked, so mad she was almost spitting fire.

"I need you to stay put and let me leave to fight. The central volcano has erupted, and that's our call to battle."

"Who cares about a signal! This duel is no duel because someone else decided to interfere!"

"What do you know, young one," Dorry said softly, sad for her ignorance and youth. "How could someone like you understand the sacred words of Elbaf? A hundred years ago I picked a fight: I would duel against Brogy until one of us won. To not show up today, I would lose the warrior I am, the only thing I have left. Today, I lost the divine protection of God Elbaf, that's all, and I am sorry to have suspected you."

Turning around, Dorry straightened and headed to his last battle. He'd fight Brogy with everything he had left, and when his strength failed him, Brogy would grant him his final gift, send him on his last journey, holding his grandfather's words in his heart.

"The path of the warrior is twisting and turning, filled with obstacles, and Elbaf blesses only those who keep walking this path until the end."

Dorry had lived his whole life on the path of the warrior, and today he would see that path to the end.

Vivi stood rooted in place. There was nothing she could do to stop Dorry from leaving, and she really should care more about Ruffy's condition. What if the lower half of her body was crushed?!

Ruffy was howling, beating against the ground and the mountain, trying to wiggle free.

"This isn't the will of a god!" she cried after the giant, but he wasn't listening anymore.

"Ruffy-san, wait. I'll try to dig you free," Vivi offered, but didn't dare approach due to the trapped girl's wildly swinging arms.

Ruffy was crying harder now. "This is wrong! Who are you!? Their fighting was so beautiful! Their heartbeats were so pure! Who's there?! Where are you!? I'll tear you to shreds, you coward! Slithery snake! COME ON OUT!"

Just then, Usopp cleared the trees in a mad dash.


Usopp and Nami hadn't made it more than half a mile in the jungle before something suddenly came out of the bushes behind them. The dinosaur, a stegosaurus, cried out in what the two of them decided meant it was about to attack, rather than the shout of surprise that it was, and fled as fast as their legs could carry them.

Usopp got so scared he lost his mind, blacked out and just ran… until he suddenly realized Nami's cries were no longer mixed with his own.

He stopped short and turned around. Behind him was only trees, green shadows and his own footprints. No bright head of hair, no frantic breathing besides his own. His singular line of footprints looked wrong.

"N-Nami?"

Unfamiliar birdcalls answered him, the rustle of leaves and moving shadows.

Cold fear filled the boy to the very marrow of his bones. He stood frozen, staring into the jungle that felt like it was suddenly alive and holding its breath. He waited to hear Nami's footsteps, her breath or angry screams. He'd even welcome her first to the face!

But she was gone.

Nami was gone!

And so Usopp started running again, back where he came from, calling one for Nami and one for Ruffy, ran in circles, across shallow bodies of water, over fallen trees and who knows what that heap of bones had once been. He ran until the sun suddenly blinded him and he stumbled on a pebble, rolled and hit his face against a rock. He got up just as fast, running on adrenaline, wiped the blood away and shook his head. That's when he noticed Vivi and his captain.

"Ruffyyyy!" Usopp cried, waving his arms wildly as he ran up to his captain, who for some reason lay on the ground. "Nami got eaten by a dinosaur!"

"Say what?!"

"I don't know what happened," he wailed, the edges of his vision getting smaller and blurrier as the tears finally broke out. "We were running from a monster when Nami suddenly was gone! What have I done?! What should I do?! I failed a comrade!"

"Wait… wait a second. Usopp-san, calm down," Vivi ordered.

"How am I supposed to calm down? Nami's gone, for hell's sake!" Usopp roared back.

"Nami's not dead," Ruffy said with confidence, and at her tone, along with a sense of warmth touching his heart, Usopp finally calmed down enough to listen.

"She's not dead?" he asked meekly.

Ruffy nodded and smiled slightly at him. The fire in her, the reason Usopp admired her, shone in her face. "I will always be the first to know if someone dies. Nami's heart is still beating."

Usopp's heart settled, the panic and guilt ebbed away, and he wiped away the tears on his face. "I see. That's good then. So she escaped and just took a different route? So she'll arrive here at any moment?"

"It might not be so easy," Vivi said. She couldn't understand what had just happened, but she couldn't let Usopp be lulled into a sense of false safety. "We might not be alone here. Baroque Works might have followed us to this island. That would explain why Nami disappeared but not you, you're not on their death list. That bomb in the beer might have been for us too."

"Beer bomb? What beer bomb?" Usopp demanded.

Vivi felt something well up in her chest that felt like regret and sadness and guilt. Tension built between her eyebrows as she pushed it down. It was really meant for them, what was Dorry going to die for?

"The beer Mr Dorry got from the other giant was loaded with explosives. They detonated inside him."

"Inside him?!" Usopp echoed, gaping. "And… and he went to fight like that?! But those two have been fighting full tilt for a hundred years! It's the most honourable duel in history! What fucked up kind of way is this to let it end! IT CAN'T END THIS WAY!"

Vivi was stunned. The longer he spoke, the angrier Usopp got. But what could they do. Out of sight by the trees, they could already hear the giants clash.

Ruffy growled, a rumbling sound that reminded Vivi of that of a big cat. Ruffy tried to press her fingers in under her waist, and fistful by fistful of dirt, started to dig underneath her own body.

Vivi turned around, intending to ask Carue to help, only to realize he was missing.

"I need to stop them!" Usopp suddenly shouted. "I'll stop the fight! This is wrong! They'll understand! As soon as I tell them the truth I'm sure Master Brogy will…!"

He couldn't end his sentence. In the distance, they heard one war cry, and then a spray of blood coloured the sky and the jungle where the giants had fought.