Admiral Strife covered his mouth as he nonchalantly yawned.
His dark gray overcoat worn over his shoulders flapped epically as he strode forward.
"Oi, oi.. This the dude you saw earlier?" said Swiss, nudging his elbow into his companion's ribs.
"Mmm," Jinzo replied, flicking Swiss away.
"Damn bruh. I always imagined admirals being like, 10ft tall or something.."
Swiss thought back to how ridiculously tall a lot of the One Piece characters were.
"Like a roller coaster? 'You must be this tall to be an admiral'..?" Jinzo teased.
Swiss cringed and massaged the bridge of his nose, "Leave the bad jokes to me, please…"
"Now you know how it feels, asshole." Grit told Swiss in response.
Admiral Strife ignored the thousands of hooligans that stared at him and casually picked up one of the circus step ladders.
"I just need to climb one of these and grab the fruit, correct?" Admiral Strife said, carrying the step ladder on his shoulder.
"Bastard! You think you can win so easily?" A thug shouted.
"You're just one man!"
"How about we gouge out your eyes?!"
Swiss looked around at the masses of participants screaming abuse at Admiral Strife.
"Now that I look more closely, all these people look like scum of the earth. Pirates, criminals, that sort of thing." Swiss concluded.
"Where does that place us?" Raito asked.
"We're the idiots." Grit said dryly.
"Trololol. Speak for yourself."
Admiral Strife's lazy attitude had bruised many egos.
It had gotten to the point where all 10,000 contestants surrounded him.
"I'm gonna gut you like a fish!" One thug said as he threateningly licked his blade.
"I'm gonna fill you with bullets!" said another, holding two pistols.
"…"
Despite the big talk, no one dared to approach.
They encircled Admiral Strife, leaving a good distance between them and him.
"You're all too noisy…"
Saying those words, Admiral Strife widened his eyes.
It was a glare. No.., it was a terrifying death stare.
If looks could kill..
[!%*#^ $(% !_^$_?]
Sprouting out from Admiral Strife came a forceful gust of wind.
It spread throughout the entire arena like the shock wave of a nuclear bomb.
When it hit Swiss, he felt weak at the knees.
'N-..Nani?'
His bones tingled as if his whole nervous system was being electrocuted.
The hairs on his arms and neck stood tall in attention.
He looked down and noticed the goosebumps that covered his skin.
When the gust finally stopped, Swiss and company were rendered speechless.
Then, one by one, contestants of the deathmatch fell to the ground.
Their eyes were white as milk, many were foaming at the mouth.
And it didn't stop just in the arena.
Nearly all 180,000 people in the surrounding attendance began passing out, including Saint Lauren and Lazlo.
Resulting in stunned silence.
"..."
"That's better." Admiral Strife delightedly declared.
"!"
"Oi, what the fuck?" Grit was aghast.
"I've never felt anything like that in my entire life.." Raito emotionlessly said, still processing what just happened.
"It was like standing face to face with a terrifying beast! Are all these people dead?" Jinzo added.
James Shelby sighed as he checked out his passed-out celestial dragon VIPs, "So he has it. Haoshoku Haki.. Aye," he said, snapping his fingers, "Someone wake them up. I'll not have them sleep through this after all the effort."
"Right away sir!"
["INCREDIBLE! WITH A SINGLE LOOK, WOLFGANG STRIFE HAS DEFEATED OUT NEARLY EVERYONE! JUST WHAT YOU'D EXPECT FROM A NAVY ADMIRAL!"]
"Ugh! 3"
Meanwhile, Kimagure Joka could not take his eyes off Admiral Strife.
"Mmmm! +" he moaned.
Swiss snapped out of his shock due to the weird display happening beside him.
"TROLOLOL! Boys, check it out, Joka over here looks like he just creamed his pants!"
Kimagure Joka ignored the words of Swiss.
He stood with his hands on his hips, his back slightly arched, his loins pointed towards Admiral Strife..
Admiral Strife continued walking to the middle of the arena and set up the tall step ladder.
Then he disappeared into the air.
"Eh? Where'd he go?" Swiss asked.
"Up there." Raito pointed to the top of the ladder.
Sitting there cross-legged at the top of the ladder was Admiral Strife.
He was within arms reach of the devil fruit.
"Shit! We've lost already!" Swiss lamented.
"Damn it!" The Roller Twins hollered.
"Oh no!" Bonnie and Clyde cried, holding their Tommy guns.
"Incredible! That's an admiral alright.." Saha, the dwarf leader declared.
Ironically, Admiral Strife made no strives toward taking the Devil Fruit.
Instead, he just sat there, gazing down at the surviving contestants.
"Don't mind me, I'll just be up here. You guys can fight among yourselves." Admiral Strife said as he yawned.
"OI, BASTARD!"
Swiss shouted up at Admiral Strife with the utmost hatred.
"Eh?" Admiral Strife looked around, seemingly trying to find who said the words.
It was as if he didn't want to give Swiss the satisfaction of being acknowledged.
"YOU HEARD ME!" Swiss shook his fist up at Admiral Strife, "If you aren't gonna fight us fair and square, you may as well take the fruit here and now!"
The spurred voice of Swiss reverberated in the arena.
Piercing amber eyes glared at Admiral Strife through those circular sunglasses.
"Swissan! Don't be so rude! That's an admiral, you know?" Jinzo chastised.
"Admiral? What's that?" Raito asked.
"It's like a general, but on water.." Grit answered.
Admiral Strife stared down back at Swiss with his hazel eyes.
All Admiral Strife saw was an amateur overstepping his bounds, yet there was something about the childish nature of Swiss' provocation that struck an accord.
"Calm down, citizen. You guys can still decide who wins the fruit." Admiral Strife calmly spoke.
"Citizen?! Who the fuck?" Swiss barked.
"What? If you're not a citizen, then what are you? A pirate?"
"…" Swiss stopped to ponder the question.
He did not buy into anything the World Government stood for.
As far as Swiss was concerned, the World Government was bullshit.
Anything they did with the 'intention' of good, was always done with ulterior motives.
Self serving motives.
In this way, Swiss had a great advantage over many others in this world.
Swiss knew the truth.
Even so, did that make him a pirate?
Why did disagreeing with this centralized force mean he had to be demonized?
Swiss opted to shake his head in disgust-
"So you're just gonna let us fight and give the fruit to the winner?!" Swiss did not let up on his aggression.
"Um, well.. No. I was gonna-"
"Take the fruit, right?" Swiss scoffed at his adversary.
"Yes…"
"That's bullshit bro! You owe us the chance to fight you for it, at the very least! Or are you just some pussy? Sleepy bastard…"
"Swissan!"
"Shut it, Jinzo! This is a discussion between me and him!"
Swiss pointed up at Admiral Strife with a drunken finger. He swayed as if he had his sea legs. Was this liquid courage?
"Fine." Admiral Strife promptly replied.
"Fffff.. fine?" Swiss asked.
"Yes, fine. Have it your way. If you manage to be the last one standing, I'll gladly fight you for the fruit."
Admiral Strife said the words as if he was dismissing a nagging wife.
He was a man who was not mentally equipped to handle the psychological onslaught of Swiss' selfishness.
But then again, who was?
"TROLOLOLOL! Damn right! Sit tight, you bastard! I'll have my way with you soon enough!" Swiss declared.
Jinzo covered his mouth in embarrassment, "Um, Swissan, suss?"
"You want your way with him instead? Trololol."
Swiss patted Jinzo on the back and the two companions shared a laugh.
Until some unhappy voices interrupted them.
"Hey! You got some nerve, thinking you are automatically going to be the last one standing!"
The Roller Twins came forward. Their built upper bodies juxtaposed their tiny legs.
Heavy metallic balls attached to chains were locked to their ankles.
Swiss inspected the Roller Twins.
"Brothers with a combined bounty of $80 million? And what's up with the tiny legs?"
Swiss was thinking aloud.
He knew he was in the world of One Piece, but it was still tough to get used to the funny character designs.
"We agree!"
Saha and his band of chained-together dwarfs decreed.
"Ah jeez, here come the toddlers.." Swiss teased.
"Don't forget us!" Bonnie and Clyde pointed their Tommy guns in the sky and fired a warning shot. (attention whores..)
"And me also-.."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Swiss shouted, cutting everyone short.
"I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ALL OF YOUR INTRODUCTIONS!"
Swiss stumbled forward.
His companions shrugged their shoulders.
"Kukuku. +" Kimagure Joka chuckled at the actions of his drunken acquaintance.
*ZING!*
Swiss sloppily drew his cutlass, the jade-green hilt catching everyone's attention.
[swiss: en gardde!]
—
[ssyffix: yo!]
[ssyffix: thx for reading the chapter]
[ssyffix: felt weird not posting for a few days. had 2 post something]
[ssyffix: hope u enjoyed. all da comments fill me wit joy. Sooo cool to see people loving this story.]
[ssyffix: belieb me, if u enjoying now, you aint seen nothing yet…]
[ssyffix: and don't don't think I don't see you people… yes, I mean YOU PEOPLE, who have sent me power stones over these three days (even tho there haven't been any new releases)]
[ssyffix: this story is a labor of love with a lot of thought behind it. so it felt gud to see ppl.. idk? feeling it too? xDDD]
[ssyffix: aight imma peace out nao. dis new author note ting I got going on is dangerous. got me rambling over here..]