The confident and casual steps of Admiral Strife served to strive him dauntingly towards Swiss company.
He walked with an authoritative swagger that complimented his dark suit and admiral overcoat.
As Admiral Strife's mood sterned, his eyes darkened into a silhouette.
"Ah?" Swiss felt a tense chill choke his lungs, then thinking to himself
'How the heck did his eyes darken all of a sudden? Is there something up with the lighting? Damn this anime logic!'
Every day, the logic of this world Swiss found himself in became more and more clear in experience.
Even so, it did not excuse the absurdity of the matter.
Eccentric laughs…
People shouting the name of their important attacks while performing them…
The tendency to run into weird and interesting characters…
And now, by some miracle, a top-tier person in terms of power in this world- a marine admiral… his eyes now somehow darkening into silhouette's as he does an epic One Piece walk…
Swiss shook his head, "Bah! Fuck it! Why am I stopping to question this shit anyway? So disgustingly meta…"
"What are you talking about?" Raito curiously asked.
Swiss snapped out of his train of thought, "Oh! Nothing.. So, shall we?"
"Mmm." Grit nodded in agreement, holding his Demon Slayer to his side like a dignified executioner.
The trio valiantly stepped forward against the crushing pressure oozing out of Admiral Strife due to his immense willpower.
That's when a toned and long pale arm halted them in their tracks. A card held between its fingers.
That card being the Joker.
"Wait a minute, please. Swiss-san. +" Kimagure Joka gleamed his golden predatory eyes, penetrating through the dark circular sunglasses of Swiss.
Swiss shrugged his shoulders and beckoned Kimagure Joka with sign language that said 'Okay?'
With the blessing of Swiss, Kimagure Joka let out a soft moan as he deeply exhaled, cocking his neck back and shifting his gaze toward Admiral Strife.
"Thank you. 3"
"…"
Grit and Raito stood beside Swiss in perplexed confusion.
"Uh, what?" Raito looked to Swiss.
"My thoughts exactly.." Grit added.
"Shhh.." Swiss lowered his voice, "Look, the dude is a bit of a… how should I say it? Unique personality. Let's just say that if we interfere with his fight right now, we would be going up against a lot of 'pent up' frustration.."
Raito narrowed his eyes, "Pent up frustration?"
Grit and Raito then glanced at Kimagure Joka, who was standing with his back arched, his loins pointed towards the advancing Admiral Strife.
A sudden realization dawned on them.
"Sigh…" Grit painfully exhaled.
"Wow. I see." Raito said in an understanding tone.
"Trolol, amirite? Besides, he called first dibs. If we don't honor first dibs, we have no right to sail these seas."
"What kind of rule is that?" Grit asked.
"Pfft, fucking amateur. The first rule of sailing; if a crew member calls dibs on a fight, the rest of the crew must respect that dibs and look for another opponent." Swiss answered.
"Hmmm!" Raito enthusiastically hummed, taking what Swiss said very seriously, "I had no idea!"
"Hmph! Well, now you know! What Joka did was clearly a call of dibs. So let's sit back and let him 1v1." Swiss concluded assertively.
"Didn't you say the first rule of the sea is that everyone on a ship gets a vote?" Raito then said after remembering something.
"..." Swiss had no recollection of saying such words.
"Dibs.. That kind of shit would not have flown on the battlefield.?" Grit chastised.
"Lol." Swiss contemptuously replied, "As if you fags on the battlefield didn't do some shit like 'It shall be ME who takes on that general in a 1v1!'…"
"… You have a point." Grit reluctantly admitted.
"Trololol so shut the fuck up and watch."
"… asshole."
Swiss company posed as they patiently observed Kimagure Joka and Admiral Strife facing each other.
"Hooah," Kimagure Joka jerked his hip to the side and placed a hand on it flamboyantly, "I can't wait to fight you. Your strength is so.. IS SO- ~"
Admiral Strife's eyes gleamed as he observed Kimagure Joka and got an innate sense of what he was about.
'Bad news. This guy is-' Was what Admiral Strife's inner voice said.
"Whatever-" Admiral Strife coldly interrupted whatever sick twisted fantasy was going on in Kimagure Joka's mind, "Let's just get this over with."
"! 3"
Kimagure Joka could not help it.
His body burst forward with lethal intent.
Kick. Punch. Punch. Kick.
With a quick flurry of combinations, Kimagure Joka showing off great flow in his combative movements.
Alas..
*Fffff* *Ffff* *Fffff* Fffff*
Wafty sounds of Kimagure Joka punching into milky air were all that followed.
"..? *" Kimagure Joka backed up in confusion.
"Nice work."
Admiral Strife said, his airy body reforming itself after having been sliced through by the attacks of Kimagure Joka.
"Nani? Smoke smoke no mi?!" Swiss said aloud, thinking he had encountered the owner of Smoker's Devil Fruit.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Grit wondered back to him.
Raito darted his eyes back and forth between his companions and the battle before him, "No mi? You must mean.."
Saint Lazlo and Saint Lauren watched the events with absolutely no clue as to what was going on.
"The admiral is made out of smoke?" Saint Lazlo pondered.
"Ah-hem.." James Shelby cleared his coarse throat, "It's not smoke. But rather-"
Admiral Strife yawned after hearing everyone theorize about the nature of his body, "No, not smoke.."
"Huh?!" Swiss blurted as he stroked his chin, "Then how about a wind logia?"
"Haha, nice guess." Admiral Strife congratulated as he snapped his fingers.
As he did this, the clear night sky that so brilliantly displayed the full moon all of a sudden started to darken.
And black clouds smoldered in the sky.
*RUMBLE!*
Crackling rips of thunder sparked up above.
A thick humidity moistened the air.
"Ah hah! Weather shit?! You must have Monkey D. Dragon's power!" Swiss roared in defiance, pointing at the marine admiral.
"D. ? What do you know about-?" Admiral Strife asked briefly, before tossing away his curious thoughts and laughing to himself, "Haha, no. I'm not a D."
At these words, thunder cracked in the looming eyes of Admiral Strife, and a terrifying draft surged through the arena.
"I ate the Kumo-Kumo-No Mi. I'm a cloud man." Admiral Strife declared as he grinned with childish delivery.
Following this, a massive roar shook the Main Stage,
*RRRUUUMMMBBBLLLEEE!*
Lightning strikes quaked from the heavens, surging themselves down towards the flag poles that line the circular roof of the Main Stage.
*BZZZT!*
The poles beamed with energy at the intake of such destructive natural force. Gusts of wind channeled into the arena with an unnerving intention.
"Holy shit!" Swiss exclaimed, "A cloud logia? We're fucked!"
"Huh?" Raito wondered.
Grit tensed, "What do you mean?"
Swiss chuckled, "Heh, well, I don't suppose you gents know any armament haki?"
"Armament… haki?" Grit asked blankly.
"Yeah! You know, BUSO!" Swiss replied.
"…"
"Seriously?" Swiss was slightly disappointed at Grit's answer, "What about you, Raito? Please tell me you know about haki!"
"Haki? Hmmm.." Raito gazed up to the sky as he thought deeply for a moment, "I think my sensei mentioned it once upon a time? I'm not sure.."
"BRUH! YOU FUCKERS ARE USELESS!" Swiss irately told them, before catching himself, "Uh, I mean, not really.. But come on! If you search your mind, nothing about haki comes up?"
"Spare us the suspense." Grit dismissively replied.
"Ugh, fine. Long story short, if you ever encounter an asshole who ate a logia devil fruit, their body has the ability to turn into that element.
In this case, physical attacks won't work. If you punched someone made of snow, for instance, it's not like your physical attack would do anything. So in this case, the admiral asshole is a cloud.."
Raito was the first to quickly catch on to what Swiss was trying to say, "So we can't damage cloud man?"
"Exactly!" Swiss happily answered, "But there are some ways to damage someone whose body is made of an element. And that method is-.."
"Haki." Grit completed the sentence.
"Eh?" Swiss exasperated, "I thought you didn't know about haki?"
"I don't. I just figured because you mentioned it."
"Oh, right. Very perceptive.." Swiss said, sarcastically amazed.
'How cute. Grit has good listening skills.' Swiss joked to himself.
"Yes. Haki. Basically, using haki, or more specifically 'armament haki', we can coat our attacks in a willpower that allows us to attack even bodies made of elements." Swiss finished.
"Amazing! Then we have a chance?" Raito excitedly said.
"Mmmm, no." Swiss quickly replied, "Because obviously, none of us plonkers know how to use it it."
"Oh, right." Raito scratched his head.
Grit processed the words of Swiss and quickly concluded that this 'haki' thing would be essential to learn.
A summit visage appears in his mind's eye, of white feathers curling in the wind.
Feathers of the hawk.
"…Tch!" Grit shook his head, "I say we learn that haki ASAP."
Swiss smirked at his companion with a mild understanding behind those words, "Trololol, I concur!"
"Be that as it may.." Raito added, looking at Kimagure Joka and Admiral Strife, "You think Joka knows haki?"
"Pffft. Doubt it." Swiss replied, before shouting "OII! JOKA! DO YOU KNOW HAKI?!"
"Eh?" Kimagure Joka uttered as he glanced at Swiss, "Haki? Never met him! *"
"No!" Swiss shook his head, "Haki isn't a person! Haki is a thing! Do you know it?"
"Haki?" Kimagure Joka thought for a split second, "No, can't say I do. +"
"Ah hah!" Swiss exclaimed loudly, "Everyone hold it right there!"
"Eh?" everyone baffled.
"That's right!" Swiss then pointed at Admiral Strife, "YOUU!"
"Me?" Admiral Strife asked.
"Yes, you! Oi asshole, this isn't fair!" Swiss attacked.
"F-.." Admiral Strife struggled to realize what Swiss was on about, "Fair?"
The childishness of Swiss' claim was so absurd that Admiral Strife had to confirm.
"You heard me! Strutting around with your logia powers like you're some kind of big dick slinger! None of us can hit you, so what's the point of us continuing this?!" Swiss shouted.
"Huh.. You're right. I suppose this is pointless." Admiral Strife placed a finger on his lip in realization, "Might as well end this now then" he said, walking towards the ladder below the hanging Devil Fruit.
"Are you some kind of sped?!" Swiss accused, "What kind of bitch would assume that's what I was getting at? No! What I meant was, disable your logia form so that we can all fight you on equal terms!"
"Equal terms?" Admiral Strife chuckled, "Pretty rich for a pirate to lecture me about 'equal terms'.."
"Ah hah!"
Swiss smiled in victory at the words of Admiral Strife
"That's where you're wrong. Check your privilege, Admiral Queef. We aren't pirates (*yet*)! So don't lecture us on this 'fair' shit. We're citizens, so you should fight us with the decency and respect we deserve, you bitch! Or are you advocating an idea that the world is unfair and we should do any and everything to get ahead?! You fucking scum. You fucking parasite piece of shi-"
"Dude!" Grit barked.
"Swiss!" Raito worriedly interrupted, the outbursts of profanity being something that still makes Raito uncomfortable.
"Huh? Oh, right. My bad.." Swiss awkwardly replied, "Sorry about that. Maybe it's the booze?"
"Hahaha!"
The eyes of Swiss company alarmingly snapped in the direction of the laugh.
Its owner; Admiral Strife.
"You're right. Sorry, I just take satisfaction in rubbing unfairness in the nose of pirates. I've memorized every wanted poster of criminals confirmed to be in Jam Land, and your faces don't show up. So, in the spirit of your challenge, I shall happily oblige to your request in me not using my logia powers. Let's fight for the fruit on equal grounds, citizen."
Despite what should have been an epic speech, Admiral Strife said the words in such a lazy manner that Swiss and his companions felt no compulsion to get hyped.
"Right! Let's do that!" Swiss hastily responded, "You hear that, Joka? Now you can come at him with everything you got! Good luck!"
"Ho. ~" Kimagure Joka mused after hearing Swiss, thankful that due to his bartering, Admiral Strife was now not going to use his fruit powers.
Enabling Kimagure Joka to hit Admiral Strife without the application of this newly explained 'haki' power.
Kimagure Joka could now fight to his heart's content.
To his heart? No-
To his lust.
Kimagure Joka raised a clenched fist toward the relaxed general.
Admiral Strife scoffed, "Only one person at a time? I admire your naivety."
At these words, all the self-control that had held Kimagure Joka back to this point had faded away.
Kimagure Joka dashed at Admiral Strife with decent speed, positioning himself firmly and expertly in position to punch Admiral Strife in the face.
But just as that fist was about to connect…
["SORU!"]
Admiral Strife's body vanished into nothingness.
[ssyffix: yo!]
[ssyffix: your typical 'set up chapter' lol]
[ssyffix: as a reader of the One Piece manga, I thought nothing of set up chapters. chalking it up to the kind of thing Oda does; a manga meme.]
[ssyffix: now that i find myself writing a story of my own- albeit a fan fic based in another authors world, I can't help but laugh at how I now write set up chapters of my own.]
[ssyffix: the circle of life. or perhaps the circle of readership? no, the circle of stories!]
[ssyffix: from reading an Oda set up chapter, to attempting (poorly) to follow his footsteps and write chapters of my own.]
[ssyffix: kinda kewl :')]
[ssyffix: anyway, thx for reading!]