The Island of Angels: Chapter Four



Usopp stumbled over a tree branch, but he managed to regain his balance and swerved to the right, narrowly missing a bullet zooming past his ear.

"Damn it!!"

He looked angrily at the bunch of marines still at it behind him, but ended up smashing headlong into a tree branch.

"Ohhhh craaaaaap!!"
Usopp cried as the marines towered over him. His back hit the base of a tree trunk, and the marines leered at him. Squeezing his eyes shut and hoping madly, he keeled over and clutched his stomach, letting out loud moan of terrible pain.

"Huh?"

The marines stopped in their tracks, surrounding him, but looking politely confused at what to do at the man's lurching actions.

Which was his chance, of course.

Usopp grabbed something from his purse and--

"USOPP'S HAMMER!!"

WHAM WHAM WHAM (etc.)

Six marines collapsed onto the ground with several bumps on their heads as Usopp ran as fast as he could through the undergrowth.

"Hahahaha!! That wasn't too hard, now--"

Usopp started to chuckle as he gloated to himself,
"Those marines are nothing, I tell you, nothing in the face of captain Usopp!"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I am!"
Usopp scoffed, still running,
"Didn't you just see? They fell when I--"

Realising he wasn't alone, he skid to a stop, and spun around, though he couldn't see anyone or anything suspicious.

"Wh-what?! Who's there?!!"
Usopp shouted, looking furtively around.

"Yoo hoo, over here!!"
He looked up and saw, quite a distance away, someone sitting on a branch. He flipped the lenses in his goggles onto an eye, and just made out the outline of a man.

"That was pathetic!"
The man called out, smirking. A nerve twitched in Usopp's temple.

"Well, you're the one who's all the way over there!!"
Usopp yelled, and the man started to laugh irritatingly.

"You dodged those bullets pretty well,"
The man called out,
"Wanna try dodging this?"

Almost immediately, Usopp yelped as a load of bullets embedded themselves heavily into the soft soil where he had been standing just seconds ago. Another marine or something?! He thought despairingly.

"Damn you, what the hell are you shooting at me for?!!"

Flipping up a pellet from his purse, Usopp quickly pulled the elastic back from his slingshot and yelled,
"LEAD PELLET!!"

He let go befor he spun around with the slingshot still in his hand, and began to do what he was best at.

Which was running away as fast as he could.

The man lay with his back flat on the ground, the branch he had been on high above him, blocking his sight of the sky. He chuckled, lifting a hand to his forehead and gingerly poking at the large lump that had formed from the lead pellet.

"That aim was absolutely amazing,"
He muttered, running a hand through his bright orange hair,
"I like it."

He grinned as he sat up, the golden hoops in his earlobes glinting as his eyes traced the dust cloud that Usopp had managed to kick up while running.

He sighed, his voice low as he said,
"I want it."




Nami noticed something was wrong when Sanji stumbled, but didn't slow down long enough to catch his breath.

"Sanji-kun?"

She stopped looking over his shoulder for a moment to take a look at him, and was startled to find sweat running down his face, the cigarette in his mouth sagging and his eyes strained.

When he didn't reply and only kept on running, Nami knew something was very wrong.

"Sanji-kun?!"
She repeated in an irritated tone, though her throat was caught up in unease and nervousness.

"Ne, Nami-san?"
Sanji asked, giving her a forced smile as his grip on her tightened.

"We've lost the marines."

"Eh?"

Sanji stopped in his tracks, and turned around slowly. There wasn't a single trace of a marine in any way, so he let Nami down with a bit of a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?"

He asked, and Nami nodded. Her eyes scanned him curiously; his breathing seemed laboured, and his posture seemed a little more slouched than usual. Her eyes led down to the ground, which was tangled in tree roots and dead leaves and she saw a growing stain upon the grains.

"Sanji-kun!! Y-your leg!!"

She knelt down quickly and raised his right pant leg, and an involuntary gasp of surprise escaped from her lips. Sanji tried to back away from her as he said hastily,
"It doesn't hurt or anything, Nami-san, no need to worry..."

Three bullets had found their way to the area around his ankle and out of the other side. Nami realised what pain Sanji must have gone through in carrying her and running with such an injury.

"When did this happen?"

Nami asked as she forcibly helped Sanji limp towards a tree trunk. Now that the urgency was gone and no running was required, pain was shooting up Sanji's leg in uncomfortable dollops.

Still grinning in a forced sort of manner, Sanji chattered,
"It's nothing Nami-san! Just a few bullets-- "

Nami pulled his shoe off and flicked the cigarette out of his mouth and into a bush nearby.

"Eh? N--"

A loud rip in the air interrupted the start of Sanji's protest.

It was beyond Nami's expertise and it could get beyond hygienic, but if she didn't stop the bleeding at least by a little, it looked like Sanji could bleed to death. A trail of blood had followed from Nami's dragging of Sanji, so he had already lost a lot of blood.

Nami tore another shred from her cloak, and looked around. There was no pond or lake nearby, but there seemed to be a stream of water quite a distance away.

"Sanji-kun, this needs cleaning up. I'll go over to get some water."

Sanji frowned.

"Nami-san--"

"Don't move."

A nerve twitched in her temple and Sanji silenced himself, watching Nami hurry over to the silvery stream with a look of surprise and curiousity.

As Nami jumped over a log and stumbled over a branch of thistles, she bit her lip as she wondered when on Earth they were going to get a doctor on their crew.

'I'll kill Luffy if he insists on a musician first,'
Nami thought, then wondered,
'I wonder where that rubber moron is anyhow.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a snigger.

"Ho, abandoning an injured companion?"

Nami snapped her head up to see a man standing by the stream.

He had moss-green hair falling in tousled strands held in a loose ponytail that reached his back, his body clad in a glittery-green vest and black trousers. He grinned, apple-green eyes twinkling as he winked at her.

"Hey, you're kinda cute,"
He added, smiling even more widely and in such a way it revealed all his white teeth. Flexing his muscles, he leaned over to her, lifting her chin to make her meet his gaze.

"Wanna ditch him and come with me?"
He drawled.

She slapped his hand away with a bemused expression.

"You're missing a tooth."
She commented nonchalantly.

BLAM.

That whacked him where it hurt.

"S-s-s-so what?!! It's just a tooth! Just because of me tripping over a log when I was eleven doesn't give anyone the right to make fun of my tooth!"

He cried, flapping his arms about as Nami sweatdropped.

"I wasn't making fun of your tooth."
She said. He still flapped about, practically ripping his hair out.

"Don't look at my teeth! Look at my eyes! My deep, eccentric, deep pools of green!"

He opened his eyes to the widest he could, the bright green irises glinting.

Nami walked towards the stream, causing the green-haired man to face-fault.

"Don't ignore me!!"

"I need to help Sanji-kun right now, so don't bother me. I don't even know who you are."

She wrung the cloth in her hands as clear water streamed past her hands, but was startled as a sudden thrust of rock came up from the ground before her.

"I said... don't ignore me."
The man's voice growled. Nami turned slowly to see the man now seriously glaring at her, his hand stretched out towards the rock in front of Nami.

"Who are you?"
Nami asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Emerine,"
He said, his voice so soft now it was suspiciously dangerous,
"The emperor wants to see you."

Nami sighed, standing up as she dusted the back of her skirt,
"And if I don't want to see him?"

Emerine's lips twisted into a slanted smile.

"Watch what you say. It might affect blondie back there, although the emperor wants to see him too."

Nami eyes narrowed even further.

"Sanji-kun? Did you do something to him?!"

Sanji could probably win this guy without both feet, Nami thought worriedly, but still, his loss of blood must have weakened him terribly.

"Nope,"
Emerine said, looking satisfied now that he had finally caught Nami's full attention,
"but Sherine might."




A slash to the left, one from above, left-up diagonal, thrust forward, a cut brought upwards.

There was nothing that Zoro seemed to be unable to block and push back towards Tashigi.

To make it completely fair, there seemed to be nothing Tashigi couldn't block either, but Zoro hadn't been on the offensive for quite a while since they'd gone into the fight.

Distracted, she missed a curve aimed to his shoulder and instead got her sword driven back towards herself. She pressed a gloved palm onto the top of her sword and her boots skid in the ground, her back skimming a tree trunk as Zoro pressured the blade of his sword heavily onto her own.

"Hey, what's wrong? Losing stamina?"

Zoro grinned through the glint of his blade as he continued to press, and Tashigi felt a nerve pop up on her head.

"No,"
She gritted,
"I got distracted."

She turned her sword at an angle before sliding it off Zoro's sword's edge quickly, before resuming her stance and preparing to attack again.

"Distracted? Guess it's my turn, then,"
Zoro replied, and before she could start her attack, Zoro started himself. The first cut down almost caught Tashigi off guard, but she managed to return it quickly with a back-bladed swerve, and before long, they were resumed in a flurry of attacks.

"Interestingly enough, I don't think I could interrupt your fight for even just a second."

Both swords stopped slashing at the same time, their owners turning to the direction of the sudden voice.

"Who's there?!"
Tashigi demanded, turning her sword away from Zoro's.

"Me. Well, rather, Rayrene."

A man jumped off a tree branch and onto the dirt before Zoro and Tashigi.

Short-cut, white-blond hair and topaz eyes matched the pale yellow sash and shorts he wore, but what interested Zoro was the sword he held in his hand.

"Rayrene?"
Tashigi repeated cautiously. The blond man smiled.

"That's right. Rayrene, the best swordsman of the Island of Angels. I'm to take you both with me to see the king of this island."

"King?!"
Tashigi exclaimed in surprise.

"You've caught his attention, you see,"
Rayrene said, then brought his sword up. The golden sheath slid off his blade as he pointed it straight at Zoro.

"Not you, babe, but this man here. He's to come with me."

Zoro narrowed his eyes.

"Why should I?"

Rayrene sighed with a shrug.

"I don't know, ask the king himself."

Zoro shook his head.

"I don't want to go somewhere without knowing why I should bother,"
He stated,
"and I hate listening to orders."

Rayrene sighed again, flicking the blade upwards to point right at Zoro's nose.

"Then you'll have to come by force, won't you?"
He said, his face darkening.

"If you can make me,"
Zoro replied with an equally disturbing grin. Tashigi swung her petal to rest on her shoulder with a frown.

"Roronoah Zoro, are you not going to fight me now or something?"

Zoro blinked as he glanced back at her.

Whoops, I nearly forgot about her. Better not tell her that.

"Postpone it 'till later. This guy's begging for a fight, so why not?"

Rayrene laughed harshly.

"What a joke. That woman is a swords-woman?"

The blade pointed to Tashigi now as Rayrene continued to laugh.

"That's a real joke! Women don't swords-fight for a reason, lady. They're just not cut out for it. You know that?"

Tashigi eyes darkened angrily as she gripped her Petal tightly.

"Oh, do I know,"
She growled,
"and I suppose you don't think you'll regret looking down on me."




Tearing off another large chunk of meat with her teeth, Violet, chewed and swallowed quickly before saying,
"You know, Shiller tastes really good."

Gnawing on a bone, Luffy nodded in agreement.

"I should get some more and put it on our ship,"
He said through a mouthful, grabbing another sizzling piece of Shiller meat off the spit over the fire.

"Well, we're nearly finished,"
Violet said as she grabbed the another piece of meat,
"so let's decide what we're doing after this meal. Are you going back to your ship?"

Luffy scratched his head as he chomped on his meat.

"Well, no. I'm kind of looking for my crew, since I lost them on the way in the forest."

Violet chewed as she looked at Luffy thoughtfully.

"What bad luck. Who's your captain?"

Luffy grinned as he grabbed the second-last piece of meat.

"I am!"
Violet looked at him, impressed again.

"Wow. And you lost your crew?"

"Uhm,"
Luffy said, his teeth sunk into the meat,
"Yeah. Well, it doesn't really matter, 'cause I'll find them again."

Licking her bone, Violet said,
"Yolandi forest is huge; you'll never find them here. I'll take you to my village -- then maybe you'll find your crew there."

Luffy nodded.

"That's a good idea. I'll do that. Thanks."

As she grabbed the last piece of meat off the spit, she replied,
"No problem."

"HEY!!"
Luffy cried.

"What?"
Violet asked, seconds away from eating the meat.

"That's the last piece of meat!"

"And...?"
Violet prompted, then realised what the hungry look in Luffy's eyes meant.

"No, this is mine!"
Violet said hastily, and was about to take a bite when Luffy jumped over the spit towards the meat.

"MEEEAAAATT!!"

"It's miiiine!!"
Violet whined as she clutched it to herself and moved sideways so that Luffy crashed into the bushes behind her.

"Yaaah!!!"

Luffy's hand stretched to reach Violet's meat as she dodged him.

"Are you stretching?!"
Violet asked in surprise. Luffy used the moment to grab the meat and put it whole, into his mouth. His jaws happily working, he nodded.

"Yehsh."
He said through the meat, and Violet looked puffily at him.

"You're mean! Meat is my favourite food!"

"It's my favourite, too,"
Luffy replied, licking his fingers, then saw that she was streaming tears off her cheeks. He looked guiltily apologetically at her.

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to be mean. It was a reflex with Usopp and Sanji's food."

"Who're they?"
Violet asked grumpily as she threw dirt over the fire.

"Two of my crew members... hey, don't be mad! We can always catch and eat more!"

Luffy laughed heartily as Violet sniffled as she grumbled,
"Suuuure, you'd really be saying that if I ate the meat, right?"

"How immature, fighting over meat like that."
Mused a voice. Violet looked up in surprise while Luffy looked up in mild surprise.

A figure clad in black jumped in all agility to a log before them.

"Naa? Who are you?"
Violet asked, cocking her head to one side.

"My name,"
Said the figure,
"Is Dardrene."

Swishing her silver buckles about and tossing back waist-length raven-black hair, she smiled sinisterly.

"I'm here to take you, Monkey D. Luffy, with me to see the king of the Island of Angels. Come with me now, without that girl, and we'll take you in without me hurting you."

She laughed again.

"Ohohohoho!! I am, after all, the most sexy and strongest woman on this island, so you won't want to resist!"

"Her name,"
Luffy said quietly.

"Yes?"
Dardrene asked, her blood-red lips curling into a smile,

"Scares you already? Is so sexy it seduces you on the spot? Makes you think you must remember it for all your life?"

"Yes, Luffy,"
Violet said with a nod,
"Her name..."

Dardrene smiled as the two exchanged glances. Then they both looked at Dardrene with a frown.

"Sounds like sardine."

She facefaulted.

"Excuse me?!! It does NOT!"

"It does,"
Violet said seriously to Luffy,
"Dardrene, sardine. It's the same."

"And she looks like a sardine, too."
Luffy said with a nod.

"WHAT?!!"

"Yeah, that face looks kinda like a fish."
Violet agreed.

A nerve bulged in Dardrene's head as she screamed,
"SHUT UP!! My name doesn't sound like a fish! I do not look like a fish!"

She glowered at them.

"How dare you not listen to me seriously and ignore my generous offer to take you without pain!"

Long nails coated in dark-red varnish pointed at Luffy as she snarled,

"You'll regret making a fool out of me!!"