One Piece - Island of the Gum Gums - Chapter 4
Written by Steven Kunz the Fan Author
Disclaimer: I do not own nor invent One Piece. This excellent manga was written and drawn by Eiichiro Oda.
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While Takanachi paced around Rousse very slowly and making sure each step he took on the rotted deck made that creaking noise to annoy him, Rousse simply stared forward, not really paying attention to Takanachi.
Since he wasn't paying attention to Takanachi, he was obviously not thinking about the situation that was going on. Instead, his thoughts passed onto his mother, his best friend and not-so-obvious crush Jennifer, Luffy and his crew. His thoughts turned to the moment before he went to the Navy about his family's crime history.
Before he can focus even longer on those thoughts, he felt his brother's palm go across his cheek as he slapped him as hard as he can. Rousse simply kept his head to the side when Takanachi had pulled his arm back.
"You know, Rousse...." Takanachi began to speak as he began to pace around the room. "Do you remember our mother?"
At the moment when he mentioned his mother, he perked his heard at Takanachi and said, "Mother? Oh, yes! I remember. What about her?"
"Well....it's time that your father and I told you the truth about what happened to her. It's the least I can do."
Rousse lifted his head at Takanachi as he took a deep breath and explained what happened. "This came as a shock to me too, but what happened to our mother, when she died, was not of natural cause."
The perspiration on his face increased as his heart beated faster, increasing his breathing faster than he thought.
"Wh......what hap...penned?" Rousse nervously asked, knowing what Takanachi was going to say, but he never expected who was the cause.
"Our mother was murdered....by our father." Takanachi said as he took a deep breath. When he was done, he turned around and faced away from Rousse.
Rousse was absolutely stunned when he found out who killed his mother. "M........our mom was killed...by dad...?!"
~
Nami looked at the ship that Rousse had been taken aboard. It was still floating in an idle state since no one had taken control of the ship.
Meanwhile, Zora had continued to examine his swords and make sure he knew what he was getting into while Usopp kept contemplating whether to go on the ship or not, holding his slingshot tightly while pacing back and forth. Luffy was also busy trying to determine how to get onto the ship with his make-shift plan.
"Luffy!" Nami called out after walking to the other side of the deck where there was absolutely no one there.
"Coming!" Luffy yelled back as he walked to the other side of the deck.
When he got there, there was no one there at all. All that was in front of him was the ocean and behind was the back of the room that was used to bring them downstairs into the lower levels of the ship.
"Luffy....." A familiar whisper was heard as a hand creeped out from the shadows of the cabin and beckoned him to come closer.
When he walked over there, he felt the hand stroke his chin for a moment, then without warning, the person's arms wrapped around him and pulled him close while the person kissed his lips very enthusiastically with some passion and gentleness into the kiss.
Luffy immediately got very nervous as he blushed bright red and waited to see who was the person when he or she pulled out of the kiss. When they did, Luffy chuckled and blushed as he moved aside some of the person's short and shining orange hair across from her face and grabbed her cheek.
"Nami...." Luffy whispered before he leaned forward and kissed her lips. Nami blushed brighter than him as she smiled and kissed back, feeling very happy.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds. Before she lost herself in the thrill of the moment, she pushed Luffy away and walked towards the end of the deck, wiping her lip and spitting into the water.
Luffy picked up his hat that he dropped and walked towards Nami, placing a hand on her shoulder. She brushed it aside and whispered Luffy's name in her mind before she finally got the courage to what she wanted to say.
"Luffy.......I.....I do like you. I like you a lot. I like you so much that I want nothing more than to be by your side and kiss you just like I did earlier.....but I can't." Nami said very quietly, making sure no one but Luffy would hear.
"Huh?" Luffy said right back in confusion. He did not know Nami liked him this much. He honestly thought that she would break away from him because of the fact that he's a pirate, but he never expected him to do it in a romantic moment like this. He gathered his courage and asked, "If I may ask, why not?"
"It's because.....you're a pirate, Luffy. Even though you're not the pirates I had imagined, you're still part of that evil group, that same evil group that had taken away someone precious to me, and until I can get 100 Million Berries, I can never be with anyone that will destroy, pillage, and ruin other people's lives and laugh about it...." After she had said all that, Nami bent her head and buried her face in the palm of her hands, crying very softly.
Luffy was stunned by her reasoning. At that moment, Luffy thought that if he quit being a pirate forever, he could be with Nami in the way that she wanted him. However, at the same time, the memories of his mentor, the same memories that were given to him through the straw-hat told him to keep going.
In the end, Luffy walked in front of Nami and placed his hands on her shoulders. She lifted her head as he moved a finger across her cheek, wiping and drying off any of the dried tears. "I do understand why, Nami, and I want you to know that if I had a choice, I would give up being a pirate for you...."
A small smile creeped onto her face as Luffy went on. "Unfortunately, I have a promise to fulfill to Shanks, and a promise is a promise, so I msut continue being a pirate and become the King of Pirates..."
Nami soon began to cry again, but this time, she was smiling as she laid her head onto Luffy's shoulder and cried on it, thinking to herself, "I know I hate pirates....but could I make just one very special exception to one very special person?"
While Nami cried, Luffy simply held her close and thought about wwhat to do now. Immediately, he got an idea.
Pulling away from the hug, Luffy grinned at Nami and said, "Hey! I got an idea on how we can get to the ship!"
Before Nami could answer, Luffy ran forward with her hand held softly, almost dragging her to where everyone is.
Within a few minutes, the plan was ready to be excecuted.
Luffy would have his arms stretched out in opposite directions of eachother. Nami, Zora, and Usopp held on tightly to his arm as he walked back. The plan was for Luffy to grab onto two wooden poles, step back as far as he can, and when he was ready, he would release the grip and go flying into the air. Nami, Usopp, and Zora held onto him tighter as there was a good possibilty they could die from this attempt into being a stowaway on the idle ship. Also, Zoro was to carry the things Rousse had left behind on the beach floor, his sword and his two flintock pistols carried in his box, and give them to him when they arrived the ship.
Zora immediately yelled out as soon as Luffy got onto the beach while still keeping his arms stretched out, "Luffy! What if this doesn't work?!"
Grinning widely again, he said, "If it doesn't, we'll just have to try again and hope we land on the ship!"
When everyone heard that, they all yelled, "WHAT?!!""
Before they could let go, Luffy yelled, "Let's go!!" Immediately, he let go, and was sent flying into the air and amazingly toward the ship with everyone screaming as they held onto Luffy for dear life.
~
Takanachi nodded his head and said, "Well, it wasn't exactly him, but it was carried out by one of the scientists that always used to hang out at his labs. All he did simply was poison our mother's food, the day before she became seriously ill. While she was in the hospital, that same man had also switched the medicine to another type, and as we all know, that was when things...ended..."
Rousse stared at him wide-eyed. Immediately Rousse understood why Takanachi had to be totally under his father's wing and eye. If Takanachi had done anything to prevent his mother's death or if he tried to rebel like Rousse did, he would have been dead before the day was done.
"But........but why?!" Rousse yelled out, wanting not to believe Takanachi's words.
"Our mother was like you. She was sick and tired of being in that family simply because we were too deeply in affairs with other crime familes, corrupt naval officials, and pirates."
When Rousse heard that, he had no choice to believe Takanachi since it now explained everything that he had wanted to hear. However, at that moment as well, he wished he had never been born.
"Now.....under my father's orders..." Takanachi began to chuckle a little, trying his best not to cry as he attempted to regain his evil disposition he had shown earlier. "I am supposed to test our latest fusion of the devil fruit, the Boom-Boom fruit."
"Boom-Boom Fruit?!" Rousse yelled out, lifting his head at the mention of this unknown devil fruit.
"Yeah....." Takanachi said while moving towards the back of the room. Rousee could hear him take something out of a box as he closed it and slid it back into a secret compartment. Walking right in front of Rousse, he showed to him a small piece of fruit with tiny imprints of clouds with swirls in the middle. "This combines the powers of the Gum-Gum Fruit and the Chop-Chop Fruit, and also, we've added a special ingredient of our own. Just simple gun-powder, but the fusion worked well."
Rousse growled loudly as he heard what was next. "The powers of this is incredible! One bite, and you'll most likely be able to stretch as if you've eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit, and if any parts of your body are cut off, it'll be able to move on it's own with one special side-effect. If it can latch onto any person or any object, it can explode itself, usually killing whoever is caught! Best of all, the part that is latched onto the person isn't destroyed most of the time, so it returns to the owner's hand, and if it were destroyed, the body would reproduce that destroyed limb within a matter of a few minutes."
"Usually? You mean the fruit doesn't work all the time?" Rousse literally growled out, "What happened to those who got the other end of that stick?"
"Well....let's just say they've experienced true happiness for one short moment, and now, they're quite content in where they are now....very content." Takanachi said very quietly after hesitating for a few seconds, trying to make himself sound evil, despite his unwillingness to hurt Rousse.
~
Still flying over the ocean, Luffy and the rest of his crew continued to fly over due to him using his Gum-Gum stretching ability to propel himself and his crew towards the ship.
However, Luffy had miscalculated. Instead of flying them towards the deck of the ship, he instead overshot and was heading towards one of the cabins that were on the deck. The rest of the crew, afraid that they would hit the ocean floor instead, let go of Luffy's arms and dropped down to the deck. Nami, however, was the only one who made it to the deck. Zoro managed to catch the edge of the deck while Usopp hung onto his legs.
"AGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Luffy yelled out as he flailed his arms, bringing them back to their original length, as he attempted to cover his face when he would land or crash through the roof of the cabin.
~
Waving the fruit in front of Rousse, he chuckled and said, "Now now, don't be afraid. I've already taken the fruit, and I'm fine. However, I was one of the lucky ones. Will you be the lucky one?"
Rousse squirmed as he tried not to come in contact with the fruit at all. Soon, Takanachi literally stuffed the fruit into his mouth. Rousse wouldn't chew, but Takanachi simply placed both of his hands onto the top of Rousse's head and underneath his jaw, and squeezed them together. The fruit was broken apart in his mouth, but he still wouldn't swallow.
Takanachi's next step was to rub Rousse's neck so that he would be forced to swallow in order to get the itch or sensation out of his throat. However, he never did get a chance to do that, for when he heard Luffy scream from the outside of his cabin, he turned around and was prepared to leave. Unfortunately for him, Luffy had crashed through the roof the cabin and landed right on top of Takanachi, making him close to the point of unconsciousness.
Picking up his hat which he had put on very tightly while he was flying to the ship, he lifted his head and grinned at Rousse. "Hey Rousse! Sorry we took so long, but we were kinda busy on how to get you out of that ship."
Rousse spat the fruit onto the floor and yelled out at Luffy in an extreme tone of anger, "You IDIOT!! Why didn't you get me out when I was by your ship! I knew you weren't asleep!!"
"Well, I wasn't sure that was you, and I wasn't sure that was a friend, but at least we know now!" He yelled out, his face still showing that same wide grin.
Rousse sighed and chuckled. "Well, whatever. Can you get me out of here still?"
"Sure!" Luffy walked to Rousse, untied the ropes, and the two walked out together.
When they walked out to the deck, Nami had helped Zoro up onto the deck, but not before he kicked Usopp off, causing him to grab onto the edge of the deck as well. Luffy ran over to him and helped him up as well.
While everyone was helping eachother, Rousse saw a small dinghy floating in the ocean on one side of the ship and ran over to it as far as he could. When he got to that side of the deck, he gasped and yelled out, "FATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!"
He saw his father rowing the dinghy all by himself. He looked at Rousse and yelled out, "Rousse?! What are you doing here? I thought Takanachi already dealt with you!!"
"What?! No! My friends helped me out!" Rousse yelled back at him.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Takanachi is loyal to me, and he will dispose of you all while I make a quick getaway! I shall go back home and plan my next strategy!!"
As Rousse's father rowed out of there, Rousse continued to yell at him and called to him, but he was too far away for him to hear.
He just simply stood there and waited for him to yell out, but he never did. Soon, Luffy came by with a huge package behind his back. He patted Rousse on the back and said, "It's okay, Rousse. You'll see him again, and when you do, you'll tell him what you really want to say to him."
Remaining silent, Rousse just stared at the ocean. Luffy smiled and opened the package in front of him. When Rousse saw what was inside, he beamed as he said quite loudly, "My Sword and Guns! I thought you forgot about them!"
He picked up his sword and placed the two Flintock Pistols in his pockets, as it was the only place where he could put them. He smiled and said, "Thanks, Luffy!"
"It's no problem, Rousse. I'm just glad you're glad." Luffy replied, then patted Rousse on the shoulder.
"AGH!!!!!!!" Luffy and Rousse turned around to see something quite horrible, especially to Luffy.
It was Nami yelling. From what Luffy had gathered, Takanachi had snuck up behind her and placed a hidden knife by her throat. He used her as a shield as he slowly crawled to a boat. Usopp couldn't do a thing. However, Zoro had stepped aside after he saw Takanachi get up from inside the cabin and dashed at Takanachi, slashing right by him with his 3 swords.
When Zoro appeared to the right of Takanachi, he removed the sword in his mouth with one hand after he had put the other sword in it's sheath. He turned around and waited for something to happen. Takanachi didn't really speak since he fell back from the pain caused from his hand holding the knife being cut off at the wrist.
Nami fell to her knees and gasped for breath. While Zoro helped her up, Takanachi's severed hand began to twitch a little. Soon, it floated in the air and without the others noticing, it floated up and lunged forward at Nami.
Almost no one noticed except Rousse and Luffy. Luffy screamed for Nami to duck as he used his stretching powers to get to Nami as fast as he can. When she turned around, she saw the hand coming towards her, and without enough time to assemble and deflect it with her staff, she screamed and covered her face from the hand.
The hand did latch onto something, but it wasn't Nami. Instead, it was Usopp who had dove in and stopped the hand from getting to her. As the hand latched onto his neck, Usopp screamed as he tried to pry the fingers off his neck. However, he did hear a sound as though something was being burned off or it was sizzling. He looked down at the hand and saw it glowing a faint yellow. When he heard it, in a matter of seconds, the hand literally blew up and sent Usopp flying into the air, screaming as he became a star in the sky.
Everyone blinked as it wasn't what they were expecting. However, they all gasped when they saw the hand where Usopp used to be still intact, but very burnt. Takanachi smirked and with his mind, he called his hand back, and the severed limb went to the cut-off wrist, and after a few seconds, his hand was back to normal and he was able to use it again.
Everyone gasped as they gathered together to fight Takanachi. Zoro took his 3 swords and got in a battle stance while Luffy and Nami stood together. Nami held her staff tightly as she raised it at Takanachi while Luffy raised his fists and leered at him with a very angry look on his face.
"What's with this guy?!" Zoro yelled at Luffy and Nami. He turned to Takanachi and yelled out at Takanachi. "Huh?! How come you're able to do that?!"
"It is the Boom Boom Fruit."
Everyone turned their heads to one side of the deck to see Rousse walking down slowly towards Luffy and the others, his sword unsheathed and his two pistols in his pockets at the moment.
"My father and Takanachi here somehow managed to fuse the Gum-Gum Fruit and the Chop-Chop together so that both of the powers may be used at once while minimizing the weaknesses of these two fruits. However, they had decided to fuse it with basic gun-powder and some unknown catalyst, making it so that if you chop off a hand or leg, it could explode itself at will while still being able to fly around and grab onto an opponent, and as you saw for yourself, the hand remains intact." Rousse said as he walked in front of Luffy's ground and readied his sword with one hand while his other hand was at his flintock pistol.
He looked at Luffy over his shoulder and smirked. "Luffy. Zoro. Nami. Let me fight him. He's my brother, and I deserve a chance to hit him on the head at least once before he can kill me."
Zoro and Nami were stunned after finding out he was his brother, but in the end, they nodded their heads and stepped back to give Rousse and Takanachi enough room to fight.
~
Meanwhile...
A star in the sky shined brightly once again as Usopp started his descent back onto the ocean floor. Within a few minutes while the standoff was beginning to develop, he landed onto the ocean floor hard, causing a huge splash. Only Zoro, Nami, and Luffy notice.
When they rushed to the edge of the deck, they all blinked and sighed. It was Usopp clearly knocked out while floating in the water, wailing very quietly for the group to get him out......
"Well...at least he didn't act so cowardly this time." Zoro thought to himself and smirked as he was the first to dive into the ocean and help Usopp back onto the ship.
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Ch.4 Done! Ch.5 Coming Soon Hopefully!
Preview of Ch.5 - The Big Fight between Takanachi and Rousse begins! Meanwhile, Zoro attempts to get Usopp awake while Nami tries to like Luffy again despite the fact that he's a pirate! Will any of the StrawHat Pirates get a chance to fight Takanachi?! Find out next Chapter!
Author's Notes: I'd like to thank everyone for bearing with me for the long-awaited update of Island of the Gum-Gums. It was a rough few weeks as Exams and getting ready for Summer School took up most of my time. Thanks to you all, and I will do my best to get Ch.5 done as soon as possible!
Written by Steven Kunz the Fan Author
Disclaimer: I do not own nor invent One Piece. This excellent manga was written and drawn by Eiichiro Oda.
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While Takanachi paced around Rousse very slowly and making sure each step he took on the rotted deck made that creaking noise to annoy him, Rousse simply stared forward, not really paying attention to Takanachi.
Since he wasn't paying attention to Takanachi, he was obviously not thinking about the situation that was going on. Instead, his thoughts passed onto his mother, his best friend and not-so-obvious crush Jennifer, Luffy and his crew. His thoughts turned to the moment before he went to the Navy about his family's crime history.
Before he can focus even longer on those thoughts, he felt his brother's palm go across his cheek as he slapped him as hard as he can. Rousse simply kept his head to the side when Takanachi had pulled his arm back.
"You know, Rousse...." Takanachi began to speak as he began to pace around the room. "Do you remember our mother?"
At the moment when he mentioned his mother, he perked his heard at Takanachi and said, "Mother? Oh, yes! I remember. What about her?"
"Well....it's time that your father and I told you the truth about what happened to her. It's the least I can do."
Rousse lifted his head at Takanachi as he took a deep breath and explained what happened. "This came as a shock to me too, but what happened to our mother, when she died, was not of natural cause."
The perspiration on his face increased as his heart beated faster, increasing his breathing faster than he thought.
"Wh......what hap...penned?" Rousse nervously asked, knowing what Takanachi was going to say, but he never expected who was the cause.
"Our mother was murdered....by our father." Takanachi said as he took a deep breath. When he was done, he turned around and faced away from Rousse.
Rousse was absolutely stunned when he found out who killed his mother. "M........our mom was killed...by dad...?!"
~
Nami looked at the ship that Rousse had been taken aboard. It was still floating in an idle state since no one had taken control of the ship.
Meanwhile, Zora had continued to examine his swords and make sure he knew what he was getting into while Usopp kept contemplating whether to go on the ship or not, holding his slingshot tightly while pacing back and forth. Luffy was also busy trying to determine how to get onto the ship with his make-shift plan.
"Luffy!" Nami called out after walking to the other side of the deck where there was absolutely no one there.
"Coming!" Luffy yelled back as he walked to the other side of the deck.
When he got there, there was no one there at all. All that was in front of him was the ocean and behind was the back of the room that was used to bring them downstairs into the lower levels of the ship.
"Luffy....." A familiar whisper was heard as a hand creeped out from the shadows of the cabin and beckoned him to come closer.
When he walked over there, he felt the hand stroke his chin for a moment, then without warning, the person's arms wrapped around him and pulled him close while the person kissed his lips very enthusiastically with some passion and gentleness into the kiss.
Luffy immediately got very nervous as he blushed bright red and waited to see who was the person when he or she pulled out of the kiss. When they did, Luffy chuckled and blushed as he moved aside some of the person's short and shining orange hair across from her face and grabbed her cheek.
"Nami...." Luffy whispered before he leaned forward and kissed her lips. Nami blushed brighter than him as she smiled and kissed back, feeling very happy.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds. Before she lost herself in the thrill of the moment, she pushed Luffy away and walked towards the end of the deck, wiping her lip and spitting into the water.
Luffy picked up his hat that he dropped and walked towards Nami, placing a hand on her shoulder. She brushed it aside and whispered Luffy's name in her mind before she finally got the courage to what she wanted to say.
"Luffy.......I.....I do like you. I like you a lot. I like you so much that I want nothing more than to be by your side and kiss you just like I did earlier.....but I can't." Nami said very quietly, making sure no one but Luffy would hear.
"Huh?" Luffy said right back in confusion. He did not know Nami liked him this much. He honestly thought that she would break away from him because of the fact that he's a pirate, but he never expected him to do it in a romantic moment like this. He gathered his courage and asked, "If I may ask, why not?"
"It's because.....you're a pirate, Luffy. Even though you're not the pirates I had imagined, you're still part of that evil group, that same evil group that had taken away someone precious to me, and until I can get 100 Million Berries, I can never be with anyone that will destroy, pillage, and ruin other people's lives and laugh about it...." After she had said all that, Nami bent her head and buried her face in the palm of her hands, crying very softly.
Luffy was stunned by her reasoning. At that moment, Luffy thought that if he quit being a pirate forever, he could be with Nami in the way that she wanted him. However, at the same time, the memories of his mentor, the same memories that were given to him through the straw-hat told him to keep going.
In the end, Luffy walked in front of Nami and placed his hands on her shoulders. She lifted her head as he moved a finger across her cheek, wiping and drying off any of the dried tears. "I do understand why, Nami, and I want you to know that if I had a choice, I would give up being a pirate for you...."
A small smile creeped onto her face as Luffy went on. "Unfortunately, I have a promise to fulfill to Shanks, and a promise is a promise, so I msut continue being a pirate and become the King of Pirates..."
Nami soon began to cry again, but this time, she was smiling as she laid her head onto Luffy's shoulder and cried on it, thinking to herself, "I know I hate pirates....but could I make just one very special exception to one very special person?"
While Nami cried, Luffy simply held her close and thought about wwhat to do now. Immediately, he got an idea.
Pulling away from the hug, Luffy grinned at Nami and said, "Hey! I got an idea on how we can get to the ship!"
Before Nami could answer, Luffy ran forward with her hand held softly, almost dragging her to where everyone is.
Within a few minutes, the plan was ready to be excecuted.
Luffy would have his arms stretched out in opposite directions of eachother. Nami, Zora, and Usopp held on tightly to his arm as he walked back. The plan was for Luffy to grab onto two wooden poles, step back as far as he can, and when he was ready, he would release the grip and go flying into the air. Nami, Usopp, and Zora held onto him tighter as there was a good possibilty they could die from this attempt into being a stowaway on the idle ship. Also, Zoro was to carry the things Rousse had left behind on the beach floor, his sword and his two flintock pistols carried in his box, and give them to him when they arrived the ship.
Zora immediately yelled out as soon as Luffy got onto the beach while still keeping his arms stretched out, "Luffy! What if this doesn't work?!"
Grinning widely again, he said, "If it doesn't, we'll just have to try again and hope we land on the ship!"
When everyone heard that, they all yelled, "WHAT?!!""
Before they could let go, Luffy yelled, "Let's go!!" Immediately, he let go, and was sent flying into the air and amazingly toward the ship with everyone screaming as they held onto Luffy for dear life.
~
Takanachi nodded his head and said, "Well, it wasn't exactly him, but it was carried out by one of the scientists that always used to hang out at his labs. All he did simply was poison our mother's food, the day before she became seriously ill. While she was in the hospital, that same man had also switched the medicine to another type, and as we all know, that was when things...ended..."
Rousse stared at him wide-eyed. Immediately Rousse understood why Takanachi had to be totally under his father's wing and eye. If Takanachi had done anything to prevent his mother's death or if he tried to rebel like Rousse did, he would have been dead before the day was done.
"But........but why?!" Rousse yelled out, wanting not to believe Takanachi's words.
"Our mother was like you. She was sick and tired of being in that family simply because we were too deeply in affairs with other crime familes, corrupt naval officials, and pirates."
When Rousse heard that, he had no choice to believe Takanachi since it now explained everything that he had wanted to hear. However, at that moment as well, he wished he had never been born.
"Now.....under my father's orders..." Takanachi began to chuckle a little, trying his best not to cry as he attempted to regain his evil disposition he had shown earlier. "I am supposed to test our latest fusion of the devil fruit, the Boom-Boom fruit."
"Boom-Boom Fruit?!" Rousse yelled out, lifting his head at the mention of this unknown devil fruit.
"Yeah....." Takanachi said while moving towards the back of the room. Rousee could hear him take something out of a box as he closed it and slid it back into a secret compartment. Walking right in front of Rousse, he showed to him a small piece of fruit with tiny imprints of clouds with swirls in the middle. "This combines the powers of the Gum-Gum Fruit and the Chop-Chop Fruit, and also, we've added a special ingredient of our own. Just simple gun-powder, but the fusion worked well."
Rousse growled loudly as he heard what was next. "The powers of this is incredible! One bite, and you'll most likely be able to stretch as if you've eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit, and if any parts of your body are cut off, it'll be able to move on it's own with one special side-effect. If it can latch onto any person or any object, it can explode itself, usually killing whoever is caught! Best of all, the part that is latched onto the person isn't destroyed most of the time, so it returns to the owner's hand, and if it were destroyed, the body would reproduce that destroyed limb within a matter of a few minutes."
"Usually? You mean the fruit doesn't work all the time?" Rousse literally growled out, "What happened to those who got the other end of that stick?"
"Well....let's just say they've experienced true happiness for one short moment, and now, they're quite content in where they are now....very content." Takanachi said very quietly after hesitating for a few seconds, trying to make himself sound evil, despite his unwillingness to hurt Rousse.
~
Still flying over the ocean, Luffy and the rest of his crew continued to fly over due to him using his Gum-Gum stretching ability to propel himself and his crew towards the ship.
However, Luffy had miscalculated. Instead of flying them towards the deck of the ship, he instead overshot and was heading towards one of the cabins that were on the deck. The rest of the crew, afraid that they would hit the ocean floor instead, let go of Luffy's arms and dropped down to the deck. Nami, however, was the only one who made it to the deck. Zoro managed to catch the edge of the deck while Usopp hung onto his legs.
"AGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Luffy yelled out as he flailed his arms, bringing them back to their original length, as he attempted to cover his face when he would land or crash through the roof of the cabin.
~
Waving the fruit in front of Rousse, he chuckled and said, "Now now, don't be afraid. I've already taken the fruit, and I'm fine. However, I was one of the lucky ones. Will you be the lucky one?"
Rousse squirmed as he tried not to come in contact with the fruit at all. Soon, Takanachi literally stuffed the fruit into his mouth. Rousse wouldn't chew, but Takanachi simply placed both of his hands onto the top of Rousse's head and underneath his jaw, and squeezed them together. The fruit was broken apart in his mouth, but he still wouldn't swallow.
Takanachi's next step was to rub Rousse's neck so that he would be forced to swallow in order to get the itch or sensation out of his throat. However, he never did get a chance to do that, for when he heard Luffy scream from the outside of his cabin, he turned around and was prepared to leave. Unfortunately for him, Luffy had crashed through the roof the cabin and landed right on top of Takanachi, making him close to the point of unconsciousness.
Picking up his hat which he had put on very tightly while he was flying to the ship, he lifted his head and grinned at Rousse. "Hey Rousse! Sorry we took so long, but we were kinda busy on how to get you out of that ship."
Rousse spat the fruit onto the floor and yelled out at Luffy in an extreme tone of anger, "You IDIOT!! Why didn't you get me out when I was by your ship! I knew you weren't asleep!!"
"Well, I wasn't sure that was you, and I wasn't sure that was a friend, but at least we know now!" He yelled out, his face still showing that same wide grin.
Rousse sighed and chuckled. "Well, whatever. Can you get me out of here still?"
"Sure!" Luffy walked to Rousse, untied the ropes, and the two walked out together.
When they walked out to the deck, Nami had helped Zoro up onto the deck, but not before he kicked Usopp off, causing him to grab onto the edge of the deck as well. Luffy ran over to him and helped him up as well.
While everyone was helping eachother, Rousse saw a small dinghy floating in the ocean on one side of the ship and ran over to it as far as he could. When he got to that side of the deck, he gasped and yelled out, "FATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!"
He saw his father rowing the dinghy all by himself. He looked at Rousse and yelled out, "Rousse?! What are you doing here? I thought Takanachi already dealt with you!!"
"What?! No! My friends helped me out!" Rousse yelled back at him.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Takanachi is loyal to me, and he will dispose of you all while I make a quick getaway! I shall go back home and plan my next strategy!!"
As Rousse's father rowed out of there, Rousse continued to yell at him and called to him, but he was too far away for him to hear.
He just simply stood there and waited for him to yell out, but he never did. Soon, Luffy came by with a huge package behind his back. He patted Rousse on the back and said, "It's okay, Rousse. You'll see him again, and when you do, you'll tell him what you really want to say to him."
Remaining silent, Rousse just stared at the ocean. Luffy smiled and opened the package in front of him. When Rousse saw what was inside, he beamed as he said quite loudly, "My Sword and Guns! I thought you forgot about them!"
He picked up his sword and placed the two Flintock Pistols in his pockets, as it was the only place where he could put them. He smiled and said, "Thanks, Luffy!"
"It's no problem, Rousse. I'm just glad you're glad." Luffy replied, then patted Rousse on the shoulder.
"AGH!!!!!!!" Luffy and Rousse turned around to see something quite horrible, especially to Luffy.
It was Nami yelling. From what Luffy had gathered, Takanachi had snuck up behind her and placed a hidden knife by her throat. He used her as a shield as he slowly crawled to a boat. Usopp couldn't do a thing. However, Zoro had stepped aside after he saw Takanachi get up from inside the cabin and dashed at Takanachi, slashing right by him with his 3 swords.
When Zoro appeared to the right of Takanachi, he removed the sword in his mouth with one hand after he had put the other sword in it's sheath. He turned around and waited for something to happen. Takanachi didn't really speak since he fell back from the pain caused from his hand holding the knife being cut off at the wrist.
Nami fell to her knees and gasped for breath. While Zoro helped her up, Takanachi's severed hand began to twitch a little. Soon, it floated in the air and without the others noticing, it floated up and lunged forward at Nami.
Almost no one noticed except Rousse and Luffy. Luffy screamed for Nami to duck as he used his stretching powers to get to Nami as fast as he can. When she turned around, she saw the hand coming towards her, and without enough time to assemble and deflect it with her staff, she screamed and covered her face from the hand.
The hand did latch onto something, but it wasn't Nami. Instead, it was Usopp who had dove in and stopped the hand from getting to her. As the hand latched onto his neck, Usopp screamed as he tried to pry the fingers off his neck. However, he did hear a sound as though something was being burned off or it was sizzling. He looked down at the hand and saw it glowing a faint yellow. When he heard it, in a matter of seconds, the hand literally blew up and sent Usopp flying into the air, screaming as he became a star in the sky.
Everyone blinked as it wasn't what they were expecting. However, they all gasped when they saw the hand where Usopp used to be still intact, but very burnt. Takanachi smirked and with his mind, he called his hand back, and the severed limb went to the cut-off wrist, and after a few seconds, his hand was back to normal and he was able to use it again.
Everyone gasped as they gathered together to fight Takanachi. Zoro took his 3 swords and got in a battle stance while Luffy and Nami stood together. Nami held her staff tightly as she raised it at Takanachi while Luffy raised his fists and leered at him with a very angry look on his face.
"What's with this guy?!" Zoro yelled at Luffy and Nami. He turned to Takanachi and yelled out at Takanachi. "Huh?! How come you're able to do that?!"
"It is the Boom Boom Fruit."
Everyone turned their heads to one side of the deck to see Rousse walking down slowly towards Luffy and the others, his sword unsheathed and his two pistols in his pockets at the moment.
"My father and Takanachi here somehow managed to fuse the Gum-Gum Fruit and the Chop-Chop together so that both of the powers may be used at once while minimizing the weaknesses of these two fruits. However, they had decided to fuse it with basic gun-powder and some unknown catalyst, making it so that if you chop off a hand or leg, it could explode itself at will while still being able to fly around and grab onto an opponent, and as you saw for yourself, the hand remains intact." Rousse said as he walked in front of Luffy's ground and readied his sword with one hand while his other hand was at his flintock pistol.
He looked at Luffy over his shoulder and smirked. "Luffy. Zoro. Nami. Let me fight him. He's my brother, and I deserve a chance to hit him on the head at least once before he can kill me."
Zoro and Nami were stunned after finding out he was his brother, but in the end, they nodded their heads and stepped back to give Rousse and Takanachi enough room to fight.
~
Meanwhile...
A star in the sky shined brightly once again as Usopp started his descent back onto the ocean floor. Within a few minutes while the standoff was beginning to develop, he landed onto the ocean floor hard, causing a huge splash. Only Zoro, Nami, and Luffy notice.
When they rushed to the edge of the deck, they all blinked and sighed. It was Usopp clearly knocked out while floating in the water, wailing very quietly for the group to get him out......
"Well...at least he didn't act so cowardly this time." Zoro thought to himself and smirked as he was the first to dive into the ocean and help Usopp back onto the ship.
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Ch.4 Done! Ch.5 Coming Soon Hopefully!
Preview of Ch.5 - The Big Fight between Takanachi and Rousse begins! Meanwhile, Zoro attempts to get Usopp awake while Nami tries to like Luffy again despite the fact that he's a pirate! Will any of the StrawHat Pirates get a chance to fight Takanachi?! Find out next Chapter!
Author's Notes: I'd like to thank everyone for bearing with me for the long-awaited update of Island of the Gum-Gums. It was a rough few weeks as Exams and getting ready for Summer School took up most of my time. Thanks to you all, and I will do my best to get Ch.5 done as soon as possible!