One Piece - Island of the Gum Gums - Chapter 5
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 Luffy, Nami, and Zoro ran off to pick up Usopp out of the ocean, Rousse and Takanachi stood in their same spots and still facing towards eachother, grimly looking at eachother.
Takanachi's expression changed into a smirk as he said, "Why didn't you let the boy with the straw hat or that infamous bounty hunter Zoro fight me? They, at least, have some skill and are able to defend themselves against me. A normal human wouldn't be able to stand up and face up after one punch!"
Rousse's face also turned into a smirk as he replied back, "Well, I just think it'd be easier if I had weakened you a little and let those guys still the show. At least you'll get yours once Luffy lays his hands on you."
"We'll see about that." Rousse's brother said before his face went back into a serious expression. He tossed the knife he used against Nami and pulled out two long daggers, the blades being about 1 1/2 feet long.
Rousse's face also went serious when he stepped forward and lifted his sword at Takanachi. However, neither of them waited to see who would make a move....
~
"Luffy.....I'm scared." Nami muttered slowly when Luffy and Zoro got back onto the deck and literally hauled Usopp onto the ship. He was knocked by the impact of landing onto the water from such an incredible height, but at least he was okay.
While Zoro attended to waking up Usopp, Luffy walked up to Nami who crawled away slowly from Luffy at first, but soon sat there on the ground as everyone was staring at Rousse and Takanachi beginning to face off against eachother.
"Why are you scared?" Luffy said in a serious voice. He then grinned and chuckled, "After all, I ain't gonna let that guy die! He's a cool guy! Besides, he's my friend, as well as all of you guys."
She blinked and wiped the tears away from her eyes as she leapt at Luffy and wrapped her arms around him. Luffy blushed and blinked as he was hugged and hugged back. He moved his hand through Nami's hair as he kissed her forehead. Nami didn't say anything, but a small smile crept up as she laid her head on Luffy's shoulder and rested for now.
Soon, Usopp woke up as Zoro, Usopp, Nami, and Luffy all turned their heads to the battle that would eventually happen.
~
After staring at eachother for a few minutes, Rousse muttered, "And this little game begins."
Rousse dashed forward with both hands on his sword as he lunged at Takanachi and slashed downward at his head. Takanachi dodged to the right and let his right arm be cut off, not feeling any pain or any blood let out. Rousse immediately remembered the effect of the Boom-Boom Fruit and leapt away. However, instead of blowing up like he thought it would, it floated in the air and headed towards him at a fast speed. Rousse gasped in fear for a second as he quickly bent backwards and thrusted his sword at the hand, stabbing right through the palm. When Rousse opened his eyes, he saw the hand starting to glow bright orange. He grabbed the sword with both hands and swung it at Takanachi, releasing the arm as it flew towards him and exploded as soon as it made contact.
Everyone on the deck looked at Rousse as he took a deep breath and just stared at him.
Zoro and Usopp stood there with a look of awe on their face while Luffy and Nami held eachother tightly, not sure at what to do. Nami sat there on the floor with an expression of fear in her eyes. Luffy, however, yelled out at Rousse. "AWESOME! That was cool!"
Rousse turned around, confident that he had finished off Takanachi and smiled at Luffy. However, he gasped in pain as he felt two long daggers stab him from behind and twist around in his stomach. When they were pulled out, he fell to his knees, but is lifted off the ground and feels his life waning away.
"...Gum Pistol!"
Takanachi looks towards Luffy and sees his fist flailing at him. Without any time to react, he takes the punch head-on and is sent flying towards the end of the deck. Luffy's fist is pulled back to show him standing here with an insanely mad expression on his face.
"HEY! COPYCAT!" He yelled out. "Why don't you fight fair and like a man?!"
Zoro dragged Usopp towards the battlefield as he got one of his swords and got into battle position as they surrounded Takanachi. As he got up, he looked at the Straw-Hat Pirates and smirked as he got up and looked at Luffy. "What a punch! I didn't expect a kid like you to hit that hard. However...."
Everyone blinked as he finished his sentence. ".....you will not win this battle! I can take more than you think!"
Nami looked toward Luffy as he got into battle position and faced against Takanachi. She held onto Rousse and attempted to tend to his wounds.
She placed a hand on the stab wounds and heard Rousse groan in pain. However, there was no more blood coming out of the stab wounds. She blinked as she wondered why he wasn't bleeding anymore. When she turned to look at his face and saw that his eyes were closed and his mouth was not moving.
She leaned forward and waited to see if there was any sign of him breathing, and there wasn't. Nami immediately gasped in horror as she thought to herself, "Oh no! He's dying!!"
She immediately placed his hands on his face as she leaned forward, hesitated a moment, and attempted to resuscitate him, hoping he'll come back to life.
~
When Nami was breathing into him, Rousse's mind drifted away from his body towards an empty void as his mind began to flash back into his past. It didn't look into his entire past, but instead, he remembered the 1st moment where he met Jennifer.
In his hometown, when Rousse was 5 years old, he was put in the advanced kindergarden class meant for gifted and bright students. However, Rousse was only allowed in this school due to his family's influence. When he was placed into the bright and colorful classroom, dressed in a tiny black sport coat, a white dress shirt, a black tie, and black pants, he turned around and ran around like a baby. However, the kids there ignored him because they all felt he was not acting like someone of his status.
Near the end of the day, he sat in a corner, only moving when the teacher called him. When the teacher did call him over this time, he was sat down in a small table with a young girl about his age dressed in a simple sweatshirt and jeans.
"Er.....hello?" She said to Rousse, who just sat there brooding. When he lifted his head to look at her, he gasped in surprise as he looked into her eyes, thinking, "She's..............pretty....."
She blinked as Rousse shook his head and said to her, "Heylo." with a smile. When she smiled back, Rousse raised his hand and said, "My name is Rousse Le-Onne. What's yours?"
She took his hand in hers and shook it, replying, "My name is Jennifer Lariant."
Rouuse smiled and so did she as they shook hands for nearly more than a minute.
Another image soon entered his mind.
When Rousse was 10, he sat down at the breakfast table and ate a regular breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns.
He was just almost done when someone set down a small glass of a white and brownish liquid. Rousse looked up and saw it was his father with a gentle smile on his face. Rousse blinked since he knew his father would hardly smile at him as he asked, "Dad, what's this?"
His father said, "It's a special drink I made myself just for you. It will make your body heal itself much faster than a normal human would, it will make you stronger, and it will keep you young for a long time."
Rousse's eyes widened at the idea of living longer and becoming stronger. He immediately took the drink and drank it all in one gulp. When he set the glass down and swallowed the drink, he nearly choked at the awful taste. He yelled out to his father, "Dad! That tasted awful!"
He chuckled and said, "Well, if the medicine tastes bad, it obviously must be good for you, right?"
Rousse didn't understood exactly what he said and nodded reluctantly. As his father walked away, he thought to himself, "This should see if the testing works, and if he dies.....at least it will rid me of that nuisance of a son..."
In a few weeks after that incident, Rousse did feel himself to be stronger and whenever he felt sick at times, it was only for an instant as the medicine did heal his body. Whenever his father saw Rousse walking around more energetic than usual, he always had a frown because he had secretly anticipated the death of Rousse.
Later that day, he went into his father's room and looked around to find his father in the dark. When he found nothing, he turned around and headed out, but not before bumping into a small table and knocking down a single piece of paper. Rousse picked it up and read what was on there.
"Rousse has taken the liquid suppliment of the Heal-Heal Fruit and so far, the predicted results are starting to appear with none of the bad symptons. Increased Body Regeneration, Increased Virus Protection, Increased Energy Output, and the Aging Process for Rousse seems to have slowed down nearly indefinately. At this point, Rousse is predicted to look as he is 17 or 18 years of age before the aging process slows down. After that, his true age may be impossible to determine. This was an unintended side-effect, but at least the possibilities of Rousse dying because of the suppliment is no longer a factor in this. As the years go by, I hope that it will be possible to convert it from the liquid suppliment to the fruit itself."
Rousse, thinking nothing of this sicne he was only ten years old, simply put the piece of paper back to where it originally was and left.
Soon, Rousse felt his body coming back to life, but before he did, he saw another set of images. He remember seeing Luffy attacking the huge sea creature at the start of his journey, his fight with Luffy, his small talk with Nami, and standing by Luffy with his package of weapons and items a few moments ago on that same ship.
~
Nami lifted her head when she felt Rousse's own breath and looked at him with a concerned gaze in her eyes.
Soon, Rousse opened his eyes and looked at Nami. She smiled as she sat upwards and helped him sit up. With an arm around his shoulder, she looked at him and said, "Are you okay?"
Rousse, still breathing heavily, looked at Nami and smiled. "Yeah...."
"AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Usopp seemed to scream out as he was thrown across the deck and landed right next to Nami and Rousse. Both of them looked ahead and saw the fight happening.
~
Luffy and Zoro turned their heads quickly towards the wounded and unable to fight, Nami, Usopp, and Rousse, and growled back at Takanachi. "HEY! Why did you attack when he wasn't ready?!"
Takanachi raised his hand and quickly thought of the consequences that would happen. He did use his stretching powers to slap Usopp all the way over to where the injured were while he was loading his slingshot with a very obvious nervousness that could be felt. He turned to the group, held both daggers tightly, and said very quietly so that Luffy and Zoro can hear, "I don't care anymore. I honestly do not care about you, your friends' welfare, nor my own. My father had changed me too much. "
The two blinked as eh continued on with his story, "When I was young, I was a happy kid, and my father seemed fairly normal because he did hug me when I was younger and tell me he loved me. However, when he managed to get funding to those science projects of creating all kinds of medicines for all kinds of people, he changed. He became obsessed with them and stopped coming home. When he did come home finally after half a year passed, he was a changed man who also had brought him a young boy he had 'adopted.' That young boy was Rousse. Before I even had a chance to talk to him, he said that if I weren't mean and rude to him, he would have killed me and my mom. I had no choice, so I tortured him like that."
Luffy and Zoro blinked. They were skeptical about what Takanachi was saying, but they also felt he was telling the truth due to the sincerity in his voice. He continued on.
"He became so obsessed with his work that whenever he wasn't yelling at us or our mom, he was in his lab, studying on those medicines and new formulas he had happened to come across while making them. He was so obsessed that, as you already know, tested some of his products on us. I don't know what sort of formula he gave Rousse, but he gave me that dreaded Boom-Boom fruit.....
When Takanachi finished his story, he began to cross his arms, and he used his stretching powers to swing both of his arms in a spiral. With his daggers pointed at Zoro and Luffy, when his arms were at an equal distance, they went their seperate directions as he was ready to slash ZOro and Luffy.
While Luffy leapt upward and letting the dagger follow him, Zoro got one sword out, pointed it towards the side, and let the dagger connect with the flat of the blade. When ZOro felt no more friction against the blade, he drew his other sword with his free hand and slashes downward at his wrist, cutting it offf at the ground. Quickly, he thrusts his blade at the middle of his hand and dives for cover. Quickly, the hand explodes as Zoro quickly gets up on his feet, takes his sword that impaled Takanachi's hand, and dashes forward. Letting his arms go back, he prepares his favorite technique as he lands on the groundand lunges right at Takanachi. Swinging forward and dashing through Takanachi, he yells out, "ONI GIRI!!!!"
While all of this was going on, Luffy saw the hand coming up towards him. He looked down and smirked at the dagger pointing at him. He shifted his body so that he would be falling down straight towards the ship, reached forward, and placed his fingertips on the sides of the blades, and broke off part of the blade using his strength. Letting the blade drop to the ground, Luffy grabbed onto Takanachi's hand, rotated his other free arm, and thrusted it forward at his face, executing his Gum Gum Pistol technique right at his face. However, before he could even do that, he saw Zoro use his 'Oni Giri' technique on Takanachi, and pulled his arm back.
When Zoro dashed right through him, his arms had fallen off and there were many scratches on his face and body. The arm that attacked Zoro simply fell to the floor just laid there while the arm that attacked Luffy had suddenly wrapped around him and sent him flying to the ground. When he had landed on the ground, there was a loud explosion which completely engulfed Luffy.
Usopp, Rousse, and Nami covered their faces from the debris caused by the explosion and cringed at the possible sight of Luffy being hurt. Nami lifted her head upwards and yelled out, "Luffy!!!!!!!!!" as she had to look away from the debris again.
Zoro turned around and saw Luffy in the middle of that explosion. Without enough time to make a quick moment of concern, he felt something grab onto his shirt tightly. He looked down and saw the hand which he had severed and growled as he attempted to get it off. However, he couldn't do it quickly enough, as the explosion soon covered his body and sent him flying away towards the injured area.
Both the explosion's debris had cleared up as Takanachi stood tall and proud. However, he had a small expression of pain as the 'Oni Giri' technique as it had damaged him internally. He coughed up a little bit of blood as he said, "Ha! Your light-hearted sword play can't even damage my rubber hide!"
Zoro slowly got up and looked up. The edges of his clothes had been charred as his skin was covered in soot and dust. He said very quietly, "Damnit......that hurt......and I can't get up..."
"Don't worry, Zoro! You go ahead and get your rest! I'll take it from here!"
Everyone turned, stunned at where the voice came from. Soon, the rest of the soot and dust cleared away as Luffy's silouhette and body began to appear. He looked as if he was hunched over something, protecting something. He stood up and wiped away all the stoof on his clothes and skin. He loosened the grip on his stomach as he revealed his precious straw-hat. When the explosion happened, he had protected his hat from the explosion by quickly unwrapping the stretched arm that was wrapped around him so tightly. When he did that, he pressed the hat against his chest and stomach to protect it from burning up in the explosion.
He placed the hat on his head and grinned at Nami and the others. "I'm fine now! It'll take more than someone's arm blowing up like that to kill me!"
He walked toward Takanachi as Nami just stared at him with a soft smile on her face. Rousse, however, had other intentiions. He attempted to stand up on his feet when he was quickly brought to his feet by the pain in the stomach. Nami immediately helped him sit back down and said to him, "Hey! Don't hurt yourself like that! It won't do you any good to kill yourself over something as silly as a family feud!"
Rousse breathed heavily as he said, "Nami, look at my stomach."
She blinked as she looked down at his stomach and gasped. The stomach wound had already stopped bleeding, and flesh was starting to form where his stomach was punctured. She looked at him with a cold sweat and said very nervously, "Bu......but how?"
Rousse smirked with a painful expression on his face. "Maybe.....maybe someday, I'll tell you later, if we meet again after this and if we survive this."
With a concerned look on her face, Nami and Rousse faced the battle going on as Luffy and Takanachi faced off against eachother.
"Grah!!!" Luffy yelled out as he leapt forward and lunged at Takanachi. He swung his fist forward at him, but he just simply dodged by side-stepping to the left. Luffy, however, was prepared for that and when he missed, he thrusted his palms at the deck and swung his leg upward at Takanachi's back. Immediately, he was pushed forward as he tripped forward, but turned around to see Luffy bounce off the floor and land right on his shoulders, bringing him down as he got back on his feet. When Luffy got a quick breath, he faced Takanachi, grabbed his shirt, and begin to pummel him as hard as he can. Takanachi merely took the blows as he did feel himself becoming even more and more hurt. He quickly picked him up, and tossed him towards the edge of the deck. When he did that, a barrel of gunpowder was knocked away onto the ground and the top opened up, spilling gunpowder all over the deck.
Takanachi had enough of this as he finally picked up his dagger. Ignoring the gunpowder, he swung across the deck and felt something land against the blade of the dagger. He blinked as he looked at where the dagger had hit, and he had scratched against a piece of metal, which caused a few tiny sparks, The sparks landed against the gunpowder, and it ended up igniting the gunpowder in a huge explosion.....
~
Soon, the ship had caught on fire. The entire deck was burning, save the middle area, where the fight was taking place. Usopp had bravely dived to save Zoro from the flames while Nami did the same for Rousse. When they all opened their eyes, they were stunned by the raging fires that would soon reach the center of the deck. However, Luffy and Takanachi were unfased. They were now simply staring off at eachother.
Rousse, now realizing what he needs to do, picks up his samurai sword, and gets up, ignoring the pain again. Nami noticed and pulled on his arm, begging him to stay down since he was still wounded. However, Rousse smirked as he patted her head and said, "Don't worry. I'll be fine."
Rousse walked over to Luffy where he placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "You did well, but I'll take it from here."
Luffy turned around and said at him, "Wha?! But you're still hurt from that dirty pool he did on you and.......wha?!"
Luffy saw the wounded was nearly healed. The punctured hole had already healed with only a few red marks on the wound, which still has sensitive skin. He looked and said with another grin, "I don't know how you did that, but that's great! I'm glad you're gonna fight him! This guy is totally weak!"
He smirked as he said at Luffy, "Heh. Well, you do have quite a bit of experience with those stretching abilities, so it's easy for you.. I, as a pretty normal guy, have a lot of work ahead of me."
Luffy grinned back and said, "Well, you have fun! I gotta get everyone off the ship!"
"I'll definately have fun when I fight this guy."
Luffy walked away from the battlefield and headed toward the injured area. Nami looked at him and said with a very angry look in her eyes, "LUFFY! Why are you leaving?! Rousse can barely stand up, and you were pummeling the snot of that guy! Why are you gonna let him get killed?!"
Immediately, Luffy grinned at Nami again and said, "Well, I know that Taka guy is totally weak, so it should be easy for Rousse to handle him! Besides, if he were to get hurt, you know I'd go and save him right then and there!"
Nami blinked, but couldn't help at smile at him while he smiled bakc at her. Before she could say anything in reply, there was a huge explosion as part of the south and north deck began to fall apart. Immediately, Luffy yelled at the gang to "Get out of here! We gotta get on a lifeboat and sail back to our ship!"
Everyone agreed as Luffy, Nami, and with the help of Usopp, Zoro all ran towards the side of the center deck, where there were two small lifeboats on one side of the ship. Luffy and Nami got on one boat while Zoro and Usopp got on the other. Using one of Zoro's swords, Luffy cut away at the rope holding the boats and braced for impact as hthe boats fell down onto the water. When they landed on the water, the two boats began to float away with the help of the pirates peddling their way out of the ship's explosions.
Rousse looked toward the boats as he raised his sword again and said, "Well, I'm fine again! So.....why don't we finish this fight right now?!"
Takanachi growled as he said, "Well.......seeing as you're willing to kill yourself....and since I can't stand a chance against the guy with the straw-hat, it'll be a pleasure to kill you!"
Both of them smirked as they stared off against eachother.Rousse thought to himself that he would finish off his brother and destroy the island afterwards. However, Takanachi was thinking something totally different.
"Rousse............................I'm sorry...sorry for hurting you all those years.....forgive me......"
~
Nami looked away at the ship which was still ablaze. She whispered to Luffy who was right by her side. "I hope Rousse is okay..."
Luffy scooted up closer to Nami and placed his hand atop hers. "He'll be okay. I could sense his desire to leave and his willingness to conquer his past. I know a guy like that won't be willing to die until he's ready."
Nami blushed at those words and his touch, but smiled as she scooted closer against Luffy's chest and sat down real close to him, cuddling with him. With him, she felt as if his own words accurately portrayed the future, erasing all of her doubts. The two of them just spent the tiny peaceful moment they had together and stared at the stars......
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Ch.5 Finished. Ch.6 hopefully coming soon this year. XD I'm just kidding
Ch.6 is basically the Final Chapter! It's one big fight as Rousse and Takanachi settle their inner differences through their weapons and strength! Also, Nami and Luffy get together their emotions and figure out what to do after this small adventure!
I thank you all for being very patient with me. I have been quite busy with life. Yes, I have a life outside the internet. XD NEway, I hope that Ch.6 will be done soon. I will hope you guys bear with me as I rush through the ficcy and finish this so that I can work on my other projects without any guilt. XP Thank you all very much for reading this and keeping up. I promise you the 6th chapter will be sorta okay. XD
Thank you! See ya. ^^
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 Luffy, Nami, and Zoro ran off to pick up Usopp out of the ocean, Rousse and Takanachi stood in their same spots and still facing towards eachother, grimly looking at eachother.
Takanachi's expression changed into a smirk as he said, "Why didn't you let the boy with the straw hat or that infamous bounty hunter Zoro fight me? They, at least, have some skill and are able to defend themselves against me. A normal human wouldn't be able to stand up and face up after one punch!"
Rousse's face also turned into a smirk as he replied back, "Well, I just think it'd be easier if I had weakened you a little and let those guys still the show. At least you'll get yours once Luffy lays his hands on you."
"We'll see about that." Rousse's brother said before his face went back into a serious expression. He tossed the knife he used against Nami and pulled out two long daggers, the blades being about 1 1/2 feet long.
Rousse's face also went serious when he stepped forward and lifted his sword at Takanachi. However, neither of them waited to see who would make a move....
~
"Luffy.....I'm scared." Nami muttered slowly when Luffy and Zoro got back onto the deck and literally hauled Usopp onto the ship. He was knocked by the impact of landing onto the water from such an incredible height, but at least he was okay.
While Zoro attended to waking up Usopp, Luffy walked up to Nami who crawled away slowly from Luffy at first, but soon sat there on the ground as everyone was staring at Rousse and Takanachi beginning to face off against eachother.
"Why are you scared?" Luffy said in a serious voice. He then grinned and chuckled, "After all, I ain't gonna let that guy die! He's a cool guy! Besides, he's my friend, as well as all of you guys."
She blinked and wiped the tears away from her eyes as she leapt at Luffy and wrapped her arms around him. Luffy blushed and blinked as he was hugged and hugged back. He moved his hand through Nami's hair as he kissed her forehead. Nami didn't say anything, but a small smile crept up as she laid her head on Luffy's shoulder and rested for now.
Soon, Usopp woke up as Zoro, Usopp, Nami, and Luffy all turned their heads to the battle that would eventually happen.
~
After staring at eachother for a few minutes, Rousse muttered, "And this little game begins."
Rousse dashed forward with both hands on his sword as he lunged at Takanachi and slashed downward at his head. Takanachi dodged to the right and let his right arm be cut off, not feeling any pain or any blood let out. Rousse immediately remembered the effect of the Boom-Boom Fruit and leapt away. However, instead of blowing up like he thought it would, it floated in the air and headed towards him at a fast speed. Rousse gasped in fear for a second as he quickly bent backwards and thrusted his sword at the hand, stabbing right through the palm. When Rousse opened his eyes, he saw the hand starting to glow bright orange. He grabbed the sword with both hands and swung it at Takanachi, releasing the arm as it flew towards him and exploded as soon as it made contact.
Everyone on the deck looked at Rousse as he took a deep breath and just stared at him.
Zoro and Usopp stood there with a look of awe on their face while Luffy and Nami held eachother tightly, not sure at what to do. Nami sat there on the floor with an expression of fear in her eyes. Luffy, however, yelled out at Rousse. "AWESOME! That was cool!"
Rousse turned around, confident that he had finished off Takanachi and smiled at Luffy. However, he gasped in pain as he felt two long daggers stab him from behind and twist around in his stomach. When they were pulled out, he fell to his knees, but is lifted off the ground and feels his life waning away.
"...Gum Pistol!"
Takanachi looks towards Luffy and sees his fist flailing at him. Without any time to react, he takes the punch head-on and is sent flying towards the end of the deck. Luffy's fist is pulled back to show him standing here with an insanely mad expression on his face.
"HEY! COPYCAT!" He yelled out. "Why don't you fight fair and like a man?!"
Zoro dragged Usopp towards the battlefield as he got one of his swords and got into battle position as they surrounded Takanachi. As he got up, he looked at the Straw-Hat Pirates and smirked as he got up and looked at Luffy. "What a punch! I didn't expect a kid like you to hit that hard. However...."
Everyone blinked as he finished his sentence. ".....you will not win this battle! I can take more than you think!"
Nami looked toward Luffy as he got into battle position and faced against Takanachi. She held onto Rousse and attempted to tend to his wounds.
She placed a hand on the stab wounds and heard Rousse groan in pain. However, there was no more blood coming out of the stab wounds. She blinked as she wondered why he wasn't bleeding anymore. When she turned to look at his face and saw that his eyes were closed and his mouth was not moving.
She leaned forward and waited to see if there was any sign of him breathing, and there wasn't. Nami immediately gasped in horror as she thought to herself, "Oh no! He's dying!!"
She immediately placed his hands on his face as she leaned forward, hesitated a moment, and attempted to resuscitate him, hoping he'll come back to life.
~
When Nami was breathing into him, Rousse's mind drifted away from his body towards an empty void as his mind began to flash back into his past. It didn't look into his entire past, but instead, he remembered the 1st moment where he met Jennifer.
In his hometown, when Rousse was 5 years old, he was put in the advanced kindergarden class meant for gifted and bright students. However, Rousse was only allowed in this school due to his family's influence. When he was placed into the bright and colorful classroom, dressed in a tiny black sport coat, a white dress shirt, a black tie, and black pants, he turned around and ran around like a baby. However, the kids there ignored him because they all felt he was not acting like someone of his status.
Near the end of the day, he sat in a corner, only moving when the teacher called him. When the teacher did call him over this time, he was sat down in a small table with a young girl about his age dressed in a simple sweatshirt and jeans.
"Er.....hello?" She said to Rousse, who just sat there brooding. When he lifted his head to look at her, he gasped in surprise as he looked into her eyes, thinking, "She's..............pretty....."
She blinked as Rousse shook his head and said to her, "Heylo." with a smile. When she smiled back, Rousse raised his hand and said, "My name is Rousse Le-Onne. What's yours?"
She took his hand in hers and shook it, replying, "My name is Jennifer Lariant."
Rouuse smiled and so did she as they shook hands for nearly more than a minute.
Another image soon entered his mind.
When Rousse was 10, he sat down at the breakfast table and ate a regular breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns.
He was just almost done when someone set down a small glass of a white and brownish liquid. Rousse looked up and saw it was his father with a gentle smile on his face. Rousse blinked since he knew his father would hardly smile at him as he asked, "Dad, what's this?"
His father said, "It's a special drink I made myself just for you. It will make your body heal itself much faster than a normal human would, it will make you stronger, and it will keep you young for a long time."
Rousse's eyes widened at the idea of living longer and becoming stronger. He immediately took the drink and drank it all in one gulp. When he set the glass down and swallowed the drink, he nearly choked at the awful taste. He yelled out to his father, "Dad! That tasted awful!"
He chuckled and said, "Well, if the medicine tastes bad, it obviously must be good for you, right?"
Rousse didn't understood exactly what he said and nodded reluctantly. As his father walked away, he thought to himself, "This should see if the testing works, and if he dies.....at least it will rid me of that nuisance of a son..."
In a few weeks after that incident, Rousse did feel himself to be stronger and whenever he felt sick at times, it was only for an instant as the medicine did heal his body. Whenever his father saw Rousse walking around more energetic than usual, he always had a frown because he had secretly anticipated the death of Rousse.
Later that day, he went into his father's room and looked around to find his father in the dark. When he found nothing, he turned around and headed out, but not before bumping into a small table and knocking down a single piece of paper. Rousse picked it up and read what was on there.
"Rousse has taken the liquid suppliment of the Heal-Heal Fruit and so far, the predicted results are starting to appear with none of the bad symptons. Increased Body Regeneration, Increased Virus Protection, Increased Energy Output, and the Aging Process for Rousse seems to have slowed down nearly indefinately. At this point, Rousse is predicted to look as he is 17 or 18 years of age before the aging process slows down. After that, his true age may be impossible to determine. This was an unintended side-effect, but at least the possibilities of Rousse dying because of the suppliment is no longer a factor in this. As the years go by, I hope that it will be possible to convert it from the liquid suppliment to the fruit itself."
Rousse, thinking nothing of this sicne he was only ten years old, simply put the piece of paper back to where it originally was and left.
Soon, Rousse felt his body coming back to life, but before he did, he saw another set of images. He remember seeing Luffy attacking the huge sea creature at the start of his journey, his fight with Luffy, his small talk with Nami, and standing by Luffy with his package of weapons and items a few moments ago on that same ship.
~
Nami lifted her head when she felt Rousse's own breath and looked at him with a concerned gaze in her eyes.
Soon, Rousse opened his eyes and looked at Nami. She smiled as she sat upwards and helped him sit up. With an arm around his shoulder, she looked at him and said, "Are you okay?"
Rousse, still breathing heavily, looked at Nami and smiled. "Yeah...."
"AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Usopp seemed to scream out as he was thrown across the deck and landed right next to Nami and Rousse. Both of them looked ahead and saw the fight happening.
~
Luffy and Zoro turned their heads quickly towards the wounded and unable to fight, Nami, Usopp, and Rousse, and growled back at Takanachi. "HEY! Why did you attack when he wasn't ready?!"
Takanachi raised his hand and quickly thought of the consequences that would happen. He did use his stretching powers to slap Usopp all the way over to where the injured were while he was loading his slingshot with a very obvious nervousness that could be felt. He turned to the group, held both daggers tightly, and said very quietly so that Luffy and Zoro can hear, "I don't care anymore. I honestly do not care about you, your friends' welfare, nor my own. My father had changed me too much. "
The two blinked as eh continued on with his story, "When I was young, I was a happy kid, and my father seemed fairly normal because he did hug me when I was younger and tell me he loved me. However, when he managed to get funding to those science projects of creating all kinds of medicines for all kinds of people, he changed. He became obsessed with them and stopped coming home. When he did come home finally after half a year passed, he was a changed man who also had brought him a young boy he had 'adopted.' That young boy was Rousse. Before I even had a chance to talk to him, he said that if I weren't mean and rude to him, he would have killed me and my mom. I had no choice, so I tortured him like that."
Luffy and Zoro blinked. They were skeptical about what Takanachi was saying, but they also felt he was telling the truth due to the sincerity in his voice. He continued on.
"He became so obsessed with his work that whenever he wasn't yelling at us or our mom, he was in his lab, studying on those medicines and new formulas he had happened to come across while making them. He was so obsessed that, as you already know, tested some of his products on us. I don't know what sort of formula he gave Rousse, but he gave me that dreaded Boom-Boom fruit.....
When Takanachi finished his story, he began to cross his arms, and he used his stretching powers to swing both of his arms in a spiral. With his daggers pointed at Zoro and Luffy, when his arms were at an equal distance, they went their seperate directions as he was ready to slash ZOro and Luffy.
While Luffy leapt upward and letting the dagger follow him, Zoro got one sword out, pointed it towards the side, and let the dagger connect with the flat of the blade. When ZOro felt no more friction against the blade, he drew his other sword with his free hand and slashes downward at his wrist, cutting it offf at the ground. Quickly, he thrusts his blade at the middle of his hand and dives for cover. Quickly, the hand explodes as Zoro quickly gets up on his feet, takes his sword that impaled Takanachi's hand, and dashes forward. Letting his arms go back, he prepares his favorite technique as he lands on the groundand lunges right at Takanachi. Swinging forward and dashing through Takanachi, he yells out, "ONI GIRI!!!!"
While all of this was going on, Luffy saw the hand coming up towards him. He looked down and smirked at the dagger pointing at him. He shifted his body so that he would be falling down straight towards the ship, reached forward, and placed his fingertips on the sides of the blades, and broke off part of the blade using his strength. Letting the blade drop to the ground, Luffy grabbed onto Takanachi's hand, rotated his other free arm, and thrusted it forward at his face, executing his Gum Gum Pistol technique right at his face. However, before he could even do that, he saw Zoro use his 'Oni Giri' technique on Takanachi, and pulled his arm back.
When Zoro dashed right through him, his arms had fallen off and there were many scratches on his face and body. The arm that attacked Zoro simply fell to the floor just laid there while the arm that attacked Luffy had suddenly wrapped around him and sent him flying to the ground. When he had landed on the ground, there was a loud explosion which completely engulfed Luffy.
Usopp, Rousse, and Nami covered their faces from the debris caused by the explosion and cringed at the possible sight of Luffy being hurt. Nami lifted her head upwards and yelled out, "Luffy!!!!!!!!!" as she had to look away from the debris again.
Zoro turned around and saw Luffy in the middle of that explosion. Without enough time to make a quick moment of concern, he felt something grab onto his shirt tightly. He looked down and saw the hand which he had severed and growled as he attempted to get it off. However, he couldn't do it quickly enough, as the explosion soon covered his body and sent him flying away towards the injured area.
Both the explosion's debris had cleared up as Takanachi stood tall and proud. However, he had a small expression of pain as the 'Oni Giri' technique as it had damaged him internally. He coughed up a little bit of blood as he said, "Ha! Your light-hearted sword play can't even damage my rubber hide!"
Zoro slowly got up and looked up. The edges of his clothes had been charred as his skin was covered in soot and dust. He said very quietly, "Damnit......that hurt......and I can't get up..."
"Don't worry, Zoro! You go ahead and get your rest! I'll take it from here!"
Everyone turned, stunned at where the voice came from. Soon, the rest of the soot and dust cleared away as Luffy's silouhette and body began to appear. He looked as if he was hunched over something, protecting something. He stood up and wiped away all the stoof on his clothes and skin. He loosened the grip on his stomach as he revealed his precious straw-hat. When the explosion happened, he had protected his hat from the explosion by quickly unwrapping the stretched arm that was wrapped around him so tightly. When he did that, he pressed the hat against his chest and stomach to protect it from burning up in the explosion.
He placed the hat on his head and grinned at Nami and the others. "I'm fine now! It'll take more than someone's arm blowing up like that to kill me!"
He walked toward Takanachi as Nami just stared at him with a soft smile on her face. Rousse, however, had other intentiions. He attempted to stand up on his feet when he was quickly brought to his feet by the pain in the stomach. Nami immediately helped him sit back down and said to him, "Hey! Don't hurt yourself like that! It won't do you any good to kill yourself over something as silly as a family feud!"
Rousse breathed heavily as he said, "Nami, look at my stomach."
She blinked as she looked down at his stomach and gasped. The stomach wound had already stopped bleeding, and flesh was starting to form where his stomach was punctured. She looked at him with a cold sweat and said very nervously, "Bu......but how?"
Rousse smirked with a painful expression on his face. "Maybe.....maybe someday, I'll tell you later, if we meet again after this and if we survive this."
With a concerned look on her face, Nami and Rousse faced the battle going on as Luffy and Takanachi faced off against eachother.
"Grah!!!" Luffy yelled out as he leapt forward and lunged at Takanachi. He swung his fist forward at him, but he just simply dodged by side-stepping to the left. Luffy, however, was prepared for that and when he missed, he thrusted his palms at the deck and swung his leg upward at Takanachi's back. Immediately, he was pushed forward as he tripped forward, but turned around to see Luffy bounce off the floor and land right on his shoulders, bringing him down as he got back on his feet. When Luffy got a quick breath, he faced Takanachi, grabbed his shirt, and begin to pummel him as hard as he can. Takanachi merely took the blows as he did feel himself becoming even more and more hurt. He quickly picked him up, and tossed him towards the edge of the deck. When he did that, a barrel of gunpowder was knocked away onto the ground and the top opened up, spilling gunpowder all over the deck.
Takanachi had enough of this as he finally picked up his dagger. Ignoring the gunpowder, he swung across the deck and felt something land against the blade of the dagger. He blinked as he looked at where the dagger had hit, and he had scratched against a piece of metal, which caused a few tiny sparks, The sparks landed against the gunpowder, and it ended up igniting the gunpowder in a huge explosion.....
~
Soon, the ship had caught on fire. The entire deck was burning, save the middle area, where the fight was taking place. Usopp had bravely dived to save Zoro from the flames while Nami did the same for Rousse. When they all opened their eyes, they were stunned by the raging fires that would soon reach the center of the deck. However, Luffy and Takanachi were unfased. They were now simply staring off at eachother.
Rousse, now realizing what he needs to do, picks up his samurai sword, and gets up, ignoring the pain again. Nami noticed and pulled on his arm, begging him to stay down since he was still wounded. However, Rousse smirked as he patted her head and said, "Don't worry. I'll be fine."
Rousse walked over to Luffy where he placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "You did well, but I'll take it from here."
Luffy turned around and said at him, "Wha?! But you're still hurt from that dirty pool he did on you and.......wha?!"
Luffy saw the wounded was nearly healed. The punctured hole had already healed with only a few red marks on the wound, which still has sensitive skin. He looked and said with another grin, "I don't know how you did that, but that's great! I'm glad you're gonna fight him! This guy is totally weak!"
He smirked as he said at Luffy, "Heh. Well, you do have quite a bit of experience with those stretching abilities, so it's easy for you.. I, as a pretty normal guy, have a lot of work ahead of me."
Luffy grinned back and said, "Well, you have fun! I gotta get everyone off the ship!"
"I'll definately have fun when I fight this guy."
Luffy walked away from the battlefield and headed toward the injured area. Nami looked at him and said with a very angry look in her eyes, "LUFFY! Why are you leaving?! Rousse can barely stand up, and you were pummeling the snot of that guy! Why are you gonna let him get killed?!"
Immediately, Luffy grinned at Nami again and said, "Well, I know that Taka guy is totally weak, so it should be easy for Rousse to handle him! Besides, if he were to get hurt, you know I'd go and save him right then and there!"
Nami blinked, but couldn't help at smile at him while he smiled bakc at her. Before she could say anything in reply, there was a huge explosion as part of the south and north deck began to fall apart. Immediately, Luffy yelled at the gang to "Get out of here! We gotta get on a lifeboat and sail back to our ship!"
Everyone agreed as Luffy, Nami, and with the help of Usopp, Zoro all ran towards the side of the center deck, where there were two small lifeboats on one side of the ship. Luffy and Nami got on one boat while Zoro and Usopp got on the other. Using one of Zoro's swords, Luffy cut away at the rope holding the boats and braced for impact as hthe boats fell down onto the water. When they landed on the water, the two boats began to float away with the help of the pirates peddling their way out of the ship's explosions.
Rousse looked toward the boats as he raised his sword again and said, "Well, I'm fine again! So.....why don't we finish this fight right now?!"
Takanachi growled as he said, "Well.......seeing as you're willing to kill yourself....and since I can't stand a chance against the guy with the straw-hat, it'll be a pleasure to kill you!"
Both of them smirked as they stared off against eachother.Rousse thought to himself that he would finish off his brother and destroy the island afterwards. However, Takanachi was thinking something totally different.
"Rousse............................I'm sorry...sorry for hurting you all those years.....forgive me......"
~
Nami looked away at the ship which was still ablaze. She whispered to Luffy who was right by her side. "I hope Rousse is okay..."
Luffy scooted up closer to Nami and placed his hand atop hers. "He'll be okay. I could sense his desire to leave and his willingness to conquer his past. I know a guy like that won't be willing to die until he's ready."
Nami blushed at those words and his touch, but smiled as she scooted closer against Luffy's chest and sat down real close to him, cuddling with him. With him, she felt as if his own words accurately portrayed the future, erasing all of her doubts. The two of them just spent the tiny peaceful moment they had together and stared at the stars......
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ch.5 Finished. Ch.6 hopefully coming soon this year. XD I'm just kidding
Ch.6 is basically the Final Chapter! It's one big fight as Rousse and Takanachi settle their inner differences through their weapons and strength! Also, Nami and Luffy get together their emotions and figure out what to do after this small adventure!
I thank you all for being very patient with me. I have been quite busy with life. Yes, I have a life outside the internet. XD NEway, I hope that Ch.6 will be done soon. I will hope you guys bear with me as I rush through the ficcy and finish this so that I can work on my other projects without any guilt. XP Thank you all very much for reading this and keeping up. I promise you the 6th chapter will be sorta okay. XD
Thank you! See ya. ^^