"That was a seriously weird twist, Kale."
Kale sat up amongst the green grass, trying to blink the bright light away from his eyes as he said in shock, "Rainte?!"
"God wasn't expecting that." Rainte replied, throwing his long hair back as he frowned at Kale. "I suppose you don't know that it wasn't your deathday today?"
"It wasn't my-- what?!" Kale yelled out, his eyes widening, and Rainte sighed, plopping down next to Kale as he commented,
"Guess not even God thought your benevolence had reached this level of sacrifice."
"So... I died for nothing, huh?" Kale said quietly, feeling extremely idiotic as he looked down at the grass. Then he blinked before staring at Rainte, his jaw dropping open.
"Wait a second. What am I doing here, then? Once Angels die, God creates new ones, doesn't he? Sort of like recycling souls...?"
"Recycling souls? That's crude, Kale," Rainte said, frowning, and Kale looked sheepishly back, running a hand through his flaming red hair.
"Sorry, I couldn't think of a better term. The point is, I shouldn't be here."
"That's right," Rainte said, and he gave a rare smile at Kale as he added, "you should be back at Dimension 900Z, completing your mission for the Oda dimension."
"He's sending me back? Because I made a mistake?" Kale said in shock, his jaw dropping open again. Rainte laughed heartily.
"You moron, you were going to live today and die later from a Demon invading your body."
"A Demon?!" Kale echoed, and Rainte's smile faded a little as he explained,
"Valkrief set loose a load of Demons into several Dimensions using the Forbidden Void." Shaking his head, Rainte added, "By any rate, your deathday has been post-poned. Because a Demon can't get into you now, Kale."
"Wh-what? But I'm only a Messenger Angel!" Kale stammered, and Rainte laughed again.
"Not anymore you aren't."
"What?"
"Kale, when you made that unnecessary sacrifice, God decided to promote you."
"Promote me?!" Kale squawked, and Rainte smiled at him.
"That's right. You're here to get Gold Wings from me."
"Y-you don't mean--?!"
"Congratulations, Kale," Rainte said with a grin, "You are now officially a Gold Angel."
"Zoro Roronoah, is it?"
Zoro skid to a stop, Tashigi smacking into his back as he looked at the two looming figures before him. One had an awkwardly long and crooked nose with long, messy hair, and he towered higher than the black-haired man beside him. They both stared at Zoro and Tashigi with penalising expressions, and the two stared back at the loud Hawaiian prints on their shirts.
"Who would you be?" Tashigi demanded, stepping away from Zoro's shadow, and the black-haired man replied.
"Part of the Plan to detain both Sandy White and Zoro Roronoah. Also part of the Merman Clan, meaning we have superior blood to start with... so there is no point resisting, you realise."
"Where're your bokkens?" Tashigi whispered to Zoro. The green-head frowned.
"I dropped both bokkens back at the building," He muttered, and Tashigi winced.
"So... we have no choice but to... run?"
"That's Plan B." Zoro replied.
"Just follow us so we can beat the crap out of you somewhere less public." The crookedly-nosed man drawled, and Tashigi looked up at Zoro, wondering what the slightly confused crease at his usually nonchalant face meant.
"...You're Arlong." Zoro said suddenly, looking and sounding surprised. Arlong's eyes narrowed.
"Heard of the head of the Merman Clan, have you?" He asked, sounding remotely disturbed. Zoro grinned, shaking his head.
"Why would I know something as stupid-sounding as that?"
The black-haired guy looked angrily at the green-head and raised his fist threateningly with a dangerous growl but Arlong held up a hand, stopping him. Tashigi noticed he had piercings on the folds between his fingers.
"Calm it, Kuroobi. Tell me, Roronoah - how do you know me, then?"
"Because the last time we met, you nearly killed me," Zoro answered, and smirked as he added, "but of course I was practically dead from an injury anyway. This time, I may not be nearly quite as strong... but you have no weird-ass nose, so this should be easy."
"Don't be so ignorant," Kuroobi shouted, enraged, "you speak nonsense and explicitly ignore the blood we Mermen posess!" Spinning around, the man spun around and punched the side of a building. A deep web of cracks in the concrete rippled out from his fist before exploding, showering them with bits of plaster and concrete. Smiling painedly in satisfaction, Kuroobi turned to Zoro, his mouth open to perhaps boast or threaten.
The man met Zoro's fist instead, and went flying into the concrete wall and through it. Tashigi stared at the wall, her mouth slightly agape as Kuroobi choked out a tooth before collapsing completely.
"Why you--!!" Arlong swung at Zoro angrily, who swiftly dodged and jammed his elbow into Arlong's gut before kicking him roughly into the wall. His large form tore through the wall as though it were paper, but unlike Kuroobi he got up quickly and swiped at Zoro with his knuckles. This time, Zoro was less lucky as he hadn't expected such a quick recovery, and the piercings between Arlong's knuckles cut through his cheek.
"Zoro!" Tashigi gasped, and then let out a choked noise as Kuroobi's fingers suddenly grabbed her round the throat.
She struggled, throwing her weight back to thrust Kuroobi off balance before kicking him in the shins. Kuroobi let out a hissed curse, dropping Tashigi as she stumbled away from him, and Zoro stole a short glance before gritting his teeth as he glared at Arlong. A small trickle of blood ran down his face as Zoro ducked a heavy swipe to his neck, and caught Arlong's legs with one of his own to send the large man crashing down.
Just then, Kuroobi swerved around and hit Tashigi's arm with the side of his hand with enough force to make her bones crack. She let out a sharp cry of pain, forcing Zoro's eyes on her, before shoving her arm forward to intercept another attempt to fracture her bones. Kuroobi's hand collided with her fore-arm, but this time, he was startled as Tashigi pulled back slightly before pushing forward again with stronger force. She managed a sharp kick to his abdomen which sent Kuroobi reeling back to the wall.
The few moments Zoro spent staring at Tashigi were dearly paid for as Arlong's two clenched hands caught a blow to his head, and he felt his world spinning as his head hit the ground. However, he pulled himself up immediately as he saw Arlong's looming figure headed straight for Tashigi.
"Go to sleep, you bastard," Zoro growled before performing an imitation of a Sanji spinning kick; his heel caught Arlong's nose and crunched it before slamming Arlong's face to the ground. The cement cracked below Arlong's head, and Zoro stepped back from the unconcious figure with a thoughtful look. It was nowhere near as effective as any of Sanji's kicks, Zoro admitted to himself, but nontheless, effective.
"You okay?" Tashigi nodded as Zoro began to run again. Following suit, she asked curiously,
"I didn't know you knew martial arts as well as sword technique."
"I don't know martial arts," Zoro said truthfully. Tashigi's eyes narrowed, and she didn't say anything for a moment. Then,
"Liar."
Smoker grit his teeth angrily as he ran after the two retreating figures, but was forced to a stop as someone suddenly skid in his way. He tried to run around the figure, but the person simply moved in his way again.
"What is it?!!" Smoker asked frustratedly, then paused. He stared at the figure. There was something strongly familiar about this person... "Do I know you?"
"Maybe." The person shrugged, grinning loosely as he added, "I do admit, I think I've seen you somewhere before."
"I'm sorry, but we'll need to talk some other time because you're just in the way." Smoker snapped, but the young man shook his head, spinning on his skateboard infuriatingly in Smoker's way as he said,
"Nope. Can't let you pass."
"Why not?!!" Smoker snarled, and the skater shrugged.
"Something told me to come here today, so I'll just following on instinct."
Smoker's eye twitched.
"Let me pass."
"No way, man."
Smoker stared at the skater boy idly skate around him, before asking lowly, "You... don't remember a thing... do you?"
"No idea what you're talking about," The young man said breezily, flipping his skateboard around as he spun, and Smoker took the chance to dart forward in effort to run past the skater boy. Instead, however, he was thrown to the ground and winded as a skateboard slammed into his back, and let out a wheezy yell of indignance as the skater boy sat heavily on top of his back, onto the skateboard. The wheels dug into his back as the young man said boredly, "I told you I'm not letting you pass."
Smoker's heart sank as he realised he hadn't been much of a match against this guy in his last life, so there probably wasn't much chance for him here either.
"Damn it!!" Smoker cursed the world with all the breath his could muster before struggling in futile attempts to throw the skater boy off his back.
"Stop trying man."
Smoker let out a long string of rather colourful swearing before quieting down to brood. He waited for a chance to spring up when the young man was least expecting it, but when he tried to throw him off Smoker found the weight too much for him to move.
Then he noticed that the young man had very rhythmetic, quiet breathing... his weight heavy and his body unmoving... Smoker swallowed with difficulty, sweat trickling down his neck, hoping against hope that the skater wasn't doing what he was thinking-- the skater snored.
"DAMN IT! WAKE UP AND LET ME GO DAMN IT!! ARRRRRGHHHHH!!"
"Kaya, what do you think you are doing?" Krow asked in surprisingly calm tones as Kaya held the gun at him.
"If you d-don't g-give me your c-ce-cell-phone right now, I will-- I will shoot," She managed to say, and held out a quavering hand.
"Do you really think so?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow, and Kaya screamed,
"GIVE ME YOUR PHONE!!" Her finger shook uncontrollably at the trigger, and eyeing this, Krow shrugged and slid his cell-phone out of his pocket. He threw it at Kaya, who wasn't stupid enough to dive for it; she let it clatter across the pine-wood, and reaching down slowly and keeping the gun trained Kaya picked up the phone. She flipped it open to find it was shut off.
"No batteries." Krow said pleasantly as she tried to turn it on, and glaring at him Kaya threw the cell-phone down. She kept the gun trained at him as she said through her teeth,
"Get those blades out of your fingers."
"These things?" He asked idly, swinging them dangerously across his face, and Kaya let out an unmasked gasp of worry before hardening her eyes again. Her cheeks flushed as Krow smirked at her, waving his blades about carelessly as he asked,
"Worried for me, Kaya?"
"I-I said t-to remove those things fr-from your fingers!!" Kaya said angrily, the gun trembling slightly from her rage, and Krow let out a laugh.
"You can't shoot me, Kaya. I think the person that knows that most is you."
"What are you talking about? I c-can shoot you. I-I can h-hurt you. Af--after all, you-- you hurt me." She swallowed, a tear sliding down a cheek as she held the gun at Krow's heart, whispering, "I'm not that weak anymore, Klahadol. I will shoot you if-- if you m-make me."
"No you won't." Krow said easily, making Kaya stare at his forth-rightness. He smiled at her twistedly, his eyes lit with malevolent delight, and she shrunk back slightly. Her eyes looked uncertainly at his smile as he continued, "Kaya, I know you better than you know yourself. You are no stronger than you were than in our other life."
Kaya gasped, but kept her hands on the gun tightly as she looked at Krow. He continued to smirk. "Your strength is not your own. Even all those many years ago, you got yourself into this little self-pitying depression. Perhaps it was part of your silly adolescence, but all the same, you were painfully childish and whiny, always wishing for others to love you and worry about you."
"No," Kaya said angrily, "Stop trying to confuse me, Klahadol."
"Denial is your strongest point," Krow went on, ignoring Kaya, "so you deny everything. It's not your fault your parents died, so you think you have this right to be painfully... juvenile. It's not your fault you can't laugh, that you're not hungry, so you just need people to wile their lives away on you, trying to feed you... trying to make you smile."
"Stop it." She tried to order, and Krow let out a short laugh of mockery. She found she could not look at Krow straight in the face.
"Please. Can't bear to hear about yourself? Perhaps you also deny the facts of your certain... inept personailty? You constantly harbour this certain... clinginess. You must always require someone's help, to clothe you, bathe you, feed you..."
"You d-don't know me." Kaya snarled, but her eyes were filled with tears.
"Oh, I do. I know you very well, Kaya. And this so-called strength you are using to point that gun at me is nothing but a childish way of standing up. Always been the victim, haven't you, Kaya? But you see, you're all alone now. You have no one to cling to but yourself. And you, Kaya, are absolutely nothing without anyone else to depend on. So that is why I know for sure that you have no real intention in pulling that trigger. You're far too cowardly."
Kaya bit her lip, trying to stem the flow of tears now steadily slipping down her cheeks as she repeated shakily, "You d-don't kn-know me."
"Oh I don't, do I? Then explain to me why your finger is off the trigger."
Kaya glanced down, horrified to find that her finger was off the trigger, to find energy draining away from her muscles so that they were relaxing, slowly letting the gun down, lower, lower... Kaya's vision blurred thickly with tears.
Something wet and warm suddenly enveloped her hands, and Kaya's blinked the tears out of her eyes as she felt Usopp's nose gently press against her cheek, his chest pressing against her back. Kaya's felt her knees buckle as she felt his blood soak through her clothes to her back. However, his grip was warm and strong against her fingers, despite being slippery from blood, and he hissed into her ear, "This bastard doesn't deserve any mercy, Kaya."
Krow narrowed his eyes, cursing himself for not realising Usopp had somehow made his way to Kaya without his knowing.
"B-but he's right," Kaya whispered helplessly, "I c-can't pu-pull--!"
"You will," Usopp said fiercely, holding his hands more tightly around hers and slipping her finger back into the trigger, "Kaya, don't lose to this git."
Kaya finally brought herself to look into Krow's eyes, and her grip on the gun firmed. Usopp gave a reassuring squeeze to her hands, and Kaya swallowed, giving a small, affirmative nod.
Chuu, Jango and Cabodi were all dumbfounded and completely bewildered by what was happening.
First, an unexplainable luminance had radiated almost blindingly from the boy, and all of a sudden he was no longer keeling in pain but on his legs and standing quite easily. Then the boy proceeded to say, "Don't worry Luffy, I've got it under control!!" before pulling off his blood-soaked sweatshirt to reveal a completely unharmed torso.
Before any of them could react, the boy arched sharply as a pair of brightly shining gold wings burst out of his back. They stared, all of their mouths involuntarily open as the boy pointed a hand at the large wooden doors. They burst apart in an explosion of mouldy wood and rusty chains, and the wings beat once, twice-- and the boy was gone.
The three men sprinted out, but they failed to notice the young boy soaring through the air to a building roof, where he landed silently, the golden wings disappearing as he did so.
KALE! I thought-- I thought you were--
Yeah, so did I. But I got promoted instead.
Weird! So you can fly now?!
Not only that, Luffy. I can do a load of other things too... now that I'm promoted.
Grinning as he pulled the red sweatshirt back on, Kale let out a loud whistle. The hypnotist below spotted his bright red jumper from far below, and yelling to the others the captors ran to the building's lobby.
Kale, you know, before you healed me-- I thought I saw you for a moment. You look so different!
Yeah, I'm like a kid.
Yeah, but the red hair was more shocking! You look like your head's on fire!
Okay, shut up and prepare yourself for a shock. Because I can't beat up those guys with Holy Powers... they're not worth it.
Huh? So what are you going to do? If you can't use your powers?
As a Gold Angel, I am authorised... even if it's only for a short while... to give you back your own powers.
What?! You mean--?!
Get ready to switch souls, Luffy.
Cabodi slashed the door to the rooftop apart and entered with Chuu and Jango close behind. Standing before them, a remotely familiar figure stood. As he was shirtless, his lean and lanky form was evident, and his wide grin seemed easily recognisable.
"Where's the boy, chuu?" Chuu asked urgently to Jango in an irritable tone, and the hypnotist insisted,
"I swear I saw him up here!"
"I am the boy!" The young man called out cheerfully. They stared at him, and their eyes trailed to the discarded scarlet jumper on the ground.
"B-but--?" They could only stare at him in confusion, which was unfortunate because they were shocked into submission when the young man proceeded to stick a thumb into his mouth and stretch his cheek outwards... to the length of his entire arm. It popped back in place with a rubbery smack, and grinning broadly he remarked,
"I missed being to do that! So, ready?"
They stared. Jango swallowed before steeling himself to ask as unnervously as he possibly could, "Ready to what?"
The young man gave an impatient sigh as he brought his arm back, flexing his visible muscles as he said ardently, "Ready to get your asses kicked, of course!"
The captors paled.
A/N: I apologise for the seriously sloooooooooow update plan. I'll try to get the next chapter up quicker. Possibly the next one will have the most things happening in it, and I'll definitely put in lots of time for Sanji in that one... okay, gomen ne... by the way, I don't say my writing sucks just to be modest or to be fishing for compliments. I mean it. I know it's horrendous in many, many cases. Too long descriptions. Loads of occasional SPG(spelling, punctuation, grammar) errors due to careless mistakes. Corny little lines and scenes here and there and a problem with predictability and a poor responsibility with keeping to pure character (I just say "It's AU!" as an excuse, don't I?)... that's why I appreciate you guys so much for being able to accept these stupid problems with my writing and give me positive feedback. And that's why I feel it is my duty to constantly tell you I'm sorry that all I can do in return is force-feed you crappiness. ^_^;;;;; So thanks again for bearing with the crappy writing, and I hope I can dish out some new stuff soon. I promise I'll try and get a chapter up in 4-5 days. *waves*