Chapter 9: An Undefeatable Foe
It's been three days since the shamans went separate ways from the Straw Hat Pirates, and nothing has happened so far.
Horohoro is lying on the deck, totally bored out. "When will something fun happen…? I can't take this anymore…"
"I can tell you my jokes if you want!" offers Chocolove.
"That's even more boring."
"I made up one and it actually laughed my friends' heads off!"
"Try and make me!"
"Here goes: There are three great leaders who all want to help a poor country
"The first leader says to himself, 'I will fly my helicopter over the country and throw down gold, so the people of that country can become wealthy.' So he got into his helicopter, flies over the country, and throws down gold.
"He came down to the ground and sees a little girl crying, so he asks her, 'Why are you crying, little girl?'
"The little girl replies, 'My little dog got hit by a gold bar that fell from the sky and killed him!'
"The second leader says to himself, 'I will fly above the country and pour down oils so the people can make use out of it!' So he got into his helicopter, flew over the country, and poured down oil.
"He came down to the ground and sees a little boy crying, so he asks him, 'Why are you crying, little boy?'
"The little boy replies, 'My grandmother slipped on an oil puddle and fell to the ground. She broke her back and died!'
"The third leader says to himself, 'I will fly above the country and throw down weapons of all kinds, so the people in this country can protect themselves from invaders!' So he got into his helicopter and flew over the country, throwing down all kinds of weapons.
"He came down to the ground and sees a little boy laughing, so he asks him, 'Why are you laughing, little boy?'
"The little boy replies, 'I farted to the house next door and it blew up!'" With this, Chocolove finally ended his joke.
"I'll give you credit for that," says Horo. "It's pretty decent compared to your other lame ones."
"I see an island over the horizon!" shouts Ryu with his eyes looking into the telescope.
Everyone runs to the side of the ship and are glad to finally see land, except Ren, who says, "Why are you excited over land? We're not looking for a landing spot!"
"Can't we go and step foot on dry ground? I'm dying to run around!" says Yoh.
"That doesn't sound like you, for a lazy guy who likes to slack off…"
Tamao approaches them with a worried look. "I think we better not go there… The ouija (got that right?) board predicted that we will face a powerful enemy on that island!"
"Why should I be afraid? Yoh is around to protect me," says Anna. Nevertheless, they steer their ship towards that island and drops anchor there.
The shore is very beautiful—with all those palm trees and a sandy beach. Everyone immediately hops onto the beach and enjoy their time. Yoh sits down onto the sand and says, "This is great! Now I can take a nice…"
"Time to start your training," Anna interrupts him.
"Doh…"
While everyone is playing around on the shore, Lyserg looks around the island. "This island seems uninhabited."
-
Two Marines, which I will refer to as A and B, are patrolling in a jungle. "Work is going slow," says Marine A. "We haven't caught any pirates lately."
"Yeah, they're getting better at evading us all the time," says Marine B.
"Shhh… I hear some voices!" says Marine A. They quietly sneak towards a bush and peek through it, and they see the shamans playing in the shore. "Oh, just some kids."
"I recognize them!" says Marine B. "They are the kids I saw with the Straw Hats a few days ago!"
"Now that you mentioned it, they are! But I don't see Straw Hat Luffy himself."
"Whatever, we must report this to Captain Smoker at once!"
The two Marines got up and run back to their ship, which is docked on the other side of the island. They see Smoker sitting on a rock, looking towards the sea, and they call him, "Captain Smoker!"
Smoker turns to them. "Yes?"
"We have spotted the Straw Hat Pirates! They are on the other side of the island relaxing!"
"Really? Then summon the troops, we're going to catch them!"
"To be precise, we only saw the new kids that they recruited. We didn't see Luffy himself."
"As long as those kids are part of the Straw Hat, we'll still catch them!" So Smoker assembles his men and they march into the jungle.
-
"Everybody, look! I built a sandman!" says Horo, pointing to a sand sculpture he built.
"Oh yeah? Look at mines," says Ren. Besides him stands a sand sculpture of a horse.
"Wow! You're amazing!" exclaims Pirika. Horo doesn't like it, so he hurls a shell he found on the shore at the sand horse and knocks off its head, and then the rest of it follows.
"What are you doing to my masterpiece!" Ren shouts at him.
"Just testing its durability!" replies Horo in a playful manner. Ren throws sand into his face, which makes him angry, so they charge at each other and begins fighting.
"Hey look!" says Chocolove. "I built a sandwich! Get it? SAND-wich!" Next to his feet is a very small clump of square-shaped sand that resembles a sandwich.
-
"It's them all right, and Straw Hat Luffy indeed isn't with them," says Smoker, peeking through the bush.
"What are your orders, Captain Smoker?" a Marine asks him.
"Get the rifles ready. We will shoot them!"
"Isn't that a bit too cruel? They're just children!" protests Tashigi.
"I don't care if they're children! All pirates are the same!"
Under Smoker's command, the Marines stick the tips of their rifles out of the bush and prepare to pull the trigger.
Ryu is looking into his pocket mirror while combing his hair. Through the mirror's reflection, he sees the rifles pointing out of the bush, so he quickly turns around and throws his comb like a shuriken into the bushes, and it hits one of the Marines.
"They spotted us!" says Smoker. "Fire immediately!"
Ryu quickly runs back to the shore, shouting, "Everybody, run! We're under attack!"
"What?" ask the shamans. The Marines pull the trigger and begin firing at them. The shamans scream in fright and quickly run for cover.
Lyserg extracts his pendulum and swings it towards the bush, knocking the rifles off the Marines' hand. "Who's there!" he shouts towards the bush.
"They know we're here! What do we do?" ask the Marines.
"Don't let them escape! After them!" commands Smoker.
The Marines jump out from the bushes and charge after the shamans.
"Those uniforms… It's the Marines!" gasps Manta.
"What do they want with us?" asks Jun. "We aren't pirates or any bad people!"
The Marines begins firing their rifles at them. Pai-Long bravely runs towards the Marines, using his body as a shield. Because he's an undead, the bullets don't hurt him. He punches and kicks all the Marines until most of them are down. "That purple skin man is strong!" cries one of the Marines. "Not only he survived those gun shots, but he also took down half of us by himself!"
Pai-Long hops back to his group and the other shamans got out their weapons in a defensive position.
Smoker bravely steps in front of them and asks, "Where is your captain, Straw Hat Luffy?"
"Luffy? He's not with us anymore," Yoh tells him.
"Right! We went separate ways," says Ren. "Don't associate us with those pirates anymore!"
"You're a pirate yourself and you say this?" says Smoker.
"We're not pirates!"
"But I saw you aboard Luffy's ship a few days ago. That means you are pirates!"
"That doesn't mean anything! We are not with them anymore and we are no more pirates!"
"Who is the captain among you?"
"Um… Who's the captain?" asks Yoh.
"We don't really have one," Horo tells Smoker. "We are all equal and good friends!"
"A pirate crew without a captain?" says Smoker. "Whatever… I, Smoker the White Hunter, will arrest you all in the name of justice!"
"His name is Smoker! He smokes two cigarettes at a time. That must be why!" says Chocolove jokingly.
"But I'm already on the side of justice!" Lyserg tells him. "I'm not any evil people!"
"Most of the pirates I met claim to be innocent and good. Do you think you can trick me?"
"This guy isn't listening to us," says Ren. "We'll have to show him who is who!"
"Watch out, everyone!" warns Tamao. "Remember what Luffy said about Smoker being undefeatable? He may be the one the ouija board predicted!"
"I don't believe in anyone undefeatable!" says Ren. "Everyone got to have a weakness!" He points his kwan-dao forward and charges at Smoker, who jumps into the air and lands behind him. Ren turns around and swings his weapon at him, but Smoker quickly steps back to avoid it.
Ryu brings his wooden sword down on Smoker from behind, but the Marine captain grabs the wooden sword with his hand and punches Ryu away.
Pai-Long charges at Smoker and throws several punches and kicks at him, but Smoker is able to avoid most of them. What's strange is that even though Pai-Long's fist did come in contact with Smoker, it doesn't seem to hit him. Smoker jumps into the air and slams his foot down at Pai-Long, who quickly hops out of the way to avoid it.
Chocolove, who has over souled with Mic Jaguar, dashes at Smoker in a very fast speed and slashes him in the side. "Ha! Got you!" says Chocolove. He looks back at Smoker, but sees no wound on him. "Huh? I got you, didn't I?"
Horo over souls Kororo into his skateboard and fires icicles at Smoker. Smoker sees those coming and quickly hops up high into the air. "How did he do that?" wonders Smoker. "Devil Fruit, perhaps?"
He lands in front of Horo and grabs him by the throat, and then he pins him onto the ground. He pulls out the staff that is strapped behind his back and thrusts it down on Horo's abdomen. "Ack!"
"Brother!" screams Pirika. "Somebody help him!"
Horo's skateboard automatically blows out a strong cold wind, blowing Smoker away. Smoker gets back up and says, "What? The sea stone scepter didn't stop you from using your Devil Fruit powers?"
"What devil fruit? I don't have any!" says Horo, getting back up. "I'm using my shamanic abilities!"
"Shamanic abilities…?" says Smoker curiously.
The other Marines heard it, and one of them says, "I heard of shamans! They are people who fuse themselves with spirits to give themselves amazing powers!"
"So you people are shaman, so you must have some sort of a spirit besides you, right?" Smoker asks them.
"We have!" Yoh tells him. The spirits all appear behind their respective owners. "But only certain people can see it," continues Yoh. "We found out that Devil Fruit users can also see spirits of the dead. Spirits like Kororo, and Morphine can be seen by everyone because they are not of the dead."
"So that explains why I can see the samurai, the warrior, the green skin man, the raccoon, and the fox while my men cannot," says Smoker. "Now I want to know how strong you are! Use your powers to your full potential and hit me with all you got!"
"You're asking for it," says Ryu.
"Don't blame us," says Ren.
Ryu, Ren, Horo, and Lyserg all perform over soul and unleash their attacks at Smoker.
"Ame no Mura Kumo!"
"Rapid Tempo!"
"Icicle Assault!"
"Big Ben Wire Frame!"
The attacks hit Smoker and create a large explosion. When the explosion cleared, all that was left is a large crater that is exhausting thick, white smoke. The Marines are amazed and shocked at the shamans' attacks just now.
"You didn't have to kill him, do you?" Yoh says to the four, quite shocked.
"He said to use it to our full potential," Ren tells him.
Yoh is a bit angry. "But you didn't have to kill him! I hate seeing people die!"
Lyserg felt strange when he sees the Marines standing there and some are even grinning. Normally, when a powerful commander died, his men would freak out and run away, but these Marines didn't.
"Do you think you have won?" one of the Marines says to them.
"Our captain isn't the kind that would lose so easily!" says another.
"What do you mean?" Lyserg asks them.
Suddenly, a thick, white smoke wraps itself around Lyserg and lifts him into the air. "What the heck!"
More white smokes appear and bind Ryu, Horohoro, and Ren. "WHAT!"
The other shamans are shocked at the 'living' smoke. "What's happening!" cries Pirika.
"The smoke is moving by itself!" gasps Jun.
As the smoke suspends the four shamans in midair, some part of it drifts to the ground and slowly forms into a shape of a man, and Smoker emerges from the smoke! "Your shamanic abilities are indeed powerful," says Smoker. "Now I will show you the power of the Moku Moku Fruit (Smoke Smoke in the dub)!"
TO BE CONTINUED…
Notice how I used Ryu's attack (the one where he shoots out snakes) in Japanese, it's because I don't know what to call it in English… If anyone knows it, can you tell me?
And I assume that Mic Jaguar cannot be seen by normal people, because he can also turn into Spirit Ball mode like the other dead spirits. If I'm wrong, please correct me.