Chapter 14: Groggy Ring
"And the winner is… CUTIE WAGON!" Tim shouts into his megaphone. All the Foxy pirates cheer and shout with joy.
"YAY! WE WON!"
"Thank you all for your support!" says Porche, blowing kisses everywhere.
"Feel ashamed, eh?" Kapoty says to the shaman team.
Lyserg, Pirika, and Tamao walk up to shore with a sad face. "What happened? Why did you stop moving?" Yoh asks them.
"I don't know… It was so strange…" says Tamao.
"We were so near the finish line and right after that ugly guy fired a pink beam at us, we stopped moving!" says Pirika.
"To be precise, we are still moving, but very slowly!" says Lyserg. "Even the waves around us moved really slowly!"
"How can that be?" asks Ren.
Foxy walks up to them and says, "Hehehehe! It's because of the Noro Noro Fruit I ate!"
"What's that? A Devil Fruit?" asks Manta.
"Correct! The Noro Noro Fruit allows me to fire Noro photon rays that can slow down everything! Here's an example!" He turns to Hamburg and tells him to fire a bazooka, so the gorilla takes out one and fires a bullet shell at him. Foxy quickly fires a pink beam from his hand. When the shell gets hit, it begins moving really slow through the air!
"Wow! That's fascinating!" exclaims Yoh.
"Hehehe! Now you see? Anything hit by my Noro photons will move incredibly slowly! It lasts approximately 30 seconds before the object returns to its normal speed again!"
While he is saying these, 30 seconds already passed and the bullet shell returns to its normal speed again. It flies straight into Foxy's face and explodes, blasting him a short distance away.
"BOSS!" screams Porche.
"What an idiot," says Anna coldly.
Foxy gets back up and says, "So you know how it works now, right?"
"How dare you use this dirty trick! You cheated!" says Ryu angrily.
"It doesn't matter! The point is we already crossed the finish line, so we won!" says Porche.
"Yes! That means we get to take a crew member of yours!" says Foxy. The shamans froze in shock upon hearing this.
Anna lets out a sigh and says, "They're going to take me for sure… I'm such a beautiful girl, so why shouldn't they?"
"Nah, they won't take you," Horohoro tells her. "Who wants to take a tyrannical girl like you?" Hearing this, Anna beats him into bloody pulp. "Yaaaaaaaa!"
"So now, our captain will pick a crew member from the Shaman Pirates!" says Tim. "Who will it be?"
There is a moment of silence and suspense as Foxy stares at the shamans, who are wondering to themselves who he'll choose. Foxy slowly lifts up his finger and points forward. "I'll take… you!"
"WHO ME?" gasps Lyserg.
Two pirates immediately grab Lyserg by his arm and drag him to their side. "LYSERG! NOOOO!" screams Ryu.
"How can you take him!" says Yoh.
"We won, so we can do it!" says Foxy. "If you won, then you can do the same too!"
The pirates drag Lyserg up the stage and they made him wear some sort of a mask, the kind thieves usually wear across their eyes. Foxy hugs Lyserg tightly and rubs his ugly face against the dowser's smooth face. "Awww… Aren't you a cute little fellow?" says Foxy in a lovey-dovey way as Lyserg keeps on screaming for help.
"I want to hug him too!" says Porche as she embraces herself around Lyserg too.
"So Foxy likes cute things…?" asks Jun.
"Well, he doesn't take acute things," says Chocolove jokingly.
"You are now part of the Foxy pirates!" Porche tells him. "Now swear your loyalty to everyone!"
Lyserg grits his teeth and begins to cry, and he slowly says, "I don't want to… I don't want to become a pirate! I haven't completed my mission yet! I don't want to…"
"Would you please stop crying!" Ren shouts at him. This made everyone's attention turn to him. "Crying will get you nowhere! If you want to become strong, then you have to accept everything you encountered! If you do not stand up for yourself or accept anything, you will only fail and never succeed! If you want to come back to us, then wait for us to win!"
"How can you say that to him? He's already sad and you made him even sadder!" says Ryu.
Upon hearing this, Lyserg wipes out his tears and made up his mind. He shouts out, "I swear loyalty to the Foxy Pirates!"
Everyone is amazed at what he said. "That kid with shark fin hairstyle sure knows how to talk! I bet boss will pick him next!" says a pirate.
And so, the shamans lose the first game and Lyserg gets taken away.
-
"All right, let's get ready for the second game—Groggy Ring!" says Tim.
Ren does a short warm up and walks towards the ring with Pai-Long. "All right, it's our turn. We have to win back Lyserg."
Horohoro gets his skateboard and walks towards the ring. "You don't get in my way," Ren says to him. "I'll handle everything myself."
"Why must you always play the boss and make the final decisions!" Horo angrily says to him.
"You'll only get in my way."
"Oh yeah? I say you will get in my way too!"
"Will you two stop fighting!" Pirika shouts at them.
"Now we introduce the players of the Shaman Pirates! We have Tao Ren, whose family is said to be assassins; Horohoro Usui, the shaman of ice; and Pai-Long the undead martial artist!" says Tim. "The rule for this game is simple! You have to throw your opponent's ball into their own ring to score! Only one score is enough for this game! But it's no ordinary ball, for the ball will be the player!"
"A human ball? That's strange…" says Chocolove. "But by ball, can they mean that part of the human…"
"You're disgusting!" Tamao screams to him.
The referee walks up to Ren's team and asks, "Who wants to be the ball?" Ren simply points to Horohoro, so the referee ties a small ball onto Horo's head.
"Hey! Who told you to make the final decision!" Horo shouts at Ren.
"Just shut up and play your role!" snaps back Ren.
"Pai-Long, say something for me!"
"If you are chosen to be the ball, then you have to accept it," replies Pai-Long.
Horohoro falls onto the ground and cries, "WAAAA! Everyone is so mean to me!"
"You look good with the ball on your head, brother!" says Pirika. "You'll make a good ball!"
Horo stands back up and says, "If Pirika says so, then I will do my best!"
Their friends cheer for them from outside the ring. "You can do it!" cheers Yoh.
"You must win back Lyserg for us!" shouts Ryu. "You must!"
"Brother! Beat up those pirates and win back our pride!" cheers Pirika.
"Ren, Pai-Long! You can do it!" cheers Jun.
Ren turns to Foxy and says to him, "Hey! Call out your best players! I want this game to be as tough as possible! It's no fun if it's too easy.
"I know you're going to ask this, so I have everything prepared!" says Foxy. "I shall call forth the Groggy Monsters!"
Then a short earthquake frightens everyone, especially the shamans. "Here they are, the Groggy Monsters!" says Tim. The shamans turn to the source of the earthquake and are shocked at what they saw—three monstrous creatures!
The first creature is that big gorilla Hamburg. "First we have the team captain Hamburg!" announces Tim.
The second creature is a fat being with thin hands and small legs. "The second one is Pickles the Tackler!"
The third creature is the most frightening of them all—a gigantic monster that measures about 20 meters (66 feet) tall! "And third is the almighty Big Pan, the giant and merman hybrid!"
The shamans' jaws drop wide open upon seeing the giant beasts. "What are those monsters!" gasps Tamao.
"The ball is on the giant's head!" says Manta, pointing to Big Pan, who is the ball of the team.
"How can they win against monsters like this!" asks Yoh.
"This is a bit too exaggerated, isn't it?" asks Anna.
Horo stares at the monsters with large eyes, frozen in fear. Ren and Pai-Long simply stood there and look at them with normal expressions. "This will give a good challenge," says Ren with a smirk.
"No matter who the enemy is, I must not be scared!" says Pai-Long, holding an offensive position.
At this moment, the referee calls Ren, "Hey kid! No weapons are allowed in this game, so put your spear away! The only things you can use are defensive accessories like the big shield the blue hair boy is using!" He's referring to Horo's skateboard, which indeed looks sort of like a shield.
"Oh really?" says Ren, so he throws his kwan-dao out of the ring. He punches his right fist against his left palm and says, "Weapon or no weapon, it makes no difference to me!"
"Are you sure you'll be fine?" Horo asks Ren. "You don't look right without a weapon."
"Of course I'll be fine, unlike a weakling like you."
Hearing this, Horo angrily jumps at Ren and starts a fight with him. "WOULD YOU TWO STOP FIGHTING!" shouts Pirika at the top of her voice.
Pickles looks down at the two shamans and the undead and says, "So these are the ones that wanted to challenge us? I thought our opponents must be very tough people to say this, but you're just little kids! Right, Big Pan?"
Big Pan just stands there and grunts, as if he didn't hear it. Hamburg begins to snickers, "Hehehe! He isn't listening!"
"Would you guys shut up and gets started?" says Ren, annoyed.
The referee asks them whether they want head or tail and then flips a coin. The coin landed and shows tail, which is what the Groggy Monsters chose, and then he asks Hamburg, "Do you want to ball first or choose the ring?"
"Ball," replies Hamburg.
"So may the ball of the shaman team go to the center of the opponents' side?"
"You go, ball," Ren tells Horo.
"I don't need you to tell me!" says Horo, annoyed. "You're always bossing people around!" Then he goes to the opponents' side and stands before the Groggy Monsters.
"Again, I'll repeat the objective for this game," says Tim. "You have to get the opponents' ball to fall into their own life buoy goal in order to score! You only need one point to win and there is no time limit!"
"So I just have to toss that big guy into their buoy to win, but must prevent Horohoro from falling into our buoy, right?" says Ren. "Since I don't have any weapons, I might have to rely a bit on Soul Unison."
Horo stands before the tall creatures and trembles a little bit, but he keeps on saying to himself, "I'm not scared of them…"
"We'll make a short work out of you guys!" says Pickles. "You will too, Big Pan?" But Big Pan didn't seem to hear what he said.
"Hehehe! He didn't hear it again!" laughs Hamburg.
"Okay! Let's begin the game!" says Tim. "On your mark… Get set… GO!"
The instant he shouted "Go", Pickles charges at Horo with full speed. Naturally, Horo quickly hops to the side to avoid being hit. The moment he hopped aside, Hamburg grabs him and throws him high into the air, towards his team's goal! "AAAAHHHHHH!"
"BROTHER!" screams Pirika.
Pai-Long quickly runs toward the flying Horo, but Pickles tackles Pai-Long and knocks him away. As Horo falls towards the ground, Pickles starts spinning like a top and bounces the blue-hair ainu into the air again!
"You jerk! You better not make us lose, or else I'll kill you!" Ren shouts Horo. "Soul Unison!" He raises his hand and Bason turns into a small ball of fire, then Ren 'inserts' the spirit into his body.
"That boy appears to be doing something that shamans usually do!" says Tim. "Let's see what amazing techniques he's going to pull off!"
Hamburg amazingly jumps up high into the air and grabs Horo, ready to slam him straight into the life buoy. Ren, who is right below the airborne Hamburg, quickly runs towards the buoy.
"HOROHORO! NOOOOO! WE'RE GONNA LOSE!" scream Yoh, Ryu, Manta, and Chocolove in unison.
"I must not let you score!" says Pai-Long, and he grabs Pickles by the arm.
"What are you doing!" asks Pickles. Pai-Long amazingly lifts up Pickles and swings him around in circles.
"WAAAAAAA!" screams Pickles. Pai-Long lets go the grasp and hurls the big fat Pickles towards Hamburg, who is on his way down towards the goal.
"Hamburg is about to slam Horohoro into the goal! Will this game end so soon?" announces Tim.
Ren suddenly jumps up high into the air and appears in front of Hamburg, surprising him. He delivers a strong kick into Hamburg's face, making him let go Horo. "AMAZING! Tao Ren seems to have increased his abilities after performing that shaman stuff!" says Tim. "He freed Horohoro from Hamburg's grasp, thus preventing him from scoring!"
Ren and Horo drop down onto the ground, and Pickles, who is tossed by Pai-Long into the air, crashes into the airborne Hamburg and they both fly out the ring. Foxy and his men are shocked beyond words at the amazing performances of the shamans.
"That's the way to go, Ren!" cheers Jun.
"Whoa… For a moment, I thought we're going to loss Lyserg forever…" says Ryu with a sigh of relief.
"I knew they're not going to lose all along!" says Yoh with a smile.
"TOTALLY AMAZING! The shamans successfully defended themselves from the Groggy Monsters!" says Tim.
"You're so useless! You almost made us lose!" Ren scolds Horo.
"It's because you didn't help me! It's your fault that all these happened!" Horo shouts back.
"That's a lame argument reason!"
"You want to fight!"
"Would you two stop fighting and go for that big guy!" Pirika shouts at them. Ren and Horo turn to look at Big Pan, and sees Pai-Long running away from the merman giant.
"Master Ren and Horohoro, run!" shouts Pai-Long in panic. The two shamans see the reason and runs along with Pai-Long, with Big Pan is chasing after them.
"Why are you guys running!" Manta calls out to them.
"Can't you see!" Ren shouts back. "There are spikes under that giant's boots!" Sure enough, under Big Pan's boots are sharp spikes.
Horo turns to the referee and says, "Referee, he's using sharp things! I thought you said those kinds of stuff aren't allowed!" But the referee is looking in another direction, pretending not to see it. "Referee! Do you hear what I said!"
"What is the referee doing?" asks Yoh.
"The referee didn't see it," replies Foxy. "So that's why he doesn't tell Big Pan to stop what he's doing!"
"That's not fair!" protests Ryu. "Referee, do something about this!"
But the referee just says, "I didn't see anything…"
Horo gets pissed off and kicks a rock into the referee's face. "You idiotic referee!"
"I really didn't see anything!" says the referee, which is obviously a lie. "And you hit me, so I'll warn you with a yellow card!"
"Horohoro attacked the referee! What a barbaric thing to do! He got a yellow card as a warning! If he does it one more time, then he will get a red card and it's out of the ring for him!" says Tim.
"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" screams Horo.
"All right, I'll beat him up for you!" says Ryu, readying his wooden stick, but Yoh stops him and tells him not to.
"Brother! You'll only fall into their trap! Ignore the referee and go back into the game!" says Pirika.
"Grrr… All right! I'll deal with the referee after the game is over!" says the angry Horo. He turns back to the ring and sees Big Pan swinging a giant axe around, trying to hit the still running Ren and Pai-Long. "REFEREE! THIS IS GETTING TOO MUCH!"
But the referee looks in another direction while whistling a tune, pretending not to see it.
"Just ignore him, brother! Get back into the ring and continue the game!" shouts Pirika.
Horo curses the referee one last time and then runs back into the ring, continuing to get chased by Big Pan. "You don't have to start from where you left off, do you!" Chocolove shouts at them.
"If we keep running, we'll get nowhere!" says Ren. "We must fight back!" The three of them stops running, turns toward Big Pan, and charges at him.
"The three are going to engage Big Pan!" announces Tim. "What are they planning to do?"
Big Pan hurls himself towards the ground and lands on his belly, so the three quickly jumps into the air to avoid it and then lands on his back, but when they try to stand up on his back, they keep on slipping. "His skin is so slippery!" exclaims Horo.
"That's right!" says Tim. "Big Pan is a loach type merman, so his skin is very slippery!"
While still on his belly, Big Pan raises both his legs above his back and pulls his arms back to grab it, thus forming a human loop. "Slippery Circus!"
The three of them are caught inside this slippery loop of eternity, unable to get out. "I'm getting dizzy!" screams Ren.
Horo is balancing on his skateboard. "This is just like skateboarding!"
"There's no escape from Big Pan's Slippery Circus!" says Tim. "Oh look who's coming back! Hamburg and Pickles have returned to the ring! They look different this time too! Hamburg is wearing a spiked glove and iron elbow guards and Pickles added spikes onto his shoulder pad! But sharp things aren't allowed in this game! Surely it is red card material! Unfortunately, the referee is playfully chasing a butterfly; therefore, he did not see it!"
"You stupid referee!" Ryu shouts at the referee, who is playing with a butterfly. "Don't tell me you didn't see them!"
"Calm down, Ryu!" Yoh tells him. "There's nothing you can do about it!"
"Let's go get them, captain!" Pickles tells Hamburg.
"Okay!" replies Hamburg, and they both run towards Big Pan. Big Pan stretches forward his arms and the three flies out into the air.
"WAAAAAAAA!"
"It looks like the Groggy Monsters are going to pull off their deadly combo!" says Tim. "Look! Captain Hamburg is targeting Tao Ren first!"
Hamburg jumps into the air next to Ren and smashes him overhead, sending the Chinese shaman to shoot down towards the ground like a meteor.
"REN!" screams Jun.
While still in midair, Hamburg flips himself upside-down and Big Pan jumps into the air and strikes the gorilla from above. When struck, Hamburg shoots downward at maximum velocity, aiming for Ren.
Ren puts his hand against his bleeding head (from the impact) and groans, "Oh… MY head hurts…"
"REN! WATCH OUT!" screams Jun.
Ren looks up to see Hamburg diving straight for him. It is too late; Hamburg drops on top of Ren and crushes him into the ground using the elbow guard. The iron elbow guard presses into Ren's abdomen hard, making him scream in unimaginable pain and gush of blood shoots out from his mouth like a geyser.
"REN!" screams Jun, whose eyes are starting to fill with tears.
"That's too brutal!" gasps Manta.
Pai-Long gets up from the ground, his head still dizzy from slipping around in the loop. Pickles performs a spinning tackle and bounces the undead high into the air before he can do anything. Hamburg falls towards the ground and lands on the still spinning Pickles, making him fly back into the air again. From midair, Hamburg punches Pai-Long across the face and sends him flying towards Big Pan, who slams him overhead really hard. Pai-Long crashes towards the ground and passes out next to the fainted Ren.
"PAI-LONG! NOOOO!" screams Jun again.
Horo is still dizzy from the spin earlier. "Ugh… I want to throw up…"
"BROTHER! WATCH OUT!" Pirika shouts at him. Too late; Pickles already punched Horo high into the air.
Hamburg, still in midair, throws another punch at Horo, the spike glove making a deep slash mark across his face. The punched Horo shoots down towards Pickles, who tackles him hard with the spikes on the shoulder pad. Horo flies towards Big Pan, who claps him like a mosquito, crushing the ainu in between his massive hands. Horo drops back to the ground and lies next to Ren and Pai-Long.
"NOOOOO! BROTHER!" screams Pirika, who is already crying a fountain of tears. This brutal scene already made Jun faint. Manta and Tamao's eyes are starting to form tears. Anna opens her mouth wide aghast and shocked.
"That's too cruel!" cries Yoh.
"This isn't a game, but a bloody massacre!" says Chocolove. "Even the Roman games of the olden days aren't this brutal!"
"Noooo! We'll never win back Lyserg!" cries Ryu.
Foxy and his pirates, on the other hand, are laughing and cheering happily. "Yeah! Kick their butts!"
Lyserg is shocked and in tears, but Porche is hugging him tightly, knowing that if they lose, she can keep a cute boy like him forever.
"Once again, the Groggy Monsters have proved themselves in the ring!" announces Tim. "Surely nobody can survive something like this! All that is left is to throw the ball into the goal!" The Groggy Monsters dances around in the ring and boast about their talents and greatness.
Kororo is jumping up and down on top of the severely beaten up Horohoro, trying to wake him up. Bason appears next to the blood-drenched Ren. "Master Ren! Please don't die! What will I do without you! How can we pass on the bloodline of the Tao clan if you die!"
Ren's finger begins to twitch, and he mutters, "Horohoro, Pai-Long… Are you… dead…?"
"Stop… kidding… me…" replies Horo painfully. "I won't… die here…"
"I'm already dead… So I cannot die the second time…" replies Pai-Long.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Don't be angry! Those three surely aren't dead! Why would I kill off everyone's favorite characters? Ren, Horohoro, and Pai-Long will get their revenge on the Groggy Monsters in the next chapter for sure!