Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the delay! I was searching my room for something—a certain piece of paper, actually, which is very difficult when you have a bed piled high with nothing but books and papers (I have a habit of sleeping on the rug on the floor, I find that more comfortable) and a closet filled with who knows what. So I spent two entire days cleaning out every corner of my room—my bed, closet, bookcase and desk—and rearranging everything so that I can find it. This resulted in my being unable to write the chapter, and what's worse, I still haven't found that paper. I really want to find that thing…
Anyway, on to replies to reviews:
xXSanji-kunXx (and Bon Clay): Actually, I originally was going to make Sanji think of the Easter Bunny, but I'm trying to do 'believable' here, and since the original is in Japanese, and they don't have the Easter Bunny…
Sandblasted Kitten: I think that was the last time… I can't be sure, though.
VM: Thanks! Actually, now I think of it, I did something resembling a fight scene before, in a story I wrote for a friend… But it doesn't strike me as much of a fight, so… Anyway, there's still more fighting to come. Sorry for the delay! I already wrote down my excuse, but…
babe300: Interesting idea! I like it, but I can't use it in this chapter (Sanji doesn't make an appearance, nor does he come in contact with Alvida or Nami—that part is set while he's still fighting Mohji), but I think I'll see if I can use some of it… The only thing is, he's kind of powerless against Alvida, too—true, he can't hug her because she'd slip out of his arms, but neither can he kick her, because his foot would slip. My favorite character? Hm… I've never given that much thought… Luffy, Zoro and Nami are my favorites, I guess, and lately my liking of Robin has been increasing too… Luffy because he's easy to look up to—he has this leading quality about him, but he doesn't think too deeply into things, just lives on impulse. I'm a bit like that too (that I live on impulse a lot of the time, I mean), which is why I like him, I guess. I like Zoro for his determination and his loyalty and faith. With Nami, my heart just went out to her with the Arlong thing. Robin—she's been living for twenty years betraying everyone around her to live, and I think that it takes a lot of will power to suddenly change that, no matter how much she likes her new comrades. But she did, which is why I've liked her more and more lately. But I also liked her before that for her passion about history. No offense to Sanji, of course. (grins)
purple-lilas: (nods enthusiastically) Thanks for picking up on that! You'll see in this chapter (even though it's only mentioned once) that he's hiding unhelpfully behind the main mast…
Revenge of the Clown
Chapter 5:Robin vs Alvida
Nami looked on in horror as Luffy, Zoro and Sanji began fighting their respective opponents.
"Robin," she practically whimpered as she looked to the side to the other woman who stood watching calmly. "Can't you do something? They're all going to die! Look at the number of people they've hurt already! Can't you just end the fights quickly before they do anything worse?"
Robin looked to her terrified roommate, and began to lift her hands.
"Oh, no you don't. Let your comrades fight their own fights." A crack followed these words, and Robin instinctively ducked. The bullet scraped her cheek.
"You might not know me," said a woman, stepping gracefully over the rails at the edge of the ship where she had been sitting, a metal club held over her shoulder in her right hand, and a gun that she was tucking back into her waistband held in her left hand. "But I recognize you quite well, you know. You must have so many people after you with a bounty like that over your head… I expect that you must have eaten a Devil's Fruit, am I correct? Of course, there should be no need to ask—how else could an eight year old bring six marine ships to ruin?"
Robin did not speak, but her eyes narrowed in concentration as her arms crossed above her chest.
"Seis fleur," she said, her voice still calm. Two arms sprouted out of Alvida's hips, one from the ground near her right foot, two from the ground near her left foot, and one from between her shoulder blades. The two arms that had sprouted from her hips each reached around in front of one of Alvida's arms, then clasped hands behind her neck, bending her body backwards as two arms sprouting from the ground pulled from the back of her knees and the one sprouting from her back reached around to pull her head backwards. The second arm by Alvida's left leg wrapped around the bottom of the leg to twist it. Alvida stood calmly as the arms wrapped about her.
"So, you have eaten a Devil's Fruit," she commented, appearing completely unfazed as Robin's arms tightened. "But I'm sorry to say that your abilities are useless against mine."
As soon as she finished speaking, Robin's arms that had gone around her neck and arms slipped off over Alvida's arms, the one that had gone around her head slipped from her head, and the ones around her legs slipped down off her legs. In Robin's surprise, the arms retreated back into the ground rapidly and disappeared.
"Now do you see?" asked Alvida with a smile. "I have skin so smooth that any attack slips from it. Nothing can harm my perfect skin."
With this, she lifted her club and darted forwards. As she brought the club down on Robin, Robin stood her ground.
"Tres fleur," she murmured, and three arms appeared—one each from the top of Robin's shoulders, and one from Alvida's right shoulder. The arm on Alvida's shoulder reached out to grip the handle of the club as well, holding it back. The two arms on Robin's shoulders caught the club as she attempted to swing it down.
Robin had underestimated Alvida's strength, however, and though she managed to avoid being hit in the head with the metal club, she was sent reeling backwards with the force of the blow, colliding into a pile of barrels that had been left out on the deck. The barrels went tumbling down to the lower deck, where Usopp and Chopper were watching, half hidden behind the main mast in fear.
"Robin…"
Hearing Nami give a frightened whimper, Robin a twinge of panic. She could manage to protect only herself, but she had three others to protect as well. She shot her eyes up to look determinedly at her opponent. She had lived her life betraying those close to herself in order to live on. But this time, she would fight to the end and protect her friends.
While she had been regaining her balance, Alvida had turned on Nami. Nami had hastily taken out her Clima Tact, but it was obvious that Usopp had not made it strong enough to protect her from a swing of Alvida's club.
"Seis fleur!" called Robin, and two arms sprouted from each of Nami's shoulders as well as Alvida's right shoulder. The six arms held back the club, this time successfully. Alvida pulled back her club and Robin's arms sank back into the Alvida and Nami's shoulders. When Alvida turned on Robin, she still did not appear fazed at all.
"So, you still think that you can fight me?" she asked in a gentle voice that nevertheless held a tone of unkindness and strength.
Without warning, she hurled her club at Robin. With no time to think, Robin grew as many forearms as she could from her elbow, positioning them in front of her chest just as the club hit.
As she was thrown backwards, Robin bit back a cry of pain. The spikes on the club had made multiple wounds in her arms, and when she hit one of the fallen barrels, she felt something sharp dig into her back, and this time could not suppress the whimper that escaped her lips.
When she staggered up to look behind herself, cursing her luck, she saw that a nail had not been properly hammered in and was sticking out right where the middle of her back had been thrown.
Turning her eyes back to her opponent, she saw the woman smirking victoriously as she swung her club down again, obviously intending to finish Robin off.
Robin seized her calm demeanor, refusing to let any terror, panic, or doubt to escape her. As she pressed down on those emotions, they soon were once again trapped in the bottom of her heart, and she could once more think clearly.
She had achieved this in less than a second, and her calculating eyes watched the club swing down at her head. When she knew that the club had gained too much momentum to stop, Robin gracefully stepped to the side, only narrowly avoiding being hit on the shoulder. As Alvida staggered forward, Robin seized a handful of her hair and threw her at the barrel from which a nail stuck out.
But to Robin's surprise, the barrel slipped out of the way as soon as Alvida hit it, and when she hit the ground, the beautiful woman went on sliding until she hit the wall. Alvida stood, not appearing to be affected by her blow in the least. However, Robin did notice that she was attempting to hide a wince.
Robin gave a mental sigh. Of course—I should have known. Anything that hits her or that she hits will only slip. But my pulling her hair did affect her.
But unexpectedly, Alvida drew her gun and shot, doing so in a motion so graceful and swift that the bullet hit her before Robin had time to think to move. Her right shoulder jerked back as though someone had shoved it, and her left hand flew up to stop the blood. However, no sound escaped her lips this time, and she raised her face to look at her foe.
"You haven't had enough practice with a gun," Robin said tauntingly. "You missed my heart."
"Who said that I was trying to kill you with that shot?" questioned Alvida, smirking back. "Don't assume. I want you to die a slow and painful death." At these words, Robin's taunting smile widened.
"Really? You were trying to finish me off just a moment ago with your club. What made you change your mind? I was under the impression that you wanted to be done with me as quickly as possible." Alvida's face flushed despite her efforts to stop it. Robin's eyes relaxed.
"What difference does it make?" asked Alvida, refusing to allow her pride to be hurt. "You're going to die either way—you are powerless against me!"
"Am I?" Robin asked calmly. "Uno fleur." A single arm sprouted from between Alvida's shoulder blades again, but this time it did not attempt to strangle her. Instead, the hand reached down, grabbing a fist full of the other woman's coal black, wavy hair. In one flowing motion, the arm gave a great tug, and Alvida gave a cry of pain.
"How dare you?" cried the woman in fury. "Don't you know how to fight properly? This isn't a silly girls' childish fight! This is a real battle! Or do you not know the difference?" Robin ignored the insult, remaining calm as she replied.
"Of course. In a real battle, the only real object is to survive. I've found that I can't hurt you by any blows to your body, but pulling your hair hurts you where nothing else does. I don't believe that I'm doing anything out of the ordinary." As Robin spoke, Alvida was already raising her club for another attempt at a finishing blow.
This time, Robin did nothing. The arm that still held a handful of Alvida's hair gave another tug, this time harder than the last. Alvida gave another cry of pain. This time, before even fully recovering from the pain, Alvida swung her club around to her back, bringing it down between her own shoulder blades to crush the arm that was tormenting her.
Only the arm was no longer there, and Alvida's club slipped at the impact with her skin, throwing her backwards and into an uncomfortable position. Robin seized the opportunity to dart over to the other woman, seizing her by the hair once more, and this time throwing her over the railing of the boat and into the sea.
Robin gave a sigh of relief.
But that sigh came a moment too soon. Alvida threw out her club to the side, catching Robin's back and throwing her overboard as well. Robin, quickly recovering from her shock, reached toward the ship's railing, extending her arm by growing another from her palm, and another from the palm of the hand at the end of that arm.
Just as she had almost reached the railing, however, the club came down on her stomach, and Robin cursed herself for failing to watch her enemy again. She cringed for a moment with the pain, attempting to ignore it and reach up toward the railing again. But that one moment had been too long a pause. Her back touched the cold water of the ocean, and as she felt the weakness overtake her, she knew that there was no hope left.
The last thing that she heard before her head was submerged was the navigator's scream.
The spectators and participants of the fight who were both conscious and near enough to have heard the man's words stared at him. Suddenly many of the spectators, presumably those who were members of the White Beard pirate crew, began to cheer. Buggy had turned deathly pale. Luffy was the only one who appeared unfazed at the appearance of the newcomer.
The man's eyes slowly took in the area—they looked at the men sprawled across the ground, both members of Buggy's crew and visitors and residents of White Island. When he saw Zoro's body among those, his eyes paused on the green haired man, his brows furrowing in confusion.
"That man…"
With an almost inaudible murmur, his eyes swept across the spectators, finally falling on Luffy and Buggy. Buggy instantly turned even whiter, and began to stammer in a horse voice.
"It wasn't- I'm not- I didn't hurt any of those men—really, I didn't. That- all of it- it was all Straw Hat's fault! I don't know if you're familiar with him, but he's quite violent, and was attacking me and my crew…" Buggy trailed off as it became evident that the man wasn't listening.
The man's eyes had widened upon seeing Luffy, and appeared to be speechless. Suddenly, Luffy's face broke into a smile.
"Ace! I didn't expect to see you here! What are you doing here?" His older brother finally appeared to regain use of his larynx.
"What am I doing here?" Ace asked his younger brother incredulously. "This is where most of the people under my charge are! This island is famous for that! Didn't you hear?"
"Really?" asked Luffy in surprise, looking around for the first time since he had reached White Island. "I didn't know. Big Nose stole my hat. I just want it back. And that's what I'm trying to do."
Ace's eyebrows rose in surprise, and for the first time, his eyes turned to look at Buggy. Buggy gulped.
"Hey, weren't you the pirate who was having a feast?" Buggy began to stammer in an attempted answer, but Ace cut him off. "Never mind, it doesn't matter. Why did you steal by little brother's hat?"
"Well, you see…" Buggy attempted to think frantically as he began to speak. "I've met the Straw Hats before, you see, and one of the men under me has a rivalry with Straw Hat's swordsman, Roronoa Zoro, and wanted to attempt to avenge his own defeat, and I knew that that hat was important to Straw Hat, so I thought that if I took it, he'd come after me, only one of the men under me broke the Eternal Pose, so we were forced to follow the Logue Pose here." Luffy stared.
"How does everything become everyone else's fault? Don't you know that you shouldn't blame things on other people?" Buggy twitched nervously. However, to the surprise of both Buggy and the spectators, who were now silent, Ace only shrugged.
"So you two have a rivalry of sorts. It isn't my place to interfere with that. There are only two things that concern be right now." He turned his eyes, which held a harsh light that was rarely seen in them, to Buggy. "My brother's hat, and" –his eyes turned to Luffy- "my comrades."
The smile was gone from Luffy's face as he nodded, his expression serious. Buggy suddenly bolted off in the direction of his ship. Both brothers' heads snapped around to his direction, and before he knew what was happening, a hand was dragging him back by his collar, he was thrown to the ground and suddenly felt himself burning as something heavy hit his stomach.
"Luffy's hat." Ace's words were cold, short, slow and threatening.
"It's on-on the d-deck of the ship," gasped Buggy, and Luffy had disappeared in a flash. The burning weight did not leave his stomach, however. The burning, in fact, spread. Suddenly, his whole body was burning hot, and then Buggy the Clown knew no more.
Ace waited until he saw that his brother had his hat before burning the man under his foot entirely. Removing his foot, he looked straight at his returning little brother.
"We have an issue to discuss," Ace told his brother solemnly. His eyes held a harsh light as he spoke.
Luffy looked at his elder brother straight in the eye as he replied.
"Yes."
Author's Note:
It may be unfair of me to be saying something like this after not keeping my word and updating, but I'm going to say it anyway… I'm not making a necessary number of reviews this time. Instead, I'm asking you readers to vote. Here's the thing: I'm not sure whether Ace should let Luffy go after this, forgiving him since he knows how important that hat is to his little brother, or whether he should do his duty, which would mean that Luffy and Ace would fight. Tell me which you think I should do. It would be nice if you could give me reasons, but it isn't necessary if you can't think of any. It actually isn't much of a vote because if, for example, I get multiple reviews saying one thing with no reasons, and one review saying the opposite with what I consider a good reason, chances are that I would choose the latter. (I don't care what sort of reasons they are. Just please tell me.)
Anyway, I won't update until I have a sufficient amount of opinions to start writing the next chapter.