Chapter 5: Yakuza and Navy.

X Drake ran up to Gomu and jabbed into his stomach. Unaffected, Gomu slapped Drake into the ground and fell down on him. SWORD looked on in horror from their cells as Drake disappeared, seemingly crushed by the weight of Gomu's body.

What no one anticipated was that Drake would pop out of the ground behind Gomu, his jaw filled with stone from the floor. With surprising agility Gomu rolled out of the way from Drake's claw slash.

-Hmm, a clever opponent! I'll have to go all out! Gomu rubbed his hands together at an incredible speed til his hands shone red from the heat and he dashed towards X Drake.

Even though he was critically hurt and physically weaker, Drake chose to stand his ground before the titanic man rushing towards him. With explosive impact, dinosaur skin clashed against muscle and fat; Gomu's hands burned through Drake's stomach while Drake's claws dug deep into Gomu's body. The two men wrestled for supremacy as Tashigi continued fighting on the floor above.

Yakuza rushed towards her, not hesitating as she no longer could defend herself with her sword. Meanwhile, the goons on the floor above began reloading. Caught between the two of them, Tashigi stood still and waited.

Just as Yakuza was about to slice her she jumped to the side and allowed the mafia boss to be shot by his own goons. While Yakuza sliced the bullets in half mid-air, Tashigi located a weak spot on his body and stabbed it with the last shard of her sword on her hilt, using all the Haki she could muster.

With sheer power she pushed the gangster boss into the water, once again putting him at a disadvantage. In the middle of her approach Tashigi was stopped by the sound of guns being reloaded on the floor above; with a swift roll she took cover from the oncoming bullet spray behind a pillar. Frustrated, she looked on as Yakuza crawled out of the water.

Drake and Gomy's clash of grit continued. With perfectly trained sumo technique, Gomu pushed Drake away before he could slash him with his claws. With a one-two slap Gomu sent Drake a few meters away before taking on a more defensive pose.

-Captain! You're too weak to fight him! Retreat for now! Koby shouted out. Drake was critically hurt and exhausted, while Gomu seemed to be completely unfazed.

-Hah! The ex-pirate being given orders? By his subordinate, no less. I really am a contradiction on dinosaur legs!

Drake used the oldest trick in the book: he opened his maw, filled with rows of dangerously glistening teeth, and lunged forward to bite Gomu in the face. Facing him without a flinch, Gomu stretched out his hand into Drake's mouth; the fat on his arm was unable to be bit through.

-Finally, checkmate! Drake gloated, though it sounded more like an unintelligible gargle. With a twist of the hip he whipped Gomu in the face with his tail; it dealt little damage, but the pain was enough to make him pull back and cover his face, leaving him open.

-Slashing Spree!

Drake gave such a powerful, haki-infused slash over Gomu's stomach that he was pushed backwards and then followed up with another stronger, faster slash, sending him even further back, and then another and another and another until he was pushing the unfathomably powerful man through the air. With one final push, Gomu crashed through the bars of the cell, freeing Drake's crew.

On stapling feet, he handed Smoker the keys to their shackles.

-Dismissed, Drake pushed out before falling unconscious to the ground.

Caught between his approach and the machine gun fire, Tashigi prepared to fight to the bitter end. With a purposely slower, disgusting transformation, Yakuza transformed a final time to defeat Tashigi.

Just in the nick of time, the gunfire stopped. Fullbody delivered a brutal barrage of iron-plated punches to the gunmen, taking them down before they could react. Tashigi dodged Yakuza's attack and took on a kung fu-pose.

-Hah! You don't have your sword! What more do you have, woman? Yakuza giggled.

-Good Ol' One-Two!

Tashigi sacked Yakuza right in the kisser.

-Aaaaaaargh! You…you… He was abruptly stopped by a knee to the stomach followed with a roundhouse kick to his gross bug eye.

-Yakuza Yangu, you are hereby under arrest… Before Tashigi could finish, Yakuza rushed towards her and pinned her to the ground, holding his sword arm to her throat.

-Hehehe! Lady, I recognize your type, hell, I was family with one! You'll talk on and on about honor and responsibility, but that stuff is never going to get you anything. It's the same here as it is in Marijoa; the one's in power decide what violence is necessary and what's immoral. But here, I'm the one in…

The villain's speech was cut short by Smoker flying in and whacking Yakuza in the other eye, knocking him unconscious with his seastone jitte.

-Captain Tashigi, sublime work as always, Smoker said while helping her up.

-Now, Smoker lifted Yakuza up with his jitte and handed the very light man to Tashigi, unless you are in critical condition, take this man, go down to the local navy base, corrupt hellhole as it probably is, and hand him over.

To say that wandering through town holding an unconscious body drew Tashigi attention would be a massive understatement. People stopped what they were doing to just stare, quiet conversations about the town "losing their real protection" and "the navy nestling its way in" surrounded every step Tashigi took. However, her anxiety was dispelled quickly when the two siblings from the restaurant broke down in tears as she walked by.

The jaw of the local navy captain smashed into the floor as Tashigi matter-of-factly delivered the gangster.

-Now, if you don't want the payments this man has been given you to be made public, I suggest you go call up some non-corrupt bases on the dot, Tashigi channeled Smoker's action hero one-liners. The captain ran towards his transponder snail.

On her way back to the Yangu lair Tashigi discovered that the SWORD ship had returned, and heard the loud, obnoxious sound of the G-5 men partying; the sound of home.

Below deck in the dining hall the vibes were through the roof. The men of G-5 had a reputation for being barbaric, and their parties made up around seventy-five percent of the reason. Food flew around the room like bullets on a battlefield, alcohol was being consumed at a physiologically impossible rate, new forms of dance were being invented at a staggering rate, and in the middle of it sat the physically wounded, tired, grumpy Drake, surrounded by the nervous Koby and the intoxicated Helmeppo.

Without much in the way of reason Helmeppo stood up on the table, right in Drake's mashed potatoes, and with a drunken slur shouted.

-Hey! *hick* L-let's sing that old classic, ehm, Binkskrieg Bop! No, no, ehm…

-Bink's Brew? Koby assisted.

-Yeah, Bitches Blew! And a one, and a four, and a one, two, nine…

United in a beautifully false key, the sailors sang, with Tashigi joining during the chorus.

-Well, I'm going to commit some war crimes if I have to stay any longer. Help me up.

Resting on Koby's shoulder Drake wandered to his room.

Drake quietly stared out at the stars with eyes that during the day were intimidating, now seemed tired. Koby wondered about the mild nostalgic look in his captain's eyes.

-You know, kid, Drake began.

-Y-yes, sir? Koby replied.

-I've done some horrible things, and the few times I've tried to do good, it's only led to pain for me. But, despite all that, I can still see fresh blood like you and Tashigi doing something that I never could. So, I guess, I'm happy that I chose to return to the Navy. Drake's little speech made Koby tear up.

-Thank you sir. Ever since… Drake puked over the railing.

-Actually you know what, let's get you to bed.

Sitting a few meters away on the ship's upper deck, with a nicely set table, take-out food and wine from a local restaurant, Smoker and Hina were on a date.

-This is quite a nice wine, even though it's from Sabaody. Awful place, great culture, Smoker read off of the label.

-Yeah it is, Hina replied with a distant tone in her voice, stretching out a cigarette for Smoker to light. Having been separated for half a year, it was difficult finding something to talk about.

-So, how's the work here in West Blue been treating you? He tried.

-Well, you know, I've been keeping an eye on any movements from the families. Most Navy bases got their mouth shut from either money or threats, so it's been infuriating.

With that reply, the conversation was shut down. Smoker was beginning to get worried about the date as Hina continued to stare out into the sea.

-So, ehm, Tashigi was really impressive in how she handled that bastard, right? I know that she's strong, hell, I've trained her myself, but even I was scared for her life against that bastard. Of course she then turns around and beats him twice in a row! Smoker laughed, but to his surprise, Hina started to cry.

-I-I'm sorry. It's just, he put a gun against Jango and Fullbody's heads and forced me to sell your location out. I've been sitting in a cell, wondering if I lead you to your death just like with my… Hina was stopped in her crying by Smoker giving her a hug.

-It's fine. You know I wouldn't blame you for a second, and neither would Tashigi. Plus, you're totally right, all the captains here in the West has some stick up their ass.

Hina's weeping was interrupted by an uncontrollable laugh, and the date continued.

Tashigi awoke early the morning after. Having faced a threat all on her own for the first time, she had let alcohol ease her worries a bit too much, and she wandered out into the cold mourning mist half-naked in a hungover daze. On her journey to find the toilet she stubbed her toe against a mysterious wrapped object lying on the upper deck.

Confused, Tashigi unraveled it, to find a sword and a letter. Trying her best to focus and read it despite that the world seemed to be rocking back and forth, Tashigi made out:

"Thank you for stopping the man that has been exploiting the Yangu's good name, and though I did it to protect my son from his own foolishness, thank Hina for giving me time in the sunlight despite helping that man commit his crimes. You have done more for this island in a day than these gangsters have done in three generations. May we work together, yakuza and navy, so that my child can return to an island, no, a world that doesn't have to rely on either of us. I hope that with this gift, I can start that work.

-Gomu."

Tashigi picked up the freshly reforged and strengthened Shigure and let its blade reflect the mourning sunlight.

Writing the character interactions for this chapter is probably the most fun I've had with this fic yet. Gomy's son escaped his debt by traveling the Grand Line. Perhaps he will return someday in the future.