"Finally, that's all of them!"
Yamcha placed the last of the seven dragon balls into the ground. The dragon radar, which he borrowed from Bulma, kept beeping in his hands as it showed the seven magical wish granting balls reunited in that rocky area. It took him two days to get them all, and right now, as the sun was about to set, he would finally make his wish.
Although the former desert bandit was regularly depressed, now, he couldn't help it but to be excited about what was to come. In the old days, Yamcha used to be one of Goku's most trusted allies, one of earth's most powerful martial artists. However, ever since King Piccolo and the saiyans had showed up, his presence had been rendered more and more irrelevant with each passing battle. But that didn't mean that Yamcha never trained, or that he didn't try to keep up with his friends. He trained with Kami in order to face the Saiyans, trained with King Kai after getting killed by that little green monster, and even trained for three years non stop for the android invasion. Even so, he was swatted away like a fly time and time again. Eventually, he just gave up. Not even his baseball career could bring him satisfaction anymore, not even chasing tail, he was truly depressed.
Nowadays, once more Goku and his friends had saved the universe without his help in the Tournament of Power. Yamcha was just another joe among the billions of humans that lived on earth. But there was still a bit of determination on him, and that's why he decided to take action, and ask the dragon balls for a way to get out of that abyss of irrelevance. The dragon balls, the very things that had brought him into the place he was right now in his life. He was even wearing his old trutle-school gi, expecting to come out of that place as powerful as Goku and Vegeta. He then summoned the dragon, the skies darkened, and he made his wish, but he sure didn't expect the results to be what they ended up being…
"What do you mean you can't do it?" Asked Yamcha, surprised by the magical dragon's answer.
"It's impossible for me to make you one of the strongest fighters in the universe. That is well beyond the powers of my creator." The dragon spoke again, trying to make himself more clear.
Yamcha was getting desperate, the dragon balls were his last hope, if they couldn't help him restore his glory, nothing else could. "Is there really no way!?" He asked again, in denial of the situation.
Shenron thought for a while, and then finally replied. "There is a way for you to instantly be one of the strongest in *a* universe, but I warn you, it won't be the way you expect."
The former bandit didn't even think twice. He didn't care if he'd end up surprised or not, he just wanted to be relevant, to be important, like his peers were now and how he once was. "I'll take it!" Yamcha decides, his heart burning with determination.
The Eternal Dragon's eyes flashed in a red light, and the majestic creature spoke once more. "Your wish has been granted…" And as he finished that sentence, a ball of light started to envelop the human's body. "What's happening!?" Were his last words, before being engulfed in that mysterious energy, and disappearing into thin air.
…
As if he'd been teleported by Goku's instant transmission, as Yamcha finally realized what had happened. He saw himself in an entirely different place. It was a town square, one he'd never been to in his life, and differently from before, it was still the middle of the day. The man was incredibly confused, what the hell had happened? What about his wish? Had shenron pulled a scam on him? That couldn't be…
"I'd better look around a bit, see if I can figure out what the hell's going on." Said him, as he started to walk the streets of that place, which was surprisingly deserted for a town like that in that hour of the day. He also thought it was strange that there were absolutely no cars around. Another thing he noticed was that he didn't feel even the slightest increase in his powers, as far as he could tell, his power level was exactly the same, even if he was sure that he made his wish to the dragon. All of this just made him even more clueless about what all that was about.
"It's gonna take a while if I just walk, I should fly." He decided, quickly activating his blue aura and ascending to the skies. From there, he had a bird's eye view of the place. It seemed like the town was indeed quite large, and it also had quite a big harbor, with a few old wooden ships docked in it. For what he could tell, there seemed to be a commotion in there, so he decided to head there and have a look around.
As he got ever closer to the harbor, he started to get a better look of the situation. A bunch of rough-looking men had made a circle around a huge metal cage. They had swords and very old looking pistols in their hands, and were all yelling insults towards whatever was behind the metal bars. A huge iron canon was being aimed at her.
It turns out it was a woman. A girl with short orange hair and dressed in a striped white shirt and yellow skirt, she seemed quite terrified. The leader of those men was quite the unique person, a man dressed as some sort of clown-pirate, red nose and everything. To Yamcha, it was clear that those men were ganging up on the poor girl and were about to execute her. He wasn't about to let that happen.
"Now, let's start the execution!" The clown pirate yelled, theatricality, as a couple of his henchmen prepared to fire that metal monstrosity. The girl looked terrified, as she knew that this time, she wasn't gonna manage to get away with trying to steal from dangerous pirates. "Fire the Buggy Ball!'
The giant cannon fired it's massive shot with a thundering roar, delivering it's projectile at an incredibly high speed in the direction of the metal cage. But as the massive cannonball was about the hit its target, a shadowy figure descended from the skies and stood in front of it, taking the impact of the explosion in the girl's place.
"WHAT!?" The clown, along with his entire crew, couldn't understand what had just happened, and as the dust settled, they could see the majestic figure of Yamcha standing confident in front of the cage, without a scratch on his body. The man had a smirk in his face, having felt the ki of everyone in there and realized that they were no match for him.
"Who the hell are you!?" The clown asked, furious that his execution had been botched. Not answering that just yet, he turned his attention to the orange haired girl. "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." The orange haired girl let out a massive sigh of relief, it seemed that her luck hadn't run out after all. If this man was enough of a monster to withstand a direct hit from the Buggy Ball like it was nothing, he could very well be her way out of that situation. She already knew exactly what she had to do. "Please! Save me!" She yelled while fake crying. "Those horrible pirates captured me! And now they want to have me killed for absolutely no reason!" Yamcha raised his eyebrows, looking at the pirates with disgust. "How dare you guys do that do an innocent girl!" He immediately got into his battle stance. "I, the great Yamcha, will make you all pay!"
Buggy was even more livid after hearing that big, fat lie. "No reason!? You little…" He growled. "But it's no matter! I'll just have to kill you both! Prepare to feel the wrath of Captain Buggy!" The clown didn't know exactly how did that stranger manage to avoid his Buggy Ball, but he did know that it had to be some cheap trick, after all, he was in the east blue. He wouldn't be able to pull that off a second time. "Men! Prepare to fire the Buggy Ball one more time! Mohji! Cabaji! Get that idiot in the cage with Nami!"
"Aye aye captain!" Said the men in unission, as they started to load the second cannonball. At the same time, a swordsman in a monocycle, a furry man and a giant lion approached, all in front of Yamcha. "Time to die!" Cabaji, the swordsman, was the first to attack, riding his monocycle at high speeds as he prepared to strike at the former bandit with his sword. Yamcha simply waited for the right time, and quickly swept the wheel of the monocycle with his superhuman strength, completely destroying it and sending the rider flying far into the ocean.
"Cabaji!" Mohji yelled, angry at the defeat of his comrade. "You're gonna pay for this!" The weirdo animal tamer and the giant lion then started to run towards the man with the scarred face, with every intention of beating him to a pulp. However, Yamcha had other plans. The lion jumped at the z-warrior, only to be met with nothing, as if the man standing there was just a projected image. And afterimage.
"Zanzoken!" Yelled Yamcha, as he roundhouse kicked the lion from it's back, sending it too flying far into the sea. At this point Mohji was paralyzed with fear, knowing that enemy wasn't normal in the slightest. "You're next!" The former bandit advanced in Mohji's direction, and before the pirate could react, hit him with a palm strike in the chest, sending him flying in high speeds towards the huge cannon in the back.
"That guy is really strong!" Said Nami, in awe of the situation. At this point she was positive that he was gonna handily defeat Buggy and all his pirates, and since he seemed to have sympathized with her, maybe it would be a good idea to stick around him for a bit. At least until she manages to find another treasure worth stealing.
Mohji flew directly inside the cannon, hitting the Buggy Ball that was already loaded into it. The impact quickly set off the blast, with a huge explosion following. The massive blast sent most of Buggy's crew flying, destroying the cannon and a pretty big portion of the harbor with it. Except for the captain, who separated his body into pieces to protect himself.
The clown quickly reassembled himself, drawing his knives as he prepared to join the fray. "That's it! I'm taking you down myself!" Yamcha lunged at him, seeking to punch him in the face, but the pirate evaded the blow by once again separating his body into many parts.
"Gyahahahahahaha!" The clown laughed, certain of his victory. "There's no point in trying to hit me!"
Yamcha, however, wasn't impressed. Sure that was an unusual ability for one to have, but he had a technique that would work just fine against that. "We'll see about that!" Said the z-warrior, as he started to concentrate his ki in his left hand. Soon, a small sphere of yellow energy sprung up. "Take this! Spirit Ball!"
The former bandit threw the ball against Buggy's upper body, who managed to dodge it once again by separating his head. But the clown didn't expect one thing, the Spirit Ball could be controlled even after having been launched. With an incredibly over the top hand movement, Yamcha changed the attack's trajectory, and it hit Buggy square on the chin, going above his head afterwards.
"What is this!?" The clown yelled, dumbstruck.
"It ends here!" Yamcha declared, as he made one more hand gesture, making the ball descend and hit the back of the clown's head, with it exploding on the spot.
Buggy's pieces fell to the ground, with him having been knocked out completely. At this point, his pirate crew had been completely defeated. Yamcha hadn't felt this satisfied in a long time. Not only had he won multiple battles and saved a cute girl, he also felt as if his existence mattered. And so, without much delay, he turned easily opening up the bars on the steel cage, allowing Nami to leave it.
"Those guy were pathetic." Boasted Yamcha, "But don't worry girl, you're safe now."
Nami was incredibly impressed, the only other person she knew with such strength was Arlong. This man really wasn't your average joe, and she started to think that she could really use him, even beyond just traveling together for protection. Maybe he could even…
"Thanks for saving me." She said, smiling. "I'm Nami, it's nice to meet you!"
Yamcha chuckled. "Hehe, it was nothing!" He then pointed his thumb in the direction of his face, with pride. "I'm Yamcha, a martial artist." He then remembered that he really didn't know where he was, and this was his chance to find out. "So, where are we anyway?"
Nami raised an eyebrow. "What? This is Orange Town, obviously." She answered.
Yamcha started to scratch his chin. Maybe he should just tell her the truth, hell, they'd just fought a clown pirate who could control the separate parts of his body. His story couldn't be that outlandish to Nami.
"Actually… I'm not from around here." Yamcha started to explain in his usual goofy manner. "I got teleported here by a magical dragon. I have no idea where this place is."
Nami listened to that with a skeptical look on her face, but for what it seemed, this Yamcha guy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and since she was incredibly streetwise, her gut told her that he didn't seem to be lying. And so, she decided to just go with it.
"Alright then." The girl took out a map of the world from her pocket. "We're on an island on the East Blue, here." She pointed at a location, with Yamcha looking at it curiously. He analyzed it a bit more, until it finally hit him. That world looked nothing like his. He'd been sent to a different world!
"Hey, Nami." Said the former bandit, after she pit away the map. "I don't think I'm from this world."
The girl's eyes widened. "What!?"
"It's true! That map looks nothing like the ones I've seen of my world!" Everything suddenly started to make sense now. "And in my world, we don't use old boats and pistols like those anymore."
Now that was a bit too much for Nami to believe, but as she had decided before, she might need that man. Well, at least him being from another world would explain his ridiculous strength. So the girl just shrugged, not really knowing how to react to that.
"I gotta get back home!" Yamcha decided. This wasn't what he wanted! He wanted to be strong, not to be sent into a different world, away from all his friends and loved ones. But how would he go back? He didn't know.
"Hey… can I ask you something?" Said Nami, changing the subject.
"Sure." He answered, crossing his arms.
"My village was taken over by pirates, and they make the lives of the people a living hell." She was really serious, and even Yamcha, tactless as he was, realized that subject meant a lot for the orange haired girl. "I've seen your power, you're probably the strongest person I've ever met. If anyone can save my village, it's you."
When Yamcha heard that he was the strongest guy Nami's ever met, it sounded like music to his ears. He kept listening, attentive to every word that came out of the girl's mouth.
"If you save my village, I promise to help you find your way back into your world." Said the girl, determined, even though she still wasn't sure that the guy was telling the truth or if he was just crazy. At this point, all she needed was for someone to defeat Arlong, and rid her village of this nightmare that had been going on for so long. After that, she didn't mind helping him.
Yamcha clenched his fists. "Alright." He had a confident smirk on his face. "Just leave it to me!" Nami nodded, feeling that this time, her worst enemy would finally go down. Now, she had a new hope, the hope of a better future.
The duo gathered Buggy's treasure and set sail on his ship, heading straight into the Conomi Islands. Yamcha was incredibly psyched, because now, he was finally important again. Nami was relying on him, and he had no intention on disappointing her.
To be continued… (maybe?)
Notes:
So yeah, the idea for this fic had been in my mind for a long time now. But only recently I decided on giving it life, on giving the One Piece world the only gift it needs: the gift... of Yamcha. So yeah, that's how the Yamcha Isekai got made.
I'm not sure if I'm gonna continue this story though. It's not that I don't have ideas for the plot, like for example, Yamcha finding his place in this new world, interacting with the major powers, him getting much needed character development, getting another girl to heal his heart previously broken by Bulma, there's a lot. It's not just memes y'know, I want to create a genuinely cool and emotional Yamcha story.
Problem is, if Yamcha just effortlessly destroys every enemy, the story's gonna get boring eventually. So right now I just decided to publish it here as a one-shot. But who knows? Maybe I'll continue it. The ratings maybe even go up if I do that too.
Feel free to leave your impressions, criticism and suggestions in the comments. My inbox is also open, just in case.
