For those who are wondering about when it takes place during One Piece, I am ignoring any form of canon continuity for this story in order to have freedom in storytelling.

Chapter 2
Difference in Power


Previously, Garp had asked the ship girls to show off what they were capable of. The other Marines heard it and were curious to see them in action as well.

"Let's see…" said Garp as he looked around, and then he looked out towards the sea and saw two towering rocks out there. "You think you can target one of those rocks? There were talks about getting rid of them because they get in the way of ships coming in and out, but nobody ever got around to doing anything about it. Not because we don't have to the capability, mind you… Just get rid of one if you can, because I want to do something about the other one myself if possible, just to give you a taste of my power!"

"Please allow me to show you a demonstration," said Hood. She then approached one of the battleships at the docks and pointed her hand at it. In an instant, the ship glowed with blue light and then disintegrated into small blue cubes that flew over to her and gathered at her back, where they fused together to become her rigging.

"Incredible!" commented a random Marine. The others were impressed when they saw this as well.

"What sort of power is this?!" said another one.

"Is it a kind of Devil Fruit?" said another one.

"But I heard they're not from this world, so it might be something they are capable of doing there and not actually Devil Fruit related," said yet another.

Kaga heard them saying this and took note of the term Devil Fruit, wondering what it was.

Hood approached the shore and looked at one of the two rocks Garp talked about. Pointing her cannons at it, she took careful aim before pointing her hand at it, and in an instant, the cannons fired.

A second later, the rock in the distant was blown apart in a fiery explosion. The Marines were amazed to see this, as they were not expecting a weapon the size of this to be able to cause such a destruction.

"Impressive!" commented Garp. "Not bad, being able to take out the whole thing in a single blow!"

"Our riggings may be small compared to the size of our true forms, but that doesn't mean the firepower is any weaker," Hood told him. "All the massive firepower of our guns are compressed into a smaller form yet still maintaining the same destructive firepower. That is what make us ships dangerous and powerful. Small but deadly!"

"Heheh! Exceeded your expectations, huh?" Shigure said to Garp with a smug look. "You shouldn't underestimate just because we look like harmless girls. The humans back in our world knows better than to look down on us just because of our appearances and the size of our guns!"

"Looks can indeed be deceiving, which is why the same can be applied to an old man like me! Now let me show you what I am capable of!" said Garp in an enthusiastic manner. He then commanded for cannonballs to be brought to him.

A couple of Marines carried over a crate containing multiple cannonballs over to Garp, who cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms a bit. The ship girls wondered what he was going to do, and some of them assumed that he was going to use some sort of cannon to launch those cannonballs at the rocks.

"Hope my age hasn't held me back!" he said with a grin as he grabbed a cannonball, an action that made the ship girls even more confused, especially when they hadn't seen any form of weapon around him to make use of those ammos.

Koby and Helmeppo were close by when this happened, and they looked excited. "Oh boy! Vice Admiral Garp's Meteor Fist! I can never get tired of seeing this!" said Koby.

"Those girls are in for a big surprise, I bet!" said Helmeppo.

Garp let out a cry before picking up the cannonball and flinging it like a baseball towards the rock. Immediately after throwing it, he picked up a second one at a fast speed and threw it again. He threw five cannonballs in a row with a speed almost equivalent to a machine gun firing bullets.

The five cannonballs shot through the air as if they were fired from cannons and struck the rock one after another in different spots, and then said rock shattered into pieces as if blown up by explosives.

It was an understatement to say that the ship girls had looks of shock on their faces. They were at a complete loss of words upon seeing what Garp did. Even ones who were normally inexpressive such as Alabama and Gascogne had widened eyes.

"What… the…?! Did he just throw those cannonballs in the same way as launching them from a cannon?!" said Z23 in disbelief.

"How is that possible…?!" said Enterprise.

"Impressive…!" exclaimed Belfast.

Looking at where the rock used to be, Garp said, "Could've been better… Age really has caught up with me!"

"But that was still impressive, Vice Admiral Garp!" Cody said to him. "Nobody else in the Marines can pull off something like that like you, or at least as good as you!"

Hearing this, Shigure said, "You're saying that he can do better than this when he was younger?! Are you kidding me?! What he did is inhuman! Is he even human?! Even the strongest ship girl can't do this!" She then ran over the crate of cannonballs and picked one up. "Are you sure this thing isn't rigged?!"

"Haha! Ya train your muscles enough, you can do something like this!" Garp told her with a laugh.

"We have never heard of humans in our world accomplishing this sort of task," Enterprise told him. "Even at his peak, a human should be unable to throw something as heavy as a cannonball like this…"

"So I guess the humans of your world aren't strong? Well, if you train hard enough, you can do what I did!" said Garp.

"Ship girls, on the other hand, are likely to pull off that sort of feat, though none of us has been able to do anything to your extent…" said Enterprise. "We ship girls are stronger than humans and also more durable, capable of withstanding shots from cannons."

"That sounds pretty neat of you! I'm sure there are still some people who would love to have body characteristic like yours!" said Garp. "By the way, would you girls like to have a sparring match? This is a good chance to see what you are a capable of!"

"You would like to have a spar with one of us?" asked Enterprise, her interest rising.

"Not me, but I have in mind someone who should make a suitable opponent," Garp said to them. "Are you girls good in unarmed combat?"

"Most of us have at least basic training in close quarter combat, and some of us are exceptionally skilled," Enterprise told him. "However, because of our superior strength, we have never engaged in direct combat against humans, as our blows would be too much for them to handle."

"Fortunately for you, humans in this world are a lot tougher than the ones back in your world when they have enough training! You don't have to worry about hurting him too much!" He then turned to the side and called out, "Koby! Come and show them what you've got!"

Koby and Helmeppo were standing at the side this whole time. When the former heard this, he came over enthusiastically and obediently. "Yes, Vice Admiral Garp!"

Enterprise looked at the pink-haired boy as he came over. "So you would like to engage in a friendly spar against one of us?" she asked him.

"Vice Admiral Garp chose me, so I have no objections!" he told her. "In fact, I honored and even excited to be able to test my strength against inhabitants from another world! This is a great opportunity to see how strong I really am!"

"You sound like you have a fighting spirit in you!" Shigure said to him as she came close to him, and then she raised her claws. "How about the two of us go at it? Don't look at me like this! I'm a lot tougher than I look!"

"Is that so? That's good to know! That way, I don't have to hold back!" Koby said to her, sounding excited.

"All right, the both of you have fun!" Garp said to them.

As Shigure and Koby got into fighting stance, the others cheered for them. "Do your best, Shigure!" said Javelin.

"Show him the power of us ships!" said Z23.

"Don't hold back against her! Show her your power!" Helmeppo said to Koby.

"Are you sure the person you chose will be all right? Like Enterprise said, we ships can hit very hard, so much that a person can be killed from a fully-powered punch," Hood said to Garp.

"You don't have to worry about Koby! I'm sure he'll handle things just fine!" Garp assured her.

Shigure and Koby stared at each other for several seconds, and the former said, "Are you just going to stand there all day? Are you waiting for me to…"

Before she could finish speaking, Koby seemingly disappeared from her view, much to her surprise. The Marine appeared behind her in an instant and slammed the back of his hand into the side of her head, knocking her away. Shigure tumbled a bit before coming to a stop in a crouched position. "What the heck?!" she said in shock.

The other ship girls were surprised at what they saw as well. "Did he just teleport?!" said Akashi.

"No, he was moving so fast that the untrained eyes can't see him move!" said Zuikaku, who was equally surprised. "How can a human move this fast?!"

"Are you surprised?" Koby asked Shigure while in a fighting stance. "I can do more than just this!"

"Don't look down on me!" said an annoyed Shigure. She let out a roar-like cry while charging at him at a fast speed. She swung her claws at him, but he moved out of the way at fast speed again and struck her in the body from the side.

Gritting her teeth angrily, Shigure swung her claws around wildly in an attempt to hit him, but he kept on dodging them with ease thanks to his fast speed. Seeing that Shigure was having trouble with the fight, Kaga called out to her, "Shigure, calm down! Focus on your enemy carefully and you will be able to track his movements! Being frustrated won't help you!"

"Right, I have to calm down!" Shigure thought to herself after hearing that. "Pay attention to his movements and time your strikes correctly!"

She paid close to attention to Koby running around her. When he closed in on her again to strike, she swung her claws at him, this time making sure to aim properly. She was sure she would hit him, but to her surprise, Koby stepped to the side in a split second and dashed past her, striking her in the back.

"Ow! I was sure I was going to hit you!" said Shigure while rubbing the back of her neck.

"All right, I'll stop moving around so much and fight you head on," Koby said to her.

"Then you better get ready!" Shigure said to him.

Koby charged at her and began attacking punches and kicks. Shigure was immediately overwhelmed by how fast he was attacking and could barely keep up with the hits, despite moving her arms the fastest she could. "What the?! He's good! Is he even human?!" she thought. She tried to find an opening to strike back, but Koby was attacking so intensely that she couldn't find any.

Eventually, things became too much for her to handle, and Shigure was struck in various parts of the body by Koby nonstop. After several hits, she flew back and tumbled onto the ground on her back hard. The ship girls were shocked to see this. "Shigure!" gasped Javelin.

"Sorry if I went too far…" Koby apologized the ship girl as he went up to her to see if she was all right.

She sat back up while rubbing the back of her head. "Ow…"

"Are you all right?" he asked her.

"Cannon shots hurt more than this, so I'll live for sure," Shigure said to him.

"Haha! Hope your eyes are open now! The humans of this world are not to be underestimated!" said Garp while laughing a bit.

"Incredible! He moved so fast and struck with enough force to knock down a ship! Humans shouldn't be able to do that!" said Ayanami in disbelief.

"Is this what all the humans of this world are capable of?" wondered Bismarck.

"Now that I got a better look at him, I think he's quite handsome!" commented Taihou.

"How are you able to move around so fast?" Enterprise asked Koby in interest.

"It's one of the many techniques of the Rokushiki fighting style," Koby explained to her. "It's called Soru, which allows a person to move at incredibly fast speeds!"

"How is it possible to obtain a speed like this?" Akagi asked him.

"Through intense training, anyone can pull this off!" Koby told her.

"But this doesn't make sense-nya!" claimed Akashi. "Humans shouldn't be able to move that fast! There should be a limit to how fast a person can move!"

"I don't know how the humans of your world are, but that's how it is in this world. Humans are capable of super strength and super speed with enough training!" Koby told her.

"It seems that the humans of this world are very different compared to the ones back in our world," concluded Belfast.

"Also, when I was fighting your friend, I used a haki as well," explained Koby.

"Haki?" said Zuikaku curiously.

"You don't have haki in your world?" Koby asked them, and they all shook their heads in response. "Well, it's an energy that flows through all living things that can be harnessed to make oneself stronger. There are three types of haki, the most common two being armament and observation. With the former, you can strengthen yourself to hit very hard." He folded his hand into a fist, and then it became black.

The ship girls were surprised to see this, and some of them leaned forward to get a better look. "Your fist changed color!" said Laffey.

"This is what happens when you coat your body in haki," Koby told them. "Once coated in haki, it can become so tough that even bullets cannot penetrate the skin!"

"Incredible!" said Graf Spee in awe.

"What's more, you can even channel haki into weapons to strengthen it!" said Helmeppo as he came over with one of his kukri knives in his hand. He channeled haki into the blade, causing it to turn black.

"This is interesting," said Zuikaku as she observed the darkened blade. She wondered if ship girls are also able to use haki to strengthen themselves.

"I used armament haki when I fought your friend," said Koby while looking at Shigure. "You said that your kind have tough bodies that can withstand cannon shots, so I figured that I should strengthen myself a bit in order to hurt you."

"No wonder… Normally, we won't feel much from a human's punch," said Shigure. "In the very least, they can't send us flying with a punch. They usually end up hurting their fists trying to hit us."

"Anyway, the second type of haki is called observation haki," continued Koby. "With it, you can detect the presence of living things around yourself and even predict your opponents' moves. That was how I was able to avoid your attack."

"Predicting attacks? How is that possible?!" asked Z23.

"This sounds very useful," said Alabama with interest.

"By the way, may I ask something?" asked Kaga. "Earlier, I overheard some of the Marines talking about something called a Devil Fruit and wondered if our ability to change our riggings into ships have something to do with it. What is a Devil Fruit?"

"Oh, Devil Fruit. It's a special kind of fruit that is said to be cursed by the sea devil," explained Koby.

"Sea devil?" said Akagi curiously.

"I don't if it's literal or just metamorphic, but either way, people who eat these fruits will obtain special powers that come in various kinds," continued Koby. "However, you will become unable to swim. When you fall into deep water, you will become paralyzed and sink uncontrollably."

"That sounds terrible…!" said Javelin.

"Such a kind of thing exists…?" said Bismarck in disbelief.

"But wouldn't that be impractical for people like you who go out to sea often?" asked Dido.

"Yeah, that's true, but that didn't stop people from eating Devil Fruits," said Koby. "Despite this severe weakness for people like us who travel the seas often, it is still something sought by many. Some of the most powerful people in this world are Devil Fruit users. Some of the Marines present have Devil Fruit powers too! For example, our fleet admiral… He has the power of the Mag Mag Fruit, which allows him to change into magma!"

The ship girls were surprised to hear this. "Magma?! As in the stuff in the volcano?!" asked Z23.

"Yeah! The fruit allows his body to become intangible due to turning into magma every time he gets hit!" said Koby, sounding excited. "Fleet Admiral Sakazuki is incredibly powerful because of this!"

"Also a freaking scary guy…" said Helmeppo, shuddering a bit. "You don't want to get on his bad side, trust me…"

"Nya! This world sounds really exciting for a scientist like me!" said Akashi with interest. "I would really love to study more about these Devil Fruits and even haki-nya!"

"Requesting permission to ask question about Devil Fruit," said Gascogne, and when Koby asked her what he wanted to know, she said, "If one is to consume more than one Devil Fruit, what is the result? Does one obtain additional power?"

"That's not possible, because it has been proven that if you eat more than one Devil Fruit…" said Koby.

"You blow up. Simply put: you die," said Helmeppo, interrupting him.

"You… explode…?" said Javelin, sounding freaked out.

"That's what happens if you go hungry with power," said Garp. "It's best to be content with what you have."

"So… any of you ladies would like to take on me? I'm not letting Koby take all the fun!" said Helmeppo as he stepped forward with both his kukri knives in his hands.

Gangut began to step forward. "Why the heck not? I'm in need of excitement right now, so…" But Alabama interrupted her while stepping ahead.

"I shall be your opponent," said the Native American ship as she readied her scythe.

Helmeppo brandished his knives as he got into a fighting stance. "Quite a choice of weapon you've got there, but you'll have to be good with it if you want to intimidate me!"

"I am good with it," Alabama assured him, her face being in its usual expressionless state. As soon as she said that, she dashed forward at a blinding speed, so much that it looks like she disappeared.

Thanks to his observation haki, Helmeppo was able to react in time to block her scythe swing with his knives. "Whoa! That's fast!" he thought. "I could've get hit!"

Alabama then swung her scythe at him over and over, and he was able to block each of the hits with his knives. She then dashed around to his back to strike him, but he jumped out of the way in time.

"Wow! She's fast!" Koby commented in excitedly as he watched Alabama fight.

"You can say that speed is what she excels at!" Enterprise told him.

Helmeppo wasn't a slow person himself. In fact, he is capable of moving faster than a normal human can. With his knives gripped firmly in his hands, he ran and jumped around swiftly while swinging them at Alabama in an attempt to hit her.

Alabama was even faster than him, however, and even without haki to predict incoming moves, her speed allowed her to dodge each of his strikes with ease and outmaneuver him. Helmeppo found himself being overwhelmed by her.

"Dang! She's good! She looks a lot better than that Shigure girl Koby fought!" thought Helmeppo as he fought his best.

Pulling back her scythe, Alabama spun nonstop while closing on Helmeppo, who held up his kukri knives to block the spinning scythe attack. Each of the hits were strong, and eventually, the knives were knocked out of his hands, much to his shock, and into the air.

Acting fast, Helmeppo leaped into the air after his knives to grab them. He landed after grabbing them, but immediately after that, Alabama dashed into him, grabbing him by the collar from the side and then forcefully pinning him onto the ground. She then pointed the tip of her scythe's blade close his neck and said with an intimidating stare, "Yield."

Her stare sent chills down Helmeppo's spine, and he immediately said, "I surrender…" Alabama got up after hearing that, allowing him to stand up. "Phew… That was close… As much as I hate to admit it, you're actually better than me…!"

"You still did great, Helmeppo," Koby said to him while walking up to him to pat him in the shoulder.

"Haha! Looks like you need more training, but that was a great fight nonetheless!" said Garp while laughing. "I have the feeling that you girls should be able to hold your own out there!"

"Oh, trust me when I say we are a force to be reckoned with once we got out there with our riggings! No soul will be making it back to the port to tell the story!" said Akagi, sounding somewhat sinister.

"Still, don't be too cocky. I know some folks out there who can make a quick work out of you if you're not careful. No offense," Garp told the ship girls.

"I do agree it is unwise to go up against enemies we do not know about, so we will need more information on the kind of enemies we are dealing with here in order to win," Bismarck told him.

"I'm sure that can be arranged," Garp told her. "Anyway, you must be tired, or perhaps you would like to know where you will be resting?"


Soon afterwards, the ship girls were led by a couple of female Marines into a building close to the main HQ. It was a building for housing guests to the island and was therefore rather high-class. Once in there, they were accompanied by some maids, who greeted the ship girls with great manners as if the latter were important people.

The ship girls were taken by the maids into a large Japanese style room. "Wow! This looks just something Sakura Empire would make!" commented Javelin, looking around the place.

"It looks exactly the same, actually," Ayanami told her.

"We hope you find this room fitting for your taste," the maids said to them simultaneously.

"It's very good!" Bismarck said to them. "Thank you for your service!"

"If you need any service during your stay, please use the Transponder Snail over there on the table," one of the maid explained while pointing her hand at a snail with a telephone attached to it placed on a table at the corner of the room. "That is a line reserved for calling maids."

The odd-looking snail piqued the interest of some of the ship girls, especially Akashi. Javelin, Z23, and Akashi huddled around the snail, which seems to be sleeping, to get a better look at it. "This is a snail, right…?" asked Javelin.

"There's a phone attached to its shell…" said Z23.

"Is this real…?" wondered Akashi.

Curious, one of the maids asked the other ship girls, "Do you not have Transponder Snails where you come from?"

"Yeah… We use normal telephones," replied Enterprise. "We don't use snails or any kind of animals for communication, and I doubt it's even possible in the first place…"

"Well, here in our world, these kinds of snails are used as communication devices," another maid explained to her. "It's very easy. Just press the button on its shell and we maids will be notified!"


Even though the room was large, it was still too small to house 20 ship girls, so only 10 of them stayed in this room, while the remaining 10 were taken to a room next door.

The first room consisted of Javelin, Ayanami, Laffey, Z23, Enterprise, Belfast, Gascogne, Hood, Dido, and Alabama.

The second room consisted of Akagi, Kaga, Akashi, Gangut, Shigure, Bismarck, Taihou, Prinz Eugen, Graf Spee, and Zuikaku.


In the first room, some of the ship girls were looking around the room for fun, while some sat down to relax. Looking out the window with Laffey, Javelin commented, "This place looks nice! There are more buildings than our headquarters! I think I want to take a stroll to learn more about this place!"

"I hope they have good alcohol here," said Laffey.

Seated in the middle of the room and with her hat removed, Enterprise said, "Well, it's been a strange day… I still can't believe we're in an alternate universe…"

"The Sirens truly are terrifying to be able to pull off something like this…" said Belfast. "I have no idea that Wisdom Cubes are capable of doing something like that…"

"Clearly that is not a normal Wisdom Cube," said Enterprise. "Akashi said she was going to study more about it and see if it can help us get back to our own world. Until then, we'll have to cooperate with the Marines here in dealing with their pirate problem."

"Pirates, huh? We don't really have something like that back in our own world," said Hood. "They are things of the past, and with the rise of Sirens, there's even lesser possibility of them showing up at sea."

In the other room, the ship girls there were having a similar discussion. "Until we find a way to return to our own world, we will have to help the Marines here battle the pirates," Bismarck told everyone in the room. She then turned to Akashi. "I trust that you can find out more about that golden Wisdom Cube?"

"Leave it to me-nya!" said Akashi, raising her hand in confidence.

"Dealing with those pirates will be a piece of cake! Luck will be on our side for sure when we battle them!" said Shigure, sounding confident.

"Yet you lost to one of the Marines," Kaga reminded her, which made the latter annoyed.

"I didn't have my rigging that time! If I have it, I wouldn't have lost, or least fight on par with him!" she insisted.

"In any case, we'll have to be careful when dealing with the pirates," said Bismarck. "They have access to this haki thing and also Devil Fruits, which we haven't seen in action yet. In order to survive in this world, we will need more information on the threats we have to deal with."

"Knowing your enemy is the quickest way to victory! I agree with you on that!" said Akagi with a smirk.


TO BE CONTINUED

Sorry if the chapter ended a bit suddenly... I couldn't think of a good way to end this chapter...