Chapter 12
Straw Hat Pirates—part 4


While Luffy and Enterprise stared down at each other and got ready to fight, Gascogne and Jinbe began their battle first, grabbing the attention of those two.

"Lockdown target," said Gascogne as she aimed her guns at Jinbe, who was in a karate fighting stance, ready to take on her attacks.

"Show me what you've got, girl!" Jinbe said to her. Gascogne fired from her two largest guns. Using observation haki, Jinbe was able to see the shots coming at him at a slow speed. Rather than getting out of the way, which was possible for him, he hardened his arms with armament haki and swung one of them at the projectiles as they headed for him. An explosion was created when he struck them.

Jinbe was surpsingly unharmed. "Arabasque Brick Fist!" He punched the air, and at first nothing happened, much to everyone's confusion, and all of a sudden, Gascogne felt something hit her abdomen hard, and then she was shot back. However, she was able to plant her feet firmly on the ground to avoid falling back.

"Gascogne!" gasped Enterprise.

"Oh, I remember that move!" said Luffy.

"Moderate damage received," said Gascogne as she stood back up properly as if nothing happened. "Receiving similar blow will result in critical condition. Increasing evasion is necessary." After saying this, her entire body glowed with blue light, while holograms of French words and mathematic equations surrounded her. "Emotion Inhibition Module."

Seeing those holograms, Luffy became interested. "Cool! What are those?"

"I don't know what you did, but I'm not a fool to stand here and wait for you to unleash whatever secret weapon you have!" said Jinbe. "Arabasque Brick Fist!" He pulled back his fist before punching the air again, but Gascogne moved out of the way at a fast speed, resulting in the building wall behind her getting destroyed.

The ship girl dashed at him at a fast speed and rammed into him hard, pushing him back some feet. She then fired from her smaller guns, which Jinbe shielded himself from by hardening himself with haki.

Gascogne then circled around him at fast speed while firing nonstop, and despite haki protecting him, Jinbe knew that he couldn't keep up his defense forever without feeling weakened.

Gascogne then dashed straight at Jinbe with the intention of shooting him at point blank. Acting fast, Jinbe moved to the side just in time to avoid a gunfire from her smaller gun, and then he tried to punch her, but she moved out of the way at an unexpectedly fast speed.

"Wow! She can move so fast even when carrying those big metal things!" commented Luffy.

Gascogne moved back from Jinbe while firing at him continuously, and he kept on blocking them using haki. Knowing that the fight would go nowhere if he didn't fight more aggressively, Jinbe pulled back one fist while blocking with the other one. "5,000 Brick Fist!"

A shockwave was released from the punch, plowing through the projectiles and hitting Gascogne, who didn't see it coming and therefore failed to avoid it. The invisible force struck her like a solid object in the body and sent her flying back, hitting a building wall.

Cracks could be seen on Gascogne's rigging as the ship girl tried to stand up, but she was shaking constantly and had a hard time doing so. "Heav… Heavy damage received… Continued battle… unadvisable…"

"Gascogne! Don't force yourself!" Enterprise called out to her in concern. "You've done well enough! The opponent is not someone normal! Don't force yourself!"

"Then I guess I shall end this battle," Jinbe said to Gascogne. "If you know what's good for you, you will stay down, girl!"

"Don't think it's over, pirate!" Enterprise angrily said to Luffy and Jinbe. "My fellow Marine fought her best, so I shall continue the battle for her!"

"I don't really want to fight if possible, but if you insist…" Luffy said to her.

BGM: Boss Theme (Azur Lane)

"In the name of the Marines, I will arrest you here and now, Straw Hat Luffy!" said Enterprise as she fired an arrow made of light at Luffy, who simply moved his head to the side to avoid it. She then held out her flight deck, and in small bursts of light, miniature jets appeared on them and took off into the air while firing at him. Luffy leaped to the side to avoid them after having sensed their presence with haki. "Cool! What are those?" he asked.

The planes turned to him again to fire, and he hardened himself with haki to block them before unleashing Gum Gum Gatling Gun to destroy all of them.

Immediately after they were destroyed, Enterprise fired another light arrow at Luffy, who once again dodged it. A blade came out of Enterprise's flight deck as the ship girl lunged at Luffy at a fast speed to stab him with it, and he dodged it. Enterprise continued to swing her blade at the pirate, but he dodged each of the swipes and thrusts with swift movements as if he knew where she was going to hit.

Eventually, he caught her blade after coating his hand with haki, and the grip was so strong that Enterprise was having a hard time moving it. "What strength!" she thought in surprise.

With a swing of his hand, Luffy flung Enterprise to the side, but she did a flip once in air before landing in a crouched position. She fired another light arrow at Luffy, who knocked it away with his hand, much to her surprise, and then he threw an extended punch at her. "Gum Gum Pistol!"

Enterprise swiftly dodged to the side before attempting to cut it with her blade, only to find herself hitting something as hard as steel when the blade met his skin. Luffy pulled back his fist before throwing another punch from his other arm, and she dodged it once again.

Two more jets appeared on her flight deck, and after taking flight, they grew into a size larger than the previous jets. One of them flew into the sky, while the other one headed for Luffy and fired nonstop.

Luffy dodged those bullets before reaching out his hand towards the jet, hoping to grab it, but it got out of the way. "That thing looks cool! I want a better look at it!" he thought. Enterprise suddenly appeared before him and thrust her blade forward, but he dodged it by bending back his body. He performed a back flip immediately after that, and in doing so kicked Enterprise in the chin, though she didn't seem to feel pain. "Whoa… Got distracted by that flying thing…"

The jet fired at him again, and he once again dodged the shots. The second jet appeared over him and dropped a bomb. He got out of the way, and the bomb created quite an explosion when it hit the ground, blowing him farther away. "Whoa! That was quite an explosion!" he thought.

He attempted to punch both the jets out of the air, but they traveled at such a speed that he couldn't catch them. "Looks like I have to get more serious," thought Luffy as his skin turned pink slightly while releasing steam.

This made Enterprise curious. "His body…? What's happening to it?"

When the jets headed for Luffy again, he unleashed a punch. Unlike before, this punch was so fast that his fist was barely visible as it moved through the air, and one of the jets was destroyed as a result.

The other jet continued heading for Luffy, and when his fist came back to him, he seemingly teleported into the air above the jet and slammed down his foot onto it, crushing it against the ground.

Enterprise was shocked at the speed that Luffy moved at, and then he turned to her and said, "Sorry about your toys."

"How did you?!" she said in shock as she readied her bow. "Either way, I've got a lot more of those!" Before she could do anything, however, Luffy slammed his palm into her abdomen so fast that she never saw it coming, and she was in great pain as she got knocked back through the air and through a building wall.

She slowly got back up while grunting in pain, and then she glared at Luffy. "You can still fight?" he asked her.

"Don't underestimate me!" she angrily said to him as she materialized several jets on her flight deck. All the jets charged at Luffy while firing nonstop.

Rather than running away, Luffy coated his fists with haki before unleashing a barrage of fast punches that plowed through the bullets and destroyed the jets.

Enterprise used this opportunity to run to the side and fired another arrow at him, but he stopped what he was doing and then zipped in front of her in a blink of an eye. He swung his fist at her head, but she was able to dodge it in the nick of time. Enterprise tried to kick him afterwards, but he got away at a fast speed before throwing a punch at her, socking her in the face.

After recovering from the punch, Enterprise fired an arrow made of purple light this time. Luffy once again tried to destroy it with his haki-coated fist, but when he did so, the arrow exploded in a blast of light that actually hurt him and sent him tumbling backwards. "Ow!"

Enterprise fired more purple arrows at him, each of them creating explosions when they hit, and Luffy kept on avoiding them. He "jump" around the place a bit before getting close to Enterprise to punch her, but she was able to block it in time using her flight deck.

After Luffy jumped back from performing the attack, Enterprise pointed the guns on the side of her flight deck at him and fired from them. Luffy dodged them while saying, "Whoa! It can do that too?!"

More bullets were fired as Luffy, who blocked them by coating himself with haki this time, and then he reached out his hand at the flight deck at a fast speed before pulling himself over. He slammed his head into Enterprise's forehead hard when he got in front of her. Enterprise's body bent back in an almost unnatural position, but planting her feet firmly against the ground, she was able to maintain her footing and then pulled back up her head to headbutt Luffy in the forehead with a powerful force, one strong enough to actually make him feel pain.

"Ow! You hit hard, and I didn't even sense haki in that hit!" said Luffy while rubbing his forehead.

With a look of anger, Enterprise lunged at Luffy to slice him with her flight deck's blade. He dodged the attack and the following ones a few times before fighting back. Luffy attacked with a fast speed, so fast that Enterprise wasn't able to dodge them completely and was struck quite a few times. Despite having a steel-like body due to being a warship, she was still feeling pain from the powerful blows strong enough to bend steel.

Despite this, Enterprise endured and kept on fighting back at close range. Alas, she was overwhelmed by Luffy and received more and more hits as seconds went by. After receiving several more hits, Luffy punched her in the head hard and smashed her onto the ground so hard that the latter cracked.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

BGM Ends

Luffy stepped back from the seemingly unconscious Enterprise, but upon closer inspection, he saw that she was still breathing heavily. "You can still fight?" he asked her.

"You will be continuing the fight with me instead!" said a new voice. A large amount of white smoke descended from the sky at fast speed all of a sudden, and Smoker materialized from it.

Luffy was shocked to see him. "It's smoke guy!"

"Vice Admiral Smoker!" said Jinbe, also looking surprised.

Smoker looked at the fallen Enterprise and Gascogne and said to them, "You both fought well, but now, I will handle the rest!"

"I don't want to fight you!" said Luffy nervously. "I don't care what you say, I'm outta here!" Moving fast, Luffy jumped onto a nearby building and fled as fast as he could.

"You're not getting away!" Smoker angrily said to him before turning into smoke to give chase. Seeing this, Jinbe also ran out of the place

Gascogne and Enterprise remained in their locations, conscious but in too much pain to get up. Gritting her teeth angrily, Enterprise said in her head, "Darn it! I lost… to a pirate…!"


Sanji's group were now on the run after having defeated Taihou and Shigure, with Tashighi and some more Marines chasing after them. "Get back here, you pirates!" Tashigi angrily shouted at them. She then swung her sword to unleash a large wind blade at them.

Sanji got in front of the incoming projectile and neutralized it with a haki-coated kick. "I know you are just doing your job, and I don't like to interfere with women when they are working their hardest, but unfortunately, I cannot allow myself and my crew to be arrested by you," Sanji said to him in a gentlemanly manner. "If possible, let us meet again under better circumstances, and I will treat you to something delicious!"

The Marines were angrily to hear this and shouted, "Don't you dare flirt with our captain!"

The Straw Hat Pirates kept on running until they finally made it to the dock, and they could see Zoro standing there. "Zoro! Get on the ship fast! We have to set sail!" Nami shouted at him.

Zoro's eyes widened when he saw Tashigi chasing them. "Darn! Not the woman I hate seeing the most!" he said in frustration before turning to get back onto the ship.

"Where's Luffy and Jinbe?! Are they back yet?!" cried Usopp.

"Just get back onto the ship and sail away first! Those two can easily make it on board!" said Nami.

"I'm here!" shouted Luffy as he was suddenly shooting through the air somehow immediately afterwards.

"Good timing!" said Robin.

Smoker was seen going after him, partially transformed into smoke. "Oh no! Not the smoke guy!" cried Usopp.

Smoker was actually closing in on Luffy when suddenly a column of water shot out from the sea and came down on top of Smoker, soaking him and forcefully sending him onto the ground. Luffy landed perfectly on the ship deck and then turned to the harbor to see his crewmates running aboard. Robin used her ability to sprout several hands underneath the Marines to "carry" them out of the place.

Jinbe suddenly leaped out of the water and landed on the ship deck. He was the one responsible for soaking Smoker after having jumped into the sea from somewhere beforehand and swimming at a fast speed all the way to this place. "I presume that it's time to set sail, captain?" he asked Luffy.

Luffy nodded. "Of course. I've had fun on this island, but too bad the Marines ruined everything, so we should be leaving now."

"Bad news, captain," Franky said to him. "I was looking over the horizon a while ago and saw a Marine ship there. Probably belongs to the smoke guy, staying put there under his command. But don't worry; there's no way they're trapping us here!"

"With my helming skills, we can surely escape them!" Jinbe told Luffy, who then gave orders to set sail right away.

The Thousand Sunny left the harbor just as the Marines arrived at the edge and shouted angrily at them. "You're not getting away, Straw Hat!" Smoker angrily said to them.

Javelin ran up to him and asked, "Vice Admiral, can I request your permission to use my true form against them?"

Smoker wondered for a few seconds what she meant by true form and then remembered what he was told about their origin. Desperate time calls for desperate measures, so he nodded, giving her the permission to do just that.

Javelin, with a serious look, jumped onto the water and "skated" across it as fast as she could. The Straw Hats were surprised that she was doing that. "Look at her running on water! She's just like you, Brook!" said Luffy.

"Yohoho! That is a surprise!" said Brook.

"How is she doing that?!" wondered Nami.

"I won't let you pirates get away!" Javelin said to the Straw Hats. She then leaped up high into the air, and then her rigging disintegrated into blue cubes and gathered underneath her, transforming into a large warship.

The sight amazed both the Marines and the Straw Hats, especially the latter.

"WHOA! WHAT AN AWESOME-LOOKING SHIP!" exclaimed Luffy.

"Where did she pull that out from?!" said Zoro in shock.

"YOWZA! LOOK AT THE DESIGN OF THAT SHIP!" exclaimed Franky with sparkling eyes. As a shipwright, the appearance of the destroyer amazed him to no end.

"Must be some kind of Devil Fruit that allows her to store something like that in a small size!" said Robin.

"The Marines have something like this?!" gasped Jinbe.

Standing on the deck of the destroyer, Javelin said to the Straw Hats, "I'm sorry for doing this, but as a Marine, it is my duty to take down pirates such as you!" She then pointed at the Thousand Sunny. "Torpedo, fire!"

As if through telekinetic control, the destroyer launched a single torpedo at her command, aiming for the Thousand Sunny. Realizing that there was something heading for them underwater, Jinbe hurriedly jumped underwater to see the torpedo heading towards their ship. Swinging his hand at the incoming torpedo, he was able to swerve its direction so that it headed elsewhere, in the direction of the Marine ship.

Javelin saw this from where she was and gasped in horror. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" she cried out to the Marine ship.

Unfortunately, the folks on the Marine ship didn't hear her and also didn't see the torpedo approaching, and after a few seconds, they were struck by the torpedo, much to their surprise. The Marines on the harbor saw what happened and were shocked as well. "What happened?!" asked Tashigi.

Jinbe jumped back onto the Thousand Sunny and suggested that they escape the scene as soon as possible. "Don't worry; Franky is preparing Coup de Burst to get us out of here!" Nami told him.

"You're not getting away!" Javelin angrily shouted at the Straw Hats before making the guns on the destroyer fire at the Thousand Sunny. Due to the small size of the pirate ship compared to the large destroyer, most of the shots missed, and the ones that actually hit surprisingly didn't do much damage to it other than leaving behind burnt marks.

Luffy saw another shot heading in their direction that would surely hit, so he inflated himself like a balloon and bounced the cannon shell back to the destroyer. Javelin freaked out and jumped out of the way to avoid the homecoming cannon shell, which struck the deck and exploded.

Sanji then appeared from a cabin and shouted, "Franky says the Coup de Burst is ready! Everyone, hang onto something!"

"All right! Time to get out of here!" exclaimed Luffy.

Everyone grabbed onto something, and Javelin was about to launch another torpedo at them when an explosion of air and water appeared from behind the Thousand Sunny, launching it far and high into the air at an incredible speed. In fact, the ship headed over the horizon and more or less disappeared from sight.

Javelin was completely dumbfounded to see this. "How… How did they do that…?!"

The Marines were shocked and disappointed to see that the Straw Hats had escaped to a degree that they wouldn't be able to catch up with them any longer. "They got away…" said a random Marine.

Smoker sighed and said, "Somehow, I'm not surprised by this outcome, but I'm still disappointed it ended up being true…"

"Happens often?" asked Laffey, who was standing next to him, and he nodded in response.


TO BE CONTINUED

That's the end of the Straw Hat Pirates arc! As you can see, this group of ship girls didn't fare well compared to the other two groups, who won their battles, albeit with great effort. It seems clear that at their current level, they are no match for the more powerful folks of this world. How will they make up for this? Stay tuned to find out!

Gascogne's skill Emotion Inhibition Module increases her evasion when low in health. Here, I translated it into increased speed, which also allows her to see things approaching at a slower speed, thus allowing her to dodge attacks with ease.