The scythe spun lazily over Hidan's head, each arc extending as the man let out handful after handful of cable.

"So, I gotta admit," he said, "I'm not expecting much out of this, but if you keep me entertained I might not just kill your blond-haired friend there right away. How about that as thanks for the arm, huh?"

"Oh, you smug piece of shit," growled Sanji, already being tended to by Chopper, "Just give me one second."

Not waiting, Luffy charged, ducking under the spinning scythe to Hidan in the chest. The rib-cracking strike sent the man flying backward through the air several dozen feet, but the man somehow managed to keep his balance as he flew backwards, letting the cable out until he had landed once again. It appeared that Luffy's punch had only succeeded in giving the regenerator some room to work with.

Not to be deterred, Luffy immediately began closing the distance once more. Still smiling, Hidan whipped the scythe around in a curving trajectory that met the rubber-man half-way. With ease, Luffy leapt off the ground, this time catapulting above it. The attack missed.

Then the blade seemed to speed up, completing its next rotation twice as quickly as before. Before Luffy could even reach the height of his jump, Hidan wrenched the weapon upwards directly on course for the airborne man. With a cry of alarm, Luffy tucked himself in, barely vaulting over the attack and then slamming both fists into the flat of the blade as he passed. This time he flew higher and higher, at least fifty feet up.

Hidan hauled in the cable, the scythe spinning rapidly inward.

"Hey! You lot!" the man shouted, looking to the rest of them, "You just gonna watch? Your friend can't change direction in air! He's gonna get sliced to pieces when he-"

[GOMU-GOMU SPEAR]

Hidan's words were interrupted when Luffy shot both of his legs down in a stamping kick. It struck the man dead on, slamming him violently into the ground and sending spiderweb cracks in all directions. Suddenly uncontrolled, the scythe sliced apart several small boulders before it buried itself in the ground.

Sanji, who was just about done being bandaged by Chopper, muttered, "Yeah, like we didn't all see that coming, you shitty zombie." Then, he shouted, "Hey Luffy! Hit him again for me, will you?"

Luffy landed with sure footing beside the impact crater, a small cloud of dust obscuring the ground. Hidan was plastered face first into the dirt, his back bent awkwardly by the blow. Luffy prodded the body with one foot.

"Hey. Hey. You okay? Wait, you're not even-" Luffy interrupted his own words, twisting around before he even knew what had happened. At that moment, the body disappeared, revealing a boulder in its place, and the real Hidan lunged from the ground behind him. In his grip, he held a small hand-held spear and he thrust it straight for Luffy's heart.

Luffy leapt backwards hoping to dodge the deadly strike, when two feminine arms sprouted from Hidan's side and pulled, throwing his aim off-course.

Several hundred feet away, Robin stood with her arms crossed over her chest, watching him carefully. Taking advantage of the opening, Luffy launched off the rocky ground and struck Hidan in the chest with a spinning punch.

[GOMU GOMU RIFLE]

Hidan flew backwards, spiraling through the air. Seeing his chance, Sanji dashed forward, intercepting the flying ninja with a stabbing kick that shot the man back into the air like an artillery shell.

[POITRINE SHOOT]

Arcing through the sky, Hidan tumbled toward the golden bell, then turned his wild aerial spin into something controlled. His scythe's cable was suddenly pulled taut and it began to circle him vertically. He was a hundred feet up and each spin of the scythe nearly touched the ground in a different place. It seemed uneven, uncontrolled, but strangely beautiful.

Then, the scythe struck at Sanji, moving almost too fast to follow. The cook was ready for it this time, dodging with no room to spare. Next, it spun around at Luffy, slicing a gouge out of the earth where he had been standing. Twice more it struck, and both attacks were barely avoided.

Turning his spin into a graceful landing, Hidan kept the momentum of the scythe going, the widening vertical slashes transforming into a horizontal sweep with a monumental heave. The cable let out, and it arced across the landscape like the knife of a vengeful god. Ready to dodge, Sanji and Luffy realized too late that it had changed course for Robin.

She was unperturbed, still staring impassively back at her opponent. With musical chiming, several pairs of Robin's arms sprouted from the wire controlling the scythe, each arm just a couple of feet away from the next. In a sequence, each pair reached out and clasped hands with its partner, then pulled against each other, dragging the rope up and off course. The attack missed by a wide margin. Still, Robin watched him.

If Hidan looked shocked by that display, it was nothing compared to how he looked when a similar pair of legs shot out of both of his ankles, kicking him off-balance, and he fell to the dirt. Pulled by the momentum of his own spinning scythe, he tumbled across the rocks, all of the extra limbs disappearing as he rolled. Quickly leaping back into the air, he landed some distance away on one corner of the golden belfry.

The Akatsuki warrior looked pissed.

"Okay, seriously, what the fuck is going on here?" he growled, spitting out a bit of dirt and his own blood to the ground below him. "I'm no stranger to weird jutsu, but no one felt like mentioning I was attacking the Freaky Motherfuckers Anonymous Meeting or something?"

Rather than speak, Luffy cracked his knuckles. Robin continued watching carefully. "That technique you performed-" she said, "Switching out with the boulder after you were hit. You would be a ninja, then? One of the Akatsuki?"

Hidan turned and gave her an odd look. "The fuck? How the hell do you know who we are? Pretty sure I'd remember some freak-ass arm-witch if I saw you before. That was you doing that, right? 'Cause if so, you just moved up to target number one. I gotta make sure so I know who to torture slowly."

Robin said nothing.

Each of the Straw Hats were spread out around the regenerator at long range. Luffy watched, ready to attack at a moment's notice. Nami had retrieved her Clima-Tact and had begun generating a cloud using the staff's atmospheric manipulation abilities, watching the fight nervously as she did so. Chopper stood in his Brute form, desperately hoping he wouldn't have to try dodging one of those scythe strikes.

As the foul-mouthed man spoke, Sanji stepped up. "Oh? You wanna try saying that one more time, you piece of trash? It's bad enough trying to attack a lady... but threatening her like that… is absolutely unforgivable!"

Off to the side, Chopper's eyes widened, "Eh?! It's worse?! Really?!"

"Don't listen to him, Chopper," said Nami.

With a manly cry, Sanji leapt into action, rushing in alone to engage the regenerator at close range. As he did so, Hidan made a strange twisting motion with his scythe and separated the lowest, smallest blade of the weapon, leaving him with his cord-tethered double-blade and a much smaller handheld kama. This done, Hidan dodged back behind the bell before Sanji had covered even half the distance between them.

"Lady, I'll bet you're the type that needs line of sight to aim those arms of yours, aren't you?" he shouted to Robin, disappearing behind the bell's golden curves. A moment and a few musical tones later, "FUCK! YOU CAN MAKE EYES, TOO?!" This was followed by a hollow *bong* noise and the bell shook slightly.

"Mr. Cook!" shouted Robin, "Please get him away from the bell, if you can! Even ruined like this, it is an important artifact!"

"Anything you say!" Taking advantage of the distraction, Sanji attacked, delivering a boulder-shattering kick that sent Hidan smashing to the ground beside the bell like a meteorite.

As Hidan recovered from the impact, Sanji leapt down after him to deliver a vicious spinning kick, which Hidan blocked with the haft of his double blade, and then moved to counterattack with his kama. This time Hidan was ready for Robin's attempt on his freedom. Just as the limbs started to unfold from his body he abandoned his attack, twisting himself over with the kind of flexibility only constant regeneration can give, and biting down hard on the offending arm until he drew blood. Back on the other side of the bell, Robin winced as her phantom limb exploded into a small shower of flower petals.

Without any defense from Sanji's strikes, Hidan took the bone-cracking kick undefended, but the man just laughed as he swung his large scythe back around to knock Sanji away with the wide flat side of the weapon. He licked his blood-stained lips. "Alright! I didn't think that'd work! Let's call it a miracle from the Lord! Serves you right, bitch!"

Hidan spun in a circle, letting out a long trail of the metal scythe's cabling, then whipping it up into the air. With a *CRACK* it snapped out, smacking Sanji aside as if he'd been kicked away.

Hidan was now free and unhampered. Bringing both scythes down to dig into the dirt, he spun repeatedly, using the blades themselves to kick up a cloud that completely obscured the vision of everyone watching.

Sanji cursed. Luffy and the others started moving into better positions, but as the cloud settled it seemed as though Hidan was content to stay inside the dust for now. Unable to see her target, Robin continued to watch carefully from an extreme distance.

When the dust finally settled, something had changed. Hidan looked different. His body was covered with patterns of pure black and pure white. Still naked from the waist up, it looked as though he had painted himself with a stylistic representation of a skeleton. Even his face was covered with a depiction of a grim, jawless skull. He had dropped the massive double-bladed scythe and now held only the smaller kama.

"You think you can try shutting me down and just get away with it, bitch?!" he shouted, a high-pitched snarl of madness entering his words, "A heathen like you deserves to die judged by the fires of Lord Jashin, but this time he has allowed me to be his arbiter!"

Seeing an opening, Luffy advanced. He had been looking for a good opportunity to get a hit in for a while, and now he brought one arm back. As the mad Akatsuki regenerator laughed, Luffy threw a punch a hundred feet long, striking him in the side.

There was a crunch as one of Hidan's ribs cracked again, and Robin cried out and fell to the ground. Her hands went to her side before she realized what was happening. It felt like she'd been shot with a pistol, but she saw that there was no damage to her clothes. The rest of the Straw-Hats whirled toward her, shouting to see if she was okay.

Even as shocked as she was, she made the connection. He had done this to her, somehow. There wasn't really any other explanation. It had happened at exactly the same time. Breathing heavily, she looked up, fixing the Akatsuki member with her gaze. In the background, the sounds of rapid-fire explosions were clearly audible from back towards the ship.

Hidan sneered, his skull-face warped from the effort. "That's right! I love this part. All of you standing around wondering what the fuck just happened. She's a much better target than blondie over there. You all look like you care what happens to her, don't you? Why don't you just try and kick my ass, huh?" He raised the small scythe to his own shoulder. "Or maybe I should help you?"

"No!" cried Robin. Eight different arms sprouted from Hidan's limbs and back, placing him in a thorough submission hold. Bent backwards, he started to laugh. Then, slowly fighting against his almost total lack of leverage with a titanic strength, he began to un-bend, Robin's arms straining to hold him back.

"Sorry, lady," he said, "but you'll need a lot more than that to keep me pinned down for real."

Gasping with effort, Robin called out for help, "He's linked his body to mine somehow! When he takes a wound, it hurts me in return!"

"LUFFY! YOU HURT HER!" shouted Sanji.

"I didn't mean to! Robin, I'm sorry!"

"He heals!" she cried out, "He'll gladly wound himself to hurt me!"

Chopper watched in horror as she fought the man's grip on his scythe. What could he do about this? He had hung back so far away from the fight that he wasn't even nearby. Could he even help? He had to try something, or Robin would… she'd…

Luffy ran straight at man, still too far away to do anything other than punch him.

"Shit!" cursed Sanji, "The hell are we supposed to do to stop something like this?! Hey, isn't this the part where you start monologuing and telling us your weakpoints, or something?!"

'Weakpoints?' thought Chopper. 'I can help with that, can't I?'

Hidan just laughed, then drew the scythe slowly across his shoulder. Fighting him every step of the way, Robin gasped in pain as blood began to stain her clothing. Galvanized into action, Chopper reached into a side pocket of his pack and pulled out a small yellow ball between his two opposable hooves. Without further thought, he broke it between his teeth.

[RUMBLE]

The Rumble Ball was his unique creation. A medicine that disrupted his Zoan-type fruit's morphic field and allowed him to transform freely outside the normal limits of his original three types of Animal/Human/Hybrid. Through practice, he had discovered several additional forms. The Rumble Ball came with certain limitations, most notably that he wouldn't be able to use it again for the next several hours, but for the next three minutes he would have access to the full potential of his Devil Fruit.

But his was no ordinary fruit. Where a normal Zoan-type focused on enhancing a human's physical traits, he was not a human. As a reindeer who had eaten the Human-Human Fruit, his greatest gains had been in the creation of an unparalleled mind that had enabled him to become a fully-trained doctor at such a young age. Now, he focused that to its limits.

[BRAIN POINT]

Raising his hooves, he focused in on his target. His processing capabilities began ramping up as his thoughts sharpened. His opponent's technique had a weakness, and his actions would make it clear. Chopper just had to trust in his new family to buy some time.

[Technique creates a link between two people. Certain limitations or requirements exist. Last words before he revealed this ability were "I didn't think that'd work." That represents the point that he succeeded in fulfilling those requirements.]

Chopper whimpered a bit as Robin lost a grip on the man's arm, and the tip of the scythe cut once more into the flesh of her side. He had to focus. He couldn't waste time worrying.

[He focuses on the religious symbolism of the technique. From his glee, he sees this as a ritual. Delusional, perhaps, but he appears to believe in its significance.]

Then, Luffy arrived. Hidan watched him, grinning in a way only a person filled with confidence in their own invincibility can. His cruel smile changed into open-mouthed disbelief as Luffy jumped spread-eagle straight at him, stretching out all four limbs as he flew. Looking like the angry half of an octopus, Luffy struck the man, arms and legs wrapping bonelessly around his body. Off in the distance, Robin collapsed from the effort of holding the scythes back, and now Hidan fought with Luffy's full-body submission hold. He stumbled backward several steps from the impact.

[He had a condition to fulfill before activating the ritual. The last interaction he had with Robin was biting her hand. Physical contact? No, he touched her hands earlier in the fight. Blood? He cut Sanji earlier in the fight, but didn't transform. He indicated that Sanji could have been an appropriate target as well at the moment he drew his blood. He licked his lips. Consume the blood of an opponent? Highest probability.]

"Aw balls! Get off me, you stretchy freak!" Hidan said, straining against his bonds. Taking a few steps forward, he returned to his original position, then squirmed and fought until he had a few inches of freedom to move. Twisting his wrist backward, he struck, bringing the scythe's blade around to stab into Luffy's side.

"Gah! Dammit! I won't let you hurt Robin!" shouted Luffy.

The strikes were shallow, Hidan having almost no freedom to move, but he struck again and again, stabbing into Luffy all along his side. Luffy shouted his rage and pain right into his opponent's grimacing face.

[The blood isn't important right now. He stepped forward when Luffy pushed him back. Was he about to lose balance? No…]

Chopper adjusted his gaze downward. There! At his feet was a series of marks and circles that looked like they had been drawn in blood. Judging by the amount used, it would have had to have been his own. Luffy's attack had pushed him nearly to the edge, but the man had walked right back to its center.

[Weakpoint Identified]

"Luffy! Sanji!" Chopper shouted, "He's standing in a blood circle! Get him out of it and the effect should end!"

"Aw, you tanuki motherfucker," cursed Hidan.

Sanji didn't say anything, he just charged, bullrushing the both of them out of the circle until Luffy and Hidan tumbled across the ground. The black-and-white patterned man squirmed to get free from Luffy, slowly forcing himself back onto his feet, but doing very little to dislodge his hanger-on.

"Okay, now you're really pissing me off," Hidan grunted, pushing himself step by step back towards the circle.

"He's not going back to normal!" Sanji shouted, sounding deeply worried.

What was wrong? The technique hadn't ended?

[He is returning to the site of the circle.]

Chopper hurried to share his thoughts. "Don't let him get back to the circle! I think you can hit him again now!"

"Shit, you sure about that?"

"No! I don't know for sure!"

"Hell if I'm gonna hit him if we aren't sure!"

"Maybe breaking the circle would help!"

"You sure about that?"

"NO! I don't know!"

Cursing, Sanji dashed to the circle and broke the ground it was inscribed upon with a smashing heel-strike. In moments, Hidan's disturbing skin coloration had begun to fade away.

"Oh, that is it," said the psychopath, slowly grabbing another one of his extending hand-spears from the remains of his robe, "You guys are so dead."

Sensing an imminent attack, Luffy disconnected, unwrapping himself from the man. With a growl, Hidan stabbed out, narrowly missing, and then kicked, sending Luffy flying. Still, Robin was safe. Chopper wanted to cry out with relief, but something was bugging him.

[Remaining assets: Sanji's blood on the largest scythe blade. Luffy's blood on the smallest.]

"Everyone!" shouted Chopper, "He's still got Sanji and Luffy's blood! We have to get that away from him!"

Nami, who had so far remained out of the fight, suddenly reacted to this statement. "I think I can do something about that!" Adjusting her Clima-tact staff with hurried motions, she glanced up to the dark cloud she had created that was now covering much of the opening to the crater. As she did so, Sanji and Luffy resumed the offensive, driving multiple hits home to occupy the regenerator. The melee was fierce and furious, neither side willing to give ground.

Arranging her three-part staff into a triangle-shaped formation, she spun in place and hurled it up into the heart of the cloud.

[THUNDERSTORM TEMPO]

A bolt of lightning speared down from the sky, arcing straight to the best conductor around: the golden bell. The sight was spectacular in the gloom. Then, rain began to fall. It poured in torrents from the unnaturally dense cloud, soaking the battlefield, their clothing, and Hidan's discarded weaponry in particular.

In moments, the muddy blood was unusable.

Hidan just shook his head, water pouring down his skin and washing away all the accumulated grime. All of a sudden he seemed much calmer than he had been before. "Man, you guys just have to make this harder on yourselves, don't you?"

"Speak for yourself," said Sanji, pointing at the regenerator with threatening disdain, "We've got your number now. We've been pretty much kicking your ass this whole time."

Hidan grinned. "Really? I mean, if you want to look at it like that, then go ahead. But the way I see it? You're wounded, tentacle-boy over here is bleeding pretty badly, the arm-witch is just about out of this fight, and I'm still in perfect health. You really want to keep this up?"

Sure enough, now that the blood was gone, Hidan was showing no signs of injury. He looked just as healthy and hale as he had at the start of it all.

Nami was the first to call it. "Everyone! Robin needs help! We need to get her back to the ship!"

Hidan laughed, and began to charge, only to be interrupted by another pair of legs sprouting from his ankles. This time he was ready for it, turning his face-first sprawl into the start of an acrobatic handspring.

"Nice try, bitch, but it's not gonna- Wha-?!" Hidan's smug words were interrupted when Luffy's outstretched arms suddenly grasped onto both of his ankles. Caught mid-leap, Hidan was suspended horizontally for just a moment before the straw-hatted man began to pull him around. Understanding came to him in an instant.

"Oh, balls-deep," said Hidan.

Roaring, Luffy began to spin, whirling the man in a circle. Faster and faster he spun, rubber limbs stretching further and further out on each revolution.

[GOMU-GOMU PINWHEEL]

This didn't please Hidan.

"FfffuuuUUUUUUuuuuuUUUUUUUuuuuuUUUUUUuuuuu-!"

Finally, Chopper saw an opening. "Luffy! Throw him at the bell!"

With a rising scream, Luffy let Hidan loose like a rock leaving a sling. The ringing impact resonated throughout the crater. Wounded and broken, at least for a moment, Hidan began to slide down the side.

Then, lightning struck.

Flesh scorching, electricity arcing through his nerves, the regenerator found his muscles clenching against his will, his supernaturally strong fingers digging into the warm gold. When the shocks finally stopped, Hidan fell to the ground in a smoking heap. In seconds he was on his feet again, then he collapsed as his abused nerves continued to randomly fire.

Nami was ready with her orders. "We're getting out of here! Chopper, grab Robin! Luffy and Sanji, come here and bring these bags back to the ship!"

"What? What's in the bags?" asked Sanji, already moving.

Nami's grin was as sudden as it was unexpected. All she said was one word. "Gold!"

Chopper had barely half a minute remaining on his Rumble Ball, and he decided to make it work as best he could. Transforming into a high-speed running form he dashed to Robin then shifted to his Jumping Point. As soon as she had a firm grip on his back, he was into the air and out of the crater. Leaving the rogue regenerator behind, the Straw-Hats made quick progress back toward the ship.

Then they heard the sound of a warning gunshot pass over their heads.

Behind them, Marines were pouring out of the tree-line near the crater.