Wishfull-star:ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ
IIRoxaII: /╲/\( •̀ ω •́ )/\╱\ This spider will come through the screen and save you if you are actually indeed being possessed. I got your back.
Rayleigh looked very happy with the conversation as well. Shakky came back, unbothered by missing a big chunk of the conversation. She was so laid back, and not even angry with her husband being missing for months and selling himself as a slave to get more money to gamble away some more. What a cool lady. Though Nami clearly didn't agree with this. She didn't say anything, though.
"Well, you needed your ship coated, right?" Luffy went and sat with Zoro, and they spoke of how to get the ship coated and then down to Fishman Island. Today was a good day. They just had to wait out the admiral finding them, and continue their adventure.
"Wait, Rayleigh-san," Robin said. "I have a question. "What exactly is the 'Will of D'? I found an inscription on the Sky Island poneglyph, and it had his name on it. How did you write that there? Is it possible you know what happened in the void century 900 years ago?!" She was desperately wanting these answers, like how Luffy had felt.
"We sure do. Truth is, we found out the entire history." Robin's face went blank in shock. "But my girl… don't get too heated up. You should all keep on going, one step at a time. I'd say that we, and the people of Ohara, may all have been a bit too hasty. Even if I were to tell you everything right now, you would be able to do nothing as you are now. You take a good long look at the world, and who knows? You may even reach a different conclusion than we did. If, however, you wish to know regardless, I'll tell you everything."
Luffy was smiling, knowing Robin's answer. Her face softened into a smile. "No, I'll continue on my journey."
"Our journey! We wanna know, too, you know?" Luffy said brightly. Zoro took his hand in his.
"One day, you'll know the truth. It was a real shame, what happened to your hometown of Ohara. But don't go thinking Roger was able to decipher those texts. We were mere pirates, could never hope to match the geniuses who deciphered and understood those texts. Roger had the power to hear "the voice of all things". That's all there is to it."
"Heh, maybe it's magic," Luffy said.
Zoro snorted, and said, "Maybe. Who knows? Well, Rayleigh knows, but he's not tellin' us anything."
"Don't want 'em to."
"Exactly."
Usopp said, "You really don't wanna know if the One Piece even exists?"
"No! Who wants to go on a boring adventure like that? If he told me all about all this stuff then I would never set sail again. I want the One Piece, but I also want to have the best adventure on my way to becoming the Pirate King!"
Rayleigh said, "If you keep sailing along the Grand Line, things will only get harder, people will only get stronger. Do you have the will to conquer the Grand Line ?"
"I don't wanna conquer anything!" Rayleigh looked surprised. "It's just the person with the most freedom in the whole world is the Pirate King!" Luffy said with a bright laugh. Shakky laughed and said she was on his team, too. Luffy sure was good at making friends. And enemies, but friends a lot, too.
The coating would take three days, and an admiral was looking for them. So, they were to separate and keep the guy away from their ship as Rayleigh coated it for them. Three days to just mess around and avoid authorities. Should be interesting for some and terrifying to others.
"I'll be taking your ship somewhere else to coat. Take this. It's a vivre card. We'll meet up in three days in the evening. It'll take that long for quality work."
"What about my blood? It's all on the ship."
"You have three today, right? You should be fine," Usopp said.
"What if I explode again?"
"Just take moss head with you." Luffy didn't like it seeming like Zoro was just there for food.
"It's fine. Again, only if necessary, okay? If Luffy wants some just for waiting some, then no. Only on scheduled time. Understand?" Chopper said sternly. They both nodded.
Hachi, Caimie and Pappag all heard it all, and so they all knew more than most, and they moved on easily from Luffy being what he was. They might still have had some reservations, but they had all talked about both him and Roger going out of control, so probably. They would wait for their ship to be coated and would then lead them down to the underwater island.
It was a great day! They'd all learned so much, and met new and interesting people. Luffy had a true hope for both goals, and couldn't be more excited to learn and experience more. Luffy's group was Luffy, Chopper and Zoro. Chopper for Zoro and Zoro for Luffy. Usopp was with Franky and Robin, Brook with Nami and Sanji.
But before they even split up they ran into someone. A huge guy in a black and gray outfit. His chest was the larger part of his body. He had bushy hair similar to Usopp's under a hat with teddy bear ears. "Luffy, get back!" Zoro shouted, surprising him. "It's a warlord!"
"WHAT?! How do you know another one?" he asked in shock. The warlord took his glove off, and Sanji told him not to touch it or it would send a shock wave. Luffy backed up. They all jumped out of the way when a bright light shot out and blew up the area it hit. "That's not a shock wave! And that's not a person!"
"The hell do you mean it's not a person?!"
"It's a machine!" Luffy coughed out. "It smells like metal and wire."
"Kuma was part cyborg," Zoro said. "No, something else. It was called a 'pacifista'."
"So it is Kuma, though! You did a real number on us, asshole!" Franky shouted, and shot a coup de vent at him, caving in his stomach and internal organs. That must be very painful. But he wasn't dead yet, and they hurt his nakama and Zoro while he was out of commission. He seamlessly entered gear second and shot a jet pistol at him.
They were surprised at how fast he'd moved. "I know you're strong, so I'll go 100% at the beginning!" Luffy said, body steaming. They all got ready to fight, but Luffy didn't smell he was anything human. But they were sure, and Zoro said he was a cyborg. That's why he smelled like machinery.
It still felt off, but he was an enemy regardless of what or who he was. He tried to hurt them. They'd fight regardless. And they all attempted to attack, but it didn't once respond, and only sent beams. It wasn't a human. They waited for Luffy's impromptu and lucky attack. "Zoro, Sanji, hit him one more time!"
They did and moved out of the way for him to explode. It really was affected by stress and strong emotion. He hit it in the gut and blew out the back, machinery coming out only. Luffy's arms fell limp. "Did we get it?"
"Is the burst the number one weapon from you?" Sanji asked, all of them catching their breath. Luffy fretted over Zoro, but he acted fine.
"I don't know. I don't want it to be. It's only based on complete luck for the right timing," Luffy said. He could hear carnage around the island. "This isn't the only thing going on on the island. Screams and explosions are coming from everywhere. Is this how an admirable attacks?"
"Kuma wasn't an admiral. And now we know that wasn't Kuma," Zoro said, his swords in his lap. "How embarrassing. Took all of us to take down that thing. And it's a machine." He sounded disgusted.
Nami said she hoped Rayleigh was okay. "He was taking the Sunny somewhere else, she should be fine with him there. Especially considering who he is," Sanji said, Franky drawing comfort from it. "Should we run or hide? Spread out?"
They all stood, Chopper and Luffy eyeing Zoro apprehensively. He scowled and insisted he was fine. They decided to run to an area that wasn't so open, since that thing was good at long distance shots that did a lot of damage. What Luffy was hearing was awful. The sounds of explosions were everywhere, the scent of gunpowder and burnt things. Blood was not heavy in the air, but that didn't mean people weren't being hurt or killed.
"This way!" Luffy said, pointing to a compressed area. But there was one there, another Kuma, smelling like the previous. "Are you sure this is the warlord? What if that old one was a robot- oof!- too?!"
They had trouble beating it because it was so fast and didn't take damage. They went all out on it again, but Nami's clima tact was useless on it. Anything that wasn't hard and sudden was useless. Franky ran out of cola for many bursts, Sanji's leg was already aching and Zoro was starting to grunt with every movement.
The big problem was depending on Luffy's finicky power. But that was the only way they could escape this one, too, but it was really only an ace of cards because it only went off well on one. It took two shots of lower power to destroy the head. Luffy's arm tingled, but he hid it. "Captain, are you okay?" Robin asked. He nodded. "Where now?"
"We should hide for now. Down there," Luffy said, pointing to a grove with a lot of huge roots. They could hide under them. Franky said it sucked to hide. "Well we can't escape. We don't have the Sunny and even if we did, there's nowhere to go but down," Luffy said. They were hiding in the tunnel right now. Hopefully they couldn't be found this way. At least for them to recuperate.
They got a good ten minutes of peace before another one came!
"Guys, give Luffy and Zoro a break!" Franky said. "We'll take care of this one."
"I'm the captain-!"
"And we're your crew!" Sanji said. Zoro was angry he couldn't help either. They stayed behind and watched as their not-close-combat members worked tirelessly to take out this pacifista. Luffy watched in awe and pride as his crew worked together with their attacks to seamlessly but tirelessly defeat the Kuma robot enough for just one more hit to need to happen.
Luffy jumped out and used a giant rifle down on its head from above, crushing it and making it explode. Luffy bounced hard against the ground, in mini size. He sat up, and said, "There's still more. There's more than just four." His voice was resigned but face showing true worry and concern.
Looking at his crew, he saw how tired they were, Zoro was sleeping, trying to recharge in any way. Luffy didn't need blood. He had enough motivation to replace that. He couldn't be a tough captain when he had to recharge. Nami asked what they should do, then. "We can do nothing but try to live," Robin said. They were all tired from running and fighting. "Whether that's running, fighting or hiding, living is not shameful."
"All of the other tough guys are going through this, too, and none of them sound triumphant," Luffy said. Chopper was checking them out. Zoro wasn't hurt on the surface, it was inside that was the problem. Chopper could give him no bandages, no medicine, nothing. Luffy was terrified for his nakama, but Zoro especially. Maybe punching the bubble head wasn't the right thing to do. Hachi was a friend, but he'd been an enemy! Did he sacrifice his crew over a former enemy and brief friend? What kind of captain does that?
They waited there for only a moment before more showed up. "Guys. I'm sorry I punched the World Noble," Luffy said, standing up.
"I attacked him, too," Sanji said.
"We were all going to. This was a crew wide choice, and maybe mistake," Robin said. They all stood to face the newest pacifista, which had a mostly naked man carrying a huge broadaxe. They were bruised and tired, but nobody was giving up.
The guy said, "Oi, look what you did to PX 3 and 4! It takes the funds of a whole battleship to make just one of these guys." His voice was showing irritation and a general lack of disrespect that Zoro caught the attention of angrily. He looked sick. They all looked sick. Luffy glared at him. These were machines, he couldn't intimidate them away.
Sentonmaru was the half naked guy's name. He seemed annoying already. Luffy tried to get him to go away, but him being accompanied by a pacifista meant it would be useless to try and scare him away, too. He shot a jet gatling at him, but he put out both hands and then repelled him into a tree. He climbed his way out quickly and saw the mechanical monster was shooting beams at his crew again.
Luffy had no build up in the force that came from the damn blood stone mark. He didn't want to have to use that or rely on it for its chance nature, but that was the only single hit that got one out. Without it, it took work from multiple of them. "He's strong, too!"
"And I don't have a devil fruit."
"Guys, we have to run! We have to split up," Luffy called. He ended up going with Chopper and Robin, and this was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do in his life. Turn his back on his crew because splitting up was the best thing to do. He physically hurt at running away from his frightened crew.
"He went that way! Are they alright?!" Luffy called when the pacifista went after Franky's group. But Sentonmaru was in front of him again, and slammed him in the face, rolling hard multiple times until he crashed into a broken building.
"You shouldn't be worrying about others!" the enemy said. He didn't seem especially strong. And he felt his nose was bleeding where he'd been punched.
"This guy's fighting is weird!" he said, wiping his bloody nose. He stood up to attack, and told Robin and Chopper to run. But then Luffy smelled somebody else that made him feel the way Aokiji did after he turned hostile. "The admiral is over there!" Luffy shouted.
Sentonmaru said, "Finally, Kizaru! They've damaged three pacifistas! You took too long." Robin went pale at hearing his name but they all froze when they saw Zoro laying in front of him, breathing heavily and helpless. He was bloody. In just that small time of the admiral being there, Zoro was beat. He was in shit shape before, but now they had to get Zoro away while fighting at the same time. Oh, he would be so ashamed later.
Luff screamed his name. His vision went black and he knew he jumped, but then he found himself thrown to the ground hard by a warm hand and instead of him being in front of Kizaru, Rayleigh was there. Luffy was trembling and dizzy. He'd blacked out and lost control, but Rayleigh acted instantaneously to stop him. It was so fast. And Luffy had been stopped so suddenly and easily.
Robin and Chopper were the only ones to see it all.
"So, now you take the stage?" Kizaru asked Rayleigh, his voice sounding painfully bored and disinterested. "Dark King Rayleigh."
"Don't go plucking fine sprouts! It's only the beginning of their era!" Rayleigh shouted with a grin. He had his foot stopping Kizaru's logia attack
"Old man!" Luffy shouted, tears in his voice. He couldn't hear when Kizaru and Rayleigh were saying, his heart beating and that fresh sense of panic settling over him. Luffy only saw Zoro there, bloody and breathing heavily. Luffy wasn't there for him. "Usopp, grab Zoro and run!" Luffy said, "Everyone, only run! Only think of escaping! Only think of getting away! Right now, we can't beat these guys!" he shouted, running away, too. He was clenching his teeth hard enough that anyone not rubber would shatter them.
He couldn't run straight and only think of himself when the frantic noises of his nakama were easy to hear. Nami was crying while she ran, Zoro was cussing hatefully about being useless. He kept hearing his lover apologize to him. "I'm sorry I'm so weak, Luffy!" Luffy wanted to run over to him, but he was the captain, maybe if he didn't go to him he'd be spared.
Zoro had a huge bounty, too. If anyone were the least safe besides Luffy it would be Zoro. Could he have done anything different that wouldn't have ended this way? Going all the way back, maybe he could have not hit that sea rabbit. Then Caimie wouldn't have come out, she wouldn't have led them to Fishman Island, wouldn't have gotten kidnapped, it wouldn't have happened.
Maybe if Luffy let the bubble head laugh and dance, this would have happened. What could he have done differently? What could he have been better at? He should have been firmer about Zoro going on the island. He should have… done something different!
As they ran, Luffy's sense of sound was so overloaded, listening to the breathing of twelve people, including Rayleigh and the enemies. "Thank you Rayleigh!"
"Sure! I'm praying for your safety! Good luck!" Kizaru moved to attack them again, but Rayleigh was there faster, with a sword that somehow stopped his light beams. It turned the light solid. What let him do that to a logia? Was that what the New World was? Rayleigh was strong, he was keeping Kizaru busy. They just had to deal with Sentonmaru, the pacifistas, and their very tired, panicked and demoralized bodies.
Luffy was being chased by Sentonmaru, and felt the pressure in his arm building. Nobody knew about it yet. It hadn't been used anywhere other than Thriller Bark. He turned and pressed his hand to Sentonmaru, and let it burst, ripping apart one of the man's arms, blood flying everywhere. Luffy had one more arm to go, but he ignored Sentonmaru and went after the pacifista, but he waited too long, he was too frantic and torn that it went off, and his arm was useless.
Next chapter is the end of the split (lots of beautiful angsty internal thoughts to come) and the Amazon Lily adventure begins!