Chapter 2:
Zoro walked down the stairs behind the chef who he had to share the room with last night. They usually did on the ship and had others to break the violent tension between them, but there was no one there last night. When they started insulting each other and it turned into a fight, the fight escalated and they destroyed both of their beds before stopping.
Because of that, they hadn't slept well and were feeling irritable. Zoro pushed his way past the cook with nothing more than a grunt as they walked down. Sanji fumed but was hungry and wanted to see what the staff of the island was capable of when it came to the kitchen.
The two were going to step onto the first floor, but there was a man in the doorway who pointed behind them. There was another staircase leading down and the two followed it to the basement where they could hear lots of talking and shouting.
The room they entered was littered with tables and people were sitting around them, chatting in quiet, or obnoxiously loud voices.
One table in particular was being crazy noisy and the two men looked over before frowning hard at the crew. They instantly recognized them from before they went to Sky Island. There was a large crew gathered around a number of tables, but the center table seemed to hold the most important members. Right in the center was a man with a hairy exposed chest, and his name was Blackbeard.
"Zoro, Sanji," they turned their gazes to a different table where Nami was waving to them. The two started over and Sanji asked where they could get the food.
Vivi was sitting next to Nami and pointed over her shoulder to a wall behind her. Luffy was up and trying to get his fourth serving but the staff was trying to stop him.
"Come on, I'm hungry," he complained.
"Give me my fifth serving," a voice ordered from next to Luffy and someone handed out a tray covered in candy.
"Right away ma'am," the person handed the tray out and a man who looked like a cracked egg grabbed the food.
Luffy recognized him from Fishman Island and turned to the woman next to him. She looked at him at the same time and they both knew who each other were.
The scowls on their faces lasted a few more seconds before Luffy spoke, "If she gets fifths, then you have to give me my fourth serving." The words weren't directed at the woman at all, but rather at the server behind the counter who was staring at the man with fear. The fact that the man in front of him was staring down a Yonko was bad enough to make him want to run.
"Ah, yes, yes of course." He handed Luffy another tray and the boy turned away from Big Mom and walked back to his table.
A few people were giving him stupefied looks at what he'd done but he just sat back down at his table. Jimbei walked over from the door and sat down next to him, "Luffy-kun."
"Jimbei," he smiled at his friend. Zoro and Sanji just got back from getting their food and sat at opposite sides of the table.
The blue fishman saw that most of the crew was there as he had just arrived with the skeleton. He grinned and started speaking, "I think I forgot to tell you something yesterday that is very important." The man made sure he had everyone's attention now, "King Neptune has discarded Big Mom's flag, and they don't plan on rebuilding the candy factories."
"Won't she attack it now?" Nami asked, worried about the mermaids and fishmen down below the surface.
"He's taken a liking to a new flag and is planning on using it as protection." A few of the others went wide-eyed as they saw where this was going, "A Jolly Roger with a Straw Hat."
"Oh," Zoro grinned, "our very first island. It's a big one too."
"Yeah, every pirate aimed for the New World has to go through there," Usopp said proudly. "Now they'll all know our names and be afraid to mess with the island as long as our flag's on it."
"Entrant numbers 112-127 were admitted last night. After breakfast, please report back up to the main floor for the random seeding on the bracket." The loudspeakers on the ceiling stopped and many people got up and walked towards the exits.
The whole cafeteria was circular as was the floor above it. Doors were distributed evenly around the walls and different crews were leaving from all around.
As the Straw Hats finished their meals, (and had to drag Luffy away from the dining hall), they walked back up the stairs and heard the familiar sound of the double iron doors opening and closing.
"What's he doing here?"
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"Screw you!"
They pushed their way through a few people until they could clearly see who it was they were jeering at. "Admiral Aokiji?!"
"Please," the man held up his hands, "it's Kuzan. And I no longer work for the Marines." He reminded them, many still angry at him.
"Our one hundred and twenty eighth contestant has arrived," the voice that kept coming over the speakers shouted. This time it didn't sound as distant however, and everyone looked out to the small lake in the middle of the four sections. The ceiling was dropping down and there were computers all over the circular platform that separated itself from the ceiling.
It descended slowly and the man in the middle of it was unrecognizable to any of the participants. His form was shadowed at the moment but there was a microphone stand in front of him and he put his face close to it, "The rules are simple: Fight. If my voice says the match is over, it's over, no exceptions. Fighting after I call the match will end in one strike for your team. Two strikes and your entire team forfeits. Are there any questions?"
"Yeah," a cloaked figure in the crowd called out. He was next to five others all in cloaks and he kept speaking, "How do we know you even have a billion beri to give us?"
The mystery man instantly answered, "The entrance fee." He paused to see if anyone understood, "One hundred and twenty eight contestants, each paying eight million beri. That is a billion and twenty four million beri. Don't think we're cheating you out of that last few million either, that goes towards your food for the next week. We'll probably be losing money in this venture."
"Why?" Another person followed up. Luffy recognized that voice and grinned as he looked over and saw Trafalgar Law standing in front of his crew.
"'Why?' Well, to entertain myself of course. Hahahaha," the man cracked up as he started pressing some buttons on a keyboard in front of him. "I've plugged in the names of all the people here, and we've got a bracket together!"
A large image appeared in front of the hanging platform. The screen showed a bracket with 64 names on either side. Each contestant looked for themselves fast.
"Oh I'm first," Luffy said laughing. "Awesome!"
"Ha, that just means you'll have to sit around watching for the rest of the day." Zoro said as he found his own name. The name of the person he was up against couldn't have made him happier and he smirked wide.
"Who'd you guys get?" Nami asked the boys and Robin as the bracket disappeared.
"I got someone named Fu," Chopper said. "It was really far down the right side. I think I'm towards the end."
"Jesus Burgess," Franky whispered and knew he'd heard the name before. The cyborg remembered and looked over towards Blackbeard's crew where a man was staring right back at him. "That must be him," the two looked at each other for a few seconds. Franky put a finger up to his nose and held it there for three seconds while Burgess watched in amusement. When Franky's hair shot up into an afro, the other man's eyes started shining and went wide.
"The afro!" Luffy shouted as he saw it. Nami was still confused at what the big deal about the afro was, but she ignored it and asked Luffy who he had first. "I didn't look," he responded as the platform in the middle started rising back up to the ceiling.
There were four chains cranking up around the platform as it was pulled. The man on the middle reached out and grabbed the mike, "Will all the contestants please go find a seat in the stands. The only two that should stay down here are Straw Hat Luffy, and Kuroobi."
Nami was starting to walk with the crew up the stairs to find a seat when she heard the latter's name. The orange haired girl froze in place and Sanji somewhat remembered the name as well.
They turned towards the arena where their captain was stretching and saw another figure down there. As the platform finally clicked back into place on the ceiling, a timer started counting down from ten. The yellow numbers seemed to be projected in midair underneath the center of the room and everyone got ready for the action.
The figure on the ground sprinted forwards and jumped in the air, diving into the water in the center. Nami knew she recognized the fishman and now was positive that Kuroobi was the same man who had tormented her for years as a child.
Blackbeard's crew decided to join in on the countdown and hundreds of voices started chanting, "FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! Yeahhhhh!" Roars burst out as Luffy ran down the stone floor towards the edge of the water.
He stood there for a few seconds without moving. Everyone waited for one of the two of them to attack and a few people in the room felt an increase in power down on the floor. Suddenly the fishman floated up to the surface on his stomach and Luffy grinned, holding up his right index and middle finger in a 'V' shape.
Whispers of Conqueror's Haki spread through the crowd and then someone started clapping. Everyone looked over and saw a woman with orange hair put two fingers in her mouth and whistle loud, "Yeah you go Luffy!" The rest of the Straw Hats and many others in the room started cheering as well.
"I remember kicking that guy's ass once too," Sanji said as he looked up. "Was that on Fishman... No it was longer than that. Oh yeah," he turned and saw how happy Nami looked. Good job Luffy, though I wish I got to kick him again.
"Winner: Monkey D. Luffy." As the voice said it, the name appeared in yellow letters where the countdown had been before.
As Luffy walked towards the area in the stands where his crew was, a few attendants ran to the center and one swam out before pulling the fishman to shore. They carried him away and the letters at the top of the room changed back to the number 10.
"Next up," the voice called in an excited voice, "we have Namur of the Whitebeard Pirates, vs Gladius of the Donquixote Family."
"Whitebeard Pirates?" Sanji asked from one of the comfy seats in the stands. Robin was sitting behind him and spoke, making him turn and smile with hearts in his eyes at her as she explained.
"Even after Whitebeard's death, First Commander Marco was in the running for the new Yonko spot." She stopped and smiled down at the fishman who dropped down to the arena from the stands, "They kept their father's name for the crew, even though they're under a new captain now."
"I didn't know I was gonna see those guys here," Luffy said excitedly. He remembered what Ace had told him before he died and how he wanted him to pass it on to the rest of Whitebeard's crew. It was a little late, but he figured Ace would still want the message delivered.
Next to the shark fishman, a person dropped down from the audience and stared at him as the timer began to drop.
Blackbeard's pirates began counting down again and Robin sighed, "I do hope they don't do that for every single match."
"Gladius?" Luffy somewhat recalled the man exploding in his face back on Dressrosa.
"Great job Lucy," he recognized the voice before he turned around and jumped out of his seat.
"Rebecca?!" When he turned around he saw that she wasn't the only one. Her father, Kyros, was standing with a hand on her left shoulder, and Violet was behind her.
Sanji looked back and saw Violet, his heart skipping a beat as he did. She looked back at him and felt her heart flutter as her cheeks went red and she turned away.
Standing on Violet's left was a man in a blue gladiator outfit. "This is, 'Ricky,'" Rebecca used her fingers as quotes and Luffy still had no idea what she was talking about.
"Luffy, it is I, King Riku," the man whispered as he rose his visor a little.
"Oh, I get it," Nami whispered as the man put back down his helmet's cover. But if you make it towards the finals, I'm ratting you out to the staff for being a King... Unless you're here for the same reason as Vivi and need to fix your country that we left a mess after visiting... She felt a little selfish at her first thought but just smiled and went back to watching the fight below.
It looked like Gladius was winning at first, but the enemy dove back into the water and was diving out fast and slashing and biting his opponent when he did.
"You have this Gladius!" Baby 5 shouted from the stands.
"Don't give up!" Buffalo shouted.
"Go Commander Namur!" A man in the stands near the desert side shouted out. The cheers for the fishman got louder and outweighed the ones for his enemy.
"Do your best Gladius!" Pica shouted and the room became quiet as everyone looked over at the large man.
All at once, people everywhere began laughing like mad and the Donquixote family looked pissed. One of the members who had a furious look on his face was the man in the middle of the fight.
His eyes glowed red and his arms expanded out. Namur was back in the water, gaining speed and chuckling to himself at Pica's unnaturally high-pitched voice. He shot out of the water as the laughs only got louder and as he was about to bite down on his enemy's arms, they exploded in between his jaws and his teeth shattered as flames filled his jaws and went down his throat.
The room became quiet once again as everyone stared down at Gladius and Namur. The former was standing with smoking arms over the fishman's body. The shark looked cooked and tried to stand. Doflamingo's subordinate expanded his left foot as he raised it over his enemy. With a sharp stomp of his foot, it exploded and a crater appeared in the stone beneath him as Namur was pushed down into it.
"Winner: Gladius." The man's name appeared near the ceiling.
"Great job," Doflamingo called out and he started clapping his hands as he laid back in his seat. The other family members started hollering and many others in the crowd joined in.
There was silence from the side of the room near the desert as they watched Namur get carried away by the attendants. A man holding a first aid kit dropped down from their side of the stands and ran across to start walking with the guards.
"Oh yeah, I forgot they didn't have any doctors here." Usopp whispered as he watched the man treat Namur as he was carried away. "We're definitely gonna need your help here Chopper."
"I hope not," the reindeer was happy to use his medical skills to help the crew, but he'd rather not have to use them at all.
"My matchup's next, wish me luck," the others looked back at the row of seats where Rebecca and her family were. The girl with pink hair gabbed her sword, and as she did the voice called her name.
"Rebecca vs Suleiman the Beheader. Please make your ways down to the arena." The girl received encouragement from her family and the Straw Hats as she walked past them down to the battlefield.
She hopped down to the stone ground and bent a knee as she punched the floor with her right hand. Her senses heightened and she looked over towards the icy area of the stadium.
A large man holding a sword with a golden hilt dropped down to a snow patch on the ice and he stood there as the timer began counting down.
Blackbeard's crew chanted, "...Eight, seven, si..."
"SHUT UP WITH THAT!" Blackbeard yelled and his crew members froze up. He started laughing at the eerie silence that followed.
Luffy looked back at the toy soldier, who had turned into the mythical gladiator Kyros when Sugar was knocked out. The man looked concerned, but he wasn't going to stop Rebecca from entering in the competition.
She wanted to help as much as she could with rebuilding the country. If that meant earning some money for supplies, then she would do everything in her power to get it.
"You again?" Suleiman asked with a snarl. "This time that pretty pirate won't be here to interrupt our fight." He didn't sound as cold-hearted as he did the first time they spoke in the Corrida Colosseum.
That time he was angry that she could be content while her country was so mad at her. Now that the Riku family had regained their control however, he felt the urge to fight her solely from their names being plastered to the ceiling.
"I'm stronger than I was then," Rebecca said as the countdown hit zero.
"In that case," the man rose his sword and disappeared from the spot. Rebecca lifted her sword behind her back and blocked a swipe coming hard at her, "I won't hold back." He pushed hard with his weapon and Rebecca had to flip forward and spin, now with her sword in front of her.
The enemy in the maroon colored naval uniform vanished again and the Princess of Dressrosa closed her eyes. Where are you? She spun and took a step to the left as the man swung down at her. I won't win this tournament by dodging. My people need me to be strong, Rebecca tightened her grip on her sword and slashed across Suleiman's open torso.
"What?!" The man exclaimed as the girl's sword sliced up his chest and across his left shoulder. She never once tried to cut me back then, she's changed! Blood splattered on his uniform as he jumped backwards and down to one knee. She didn't cut me deep, he pulled his hand away from the gash and it was covered in blood.
"Surrender now, before I am forced to inflict further injury," Rebecca pointed her sword at him and the crowd went wild. Her family cheered her on along with her friends in the Straw Hats.
"Surrender?" the man laughed and got back up to his feet. He whipped his sword around fast and started sprinting for the girl. She could read his attacks but the first one collided with her sword and she felt her arms vibrate. She blocked a few more attacks but the force of the blows were tiring her out as the man in front of her only seemed to get faster.
"Come on Rebecca, you can do it!" Nami shouted with her mouth cupped on the right side. She had her left fist raised and yelled, "Don't give up!"
"This isn't good," Sanji stated and Nami looked at him shocked. He should have been the princess's biggest supporter, but he'd stopped cheering and was looking down at her with a nervous look. The girl's father had the same thought and he watched as his daughter stopped blocking the attacks and started moving out of their way.
"She's fast, and has amazing Observational Haki," Robin started and a few of the others turned to her. "However, Suleiman is far too strong. I don't believe this is going to be fun to watch," as the words left her mouth, the girl jumped back but the former executioner's blade still hit her on the shoulder and sliced pretty deep.
"Rebecca!" her grandfather shouted and stood up in the bleachers.
The girl was panting hard as her left arm went limp and she held her sword with only her right. "I can't give up," the girl dove under the man's legs as he rose his sword and she swung up to try and hit him between the legs. He saw the attack coming and leapt in the air backwards for where she was going to finish sliding.
Her sword passed just underneath the man as he rose in the air and he was bringing his sword down towards the princess. The weapon was about to hit her but she managed to bring her left hand up and steady her blade above her head to block the attack. The steel blades connected and for a second, Rebecca thought she had parried the blow. When she tried to push it back though, she heard a cracking sound and her eyes went wide.
The iron sword in her hands cracked down the middle and shards of it went flying as Suleiman's weapon went through and sliced down Rebecca's chest. He'd been pushing hard and the start of the wound near her left breast was deep before it shallowed out near her hip.
"Winner: Suleiman!" The crowd roared at the awesome fight they just watched as the man stood and swung around his sword in a fancy manner. Blood splashed off the weapon and around the ice near him as Rebecca started to slide towards the water. The tall man sheathed his weapon and walked back towards the audience before jumping into the crowd and finding a new seat.
Before the name of the victor even appeared in the sky, Kyros was out of his seat and soaring through the air of the colosseum. A lot of people stared at the air where his missing leg should be as he dropped down gracefully on one foot and grabbed the unconscious girl by the arm. He saw that she was limp and looked back towards the stands in fear. Chopper saw his look and changed into jump point, taking one leap down to the arena and two more to reach the man on one knee with his daughter in his arms.
"Rebecca, Rebecca," the man whispered to her as Chopper ran over and checked her pulse.
"She's breathing," the reindeer said and started pulling off his pack.
Two men in purple uniforms were walking towards them and Kyros gave them a nasty glare but they didn't seem phased by it. "We have to start the next match. Exit the arena and we'll lead you to the infirmary where you can attempt to heal your friend."
"She's my daughter," the muscular man growled at the guard who seemed a little put off by that statement. "I'm in the next match so just wait…"
"If you wish to stay with her in the infirmary, you'll have to forfeit your next match," one of the men told him.
"I don't care, I'm going with her!"
No one said a word for a few seconds and it looked like Kyros was going to forfeit when a weak voice called out, "Daddy," the man looked down and saw tears in Rebecca's eyes. "Don't quit, the people need our help."
"But,"
"Mr. Reindeer will make me all better," she said as Chopper was already applying bandages to her wounds.
Kyros was thinking hard about it and he knew that he stood the best chance out of his group in taking down the opponents and making it through the tourney. "It's time, make your decision," the men in front of him looked impatient and a lot of boos were sounding out from the crowd. He stood up and glared ahead as Chopper started running towards the door that Kuroobi and Namur were taken through before.
As he was running with the girl in his arms, (who passed out again,) he thought about his seeding in the tournament and wondered if he'd make it back in time. I was in the second half of the bracket, so as long as no more of my friends get hurt, I should be able to make it back. That wound needs to be stitched up fast, he paid attention to what he was doing and followed the purple clad guard who led him down the hallway towards a room that the man pushed open the white double doors.
He went in and saw dozens of white beds lying around the room. On one far off corner there was an unconscious fishman that Luffy fought. The other had a doctor on the side of a bed while Namur sat up and allowed bandages to be put on him. He looked clearly upset with the way his match went and Chopper avoided both of them as he walked towards the bed closest to the door and put Rebecca down gently on it.
As the reindeer went to work on the pink haired girl, her father was out in the arena and they had just called his opponent down to the floor. He had no idea who this Inazuma character was, but the man in the black cloak who jumped down to the arena didn't walk over to him. He was standing on the opposite side on the dirt section. Kyros was still on the ice next to a puddle of blood and he started growling as the countdown appeared over their heads.
"He only has one leg!"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"Inazuma?" Luffy asked curiously. He tilted his head to the side and tried to think of where he'd heard that name before. Meanwhile, Robin stood up in a calm manner and started walking down the steps and then around the bottom of the stands as she headed for the opposite side of the room.
Three, two, one, she kept walking around, but she did turn her head a little and watched as the gladiator charged at his opponent with incredible speed. The man in the cloak jumped over the charging figure and flipped over the lake in the middle of the battlefield. His hood came off while he was in the air and she smiled at the familiar face of a friend from the last two years.
Inazuma had one half of his hair dyed orange, while the other half was completely white. He had a lightning bolt scar across the left side of his face and was wearing blue and orange sunglasses. Robin smiled and stopped to watch the fight as Kyros landed and sprung back towards where Inazuma was about to land.
The revolutionary dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way as his arms turned into scissors. Kyros brought down his sword hard on the stone section that they had landed on and rocks shot out in all directions as his attack broke through the floor. A crack formed in the ground and spread out towards the pond where water got into it and started leaking out towards them.
Kyros spent no time being amazed at the weird power of the man next to him as Inazuma cut through the top layer of stone floor and started running away. His arms looked like scissors and he was snipping away at the ground making it become wavy like paper.
Back in the stands, Luffy lit up and laughed, "It's Snip Snip guy." He chuckled a few times and Usopp turned to him and asked if he knew him. "Yeah, he helped me break out of Impel Down. Then he made a path for me to get Ace in the war," the sniper was stunned that the odd man on the field now was in the War of the Best.
Inazuma saw his opponent moving fast towards him and he stopped snipping. The man grabbed the edge of the ground he just cut up and lifted it fast in the air. He planned on having Kyros slam straight into the new rock wall but he didn't expect the man to plow right through it. The barrier felt like nothing to the enraged father as he brought back his sword and swung at the Revolutionary.
The man with two colored hair lifted his right arm which was a pair of scissors and he blocked the enemy's attack. The force of the blow was so great that a shockwave rippled on the floor cracking the areas that weren't covered by already destroyed rocks from what the snip-snip man cut up before. Inazuma lifted his other arm as Kyros attacked again, but the man was relentless with his blows.
While blocking with one arm, Inazuma snipped the ground beneath Kyros, making him lose his footing as the ground became like paper. He rose his left arm that was blocking to swipe at the man, but the gladiator dropped his sword and grabbed the man's arm. He caught both blades with his hands. He pushed them together and grabbed with one arm as the man swiped with his other scissor and Kyros caught that one as well.
He lifted his opponent by the arms and looked at the man who was sweating hard. His sunglasses fell off as he carried him and Kyros didn't see any hate or anger in the man's eyes. Inazuma only looked to be trying to find a way out of the mess he was in. "I apologize," Kyros stated to the unknown man and then turned around.
The revolutionary was confused at what he was talking about until he saw where Kyros was running with him. The man started to panic and kicked his opponent over and over again in the chest with his free legs. Kyros barely winced at the powerful attacks and he jumped in the air, pulling back Inazuma's scissors as he did.
"No!" the man shouted as Kyros flung him down at the lake and he hit the water. The gladiator dropped out of the sky on the sand environment. He was sweating a little bit but he wasn't panting at all as he stood there with a calm expression.
"Winner: Kyros!" the man heard his name and instantly dove in the water in front of him. He started swimming down to where he saw the hammer sinking. Once he found out about his enemy's Devil Fruit, this was the most logical way to end the match. My next match is against Suleiman, he will pay!
A/N Aw Kyros is such a nice guy, going to pull out his opponent after the match. Hope you all enjoyed the first four rounds of the tournament. Going on vacation next week so don't expect another one for a while. See ya later.
Melashnaw
You're going to put Enel too ? Waaaw I didn't expect that ! Now I'm so exited !
Yup. Crazy powerful enemies from the biggest sagas are all coming together! Hope you like his match when he appears.
