Chapter 3:
Robin continued walking towards the group of cloaked figures and saw one stand up fast when Inazuma was thrown into the water. She knew Kyros and had a feeling about what the man would do once it ended and she saw the cloaked figure sit back down as well when he figured out what the opponent was doing.
Kyros got out of the water with his enemy and released the man who was gasping for breath. Inazuma looked up and saw Kyros's name in yellow letters below the platform in the ceiling. The gladiator didn't waste another second and ran for the door to the first floor hallway where he was going to go find his daughter.
The man sighed and put the hood of his wet cloak back on as he made his way back towards his group. He saw a person walking across the stands over to his leader as well and a smile formed on his face as he jumped back up and landed next to her. "Wonderful match Ina-san," the woman with long black hair congratulated. "Kyros is a legendary gladiator from Dressrosa. I'm impressed you fought with him for as long as you did."
The okama did feel a little better as he walked with her over to the people with cloaks on. They saw who was approaching and they all seemed to get energetic and start jumping around happily. "Robin-san!" the smallest figure called out and ran over wrapping Nico Robin in a hug.
"It hasn't been too long Koala-chan," Robin greeted with a small hug back to the little girl she recognized in the hood of the cloak.
She greeted each of them and saw that all three who had helped out in Dressrosa were there. Hack the fishman was the one who stood, ready to go and save Inazuma before. He welcomed her to their area and she nodded to him before saying 'hi' to the other two cloaked figures sitting in the front row. Behind them were many more figures all wearing black or brown cloaks and many of them were calling up to her and saying how great it was to see her again.
"Nico Robin!" the largest figure there shouted and then lowered his voice after receiving a stern look from the man next to him. Telling by the size of the head, she easily recognized Ivankov who started exclaiming how great it was to see her again. Emporio Ivankov didn't spend much time with her while she was with the Revolutionary Army. He/she was also the Queen of her own island and had matters to attend to there. She learned that Sanji was there at one point and thought it was rather ironic that he was stuck in Okamaland.
As she chatted with them, an announcement was made, "Our next match will be Rockstar versus Lucky Roo..." the voice froze for a second and everyone waited, "nevermind. Rockstar has forfeited and Lucky Roo advances to the next round."
The revolutionaries heard a man complaining as he walked past them. "I have to get the rum just because I forfeited my match. What did they expect me to do? I try to prove myself and I get unlucky enough to be going up against Lucky in the first round!" he continued to grumble loudly to himself as he walked past for the stairwell where he was heading for the kitchen. The man had spiky red hair and brown skin and looked pissed off as he left.
"If he's out," a man with blond hair said as he looked out of his cloak, "then doesn't that mean..."
"Next match," he was interrupted by the loudspeaker, "Nico Robin versus Kumadori Yamanbako."
"Guess you're right Sabo," the woman said and smiled at the young man in front of her. "While you're here, you should go over and talk to Luffy. I bet he's dying to see you again." She turned and jumped up in the air, landing gently on the dirt in front of their section. Her voice carried up in the stands after she landed and the others all looked at the one man who hadn't spoken since Robin arrived. "You should say hello too, Dragon."
She started walking forward but stopped a good distance away from the lake as she didn't want to be too close to the water. The name was familiar and she dove into her mind full of knowledge to try and remember who this man was. Before she could recall it, a large man with long pink hair and a staff dropped from the sky and landed on the stone section on her left. "Ah, so that's who you are."
"Ohohoho!" the man in front of her slammed his staff down into the ground and punctured a hole in the rock below her. There were no cracks in the ground around the hole, it slid in as easily as a knife into butter. "Even if you have forgotten my name, I will never forget yours Nico Robin. It is your fault that I no longer work for the Government, so I will have my..." Two, one, now, she saw the timer hit zero and she crossed her arms.
Arms started coming out of the ground next to Kumadori and he was surprised as he looked to his left and saw all the limbs merging together into one giant hand. She made two huge hands on either side that grabbed the enemy in front of her. The fingers interlocked and then merged together as she tightened her grip and started squeezing.
"Tekkai!" the man shouted and she felt her efforts to squeeze him stop. "Do not think that I am the same man who was taken down by your pet monster two years ago. YOYOI!" He started pushing his arms out hard and Robin felt her grip loosen as he was too strong. She released her grip and her hands disappeared into petals as she started panting. "I have ascended the heights of the master, and now I will finish what I started. Soru!" the man vanished and she felt him appearing on her left.
He moved incredibly fast and she jumped backwards, lifting into the air with wings made of hands that sprung from her back. The man was surprised and shouted out in shock. Robin smiled down as she thought of a new strategy to use, he's too strong to attack using force, but he doesn't seem as smart as some of the other CP9 members.
The former assassin in a black suit started shouting and his pink hair waved before shooting up in the air towards Robin. She was surprised when the hair caught her and wrapped around her arms and legs, pulling her down to the ground and her wings disappeared. The man held her right in front of him and pulled back his staff which burst into flames.
"Robin!" most of the Straw Hats shouted at the same time and reached out.
"Shishi Kebab!" the enemy roared and brought his staff forward into Robin's body. For a split second, all the Straw Hats stared in horror as the wooden staff went right through the older woman's body.
Then, most people in the room looked confused as Robin disappeared and her body turned into a bunch of flower petals before vanishing completely. Kumadori looked around with a startled look as he thought he had just won. "Nico Robin, where are you?" he turned his head back and forth but gasps sounded through the crowd as a head started coming out of the man's back.
Robin was slithering out from between the man's long hair and her torso appeared and started wrapping around the back of the man. He kept turning his head back and forth, spinning completely around and not seeing anyone on the arena's surface except for him. "Show yourself and fight with honor!"
The man froze in fear as he heard a whisper in his ear, "I'm right here." The man spun his head but she already had her body on the other side and whispered into his other ear, "Or am I here?" He turned again but this time Robin didn't back away. When he spun his face came out inches away from hers and he freaked out, grabbing his staff and swinging it as hard as he could at the woman. She moved back and he missed, slamming his staff into the stone and shattering the ground. Cracks were sent off in every direction as the man lifted back his pole and swung it over his shoulder to hit the woman on his back.
Right as he was about to hit her, Robin released her fake body and the man hit himself in the back with the pole. "Dos fleur," two hands appeared in front of the man's eyes right as he hit himself. "Mille Fleur," Robin then whispered from the spot on the dirt that she was hiding. As Kumadori stumbled forward from hitting himself in the back, two huge legs formed out of the ground and started lifting up.
The former Government Agent couldn't call out his Tekkai as he didn't know the attack was coming because of the hands in front of his eyes, and a giant foot stomped on his head. He was shoved straight into the ground as the foot lifted up and the next one stomped and then another, and another. Dust and rocks started flying up in the air as the stomping continued for a minute. The arena was shaking a little and the feet were going farther and farther beneath the surface each time. She finally released the attack that was straining her muscles and looked over at the large foot shaped hole in the stone section.
That section was so far the worst off, and had huge cracks going around it and craters all over it. Water had seeped in from the lake and Robin wondered if they were ever going to fix it or just let it continue to be destroyed through all of the first round matches. She stepped towards the hole and looked down before sighing a breath of relief. Her enemy was at the bottom of the crater with bruises and scratches all over his mangled face.
"Winner: Nico Robin!" The voice called out.
"Woohoo!" a young girl's voice shouted from over near the cloaked figures. Soon their entire section was bursting out with cheers similarly to a section on the opposite side of the room where the Straw Hats were sitting.
"I knew she could do it," Nami said, falling back into her seat after standing and leaning in so far that she almost fell on top of Usopp who she was pressing against the whole time.
"Really?" Zoro asked, "Could have fooled me."
"Hey," she argued, "you yelled just as loud when that guy shoved the staff through her body. Don't pretend like you weren't worried." She smirked when Zoro hmphed and looked the other way.
"Nice, we're two for two now," Usopp stated. The rest of the Straw Hats looked pleased with themselves as well.
"Let's get him out of that hole and get the next match going!" The announcer was keeping the spirit of the tournament high as everyone started cheering. A few guards in purple uniforms jumped over to the edge of the hole and dropped down.
One of them grabbed Kumadori by his hair and tossed him up to a friend who threw him to another at the edge of the hole. Zoro narrowed his eyes at the man who was heading towards the infirmary and tried to sense their life force. There are too many strong powers around, he grunted and looked away, still on edge about the guards. They're pretty strong. Why have we never heard of the guy running this or his staff? Army is more like it, he looked across the room where Robin was standing in front of a group of people in black cloaks.
She waved goodbye to them and started to head back to her crew. Usopp, Nami, and Chopper were all jumping up and down and cheering as she walked towards them. Franky posed behind them and shouted, "That was a SUP-ER fight!"
"Wow Robin, I didn't stand a chance back when I fought him." Nami exclaimed.
"Same, I had to use my monster point back then to beat him, but you made it look easy," Chopper seemed a little down but Robin picked him up and smiled at him.
"I had a hard time, he was very strong. You must have been really strong to beat him two years ago." The woman complimented their doctor.
Chopper dropped out of her arms and started twirling around. "Saying that won't make me happy stupid!"
"Now that the floor is cleared, time for the next match!" Roars of approval sounded from Blackbeard's enormous crew near the Straw Hats and a few of them were getting into the fights and cheering as they couldn't wait to see who would be fighting next. "Rob Lucci vs Macro!"
"Now we get to see how much Lucci has improved over these past two years," Sanji said and Zoro nodded. They each wanted to see how they faced up against the enemy who gave their captain such a hard time back in Enies Lobby. To their left they saw a greenish brown fishman start walking down to the edge and a few of them stared at him. "Do we..."
"...Know this guy?" Usopp finished as they all had confused looks.
Macro growled that they didn't even bother to remember him until he saw Jimbei sitting there with them. The large blue fishman turned and looked at him before smiling and calling over, "Macro, I haven't seen you for years!"
"Jimbei?" he looked at his old captain and then at the man in the straw hat he was sitting next to.
"Wait a second," Nami started as she recalled seeing that particular fishman before. "You!" the man jumped down to the broken stone battlefield and ran for the lake in the middle. "That's the guy who kidnapped Camie with Duval!" They all remembered who he was and Jimbei turned to her with a stunned look. The orange haired human looked at him and frowned, "Another old friend of yours? Trying to sell Camie to slave traders?"
"Yes," he admitted as he looked down to the water. "Macro split with two comrades from the old Sun Pirates. I had no idea what he was doing," the man was frowning deeply and looking down at the water. What happened to you all?
They watched as a man appeared in the sand area of the arena and stood still. The timer above their heads counted down to zero and he started walking towards the lake in the center. He hadn't transformed yet, but they doubted he would even need to. "Aw, I was really looking forward to how much stronger pigeon guy got."
"I wouldn't underestimate Macro," Jimbei stated causing the Straw Hat captain to turn with a skeptical look. "I mean," he thought about it for a second, "he used to be pretty strong. I don't know how the last years have been treating him."
"I wouldn't expect too much," Sanji stated in a bored tone as he started complimenting Robin on her match. Jimbei was surprised they were taking his old nakama so lightly and he looked down to see water bullets flying out of the water into the man walking towards the lake edge.
Lucci didn't seem to be dodging the attacks to most eyes there, they thought he was just letting them hit him. For those who could follow his movements however, he would use Soru and move incredibly fast out of the way of every bullet that came towards him before moving back to the same spot as he kept walking forward.
He got up to the edge and everyone waited as the bullets stopped. The man raised an arm and tapped on the bird on his shoulder. Hatori flew up and hovered in midair as the man in the suit dropped down into the lake. Jimbei dropped his jaw, Is he crazy? Fighting a fishman underwater is just giving himself a disadvantage.
Luffy and his crew stared in shock as the leopard-man just dropped in water, a Devil Fruit eater's worst enemy. Suddenly the water separated in the middle as air appeared forming a large cylinder cyclone down the center of the lake. All the water that was in that area was pushed to the side and the water overflowed out on the areas around it.
Everyone looked into the empty space where all the water should have been, but it was all being pushed up and held to a ten meter radius of Rob Lucci as he stood in the center of the water. He had a hand clenched around Macro's neck and he used the other to extend one finger. The man started shooting his finger into the fishman's body rapid fire and blood started spurting all over the place.
"Enough! Stop it already! The match is over," the announcer started shouting from his spot on top of the platform. He didn't need to say it so many times as the second the speakers turned on, Lucci stopped using Shigan on his opponent. "Winner: Rob Lucci. Now, does anyone have a spare doctor for Macro?"
"Don't bother," Lucci dropped the bleeding opponent on the floor and then leapt in the air, landing on the edge of the lake and allowing all the water pressed up along the outside to fall back in. The surface level had decreased significantly since the previous match and Lucci kept a straight face as he stated, "I hit his heart with the first attack."
"The first hit?" Usopp whispered in sheer terror as he trembled in his seat. A lot of the Straw Hats were glaring at Lucci with evil eyes. "Then what were all the other attacks for? Overkill much," he sat back in his seat and thanked God that he didn't take part in the competition.
Zoro watched as the man walked away and rejoined his group back in the stands. He looked dry despite being underwater and he wondered if the man ever touched it at all. He's become much more powerful than last time that much is certain. I doubt they even came for the reward, they're probably here to dish out their own sick version of justice. Even though the Government got rid of them, their ideals probably haven't changed much.
"I can't wait to fight him again," Luffy stated as he thought about the tournament. "Let's see, next match I'll have that guy who blows up in people's faces. Then I'll have Kyros. After him will probably be Lucci." The others all stared at Luffy amazed. It was astonishing that he was able to come up with all of that on his own.
"How do you know Kyros will win his next match?" Nami asked.
"HE BETTER MOP THE FLOOR WITH THE BASTARD WHO HURT REBECCA!" Sanji burst into flames at the memory of the man slicing through her young body and it made him furious. They ignored all the people who turned and stared at them after his outburst.
"Yeah," Luffy nodded, "Soldier is really strong. He can handle that other guy easily." He didn't mention how the other guy had actually helped them back in Dressrosa, but he was mad at the man as well for what he did and wasn't going to back him up when Kyros kicked his ass across the floor.
A loud voice announced the next match and everyone listened close to see what the next match would be. "Next match, Beast Tamer Mohji versus Hajrudin!" Both names went unrecognized by most people in the room who looked around for the entrants.
"Ahahahaha! Guess that means it's time for my flashy entrance!" an annoying voice shouted from the other side of the room and everyone looked over there.
"No," Zoro groaned.
"Why is he here?" Sanji muttered.
"Buggy?" Luffy asked as he looked across the room and saw the clown throwing off a brown cloak he was wearing. Everyone around him tossed theirs off as well and it was the entire Buggy Pirates. Sanji's eyes turned into hearts as he saw the beautiful woman with the spiked club standing next to the pirate.
"Mohji, go out there and show them what the Buggy Pirates are made of. Hahahaha!" The clown had an orange hat on and was wearing makeup and lipstick, all added together with his red nose made him look ridiculous. The man next to him had white fur and started laughing as he walked forward with his lion Richie walking behind him.
The announcer called out, somehow watching this all go on, "Your pet will not be allowed in the ring with you. This is a one on one battle," the beast tamer stopped moving and frowned.
His captain wasn't worried and just started laughing, "My first mate doesn't need that lion to help him win! He'll take care of his opponent without Richie's help!" The crew of hardened thugs behind him started cheering and finally the people in the room saw who the people following him were.
Someone near Nami in the stands whispered to his neighbor, "That guy behind him on the right is Roz the Usurper. He took down an entire island's government before he was captured by a Vice Admiral." She was stunned and continued to listen as the men from one of Blackbeard's divisions kept pointing out infamous criminals in their ranks. After he finished naming ten or so pirates, the scrawny Blackbeard pirate with the glasses gulped and continued, "They all had bounties of over a hundred thousand when they were captured. Buggy freed them from Impel Down before leading them on the battlefield during the War of the Best."
"Buggy was in the War?" Nami turned and asked her captain.
"Yeah, he really helped me out a lot back then," the four crew members who knew the clown groaned thinking that they actually owed the man anything.
"His crew looks a lot stronger now," Usopp whispered as he looked at all the pirates standing behind the clown as Mohji walked by himself down to the edge of the stands.
He dropped down to the dirt patch in front of him and started looking around for his opponent. "Where are you? Too afraid to fight one of the Schichibukai's first mates?! Come out!" Mohji started to laugh and the crew joined in until the announcer called out to him.
"We're opening the doors for him now," no one knew what the mysterious man was talking about, but they all watched as the outer edge of the ceiling started to open up. The opposite side from where the iron doors had a ceiling that could retract in both direction and the panels started to slide to the left and right, leaving a large open space that led up to a dark room above.
"It's finally my turn," a low voice boomed from upstairs and all the spectators looked up at the roof to see who had said that. "Good, I'm tired of just watching these matches from the see-through floor."
Robin wondered if the ceiling was actually clear if they looked at it from a different angle, but she was just as surprised as the others when the form finally dropped down from the ceiling. Hajrudin was a giant from Elbaf who towered over Mohji like a man would an ant. He had a silver helmet on his head and glared down at the man on the floor below him.
The timer above them started to count down as everyone in the room stayed quiet. Before anything could happen, Mohji dropped his whip and collapsed to the ground. "Vice-Captain!" The men behind Buggy shouted.
"Mohji, Mohji are you awake? Umm, Winner: Hajrudin!" The giant looked pissed and growled at the man who passed out on the floor.
"Pathetic," the giant said and then reached up to the ceiling and pulled himself back into the darkness up there. The ceiling started to close behind him and everyone started laughing or paying attention to something else as guards carried away the first-mate of the Buggy Pirates.
"It's sad really," a voice said from behind the Straw Hats and most of them recognized it and turned around fast. Zoro pulled a sword before the man with a three in his hair could say anything else and he had it resting close to the man's throat. He didn't know how the man had snuck up on him, but it made him furious that it was the same bastard who tried to coat him in wax back on Little Garden. "Whoa!" the man held up his arms and the rest of the crew looked closer at the man with the blue and white striped shirt.
"Who's that?" Franky asked Robin who was sitting next to him.
She was staring back at her old acquaintance, "His name is Galdino; he went by Mr. 3 back when we worked together."
"You," Vivi turned and saw who they were looking at. The former member of Baroque Works avoided making eye contact with the princess and pushed Zoro's sword away from his neck with his index finger.
"3!" Luffy called out as he finally turned away from the battlefield to see who his crew were talking to. The others heard his happy reaction to seeing the man and groaned. Luffy ran up and gave the man an unwanted hug, "He helped me escape from Impel Down too."
"Yes, I did," the man said directly to Zoro who hmphed and put his sword back in its sheath. "After the war I joined forces with Buggy since he was going for a Warlord position because of the empty spots. It didn't take long for him to succeed and now my bounty is null as well as the rest of our crew."
"So that's why they're all staying with Buggy," Sanji said, finally getting used to the fact that Mr. 3 wasn't their enemy anymore. "They don't want to get sent back to prison."
"Wrong," Galdino stated and the others all looked at him with questioning looks, "It's because Buggy is the luckiest man alive and they think he's a God because he got them out of prison and through the War alive. Besides Alvida, I think I'm the only one in his crew who doesn't think he's the strongest man in the world."
"Are you in the tournament?" Luffy asked his old friend.
"Ha!" the man laughed and shook his head, "Why embarrass myself when I already knew all four of the Yonko were coming?"
A/N Hey everyone hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Now we've got Buggy and the Yonko are all there?! Haha, leave a review telling me what you think, and don't worry the next update won't take as long.
Mr. 0-San chapter 3 . Mar 14
WOOT! .AWESOME! Can't wait to see who comes next!
Thanks, there're more fighters coming in by the second!
Son of Whitebeard chapter 3 . Mar 15
are we going to see original characters
Yep, Kaido and his crew won't be from the anime... since we haven't seen them yet. Plus Buggy's inmates and a few others that I won't give away now. There will be some plot about the guy running the show, but don't expect that any time soon. I'm more focused on the actual tournament than him. 'Till next time, bye!
