Chapter 5:

"K-K-Kaido," Usopp whispered and slouched back in his chair, trying to make himself look small. I hope he doesn't know my name, now that would be scary.

"Look," Nami pointed and they all saw Chopper stepping out of the infirmary door and coming back towards them. The battle had started below them, but Chew was in the water and the woman with the Devil Fruit ability making her a panda looked like she only attacked from close range, so it was going to be a long fight.

The reindeer made it back to them while occasionally looking over to the fight below. "Rebecca is stabilized and Kyros said he'd watch over her. Did he win his match?" He was trying to get his mind off of the way he left the pink haired girl, and was happy at the response he received from his captain.

Chew stuck his head out of the water and called out, "100 Bullet Machine Gun!" He started shooting little blue dots that looked like he was shooting a gun and the panda woman was struggling to dodge them all. She looked incredibly strong, but she was slow and couldn't figure out how to attack the man staying carefully in the middle of the lake.

When he seemed to run out of ammo, the woman charged forwards and leapt over the lake, soaring right over where Chew was floating. The fishman with long lips ducked down below the surface right as the navigator swiped with her paw. She missed and landed on the other side of the lake, her fist slamming into the dirt and creating a large hole that she dug into. "Get out of there and fight me on land!"

"Seems like this place is filled with Devil Fruit eaters," Sanji said looking around, "fishmen should have an advantage but so far only Arlong has made it through to the second round." He thought about how the man treated Nami as a child and his eyes burst into flames but he cooled down, remembering that Arlong went right after him. If he was correct, the next round the two of them would be facing off against each other, I'll take care of him for you Nami, and then you'll fall head over heels in love with me. His burning eyes turned to hearts and he swooned in his chair next to the woman who had no idea what he was thinking about.

The girl who was once a slave to the fishman fighting and his crew glared at him and hoped that Kaido's crew would win this one. Then she started thinking about how the Yonko was after her and simmered down with a whimper. There was no good winner of this fight.

"Get back out here!" The woman roared in her panda form, her voice very low as she did. She was starting to get tired of dodging all the water bullets that were firing from the water again and she ran over towards the stone area. Many people in the room including Usopp and Chopper panicked as the woman ran over to their section, the stone area. She reached down into one of the large cracks in the floor and grabbed the edge of a huge rock section.

While she was looking down, a few water bullets hit her and had little effect. Chew saw this and dropped beneath the water. No one had a chance to wonder what he was doing as the woman in the stone area grunted and then growled loudly as she ripped with all of her strength. A huge chunk of the floor started to get pulled out and more people gasped as she lifted it over her head and held it with her giant black and white furry arms.

She turned over to the water and Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp noticed that the water level was lower than it was before, and getting lower still. The woman didn't seem to care and shouted out in a smug voice, "Try dodging this!" She tossed the stone section of the floor and it landed in the center of the lake. It was almost a perfect size to fill the entire thing as it began to sink down, but Chew found a crack near the edge of the stone area and jumped up on land.

Rixa saw her opponent jump out of the water and he was soaking wet. She started running towards him while pulling back her arms, not even noticing the massive change in her enemy's appearance. Usopp's eyes went wide as he remembered what happened when he fought the fishman back on Nami's home island. "Ahh," he saw that not only was Chew pointed at the woman running towards him, but his lips were pointed straight at the stands past her.

"What's wrong Usopp?" Luffy asked, wondering why he was panicking.

"WATER CANNON!" The bloated fishman whose stomach was now five times as large as before shot his head forward as the panda woman was a few feet in front of him. Her eyes only had a split second to go wide as a huge concentrated blast of water was released from Chew's lips and slammed straight into the opponent.

Usopp was right in freaking out since the water bomb kept going towards the audience at insane speeds. The Blackbeard pirates near them all screamed and scattered and a few of the Straw Hats yelled as well. Many of the crew members and even the division commander of the Blackbeard Pirates next to them stayed and prepared to deflect the attack, but it seemed it was unnecessary. Most of them were stunned and only a few were able to see the speed at which the guard wearing all purple shot in front of the stands and held out a hand. The water got close to him and they thought it was going to plow right through him, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier around him and as the water was about to hit his palm, it exploded outwards and rained back down over the arena.

"Winner: Chew!" Everyone looked over to see the panda woman had reverted back to a normal person and turned out to be an overweight woman with long black hair. Her red cloak was still mainly intact and two guards ran over before carrying her off towards the infirmary. Her face was covered in blood and the fishman seemed surprised his attack didn't knock her head clean off.

"Wow," Sanji said impressed, "and you beat him two years ago. Nice Usopp," he turned to the sniper who was shaking in his seat with humongous eyes.

"Th-that's what would have happened if that attack had hit me?" He shuddered thinking about how the near miss had annihilated much of the forest he was hiding in outside of Arlong Park. Suddenly what Sanji said registered in his mind and he laughed, "Of course I defeated him! Now it would be an even easier task."

"Wow Usopp, you're so cool!" Chopper said.

Franky and Brook shared looks before asking if the sharpshooter really defeated that guy and Usopp got insulted by them, telling them all about how he covered him in alcohol and then set him on fire.

"That was an intelligent plan Usopp," Robin complimented and he was basking in his former glory.

"I'm surprised Kaido has such weak fighters," Zoro said with a frown. "I thought they were going to be a real challenge."

"What are you talking about?" Jimbei asked, finally getting annoyed at them. "Fighting a fishman who has water at his disposal isn't an easy thing. Just because Macro and Kuroobi were met with ridiculously strong opponents in the first round, don't underestimate fishmen."

Zoro grunted and looked away, not wanting to accept that Chew could possibly be strong if Usopp took him out over two years ago.

The sniper was laughing loudly at the praise he was receiving and over all the cheers in the arena, Chew heard the laughs of a voice he recalled greatly and glared up in the stands.

"Then after I lit him on fire," Usopp was bragging to Chopper who stopped smiling and was looking behind the long-nosed pirate with scared eyes.

"Usopp," the doctor warned as the fishman behind his friend jumped up in the bleachers and started walking back.

Luffy started to get up to stop the man, but Nami grabbed him by the face and pulled him down. "Do not get us in trouble by fighting outside the ring," she urged him in a whisper and he was going to argue but Nami's eyes were no longer on him. She was watching the fishman walk past and trembled in anger. Luffy understood how much harder it must be for her, to not be able to attack the man, and he calmed himself as he watched him approach Usopp. He still wasn't going to just allow the man to attack him though and was ready to step in at any time.

"I went up to his burning body and hit him, Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Usopp..."

"Usopp," the man said in a low tone from behind him and the pirate froze in fear. He looked into Chopper's eyes and the reindeer was looking over his shoulder before turning Heavy Point and looking ready for a fight. The muscular man turned around slowly and came face to face with the fishman who glared at him and he tried not to stumble backwards, holding his ground. He looked him over once and then sneered, "You've gotten bigger since last time, I can't wait to fight you."

Jimbei was amazed, he knew that Chew was one of the members who hated humans the most, but right now it sounded almost as if he thought of Usopp as a challenge. "I spent months in prison thinking about defeating you, and then your captain broke me out and I found that you had a bounty! For the last two years I've been trying to find you..."

"Usopp's not in the tournament," Sanji said in a passive voice from next to him. The fishman stopped mid-sentence and looked down at the chef he also recognized from the attack on Arlong Park. The sniper felt relieved as he remembered that but Sanji continued, "Though once this is all over I'm sure he'll kick your ass again, you can count on it."

"Sanji," Usopp whispered pleadingly but shut up when the man turned back to him with fury in his eyes. "Y-yeah, that's right," he said and all the Blackbeard pirates, the Alabasta group, the Dressrosa group, and even most of the Straw Hats were surprised at this, "I'll take you on again. Piece of cake," he chuckled and the fishman took a step back.

Chew looked over the boy who was once as thin as a twig and was now covered in muscles. It was nothing compared to fishman strength, but he'd definitely gotten stronger over the past two years and the old enemy finally turned and started walking away.

"Wow Usopp," Nami said once the fishman was gone. She looked at him with happy eyes and he could see water gathering at the bottom lids. "Thank you."

"That was a risky move Usopp-kun," Jimbei stated as he watched his old nakama walk away. "Chew won't take it easy on you."

"Don't worry about him," Luffy patted the whale shark fishman on the back and laughed, "Usopp can handle that guy no problem. If there were more spots in the tournament, he would have entered for sure."

"I doubt that," Zoro muttered but grinned at the sniper's bravery there.

Once he felt that Chew was out of hearing range, Usopp let out the deep breath he'd been holding in and fell backwards.

"God Usopp, that was amazing," the crew turned around and saw a man standing behind them with black eye liner, no shirt on, red pants, and huge shoulder blades that went even higher than the top of his head.

"God, Usopp?" Nami, Sanji, Brook, and Chopper all asked at the same time as they looked at the powerful looking man standing behind their sniper.

"You?!" Usopp remembered the man from back in Dressrosa and then realized what he said before smirking and rubbing his nose. The two of them began talking as everyone else was distracted by the announcer's voice. "Of course! Don't expect anything less from God Usopp!" He was enjoying the praise and the man started thanking him again from saving him from Doflamingo.

"I came to fight in this tournament because I want to be the strongest," the man was telling Usopp as they sat down. "There may be Yonko and Schichibukai all over the place, but if I come out on top, I want you to have half of the winnings to repay you for the massive debt I owe."

Nami overheard this conversation a little and was so confused at why a powerful-looking man like him would be indebted to Usopp. Not only that but he was willing to give them five hundred million beris if he won! When did Usopp become so popular? She frowned knowing that he might be stuck in the weakling trio with her, but he had powerful allies that she didn't know about.

Luffy was going to talk to the guy behind him that he remembered fighting back in the Corrida Colloseum, but he was torn away by the names of the two people fighting next. "Trebol vs Kaku!"

"Kaku?" Zoro asked, intrigued by the next fight.

"Trebol!" Usopp shouted in panic. The gooey Logia fruit user had almost killed him back in Dressrosa; he barely managed to escape with his life.

As the countdown began, everyone turned to watch as the men started walking down from the same section of the arena. Kaku was wearing an all-black suit and a black hat, while Trebol had on the light blue cloak with darker blue circles on it. The fatter man walked away from Doflamingo with his large golden staff in one hand, three rubies shining on it. Nami's eyes sparkled as she already thought about stealing it from him. His fat nose was dripping snot and he was wearing his sunglasses even inside the building.

Kaku had a long square nose and was the first to drop down on the dirt below him, stopping and watching the timer that paused at ten until Trebol landed next to him. Neither of them was willing to be the first to take the step back and start farther away so they just wound up staring at each other as the timer counted down.

"Doffy, I'm gonna kill this guy!" Trebol shouted up, the look in Kaku's eyes making him get furious.

"Sure, have a blast." Donquixote Doflamingo laughed as he watched one of his top executives get ready to fight.

"Kaku," a female's voice called down from the stands and the orange haired man kept staring at his opponent. The others looked over and saw a woman in a black dress with long blonde hair push up her glasses a little to the bridge of her nose. "He's a Logia. The Stick-Stick Fruit." As Kalifa said it, the man's lower half turned into mush and he continued to stare ahead at his opponent and started to giggle.

"Behehehe," Trebol laughed as the countdown was about to finish, "just try attacking me now." The sticky man got ready for a quick fight and the former CP9 agent in front of him nodded his head, his cap shadowing his eyes.

The timer hit zero and Trebol held up an arm, shooting his gooey substance all over the man in front of him. It looked like he was right in thinking it was going to be a quick match and many of the spectators were disappointed that Kaku didn't even put up a fight.

Zoro was staring down at the glob of mucus that hit right where Kaku was standing a second ago, but the man wasn't there anymore. I knew Lucci couldn't have been the only one to get stronger. If only we were on the same part of the bracket, I'd kill for another fight with him.

The few people who did see how fast Kaku moved watched as he leapt up in the air and used his feet to kick the air over and over to keep himself up. He seemed to be using a mix of Shave and Geppou so he wasn't falling from his spot in the air, but was also moving too fast for most to see.

Trebol seemed to notice his enemy wasn't in his grasp and let his mucus fall away, before looking up and dodging at the last second as Kaku sent two flying kicks in his direction. The sticky man slid over to the wall and rode up it before sliding around over to the ice section. Meanwhile Kaku was sending kick after kick in his direction and the executive of the Donquixote family just kept laughing the whole time.

The Logia eater shot globs of mucus up in the air where he thought he saw the former Government agent, but Kaku was moving too fast and avoided the attack. Just like Lucci before him, he wasn't even using his Devil Fruit and seemed to be winning to fight. "Where are you? RRaaa!" Trebol dropped down and held out both arms, his anger getting to him and he snapped. He could feel the enemy racing around him and he had enough of it, allowing large amounts of sticky substance to flow from his arms.

"Sticky Tidal Wave," he whipped his arms in the air and all the substance rose up before spreading across the arena and driving forward into his enemy who couldn't avoid this attack. Right at the wave was about to hit Kaku, he slowed down and everyone watched as a sphere of air surrounded him and the mucus spread around his body, making a large hole in the wave where he wasn't affected.

"It's just like Lucci in the water," Robin observed and Zoro noticed that too. The two of them were sitting next to each other and watching with more interest than most of the others who didn't have anyone they wanted to root for. Both were former enemies, although Zoro was hoping in the back of his mind that the giraffe man would win and somehow make it to the later rounds to verse him, however unlikely that may be.

"Is it some form of Haki?" Nami asked them, leaning forward so her head was in between the two of theirs.

"It's armament," Zoro explained in an annoyed tone, wanting to watch without having to teach Nami about it. "An invisible armor that he seems to have down pretty well. Wonder if booger man over there can handle it." Robin started chuckling at the nickname Zoro gave the man and Sanji was fuming in the seat behind him.

Why are Nami-san and Robin-chan both talking to that stupid marimo?! He growled and swore he saw Zoro smirk at him even though the swordsman was looking the other way and not paying attention to him at all. That's it, I'm meeting him in a later match, I'll kick his ass in front of the ladies. All for the LADIES!

Kaku landed in front of Trebol and his feet seemed to be exuding a small aura since the sticky substance on the ground dispersed around him leaving a space for him to stand. "It's time to end this," Kaku said in almost a bored tone.

"He's fighting a Logia and doesn't even break a sweat," Usopp whispered from a few seats back and Ideo who was sitting next to him also seemed a little unnerved.

"Behehe, watch out, it's flammable," Trebol laughed and Kaku looked around to see he was completely surrounded by the substance.

The executive pulled out a matchbox with his hands that turned back to normal and everyone in the stands began to panic. Almost the entire arena was covered in the substance, even the top of the water. "If he drops a match here we're all going to die!" Some random pirate shouted and a lot of others were freaking out the same way.

Trebol went to strike the match, but heard a voice before he could do it, "Soru." Kaku moved even faster than before and rushed the man in front of him, reaching him in under a second while one hand was on the match and the other on the box, about to light it. "Shigan!" Everyone froze as they looked down at the floor and saw Kaku standing there with a hand shoved into his enemy's sticky chest.

At first they all thought his arm just went through since the man was a Logia, but then Trebol dropped the matchbox and they watched him cough up blood. Kaku pulled away his hand and they all saw his right index finger was completely red. He went back in for another strike but the speakers turned on, "Wait! Winner: Kaku."

The man whose hand was soaked in red seemed disappointed and stared at his opponent for a few more seconds before walking back towards his section. "My bad," Robin put an ear near the stairs that Kaku was walking up and she heard him call to the others, "I mistook where his heart was because of that stupid ability."

Rob Lucci's voice spoke up, "That's why you should have followed up with many more Finger Guns before he could call off the match, that way he still probably would have died."

"Who knows? I did puncture a lung," Kaku offered as if it might be enough to finish him off. Robin was stunned by the way they were talking to each other. It seemed like the CP9 agents were actually friends as Fukuro called out loudly to him that it was okay since he won and could kill his next opponent. Even twisted people like them can have friends, she half-smiled, half-frowned at the reason for the agents to be here.

The pirates all watched as a few executives from Doflamingo's group ran over to their fallen comrade. The two members were part of the Trebol Army of Doflamingo's crew and Giolla, the huge lady who likes art, ran with Sugar, the tiny girl who turns people into toys, over to their leader.

"Whoa, those CP9 guys have all gotten a lot stronger," Franky said with a scratch of his head. He looked over towards them and specifically at the round man with the zipper on his mouth. Wonder if he's any stronger than last time, bet I could take him on easily now.

"And you beat one of them Robin," Chopper said with a smile and sat on the woman's lap. She smiled at the praise he was giving her and then chuckled as Usopp told her she was scary when she fought the pink-haired member.

King Riku was grumbling from behind the Straw Hats and the old man tried scratching his head from outside the helmet but it wasn't working. "Let's get going!" he shouted at the air waiting for the sign saying that Kaku won to disappear. He wanted his match to come already so he could head to the infirmary and check on his granddaughter himself. Viola felt the same way and frowned deeply in anger.

"Let's start up the next match!" they all heard the man running things shout.

Someone on the other side of the room shouted before he could continue, "Wait! What about all this sticky stuff," they all looked around the arena at the goo covering everything. "We can't fight on this, it's disgusting! How will the ladies see how beautiful I am if I'm covered in... That!"

Although people disagreed with his reasoning, none of them wanted to run around in the sticky substance either and all began voicing their complaints. "Okay, okay!" the announcer's voice shouted and he continued, "Staff, get down to the arena and clear up the mess. Refill the lake while you're at it and get Macro out of there." Everyone looked down and saw men and women wearing purple rushing onto the arena floor.

"Meanwhile you can all go take an early lunch break, be back here by one o'clock. You don't want to miss your match and the chance at one BILLION BELI!"

A/N Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The tournament will get on as scheduled after a short lunch break. Leave a review telling me what you think and thanks to everyone who has already. See you soon.

Mr. 0-San

Man! This is exiting! Thanks for the awesome fic! And Kaido's here now?! *shudders*

Haha thanks! Kaido is here and don't worry, the rest of his crew will be a lot more menacing than panda chick here. Can't wait to see the feedback on some of the other crew members.

Guest

Ooooooh! I'm soooo excited for the next match! v

Bet I surprised you with Chew beating Rixa. I don't want it to be too predictable, but don't think I'm going to have Chopper beating Shanks or anything close to that lol. Again, thanks for the reviews and let me know what you think about the latest chapter!