Brand New World
Ch. 21: A Farewell to ÄRMs
-X-
Disclaimer: The following is a fan made work of fiction. One Piece is owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, Shueisha, Shonen Jump Manga, and Eiichiro Oda. I do not own One Piece or any of its characters, nor any of the songs I put in here. The only thing I own here is Kakusei and a few fan characters.
Summary: I`m Kakusei. I have no idea where I am, or who I am, but I feel I m in a familiar world, just not my own. Mentions other mangas as the character is from our world. I`m being realistic. Also, Robin x OC later.
Rating: T for Language, Violence, and Blood.
-X-
"Now, let's determine the playing field!" Tubiflex announced gathering everyone`s attention.
"Playing field?" Zoro asked.
"We start with this cannon outfitted with a special cannonball inside," Tubiflex said showing off the cannon which was on top of a spinning table. "Both contestants spin the cannon at the same time!" Luffy and Foxy began to spin the cannon around like a spinning wheel on a playground. "And... the place at which it comes to a halt..." Just then the cannon stopped instantly pointing exactly 90 degrees between Luffy and Foxy.
"WAIT A MINUTE! IT JUST STOPPED INSTANTLY!" Usopp objected angrily.
"Is where the battlefield is decided!" Tubiflex said as the cannon shot the cannonball onto the deck of Foxy`s ship. "The ball has JUST SO HAPPENED to land on the Sexy Foxy's deck."
"That was NOT a coincidence, you cheaters!" Usopp yelled angrily.
"Give it up..." Zoro said exhaling a heavy breath.
"Now it's time to explain the rules for the Third Round, "Combat"!" Tubiflex said near happily. "The battlefield extends from the spot the ball landed with a 50 meter radius! In other words, the battle will take place in a 100 meter diameter circle!" That meant that the whole ship, including its figurehead, was fair game. "Any types of weapons or explosives are allowed in the circle," Tubiflex continued as Chopper tended to Zoro and Sanji`s wounds. "No one else aside from the two combatants is allowed inside the circle. Throw your enemy out of the circle, and you win! THAT'S ALL! Also, midair or underwater ejections don't count! Now! Look at the stage for Porche-chan and her "Flower Cheerleaders," doing a cheer for the Boss!"
"Porche-chan!" The Foxy Pirates cheered as Porche and a few other girls began dancing in cheerleader outfits. I ignored them, as I was getting a few things together to collect my winnings.
"The "Combat" ceremonies are just about to commence aboard the Sexy Foxy," Tubiflex said sounding more like a sports commentator than a Foxy Pirate. "By the way, there are vendors walking the grounds selling limited edition DBF goods." That was just shameless product placement. "By all means, take this time to add to your collection!"
"WE DON'T NEED THIS CRAP, JUST START THE MATCH!" Nami yelled at Tubiflex.
"Thanks you guys, you were totally cool! You totally beat those huge guys up!" Chopper said to Zoro and Sanji after he finished patching them up.
"Well, to put it simply," Sanji began.
"I did all the work," Zoro and Sanji said simultaneously.
"WHAT?" Sanji and Zoro said angrily looking at each other.
"Ah, some things never change," I said sighing happily as I held my hands behind my head and hung my head a bit low.
"Stop that," Nami said holding Sanji and Zoro`s head apart, sending Sanji into Love Mode again. "They're calling for Luffy now. Where is he?"
"Here you go, two limited edition Foxy badges," a vendor said as he handed Luffy and Usopp two pins that looked like Foxy`s face.
"DON'T BUY THAT CRAP!" Nami yelled at Usopp and Luffy.
"The combatants need to prepare in the waiting room," a Foxy Pirate said to Luffy.
"Aha, that's me!" Luffy said bluntly. "Wait, prepare?"
"And who will be your second?" the Foxy Pirate asked.
"Huh? Oh, I guess that would be me," Usopp said calmly.
"Hey," I said flagging down the guy talking to Usopp and Luffy. "Can you get Foxy for me real quick? I wanna talk to him about our bet."
"Sure," the Foxy Pirate replied as he went off to get Foxy.
"You wanna take care of that now?" Nami asked me.
"Well, yeah," I said calmly. "I don`t want to take the chance that they may hit the things we may need while fighting. While Foxy wouldn`t be stupid enough to fight in his treasure or storage rooms, Luffy doesn`t care at all."
"Good point," Nami said as Foxy came forward, swinging his coat back on.
"You wanted me?" Foxy asked me looking a bit smug, yet fearful.
"Yes. Foxy, while you guys get set up for the final match, I`d like to collect on that bet we made," I said calmly while I held up the photographs. "We are both honorable men, aren`t we?" Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Robin, Zoro, Chopper, and Sanji looked at how this would play out.
"Oh, crap, he did remember," Foxy thought worriedly. "Time for plan B." Just then, Foxy made a signal with his hands and a fire-lit arrow shot just above my hand, grazing the photos and setting them on fire.
"Hot!" I yelled as I dropped the photos, as the others in my crew looked on, save Luffy who looking at his two Foxy pins.
"What the?" Nami yelled looked towards the archer of that arrow.
"Sorry, my bad," the archer of the Foxy pirates said calmly as he waved his arm.
"Like that was an accident!" Nami yelled at the archer.
"If you don`t have any proof that bet was made, then we must not have made one!" Foxy said laughing haughtily as the photos burned to ashes.
"That`s a bunch of crap, we all saw you two make that deal!" Nami yelled at Foxy as I blew my hand to cool it.
"That`s a lousy way to squeeze out of an honorable bet!" Usopp said yelling at Foxy as well.
"It`s no surprise he`d do something like that," Sanji said as he lit a cigarette. "We all know what kind of cheater he is." Zoro and Robin just looked on in neutral observation. I began to chuckle, which then escaladed into roaring laughter.
"What the hell are you laughing about?" Nami yelled at me. "We could have gotten half his treasure, plus supplies!"
"I thought this might happen," I said as I reached for my pocket, and pulled out a familiar object.
"What`s that?" Foxy asked.
"That`s…" Nami said looking at the object in my hand.
"A Tone Dial, right," I said smiling at Nami. "I wanted to be prepared in a situation like this, so after the first event, I asked Usopp for a Tone Dial. That way, I could do this." I pressed the top of the Tone Dial.
"If we lose this next game, I`ll join your crew regardless of whether you pick me or not," the recording of my voice said.
"Wait, how did he?" Foxy said listening to the conversation I had recorded.
"Fweh fweh fweh!" the recording of Foxy laughed. "And what happens if your crew wins the next game?"
"If we win the next game, I get to raid your ship for any supplies I deem necessary and I can take up to half your treasure," my recorded voice said.
"Fweh fweh fweh, it`s a deal!" Foxy`s voice some clicking sounds were heard followed by a blowing wind sound. "What, don`t you trust me?"
"No, in fact I don`t," my voice said calmly. "I am a man of my word, and I will hold up my end of the deal should we lose. I`m not too sure about you though, so I want to have the evidence."
"That`s fine," Foxy`s voice a few steps were heard, followed by a clicking noise.
"And that`s all the bet," I said pocketing the Tone Dial again.
"So that`s why you wanted the Tone Dial," Usopp said amazed at my ability to think ahead.
"Now if you don`t mind," I continued. "Nami, Sanji, and I have a bit of collecting to do." The look on Foxy`s face was priceless. I swiped a camera quickly and took a picture of that for a keepsake. Man, this felt good. I outfoxed Foxy.
"W-wait!" Foxy said trying to stop me. "Why are they going?"
"Well, Sanji knows best what food we`ll need, and Nami knows treasure better than I do," I said calmly and smiling at his with my hands behind my head. "And besides, we never said that I couldn`t bring anyone along. Or do you want to hear the recording again?"
"He`s got me beat," Foxy thought as he slumped to the ground. "Fine, take what you will, but you only get half the treasure!" he reminded me.
"Of course," I said as Nami, Sanji, and I walked off towards his ship with a few large cloth bags in tow. "I am a man of my word after all."
"He`s really got things figured out, doesn`t he?" Zoro asked Robin, smirking as he usually did.
"It seems so," Robin said slyly as she looked towards me.
-X-
"Sanji-kun, please go to the kitchen and gather any food we may need," Nami said sweetly as she and I walked off to the treasure room.
"Of course, Nami-swan!" Sanji said as he danced off to the kitchen with hearts in his eyes.
"Shall we?" I said in a gentlemanly tone as I held the door open for Nami.
"Such a gentleman," she said sweetly as she walked in. Her eyes immediately went to Beri signs as we both looked at the huge amounts of treasure piled up in the room. "Too bad we can only take half of it."
"Yeah, but we can still take the best half," I said slyly.
"You are such a sly devil," Nami said smiling at me with a devilish look in her eye, as she started picking up treasure and eyeing it before placing it in her bag. I was about to start picking treasure out myself, when a small-sized treasure chest, no wider than my torso, caught my eye. I seemed drawn to it in some way. "Kakusei, you alright?" I slowly opened the chest, and my eyes instantly bugged out, and I started stammering.
"I… hubba… ne… th… this is impossible!" I said looking at the contents of the chest. Nami peeked over my shoulder and looked in the chest as well. Inside were a bunch of pieces of silver jewelry, like rings, key chains, necklaces, and bracelets, all in different shapes and styles, and scattered inside the pile of jewelry was a bunch of red small jewels.
"What`s the big deal?" she asked me. "These trinkets aren`t gonna be worth very much."
"What`s the big deal?" I yelled in response, almost on instinct. "Foxy probably has no idea how valuable the contents of this treasure chest are!"
"Really?" Nami asked as her eyes turned to Beri signs again. "Wait, why do you know how much these are worth?"
"Because these aren't from this world," I said sending a look of confusion onto Nami`s face. "They must have come here due to the timeline changes made by my arrival to this world. I`ve heard that this kind of thing called an anomaly when a thing like this happens. These are ÄRM." I said shakily.
"ÄRM?" Nami asked. "What are ÄRM?"
"ÄRM are magical items from a world called MÄR Heaven," I said making Nami realized what was going on. "ÄRM can allow the user to summon weapons, control the elements, or even summon a guardian. Some even give curses to opponents; allow the user to heal others, and more. It`s amazing," I said as I ruffled through the chest looking at each of the ÄRM closely. "It looks like we have a lot of ÄRM here I can identify, and theses jewels are magic stones from MÄR Heaven as well. If an ÄRM is modified to use the magic stones, new possibilities and powers can be made for the ÄRM, increasing its abilities and usefulness. Sometimes, the power of enhanced ÄRM can rival that of even Devil Fruit."
"They can rival Devil Fruit?" Nami said astonished at the power of these small trinkets. "Can they really do that?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two ÄRM that piqued my personal interest.
"How about I show you what one can do?" I said as I put on a ring that looked like it had a zipper running round it. "I have no idea if this will work." I held up the ÄRM into the air. "Dimension ÄRM, Zipper!" I channeled my Ki and willed my energy into it, hoping it would work. Almost instantaneously, a zipper appeared in the air, shocking Nami. I pulled down on the zipper, which opened up a pocket dimension in the air, like the zipper had been there all along. Nami`s jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out.
"What the hell did you do?" Nami asked as she looked at the tear in the fabric of space-time I opened up.
"I opened up a pocket dimension thanks to this ÄRM," I said smiling. "We can use this to store all the treasure and come back for it later just by opening up the zipper again anywhere else, but we`ll have to fish the stuff out piece by piece, so let`s put everything in bags to make it easier. I can`t believe that actually worked."
"Neither can I," Nami replied said as we shoveled the treasure we began to pick out into bags to put into the pocket dimension. "What`s that other one do?" she asked referring to the silver keychain with a dragon`s head that was hanging from my pocket.
"That one is special," I said calmly. "It`s for training later."
"Alright, so we`ll figure out what all those other ÄRM do later, right?" Nami asked me.
"Right," I said as I continued to shove the treasure-filled bags into the pocket dimension.
"What the hell is that?" Sanji asked walking in on our storing process.
"It`s a long story," Nami replied. "Don`t ask questions, just help us."
"Yes, Nami-swan!" he said as he dropped his bag, which was easily bigger than a car at that point.
"We`ll need that much food to feed Luffy," I said calmly and smiling, "for about a day, maybe two." Sanji and Nami both laughed at my joke.
-X-
We walked back out about a half-hour later with our remaining cloth bags full of food and supplies, and the Zipper and Dragon-headed ÄRMs sitting comfortably in my pocket.
"Hey, you`re back," Zoro said drawing everyone to our presence.
"That`s all the treasure you took?" Robin asked looking at our bags. "I figured Foxy would have more treasure than that."
"Oh, he did," I said mysteriously. "We`ll explain after this ordeal is over." Everyone looked confused at my words, save for Nami and Sanji, who knew about the dimension ÄRM I was carrying, and Robin, who just looked curious.
"Hey, the "Combat" is starting over there!" Chopper said gathering our attention to a match between two of the Foxy Pirates.
"It's the pre-game fight," Robin said calmly, clearing things up.
"I`m gonna go store the food," I said gathering up the bags. "You guys get some good seats." I walked over to the Merry and stored the perishables in the fridge and the rest in the hold. As I got out of the hold, I saw some cloud bombs go off into the air. "Looks like it`s gonna start soon." I quickly ran over to where the stands were and met up with everyone.
"The boundary ring has been set up! Thanks for waiting! It's almost time for the gong to ring, signaling the start of today's main event, "Combat"!" Tubiflex announced.
"Nami-san, Robin-chan, over here! I got you seats!" Sanji said with hearts in his eyes as he motioned Nami and Robin over.
"Why is the sky darkening?" Robin asked.
"Black smoke!" Chopper said, probably sniffing it out.
"Appearing in the final round are these two men! It's a showdown between captains!" Tubiflex said enthusiastically as they projected Foxy and Luffy`s wanted posters onto the blackened sky.
"Nice presentation," I said as we all sat down. I sat down between Nami and Robin, much to Sanji`s dismay. "I didn`t think they could project images like that here."
"The man who turns down no challenge! The holder of a legendary 920 wins and 0 losses in "Combat"! THE MAN WHO WINS EVERY GAME! In the left corner of the fox head…"
"BOSS!" The Foxy Pirates cheered as Foxy made his entrance.
"…OUR BOSS, FOXY, THE SILVER FOX!" Tubiflex said. I swear I could hear someone saying "Let`s get ready to rumble!" Heh, references…
"Fweh fweh fweh!" Foxy laughed confidently.
"BOSS! Mop him up in an instant, Boss!" The Foxy Pirates cheered.
"His opponent! Hailing from East Blue! The leader of a small crew of pirates! The 100,000,000 Berry bounty man! In the right corner…" Tubiflex said as Luffy walked out covered in a cloak.
"Good luck to you too, man!" The Foxy Pirates cheered.
"Nicknamed "Straw Hat"…" Tubifex continued, "…MONKEY D. LUFFYYYY!" Luffy whipped off his cloak, revealing he was now sporting an afro, his normal shorts, a pair of red boxing gloves, and a flaming skull tattoo (probably temporary) on his chest.
"Hell yeah!" Luffy cried out loudly and in a braggart fashion.
"The fateful final round of Davy Back Fight, "Combat," IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!" Tubiflex yelled through his microphone.
"Who is that?" Zoro muttered to himself quietly.
"Yeah! You look so cool, Luffy!" Chopper yelled as we all cheered for him, save for Robin, who just smiled.
"Of course Usopp convinced him to wear that," I said as I just chuckled while crossing my arms and reclining in my seat.
"HELL YEAH!" Luffy yelled again as he threw his arms up into the air.
"And now, the main event!" Tubiflex announced.
"Keep your arms in! And show 'im what you got! Your golden right!" Usopp said "coaching" Luffy.
"Yeah! Ring the bell already!" Luffy said as he jabbed the air.
"Hey, I like that! Fweh fweh!" Foxy said as he cracked his neck.
"Both fighters have stepped onto the battlefield!" Tubiflex announced.
"What a ferocious style! Just what you look for in an enemy!" Foxy said complimenting Luffy`s clothing choice.
"...letting Usopp be his second was a terrible mistake," Zoro said nervously as Chopper was just plain awestruck.
"Hell yeah, brother! Let your manly soul BURN!" Sanji said in awe of Luffy`s new attitude.
"Why can't he take it seriously?" Nami asked as she sipped her drink.
"The sad part is he is taking this seriously," I said chuckling again.
"Ahaha, I think he looks charming," Robin said laughing a bit.
"Hahaha, just be careful he doesn't rip your throat out with his teeth!" Usopp said to Foxy trying to intimidate him.
"Or bite your ear off," I said quietly, laughing at my inside joke.
"Seconds! You may now leave, as you are in the way!" Tubiflex answered.
"WHAT? I'm done already?" Usopp said astonished and almost complaining.
"SECONDS OUT!" Tubiflex said getting Usopp to move out of the ring.
"Yeah, get it started!" The Foxy Pirates cheered.
"The battlefield for this round conveniently being on our ship the Sexy Foxy's main deck, all of the inside areas are part of the battlefield!" Tubiflex announced. "Who will be thrown out of the 100 meter diameter ring? No time limit! One-round fight! "COMBAT"!"
"YEAAAAAH!" The Foxy Pirates cheered as the stands rose to accommodate so the crowd could see the ring.
"There are only two pirates left on this wide open battlefield!" Tubiflex announced.
"Fweh fweh fweh... now then, Straw Hat Luffy...!" Foxy began. "Let's have some fun! This entire ship is a battleground! Go as crazy as you want because we do have PLENTY OF SHIPWRIGHTS!"
"Nice!" Luffy replied keeping his boxing stance.
"C'mon, Boss! Hey Straw Hat! Nice fashion sense...! Get ready to be pounded!" The Foxy Pirates said aloud.
"Win, Luffy! Just win!" Sanji yelled to Luffy.
"Watch out for his beam attack! Got it?" Nami yelled to Luffy advising him.
"Luffy, go all out and kick his ass!" I yelled to Luffy.
"Let's get this arena heated up! Will we gain or lose a companion? There's no turning back!" Tubiflex announced loudly, riling most everyone up. "The final round of Davy Back Fight! "FOXY THE SILVER FOX" VS. "STRAW HAT LUFFY"! The fate of this match rests on the leaders of both our pirate crews! And now...! THE FINAL BELL!"
-DING!-
-X-
The final round begins! How will Luffy fight this unusual opponent?
Next chapter we watch Foxy and Luffy duke it out, and have an unexpected visitor.
Tsugino jikan made! (Until next time!)