Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
Araly was fast asleep, rocking gently in her hammock that dangled neatly above the wooden floor. The waves rocked the entire ship like a cradle, all the pirates sleeping at their positions. Only Marco stayed awake to steer and navigate, but the siren-like temptation of the cool ocean breeze coupled with the ship's motion made it all the more difficult not to fall over. He let out a loud and long yawn of exhaustion.
"Those boys" he mumbled "are stronger men than any of us. One of them better win soon..." Back at the opposite end of the ship those very boys were dangling silently and motionlessly ,trying their damn hardest not to attract the monster's attention to themselves. The Happy Ripper smiled it's wide, cheeky smile across its thin face, eying them each down as to who would make a proper midnight snack.
"This is bad" Bard reminded Zan to his side.
"Really?" Rez whispered angrily. "Is this really bad!?" The monster shifted quickly over to him and he was silenced. The Sea King was running their conversations now.
"It's a god thing" Bard started "that you can just melt through him, Zan."
"Not through this thing" Zan said sorrowfully. "I can't meld through anything that comes into contact with saltwater." The monster darted its vision back at Zan, who shut up and considered his moves. I can either slip through the ropes and into the ship, he planned, or I can try to get it away without leaving my harness.
"I have an idea" Bard announced quietly.
"No" Rez immediately fired. Zan ignored the obvious bias of Rez and leaned in while the monster kept shifting its gaze.
"You guys leave" Bard began, "and I'll distract it."
"No way!" Rez hushed fiercely, not caring about the monster that eyed him angrily anymore. "I'm not leaving this harness and losing! I'm staying here the whole time, and I'm gonna be the captain!"
"Technically Bard and I already have our wins in" Zan explained. "Even if you won this one contest you'd still have to win another to actually be the captain." Rez looked distraught, especially because Bard was nodding his head.
"Yeah," Bard said. "That's how the numbers crunch for me."
"SHUT UP!!" Rez screamed over the ocean waters. Even the monster reeled back a bit and turned down the corners of its mouth. "You shouldn't even be here anyway! What do you know about sea life? Or about being a pirate!? You're just a kid!"
"I doubt that you're much older than me!" Bard defended.
"It's not about age!" Rez shouted. "It's about experience! You can't steer this boat to save anyone's life and you barely know about this sea at all!"
"Hey, guys?" Zan attempted. "The monster?" The monster even whined a little to try and get their attention back on it, but ti didn't work.
"Hey, I've lived by the sea my whole life!" Bard continued to defend righteously. "I've met plenty of pirates and even Marines who all knew more about the sea than you do!"
"They don't count!" Rez demanded. "Even if you saved all our lives right now, I wouldn't accept you! You're just a kid!!" Bard took that to particular offense and prepared to counter with whatever he could muster up.
"You know what!?" Bard screamed. The heated emotional content of the air woke up Araly in a grump, stirred the monster's curiosity as to what easier meals it could catch, and forced all the anger of the argument to rise up and culminate in a violent cloud on deck.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!!" Araly screeched. She picked up a block of wood, which happened to be Max's chair, and threw it full force at the monster that was just rising up. The chair impacted and broke square on it's beady little eye. At first, there was a silent shock from Araly realizing what she just hit and the amount of time it took for the ridiculous pain to register in the monster's brain. Once it did, there was a roar that nearly ripped the ocean apart.
"HH-GRAAAAAAHH!!" roared the monster. "KYAAAAAA!" shrieked Araly.
"ARALY!!" shouted Bard, who was prepared to undo his harness and forfeit at once. Unfortunately, without Max's weight holding down the ropes that the Captains-to-be hung by, they all plummeted closer to the ocean by a few feet. The jump was more than enough to jolt Zan into jumping out of his harness and sticking his daggers into the hull for support. A few seconds after his mouth was open from shock, Zan realized his error.
"Dammit" Zan cursed. "I lose." Unwilling to let his hot streak end with just a loss of psychological steadfast, Zan started climbing up the hull, trying hard to stick his knives into the super-dense hull. Bard decided to take action while he could.
"Hey, stupid sea-lizard!" Bard taunted, just barely catching its attention. Rez drew out his gunblade and fired straight into the side of the creature's head. The bullet impacted more than it penetrated, but blood was still drawn, forcing another unbearably painful roar from the Sea King. "Good shot, buddy!"
"I'm always a good shot!" Rez said arrogantly. He twirled his blade in his finger and sheathed it back in its holster, just as the creature prepared to bear down and eat them both. Bard swung back and kicked off the ship, flying forward like a deadly pendulum.
"HA-KYA!" Bard grunted, delivering a flying, rising kick that sent flesh rippling away from the impact on the monster's hard skin. The Ripper's tongue was lashed out vertically in pain from the kick. Bard even pushed off and hit the back of the ship once again. The sound and, mostly, cannon proof hull prevented the crew from waking, but Marco was worse off.
"Ignore it, Marco" he muttered to himself. "It's nothing impor--" He was interrupted when the ship was violently slammed by the monster swinging it's head into its side. This woke up the crew by tossing most of the on top of each other or out of their bunk hammocks.
"What the hell was that!?" on pirate shouted. Pandemonium and panic soon broke out as everyone armed themselves and rushed up to the deck. Araly was still cowering in her hammock, afraid to open her eyes. Max's body was still holding down the other ropes lazily, but the rocking forced him to move and jerked both of the remaining boys down another good bit towards the ocean.
"This is getting worse by the second!" Rez shouted, looking for an open spot to shoot with his quick-draw. Bard decided to deliver another, horizontal kick to the monster to get it to back off. His kick was powerful enough to twist the entire monster's body so it's head was straight up in the air and his body was snaking around wildly. From the force of his kick, Bard swung out wide and hit the side of his ship, catching the edge before he drifted back.
"That thing has hard bones!" Bard commented, rubbing his bruised shin. "I don't think I can hit it any harder than that for now!"
"Fair enough" Rez said, sheathing his smaller gun again. "Leave this to..." he paused so he could draw out his broadsword-cannon from behind to emphasize its effectiveness, "...ME!" and he pulled! Nothing happened, so he pulled again! His sword was stuck between the ropes of the harness, and a terrifying ultimatum gripped his mind. In order to fight the Sea King, he would have to cut his harness and eliminate his chances of becoming Captain again. Not only that, but Zan had vanished after leaping out of his own harness, so Bard would win by default.
"Okay" Rez started. "New plan! Bard, use your fists on it instead of your legs!"
"I thought you were helping!" Bard shouted with an angry face.
"This isn't real" Araly prayed in her helpless cradle. "This can't be happening for real..." She peeked through a tiny opening in her fingers, seeing the woodwork start to bulge up. With her hand removed, she saw the whole process that was Zan fusing up from under the deck. When he was completely above deck, he raised up a large crossbow loaded with a whaling harpoon and aimed carefully.
"Quit moving" he quietly ordered. The monster was thrashing about, biting and nipping at the two still dangling below.
"Ahhh-TA!" Bard roared, delivering a flying uppercut to the monster's apparent, mouth-covered chin. Zan's aim was lost again, as the creature was reeled and leaning backwards. While in it's daze, the creature silently contemplated collapsing and feigning death until this ship had passed, but the inner animal clicked in and it decided to take on these tiny snacks with its full force instead! With a last desperate attempt to knock the ship over, the creature whipped its head around and knocked the ship part-way out of the water. It slammed back down heavily, rocking all the pirates down to their asses.
"What's going on!?" a pirate shouted in dismay.
"Is it a Sea King attack!?" another pirate shouted. Finally, they heard the roar. "KILL MARCO!" a riotous cry rang out.
"That directionally challenged bastard" someone started "lost his way right into the Calm Belt!!"
"AH-TOH!" Bard shouted again, punching in the slender gut with his other hand. The bony ribs that ran throughout the creature's entire body were dense enough to rattle the ship without damaging the creature itself, so it was no wonder that Bard was having trouble keeping his bones from snapping. "Okay, that punch burnt!"
"Worth it!" Rez shouted, sticking his gunblade into the hull and positioning himself to draw out his bigger gun. "Alright, the 'Hell Tiger' is back!" Rez pointed easily up at the dazed monster's face. Its mouth was extremely wide open, giving him and Zan a perfect shot.
"Perfect shot!" Zan triumphantly exclaimed. He fired a harpoon that was aimed at the creature's uvula. Rez fired a cannon shot from his big sword that exploded, deterring the course of Zan's harpoon straight up. The monster was defeated and white-eyed, it's huge mouth wide open as it came falling forward unconsciously.
"Oh, hell" Zan cursed. He threw his weapon aside and made a grab for Araly and Max. Just before he could get to them both, the monster's mouth impacted with the boat. Its fangs sank in to the dense wood deck, some of them breaking off from its jaw. Just before the crew gave out their grieving sighs, the harpoon came spiraling down and sliced its way through the monster's skull. Any cries of pity turned to shouts of terror.
"ZAAAN!" "Ms. ARALY!!" "CAPTAIN MAX!!" Every pirate was in huge distress, which Zan heard as he dropped to the bedroom floor below, heavily winded. He dropped Araly in her hammock and Max hard on the floor.
"Damn" he said "that was close. Are you alright?" He turned to address Araly, who was out cold and foaming at the mouth.
"What happened?" Bard asked, now floating in the water. "Are they alright?" Rez swam up to the creature's floating body and sheathed his sword venomously. He pouted heavily while Bard struggled to climb up the slippery skin. "Hey, buddy? Help please?"
"GO SCREW YOURSELF!!" Rez roared. Bard sank himself back down into the water, disappointed and sad. His rope had caught on the tiny splinter of out-cropped wooden shrapnel that Rez accidentally carved out when using his blade as a hold. Bard won, much to Rez's total dismay.
"I bet this thing must taste amazing..." Bard assumed, trying to make conversation with his shaken and angry comrade. It didn't quite break the ice, as Rez sat scowling at the silver moon on the horizon...
