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.


"KURU!" Drakengard roared. He threw Bard the court and into the hole he himself had made to escape earlier. Bard rolled when he landed, then pushed himself up with his arms and steadied himself into his Southpaw boxing pose.

"RAAAHH!!" Bard roared back, rushing in. He punched once, but Drakengard caught it. He tried to kick but Drakengard caught the shin with his armored foot and pushed it away while bard punched with the other hand. Drakengard caught that between his forearm and bicep. Bard struggled to get free, but the dangerous man with dried blood on his brow wouldn't let him escape. "HRR! HRRRRRRGH! GRAAAH! Give me back my arms, JACKAAAASS!!!"

"Listen to me!" Drakengard demanded. Seeing Bard still struggling he gave him a headbutt, although Bard's strong head reflected most of the potential damage and Drakengard was dazed. His grips were loosened and Bard was free. He jumped up and delivered a powerful kick that sent Drakengard stumbling back. Then, with a brief running start Bard delivered a spinning, roundhouse kick to Drakengard's neck. Drakengard caught the leg before flying away and dragged Bard with him as his feet slid across the floor of the ruined hall. He managed to manipulate his weight and balance so that the energy would force him into a spin, and Bard was on the receiving end of the whirlwind toss.

"UAHAHAHAH!!!!" Bard shouted as he spun rapidly around.

"Quite being so hot-headed!!!" Drakengard roared. He let go of Bard and threw him outside, although he came dangerously close to hitting the wall. Bard planted his feet into the ground as he slid away and punched a fist to slow himself down further. His coat blew up in the breeze, but he was alright. Drakengard stomped out and tilted his neck to the side, cracking it with a slight wince. "I'm not here to fight you or any of your comrades!"

"Really?" Bard asked, coming out of his pose. "Are you sure? Because...we were fighting back there."

"You engaged me in that" Drakengard defended. "My target is the same as yours: the King!"

"It is?" Bard asked.

"That damned man" Drakengard began with a shaking fist "has been the bane of all my existence since we got here. At every turn he tried to usurp me or betray me or mess up so he could blame it all on me! When the bears overran us and ate the prisoners, he blamed me for not building a fence! When he raped one of the women and stole her child away, he blamed me for not enforcing the rules better! When he took control of the island to live out his sick, twisted fantasies, he blamed me for not being strong enough to stop him! He is a wretch! A devil of a man! A bastard king of all the bastard children living in the shadow of bastard mountain! He is a sickness, and my fists; no, OUR fists are the cure!!!"

The long, dramatic prose was too much for Bard. He had been inactive just long enough for his brain to pass out, thought he stayed standing with his arms crossed as he snored.

Is he serious!? Drakengard exclaimed mentally. More importantly...this courtyard is clear...where is Lioncrest?

"TORYAAAAHH!!!!" Bard shouted. He regained his consciousness the moment Drakengard stopped talking and came out of his daze with a powerful flying kick. He landed it and pushed off of his foe back to the ground, where he huffed in tune to his mock boxing swings. Drakengard had no intention to continue fighting Bard, seeing just how stubbornly thick-headed he was, but was prepared to defend himself.

"Weren't you listening to me?" Drakengard asked. Bard advanced and threw a quick one-two combo, then hopped back. Drakengard took them both to the chest, then raised his own arms up and hopped in rhythm with Bard. "We're being played, don't you get it?" Bard let out a short snarl and charged forward. He threw a punch and Drakengard caught it. "We're not pawns here, but the king is playing us like them!" Bard stepped away to the side and twisted Drakengard's arm around his back, waiting until he hear a foreboding cracking of joints before applying the pressure that forced Drakengard to his knees.

"How can I trust you?" Bard asked. "You kicked my friend's asses! You're just a maniac who can barely talk right!"

"If I can't talk right" Drakengard began "then how am I talking right now?" Bard hadn't given that any thought and released Drakengard, who clutched his stretched arm and groaned and the pain.

"Okay" Bard said, crossing his arms. "I believe you."

"SLOW!!!!" Drakengard bellowed. He stood up and became suddenly stern. "We don't have much time. I suspect Rupert is getting desperate to hold his title and doing something foolish to eliminate all his threats at once."

"How?" Bard asked.

"There's a lot of options" Drakengard admitted. "The houses just outside the courtyard are decoys in case the prisoners riot. We figured they would go for the most expensive looking places to rob if they ever got out of our control, but the only things to steal are embedded into the walls and floors. Weapons of every caliber from over ten years ago, experimental drugs and serums for strength and stamina. Enough supplies to create a small army, all for the castle's use. I neveer would have thought they'd go to such misuse. I always thought the prisoners would get to the first, honestly." Drakengard noticed Bard drifting off into sleep again and grabbed his arm with his hand. He pressed firmly between the muscle of his forearm and the tendon meat underneath it and Bard was paralyzed.

RADIAL NERVE!!! Bard metnally roared. I forgot how PAINFUL this grip is!!!

"You listening now?" Drakengard asked, releasing Bard from his grip.

"Damn!" Bard shouted. "That was a good one. I bet you don't know about this, though!" Bard grabbed Drakengard's neck and pinched his trapezes muscles. At first it did nothing, but then Drakengard's legs fell out from underneath him and he was on the ground in a total daze.

He knows that!? Drakengard exclaimed. The legendary West Blue paralytic grip, 'Hand of Hephaestus'! This young man is no ordinary pirate, but as long as I can keep his attention I can get him on the right side...

"Nice one" Drakengard gurgled. Bard leaned back and laughed at his own triumphant skills.


Outside the courtyard in the open housing area where the pirates had congregated, Rupert stood above them with his grotesque, enormous body bearing over them.

"Heh" Rez huffed. "Hehe..." he nervously laughed. He began a very nervous, high-pitched cackle which the rest of his crew soon joined in. Rupert stomped forward and the laughing just increased.

"Mohoho!" Rupert growled. "You think it's amusing, do you?" Rupert's arm went up over his head, a giant pillar of muscular might, and then he brought it down with a grunt. Rez dove out of the way and the smashing force sent the rest of the pirates tumbling backwards. Rez was thrown off balance but regained it by stabbing the ground with the tip of his Hell Tiger and using it to vault himself back onto his feet with the sword on his shoulder.

"Holy hell!" Rez exclaimed. "What are we supposed to do now!?"

"Kill it!" Marco shouted.

"Shoot it!" someone else replied. All the pirates fired their flintlock guns at Rupert's face, but the behemoth just raised a hand and blocked all the bullets with his rough, calloused palm. "Um...cut it!"

"RAAAAGH!" one burly pirate roared as he rushed forward. Holding a broad-sword scimitar in his hands he made a slash into Rupert's leg. The giant didn't even notice, his manic grin plastered to his face like a terrifying mural. Now the sword was stuck in the thickness of the giant king's leg.

"How very fruitless" Rupert said. He jerked his leg back, releasing the sword, then swatted the pirate away with the back of his hand. Bloody and broken the pirate tumbled through the air and finally landed in the second story of a house a great distance away. He was out of commission entirely.

"Damn" Marco groaned. "He's even resistant to sword attacks! Rez, you got anything that could help?"

"No more cannons" Rez said "and I spent all my bullets already. Looks like we're screwed here unless we get some extra help."

"Extra help, you say!?" shouted a girl. The crew turned to see Araly standing high on the rafters. The audience had left their seats to crowd around the open gate and watch their terribly mutated king from a distance. Her scar was blowing between her arms and in an arc behind her head in the wind with her hair. Her blue attire made her blend in with the small patches of unclouded sky above her. "Why, that's what I'm here for!"

"Nice" Gretta said, leaning into her seat. "Could you say it next time without the cliché?" Araly's exporessiong turned from heroic to flat, then demonic as she turned to the blunt girl.

"SHUT UP!" Araly shouted. She turned back and took out some cards painted red. She gripped them between her fingers and then threw them at Rupert. They whizzed through the air like knives and, upon contact, exploded in a plume of fire then dissolved into puffs of black smoke. Rupert was unharmed.

"Is that all?" Rupert asked, turning his side on the pirates. "Ink? Exploding Ink?"

"Nope" Araly said. "Check it out." Rupert struggled to turn his head but the pirates all saw it plainly. The smoke was condensing into fire again and started hovering close to his skin. He could feel the stinging heat around his shoulder and became curious. "I wouldn't touch those, if I were you. They aren't made of ordinary fire."

"What are they?" Gretta asked.

"I'm not telling you!" Araly said loudly. Rupert sneered with his demonic grin and moved into the hovering fire balls regardless. They popped open like soap bubbles and nothing happened.

"Amazing" Gretta flatly said.

"Rez!" Araly shouted. "Kick up some sparks near that thing! Those contained explosive gases!"

"Sparks, eh?" Rez said. He fearlessly took his sword to the stone-cobble ground and ran with it, kicking up shards of rock and flickering sparks. Rupert turned to him, ready to swat him away, but Rez didn't get too close. He slashed his sword up, kicking up a small cloud of electric sparks, then flipped away. The sparks hit the invisible gas and a low hum sounded just before a deafening explosion engulfed the torso and face of the mighty, muscular king. "Yes!"

"It worked" Araly said in disbelief. "...Huh."

"You did that on a guess?" Gretta asked. "Honestly, are even the women pirates total morons?"

"SHUT IT!" Araly demanded. "Why aren't you trying to stop me, anyway? Isn't that your father?"

"I don't care" Gretta admitted. Araly looked confused while Gretta lacked any and all emotion as she watched her father's body stumbled out of the smoke and grab the ground. The pirates surrounded him but kept a safe distance. Rez was the closest and held his broadsword in both hands, dragging its tip on the ground beside him. "He's not that much of a father anyway. He doesn't care about me, he keeps secrets from me, he never seems to trust me...he's a terrible father for me. I doubt he's even my real father..."

"Don't say stuff like that" Araly said. "Evil or not, pirate or Marine, that man down there is your father! Show him the respect to at least curse my comrades out a little?"

"I don't care" Gretta said.

"You have a bow, don't you?" Araly asked, becoming more fierce. "Why don't you use that? He's your family, so why won't you defend him!?"

"I don't care" Gretta said. She stood straight up and jumped down beside Araly, staring past her as if to show some sign of disobedience that she wouldn't engage Araly as an equal. "If he can't take care of himself, especially like this, why should I want him to live? He's just pathetic, a nobody. Why are you on his side?"

"I'm not" Araly said, lowering her eyes. Her fists were shaking with rage as the ground shook from Rupert's movement. "I'm taking the side of what's most important to me...family!" Rupert got up and shook his head. His skin was charred from the fire but he didn't seem to feel it at all. If anything he seemed to be awake from the pain and was now commencing a new attack. He drew his arms far back and started punching as quickly as his huge body could, breaking the ground and throwing the pirates every which way with the force of his swings. Rez dodged the first several blows and blocked on of them, feeling his steel blade hit what seemed like steel knuckles. He was pushed back and skidded on his feet to a stop. Rupert came down with a stomp, blocking the sun from Rez's vision. In a panic Rez jumped and rolled away, then once behind him, he threw himself up with his sword and made a shallow cut on the small of Rupert's back.

"Even if you say all that" Gretta said "I still can't be confident in him anymore. He's lost my respect as his daughter...and as a person."

"Scum" Araly lowed. Gretta turned, her brows just barely showing signs of anger, and then turned forcefully away as Araly slapped her off her feet. The tattoo's effects just couldn't work over her naturally offsetting anger. Gretta stopped before cascading down the flights of bleachers and froze up. Her face was hurt and she couldn't, for the life of her, realize why. The girl delicate as a white rose, who had never been hurt in her life, had been humbled by a mere clothier girl...


"MOHOHOHOHO!!!!" Rupert roared. "What's wrong, outlanders!? Am I too much for you!? WELL? AM I!?!?!?"

"So how does this work?" Drakengard asked. He and Bard stood far away from the gate, aiming themselves to dash into the crowd.

"Just sprint as fast as you can" Bard said "and keep your arm flat out, wrist up."

"How?" Drakengard asked. "Like this?" He extended his arm out straight from his shoulder with the palm facing up.

"Yup" Bard said. "When I give the word you get ready to throw."

"Who?" Drakengard asked. "You?"

"The extra push" Bard explained "will power up my flying kick attack and rattle the crap out of his brains! It's the perfect plan!"

"For some reason" Drakengard said "I can't believe you saying that."

"What?" Bard said. "you don't think it's gonna work?"

"Not that, exactly" Drakengard nervously said. "Anyway, let's get this over with. The sooner that bastard gets thrown out to the Sea Kings the better!"

"Agreed!" Bard said. "Let's GO!" Bard and Drakengard began sprinting from the far side of the courtyard to initiate their plan off attack on Rupert who stirred beyond the gate. They passed a tree that turned over on itself as a tattooed, muscular woman pushed herself up and rubbed her shaved head in pain.

"What the hell happened?" she said in a gruff but womanly voice. "When did trees get tough enough to kick my ass? Wait...where am I?" The reawakened persona of the pirate stirred with repressed memories. The lines she waited in, the foul things she drank, the fake personality that was forced on her, the battles that led here here; all her life flashed before her eyes until a name came up and the woman began loudly growling. "Those sons of bitches. How dare they? HOW DARE THEY!? I'll teach these punk-ass weaklings to mess with Sally 'Steel Rope' Morganna!!!" She looked around and found her namesake weapon, the tightly wound iron ropes, and went over to retrieve them.

Elsewhere, from the ruined walls of the castle, a figure in shock-white nurse garb stumbled and limped out into the open with a syringe and scalpel in her fist. "Bastards" Kevorkia cursed. "I'll kill them. I'll kill each and every goddamn one of them!!!"

"Now tell me again" Drakengard said as he neared his target, "what is this attack called?"

"Dragon Buster Launch!" Bard said. "And you have to say it super-fierce, okay? You can't just whisper it and get away with it. I'll make you do it over."

"That wouldn't work at all!" Drakengard exclaimed. Bard stopped and jumped up into the air. "Whatever. Here we go, I suppose!" Drakengard wound up what seemed like a powerful, stone-breaking punch with his right arm while Bard spun and flipped through the air to get the perfect position. Bard finally landed on Drakengard's fist and the incantation began.

"Dragon Buster...LAAAAAUNCH!!!!!" Drakengard punched hard and Bard jumped off at the final extension of the punch, launching himself with amazing speed towards the giant, rampaging Rupert.

I hope I hit him Bard said. Even with Geppou, the impact on the air would probably break or fracture my feet! Despite that danger, Bard straightened himself out like the grand arrow that he was, launched from the iron bow of a siege-weapon ballista that was Drakengard's arm.

"RANKYAAAAAKU!" Bard roared. Rupert turned a moment too late and received the flat of Bard's boot to his shoulder. An explosion of air-cutting energy spiraled out in a twisting spear. "Imperia LANCIAAAAAA!!!!!" Rupert's grin was twisted into a demonic snarl as his body began floating and then flying far away. A trail of blood followed as he crashed through a myriad of trees, carving a long, wide path of deforested land leading right up to a solid rock face where a cave was carved. Bard floated back down to the ground, tapped both feet to the ground, then posed with one up and horizontally lain and his arms forming a sort of frame around his face. One arm was extended out and then in at the elbow and the other arm was extended up with the elbow on the horizontal hand. A heroic pose!

"Took you long enough" Rez said, tapping his sword on his shoulder. "Couldn't you be a bit more flashy about that?"

"WHAT!?" Bard shouted. "That wasn't good enough!?"