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.


The rain clouds were finally gone. A hopeful blue was shining out from the sky, a calming reflection of the mighty sea that covered the world floating eternally above the actual, ravenous Grand Line ocean where so many lives went to end. High on a plataeu of an island where a castle was built, a coup was taking place. That whole coup, formed form a previous coup, was started as all great revolutions are. With a kick.

"RANKYAKUU!!!" Bard shouted. He made a kick straight up and sliced a neat cut from Rupert's deformed, overly muscular shoulder to his hip. Then he rushed in, hands clenched into wave-breaking fists, and prepared to attack with a mighty battle cry! "RAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

"GO BARD!!!!" the crew cheered. Rupert kicked Bard away when he got to close, sending him right into his line of pirates. They all screamed at the same time and ran for cover, except Rez who just stood with his arms crossed.

"Geppou!" Bard called. He kicked off the air and was sent into a short spiraling spin. Then he landed on his hands and feet and pushed himself back up, gathering his breath with long, slow draws from the air. "Well, he's kinda fast. That's surprising!"

"You sure you can do this?" Rez asked. "I'm not exaggerating when I say he's easily twice your size."

"That's all relative" Bard said.

"What's relative mean?" Rez asked, testing Bard's intellect. Bard bit his lip and shut his eyes, preventing any of his uneducated guesses from making him looked even more idiotic than he wanted. Rez took the silence for what it was worth, however, as stupidity. "You idiot!" Bard reset his face to the excited combative glare before and tensed his fists.

"Now that I know how fast he is" Bard began "I can move around him. Stay out of his time and get him into mine!"

"His time?" Rez asked.

"Timing" Bard corrected. "You happy now!?"

"No" Rez huffed. Rupert charged in and swung one powerful arm down, blowing apart the ground like a tree had fallen. Rez and bard both jumped away, but Rez kept sailing through the air until he landed. Bard kicked off the air again and roared toward Rupert's undefended neck.

"Rankyakuu!" Bard shouted, extending a kick into Rupert's neck. The cutting energy flowed over and past the thick, meaty trunk of a neck the grotesquely giant man sported. The kick still connected as a solid blow, but the cut did nothing aside from pissing Rupert off. Bard stepped onto his shoulder and hopped over his head just as one of the huge arms came up to swat him away. Bard gave a driving downward elbow to the top of Rupert's head, jarring him for a moment, then dropped down and delivered a Geppou-powered drop-kick to his chin. Rupert groaned and staggered backwards a few steps while Bard landed with a flip onto the ground.

"Take this!" Bard shouted as he stepped in for a punch. He got up close enough to make a flying uppercut into his diaphragm but was kicked away but a flailing, dizzied leg. Bard hit a tree, buckled it in half and then stopped at another tree where his crew had taken hiding behind. He fell to the ground, coughed out the pain and got back up with two fists and a smile.

"Captain!" a pirate exclaimed. "We still believe in you...but can you take the battle somewhere else?"

"We value our life" another pirate began "as much as we value your victory."

"Alright" Bard said. "I'm taking this to the castle, then!"

"GO BARD!!!" a burly pirate shouted as his captain ran off.

"The castle?" Reginald said, reviewing Bard's plan. He looked over at the accursed structure, the tomb of his honor, the home of his wretched shame, and glared down at a nearby house. He recognized the color, structure, pattern and design all from memories he never knew he had, ones from when these armory houses were built as final bastions against riots of any kind. He made a charge for the house, roared as he plowed through the thin wall, and stopped in the middle of the blank floor. There was a fire place in the main sitting room which he marched over to and tore off with a simple movement of his arms. The bricks that made the hearth were no more than painted wood.

"It's been far too long" Reginald said "since I used this. A weapon given to me in honor of my warrior status among the Bears..." Reginald reached out and grasped the perfectly carved wooden hilt. A halberd staff with the sharpened tooth of a Sea King for a blade, woven onto the smooth and perfectly preserved wooden handle with the very monster's steel-strength red hair. A weapon made from a monster for a man who wore monsters. Reginald spun it around his head and sliced open the door with two clean cuts, blasting down the doorway with a flying kick that sent him back into the open to join the fight.

"A wise idea" Reginald lowed. "We shall end this where it all began...that terrible place will be both our tombs if need be, Rupert." He saw Bard leaping to and fro, throwing kick after punch at Rupert, going nowhere fast against the behemoth. The scar from his first attack was already closed and barely visible. Reginald scowled and charged in.


"Hey! HEY!!!" Steel-Rope Sally shouted. "Take it easy, here!" Kurateka was stabbing and stalking quickly after the pirate as she blocked with her thick ropes. The acidic mixture inside the syringes splashed on the rope as she stabbed and swiped, causing small holes to smoke their way out. Kura didn't relent. She knew who this person was and was hellbent on restoring what little order she saw could be restored. If this meant reeducating an entire island of natives born from disgraced Marines and prisoners, then so be it.

"I'm not letting you escape" Kura said, taking out a scalpel. From behind her rope guard Sally couldn't see but Kurateka was easily slicing a path through the rope with her tiny knife, digging away the steel-strength fibers with each stab and slice and hook she made. The mad nurse finally got through to the pirate on the other side and began stabbing with her syringe once more. Sally used a hidden rope to catch the attack and break off the needle, losing the rope to the acidic burn in the process. Then she ran to gain an advantage in this battle.

"What a bitch!" Sally exclaimed. "I barely remember where I am and some wacko with white hair is trying to knock my block off, here! What a freaking weird-ass island!!" Sally continued running, unsure as to just why the fight had started so suddenly, until she came upon the stands of the audience that had been seated from before. She vaguely remembered that, along with some wavy blue-haired girl giving her a proper ass kicking. Not only that but she did it with ropes and pieces of paper. Sally knew when her reputation had been tarnished and moved in to give the defenseless girl a lesson...

Araly, meanwhile, had no idea of the impending forces stalking after her. She was more concerned with keeping Zan, Ramone and Colleen alive. Colleen was at least improving, her system getting more rapidly hydrated without shocking her system. Ramone was breathing, and as far as Araly could tell with his complicated body, that was a good thing, and Zan was stirring on his own at last. He managed to get up on his own now that his stint was properly in place.

"Mind if I smoke?" Zan asked his doctor.

"I'm going to check on Bard" Araly said. "Keep you eye on these two for me, please." Zan nodded and reached for his cigarettes which he had kept against the leather straps of his harness but he didn't find them. He searched his form for the pack, still not finding it in his harness. He searched his pants, starting in the back, and saw the figure of a pirate coming through the brush with a murderous glare. Though his sharp eyes caught it he ignored it for a moment and continued looking, twisting around himself twice in search of cigarettes. Sally came quietly through the brush with a thin rope in her hands. She whipped forward, took the rope around Zan's neck and began choking him. At least, she thought she was. Zan simply let the rope phase through his neck with a perfectly straight, blank stare ahead.

"Hey" he began to the shocked Sally, "you got a cigarette on you?" Sally was so utterly confused that she had no words to use. She just stuttered with nonsense grunts and cracks of her voice. Zan spun around on his good leg and delivered a quick jab to a pinpointed spot on her neck which stunned and incapacitated her instantly. Kurateka came through the brush after Sally had hit the ground and panted for a few seconds. Her presence hadn't been discovered among the four unconscious bodies, it seemed, and the blue-haired girl was wide open from behind as she stood at the top of the bleachers. Kurateka took out a syringe, filled this time with sedative blue, and glared up at the girl she would attack. She ran two steps and tripped over her own feet at the third.

"What the hell!?" Kura shouted, revealing her presence. Once again, Zan saved Araly without her paying the slightest bit of attention.

"Hey" Zan greeted, forcing Kura to throw her vision downward. Seeing the body with its hand gripped tight around her ankle and a casual salute and wink nearly made her eye bulge out of her head. "I don't suppose you've got a cigarette on hand, do you?"

"Pervert!" Kura exclaimed. "There's a pervert trying to feel up my pantyhose! Someone save me!"

"At least I'm not an attempted murderer" Zan said. "I'm an accomplished assassin."

"Oh no!" Kura moaned dramatically. "You're going to kill me, aren't you? Don't you care about what beauty you would be reaping from the world, how many men you'd disappoint?"

"No" Zan said flatly "and I'm not going to kill you."

"Why not?" Kura whined. "At least make it interesting."

"KYAAAA!!!" Araly shouted. Zan and Kura looked up to see Araly running down the bleachers as fast as she could while the princess fled by two steps at a time and ran over to the company of Zan and the still unconscious Ramone. She made a dive for the ground and covered her head just as the walls around the castle crashed apart. Rupert staggered in with his giant form, decimating the stone wall as he was pushed back ever more by Bard's endless onslaught of kicks to his face. Bard kicked him with one leg and propelled himself forward with Geppou with the other. Reginald, who was panting and sweaty from his own actions against the king, ran after the amazing feat just as Bard pushed Rupert into the courtyard proper.

"Amazing!" Reginald exclaimed. "I didn't think it possible that Geppou could be used so effortlessly with only one leg!" The dust and rubble cleared finally as Reginald ran forward. He stepped on something that seemed to shatter with an odd crunch and looked down. The dust finally settled and he saw his foot planted through Ramone's chest. His eyes initially bugged and his mouth quivered a bit until he realized the man was fine. How? Ramone woke up and looked tiredly up at Reginald.

"Why" Ramone groaned "at every pass must you attempt to kill me...?"

"Sorry" Reginald said as he hung his head. Zan opened his eyes and saw nothing but white, a fluffy head of silken white hair all curled upon itself like a bundle of white rose petals. Gretta looked up with her cynical red eyes and stared deeply into Zan's sharp, lethal gaze with a white-hot intensity.

"You got a cigarette?" Zan asked. Gretta blinked at him and covered her mouth.

No she thought. I don't want him to see me smile...Bard had reduced his once intricate method into a simple, almost too simple, strategy. His arms were even crossed as his one foot lazily extended for each push he needed while his right leg went left and right and up and down and all kinds of other mixed directions, creating an inescapable combo that Rupert could only take to the face.


This is getting a bit boring Bard realized as he kicked and kicked in a predictably random pattern. I need a cool way to finish this. Bard looked around and saw that he was heading for the already somewhat broken statue in the center of the yard. Bard formulated a brilliant idea that would look just as good in action as it would in his mind.

"Bard!" Reginald called as he rushed into battle. "Bard, get him into the castle!"

"Okay" Bard agreed, "but first watch this!" Bard planted his kicking foot, then his Geppou foot onto Rupert's face. He waited for the beast to try and pull him off with his slow but sure hands, then gave him a solid kick and flipped back down to the ground, landing with a hand to the broken cobblestone. Rupert stumbled back a few steps, the statue right behind him, and revealed his bleeding, mangled, smiling face.

"MOHOHO!!!" Rupert laughed. "What strong legs you have!!!" The set up was even within Bard's grasp.

"The better to kick your ass with!!!" Bard roared back. He stomped forward, both arms drawn up in their attack poses, and took in a deep breath. Reginald looked on curiously at the strange events around him, namely Bard's strange style of taunting. Bard leaned back to gain some speed and Soru rushed in. He became a dart in the air, too fast to track, and aimed his shoulder square at the center of Rupert's chest. "Tekkai Tackle!" Bard's body became solid as iron and drove deep into Rupert's most solid part, his sternum. All that force echoed through Rupert's beaten body and sent him stumbling backwards into the statue which crumbled under his weight. Rupert fell back, crippled by pain, while Bard stayed frozen in place on his broad, muscular stomach.

Alright! Bard enthusiastically thought. I can't move! This sucks... Reginald came rushing in while he saw the opportunity and came around the right side of Rupert's body. He stabbed his halberd through his hand and into the ground, not surprised that the monster didn't notice, then went to help Bard up. He took Bard in his arm and tried to stand him up but the boy's feet wouldn't bend right.

"Give it a minute" Bard said through frozen lips and clutched teeth. "I'll be fine!"

"You're something else, kid" Reginald said. Bard took it as a compliment, though it wasn't spoken as one. Bard finally unfroze and placed his fists upon his hips heroically, beaming a proud but childishly modest grin.

"Yeah" Bard said with a wide smile. "I've always been great at fighting, though not much else. Like when I used to wrestle and box with bears back on my home island! They were tough guys to beat, always trying to rip me apart with their claws and teeth!" Bard's innocent memory gave Reginald a snap of pain and he motioned away. He turned his memories of sadness and despair into hatred for the very man he stood on, whose chest was still moving as he continued to breath. Reginald looked at his halberd pierced through his hand and formed a terrible idea.

"Bard!" Reginald shouted with a commanding voice. Bard was snapped from his dreamy reminiscence and looked down at Reginald. "Help me dislocate his shoulder! His skeletal structure may have grown with this supplement but that doesn't mean it's properly set. We can disable his arm entirely!"

"Great!" Bard exclaimed. "What should I do?"

"His hand's already held in place" Reginald said, motioning to the halberd. "We just need to give it the right push." Bard nodded. He saw that drive in Reginald's eye, the striving need for vindication, and knew that he wanted to be a part of it too. He hopped down to the ground just as Rupert recovered his senses and began sitting up.

"Oh?" he grunted. He looked over and saw Reginald preparing a long running charge. "What are you going to do Drakenga-" He stopped because he had just now noticed that his arm was disabled, at least for the moment. The wooden shaft of the halberd was so tough that no amount of jerking could simply free his arm. It was pinned down until the halberd was retrieved, so he brought his left arm over his bulky body to pluck it out. When he made that motion Reginald began running. "You think that this toothpick is going to stop me!?" Rupert's fingers neared the shaft of the weapon, Bard's signal to step in from behind and stop him.

"Hi!" Bard greeted. He took one finger in his hand and kicked the thumb away.

"Let go!" Rupert demanded. Bard simply shook his head and turned around. He grabbed the finger from behind his head and then began spinning Rupert's huge wrist by slowly rotating in place. Creaks and cracks that the maniac king couldn't feel were heard in rapid succession until his wrist, to his utter horror, had been turned around in a full circle. He knew it wouldn't be helping him anymore. Bard threw his grip and yanked the rest of Rupert's arm towards him. He grabbed his twisted wrist and pressed it with his heavy arms against his shoulder, grinding his feet into the other hand that he stood on.

"GO FOR IT!!!" Bard shouted. Reginald was running at full speed towards Rupert's chest and brought his forearms together, clasping them with his hands to brace his body for the impact.

"KURUUUUUU!!!!!" he roared as he leaped into the air. The first explosive release of two decades of torture was a great one. The extreme anger he had turned into power and focus drove Rupert's shoulder out of socket, bone apart from bone, and split the tendons still holding the arm together under skin completely apart. The arm hadn't just been dislocated, now only the flesh and mercy of God was holding it together with the rest of his gruesome body.

Reginald drew his halberd from the monster's palm, ran out with a growling face as Bard jumped and hopped to his side. As Rupert got up to roar his bloody pain away the two men turned to each other and slapped hands together with a thunderous echo! A manly high five!!!