A/N: Hey, sorry for the delay. On with the story!
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kick
Harry was of the firm belief that magic was limitless as long as one had enough power and knowledge at his or her disposal. Power was something Harry was gifted with in spades, but after Hermione's death, the amount of knowledge available to him was extremely limited.
Hermione was a brilliant witch. She was also caring, affectionate, loyal, determined, a hard-worker and prepared for anything. But above all, she was brilliant. Her death had been a hard blow for Harry personally but was also a devastating strike against the war effort's capabilities and efficiency. Often, during the last weeks of the war, Harry struggled to find spells for certain situations and despaired of how he took his good friend's knowledge for granted.
Thus, Harry was rather disappointed to find himself in a very similar situation right now. When the war was over, magic was the last thing he wanted to study, so though he learned a lot of things about a lot of things, he was realizing once more that his magical knowledge was still extremely limited.
This was a world without magic and thus with little to no defense against it. The implications of that were overwhelming, but Harry was ill-equipped to properly take advantage of it.
To put on a show, however, would be easy, despite following such an impressive demonstration of the body's potential. There simply was nothing quite like the versatility of magic in the world of a muggle, and Harry loved it.
From his robe pocket, Harry pulled out a simple cloth doll which he placed on the floor before cancelling the shrinking charm with a simple finite. It was an enchanted mannequin "programmed" to realistically reflect the effects of certain spells on a human through complex illusions – Auror issue equipment; Harry received this one as a gift from Tonks. As an Auror toy, it was unfortunately limited to Ministry approved magic, but it was still useful.
"Battle spells," Harry explained, "have specific effects on living beings and are designed to be cast on human opponents. It'd be too hard to demonstrate them all on you, as well as dangerous, so this dummy here will do it for us. It can't do everything, but it's enough to give you a general idea of what magic is capable of."
"Okee-dokee, Harry, I understand, yes sirree, what can you do Harry? Show me a spell, show me!" Spaz pleaded, bouncing on his toes in anticipation.
Harry chuckled as he pressed his wand against a rune on the doll's forehead.
"Actum."
Like a puppet on strings, the dummy lifted up onto it feet.
"First off," Harry started, conjuring a wand for the dummy and placing it in the dummy's hand, "the easiest way to place the enemy at a disadvantage is to disarm him."
Holding his own wand out, Harry chanted, "Expelliarmus." The dummy's "wand" flew out of his hand towards Harry, who caught it, while the doll's body flew backwards a few feet.
"Another good way to render someone harmless is to remove their ability to move. Petrificus totalus." The dummy's arms and legs snapped rigid, its body stiff and straight as a popsicle stick, teetering a little on his motionless feet before falling backwards with a dull thump.
"Finite incantum," Harry intoned, before continuing. "Those two were very rarely used back home because a simple Protego shield spell could block them, but that's not a problem here, I suppose."
"Amazing!" Spaz exclaimed, "you could be practically invincible with those two spells alone!"
Harry shook his head, "it doesn't quite work that way. I'm sure you've noticed my athletic ability is quite poor. I've almost no experience with hand-to-hand combat, so anyone too close would have a definite advantage. I can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers and caught by surprise in an ambush, though there are alarm wards I can set over my sleeping area. I'm pretty decent at dodging bullets since the concept is similar to dodging spells, but I don't know any shield spells for blocking solid projectiles if it's ever necessary, and conjuring a solid object to use as a shield is slow with the dangers of scattering even more projectiles from the smashed shield. I suppose I could use a banishing charm, but without some serious practice doing it, I'd rather not risk depending on it in an actual fight."
Spaz wrinkled his nose and pouted slightly. "That's a long list of weaknesses. Are there any stronger spells with more destructive effects?"
"I was hoping you'd ask," Harry grinned, a devilish glint shining in his eye. He searched for a decent sized rock and enlarged it with a simple Engorgio. "Careful there, alright? That Paper trick of yours might come in handy right about now."
Standing in front of the rock, which was now more of a boulder about Harry's height, the wizard wielded his wand with a sharp jab. "Bombarda maxima!" The boulder exploded outwards, chunks flying in every direction, partially obscured by the dust raised in the explosion's wake. Several decent sized stones rocketed towards Harry who instantly sliced his wand through the air with firmly stated 'Diffindo's, before a wide ranged 'Ventus' blew the remaining projectiles away leaving Harry ruffled but unscathed.
Spaz gaped at the remaining evidence of the destruction. He bent down and picked up one of the sliced rocks, examining the impossibly smooth cut left from the impossible power of magic.
"Damn," he stated, having nothing else to say after such a display.
"Hahahaha," Harry laughed, enjoying his ability to shock his friend into swearing before reaching back into his robes and pulling out a broom. "Enough watching. Want to try flying?"
Eyes widening until they were comparable to dinner plates, Spaz nodded rapidly, his electric yellow hair frizzing out around his face in a cloud with his speechless enthusiasm. Harry could only laugh as he swung a leg over the broom before offering a hand to Spaz.
"You'll have to ride with me. It takes magic of your own for the broom to respond to your directions."
Spaz clambered on behind Harry.
"Hand on tight," Harry warned before shooting off into the sky, laughing aloud as his friend gave a whoop behind him, one arm clinging tightly as the other pumped a fist into the sky.
The pair returned with bags transfigured from large leaves filled with fruits they had located with Point-Me charms and obtained from the tops of trees with summoning spells and monkey-like tree climbing skills. No points for guessing who did what.
Harry had also managed to gather a few herbs that looked familiar from Potions lessons, lectures by Hermione, and general explorations through the woods. He wasn't sure if they were quite the same in this world, but he figured it shouldn't be too dangerous to test a few out on the rats hiding in the corners of the ship.
"The triumphant return!" Shanks teased with his usual grin shining from under his straw hat.
Harry's eye twitched slightly as he tried to ignore the ghost's attempts to make him laugh at the weird faces he was pulling. Not quite sure how successful he was, Harry walked past with a playful push at the pirate captain and teased back.
"Jealous of our success?"
"Dahahaha! Just hungry, Kid. I hope you have plans for them in dinner tonight."
Harry cocked his head to look back in confusion.
"I thought we would be going back to HQ after this?"
"Eh," Shanks shrugged, "I think we can take it easy in getting there. We're mostly going to drop off anyone who's still too injured to fight and maybe try and convince the village doctor to look over them for us."
"That's right," Harry continued, "I never did ask. Do you have a doctor on this ship?"
"Not really," Shanks explained. "We all know first aid and a couple men in the crew have their specialties in certain areas but no designated doctor."
Harry gave a dramatic sigh. "No chef, and no doctor either. I don't know how you managed to survive so long, old man, I really don't." And with that, Harry and Spaz walked back to the kitchens, sharing an amused look at Shanks' indignant protests of being called old again.
The trip back to Windmill Village was surprising eventless. The ship docked the next morning and the two men who were still too injured to walk were escorted onto land by a volunteer to watch over them. The pirates left soon after, not wanting to attract trouble to their headquarters when they were still unsure of the marine's intentions towards them.
It was just as well.
"Red-Hair!"
Shanks tilted his hat back and gazed steadily into the blue eyes of the marine.
"Why, Warrant Officer, what a pleasant surprise," the pirate grinned.
Harry rolled his eyes. Some surprise. Their lookout spotted the ship a good quarter of an hour ago and Shanks, the confrontation junkie he was turning out to be, had chosen to stay put.
"And what are you doing here on this fine day?" Shanks asked.
The marine glared but replied nonetheless, probably remembering the embarrassment yesterday when his older brother – cousin? – discovered he didn't at least attempt to inform Shanks of his 'official' intentions.
"Our intelligence discovered that you are currently in possession of marine property that you lifted from another pirate known as Zoldeo of the Seven Ships. Do you deny this?"
"Zoldeo, huh?" Shanks scratched his head, "it doesn't ring a bell, I'm afraid."
"Going senile already, old man?" Harry teased.
He and Spaz stayed on deck this time around. Beckman had explained that last time he had expected the marines to recognize the flag and proceed to send an alert around the seas to ignore them, barring violent attacks on settled islands. This, obviously, did not happen, and it was simply not practical to send them below each time a ship was spotted in their vicinity. Instead, the crew was told to keep an eye out for photographers and confiscate cameras when possible or to inform Yassop if they could not. Their sharpshooter would snipe any camera to bits.
"Oi," Shanks complained, "what do you mean by that, you brat?"
"Zoldeo of ze Seven Sheeps, I vill defeat you and take ze zea 'orse as my prize!" Harry declared in a butchered French accent with a flourished bow.
"Dahahahah! That guy! Man, he was weird. We took his flag, I remember. What else did we get from him, Beckman?"
Beckman shrugged. "He wasn't a particularly rich pirate; mostly owned gold coins and a few wooden chests. You'll have to ask Lucky Roo for more details. We haven't even bothered to take inventory of it yet."
"Heee, that's a problem."
"Regardless," the marine cut in, annoyed with the carefree banter the pirates were displaying in his presence, "you did loot the ships of Zoldeo. If you cannot hand over the item, then we will simply have to find it ourselves. Either you let us search or we will sink your ships and sift through the remains."
"That's no way to talk," Shanks scolded. "The least you could do is tell us what it is you're looking for."
Harry snickered at the throbbing vein popping from below the marine's right eye. Warrant Officer Blue quickly locked his gaze onto Harry and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Who are you? You're not one of the documented members of the Red-Hair pirates. Yet another foolish youth who has chosen to become a scoundrel, hmm?"
"No actually," Harry smiled pleasantly, "me and Spaz here are hired hands. Surely working for a living doesn't make us pirates, Johnny-boy?"
'Johnny-boy' snarled. "Consorting with known pirates is an imprisonable offence, young man."
"Oh? Well, in that case, we're not hired hands, merely civilians who've been kidnapped by the big, bad pirate. Surely you must see that we're merely victims who must be rescued by a fine marine like yourself, Warrant Officer," Harry replied eagerly.
"Yes sirree," Spaz piped up, "it was really quite horrible, sir, Mister Marine sir. He took us from West Blue and there's been no end to life-threatening positions he's put us in like storms and geysers shooting us up over mountains, and monstrous whales, and sailing the Calm Belt, and riding Sea Kings, and being chased by Yuda, and being attacked by other pirates!"
"Surely," Harry took over, "you don't expect a pair of fragile boys like us who have no previous criminal record to voluntarily subject ourselves to such situations?" he asked, pouting slightly in a childish manner.
"No sirree," Spaz confirmed, "Mister Marine, sir. Neh, we haven't done anything wrong, have we?" he pleaded, eyes wide and innocent.
The pirates all burst into laughter over the pair's act and the marine's rapidly reddening face in response.
"Fine!" he yelled, "once you've stepped a single foot out of line I'll have your faces attached to bounties faster than you can scream 'justice!' As for you," Blue spun back to point at Shanks, "what's your answer? Will you surrender or will you fight?"
Shanks smirked. "Fight of course."
And all hell broke loose.
Harry and Spaz sat atop of the cabin roof, disillusioned but armed. Harry was quite sure that Spaz, as a runaway from CP9 training, would be very adverse to the idea of his photo being taken and delivered to Marine Headquarters for a bounty, and getting a bounty himself would not be conducive to staying helpful to his friend.
On the other hand, neither of them were comfortable with the idea of doing nothing now that the enemy was stronger than those previously encountered. Warrant Officer Blue had clearly taken the day before to search for the more skilled of the infantry and sailors to join his pursuit of the Red-Hair pirates and their infamous captain. Thus, Harry apparated them out of the battle and gave Spaz a pile of pebbles he could use to distract the marines. The wizard was quite satisfied with shooting off a few well-timed tripping jinxes.
"There won't be interruptions this time, will there?"
Harry turned his gaze towards the side of the pirate ship facing the marine ship. On the railings stood Shanks and Blue who were currently staring each other down. The cheeky comment had come from Shanks who had drawn his saber and stood loose but ready.
The marine sneered, uncomfortably reminding Harry of his former potions professor.
"Not to worry. Rock-aniki came purely for appearance sakes. The lazy ass has no devotion to his job and merely did the mere minimum necessary to duck accusations of ignoring Mariejois orders. We'll fight properly today."
A familiar clash of metal blade cutting into a vacuum rang through the air as the marine threw the first attack before jumping into the air with what was now known to be the Moon Step. Running through the air after an appreciable leap from the railing, Warrant Officer Blue quickly found his way above Shanks' head where he paused and threw another Storm Leg downwards at the pirate. Shanks easily deflected it while the marine took the time to land on the pirate ship, quickly taking off in a burst of speed with Soru.
For Harry, the man might as well have turned invisible and he was suddenly very grateful he hadn't done something as reckless as declare himself a pirate in front of the marines. If this was the level of power he'd have to face, he was far from prepared.
Spaz, it seems, had a slightly better idea of where the marine was, his eyes flickering rapidly around the rowdy deck, occasionally latching on tightly to the target before losing him with a huff.
The marine didn't bother attacking Shanks' crew this time around. Every three to five seconds, he'd pause, throw a quick Storm leg, and Soru away again, being careful to randomize his angle of attack.
For a minute, it seemed this strategy to wear down on his opponent was working, as occasionally Shanks did not react fast enough to block or dodge the flying blades and would receive a shallow cut. Shanks didn't look especially worried, however, his face remaining mostly pensive as if he wasn't sure what to make of this fight.
Harry was a little confused by this reaction. Personally, he had never truly enjoyed a fight except for the occasional spars with trusted friends, nor felt anything but disdain for a fight with no purpose, so perhaps this was why he couldn't interpret Shanks' expression. Shanks had proven to be a man of great strength, yet a carefree attitude, who enjoyed the rushes of adrenaline life provided in risks and fights. Was he being bored by this opponent who seemed so utterly out of Harry's league? Was he disappointed in the marine's attitude that didn't seem to lend itself to playful banter?
All questions ceased instantly at a seemingly innocuous occurrence. A vacuum blade flew towards Shanks' head and as he leaned back to dodge, the rim of his Straw Hat was caught and torn. Harry shivered when immediately, the tension in the air rose with the presence of Haki. Even the marine stumbled in shock at the reaction he had inadvertently provoked.
The pirate captain raised a hand and pinched at the tear between hi s fingers. For split second that stretched for hours, nothing happened; then Shanks raised the hat backwards and glared, displaying his three trademark scars that ran jaggedly across his left eye.
The remainder of the fight was very simple. With his Color of Observation permeating the area like a dense fog, it mattered not where the marine escaped with Soru, Shanks quickly found him and lashed out with his saber, forcing his opponent to draw his own blade.
A Japanese katana with a tempered line in the pattern of the sea's waves, it was wielded with sharp skills but little talent. The pirate easily held the marine in a constant defensive stance, while Warrant Officer Blue could do nothing but glare and block the flowing stream of attacks.
As an amateur swordsman himself, Harry could tell that Johnny-boy wasn't bad. His lines were sharp and clean, textbook clean, actually, which was probably why he was losing. Shanks' attacks flowed fluidly in wild but beautiful movements with powerful slashes powered by his two hands gripping firmly on his blade's long hilt.
Backing the marine up against railing, Shanks finally disarmed the man with a delicate but firm sweep from below, ending his blade with the point lightly resting against the marine' neck.
A pause. Then with a rapid twirl of his body, Shanks threw Warrant Officer Blue over the railing into the ocean with a swift kick and a wide grin.
A/N: Yay! Shanks is awesome :) I would like to take this moment to thank my beta again! She stuck with me after my impromptu hiatus and all, yeah? Thanks PyromanianBlackWings!
Some of you have probably noticed my new story - Pirate Conqueror - is up! Please go check it out; I'll have the next chapter posted this Saturday.
Review replies:
Grim Reaper: Not abandoned, no worries!
Shinigami Clara: Sorry for not replying to your review before - the link wouldn't work for some strange reason. Shanks will still lose his arm, sadly, and the ghost's identity is still undecided. As for Smoker vs. Shanks in the future, it should be interesting, since Smoker is about Shanks' age :)
428 reviews today, the last day of June, 2011
Thanks everyone!