Ch. 7- Enter: Myskina Acier

One Piece © Oda

Blizzard, Monkey D. Aika, Kumi, and Anubis © Me

The tide was rising fast. It wouldn't be very long before Luffy would meet the same fate as that coconut, but all he could was lie on the shore, the chains around his body binding him. All he could do was yelp as he lifted up his chin to keep it from getting burned by the gastric juices of Bonbori's stomach, then heave a sigh of relief as the tide ebbed away. When it came back, though, it managed to hit the chains and seep through the links, burning Luffy's skin and causing him to cry out in pain.

"Dammit!" he cursed as he felt the burning acid on his flesh, only to sigh as the tide receded once again. As he lied there, he could hear the sound of heavy footfalls approaching him from somewhere behind him, and they got louder with each step. Luffy looked back, only to gasp upon seeing it was one of the T-Rexes from earlier...and it didn't look happy.

"Oh, crap, oh, crap, oh, crap!" Luffy cursed as the giant lizard unleashed a mighty roar before it charged at him with jaws agape!

XXX

SQUUEEEEEAAAAAAK! A tiny little T-Rex made a chirping squeak as it sat in a nest of twigs, leaves, and bones...along with several other little ones. Their cacophony of chirping and constant snapping of their jaws meant only one thing: they were hungry. As they continued squeaking and chirping, one particular dinosaur sat near the nest...although, this dinosaur's looked something like patchwork, was stouter than the little babies, and it looked more like it had the snout of a crocodile and had eyes on the front of its head rather than the sides.

"I don't understand it," said the dinosaur. "Where could she be? This is the first time she's late to feed her babies!"

The dinosaur opened its mouth, revealing a rather chubby man inside...or rather, it was a human in a dinosaur costume.

"At this rate, I'll be going hungry, as well," he added, and as soon as he said this, the mother T-Rex appeared...and she appeared to be carrying something in her mouth...something was jumping around inside.

"LEMME OUT HERE, YOU STUPID DINOSAUR! OPEN YOUR MOUTH, DAMMIT! LEMME OUT!"

It is revealed that it was none other than Luffy, still bound in chains and covered in saliva. Obviously, the mother dinosaur was bringing him to her nest to feed him to her babies.

"Rrrrrgh...!" Luffy growled as he managed to get his foot free. "Yes! Got it! Now Gum-Gum...STAMP!"

WHAM! With a powerful stomp of his foot, Luffy forced the mother dino's mouth open and dropped into the nest, while the giant lizard stumbled back in surprise and pain. Her babies gaped in shock as they watched their mother fall while Luffy heaved a sigh of relief.

"Man, that was close," he said. "I almost got eaten." That's when he looked down at the babies. "Oh! You guys look tasty!"

Upon hearing that, the baby dinos squawked in fright before they all jumped out the nest and fled with comical tears of panic in their eyes.

"Hey, wait! Come back!" Luffy called out as he struggled to get out of the chains. "Dammit, I can't catch them like this!"

Behind Luffy, the man blinked in surprise upon seeing his feats of strength.

"I never thought I'd see the day there would be another human inside Lord Bonbori's belly," he whispered before he stood up and approached Luffy from behind. "You! Young man!"

"AAAH!" Luffy yelped before he jumped up and kicked the man in the head, due to him wearing his costume. "What the hell are you?! Another one of those monsters?!"

"What?!" the man questioned. "How rude!" He then removed his mask, revealing his chubby, bearded face and spiky blonde hair. "If you look closely, you can see right away that I'm just as human as you! Can't you see?"

"...Not really," Luffy answered, much to the man's shock.

XXX

A bit later, after they had escaped the nest, Luffy is getting himself freed by the mysterious stranger, who was wearing some shredded clothes like a lab coat, a dark green jacket, and a pair of trousers.

"Let me see, here," said the man as he took of the chains. "This isn't just one long chain...it looks like several chains, tangled together! Now if I just..."

As he pulled one of them off, he accidentally hit Luffy in the face.

"Hey, watch it!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Sorry about that," the man apologized before he pulled off the last of the chains. "There you are! You're free!"

"Phew!" Luffy sighed as he stretched his arms and legs. "Finally! Thanks, pops! You're a life-saver!"

"Oh, but I'm the one who should thank you," replied the man. "It's been quite some time since I last made any human contact."

"Oh, I see!" Luffy exclaimed. "You were also swallowed up by the giant fish, right, pops?"

"Oh, yes, indeed," the man confirmed. "200 years ago, in fact! I was swallowed up along with the island that I lived on. Somehow, I had miraculously survived getting dissolved by Lord Bonbori's stomach acid...but for some reason, however, there are so many dinosaurs living here! There was no way I could escape alive, so I did the only rational thing I could do: I disguised myself as one of their young and hid amongst them. Every day, they brought me meat, meat, and more meat, and since there was no vegetation around, you can see how I gained this figure I have now."

"Man, you're picky," Luffy said. "I don't see anything wrong with eating meat everyday! You sound like somebody else I know, and she's been in for 200 years, too, but all she ate was fruits and veggies everyday!"

"Wait...someone else in here?!" asked the man in surprise.

"Yep!" Luffy grinned. "She's a really funny girl named Olga, and my sister really likes her!"

Upon hearing that, the man froze and gasped.

"Did...did you say...Olga?!" he asked before he put his hands on Luffy's shoulders. "My daughter, Olga, is alive?!"

"Eh?!" Luffy questioned. "You're Olga's old man?!"

"...I don't believe it...!" whispered the man as he dropped to his knees...and tears fell from his eyes. "After all this time...she's alive...! I...I couldn't be happier!"

A pause...but then Luffy smiled.

"You sound like you really love Olga," he said.

"I do," the man replied. "She's my whole world...!" He then gasped. "Wait! That's right! Where is Olga?! Where is my daughter?!"

"...I'm sorry to tell you this," Luffy started, "but...she's been captured by some psycho named Mad Treasure."

"What?!" the man questioned.

"He took my fiance, my little sister, and my friends, too," Luffy said, "but I'm gonna get 'em all back!" With that, he turned to leave. "See ya later, pops! And thanks for getting those chains off me!"

"Wait!" the man called out. "Please...take me with you! I must save Olga!"

"Okay," Luffy answered without missing a beat as he turned to face him. "We can go together, then! My name's Luffy, by the way. What's yours?"

"...It's Acier," said the rotund man. "Myskina Acier."

XXX

A little while, Luffy is seen carrying Acier, piggyback style to the beach where he was left behind by Treasure and his crew.

"Okay, this is where I last saw them," Luffy said. "What do we do now?"

"We'll have to build a ship," said Acier, "one that won't dissolve in Lord Bonbori's stomach acid. Wait here, Luffy, and I'll get some materials."

With that, he got Luffy's back and wandered around in search of anything they could use as materials to build a boat with, but as he did, Luffy spotted something in the distance. At first, he thought nothing of it, but when he got a closer look...he saw that it was lizard, the same species of lizard as Elizabeth.

"Aha!" Luffy exclaimed before he stretched his arm as far as he could get it and grabbed the reptile by the neck, pulling it towards him and wrestling it into the sand. "Hey, pops! What if we just use this guy?!"

"Oh, a Water Lizard!" said Acier. "They do have the ability to run across the gastric juices, but..."

"C'mon, big guy!" Luffy shouted as he clambered onto the lizard's back. "Let us ride on your back!"

"No way!" the lizard barked back. "Get off me!"

"Oh, come on! We just need a lift, that's all!" Luffy answered. "Have a heart, will ya?!"

"Can you understand what he's saying?" asked Acier.

"Yeah," Luffy answered. "He's really stubborn!"

"Look, pal," said the lizard, "if you wanna ride on me, there's only one thing you can do! You gotta make me laugh in a staring contest! You do that, and I'll give you and your buddy here a lift!"

"Oh! Okay!" Luffy replied. "He says that if I make him laugh, he'll give us a ride!"

"I see," said Acier. "Very interesting. I've been learning to communicate with the dinosaurs for 2 centuries!"

"This'll be a cinch," Luffy said as he got off the lizard's back and stared him right in the eye. "If I can make Aika laugh with a funny face, then I can totally make this guy laugh! Now, get a load of this!"

On that, he began to stretch his mouth upwards and downwards and from the sides, and even pulling his eyelids open...but the lizard just stared at him blankly, his face as straight as a board.

"I don't understand," Luffy said as he stopped stretching his face. "Whenever I stretch my face, it always makes Aika laugh!"

"Ahem!" Acier cleared his throat. "Luffy, if I may...trying to make your opponent laugh by force is what second-raters do. The important ingredient to comedy...is contrast! Like the gap between my beautiful smug face and your over-the-top funny face! This equation for comedy is excellent! Allow me demonstrate..."

He then gave a smug grin while popping the collar of his shredded lab coat...but in doing so, it caused both Luffy and the lizard to fall on the beach, laughing hysterically!

"THAT IS THE FUNNIEST FACE I'VE EVER SEEN!" Luffy exclaimed.

"I...wasn't trying to be funny," said Acier. "Oh, never mind...it worked out, so I guess it's all right."

"Well, you guys won fair and square," said the lizard. "Hop on!"

"Thanks, pal!" Luffy answered as he got up on the lizard's back with Acier. "By the way, you got a name?"

"It's Chavez," said the lizard. "Pleased to meet ya!"

"I'm Luffy," Luffy replied. "We're counting on you, Chavez!"

"Leave it to me!" shouted Chavez before he ran into the sea of acid. "Full steam ahead~!"

"Nami! Aika! Usopp! Chopper! Robin! Brook! Kumi! Olga!" Luffy called. "Hang on! I'm on my way~!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

I'm gonna try and get this done before the 10th! Wish me luck!

Review, please!