Ch. 31- My Name Is Momonosuke
One Piece © Oda
Blizzard, Aika, Kumi, and Jupiter © Me
After finding the little dragon, Luffy asked the creature what his name was.
"Momonosuke?" Luffy asked.
"Indeed!" the dragon, known as Momonosuke said, panting heavily. "The name is mine!"
"Didn't we hear that name before?" Aika asked.
"I think so," Luffy said. "But where?"
"Huh…you know, for once, I think I'm stumped," Blizzard said.
"It must've been some sort of mistake," Momonosuke said, "but…more importantly…"
GLUUUUUURRRGLE~! Luffy's stomach began to growl, and he drooled at Momonosuke.
"CEASE YOUR DROOLING AT ONCE!" the little dragon snapped. "I am not your morsel of food, you clod! I would devour you whole before you even took so much as a nibble off me! SO STAY BACK!"
His threat didn't seem all that serious. First off, his teeth didn't look all that sharp. Plus, he was only as tall as Luffy if he stood up straight, not to mention the fact that he looked like he was out of breath.
"…Wait! I think I get it!" Luffy said as he grabbed Momonosuke by his horns. "Maybe Momonosuke is a guy who talks with farts and he's stuck on the dragon, somewhere!"
"Eww," Aika muttered.
"What nonsense are you speaking?!" Momonosuke questioned. "Release me!"
"Whoa!" Luffy cried. "The eel's talking to me!"
GUUUURG…! His stomach rumbled and he began to drool again.
"We already know that he talks Luffy!" Blizzard shouted.
"Stop drooling at me!" Momonosuke shouted. "I'm not an eel-"
GLUUUUURRRRRRGLE~! A loud gurgling noise emanated from the dragon's stomach, and he immediately collapsed.
"Ah!" Aika gasped. "Hey, are you okay?!"
"Whoa, that was a loud tummy growl," Luffy said. "You must be really hungry, huh?"
"Nonsense," Momonosuke panted, his stomach rumbling once again. "A warrior…does not feel hunger after just…ten days of fasting."
"Ten days?!" Luffy questioned. "Jeez, even I can't last that long without eating!"
"I believe it," Blizzard said, annoyed.
"Who…are you?" Momonosuke asked. "What brings you here?"
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" Luffy said. "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates! And this is my dog, Blizzard!"
Momonosuke gasped at this.
"P…pi…pi…PIRATES?!" he repeated…before he slumped against a piece of trash, again. "Don't be ridiculous…a pirate is an enormous man, wide of girth…more…ferocious and menacing…with large, pointy teeth!"
"Whatever," Luffy muttered as he looked up. "So, how are we supposed to get outta here, Eely?"
"My name is Momonosuke!" Momonosuke barked before he slumped down again. "…So…I take it that you are not from here, either."
"Nope," Luffy answered.
"All I know," Momonosuke began, "is that is a facility for ailing waifs and tots…but I know not what kind of it is or what has become of me. It all began when I was discovered…as a stowaway on a ship. Despite attempting to keep my distance, the other youngsters were kind to me…and yet…"
Flashback
A couple of kids approached a boy sitting in a corner. His stomach was growling audibly, and yet he acted like he could not hear it.
"Hey," said a little girl. "They'll give you food you know. Aren't you hungry?"
"I am a samurai!" the boy shouted. "I do not accept the pity of others!"
Flashback end
"I was too stubborn and standoffish," Momonosuke muttered.
Flashback
"Hey!" said a boy wearing glasses and a baseball shirt and holding a platter of food. "I got your portions for you! You should eat, you know! We're all separated from our Moms and Dads."
Momonosuke's stomach growled, but he still refused to acknowledge his hunger.
"I told you, I do not want any!" he shouted. "None of you have any idea of my inner turmoil!"
After a few days of sailing on the mysterious boat, Momonosuke and the other children arrived at Punk Hazard, where they met Caesar and his underlings. However, the scientist greeted them all with a kind (fake) smile.
"Ah, welcome children!" Caesar said. "I am Master Caesar! Make yourselves comfortable! This is where you'll be living until your illnesses are cured!"
Nearby, a reclusive Aika is sitting in the corner with Kumi, both watching Momonosuke curiously.
A giant boy approached Momonosuke.
"Hi, there!" he said. "What's your name?"
"I have no name!" Momonosuke barked, his stomach still roaring.
"Here," said Mocha, holding up some chocolate sticks. "Have some snacks."
"I will not!" Momonosuke barked.
"How about some candy?" asked Synd, holding a piece of "candy" that he had received after taking his examination.
"I WILL NOT!" Momonosuke barked.
Aika watched as the boy continued to push the kids away, ignoring his hunger and refusing any offerings of food or friendship.
"He kinda reminds me of you, Aika," Kumi said. "Only, the kids are trying make friends with him, but he's the one who's refusing any attempts at friendship."
"…" Aika remained quiet.
One night, while the children slept in the Biscuits Room, Momonosuke escaped, which somehow alerted the guards. However, it appeared that they still had the full number, according to the ship register.
As the guards searched, Momonosuke wandered around the lab, starving and weak. Eventually…he stumbled into the Secret Room, only it looked more dilapidated than it is presently.
When Momonosuke walked inside…he found a peculiar looking fruit, sitting in a glass tube. It looked like an apple, only it was a darker red and it was covered in yellow polka dots.
Unable to resist his hunger much longer, Momonosuke grabbed a piece of pipe and smashed the case open before he grabbed the fruit and began to devour it. However, once he bit into it, he was met with a foul taste in his mouth…and yet, he was so hungry, he did not care.
Just then, someone else entered the room.
"H…hey! You!"
Momonosuke gasped before he turned around…and saw the little girl he met on the boat. At first, the boy thought that the girl would tell on him, but instead, she simply sat next to him with a friendly smile. Eventually, Momonosuke decided that he felt comfortable enough to tell her his name.
"Momonosuke, huh?" the girl asked. "Don't you know that this is the forbidden Secret Room?"
"D…do not speak to me anymore!" Momonosuke said. "Stay out of my affairs! I am only trying to locate the exit! I must leave this place…for I have business to attend to."
"It's hard, isn't it?" the girl asked. "But we're all in the same boat, here. We all just want to go home and see our parents, again."
Momonosuke gasped silently at this.
"We came here from all over to get treatment," the girl said, "but we all feel the same way. There's lots of stuff I wanna do when I get back home, too! But we're all good friends in the Biscuits Room. We cheer each other up to help forget the bad stuff, and you need to eat to keep yourself from starving."
"But…I-" Momonosuke began.
"Hey! The door to the Secret Room is open!"
The girl and Momonosuke gasped at this.
"Quick!" the girl cried as she got up and ran. "Let's get out of here before they see us!"
Momonosuke was about to follow, but then he suddenly felt a great pain coming from his gut, causing him to fall to his hands and knees.
At that moment, the guards appeared.
"Is someone in here?!" one of them asked.
"Unh…UURRRGH!" Momonosuke cried.
"Huh?" the other guard muttered. "What's he doing?"
Suddenly, Momonosuke's body began to undergo a dramatic transformation. His skin turned into pink, shiny scales, one of his fingers disappeared on each hand, leaving only 4 with clawed fingertips. His face grew long and fangs appeared in his mouth. He also grew long whiskers on each side of his face and two yellow horns.
Momonosuke…had transformed into a dragon.
"A…a dragon?!" the guards questioned in shock.
"AAAAAAAAH!" Momonosuke screamed before he scuttled out of the room in a panic.
The little girl tried to call out to him, but she was in so much shock, she couldn't even so much as breathe!
"Hey," said one of the guards. "Look at this glass case. Isn't this where they kept Vegapunk's Artificial Devil Fruit?"
"Yeah…but I thought it was a failure," said the other.
By now, Momonosuke had made it outside the hallway and took a moment to catch his breath. Then, he looked to a wall with a reflective surface. At first, he just thought that a dragon was looking back at him and began to make funny faces at it…but then he realized, to his horror, that he was that dragon, and upon learning that fact, he let out a terrified scream.
Flashback end
"And thus you see…I am human," Momonosuke said, panting as he lied on the piece of rubble.
"Ohh, so it's a Devil Fruit thing!" Luffy said. "So I guess that makes you…an eel-boy?"
"Luffy, we've been through this!" Blizzard said. "He's a dragon! DRAGON!"
"So, why don't you just turn back into a human, Momo?" Luffy asked.
"I…I can turn back?!" Momonosuke asked. "But…how?"
"Uh…I dunno," Luffy said. "I'm not really a Zoan Type…oh! But Aika is! Maybe she can show you!"
"I would…but I don't really feel comfortable here, right now," Aika said.
"Oh," Luffy said.
"We can get back on that subject later," Blizzard said. "Right now, we've got bigger problems. How are we supposed to get outta here?"
"Oh, yeah, you're right, bud," Luffy said as he looked up. "How high is the ceiling down here? I can't even see the hole that we fell through!"
"I wanna get outta here, too," Aika said. "It's scary and it's stinky!"
"I wish to leave this place as well!" Momonosuke exclaimed. "I have matters of great importance that I must attend to…but first, I must warn the other children! I have overheard dreadful portents from the one they call 'Master Caesar'!"
"Like what?" Luffy asked.
"The children were fooled into thinking he was a life-giving doctor," Momonosuke said, "but in fact, he is a wicked man who intends to make the children die!"
"What?!" Luffy, Aika, and Blizzard questioned in shock.
Flashback
Momonosuke was sneaking around the hallways of the facility, trying to find a way without attracting attention from the guards, when all of a sudden, he heard the familiar laughter of Caesar coming from a room. He took a peek inside and found him, speaking with Monet.
"More nice, obedient little children," Caesar said. "The others are enlarging quite nicely! But of course, the point of this experiment is to find the limits of my drugs. They can't last forever."
A wicked grin then appeared on Caesar's face.
"In another 5 years, this batch of subjects will all be dead if the experiments continue! Shulolololololo! I'll need a fresh refill!"
Momonosuke silently gasped in horror upon hearing this.
"Failure is a part of experimentation," Caesar continued. "A necessary sacrifice for my success!"
Flashback end
"I meant to hide in the trash bin on the way to tell the others," Momonosuke said, "but…then I plummeted down here, and I have yet to find a way out! I have been trapped in this place for ten days now!"
Luffy stood in silence…and he had a sneer on his face. He didn't even seem to noticed that Aika was tugging on his pant-leg.
"Luffy," Aika whimpered with fresh tears beginning to form in her eyes. "W-what do we do? I…I know those other kids don't like me…but still…I-I don't want them to die~!"
Soon, the 6-year-old began to break down, crying.
"Luffy…?" Blizzard muttered, but it looked like he already knew what Luffy was thinking when he saw the captain looking up to the ceiling with the same angry sneer.
"Caesar…!" he seethed. "All right, then! Blizzard! Aika! Momo! We're climbing outta this hole!"
"C-climb out?!" Momonosuke questioned.
"But how?!" Aika asked.
"We'll jump on Blizzard's back and he'll use his claws to climb up the walls!" Luffy said.
"Right! Let's do this, then!" Blizzard said as he walked towards a wall.
"W…wha…?" Momonosuke whispered.
"Don't you worry about the other kids," Luffy said. "My crew's saving them as we speak!"
Momonosuke and Aika both gasped at this.
"And believe me when I say that when they say they'll do something, they do it! So don't worry about it, okay?!"
"Is that…the truth?" Momonosuke asked, wobbling.
"If Luffy says so, then I believe him!" Aika said.
"Ha…ha-ha…" Momonosuke chuckled. "Then…I guess…he is not really a pirate…after…all…"
FWUMP! The dragon-boy suddenly collapsed, again!
"Oh, no! Momonosuke!" Aika cried. "Get up!"
"Hey! You okay?!" Luffy asked. "Dammit, you idiot! You went way too long without food! C'mon! Get a grip!"
Momonosuke groaned as he heard the words "Get a grip" repeating in his mind. However, the voice who was speaking it got deeper and deeper until he opened his eyes…and he could've sworn that he saw the almost demonic-looking face of Doflamingo, himself!"
"GET A GRIP~! HAHAHAHAHAA~!"
"Ah…AAHH…AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Momonosuke screamed in horror. As he did, small orange clouds appeared around him, much to Luffy, Aika, and Blizzard's shock.
"Uh, Luffy?" Blizzard asked. "What's going on here?!"
"I dunno!" Luffy answered. "Your guess is as good as mine!"
Without warning, Momonosuke jumped up…and grabbed onto the clouds, as if he were climbing them!
"Hey! Wait up!" Luffy cried as he grabbed Aika, then onto Momonosuke's back.
"H-hold it!" Blizzard shouted as he grabbed the dragon-boy's tail.
"Whoa! Check it out!" Luffy exclaimed as he looked down and saw the garbage dump getting smaller and smaller as Momonosuke continued to "climb" the clouds. "We're flying!"
Aika looked down as well and started to laugh.
"This is fun!" she exclaimed.
"I THINK I'M GONNA PUKE~!" Blizzard cried.
XXX
Meanwhile, in the examination room hallway on the 2nd floor of Building B, Usopp, Kin'emon, and Brook are seen running through the corridor, in search of some sea stone shackles, as well as Momonosuke.
"You think that Nami and her group will be okay without me to back 'em up?!" Usopp asked. "Then again, Zoro's with them, so I guess it'll be all right! And Brook, let me know if you see any sea stone shackles, okay!? Robin asked me to find some for her!"
"Yohohoho!" Brook laughed, his soul floating through the walls. "Let us take a look through this wall!"
"I appreciate the efforts of your sorcery, corpse-friend!" Kin'emon exclaimed.
XXX
In the S.A.D. Manufacturing Room in Building D, Law and Jupiter watched as Smoker and Vergo continued to duke it out. The sounds of punches landing and bones cracking filled the air as they continued to go blow-for-blow. By the looks of things, it looked like Smoker was getting the upper hand, seeing as how he managed to elbow Vergo in the jaw. He even imbued his elbow with Haki for good measure!
XXX
Concurrently, near the Biscuits Room, Sanji, Tashigi, and G-5 are still running away from Shinokuni. In fact, Sanji was actually kicking the soldiers to get them to move faster!
"This way, men!" Tashigi ordered. "Hurry to the Biscuits Room!"
"GET GOING, YOU IDIOTS!" Sanji shouted as he kept kicking soldiers left and right. "YOU WANNA DIE OR WHAT?!"
"Oh, c'mon, man! Take it easy on us!"
"Yeah, we're running! See?!"
"THEN MOVE FASTER!" Sanji barked. "QUIT WASTING TIME AND GET TO THE BISCUITS ROOM, ALREADY!"
XXX
In the Biscuits Room…a blizzard has suddenly appeared.
"It's so cold in here!" Nami cried. "Why is that snow-bitch using her Snow-Snow Fruit powers AFTER I took off my coat?!"
"STOP, KIDS!" Chopper cried. "YOU CAN'T EAT THAT CANDY! RUN FOR IT, MOCHA!"
Mocha panted as she kept running away from her rampaging friends.
"Come back, Mocha!" Synd shouted. "Give us that candy!"
"You can't hog it all for yourself!" shouted Dolan.
"Please, everyone!" Mocha cried. "You have to snap out of it!"
"Hang on, Mocha!" Robin said. "I'll buy you some time!"
But just when she was about to do so…Monet suddenly appeared behind Robin and stabbed her through the shoulder with one of her shanks!
"AAAAAAGH!" Robin screamed.
"ROBIN!" Nami and Chopper while Zoro's good eye went wide in both horror…and fury.
"No interfering, now," Monet said.
"You BITCH!"
Monet gasped before she turned around and blocked Zoro's swords with her shanks!
"Nami! Chopper!" Zoro shouted. "She's a Logia Type! I'll take care of here! You guys help Robin and get those kids under control!"
"Right!" Nami said as she ran to Robin's aid.
Time is of the essence, now. There are only 20 minutes left…until Shinokuni filled Building B!
TO BE CONTINUED…
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