Chapter 21: Kobata's True Nature Revealed! Ellix's Determined Charge!
Colour Spread: Strawhat Chibis-The Strawhats are all playing in a colourful playground as chibis. Franky, Usopp, and Chopper are all building a giant castle out of building blocks, whilst Nami and Robin are playing in the sandbox. Zoro sits away from everyone with an annoyed expression whilst Brook plays a toy xylophone and Sanji swings on a swing. In the background are Curly Dadan, Koshiro, Bellemere, Banchina, Zeff, Dr. Hililuk, Nico Olivia, Tom and Laboon, watching over them. Meanwhile, Garp is giving Luffy his Fist of Love, whilst Oren and Makino are splitting up Ellix and Eri, who are fighting over a lollipop.
With Annabel and Dimo...
"Get out of our WAY!" Annabel yelled as she sliced her scythe in an arcing motion, throwing back the attackers.
"To you I say MOVE!" Dimo yelled as he rode on top of a rhino made of candy.
Soon the small group of armed attackers had been dispatched. "Looks like we got all of 'em." Annabel huffed. "I just don't understand how they got armed so quic-...what the hell is that?" She pointed her scythe at Dimo's rhino.
"I am having the naming of her Sweetums!" Dimo declared.
"Your kidding, right?" She sweatdropped. "Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how these guys got ready for battle so quickly. They must have come from that Ship 7 Gundar mentioned..."
"Time of overing is explaining!" Dimo shouted. "Reaching Towery tower we must do! Then we shall have the sweet jam of reunion! And then the victory sandwich of fullness!"
"Yeah, that." She sweatdropped once more.
"Halt, prisoners!" The two looked ahead of them to see a giant stone wall, with armed men standing at the top. "Commander Strahg has demanded that you shall advance no further!" A man using a speaker Den Den Mushi announced. "Just surrender now, and we will only break your bones a little before hauling your asses back to your cells!"
"How about YOU surrender, and WE won't smash your little papier mache wall there." Annabel glared back.
"Having the surrendering!" Dimo agreed along with Sweetums.
"Y-You asked for it, you damn lowlifes!" The guard yelled as the cannons aimed towards the duo. "FIRE!" Two large cannonballs were shot at them.
"Go now! Super Bouncy Trampoline of Reflectiveness!" Dimo yelled as he pulled a trampoline out of his notepad that bounced the cannonballs back like Luffy's Gum Gum Balloon.
"Ground troops move out!" On the command foot soldiers stormed out of the gates.
"We don't have time for this. Dimo, can you take care of these guys?"
"Problems are none! Go, Unimportantling!"
"Don't call me that." Running forward Annabel pole-vaulted onto the stone fortress using her scythe.
"Now! Attack Birds of Annoying Awesomeness!" Dimo pulled several flamingo-like yellow birds out of his notepad that mercilessly attacked the footsoldiers. "Up the following! Gatling Gun of Repeated Sharks of Deadlyness!" He then pulled out a large barreled gatling gun that fired mini pink shark piranhas at them.
"Ahhhh!" The poor pirates wailed as they suffered the attacks of the weird creatures.
"She's just one girl! Attack her!" Back on top of the fortress more pirates surrounded Annabel and aimed rifles at her. Annabel raised her scythe above her head in a surrender like manner. "Good choice girlie, let's get movin-"
"Razor Cut!" Annabel suddenly swung her scythe downwards so fast it couldn't be seen, creating a hole and causing the wielder and everyone around her to fall into the fortress.
She huffed in annoyance as she dusted herself off, before realising she was now completely surrounded. "Okay, who's next?"
With Thom and Catherine...
The duo once again looked in another important door, and once again found only more weaponry. "How many formal doors does this ship have?" Thom asked no-one.
"He could be anywhere, I suppose he did this specifically to hide." Catherine said.
"Why don't we just ask someone?"
"...I don't think we can just ASK someone where their commander is."
Desite that, Thom still nudged a passing soldier. "Excuse me, we need to relay new information to Commander Strahg, where is his room?" Catherine facepalmed.
"Really? Okay, his rooms at the end of this corridor on the left." The pirate said before walking off, and Thom smirked at Catherine.
"Not a word." Was all she said, along with a tic-pulse, as the two reached the door.
"I don't think knocking will be very impolite." Thom reasoned as he readied his foot.
"Hold on." Catherine stopped him. "We have to keep the element of surprise." And so the two, carefully opened the door and peered inside.
The entire room was dome edged, and looked like a factory, with chains hanging from the ceilings and machine parts thrown all over the place. In the very center was a large boiler, cooler, and stone table for crafting, with lots of tools beside it, with a large man standing over it.
He was incredibly muscular in his arms, making them disproportionate to the rest of his body, He was wearing a chainmail loincloth and had wild scruffy blonde hair. But his most prominent feature was a large plastic container strapped to his back with a hose jutting out of the top, he aimed the hose at a molding set and molten steel oozed out into the set before beginning to mold it with a hammer.
"That must be him." Catherine whispered.
"Sheesh, it's boiling in this room." Thom had a point, the entire room was red with molten heat, although Strahg seemed unaffected.
"Shhh! We have to deliver a large attack whilst he's unaware of us." She whispered. Her eyes darted around the room until she found a giant piece of heavy looking scrap metal hanging directly above the bulky armed man. "Let's see if we can get that metal to fall on him."
"Gotcha." Thom nodded as they snuck around the broken and sometimes melted metal until they were as close to Strahg as they could get without alerting him.
"Frost Cover." Catherine slowly sent swirling frost from her hands up to the metal, the frost covered and slowly weakened the metal chains holding it up, slowly they started to strain, and then break one by one. "Just a little more..."
Slowly Strahg stopped hammering, and turned around with a raised eyebrow. "Hmm?" He muttered.
Just as the final chains broke and the metal crashed down on top of him.
Catherine sighed as she stopped the frost coating. "Well, that was easy." Thom shrugged. "Now that should knock everyone else down a peg."
Suddenly the twisted metal exploded outwards and Strahg emerged, revealing a broad, and clearly annoyed, face. "Who da hell did dat?" He asked in a gruff voice.
"Crap!" Thom cursed as they both backed up.
"So it was ya little barstards that hit mae." He grumbled. "Seems like your da prisoners da boss has been ramblin' an aboot."
"Wow, I think you've just invented the worst accent ever." Thom gave him a half-lidded look.
Strahg literally turned red with rage. "Ya makin foon of ma accent ya punk!?" He reached behind his back and grabbed the funnel. "I'll melt ya doon inta mare weapans far ma army!"
With Me and Gundar...
"Rankyaku Ran!" I yelled as I rapidly shot lots and lots of Rankyakus at the charging pirates, easily knocking them back.
"Young uns are far too cocky these days." Gundar sighed as he easily whacked away several pirates with his Haki-enhanced walking stick.
"Shigan Akai Hatsu!" I cried as I repeatedlt stabbed the last of them with both my forefingers. "These guys are getting annoying..."
Me, Tempo and Gundar had all managed to make it to Ship 6, which was full of what looked like houses, making it seem like a village. However when I asked Gundar about it he said it was the crewmembers sleeping quarters.
"Alright then, let's keep heading for Kobata." Gundar grumbled.
I frowned at him. "I told you we're looking for everyone else first!"
Gundar glared at me. "And I said they can take care of themselves, Kobata is our main problem, we have to take him down first."
I crossed my arms. "Hey Gundar, I've been thinking. Your obviously very strong and experienced in Haki, why don't you just take him down yourself? In fact, WHY don't you want to take him down? Don't you work on this fleet."
He raised his stick at me. "That's none of your goddamn business, kiddo. We both have our reasons for taking down Kobata, so let's just go along with it." He started walking off.
But I just stood my ground. "No." He turned back to me. "I'm not moving until you tell me why you want to take down Kobata."
We both stared at each other for what felt like eternity, until Gundar finally gave a heavy sigh. "...Fine, you kiddos these days have no respect for an old mans privacy." We both took a seat on upturned buckets.
"First off, kiddo...Kobata...is my son."
My jaw dropped. "YOUR KOBATA'S DAD!?"
"Keep you voicve down, kiddo!" Gundar shouted angrily as he whacked me over the head with his stick.
I rubbed my head with a wince. "So that means...Specter is Kobata's son?"
"That's right." Gundar nodded.
"Why do you want to take down your own son?"
"...Because I hate him."
I sweatdropped. "You must really hate him."
"Oh trust me, I do." Gundar grumbled before sighing again. "What I'm about to tell you is personal, kiddo, so you can't tell anyone else, got it?"
I nooded with grim seriousness, this really seemed personal to him. "I promise, Gundar."
"Thanks, kiddo." Gundar smiled. "Here goes..."
"I was originally captain of this fleet, before all of this mechanical junk, like my son, I was so stealthy I wasn't given a bounty. I had a loyal crew of nakama beside me, whenever I look at you and your friends, you remind me of them..." He smiled with a lost look, as if recalling a memory. "You know, I met Roger once, back when he was just a rookie, those were the days..." Wow, to meet Gol D. Roger and have your crew still intact...Gundar really was a great pirate. But his smile was replaced by a sad frown. "But, old age caught up with me, and I had to step down. My nakama...they held a retirment party for me...I've never been so happy..." Tears streamed down his beard.
I sadly frowned, Gundar looked like he was really hurting. "Gundar, if you don't want to continue then-"
"No, no." Gundar raised his hand before wiping away his tears "Now that I've started, I feel like I must finish it."
"When Kobata succeeded me, he instantly brought in his new three top pirates and made all the alterations to the fleet. Afterwards he started recruiting new crewmates, my own were working alongside the new. But one day..." He gulped nervously, as if he didn't want to continue.
"What did he do?" I asked gently.
"...Kobata slaughtered all my nakama."
I froze. "Nani...?"
"Yes, killed every single member of my old crew, suddenly, without motive or reason. I confronted him after the ordeal and demanded an answer as to why he did it...and my son, my own son, looked me in the eye and said: 'They were worthless old bastards who didn't belong in this era.' he said that about my companions! My friends! Who fought alongside me! My own SON called MY friends worthless bastards!"
I just stared at Gundar. How could Kobata just...kill all of his fathers nakama, for a reason like that!?
Gundar continued. "The only reason he didn't kill me, or more rather why I didn't kill him, is because of our families hnour, to never harm another of our blood...and I hated that rule, in that moment I hated that rule with every part of my soul." He sighed with a heavy heart. "He kept me along as extra hands. Soon afterwards we started taking prisoners, I tried to protest but obviously I was shunned against. One of the people he captured as slaves...was Specter's mother."
"Specter's...mother?" I said slowly.
"Yes...god, she was a kind woman, I would visit her every day, she had a singing voice that was as pure as water. She didn't belong there...and she hated everyone there, especially Kobata."
"Wait, if she hated Kobata, then why did she-" I cut myself off as I thought about it, and my eyes widened in horror. "He didn't..."
"He did." Gundarr said grimly. "Her pregnancy was inevitable from the number of times...we had to keep it secret so that he didn't find out. Eventually though, she gave birth to Specter. And let me tell you something kiddo she loved him more then anything, even if he didn't show any emotion. She helped him out with anything and always tried to make the best of everything. But one day...I-I left the door unlocked and he just toddled out...and met his father. As soon as he found out he ordered her out on deck and he...he..." He buried his face in his hands. "He shot her! Through the head! Right in front of everyone! His crew, me, his son, to make an example! AN EXAMPLE!" He began sobbing, as the pure image of a broken man. "It was my fault, if only I hadn't locked the door...it's my fault...it's my fault she died, I killed a poor innocent woman." He looked at me with despair filled eyes. "And that's why I hate him! I want him to suffer for everything he's done to me, my crew, Specter, and his mother! I cut him away as my son long ago!"
I clenched my fists so hard they turned white. That bastard...killing Gundar's crew and Specter's mum without mercy like that! How could one man be so evil!? "That bastard..." I hissed.
"Now do you see kiddo?" Gundar asked, sounding completely drained emotionally. "That's why...I need to see Kobata defeated..."
I stood up. "I'm gonna do more then defeat him...I'M GOING TO BEAT HIM INTO A BLOODY PULP!" I looked at Gundar. "Even if Ace is in danger, I'm going to kick Kobata's ass completely for you guys, and how much you've suffered! I will not allow an asshole like Kobata to keep doing whatever the hell he wants! Even if I break every bone in my body, I'm going to avenge everyone he's killed and hurt! I SWEAR ON MY JUSTICE!"
Tears streamed down Gundars beard. "Kiddo...you..."
"You don't need to say anymore, Gundar." I placed a hand on his shoulder. "My mind is made up." I then turned around and took a big intake of breath.
"KOOOOOOOOBAAAAAAAATAAAAAAAA! I'M COMING FOR YOUUUUUUUU YOU BASTARRRRRRRRD!"
And so, Kobata's evil nature is finally revealed...
Ellix: THAT BASTARD! I'LL KICK HIS ASS STRAIGHT TO FAIRY VEARTH!
Wow, you only swear when your really mad, I'm surprised your not going Nightmare. Let's move onto reviews.
To Hikarlight00:...Are you some kind of psychic?
Ellix: N-Not that your right!
O-Obviously! I've got a twist up my sleeve! You'll have to keep reading, though!
To ThiefofStealth: Yep, that's what I was aiming for.
Ellix: What if it could turn iunto a giant swimming robot!? Sugoiiiii!
Yep, and Film Z, huh? Actually I had the entire fanfic for that film figured out five months ago! Hooray for planning ahead!
To TheRealEvanSG: Someone hire this guy as an announcer or something!
Ellix: Will you announce mine and Nami's wedding!?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far ahead, Ellix.
Ellix: *Depressed aura* Your right, I'm far too plain to reach that stage. I suck so much...
And now let the hating of Kobata begin!
Nakama!