~~AN~~: Took some time to get it started, but here it is - the next chapter.
[[[-Unsung Paragons-]]]
The serene weather which encapsulated them was going to take a nasty turn later that day.
Usopp, who was still resting on the operating table, was making quick strides towards recovery under the watchful guidance of their doctor, Chopper. As the pulse graph on the monitor was showing that his heartrate was growing calmer, the harmonic humming of the monitor was disturbed by the slow creaking of the pine wood door followed by heavy footsteps of people entering the cabin.
Nami and Robin, who were out while Chopper was taking care of the long-nosed man, had just entered the cabin and dropped off a huge sack stuffed with various leaves and roots which were forcefully fit into the bag. The detailed instructions and the descriptions of the characteristics were elucidated to them by the doctor which made the image of each and everything etch deeply into their minds.
The island the cottage resided on was deserted with no human contact barring a few dangerous wild animals which lived deep inside the forests, marking their territory from the ordinary lifeforms which made the burrows and the tree-holes as their homes. The dearth in the fauna was made up for with the diverse amount of flora spread across the whole island.
Everything ranging from giant trees which hug the skyline to the leafless ferns and mosses, which could even be trampled down by little kids, were present in the dense forests of the island. The island was surrounded by a long mountain range, stretching across over half of its circumference and the rest was bordered by a beach, providing a somewhat tranquil atmosphere.
Even though Chopper was reluctant to let Nami wander out in the forest earlier, he knew that he could trust Robin to guard her safely while they were searching for the herbs on the list, carefully weeding them out from the rest of the bunch.
The female duo skittered through the massive piece of land, skimming through the bushes and shrubs trying to identify the blades which perfectly match Chopper's descriptions. After a thorough search stretching over an hour and a half, the duo reached the cabin carrying a heavy sack after covering every inch of grass on the island, conducting a quality expedition.
[[[-Unsung Paragons-]]]
Meanwhile, at the point where the mountains and the beach meet, were the trio whose gaze was still fixed on the raven-haired man.
He had simply uttered those words and continued consuming his lunch, not batting an eye towards them as he devoured the rice balls relishing in the taste of the staple dish.
Luffy, who was unable to contain himself, was going to take a step in the direction of the mountain but refrained as soon as he felt a hand clutching his shoulder. Zoro was in no mood to hurry and felt his captain needed to be patient until the meal was finished. Sanji, in the meantime, was enjoying the cigarette as he stood casually with his hands in his pocket.
The mysterious man stood up after completing his lunch, picking up his katana in the process. As he unsheathed it, the exposed metal gleamed in the bright sunlight directly falling upon their heads and he swiftly slid it back into the scabbard. He then attached it to his waistband and trotted over to the sandy region a few metres in front of him while holding on to the hilt of the sword with his right hand. His black hair was flowing down, covering a portion of the left half of his face and his left eye completely. The black robe draped over his shoulders which hid his upper body stretched down to his knees.
The man simply stood in front of the trio in a firm stance, a few metres away from them, as he appeared to scan their faces. His eyes landed upon the frail teen with the straw hat whose height was on the shorter side and narrowed his eyes a little as he instantly recognised him. The image of the bounty poster issued by the Navy flashed through his mind as he knew that it was indeed the same person who stood in front of him. He casually extended his right hand to the pirate who had a huge bounty tag of 500 million Beli slapped across his face.
"You must be Monkey D. Luffy, the notorious pirate who claims he'll be the future Pirate King. It's my first time I am seeing you in flesh and blood."
Luffy, who was in no mood for niceties, reached his hand out not in reciprocation for the handshake but to slap his hand away. He was literally fuming as he clenched his teeth, erupting into a bust of anger as he looked at the raven haired man with fiery gaze.
"Why did you hurt my comrade?! What are your intentions?!"
Upon hearing the words, the man rubbed his chin as he awestruck by the Straw Hat's words. He felt it was a case of mistaken identity as he was unable to perceive his queries and shrugged slightly to show his indifference towards the statements directed at him.
"I'm not sure whether you got the right person."
"Stop lying. You're the only human other than us on this island."
Sanji backed his captain as he threw his smoke down into the sand and extinguished the filter tip with a soft squash of his foot. Taking a few steps towards the man, he slid his hands out of the pocket and clenched his fists tightly looking at the man in front of him.
"As I already-"
The man's sentence was cut off midway as his eyes met Luffy's glare who was extending his arm backwards. A moment later, an unexpected punch was thrown his way as Luffy swiftly plunged his closed fist towards him, aiming for his chest as a fierce scream was let out.
"Gomu gomu no Pistol!"
A huge cloud of dust appeared out of a nowhere as Luffy attempted to land his punch upon the man. His arm could extend up to few hundreds of meters, facilitated by his body which was made of rubber, hence he was a 'rubber-man'. His punches were extremely quick and effective due to the elastic nature of rubber and were claimed to be as powerful as a bullet. Hence the name 'Pistol'.
The fist he sent wasn't met by the sturdy ribcage as expected, but instead it went crashing away into the border mountain a few meters away. The surface of the mountain was pounded by the strike as a huge crater formed on it. Chunks of rocks rolled down unable to withstand its considerable impact as another cloud of powdered rocks appeared at a distance.
The surprised captain contracted his arm back to its original size as he held his upper arm with the other to sustain the recoil of his stretched out forelimb. His eyes darted from side to side searching for the man who had successfully evaded his swift blow. They soon landed upon the man who stood motionlessly a few meters to the right of his previous position.
The man let out a sigh closing his eyes for a moment before he held his right palm up in the air as a sign of no malice.
"Believe me, you've got the wrong guy here."
As soon he said the words, an unexpected gale of wind hissed against one of his cheeks. When he glanced in that direction, he witnessed an airborne Sanji with one of his legs folded behind, mouthing few words as he prepared to launch a terrifying attack against him. Once the man understood the situation he was in, he gripped the hilt tightly and slid the sword out of his scabbard partially in a flash for its lateral surface so that it would receive the intense blow from the blonde's exceptionally strong leg.
"Collier Shoot!"
Sanji had already leapt up in the air as a build up to the next move and shook his leg rigorously as he jumped up. The limb, from which the kick was released, was emanating a reddish black aura and fuming profusely, similar to a metal rod that has been left to burn up in the furnace for too long. The blonde was notorious for delivering such fiery knocks and thus rightly given the moniker of "Black leg" referring to the similarities to molten metal. And when such a kick is combined with a huge backlift, it spells destruction to opposition camp as a missile is about to hit them.
But this wasn't the case when he used this particular move against this foe. The opposition held on, as the raven haired man adjusted his position so that the exposed part of the sword would take all the impact. He lifted himself on the tip of the toes which were submerged in the sand, as he kept pushing his bodyweight in the forward direction to resist and soak up all the pressure from the blazing drive.
Sanji was bewildered as his move could only impart a temporary bend against the sword as he continued pressing down on the katana with his shoe, carrying on with the kick.
The man, unable to hold his own in retaliation to the move, dragged the katana out completely and in the process used his strength to thwart Sanji's kick by shoving him away into the air with a mere push of his blade. The blonde who was knocked back landed in the sand a few metres away from the man with a soft thud. Placing another cigarette between his lips, Sanji narrowed his eyes at the man who sheathed his sword back as he lit up the tip of the smoke.
He took a soft drag of the cigarette and looked at his swordsman compatriot who let out a sigh and began tying his haramaki up on his head and exhaled a puff of smoke. It was Zoro's turn now.
"That's why you should've let me attack first! Now he knows you're the weak link!"
"Shut up and go strike him, Mr. Moss head!"
After the exchange, Zoro, who had three swords tied against his waist, slipped out two of them from their sheaths. He then glanced at them to check their sharpness as they shimmered in the bright sunlight. Looking at the man, he let out a loud yell. His lips curved up into a smirk as he was relishing the challenge of facing another swordsman.
"Let's decide who the better swordsman is, swordsman style!"
Uttering these words, Zoro began trotting towards the foe. Picking the pace up, he made quick strides towards him as he held the swords by their hilts on either side. After he reached the maximum speed, he let out a burst of speed as he drew the swords out in an instant and slashed them hard at his opponent. He then sheathed them back into their scabbards as he bent his knees slightly to decelerate to come to a halt from his sprint beyond the man.
"Two sword style: Rashomon!"
[[[-Unsung Paragons-]]]
At the dilapidated cottage amidst the forest, Chopper was examining Usopp's condition. He had earlier made some tea with few of the leaves Nami and Robin picked up from the woods. He handed the cups of tea over to the ladies as a reward for getting all the herbs from his list. As the women sat down and relaxed in the soothing taste of the hot beverage, he added a few leaves of select varieties of the plants to a marble mortar and began pounding them with a pestle of the same material.
"This should heal him in minutes. This island has authentic herbs used by people centuries ago. Doctorine was kind enough to teach me about all of them."
Placing few grams of the paste on a ladle, he administered it to Usopp through his mouth and raised his upper body up a little to make him swallow this paste. As soon as it was ingested, Usopp's body started warming up gradually and reached an optimal temperature for maximum respiration. After a few moments of examination, Usopp slowly opened his eyes and squinted them slightly as his irises were hit directly by the rays of the Sun. He coughed gently and immediately looked at the doctor as he gave a thumbs with a wry smile curling up on his lips.
He was later herded by the ladies as he sat up on the bed, resting his back against the wall. He looked around as if he was searching for something and looked towards Chopper beckoning with his right hand while uttering the words with difficulty as he winced in agony.
"Where… are Luffy and… the others?"
"You need to lie down, Usopp. They went to exact revenge on the person responsible for your state."
Nami helped him get back into a sleeping position and lowered his arm to his side, making sure not to dislodge any splints of wood from the bandages. Usopp then turned his gaze towards Nami in surprise as he was beginning to close his eyes again.
"But… that person had… already left this… island…saying his purpose… of the visit… was fulfilled."
The trio had a dazzled expression on their faces upon hearing the words from Usopp. He then mumbled something underneath his breath as Chopper leaned in to listen everything and made a mental note of every word he uttered. They exchanged looks among themselves before Chopper transformed into his perfect reindeer form.
"If he had already left, they should've come back by now. A new predicament has come to light," Kicking his hooves, he leapt out of the door as he prepared to run outside, noticing Usopp drowning back into the sleep out of the corner of his eyes. "I need to go inform them about this. He will soon fall asleep on the bed- it is an effect of the medicine. Take care of him while I'm out."
Chopper started sprinting as fast as he could, knowing that the trio wouldn't have gone much further as they had gone out on foot. He sought out to quickly cover the distance in as less time as possible, so he ran at his top speed as the sound of his hooves hitting the ground echoed through the thick woods. As he reached the end of the forest, his eyes were treated to the magnificent view of the tranquil sea, bounded by the muddy shore at the end. Once he got a look of this view, he began sprinting again to the beach, hoping to find the search party.
As he got close to the boundary, no further than a couple of hundreds of meters, he heard a clattering sound, similar to the one when a metal strikes another. In astonishment, Chopper galloped towards the sea, reaching the sandy part, and his eyes noticed four men standing by the edge of the shore. Other than the three he recognised instantly, he wondered who the other person was.
Luffy ,with his arms crossed on his chest, and Sanji were witnessing an intense swordfight as Zoro was in a crouching position, sheathing his swords back, while the raven-haired man simply held a sword with its lateral surface facing the ground. It was vibrating vigorously, as if it had been rammed onto by something at a high speed.
The unknown identity slid his sword back into the scabbard as Zoro glanced behind with a look of disbelief on his face, letting out a grunt as his attack was blocked by the enemy's blade, much to his agony. This was the move with which he sliced up an entire bogey of a train in half in Water 7 Island effortlessly. He rose up from his position and leaped towards the man with a battle cry, before another scream stopped him in his strides. Instantly identifying the voice, he turned around to see Chopper dashing in their direction.
"Stop! He wasn't the one who attacked Usopp!"
Chopper ran across to Luffy who opened his mouth in shock as Zoro and Sanji soon joined them. He began explaining in detail to the trio about what Usopp had told him and the mysterious man who had attacked him earlier. Upon hearing this, the four of them turned their gaze towards the raven haired man who was shrugging as he shook his head and walked over to them, his hand firmly attached to the hilt of his katana. The trio was absolutely bewildered after Chopper conveyed Usopp's message to them.
"I already told this to you guys," The youth gave an exasperated sigh, Luffy having an apologetic expression while Sanji simply took another drag. Zoro remained by his captain's side as the raven haired youth continued, "Now take me to your place. We have a lot to discuss in a short span of time and I've been searching for you for a while now. There is impending danger that you're unaware of, but first, I need your help, Straw Hat Luffy."
~~AN~~: I would like the thank all the followers. Appreciate the feedback I received. Hope to follow up on this chapter soon enough.