F-ckthesystem125: I'm happy my humor isn't falling flat, that would really suck. So glad you found the chapter funny, and that you enjoyed it. Finally, I'll do my best to keep it up! :)
Avatar Eddy: No need for any further waiting, the next chapter is here! XP
Stabboy: Thank you! And the fact that one of my chapters could actually make you happy, like sincerely smiling and everything, you've no idea how much that means to me. I'm so very happy I could brighten up your day! :)
Tonlor: Thanks. You'll see, you will see, believe me. Now here's the next update.
ArturiusRex8: Oh, I see. I knew that she showed up in those arcs in the anime, I however didn't know she didn't make those appearances in the manga, interesting. Oh, well I'm glad you're enjoying it then. :)
One last thing before this chapter begins, this chapter contains the first real fight scenes of this story, discounting the skirmish between Bellemere and Bluejam of course, so I'd appreciate as much feedback on them as possible. This is for two reasons, the first, because while I've written fight scenes before, and they're a major part of every story I do, I've never written a fight with a Devil Fruit before, Luffy's especially. And secondly, I struggle with sword fights, so I'd like to know how I did, considering I never feel like they come out right when I wright them. So it's very imperative that you guys tell me how I did, what you liked, what you didn't like, how I might improve, and etc.
That's all, now on to the next chapter, which is the longest one so far. Please read, enjoy and review.
Coby, his forehead bloody from being cut open, from being forced into a few sharp pieces of rubble by some of the prisoners stepping on the back of his head, the lens of his glasses all but gone, only a few shards of them left in the frames, bruises spread about several parts of his body in the shape of footprints, was halfway to his feet. He clung desperately to the hope that if he continued to dig through the wreckage of the base, that he would find and be able to help at least one person to live through this ordeal, so all he needed to do was stand up and continue rummaging through the rubble. Since this is what he managed to force himself to believe, he did indeed make it back to his feet, stumbling as he did so, having to catch himself to stay up. Once he was stable though, he began to clear hunks of what was left of the building, searching for anyone who might have survived the explosion.
He heard noise coming from behind him, but it was muffled by his thoughts and the noise of him moving all this rubble, though it was a slow process since he wasn't nearly strong enough to search several pieces at a time. Nevertheless, soon enough, though he wasn't sure how long he had been at it by the time he found them, he managed to come across someone who was actually breathing. Which was such a welcome sight, as he had found several bodies during his digging and they only caused his hope to dim. And despite the fact that he was covered in soot, the top of his head was bleeding, it trailing down the sides of his face, and he was breathing very raggedly, he was indeed quite alive. The fact that it was Helmeppo he had found didn't sour the joy the pink haired boy felt at the fact that he had found someone who was still alive.
Before he could try and help the older blonde boy, his eyes opened, and though he couldn't see clearly at that moment, he lashed out with the sloppiest punch anyone had ever thrown, it missing the younger teen, but causing him to fall backwards onto his butt as he flinched, a little scared of the threat of physical violence. And as the now broken glasses of his fell off his face, and the purple suited teen began pulling himself to his feet, the wannabe marine asked the obvious question, "Why'd you try to hit me?"
It took him a few moments to do so, but Helmeppo did get to his feet, almost falling back down as he did. Once he steadied himself, he took a moment to look all around him, at the wreckage that once was the Marine base, all the dead marines that lie in it, and at the scene of his father fighting some orange haired girl, before his eyes fell back onto Coby. His breathing was labored, he was bleeding, and definitely needed medical attention, and yet, the blonde, in spite of all the fear that was in his eyes, looked ready to kill someone. "You...you and your stupid friends did this! You've ruined everything!"
As he tried to kick the now struggling to see boy, he managed to scrambled back out of the way and get to his feet, saying this as he did so, "I'm trying to help you!"
"Help me? Help me!? Because of you and your crazy stupid friends, things can't go back to how they were before, nothing will ever be the same again! You have ruined my life!" He then finally landed a hit on the younger teen, a wimpy right to the face, though it didn't feel like that to Coby, he had felt a lot worse though, so managed to stay on his feet after receiving the fist to the face.
Blood now leaking from the left side of his mouth, the pink haired boy grit his teeth, his anger showing as he retaliated by tackling Helmeppo to the ground, the two landing on some of the rubble. The struggling to see without his glasses boy spoke through gritted teeth as he sat atop of the older teen's abdomen, "Ruined your life!? What about all the lives you and your father ruined!? All the people you've wrongfully executed!? Their families!? What about them huh!?"
Coby began to flail his fists, as they weren't exactly punches, nevertheless though every single one made contact with the blondes face, breaking his nose with one in particular, as he began to shout, "Don't you even care!? So many good men lost their lives today! And for what!? And all you can think about is how you can't enjoy your ridiculous life style anymore!? You and your father have sullied the reputation of the Marines, killed who knows how many innocent people, and that's all you can think about!? What kind of monster are you!?"
After receiving a little over a dozen 'punches' to the face, Helmeppo was able to force the smaller teen off of him, doing so by kneeing him in his stomach, and rolling over so he was on top, where he began to hit him just as he had done to him moments ago. "Shut up! You don't know anything! Daddy says titles are all that matter, and since he's the captain, then he's superior to us all! That means he can do whatever he wants, as he's always right and never wrong, and so can I, cause I'm his son! And I have to start living up to daddy's expectations, otherwise I'll be the next one to be executed! So I'll do what he would want me to, and kill you myself!" With that, he stopped 'punching' the younger teen, and wrapped his hands around his throat, and began to choke him out, tears beginning to fall from both of their faces as this happened. The younger one because of how screwed up the situation was, to him at least, and the older one because this life was all he had ever known, and at that point his worst fear was his father lopping his head off like all the rest. which would make his entire life worthless and pointless.
The pink haired boy struggled to breathe as he was choked, his hands grabbing onto his attackers forearms as he squeezed down on them as hard as he could, and tried to pull them back towards the blonde, away from him. This struggle lasted for a little over a dozen moments, before the young teen took a page from his new friend's book and threw caution to the wind, deciding to do anything he needed to so as to survive and achieve his dream, and threw his head forward, slamming it into the older teen's head, busting it open and causing him to fall back onto the rubble, off of his opponent, all because of a simple headbutt.
Coby quickly got to his feet, careful not to fall back down as he did, his breathing labored as he had been forcibly deprive of oxygen. After catching his breath, he proceeded to speak, "Haven't you ever thought that he might be wrong!? That he's just on a power trip, and that you're being taken along for the ride!? Titles and power aren't what the Marines stand for! The Marines stand for justice!" With that the pink haired teen quickly ran towards his opponent, drawing his right arm back for his version of a punch.
Helmeppo, who was on his feet at this point, began to run towards his enemy in turn, his right arm also cocked back, as he was going to throw a punch of his own as well. "What do you know!?"
With that the two met in the middle of the wreckage of the former Marine base, both shooting their arms forward, ramming their fists into each other's faces as hard as they possibly could, both actually throwing a close to half decent punch this time, a bit of blood flying out of their mouths from the impacts of the blows. As a result both ended flat out on their backs, not three feet across from each other, breathing raggedly, neither looking capable of standing back up as all the damage that had been inflicted on their brittle bodies today finally caught up to them.
Coby vs Helmeppo
Draw.
Nami stood across from Morgan, jumping back having put several feet of distance between her and the extremely pissed marine captain. Said man's anger directed solely towards her at this point, he shouted, "When I said that you would all be executed, I MEANT IT! AND YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE GIRL!"
With that he charged forward towards her, bringing his axe hand overhead, before bringing it down once more once he was close enough to make contact with it. The orange haired teen dodged to the side just before the sharp weapon could touch her skin, but was quickly forced to jump back once more, as Morgan lifted his makeshift hand only a few inches off the ground, before turning sharply to his left, swinging his axe towards her, almost managing to catch her shirt with it as she avoided it.
He then quickly took a step forward and swiped at her with the axe again, the young lady taking two quick steps back to avoid it hitting her. Morgan simply took another step forward, before bringing his axe hand overhead once more, grabbing hold of the blunt side of his axe hand with his left hand, and bringing it for a downward strike, adding extra force to it with his left hand forcing it downwards as well. The teenage girl jumped back once more so as to avoid the lethal attack, beginning to skid to a stop once her feet hit the ground.
The marine captain used this to his advantage, doing so by charging forward before she had come to a complete stop, closing in on her as he brought his left arm back, shooting it forward to hit her with only a moment later. Her eyes widened slightly as his fist came towards her, but there wasn't anything she could do to avoid the blow, so braced herself for the impact. As the attack made contact with her face, she closed her eyes and let out a grunt of pain, her body knocked back a few feet as she did. The teen landed on her back in the dirt, sliding about a foot before coming to a stop.
It hadn't hurt as much as she thought it would, though it did still hurt. Whether it would leave a bruise or not was an entirely different matter. As she climbed to her feet, she noticed that hitting her had calmed the captain down somewhat, as he had stopped attacking, now standing where he had punched her at. Once more on her feet, the sixteen year old gritted her teeth in frustration, worry beginning to worm it's way into her mind, as despite the fact that even she could tell that this guy was weaker than Buggy, she wasn't so sure about fighting him. This was because she was in no way a fighter, at least not in the physical sense. While she had been dragged into battle on more than one occasion, she had only ever fought pirate grunts, never captains or anything above the average lackey. And though she could handle herself extremely well, she had only learned to defend herself and the people she loved, not how to actually defeat tough opponents. Since that was the case, she was worried she wouldn't be able to cut it in a fight such as this. It would be in her best interest to slip away and avoid such a battle...
With his ego feeling a little better now that he had hit someone, the muscle head with an axe for a hand threw his navy coat off and roared out, though not as loud as he been screaming before, "I am Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan! The man that brought down Thousand Plan Kuro! Insignificant pieces of trash such as yourself, with no title or status, have absolutely no right to oppose me! I am superior to all on this island! And therefor, you little girly, will die at my hand!" Taking his battle stance, showing he was finally ready to use all of his might, Morgan then stated, "Time for your execution!"
With those words of his, the orange haired girl's frustration and worry fell away, as she was instead filled with anger and annoyance towards this man. In the span of ten seconds, he had managed to tarnish the title of marine captain, which her mother had once held, and remind her of not only Bluejam, but those damned nobles from Goa as well. In doing so, he had changed her objective from slipping away from the fight, to beating the crap out of the older man.
Since that was the case, she made a daring move, doing so by slipping out of her defensive stance and walking straight up to the taller and larger man, pulling out the parts of her staff, before fancily assembling them into the weapon she had used for several years now, stopping with only a foot of distance between him and her. She then looked up at him, her eyes shining with defiance as she spoke, her voice cold as she did, "You wanna kill me so badly!? Execute me then! If you can."
His previous level of rage returned at that taunt, raising his axe overhead once again, and bringing it down, yelling as he did so. "GLADLY BITCH!"
Nami quickly raised her own weapon in return, holding the bo staff up horizontally so as to defend herself from the axe strike, each of her hands close to the ends of the wooden weapon so as to keep them out of harms way as well. As the staff absorbed the impact of the sharp weapon, it almost forced the orange haired girl back, her feet digging in and sliding back an inch or so, however she wasn't pushed any farther back and kept the cleaving weapon from her making contact with her person, which was what mattered. The resilience of her wooden weapon surprised the marine captain, as his axe was sharp enough to render people's heads from their shoulders. This moment of surprise was exactly what the sixteen year old needed, quickly taking advantage of it, she kicked him as hard as she could in the gut, the heel making it more painful.
Having been caught off guard by the kick, the whitish blonde haired man stumbled back a few steps, his female opponent capitalizing on that by ramming the end of her staff into his abdomen, causing him to grunt in pain. The teen then followed up by slamming her weapon into his abdomen once more, this time doing so with the staff horizontal. She took the attack even further, doing so by pushing the wooden staff into him with all her strength, shoving all of her body weight into her weapon, and in turn her weapon into him, causing him to take a step back. This time the big guy being forced to, and not doing so because he had been taken by surprise. The fact that this small girl, at least in comparison to him, could do such a thing, only fueled the fire of his anger.
Morgan brought his axe up, though not over his head this time, and brought it down fast, his opponent only noticing two or three moments before it could reach her. She of course took three quick steps back to avoid the attack, but only just managed to escape being sliced by the sharp weapon. Not waiting for him to make the next move, she smacked him across the face with her staff, it of course did minimal physical damage, but it did do critical ego damage. Snarling at her, he drew his axe hand back, before swinging towards her once more, taking a step forward as he did. This time he was going for her legs, seeing this, she jumped over the swing, her feet merely an inch above the cutting weapon as it passed below her. It had been so close in fact, that the teen was glad she hadn't opted for longer heels, as it would have been bad for her if she had worn them.
She didn't stay in the air for more than a moment or so, as just after the sharp object had passed by, her feet were making contact with the ground once more. She didn't get the chance to attack though, as before she could, the axe was coming back at her in another swing. As it was aimed for her neck this time, and it was too close for her to jump back, quick step, or dodge to the side, she leaned backwards so as to avoid being beheaded. The axe passed right by her eyes, taking a few strands of her hair with it, proving that she couldn't have cut it any closer if she had tried.
There wasn't even a second of reprieve for the orange haired sixteen year old, as the furious marine captain brought his axe up and down towards her once again, she had to scramble to her right, as she had just gotten back into an erect position, to avoid this lethal attack. Having to do so a second time, as she had turned to face him, he had made a sharp left turn, bringing his axe for a horizontal arc slash.
Now standing on his left side, but ready to defend herself, she spoke, taunting him into action, "Is that the best you got!? If you're supposed to be some big bad marine, why can't you manage kill one teenage girl!?"
Letting out a cry of rage, he whirled to face her, brought his axe hand as high up as he could, before proceeding to bring it down as hard and as fast as he possibly could. His female opponent in turn raised her bo staff once more, using it to defend herself again. This time however, when the cleaving hand hit it, it visibly and audibly cracked from the force of the blow. Nami's eyes widened considerably as this happened, as if it broke, it would mean her death. Morgan too realized that without that ridiculously sturdy weapon of hers, it would be considerably easier to kill her. Since that was the case, he brought his axe hand up above his head once more, placing his left hand on the blunt end of it, and brought it down with all his might, using his left hand to increase the force of the attack once more. And as the staff was forced to absorb the impact of Morgan's weapon hand for the third time, it cracked even further, the size of said crack doubling, almost tripling in fact, as the sound of it splintering and breaking increased considerably in volume.
The orange haired teenager knew just how much trouble she was in, and this of course meant she needed to end this fight as fast as she possibly could. So, as he brought his axe up once more, she shot her right knee up, and rammed it as hard as she could into the larger man's crotch. He of course yelped in pain as this happened, nearly doubling over in pain from the attack on his genitals. And while he didn't double over, he wished he would have, as it would have prevented the girl from bringing her right foot back, and shooting it forward, slamming it into his pelvis as well, since her knee strike hadn't done the job. This time he fell to his knees from the trauma of being kicked in the balls, yelping in pain once more, and the sixteen year old took advantage of that. She did so by bringing her staff back as far as she could, before swinging it forward and slamming it into the muscle head's face as hard as she possibly could, using it like a bat.
Morgan was knocked onto his back from this blow, the impact of it jarring him, his vision blurring a bit, as his head spun. He was still conscious though, and he couldn't be, not if this fight was to end. So the teen came to his side, brought her staff overhead, and brought it down again, slamming it into his face once more with all her strength, and thankfully, this time he lost consciousness from the blow.
From there she let out a sigh of relief, before turning to face the way Buggy had ran off in. "Now I just gotta get my hands on that map, and get out of here."
Nami vs Morgan
Winner: Nami
Zoro, on Luffy's order, silent order though it may be it was still an order, was on his way towards the docks. The only problem with that, was the fact that, as Nami had once said, 'Zoro could get lost following a straight line.' Which left him at a disadvantage when it came to fulfilling his duty to his captain and carrying out his orders, as while he was heading for the dock, he instead ended up in some kind of back alley that he had never even seen before. So turning around, he began to head in the direction he was sure the dock was in, only to end up at Rika and her mother's restaurant. Though that might have been a stroke of luck, as he was sure to be lost for at least another five minutes, but as the little girl he had saved noticed him out front, she ran out to greet him, a big smile on her face. "Hi there Zoro!"
"Hey Rika." It was obvious he wasn't paying more than a sliver of attention to the little girl, as he was looking all about, scanning the area for which path might lead him to the docks.
"I'm so glad Luffy and Coby were able to get you away from the base safely."
"Yeah, me too."
Rika's eyes followed the green haired man's as he searched about for a few moments after that, before she asked, "What are you looking for?"
"I'm heading to the docks. There's some guys I've got to deal with. Now I know, it's this way." He pointed in the direction of the Marine base, or where it once was at least, as he said this, beginning to take a step forward as he did.
Before he could break into a jog or even take another step, Rika reached out and grabbed ahold of his right hand, and began pulling him in the opposite direction. "No silly, it's this way. Here, I'll show you." She was giggling as she said this.
Zoro, who would never admit he was lost aloud, decided to follow the girl, not only because he didn't know where he was going, nor because she had made him food out of the kindness of her heart, but also because the sooner he dealt with that clown's crew, the sooner he and Luffy could stuff themselves silly. And right about now, his stomach left like it would soon begin eating itself, so there really wasn't any arguing with it.
It didn't take long at all to reach the dock with Rika guiding the way, the little girl receiving a pat on the head and thanks for bringing the swordsman here. After giving his thanks, the green haired man sent her on her way, back to her mother's restaurant, as this was no place for a child. Since they were in an alleyway, they hadn't been seen, though they could see the pirates, so she was able to go back the way they had come with no problems.
With her safely out of the way, the three sword carrying man came out from the alleyway he was hidden in, and began to casually stroll towards the dozens of Buggy Pirates that covered the docks. Most of them looked the same to the swordsman, the only difference between most of them being their skin color, as they had similar clothes, and almost all o them carried swords, cutlasses being the popular one judging by how many carried said type of sword. There were two of them however, that did stand out. One was sitting on top of a large lion, while the other sat atop a unicycle.
They all stood about, somewhat evil smirks across all of their faces, as they, from what he could hear, debated over whether to use the cannon they had at their disposal again or not, the Buggy Balls that were to be loaded into said cannon less than six feet away in some kind of portable steel rack.
As he drew closer, all eyes came to him, the expressions on their faces obviously showing what they were thinking, 'Who in their right mind would come to face us?' Man did he ever have a surprise for them.
With their attention on him, Zoro came to a stop with about ten feet of distance between him and them. "You guys must be the Buggy Pirates."
Cocky smirks crossed their faces at that, the one on top of the lion speaking for them, "Our reputation proceeds us then."
The green haired eighteen year old let a small smirk of his own appear, this one of amusement as he said, "Nah, not really. That lame ass jolly roger on that ship of yours let me know who you guys are."
Scowls replaced all of their smirks, as they became angered and annoyed at those words, well that was the case for all of them but one.
The guy who rode a unicycle came a few feet forward, his smirk still present as he explained who was before them all, "This guy, look at him, three swords, green hair, black bandanna, he's obviously Roronoa Zoro the Pirate Hunter." The smirk on his face turned into a nasty sneer as he continued speaking, "But you can also see he looks half dead. So what happened Zoro? Your filthy, I can almost see your bones, you look like you haven't eaten in weeks in fact. Do you really think you could take our captain's head in such a pathetic state as this?"
The three sword style swordsman's small grin grew a bit, going from amusement to confidence, as he replied, "I'm not here for your captain's head, I'm here on orders. My captain is already beating the crap out of your captain, so there's no need for me to fight him, so he sent me your way."
All of their eyes widened somewhat at those words, the two different shades of green haired man asking the question they were all thinking to themselves, "Your captain? You mean-"
His grin growing into a somewhat proud smile, the swordsman confirmed it for them. "Yeah, I'm a pirate now. I am the first mate of the future Pirate King, and damn proud of it. And knowing my captain as well as I do, he sent me here for two reasons. The first is to make sure you don't fire another one of those damn super cannon balls of yours, and the second is to take you guys down so we can leave when we please. Since that's the case, it'd be in your best interest to give up now, as you're right, I'm starving, and am in no mood to play games. And the sooner I beat all of you, the sooner I can eat." As he told them all of this, he drew one of his swords.
All the members of Buggy's crew were silent for a few moments as they registered and digested everything that had been said, before all bursting into a big fit of laughter, hell, even the lion was laughing.
"Pirate King? What kind of joker did you join up with!?" One pirate asked incredulously, before continuing to laugh hysterically.
"No one can beat the great Captain Buggy you moron! Your idiotic captain's probably dead already!" Another pirate claimed.
"You, beat all of us? How stupid are you!? It's fifty to one!" A third pirate stated through his laughter.
Despite being made fun of and laughed at, the green haired man didn't look the slightest bit agitated.
That's when the lion stepped forward, to where it stood just a foot or so to the left of the guy on the unicycle, and the man on top of it spoke, "You've no idea what you've just walked into Roronoa. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, you'd be strong enough to take Cabaji or me and Richie on separately, however, not only are we together, but we've also got the entirety of our crew, minus Captain Buggy of course, backing us up. There are fifty of us, and only one of you, there's no way you can win."
Zoro quirked an eyebrow as he got a good look at the man atop the lion that was apparently named Richie, "That some kind of fashion statement?" He pointed his only drawn sword to man's head as he asked this.
The effect was immediate, his nostrils flaring, the man angrily yelled back, "This is my hair!"
The swordsman shook his head at that answer, "Weirdo."
The increase in the guy's anger evident, the lion roared and leapt forward, landing only three feet from the eighteen year old who was bad talking his master. "I am Mohji The Beast Tamer, the first mate of the Buggy Pirates! And I'm not weird!" The lion roared in agreement. "And this is Richie!" He patted the side of the animal's neck as he introduced him.
The unicycle guy rolled up beside the lion as he too introduced himself, "You may call me Acrobat Cabaji, and I am the one who is first mate of the Buggy Pirates."
Mohji turned and glared at the unicycling swordsman for saying this, "No, I'm the first mate!"
Cabaji scoffed at that, "As if. Why would the third strongest be made first mate? Second strongest is always the first mate, therefor, that means I fill the position nicely."
His teeth grit, the white haired man growled at his fellow crewman, "What'd you just say!?"
A full of himself smirk crossed the two different shades of green haired man's face at that, "I'm saying I'm stronger than you, I thought I made that clear."
"Why you! I-" Mohji was cut off, as Zoro spoke up once more, "Look, I don't care which one of you is stronger, just hurry up and fight me! My stomach is fricking eating itself here! Unless you intend to give up, then bring it on!"
All eyes now on the three sword style swordsman once more, Cabaji addressed him, rather than continuing to argue with Mohji. "Do you really think taking us on is a good idea? Don't get me wrong, it'd be honor to face you, and as a swordsman myself, I'd relish the chance to slay you. But honestly, look at yourself, you're a mess. You've no hope in defeating all of us."
Zoro let a scowl cross his face then, "Didn't I just say that if you aren't going to surrender, then to hurry up and face me? Shut your traps and bring it on already."
Cabaji let a cocky and nasty smirk cross his face then, "Fine, have it your way, have at'em boys!"
With that a little over a dozen Buggy Pirates began charging towards the green haired swordsman. Even as they drew closer though, he made no moves to draw another sword, in spite of the fact that he was known for his three sword style. Once the men were close enough, they all swung their swords forward towards him, but he caught them all with the blade of his only drawn katana almost effortlessly. Before they could pull their swords back, Zoro pushed them back, all of them stumbling back a few feet. Though it didn't matter, they might as well have fell down and knocked themselves unconscious, it would have been less painful that way, as the eighteen year old performed only one slash for each of them, not even bothering to move forward as he did so, and they all went down, big slash marks across them that began to bleed. Thankfully for them they weren't deep at all, which meant they would live, they of course didn't know that though.
This didn't seem to perturb any of them, as several more pirates came at him, who got put down even faster than the last ones, the young swordsman once again only using one swing of the blade for each body that came his way.
Seeing just how weak the grunts were, Zoro began to make his way towards the two who had been arguing over who the first mate of their crew was, as they had moved several feet back as some of their men came at him. As he walked towards them, a couple more idiots who didn't seem to realize how outclassed they were came running towards him, each of which he dispatched with ease. Though at the same time Mohji had decided to join the fight, this fact being evident as the lion he rid atop of, Richie, was now barreling towards the black bandanna wearing teen.
Seeing the animal dashing towards him, Roronoa moved a little faster, and when they would have collided, he sank to the floor and landed a solid slash across the beast's underbelly, which did begin to bleed, but as it skidded to a stop and turned around to face it's 'prey' once more, it became obvious it wasn't too serious of an injury.
"Tch, not deep enough." The green haired swordsman grunted, as he stood and turned to face the lion and it's rider. He had intended to put it down for the count, but it's underbelly was made of tougher stuff than he had thought it'd be.
He didn't get to see the lion's or it's master's reaction to his successful attack, as Cabaji rode up on him, got in his face, engage him in a blade clash with him, and used a special attack. "Acrobatic Technique: Fire Trick!" With that he began to blow flames from his mouth, which his opponent avoided, doing so by jumping back several feet, his eyes locked on the one who had just tried to fry him.
This left him vulnerable from behind, which the other Buggy Pirates didn't fail to take advantage of, doing so by bum rushing him with swords drawn. Just as they were going to land some sword strikes, he unexpectedly whirled around to face them, taking them all down with one quick swing since they were so close, effectively cutting their overall number down by five more.
He quickly sidestepped, having heard the unicycling swordsman coming from behind him, allowing him to avoid the sword attack he had been trying for, which from the position of his blade, could have been a potentially fatal chest strike. Missing didn't discourage the other green haired man in the slightest, as he pulled a sharp right to face the only other person in the area with green hair, before planting the tip of his blade into the cement of the ground, as they were right beside the docks but not actually on them, pulling the sword up just a fraction of an inch after that, and beginning to spin it round and round in circles, each time around it being spun faster than the last. "Acrobat Technique: Murder At The Steambath!" This move of his kicked up a lot of gray dust, blocking the one sword style swordsman from view. "You can't slice what you can't see!"
Zoro just charged into the dust, his enemy pulling out of it as he did, making the three sword style swordsman blind to all of his enemies locations. Thinking this gave them the advantage, a handful of the Buggy Pirates charged in, weapons drawn and ready to be used as soon as they entered the dust cloud. However, as everyone found out only a few moments later, this didn't help them in the slightest, as when the dust settled, the young swordsman stood completely unharmed, the pirates that had come in after him weren't so fortunate though, as they lie on the ground unconscious and bleeding.
The remaining thirteen Buggy Pirates, ten if you excluded Mohji, Richie and Cabaji, were all wide eyed at this point, completely disbelieving of how this fight was going. This man they had engaged was in the middle of starving to death, and still looked like shit all around discounting that, and yet, they hadn't managed to land a single hit on him, while he had taken thirty seven of them out, without so much as drawing his second sword. It was aggravating, infuriating, discouraging and somewhat horrifying all at the same time to the remaining men. Of all these things, it was the anger they all chose to focus on however.
"Time to die Zoro!" Mohji's yell drew the green haired man's attention to him, as Richie pounced towards the swordsman, aiming to squash him under his weight.
He ran to the right, getting out of the way of the impact zone about a second or so before the big lion body slammed the ground where he had just been standing, shaking the area slightly from the giant impact. He stopped about three feet from the no longer standing lion, but was quickly getting to it's feet, or paws, and prepared to attack the beast and it's master, before he could though Cabaji rode up on him once more, engaging him in another sword clash, with neither being able to move much from their position without the other cutting them up. That was the opportune moment for a surprise attack from the cycling swordsman, so he took advantage of that, "Arsonist Technique!" He once again began to spit flames, this time they actually hit their target though, pelting the only other true swordsman, if the unicycle riding trickster could be consider as such, in the face with the fire.
Zoro couldn't help but yelp in surprise and slight pain, mostly the former rather than the latter, as these flames didn't burn very hot at all. Nevertheless, they left him open to a follow up attack, which his opponent wasted no time in launching, stabbing at the bandanna man. His blade successfully made contact with flesh, piercing the left side of his enemy's lower abdomen, but before it could go all the way through, so as to come out on the other side, he jumped backwards, putting several feet of distance between him and the other swordsman, the blade of the weapon coming out of his flesh without causing any extra damage.
There weren't even any burn marks from that move, so those flames of his were indeed quite weak. Though that wasn't what concerned Roronoa, "You dirty bastard! Changing the name of your technique like that, just to score a hit, you've no pride, do you!?"
The only response he received for his question was a wide evil grin from the cycling swordsman.
The three sword style swordsman scoffed then, "Fine, have it your way." He drew his second sword after saying that. "It's time to end this anyway."
Two blades in hand, the green haired swordsman moved on the ten grunts that were left, and while they did their best to defend themselves, they all went down in mere moments, leaving only three left Buggy Pirates left.
"You know, I couldn't agree more, it is time to end this! Now, have a taste of my ultimate acrobatic move! Acrobat Technique: The Dance Of A Hundred Kamikaze Tops!" With that the one sword style swordsman threw his arms out to his sides, his coat billowing back as he did, and dozens upon dozens of spinning tops came soaring towards Roronoa.
As they closed in on him, Mohji and Richie came rushing in as well, intent on being the ones to defeat the great Pirate Hunter, the duo coming from the opposite direction as the hundred spinning tops. Zoro didn't seem worried, even as he was closed in on from the front and the back, though this didn't discourage his opponents.
What he planned to do was quickly revealed, as he crouched low, just before kicking off the ground, back flipping away from the spinning tops and towards the beast and the beast tamer. They spinning objects followed him but he managed to stay out of their reach, even beginning to cut them in half as they persisted. As he came overhead Mohji, he literally came face to face with him, and as he did so he brought both his blades across the tamer's chest in an X, blood spurting from the patterned cut only a moment later, the strange hairstyle having man letting out a shriek of pain as it did.
The swordsman then focused on Richie, dragging the blades of his weapons across the lower half of his back, before landing firmly on his feet behind him. From there he sliced the back of the beast's hind legs, cutting almost deep enough to sever tendons, causing the animal to cry out loudly in pain, as it collapsed onto the ground, brought down by the agony it was in. Not wasting even a moment, besides the one he used to cut up a couple more spinning tops that is, he stuck his blades into the lion's side, before beginning to drag them through his flesh as he ran beside him, carving into him until he reached his front legs, the animal roaring in anguish the whole time. He pulled his swords from Richie's body, then came to stand in front of his face, his head on the ground, before slamming the butts of his swords into the forehead of the huge cat, managing to knock him unconscious with the force of the double blow, all the pain he was in playing a big part in this coming about.
The green haired man then whirled around to finish slicing up the remaining spinning tops, doing so without allowing even one of them to hit him. As the last of the pieces that used to be Cabaji's ultimate technique hit the ground, a confident grin crossed the two sword wielding man, his eyes locked onto the only enemy left standing.
In spite of the fact that Richie lie unconscious on the ground, almost half of his body soaked in his own blood, his master Mohji also unconscious laid out atop of him, also bleeding from the X like mark across his chest, the unicycle swordsman was smirking triumphantly. He didn't keep to himself why though, "You missed one."
Zoro's eyes widened slightly at those words, before he could try and locate the one he had allegedly missed however, it rammed into the back of his head, exploding upon impact, and enclosing his head in a mini smoke cloud.
As Roronoa's vision was blocked, the cycling one sword style swordsman rode over to the closest building and up one of it's walls. "Acrobat Technique: A Hike In The Mountains!" He then leapt off at the top of the building, going flying through the air until he reached overhead of his only opponent, still riding his unicycle as he did. "Fireworks In The Cool Summer Breeze!" His enemy now directly below him, he gripped his blade tightly with both hands and pointed it directly downward, aiming for the other swordsman's head, planning on an insta-kill. "Sting Of The Unicycle!" He then came plummeting down towards the green haired man.
While he couldn't see, the eighteen year old swordsman knew his cowardly opponent would attack, so he placed one of his swords into his mouth, gripping down on it with his teeth, and drew his final blade, finally unsheathing all three swords.
Knowing he only had moments to dodge, the teenage swordsman listened closely to the cycling idiot's shouts, which allowed him to tell where he was with sound, and knowing his position, he jumped back a few feet, avoiding the killing blow the acrobatic swordsman had been aiming for, as the sword pierced the ground where he once stood. "I'm tired of watching your boring little sideshow! So I'm finishing this!"
This claim got Cabaji's complete and undivided attention, his eyes widening as his fellow green haired swordsman took a specific stance with his blades, before lunging forward and unleashing his own signature technique. "Oni Giri!"
With that three particular slash marks were carved into the unicyclist's abdomen, blood seeping from them as he fell off his unicycle and hit the pavement face first with a thump, unconscious, his ride falling over as well.
Now that the last pirate had been defeated, Zoro left his special stance, sheathed two of his blades, and walked over to the only cannon in sight. With the Wado in hand, he sliced the iron contraption in half, rendering it useless, and making it where no more Buggy Balls could be fired. He then sheathed his favorite sword as well, before falling back onto his back on to the ground. As he began to pant, his stomach roared as loud as the lion had before, since that was the case, in spite of not having any energy, he climbed to his feet.
Since he had carried out his captain's order, now all he had to do was go find him, and then they could stuff their faces. Which the exhausted swordsman needed to do badly, as the lack of something in his stomach was why he felt like slipping into unconsciousness at the moment. So he began making his way away from the docks, and hopefully towards Luffy, or some food, or better yet both.
Zoro vs The Buggy Pirates
Winner: Zoro
As Luffy landed outside of the crucifixion yard, several feet from the wall, he placed a hand on his straw hat, so as to make sure it didn't fall off. It remained there, as Buggy's disembodied half arms were still coming at him, the clown pirate himself and the prisoners from before not far behind them, so he jumped back once more, putting another seven or eight feet between him and the destroyed Marine base, as well as the men chasing him. Not that it discouraged them from following after him, and since that was the case he simply turned away from them, and began to run. As he did he could hear shouts of, 'COWARD!' from behind him, he didn't seem to care though, as he continued to race away from them until he reached the edge of town. Once there, he turned back around to face the men, putting his back to a house, only to see that they hadn't given up their pursuit, and that even the flying hands connected to forearms were still separated from their owner and coming after him.
With his back to this house though, he couldn't dodge backwards again, and going to the left or the right didn't seem like much of an option as the clown's half arms with sharp weapons in between the fingers would just continue to follow him, and the idea of letting them continue to chase him didn't sound so good. So he instead kicked off the ground and landed on the rooftop of the house, doing so at the last second, not allowing the levitating half limbs the time to follow him, causing them to embed their daggers into the wall of said building.
The straw hat teen didn't move from his spot atop the roof until the thirteen men chasing him were right below him, once they were, most of them looking up at him, Buggy doing the same but also working his daggers out of the side of the building, he stuck his tongue out at them, taunting them, before turning and jumping off the rooftop to land on the opposite side of the house that they were on.
They were of course even angrier after being so blatantly taunted, so it didn't take them more than a couple of moments to reach the new area the sixteen year old had entered, said area being a culdesac like place, a couple of buildings surrounding it in a half circle like manner, the only street leading into the rest of the town completely deserted.
Now that they had caught up to him, Buggy, no longer missing half his arms as they had been reconnected, let an evil grin cross his make-up wearing face, "Finally done running away punk?"
A large grin of his own appeared at those words, "Running away? Who said I was running away? I was just trying to get you guys away from that base, that's all." With that he broke into laughter, no longer holding his hat in place as he laughed in their faces.
The twelve prisoners growled at the scrawny boy, while Buggy went red in the face, enraged that he had been so easily tricked, "WHY YOU LITTLE BASTARD! TIME TO DIE!" He took aim with both arms once more, launching his hands with forearms connected with a cry of, "CHOP CHOP DOUBLE CANNON!"
Luffy merely dodged to the side, avoiding the attack, however he couldn't follow after it with his eyes as two of the prisoners had decided to charge him, so he had to focus on them. Both wielding swords, one went for a left swing, while the other went for a right, the teen simply ducked as they did, causing their blades to meet and clang together. As they did, the rubberman socked them both in the gut, causing them to nearly double over in pain, dropping their weapons as they did. He then glanced behind him, to check the position of the clown's attack, to see it mere inches from him, eyes widening slightly, he threw himself forward ahead of the two prisoners, and in doing so caused the daggers the hands were holding to pierce them instead of him like the attacker had intended.
None of the blades hit any vital spots on the two, but they were in more pain than they had been a moment ago, and as Buggy roughly pulled the daggers from the flesh of their abdomens, not really caring if he caused them anymore harm, it really didn't help their situation. Nevertheless, they weren't down for the count yet, picking their swords back up only moments later.
The raven haired teenager didn't notice this of course, as he was busy dodging the disembodied half arms of the clown pirate, running around in circles, accidentally diverting attention away from the fact that his attacker had just uncaringly almost killed some of the prisoners, this being the only reason they continued to fight with the big red nosed man.
Once more his attention was pulled away from the clown's attack, as four more of the white and black striped clothed men rushed him. One from each direction, except each one was closer than the next, so he attacked them in the order they reached him. The first one, from the front, was met with a fist to the gut, nearly doubling over from the force of the blow, dry heaving as he did. The second one, from the right, got an elbow strike to the chest, almost falling back in pain as he attempted to catch his breath after having it knocked out of him. The third, from the left, had a knee slammed into his abdomen, hunching over and coughing violently from the impact of the attack. The fourth, from behind, was actually dodged, as the sixteen year old side stepped him, before punching him in the side, possibly cracking, or even breaking a few ribs as he did, the man clutching his side in pain as he cringed.
None of the men were down for the count however, and Luffy knew this, so taking a quick step back, he pulled his right leg back, before whipping it towards them, it stretching so as to allow it to hit all four of them. "Gum Gum Whip!" The several foot long leg rammed into the prisoners, taking them for a ride for a moment or so, before the force of it caught up with them and sent them flying towards one of the buildings, crashing into and through it, dust emanating from the areas they slammed through the building at. That move, unlike the blows they had been dealt before, did put them down, cutting the number of enemies down by four.
The straw hat pirate's leg snapped back to it's original length, just in time, as the two bleeding prisoners from just moments ago, were charging him once more. Not giving them any time to get closer, he shot his right arm towards them, it stretching some to reach them, his fist ready to clobber them. "Gum Gum Pistol!" His pistol rammed into the first one's abdomen, slamming him back into the second one, and sending them both flying back roughly a dozen feet, until they crashed into the building two down from the one the other four had gone through. With that another two opponents had been taken out of the fight, leaving only six prisoners and Buggy left.
Speaking of Buggy, "Hey kid!"
The rubberman turned to face the only person he was currently fighting that he knew the name of, to see that almost half of his arms were still gone, since that was the case, they would surely be close by, since he liked to fight with them so much. And the evil grin he wore once more also gave a hint to the fact that they were close, so Luffy, being the, some would say simple minded, person that he was, turned around, thinking they would be behind him. Once he was facing away from the clown pirate, he found he was actually right, as the disembodied half limbs were in his face, about to stab him. His reflexes were even faster than anyone in this battle had thought them to be, as he caught ahold of the floating hands and forearms before his face could be impaled, and proceeded to spin around, completing one full go around, before tossing them back towards the man they belonged to. "Here, have these back, I don't want'em!"
As they came flying at him, Buggy looked ready to tear his hair out, though the fact that his own attack was technically being used against him wasn't why. The hands and forearms stopped mid flight once they were close enough to touch their owner, before righting their positions and reattaching themselves to him, as he screamed out, "How could you have possibly known they were behind you!? I mean, I specifically called your attention to me so you wouldn't notice them!"
His younger opponent didn't reply, he only looked at the clown like he was stupid. Seeing that he was being judged by this sixteen year old, this rookie punk, Buggy lost his temper once more, aiming his right arm at him as he began to scream, "WOULD YOU JUST DIE ALREADY YOU ANNOYING PEST!? CHOP CHOP CANNON!"
As he launched almost half his arm at his opponent once again, Luffy looked quite annoyed, "Really? That same boring move again? Can't you do something new?" He caught the pesky levitating disembodied hand and forearm by the latter of the two after asking this of his multi-colored clothes wearing enemy.
A nasty smirk crossed the clown's face then, "Separate."
With that his hand separated from his forearm and shot forward toward's Luffy's face, once more displaying his fast reflexes however, he moved his head to the side as fast as he could, preventing the other pirate from scoring a killing blow. Unfortunately the clown still managed to nick the rim of his straw hat, as well as the side of his forehead, a bit of blood beginning to trickle down from the small cut he now had.
He was barely bleeding, he hadn't even been knocked down, and yet his eyes seemed to harden somewhat as they looked up at the left side of his hat, where the small nick in it was. He stared at it for a moment, before his gaze fell to the ground, and he began to clench his fists tightly, trying to suppress the anger he felt.
As the teen did this, Buggy was gritting his teeth so hard that they could begin cracking at any moment, infuriated that he had barely scathed the damn brat, thinking to himself as he tried to keep himself from losing it, "What is it with this damned scrawny bastard!? Why's he so calm and carefree about fighting me!? Am I just some sort of joke to him!? He's the idiot rookie, not me! I should be the one controlling this fight! And what is with that damn hat of his!? Why is just the sight of it pissing me off o much!?"
A somewhat fierce look in his eyes, Luffy raised his gaze to the clown pirate, as he spoke, "You bastard!"
Seeing some kind of reaction from this punk outside of his happy and uncaring attitude, seeing that he had finally gotten him to at least be angry with him, a smile returned to his face, this one somewhat smug. "Why so angry punk? Was I not supposed to scratch your face or something?"
His anger showing on his face, the raven haired pirate responded to the only bounty having pirate in the area, "No one damages my hat and gets away with it! It's one of the only few treasures I have! And anyone who so much as lays a finger on it is gonna pay!"
Buggy seemed quite perplexed for a few moments by the much younger male's words, before deciding to humor the kid, as well as toy with him. "Hmm, seems that hat has a history to it. Some sort of sentimental value to it?"
Calming down just a bit, the teen confirmed that. "That's right."
Letting how he truly felt about such a thing known, he spoke, his skepticism of how much a simple hat could mean becoming obvious as he did. "Is it really all that special?"
The straw hat pirate didn't seem like he would respond at first, but he looked ready to speak only a few moments later, not that it mattered though, as the big red nosed man shouted, cutting off whatever he was about to say as he did, "If that's the case...THEN YOU SHOULD PROTECT IT!"
As the clown's disembodied hand and forearm tried for the dark haired teenager's hat from behind, he quickly sidestepped, avoiding the sneak attack altogether, the levitating body part continuing on towards it's owner. The attacker's eyes widened as it came at him, before he quickly remembered to force it to right itself, and reattach it to his body, making him whole once more. His eyes were wide as his hand and forearm returned, disbelieving of the fact that his plan had failed, "H-how...how did you know?"
The fierceness in his eyes increased somewhat as he answered, "You're just that obvious."
Eyes widening even further, the thirty something year old didn't know whether to be furious, or frightened, as this boy was something he hadn't seen since his days aboard Roger's ship. The runt was nothing compared to his old crew, but the way he was acting now...it reminded him of them.
Fists clenching just a bit tighter, the teenage pirate continued to speak, "Coming after my hat, after I told you how important it was to me, proves you're nothing but a lowlife. When Shanks gave me this hat, I promised him that I would take good care of it, until the day I became a great pirate, and returned it to him. For trying to damage it, I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Buggy's eyes went from wide to narrowed then, his old grudge against Red Hair, as well as his rapidly growing hate for this punk before him, overriding any kind of fear or concern he might have felt over continuing to battle with this runt. "So that's why that damn thing is pissing me off so much!? It used to be Shank's hat!? I thought it looked familiar, but was convinced it couldn't be the same one! I should have know, seeing as he wore it for about as long as I knew him! I couldn't stand that damned detestable red haired bastard! Just thinking back to the days when we were apart of the same crew fills me with rage! I should kill you for so much as mentioning his name to me!"
Luffy didn't seem to take kindly to those words, "If you were apart of the same crew as Shanks, and know him as well as I do, then you should know that he's a much better man than you'll ever be! And for bad mouthing him, I'm gonna kick your ass twice as hard!"
With that said the young pirate rushed forward, running straight for the clown pirate. As he did, Buggy yelled, "Hold him down so I can kill him!"
For some reason, the six remaining prisoners followed that order, charging the angry sixteen year old, intercepting him on his way towards the big nosed clown. The first one to reach him got a hard left to the face, knocking him to the ground, the other five however reached him together, crowding him for a moment.
As he kicked those five around to get them out of his way, Buggy did his own part so as to make it where he could kill his pesky enemy, stashing the daggers he held in between his fingers with his right hand, taking aim and using another one of his moves. "Ground Hugging Chop Chop Cannon!" With that his hand, and only his hand this time, detached itself from his body, before going down low to the ground and shooting forward towards the teen pirate.
By the time it reached him, all six prisoners were on the ground moaning in pain, but it did manage to get to him unnoticed, since it did so it was able to do what it was intended to do, and that was to grab ahold of his left ankle, and root him in place to the spot where he currently stood.
While he noticed that he had been grabbed, two hidden blades came out near the front of Buggy's shoes, and he took a stance that looked like he was about to dash forward. Instead, his lower half separated from his upper half, and came whirling and spinning towards the rubberman like a buzz saw, the two small blades peaking from his shoe suddenly becoming much more deadly with this move. "Chop Chop Rice Cracker!"
Luffy, seeing the attack barreling towards him, quickly stomped on the disembodied hand holding him in place, forcing it to release it's grip, throwing his left arm forward as he did, it stretching so as to allow him to grab ahold of the building he was facing, and snapped towards it, sending him flying towards the house he had a grip on, and pulling him out of harms way.
The prisoners on the ground weren't so lucky, all of them being sliced up to a certain degree as the attack hit it's mark, and continued onward until it slammed into the building directly across from the one the rubbery teen was pulling himself over to.
His hand having returned to him and reattached itself, he returned the four daggers to between each of his fingers, and, currently only being a floating torso, equipped with head and arms of course, flew to the black haired devil fruit user, trying to cut him off and attack him with his blades. "I've got you now!"
"No you don't!" Mid snap back, Luffy, moving faster than Buggy, pulled ahead of him, put his feet together and bent his knees, causing his legs to from the shape of a spearhead, before shooting them out, stretching them as he did, ramming his feet into the clown's gut, the strength behind the attack causing a bit of blood to come flying out of the big nosed man's mouth, which was open in a silent scream. "Gum Gum Spear!" His legs continued to stretch after he rammed his feet into his enemy's abdomen, forcing the levitating upper half of his opponent backwards until he crashed into the same building his lower half had went through, kicking up even more dust than it.
His legs snapped back, returning to their normal length, just as his arm did, so he could let go and fall to the ground, and land firmly on his feet. He turned around to face the seven men behind him then, ready to continue the fight.
The prisoners had stumbled to their feet, slashes across their abdomens, and a few on their arms and legs, bleeding from each of them, thankfully, for them, not too badly though. They could still fight, but they were hurt, that was for sure. And this time, they weren't going to overlook what had been done to them by their own 'ally'. Their anger evident, they shouted in unison, "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing ya clown bastard!? We should kill you for cutting us up like this!"
Buggy stumbled out of the hole in the wall of the building he had crashed through, now whole once more, looking disoriented.
Before the prisoners could attack the clown however, all seven men's attention was called to the youngest of them in the area, the six white and black striped clothing wearing men having to turn around to see him, all of them looking to the rubberman, doing so because he had stretched his left arm out and grabbed ahold of the left side of the building they had their backs to at this point. He snapped towards them then, racing towards them only a few feet off the ground, stretching his right arm out so as to accommodate all of them with his next attack, "Gum Gum Sickle!"
All of their eyes widened as they realized that they had nowhere to go, or any time to dodge, well except for one of them that is...
"Chop Chop Quick Escape!" With that, just before he was hit, the clown pirate separated into six different pieces, and proceeded to fly over, or under the teenage pirate's outstretched arm, quickly escaping from harm.
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" The prisoners cried, right before they were clotheslined by the several foot long arm, the move slamming them all into the building, putting six more holes in it, not that it mattered as just a moment later the whole structure came down on them, kicking up the most dust so far, covering the wreckage of the building completely in it. With that done, only one enemy was left.
As Luffy landed on his feet, and both of his arms snapped back to their original length, he turned to face the only opponent he had that was left standing.
The thirty something year old pirate had reassembled himself less than ten feet away, looking angrier and more distressed than ever before. "Just who do you think you are!? Huh Runt!? Who are you to challenge me!? You're supposed to be a pirate right!? Then why are you picking a fight with me instead of searching for treasure somewhere!?"
The rubbery teen seemed to have settled down a bit, as while he still looked ready to fight, he wasn't trying to rush the clown anymore. "You said you were going to conquer the Grand Line, but you're wrong. I'm the one who's going to conquer the Grand Line, because I'm the man...who'll be King of the Pirates!"
Buggy gaped at those words, somehow forgetting the teenager had already said them before, his eyes wide and disbelieving. He stayed like this only for a moment, before his eyes darkened, and he spoke, "You, be King of the Pirates!? That's ridiculous! It'll never happen! I'm the one who's destined to become Pirate King, and obtain all the world's treasures!"
Luffy raised his fists, entering a fighting stance, as he replied to that statement, "No way! I'm gonna be Pirate King, and no one's going to stop me! Especially not a lowlife like you!"
"Fool! If you were Pirate King, then that would make me God!" The older pirate bit back.
"I'll just have to kick God's ass then!" The younger pirate shot back.
Taking a fighting stance of his own, Buggy responded to those words, "Come at me then!"
"Gladly!" With that the sixteen year old pirate rushed his elder, closing in on him faster than he had anticipated he would. "Chop Chop Quick Esca-" The clown was cut off, as before he could initiate his technique, his younger opponent had closed the distance, and rammed his right foot into his gut, causing him to almost double over in pain as he began to cough violently from the attack. He didn't get time to recover, as only a moment later, he was kicked in the throat, knocking him back onto his back from the force of it.
As he lowered his leg so he was standing on both feet once more, the raven haired teen kept silent, letting his blows speak for themselves.
Sputtering as he sat up, clutching his throat in pain as he did, Buggy looked like he might throw up, yet managed to climb to his feet without losing his lunch. It took him a moment, but he eventually stopped spouting gibberish, as after being kicked in the throat he had tried to speak, just for a bunch of random noises to come out. "Why you sunuva bitch! Kicking me in the throat, trying to end the fight!? Fine then, have it your way! Let's end the fight!"
He took a certain stance then, one he hadn't entered before, his daggers at the ready, both his hidden shoe blades had been put up however. "With this next move, you'll die for sure punk! Say your prayers! Behold, my ultimate technique!"
With that Buggy split his body into a bunch of tiny chunks, only his feet and head staying intact. Since he was so close to the clown, Luffy was easily trapped by all the parts as they began to spin and whirl around him in a circle, less than an inch from touching him as they did. Only a moment later, they closed in around him, spinning even faster as they all began to pummel him, the blades his hands held cutting the straw hat pirate up all across his body. "Chop Chop Festival!"
Luffy guarded himself from all the attacks as best as he could, but there were so many parts, it was impossible to defend against them all. The best he was able to accomplish, was to remove his hat and clutch it between his arms and his chest, making sure to keep it from taking any damage, but allowing the rest of him to be battered, pummeled and sliced up. To keep any kind of pained noise from escaping his mouth, he grit his teeth, doing so with so much pressure, that if they weren't rubber they would have cracked. It worked, but only for a few moments, as all the pieces just began to spin faster, beating him harder and faster, since he was rubber though it didn't bother him all that much, the problem was the eight daggers that were in the mix, carving him up like a turkey. Eventually he couldn't hold it back, and a cry of pain escaped from his mouth, causing his enemy to smile smugly and evilly, before beginning to cackle maniacally.
"How's it feel runt!? My wrath that is, it must afflict your body with the worst kind of agony! I hope you remain conscious, so you can feel every second of it before you die! I told you, you're nothing but a rookie, no, a wannabe! You're not a real pirate! Just some kid playing pirate! You never had a chance of beating me! I'm the one who will rule the Grand Line, I'm the one who will become the Pirate King, and I'm the one who will attain all the treasures this world has to offer! Not you!"
"You're wrong!"
"What was that now? I can't hear you!" Buggy continued to cackle after saying this.
"I said you're wrong!"
"What? Come again? I still can't quite hear you! I'm afraid you're going to have to speak up!" The clown was having a hell of a time taunting this punk.
"I said...YOU'RE WRONG!" With that, Luffy kicked off the ground, breaking through the storm of body pieces, putting himself almost a dozen feet in the air as he did, placing his hat on top of his head mid air, continuing to cry out all the while, "YOU ARE WRONG! THE ONE WHO'LL BE KING OF THE PIRATES, IS ME!"
With that declaration he began to shoot his legs out, stretching them as he did to allow them to reach, using them to stomp on two different chunks that were Buggy's body, using one leg, then the other, before pulling one back and shooting it back down again, alternating between each leg as he did. And with each stomp his legs moved faster and faster, until at one point it looked like he had a lot more than two legs to stomp his opponent with, and each stomp hit a different part of the clown. "GUM GUM STAMP GATLING!"
As the straw hat pirate continued to furiously stomp down on piece after piece of Buggy, he began to cry out in pain, but gritted his teeth to silence himself quickly after, and using the only part of him that wasn't being stomped on, as even his feet were getting stomped on, he flew up towards the wildly kicking teen, dagger in between his teeth, ready to slit the rookie's throat. In spite of the fact that he was holding a dagger on his mouth, his words were still intelligible, "You won't beat me so easily! NOW, JUST DIE DAMN YOU!"
"I REFUSE! I WON'T DIE! NOT UNTIL I'VE REACHED MY DREAM!" The rubberman shut the clown pirate up then, as one of his stamps hit him, ramming his foot into his face, forcing his head down against the ground, cracking the pavement from the force of the stomp, the thirty something year old screaming in pain as this happened. And from there the raven haired sixteen year old began to kick even harder and even faster, causing each stomp to slam the chunks of his clown enemy into the ground so hard, that each time he did it he cracked the ground a little more.
This furious stomp assault continued for another several seconds, before coming to an end, with a final stamp, this one actually shoving Buggy's disembodied head two to three feet into the concrete, forming an indentation in it.
As his legs snapped back to their original length, and he landed firmly on his feet, Luffy checked to make sure his hat was undamaged, minus the small nick his opponent had put in it earlier, before glancing over at said opponent. Buggy was unconscious, his eyes rolled back in his head, his big nose broken, blood sliding down from his nostrils, his forehead busted open, the back of his head busted open and blood leaking from both corners of his mouth. He was also a mess of body pieces, all of them looking almost flat with how much they had been stomped on, nasty bruises already forming on some of them, most of his bones were also most definitely broken. All in all, he had been demolished.
While the straw hat pirate on the other hand, had around almost two dozen cuts all across his body, ranging from his abdomen, arms and legs, all of them being more than shallow, but not quite deep enough to be anything to be worried about. He also had a small cut on the left side of his forehead, from when his red nosed enemy nicked him and his hat. All these cuts were bleeding, and his clothing had also been damaged, but both he and his clothes had been through much worse, so it was all good.
Luffy only had one thing left to do that concerned Buggy the Clown, and as he came over to his disassembled body, and took the map from his sash, it was complete. With the chart of the Grand Line in hand, though he didn't know that was what it was, he began heading back to where the Marine base once stood.
Luffy vs Buggy
Winner: Luffy
Nami was going to head off to try and find Buggy, before she could however, her eyes caught sight of Coby and Helmeppo, lying in the rubble of what used to be the Marine base, both having difficulty breathing, and looking like they had been put through the ringer. And seeing them like that, she couldn't bring herself to leave without at least trying to help them. So she came over to them, their eyes on her as she stepped into the wreckage, one looking not sure of what to think of seeing her, the other holding obvious resentment for her, as she could see it in his eyes. Why did he feel like that? She had no idea, nevertheless she asked, "Are you two okay?"
Before they could answer her, she noticed the bodies that lie in the rubble with them, as she did she glanced downward, her eyes stuck on the ground for a few moments. Only for a few moments though, as soon enough she raised her head and asked once more, "Well, are you guys okay or not?"
They still hesitated to answer her, but before she could try and get them to answer her, or even decide to walk away, groans caught all of their attention, their eyes going to the marines that had stumbled outside of the base before it had been blown up, to see them pulling themselves to their feet, looking somewhat dizzy as they did. It was obvious they didn't know what was going on at first, evidence of that fact being that they just looked at the wreckage of the base, before looking at their captain, then each other. It took a moment, but it all seemed to click, and in spite of the fact that they were ecstatic over the fact that the bastard had been defeated, they looked sorrowful, as they came over to the rubble and began to mourn for their fallen comrades.
The orange haired teen let them do so in silence for a minute or so, even bowing her head to pay her respects, before turning to leave, as they would take care of the two injured teens, one of whom was younger than her, and the other was roughly the same age. Though before she could leave, she turned back to face them all, as what she guessed was the highest ranking of them spoke to her, "Miss...just what happened here?"
The sixteen year old wasn't sure how to explain that, whether to tell them the truth to the best of her ability, or make up some kind of excuse. It didn't matter though, for as she was opening her mouth to at least say something, the marine's eyes widened, filling with fear as they did, all of his comrades eyes doing the same, Coby having quite a similar look as all of them, and Helmeppo looking fearful and hopeful, causing the teenager to stop speaking before even starting. As she turned to face what everyone was staring at, she saw Morgan rising to his feet.
His eyes were wide and bloodshot, a look of something akin to insanity in them, as he raised his axe and loomed over the girl who had beaten him in battle. "I AM MARINE CAPTAIN AXE-HAND MORGAN! AND I'LL NEVER BE DEFEATED BY THE LIKES OF YOU! DIE!"
As he brought his axe hand down upon her, she froze, her chest tightening in fear, but just before it could hit her, someone appeared in between the raging marine and the young orange haired teen.
Everyone's eyes widened as the blade of the axe tore through the flesh of the left arm of the man who had stopped the weapon from hitting the teenage sneak thief, stopping just about an inch or so before the bone, not because he had wanted it too either. This man that now had the axe hand of Axe-Hand Morgan buried in his flesh, was none other than Monkey D. Luffy.
"L-Luffy...?" She questioned disbelievingly.
Luffy's hat was tilted downward, overshadowing his eyes so that they couldn't be seen. As he raised his head slightly, so as to look his enemy in the eyes, one could see that they were filled with fierceness and rage, something that Buggy hadn't come close to invoking, revealing just how serious an offense the muscle head had just committed, not that the bastard cared. The straw hat man didn't seem perturbed in the slightest, despite the fact that his left arm was roughly halfway to being chopped in half, a good deal of blood was streaking down his arm, which he held up in a one armed block, and that, to most eyes at least, he was at a severe disadvantage in this situation.
"YOU DARE TO INTERRUPT ONE OF MY EXECUTIONS!?" The large man shouted.
"This girl you're trying to execute, is very important to me. She and Zoro are my treasure, and no one is allowed to lay even a single finger on them. And if you dare to hurt one of them, I won't let you walk away alive. That's why you're lucky I was here to stop you, cause if you had hurt her, I'd have killed you." The calm and deathly serious way he stated this, it sent shivers down everyone's spines. He wasn't kidding, or exaggerating, and everyone could see that.
"IS THAT SO!? YOU'VE NO IDEA JUST WHO YOU'RE MESSING WITH, DO YOU PUNK!? I AM MARINE CAPTAIN AXE-HAND MORGAN! I AM-"
Luffy's right fist clenched tightly as the man began to go on about himself once more, before he drew it back, and proceeded to slam it into the side of the axe hand that was embedded in his flesh, shattering it into a bunch of tiny pieces as he did, only a small portion of it remaining intact, said small piece was still buried in the raven haired man's left forearm.
Everyone's eyes, including Morgan's, but excluding Luffy's and Nami's, widened to their fullest extent, their jaws dropping as they stared in awe and disbelief of what the sixteen year old had just done with pure physical force alone.
"Shut your trap! I'm sick and tired of you going on about how great you are! You're not that awesome! In fact, you're lame! You're lame, stupid and weak!" As he spoke, he pulled the piece of axe left in his arm out, before tossing it aside, it landing among all the other tiny pieces, it being the biggest among them.
Morgan began to sputter at those words, not sure how to reply, as this all baffled his mind, having gone so long thinking he was so great playing a big part in such a thing. After just a moment or so though, he managed to regain his speaking ability, "How could you...? I'm the captain...I am superior to all on this island..."
"No, you're just a bastard!" He lashed out with a right hook then, hitting the marine captain dead on in his jaw, the metal thing coming unhinged and flying off, as blood did something similar and came flying out of his mouth, the muscle head being knocked flat out onto his back.
All the marines as well as Coby and Helmeppo were completely speechless, their jaws on the floor, their eyes wide, completely unbelieving of the fact that the 'infamous' Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan had just been knocked out just like that, and the fact that his axe hand had been shattered with a single punch.
Nami, who Luffy still stood protectively in front of, was near tears as he had come to her rescue again, and she couldn't even... "Why Luffy? Why!? Why couldn't you have just waited a few more months!? Just a few more months!" Her thoughts were a whirl, as she was too choked up to audibly say any of this, not that she would have.
With the threat to Nami dealt with, Luffy lowered his heavily bleeding arm, before turning to her, and greeting her with the biggest smile he could manage.
To Be Continued...