Third chapter of the day, sorry this one's so short though, it wraps up the Drum Arc
Knowing an enemy was approaching, the group had soon moved to the outside, with Nami staying inside, albeit locking the door to her room just in case.
They didn't go waiting right in front, since well...from what they'd heard in the stories this 'Wapol' was...a complete idiot who behaved like a total bully. And bullies tended to get scared off when they thought they were out of their depths.
With that in mind, they watched as this 'Wapol' reached the top...and well…
"...huh, what are the odds?" Lumen blinked when they realized Wapol was...the very same pirate they'd beaten up before arriving here.
"You've met him?" Kureha asked.
"Yeah, him and his brother tried to attack our ship earlier… speaking of that gangly son of a bitch, where is he?" Lumen muttered, not seeing the pink haired idiot.
"I can smell him, he's close, just behind Wapol." Chopper said, and true enough Musshuru's form popped up, riding a second fluffy hippo, just like Wapol had been.
At that point the two brothers started to monologue to themselves and the two idiots with them that soon their kingdom would rise again, and yadda, yadda, yadda, until they finally noticed how the flag of their kingdom wasn't there on the castle anymore.
"Hehehe, I burned that useless old thing," Kureha said as she stepped out, Chopper in full reindeer form by her side. "Besides, I've decided to make this place Hiriluk's grave. It isn't a place for spoiled brats like you to mess around. Now get out of this country, the Drum Kingdom's been gone for ages."
"A grave for that quack doctor?! Don't make me laugh!" Wapol said.
"That's right, our castle isn't a grave for some loser!" Musshuru agreed. That was as far as either got, as three figures ran out, revealing to be Luffy, Sanji, and Lumen, once again in OOO's armor, using the Lion, Gorilla, and Cheetah medals.
"That quack was a THOUSAND times the men you two piles of garbage are!" OOO growled, before he punched Musshuru in the face, while Luffy and Sanji hit Wapol in the face. The force knocked Wapol to the ground, and Musshuru...wasn't so lucky.
"Lord Musshuru!" the two escorts gasped at seeing him fall off the edge of the mountain.
"I'll go after him!" OOO said. "I'll make sure he doesn't come back to cause us more problems!" he said… as he started actually RUNNING down the side of the mountain.
When he reached the bottom, unsurprisingly Musshuru was still alive and kicking, though he definitely looked a bit beat up from the fall. "I'll give you only one chance. Give it up, the people were happy WITHOUT you two stooges, and I am NOT letting you take away their smiles again!" OOO said with a glare.
"What garbage are you spouting?!" Musshuru growled. "We ARE the Kingdom, and the people should be HAPPY they can serve us!"
"You're the real garbage here! You and that walking trashcan you call a brother!" OOO exploded. "You're not royalty! You're just a pair of spoiled brats who by some sick joke by the devil are the ones these people had to deal with as their rulers! I'm not going to let you bring back Drum Kingdom if its the last thing I do!"
"Then I'll dispose of you just as we did anybody who opposed us!" Musshuru growled, before releasing jets of poisonous spores at OOO, who easily went around them with his cheetah legs and landed strong punches to the spoiled ruler whenever the opening presented itself. However, unlike his brother, Musshuru actually DID know how to fight, managing to evade and block a few of the strikes, and even countering with some of his own, pushing OOO to fight with a balance of offense and defense.
"Guess you at least have some bite to that bark," OOO frowned, but countered with a strong punch that sent Musshuru skidding back, but the man soon came back for more, as it wasn't long before their fight ended up moving them through the snowy landscape as two fought at rather high speed, aiming to take the other out with force. Incredibly enough, it seemed when push comes to shove Musshuru was able to keep up with Cheetah, and perceive its movements, somewhat removing OOO's normal speed advantage, and he was taking blows from Gorilla fairly well all things considered. If it weren't for the fact his poisons couldn't really get through OOO's armor, OOO was pretty sure he might be on the ropes with this one.
"Dammit! I fucking hate stalemates." OOO growled under his breath, "I'd probably need a Full Combo to take him out, but I don't think Latoratar will do enough damage, and I got this feeling he'd be able to get rid of the Gatakiriba clones if he can actually move so fast." he said in annoyance "I need one of the other combos."
Right at that moment, he was unable to avoid one of Musshuru's attacks, blocking it with his arms as he was sent flying into the mountain, cracking it due to his sturdy armor.
"Annoyingly strong… hopefully Luffy and Sanji are having an easier time with the other moron." OOO muttered, glancing back at the mountain where he'd crashed… and gaped.
"Looking away will cost you!" Musshuru shouted as he made to attack again, except…
"SAI! GORILLA! ZOU! SAGOHZOU… SA-GOH-ZOU!"
His hand was suddenly caught by one of the Gorilla arms, as OOO was sporting a brand new helmet, this one white in color with red eyes, sporting a single white horn jutting out the top, the emblem on his chest now having the face of a rhino on the top part.
(Play 'Sun Goes Up')
Musshuru was then thrown away, landing in the snow in a heap before he got up slowly and glared at his adversary.
OOO let out a roar as he began pounding his chest like a gorilla as the energy surged through him.
"A change of armor isn't going to help you beat me you stupid maroon!" Musshuru said, before surging forward and landing a rapid series of blows...to no effect. "So you've got thicker armor now? In that case.. Spin Drill!" he called out, turning his hair into a drill and barrelled right for OOO. The drill hit...and soon broke.
"My turn," OOO said simply, before punching Musshuru in the gut, knocking the wind out of his lungs, sending him flying back. Musshuru coughed out some snow after his landing, and quickly got to his feet.
"You're going to pay for that! I am royalty! You're just some low born trash!" Musshuru growled, before he soon ran literal circles around OOO. "Let's see you keep up with that heavy armor!" he smirked, to which OOO began pounding his chest again. "What's the matter? Gone mad?" he laughed...before he noticed he couldn't feel the ground, and realized he was levitating in mid-air.
"You were saying?" OOO smirked, walking up to him before… "SCANNING CHARGE!" Musshuru dropped back down at that, while OOO levitated this time, before quickly dropping back down, the earth shaking before it grabbed onto Musshuru by his legs and shoved him back to be upright, the ground moving him towards OOO, whose fists and horn were glowing "Sagohzo… Impact!" he roared as Musshuru was right in front of him, and he slammed the fists and his horn right into the man's gut, the air leaving him for a moment, before the pink haired bastard was sent flying. Going...going...gone, as he soon flew well into one of the Drum Rockies, and slammed into one of them (Not the one with the castle on it).
(Song end)
Sighing a bit, he looked towards castle. "Gotta find a way back…" OOO frowned.
"Heeeey! Lumen!" came Usopp's voice, causing him to blink in surprise and turn to see that yes, it was Usopp...along with Zoro and Vivi, Dalton, and several villagers.
"Huh? What are you guys doing here?" he asked in surprise.
"We were going to the castle. The villagers want to put a stop to Wapol," Zoro said.
OOO blinked at that, before looking around "... wait… how far did I…?" he said, before glancing at the mountain where the castle was "Wow… I guess I was so focused on kicking his ass I didn't pay attention to where I was." he said, before turning back to everyone "Anyway, I'm probably gonna pass out for a few minutes once I undo this, should be up again soon though."
"Yeah, yeah, we'll carry you man." Usopp waved off with a smile.
OOO chuckled, undid his transformation and soon joined the group...and as he predicted he barely got close before he keeled over.
"Does this happen often?" Dalton blinked.
"Only when he uses those 'Combos' as he calls them," Vivi sighed as they soon made their way up the mountain.
"I'm up! What I miss?" Lumen said when he got up...and noticed they were just about to reach the top of the mountain. "Nothing much? Good," he sighed.
Vivi looked at him for a long moment "... you bounce back FAR too quickly."
"Meh, I'm just glad I keep breaking my record for waking up." Lumen shrugged, before noticing how packed they were "Jeez this is a lot of people."
"Everyone on this island does not wish for Wapol to rule over us again. We won't let him becoming king again even if its the last thing we do," Dalton said with conviction.
"Well...considering last I saw he was getting punched and kicked by Luffy and Sanji...I don't think that's going to be an issue," Lumen sweat dropped. "Plus Chopper is probably helping with taking care of the other two morons."
"Chopper?" Vivi repeated the name in confusion.
"Oh, right. He's a reindeer that ate the Human-Human Fruit, he's got a blue nose and a big pink hat. He's a nice kid, though he seems to have issues making up his mind." Lumen explained.
Dalton seemed to react to that, his mind going back to what happened after Hiriluk's death, his last request to spare his 'son'. "I see...so he's the one from that time…" Dalton smiled a bit.
By the time they reached the peak...it seemed the fight was over. Wapol's two attendants were on the ground, defeated, and there was no sign of Wapol, though the lack of a ruckus implied that the fight was over, with the victory going to Luffy and Sanji.
"Guess we showed up late," Lumen blinked.
"That's good, that means the enemy is already beaten," Usopp said.
"Tch! And here I was hoping I could have a crack at them," Zoro frowned.
Then they heard a shout, and looked up… to see Luffy launching himself down at them, Lumen thankfully jumping out of the way in time… leaving Usopp and Zoro to get shoved down into the snow thanks to the idiot captain.
"Right… not dealing with the idiot." he muttered, seeing Sanji jumping down from the top of the castle gradually, before he looked around… and grinned "Hey, Chopper!" he waved at the reindeer, drawing everyone's attention over to him… which made Chopper stiffen.
"That's the reindeer you mentioned?" Usopp asked, stopping the recounting of his 'glorious' tale of how they got up here.
"That's him yeah," Lumen nodded. "Hey Chopper, what happened here?" Lumen asked.
Chopper still remained stiff...and Lumen noticed he was staring at the villagers. "Don't worry, they came here to deal with Wapol...though looks like you guys beat us to the punch."
"So we meet again," Dalton said, looking around. "So Wapol is gone?"
"Yep, we sent him flying," Luffy grinned. At that Dalton got on his knees and bowed.
"Thank you! Thanks to all of you, I'm sure Drum can be born anew now!" he said, voice fully grateful.
The villagers were also talking among themselves, before they too bowed in thanks.
Chopper looked uncomfortable now, but, even so, he stepped out from behind the tree "Um… I was… just doing what Dr. Hiruluk would have done… curing this country… I want to be a great doctor, to honor his memory after all."
"Wait, you're a doctor?" Luffy asked like the idiot he was.
"Seriously? You didn't pick up on that?" Sanji and Lumen both said in annoyance.
With Wapol and his cronies dealt with, the next order of business...was making sure Nami was fully recovered, with even Dalton in bed since his own injuries inflicted from trying to stop Wapol hadn't fully healed yet. Then there was going to be a matter of the bill...which was waved off when Kureha mentioned wanting a certain door opened, talking about a 'key' which apparently Wapol always had...and then Lumen and Nami both said they could deal with the door. At the same time.
In Lumen's case he planned to just smash it. Nami...had it easier, seeing as she swiped the key from Wapol ('Nice,' Lumen had said). Whatever the case, Kureha wasn't pleased, but she kept her word. Though she also made it clear she wasn't letting Nami go until she was healed properly.
"Listen up missy, I'm going to leave the room for a while and take care of some business. In the inner room over there you can find my coat, and there won't be anyone standing guard. Also I've finished up patching up your other friends for whatever few injuries they had. But don't you dare use my absence to escape!" Kureha said and with that she took everyone who was still fit to walk out of the room.
"...huh, she's nicer than she lets on," Lumen blinked. The between the lines message was pretty obvious.
"I wonder if she's alright with us taking Chopper too?" Nami asked while Lumen quickly went to grab the coat, bringing it to her so she could put it on.
"Well, I'm sure it'll be a tearful goodbye if she is." Vivi said with a smile.
Outside of the castle, Chopper was trying to avoid Luffy, whom was STILL trying to convince him to join the crew.
'Their nice… REALLY nice… but, I can't… I just can't! Wouldn't it be too weird?' the reindeer thought to himself.
"Hey Chopper! Come on and join our crew!" Luffy shouted when he found the reindeer again.
"Would it kill you to NOT make it sound like you're demanding people join the crew?" Lumen said dryly as he came outside to check on the others while Nami and Vivi got things ready inside, having heard about how Luffy got some of the others to jon, his 'personal favorites' being basically blackmailing Zoro and all but bugging Sanji till he agreed. Sighing, he turned to Chopper. "Look, I get you've had it rough, but trust me when I say you being a reindeer, with a blue nose, able to talk, etc etc...we don't care," Lumen said. "You're a great guy, a good doctor, and we like ya, so stop being so stubborn already and join the crew if that's what you really want to do," he finished with a grin.
Chopper looked down at Lumen's words "Is it… really ok for me to join?" he asked almost quietly.
"Of course it is!" Luffy said "You're totally awesome Chopper! Having you around will be great!"
"First decently smart thing he's said all day." Zoro muttered.
Chopper was silent at that… before they realised he was crying "I… I want to go with you!"
The grins he got in return promised lots of fun ahead "Alright then! Let's go!" Luffy shouted.
Meanwhile…
A pile of snow shifted, before exploding as Wapol spat out a sizeable amount of the stuff, having gotten buried in a small avalanche worth of snow after crashing into one of the other Drum rockies, he'd even lost his furry hippo cloak. "Those damn borons! When I find Musshuru, we'll show them what for! I'll destroy them!"
"Will you now? Are you sure you have enough power to take them all on?" a voice said from the darkness of the night, making Wapol look around wildly.
"Who said that? Show yourself! As the king I DEMAND you reveal yourself to me." Wapol ordered angrily.
"Perhaps you are a King, but without a kingdom or subjects, you're only a king in name," the voice chuckled, before the figure came closer to reveal Kazari in his form of captain Kuro.
"I would have gotten that if those damn pirates hadn't gotten in my way!" Wapol growled. "If you've come just to mock me, I'll kill you first!"
Kazari lifted his arms in surrender. "Now now, I didn't come to fight. As a fellow victim of those pirates, I feel a...kindred soul with you," he said. "In fact...I came offering you something to help."
Wapol rose a curious eyebrow "What kind of help?" he found himself asking.
In response, Kazari held up what looked like a silver coin to him, and brought it to his forehead...which gained a slot of all things before he tossed it into the slot. The moment that happened, his body seemed to glow, before something crawled out of his chest, revealing a weird creature that looked like a humanoid siamese cat, which hissed and revealed a set of very sharp looking claws. "This is a Yummy, using these Medals you can create an infinite army from your desires, ready to fight and cater to your every whim and desire," Kazari said. "Not just that," he added, before snapping his fingers, and the Yummy dissolved into a pile of Cell Medals. "These creatures can be broken down into more Cell Medals, so even the act of making one is not wasted. All I ask in return of giving you access to this power is a bit of help, support in my own agenda...and revenge on those Straw Hat Pirates."
Wapol looked at the Yummy in interest, humming as he considered it, before he put on his best grin (which still looked idiotic) "Well, I do think I like the sound of that! Now come on! Give me one of those things!"
"Ah ah ah, do we have a deal first?" Kazari baited. Oh he fully planned to give this fool a medal one way or another, but no sense in making it TOO easy now.
"I gotta make sure these things work on anyone and not just you first," Wapol countered.
Kazari seemed to think about it...before nodding. Fair enough," he said, before pulling out a medal and giving it to Wapol, who grinned...before breaking away from him and holding the medal high.
"BAHAHAHAHA! You boron! Why would a king make a deal with a nobody like you? I'll just take this one and use it to build up an army, and with it, crush those damn pirates!" he said mockingly, before bringing the medal to his forehead, where a slot appeared… though if he had bothered to look… he would have noticed it wasn't the same kind of medal…
It was a Sai Core Medal.
Wapol never once noticed, laughing in triumph as he slotted the medal into his head. Then it all went wrong. He gasped, body stiffening, before falling to his knees. "W-what? What did you do to me?!" he gasped.
"Only what I promised, I'm giving you power. I just never mentioned that it'll probably cost you that feeble human mind of yours," Kazari smirked, before in a surge of cell medals, his form shifted, revealing his incomplete Greeed form.
"Y-You can't do this to me! I am a King!" Wapol roared, as he felt something capture his mind, but he fought back, trying to maintain his sense of self.
Kazari...actually laughed. "You? A King? That's hilarious!" he laughed. "I served a King once, and he was a great man who drew respect and admiration to himself. You? You're little more than a brat that calls himself a king, even if you were to get a kingdom, you'll lose it again and again and again! You're no king, you never were and never will be...and now...you're going to be lunch," Kazari laughed.
Wapol roared in agony, clutching his head as he felt himself being pulled into his own mind, floating in a void, before cell medals...thousands...billions even of them started to appear, and formed together to create what appeared to be giant figure, with the only distinct detail being its head/helmet that looked like some bizarre mix of a rhino with an elephant, and the general shape being that of an ape. The cell medals swarmed, Wapol doing his best to eat them, but when he did, he shouted in pain as he felt them sticking to his insides, while more started swarming all over him, holding him still, and pulling him closer to the head.
"Ita...dakimasu!" the head said, before a slit opened as it seemed to gain a large mouth, Wapol looking in horror as he was pulled towards it like so many things and victims he'd carelessly eaten over the years.
"Noooo! I don't deserve this! I am the ki-!" Wapol didn't finish before the mouth closed, eating him in one gulp.
Back in the real world, Wapol's body stopped struggling, before going limp...followed by his eyes opening, revealing them to be gray in color, his once purple hair changing color completely to match them as well before he stood up. "He didn't taste that good." he spoke in a new voice.
Kazari couldn't help but laugh "Yeah, I expected that, Gamel. Nice to see you back." he said, going to pat his fellow Greeed on the back.
Gamel nodded, smiling at Kazari "Kazari… where's Mezool?"
Kazari sighed with a smile "Of course she's the first one you want to see. Don't worry, I'll take you to her. We made a little temporary headquarters near an island called Jaya."
Gamel grinned at that. "Okay, let's go to Jaya," he said, before adding, "And let's find some more cell medals. I'm hungry."
At that moment, the trees rustled, and a battered and bruised Musshuru came through. "There you are brother, I was wondering where you went off to. So it seems we will need to plan better if we want to rebuild Drum."
'Wapol' looked at him...and gained a hungry look. "Mmm, I smell strong desires from you," he licked his lips.
"Wapol? What's gotten into you?!" Musshuru gasped, before his 'brother' lunged at him, he retaliated with his spores...but somehow they didn't affect him at all.
"Smells weird, but still smells good," Gamel said, before grabbing Musshuru by the throat.
"You...you're not my brother!" Musshuru gasped, seeing the look in Gamel's eyes.
"Itadakimasu!" Gamel grinned, before opening wide using his new body. The last thing Musshuru saw was blackness as the jaws closed in on him.
While this was happening though, the Straw Hats were outside the castle, waiting for Chopper to say his goodbyes to Kureha. In the meantime...Luffy and Usopp were busy making a snowman. "You two don't seem to get what's going on do you?" Lumen said dryly. "Once Chopper comes we gotta get going ASAP," he said.
"Hey, you guys are the ones who said they were gonna have sad goodbyes." Luffy pouted "Makino always said those take a long time, so we gotta do SOMETHING!"
"Who's Makino?" Usopp asked.
Luffy hummed "Uh… I guess she'd be something like a big sister? Not for real though, just what she acted like."
"As interesting as finding out Luffy basically has a big sister figure is, Lumen's right, we need to be ready to leave as soon as Chopper comes back." Sanji said, taking a drag of his cigarette.
That was when the screaming started. "...wanna bet that's a sign we should run soon?" Nami asked dryly.
"No deal," everyone else said just as dryly. True enough, Chopper came running out in reindeer form pulling a sleigh...with Kureha running after him hurling knives.
"How many of those things does she have?!" Lumen couldn't help but ask as everyone ran away screaming, getting on the sleigh and were soon running down the ropes. "I thought playing Santa would be more majestic!" he shouted as he'd ended up in an awkward position as they sailed down the rope with the moon framing them.
The ride was weaving, bumpy, and really less than comfortable, but somehow they all ended up back on the Going Merry and were soon starting to pull away from the island...before the night had one last surprise from them. The sound of cannons were heard, as something rose into the air, before something amazing soon happened.
"...I'm seeing it and I'm still not fully believing it…" Lumen gasped in awe, as large pink clouds were visible at the top of the Drum Rockies, the snow having somehow turned pink, and as it fell it gave the image of Cherry Blossoms falling in the wind. Words could not describe the feeling of wonder that he was having at the miraculous sight.
Of course… Chopper was feeling it the most… the research his adoptive father had been working on for 30 years… finally being used, and as a sendoff to him by Kureha herself… it was easy to see why he was crying so much.
It was only half an hour later as the crew was sailing away… and a party was underway.
"The full moon is out, and the cherry blossoms are in bloom, so let's party everyone!" Luffy cheered as he… had sticks stuck between his nose and his lower lip, making his face look rather stupid.
At that most of the men were partying, talking about the sight of the cherry blossoms, trying to make Chopper join in, though he was currently looking out at sea, as for Lumen…
"How the heck did you end up frozen in the river Carue?" Lumen asked in confusion as Vivi was fussing over her duck, who looked rather like a frozen duck.
"Maybe he just slipped and fell in?" Zoro asked with a laugh.
"He said someone called Zoro jumped in the freezing river and disappeared, so he jumped in to try and save him." Chopper supplied, with Nami slapping Zoro upside the head.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lumen groaned. "No, don't answer that. Somehow I think I shouldn't find out for the sake of my sanity…"
Luffy just laughed at the sight, and before long the party was on again, with Chopper feeling like he was going to really like it here.
Count The Medals:
Red: Taka
Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta
Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah
Grey: Sai, Gorilla, Zou
Blue: Unagi
Orange: Kame
Purple: Tyranno
Finally, a new medal.
Anyway, yeah, that's what happens when a Greeed forcefully takes over someone... and we just made the idiotic Gamel scary, I know... that was intentional.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed these three chapters, and see you all next time!