Wow this is going up late, Sorry lads. I've been busy all day, couldn't get this chapter up! Just one today though.
Enjoy!
"This meat is really good, old guy!"
"Ahaha, your lunchbox is really good too! Although there isn't much here for a giant like me!"
"I'd hope it was good, or I'd beat you up."
"Ahaha! You're a funny guy, little man!"
Watching his Captain converse with the giant like they'd known each other for ever was an extremely strange sight for Johnny, who was sitting next to Vivi and an extremely distressed Karoo. After saving Luffy, the giant Dorry invited them to where he lived for some food and drink. He had to admit that the dinosaur meat tasted amazing, which only excited him to see what Sanji could do with it once he got his hands on it.
"So why're you alone out here?" Luffy asked Dorry as he stuffed his face. "Don't you have a village or something?"
"I do, I do!" Dorry replied. "I hail from Elbaf, an island of giants somewhere on the Grand Line. In our village, if there is a fight that no one apologies for, then we settle it like this. We listen to Elbaf's God, and we fight for our life. So, with this island as our chosen battlefield, myself and another giant have been fighting for a hundred years!" This made Johnny choke on his dinosaur, and Vivi gasped.
"A hundred years?!" She demanded. "Surely you've forgotten what ever caused the fight, no?!" Dorry just laughed.
"Sure have!" He said. "But that's not important." Before anyone could say anything else, the volcano in the distance exploded. "Oh, would you look at that. Time to fight." The giant stood from his seat and grabbed his shield and sword.
"But this isn't a fight anymore!" Vivi said. "It's just an excuse to kill each other!" Dorry ignored her, wandering away from the campsite. "Hey, wait! Dor-!"
"Big Sis Vivi, that's enough." Johnny said, putting a hand on her shoulder before she could try and chase the giant. "He won't listen to that. It's not about the reason anymore."
"Huh?" Vivi said, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's not about the reason," Luffy said, making both of them look at him. "It's about their pride. It's a mans fight!"
Nami watched as Broggy and his opponent met, and began to clash. The titanic clash set shock waves far enough away that she could feel it, but she wasn't really interested in that.
"Look at that!" Usopp said as he watched with stars in his eyes. "They're fighting like that, but they forgot what about!"
"Seems stupid as hell to me," Nami said as Yosaku continued to eat.
"What?!" Usopp demanded. "This is an amazing fight! They're fighting for their pride as warriors, and that's the manliest reason one could fight!"
"Who cares?" Nami demanded. "Let's just get the hell out of here. We can use that Eternal Pose we got from Ms. All Sunday to leave. I am not waiting here a full year!" She turned to Yosaku at this. "Yosaku, let's go! We're going back to the ship and I need your help!"
"Sure thing, Big Sis Nami!"The swordsmen said as he jumped to his feet. Nami turned back to Usopp. "Come on you, we're leaving."
"I wanna watch a little," Usopp said, arms crossed. "This is what I aspire to be, so I want to watch a fight between two real men!"
"You want to be a giant?" Yosaku asked, slinging his blade over his back.
"No, you idiot!" Usopp replied as Nami giggled. "A brave warrior!"
"Oh, right." Nami watched Usopp as he gazed over the two warriors, before sighing and sitting back down.
"Fine, we can wait until it's over." She said. "Besides, if I know Luffy he's not done causing trouble somewhere on this island."
After Dorry and Broggy finished their fight, which culminated in another tie, both giants retreated back to their camps. Dorry said that Broggy had gotten some rum from some humans visiting Broggy, which Luffy presumed was their crew mates. It was interesting how they had encountered different giants, both of whom where fighting to return home.
"Didn't they want to stay on the ship?" Johnny asked, referring to the trio speaking with Broggy. "Weird, I didn't peg Usopp and Nami to be thrill seekers."
"They just love adventure is all," Luffy replied with a smile. "So naturally they set out too!"
"Is that really important right now?" Vivi asked. "Mr. Dorry, you said that a Log Pose takes a year to save here?"
"Indeed," Dorry replied as he sipped his rum. "Did you see all the skulls around here? Many humans have come to this island over the years, but very few have ever left with a saved Log. Some starve, some get eaten, some we kill cause they came for us! Only ones who seem to leave are those who take their chances with the ocean!"
"If that's the case, then we can't stay here Luffy!" Vivi said as she began to look frantic. "We have to use Ms. All Sunday's Log Pose or else we won't be able to save Alabasta!"
"Right you are Vivi!" Luffy said, hopping off of the log he was sitting on. "We have to go, big guy! We've got somewhere to be and we can't wait a year for a normal Log."
"None ever do have the time!" Dorry laughed. "I wish you luck on your adventures, friends! May the gods of Elbaf grant you the strength to-!"
Luffy was nearly blown away as Dorry exploded, sending his massive body to the ground with a massive thud that cause the island itself to shutter.
"What the hell just happened?!" Johnny shouted in surprise. "Big Bro Dorry exploded!"
"It had to have been the rum!" Vivi said. "There's no other explanation! Did Broggy do this?!"
"No way he would!" Luffy said, feeling anger well up inside him. "This battle's been raging for one hundred years! There's no way he'd do something so underhanded after all this time!"
"Then what the hell just happened?!" Johnny asked, looking frantic.
"It...Must have been you people." Luffy's eyes widened as he looked over at Dorry, who had gotten to his feet and was eyeing them angrily. "Broggy would never do something like this, and you people gave us this rum! How dare you do something so nefarious?!"
"I swear we didn't do anything!" Vivi shouted. "There has to be a better explanation to this! We can-"
"Johnny, take Vivi away from here." Luffy said, stretching in front of the pair. "Get her to safety. Oh, and take this." He tossed his hat to Vivi. "Things are about to get ugly."
"You can't fight him, Luffy!" Vivi replied. "He's massive!" Johnny, however, was silent. After a moment, he grabbed Vivi's arm, making her look at him in surprise.
"Let's go, Big Sis Vivi!" He said. "Leave this to the Captain! Karoo, you to-!"
"Th duck had already bolted when the explosion went off.
"What?!" Without giving the Princess any time to even think about it, Johnny dragged her off into the brush and disappeared, far away from the battlefield. With this, Luffy sighed and turned back to Dorry, who was still watching him angrily.
"I'll give you one more shot to calm down, big guy!" He shouted.
"Johnny let me go! We need to go back!"
"There's no point!" Johnny replied as he dragged her through the jungle. Just what the hell was he doing?! "Big Bro Luffy can handle this!"
"What do you mean?!" Vivi demanded. "He's just a regular guy!"
"That's nowhere near the case!" Vivi made a face, the swordsman turning to face her as they ran. "Big Bro Luffy is the strongest man I've ever met! He will be able to subdue him, especially after the explosion!" How was it that this man had so much faith in Luffy? What exactly had they gone through prior to this that he had no doubts about this?
"Are you sure?" She asked weakly as they began to slow down. Johnny released her, nodding.
"Yes, I know Big Bro will be okay." he said. "For now, I'll honour the orders he gave me, and keep you safe." Vivi frowned, still no pleased with the state of affairs on this island. But, there wasn't much she could do right now. The entire crew was separated around the island, and the fight between the giants was most likely going to reach a conclusion soon, unfortunately.
As she calmed herself down, something irregular caught her eyes. It was a square building, pure white against the jungle backdrop.
"What is that?" She asked, pointing towards the object. Johnny turned and watched it quietly, no saying anything after a while. After this, he drew his sword.
"I don't know, but let's find out." He said. The pair approached the hut quietly, careful to not be too loud, before they finally got close enough to see it was indeed a hut of some sort. The door was slightly ajar, allowing them to get close enough to see inside.
"Just explain your stupid plan. Mr. Three." Mr Five said, making Vivi's eyes widen. Inside the hut was Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine, beaten up yet recovered from their Whiskey Peak thrashing. The other two in the cabin, well, she could only assume it was Mr. Three and his partner. The four agents seemed to be in the middle of a discussion, so Vivi did her best to pay attention.
"I told you already, it's simple." He said. "First, we use our secret little bomb to blow up The Green Giant, Dorry. After the two fight again and he loses, he can deal with Broggy on his own. In terms of those little pirates helping the Princess, I'll use my powers to trick them one by one to capture them, and make sure that we ensnare them all. I don't need to fight them face to face to beat them. Mr. Five."
Oh no. Not only had Baroque Works followed them to Little Garden, but they were behind the explosion and were hunting them. That was great, seeing as how they were all separated and easily captured. This was not good. Signalling for Johnny to follow her, the pair snuck away from the hut before bolting back in the direction of Dorry's camp. Once they got far enough away, they felt comfortable speaking.
"What the hell are they doing here?!" Johnny asked.
"Looking for me, obviously!" Vivi replied. "We have to tell Luffy, this is bad!"
"You're right, let's hurry!" Once they got closer, they could tell that the fight had already been ended, and it seemed that Dorry had won. The giant was just staring down at Luffy, who was now trapped underneath a giant boulder.
"Luffy!" Vivi shouted, gaining his attention. "We've got trouble!"
"Kinda busy here!" Luffy replied. "I told you to get her to safety Johnny!"
"She's right Big Bro, there's trouble!" Johnny replied. "Baroque Works followed us here! They did this to Big Bro Dorry!"
"There are others here?" Dorry asked weakly, joining the conversation. "I am sorry for suspecting you, then. I know better. But, it doesn't matter." Before he could continue, the volcano in the distance erupted.
"Don't even dare!" Vivi said as Dorry got up. "You're way to injured to be doing this fight right now! Mr. Dorry, I'm sure Mr. Broggy will be willing to let this go until you've healed up more!"
"I won't allow that bastard to pity me!" Dorry shouted. "This is a mans fight, and it has been for a century! If I lose today, that the Gods have forsaken me after all this time. And if so, I will accept that fate." With this, Dorry walked towards the 'arena' to face Broggy, and surely to lose after all this time.
"What're we supposed to do. Big Bro?" Johnny asked. "It's all going to hell right now."
"Get me out of here!" Luffy replied. "We have to stop the fight before Dorry gets killed due to a foul! It's not fair and Broggy needs to know!"
"Dorry doesn't want to be pitied!" Johnny replied. "That's why he trapped you! Not only that, but Baroque Works is on the island looking for us! We need to find our friends and get out of here before they find us!"
"LUFFY! YOU GUYS!" The trio turned to find Usopp sprinting at them full speed from the jungle, going so fast he was almost a blur. "NAMI AND YOSAKU GOT EATEN BY DINOSAURS!"
"WHAT?!" Both men yelled as Usopp reached them. The sniper took a moment to catch his breath before he stood straight up.
"We were running here to meet up with you guys but I got scared and so did Nami so Yosaku stayed back with her cause she ran off but I did too and now we're separated and I think they got eaten!" He spat out in on breath, speaking so fast Vivi could barely understand him.
"Great," Johnny hissed. "On top of Dorry being attacked and Baroque Works being here, we have to find them now too!"
"Wha-?" Usopp asked, out of breath again. Johnny took the few seconds to give Usopp the full rundown of the situation, about the explosion and everything he and Vivi had seen in that wax hut. This only panicked the sniper more.
"Gah!" He shouted. "Those bastards are ruining a century long honour duel?! I won't forgive them for this!"
"The duel's honour will have to wait," Johnny replied. "Baroque Works are still chasing Big Sis, so we need to either get out of here or run. What do you think Captain?" Everyone turned to Luffy, who was still stuck under the boulder Dorry had trapped him under.
"Get me out of here!" He shouted after a few seconds of silence. "This is so stupid!"
"We'd need one of the giants help to free you," Vivi said weakly. "And right now there-!" A shockwave interrupted her, and she whirled just in time to watch Dorry fall to the ground, having been felled by Broggy. She knew this must have been the outcome after the explosion, there was no other way for it to end. After a whole century, a cheap shot from bounty hunters caused one to lose. It pissed her off just thinking about it.
"Damn it!" Luffy shouted. "I knew this would happen if he fought! This is stupid!" Vivi watched the Captain rage from underneath the boulder, feeling confused. These pirates were not who she had initially thought they were. Not only were they willing to help her get home, but now someone else's problem was causing him such anger. Who exactly were these guys?
"The ship was right around here, was it not?" Zoro asked himself, looking around. Nojiko had tasked him with bringing back the first big carcass, but he couldn't find his way back. Had they moved the ship the mess with him or something?
Looking off to his right, Zoro made a face. Why was Nami standing there?
"Hey, Nami!" He called, walking up to the redhead leaning up against a tree. "I'm glad I ran into you! Can you guide me back to the ship?" Nami didn't respond to him, which confused him greatly. "Hey, Nami, come on. What's wrong?" She just smirked at him, and next thing Zoro knew she exploded in a bright white light.
"What the-?!"
Big Sis Nami?!" Yosaku called as he walked around the jungle. He'd tried to guard both of them on their way to Dorry's camp, but it clearly hadn't worked. Both had gotten frightened by the roars and sounds in the jungle, running off in different directions. Making an executive decision that Nami was in more trouble, he had chased after her and tried to find her. Sadly though, he couldn't find her. Had she already found the camp.
"Huh?" Yosaku asked, a human shape catching his eye. Looking towards it, he saw Luffy leaning up against a tree. He must have been near the camp, then! "Ah, Big Bro Luffy! Have you seen Nami around here? I've been trying to find her but she's run off and I don't know where she-?!"
Luffy's body imploded in on itself, encapsulating Yosaku in something white. What the hell had just happened?
"We need to regroup," Johnny said, looking pissed off as well. "There's nothing we can do all split up like this."
"We'll need to fight these guys off!" Usopp said, taking his rifle from his back. "Lead me to that hut you guys found, let's get these guys for ruining this duel!"
"I wouldn't worry about that, long nose." A new voice said, Vivi turned, and her eyes widened as she watched Mr. Five dispose of Karoo's unconscious form right in front of them, Ms. Valentine cackling from beside him.
"What did you do to him?!" She shouted.
"Tried to get your position out of him," Mr. Five responded as he picked at his nose. "Stupid bird wouldn't give it up. Thank God you all started yelling like a bunch of morons. Made it easy to get here."
"Wait, who're these guys?" Usopp asked, confused.
"Baroque Works agents," Johnny hissed, hand on his blade in preparation. "We met them at Whiskey Peak while you guys were out cold." That was all it took for Usopp to draw his rifle and aim it at the agents, initiating a standoff.
"Did you guys put the bomb in that rum?!" He demanded angrily, clicking the hammer back.
"So what if we did?!" Mr. Five asked. "You're not on the list, are you long nose?"
"Definitely not," Ms. Valentine said. "But he's clearly one of them, so I guess we deal with him anyway!"
"I'll back you up, Big Bro Usopp!" Johnny said, drawing his blade.
"Me too!" Vivi said, whipping out her peacock slashers. Meanwhile, Luffy just watched from underneath the boulder.
"Get me out of here first you guys! Come on!"
Meanwhile, across the battlefield near the giant Broggy, a different confrontation had begun.
"After a hundred years..." Broggy said, sounding near tears. "We fought 73,467 times... And I won once!" The giant managed to laugh a few times, before another voice cut in.
"You beat him so easily, are you crying out of happiness?" it said as Broggy turned. "I should thank you, you've made my job so much easier."
"Happiness?" Broggy demanded. "What do you know?! Who are you?!" The man with his hair up in the shape of a three laughed.
"My code name is Mr. Three," he answered, gesturing back to the younger girl behind him. "And this is Ms. Golden Week. Oh, and I've also captured you."
It was only then that Broggy noticed the wax that had cemented itself around his feet, keeping him firmly in place.
"What the hell is this?!" He shouted, wavering a bit as he tried to rip himself free.
"You needn't worry about that," Mr Three said. "Just know that after one hundred years, your one hundred million Berry bounty is about to be claimed!"
Despite the clear trouble the giant was in, the two figures who were hiding nearby had not intervened. After all, they had just been hunting for food when they'd stumbled across whatever this was. Using her deductive reasoning, the girl frowned.
"Those people are with Baroque Works," Nojiko said to Sanji, who was kneeling next to her. "They must be after Vivi."
"And that giants bounty, apparently." Sanji replied as he blew some smoke out of his mouth. "What should we do?"
"We should wait," Nojiko replied. "See if we can figure out what they're up to first. Charging in now would just get us into trouble."
And so the pair watched as wax encased the giant, looking for their opening should it present itself.