Jungle Training

Vivi had to give Luffy this: he never wanted for spirit. He trotted through the jungles, completely oblivious to the strange noises and groans that emanated from the trees. For her own, they gave Vivi chills, a sentiment she knew Carue shared, as he tensed beneath her. They kept walking for a while, before Luffy came to a sudden stop.

"This looks like as good a place as any," Luffy said, as he looked around. Vivi came up behind him on Carue, right as he took off his lunch bag. He then proceeded to stretch his mouth open, and unceremoniously dump the meal Sanji had made into his maw.

"Aren't you ever worried about choking?" Vivi asked, though Luffy paid her no attention.

"Aren't you going to eat your's?" Luffy said, his mouth still full, "You can't train on an empty stomach." Though this wasn't exactly the ideal place to have lunch, Vivi had to admit Luffy was right. With that, she took her own lunch and quickly started eating it.

"Alright, ready?" Luffy asked, once Vivi was done.

"I-" Vivi didn't get to finish, as Carue had to leap out of the way of Luffy's fist with an indignant squawk.

"Luffy!" Vivi protested, tugging on Carue's reins, "What're you doing?!"

"This is how my grandpa trained me," Luffy said, grinning, "Don't worry, you'll get into the hang of it soon. Now, Gum Gum…"

"Luffy, wait!" Vivi said, though the captain wasn't listening.

"Pistol!" Vivi ended up diving off Carue, and landing face first in the foliage, quickly having to roll out of the way of another one of Luffy's fist.

"You can't just blindly attack someone!" Vivi protested angrily.

"C'mon, Vivi!" Luffy said, "You know your enemies won't give you a chance to be ready." Vivi opened her mouth to protest again, but then she took a moment to think about it. When all was said and done, Luffy was probably right; Baroque Works obviously hadn't shown itself to be interested in playing fair, and Vivi would need to have some hold of her abilities if she wanted to take them on. Besides, there really was no point in delaying it; she'd have to do it at some point.

"Alright, if you say so," Vivi said, before looking over at Carue, "Go find some place safe to watch." Not having to be told twice, Carue scurried off to the side to hide behind a fallen tree. With that, Vivi took a breath, and much like she did with human form, Vivi focused on an image of herself as a dragon.

The change to beast form proved surprisingly simple; whereas it felt like a certain part of her was fighting turning back to a human, this form was quite easy to slip into. Once again, the transformation created a massive burst of wind, but expecting it, and thus ready for it this time, Luffy was able to brace himself, as he watched Vivi ascend into the sky in dragon form, sending various animals and flocks of birds flying panicked from their dens and roosts. He couldn't help but grin in anticipation at the sight, as he was completely consumed in her shadow.

"Get ready Vivi," Luffy said, as he started rolling his shoulder, "I'm not going to hold back."

"Alright," Vivi answered uneasily as she looked down at him. She tried bracing herself, but didn't know what part of her to brace, as Luffy lunged at her. At any rate, Luffy proved too fast for her to really do anything.

"Gum Gum Pistol!" Luffy said, punching at Vivi's face. The girl-turned-dragon clenched her teeth in anticipation… but ended up feeling nothing. She opened her eyes to see Luffy falling back, his punch having harmlessly bounced off her face.

"Whoa!" Luffy said, as he caught a branch, and swung onto another, "That didn't even leave a scratch."

"I didn't even feel anything," Vivi noted, as she reached up with her claw (which also had to involve her bending her whole head down to her torso).

"Then let's keep going!" Luffy declared, and before Vivi could even respond, he punched at her again, though it had about as much effect as the first time. This was teaching Vivi one lesson about her new powers: her scales made for a very effective defense. Actually they may have been more than just effective.

"Well try this then!" Luffy said, as he stretched himself back, before slingshotting back at Vivi, "Gum Gum Bazooka!" Once again, Vivi braced herself, but once again, Luffy's attack just bounced off her. The rubber man reached up, grabbing one of the tendrils on Vivi's snout, and used them to pull himself up to her level, so that he was standing on her nose.

"Wow," Luffy said, as he put his hands on his hips, and looked down at her scales "I can't do anything."

""It seems my scales are too durable for you to damage," Vivi said, "I'm sure that'll come in handy in the future."

"But it's not going to be a very fun training session if you're just floating there," Luffy said, puffing out his cheek, tapping his foot. The two stood (or in Vivi's case, floated) there in silence, trying to think of something, before an idea popped into Luffy's head, as he tapped his fist into his palm.

"I got it!" He said, before jumping down, grabbing onto the tendrils again to help slow his fall, "Just try and catch me. We'll see how fast you are!"

"O-Okay," Vivi said, as she tried to reach down with one of her claws, but the pirate captain easily dodged out of the way, jumping to another branch. Vivi came down with her other claw.

"C'mon!" Luffy said, as he ran down the trail, "Bet you can't keep up!" Vivi pouted at Luffy's boast, which looked rather odd on a dragon's face. Intent on proving him wrong, Vivi veered off after him. Carue squawked, as he tried chasing after them.

(back on the Going Merry)

Ostensibly, the safest place on the island was the Straw Hat's ship, but that certainly wasn't how it felt. All sorts of strange sounds kept emanating out of the jungle, and it seemed that something was always lurking just out of view. There was also the distant sound of crashing, and while one couldn't see much through the thick treetops, one could imagine those were the sounds of Luffy and Vivi training. Unfortunately, there wasn't much for Nami and Usopp to do other than huddle up in the ship, and hope for the best.

"Dang it, why did we let our only two Devil Fruit users leave?" Usopp grumbled as he shook his head, before looking at Nami, "How long will it take for that thing to fix itself?"

"Well, it kind of depends on the island," Nami answered, as she looked at the pose, "For some it only takes a couple hours, while for others it can take up to a week."

"A week?!" Usopp balked, "We won't survive a week!"

"Don't look at me!" Nami said, "You think I wanna stay here that long either?"

"Shouting about it won't fix things," Zoro called from his position down on the deck, "Why don't you both relax?"

"Screw you Zoro!" Nami said, before pointing out, "If you want to 'relax', why don't you go out and take a walk."

"Hmm, not a bad idea really," the swordsman said, as he looked out at the jungle, "It would definitely beat just standing here."

"Wait! I was only kidding!"

"Hey mosshead!" Sanji suddenly called, getting Zoro's reluctant attention, "If you're going to go out, why don't you make yourself useful and go hunting? We're still low on protein."

"Heck, I bet I could probably do it better than you anyway." Suffice to say, Sanji wasn't going to let that diss go unanswered.

"Alright, wise guy," he said, as he jumped off the railing down to where Zoro was, "What say you put your money where your mouth is? Bet I can catch a bigger meal than you."

"Don't count on it," Zoro said, and with that, the two struck out into the forest.

"Wait a minute!" Nami shouted, "Don't leave us here!" But the duo were too engrossed in their rivalry to listen, much to her and Usopp's chagrin and dread.

(back in the jungle)

To Luffy's surprise, and Vivi's at that, the dragon was able to catch up to Luffy pretty easily. As it turned out, she was just so big that she was able to veer around Luffy, and get in front of him with just a little speed boost. Luffy barely had time to look up, as one of Vivi's claws came down at him. Stretching his arm out, Luffy pulled himself up and out of the way, causing Vivi to crash her talons into the ground instead.

"Wow Vivi!" Luffy said as he swung onto a tree branch, "You're fast." Vivi nodded, as she pulled her claw out of the ground

"I don't think I'm actually 'flying' though," she then said, turning to Luffy, before looking down at her arms, where those orange flames still were gathered, "It really feels more like I'm floating on these clouds here."

"I wonder how long you can stay up there?" Luffy said, "Now c'mon! You've still gotta catch me!" With that, he stretched to another tree, and jumped off. Vivi was about to chase after him, but there was then what sounded like an explosion. Looking over, she saw there one of the mountains there was a volcano, that had just erupted.

"C'mon Vivi!" the princess then heard Luffy call, "Pay attention to me!" Vivi couldn't help but grin at that (an intimidating sight with her current visage), before floating after the captain.

(elsewhere on Little Garden)

One would think a colossal dragon would be easy to keep track of, but Carue was finding that wasn't the case. The jungle canopy was so dense, that once Vivi and Luffy had gone off to into the jungle, he quickly lost sight of them. The duck ran around frantically, trying to find his draconic friend, but it soon became apparent that he was completely lost.

Carue squawked in exasperation, as he let himself fall flat on his bill. He tried to figure out the best thing to do, and figured maybe climbing a tree would help. That would give him a good view, and surely he'd be able to spot Vivi floating over head. Unfortunately, ducks weren't exactly known for their climbing ability.

At first, Carue to clamber up the tree just by running, but that obviously didn't work, and he fell back on his rear. Not one to give up that easily, Carue tried again, flapping his wings to try and get a little more height, but that didn't go any easier. It was on the fourth attempt that Carue finally took a breath, squawking in exasperation, before taking a moment to sip his drink. His drink was interrupted by a massive shaking, which jolted him to his feet. But he was quickly knocked back to his rear as he saw the source of the shaking: a massive foot.

"QUACK!" Carue cried, as he looked up to see the source of it. It was what looked like a massive bearded man carrying a sword and shield, making his way through the foliage, which came up to his waist. To compound Carue's problems, his attention was drawn to yet another giant making its way in the same direction, this one carrying an axe. The duck scurried off to find cover, as the two giants came up to each other, both grinning like maniacs.

"You're a little late this go around, Dorry," the Red Ogre said.

"Late?" the Blue Ogre said, "Gegyagyagya! I only showed up this time to give you more time to prepare, Brogy. You certainly need it."

"Gabababa! Big talk as always!"

"Only I always follow it with big action!" With that, the two giants braced themselves, before lunging forward, all while Carue cowered in their shadows.

Just as they were about to collide again in their endless duel, they were distracted by a commotion coming their way. Turning their gaze, they noticed a veritable stampede of dinosaurs storming towards them. This was weird, because normally dinosaurs avoided them and their homes. Normally they didn't pay much attention to anything other than each other during their duels, but this was still strange, and strange things generally warranted their attention, especially if it had the potential to interfere with their contest.

"Where're they coming from?" Brogy asked.

"I dunno," Dorry said, "They look scared."

"Normally nothing scares them but us," Brogy said, "So what're they running from?" Dorry set his sword in the ground, putting his hand over his brow to try and see out. After some look, he caught sight of something in the sky to the distance.

The giant actually had to rub his eyes sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. It was a dragon, that seemed even larger than they were, with blue scales, and a long, snake-like body. It hadn't seem to notice any of them, as it floated over the forest, wreathing as if it were trying to catch something on the ground.

"By Elfbaf!" Dorry said, "It's a dragon!"

"A dragon?!" Brogy asked, before laughing, "Gababababa! Are you trying to distract me? I thought we agreed no dirty tricks?"

"No!" Dorry said, pointing, "There really is a dragon out there!" Brogy frowned, before looking out towards the direction Dorry was pointing. Squinting, he saw that there was indeed a dragon out in the distance.

"Damn!" He said, "Just when you thought you've seen it all."

"Doesn't look like it's noticed us," Dorry said, "Seems pretty focused on whatever it's doing over there."

"Hey Dorry," Brogy suddenly said, a smile spreading on his face, "I just got an idea."

"What?" The Blue Ogre asked, glancing at him.

"What say whoever kills the dragon there first becomes the winner?" Brogy suggested, "It all ends right there, and the winner gets to mount the dragon's head on their wall, and gets bragging rights for all our days."

"I like it," Dorry said, as a grin spread across his face, "Sounds fun." With that, he suddenly started running towards the dragon.

"First come first serve!" He said.

"Not on your life!" Brogy said, as he chased after his brother in arms.

Note: Vivi's trying to get the hang of her powers, but it seems she's attracted the attention of Dorry and Brogy in the process. Things will only go from there.

This chapter was mostly devoted to Luffy and Vivi starting their training, while trying to set things up for next chapter. Suffice to say, things will probably pick up soon. Also, because I'm guessing some may be wondering, the pairings in this fic are undecided, if they're even going to happen at all.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment!