Italics indicate thinking.
Bold is for attacks.
Lil's POV
We had been riding a crayfish that Franky had converted into a bicycle but it freaked out all the sudden so we had to walk towards the next location.
"My feet hurt." I whined.
"You must learn to walk long distances Young Miss." Brook told me.
"Ugh! I'm a little girl! I have tiny feet so it takes me longer to walk far." I pouted.
I kept walking and bumped into Franky.
"Hop on"
"Huh?"
"You can ride on my shoulders."
"Wow thanks Big Bro!" I said climbing up.
"Don't call him that." Mama mumbled.
"It's a SUPER~! Piggyback ride!"
"Yeah SUPER!"
"Don't encourage him." Mama told me.
We had made it to a large mansion that was also a bar, apparently we didn't even need an invitation to get in.
"I don't like it here." I mumbled sticking close to Robin "It's creepy."
"This place is crawling with pirates." Franky said getting a cola to refuel with.
"Each group has an eternal pose." Mama pointed out "It's safe to assume they were invited here."
Brook tried to hit on some waitress and got knocked to the floor.
"Your arms." I said.
"Oh these, we all have them around here." The girl explained "I got the feeling we wanna be birds or something."
"I don't think it works like that." I mumbled sipping on a glass of juice.
"So, about those panties…AUGH!"
Some guy in the crowd recognized us and started chatting up Franky and Mama while I scraped the old bag of bones off the floor.
"You don't know it's right here in the paper."
"You mean he…"
That was the paper that had shown up on the ship a few days ago.
"I see…what's the goal exactly?" Mama asked.
A man explained that the goal was to start with the East Blue and conquer the world using pirates and those crazy wild animals.
"It all starts tonight. First dinner then he unleashes that swarm of beasts on the East Blue."
"Those animals are bad." I said "They only know destruction if they go to the East Blue who knows what'll happen."
"Well you gotta break a few eggs if you want an omelet."
Someone told us that we should get dressed up if we were going to come to the party tonight, apparently it was a formal event.
"I heard there's gonna be a demonstration tonight." A man said "A preview of what will happen to the East Blue."
"What kind of demonstration?" Mama asked.
"There's a village on this island that's gonna get wiped out tonight."
"There are people living here?"
"Let's go." Franky whispered "the others might be there."
Steve's POV
We rode the bird to a nearby village and managed to regroup with most of the others.
"We're still missing Lil and Robin!" I moaned.
"Maybe their avoiding you." Zoro smirked.
"WHAT?!"
"Knock it off!" Rose yelled.
The door to the house we were in front of opened and a little girl came out.
"Mom there's a huge bird outside…Bleh!"
She passed out but her mother had caught her. She asked us if we wanted to come in but we opted to stay outside. Luffy told Nami to go in and rest.
I feel like I'm being watched…
"We still need to find Franky, Robin, Lil and Brook." Rose said "Do we wait or go looking?"
"If we don't hear from them by tonight we'll go out in the morning." I told her "For now let's rest and wait, we've all had an exhausting few days."
LATER
I woke up from my nap with a feeling of uneasiness. Zoro was the only other one awake.
"You feel it too?" I asked.
"Yep…"
"Wake everyone up we need to get ready." I told him "Something is coming."
By the time we managed to wake the rest of the crew the sun had started to set.
"Is he here yet?" Luffy asked.
"Just showed up on the border of town." I said as we headed that way "He'll want Nami back."
We waited a short while longer when we got there and Shiki met us on the edge of town, floating down like some sort of intimidating force.
"Go back inside Nami." Luffy said.
"You didn't even bother to say goodbye." Shiki said "So cold Babydoll."
"Shut up you pile of crap!" Sanji said "I think it's time for you to pay for what you did."
"You idiots can't appreciate her talents."
He's starting to sound like Arlong.
"Hey Wheel-Head!" Luffy yelled "Don't go thinking you can just steal one of my crew and get away with it."
"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?" Shiki asked.
"I'm gonna kick your ass!" he said.
Luffy ran forward and the rest of us weren't too far behind. Luffy grabbed the arch Shiki was standing on and tried to hit him.
"Gum-Gum Sickle!"
Luffy missed and flew passed the amputee.
"Firebird Star!"
Usopp shot just missed as Shiki floated through the air with a surprising amount of grace for a person of his stature.
"72 Caliber Phoenix!"
"Wide Burst!"
Zoro and Wyper both sent projectiles at Shiki put they were sliced apart by his sword-legs.
"Chopper grab on." I said dropping my whips back and spinning "Whip Furry Tornado!"
I sent Chopper soaring towards Shiki where he could hit him before he was ready.
"Arm Point: Clove Roseo Michelli!"
"Cross Cut!"
Rose and Chopper both landed strikes on Shiki's back as Sanji ran up to deliver a kick to the stomach but he was caught with one hand.
"Sanji!"
Where are you stupid?
"Gum-Gum Rocket!"
Luffy slammed into Shiki and freed the cook. We regrouped to see what Shiki would do next.
"You seem to be under the assumption that we are equals." Shiki said "I'm gonna wrap this up now."
"Brace yourselves." Zoro warned.
Shiki lifted one hand and the ground shook, the soil around us rose up and became like an arena.
"Earthbind!"
The dirt formed into giant lion heads and roared at us
"AHH!" Rose was screaming like a baby and the rest of us were starting to panic.
Luffy got warmed up and blasted through one of the faces.
"Tempest Kick: Corkscrew!" I sent a twisting blast out to help clear the path.
"Cook!" Zoro pushed passed and had Sanji kick him towards Shiki.
"Arm De L'air Power Shot!"
"Atlas Comet!"
Shiki easily avoided Usopp's distraction.
"Bull Hooves!"
Shiki blocked Zoro like it was nothing.
"You're starting to get annoying. You're not worth my time!"
He threw Zoro into the dirt and everything started to rise up around us.
"Oh crap!"
"What do we do?!"
The earth crashed in around us and I passed out from the lack of air.
Lil's POV
We drove through what was left of this town on Franky's latest bug bike, everything was in ruins.
"We didn't make it in time." Franky said as we coasted through town.
"It looks just like the newspaper." Mama said.
"And he wants to do the same thing to Papa's home." I said "That's scary."
We rode through town looking for anyone from the crew.
"Strawhat!"
"Hey Luffy!"
"Papa!" "Steve!"
We drove a little farther and came across a large dirt spire.
"What happened?!"
"Luffy!"
They were all half buried in the dirt, they looked like they had been crushed by something.
"Papa…" I felt my eyes get all watery.
"Let's dig them out."
"Mole!" I brought out a small mole person with sharp digging claws "Give us a hand."
It nodded and jumped into the ground only to appear at the top of the dirt mound, the whole thing fell apart and freed the others.
Steve's POV
I had gotten knocked on my ass by Shiki thankfully the others had managed to dig us out. Lil was pretty upset about having to see me all messed up like that. I gave her a hug and told her I was okay.
"Dammit." I mumbled "I'm such a weakling…"
"You're telling me that Shiki's the one doing all that stuff in the East Blue?" Luffy asked.
"He's gonna let those monsters loose on our home towns." Sanji said "Bastard, made us look like a bunch of fools."
Nami had gone with the asshole so that she could have our homes spared. That little girl from earlier, Xiao, came up to us with her mom and grandmother.
"Hey Xiao what'cha got there?" Wyper ask.
"This?" she said holding up a dial "I found it on the ground over there."
"May I see it?" He asked.
Wyper picked up and examined the shell while Luffy thanked Xiao for being brave and worrying about Nami, uffy promised to make Shiki pay for what he did to their village.
"Yeah it's the same one from the other day." Wyper said giving the dial to Luffy "This belongs to Shiki."
Luffy pushed the play button and Nami's voice started playing, it was a message from Nami saying that she was giving us up to side with Shiki.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?"
I felt Lil grab my leg when Luffy started yelling.
"How could she say that?! You don't talk about your crew like that!"
"Luffy calm down." I said "You're scaring Lil."
"What'd she mean we can't match up with him?! How could she say that to us?!"
"You can't deny the guy just kicked your asses." Franky said.
"No he didn't…he just…I'm mean…he got lucky!"
"Luffy you need to calm down." I said "And you shut up don't egg him on."
Luffy shoved the dial into Usopp's hand and stormed off.
"Usopp." Sanji said "Play it again."
It was the same message, but if the dumbass had listened to the whole god damn thing he wouldn't be so angry. I put my hands on my head and rubbed my temples.
"Enough sitting around." I told the crew standing up "We've got work to do."
AN
Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated. Feel free to message me any questions or concerns.
Till Next Time!