Heart of a Pirate
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.
Author's note: I just have one small thing to mention: My good friend FictionReader98 pointed out to me in a review that in the previous chapter, I had shown Nami knowing that the Gold Roger Pirates had been the pirates that had shown up at Destiny Islands 20 years ago, but I never explicitly mentioned that Kairi and Selphie had told her that. Whoops! I've gone back and corrected that error, saying that sometime during the rest of the afternoon, Nami had asked them who the pirates were that they had mentioned coming to Destiny Islands. Thanks for pointing that out!
Chapter 3: Separated
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Destiny Islands, Sora's house, Sora's room
Sora lay on his bed, thinking about everything that had transpired that day. He and his friends had met the Straw Hat Pirates, a very… odd… pirate crew from the outside world. True, this was the first time they had ever met pirates (or anyone else from the outside world, for that matter), but they way they acted and interacted with each other was a far cry from any mental image they had of how pirates acted. They had imagined them to be a bunch of gruff, delinquent criminals who liked nothing more than to drink, fight, and steal, but the Straw Hats were different. Sure, they could be a bit loud and belligerent (except Robin, of course), but they definitely weren't bad people.
They had then found out from them that their island was just one of many on a stretch of ocean that circled the entire globe, which was called the Grand Line. That itself had been a shock, but they had also found out about many things they had never thought possible; fruits that gave the people who ate them special abilities, islands in the sky, human/fish hybrids, giant sea monsters, etc. It was so unbelievable, yet they had seen first-hand evidence from Luffy and Chopper that what they said had merit. Seeing and hearing all of that made Sora, Kairi, and Riku that much more eager to set off on their journey with their raft.
Yet, they had also learned the sad truth that if they were to set off on a sea voyage at their current fighting level, they wouldn't survive for long, even if their raft could somehow survive the harsh conditions of the Grand Line. That fact had been a disappointment to all three of Sora, Kairi, and Riku, but it had hit Riku the hardest, since out of the three of them, he was the one who wanted to go on their journey the most. Heck, the whole thing had been his idea. But to suddenly find out that he wasn't yet ready, and still had a ways to go before he was… Sora couldn't imagine how hard that must have been for Riku to hear, let alone accept. He only hoped it didn't drive him to do anything drastic.
Of course, that was not to say that Sora himself was not affected by the outcome of Riku's fight with Zoro. Sora had always considered Riku to be his rival, the level of strength he felt the need to match or surpass, and seeing him defeated so easily by someone who happened to be traversing the same ocean they sought to explore was a bit of a shock to him. If Riku wasn't yet strong enough for the Grand Line, what did that mean for Sora?
Sora then looked over to the model ship with propellers that hung from his ceiling, noting the two white dolls standing next to each other at the helm. He then thought back to his conversation with Kairi the previous day at sunset, remembering what she had said before they went home: 'I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great.'
And it would be, too, thought Sora with a frown. Except that Zoro was probably right; we need more training. There's no point to going on an adventure like this if we're just going to get ourselves killed right off the bat. And I don't want Kairi to get hurt… He shook his head, clearing himself of those thoughts before he got too deep into them.
On the other hand, thought Sora as a small smile crept onto his face. It gives us plenty of time to improve our raft's design. We can design our raft to be more sea-worthy while we take some time to train and get stronger. With some reinforcements and upgrades, it'll be ready when we're ready!
He mentally congratulated himself for thinking of that. Even if they themselves were ready for the combatants they'd eventually have to face, it wouldn't mean anything if their raft wasn't sea-worthy. By taking time to reinforce their vessel, they'd have time to train themselves at the same time; two birds with one stone! With that thought, Sora knew that they were lucky to have met the Straw Hats before leaving.
Sora was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by the low rumble of thunder in the distance. He quickly sat up and looked out his window.
In the distance, at the Children's Island, he saw dark thunderclouds forming in the sky. Lightning flashed, thunder resounded, and ferocious winds blew, stirring up the water. "A storm?" he said out loud to himself. He suddenly twitched in realization. "Oh, no! The raft!"
A short time later…
"Sora, dinner's ready! Come on down!" called the voice of Sora's mother. She got no response. "Sora?" she called again, not knowing that Sora was already gone.
0o0o0o0o0o0o— Going Merry, Main deck
Nami whacked away a creature that leapt at her head with her Clima-Tact, sending it flying into another group of black creatures and knocking them over. Twirling her weapon above her head, she then swung it in a full-circle sweeping motion around her, knocking away a few more that had managed to get up close to her. Quickly looking back, she saw one getting ready to pounce and promptly hit it with an underhand swing, scooping it up and sending it flying over the edge of the ship into the water.
But for every creature she seemingly got rid of, more came to take their place as they continued to spawn from the deck floor. Sometimes, she couldn't even hit them; right before a strike connected, they would flatten completely against the ground, becoming no thicker than a sheet of paper as the strike passed over them, popping back into their original solid forms once it was safe. Even worse, she couldn't use any of her Clima-Tact's special abilities to get rid of any significant numbers of the creatures, since they were coming at her too fast for her to prepare any moves.
Nami suddenly cried out in pain as she felt the claws of one of the creatures hit their mark on her left arm. In response, she turned and kicked the creature as hard as she could off the edge of the boat. Looking down at her arm, she saw two small but sizeable scratches running across it, which had already started bleeding slightly. Thankfully, they weren't deep, but she'd still need to bandage them up; that is, once these creatures were gone. Trying hard to shut the stinging, burning pain from her arm out of her mind, Nami quickly brought her Clima-Tact back into position as she turned back to the rest of the creatures advancing on her.
Is there no end to these things?! thought Nami with frustration and apprehension as she continued fighting for her life.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Going Merry, Below deck, a few minutes earlier
"… And then, naturally, I took out all thirty vicious giants all by myself!" boasted Usopp, telling yet another tall tale about his supposed adventures on the sea to Chopper, who, being his usual naïve self, listened with stars in his eyes. The two of them sat alone in the men's sleeping quarters, with the other three guys doing who-knew-what elsewhere. They had quickly grown bored after eating dinner, but weren't quite tired enough to sleep, so Usopp decided to pass the time by telling stories. Little did the two of them know of what was about to happen to them.
The two of them were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a loud thunderclap resounding outside the ship. "AAAAHHHH!" screamed Chopper in fright as he zipped underneath the table in the room. "IT'S A STORM!"
Usopp burst into laughter at the display, much to Chopper's annoyance. "Calm down, Chopper! It's just a thunderstorm! We deal with them all the time!" said the long-nose with a smile. Chopper relaxed a little, but for the most part remained tense. "By the way, what's that thing next to you?" continued Usopp, pointing slightly to Chopper's right.
Chopper quickly whipped his head in that direction to see a pitch-black… animal… of sorts forming out of the floor right next to him. "AAAAHHHH!" he screamed again as he bolted out from under his hiding place and 'hid' behind one of the wooden support beams, once again failing miserably in concealing himself. "WHAT IS THAT?!"
Usopp also began sweating nervously at the sight of this black thing. It had already formed a head with two crooked antennae, two forelegs with claws and some semblance of a body, and was currently in the process of forming hind legs. It was also giving off a sinister aura that made Usopp and Chopper's fear grow. Once it had finished forming, it opened its glowing yellow eyes, staring at the two pirates.
At the sight of its eyes, Usopp and Chopper could only form one intelligent response:
"G…"
"G-g-gh…"
"Gh-gh-gho…"
"GHOST!" they simultaneously screamed in fright as they bolted out of the room like bats out of hell.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Rear beach, Palm tree patch, same time
"How the hell did I end up here?!"
Zoro was currently wandering amongst the strange palm trees with the yellow, purple and green leaves and muttering angrily, having left the ship a minute or two ago. He had just been napping on the main deck before being woken up by a strange feeling. His senses, heightened by his intense training and battle experience, had told him that something was off, that a dark, evil aura was slowly descending upon the island and the ship. Zoro had then leapt off the ship onto the dock and began walking towards the point where the dark, sinister feeling was strongest: the small cave obscured by some bushes next door to the waterfall. He wandered towards it like a moth to a flame, as if in a trance… but then his horrible sense of direction struck again, leading him to where he was now.
"How was I supposed to know which passageway I had to go through?! Now I gotta go all the way back to the other side!" he muttered in frustration, completely missing the fact that the strength of the aura of darkness was - to someone as skilled as him, anyway – like a big, bright-coloured arrow with the words 'In Here!' written on it in big letters over the cave, as well as the stone-grey double-doors that had appeared in front of the cave. He then began making his way back.
Or at least, he would have, but at that moment, he became aware of the stormy weather conditions. Looking around, he saw black clouds, strong winds, and frequent flashes of lightning, although no rain fell. Huh, thought Zoro to himself. This doesn't seem like any other storm we've ever encountered on the ocean. Why is there no rain falling?
He was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by the sudden appearance of eight puddles of blackness appearing from the sand all around him. Feeling the same sinister aura as that of the inside of the island from these puddles, Zoro quickly whipped out his Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri katanas and got into position, ready for anything. He watched as a number of strange creatures began forming out of the puddles, each opening a pair of glowing yellow eyes as they finished forming.
For a moment, they did nothing, though Zoro remained on guard. Then, suddenly, they crouched down and pounced, their claws out and ready to try and shred through Zoro.
Zoro, however, smirked as he quickly flipped his swords into an upside-down grip, then pointed the blades upwards and positioned them to resemble rhino horns. "Nitoryu: Sai Kuru!" he yelled as he quickly spun around, sending out a flurry of slashes in all directions as he rotated. The attack rapidly cleaved through each creature, causing them to instantly burst into black smoke.
Zoro watched as small, glowing, heart-shaped objects flew into the sky from each one as they disappeared. Here, the swordsman raised an eyebrow. Just what were these things?
However, he didn't have time to think about it as an even larger number of creatures quickly appeared all around him, all poised to attack. Zoro smirked again at the sight as he sheathed one of his hand swords, took out Kuina's old white-sheathed katana, placed it in his mouth, then took his third sword back out and got into position. "Heh. Looks like I'll get to have some fun tonight," he muttered softly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Going Merry, Main deck, same time
Robin leaned against the railing of the ship with her head propped on her left hand, watching the moonlight shine across the water. These islands truly were beautiful; she had managed to get a good look around this particular island throughout the day, and quite enjoyed it too. She certainly looked forward to visiting the main island the following day.
Still, she couldn't keep her mind off the conversation she had with Sora earlier that day, regarding the door inside the cave and the man who Sora supposedly saw the previous day. She knew she had seen something written somewhere in regards to the 'darkness' and the 'heart of this world' that the man in Sora's story had mentioned from a Poneglyph she had read a long time ago. What was written, exactly, she couldn't quite remember off the top of her head. However, something told her that she didn't want to know what the man's words truly entailed, and that if they were true, disaster might not be far behind.
She was broken from her thoughts as something on the large wooden platform on the left side of the beach caught her eye. It appeared to be some kind of animal, its black silhouette moving around in the moonlight. However, the curious thing about this animal was that something on it was glowing yellow, almost like a firefly. Growing curious, Robin crossed her arms and used her Hana Hana Fruit ability to sprout an eye from the railing of the platform to get a better look at the creature.
What she saw surprised her slightly. It was quite unlike any animal she had ever seen; in fact, it looked like an all-black, overgrown insect with only four limbs, a pair of rather crooked antennae, and glowing yellow eyes. Robin had certainly never seen or read about any creature like this. At the moment, the creature was currently scouting out its location on the platform, walking in a circle and wiggling its antennae around, as if searching for something.
Her curiosity growing, Robin decided to take a closer look in person. Dispersing the eye she created, she then made her way to the side of the ship and climbed down onto the dock. From there, she made her way over to the wooden walkways that led to the platform, passing by Luffy on the way, who happened to be sitting on the ram's head post at the helm of the ship. He didn't seem to notice her, though, as he seemed to be preoccupied with something in the sky.
Looking up herself, she noticed some black storm clouds rapidly forming over the island, spreading outward over the visible sky. Lightning then began flashing all over the sky, accompanied by the low rumble of thunder, and the wind began to pick up. However, Robin disregarded it in favour of doing what she had set out to do. After all, she and the rest of the crew had been through worse on the sea.
A bit of walking and climbing later, Robin stepped onto the wooden platform where the strange creature was. Upon her arrival, the creature perked its head up and turned to her, staring intently at the archaeologist with its glowing eyes.
Robin then stopped. Something wasn't right; for some reason, she was getting a bad feeling from this creature. The closer she stood, the worse it got, as if it were giving off an aura of evil and darkness. She couldn't quite place what it was, but she knew she had to get away from this creature.
She quickly turned to leave the area, but found her path blocked by a two new creatures exactly like the first one. Suddenly, she felt the dark aura hitting her several times over all at once from behind. Turning back around, she saw a dozen more creatures forming from the platform, surrounding her and staring at her intently.
Robin then noticed something in the sky out of the corner of her eye and quickly turned to look. She gasped slightly at what she saw.
It was a giant… hole in the sky, as if the sky itself had been torn open. Blue-black energy flowed around within it, with small arcs of lightning dancing around the edges, and its center glowed a dull orange colour that periodically dimmed and brightened.
Robin froze, an expression of fear appearing on her face at the sight of the hole in the sky. It… it can't be! she thought fearfully. It's the darkness! The creatures around her then attacked.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Going Merry, Rear deck, same time
Sanji stood at the back of the ship with another cigarette in his mouth, while studying Nami's mikan trees intently as he tried to decide what dish he could serve for Nami and Robin the next day using the orange fruits. "Ah, Nami-san, Robin-chan, what dish could I possibly prepare that would be worthy of your wonderful presence?" wondered Sanji out loud, an amorous expression on his face. His cigarette smoke even seemed to form into heart-shapes. "Perhaps a cheesecake laced with mikan juice? Or perhaps mikan tarts? Oh, I could go on forever!"
As Sanji began fantasizing about Nami and Robin's reactions to his future culinary creations, a yellow-eyed black creature suddenly formed out of the deck behind him. The creature crouched down, bared its claws and pounced, aiming for his head. However, the black-clad chef simply dipped his head to the side, causing the creature to miss its target.
Six more creatures then appeared from the deck around him, crouching down in preparation for attack. One by one, they jumped at him with their claws ready for attack, but like with the first creature, he dodged each one of them. The most amazing thing about it was that Sanji was still in his own fantasy world as it happened. Finally, as if on a single mental cue, all seven creatures leapt at Sanji at once with their claws extended.
"Dammit, you shitty animals! Quit distracting me!" the cook yelled in aggravation as he quickly propped his hands on the ground and spun his legs in a circle above his head, hitting each creature with a powerful kick that sent them flying off the edge of the boat.
Getting back onto his feet, straightening up and dusting himself off, Sanji took a quick look around, only just then noticing the black clouds, lightning, and strong winds all around the Children's Island. "That's strange; when did this start?" wondered the cook out loud, completely ignoring the fact that he had been, for the most part, zoned out of reality as the storm had formed over the island.
Just then, another twelve creatures appeared around Sanji, crouching down and flexing their claws in preparation for attack. Sanji was unfazed, however, as he simply took his now-spent cigarette from his mouth and flicked it over the side of the boat. He then took out a fresh one, lit it, and took a single puff, breathing out the smoke. "Looks like I'll have to beat some manners into you," remarked the cook as the creatures lunged at him.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Going Merry, Helm, same time
Luffy sat in his usual spot on the wooden ram's head at the helm of the ship, looking over the Children's island, just staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular. He began remembering back to all that had transpired that day: The Blitzball game, Riku's swordfight with Zoro, Usopp and Wakka's target contest, the prank on Zoro… Luffy grinned and laughed softly at that last one. Overall, it had been a great day, and they had made some new friends as well. He couldn't wait to see the main island tomorrow.
Just then, though, something up above grabbed his attention. Looking up, he saw black storm clouds rapidly gathering directly above the island, spreading outward across the sky. After a few minutes, strong winds began to pick up as lightning began flashing all around, accompanied by loud thunderclaps.
The Straw Hat captain then noticed something else happening in the sky. It appeared to be slowly tearing open, the tear slowly widening like a giant eyelid opening in the sky. All the while, Luffy stared at the strange occurrence, as if hypnotized by it. Had he looked down at the dock at all during that time, he might have noticed Robin walking to the wooden platform where Usopp and Wakka had their target practice contest. However, he soon grew bored of the hole in the sky, since it was taking too long to fully form for his liking.
Once he finally lowered his gaze, though, something on the beach just below and to the right of the helm of the ship caught his eye. Looking down, he saw a jet black puddle of something forming seemingly directly from the sand on the beach, shaping itself into a small black creature with glowing yellow eyes.
"Cool!" exclaimed Luffy upon seeing it. He then jumped down from the ram's head post onto the sand and squatted down for a closer look. The creature tilted its head in curiosity at the sight of him. Luffy did the same. The creature then tilted its head in the opposite direction. Luffy again mimicked the gesture. "What are you?" he asked out loud. The creature gave no response. Luffy then grinned in comprehension as he pounded a fist into his hand. "I get it! You're a Mystery Creature!" Once again, the creature gave no response.
Luffy then began poking and prodding the creature's head with his index finger, causing it to flinch and attempt to swat his hand away with its forelegs. But that didn't deter the Straw Hat captain in the slightest as he continued to probe the creature. He then looked at the creature's crooked antennae, a curious expression forming on his face.
He grabbed one of its antennae between his thumb and forefinger and pulled on it until it straightened out. He then suddenly let go, letting it to snap back to its original crooked shape and causing the creature to flinch.
Enthralled, Luffy did it a few more times, much to the aggravation of the creature, although it was impossible to tell since the creature lacked any facial expression. Finally, as if losing patience, the creature swiped its claws at the Straw Hat captain's hand.
"Gah!" exclaimed Luffy in surprise as he quickly drew his hand back, just barely avoiding the creature's claws. His face then grew stern. "Bad Mystery Creature!" he scolded, waving his finger at it in the manner of a parent lecturing a misbehaving child.
Just then, however, another eight creatures formed out of the sand around Luffy, identical in appearance to the first creature. "Whoa! Cool!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully as he looked around and saw the new creatures. He then eagerly turned back to the first creature. "Are these guys friends of yours?!"
The only response he got was the creature leaping at his face with its claws poised to attack. "Gah!" exclaimed Luffy again as he quickly twisted his body and fell over onto his side to avoid the attack, the creature just barely sailing past his face.
Luffy quickly got up and stepped out of the circle that the creatures had formed around him. He then turned to face them, only just then noticing the dark, sinister aura they gave off as they crouched and bared their claws, ready to pounce at him. Face growing serious, the Straw Hat Captain began cracking his knuckles. "Looks like you're not friendly after all…" he said in a low voice.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Dock, current time
Sora paddled as hard as he could through the choppy waters towards the Children's Island, trying hard not to get capsized. Part of him knew it was a bad idea to be canoeing through a storm like this, but he had to make sure that the raft was safe. Finally reaching the dock, Sora quickly jumped out and tied his boat to it on the opposite side of the dock from the Going Merry.
He then looked further along the dock and spotted two other canoes like his, immediately recognizing them. "Riku's boat! And Kairi's!"
BOOM!
A loud thunderclap broke Sora's attention away from the boats, causing him to look skyward. "What's that?" he said in surprise, his eyes widening at what he saw.
There was a big circular hole in the sky, as if something had punched a hole in the very fabric of reality itself. Beyond the hole, all Sora could see was blue-black energy flowing around, with a dull orange glow at the center that constantly dimmed and brightened. Needless to say, it made Sora quite uneasy.
As if that wasn't enough, however, three strange puddles of blackness suddenly appeared on the dock a few feet from where Sora stood, quickly forming themselves into jet-black, insect-like creatures with glowing yellow eyes, all of which immediately focused on Sora. The spiky-haired boy could also feel an evil aura coming from these creatures. Forget uneasy; Sora was now scared.
Just then, two people – one large and one small – came falling down onto the dock from the Straw Hats' ship, landing on their feet behind the creatures. Sora immediately recognized them as Usopp and Chopper. "Usopp! Chopper!" called out the spiky-haired boy, hoping they might be able to help him.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S A GHOST!" screamed Usopp and Chopper simultaneously as they ran as fast as they could across the beach to the other side of the island.
Despite the dire situation at hand, Sora couldn't help but sweatdrop at the sight. So much for that, he thought grimly, his fear increasing as the creatures began to advance on him, their claws raised for attack.
He then shook his head. No… he couldn't lose his nerve in a situation like this. This wasn't a regular sparring session with Riku… no… this was a life-or-death situation where he was in very real danger. He was not training with a sparring partner… he was fighting actual opponents, and if he let fear overtake him, he could end up dead. Quickly steeling his resolve, Sora grabbed his wooden sword from his belt, it being the only weapon he had on hand, and got into a defensive stance, watching the creatures closely.
The creatures observed the spiky-haired boy for a moment, then lifted their claws and lunged at him, beginning the fight.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Rear beach
Usopp and Chopper stood next to each other close to the tall wooden tower with the zipline, with their hands – or in Chopper's case, hooves - on their knees and panting slightly from their escape from the 'ghost' on board the ship. They had run all the way from the ship to the rear beach of the island, screaming in terror the entire way. If they had looked to their right as they ran past the area they had used as a Blitzball field, they would have noticed Riku standing there. However, they didn't.
"I think it's gone!" said Usopp as he quickly glanced behind them. He then gained a comically smug expression on his face as he placed his fists on his hips and threw out his chest. "Naturally, though, I could have easily taken it out myself! I have plenty of experience with ghosts! Why, one time, I banished a ghost fifteen times the size of that one from an old mansion!" he bragged, despite the fact that he had been running and screaming in terror right alongside Chopper just a few seconds ago.
Gullible as ever, though, Chopper was enthralled by Usopp's words. "Wow, really?! That's amazing!" gushed the small bipedal reindeer with stars in his eyes.
Before either of them could say anymore, however, twelve more black creatures popped up close to them, surrounding them.
"AAAAAHHHHHH! MORE GHOSTS!"" the two pirates screamed simultaneously as they grabbed and held onto each other for dear life.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Dock
So far, Sora was having very little luck with these creatures. His wooden sword did barely anything to hurt them, and sometimes he couldn't even hit them at all; whenever he swung at them, they would somehow flatten their bodies against the dock floor, barely dodging the strike. They would then pop back up and attempt to attack Sora again with their claws.
He eventually managed to get rid of them all by sidestepping their lunges and in turn causing them to fall into the water, since they didn't seem to be able to swim. Once the small battle was over, Sora put his weapon back onto his belt and began running along the dock, intent on continuing his original mission of saving the raft.
However, before he got very far, he once again felt the dark, evil aura of those creatures, this time from behind. Glancing back, Sora noticed four more black creatures forming out of the dock behind him.
Not taking any chances this time, the spiky-haired boy increased his pace, hoping to outrun these things. He wanted to avoid engaging these creatures in battle whenever possible. He only took on those first three because he had been cornered against the end of the dock and thus had no choice. This time, however, he could escape onto the island.
Looking to his right as he neared the beach, he suddenly spotted Luffy fighting off a large number of those black creatures. There had to be at least three dozen surrounding him. However, despite the huge disadvantage in numbers, Luffy seemed to be doing much better than Sora; a single punch from the Straw Hat captain would either disperse its target or send it flying a good distance away. Sora then watched as Luffy jumped onto the rock ledge nearby.
"Gomu Gomu no…" began Luffy as he cocked both of his fists back. "Gatling Gun!"
He then let loose a HUGE barrage of rapid-fire stretching punches onto the large group of creatures in front of him. Whichever creatures weren't immediately dispersed by the sheer power of Luffy's punches were sent flying twenty feet away into the ocean. Not a single creature was spared as he continued his onslaught. Once he finished the attack, the beach was empty; not a single black creature remained.
"Hee hee!" Luffy chuckled triumphantly with a large grin as he put his hands on his hips, looking over his handiwork.
He then looked to his right to see Sora gawking at him, his jaw having practically dropped to the ground in amazement. "Oh, Sora! Hi! What's up?" Luffy greeted cheerfully with a wave, acting as if he had not just been fighting for his life.
Sora didn't respond; he merely kept gaping in shock at Luffy's strength and fighting ability. "So many creatures… taken out all at once… so strong…" squeaked Sora in amazement. Was THIS the kind of strength Zoro was talking about that they would encounter on the Grand Line?
However, Sora was quickly broken out of his stupor as he noticed Luffy's face go serious. The rubberman then began rearing his fist back again… this time aiming in SORA'S direction! "Luffy, no, wait…!"
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" shouted Luffy as he swung his fist forward, his arm stretching out as his punch rapidly approached Sora. Not having time to think, Sora braced his arms over his head and shut his eyes tight, bracing for impact.
However, the impact never came. Gingerly opening his eyes, Sora noticed Luffy's arm extending past his head, barely an inch away from touching it. Following it with his eyes, he then noticed the four black creatures he had been running from… squashed up on top of each other against the hull of the Going Merry under Luffy's fist and rapidly dissolving.
Sora breathed out a huge sigh of relief as Luffy retracted his arm. "Thanks, Luffy. You saved my butt there," said the spiky-haired boy with a grateful smile.
"Shishishi! Don't mention it!" replied Luffy, grinning proudly.
"So, what's up? Why are you here?" he asked once Sora had walked over to stand across from him.
"I came over when I saw the storm," answered Sora. "I didn't want our raft to get swept away or broken up by it. I didn't expect Riku and Kairi to be here too, though."
"Eh? Riku and Kairi are here too?"
"Yeah, I saw their boats at the dock when I arrived. Are you saying you didn't see them?" asked Sora with a questioning look on his face. Luffy simply shook his head no.
"Huh, weird…" mused Sora as he began looking over the island for any sign of his two best friends. He looked to the secret cave entrance, then the waterfall, the shack, the island platform… he stopped and did a double-take at the island platform. Riku was there!
"There he is! There's Riku!" exclaimed Sora, bolting off towards the island platform. But then… where's Kairi?
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Island Platform
Riku stood on the island platform, facing the ocean. Tonight was the night. The door to this world had finally opened! And with the door open, he, Sora, and Kairi could finally go visit other worlds!
Since he had lost to Zoro earlier that day, he wouldn't be able to travel the Grand Line with the Straw Hat Pirates on their ship, and he had accepted the fact that their raft, as it currently was, wouldn't last long on the ocean. But that was only within this world. With the door to this world having opened, they could go to countless other worlds. He didn't know what kind of strength he would face should the need to fight ever arise, but that was the risk that came with adventure. And after all, the only way he could become stronger was to be forced to fight beyond his limits, something he knew couldn't happen if he remained on the islands. He couldn't let fear stop him!
With that thought in mind, Riku continued to watch the ocean as he awaited Sora's arrival.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Going Merry, Main deck
Nami had so far managed to keep from being overwhelmed by the creatures by striking or flinging the majority of them off the side of the ship as she fought. She had even managed to make a small number of them disperse with a number of hard hits (why they dispersed into the air instead of dropping dead or unconscious, Nami had no idea), causing small, glowing, heart-shaped objects to fly into the sky for some reason as they disappeared. However, it did little to halt the continuing onslaught of black creatures attacking her from every direction. She had even gotten a few more scratches on her from the claws of the odd creatures she hadn't hit or dodged quickly enough.
Earlier on, she had seen Usopp and Chopper running up onto the main deck looking scared out of their minds. She wanted to ask for their help, but by the time she had raised her hand to get their attention, they had already jumped off the side of the boat and began running for their lives, much to her annoyance and frustration.
Seeing no way of defeating such a large number of opponents by herself, Nami quickly moved to clear a path through the creatures to the side of the ship in order to jump off and flee. However, before she could attack any of them… they stopped. None of them approached her anymore; they just stood there, staring at her.
"Huh? What's going on?" wondered the navigator out loud.
Then, suddenly, the creatures disappeared as black holes opened up directly underneath them and swallowed them up. The holes themselves then closed up and disappeared instantly.
Nami looked around confusedly, wondering what had just happened. Why did the creatures just stop and disappear all of a sudden? However, she decided not to question her good fortune. She then moved to tell the others about what had just happened.
She nearly fell forward, however, as she tried to take a step forward, bur found that she couldn't get her feet off the ground. It felt like they were stuck to something. She then looked down… and gasped fearfully at what she saw.
A vortex of some sort that swirled with black and dark purple energy was forming directly beneath her feet. Pure black tendrils latched onto her feet and ankles from out of it, preventing her from fleeing. Panicking, she thrashed her feet and legs around as much as she could to try and get loose, but the tendrils did not budge. Trails of black vapour began to rise from the vortex as the tendrils continued to wrap around Nami, snaking up her legs to her torso and eventually over her shoulders.
At that point, Nami felt herself being pulled down into the dark vortex underneath her feet. " HELP! SOMEBODY!" she screamed, hoping one of the rest of the crew would hear. She reached out an arm, as if hoping to grab and hold onto something that could keep her from being sucked under, but grasped only thin air. "LUFFY! ZORO! SANJI-KUN! ROBIN! ANYBODY! HEL…!"
Her cries for help were cut off as she was fully engulfed by the vortex, her outstretched hand disappearing beneath the surface of the darkness.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Rear beach
Zoro slashed through a black creature that came leaping at his head with his right hand sword, dispersing it instantly. He then swept his blade out to the right, taking out four more creatures that came jumping in from the right. He then turned to his left, sweeping his left hand sword downward and wiping out two more creatures. Seeing a group of twelve creatures coming at him from the front, Zoro crouched down and crossed his arms in front of him, pointing his katana blades upward. "Oni Giri!" he shouted as he swiftly dashed through the oncoming swarm, sending out three simultaneous slashes with his swords and cutting through each creature, dispersing them.
Zoro frowned as he turned around to face the rest of the creatures behind him. These creatures weren't offering any kind of challenge at all! He could easily bring them down with a single strike, they weren't coordinated at all, and their aura of darkness was a big giveaway to their locations, making it impossible for them to sneak up on him. The only advantage they had was numbers, given that they kept spawning out of the sand like there was no tomorrow, but even that didn't help them much. Needless to say, Zoro was growing somewhat annoyed.
Just then, though, a huge swarm of creatures, numbering at least 40, instantly spawned all around the swordsman, leaping up all at once to dogpile him. Unfazed, Zoro simply smirked as he spread his arms out and pointed his arm swords up, tilting his right hand sword slightly outward to create some semblance of a dragon's body with his arms. The creatures then dogpiled the swordsman, not a single part of him visible beneath the pile of black bodies.
"Santoryu…" boomed Zoro's voice from beneath the pile. "Tatsu Maki!"
A whirlwind suddenly burst forth from beneath the pile of black creatures, sending them flying in all directions as Zoro broke free from the dogpile with a powerful spinning attack from all three of his swords. The creatures that weren't instantly destroyed by the attack went flying through the air and landed hard on the ground below them, dispersing from the impact. Seeing a few left around him, Zoro got into position to engage them.
However, at that moment, whatever creatures hadn't been caught in the whirlwind attack suddenly halted, stopping where they were. Not a single one attacked any further; they simply stood in place, staring at the swordsman. Here, Zoro raised an eyebrow. What were they doing now?
His question was answered when the creatures were suddenly sucked into black portals that opened up beneath them, the portals themselves disappearing once the creatures were gone.
Now Zoro was truly confused as he looked around scratching his head. Just what the hell was going on around here? "Ah well, doesn't matter," said the swordsman. "I'll just get back to the…"
He was suddenly cut short as he noticed that he could no longer move his feet, as if they had been belted to the ground. Looking down, he saw a vortex of some sort beneath his feet that swirled with black and dark purple energy. Black tendrils from within the said vortex latched onto his feet and were quickly slithering up his legs. Zoro tried to move them, but they were too heavily restrained at that point. He tried slashing at them with his swords, but only succeeded in keeping other tendrils from latching onto him; if he tried to get the ones that already restrained him, he would end up injuring himself. And he sure as hell wasn't going to try and chop his own legs off again! Besides, even if he did, he likely wouldn't be able to escape long enough to avoid these things entirely, which would make losing his legs entirely pointless.
Realizing there was no way out, Zoro calmly closed his eyes and sheathed his three swords, the said swords being quickly overtaken by the tendrils of darkness. He then crossed his arms over his chest as he felt himself being pulled down into the vortex.
Soon, Zoro was gone.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Rear Beach, Zipline tower area
Usopp and Chopper stood back-to-back as they watched the black creatures surrounding them. After their little 'episode' upon seeing these things for the first time, they had eventually settled back down after discovering that these creatures were not ghosts after all. They had realized this after one of the creatures had managed to jump onto Usopp's back while they were going through their second terrified frenzy, and seeing that, Chopper quickly snapped out of it and shifted into Heavy Point, grabbing the creature with his then-massive hand and flinging it a good distance away. The two of them now faced the large and still-growing group of black creatures, trying to figure out how to deal with these things. Chopper had even consumed a Rumble Ball to even out the odds a little more.
"Usopp Noise!" shouted Usopp as he whipped out a chalkboard and scratched his fingernails across it, creating a loud, horrible noise.
"AAAHHH!" screamed Chopper as he quickly clapped his hands over his ears. However, the creatures didn't react at all. They merely continued advancing toward the two pirates.
"AAH! It's not working!" cried Usopp with a comically terrified expression. He then put the chalkboard away and took out a rotten egg, placing it in his slingshot and stretching it back. "Hissatsu: Tamago Boshi!" shouted the sniper as he fired, hitting a random creature in the face. The creature flinched at the impact, but continued its approach, unaffected by the stench of the egg. Chopper, however, having the most sensitive nose of the entire crew, immediately clamped his hands over said nose to block out the smell.
"Id's dot workig, Usobb! Try subthig else!" said Chopper in a thick voice as he held his nose.
"Alright then, I'll have to take this up a notch!" said Usopp with a determined expression as he reached into his bag again. "Hissatsu: Kemuri Boshi!" he shouted as he fired the projectile onto the ground, releasing a cloud of smoke that covered the entire area.
"Now, Chopper! Run!" called out the sniper as he grabbed Chopper's arm and ran through a gap in the ranks of the creatures. A few of them leapt towards them to attack, but Chopper quickly dispatched them by shifting into Horn Point and bucking them away with his now-large and very sharp antlers.
After a bit of running, the two of them stood with their backs facing the rock face of the island. They watched in slight horror as the smokescreen was quickly dispersed by the strong winds of the storm, revealing the group of creatures advancing on them again, their creepy glowing eyes fixated on them as they raised their claws to attack. They were trapped.
"I-I d-d-don't kn-know about y-you, Ch-Chopper," Usopp stuttered as he swallowed hard. "B-b-but I-I'm n-n-not j-just gonna l-let th-these things j-just b-b-beat m-me. I-I'm f-f-fighting!" He swallowed again. "Are you with me?"
"I'm with you, Usopp!" cried Chopper as tears flowed down from his eyes.
Usopp nodded, then raised his slingshot into the air in a declaratory pose as he took on a determined expression.
"ATTENTION UNIDENTIFIABLE CREATURES!" he shouted with bravado. "WE ARE THE GREAT CAPTAIN USOPP AND PIRATE DOCTOR CHOPPER OF THE STRAW HAT PIRATE CREW, AND WE WON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT! SO WHOEVER WISHES NOT TO RECEIVE A BEATING, LEAVE NOW AND SAVE YOURSELVES!"
"YEAH!" shouted Chopper in agreement.
However impressive that declaration was, though, it was thoroughly diminished by the fact that Usopp's knees continued to shake as he shouted.
At that moment, however, the creatures stopped their advance, much to the surprise of Chopper and Usopp (although Usopp was also relieved). Nothing happened; the creatures just stood there. Then, suddenly, portals of blackness opened up directly beneath the creatures, swallowing them and closing again. The area was now completely empty of black creatures.
"What do you know, they actually listened…" said Chopper in shock, having switched back into Brain Point.
"Yeah…" agreed Usopp, a slight bit of shock on his own face. He then smirked as he threw out his chest. "Haha! Of course it worked! I am a conqueror of the seas! My name strikes fear into the hearts of even the bravest and mightiest of pirates! Crying children are silenced when they hear it! Not a soul upon this ocean doesn't know the name of the Great Captain Usopp!"
"WHOOAAAA! You're so cool! Sugei! Sugei!" cheered Chopper with starry eyes upon hearing Usopp's speech, even lightly dancing on the spot as he gushed over the liar.
"Thank you, thank you!" said Usopp with a proud expression, waving his hand towards the bipedal reindeer as if brushing off his cheers. "Now then, let's get back to the…"
Just then, he found that he couldn't walk. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his feet off the ground. "Uh, Chopper? This might sound crazy, but… am I stuck to the ground?"
"AAAAAAHHH!" screamed the reindeer as he pointed a shaking hoof at Usopp's feet.
"What?" Usopp looked down and saw… "AAAAAHHHHH!"
A vortex made of what looked like black and dark purple energy swirled directly beneath Usopp's feet, with tendrils of pure blackness reaching up from it and latching onto his legs and feet, quickly moving to his torso as well. "GET 'EM OFF! GET 'EM OFF!" Usopp screamed frantically as he clawed at the tentacles, although it did little to deter them.
"OH NO! I'M STUCK TOO!" screamed Chopper as black tentacles ensnared him from another vortex that had formed beneath his own feet. He thrashed around, desperately trying to escape the black tendrils, but yielded little success. He even tried morphing into his other Rumble Ball forms, but still couldn't escape.
"YAAAAAAAHHH! SOMEONE HELP US!" screamed Usopp as he too made a desperate attempt to escape the vortex, although he had no more success in doing so than Chopper. He tried reaching into his bag for something, ANYTHING, that could help them, but found the bag to be completely enveloped by the black tentacles.
Just then, the two pirates felt themselves being pulled downward into their respective vortexes.
"AAAAHHH! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" screamed Chopper as he continued thrashing around, now down to his waist in the vortex.
"HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY! HAAAAALLLLLLP!" screamed Usopp as he too thrashed about, himself up to his stomach.
Soon, however, their screams for help abruptly stopped, and Usopp and Chopper were gone.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Wooden platform
A group of four creatures stood in front of Robin, baring their claws as they readied themselves to attack. Robin simply stood calmly in front of them, crossing her arms and closing her eyes as she said "Cuatro Fleurs!" Just then, four arms instantly blossomed into existence from the platform, one behind each creature. The arms then grabbed the creatures by the necks and flung them off the edge of the platform.
This was the same routine Robin used on each creature of darkness that sprouted into existence and attacked her: Creature appeared, Robin tossed said creature off the side of the platform with her Devil Fruit ability. These creatures didn't seem to have any strategy to their attacks; they just appeared and attacked, and thus Robin required no strategy herself to dispatch them. They seemed to operate solely on instinct, though why their instinct was to attack her, Robin didn't know. She didn't have time to ponder it, though, since the creatures kept coming faster and faster, making it more and more difficult to dispatch them.
Then suddenly, they stopped. No more creatures popped into existence, and the ones already there halted their approach. They didn't do anything else; they just remained stationary, all the while staring at Robin with their glowing yellow stares.
The archaeologist looked around at the creatures with a questioning gaze. What were they doing? Just a moment ago, they had been attacking her from all directions from the moment they came into existence, and now they had halted their attack as one. What happened or was happening to make them stop? Not taking any chances, Robin crossed her arms again and sprouted arms behind each creature on the platform, ready to grab them at a moment's notice.
This proved to be unnecessary, however, since at that moment, a number of black portals opened up directly beneath each creature, quickly swallowing them up and disappearing.
Seeing this, Robin dispelled the extra arms, but remained on guard. If what the hooded man Sora told her about had said about the world being "tied to the darkness" was true, then the danger hadn't passed yet. If anything, it had only just begun.
It was at that moment that she felt something slithering up her legs. She then looked down… and her eyes widened with slight fear at what she saw.
A vortex of some kind, made up of black and dark purple energy, had formed directly beneath her feet, though for reasons unknown, she still felt as if she were standing on solid ground. As if that were not enough reason for concern, however, black tendrils of darkness had begun slithering out of the vortex and grabbing Robin's feet and legs, quickly moving to ensnare her waist, torso, and shoulders as well.
At that moment, Robin felt herself being pulled downward into the vortex. Not taking any chances, she quickly crossed her thankfully unrestrained arms and said "Cinco Fleur!" Five arms quickly sprouted out of the rock wall closest to her to form a vine, which she quickly took hold of with both of her regular hands to prevent herself from being dragged any further into the vortex.
It quickly proved to be futile, however, as the tendrils began pulling harder and harder, forcing Robin to strain even more to prevent herself from being pulled down. Eventually, the strain became too much, causing the arm vine to disperse. Now nothing prevented Robin from being pulled in.
"Oh dear…" was all she said before disappearing beneath the surface of the vortex.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Going Merry, Rear deck
A trio of black creatures leapt at Sanji's head with their claws poised, ready to shred through the cook, but were hit with a powerful sweeping kick from said cook that sent them flying into a group of five other black creatures, dispersing them instantly. Sanji then planted one hand on the ground and continued moving his leg in the direction of the previous kick, completing a full 360-degree rotation that sent a large number of creatures off the side of the ship. He then stood up straight and dusted himself off, seemingly oblivious to the creature leaping at his head from behind. However, before it could make contact, Sanji quickly bent over backwards, placed his hands on the deck, swept his right leg up in an arc and slammed the creature square in the face with his foot, dispersing it instantly.
Sanji then got back onto his feet and took a puff of his cigarette, watching the remaining creatures carefully. The creatures now stood stock still, with no others popping into existence. This caused Sanji to raise an eyebrow in confusion and suspicion; why did they stop all of a sudden? Just a second ago, they had all been attacking and leaping at him as if he were some kind of tasty prey, and now they had halted their approach all as one. Just what the hell was going on?
For that matter, just what the hell were these things? They were completely unlike any animals he had ever encountered; he had yet to see another pitch-black animal with crooked antennae that had perpetually glowing eyes. Not to mention whenever he dealt them a hard enough blow, they burst into black smoke and a glowing, heart-shaped object would fly straight up into the sky as they did so, rather than simply dropping dead or unconscious. Whatever they were, they certainly weren't natural.
Suddenly, black portals opened up beneath the creatures, swallowing them and closing again, which confused Sanji even further. What the hell was happening now?
"HELP! SOMEBODY!"
Sanji was jarred from his thoughts by the sound of Nami crying out for help. From the sound of it, she was currently on the main deck. "Nami-san!" he shouted, concern appearing on his face as he moved to bolt out to where the navigator was. However, he quickly found that he couldn't get his feet off the ground. He looked down to see a vortex of some kind forming beneath his feet, with black tentacles sprouting up from it and trapping his legs.
"Dammit!" cursed the chef as he attempted to escape by thrashing his legs around. He almost managed to get one leg free, but a large number of tentacles quickly overtook it before he could. "Dammit, you shitty tentacles! Nami-san is in trouble! You dare keep a man from helping a beautiful lady in need?!" Even the strong legs of the second master of the Red Leg Style couldn't break free. Nevertheless, Sanji continued to try and wrench his way out their grip, even as the tendrils made their way over his shoulders.
At that moment, Sanji felt himself being pulled down into the vortex. "Shit!" he cursed. He then sighed in defeat and stopped trying to break free, realizing it was futile. Whatever this vortex with tentacles was, it clearly wasn't trying to kill him; otherwise, the tentacles would have crushed him by now. Rather, it appeared to have been trying to transport him somewhere else. Where 'somewhere else' was, Sanji had no idea, but he wouldn't let any degree of distance separate him from Nami-san and Robin-chan!
He then cupped his hands around his mouth, an expression of lament appearing on his face. "Nami-swan!" he called out, hoping she might hear. "Worry not! I shall come for you! Just wait for me!"
With that, Sanji disappeared beneath the surface of the vortex.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Children's Island, Island platform
Sora dashed across the wooden bridge towards Riku's current location. He was standing still, facing the water with his back to the two of them. "Riku!" called out Sora as he ran. However, Riku didn't respond.
"Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!" said Sora as he made it onto the island.
"The door has opened…" said Riku softly, his back still turned.
"What?" asked Sora in confusion.
"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku repeated, turning around. However, his voice didn't sound fearful, but rather… excited. "Now we can go to the outside world!"
"What are you talking about?! We've gotta find Kairi!" Sora responded frantically.
"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku shot back immediately, the forceful tone startling Sora.
Riku then looked up to face the giant hole in the sky. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back," the silver-haired boy continued. "We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back." He paused, as if contemplating something, but then began speaking again.
"But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us!" continued Riku, determination rising in his voice as he spoke. "I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
He then reached out a hand to Sora, beckoning him.
"Riku…" began Sora in a worried tone, not liking what seemed to have come over his best friend. He wasn't sure why, but Riku's demeanor made him uneasy.
Just then, however, a vortex of darkness opened directly beneath Riku's feet, black tendrils quickly snaking out to engulf him. The silver-haired boy appeared to pay it no mind, though, as he continued to reach out to Sora.
Sora quickly ran forward to try and help him, but just before he could reach his friend, he felt himself getting snared by the ankles, causing him to stumble. However, he managed to keep his balance. Looking down, he saw another vortex just below his own feet, with tendrils of darkness slithering out to engulf him as well.
Sora quickly reached out to grab Riku's hand, but found that he was just barely out of reach. Sora strained as hard as he could against the tentacles to try and reach his best friend, whose hand was barely an inch away, but he was unable to cross the distance between them, no matter how hard he tried.
Black vapour began pouring out of the vortexes, and Sora suddenly felt the sensation of being pulled down into the vortex. Looking over, he saw the same thing happening to Riku. He then made one last valiant effort to grab his hand, but once again, he came up short.
"Sora! Riku!" came Luffy's voice from behind. The spiky-haired boy quickly turned his head to see the Straw Hat captain running toward him. "Luffy!" he exclaimed.
Two minutes earlier…
Luffy watched Sora bolt off towards the island platform, where Riku was standing. "Huh? What's Riku doing there?" wondered the Straw Hat captain aloud with a confused frown. "Ah well, might as well check it out!" he continued with a grin as he began running to follow Sora.
He was halfway across the wooden bridge when he suddenly slowed down. He thought he'd heard a scream from the Going Merry. Was that Nami? wondered Luffy. Nah, must have been the wind. It was blowing quite hard, after all. Still, a small part of him wondered if it was, in fact, his navigator he heard, not the wind, and if she was in trouble. Maybe he should head back and help…
That thought was quickly shoved to the side as he saw Sora and Riku being entangled by some weird black tentacles that came up from some weird vortexes beneath their feet. "Sora! Riku!" shouted Luffy as he dashed forward to help.
Unknown to the Straw Hat captain, at that moment, a vortex had just opened beneath his feet as well, but when he ran to help Sora and Riku, he had inadvertently escaped the black tendrils that came out to grab him. Finding nothing to grab, the tendrils retracted back into the vortex, and the vortex itself disappeared.
Present time
"Luffy! No! Stay back!" Sora yelled as the black vapour from the vortexes began rushing out faster and faster and the tentacles almost fully engulfed him. He didn't want Luffy to get trapped as well. However, he was too late as Luffy quickly ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling hard to get him free of the tentacles. However, even Luffy's great strength wasn't enough against them.
Sora then felt himself getting pulled down into the vortex. "Luffy! Run!" Sora cried. "Get out of here before you get sucked in too!"
"No way!" Luffy yelled, still trying to free Sora. "I'm not just gonna abandon a friend!"
Sora was slightly surprised that Luffy already considered him a friend worth saving, considering they had only known each other for a day. He didn't have time to think about it, though, as he looked back over to Riku. He was also being pulled down into the vortex beneath his feet, but he put up no resistance as he continued to reach his hand out to Sora, although he seemed slightly surprised at Luffy's presence.
Luffy then stretched his arm over to Riku in an attempt to grab him and pull him loose, but as it approached, Riku knocked it away with his other hand. Luffy wore a look of surprise as his arm retracted.
"Don't try to stop us, Luffy!" said Riku. "This is our chance to travel to other worlds! With this, we aren't just limited to the Grand Line! Anything is possible if we go now!" With that, he held out his right hand to Sora once more. "The darkness is nothing to be feared, Sora…" he said softly.
Sora made one last valiant effort to reach his hand out to Riku's… but once again came up short, and the three of them were dragged down into the darkness.
Sora and Luffy fell… and fell… down, down, down into infinite blackness. The two of them could not see, hear, or feel a thing; it was as if they were trapped underwater in complete darkness. There was no sensation of rushing air, or even of falling. There was nothing. Only infinite nothingness. An infinite abyss of darkness.
FLASH!
Sora and Luffy's eyes were hit with a sudden burst of bright light, which for some reason had centered around Sora's right hand. Sora suddenly felt his fingers grasp something solid in the middle of the light, which continued to shine. The light then began shining brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding, forcing Sora and Luffy to shield their eyes.
A moment later, the two companions once again felt solid ground under their feet. The suddenness of it caused them both to stumble, but they managed to keep their balance. Opening their eyes, they found themselves standing in the exact same spot on the island they had been earlier when they had been dragged into the vortex, with the storm still going strong all around them. Riku, however, was gone.
"Huh? What just happened?" asked Luffy, holding his hat on his head with one hand while looking around confusedly.
"I dunno…" replied Sora softly, also looking around in confusion. At that moment, he realized he was still gripping that object that had appeared in his hand in the blackness. He then quickly looked down, and his eyes widened in surprise.
It was… a giant key. It had a cylindrical silver shaft that ran almost twice as long as his arm, with teeth at the end that appeared to be the outline of a crown, and a square yellow guard that looped around the leather-gripped handle his hand currently grasped. Sora also noticed a keychain hanging from the base of the hilt with a small metal charm that consisted of three concentric circles, one bigger than the other two, almost resembling a mouse's head. Sora could only stare in wonder at the strange, yet beautiful, object in his hand as he lifted it up to his eye level. With the way it was designed, he couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a key or a sword.
"WHOOAAA!" Sora heard Luffy exclaim. "That's so COOL! What is it?! What is it?!" Luffy ranted with stars in his eyes as he ran over to get a closer look.
"I'm not sure…" replied Sora distantly, still entranced by the object in his hand. Suddenly, a strange voice began speaking inside Sora's head, seemingly coming from all directions.
Keyblade…
Keyblade…
The word repeated itself over and over inside his head. "A… Keyblade?" he asked out loud.
"Oh? That's what it's called? Cool!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully. "Lemme see! Lemme see!" With that, he snatched the so-called Keyblade out of Sora's hand and looked at it closely with starry eyes.
"Hey, come on, Luffy! I had it first!" Sora protested, trying to reach over and claim it back. He didn't know why, but he felt like he needed this strange weapon. He felt as if he were connected to it somehow, and having it out of his hands just didn't feel right.
However, the spiky-haired boy's protests proved to be unnecessary as the Keyblade flashed brightly out of existence from Luffy's hands, reappearing with another bright flash of light in Sora's right hand the next instant, startling him slightly. Just what the heck was this thing?!
"Aw! No fair!" complained Luffy as he pouted slightly, causing Sora to sweatdrop.
Sora suddenly stiffened as he realized something. "Kairi!" he cried, remembering that his other best friend had also come to the island. Sora turned back to the main area of the Children's Island and frantically moved his eyes all over it, looking for some sign of her. His eyes stopped where the entrance to the secret cave was supposed to be. There was a strange, large, arching grey object standing in front of it for some reason. When did that get there?
Not seeing any sign of Kairi at any other spot on the island, Sora quickly bolted off towards the cave entrance, moving straight past Luffy.
"Whoa, whoa! Sora!" exclaimed the Straw Hat captain as he just barely sidestepped the spiky-haired boy's approach, almost losing his balance in the process. "Where are you going? Hey, wait for me!" he called out as he began running to follow Sora once again.
As Sora ran across the wooden bridge, five black creatures popped up directly in his path. "Get out of my way!" he yelled. As if on instinct, he gripped the Keyblade tighter, wound up and swung it at the creatures in a horizontal arc. To Sora's surprise, as soon as the mysterious weapon struck one of the creatures, the creature instantly dispersed, soon followed by the four others as Sora completed his swing.
Sora stared in wonder at the Keyblade once again. Earlier, when he had been fighting these creatures with his wooden sword, he could barely even faze them, no matter how many times or how hard he hit them. And yet now, with a single strike from this strange new weapon, he had taken out five at once! How did that happen? Was there some kind of connection between these creatures and this weapon?
He quickly shook his head to clear those thoughts away. He'd have to think about it later; Kairi came first!
With that, he took off running towards the secret cave entrance once again. Creatures would often pop up in his path at random intervals like the previous five, but Sora simply mowed through them with his new weapon. Whichever creatures managed to dodge his strikes by flattening against the ground, Sora ignored as he continued running towards his destination, and Luffy dispatched them with his fists as he brought up the rear.
Finally, Sora reached the cave entrance. In front of it stood a set of strange, purple-grey, stone double-doors with strange, ornate, interweaving designs all over them. The spiky-haired boy recognized it as one of the doorways he had seen in that strange dream he'd had the day before. He was about to reach out to grab one of the handles, but suddenly, the Keyblade flashed brightly, and the doors swung open by themselves. Sora blinked at this strange occurrence, but quickly shook his head and bolted inside to where the cave was, the doors swinging shut behind him.
"Sora!" called Luffy, running towards the doors as they closed. The Straw Hat captain ran as fast as he could in the hopes of sliding inside before they closed completely, but just before he got there, they shut with a deep thud. "Oi! Open up!" he commanded indignantly, but nothing happened.
Growing impatient, Luffy grabbed one of the handles and pulled. The door didn't budge. He pulled harder. It still didn't budge. Growing slightly frustrated, he grabbed the second handle. Propping his right foot on the doorframe, he pulled as hard as he could, pushing off the doorframe with his foot for more leverage, but the doors still refused to budge.
"Oi! Let me in! My friend is in there! Oi!" ranted the Straw Hat captain with a comically angry expression as he quickly propped his other foot on the other side of the doorframe and continued to yank as hard as he could. Despite his best efforts, however, the doors still did not yield, frustrating Luffy more and more.
At one point, after a particularly powerful yank, one of his hands slipped, quickly followed by the other one due to the force of his legs. "Wah!" cried Luffy in surprise as he went flying a short distance away, landing hard on his back.
The Straw Hat captain gritted his teeth in frustration. Why wouldn't these doors open?! Sora was inside! He needed to get in there!
At that moment, as he lay on his back, a black creature poked its head into his field of vision, watching him carefully with its glowing stare. Soon, more creatures followed suit, their heads all in a circle from Luffy's point of view. "Huh?" was his response as he turned his head to the side… only to see over a hundred black creatures surrounding him, all baring their claws in preparation for attack. As one, the creatures crouched, then lunged at him.
"WAAAHHH!" screamed the Straw Hat captain with a comically terrified expression as they proceeded to dogpile him. "GET THEM OFF MEEEE!" he screamed as he rolled around on the ground, desperately trying to claw the creatures off of him. More and more creatures continued to leap onto him, creating a pile and pinning Luffy down even further until he was completely covered.
"GOMU GOMU NO GATLING GUN!" came the shout of the Straw Hat captain from beneath the pile as it suddenly exploded outward under a huge barrage of rapid-fire punches. Dozens of creatures went flying in all directions, bursting into black smoke as Luffy continued punching them.
A few seconds later, out of the hundred creatures that had initially surrounded him, only about a dozen remained, but many more began spawning all around him. Seeing this, Luffy got to his feet and began cracking his knuckles in preparation. The creatures attacked, and the battle was on once again.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Inside the secret cave
Sora ran through the tunnel, coming out into the cave itself. He then stopped; standing directly ahead of him, facing away from him toward the wooden door, was Kairi.
"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed, worry lacing his voice.
Kairi slowly turned around to face Sora. However, she didn't look at all like her usual cheerful self; rather, she looked ill. "Sora…" she said slowly, as if she were struggling to speak.
She then took a slow step towards Sora, slowly and pleadingly reaching out her hand to him, looking as if she were in need of his help.
Before Sora could move to help, though, a glowing outline of what looked like a keyhole suddenly appeared in the center of the wooden door behind Kairi. The next moment, the door violently blew open and dark winds began rushing into the cave, sending Kairi flying straight towards Sora.
"Kairi!" cried Sora as he braced his feet and spread his arms out to catch her. However, before she made contact with him, she instantly faded and disappeared, almost causing him to lose his balance. The winds from the doorway rapidly grew in strength until Sora's feet slipped out from under him, causing him to go flying through the tunnel leading out of the cave.
When Sora regained his bearings, he found himself and Luffy standing on a large platform of land that looked like a piece of the Children's Island, surrounded by a dark vortex swirling around it. They even saw the giant darkness portal from in the sky before directly above their heads, now much closer than before. The wind whipped their hair around as they regarded their current location. It was almost as if they were in the eye of a violent storm of darkness going on all around them.
Getting curious, Sora inched over to the edge of the piece of land and looked over… and jumped back in surprise almost immediately. There was nothing below them. Only a deep, dark void. What was going on?! What happened to the islands?!
Luffy's thoughts were along the same lines. What happened to the islands? Where was the Merry? Where was the rest of his crew, for that matter?
Suddenly, the two of them felt a huge sinister aura washing over them from behind. Sora and Luffy quickly whipped around… and felt their jaws hit the ground.
There, right in front of them, stood a behemoth of darkness. It stood over thirty feet tall and had the same glowing yellow eyes as the creatures they had fought just seconds earlier. Its face and head were obscured by a mess of tentacles of darkness, which looked like it could pass as its hair. There was even a crude pair of small wings protruding from behind its shoulders. To top it off, it had a large hole in its torso shaped like a heart.
Uh oh, thought Sora as he stared at the beast, recognizing it as the same creature he had fought in that strange dream he had the other day.
Before Luffy and Sora could react, the giant dropped to its knees, leaning back and spreading its arms out. Dark energy began swirling within the heart-shaped cavity in its torso, quickly converging into a large sphere. The next moment, three large, light purple energy projectiles fired out of the sphere, homing in on Sora and Luffy.
"Gah!" cried the two of them as the projectiles rapidly approached. Not having time to think, the two of them jumped away from each other, barely avoiding the attack as it exploded the sand they stood on.
After getting to his feet, Sora instinctively summoned the Keyblade into his hands and slid into his usual sword battle stance, ready to battle this enemy once again.
"All right!" said Luffy with a confident grin as he began cracking his knuckles. "So we just have to kick this thing's ass, right?"
"Right!" replied Sora, bracing himself as the dark giant began firing out more and more energy bullets in rapid succession at the two combatants.
Luffy managed to dodge the few that came his way easily enough. He even tried punching one, but ended up burning his hand (thought not too seriously), causing him to comically yelp and start blowing on his hand to ease the pain.
Sora, however, had a much harder time. For some reason, most of the bullets homed in on him rather than Luffy. With so many deadly projectiles flying at him from all directions, he barely had any time to dodge accordingly. He ran, ducked, jumped, and rolled out of the way of the balls of burning energy, just barely making it out each time. A few of them even grazed him, leaving some mild burns, but Sora bore the pain; he'd had worse. At some points, the offending energy spheres even chased him across the sand in a straight line, though they fizzled out after a while.
At one point, however, while Sora was running from a lone energy ball, he tripped over a random piece of debris, causing him to fall forward and land on all fours. Quickly whipping around into a sitting position, Sora's eyes widened in fear as he saw the projectile heading straight towards his face. Without any time to think, Sora quickly crossed his Keyblade in front of his face to try and block it. He didn't know if it would work, but he had to try.
To his surprise and relief, the energy ball deflected away, apparently due to some kind of force field around the Keyblade, and hit the ground, fizzling out. Seeing this, Sora got an idea.
He quickly got up and watched the black monster carefully, as it seemed to be charging up more energy within its chest for one more gigantic attack. After a second, the monster bent over forward, then threw back its head and arms and thrust its chest out, launching a huge barrage of what looked like twenty energy balls, many of which once again flew towards Sora while the remainders went after Luffy.
However, that was exactly what Sora wanted. He quickly began running the other way, causing the energy balls to change direction and pursue him. He ran in as big a curve as possible on the small chunk of land, eventually causing the projectiles to seemingly converge into one as they continued to give chase. Seeing this, the Keyblade wielder quickly changed direction so that his back was directly to the giant monster.
Sora then quickly stopped and spun around, swinging the Keyblade as he did so. The mysterious weapon struck the giant mass of dark energy hard, causing it to split back into separate energy spheres and go flying back in the opposite direction… straight towards the dark behemoth.
The burning energy projectiles struck the monster all over its body: arms, legs, and torso. However, they did little more than cause it to flinch slightly each time they struck. Whatever damage they did healed over instantly. However, when two of them struck its face, it let out a loud hiss and raised a hand to where they made contact, as if trying to ease its pain.
"So that's it… I remember now…" said Sora softly. Because of the amount of time that had passed since he had that strange dream, he had forgotten much of how he had fought and defeated the giant monster of darkness that now stood before him and Luffy. However, that last move of his jarred his memory, and memories of his previous fight came flooding back to him.
He then looked over to Luffy, who had been watching the entire thing with his eyes wide and his jaw practically dropping to the ground. "WHOOOAAH! That was awesome! How'd you do that ?!" cheered the Straw Hat captain.
"Luffy! The head is this thing's weak point! We have to go after its head!" Sora called out. Luffy momentarily stared at Sora, as if processing what he had just said, then smirked confidently.
"All right! So I just have to hit the head, right?" replied the Straw Hat captain as he reared his fist back. "Then let's go! Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" He fired a powerful stretching punch at the creature's face, hitting it just below the eyes. The creature let out another loud hiss in pain as Luffy's fist came barreling into its face.
"Awesome!" said the Straw Hat captain with a grin. "Now let's…" He stopped in mid-sentence, which drew Sora's attention. He started tugging on his punching arm, which for some reason hadn't retracted yet. "What the…?"
Unknown to Luffy, at that moment, the giant had raised its hand into the air. Dark energy gathered into its palm, and the giant clenched its hand into a fist once there was enough. It then swung its energized fist downward… straight towards Luffy!
At that moment, however, Luffy suddenly went flying towards the giant's face as his arm retracted itself, just barely getting out of the way of its fist as it came smashing down. The ground shook under the impact, knocking Sora off his feet.
The dark energy in the monster's hand apparently wasn't just for extra power, though, as a giant pool of darkness, similar to the vortexes that had swallowed Sora, Luffy, and Riku earlier, formed across the ground around the giant's fist. This darkness pool, though, was MUCH more widespread than the vortexes, reaching at least 10 meters across with the giant's fist in the centre. As Sora got back to his feet, he saw a number of small black creatures from before emerging from it.
While that happened, Luffy haphazardly smacked headfirst into the giant's face as his arm completely retracted itself, much like with his Rocket move, causing it to let out another hiss.
Once he regained his senses, Luffy quickly looked down to see his arm caught within the large, hair-like tentacles obscuring the creature's face. Apparently, when he had punched the creature, his fist had been snared by the said tentacles, and now they were drawing his arm in even further, threatening to drag his entire body into the creature and essentially eat him alive.
"WAAAHHHH!" Luffy screamed with a comically terrified expression as he frantically tried to pull his arm out of the tentacles; he tried pushing off with his feet, he tried yanking it out with his other arm, he tried pounding the giant in the face over and over, but nothing worked. "I CAN'T GET IT OUT! I CAN'T GET IT OUT!"
"Hold on, Luffy!" yelled Sora as he got to his feet and rushed towards the giant's fist, as it was still embedded in the ground. A few of the smaller creatures attempted to rush him, but he easily took them out with the Keyblade.
As Sora stepped into the black pool around the giant's fist, a few black tentacles rose up from the darkness in his path, whipping forward to grab him. Sora was ready this time, though, as he slashed through them with the Keyblade, causing them to break and burst into black smoke under the touch of the mysterious weapon.
Sora continued slashing through creatures and tentacles alike until he reached the giant's fist. Jumping onto it, he quickly ran up its arm to its head as he had done before in his dream.
Luffy's arm was up to his shoulder in the giant's tentacles before Sora came rushing in and struck the said tentacles with the Keyblade. The giant let out a loud hiss as the tentacles cringed and loosened their grip on Luffy's arm. A few slashes later and Luffy was free.
"Thanks, Sora!" said Luffy with a bright smile.
Sora smiled back. "Don't mention it. Now we're even!"
The moment was cut short, however, as the giant pulled its hand from the ground and began swiping at the two fighters as if they were flies buzzing around its face. Luffy dodged by jumping straight off and falling the full height of the giant, landing easily on his feet. Sora, not wanting to jump that far down onto solid ground, opted to slide off the giant's shoulder, digging the teeth of the Keyblade into its back to slow his descent. The giant hissed in pain once again and began swiping at Sora with its clawed fingers as he descended, but couldn't quite reach due to the spiky-haired boy going down a hard-to-reach area of its body. Near the bottom, Sora hopped off and landed on the ground, quickly running over to where Luffy was. Now side-by-side once again, the two of them turned to face the dark giant once again.
"Well, I guess that rules out any stretching attacks on its head," said Sora with slight exasperation. How were they going to win against this thing? Apparently, the 'Keyblade' he now held was the only thing that had any significant effect on this monster, while Luffy's fists didn't seem to do much in comparison. Sora had gotten lucky when it had punched the ground so that he could run up its arm, but who knew if this thing would do that again? What would they do if it didn't? He considered throwing the Keyblade, since it would apparently return to his hand like before, but he didn't think he could throw it that high. What could they do?
"Gomu Gomu no…" began Luffy, causing Sora to look over to see him bolting forward towards the giant, his arms both stretched back over fifteen metres behind him as he ran.
"Luffy, wait! I said DON'T use stretching attacks on the head!" cried Sora, reaching out a hand to try and stop him, but he was too late.
"BAZOOKA!" shouted Luffy as his arms retracted and surged forward, his palms slamming hard into the giant's… feet?
The giant roared as its feet and legs went flying out from under it, causing it to lose balance and fall forward… right towards Sora. Acting quickly, Sora dove out of the way as the giant hit the ground, causing it to shake once again. Luffy himself had managed to escape being caught underneath its body, having been positioned between its feet at the time.
Oh, so THAT'S what he was doing, thought Sora as his face lit up with comprehension. If they couldn't reach the head from the ground, bring the head down to the ground instead! He then gained a determined expression. Now's my chance!
Getting to his feet, Sora rushed over to the giant's head before it could push itself up from the ground. He then began striking its head over and over with the Keyblade, causing it to hiss and roar in pain under the touch of the weapon. The giant raised a hand to try and slash Sora with its claws, but Luffy quickly stretched out his arm and wrapped it around the giant's wrist like a whip, preventing it from doing so as Sora continued his assault.
However, at that moment, both Sora and Luffy noticed the wind beginning to pick up, blowing straight upwards for some reason. It grew stronger and stronger, with sand and debris being picked up and drawn into the dark portal directly above them.
Oh, no! thought Sora in horror, stopping his attack as he realized something. This isn't wind! It's suction! The portal is trying to suck us in!
"Luffy!" Sora shouted frantically as he ran over and grabbed a random piece of wood that was jammed into the sand, hoping to keep himself anchored. "Grab onto something! The portal is trying to suck us in!"
"WHAAAAT?!" screamed Luffy with comically wide eyes. Quickly retracting his arm from the giant's wrist, he ran over to a palm tree that was still rooted to the ground and latched onto it with his arms and legs, clinging to it for dear life. The two of them then watched as the giant black monster was lifted off the ground and drawn into the giant portal of darkness.
The winds created by the portal continued to grow stronger and more violent. Pieces of the island itself began breaking off at the edges; small at first, but growing larger and larger. Sora desperately clung to the piece of wood with both hands as his entire body was lifted into the air, shutting his eyes against the gale-force winds hitting his face. It was getting harder and harder to hold on, but he was trying.
Then, suddenly, the piece of wood he held onto snapped under the strain, and Sora went flying upwards towards the portal.
"Sora!" shouted Luffy as he saw the spiky-haired boy go flying. He quickly stretched out an arm and grabbed Sora's hand, holding on as hard as he could and preventing him from being sucked in. His arm began stretching out longer and longer as the pull from the portal grew stronger. Sora subconsciously wondered if Luffy's arm would rip if this kept up.
However, at that moment, the tree Luffy held onto suddenly uprooted and began flying towards the portal, the Straw Hat captain still attached to it. Letting out a surprised yelp, Luffy quickly let go of the tree and stretched his free arm back toward the ground, with his other hand still holding onto Sora. However, his hand only grasped sand as the entire chunk of land split into huge pieces, all being drawn into the portal. Luffy and Sora were helpless to do anything else as they too were sucked in, but Sora still held onto Luffy's hand.
However, a large chunk of rock came flying past and hit Sora and Luffy's hands, causing them to lose their grip. The two then flew apart, soon losing sight of each other within the strange wormhole of darkness, and eventually blacking out.
Sora was drawn out of unconsciousness by the feeling of something licking his face. "Oh… ugh…" groaned Sora as he came to, slowly opening his eyes. Once everything came back into focus, Sora looked to his right to see a large, skinny, happy-looking dog with thin, floppy black ears and short yellow fur, apparently the one that had licked him. "What a dream…" groaned the spiky-haired boy sleepily, thinking he was still asleep.
However, the dog jumped up and playfully shoved Sora in the chest with its front paws, causing him to yelp in surprise. "This isn't a dream!" he cried, now fully awake. Looking around, he found himself sitting up against the wall of a strange alleyway, with buildings around him he didn't recognize. Clearly, this wasn't Destiny Islands. Climbing to his feet, he began to look around.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town…
"That was a great nap!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully as he burst out of the barrel he was stuck inside of. It was just like that time he had been caught in a giant whirlpool and ended up stuck inside a rum barrel… except this time he was upside-down. "Wah!" Luffy yelped in surprise as he fell onto his back from his balancing position on his head.
"Wheeeew!" breathed Luffy as he got up and brushed himself off. "That was kind of scary… looks like I survived, though! Ha ha ha!" Feeling the top of his head with his hand, he was relieved to find that Shanks' straw hat was still there. He didn't know what he would have done if he had lost it in the vortex.
He then stepped out of the splinters of the barrel he had been inside of a moment ago and began looking around the alleyway he was currently in.
At the same time, on both sides of town…
"Where am I?" Sora/Luffy said out loud.
Author's note: Yes! Finally finished! Damn, I'm surprised at how long it took to write this chapter. I deeply apologize for how long this chapter took. I know I said this wouldn't take nearly as long as the previous chapter, but the length kind of got away on me. The holidays had something to do with it too (speaking of which, Merry belated Christmas and Happy Belated New Year to everyone!), given how busy December can be. There were other factors as well, but I don't want to bore you all with those. Again, very sorry for the wait, and I hope beyond all hope that the next one won't take as long as this. Hopefully the length of this chapter makes up for it.
I realize that showing each of the Straw Hats being sucked into the vortexes of darkness may have gotten somewhat repetitive, but trust me when I say it was unavoidable. Also, some of you may have expected big, epic battles from each of the Straw Hats against the Heartless, but remember that at this point in time, the Heartless are relatively weak; plus, writing big epic battles would become quite tedious, for both me and the reader, so the battles were somewhat short. But don't worry! There will be big, epic fights in the future, so don't worry too much about that.
I do confess that I was slightly mistaken as to the exact details of the dock's junction with the island. As I wrote the chapter, I thought there was water on both sides of it, but when I went back and played that part of the game, I found out that there was water on the one side, and sand on the other. Whoops! However, for the sake of such details, let's just say that in this story, the dock extends further out from the island, to the point where there is water on both sides. I hope that satisfies the more nitpicky readers out there.
For those of you wondering if there will be any romance in this story… well, that all depends. I'm not entirely confident in my abilities to write decent romance (I'm really much better with fight scenes), but I'm leaning towards including some, to add interest to the story if nothing else. If you're wondering what the pairings will be if I do so, they will be Luffy x Nami and Sora x Kairi, and there's no way I'm changing that. However, don't expect the romantic content to be full-out, pedal-to-the-metal fluff (seriously, huge amounts of fluff make me gag). It'll be mostly subtle and low-key, although I may surprise myself later.
Sorry, but no preview this time. I've realized that by doing chapter previews, the following chapters end up longer than I'd like them to be since I want to cover the section within the preview. So from now on, I'll simply do teaser lines about the general idea of what I intend to happen next chapter. Sorry if that's a disappointment to any of you, but it's the best way I can get the next chapters out more quickly.
Well, that's about all I've got to say for now. Thanks for reading, and please review, as it makes things so much easier. Constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.
Techniques used in this chapter:
Nitoryu: Sai Kuru: Translation: Two Sword Style: Rhinoceros Spin. Zoro flips his katanas into a backhand grip and points them upward like rhino horns. He then spins around and sends out a number of slashes in all directions as he does so in order to take out multiple enemies at once. The name of this technique plays on the word "Saikuru", the romanized version of the word "Cycle."
Oni Giri: Translation: Demon Slash. Zoro crosses his arms in front of himself, pointing the tips of his arm swords directly upward, and rapidly dashes forward, sending out three simultaneous slashes from all three of his swords as he does so. The technique's name is a Japanese pun for "Onigiri", a Japanese rice ball snack.
Santoryu: Tatsu Maki: Translation: Three Sword Style: Dragon Twister. Zoro positions his swords to create a resemblance of a dragon's body with his arms, then rapidly spins and generates a tornado of slashing winds with his swords. The technique's name is a Japanese pun for "Tatsumaki", meaning "Tornado".
Gomu Gomu no Pistol: No translation needed. Luffy throws a straight punch that stretches his arm out and hits an opponent from a distance away.
Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun: No translation needed. Luffy sends out a rapid-fire barrage of stretching punches, moving his arms so fast that it appears as though he has multiple arms. Each individual punch is not as powerful as the Pistol attack, but allows many more hits to land.
Gomu Gomu no Bazooka: No translation needed. Luffy stretches his arms out behind him as he runs forward towards his opponent, then slams his hands into said opponent as his arms retract.
Usopp Noise: Usopp scratches his fingernails across a small chalkboard within a large crowd of opponents, causing them to flinch and cringe at the sound.
Hissatsu: Tamago Boshi: Translation: Sure Kill: Egg Star. Usopp fires a rotten egg at an opponent with his slingshot, mostly as a distraction technique to cause them to hold their noses at the stench while he escapes the fight.
Hissatsu: Kemuri Boshi: Translation: Sure Kill: Smoke Star. Usopp throws down a smoke pellet to create a smokescreen, allowing him to escape without being seen.
Horn Point: One of Chopper's transformations brought on by the consumption of the Rumble Ball. Chopper's front legs grow more muscular, and his antlers become much larger and sharper, with more 'branches' as well.
Cuatro Fleurs: Translation: Four Flowers. Robin creates four arms with her Devil Fruit ability. What they do depends on the situation.
Cinco Fleurs: Translation: Five Flowers. Robin creates five arms with her Devil Fruit ability.
Many thanks to FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D for their help with this chapter!
Luffy and Sora have now been separated from each other by the darkness, and have awakened in a strange new town. What awaits them there? Will they be able to find each other again? Will Sora be able to find help? Who is this stranger with a gun-sword? And how much chaos can Luffy cause before he finds Sora again? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of "Heart of a Pirate"!