Heart of a Pirate
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.
Chapter 6: New World, New Faces (Part 3)
Sora rushed toward the armor with his Keyblade at the ready. The armor fired a fist towards him in response, which Sora dodged by skipping to the side. Seeing a follow-up punch coming his way, Sora quickly brought up the Keyblade to block it, but was completely unprepared for just how powerful it was as the gauntlet came crashing into his weapon with the force of a flying boulder, knocking Sora to the ground. Before he could regain his bearings, a long shadow appeared over his form as the armor lifted up its oversized boot and brought it down, fully intending to crush Sora underneath it.
However, the hit never connected as Goofy quickly rushed in and blocked the attack with his shield, stopping the boot in midair. "Better be careful now, a-hyuck!" Goofy said with a smile over his shoulder as Sora looked up, his eyes widening at the sight of the armor's boot just above both of their heads.
"Yeah… thanks," Sora managed to get out, still on the ground. He then caught movement out of the corner of his eye. "Look out!" he shouted, pointing to Goofy's right as the second boot came rapidly swinging in towards him.
"Fire!" shouted Donald's voice as a ball of fire came flying in from the side and hit the boot with a small explosion, knocking the boot off course just enough for it to miss Sora and Goofy. The two quickly took the chance to get up and retreat as the armor's limbs flew back into place around the torso.
"Thanks, Donald!" Goofy called out cheerfully to the Court Magician as he and Sora ran to a safer distance away from the giant Heartless.
However, the armor wasn't about to let up as it began stomping towards Sora, the ground shaking with every step it took as it raised its fists. Sora quickly ran to the side in a wide circle around the behemoth as it began throwing punch after punch at him. Sora narrowly dodged each blow as he ran, jumping, ducking, and rolling around the armor's gauntlets as they continued smashing shallow craters into the ground and surrounding walls with each missed blow.
As this happened, one of the boots came swinging through the air towards Sora, heading straight toward his abdomen, but the Keyblade wielder reflexively dove over it, barely clearing the metal appendage as it sailed through the space his torso had occupied a split-second earlier. He then tucked himself into a ball in midair, using the momentum to roll back to his feet.
The split second opening from this move quickly cost him as one of the gauntlets came driving heavily into his side as he righted himself. Sora yelled out in pain as the blow sent him bouncing across the ground a couple of times before rolling and smacking into the concrete wall. Hard.
Sora gritted his teeth against the pain flaring from his torso as he moved himself into a sitting position against the wall, gingerly gripping his side. Man, was that a hard hit! The one from before had hurt too, but this one was even harder. He didn't think he broke anything, but it was still going to leave a big mark. This Heartless was even faster and more powerful than he expected. How was he supposed to fight this thing?!
But the armor wasn't going to give him a chance to regain composure as it reared back for another punch. Donald and Goofy were currently occupied with the boots, and in his current position, he wouldn't be able to move fast enough to dodge. His eyes widened in terror as the punch came barreling towards him.
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"
A stretching punch from Luffy came flying in from the side and connected squarely with the gauntlet, knocking it off course. A loud clang rang out, and Sora even saw a small crack form where the punch had connected. Sora quickly looked over to see Luffy standing on the opposite side of the armor from Donald and Goofy, his arm snapping back to its normal length as he moved into a fighting stance, a determined grin on his face. "No armor attacks me and a friend of mine!" he declared. Sora smiled at the display.
The armor's helmet turned toward the pirate captain as its gauntlet flew back to its usual place, as if sizing him up, before turning back toward Sora. But before the armor could even raise another limb to attack, Luffy fired off another punch, this time hitting the helmet and knocking it clean off the armor's shoulders.
"UNTIL I GET TO WEAR IT!" Luffy continued enthusiastically. He then stretched out his arms and grabbed the armor's collar, slingshotting himself up and deftly sliding himself into the body of the armor.
"Woohoo! I did it!" he cheered, his head poking out of the neck of the armor's body with a grin that threatened to split his face in half.
Everyone's jaws dropped at the sight, completely at a loss for words at Luffy's stupendous idiocy. Are you SERIOUS?! thought Sora, his eye twitching slightly. He knew Luffy wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the drawer, but this was taking it to a whole new level!
The armor itself, meanwhile, began attempting to remove the intruder from its body. It turned its body upside-down and began shaking up and down like a salt shaker, with little success as Luffy refused to budge, pressing his hands and feet against the inside of the armor. "Hey! Armor is supposed to be worn, not attack people!" the pirate captain snapped with an annoyed look on his face.
Donald slapped his forehead in exasperation, with Sora barely resisting doing the same. Goofy settled for quirking an eyebrow.
Apparently giving up on shaking him out, the armor quickly raised its hands to its neck, grabbed Luffy by the head and began pulling. Again Luffy resisted, but as this happened, the body began visibly vibrating, shaking harder and harder until, like a cork from a champagne bottle, Luffy's body popped out of the top of the armor body, a torrent of black and purple mist spraying from the neck as Luffy yelped in surprise. If not for the hands grasping his head, the pirate captain would have gone flying into the sky. Instead, his body swung around several times on a swivel in the armor's hands before being tossed to the side by the giant Heartless. The purple and black mist then quickly receded back into the armor's body, the helmet flying back onto the neck once finished, as if capping it off.
"That's it! I don't want to wear you anymore!" said Luffy angrily as he jumped to his feet. "Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun!" Rearing back his fists, he unleashed his attack, punch after punch bombarding every part of the armor at once, rendering it virtually unable to move under the onslaught and even causing it to stumble back slightly.
Sora used this opportunity to try to stand up and walk, but a flare of pain from his injury caused him to double over, gritting his teeth and breathing heavily to keep it down as he supported himself on his Keyblade.
Seeing this, Donald jogged over and raised his staff to Sora's bruised side. "Cure," he stated as green glowing mist flowed from his staff tip onto the injured area. As the healing magic settled on his injury, Sora immediately felt immense relief, now able to stand fully upright. His side was still a little sore, but it was a lot easier to handle now.
"Thanks! How'd you do that?" Sora asked with a grateful smile.
"Not now! We've got bigger problems!" Donald snapped back.
"WAAAHHH!"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy immediately snapped their heads in the direction of Luffy's scream as the pirate captain flew off to the side and impacted against the wall, leaving a shallow but noticeable dent in the concrete. The armor had apparently managed to get one of its gauntlets through Luffy's assault and backhanded him to the side. As he got to his feet, the second gauntlet came flying in and slammed into Luffy with an open-palmed strike, pinning him up against the wall at the neck as its clawed fingers dug into the wall on both sides of him.
"Hey, you jerk! Let go!" Luffy shouted as he yanked against the gauntlet's fingers in an effort to get free, with little success. The pirate captain then looked up and his eyes almost popped out of his head upon seeing the other gauntlet raising into the air, moving horizontal and knifing its pointed fingers like a spear before sending it flying to skewer Luffy!
However, in a move no one expected, Luffy quickly grabbed the top of his head with one hand and pulled it to the side, stretching out his neck in the process and narrowly avoiding the gauntlet's fingers as they plunged into the wall. Thanks to the force of the attack, said gauntlet was now stuck. The gauntlet wiggled around as the armor tried its best to wrench it free, mirroring Luffy as he attempted to get free himself.
Donald and Goofy's jaws dropped at the sight of what Luffy just pulled, while Sora simply widened his eyes slightly in amazement, already somewhat used to the sight. He had to wonder just how far the pirate captain's stretching abilities went if he could stretch his NECK like that! Shaking himself out of his reverie, Sora quickly rushed in and bashed the gauntlet holding Luffy with the Keyblade as hard as he could to try and break him free.
To Sora's surprise, the Keyblade smashed a huge dent in the gauntlet's metal armor as if it were a tin can, several large cracks forming in the Heartless appendage. This seemed to have an effect as the helmet let out a roar of pain and the gauntlet holding the Straw Hat captain loosened its grip and pulled its fingers from the wall, flying back into position around the main body.
"Heh heh! Thanks, Sora!" Luffy grinned as he brushed himself off.
"Yeah… sure…" Sora mumbled, still in shock from what just happened. How… How did I do that?! he thought to himself in bewilderment. He knew that blow would have done a fair amount of damage, but he wasn't expecting that much! He then regarded the Keyblade in his hand. Just what is this thing capable of?!
"It's the ultimate weapon against the Heartless," came Leon's voice in Sora's mind, unbidden. "As such, the Heartless have great fear of it."
"So that's what he meant," Sora murmured to himself as he stared at the weapon in his hand. It certainly explained how easily he was able to take out every other Heartless up to this point since receiving it. It also explained why this Heartless came after him more than the others. If that was how the thing worked…
He then gripped the weapon tighter as he gained a determined expression. If that's how it is, he thought to himself as he turned to face the Heartless armor. Then it's all up to me! He then regarded the floating hands and feet. But first I have to get past those things, he mused.
Before he could do anything else, though, Luffy was already dashing towards the armor, which had just now recovered from Sora's attack and was winding up to attack once more. Seeing the pirate captain approaching, the armor quickly fired a punch at him with its undamaged gauntlet. Luffy dodged by jumping straight up, but as he did so, he quickly stretched his arm downward and wrapped it around the metal arm as it passed underneath him. He then threw himself into a forward somersault, swinging the gauntlet up and over himself in a loop before swinging down hard and slamming it directly into the armor's helm, cracking them both. Luffy wore a proud smile as he landed, his arm snapping back to its original length before holding up his hands in twin 'V for Victory' signs. Meanwhile the armor itself seemed to stumble a bit, as if dazed by the attack.
All three of Sora, Donald, and Goofy momentarily stared in amazement before Sora shook himself back to reality. With the armor dazed, he only had a small window of time to communicate a strategy to the others.
"Hey guys!" Sora called out, getting everyone's attention. "We've got to attack it all at once! It's our only chance!"
"What are you talking about?!" Donald shouted back.
"It's mostly been going after me! If we attack together from different directions, it won't know where to defend from, and that should give one of us an opening to get past the hands and feet to do some damage!"
Goofy nodded in comprehension. "I gotcha! We'll keep the hands and feet busy while you go for the body!" he exclaimed.
"Right!" Sora responded.
"We're ready when you are!" responded Donald, looking as if itching to get back into the fight.
Sora nodded before turning to Luffy. "You got all that?"
"Heh heh! Just leave it to me!" Luffy grinned, cracking his knuckles.
Moments later, the armor had shaken itself from its daze and was moving into an attack position. All four opposing combatants did the same, having moved to four different positions: Sora in front, Donald behind, Goofy to its right and Luffy to its left. "Alright, NOW!" Sora announced before charging forward, the other three doing the same. Sora raised his Keyblade, Donald raised his staff with an incantation on his tongue, Goofy raised his shield, and Luffy raised a fist, each attack approaching simultaneously. The armor's head rapidly looked in all directions at its attackers, as if trying to decide what to do.
For a moment, it looked like they would succeed. However, as they closed in, the armor began spinning both its hands and feet around itself at high speed like a pair of giant circular saws, effectively eliminating all holes in its defense.
"WAAAAAHH!"
"UGH!"
"OOF!"
"WHOA-WHAOW!"
It was too late to stop the attack; the spinning limbs knocked every single combatant away at once. Each of them went flying before bouncing, sliding, and crumpling to the ground all over the makeshift battleground.
Sora groaned, more from disappointment than any pain, as he got to his feet, somehow having managed to keep a grip on the Keyblade. His weapon had thankfully taken the brunt of the impact from the boots. "OK, looks like we need a new plan," he said, more to himself than anything else.
"LOOK OUT!" came Goofy's voice.
Sora's head snapped up at the bipedal dog's urgent warning as he abruptly noticed the armor's fist flying straight at him once again. Time seemed to slow down as Sora, out of pure reflex and a bit of luck, swung his Keyblade up over his head with both hands just in time to meet it. Throwing as much force as he could muster into his swing, the Keyblade wielder managed to deliver a crushing blow to the gauntlet's clenched fingers, a loud CRASH and the sound of shattering metal resounding.
The Heartless howled in agony as said hand flew back to its torso, smoky globs of purple-black matter spilling out the whole way. The force of Sora's blow combined with the force of the armor's punch had caused the Keyblade to smash an even bigger dent in that gauntlet than the one from earlier, splintering the metal of the fingers so badly that they fell off, leaving only the thumb and a gaping hole behind.
Donald, already back on his feet, wasn't about to give the giant Heartless a chance to recover as the hand returned to the main body. "Blizzard!" he squawked, swinging his staff in an arc. What looked like a big blue snowflake flew out of the tip of the staff and struck the heavily battered limb, freezing it solid. "Goofy! Now!" he yelled.
"No problem, a-hyuck!" Goofy cheerfully replied from across the impromptu fighting arena, rearing his shield arm back and flinging said shield at the frozen hand like a discus.
The shield struck home, shattering the gauntlet into tiny pieces and causing the Heartless to roar in pain once again as it stumbled backward. The shield, meanwhile, continued traveling through the air until it hit a wall, ricocheting directly back to Goofy, who deftly snatched it out of the air and slipped it back onto his arm. Black and purple mist burst out of the gauntlet like a broken water balloon before evaporating, the metal of the gauntlet itself disappearing soon after.
"WHOOOAAA! That was AWESOME!" Luffy cried, his eyes sparkling at the display.
"Yeah! Way to go!" cheered Sora, pumping a fist into the air.
"Save it for later! This thing's still moving!" Donald shouted back.
The armor quickly recovered and now glared down at Donald (at least, it looked like a glare; it was hard to tell with the visor down), raising a boot in preparation for a side-kick. However, Luffy quickly whipped his arm around it, trapping it. The Heartless turned its helmet to Luffy, then began spinning both of its boots around like before, the free boot catching Luffy and lifting him off the ground in the process, leading to the pirate captain being swung around in a circle like a rag doll on a string. Over and over. The others had to duck to avoid getting hit.
"WAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaaAAAAaaaaaAAAAHHH! SOMEBODY STOP THIS THIIIIING!" Luffy screamed.
"Just let go, pal!" Goofy called out.
Luffy paused in his screaming. "Oh, right!" He then released his grip on the boot, the centrifugal force sending him flying across the arena and slamming front-first into a wall in a spread eagle position, kicking up some dust in the process. Sora immediately rushed over to help.
"You okay, Luffy?" the spiky-haired boy asked as he helped the pirate captain peel himself out of the imprint his body left. He knew Luffy's rubber powers made him pretty durable, but he still wanted to be sure.
Luffy pulled his face from the wall, his lips making an audible pop as he did so. "That was fun! Let's do it again!" he exclaimed happily. Sora sweatdropped.
"Maybe later. We've got to take that thing down first!" Sora replied.
"Thunder!" came Donald's cry, drawing their attention. Small bolts of lightning materialized out of the air, striking all over the armor's body. Every single part that was hit was left twitching and shaking, but otherwise unmoving. "Hurry! Attack it!" he shouted to Sora.
Sora stared for a moment before quickly catching on. "Got it!" he replied as he charged forward. With a small leap, he brought the Keyblade down on the remaining gauntlet as hard as he could… only for the electric charge to fly through the Keyblade into Sora's hands, electrocuting him. The gauntlet shattered, the combined damage from Sora's attack and Luffy's earlier attacks ultimately destroying it. The darkness inside spilled out and evaporated as before.
Sora, meanwhile, was thrown backwards by the electric shock and landed on his back, his every limb spasming, his eyes bugging out, and his hair somehow growing even MORE spiky with small arcs of electricity skipping across each spike. It died down after a few seconds, leaving Sora looking slightly scorched with spirals in his eyes, thin lines of smoke emerging from the biggest spikes of his hair.
"Oh. Sorry about that," said Donald, looking sheepish. "Cure."
Sora sighed with relief as the healing magic did its work, waving the mage off. "Thanks again! And don't worry about it; it worked, didn't it?" he replied with a grateful smile as he got to his feet. He then turned to the armor. Alright, the hands are down, now we just gotta get rid of those boots, Sora thought to himself as he gauged the Heartless, which now seemed to be preparing to attack again, said boots backflipping in place menacingly. Sora suddenly got an idea.
"Hey Luffy!" the spiky-haired boy called out, getting the pirate captain's attention. "You think you can get those boots away from the body?"
Luffy grinned. "No problem!" he replied before rearing back his right foot. "Gomu Gomu no Muchi!"
His leg stretched out in a wide arc that passed under the armor's main body, his foot and ankle scooping up the two boots as it did so and flinging them to the opposite side of the makeshift arena where they landed in a heap with a loud clatter. However, due to Donald and Sora's relatively close proximity to the Heartless, they were forced to jump to avoid Luffy's leg as it passed underneath them, barely avoiding getting clotheslined. "Careful, you numbskull! You almost hit us!" the Court Magician squawked, brandishing his staff angrily as Luffy's leg snapped back.
"Whoops! Sorry!" Luffy responded with a grin, incensing Donald even more.
Sora, however, had chosen to rush towards the boots before they had a chance to right themselves, his Keyblade at the ready. One did spring back up, but it was quickly knocked to the side as Goofy ran in across Sora's path with his shield in front of him, shoving the boot away from Sora to pin it against the wall. Sora gave a quick "Thanks!" to the dog before returning his attention to the other boot, which was starting to rattle. But with a few well-placed blows, the Keyblade quickly demolished it. The Heartless roared once again as the darkness evaporated from the destroyed limb.
The main body and helmet made to fly over to where Sora was, but Luffy quickly slid into its path, his fists reared. "Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun!" he yelled as he let loose another barrage of punches. While not doing any noticeable damage, it did effectively pin the Heartless in place like before. This time, however, the main body and helmet began spinning like tops, much like its hands and feet earlier, resulting in Luffy's punches being deflected to the sides. No longer pinned, the spinning Heartless rushed forward once again through the barrage and slammed into Luffy, who let out a yelp as he was sent flying once again.
With the pirate captain out of the way, the armor stopped spinning and turned towards Sora and Goofy just as the Keyblade wielder ran over to where the second boot was. The armor then tipped itself at an upside-down angle as its helmet began spinning rapidly once again, appearing to be aiming at the two combatants. "Goofy, behind you!" shouted Donald.
"Huh?" Goofy turned around just in time to see the armor fire its spinning helmet towards him and Sora. "Whoa!" Out of pure reflex, he barely managed to get his shield up in time to block it. Goofy's feet slid back slightly from the force of the hit, but the Knight Captain held strong, sparks flying as he and the helmet battled for supremacy. The small bit of time this bought was all Sora needed to destroy the other boot with a few hits of the Keyblade. The helmet immediately stopped spinning, letting out another roar of pain before flying back to the main body.
Sora, Luffy, Donald, and Goofy now stood side by side together as they faced down what was left of the armor. Now that all of its limbs were gone, nothing stood in their way of taking it down once and for all!
"Hey, so…" Sora began, looking at Donald. "You think you can do that… ice… thing again?"
Donald looked at his staff, then Sora. "Yeah. Why?" the duck asked.
"I've got an idea…" Sora answered, proceeding to quickly explain his plan to everyone.
"Gawrsh, think it'll work?" asked Goofy after Sora finished explaining.
"Won't know till we try," replied Sora with a determined smile. He then turned back to the armor. "And we'd better move fast; this thing's not gonna wait around for us!" he exclaimed as the Heartless once again recovered from the latest attack.
Donald nodded. "Let's go! Blizzard!" he shouted, the spell launching out of his staff and freezing a large portion of the front of the main body. "Goofy!" he called out as he dashed aside.
"On it!" replied Goofy as he ran forward and began spinning on one foot like a top, his shield repeatedly impacting the Heartless before it could react. Flakes of ice came flying off as each hit landed, a few cracks forming. "Your turn, pal!" the Knight Captain called to Luffy as he jumped to the side.
The pirate captain was already one step ahead of him as he dashed towards the armor with his arms stretched behind him. Appearing to get frantic, the Heartless launched its helmet towards Luffy, but its attack was thwarted when Goofy's shield came flying in from the side and knocked it off course, sending it bouncing and rolling to the side while the shield flew back to its owner.
"GOMU GOMU NO BAZOOKA!" shouted Luffy as he slammed his palms into the armor. The cracks grew larger and more numerous as the attack sent the armor flying backwards and smacking into the wall behind it, causing it to fall to the ground. "Sora!" he called out.
This is it, thought Sora as he rushed forward, Luffy jumping out of the way. This is my chance to take this thing down once and for all. It's all up to me now. The armor had just begun floating back upright, its helmet flying back onto the neck before Sora struck.
The Heartless fear the Keyblade!
SLAM!
A blow to the left.
I will stop the Heartless, because I am the Keybearer!
CLANG!
A blow to the right.
The cracks grew exponentially larger; some shards of metal even began falling off, exposing the roiling darkness within. But Sora wasn't finished as he reared back the Keyblade and stabbed it as hard as he could through the black and red heart symbol on the chest.
The armor immediately stopped moving. It continued to hover for a moment before dropping to the ground with a loud CLANK and falling on its side, the helmet rolling away. Bright light began shining through the cracks on both pieces, growing brighter and brighter until finally, with a sound akin to glass shattering, the entire body splintered into luminous white fragments, helmet and all. A large glowing heart-shaped object rose from the wreckage and flew into the sky as the shards seemed to evaporate, the darkness within spilling out and quickly evaporating itself. Soon, no sign of the giant Heartless remained.
The battle was over.
"So, you guys were looking for me?" Sora asked after catching his breath from the long battle. He remembered them shouting about finding 'the Key'… right after they landed on top of him and Luffy.
"Uh huh!" the duck and dog replied, nodding enthusiastically.
"Sora! You never told me you were friends with these guys!" exclaimed Luffy.
"I'm not! I've never seen them before in my life!" Sora protested. He then turned back to the newcomers. "Come to think of it, who are you two exactly?"
"They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade," came a familiar serious voice from behind Sora and Luffy, causing them to spin around in surprise. There stood Leon and Yuffie; Yuffie had a proud smile on her face directed at Sora, while Leon had his arms crossed with his usual deadpan expression. After the battle had concluded, the big square pillars had retracted into the ground, allowing the two of them access.
"L-Leon? Yuffie? How long have you been there?" stammered Sora.
"Long enough to see you kick that big Heartless' butt!" stated Yuffie happily.
"You were watching?" asked Sora.
"Yeah!" chirped the ninja. "Well, the tail end, anyway. But you did amazing in there! WHAM! BAM! BOOM!" She punctuated these words with a couple of punches and kicks into the air.
"Yeah! You were great!" congratulated Luffy, giving him a couple of hard slaps on the back, almost making him lose his balance.
"Um, thanks, both of you," Sora responded, rubbing the back of his head and blushing from all the praise. "But everyone else was doing most of the work."
"Aw, don't be so modest!" smiled the dog. "If it weren't for you and yer plans, we might not have won!" The duck nodded in agreement. Sora just chuckled awkwardly.
"Don't let it go to your head," spoke up Leon, getting Sora's attention. "You may have slain a tougher beast than others, but it's only going to get more difficult from here on out. Don't get cocky." Sora deflated a bit at that.
"Geez, Squall, you're such a killjoy," said Yuffie, hands on hips and leveling an annoyed glare at him.
"Leon," he corrected, ignoring the look she was giving him.
"Hey, why don'tcha come with us?" suggested the dog. "We can go to other worlds on our vessel!"
The Keybearer snapped out of his reverie. "Go with you?" he asked.
"Yeah! We're going on a quest, and we'd like to have you along!" said the duck.
"I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi…" said Sora, looking a bit downcast and speaking more to himself than the others. Now that the battle high had worn off, combined with Leon's sobering comment, reality began setting in for Sora again. He realized he still needed to find his two best friends, but with the supposedly staggering amount of worlds out there to search, as well as what Leon said about their odds against the Heartless, he wasn't even sure he would find them at all. On top of that, he couldn't save that man who had been taken by the Heartless right in front of his eyes. He couldn't even touch Leon in a one-on-one fight. And he had only been able to take down the two big Heartless enemies he had encountered thus far with help from others, particularly Luffy. And that was saying nothing about the constant threat of the Heartless persistently coming after him at every turn. Was he really ready for all this?
"Of course you can!" replied the duck, causing Sora to look up.
"Are ya sure?" whispered Goofy to Donald, leaning in close and facing away from the Keybearer.
"Who knows," replied Donald conspiratorially. "But we need him along in order to find the King." He jerked a thumb towards Sora as he said this.
"Sora, go with them," said Leon suddenly. "Especially if you want to find your friends."
"He's right! You have a better chance of finding them that way!" said Yuffie with a smile.
"Yeah, I guess…" said Sora, a bit unenthusiastically, still looking downcast.
"But you can't come along looking like that!" the duck said sternly, wagging a finger at him. "No frowning! No sad face! Okay?" Here, Sora raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah! You gotta look funny, like us!" laughed the dog, lowering his head next to the duck's as he spoke before the duck shoved him away.
"Our ship runs on happy faces! So you gotta smile!" continued the duck.
"Like this?" said Luffy, grinning from ear to ear.
"Yup! Exactly!" said the dog with a smile of his own.
"Happy, huh…" muttered Sora, eyes to the ground once more. He seemed to be struggling with himself a bit.
"Go on! You can do it!" beamed Luffy, giving a couple of encouraging claps on his shoulder, while the duck and the dog leaned in with anticipation.
Here goes, thought Sora as he dipped his head down. All present could swear they heard a drumroll as the Keybearer whipped his head up and flashed the biggest smile he could muster. "CHEEEEEEEESE!"
Everyone present was silent for a moment, taking in Sora's rather silly expression. Growing self-conscious, Sora let the smile slide off his face, getting rather red from embarrassment.
Luffy then burst out laughing, followed quickly by the duck and the dog. "That's one funny face!" the dog managed to get out through his laughter. Sora grew even more embarrassed, but the laughter quickly proved infectious as he himself began snickering, then chuckling, then full out belly-laughing, both himself and Luffy holding their stomachs as they fought to control their mirth.
"OK, why not?" said Sora as his laughter died down, wiping the small tears from his eyes. He now felt better after having a good laugh. "I'll go with you guys."
"Woohoo! Then I'm going too! Let's go!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully.
"Oooooh no you don't!" said Yuffie angrily, grabbing Luffy by the back of his vest collar and yanking his head down, pulling out a piece of paper and shoving it in his face. "You're not going ANYWHERE until you've paid this off!"
"Huh? What is that?" Sora asked, trying to get a better look at the piece of paper.
"Your bonehead friend here barged into a restaurant earlier and dined-and-dashed!" Yuffie continued irritably, turning the paper towards Sora. "This is how much he owes for it!"
Sora's expression turned utterly bewildered as he sweatdropped, his mind reeling at the number on the bottom of the page. You've GOT to be kidding me… the spiky-haired boy thought exasperatedly.
"But I don't have any money!" complained Luffy.
"Tough cookies! You're gonna WORK it off!" snapped the ninja.
"Awww!" whined Luffy, pouting.
"Wait, Yuffie," came a soft, feminine voice from off to the side. Everyone's heads turned to see a young woman in a pink dress standing off to the side, a combat staff clutched in one hand and some strange blue-and-yellow spheres in the other.
"Aerith?" Yuffie yelped, jumping at her sudden presence. "When did you get here?"
"Just a few minutes ago," the now-named Aerith replied with a small smile. "I would have gotten here sooner, but the Heartless were everywhere, and… well, you know I'm not quite the fighter you and Leon are."
"Hey, I know you!" exclaimed Luffy, recognizing her from the aftermath of his fight with Leon. "You're the one who stopped me attacking him!" He jerked his thumb towards the scarred man.
Sora gawked at the pirate captain. He did WHAT?!
The young woman nodded with a smile. "That's right," she said. "Though I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Aerith Gainsborough." She slipped her staff into her belt and extended her hand in greeting.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Future King of the Pirates!" Luffy proclaimed with his usual grin, shaking her hand enthusiastically. Aerith nodded and turned to Sora.
"And I'm Sora," said the spiky-haired boy, shaking Aerith's hand as well. "The… Keybearer, I guess. But I guess you already knew that, heh heh…" he trailed off awkwardly. The young woman laughed gently, but not in a mocking way, putting Sora at ease.
Leon cleared his throat, getting Aerith's attention. "So anyway, you were saying?" asked the swordsman.
"Oh yes," said Aerith, presenting the strange orbs in her hand. "I was going to point out that the Heartless they just defeated left some munny behind."
Sora stared at the spheres in Aerith's hand, then towards the rest of the battleground. Now that he looked closer, those orbs were scattered all over the place near where the Heartless had disappeared after he had finished it off. Some were rather small, no larger than his thumb, while others were bigger, almost as large as a blitzball. From the sound of it, they were some form of currency. But where did they come from?
"Since Luffy helped take it down, a quarter of it should go to him. Will it be enough?" continued Aerith.
"… hard to say," said Yuffie, clearly still steamed about the whole thing. "We're going to have to count it up first. Guys, a little help?"
Everyone immediately set to work gathering up the munny. After a few minutes, all of it was accounted for and divided up amongst the combatants.
"Ha! I knew it! It's still not enough!" gloated Yuffie as she held up Luffy's share, which had been gathered into a sack. She directed an evil grin towards the pirate captain, who gulped nervously.
"Well, how about we add my portion?" spoke up Sora, holding out the bag containing his quarter of the spoils.
Yuffie deflated a bit at that. "W-well, it's close, but still not quite enough!"
"Then I'll throw in some of mine too!" proclaimed the dog, holding up his portion.
"NO!" shouted Donald, slapping the bag of munny out of his hand. "He can't come!"
"What? Why not?" asked Sora and Luffy simultaneously, bewildered.
"Yeah, why not, Donald?" asked the dog.
"The world order!" snapped Donald. "The different worlds need to stay separate from each other to maintain balance! The more people from different worlds know about the other worlds, the less stable they become! That means no meddling, no letting on where we're from…" Here he thrust a finger at Luffy, "…and as few outsiders as possible! So he can't come!"
"But he'd be a big help fighting the Heartless!" protested Sora.
"Yeah! Didn'tcha see him in our fight just now?" said the dog.
"I said no! And that's final!" snapped the duck. Yuffie nodded her agreement, a satisfied smirk on her face as she did so. "Besides, we need the munny for supplies!"
"Awww! But I wanted to go on another big adventure!" pouted Luffy. Sora too sported a look of disappointment. Unseen by Sora, however, Luffy suddenly perked up, as if having been hit with an idea.
"Don't worry," said Aerith as she put a hand on Sora's shoulder, causing him to look up at her. She gave him a small reassuring smile. "It's not as if you'll never see each other again. Sooner or later, you three will need to make your way back here to Traverse Town, and then you and Luffy can catch up with each other before you leave again!"
Sora looked her in the eyes, then nodded, though still feeling disappointed. He then turned to Luffy. "Sorry, Luffy. Looks we have to part ways for a bit," he said apologetically.
"Shishishi! Don't worry! I'm sure it won't be that long!" said Luffy with a big smile, having bounced back from his own disappointment.
Sora nodded with a smile of his own, though he could have sworn he caught a glint of mischief in Luffy's eyes just then. He then turned to his two new companions. "Well, I guess this means it's time to get going, then," he said. "Though I don't think we really know each others' names…"
"Donald Duck!" said the duck, raising a… hand? Wingtip? Sora decided to go with hand.
"Name's Goofy!" said the dog, placing his hand on top of Donald's.
"I'm Sora," said the spiky-haired boy, placing his own hand on the pile.
"All for one, and one for all!" declared Goofy.
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Another World
In a dark room in a faraway citadel, a collection of figures were gathered around a gray table. On it was a small magical holographic representation of Sora, Luffy, Donald and Goofy just after their battle with the armored Heartless.
"That little squirt took down that Heartless. Who'd have thought it?" a large figure in a black robe with literal blue flames for hair, spoke.
"Such is the power of the Keyblade," insisted a sinister, snake-like man with a staff in the shape of a cobra. "The child's strength is not his own."
"Why don't we turn him into a Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough," suggested a large woman with the lower half of her body being that of an octopus, cackling at the idea.
"And the brat's friends are the King's lackeys and a so-called pirate," noted a pompous man dressed in red with a hook for a hand, refocusing on the images. "Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them!"
"You're no prize yourself," came a retort from what looked like a large burlap sack with a face, roaring with laughter.
"Shut up!" the man in red shouted, annoyed.
"Enough!" All heads turned to see a tall, sinister woman enter the room. She was dressed in long, flowing black-and-purple robes, a strange headscarf with two crooked horns protruding from the top of her head, and held a staff with a glowing green orb mounted on the tip. "The Keyblade has chosen him; that's all that matters at the moment. Will it be he who conquers the darkness, or will the darkness swallow him? Either way he could prove quite useful." Her evil smile gave way to a more serious expression. "But first we must make sure no more of the King's allies are able to help him."
"What do you have in mind?" the snake-like man asked.
The woman in black waved her hand over the table, the images disappearing and replaced with a new one. "Our first task is to ensure this one remains locked away."
"H-him?!" stammered the man in red, a look of fright crossing his features. "Are you for serious?! How do you expect us to – "
"Quit gibbering, you fool!" barked the woman in black, silencing the man. She then put on a confident smile. "There is no need to worry. I have a plan."
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Gummi Space
Sora gazed out the window of the Gummi Ship as it sailed through Gummi Space, enthralled by what he saw. It was certainly a lot different from how he had imagined outer space to look like from so many nights of looking up at the sky. Instead of solid black between the stars, he saw a mish-mash of purple, orange, green, and numerous other colours swirling, fading, and undulating all around them. Meteoroids made of (presumably) the same material as their ship floated by every now and again; some as small as a human hand, others 3 times as big as the largest building in Traverse Town. Altogether, it captivated Sora with its strange beauty as he plastered his face against the window. He'd gotten a bit airsick earlier, having never flown before in his life, but it had been immediately forgotten upon seeing Gummi Space for the first time.
After having set off from the Third District, Sora, Donald and Goofy had made a short shopping trip in the First District for supplies. Their first stop was at an item shop, apparently being watched over by Donald's three young nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. While young and rambunctious, they had proven themselves capable of running shop effectively, and thus the trio left with a stockpile of healing potions and Ethers, special potions that restored magic power when a magic user was running low; something that would be invaluable for Donald in the future.
The next stop was the accessory shop run by Cid. Here they purchased Protect Chains for each of themselves, items that would apparently magically protect against injuries from physical attacks. Once all supplies were bought and accessories equipped, the trio was ready to set off.
Along the way, Sora had been introduced to Jiminy Cricket, a small talking cricket who had been tasked with archiving their adventures. Sora couldn't help but be amazed at how many different animals outside of Destiny Islands could talk; a reindeer, a duck, a dog, and now a cricket. What was next? A mouse?
Their next stop was the Gummi Ship hangar, where Donald and Goofy had parked their vessel for traveling between worlds. Sora had marveled at the ship; he had never seen anything like it in his life. It admittedly had a simpler design than he had expected, looking more like something built out of toy blocks than a legitimate mode of transportation, but the spiky-haired boy was amazed all the same. After Sora was done admiring the vessel, the trio stepped inside. Donald, sitting in what was apparently the pilot's seat, called for clearance for the ship to leave from Chip and Dale, a pair of talking chipmunks who served as the ship's mechanics. Upon receiving it, the mage fired up the ship's engines and blasted the ship out of the hangar, thus beginning the trio's journey through Gummi Space and leading to the current situation.
"Pretty amazin', huh?" said Goofy cheerfully, having walked up next to Sora as he marveled at the brilliant sights all around them.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Sora happily. "I wish Riku and Kairi could be here to see this… and Luffy, too…"
Unknown to the three occupants of the ship, a fourth occupant lay snoring away in one of the storage closets of the Gummi Ship as it sailed through the vastness of Gummi Space, a straw hat drooping over his eyes as he slept…
0o0o0o0o0o0o—Yet another world, a few hours earlier
"Nnnnnnnggggghh…" groaned Usopp as he slowly sat up and clutched his pounding head with one hand. "What happened? Feels like I got hit with an Impact Dial…"
Then, suddenly, he remembered what had been happening before he blacked out. "AAAHHHH! GET 'EM OFF! GET 'EM OFF! GET 'EM OFF!" he cried out in comical terror, clawing at his legs and abdomen where the dark tendrils had latched onto him and dragged him down into the abyss. After a moment of panic, he finally realized that they were gone and immediately calmed back down. He then got to his feet and began looking around.
"Huh, this doesn't look like the island," observed the sniper. He appeared to be in a forest of sorts, with trees, bushes, and a whole assortment of various foliage all around. But the strange part was that all of the plants appeared to each be different colours, the most prominent example being the trees, some of which were shades of red, others green, and even blue. Even with all he and the crew had seen on the Grand Line thus far, they certainly hadn't seen anything quite like this (though Sky Island was certainly a hard act to top for sheer strangeness).
Wait a minute… the crew!
"CHOPPER! EVERYONE!" Usopp called out frantically, hoping someone would answer. The last one of the other Straw Hats he had seen before being dragged down was Chopper, so surely at least HE was somewhere nearby, right?!
Unfortunately, no one answered him. "OOIIII! CHOPPER! EVERYONE!" he shouted again. Once again, he got no answer. Where could they be?! he thought worriedly.
As he thought this, he looked down and saw that he was standing on some kind of pink pathway leading through the forest. Not seeing any other course of action, Usopp quickly set off along the path.
After about a minute of walking, the long-nose came to an intersection in the path that branched out in five different directions. Not sure where to go, he took a look at the signs on the tree there. But the signs didn't help much either as they all pointed in several different directions, half of which didn't even point the way that any of the paths went, and they only said either "Up", "Down", or "This Way", which was hardly helpful. Looking further down the diverging paths themselves, he saw those paths diverging in several directions not too far from this intersection. Needless to say, Usopp was completely and utterly confused.
"How the heck does anyone find their way around here?" he wondered aloud, scratching his head.
At that moment, a small swarm of white butterflies flew past Usopp, all landing on a single branch. As the sniper watched, he noticed that the butterflies' wings had some kind of yellow paste smeared on them that seemed to resemble butter. On top of that, as the insects finished landing on the branch, they had stacked themselves together in a shape that resembled a loaf of bread.
"Butter… no… bread-and-butterflies?" said Usopp, baffled. He had seen some weird things since joining up with Luffy on the sea, but this was definitely among the strangest.
Just then, he heard a high-pitched whinny from another direction. Turning towards the sound, Usopp found himself face-to-face with a tiny yellow-and-red winged horse hovering just inches from his face. This horse, however, had two arches connecting its front and rear hooves like a rocking chair, and even rocked back and forth like one as it hovered in midair.
"A rocking horse… fly?" he wondered, getting more bewildered. Things were just getting more bizarre by the minute!
He then heard some croaking, followed by multiple crashes of cymbals and drumbeats. Getting curious, the long-nose jogged over to a small pond where the noises had come from, only to be greeted with the sight of two frogs leaping around the lily pads. These frogs, however, were shaped strangely; one resembled a drum with a frog's head and legs, and the other resembled a pair of cymbals, also with a frog's head and legs. As each of them leaped around, they made the respective sounds of the instruments they resembled.
"Instrument frogs?" said Usopp frantically, the strangeness of everything straining at his common sense.
Turning around, the sniper bumped into something. Taking a step back, he noticed he had run into a birdcage that contained two small birds hanging from a tree branch, knocking its door open in the process. The two birds inside promptly flew out.
"Oh no! What did I just do?!" cried Usopp, clutching his head in panic. Who knew whose birds these were?! He was already having a hard time making sense of this place; he didn't need to be losing some stranger's birds while he was at it! He needed to get those birds back!
However, before Usopp could make a move to pursue them, the cage itself dropped down from the branch and began running after the two birds on legs the sniper had only just now spotted. Looking closer, he noticed a large bird's head poking out of the top of the cage as well. As the cage gave chase, it quickly snapped the birds up in its beak and swallowed. The birds suddenly reappeared inside the cage itself, fluttering back onto their perch.
"A BIRDCAGE BIRD?!" Usopp cried loudly, clutching his head once again. This place was making no sense! How could something like this even exist?! Even the Grand Line couldn't have come up with stuff this weird! He needed to get out of here, NOW!
As Usopp scrambled around the forest looking for an exit, more and more oddities crossed his path. A bird with a shovel spade for a bill digging holes with said bill. An owl with an accordion for a neck. Vulture-like birds with umbrellas for bodies. A dog with a broom for a head and another broom on the tip of its tail that went around sweeping the pathways off the ground.
He couldn't contain himself anymore.
"WHERE AM IIIIIIIII?!" Usopp screamed as he ran through the forest, arms in the air and screaming in comical panic all the way.
Author's Note: Hey, I'm finally back! (tumbleweed rolls by) Yeeaaahhh, it's been way, WAY too long (5 YEARS?! Geez, time flies...). I offer my sincerest apologies to those who waited this long for the next chapter. The fact is, at around the time I last updated my profile, a bunch of complications had arisen for my flight training (won't bore you with the details) with my college program, which itself had been a big damper on my creativity, which led to me transferring to another similar, but less intensive program. However, by that point, I couldn't force myself to write at all. Couple that with a co-op credit that had me traveling across the country to the frozen North, a sibling's wedding, and an intensive job search post-graduation to get my career up and running... yeah, you can see why writing wasn't really high on my list of priorities. That's no excuse, though. However, I just recently binge-played Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and coupled with starting back up watching the One Piece anime (had been going manga-only for the past few years), my creativity is back and ready for more. To those who are still here from the previous chapter, thank you all for bearing with me.
A MAJOR thank-you to FictionReader98 for his help on this chapter :) He gave some valuable feedback on both the battle and the aftermath, and gave some great suggestions on humorous moments and how to keep the various characters in-character, especially Donald and Luffy.
I had an original version where Luffy was allowed to join the group straight away after the Guard Armor fight, but after a suggestion from FictionReader98 and a fair amount of consideration for said idea, I realized that it would be more interesting and funny, and more in line with Donald's character :) Thanks again for the idea, man!
If anyone is wondering why I refer to Donald and Goofy by name before either Sora or Luffy even knows their names, I did it because the readers already know who they are and it would have been awkward to just write "the duck" or "the dog" in reference to them; during the fight, at least. I dunno, it just looks weird to me.
You'll notice I only showed where Usopp was sent to in this chapter, as opposed to him and everyone else. This is because the chapter was getting fairly long as it was, and I didn't want to keep everyone waiting much longer than I already have. Not to worry, though, I'll be putting in one scene per chapter of where each Straw Hat has ended up until all of them are covered. For instance, Zoro next chapter, Robin the following chapter, and so on. I may even do like FictionReader98 in his "Quest to be the Greatest" story and put in little pre-chapter interludes showing small vignettes of what the Straw Hats are up to in their respective worlds before the Keyblade group reaches them, similar to the single-panel comics Oda does for each chapter of One Piece.
That's about all I've got to say for now. Look forward to the next one! (I PROMISE it won't take nearly as long this time…)
Techniques used in this chapter:
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 Muchi: Translation: Gum Gum Whip. Luffy stretches out his leg out in a sweeping side kick that covers a very large area.
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.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy have finally set off on their journey. Unfortunately, Luffy has been left behind… or has he? What are these mysterious figures planning? Where has Usopp ended up? And can he keep from going crazy long enough for the Keyblade group to find him? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of Heart of a Pirate!
BONUS SCENE!
Leon and Yuffie had met back up with each other on a balcony in the Third District. Yuffie had originally been traveling with Aerith in their search for the lead Heartless, defending bystanders from the smaller ones along the way. However, somewhere along the line, the two of them had gotten separated. Yuffie wasn't worried, though; even though Aerith's specialty was in healing and support magic, she was still no slouch with her combat staff. She could hold her own until they found and destroyed the lead Heartless.
Hearing sounds of fighting, the two of them looked down upon the battlefield that this section of the Third District had become. Sora and Luffy, along with the envoys from Disney Castle, were doing battle with a large, armored Heartless. They had just witnessed Goofy destroying one of its hands with his shield immediately after Donald had frozen said hand with his magic. Sora and Luffy cheered for their success, only for the armor to move back on the offensive. It quickly moved to kick Donald with a boot, but Luffy stretched out his arm to snare said boot, surprising Yuffie, as she had not yet seen Luffy's rubber abilities. However, that was quickly dashed as Luffy found himself being swung around in a circle by the boot, stopping only when he let go and smacked into one of the surrounding walls in a rather comical manner.
"You got your butt kicked by that guy?" asked Yuffie with a skeptical look on her face. Leon glared at her, but said nothing.