My PC blew up, I wish I was being hyperbolic but no. The PSu went kablooey and I had to get it replaced, thankfully nothing got lost. Speaking of which, let's get onto the story without further delay!
When last we left our heroes, one of their impromptu allies had thrown a particularly heavy rock at a random pirate mook's face. "F&$#!" The results were as expected, especially when a follow-up attack of rotten eggs filled with chili powder landed perfectly, adding salt and other spices directly to the mook's bleeding wound.
The poor bastard did not get up again for the remainder of the fight.
We started off with rocks and sticks, primitive projectiles meant to cause injury and irritation which we deliberately weaned off after a minute to give the pirates a false sense that they had room to advance, which the fools took with gusto, wanting revenge against the townspeople that had hurt them.
Once they were about two-thirds of the way up, we released the oil. As soon as it dripped down to the bottom, we released the flames. A spark of flint set dozens of pirates ablaze and blew them back down from where they came. Thankfully, the island's entrance was naturally aired out, and none of the burning flesh smell made it to us.
Only a handful of the pirates dumb enough to charge us were smart enough to escape the oil before rolling the fire off on the ground or diving into the ocean for relief. The rest weren't so lucky and slid down to the bottom, unmoving as the flames ate them up.
"Remember that these bastards would do the same and worse to you if they had the chance, don't pity them," I said, trying to rally the townspeople so that they didn't falter from the admittedly brutal sight inherent to our chosen method of defense. "Focus on surviving the day, then you can worry about the poor pirates who picked the wrong island to attack."
My words seem to do the trick and the townspeople's worry and disgust turn to anger once more. Good, they'd need it for the next step. Most of the rabble were taken care of but that left about half a dozen smarter mooks left along with the cat brothers and the hypnotist.
"We've captured your captain and neutered your little crew of alley cats, surrender and we'll let the rest of you escape unharmed. Keep fighting and you'll get no mercy from us!" I shouted my ultimatum at the remaining pirates below, who at this point were heavily weighing their options… At least until Jango proved his stupidity once more, though in the opposite fashion that he did in canon. "Do you think we're just a bunch of idiots? There's no way you captured the captain, if anything it's probably part of another one of his plans!"
This…This dumbass is going to get himself and his crew killed. "We have his weapon as proof, here, you can have them back." I toss them Kuro's cat claw blades. That set off the rest of the rabble and sent them running to their ship.
"Damn cowards, he's lying through his teeth about capturing the captain! Captain Kuro's weapons are famous, so making a cheap knockoff wouldn't be difficult. You idiots just made our chances slip further!" He was half right I suppose, but at this point, it hardly mattered. The only pirates left to fight were Jango himself and the Nyaban brothers.
Strong by East Blue standards, sure. But they were up against a small army who hadn't suffered so much as a scratch. I make a show of pulling out my pistol and aiming it specifically at Buchi for what should be obvious reasons. "Surrender." It was not a suggestion.
"Don't underestimate us, we aren't pushovers, we're top pirates!" Jango yelled, taking a step forward. Bang! Buchi was shot in the gut.
"W-why me, I didn't move?!" He croaked out, holding his wound.
"Easier target, this shit is smooth bore and I need all the advantages I can get." I freely admit, making more than a fair amount of villagers sweatdrop. "Hey, give me a break. I'm not exactly a marksman. If it wasn't obvious, tactics are my schtick." I admitted while Buchi tended to his wound out in the open, not taking cover at all…
Bang! "This almost feels like bullying," I said after putting a second hole in the cat man. His brother flew into a rage and rushed at us to attack as Jango took the time to take Buchi away and work his magic with the unconscious members of his crew. "Well, it's one against…Like forty, get 'em ladies and gents! Go for piercing rather than slashes, he's thinner than he looks."
As it would turn out, a somewhat superior combatant reliant on sneak attacks did not do well against overwhelming numbers. "I didn't think this through!" Sham exclaimed as he got his face kicked in by a particularly angry old man.
"...Maybe I shouldn't have annoyed these people so often, I got off lucky." Usopp shuddered in place at the beatdown happening in front of him. Meanwhile, Kaya just smiled and threw the occasional rock at the poor bastard. She was still working through Kuro's betrayal and a bit of violence helped with that.
Sensing a chance, I nudged Usopp and pointed to his slingshot and then Kaya. "Golden opportunity mate, help her let off some steam by teaching her." Usopp jumped at the suggestion and stared at me slack-jawed. "Just believe in yourself brother, or failing that, believe in the me who believes in you." I push him towards her and stand back to watch the sparks fly.
Hmm, looks like Jango did the smart thing and hypnotized his mooks to take projectiles for him as he bailed out into the forest to the side of the village island's entrance. Using the bodies of his crew as stepping stones to get over the sheer cliff. Cowardly, but smart.
On his own, he's no danger so long as none of our own go after him. So long as we stuck together, he couldn't hypnotize enough of us to matter as the rest would just pile onto him. All the villagers were here for the defense effort, so there was no problem letting him go for now.
Well, unless he found Kuro. But that was more dangerous for him than it was for us.
About fifteen minutes later, with Jango
"Gotta find the captain, gotta find the captain, gotta find the captain and a ship to get the hell out of here!" The hypnotist ran faster than he'd ever run before. Sweating his ass off while desperately searching for his one chance out of this situation."Yes! Lucky me, Captain! I've come to save you, we gotta get out of here, this place is crazy!"
"You fool, did you think they'd leave me here unguarded? You deserve what comes next." Kuro spat, his head down in defeat.
A confused "Huh?" was all Jango could say before he got his brains scrambled courtesy of Wado Ichimonji's hilt. "Disgraceful," Zoro said, re-sheathing his treasured blade.
"I know, but you take what you can get as a pirate." Kuro spat out, disgusted by his first mate.
"I was talking about you. Real captains bring out the best in their crew, only the pathetically arrogant waste their time putting others down when they could be doing something productive. You're a failed pirate through and through." Zoro drawled before knocking out Kuro too, he was tired of his complaining.
"I guess having both of us here was overkill, too bad, I bet the others are having fun." Luffy grumbled but never lost his smile, oh well, it was just a bunch of mooks. Not much fun for him or Zoro anyway. "Let's spar for a bit, Zoro!" There were plenty of other ways to pass the time.
Back with the ambush
"This is quite the haul. If you guys don't mind, we'll take these two and the hypnotists. You guys can keep Kuro. That will split their crew's collective bounty 50/50. Sounds good?" It made sense that the village got to keep the biggest catch, especially since it was the man who tricked them for so long. Plus, we were getting a ship out of the deal, so it was still slanted in our favor.
"Young man, the fact that we're all alive and unharmed today was thanks to you and your friends. I'm tempted to give you the bastard butler too, but I won't lie and say we aren't interested in having our own revenge. Thank you for being generous with us." I shrugged, they could see it however they wanted to. I just wanted to make sure that we had allies on this island.
"You're lucky that this score is as large as it is, if it were any other situation I'd beat you black and blue for leaving sixteen million belly behind." Our money-loving navigator muttered. Though I could tell she was just being playful, the once overwhelming urge to take every last belly was now suppressed by the new hope burning within her.
She was closer to freeing herself and her village than ever before.
"Tell ya what, our next stop will be a luxury restaurant at sea, use a bit of that sixteen million belly haul to treat yourself." I attempt to cheer her up while segueing into the next leg of our journey.
"Hmm, I've heard of it but never where it was, do you have the coordinates?" Looks like the Baratie was quite famous.
"Nope, we'll meet our guides on the way there, just sail wherever you were thinking of before I spoke up." I stick my tongue out, messing with people like this was so fun…Less so when they threw random buckets at my head. "You know, there are ways to shoot back without getting physical," I said playfully with a glare.
"Think of it as part of your training, what did you call it, the Color of Observation?" Cheeky minx.
"Don't tempt me to train you too Nami. You're going to need it eventually if you want to fulfill your dream." After all, the world government had a vested interest in controlling information as much as possible, which included stopping accurate geographical information about certain places from making it to the general public.
"Ugh, don't remind me. I'm not looking forward to that at all…Now about that restaurant-"
One hour later
"Thanks for the help folks, none of us are exactly carpenters or craftsmen on this crew. We'll make sure to dump these idiots off at the next navy front we find and we'll make good use of the fruits of your hard work for years to come." I praise the village workers who were putting the finishing touches on the small prison they built into the Going Merry to temporarily house our captives.
"No problem lad, it's the least we could do after all the help you gave us. Just make sure to keep them alive until you hand them over, I hear the world government takes a percentage off the bounty if they're dead." Clearly, they didn't give a damn if the pirates lived or died. The good carpenter of Syrup Village just wanted their friends to get a good deal.
"We'll make sure of it. And you guys keep an eye on the cat, don't take any chances. He's a loser in the grand scheme of things but he's still a dangerous pirate of these seas." They nodded seriously, aware of how dangerous he still was. "If he gets uppity don't be afraid to break his legs, bye now!" I left our departure on a high note, our crew waved goodbye as we sailed off.
"Ah, it's good to be out at sea again. And to think I used to avoid the ocean like the plague. Speaking of diseases, I should prepare some lemonade for our future guests." I found it better to wait out of sight until major plot beats came up, it was just a way for me to minimize the butterfly effect as much as possible.
BOOM, CRACK! And there went our cannons, it should be about that time.
"Careful boys, friendly fire is engaged," I say while preparing a table for us all, a cold lemonade for each, plus two more. Suddenly, frantic yelling could be heard from the direction they fired the cannon. "Luffy, give them a hand, it's the least you and Usopp can do after shooting at them."
After the two bounty hunters were dragged by the collar onto our ship and were pacified by Zoro, I handed Johnny two lemonades and told him to drip the contents of one of them into Yosaku's mouth. "It should help fix him up, but he should rest for a few days afterward. Scurvy is a bastard like that."
"Sorry about the cannonball thing, think of this as my peace offering. And maybe we can go grab a bite to eat on the high seas to celebrate the reunion between you and Zoro. Know of any good sea restaurants around?" Crew chef, here we come.
Finally done with this chapter, about time. My new one will be for my MHA Gamer fic so you can all look forward to that. It's been a crazy year folks, I wish that each of you have a more stable one than I've had. Until next time.