One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter Fifty-One-
"Well, I can only assume that this means that it's my turn to show you what I can do—don't worry, I don't plan on using any party tricks" I said, taking an offensive stance.
"Is that so?" Miss Doublefinger chuckled. "Well good, it was beginning to get old" she grinned before rushing right at me as I blocked the attack she sent my way. For a while, I stayed on the defense, opting to just dodge and block her attacks until I was finally able to spot an opening. Seizing the opportunity, I lunged...only to have her start dodging my attacks as well. It didn't take long for me to revert back to defending myself when she started to lash out once more.
"Only going to defend yourself? What a shame" she mocked.
"There's nothing wrong with being on the defense—especially when your opponent has such harsh offensive attacks" I defensively bit back, suddenly reminded of a certain memory.
"Come on, there's nothing wrong with defending yourself. If anything, it helps in giving you time to come up with a good strategy while in a tough situation, even if said strategy is just running away."
"I don't know, Cloud, I feel like playing the defense can also be kind of dangerous in its own way. Besides, the older boys in town say that playing defense all the time is something only a weak person does?"
"Like those dumbasses know anything—playing it safe doesn't make you weak, it makes you smart. What's more important? Proving your strength or keeping your life?"
"Well...I mean...I don't really—"
"Don't answer that."
"Don't get too distracted now, you might lose your life!" Miss Doublefinger sneered as she lashed out.
'Shit! Now's not the time to be reminiscing' I flinched as I tried to dodge the spike that just barely graze my neck instead of piercing right through it. Jumping away, I quickly shook my head as I tried my best to clear my mind before finally finding a decent enough opening that allowed me to take the chance to go and hide with Nami instead of charging headfirst and risking getting myself killed due to my hazy mind. My thoughts were too jumbled at the moment, it'd be dangerous to keep fighting.
"We need a plan, now" I gasped out as I flopped down beside the ginger, wiping away the thin blood trail that now ran down the length of my neck.
"I'm trying..." Nami muttered, harshly waving at me as she busied herself with examining that piece of paper from earlier. "What's this...?" she quietly asked, curiously tilting of her head.
"What? Going to bore her to death with more of your party tricks?" I sarcastically asked.
"Now's not the time for your sass, missy!" she irritably snapped.
"Now's not the time for your party tricks, woman!" I snapped right back.
"So I'm going to kill you both now, okay" Miss Doublefinger suddenly said from above.
"How is she doing that?" Nami gasped the moment we glanced upward and spotted the woman stuck to the underside of the stone bridge above us.
"My question is why?" I asked. "We already knew she was here so there wasn't any point in trying to sneak up on us" I sweat dropped before flinching when she suddenly released her feet from the stone bridge and curled her body up into a ball of spikes.
"Shit!" Nami and I cursed, jumping out of the way and letting the barrels we had been hiding behind take the impact of her attack.
"Too close" Nami whimpered. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa—wait! Hold on!" she frantically cried, holding her hands up in defense the second the woman started to spin her body around in circles. Snatching up my wrist, she started to run as the spinning woman finally came barreling towards us at full speed. "I said hold on! Just a minute—can't you give a girl a minute?!
"We're not ready yet, come on—ceasefire! No fair! Time out—stop!" she babbled, practically pleading for the woman chasing us to stop.
"She's not listening—there's no point in complaining, just run!" I shouted.
"I have an idea!" Nami suddenly gasped as she rushed the two of us toward an open window and jumped right through it. Miss Doublefinger, unfortunately, was quick to follow close behind.
"This is it, time for you both to get skewered!" she sneered.
"No thank you" Nami responded.
"So, what is this—hey!" I cried out in embarrassment when Nami suddenly ripped my robe right off my body without any warning along with her own before tossing them both toward the spinning woman that was charging right at us. Instantly did the fabric become entangled within her spikes and obscure her vision, causing her to overshoot past the both of us as we quickly duck down. "What was that for? Do you not realize how awful it's going to be fighting out in that sun in this thing?!" I frowned.
"What else was I supposed to do?" Nami quickly argued. "It worked, she missed us" she defended.
"Ture, but…" I huffed as I stared down at the dancer girl outfit, now wishing I had just put in a bit more energy to change out of it back at the ship instead of leaving it on. "It's embarrassing..." I eventually admitted with a grumble, not liking the amount of skin that was being shown both because of the intense desert sun and the overall embarrassment of being dressed so silly. I'm sure on an actual dancer girl this outfit would look absolutely stunning, but I felt no different from a child playing dress up in them.
"Now's not the time to be embarrassed, wait until we meet back up with Zoro then you can be embarrassed!" Nami huffed, causing my blush to darken as I now started stumbling over my words. "Come on, let's get out of here before she wakes up" she grinned, helping me up off the ground as we climbed out of the house via the ruined window.
"I won't lie though" I suddenly spoke up once we were back out in the open and away from the woman. "It was indeed a pretty good plan to use the robes to blind and tangle her up" I praised, causing Nami's smile to widen before she went back to looking down at that sheet of instructions from earlier.
"Where was it?" she quietly asked herself, scanning the sheet up and down as if looking for one line in particular. "I saw it—there was something that looked useful somewhere in these Clima-Tact instructions, dammit! Where?" she frowned as I peered over her shoulder and started to skim over the sentences that were written down before bursting out into a fit of laughter the second I caught sight of one particular sentence near the bottom of the sheet. "I'm going to kill you!" I heard her lowly growl once she too spotted that same sentence.
"Boy, whoever wrote these instructions really knew where to put the important stuff" I giggled.
"On the back?" Nami huffed, ignoring my giggly self as she unfolded the paper before gasping upon seeing the new set of instructions that she discovered.
"Let's see, where could you both be hiding this time, little kittens?" we suddenly heard Miss Doublefinger ask, making it clear that she had finally recovered and was quickly catching back up with us. Upon hearing this, Nami only laughed as she ripped her clothes in an attempt to make them a bit easier to move around in.
"I'm through with running and hiding!" she proclaimed as she now confidently confronted the woman. "I may not look like it, but during my eight years as a thief, I've survived all kinds of crises all by myself! You can't treat me like some ordinary girl—now bring it on, hussy!" she huffed.
"Amazing how discovering new instructions can turn a person's lack of confidence around" I smiled, impressed by this complete one-eighty in her behavior.
"My, my, kitty's found her claws" Miss Doublefinger chuckled. "Well then, show me what you got" she grinned.
"You got it—taste my real power!" Nami shouted. It didn't feel right to barge right in and potentially steal the spotlight now that she had become confident in herself as that could possibly ruin this newfound faith she now had in herself, thus I opted to keep to the side. Ready to jump in at any moment in case anything were to go wrong or become too much for her. Hold up a section of her Clima-Tact, Nami started to blow into it and create small, red bubbles.
"What's this? It's so warm" Miss Doublefinger remarked as I tilted my head, now watching as Nami took the next section of her Clima-Tact and repeated the same process as before, but this time causing a blue bubble to appear. "Ah, how pleasant" the older woman blissfully sighed
"What are you trying to do? Are you just testing them out?" I frowned in confusion, not fully understanding how a bunch of bubbles were supposed to help us as Nami repeated the same process once again with the final section of her Clima-Tact which caused a bubble of static to come out.
"Oh my, that tingled" Miss Doublefinger remarked, almost sounding amused.
"Then why write them down!" Nami suddenly snapped, clutching the paper of instructions in her hands.
"Oh...so they were just more party tricks" I sweat dropped.
"Look, are we done here?" Miss Doublefinger boredly asked while turning the bottoms of her feet into spiked heels as she now rushed towards Nami. "Soaring Stinger!" she gave chase the second the ginger took off running.
"Well, there goes that confidence" I heaved as I quickly took after the two.
"Please, please! Something that I can use for battle—not for parties! Some real techniques!" Nami cried out as she desperately read through the sheet of instructions once more. "Something I can fight with!" she frantically begged before screaming in pain as a spike suddenly pierced through her ankle. I clenched my jaw upon hearing her cry as I skitted to a halt and glared at the woman who seemed far too focused on Nami. Realizing that she was distracted, the only thing I could think to do was rush right at her and take her by surprise...
Even though that hadn't really worked out well last time.
Despite that little-known fact, I still rushed at her anyway...only to cry out in pain and fall back.
"Fuck!" I hissed, grasping at my bleeding stomach from where she had swirled around and slashed at it with one of her spiked heels. Luckily she hadn't cut deep enough to display my organs, but it was still enough to where it hurt immensely.
"My, that little trick of yours didn't work last time—what made you believe it would work this time?" she mockingly chuckled.
"Shut up!" I snapped as I heavily breathed. "I wasn't thinking straight—I'll admit that, so you don't have to rub it in my face that you got me!" this only made her laugh harder as she looked between Nami and me, clearly taking great pleasure in the looks of pain that were painted across both of our faces.
"Sorry, girls, but I've had enough with these games of yours" she suddenly grinned. "Stinger Step!" lifting one of her legs, multiple spikes came shooting out of the bottom of her foot. A sadistic smile now tugged at her lips as she prepared to smash her foot down onto Nami, who she apparently still wanted to be her first victim out of the two of us. The navigator reacted quickly as she tried to strike the woman with her Clima-Tact...only for her attack to be blocked. Taking this short chance, I stood up and rushed at the woman once again—stumbling a bit from the pain in my stomach right as I slashed at her.
The cut wasn't clean or neat—it was messy and only really hit her side instead of her back like I had originally wanted it to, but it was still a cut that hurt enough to cause her to reel back. It was still a cut that was sharp and deep enough to make her hiss in pain as she jerked back and away. I quickly caught myself before I completely lost my balance as I now stumbled right next to Nami before straightening my posture, now holding my stomach as I watched as Miss Doublefinger grabbed her side in pain. It was at that moment that a look of pure hatred crossed her features as she stared down at the cut in utter disgust.
"It's not neat and I won't lie, it is rather dirty to attack from behind like I've been trying to do" I admitted, aware that my way of fighting wasn't exactly noble in any way...then again, it never has been to begin with if I'm being honest. "But this seems to be the only way I had any chance of causing any real damage to you without fully risking the chance of being impaled" I glared as Nami now took this chance to throw the distracted woman back and away from us. She did this by dislodging and connecting the first sections of her Clima-Tact. "Nice" I grinned as she looked rather surprised like she hadn't really planned on doing that.
"I see!" she suddenly gasped after processing what had just happened. "The heat and cool ball joined together—when they stopped spinning, the bubbles hit each other creating an airflow and generating a powerful wind! Brilliant, Usopp!" she praised as she quickly caught the two pieces that came right back to her almost like how you'd expect a boomerang to. "Are you alright, that looks like a nasty cut?" she worriedly frowned as she now turned her attention towards me.
"I'm fine, what about you? How's your ankle doing?" I asked, waving away her worry as I looked down in concern at the amount of blood that was flowing from the hole that had been pierced straight through her ankle.
"It's fine" she weakly smiled as I only gave her a skeptical look in return. "I'll be fine—the bleeding will stop, eventually..." she assured me, mumbling that last part more to herself than to me. Shaking her head, she looked back down at the sheet of instructions, only to frown as her eyes seemed to scan over one sentence in particular. "He doesn't really get it, but let's see here..." she huffed.
"What kind of weapon is that?" Miss Doublefinger irritably asked, pushing herself up onto her feet as she clutched her wounded side. "Don't you dare turn your back on the enemy in the middle of a battle—you didn't value your life too highly!" she suddenly sneered when she saw that neither of us were paying attention to her.
"Nami!" I gasped, startled by the spikes that were suddenly piercing through her skull, neck, and chest before I even had a chance to react. My chest tightened as my mind struggled to process what I was seeing before I screamed when a delicate hand was suddenly placed on my shoulder.
"I changed the air density by using a cool ball, the temperature difference caused a fraction of light known as..." Nami stopped and smiled as she stepped up beside me while the mirage version of herself slowly disappeared.
"A mirage?" Miss Doublefinger gasped. "No way, at this distance" she growled, jaw now clenched in utter frustration.
"You almost gave me a heart attack there—warn me next time you do something like that!" I scolded, smacking Nami's arm as she gave a small laugh.
"Yeah, sorry about that, but it was a last-minute plan" she quickly explained. "But hey," she grinned, "I'm not dead, so that's a good thing, right?"
"Yeah, guess that weapon of yours is good for other things besides party tricks" I sighed with a smile.
"Yep, when it's used properly, it can make miracles" Nami nodded. "I say this is the perfect weapon for me" she admitted, smiling down at her Clima-Tact before looking back toward me with a firm nod as we got into an offensive stance.
"Okay, spiky, we're ready when you are" I grinned.
"Now, why don't you just give up?" Nami nodded.
-Later-
"Well, that didn't last long..." I sweat dropped as we were once again back to running away from the woman attacking us just like before.
"No!" Nami frantically cried, dodging each jab that was thrown toward us. Recklessly would she toss down any barrels that were nearby in hopes of slowing the woman behind us down in her chase before finally, we took refuge behind a wall. Heaving a tired sigh, I dropped to my knees and dragged my hand down my face.
"Nami, we can't keep running—we have to do something" I said. "All this movement isn't going to do us any help with these wounds" I quickly reminded her the moment I felt the cut on my stomach start to painfully throb, clearly irritated by all this movement and the specks of sand that were getting into it.
"I know, I know" she panted, thickly swallowing as she once again pulled out the instructions to her Clima-Tact. Already was she quickly starting to scan the sentences that were written down in an attempt to find something useful. "Tornado Tempo...?" she muttered.
"What's that? Will it be of any help to us?" I asked as she only hummed in thought.
A/N: Enjoy
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