One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two-
"Our best bet is to put our strongest scores in one, three, and five" the blond eventually decided after a moment's thought. "Question is, who do we want to start out with?" he frowned as he realized that he now had to determine who exactly our best players were.
"Put me in two rounds, okay" Luffy grinned. "Please! Please!" he practically begged, impatiently bouncing in excitement the second the blond didn't respond.
"I'll think about it if you shut up and leave me alone for a second..." Sanji grumbled as he attempted to wave the rubber man off. "Since he's so full of energy, I'll put Luffy as Point Getter in round one and then again in round six" he concluded, causing the captain to cheer.
"Congrats, captain" I grinned, throwing an arm around Luffy and ruffling his hair as he happily laughed.
"Hey, Robin, looks like it's best to put you in round three—that okay?" Sanji asked.
"Sure, you seem to understand this better than anyone else" Robin nodded, clearly having no complaints about her placement.
"Thank you—wait, what if the other team has the same idea?" Sanji suddenly frowned as he realized that he now had to take into consideration what the opposing team planned on doing.
"Okay, come on! Hurry up!" Luffy impatiently frowned.
"Alright, I'm done!" Sanji irritably snapped as he finally wrote down who would go where. "Luffy has round one and six, Nami has two, Usopp has three, Robin has been moved to four, and Skylar has five" he huffed.
"Hey, hold on a second—why do you get to make all the big decisions without asking me?" Zoro frowned when he realized that the blond had never once consulted him in the placements of everyone.
"Huh?" Sanji blinked. "Cause the coach makes all the decisions, not the manager, and I'm the coach" he explained with a dismissive wave as if it were that simple.
"Why do you get to have the awesome job?! Why'd I get stuck following your stupid orders?!" Zoro angrily snapped.
"Obviously because I'm a genius and your brain is so rotten you're growing mold on your head" Sanji rolled his eyes, causing me to burst out into a fit of laughter.
"Don't laugh!" Zoro snapped before glaring daggers at the chef. "If you think you're a genius then your ego is as twisted as your eyebrows!" my laughter only grew in volume as I grabbed Luffy's shoulder and held my stomach while leaning over.
"At least your comebacks are getting better" I snorted, causing the captain to giggle as I wiped at my teary eyes.
"By the way, there's one more very important rule we need to go over" Itomimizu suddenly spoke up.
"Knock it off! I can't hear him!" Nami snapped at the two fighting.
"If any of the racers go in reverse or leave the course for whatever reasons, they will be immediately disqualified from the game" Itomimizu explained as Sanji handed our roster in. "Starting before the whistle means disqualification as well—okay, looks like everything is set!" he brightened once both rosters were handed to him. "In the first round—oh ho!" he exclaimed in amusement. "Coming in strong from the start, it's Straw Hat Luffy vs. our very own Porche! The anticipation is killing me!" he grinned.
"So, without further ado, let's get this thing started!" he announced.
"Hey look!" someone in the crowd suddenly pointed, drawing all eyes to the starting line.
"You're kidding me..." Nami groaned.
"No way!" Usopp gawked.
"You know, maybe we should have taken this possibility into account" I said, tilting my head.
"Whoa! This is kind of hard" Luffy flinched as he struggled to stand and keep his balance after putting his skates on.
"Please, someone, tell me I'm seeing things" Sanji desperately begged, not wanting to accept the truth that our captain really couldn't skate.
"No! Don't make me look—really scary! Make it go away!" Usopp frantically cried as he turned away, covering his eyes as the captain finally loss balance and tumbled right over, causing the crowd to erupt with laughter.
"Well, this is unexpected, the Straw Hat doesn't know how to skate!" Itomimizu chuckled. "And according to the roster, he's supposed to play Point Getter in two rounds! Is the game over before it even started?" he asked.
"You can race us as many times as you like!" Foxy laughed.
"Now what are we going to do?" Zoro frowned.
"Wait a second, if we can't count on Luffy, then that means that everyone's going to expect me to win the third round!" Usopp cried in despair when he realized that he now had to actually put effort into winning his round and not fully rely on Luffy and everyone else to win theirs.
"Both teams have finally made it to the starting line, but I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be much of a race" Itomimizu admitted. "At any rate, let's see what happens—shall we?" he grinned as we helped push our captain to the starting line.
"Why'd you ask to be in two rounds if you don't even know how to skate?!" Usopp snapped.
"It's not my fault! That was before I found out that skating is the hardest thing in the world!" Luffy childishly huffed as he nearly fell back down if it wasn't for the sharpshooter quickly catching him before he could.
"You mean to tell me you didn't even know if you could skate until just now? That's one hell of a leap you took to decide on being in two rounds!" I frowned.
"We're doomed! It's all over now!" Nami wailed in despair.
"Don't give up just yet, it's our job to pick up the slack" Robin said.
"She's right, there's no use getting frustrated with Luffy now" I nodded.
"Come on, guys, let's go! Players on the track!" the referee ordered, motioning for everyone to get into place.
"What? Not you again!" Sanji frowned, instantly recognizing the man. "If you pull any more stunts, you're getting a boot to the face!" he threateningly growled.
"We don't need stunts this time, we can beat you with both hands tied behind our backs!" Foxy boasted.
"And time for the third game—the Run Roller Round! Will Porche breeze through an easy victory or will rookie skater, Straw Hat, make an improvement?" Itomimizu dramatically asked.
"On your marks...get set…!" the referee blew his whistle.
"And she's off!" Itomimizu announced as Porche shot forward, leaving Luffy behind to eat her dust. "Porche tears down the court with tremendous speed—now let's check back in on our challenger, Luffy" he smiled as all eyes turned to our captain. "He fell on his face! He didn't even make it across the starting line!" he exclaimed the second he saw that the rubber man hadn't made it very far.
"Certainly is hardheaded, isn't he?" Robin remarked, watching how the captain desperately tried to follow after the woman despite his inability to keep his balance.
"Seems so..." I sighed, crossing my arms.
"Stupid shoes!" Luffy irritably growled as he started to remove his skates—no longer wanting to wear them.
"Removing your shoes will result in instant disqualification" Itomimizu informed us before the rubber man could succeed in his task.
"Crap!" Luffy cursed, quickly removing his hands from the skates and left them alone. "If I make it over there, I can grab the rail..." he soon muttered to himself as he carefully tried to inch forward on his skates...only to immediately fall back down the second he took a single step forward.
"Twenty seconds have passed, it's time to let the Defenders loose!" Itomimizu announced as the second whistle was blown.
"Hey! He's about to get pinned—somebody, help him!" Sanji shouted when he saw that Mashikaku's gigantic body was now falling straight toward Luffy.
"Not me!" Usopp fearfully cried, flinching as the giant suddenly bounced back due to Luffy inflating his own body like a balloon.
"Gum Gum Balloon?!" we gaped before grinning in praise at our captain's quick thinking.
"That's it! Let's go, Usopp!" Nami huffed as she skated forward, motioning for the sharpshooter to follow.
"What?" Usopp owlishly blinked, watching as the ginger suddenly began to kick our captain's inflated body forward.
"Listen, Luffy, you got to keep holding your breath—we're going to roll you around the track" Nami explained and as I got ready to follow and help the two, I stopped when Robin suddenly used her Devil Fruit abilities to sprout multiple arms around the track and used them to help guide the captain around the course much quicker and more efficiently.
"Nice" I grinned. "Way to go, Robin!" I called back to her as I skated ahead and began following after our navigator and sharpshooter.
"What incredible speed! You can hardly call it skating, but he's definitely catching up to Porche!" Itomimizu praised. "Amazing! This is certainly the most bizarre comeback I have ever seen—but wait, the Foxy Devils have lined up some powerful defense!" he exclaimed as I finally caught up with Nami and Usopp. Curiously sneaking a peek toward Luffy, I watched as Robin tossed him over the opposing team that had attempted to block his path. "Oh! But a fancy flying maneuver sends him sailing over Mashikaku—it's only a matter of time before he catches up to Porches!"
"Alright, Robin! Nice!" Sanji praised.
"Not so fast!" Girarin sneered as he jumped up after the inflated man—blades suddenly extending from his arm as he did so. I blanched at the sight, flinching as our captain was sent flying into the crowd like a deflated balloon after being struck by the point of the Fishman's arm blades.
"What a turn of events! Straw Hat Luffy has found his way out of bounds!" Itomimizu shouted in shock, causing us to come to a screeching halt as we watched with wide eyes and slacked jaws how our captain flew around—all the air he had been holding coming right out and violently throwing him around.
"Oh no!" Nami gasped.
"Shit!" I cursed.
"Was that a sword?" Usopp frowned. "Luffy, are you okay?!" he worriedly shouted.
"These things?" Girarin questioned, holding up his arms and showing off the blades that extended from them. "Don't worry—here look, it's fine. They're nothing but show" he assured us, causing me to sigh in relief.
"I…I don't feel so good..." Luffy weakly groaned.
A/N: Enjoy
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