One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Three-
"You can come down now!" Usopp shouted up to the deflated man who was now draped over the branch of a nearby tree.
"Try not to vomit!" I added when I saw just how queasy he looked up there after his unexpected flight.
"As expected, the winner of the first round is the lovely Porche!" Itomimizu grinned as the whistle was blown once more to signal the end of the race. "As you know, that means one point for the Foxy Devils" he reminded everyone.
"I hate skating!" Luffy angrily shouted, still up in the tree.
"Shut up and get down here!" Zoro snapped.
"Now, let's move right along" Itomimizu cleared his throat. "In the second round matchup, the Straw Hats Point Getter is Nami, the nefarious navigator—she'll be up against the king of defense, Mashikaku, everyone's favorite human wall!" he announced.
"Round two, on your marks...get set…!" and just like last time, the whistle was blown. Nami was the first to shoot ahead, quick to leave her opponent behind.
"And they're off! Or at least Nami is—Mashikaku on the other hand...well, to put it nicely, let's say he's taking his time" Itomimizu said as the giant slowly started to move forward. "It looks like the heartless witch might be able to win this without any conniving this time" he chuckled as his own little jab.
"Am I missing something? Why is he moving so slowly?" Usopp frowned.
"Would it possibly have something to do with his height?" I questioned, watching as the sharpshooter shook his head—not wanting to fully believe that it was the man's height that was making him so slow considering how fast the men from the last round were. "Maybe his age?" I muttered, taking note of how the man did look to be quite older compared to the rest of us.
"Forget about him, Nami! Just keep moving!" Usopp shouted, seeing no reason to dwell on the man's odd movements once he saw how far the navigator now was.
"Right!" Nami nodded as the whistle was blown once again.
"And there's the second whistle" Itomimizu announced.
"Let's see what we can do" Usopp said, motioning for Robin and I to follow him. "Wait, why aren't they moving?" he asked, instantly skidding to a halt when he noticed that the other Defenders weren't making any moves to move.
"If you think you can get past us, be my guest" Jube cockily grinned.
"You want to step up to these babies?" Girarin taunted as he showed off his blades once more.
"Little late to be making a roadblock, we're the ones in the lead this time..." Sanji grumbled as my eyes scanned the opposing team's faces for any signs that they were possibly joking.
"Something doesn't feel right..." I muttered, unnerved by how laid back they were being as they patiently stood there and seemingly waited for...something. I don't know what that something was, but it was clear that they were waiting for something in particular to happen. They had to be because there was no other reason for them to be this cocky despite us now being in the lead. Letting my gaze curiously drift from team member to team member, my eyes soon landed on Jacob—at a glance, he looked to be your typical muscle head no different from the rest of the crowd saved for his looks which was something he clearly had going for him compared to most of the men on his crew. I couldn't help but roll my eyes and scoff the moment I caught sight of his cocky grin which only seemed to grow as he winked the moment he caught my staring.
"If you guys don't move then I will!" Luffy huffed...before slamming face-first into the ground the minute he took one step forward.
"Take it easy, Luffy, we got this one" Usopp assured our captain, not seeing a need for the rubber man to push himself so hard. "Look how slow he is, there's no way Nami's going to lose against that guy!" he grinned as Nami came skating up behind us.
"Is that what you think?" Porche giggled as a bouquet of flowers suddenly popped out of the top of the baton she was carrying. "Flower Hypnosis!" a purple smoke instantly came pouring out, I felt my nostrils practically burn as the smog wormed its way inside them, causing me to cough.
"What the..." my eyelids drooped as my vision started to fade—black spots now dancing all around it as the world started to tilt.
-Later-
"What happened?" Nami yawned, sluggishly setting up along with the rest of us as we started to regain consciousness.
"I don't know..." I stretched, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I looked around in a confused daze. It took my brain a second to recall where we were and what we were doing...and yet, any memory of what had happened before we had fallen asleep was nothing more than a mere blank—a hazy blur really.
"We didn't just fall asleep in the middle of the track, did we?" Usopp nervously asked, already starting to panic as he began frantically looking around.
"I'm not sure" Robin responded, just as confused as the rest of us.
"Luffy! Guys, wake up!" Usopp suddenly screamed once he realized that we had indeed fallen asleep in the middle of the track after spotting our still snoozing captain.
"But they're in the same place as before" Nami pointed out, causing us to look toward the opposing team and see that everything was indeed still the same as it had been when we passed out. "Right?" she asked as if needing reassurance that what she was seeing was correct.
"Yeah" Robin agreed.
"I mean, that's what it looks like..." I slowly nodded, brows furrowing in confusion as I found it odd how none of them had taken the chance to move after knocking us out.
"Nami, hurry! You're about to lose the race!" Chopper cried out in a panic, frantically waving his little arms as he jumped up and down. "You got to get moving, now!"
"Five…four…" Itomimizu started to count down.
"What? Why would I—" Nami stopped midsentence as she looked down
"Three…two…one!" Itomimizu concluded as the whistle was blown...yet none of us paid any mind to that as we stared down the black skid marks that circled around the whole track. "The Foxy Devils win two rounds in a row! Two more and it's all over for the Dangers!" the announcer grinned.
"That can't be!" Nami gasped.
"He's in the same spot, but that's only because he did a whole lap" Sanji explained.
"A whole lap? How long were we passed out?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Snooze you lose—it sucks to be you, huh?" Porche laughed, spinning her baton around as if to mock us.
"Can't believe we beat them with Mashikaku!" Foxy howled with laughter, causing Hamburg to start trembling with barely contained snickers as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
"Are you kidding me?!" Usopp groaned.
"Unless the Straw Hats can pull it together fast, this could be over for them in a flash" Itomimizu said. "With a two-point deficient, everything is riding on these next two rounds! Will Usopp's aerodynamic nose give him the edge he needs to beat Chiqicheetah in the next round?" he questioned.
"But I'm allergic—" Usopp shivered.
"Don't you dare try and tell us you're allergic to roller skates!" Nami and Sanji snapped.
"Okay, but what if he's allergic to large cats?" I asked.
"That doesn't matter either! He's racing whether he wants to or not and he's going to win!" Nami angrily snapped.
"Ow!" Luffy suddenly whined as he hit the ground, causing me to perk up as I curiously skated my way over to him and Zoro—silently watching in amusement as the swordsman attempted to teach our rubbery captain how to properly skate before the start of the next round.
"That's all wrong!" Zoro scolded. "Try lowering your stance, you got to use your hips to move" he instructed.
"Never figured you were a skater—wow" Luffy grinned as he looked up at Zoro in slight awe.
"Neither did I" I chuckled, now skating around the swordsman with one eyebrow raised as he turned his head with a blush.
"I'm not..." he embarrassingly grumbled, quick to deny what the rubber man had said.
"Sure" I giggled as I continued to lazily skate circles around the two as I did so.
"What about you? I wouldn't have expected someone as clumsy as you to be able to skate" he huffed, quick to throw the captain's question back at me as his blush only seemed to darken.
"Hey now, I'm not that clumsy" I pouted, blushing at his mention of my inability to properly keep my footing on shaky or uneven ground. I wouldn't call that being clumsy, I'd call that being normal—plenty of people struggled to keep their footing when the ground they're on isn't even or still.
"Huh? Like this?" Luffy asked once he was finally back up on his feet as he now tried to copy Zoro's stance from earlier...only to immediately fall back down once again.
"Not even close" Zoro shook his head.
"This?"
"No."
"Like this?"
"No! Listen to me, dammit!" Zoro snapped, already growing annoyed with the captain's inability to follow clear instructions.
"Looks like you have your work cut out for you!" I laughed, giving the swordsman back a comforting pat before making my way over to the starting line to wait with the rest for the third round to officially start.
"On your marks...get set…!" the second the referee blew his whistle, Chiqicheetah was already off in the blink of an eye.
"So fast!" Nami gawked when she saw that the cheetah was already on the other side of the track.
"Well, he is a cheetah" I said, not surprised in the slightest by the man's quick speed.
"Your little friend might want to give up now and save himself the effort" Porche snickered.
"Chiqicheetah doesn't even need our help, you know" Jube grinned as Nami, Robin, and mine's hair was suddenly blown back by the gush of air that whooshed by the second the cheetah raced passed us.
"He can win this all on his own!" Jacob confidently laughed.
"No way! He's already finished a whole lap!" Nami gaped.
"If I remember correctly, cheetahs can usually get up to seventy miles per hour when running" I hummed in thought.
"That's nice, but what good does that information do for us!" Nami snapped, causing me to shrug.
"Maybe you guys should sit back and relax too" Porche teasingly suggested.
"That's twenty seconds, it's time for the Defenders to go!" Itomimizu announced as the second whistle was blown.
"Come on, Robin! Skylar!" Nami huffed, motioning for us to follow as she started to skate.
"Right" Robin and I nodded, quick to follow.
"Well, good luck!" Porche called out to us before a hushed silence filled the air and everything came to a screeching halt. In an instant, all eyes were now directed toward the captain who was slowly starting to stand back up on shaky legs.
"There you go, now keep it up—just like I said" Zoro nodded.
"Look, he's almost there!" someone in the crowd shouted.
"Come on, kid! You can do it!" another cheered.
"That's it! Come on, go!" Chopper encouragingly cried out as Luffy finally stood.
"Is he...?" Nami muttered in slight disbelief.
"I think he is" I grinned.
"Yeah, Usopp! You're going to win this!" Luffy cheered. "Hang on, Chopper, we'll get you back!" I felt my grin widen as the crowd started to cheer the captain on, giving him nothing but support as he finally found his balance. "Alright, I'm up! Usopp, I'm coming!"
"Oh, Luffy!" Usopp happily cried as Nami and I turned back to the race and quickly caught up with the sharpshooter.
A/N: Enjoy
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