One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-
"He's so confident! I love it!" I happily laughed with a clap as I watched the stand-off between the two captains.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that—why don't you take a good look around before you start spouting nonsense?!" Foxy snapped, motioning all around with a harsh glare.
"Here it comes!" Itomimizu excitedly announced as everyone in the crowd suddenly held up a ball identical to the dodgeballs that were being used in the match. "The All Directional Shift!" he proclaimed.
"Say your prayers, rubber boy!" Porche grinned.
"What are they doing now?" Usopp nervously asked.
"Hey, what's up with those balls, old man?" Sanji frowned. "That's got to be against the rules!"
"The rulebook clearly states that players can have as many fake balls as they like" Rokuroshi explained with a dismissive wave.
"You talk big, but you're just as bad as the last ref..." Usopp grumbled.
"What a shocker..." I muttered with the roll of my eyes.
"Damn! Unless we can get a ref of our own, we're never gonna see the end of this" Sanji scowled at the realization that no matter what, we were always going to have problems with the referees of these games due to them being part of Foxy's crew.
"Don't pay attention to those guys, Luffy! You and Foxy are the only ones with a real ball!" Nami shouted. "Just keep your eyes on him!" she instructed, knowing that as long as the rubber man didn't get distracted then he'd be good.
"Oh! How did she know?!" Foxy gasped.
"What's wrong with this guy?" Usopp frowned. "I'm starting to think his brain is split too" he huffed.
"Wouldn't surprise me if it was" I nodded as Foxy fell into a depressive state over the insults.
"Sorry, pal, looks like I'm going have to break your Mister What You McCall It thing" Luffy grinned as he stretched his arm as far back. "Here it goes" he said, prepared to throw his ball as hard as he could.
"Hello" Porche grinned as she quickly snatched the ball from Luffy's outstretched hand before he had a chance to retract it.
"Take this!" Luffy shouted, unaware of what had just happened as he shot his arm forward, causing Foxy to quickly cover his face in an attempt to protect himself.
"Oh my, where did this come from?" Porche innocently giggled as she showed off the dodgeball she had just stolen from Luffy once he finally became aware that there was nothing in his hand. "Better watch where you stretch those arms" she tsked, moving the ball behind her back and out of sight along with the rest of her crew who hid their own fake balls. "Come on, boys—let's shuffle!" she chirped.
"Shuffle Time!" the group chanted as they began to shuffle the balls behind their backs around to one another.
"This is bad! If he can't tell which ones are real and which ones are fake, he won't be able to dodge!" Nami cried in distress.
"With that many balls flying at him, it'll be impossible for him to dodge them all in the first place" I said, nervously nibbling on my lower lip. It didn't even matter in the end if he knew which ones were real and which were fake, with that many balls flying at him, he wouldn't be able to every single one.
"Alright, Mr. Smart Guy, do you know which balls are real now?" Foxy mockingly asked. "Better figure it out fast before they hit you!" he snickered.
"Shut up!" Luffy angrily snapped. "I'll just catch all of the balls, then it won't matter!" he declared, making it clear that he wasn't going to back down despite how bad things were now starting to look.
"Don't you get snarky with me, boy!" Foxy angrily snapped right back. "Just sit back and accept your defeat with grace—now, time to let those balls fly!" he ordered as the crowd threw their balls straight toward the rubber man. All Luffy could really do in this situation was try and catch them all as Foxy carefully took aim while he was distracted. "Nice try, but you're finished!" he grinned.
"Hey, look out behind you!" Usopp warned as Foxy shot off the cannon.
"Luffy, don't dodge! Let it hit your face!" Nami quickly ordered.
"Right, easy for you to say!" Zoro frowned, tightening his hold on me.
"But she's right, it's the only way he can avoid getting out—he can either attempt to catch the ball or let it hit him in the face" I said.
"He did it!" Nami cheered the second the ball crashed into Luffy's face, sending his head reeling all the way back.
"Alright!" Usopp happily laughed as Luffy's head snapped back into place, the motion automatically causing him to accidentally swallow the ball he had caught in his mouth.
"Straw Hat Luffy is out!" Rokuroshi suddenly called.
"Why?! I thought it didn't count if you got hit in the face!" Usopp angrily snapped.
"Rule Number Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine: Ingesting any part of the ball results in instant disqualification, check the rulebook if you don't believe me" Rokuroshi huffed.
"Unfortunately, he's correct—it's on the very last page" Robin nodded the minute she flipped to the last page of the book.
"What?! Why does that rule even exist?!" Usopp cried out.
"My question is who in their right mind would eat a ball like that to force them to include such a rule?" I frowned, slightly unnerved that this wasn't the first time someone had eaten such a spiky ball.
"It's over! Straw Hat Luffy has eaten his way to defeat as Team Foxy claims victory in the first round!" Itomimizu announced.
"Not again!" Nami wailed in despair.
"Wait!" I felt panic rise in my chest, blanching as I suddenly remembered something that had happened near the beginning of the round. "Didn't...didn't Luffy and Foxy make an agreement this round to...to give up two members?" I hesitantly asked, stomach now churning as I recalled the deal that had been foolishly made earlier.
"Oh crap! She's right!" Usopp cried out in realization. "Instead of just losing one, we're going to be losing two!" he despairingly wailed as the opposing captain started to laugh.
"The two that I want are…" Foxy hummed, acting as if he needed to think over this decision of his very carefully.
"Oh, it's so obvious, boss" Porche grinned, making it pretty clear who she wanted one of the people he picked to be.
"You two!" I owlishly blinked the second he suddenly pointed two fingers towards Robin and me. "The archaeologist, Nico Robin, and the swordswoman, Skylar Strife!" he proclaimed.
"Me?" I stared in bafflement, my mind sluggishly slowing to a halt as if physically incapable of processing the man's decision the longer I thought about it. Surely I was mistaken...and yet, the nod he gave as his grin only grew only made my confusion worse.
"You want us?" Robin curiously questioned.
"Why?" I asked, unable to think of anything else to say as the gears in my head creaked the longer they struggled to turn. Perhaps it was easy to see why he had picked Robin due to how smart and reliable she'd shown herself to be...but I was clueless as to why I was chosen instead of one of the others. There wasn't really anything worthwhile in my opinion about me that I could see him wanting—I wasn't a rare and almost exotic talking reindeer nor was I super intelligent...
I wasn't anything special...that's a fact I've always known since birth...
"No!" Zoro growled, his grip tightening as he narrowed his eyes at the opposing captain—a displeased scowl now tugging at his lips as I felt every muscle in his body become tense.
"Oh! The boss has decided his picks for this round are Nico Robin and Skylar Strife!" Itomimizu perked up. "Oh, captain, you're such a naughty boy!" he snickered, finding amusement in his captain's decision. Robin patiently waited, watching in what I could only assume was silent amusement as Nami and Usopp reluctantly tried to pry me out of Zoro's iron grip. Despite their obvious desires, they knew we had to abide by the rules of the game even if they would have gladly left me in the swordsman's grasp instead of willingly handing me over to the opposing team.
"Come on, sweetie—we got to play by the rules!" I gasped out as the pressure being dealt to my stomach only seemed to grow. "Crushing my insides isn't going to stop anything..." I wheezed, struggling to breathe for a second as my spine sounded like it was starting to pop.
"Zoro, we'll get both her and Robin back" Nami promised as she tugged on my arm. "But right now, we got to do as they say" she grounded out, desperately trying to dig her feet into the ground and find her footing as she and Usopp struggled to pry me free.
"What's this? Seems Pirate Hunter Zoro doesn't want to give up the Straw Hats swordswoman" Itomimizu announced as the crowd started to grow impatient—many of them now getting snippy as they started snapping and complaining as they were clearly ready for the next round to begin.
"Allow me" Robin suddenly offered, using her Devil Fruit abilities to finally pry me free of the swordsman's grip. I tumbled forward the second I was free as Nami and Usopp fell back in surprise at my sudden freedom, nearly dragging me down with them if I hadn't quickly regained my balance. Stumbling over toward the older woman, I threw a sad smile back at the frustrated swordsman.
"Why, boss?! Why did you give my adorable Choppy back?!" Porche childishly cried, confused and upset that the older man hadn't picked the reindeer despite being given the option to choose two crewmembers.
"We can't afford to leave that woman on the Straw Hats team, she's too dangerous" Foxy simply explained as he motioned toward Robin. "As for the other one, well...let's just say I already have a great use for her" he chuckled, causing me to frown as an uneasy feeling now settled in the pit of my stomach. "Bringing them to our side will give us a great advantage from here on out!" he boasted, sounding so sure of himself that he had made the right call by picking both Robin and me.
"But.." Porche whimpered.
"This way, taking back Chopper in the next round will be a piece of cake!" Foxy assured her before she could start crying again.
"Now I get it! You're so smart, boss!" Porche praised.
"Come on, don't pout..." I murmured as I showered the pouting swordsman's face in kisses—trying my hardest to get that scowl of his to lighten up just a little. I knew this situation wasn't ideal for either of us, but I didn't want to leave him so upset like this. "There's still two more rounds to this stupid fight, that's enough to win both Robin and me back..." I quietly reminded him...it did very little to soothe him.
"We should start making our way over before the crowd becomes too restless" Robin suddenly suggested, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder and motioning with her head for us to go.
"Yeah..." I heavily sighed, reluctantly following after before stopping when I felt Zoro suddenly grab hold of my wrist and yank me back. With little warning, he grabbed hold of my fess and messily pressed his lips as hard against my own as he could. I could feel a lot of emotion behind this single kiss as if he was trying to convey all his anger, frustration, and love with it—as if wanting to make me understand exactly how he was feeling at this exact moment because it was too difficult for him to do so with his words.
"Robin! Skylar!" Luffy and the others cried as Robin once more placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and helped lead me away from Zoro when I didn't show any signs of moving after the kiss. Instead, I was frozen in place as my cheeks became flushed a vibrant red while my words tumbled out of my mouth in nothing more than a jumbled mess as if I didn't even know how to form coherent sentences anymore.
"Robin! Skylar! My loves!" Sanji worriedly shouted.
"See you later" Robin smiled.
"Yeah...see you..." I murmured, weakly smiling with a wave before practically gluing myself to the older woman's side the moment we walked over to join Foxy's team.
-Everyone's P.O.V-
"I feel their pain, they're trying to hide their sorrow behind those beautiful smiles" Sanji sniffed, biting his shirt in frustration as he cried alongside Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper. "They hate being apart from me—how dare they take my sweet Robin and darling Skylar away! Even if it's the rules, do they know nothing of love?!" he ranted.
"Oh shut up!" Zoro snapped at the blond, quickly growing annoyed with his dramatics as he crossed his arms—glaring daggers over at the other team before perking up when he suddenly felt a gentle hand rest on his shoulder.
"We'll get both her and Robin back, so don't go chewing our heads off just yet" Nami assured him, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Besides, they can hold up on their own for a while" she softly smiled, causing him to grunt and turn his head.
"Robin! Skylar!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper sobbed as the two women were handed masks similar to the ones the rest of the Foxy crew wore. Robin put hers on with no complaint as Skylar seemed to just hesitate for a moment before heaving a sigh when she saw how the men around her excitedly motioned for her to go on.
"How does it look?" Robin smiled as she silently listened to the compliments the men threw her way.
"This is ridiculous..." Skylar grumbled, pulling at the fabric around her eyes—ignoring the flirtatious remarks she was given. Blinking, she turned her head when she suddenly caught sight of movement from the corner of her eye and watched as Jacob slid up beside her, his cheeks tinted a light pink as he looked at her with a certain gleam in his eyes that made her uncomfortable. It was a familiar gleam she'd probably only seen a few times directed at herself personally, but was more used to seeing it directed at someone else she rather not think about.
"You look great in that mask" he complimented with a charming smile as he leaned down and snatched up one of her hands, placing a feathery light kiss on the back of it like a gentleman might do when introducing himself to a young woman. Skylar quickly drew her hand back—nose scrunching up in slight disgust as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion, not quite understanding what he was trying to pull considering how verbally hateful he had been with her during the Run Roller Round game.
"Thanks, I guess..." she muttered, automatically wiping the back of her hand against her shirt as if attempting to wipe away the kiss he had given it. "What's with the sudden change of attitude? Did you hit your head or something?" she finally asked, raising an eyebrow as she closely watched the man's every move just in case he attempted something.
"Well...I don't say this to just anyone, but I've always had a knack for violent women" Jacob confessed, bashfully scratching his cheek as he grinned. Indeed, there was something rather attractive in his mind about a woman that could hurt him—could potentially dominate him. There was something sexually stimulating about such women...yet it was rather rare and difficult for him to ever meet one much to his annoyance.
'So, he's a womanizer and masochistic' Skylar sweat dropped, taking a step back and away from the man after hearing such an odd confession. She didn't really care what people did to get their rocks off, but that didn't mean she liked being stared at in such a lustful manner like a piece of meat or some object meant for someone else's pleasure like he was doing. She found it rather odd though how quickly his feelings toward her had changed all because she had roughly handled him earlier...but then again, it probably wasn't every day a woman kicked his ass in the way she had done during her flustered state. She doubted any of the women on Foxy's crew had a need to hurt him unless he asked them to...if he even asked them to...
Something told her based on his wording and behavior that this side of him wasn't really something he talked about openly with just about anyone like he was almost embarrassed by such an admittance though she couldn't see why.
"Aw, they're so popular!" Porche pouted when she saw how the men of her crew quickly surrounded the new recruits, causing Foxy to burst out laughing.
A/N: Enjoy
Please Review, Favorite, and Follow.