Everyday life with the Straw Hats
Chapter 9: Spy Games
Rumblings could be heard throughout the stadium after the clash between Luffy and Hydranak's titanic attacks. Even various other combatants in the ring momentarily stopped to see who overpowered who. Cerea in particular was stunned at such a display of power. "Incredible...to think someone like Luffy was capable of that kind of strength."
"That's our captain" Zoro smirked at the reaction, looking up the debris cloud obscuring the aftermath.
"Captain?" Cerea questioned with a quizzical look
forgetting that their identities as pirates was still secret to them, Zoro composed himself "Oh-erm...forget it."
"If your friend Luffy is this powerful, surely you must also carry the same strength he does, right master?" Cerea was quite eager to see what her mentor could truly do, hoping to get a glimpse at his true potential.
"Of course, I have to be if I intend on becoming the World's Greatest Swordsmen" Zoro replied confidently. "I haven't even gotten warmed up yet, so somebody here better give me a challenge!"
"You want a challenge little man?" a voice boomed from behind Zoro as a grizzly Satyr approached him. His body was covered in scars and tattoos. "Your puny swords won't get you very far in here. Whatever strength you may possess, it will be nothing compared to us Liminals. You're out of your depths in this battlefield." he snarled arrogantly.
"Hey Eyebrows, after I kick this guy's ass you need me to finish up your fight for you?"
"Suck it, mosshead! I can take this orge brute all on my own!" Sanji snapped from the other side of the arena.
The satyr was not taking kindly to being ignored, however. "You have some nerve to disrespect your killer right in front them, I would've made it quick, but now I'll take my time maiming you, punk!" the satyr was wielding two large axes that he swung down towards Zoro in a flash.
"Master, Look out!" Cerea cried out in panic
the two axes momentum halted, like they hit a wall of some sort. Zoro had all three swords out, clashing against the Satyr's attack with his own defensive stance. "Cheeky bastard, striking without warning? Maybe this'll be fun, what's your name?" zoro sneered.
The Satyr snorted "Baph, not that it will do you much good, but I'll let you know the name of your executioner at the very least, boy."
"the names Roronoa Zoro, remember it, cause someday you'll have the honor of knowing you lost to the future greatest swordsmen. If I'm going to surpass Hawkeyes, I'm not losing to a barnyard animal like you."
"Enough talk, human, let's settle this!" Baph roared.
"Agreed." Zoro started parrying the various swings that were being thrown his way, they were heavy hits which did cause Zoro to stagger some.
"Master, you can do this!" Cerea cheered.
Zoro braced himself as an overhead swing came down. "three sword style: three thousand worlds!" Zoro lunged forward slashing across Baph's stomach. Causing him to cry out in pain as he started to bleed. As Zoro regained his footing he turned around to continue the pursuit, but he was immediately blindsided by a back swing and gets slapped across the arena from the flat side of one of Baph's axes.
"That'll show you, you really think a puny attack like that is gonna be enough to subdue me? You drew blood, I'll give you that. But you'll need much more than that if you want to tame a beast like me"
Zoro started to rise to his feet, but there was a rumbling. Hydranak finally emerged from the debris between his and Luffy's clash. His fangs were cracked and his right eye was bleeding. "Straw Hat! Show yourself, I'll eat your bones!"
Lycan, who was busy fighting other contestants, smirked to himself. "I guess the shrimp was all talk after all, if he couldn't even tango with a mythical paramecia user, he wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance with me."
Sanji who was still sparring with Kraiglor rolled his eyes "This snake is gonna learn the hard way, hey Luffy, stop staling, come out and deal with this guy already!"
Hydranak looked over to Sanji, "Watch your tongue, if your friend is dead, I'll assist in killing you, a little two-vs-one. Whadda you say, Kraiglor?"
"Don't interfere with my duel, reptile!" Kraiglor spat.
"Gum Gum…." was heard faintly through the battlefield. Hydranak turned his head towards the source of the noise. "Jet Bazooka!" in a flash, Luffy seeemingly appeared out of nowhere and was mere inches from Hydranak's snout. The sudden impact from the attack snapped Hydranak's head back causing him to crash to the floor again. Luffy lands on the ground, steam emanating from his body. With a bite mark on his shoulder with blood running down. "This guy's fangs are tough, but my punches are tougher!" Luffy declares.
"Things are really heating up, it is still anyone's game on who could win the battle royale!" the announcer declares over the mic.
Meanwhile in the audience Miia completely engrossed in the fight. "Darling is so tough, but that bite mark. Oooh, I hope he's not hurt too bad."
"Don't worry, Luffy has been in worse situations than this, he's got it under control." Nami answered reassuringly.
"Why are they all so strong though, what do you guys do that require this degree of skill? Even Sir Zoro and my brave knight Sanji are of exceptional strength as well." Mero interjects.
Nami rubs the back of her head sheepishly "Oh 'why?'….oh, don't worry about that, they're just tough dudes is all, you know how men are, they love rough housing...hehehe." Miia and Mero tilt their heads in confusion. Suddenly a voice comes over the communicator that Smith gave to Nami.
"Are you there? I repeat, are you there?"
Nami picks up the communicator "Yes, I'm here, what's up?"
"Okay good, Team B is already on the move, my group will try and sneak into the security wing of the facility, how's the fight progressing?" Smith asked
"The guys are doing well enough. Cerea took out her first opponent. It seems Zoro taught her some rudimentary haki"
"Haki?"
"It's a 'warriors thing', don't worry about it."
"If the tides turn in the battle let us know, once we've disabled the security control systems, Team B should have no problem freeing any captive liminals that they may have here."
"You're really confident that there is a trafficking exchange going on here, aren't you?"
"Positive. Just continue keeping tabs on the fight, and we'll get back to what we're doing."
–-
"Why do we always have to get stuck with these sorts of jobs?" Usopp whimpered to himself.
"I'd say we have the easiest of the three tasks, no need to exchange fisticuffs if everything goes according to plan, Yohoho!" replied Brook with pep in his step.
Rachnera walked alongside Usopp and put her arm around his shoulder and leaned into him "Ya'know Honey, we Arachne are quite proficient in situations like this, we are expert hunters after all."
"I-I know that Rach, but we're on enemy turf right now, we just need to be extra careful is all. Now are we almost to where the cell blocks are located?"
Robin chimed in "Usopp, this is an illegal tournament with liminal trafficking going on, they're not going to have it listed on a ma-"
"This way, the sign says the holding cells are a few floors down." Brook interjected. "I say, we are having some fine luck aren't we?"
Usopp and Rachnera just stared at each other for a moment
"Huh, it's rare Robin is wrong about these sorts of things" all of a sudden a hand came out of Usopp's shoulder and began pinching his nose. "Ow! Okay, okay! I'm sorry Robin" sputtered Usopp as he tried to free his nose. Rachnera merely chuckled at the display.
Suddenly they saw a big figure approaching down the hallway behind, he was a big fellow with blonde hair tied in braids coming down the side of his head and a Metal Mask cover his jaw. There were a few men walking alongside him transporting a crate. "this should be the last of em', Master Jack. No more prisoners right?" one of the smaller men asked as he looked up to his superior.
"yeah, that should do it. We have a pretty good haul this time, these Liminals will catch us a good price if they don't work out in our army."
"Although some of them are kinda tough to wrangle in, that Dullehen lady was tougher than expected."
"You just leave the rowdy ones to me, she'll know her place soon, if she's not sold off she'll be a pawn for Master Kaido. It's an honor, really."
as this exchange was going on the Team C was hanging from the ceiling in a makeshift web net Rachnera made for them to avoid detection.
"That's deplorable, they really are selling liminals like this." Usopp whispered in disbelief.
"They're scum, but we'll make sure we have the last laugh." Rachnera spat venomously.
Robin, however, was more focused on the information of the individuals mentioned. "they mentioned a Female Dullahan, I overheard Zoro talking to a Dullahan earlier, he said his sister had went missing and that he had reason to believe she might be here. Secondly and more importantly, he mentioned 'Kaido'"
Rachnera raised an eyebrow at that. "is that someone of any real importance?"
Robin nodded "Yes, that is one of the four Pirate Emperors of the sea. If they are involved with this operation in any way, that makes this an ever more delicate mission."
Usopp felt like his stomach just dropped "An Emperor?! Oh well now we're really in big trouble, oh this is the end of the line for us all isn't it?" Usopp's mouth was gagged by Rachnera.
"Quiet Honey, we are hiding, remember? This 'Pirate Emperor' must be some big deal then. Tell me, how do you know so much about him? Hmm" Rachnera gave a quizzical look to the Archeologist
"Because Knowledge is power, and in this world you must know all the potential forces that could be out to get you." Robin answered honestly.
Rachnera gave a smile of approval "I can always respect a well-educated cynic."
Usopp just continued to talk through the webbing. "Can you put us down now?" he begged in a muffled voice.
–-
"The crowd is loving this so far, let's just hope the combatants don't tire themselves out too fast." Khann thought to himself while watching the fight from his balcony office. There was a knock at the door, Khann sighed to himself. "never a moment of privacy, come in"
one of his workers entered the room, "Sorry to disturb you Mister Menshield. But when checking the roster, we've noticed something quite interesting that we thought you might want to know about."
"Get to the point, what is it?"
"We have a lot of new fighters, as well as our champion from the last tournament, Lycan. But look here, we have a few stand out names on the roster this year. Namely 'Straw Hat Luffy' and a few of his crew members."
"Well I'll be damned, didn't think my little ol' tourney would attrack someone from the worst generation. This is interesting." Khann gave a sinister smile.
"Should we do something, they have a reputation for laying waste to big shots like the former warlord Crocodile and that raid they did on Enies Lobby make them no joke. Not to mention Marinefo-" A hand was put over the workers mouth by Khann as he analyzed the roster.
"Straw Hat, Pirate Hunter, Black Leg...my, I say we have ourselves a real pirate get together. Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. They're fighting in my tournament, if they try anything, we'll have home team advantage." Khann looked out the window again to watch the fight with a new conniving glint in his eyes. "go ask Jack how things are going with moving the last batch of prisoners. He might want to hear about this as well. Master Kaido is always looking for new pirates to take 'under his wing' so to speak."
To Be Continued…
Author's Notes: It's been a hot minute since I updated this story, but life has been a whirlwind for me the last few years. I do wish to continue this story when possible and when the inspiration hits me. For everyone that waits patiently, wondering if new chapters are ever coming, I'm sorry. But I'm also grateful for those of you who have still wished to see this story almost a decade after I started it. Man time really does fly by. I might even try to dabble in writing other fanfics in the future to keep my creative drive fresh on here, but We'll see. I've also gone and condensed previous chapters together. a lot of them were inconsistent in length. hopefully now the flow and pacing should feel better when reading through them.