Because of Elbaf's rules, the two mighty Giants did at least have to go through with the duel before any negotiations could be made. The titanic battle shook the ground and turned nearby trees to splinters and any boulders they hit to rubble. Usopp was in awe at the incredible bravery and skill the two friends displayed.
"This is intense. Every hit is designed to be a mortal blow, never giving an inch." He muttered. "Now this is a real battle between men! Both of them flying a warrior's flag in their heart. One they don't want anyone to destroy."
"Which is probably why they haven't called the duel off after a hundred years. Some might call it stupid, and it probably is. But they have a warrior's pride, so they won't let that stop them until someone gives them a very good reason." Hsiao said. "I should know, there have been stories about the dragons my village worships that have similar stories."
Usopp nodded in agreement. "This is exactly the image of my dream. To be a brave warrior of the sea! Whatever village they came from, I wanna go there someday."
"Me too!" Ed cheered.
"That's gonna take a while. If I remember correctly, Elbaf isn't even in this half of the Grand Line." Merone said.
Meanwhile, Lithos looked up and silently cursed at what he saw.
"Damn it. The otter and vulture got loose. Johnny, Yosaku, with me! We're checking Merry to make sure they didn't tamper with anything!"
The two guard officers nodded and headed off with the Earthbender as the duel continued. Vivi looked up and spotted the Unluckies.
"Oh no! Does this mean Baroque Works has our faces now?"
"Doubt it. We made sure to confiscate all their drawing equipment." Nami said.
Suddenly, the fight ended in a draw as the two Giants punched each other in the face.
"That's the 73,466th draw so far," Broggy noted.
"Yeah, it seems we still can't settle it with just fighting," Dorry agreed.
They both fell over, exhausted. Then their serious faces turned into grins as they let out hearty laughs.
"Gyagagaga!"
"Kabababa!"
"Guys, we have a problem. Someone rigged one of our alcohol barrels to explode when ingested." Lithos said as he came back.
"Now who would go and waste good alcohol like that?" Dorry wondered.
"Yeah, quality booze ain't easy to come by here," Hunter added.
The group then heard two new voices laughing, coming from a certain otter and vulture that had landed.
"Prepare for trouble, with bounties to claim!" Miss Friday declared.
"And make it double, for a hundred-year fame!" Mr. 13 chimed in.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Unluckies blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Oh, is that right?" Carue interrupted.
The Unluckies stared at him in shock.
Dorry looked interested. "Oh, animals that can talk?"
"Technically, it's Grahambel using his Devil Fruit to make them talk." Double-D clarified.
"How ingenious! Almost as ingenious as my gun!" Hunter claimed.
Shrugging off their surprise, Miss Friday spread her wings with a smirk, revealing miniguns under her wings. Carue smirked back, firing off a flurry of feathers as the guns went off. By the end of it, none of the Straw Hats or Giants were touched.
"Did I miss every shot?" Miss Friday wondered.
Mr. 13 then noticed the feathers that had hit the ground, each of them having two halves of a bullet next to them. He slowly looked up at the grinning Carue, then noticed the feathers looked razor sharp.
"Uh...Since when do you have Devil Fruit powers...?"
"Since I was given the Sickle-Sickle Fruit by the Straw Hats!" Carue clarified.
Mr. 13 quickly pulled out a couple of clawed shells for defense, only for a thread of silk to yank them out of his paws and into the hands of Katsu, who had transformed into a humanoid moth with her wings wrapped around her like a cape and her eyes a bright blue.
"Carue, you do not mind if I lay divine punishment of these infidels who dared threaten Dorry and Broggy?"
"Sure thing!" Care grinned. "With this power, I can really put the 'sonic' in supersonic duck!"
Mr. 13 and Miss Friday cried out in terror as they ran off, with Carue hot on their heels laughing. Katsu spread out her majestic wings and flew off after them as well.
"Whoa! Was that Katsu's Devil Fruit?" Hsiao asked in amazement.
Haruo and Hunter nodded before transforming as well. Haruo became a large grey-scaled reptilian creature with black dorsal spines and Hunter became a large black-furred gorilla.
"Katsu's Devil Fruit is the Bug-Bug Fruit: Model Mothra," Haruo explained. "And mine is the Dragon-Dragon Fruit: Model Gojira."
"As for me, my Devil Fruit is the Monkey-Monkey Fruit: Model Kong!" Hunter added, thumping his chest.
"Think Carue will be alright, though?" Sanji asked. "I know Katsu is backing him up but still..."
"I think he'll be just fine. Carue has a lot of grievances he wanted to unload on the Unluckies." Vivi said.
Johnny and Yosaku brought out a couple of alcohol barrels.
"Luckily they only got the one barrel. And they rigged it with some... Biomatter from an unconscious Gem." Yosaku said, cringing at the last part.
"Right, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit," Nami noted.
"So what did they use? His hair? His spit?" Double-D asked before cringing. "Oh lord, please tell me it wasn't his urine."
"Uh, close. When we found him and Mikita they were still in the brig. Sleeping together. Naked." Johnny said.
The group realized just what Johnny was referring to. And everyone nearly retched.
"That is just wrong! Not to mention a violation of their privacy!" Vivi called out.
"I think I'm gonna be sick!" Double-D said, covering his mouth to suppress a vomit.
"Such horrific actions...I hope Carue and Katsu punish those two disgusting animals." Delphia hissed under her breath.
Dorry took one of the untainted barrels and chugged it.
"Ah! It's been forever since I've had a good drink."
"Tell me about it," Broggy said. "So, I'm guessing you also remember why we started this duel in the first place?"
"Yes, the Sea Kings we caught. I talked it over with these people and we figured the best way to call the duel off is to figure out how to declare it a permanent draw." Dorry said.
"I think the answer is right in front of your faces," Ariala said. "You've been fighting... How many duels now?"
"Their last one was the 73,466th. And it ended in a draw." Sanji said.
Ferros nodded. "See, there's the problem! Neither of you can seem to triumph over the other. Almost like Elbaf's god can't label either of you as righteous in this argument. You're both equal in strength."
That seemed to turn on a light bulb in the two Giants' heads.
"Which means that..." Dorry said.
"Could it be...?" Broggy said.
"That both Sea Kings were exactly the same size?" Luffy finished. "It would make sense, given the fact that you're both equal in strength."
The two friends looked over at the Giant Sea King skulls. Stripped of flesh after a century, it was more clear that they were indeed the same size.
"So our duel has been a draw from the get-go!" Broggy realized.
"That's why it's taken a hundred years to settle it! Elbaf couldn't choose which of us was righteous because our argument was moot from the start!" Dorry said.
The two friends hugged each other in relief.
"We don't have to kill each other!" Dorry cried out.
"We can go back to the sea together!" Broggy cheered.
"WE CAN REUNITE THE GIANT WARRIOR PIRATES!" They both declared.
"YAA-HOO!" Hunter cheered while Haruo smiled.
"Shouldn't the Unluckies have reported in by now?" Miss Goldenweek wondered.
"Hmm, yes. Something must have happened to them." Mr. 3 noted. "Even if we assume their plan to use something of Mr. 5 to rig the alcohol to damage Dorry the Blue Ogre enough for capture failed, they should have at least let us know."
Miss Goldenweek looked out the window.
"I wonder what's taking them..."
As it happened, Mr. 13 and Miss Friday were hiding in the jungle as Carue continued to nonchalantly hunt them. Rustling suddenly was heard above them as Katsu appeared behind them, now in Full Beast Form and looking like a giant majestic moth that was the size of a ship.
"This is the part where you die now."
Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek heard a terrified scream followed by a squelching sound. In the process, something managed to cut through the wax house. As Mr. 3 made sure Miss Goldenweek was safe, his eyes widened in horror when he saw the dismembered and disemboweled corpses of the Unluckies splatter against the wall.
"WHAT ON EARTH?!" He gasped in horror, making sure Miss Goldenweek didn't see the gruesome sight. "And on top of that, how could there be something that can cut through the power of my Wax-Wax Fruit?! Once hardened the wax is strong as steel!"
The Straw Hats and Giants looked up as they heard the dying screams of the Unluckies. After a tense silence, Carue and Katsu, the latter of whom was back to normal, strolled out of the jungle.
"Two disgusting animals put down." Katsu said, Delphia nodding gratefully to her.
"Ah, that felt great!" Carue proudly said.
"Good job, Carue!" Vivi said as she hugged her friend. "Here. Your favorite."
She got out a special toasted bread that got Carue's mouth watering.
"Oh boy, oh boy! Katorean Bread!"
He picked up the toasted bread and gobbled it down.
"Delicious! Haven't gotten to enjoy that in months!"
"You!"
Everyone looked and noticed Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek coming out of the jungle.
"You just ruined a superb and ingenious plan! We were going to rake in a good 200,000,000 Berris taking down those Giants!"
He shrank down when Dorry and Broggy glared at him upon hearing that.
"You were the one who intended to sabotage our honor duel?!" Dorry demanded.
"That carries a hefty penalty by Elbaf's rules!" Broggy added.
"Allow me to deal with this fool," Lithos said as he stepped forward. "From what I can gather, he's the one who ordered our alcohol supply tainted. And as the crew's Quartermaster..."
He glared as stone formed around his arms before suddenly shattering to reveal shimmering teal crystal blades.
"I don't like it when people mess with our supplies!"
Mr. 3 smirked. "How about you cool off?! CANDLE LOCK!"
He smirked when his wax creation locked Lithos' arms together.
"A shame I have to bind together such elegant crystals but I've heard how versatile your Devil Fruit is."
Lithos chuckled. "Well...it's a good thing that crystals aren't the only thing I can use from the powers of the earth."
Mr. 3 was shocked when Lithos' crystals shattered and magma rock formed around the wax, melting it as Lithos shook it off.
"What in the world?!" Mr. 3 gawked before quickly turning to his partner. "Miss Goldenweek!"
Miss Goldenweek quickly got out a paint set as Mr. 3 started generating more wax.
"Merone! Quick! A water barrier, lass!" Grahambel called out.
Merone nodded. "HYDRO BARRIER!"
She created a wall of water around Grahambel as Miss Goldenweek started spreading various color paints around.
"CANDLE CLONES!"
Mr. 3 created numerous wax models of himself, all painted by Miss Goldenweek to look like him.
"What's going on?" Nami asked.
Mr. 3 chuckled. "Miss Goldenweek is a skilled realist painter. And her real ability should be kicking in now."
Suddenly, everyone except the Children of Whitebeard, Haruo, Hunter, Katsu, and Grahambel started experiencing different emotions. Luffy and Eddy were laughing, Sanji and Bella were crying, and Usopp and Ed were raging.
"The paint... She's using paint to hypnotize them!" Ariala realized.
"It's my Color Trap. I can paint symbols on or near a person to make them feel different emotions. Green of Calm, Blue of Sadness, Red of Anger, and Yellow of Joy." Miss Goldenweek explained. "If I wanted I could create a black symbol to make you all turn on each other."
"Thank you for your explanation. Now we know what your weakness is." Merone said calmly. "AQUA JAVELIN!"
Merone turned her arms into jets of water that washed away all the paint, including the ones on the wax clones. Miss Goldenweek gasped as her palette was washed clean of all paint.
"Jolly good, lass!" Grahambel cheered.
"Impressive display," Haruo noted.
Meanwhile, with the other Straw Hats free and the fake Mr. 3 clones revealed, they got to work smashing through them to find the real Mr. 3. Freaked out, he quickly coated himself in a giant wax armor set.
"CANDLE CHAMPION!" He grinned as he looked down at the group. "Just try and get through this. You're going to pay. Pay for ruining my chance to unleash my beloved Candle Service Set!"
"Your what?" Ferros asked.
"It's a glorious wax cake, with a few victims as the candles. As the upper layers start to burn the wax slowly drips onto the victims, solidifying them inside and out and wax figures, creating a lovely display of despair!" Mr. 3 explained.
"What's the point of that?" Eddy asked. "Why not just kill them if you can create enough wax to cover them inside and out?"
"Such asinine thinking. For a superb mind such as I, to create the most beautiful form of death is an art!" Mr. 3 scoffed. "But I wouldn't expect such a simpler mind to understand."
"Oh, really..." Haruo calmly said before transforming into his Hybrid Form.
Much to everyone's shock, Haruo's spines glowed a brilliant light blue, his eyes glowing with power before he pulled his clawed fist back and thrust it forward.
"GAMMA KNUCKLE!"
A giant fist made of atomic energy shot out, the sheer heat of the energy melting through the wax armor, much to Mr. 3's shock. The remains then shattered and left him vulnerable as Ferros smirked and walked up before placing his gold-coated hand on Mr. 3's head, the gold spreading onto him as it began hardening.
"MIDAS TOUCH."
"N-No...No! Stop!" Mr. 3 pleaded, his eyes watering in terror for a few brief moments.
Ferros chuckled, having proven his point as he pulled his hand and all the gold back into himself.
"See what you're putting your victims through? A true superb assassin doesn't need to be artistic. If you want to kill someone, fine. But don't try to be artsy about it. If you can kill a person, just do it. Otherwise, you're just wasting time and will likely wind up failing sooner or later."
Mr. 3 now found himself surrounded, a look of pure terror on his face. Suddenly, a whirlwind of sand hit the area around him. Seeing his chance, Mr. 3 bolted.
"What was that?" Vivi asked.
"A Devil Fruit user, most likely. Some sort of sand manipulation." Romaz noted.
"And judging from the fact that they used that power to help Mr. 3, they're part of Baroque Works," Zoro added.
"Why didn't they save the kid?" Bella asked.
"I'm sixteen!" Miss Goldenweek snapped indignantly.
"Then why are you so short?!" Kuishi barked.
"Mr. 3 was probably more valuable to the group than Miss Goldenweek," Vivi suggested. "He's actually weaker physically than Mr. 4, but he's far more intelligent to compensate."
Mr. 3 managed to return to the remains of his wax house and got out a Transponder Snail.
"Mr. 3 to Mr. 0 reporting."
"Confirmed, Mister 3. I felt the special sand trap I placed on you go off. I take it the mission failed."
"Yes, apologies for that."
"This is why I told you not to waste time with artistic assassination methods. You're lucky you're indispensable to my operation."
"I appreciate it. So what are my further orders?"
"Right now the schedule for my plan is too far along to continue bothering to wipe out opposition. Do you have the Eternal Pose for Alabasta?"
Mr. 3 looked through the wreckage and found the Eternal Pose.
"Yes, it seems the Unluckies delivered it before being compromised. Thankfully it seems to be intact...but the Unluckies, not so much."
"I'll wait until you return for a full debriefing on what happened. For now, just return to Alabasta. We'll finish our operation there."
"And the others?" Mr. 3 asked, slightly worried for Miss Goldenweek.
"Consider them compromised, but take no further action. Leave their fate up to those upstart pirates."
"Very well. I'll return at once."
Mr. 3 headed for the shore and created a wax boat to sail off from Little Garden.
With things winding down, Dorry and Broggy inspected their weapons.
"Seems even if one of us had dealt the other a death blow it wouldn't have been fatal. The blades have grown too blunt to deal more than a flesh wound to a Giant." Dorry noted.
"Huh, we've been using them to successfully hunt the dinosaurs of this island for so long I guess neither of us noticed until now." Broggy muttered.
"Well, I'm glad things have started to settle down here. We should be heading on to Alabasta soon. We still need to get Vivi home." Luffy said.
"Hope you have an Eternal Pose to get you there. The normal Log Pose needs a whole year to record this island's magnetic field. Both our camps are full of human skulls from those who weren't able to last the entire time." Broggy said. "Either eaten by dinosaurs, suffering from the heat and dehydration, or else just trying to attack us or the kids."
"Hey, we had to defend ourselves too." Hunter shrugged.
"Yeah, but not everyone winds up that way. In fact I remember this one crew about twenty years ago that managed to stay the full year, just partying and enjoying plenty of dino meat with us." Dorry noted. "They even cheered us on during our regular duels. What was their captain's name again?"
"Roger, if I remember, Gol D. Roger. Said he was searching for a legendary treasure said to be at the end of the Grand Line." Broggy said.
"Yeah, the One Piece! We're looking for it too. To follow in Roger's footsteps." Luffy beamed.
"He did ultimately find that treasure. Becoming King of the Pirates as a result." Lithos added.
"Well, talk about a meeting of fate!" Dorry said with a smile. "Seems you're going on a similar route he took. Hopefully, your journey will be just as successful. And once we reunite our old crew, you can count on us to be your stalwart allies!"
"Dorry, Broggy...I think we should go with them." Haruo spoke up.
"Yeah, as much as we loved the stories of your adventures, we need to set out on our own...and these guys are the perfect crew to join from what we've seen," Katsu added.
Hunter nodded. "Don't worry, we'll see each other again, I'm sure of it."
Dorry and Broggy smiled proudly at their three proteges, finally ready to leave the nest. Suddenly, Nami let out a grunt of pain as she felt something bite her on the stomach.
"What was that?"
The bug that bit Nami began buzzing around...only to be squashed by Ed as he clapped his hands over it.
"Looks like a local bug," Bella noted.
"You might want to find a good doctor quickly. The insects on this island carry ancient diseases that can wreak havoc on human bodies." Broggy said. "Me and Dorry must have been bitten thousands of times over the last hundred years, but our larger bodies mean we can just sleep off the diseases like a human does a common cold."
"And our Devil Fruits have empowered our immune systems," Haruo added. "It's also helped us eat some of the creatures living here without ill-effect."
"Then it looks like we'll have to put off going to Alabasta for a little longer," Luffy said. "Sorry, Vivi, but I can't risk the health of any member of my crew."
"I understand. If I recall, the nearest port to here is Drum Island. Hopefully, we can find a doctor there." Vivi said.
Dorry picked up his sword. "If you're heading off the western coast, then me and Broggy can repay our debt to you for helping us resolve our duel."
"Right, there's a dangerous creature out in that sea called the Island Eater. It's swallowed many ships trying to leave the island before. But we'll make sure it's claimed its last pirate crew for you." Broggy said.
"Merone, could you help me clean up the brig? Lord knows Mikita and Gem must have really went at it." Delphia said.
The Waterbender nodded. "Sure."
"Allow me to help as well. I simply cannot stand messes like that." Double-D said.
Miss Goldenweek, or rather Marianne, was staying with the crew as well. The Unluckies were found in the remains of Mr. 3's wax house and dragged away to be cooked by Sanji.
"Well, Loan Shark Galdino escaped, but looks like Flag-Bearer of Freedom Marianne is sticking around with us." Johnny noted.
The Going Merry took off, and as it reached the edge of the island, a giant goldfish suddenly emerged from the ocean.
"I'm suddenly reminded of that one story I told Kaya regarding a giant goldfish and how I mistook its droppings for an island," Usopp said.
"Your knees are knocking. But I don't smell anything coming from you." Zoro noted.
"To be honest that thing terrifies me beyond all rational thought!" Usopp admitted. "But I wouldn't be worthy of becoming a brave warrior of the sea if I didn't at least have exceptional bladder control."
Just as the Island Eater swallowed the Going Merry, the two Giants sliced it open, letting the ship sail out unharmed. The Straw Hats were free to continue on to the next leg of their journey. And hopefully, find Nami a doctor in case she really did contract a dangerous illness.
"Care to have us on as Guard Officers?" Hunter asked.
"Since you know some pretty exotic dishes, I'll have Hunter be Sanji's assistant Cook!" Luffy smiled. "Haruo can be the Boatswain with Bella and Katsu can join Usopp as Lookout."
Katsu bowed. "The honor is ours."
"Say, what dreams do you three have? We all have big dreams and it's okay to share them around." Ferros said.
"I wish to burn down the World Government and allow the Marines to rise back up as a true peacekeeping force." Haruo said. "I know, I could have joined the Revolutionary Army for that purpose, but with the power I possess, I would only do more harm than good."
"I wish to be able to take down any villain and protect the ones closest to me from any danger," Hunter said, wrapping his arms around the shoulders of Haruo and Hunter. "I'll gladly extend that dream to you all as well now that we're part of the same crew."
"And I wish to protect those that cannot protect themselves, to liberate those in need," Katsu said. "I wish to follow the ways of a mighty god of freedom whose name has been lost to time."
Dorry and Broggy looked at their destroyed weapons after killing the Island Eater and watched the Going Merry sail off into the horizon. Every volcano on the island erupted at once as if to signal the end of their hundred-year duel.
"It seems Elbaf is satisfied with the outcome we came to," Broggy noted.
Dorry nodded. "Now we can reclaim what we left behind. Thanks to the Straw Hat Pirates. May the god of war Elbaf watch over their journey, and bring them countless victories!"
"And may Haruo, Hunter, and Katsu be able to fulfill their dreams!" Broggy added.
And so Haruo, Hunter, and Katsu join the Straw Hat Pirates! As you can guess, they are basically human versions of Godzilla, King Kong, and Mothra, the Big Kaiju Three! Felt fitting to have them be friends with Dorry and Broggy.
Also, on an unrelated note, can all the reviewers who are sending me commission requests and their Discord links please just stop. I know a scam when I see one and it's not going to work. So quit wasting valuable space and let actual reviewers leave reviews!
Gosh, what I wouldn't give for a Delete Comment button that wasn't restricted to just Guests...