Chapter 44: Baroque Works

My breath attack struck the ground in a huge explosion of force upon impact, sending the bounty hunters flying from the aftershock and completely blanketing the area in a cloud of dust and dirt.

Those not caught in the blast radius immediately aimed their firearms at me, and Zoro took the opportunity to leap down into the dust cloud, screams of terror crying out from within moments later as he got to work taking them all out.

The dust cloud soon cleared up and revealed him standing between several of their comrades that were laid on the ground unmoving and covered in sword wounds.

The bounty hunters all flinched in terror when the moss-haired swordsman flicked the blood off his sword before running his fingers over the blade with a demonic grin on his face.

The guy was in his element and was absolutely enjoying every second of it.

"He…He's a devil too!"

"Quick! Shoot him!"

"No, you idiots! Don't!"

Bullets flew through the air, completely missing Zoro when he quickly ducked under it all and striking their comrades instead.

He decided to take the opportunity to rush at the ones behind the sharpshooters, taking them down with several fast swipes of his sword.

They quickly raised their arms and directed all their attention to the more immediate threat, which gave me the opportunity to dive down and slam into one of them in the back with a loud crack.

"Dragon Sword Style: Dancing Talons!"

When they all left stunned by my sudden descent into the battlefield, I ran through several of them and cut them down as I passed them by, slashing as quickly and efficiently as I could.

As I slipped out of the technique, one of them suddenly screamed out and swung a giant stone hammer down on me; he was quickly interrupted by Zoro swinging Kitetsu and slicing through the stone like it was butter.

As the bounty hunter looked at his broken weapon in shock, I took the chance to slash down on him and swiftly took him out of the fight.

"Damn, this one is sharp…" Zoro noted in shock, "Talk about a problem child…"

"Like you're one to talk." I pointed out.

"Touche."

"Eat this!"

"Oh, shit!"

Zoro quickly ducked behind me as I raised my arms in front to block the incoming cannon ball fired from the bazooka one of them was carrying.

The projectile explodes upon impact, but my scales were tough enough that I hardly felt as much as an itch from it.

"U-Unharmed!?"

"Two Sword Style: Hawk Wave!"

Zoro quickly launched a counterattack upon the stunned bounty hunter with a new technique of his own, a gust of wind was released with a swing of his swords that sent him and his comrades flying and crashing into the others.

"Out of my way!"

"Ah! Miss Monday!"

The giant of a woman that was Miss Monday ran past her comrades and swung one of the giant ladders right at us; I quickly moved past Zoro and blocked it with my arm, the improv weapon easily breaking upon impacting my scales.

With gritted teeth, she put on a brass knuckle before rushing at me with a loud cry, I dashed forward to meet her attack head on.

"Superhuman Brass Knuckles!"

Once she got close enough, the muscular lady swung the knuckle duster into me, which I blocked via head butting into the strike; the attack ended up barely doing any damage to me as I gave her a small smile.

Compared to Gin's heavy tonfas, that might as well just be a love tap.

"Wh…What the hell–Grgk!?"

"Crushing Fang!"

Grabbing her arm tightly, I pulled her in close and slammed the pommel of Ryuga into her forehead as hard as I could, drawing blood from a cracked skull as she fell unconscious.

"Shit! Miss Monday is down!"

"How is that little girl stronger than–Gah!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE!?"

With righteous anger filling my veins, I launched myself at the bounty hunters and struck them all down one after another in swift succession, Zoro joining in moments later in a flurry of blades.

It didn't take long for us to take out almost every one of the bounty hunters that had shown themselves, they were left lying on the ground either bleeding out or dead with the small remainder of them already taking steps back in terror.

Several of them had actually made a run for it, their silhouettes disappearing into the backstreets.

The only ones that were left were the ones with codenames aside from Miss Monday, basically Vivi and her partner Mr 9, as well as Igaram; the three of them had their respective weapons drawn in preparation for a fight.

"Tch… how disgraceful… taken out by just two rookies…" The curly haired man noted with a huff as he glanced at the other two, "As the ones the boss had entrusted this town to, we have the responsibility to take care of this. Got it?"

""Understood.""

"Igarappa!"

I quickly got in front of Zoro and raised my arms as he fired his shotgun saxophone at us, its lead pellets pelting against my scales all over my body. A hiss escaped my lips as a couple stray shots grazed my cheek.

As expected, it would be tricky to defend against a shotgun; with how widespread the pellets were, a couple of them would guarantee to strike the areas unprotected by my scales.

"Let's go, Miss Wednesday!"

"Yes, Mr 9! To me, Carue!"

As Vivi blew a whistle to call forth her duck companion, her partner ran towards us while twirling his two metal bats in his hands.

I dashed forward and swung my sword at him, but the wannabe king somersaulting over my swing before jumping off of Zoro and onto the ledge of the building behind us, looking down at us from above with a cocky grin.

"Heheh, surprise by my acrobatic finesse?"

I sheathed my sword and turned to the pirate hunter, "Shall I leave him to you?"

He responded by rolling his eyes at me, "Sure, give me all the stupid ones…"

"Unless you want to deal with the girl?"

"…I'll handle the idiot."

"Grr! Don't you ignore me! Hot-blooded Gutsy Bat!"

He then leaped off with a twirl and swung his bats down on Zoro, the swordsman easily parrying away the blunt weapons with Yubashiri before stabbing up at him in the air with Kitetsu.

In a panic, Mr 9 twisted his body to avoid the attack and ended up falling onto his butt hard. Zoro didn't give him any chance to get up and stabbed him on the ground, the bounty hunter barely managed to roll away from it in time.

"Th-That's a cheap—hiee!"

He wasn't out of the woods yet, as when the wannabe king stumbled back into his feet, he was met by a series of lazy but fast stabs from the pirate hunter which he was barely managing to defend against as he was steadily being pushed back.

As Zoro played with him, I turned my attention to Vivi, the undercover princess had saddled atop of her mount Carue.

"Now then, shall we begin as well?" I asked.

Vivi let out a rather condescending laugh in response, "Hohoho, you will do well not to underestimate us like that, Miss Devil."

She said that, as she was riding a comically large duck who was nonchalantly sipping on his water barrel without a care in the world; it really didn't give me the expression that she was dangerous in any sense of the word.

Also, why did she went for that stereotypical villainess laugh of all things? What kind of sources was she basing that Miss Wednesday persona on?

Vivi then stood up on the saddle and raised her arms up as she swayed her abdomen in a rather sensual manner, "Now, gaze deeply at my body—"

"Oh my, you little perv."

"Th-That's not what I—"

"Lunging Fang."

"Whuah!?"

When she was left flustered by my response to her misleading words, I leaped at her with an iai strike aimed at the disguised princess's exposed neck; Vivi barely managed to dodge it via ducking under the swinging blade.

Using the momentum from my initial attack, I swung my leg and kicked her off her mount, Vivi tumbling onto the ground before swiftly rolling back onto her feet with practiced ease.

"Why you…! Take this! Peacock Slasher!"

With gritted teeth, she hooked her pinky finger around a ring on her top and pulled out a small blade attached to the ring with a thin string, which she spun on her fingers as she dashed towards me.

Small improv weapon was easily dodged via side stepping from her attack path, and I swiftly countered with a punch to her gut, knocking the air out of her as she dropped onto her knees coughing and gasping.

"Miss Wednesday!"

"Whoa, whoa. We're not done yet."

When Mr 9 tried to move past the pirate hunter to get to me, Zoro swiftly put a stop to his plans by getting in his way before hastening his stabs, the wannabe king quickly parrying away the attacks in a panic.

Zoro let out a scoff, "What's the matter? What happened to your 'acrobatic finesse'?"

"Tch! I'll show you—Buah!?"

When Mr 9 leaped in response to the provocation, he ended up slamming headfirst into the edge of the roof of the building behind him, knocking himself out in the process and crashing down onto a pile of boxes nearby.

"…Well, that was embarrassing." Zoro noted, "Mr 7 put up a much better fight than him…"

"To be fair, they are mostly of lower ranks." I pointed out, "You know, cannon fodder, bottom of the barrel, those kinds of minions—"

"Quack!"

"Whoa, there!"

I was caught completely off guard when Carue suddenly launched himself right at us, speeding right past us before grabbing onto Vivi with its bill by the collar of her jacket and running off.

"Igarappa!"

That was swiftly followed up by another spread shot from Igaram's shotgun saxophone aimed right at us; Zoro quickly diving out of the way while I blocked the dozens of lead pellets fired from it.

I made sure to turn to the side when blocking too, to both minimize the surface area where the pellets were likely to hit and to protect the areas that weren't covered with my scales.

"Shit, that shotgun is a real problem…" Zoro grumbled, "Any ideas?"

"It still need to reload, so we could rush him during that interval." I noted, "Or I could just charge at him and tank all the shots—"

"Hidden Homerun Bat!"

Before we could finalize our plan of attack, tips of a metal bat shot at us and wrapped iron wires around my sword wielding arm; the same was with Zoro, with the holding Kitetsu being the one bound up.

With a large lump on his head, Mr 9 let out a laugh as he secured the iron wires tightly around his wrists, "I've got you now!"

Zoro looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "You really think this could hold us?"

"Those are iron wires! No one ever broke out of those!"

"That's not what he meant."

I gave a tug, and the wannabe king nearly lost his balance as he was pulled forward by me, but he quickly regained his footing and held on firmly; though now he was looking less confident than he was moments ago.

Guess he finally realised that he made a big mistake.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you~"

We turned around and saw Vivi standing nearby with Carrie by her side, holding a knife up to the neck of an inflated and snoozing Luffy; the blade dangerously close to his neck.

Well, damn it. Of course, the rubber idiot was going to get himself caught like that…

"Move a muscle, and your little friend here gets it."

Zoro let out a groan, "That idiot… couldn't he wake up before becoming a hostage…?"

"Actually, I'm more surprised that he hasn't wake up from all the commotion." I noted.

"Ha…hahaha! Nicely done, Miss Wednesday!" Mr 9 laughed, "Now, Mr 8! Take them out!"

"You have my gratitude, Mr 9, Miss Wednesday!"

Igaram dropped his shotgun instrument and pulled on the strings of his bow tie; moments later, gun barrels came protruding out of the curls of his hair. "Preparations complete! Ready to fire!"

Zoro couldn't help rebutting at its ridiculousness, "What are you, a robot!?"

"Igarapapa!"

"Zoro, get behind me!"

With a tug of his bow tie, Igaram fired his newly unveiled firearm at us; the explosive rounds bombarding against my scales as I got in front of the swordsman and took the hit for him.

Thankfully, it wasn't a wide-spread attack like the shotgun, so I was able to defend against it with no issues, though it hurt a lot more than any firearms of a similar caliber.

"Tch, you sure are a sturdy one." Igaram scoffed, as he tightened his grip on his bow tie, "But I wonder how much more you can take."

Through the smoke from the explosive rounds, I glanced over to Zoro, the swordsman did the same and nodded at our shared unspoken plan to get out of this mess.

"Igara—"

"Breath Cannon!"

Right before he could pull the trigger, I took aim and fired off my breath attack at Igaram; the air cannon slamming into him with the force of an actual cannonball and sent him flying backwards into the wall hard.

"Mr 8!"

"Now!"

"Wha-Aah!"

And as the wannabe king was left stunned by the sudden reversal of the situation, we tugged the iron wires and dragged the screaming Mr 9 off his feet and into the air.

With a great heave, we spun him around before swinging him into his partner; Vivi could hardly let out a scream before he slammed into her alongside Carue and they all crashed through the wall.

Zoro let out a sigh as he untied the iron wire around his wrist, "Whew… it's finally finished… this was a lot more tedious that I anticipated…"

I did the same with the wire around my wrist before telling him, "No, we aren't done yet."

"Oh, so there are others we have to look out for?"

"In a sense."

"Hm…?"

Our snoozing captain had finally decided to wake up from his drugged slumber, Luffy sitting up before looking around while scratching his head in confusion.

"Huh? When did I get out here?"

Zoro rolled his eyes, "About time you woke up."

"Oh, Zoro." Luffy greeted with a wave, before noticing the unconscious bounty hunters around us, "Why are they sleeping? Even that curly hair guy is down."

"They are bounty hunters, Luffy." I explained, "They laced the food and drinks with sleeping drugs and was planning on capturing us for our bounties."

"Oh, so they are bad people. But… they gave us food…"

Zoro raised an eyebrow, "…Do you think anyone that gives you food are good people?"

Luffy nodded, "Yeah. Good people give us food."

"…I honestly wasn't sure what to make of that…"

"Just chalk it up to Luffy being Luffy." I pointed out, "Though he wasn't completely wrong…"

"What do you mean by that?"

Our captain let out a yawn, "Well, I'm still sleepy, so I'm going back to bed. Good night."

With those last words, he laid back down and started snoring up a storm once more; I had to admire how easygoing he was even amidst the dreadful atmosphere.

"Ngh…"

A groan caught our attention as Igaram struggled back onto his feet, the disguised royal guard glaring at us with his fingers ready to pull the trigger that was his bow tie.

He wasn't the only one, as his partner too was getting up onto her feet; a glance behind revealed to me that Vivi and her partner were getting up as well.

"Talk about being tenacious." Zoro noted as he unsheathed Yubashiri.

Igaram grunted, "We're… not done… yet…"

"Hah, how pathetic."

"Huh? Mr 5!? An-And Miss Valentine!?"

At his cry, two figures made themselves known when they walked out from the alleyway: the red coat wearing Mr 5 and his partner in yellow lemon dress Miss Valentine.

Zoro turned to me, "Who are they?"

"The ones to look out for."

My answer immediately got him on alert as he unsheathed Kitetsu as well and prepared for a fight; I wasn't expecting to have to deal with those two so soon.

Our fight must have gone on far longer than I expected…

The afro officer huffed, "Are you being serious…? All of you couldn't even take down some measly pirates?"

"Kyahaha, give them a break, Mr 5." His partner laughed, "You can't expect all of them to be capable as us."

Igaram gritted his teeth, "Have you come here to mock us?"

"Please, we are obviously here for business." Miss Valentine pointed out, "Mocking you is just a bonus."

"Nice…! They won't stand a chance with you two backing us up…!" Mr 9 noted with a grin, "If you please—"

"Huh? Are you guys stupid?" Mr 5 scoffed at him, "You think we're your back-ups?"

"What… yo-you're not…?"

"Kyahahaha! Oh, this is hilarious!" His partner laughed, "Do you guys really think that we came all the way out here at the edge of the Grand Line to help you guys fend off some pesky rookie pirates?"

"Then… what business did you have to come here?" Miss Monday asked.

"Surely, it must be obvious." Mr 5 pointed out, "A crime so severe that we have to be dispatched all the way out here? It has to do with our boss' 'identity'."

Mr 9 gasped in shock, "Th-The boss!?"

Zoro turned to me, "Did they forget we are here too?"

I shook my head, "It's more like they are confident that they would be able silence us to keep us from spilling the beans."

"Cocky, aren't they?"

"Indeed, they are. But they have the strength to back it up."

Ignoring our words, Mr 5 carried on, "Our organization's motto is 'Secrecy'. No one is allowed to pry into the identities of any of our members. Yet somehow, the identity of our boss was discovered. That is inexcusable."

"After some investigation into the matter, we discovered that the leakers are spies of a certain kingdom that had infiltrated Baroque Works." Miss Valentine continued, "And they are currently stationed here in Whiskey Peak."

"It-It's not me!" Mr 9 cried out in a panic, "I know I always tell people I'm royalty, but I'm actually—"

"We know it's not you, you idiot."

"Eh? Th-Then who…?"

"The spies in question—"

"Igarapapa!"

"M-Mr 8!?"

Much to the shock of his fellow agents, Igaram quickly fired upon the two officers, engulfing them in a series of explosions.

"Please run away, Princess—Buah!"

"Igaram!"

"Kyahahaha! What a futile effort!"

The attack did nothing to faze the bomb-man as his hand shot out of the smoke and grabbed onto Igaram's face tightly, an explosion erupting from his palm moments later.

The explosion also threw Miss Valentine towards us with her umbrella opened, she sped towards Vivi like a speeding bullet before twisting her hips and swinging her leg towards the princess.

But she wouldn't reach the princess, as I quickly got in the way and blocked the attack with my scale covered arm; she flinched in pain before kicking off me and floated back to her partner as he tossed a charred Igaram aside.

"I'm impressed, Princess Nefertari Vivi." Mr 5 noted, "To think that you have another bodyguard here. Did you manage to sway her to your side?"

"Hey, Rein!" Zoro cried out, "What are you—!?"

"Get Luffy inside." I told him, "We don't need him to be a hostage again."

"That doesn't answer—"

"Trust me on this!"

After short pause, he sheathed his swords and grabbed onto our captain's arm, "…I sure hope you know what you are doing…"

"I do! …I think."

Zoro rolled his eyes at my reply before dragging the snoozing Luffy back into the building where the rest of the Straw Hats were still sleeping, aside from Nami who had yet returned with her spoils.

She must really be digging into the entire town if she was taking this long. I wonder how she was doing.

"I hope you realise that defending that princess is going to paint a huge target on you and your crew." Mr 5 told me, "You will all become targets of Baroque Works and hunted down."

"Not like we didn't have a target on our backs already." I pointed out, "Besides, you guys are planning on killing us afterwards to silence us, aren't you?"

"…you are sharper than I give you credit for."

"You… Miss Devil, why are you…?"

I turned to the princess in question, "Listen, Princess Vivi, you currently have two options available to you. You can either submit to these assholes and die, or ally with us pirates to survive."

"You…want me to hire you pirates!?" She cried out, "That's—"

"Or do you want you-know-who to take over Alabasta? Without anyone else realizing what he had done?"

Her eyes widened in shock at my words, no doubt shocked at how much I knew about her situation, "…What exactly do you want?"

"Your gratitude would be enough. …though monetary rewards would be nice too."

"Just name your price! However much, I'll make sure you will get paid for your troubles!"

I gave her a grin along with a thumb-up, "Then we have a deal. Look forward to working with you."

"If you two are done discussing terms in front of us…"

I turned back to the two Baroque Works officers, both of them walking towards us with teeth gritted in irritation, while Mr 5 was sticking his finger into his nostril in preparation for an attack.

Considering that I pretty much ignored them in front of me in favor of discussing terms with Vivi, they must be pretty pissed.

Just as I was about to take a step forward, Mr 9 and Miss Monday stood in front of us with their respective weapons in their hands; the latter of the two was visibly shaking even as he stood defiantly.

"Get out of here, Miss Wednesday. Me and Miss Monday will hold them off."

"Huh!? B-But me and Igaram… we've…"

"While I may not know the full story, you are still my comrade-in-arms that I had fought side by side for many years." Mr 9 told her as he readied his bats, "I couldn't stand by and let you get killed."

"Same here." Miss Monday nodded while adjusting her brass knuckles, "Besides, we are all going to be punished for our failure here anyways; so I might as well go down protecting my friends."

"Mr 9…! Miss Monday…!"

"Now go, White Devil! Get—Buh!?"

"Mr 9—Gah!"

Before they could even attempt their self-sacrifice, I put an immediate stop to it via punching into Mr 9's gut hard and landing an uppercut into Miss Monday's chin, knocking the two agents out as they dropped to the ground.

"Why did you do that!?" Vivi shouted at me.

"I was saving their asses!" I shouted back.

As moved I was at their selfless act and sense of camaraderie, they would only get themselves completely destroyed by the two officers; they would only get in the way.

"Nose Fancy Cannon!"

My arm quickly raised up and blocked the disgusting snot projectile, an explosion erupted upon impact with the force of its shockwave nearly sending me flying if my talons hadn't grabbed onto the ground tightly.

As expected from an officer of Baroque Works; the firepower he was packing as a bomb man was no joke.

"Huh, that usually end things." Mr 5 noted, "You are one tough lady, White Devil."

"I'll take that as a compliment." I noted with a small grin as I unsheathed Ryuga, "Though I was expecting better from you."

"…looks like we have to take this seriously." The bomb man rolled up the sleeve of one of his arms before turning to his partner, "Miss Valentine."

"Roger, Mr 5."

The kilo woman opened up her umbrella as her partner slammed his hand into the ground, an explosion erupted from where he had struck and sent her flying high up into the air where she then floated like a balloon.

"…she does realise that we can see her underwear, right?" I pointed out to Vivi.

"N-Now is not the time for jokes, Miss Devil! They are officers!" She told me, "Mr 5 ate the Bomb-Bomb fruit that turns him into a living bomb! And Miss Valentine ate the Kilo-Kilo Fruit that enables her to freely change her weight! They are way more powerful than any of us!"

"You did your homework, princess!" Miss Valentine noted as she broke into laughter, "Kyahahaha, but it will make no difference! Take her down, Mr 5!"

My attention immediately went back down and noticed that Mr 5 had managed to close the distance between us and was right in front of me with his arm swinging for a lariat aimed for my head.

My chin was quickly lowered as I took the attack with my protected forehead, an explosion bursting from where he struck that knocked my head back but wasn't enough to knock me out.

"Rising Claw!"

"Grgk!

Before he could react, I steadied my footing and swung Ryuga in an upward slash, slicing right through his coat and cutting deep into Mr 5's torso; blood spurting out of the sword wound as he staggered back.

"And Breath Cannon!"

"Grah!"

I swiftly followed it up with my breath attack, the air projectile slamming into his gut hard and sent him crashing through the wall and into the house behind him, burying him in a pile of rubble.

"Mr 5! Eat this! 10 000 Kilo Press!"

She closed her umbrella and began falling rapidly towards me, her momentum increasing with each passing second as she aimed to smash into me like a hammer to a nail.

She also had a very predictable path for me to take full advantage of, and I knew the perfect technique for this.

"Crushing Fang:Rising."

"Buh!"

I unfurled my wings and flew up towards her; and once I got close, I swung my sword upwards like I was doing an uppercut and slammed the pommel into her chin.

The inertia of her fall added to my strike which cracked her jaw while simultaneously knocking the officer out cold, leaving her to plummet into the ground below; leaving a sizable crater where she crashed.

She had even curled up into the ever-iconic Yamcha death pose; that made me chuckle a little bit.

"In…Incredible…" Vivi noted in awe, "She took out two officers on her own…"

I personally was surprised at how well I had done against those two; sure, they were the weakest among the officers, but they should still be pretty tough opponents for me.

Yet here I was, practically unscathed while the two of them was completely out cold; I guess I was stronger than I thought.

"Ngh…"

"Igaram! You're okay!"

"Pr…Princess Vivi…?"

As I landed back on the ground, Vivi quickly ran up to the now conscious Igaram and helped him back onto his feet; the royal guard was badly injured from Mr 5's attack and was still somewhat unsteady on his feet.

Honestly, it was quite amazing at how resilient the man was; taking both my breath attack as well as an explosion point-blank and was still somewhat fine. No wonder he was head of the royal guard.

"Woah, Rein! You and Zoro sure went to town with them!"

"Oh, Nami. Looks like you have quite the fruitful evening."

The cat burglar came walking out of the nearby alley with a wide cat-like smile on her face as she dragged behind her a full sack at least ten times her size, the sounds of clanking metal could be heard from within.

She really went all out in her stealing spree, huh? She must have taken every valuable item from all the houses in Whiskey Peak.

Nami let out a small giggle as she patted her ill-gotten spoils, "These bounty hunters really kept quite the stash. All of it must be worth at least several hundred thousand beris."

"Looks like our treasury would be quite stocked up for the time being." I noted.

"Hehe, just the way I like it~"

"Exk-ahem. Maa, maa, maa. Excuse me."

We turned our attention back to Vivi, the princess was supporting Igaram as the royal guard stared at us with a wary look; guess he heard of my deal with Vivi and was not exactly thrilled about it.

"I was told that you struck a deal with Princess Vivi to safely escort her back to our kingdom. Is that true?"

"Pr-Princess!? Escort!?" Nami turned to me with wide confused eyes, "Rein, what's going on!? What did you do!?"

"…it's a long story."

…
To be continued…

Heyah! Finished with this chapter! And almost done with the Whiskey Peak arc!

This chapter was hell of a fun time to write, with action scenes after action scenes.

Now for the changes, this particular arc is mostly just set up and introduction for the Alabasta Saga, so it is pretty easy to change things up without messing with the plot too much.

I also took out the whole Zoro vs Luffy, which was probably the most stupidest thing to happen in this arc. I was not a fan of it at all, and it still grinds my gears each time I reread this part.

Never knew why Oda even wrote it, or why his editor gave the green light for it.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!

With that, I thank you all for reading this!