Hello, all! Welcome back to Coby's Choice! Dressrosa is getting busy and keeping everything tracked is a little difficult, but I want to warn you that gloves are out the window. Maybe not this chapter, maybe not the next one, but characters will die. I don't care how important the character is, no one is safe. From Law and Kin'emon to Orlumbus and the Funk Brothers, anyone can die if the narration calls for it.
Anyway, you all are here for the story, not for warnings! Thank you for all your support: Andrew Bohl, Animephilosopher1, Ankhseram123, anony, Ant Franklin, Cam Bliss, Clark Kent, Claude Walker, Cordell Sanders, Cory Johnston, Darko129, David, David Bowling, David Reynolds, Emi Stafford, Eugene Malone Jr., EvilJelly, Fenrir ragnarok, Garvin Lee Nelson-Mathlin, GODA98, Immagenius, Inucbus, Jacob McCarthy, JEP1010, Jkat, John Mekjian, Jonathan Moh, Joseph Baty, Joseph Cheung, Joseph Morrison, Joseph Vargas, Joshua, Joshua Groves, Quinton Huffstletier, Karen Carrillo, Kcx1, kevin Calderon, Korakas, Lamont Hale, MAEGHT Maxime, Marielle Orff, Matt Walther, Matthew Burley, McBanjo, Mcgin28, Michael Enqvist, Milagros Peres Davila, Milla, Neridian, Rafael Cardenas, ReactedLyric, Richard Barkley, Riley Bolerjack, Ryuu, Sasha, Siddiq Morris, TheWolfThatExist, Thomas Sanders, Tom Peissig, and ViewtifulSoul!
Chapter 63:
Victors, Prisoners, Gladiators
"I'm sorry, Ms. Giolla," one of the men said, nervously wringing his hands. "We can't find the boy anywhere. He isn't here."
"He has to be here," the colorful woman huffed, her lips turning down in a scowl. "They wouldn't risk sending him into the city. This will be a waste of time if he's not here."
Her eyes turned on Brook and Sunny, the tipped-over rubber-duckie form of Billy wiggling as he tried —and failed— to do anything before the melty piano. Brook and Sunny glanced at each other. Or, at least, what is what it looked like, but Giolla had to infer seeing as the skeleton lacked eyes to glance with.
"Alright, pirates," she said, her voice sickly sweet as she sashayed toward them. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Where is the samurai boy?"
"I already said we don't know what you're talking about," Sunny denied. She and Brook were each trapped in what appeared to be picture frames. To them, each looked more like a window to the world through which they could barely see each other. Sunny beat her cartoonish paws against the barrier. "Let us out!"
"Out?" Giolla echoed. "Why would I do that? You would just go back to regular, bland realism. No, no! You look so much better as art!"
"Realism?" Sunny demanded, parts of Grace rising to affect her personality. "Lady, we're a talking skeleton, a lion Klabautermann, and a mutant electric duck! What part of realism do you see there? If anything, we're fantastical naturalism!"
"Whoever cares for naturalism?" the art-woman waved off. "Expectations for the world can be so readily broken in even the Paradise side of the Grand Line, not to mention the New World. The only true form of art beyond reality is abstractism. And, as abstract pieces of art, there's not a thing you can do to stop me. Ah, but you managed to distract me." She held out her hand and moved her fingers closer together, the frames around Brook and Sunny shrinking. The pair glared. "You don't know what danger you're in, do you?"
"We're at risk of turning ugly," Sunny snarked. "So scary. Brook's already there."
"How rude!" the skeleton cried.
"What can I say?" the Klabautermann laughed. "You just haven't found the right skin cream yet. Your pores are just too closed."
"But… he is a skeleton," Giolla blinked. "He does not have pores."
"Aaand she gets the joke!"
The woman growled, shrinking the frames further. "Your problem is your separation from the real world," she hissed. "I don't think that's such a problem, but once the picture frame disappears, you will be cut off from the real world, including oxygen. Once you asphyxiate, your bodies will be permanently altered forever, ready for me to model wherever and however I wish. Aaahahaha!"
"Oh shit," Sunny whispered, suddenly aware of how the frame had gone from being the size of a door at the start of Giolla's attack to now the size of a small window. She started beating against it, but the barrier in the frame would not even rattle. "Brook! Billy! Do something!"
"Would if I could, Sunny!" Brook replied. "I'm afraid I lack the muscle mass for such a task!"
"Wah!" Billy supplied, unhelpfully. He could barely rock. Giolla blinked, seeming to have forgotten he was there. She waved her hand, pink smoke wrapping around the abstract duck before turning into a frame of his own that began to shrink. "Wah‽ Wa-wah wah!"
"Hush now," the woman insisted. "It won't hurt. It will be just like going to sleep. Oh, I remember rocking Dellinger to sleep so many years ago." She sighed, miming rocking a baby to herself and humming.
"Uh… Ma'am?" one of the men questioned. "What about—?"
"How many times have I said never to interrupt my memories‽" Giolla exploded. Both her hands reached up, pulling pink smoke from her head that she flung at the offending underling. He barely had time to cry out before it engulfed him. Within a second, he was turned into a pointillism version of himself locked in a terrified scream. With another, the dots he'd become were captured by gravity, the once-human collapsing into a pile of what amounted to dust. The other underlings cowered away, not wanting to suffer the same fate. "Damn. The moment's lost."
"M-Ms. Giolla?" another tried, ready to flee at the first sign of hostility. The Doflamingo officer turned to him. "About the samurai boy?"
"Oh," Giolla blinked. "Oh yes. I'd just about forgotten why we were here in the first place. We will go into the city to claim Straw's Hat's son. We can use him as ransom for a trade. I'm sure Straw Hat would give up the brat to save his own in a heartbeat."
"You won't lay a finger on Ace!" Brook and Sunny yelled, redoubling their fruitless efforts to break free.
"Oh, but we will," Giolla mocked. "There is nothing you can do to stop me. Aaahahaha!"
Under the melty piano, Momonosuke clenched his clawed fingers, his cubic dragon form curled into a ball as he hid from the woman's gaze. A war waged itself in his heart, self-preservation battling the knowledge that these pirates —strangers in nearly every way beyond a single voyage— were ready to die to keep his presence secret.
"I must do something," he whispered to himself. "I must. I cannot let them die for me. Father would be disappointed. A Kozuki would never use others as shields." Psyching himself up, the Dragon Zoan peaked at the laughing woman. "I must…! I must! Rose Rush!"
Momonosuke shot from under the melty piano, his long body snaking its way over the grassy deck toward Giolla. She barely had a second to comprehend the dragon's sudden appearance before the Zoan drove his blunted horns into her gut. She cried out in pain as the force drover her backward into the railing.
Momonosuke refused to let up, his claws scratching at her face and torso. Giolla flailed, her mind so panicked that she completely forgot about the Devil Fruit powers at her command, instead trying to push the pink mass of scales, teeth, and claws off with her arms.
"Get it off!" she cried. "Help me! Help! Get it off!"
Due to her distraction, the frames enclosing Sunny, Brook, and Billy began to widen once more, the invisible barrier that acted as their window to the real world turning more brittle. Brook picked up on this first, his trained not-ears (for he did not have any as a skeleton) picking up the change of tambor when the barrier was hit. He pulled his cane up, driving its top into the barrier of his frame.
It shattered like glass, the skeleton diving out of the abstract world and onto the deck of the Thousand Sunny as the now-broken portal faded into pink mist. The ship's Klabautermann was quick to copy him, her shoulder smashing through her own glass-like obstruction.
Sunny shot the men under Giolla's command a fanged smirk as she sunk into the deck, Giolla's powers now little more than aesthetic in effect. Ropes immediately shot down from the rigging, wrapping them tightly. Brook smashed the frame trapping Billy, the musician reaching and pulling the immobile duck out with his boney hands before going to assist Momonosuke. Brook would have grinned if he had lips to, lining up his cane-sword Soul Solid's point at the art-woman's neck.
"Now then," he said as Momonosuke backed off, seemingly proud of himself as he curled around Brook's legs. "As the longest, and oldest, member of the Straw Hat Pirates present, I have an order for you. Get off our ship."
He kicked, Giolla rolling over the railing and screaming before she hit the water below.
"Ms. Giolla!" several of the underlings cried.
"Now don't you worry," Sunny said, her voice resonating from the floorboards under the grass. "You'll join her soon enough." The ropes pulled taut, flinging them overboard. "And stay out of my insides!"
The artistic so-called improvements Giolla's powers had imposed on the pirates quickly faded after her submerging. Brook laughed, feeling his skeleton and afro as they returned to normal. Billy, too, relished the feelings of his legs and wings before checking on the dragon egg Ace had entrusted to him.
"I must say," Brook commented. "Watching the ship has never been quite this exciting before. Yohoho!"
"Why did you do that‽" Coby demanded as he, Grace, Nami, and Law fled through the halls, the lingering dregs of Doflamingo's Conqueror's Haki still weighing down on them. "You didn't need to kill him!"
"You don't know what kind of person Gladius was," Law defended. Coby took a sudden turn, his companions trusting his judgement forcing Law to follow. They ran past unconscious maids and other staff without regard for possibly waking them. "He needed to be done away with before he became a threat."
"And instead of explaining or opting for Sea Prism Stone, you go right for the heart?"
"He deserved it. Besides, do any of you carry Sea Prism Stone?"
"I do," Nami answered. "I keep Sea Stone cuffs in my purse."
"Do I want to know why?"
"Whether he deserved or not, it happened and we need to leave before Doflamingo finds us," Grace said.
"What do you think we're doing?" Nami snarked.
"Running in circles?"
The hallway shook, nearly sending the pirates off their feet. Coby muttered a string of curses and drew his swords, one of the nearby walls exploding a moment later.
"Ah shit," Law hissed, drawing his own sword.
"Buuhihihi!" a nasally voice laughed through the settling debris, sending shivers down the spines of the Straw Hats. The infiltrating pirates turned as the dust cleared, the hole in the wall covered at the edges with a pale blue slime. A tall, hunched man with unkept black hair stood stuck to said slime. Goo of the same color dripped from both the fringe of a cyan coat with dark circle decorations and his nose. Manacles with broken chains were shackled to his ankles over bare feet. "It seems you've finally returned, Law."
"Trebol," Law muttered. "Horrible to see you again."
"Baby 5 tells me you killed Gladius. Your betrayal before was one thing, but this? Killing your family?"
"You were never my family!" Law exploded, a Room forming from the palm of his hand. "Room! Amputate!"
Trebol gasped and curled in on himself, Law's sword slicing through the drippy man's coat.
"How dare you attack the family!" another voice yelled, a giant sword with goggles, a face, and the legs of a woman appearing in the hole in the wall. Coby couldn't hide his confusion for, while he'd felt multiple people outside the wall, he didn't know who this was, how she managed to get up several stories from the outside so quickly, or why her top half was a massive sword. "Espada Girl Slash!"
The only other pirate with swords, Coby interposed himself between this new Devil Fruit user and his crewmates. Her bladed face ground against Hokoshuka and Emono, his shoes digging into the floor as friction bled away at her momentum.
Nami swung her Clima-Tact down, fog expending from its tip to obscure their surroundings. "We need to get out of here!"
"It doesn't matter if we can see you or not!" Trebol called. "Baby 5, burn them up!"
"Of course! Weaponmorphose: Fire Girl!"
Coby didn't know what she was about to do, but he knew it wouldn't be good.
"Armor Mode!" he called, growing into his most defensive form and turning his plated back on the girl. Heat washed over him a moment later, fire licking at his armor. The heat burned Nami's fog despite her attempts to keep renewing it, revealing that Baby 5 had turned her upper body into a massive flamethrower. "Shit, that's hot!"
"You won't get away from us!" Trebol taunted, spreading his arms. "Sticky Launcher!"
"Chemical Bending!" Grace countered, chemicals rising from her person and mixing in midair. "Goldenweek Festival!"
Reds, oranges, and golden yellow collided with Trebol's goo, the paint hissing slightly before each combined glob exploded into a disgusting firework. Another arched around Baby 5's flame, igniting by her unprotected leg. The women cried as a burn seared itself into her thigh, forcing the weapon-women to cut off her attack. Coby rolled away, hissing as his burned armor faded with his transformation.
Law took the chance offered in the moment of chaos, jumping forward and swinging Kikoku. A flying slash shot from the sword, bisecting the pair before, with a push of his hand, the pirate captain sent the four pieces of the Donquixote Familia members out the same hole through which they had entered.
"Run!" he ordered, his Room fading. "Now! That won't keep them down for long!"
"Is that all you've got‽" another voice demanded, a form bursting upward through a new hole in the floor. It was a bald, wrinkled, old man in blue spandex with a golden G belt buckle, said man striking a fighting stance. "Got! There's the G!"
"Who the hell is this clown?" Nami demanded.
"Don't let his age fool you!" Law warned. "Lao G is a tough old bastard!"
"Look at you whippersnappers," the elder commented. "You've made quite the mess. We'll need to get you back for that. Get! There's the G!"
"Is every member of this crew a weirdo?" the Zoan of the group questioned.
"That's not very nice to say, boy!" Coby only had time for his eyes to widen before the old man appeared before him. Faster than Coby could react, even if he could feel the man's intent in his Observation, Lao G's fist smashed into his gut. A touch of spittle passed Coby's lips as the force of the strike caught up, launching him backward.
"Coby!" Nami and Grace yelled as the Zoan crashed through a wall.
"You left yourself open, old man!" Law roared, Kikoku cutting through the air. Lao G went to dodge only for his back to let out a loud CRACK, freezing him with pain. "You're mine!"
Law's sword stopped an inch from the elder's wrinkled skin, cyan goo having caught the blade. Law traced it with his eyes, the trail of goo leading back to Trebol's nose, the man having climbed his way back up with his powers, a ring of goo holding his lower body on like glue.
"I think you've damaged our family enough, Law," the drippy man said, breathing deeply through his nose. Disgustingly, this pulled his snot connected to the sword back toward himself, dragging Kikoku that direction and giving Lao G the time he needed to retreat through the joint pain.
"Hey, Droopy!" Nami called, her Clima-Tact fully extended as bubbles with sparking clouds within formed from its end to form a spiral. "Watch out! There's a storm warning for gooey bastards! Storm Cloud Rod!"
She whipped her weapon forward, the bubbles following her lead before popping. The released storm clouds grew and merged, caught in a sudden tailwind that blew them harmlessly around Law.
Thunder rolled as lightning struck point-blank, Trebol and Lao G's screams of pain lost in the noise. The pair felt their muscles seize, flinging them off the third story. Law gritted his teeth, his feet skidding over the floor as Trebol's snot threatened to drag his sword out with him. Thankfully, with the Doflamingo commander's focus disrupted by the pain of Nami's attack, the sticky snot was left uncontrolled, allowing the pirate doctor to cut his weapon free.
"Now run!" he ordered, turning around and throwing Nami over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He ignored her indignant shout to put her down —that Luffy would beat his ass for that, ally or no— and took off down the opposite direction. Grace and Coby appeared on either side, the latter rubbing what was certain to become a nasty bruise on his chest.
"Where are we running to?" Coby questioned, rounding a corner before bullets perforated the air where they'd been and the wall behind. Baby 5 yelled something none of them heard through the gunfire.
"Away from here!" Law answered. He swung Kikoku with his free hand, carving the floor before them in twain. The group dropped to the level below, Law directing them to turn around and run under where Baby 5 would be if she were giving chase. "This way! We can lose Baby 5 in the hallways! She won't be willing to burn the whole castle down!"
Sprinting as quickly as all on their feet could keep up with —a speed Nami hated to admit she did not possess seeing as she was not as serious a combatant as even Grace— the group quickly lost themselves in the repetitive castle. Law, however, didn't seem concerned, easily leading them to an ornate doorway.
"We'll sneak out the back stairwell," he commented. "Only the servants ever use this path."
"Law, wait!"
Too late did Law react to Coby's warning. His hand barely touched the handle before the entire door was kicked off its hinges, crashing into the pirate captain and blasting him backward.
"Kyaahahaha!" the person on the other side of the door laughed, lowering his high-heel-clad foot. The boy, though it took the Straw Hats a moment to recognize such, was about as tall as Grace with blond hair under a white, horned hat decorated with the dark shadow of a Fighting Fish. His long-sleeved, giraffe-textured shirt did not match well with his blue shorts. "Oh, I was hoping today would get exciting with the tournament and all!"
"Shave!" Coby called, his swords already moving. "Unseen Disaster!"
"Shield High Heel!" the blonde, effeminate boy countered, catching Coby's attack between the sole of his shoe and the heel. His eyes shifted, turning a chilling blood red as the pupils widened. "Oh ho~! You're a strong one."
Coby pulled his swords apart, their blades scraping against the boy's reinforced shoes hard enough to cause sparks. He settled into a low stance with one sword over his head, his eyes never leaving their new obstacle. Said obstacle grinned, studying them as Law pulled himself from under the door.
"You're strong, too," Coby commented. "And you managed to almost hide your presence from my Haki. Care to give your name for the sake of posterity?"
"Dellinger," Law interrupted with a growl. "You sure have grown up a lot. I almost didn't recognize you."
"Oh, is that you, Law?" Dellinger asked. "I thought Baby 5 said something about you coming back, but I didn't know it would be so soon!"
"Dellinger," Coby said, dragging the boy's attention to him as the young man pointed Hoshokusha at him. "Move aside and allow us to pass. You cannot hope to beat all of us."
"Maybe not Law," the rival pirate confessed, "but all I need to do is stall you until someone else gets here. Even then, two or three of you could be dead by that point."
"I will not allow that."
"Then you'll be the first one to die. Pistol High Heel!"
Coby crossed his swords just in time, Dellinger's kick sending him skidding back. He leaned forward, his grip on his weapons loosening somewhat to account for his lengthened nails as he took on his Slasher Mode. His facial horn, however, was only half as long as it would normally be since it was still regrowing from it was snapped off.
"Needle Jack!" he called, blurring forward. Dellinger's eyes widened slightly before he swayed, barely dodging Emono before what was an afterimage faded. Coby spun, his tail slicing through another image of the horned teen.
"Wow!" the horned boy grinned, Coby cutting through yet another afterimage. "You're not just strong, but really fast, too! Kyaahahaha! Maybe this will actually be fun!"
"Law!" Coby yelled. "Take Nami and Grace and go. I'll hold this guy back."
"No way!" Grace denied. "You're not sacrificing yourself again, Coby!"
"As if I'd let you get away~" Dellinger sing-songed. He blurred toward Grace, murder in his eyes as he jumped. "Pistol High Heel!"
"Argon—!" Grace gasped, knowing even if she could condense enough argon to make an effective wall, it wouldn't form in time.
"Air Wall!"
Dellinger's eyes widened with Nami's shout as his foot apparently shattered the air itself, his momentum slowed in doing so. Coby appeared between him and Grace as he came out of a Shave quickened by his Slasher Mode's innate speed, the Zoan grunting as the Doflamingo pirate's heel sunk into his shoulder. Ignoring the blood now leaking from his new wound, Coby dropped Hokokusha and grabbed Dellinger's ankle.
"Needle Slasher!"
"Kyaa!" Dellinger gasped, the teen forced to use every ounce of experience growing up in the Donquixote Familia since near-birth had given him to avoid the stream of blade and sharp tail that tried to carve him up. Coby's onslaught ended when Dellinger caught the Zoan's tail with sharpened teeth, his previously-human teeth falling to the floor.
"What?" Coby questioned. "Devil Fruit?"
"Devil Fruit?" Dellinger echoed through his teeth. "I don't need one of those. My fishman heritage is more than enough!" He opened his mouth slightly, meaning to bite the barbed end of Coby's Slasher Mode tail off, but Coby pulled back before the boy could, ultimately freeing him. Dellinger spung backward, hunching over to show off the dorsal fin that had grown from his back. "I usually keep these hidden, but you're proving to be fun enough to show off a bit. Kyaahahaha!"
"Argon Whip!" Dellinger's hand snapped up, catching the end of Grace's crystalline weapon before it could do any real damage to him. His expression turn to one of surprise, however, when the crystal began to grow over his fingers and hand. "You have no right to laugh that way."
"I see," the half-fishman muttered. "All of you are dangerous in your own ways. How annoying." His hand flexed and pulled, shattering the argon with brute force alone. "Well, Baby 5 did say we only needed Law alive."
"Hold on, Dellinger," the nasally voice of Trebol ordered. While Coby and Law kept their eyes on the horned blond, Nami and Grace spun to see not only Trebol but Baby 5 and Lao G rounding the corner, the first and third still slightly charred from their meeting with Nami's lightning. "It seems the others can be useful, too. We want them all."
"Damn," Coby cursed, scooping up Hoshokusha. "This is shit-freaking-tastic."
"You'll have to kill us first," Nami hissed. "We won't—"
Lao G sped forward as nothing but a blur, his hand hitting the young mother in the groove between her neck and shoulder. Nami crumpled instantly, her Clima-Tact falling out of her hand.
"Nami!" Coby gasped.
"You bastards!" Grace raged, ignoring Law's warning. "Chemical Bending: Rainbow of—!"
Dellinger appeared to her side, the back of his heel catching the art thief in the back of her knee. As she buckled, he grabbed her by the face and drove the back of her skull into the carpeted floor. She didn't so much as moan.
"Grace!"
"Tri-Horn, wait—!"
Coby did not heed Law's words, the roset vanishing in a Slasher-Mode-enhanced Shave. Hoshokusha and Emono sliced into Dellinger's side, leaving a pair of debilitating —but not lethal— gashes. Lao G was his next target, the old man batting aside his first strike only to gasp as Coby's barbed tail stabbed through one of his thighs, ripping a chunk of flesh out on the way back. Coby spun, the back of his knuckles indenting the man's cheek. He crashed into the wall.
Coby barely turned his head, his shadowed eye zeroing in on Tebol as his fingers twitched.
"You do not hurt my friends," he growled.
"Dammit," Law muttered, forming a Room around them. "Shambles!" Grace and Nami disappeared, their unconscious forms replaced by chunks of debris. "We don't have time to keep fighting here, Tri-Horn!"
"Rifle Arm!"
BANG! BANG!
Law stumbled backward, blood now leaking from each of his shoulders. Baby 5 grinned, striding forward with her right arm turned into a rifle. Law moved, fighting through the pain, only for the maid to put another bullet in his shoulder.
Coby growled, his rage getting the better of him. His blades and tail blurred, eleven slashes bearing down on Baby 5. "Warwick Needle!"
"Painful Fly Dog Whistle!"
Flinging Baby 5 back with the neck of her outfit, Lao G intercepted the young swordsman, his fingers digging into the Zoan's shoulders, elbows, and hips. Slasher Mode being something of a glass cannon, Coby crumpled, his rage overpowering his surprise as Lao G smashed his fist into the young man's face in a return of comeuppance. Coby lost consciousness, his transformation fading.
"Sh-Shambles," Law stuttered, both he and Coby reappearing in the first-floor kitchen beside Nami and Grace. He stumbled, falling against the wall and sliding down. He grit his teeth, reaching toward Coby's torso for the den-den mushi tucked there.
"Law," a high-pitched voice squeaked, the surgeon freezing. He turned only to see a large, dark hand grab his face and smash him through a table.
In this way, the infiltration team stole Law's heart back but failed to escape.
"Welcome back, everyone!" the announcer yelled, earning the raucous cheers of the Colosseum's crowd. "The damage from Block B has been repaired and the next fighters are ready to enter! Are you excited‽"
The crowd's noise redoubled, the people and toys clearly ready for more.
Amy ignored this as she skirted the edges of the lower hallways, eyeing each injured person the medics carried by as she looked for the one who had caught her interest. She knew she was getting close; there were only so many injured, after all.
She turned a corner only to stop and retreat, the blonde barely catching a strangled gasp that threatened to give her away. Around the bend stood Charlotte Custard, one of the few people Amy wanted to avoid at all costs.
"I-I-I'm so-sorry, Boss," a blubbering voice cried, the Weightless Woman recognizing it as Gambia. Taking the risk, she carefully edged her eyes around the corner, finding the Missionary on a stretcher with a green-haired man walking beside him, hand in hand. "Th-They wouldn't listen. I-I couldn't make 'em see."
"It's alright," the verdet insisted. His hair also defied gravity, prominent sharp teeth passing his lips in an overbite. He wore a wine-colored coat with plumage on the collar, the front open to show his muscular torso and a tattoo like a pair of circular rings with fangs coming out of the bottom. He also wore pants diagonally checkered red and yellow. "It's fine, Gambia. We haven't found many willing to listen before. This time ain't no different."
"You're the loons that worship Straw Hat," another person interrupted, a tall, muscular blond with short hair and an open black vest walking over to them. On his chest was also a tattoo, one Amy recognized as the canceled-out smiley face of the Doflamingo Pirates.
"What's it to you?" the green-haired man questioned, his eyes narrowing. Nearly all eyes in the corridor were on the interaction now, locals whispering to each other. Amy picked up the man's name: Bellamy. The name tickled a memory of a bar fight years ago.
"I've met Straw Hat before. He's a punk. Strong but not the kind that will shove it in your face. He proved me wrong, and in my goal to understand, I lost every member of my crew."
"Then you understand the greatness of Luffy-senpai—"
"He's strong, yeah," Bellamy cut him off, "but he's not a strong as Doflamingo. If that punk shows up here like my captain wants, it will be the end of him."
"Impossible!" Gambia exploded only to wince, his hands instinctively reaching for the debilitating wound on his back. He hissed through the pain. "I've heard the coming times. Luffy-senpai won't stop at Dressrosa. He'll come to set the people free. Then more and more until the world is smiling and all bow down!"
Bellamy laughed, spreading his arms and gesturing at the injured man as if to say 'get a load of this guy!' "Yeah, and I'm a purple bear! What else has the world told you, O Great Missionary?" he mocked.
"Pink and Blue hold the keys to the seas," Gambia intoned. Bellamy stopped laughing, his expression morphing to confusion as he turned back to his fellow blond. "If the Sand and Rose can fix what the Dragon has cost, there will come peace from the ashes. If the price is paid in full, the kings will rage and the world will cower. Even the Sun will not smile as the Sea swallows all."
Silence permeated the hallway, one so heavy it seemed audible.
Then, Bellamy laughed. One fighter after another followed his example, their mocking mirth filling the area. The verdet scowled, his head reaching for the knife tucked in the waistband of his pants.
"It's time to introduce out favorites!" the announcer called, interrupting the brewing fight. "Hailing from the Kano country, the second grandson of the Chinjao Family! It's Boo Chinjao!"
As they did for all the named competitors, the crowd cheered. A heavyset man with burnt orange hair and a cocky smile with a few missing teeth strode toward the arena.
"Next, he's a powerful fighter with a 40th Dan in Fishman Karate! He's won several sword tournaments without drawing an offered blade! It's the fishman Hack!"
A fishman with yellow skin and blue-grey hair stepped into the sunlight. He was dressed simply in a gi with a black belt, the front open to show his toned chest and abs.
"She's come to us for more than the prizes; she wants a powerful opponent! Introducing Custard!"
Amy blinked as the announcer failed to mention Custard's family name or who her mother was. It could be because Custard asked for it, or maybe he just didn't know.
"We've got a mystery fighter who has yet to show his face! The veiled man who goes only by Rain Mask!" Rain Mask was a broad-shouldered man in a purple-black suit under a dirtied white cloak. He work a peaked cap of the same color, a white veil draped down over his face from beneath the hat. A sword with a red handle bounced at his side.
"And finally, a fan favorite and repeat fighter! You know him! You love him! Iiiiitt'ssss Beeeellaaammmyyyy the Hyyyeeennaaaa!"
Bellamy strode into the arena with a confident smirk, hyping up the crowd screaming for him. Amy ignored that, stepping out from around the corner with the hood of her cloak shadowing her face.
"Hey, Missionary."
"Haah?" the Missionary's captain questioned, turning toward the woman. "What do you want with my first mate?"
"Well, I have business with you, too. After all, I have a mission for you."
"Why should we do what you say?"
Amy grinned and lowered her hood. The green-haired man's jaw dropped, recognition hitting him like a meteor.
"One of the acolytes," Gambia breathed with reverence.
"You'll do what I ask because I can help you meet my captain. I am 'Weightless Woman' Amy of the Straw Hat Pirates, after all."
End of Chapter 63
Giolla's defeated, Nami, Coby, Grace, and Law have been captured, and Block C is just beginning! Next chapter we'll touch in with Zoro and Robin as well as Usopp, Franky, and Kaku and Sanji, Chopper, and Kin'emon. I wonder what they're up to?
Read and Review!
-SwordOfTheGods