Nexus HWR 8.8 Sin City:
"The connecting train to Rakushou is on Platform C. All passengers heading to stops in northern Aebrith remain on this train. This stop is Sin City. This is the train to Pyraxas. As we arrive at the Bridge of Azulon there will be heavy checks by the Fire Nation army. If you are going to make a problem for the train, just get off now."
The Straw Hats and their friends looked around at each other as they were getting out of their seats. The announcements seemed directed at them, and Killua suddenly spun around and glared to the other end of their train car. He spotted a couple of train conductors standing there watching as a few others disembarked from the train, but those conductors were not watching those people, they were staring right past over at their group. Shit, cover's blown. He turned to his friends, "Let's get out of here fast."
The others were in agreement and they grabbed their things and headed for the doors closer to them which conveniently did not have anyone standing in front of. They got into a space between cars and then stepped out onto the platforms outside the train. The suns were up high in the sky, beating down on the crew who shielded their eyes from the sudden bright light. Usopp had an arm in front of his face as he looked up, and he put his goggles down to give himself some protection from the bright sunlight. As soon as he could see though, his jaw dropped and he started shaking nervously. "G-Guys," he said.
His friends were all looking around the platform, at the tall buildings in a different part of the city, and to their right out of the city where rolling green hills only covered part of what they could see. Those green hills were what they could see from their booths that morning, but had they been on the other side of the train as they just neared the city, they would have noticed that the train tracks ran almost along the edge of a massive cliff that dropped into darkness. There was nothing there but an edge, almost like the entire world just ended and they could not see the other side from the angle they were at. They hoped that maybe when the train left they could turn fully around and would be able to see the other side.
The others looking at all this turned to Usopp, then followed his gaze up into the sky and most of their jaws dropped. Killua, Robin, and Riku had noticed it as soon as they got off the train, but still the sight in the air only cemented what they already feared. Riku snapped his head back down and darted his gaze left and right on the platform. Six, ten, no. I count at least twenty soldiers on the platform alone. There are more in the streets, I swear I just saw two tanks roll by.
"What the Hell is going on here?" Nami wondered aloud as she continued to stare in the sky where one of the huge objects floated in between her and the sun and let her get a better look at it. The blimp was massive. It was a giant balloon with an ovular shape, red covering on the outside of the helium that held it up, and a long metal piece beneath the actual balloon part that was only a fraction the height of the rest of the blimp, but had windows on it and catwalks sticking off with ladders going up them to different parts of the flying machine. The dark red covering to the machine had a bright red circle right in the center of its side, and in the middle of that red circle there was a black flame symbol with a curved bottom and three sharp points at the top. The machine's steel bottom was lined with turrets, many of those turrets glowed orange, they had tanks that looked to be filled with gas on the sides of them, and there were bomb ports beneath the steel bottom of the ship.
And there were close to fifty of these blimps flying above Sin City. The flame inside the circle was not a symbol many of them recognized, but they could guess whose it was: the Fire Nation's.
"Looks like they're going to war," Robin remarked, looking down and around at the soldiers bustling around the city near them. At first she was nervous that those soldiers were on the platform to take care of them, but she looked far down the platform nearly a half mile and spotted a squad of soldiers in black and red armor helping some train workers unload the train. She also spotted one of those workers look down the platform while talking to a Fire Nation guard, and she turned to her comrades behind her, "We should move."
"And go where?" Franky questioned as he was also starting to be on the lookout. He started walking after some other people in a crowd who must have been heading to an exit.
"Off the platform," Riku said, as they could figure anything else out after that. He started walking forward and Nami walked next to him, and with the navigator moving, the rest of the Straw Hat boys followed behind her.
Killua was about to walk after the rest of them, but he stopped and turned his head left to see Rin glaring around at the tall buildings inside Sin City. Even while the rest of them were focused on the blimps up above, Okumura Rin's eyes were darting around Sin City and the teenager was growling under his breath. "What's up?" Killua asked his friend. Rin turned to the younger boy and the look of anger on his face was unmistakeable, but he also looked very, very nervous.
Riku hid it well as he walked with the Straw Hats, but his eyes continuously darted around him and his fists were clenched at his sides. Nami noticed the young man next to her was tensed up and she thought it was because of two Fire Nation soldiers they were about to walk past near the bottom of the stairs that they were heading down the platform on. She became confused though as Riku was not looking at those soldiers at all, but straight to his right at the empty area beneath the platform on the right of the steps. The area was filled with trash and Nami was confused at why Riku was glaring at that area so intensely, then she almost jumped as he leaned back and snapped his gaze up, growling as they went flying right up over his head.
"What's gotten into you?" Nami questioned the man while they all walked past the distracted guards and managed not to draw any attention. Nami was worried about Luffy doing it, but Riku was the one acting really out of the ordinary right now. She glanced back at those guards, but even though they could not have missed seeing Riku's weird movements, neither of them were looking at the teen. If anything… they're looking the same way as him. Nami came to a stop and she spun left and looked up in the air, but there was nothing there. "Riku, what's going on?" She questioned in a low whisper.
Killua and Rin stood at the edge of the platform closest to Sin City. Kil was getting very nervous as Rin snapped his head left, right, up, and down, every direction in the city with the same look of distress on his face. "They're everywhere," Rin said. He glanced down at Kil and said in a deep, angry tone, "Demons. I knew Astaroth would be here, but," he turned back and looked up at a skyscraper that had a purple demon as wide as the building itself sitting on top of it. "There's so many of them," Rin hissed.
The kid with spiky white hair did not like the sound of that. What the Hell am I supposed to do about enemies I can't see? It's not like staying with Rin is going to help either, they're all after him for some reason after all. Guess it's time to go chill with Riku. "Come on," Killua began. "We should stay with the others," he suggested and started walking down the steps to head over to Riku who he could see also looking around at demonic entities around the city.
"Yeah," Rin muttered, and he shoved his hands in his pockets and followed along. Rin had on a light blue sweatshirt, and he reached up and grabbed the hood bunched up behind his neck. The young man lifted his hood over his head as he and Killua walked down the steps, and he received a few strange looks from his comrades ahead of them who were waiting up for a second and looking back their way.
"What's up with you?" Sanji asked the teen whose deep frown he could see even though his face was shadowed over.
"It's nothing," Rin said. "What's our next move?" He wanted to keep the topic off him, though the others noticed his fists clenched pretty hard at his sides.
Luffy stared at the black haired teen confusedly for a few seconds, then frowned as something was obviously up. Robin came walking back towards the center of the road next to the train platforms, as she had walked away a minute ago to head to the nearby ticket booth where she figured she could get some information from the old woman there. When she came back, she looked at Luffy who was wearing a much simpler disguise than they got him on the train with, wearing only a fake white beard and mustache now and the top hat over his straw one to keep him unrecognizable. Unfortunately, Robin looked at him and thought back to what she saw on the wall behind the woman in the ticket booth, and to her they looked very similar.
"We will not be able to get on the train across the Bridge of Azulon," she began. Her friends all turned to her and Robin continued in a quiet voice just loud enough for them all to hear her, "The Fire Nation is closely allied with the Organization. Their lands border each other so it is to be expected, however, that means that in this country, Luffy has a bounty." Luffy's eyes sparkled and his mouth curled into a huge smile.
"How much is my-" Robin waved an arm in front of her and two arms appeared on Luffy's face and covered his mouth. He was shouting too loud and there were five guards walking right behind him at that moment. She did not want him finishing that sentence, and the rest of the group let out sighs of relief as the guards walked by without saying anything.
Without releasing her ability over Luffy, Robin stated, "Twenty million dollars." Luffy's excited smile fell into a frown and Robin's arms vanished as she could tell he no longer felt like shouting.
"That's disappointing," he mumbled.
"Gotta start over before you reach 400 million again," Usopp told his captain with a shrug.
While Usopp said this though, Nami was doing some calculations in her head and her eyes bugged open wide. "Wait a second," Nami was putting things together fast and she slowly looked around at the group with an increasingly nervous expression on her face. "Luffy was worth 400 million Beris on our world. Here, I've been buying clothes for ten, twenty dollars, clothes that would be worth a thousand to two thousand." Some of the others were catching on and Nami continued slowly, "If a single dollar is a hundred times what a Beri is worth, then, then 20 million dollars," she gulped and a few of her comrades' eyes were growing before she even finished, "is the same as two billion Beris."
Luffy's jaw hit the floor, literally. His rubber jaw stayed there though his comrades in the Straw Hats had theirs down pretty far as well. Riku watched all this in amusement, thinking to himself, I wonder how much Beris and dollars would be converted to Munny?
How much are those things converted into Jenny? Killua was thinking along very similar lines as Riku. While the Straw Hats started whisper shouting about how crazy this was, Kil turned to Rin and asked, "What kind of currency did your world use?"
Rin was not focused, instead glaring down the road at three demons he saw crossing an intersection. He turned as Killua asked if he was alright and he nodded fast, "Yeah, um, well in Japan we used yen, but dollars were the currency of America, so I guess the money here is the same as from my own world."
"America huh?" Killua wondered. "That's where Dash, Ben, and Timmy said they were from." His voice got quieter right at the end of his sentence, and he immediately wished he had not said it as he spotted Nami dart her eyes to the floor and her hands clench tightly into fists. "I wonder how they're doing?" Killua continued, leaning back and interlocking his hands behind his head without missing a beat from his previous sentence. "Knowing Ben and Dash, they probably got themselves in a whole lot of trouble. Heh, Timmy will probably have to bail them out of it, again," Killua smirked and chuckled a couple times.
Nami smiled while she was staring at the floor and her fists unclenched. Yeah, Timmy's just fine, she reminded herself, staying positive despite not knowing where the boy was. "Alright," she snapped her head up with a determined smile and looked around at her comrades, "We've gotta figure out a way to get across the Cataclysm. If we can't take this bridge, we can head east and try to leave Fire Nation land before heading farther to the first bridge after their territory."
"Hey, Zoro's probably farther east anyway!" Usopp said optimistically.
It was a baseless suggestion but they all liked the idea of it. Luffy was about to say something about it, when he felt a weird sensation in the back of his neck and turned his head sideways. He glared behind him and saw some shimmers in the air, and then the faces of two red monsters appeared in the air to him. His eyes opened wide at the sight of them, but before he could turn farther around, a hand grabbed him by the front of his right shoulder and spun him to the rest of the group. Riku stood directly in front of Luffy and he shook his head back and forth, "Luffy, it's great you're starting to see demons, but don't start anything with them right now."
As Riku finished talking he darted his gaze to the left and saw Rin shaking where he stood as he glared after those two red monsters. Nami opened her eyes huge and she hissed towards Riku, "That's what you were looking at? There are demons all over the city?"
"What?!" Usopp's face turned blue as he whisper-yelled.
"Ignore them," Rin growled under his breath. Don't get them caught up in this. They will only get hurt if you do. "Listen guys, it will take a while to figure out where we're going, right?" He glanced around and didn't really wait for anyone to answer him before continued, "Alright then. Let's meet up back near that train ticket booth in a couple hours." Rin turned and glared down a road where he could feel a large demonic presence coming from.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Nami asked the teen.
"Rin, what is up with you?" Sanji snapped. The teen spun to see the chef staring discerningly at him, and the others were not buying the confused look he tried showing them, even Luffy who he could usually fool pretty easily. The chef stepped closer to the teen, "We know you're a half-demon and all, but whatever it is you think you have to do here on your own, let us help you out."
"It's nothing, really," Rin tried assuring them.
"Since the Dread Fort you have been acting strangely," Robin observed aloud.
Sanji's eyes opened wide as he looked at Robin, and he spun back to Rin and asked, "Was it because of those two? Mephisto and Amai-" He did not need to finish as Rin's growl showed him he was right. Sanji remembered what Rin looked like when the teen dropped in on him in the basement of the Dread Fort. He looked insane, but he was shouting about, his brother, Sanji's eyes opened wide as he remembered it, having somewhat forgot considering he passed out almost right after.
Rin opened his mouth, but Killua stepped in between him and the others first. "Hey, why don't we just let Rin do his thing? I want to check out this 'no-rules' city for a bit too. Don't you Luffy?" He asked the pirate captain who had apparently forgotten all about what they learned about Sin City before getting there. Killua smirked at Luffy's excited reaction and the youngest boy in the group continued, "Give me ten minutes and I'll find out where the coolest place to be in Sin City is."
Luffy nodded a few times as he liked that idea. The other guys there looked pretty excited about it too, and they seemed to forget all about their previous conversation. Nami sighed as it did not look like they were getting anything out of Rin, and she turned to Robin and asked, "Want to come with me to figure out ticket costs? I have to plot out a course for us to take across this continent if we're going to avoid the Fire Nation completely."
Robin nodded at her and the women told the boys to make it back to the booth before sunset. As they turned to walk away, the other men there noticed Luffy frowning deeply for some reason. Killua just ran off to go find them the fun thing to do, and Riku questioned, "Oi Luffy, what's up?"
"Hmm," Luffy hummed. He opened his mouth to respond, seeing that Riku, Usopp, Sanji, and Franky were all waiting to hear it, then he blinked a few times in confusion and looked left and right. "Uh, Rin?" The other four boys did a double-take to the empty spot in their circle where Rin should have been.
"He ran off," Sanji muttered, pulling out a box of cigarettes as he did. The chef looked above him and glared at a blimp flying over his head, then glared towards the darker part of town where there were some really tall buildings, most of them with Fire Nation blimps attached to the tops as if the soldiers had emptied out of their vehicles and were using those buildings as bases for now. The Fire Nation soldiers were not the only ones he was upset about too, and he wasn't thinking too hard on the idea of demons in the town, what he frowned deeply about was the fact that when he looked towards the blimp directly above, he spotted a figure in an all-black cloak standing on one of the catwalks beneath it, the dark shadow under his hood pointed straight down towards their group. The Organization again, Sanji thought. Whose Nobody is that? Someone we know? Or someone like Axel or Saix? Someone from Sora's universe? Someone who knows the mysteries of this world…
"Sanji-bro, you alright?" Franky asked the blond-haired man on his right who was spacing out there for a second.
"Yeah, fine," Sanji said, and he lit up his cigarette fast. He definitely needed one to sooth his nerves and he took a long drag.
"Guys," Usopp said in a shaky voice. The others all turned towards him and saw Usopp looking nervously at small buildings all around them. He gulped and continued, "There are people watching us all over the place. They aren't Fire Nation soldiers, they're just, armed, and scary," he spotted a few men in some windows of a two-story house on the right side of the road, and a second later he saw a sniper pulling back fast on the roof of a taller building to avoid being seen by him. It was Usopp's great vision and the fact that he was a sniper himself that allowed him to notice all these people pretty quick. "We should get moving. If crime here is legal, then they could trap us if we keep standing here like this."
"And if they recognize Luffy," Franky began. "They might be looking for that 2 billion bounty of his."
"It's twenty million," Riku corrected. Luffy frowned and turned to his friend but Riku shrugged and said, "What? You going to go by the bigger number to make yourself feel bigger, or use the same currency everyone else has for their bounties? Doesn't seem very fair to me."
Luffy frowned for a few more seconds, then grinned, "Shishishi, you're right. Twenty million's not bad to start, I think," he said, though he really had no idea how this world labeled their criminals. The fact that he was technically worth the same as two billion Beri was still in his mind so he did feel pretty good about it, but he was going to say twenty million if he was ever asked. I wonder what Zoro's bounty is here?
"Anyway," Sanji pulled his cigarette from his mouth and puffed out some smoke. "Let's get moving."
"But Kil said he'd be back in ten minutes," Luffy said back. "We should-"
"You guys," Killua began. They all turned and the people in the windows and on top of rooves around the crew stopped getting ready to ambush them. This child appeared out of thin air, and he was glaring at the rooftop that Usopp saw a sniper pull back from before. Killua had a terrifying aura around him and they could swear they saw a snake the width of the road surrounding his body and hissing up in the air. "Come on," he said, his voice casual like he wasn't simultaneously making a bunch of opportunistic thieves and bounty hunters sprint away while pissing their pants. Once he knew they were all gone he turned to his friends and his scary appearance faded, though the scared looks on Usopp, Sanji, and Franky's faces remained for a second or two, longer for Usopp. "I found some cool stuff to do, let's go," he motioned with his head in the direction of the tallest buildings in the city that all had giant blimps above them.
The spiky haired kid started leading them and Usopp ran right up behind him once he got over that terrifying snake-aura-thing Killua did. "Are you sure going over there is a good idea? Near all the soldiers and spooky buildings and blimps and-
"Apparently Fire Nation blimps are actually called zeppelins," Killua said, shutting Usopp up. "And no, we don't need to worry about them. In this city, the rule of there being no rules counts for the Fire Nation soldiers too. Legally, we can do whatever we want, and we technically can't be arrested." Usopp's eyes widened and he smiled at the idea of that. Killua held up his hands at his sides and continued while shrugging, "That doesn't mean they won't arrest us, since whose going to stop them? It's not like arresting us is breaking any rules."
"Heh," Sanji chuckled. " So what you're saying is power here, is really just-"
"Power," Killua finished for him. "That's right." The kid's face got a little darker and he continued in a lower tone, "I figured out why too." The others looked at his back and he muttered darkly, "This Astaroth demon, is a monster. He may be one of the Fire Nation's Lords, but he rules this city with an iron fist. Anything he says goes, and he made the rule for no rules so that he could do whatever he wants in this city at any time. All these Fire Nation soldiers you see here are in the middle of fighting a war south of us. They're using the trains to move supplies and troops around, and using Sin City as a launching point for an invasion south that's going on right now." He hesitated as they continued walking towards the really tall skyscrapers that were over a hundred stories tall but all clustered in one area in the city, only a little over a dozen of them total. Then the teen continued in a quieter tone, "The Fire Nation soldiers apparently won several battles already in their push south, and all the prisoners were brought back here. They were meant to be POWs, some were going to be made into slaves… but then Astaroth showed up at the train that all the prisoners were being loaded onto."
Killua was only gone for six minutes at the maximum, so the fact that he came back with so much information and a goal in mind was impressive, and a little unsettling to some of them. The kid did not continue his story, but Franky could not hold back and he muttered, "What happened to-"
"He killed all of them," Killua replied. "Hundreds of people. And they did not die, quickly," he thought about how the guy he found in a building not far from his friends who had been watching them for a little ranted on and on about all the atrocities Astaroth committed on those prisoners, and how the man wished them all on Killua for breaking his left leg. The kid broke his right leg after that before heading back to his friends. Killua opened his mouth to describe the way Astaroth melted flesh, or decomposed people alive, made maggots come out of their eyes and ears, made them explode, and burn, but he decided not to mention any of it. It all stuck with him though, and his friends who knew him as one to easily be able to shake things off were off-set by Killua's quiet, unnerved mood. "Anyway, let's just stay away from that guy if we can. And for now, I found something awesome for us to do."
Rin, Killua thought as he continued walking ahead of his other companions. What the Hell are you doing looking for a guy like that? I know that's what Mephisto told you, and I know you have to find your brother, but, but… Damn it Rin, these are demons! Actual demons. Not like you, or that Abraxas thing that took over Ben, or like any of the monsters we've seen on this journey. These demons are the personifications of evil itself. They are Satan's kin! Be careful man.
"So this is where Astaroth is?" Rin muttered, staring at the end of the street in front of him with a grim look on his face. He stood in between two buildings, both over thirty stories tall, both casting dark shadows onto the narrow road below. Some light reflected off building windows around him, but the place Rin was looking was even darker than the road around him. The paved street ended in a few meters, and a few meters after that it started slanting down. The ground dipped and out from the sides of the street rose stone arcs that connected above the dipping road, making what looked like a tunnel going into the depths of the planet.
The strongest demonic presences Rin felt though, were all coming from inside this hole. He heard whispering behind him and glanced back to see a few men at the intersection behind him looking his way as if he were insane. Okumura Rin turned away from them and back to the hole, then walked towards it and down into the ground.
It was dark down there, but the farther Rin went the more it started to light up again. He saw a light in the distance and continued walking down the slope towards it, going deeper than basements would be in the nearby buildings. Rin walked down farther and there was a wide opening ahead of him as the tunnel opened up. The boy walked through that opening that put him right at the edge of a cliff, then looked down and grimaced at the sight of how far down the ground dropped.
There was a stone floor a hundred feet below him, bumpy walls on all sides, and the ceiling above was covered in sharp stalactites pointing down at the creepy open cave's floor. Rin gazed around and saw less demons than he expected in here, and then right when he glared to the opposite side of the cave as he was in, where there was a protrusion from the bumpy wall with an open door at the bottom and four heavy-set demons in front of it, the enormous demonic presence he felt coming from behind that door faded away. Rin's eyes opened wide and he snarled as he wondered what that could mean.
The teenager hopped off the cliff and arced up in the air coming close to the stalactites before dropping down into the middle of the cave. He hit the ground and started running immediately, while demons around him spun inwards and looked in shock at the hooded figure sprinting past them. "Hey! What are you doing here?!" A high-pitched demon's voice yelled on his right.
"Someone stop him!"
"Rip his eyes out!"
"Feed him his tongue!"
Rin ignored the shouts and sprinted straight towards that wall protrusion where four demons were lifting up hammers and axes and glaring his way. One of them, the largest, fifteen foot tall, eight foot fat, gray demon covered in bumps just like the walls, stepped forward with no weapon in hand and just punched his fists together. In a voice lower than any Rin had heard before, the gray demon grumbled, "Name yourself."
Rin reached behind his back and kept his head low to avoid being seen under his hood. He pulled his sheathed sword off his back but did not draw it as he sprinted ahead, and when he saw the large demon punching towards him, he sidestepped to the right and spun his blade into the side of the monster. It was not expecting the strength in Rin's hit one bit, and the demon was lifted off the ground and thrown right into a chubby red demon on his other side. The red one dropped its axe, and Rin froze as the other two behind the gray one brought down war hammers. Rin leapt to his left and rose his left hand as he did, catching the falling axe and then spinning around with it in hand.
The two who swung hammers down at him smashed them into the floor and blasted holes in the rocky surface, not very big holes as they were pretty far down, but that made creating even holes of those sizes impressive as the ground was a lot harder down here. They snapped their gazes up at the teen who was too fast for them, and their eyes opened huge the second before the axe sliced through one of their necks and kept going to cut straight through the other's head in the middle of his temples. Rin sprinted past the falling demons, though he heard the two that tumbled away first shouting and getting back up, along with all the ones he ran past before who were right behind him now. Ignoring them, Rin ran into the door of the protrusion, and smashed his sheathed sword to the right as he did.
Cracks shot up the rocky entrance and loud creaking noises could be heard right as the closest demons to Rin's back were getting into the entrance. They snapped their heads up and let out screeches and screams as the entrance collapsed on them. Okumura Rin stopped on the other side of the hole and looked back to see it had been sealed off like he hoped, though he could hear the demons on the other side yelling about moving away the debris. He turned away for now though and looked into the dark room barely illuminated by the same kind of artificial lights sparsely lining the walls outside the protrusion. "Astaroth," Rin growled, stepping farther into the room. He darted his gaze left and right but did not see anything, then looked forward to that staircase on the other side of the small entrance room, leading farther into the cave so that Rin knew the next room was past the outside cave's walls, maybe even a room that would not look natural like the one he just went through.
"Where are you?" Rin snarled, holding his sword's hilt tight in his right hand and grabbing the sheath with his other, ready to take it out at any moment. He walked up the stairs slowly and though he could not longer feel a demonic presence up ahead, he heard noises coming from the top of the stairs. He got closer and the next room up was more lit up from the orange light he could see at the top of the stairs where there was a hole that opened into a larger space. What the? Is that, singing?
"I'm just digging, digging, digging! I'm just digging, digging-digging! Got my pick and my wits, and I'm using them for digging!" The lyrics were stupid, and Rin sweatdropped as he got closer to the top of the steps. There was something weird about those lyrics though, but as he thought about it, it was not really the lyrics themselves that were upsetting him.
What the Hell is that voice? Rin thought, clenching his Kurikara even tighter as he neared the bright orange light. He stepped on the top step and into the next room, where there were torches on the walls that gave off a lot of light compared to the rest of the cave, or even the city above shadowed by all the Fire Nation zeppelins. Rin instantly snapped his gaze to the other side of the room where there was a figure facing away from him, facing an empty wall, except there was something weird about that wall. In front of the figure who was holding a pickaxe that looked to be made of diamond, there was a thick purple pillar almost as tall as the singing person himself. The skinny man standing there kept singing while he broke another chunk off the obsidian pillar, then started smashing his pickaxe down on the remaining two foot tall purple stone.
"And when I'm done, Imma find me a pretty girl. And me and that girl are gonna… finished!" The teen exclaimed in an excited voice. He tossed his tool to the right side of the room, while the person at the hole in the wall behind him stared in absolute shock. The black haired teen recognized this person, this person whose face turned sideways a little when he tossed his pick, who sang lyrics about getting with girls, who had a golden staff on his back with a ring dangling at the top of it over his left shoulder. Rin dropped his jaw as the teen who turned sideways noticed him, and slowly turned his way with a menacing glare on his face and a deep frown.
As soon as the pink-haired teen turned fully around though, that look of menace wiped from his face completely and his jaw dropped. He rose his right hand and pointed it ahead in utter shock, "O-O-Okumura?!"
"Shima?" Rin mumbled. He rubbed his eyes and out from the bag on his back Kuro popped his head. The cat jumped out and landed next to Rin, then looked up at Shima with just as wide eyes as Rin. After Rin rubbed his eyes and he saw the other teen still there, a giant smile spread across his face and he shouted, "Shima!" Rin sprinted across the room while strapping his sword back on his back.
Rin pulled Shima into a hug and the other teen stopped looking so shocked, then started laughing out loud and he put his arms behind Rin's back too. "Rin! I can't believe you're here!" Shima pulled back and he started walking away from the side of the one-exit cave that he was standing on. He walked back towards the stairs a little then turned towards Rin and his cat who cautiously eyed Shima as it noticed what Shima just did, even if Rin did not. "What are you doing here?" Shima questioned with a friendly smile on his face.
Rin shook his head around as he could still not believe Shima was really here. The disbelief slowly faded though as he realized what Shima asked, and before he answered it, he repeated the question in his mind while staring at the teen who died his hair pink. "Wait a second," Rin mumbled, "why are you here?"
"I asked first," Shima replied back, keeping that smile on his face though Rin suddenly noticed Shima had increased the gap between them to ten feet and was standing close to the top of the stairs he just came up.
Rin became really, really confused and he took a step towards Shima as he spoke, "I thought Astaroth was here so I-" Shima took a step back when Rin took his forward and Rin's smile faded from his face now. "Shima, what's going on?" Rin questioned, trying to get a little serious.
"Rin," Kuro urged, sounding nervous as it and Rin could both feel demonic presences getting closer, notifying them that the debris Rin blocked the entrance with was likely moved away.
"Sorry Okumura," Shima said. His friendly smile had lowered down a little into a small one, one that did not look real, that looked, unsettling. Shima chuckled and glanced behind Rin at the empty wall for a second, "You just missed him. Our Lord just left, he has important business in Pyraxas, the Fire Nation's Capital." Shima smirked as the demons behind him had not come within earshot yet. "Well, I would love to stay and chat, but I need to get going. The Umbrella Corporation runs this city while Astaroth is gone, and I have to let the member of the Light in this city know he's in charge now."
"The Umbrella Corporation? The Light? Shima you're making no sense! What's going on? Why are you here with-" Rin got cut off as Shima continued loudly over his old classmate.
"The Umbrella Corporation is a criminal organization that runs Sin City from the shadows and controls regions all over the world. The Light are made up of powerful people and demons who run the Corportation, so they're the ones I report to. As I said, I need to go report to the member of the Light here, Klarion." Shima heard voices at the bottom of the steps and he nodded towards Rin with that smirk still on his face. "Well, if you'll excuse me Rin."
"No," Rin said, looking extremely serious for the first time since he arrived there. Shima got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and Rin stepped towards him, "Explain to me what's going on? Why are you working for demons? What happened to you?!"
"'Happened to me?'" Shima asked as if it were an odd question. "You know Rin, I was a spy the entire time you knew me." Rin's eyes turned into saucers and Shima reached behind his back and grabbed K'rik, the staff he had there. "A spy for the Illuminati, and when I arrived here, I found my old bosses and joined back up with them." Demons were right behind him on the stairs now and Shima called out, "Don't let him follow me! Yamantaka-kun!" He rose up his staff and a huge black flame rose out of the tip of it, making both Rin and Kuro step back while staring at it in shock. The flame turned into the shape of something terrifying, rising forty feet above Shima's head so it pressed into the ceiling while four arms ripped out of the flame's sides. Shima smirked and slammed his staff down on the ground, making his black flames erupt in half the room while the two glowing white eyes that Rin noticed on the top of monstrous flame faded away.
"Shima!" Rin yelled into the flames. They were hot and he leaned away from them, wondering just what the Hell was going on. "Shima! You're lying! Tell me the truth! Where is Yukio?! What's going on?!" Rin was furious, enraged, he snapped completely and he pulled his sword off his back. "Shima! Tell me what you know! Tell me what you're hiding!" Rin drew his sword and his body erupted with blue flames. The black flames were simmering down, but Rin glared through them where eight demons were standing at the top of the stairs, and every single one of them looked shocked and horrified by the sight of Rin. He had blue flaming horns on the front of his head and his ears pointed out to the sides. "RAAA! SHIMA!"
Shima was running down the stairs fast and he dared a glance behind him. "Whoo, got out of there just in time," he joked, seeing a bright blue light coming from the top of the stairs. He turned around and continued running off, but as all the demons in the cave were already behind him, and no one could see his face anymore, none of them noticed the relieved smile on his face fade. His lips turned flat and his eyes turned dark, but he just pushed himself to move faster. Sorry Rin. Next time we meet I hope we can talk longer.
Rin stood inside a cave covered in demons' bodies that were burning blue. He snarled and his sharp teeth bared to the final demon pushing itself away from him. "Stop! Stop it! We didn't know it was you Satan-sama!"
Rin's furious look turned even worse and he roared in an animalistic way before charging forward and slashing down at the demon that screamed at him to stop. "I, am not, Satan," he snarled, but no one was left in the room to hear him, no one but a cat pressing itself against the opposite wall in fear.
"R-Rin," the cat whimpered, and Rin spun his head around still looking enraged. The feral, animalistic snarl on his face stayed for a few seconds, but the more he stared at the terrified look on the kitty cat's face, the more his human side yelled at the demon part of him to stop scaring his friend. "Rin!" Kuro yelled, seeing Rin's snarl fade a little.
The sound of Kuro's voice calmed the teen enough for him to sheath his sword, making the blue flames all over his body fade away just like the pseudo-horns. "Sorry Kuro," Rin said, though his voice was dark and not very apologetic.
"I don't understand," Kuro whispered as it walked towards its master. The familiar continued, "Why was Shima saying all those things? Do you think someone was making him?"
Rin looked down at the floor and he clenched his fists, one of them around the shaft of his Kouma Ken. "That's it," Rin muttered. A small smile came to his face as that was not a good thing, but it was better than the alternative. "Someone had to be doing that," he agreed and nodded fast at Kuro who looked just as relieved to hear that as Rin did. Rin turned away from his demonic cat and back to the door leading downstairs, But, what he said about before Nexus. The Illuminati? Shima couldn't have been a spy! Not the Shima I know. Rin's frown was back on his face, and no matter what he thought, he could not get Shima's words out of his head. What he said about the Umbrella Corporation, and that Light group, if those are true I should go tell the others. "Come on Kuro," Rin said and started walking for the steps. "Let's go find Luffy and them. Astaroth isn't here anymore."
"Ohh! And Boulder takes another big hit to the head! It looks like he may be out for the count after this one!"
"Raaa!"
"Get up pussy!"
Killua turned to his left and smirked up at Sanji, "Hundred bucks says Boulder's going to win."
Sanji's eyes widened and he snapped his head down to the shorter teen. They all just saw Boulder get slammed by a boulder right in his fat forehead, and the four hundred pound man was having a hard time getting back up while blood poured down his face. "Sure about that?" Sanji asked and Killua nodded, holding out a hand for the chef to shake. Sanji shrugged and smirked as he shook the boy's hand. "Thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Sanji remarked.
Killua grinned and they both looked over the ledge of the long second-floor balcony they were standing on back down to the arena. They were in a penthouse of one of the giant skyscrapers in the city, only the penthouse itself took up four of the top floors with ledges all over the giant square room that people were standing on and shouting down at the arena stage below. Killua darted his gaze to his right where he saw one of the bookies taking official bets for the match whispering to a man in a fancy purple suit who had on a lot of nice jewelry, and who he heard talking about certain aspects of the match only a minute ago.
"Earth Rumble 10 continues as Boulder motions that he's alright to go on! Hippo's still looking fine, and it does not look good for last month's champ as the previous runner-up looks like he's going to-" Boulder stomped a foot down and the stage around Hippo broke apart, leaving a hole that the slightly smaller man fell into. "What's this?!" The announcer shouted and half the room that were just booing started cheering while the ones who were cheering started jeering and yelling at their fighter to get back up. Sanji's eyes opened wide and he stared in shock as a pillar of stone rose up from the center of the stage as Hippo tried to get out of the hole, but the sides of the hole were also raising up and then curving down at the man with black hair unlike his fatter, balder opponent.
"AHH!" Hippo yelled out, right before six curving pillars of stone slammed down into him and shattered the pillar he was using earth-bending to raise.
"They're not as skilled as Toph," Franky remarked. "But these guys are pretty good," the cyborg finished.
"How did you know?" Sanji muttered under his breath, but Killua just shrugged like he had no idea what Sanji was talking about. Sanji got ready to give the kid his money, when his eyes widened and he smirked while nodding down at the arena. Kil looked back as well and they watched as an arm stuck up through some rubble, then Hippo pulled the rest of his body out of the rocks.
Killua got a bead of sweat on his face as he noticed the man in a purple suit on his right start angrily arguing with a bookie. The bookie in a black muscle shirt reached a hand up to his ear and pressed a button before speaking, and Killua darted his eyes down as he saw a twitch of Boulder's head down on the arena stage. The bald man darted his eyes up to their balcony for a second, before grinding his teeth and glaring forward at Hippo.
He started shaking his head, then something else must have been said to him as his eyes went huge and he grinned menacingly. "You should have stayed down!" Boulder shouted. The earth-bender stomped his feet down hard and the rocky rubble behind Hippo rose up. Hippo spun and punched a fist through the debris wall, but then snapped his gaze down fast as the ground started sucking up his legs. It twisted him around and put him in a strange position while dragging him beneath the stage surface too so only the top of his chest, shoulders, and his head were sticking out of the stone.
Hippo tugged but he was too tired and he groaned angrily as he saw Boulder walking right towards him. "Damn, you got me this time," Hippo said. He really wanted to hold onto that title, but it did not look like that was happening this time.
"And there you have it folks! Our previous champ Hippo seems to be conceding defeat! And how could he not after that devastating performance from Boulder?" The announcer's voice got a lot of people cheering, but those people quieted down as Boulder lost the big smirk on his face and stood right in front of Hippo.
Killua could see the man in the purple suit on his right holding the earpiece that the bookie originally had in his ear. That man was shouting into it and Boulder did not look very happy as he stood there, but then the suited man said something that made the bookie's jaw drop, and made Boulder's mouth twist into a large smile. Killua frowned deeply, Everyone has their price. "Forget about the hundred bucks," he said darkly, and Sanji turned to the kid wondering why as he was about to take out the cash. Sanji turned back to the stage and his eyes opened huge as Boulder rose up his arms and a large chunk of the arena on his right rose up.
"Hey, hey Boulder! What are you doing?!" Hippo started shouting.
People all over the audience were roaring, cheering, booing, as Boulder pushed his arms forward and made the huge boulder hover right over Hippo's head. Hippo was shouting at him the entire time, and the announcer joined in, "Hold on folks! Looks like the long-standing rivalry of Boulder and Hippo is coming to a sudden end! What is going on?! Is this bad blood?!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The Straw Hat men, Riku, and Killua looked around at all the balconies on the three floors above the main level, and then down at all the people getting closer to the stage every second on the first floor of the penthouse. There were Fire Nation soldiers in the mix, and Luffy spotted some demons floating above the stage chanting along with everyone else. Even the announcer joined in, and Killua spotted the man in the purple suit on his right run up to the railing they were all next to and shout over the ledge, "DO IT! KILL HIM!"
Boulder made eye contact with Hippo, and his smirk faltered for a second, before he ground his teeth and brought his arms down fast. The boulder shot down and Hippo's head did not last a millisecond, the rock keeping its speed all the way until it hit more rock, smashing through Hippo's head like a watermelon and crushing the top half of his body. "OHH!" The announcer yelled. "That was brutal! And here I thought it was a friendly rivalry!"
Boulder turned, lifted his arms up above him, and roared, "RAAAA!"
"WOOO!"
"YEAH!"
The room erupted with cheering, while Sanji lit up a cigarette. He had seen other people in the building smoking already so he knew it was fine. He took a big drag then muttered, "There goes my appetite."
Luffy was frowning deeply and he did not like the look Hippo had on his face right before he was killed. It looked like, Hippo felt like he was being betrayed. Suddenly, a voice filled the screaming room, "ENOUGH!" Everyone quieted down and they all looked to the fourth level of the penthouse, on a section of the balcony that stuck out more than the rest of it. That balcony floated down on its own and there was a man sitting on a comfy-looking chair on it, petting an orange house cat that was sitting on his lap. He had jet black hair smoothed down on his head except for two black spikes on the sides that stuck up, though it was hard to tell if that was a part of his hairstyle or if he had horns coincidentally the same color. He was a scrawny man in a black suit with a black tie on over his white undershirt, and he picked up his ginger cat while standing and continued to pet it. "Boulder is the champion of Earth Rumble 10! Now, get on with the gladiator matches!"
Boulder stepped off the stage, a stage that the scrawny man on his floating balcony pointed down at. The stage lit up, and within seconds all of the holes, blood, and debris on it were gone and it was back to the way it looked at the start of the fight. White lights shimmered around the edges of the stage though, and large silver fences shot up along all the edges while the stage itself morphed from having four sides to having eight. "Step into the octagon!" The figure running the show yelled and waved an arm out in front of him. "Two will enter the cage, and only one will make it out!"
Another chain-link fence formed on top of the rest of the fences to cover up the stage, though the holes in it were wide enough that it would still be easy to witness the fight, just hard for anyone inside the cage to get out once they were in. The figure who waved his arm across his body and created that cage, pointed his hand down at the arena now and cackled madly. A fireball formed in front of his hand and he fired it at the stage. It erupted on top of the cage, and instantly the outside of the cage was in flames, leaving only one part of the cage un-burnt, the part of the cage that suddenly opened up in the middle to create an entrance for a fighter to enter into.
"Who is this guy?" Usopp whispered to his right in fear.
Franky shook his head and he did not like how omnipotent the being in front of them seemed. He's creating matter out of thin air. That shouldn't be possible. The Law of Conservation of Matter… The cyborg decided to stop thinking rationally as the man floated off his already-floating platform, then teleported down to the arena and hovered right above the center of it. "Come on! Two people need to volunteer! I don't want to have to pick you myself," he sang the last part though when he was finished he narrowed his eyes and looked around dangerously at people who were looking hesitant after hearing that only one person would make it out of that cage alive.
"Guys, we should get going, it's almost sunset." The group staring over the balcony spun around in surprise and stared at the teenager behind them who had a dark expression under his blue hood. Rin lifted his head and his friends could see that his expression was darker than it had been for the past day, which was already pretty dark, and the small black cat on Rin's right side had a sad expression to match as it looked at the ground.
"What happened to you?" Usopp questioned.
Rin looked his way and said, "Astaroth isn't here."
"Is that what you went to do?" Sanji asked with huge eyes. He took out his cigarette and stepped towards the teen, "Killua told us about this Astaroth demon. Why the Hell were you going after such a monster on your own?" Rin's face looked even darker and Sanji questioned seriously, "Is it about Yukio?"
Rin snapped his eyes straight into Sanji's, and after a few seconds he sighed and nodded his head. "I thought Astaroth could give me a lead, but all I learned is that Astaroth is in the Fire Nation's capital, a place called Pyraxas." Rin grew quieter then looked over his friends and out into the big room where an annoying voice continued to shout, "That guy's name is Klarion, he's a member of the Light."
"The Light?" Riku questioned, his eyebrows raising.
"A group of criminals who run the Umbrella Corporation," before anyone could interrupt he continued to explain, "a criminal organization here on Aebrith kind of like the Underworld, only run completely by demons." And Shima, he thought darkly.
"Where's this Pyraxas place?" Luffy questioned. Rin turned to the pirate and looked at him confusedly, but Luffy smiled back at him and continued, "If it's north, let's head there next."
"Really?" Rin questioned with wide eyes.
"Of course," Riku told the teen. "Don't be so surprised. We all know you're here looking for your brother."
"Yeah," Usopp agreed. "We haven't forgotten. If you've got a lead, it's better than what we've got on Zoro."
"Which right now, is just 'north,'" Sanji muttered while putting his cigarette back in his mouth. He smoked the last of it then dropped it on the floor and stomped on it while finishing, "And if this Fire Nation army is using Sin City as a launch point for attacks in the south…"
"Then Pyraxas must be north of us," Killua finished for him. Sanji nodded but Kil smirked and continued, "Also, our train conductor said the train heading north was going to Pyraxas, so…" Sanji got a bead of sweat on his face as he did remember that and his deduction skills didn't really matter anyway.
"Super!" Franky yelled and posed with his arms over his head. "Looks like we've got a new destination!"
"Let's get going then," Kil suggested and the others all nodded.
They turned to start heading out, but Luffy glanced back while they were all walking. He looked out over the balcony and down at the cage in the center of the room where two people were beating the crap out of each other with only their fists. The cage was glowing and there were no exits on it, and both figures inside looked rabid as they went at each other with their lives on the line. Damn it, Luffy thought angrily. That guy, Klarion, he thought about what the man was just doing and he cursed himself as he turned and walked after the rest of his friends. Power like that, that's not natural. Gohan, and Goku, and Timmy, they can't even do stuff like that. So how can a weirdo like that guy?
The pirate was stumped and he shook his head with an annoyed look on his face as he was once again reminded how small he was on this giant world. Luffy and his friends headed to an elevator and Rin did not let out a breath of relief until after it started going down. Kuro looked up at his face and Rin looked down at him and they made eye contact for a moment. They had both been trying to keep it out of their minds, but it was all they could think about anymore. "I met a friend of mine in the city," Rin began while the elevator was slowing down at lowest floor.
The elevator doors opened at the first floor with a ding and a group of seven people stepped out with most of them looking at the teen in front who had a cat walking on his right side. They walked between Fire Nation soldiers as there were a lot of them gathered in the lobby, but most of those soldiers had already started drinking or were laughing heartily as the night had begun and they were in Sin City. The group strolled through the lobby while Rin answered Usopp who just asked him who he saw. "Renzou Shima. He said…" Rin's eyes opened wide as he started speaking and he froze where he stood. Why did Shima tell me all that stuff? That's weird now that I think about it. If he was really a spy, he wouldn't go around saying stuff like that… unless, what if he knows about Yukio? Does he know I'm looking for him?!
"Rin?" Usopp repeated for a third time and finally the teen spun to him and his shocked look lowered back down a little. "What did he say?" Usopp asked.
"He told me all about the Umbrella Corporation, The Light, demons, and Astaroth," Rin said, only now realizing it all as he finally calmed down from his anger and confusion earlier. "I don't know what he was up to, but I'm starting to think he was really trying to help me out." The teen smiled, I hope so, no, I know that's it! He chuckled a few times at his own worry from before.
The group walked out of the mega-hotel, but right as they were exiting, one of the doormen turned and said, "Monkey D. Luffy." The team froze and they all looked at the man hesitantly. Luffy's beard and mustache were still on but those and the top hat on his head apparently were not good enough a disguise. Even though the zeppelins cast shade over most of the city, the man who said Luffy's name was still wearing sunglasses and he stood nine feet tall with shoulders as broad as Franky's. He took a step towards them, and everyone tensed up wondering what he was about to do. He looked at Luffy who looked back into the man's sunglasses, and then the guy said, "Hand me your Identification if you would."
"Why should he?" Killua snapped, on edge and about to attack this guy if necessary.
The man frowned down at the kid, did not flinch at the menacing look Kil gave him, then turned back to Luffy and said, "While you were inside I received new news of what happened in the Dread Fort. I recognized you on the memo as you had only just walked by me. Your defeat of Saix means I need to update your ranking, now hand me your I.D." Luffy's eyes started shining and he pulled out his I.D. fast, no longer caring about his original cautious hesitation.
The burly figure pulled a device out of his pocket that looked like a card reader, and he slid in Luffy's rectangular piece of plastic that depicted his face and had an orange circle next to it. The man typed fast on the other side of the reader and Luffy leaned up his head wanting to see what the man was writing, but before he could see, a loud ding rang out and his I.D. popped back out. The doorman reached to grab the I.D., but Luffy snagged it first and spun it around to look at it. All of his friends leaned in too and looked at the plastic and Sanji's eyes widened. "Black," he said in semi-surprise, "you skipped right over red."
"Woohoo!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Wait a second," Killua began. He turned to the doorman in a full black suit and looked up into the guy's black sunglasses less threateningly than earlier. "I thought rank gold meant equivalent to a Lord?" He questioned, wondering why Luffy did not hop straight to that level.
"Rank black is the strength of a Lord," the doorman said respectfully to the kid. Killua suddenly realized the reason this guy was not trying to be threatening at all to them, as he thought they were incredibly strong. And he's right, Killua thought smugly. The taller man continued, "Rank Gold however, is reserved for those who the King deems worthy of receiving the rank."
The group's eyes all opened wide, and Franky mumbled under his breath, "Meliodas must have, met the King before too, huh?"
"Thank you," Riku told the doorman. The suns were setting pretty far and he motioned with his head away and his friends all agreed. They turned and walked away from the hotel, each of them thinking about different things. They thought about Pyraxas, how they would get there, Luffy's new rank, Meliodas's rank and the mystery around it, and for Rin, he thought about his brother. The seven of them headed back uptown and to the north where the train station was. The tracks covered the entire northern edge of Sin City, and past them only twenty meters or so was the edge of the cliff that started the Cataclysm.
As they neared the station and the ticket booth a couple of pirate women were standing near, they saw that the train they got off earlier was no longer on the tracks. The fog that filled the Cataclysm thirty miles away from them had lifted as well, and the boys all stopped thinking about whatever was on their minds and just stared forward in awe. They could see the Cataclysm in its entirety now, from the that started bridge a little to their east just outside of Sin City's boundaries, to the dark brown, orangish pillars of stone that rose up from the depths of the crack and held that bridge up. There were huge stone pillars every few miles or so, differing in height and width, and a few of those pillars had massive birds or dragons perched on them. And miles and miles away, almost too far for them to see, there was a wall.
"The other side," Usopp said in amazement. "We can see it."
"Finally," Killua mumbled, though he was just as amazed. It looked like that cliff was the end of the world, but there really is more to this place beyond this Cataclysm.
They neared the women, the younger of whom was impatiently tapping her foot as one of the suns was already set and they had been waiting for the boys for over an hour now. "Took you idiots long enough," Nami snapped as soon as they were within earshot, which still meant they had to walk another forty meters to reach her. "Ugh you guys are slow," she groaned as they did not speed up when she shouted at them.
"Sorry your highness," Killua remarked sarcastically.
Nami fumed and lifted a fist, but then Robin spoke up and switched everyone's attention to her. "We learned of a route that we can take east of here to reach another bridge over the Cataclysm that is out of the Fire Nation's territory. The price is not too hefty, however there will be security checks on the way. They will not be as strict as the ones on the Bridge of Azulon would be, though we will need to be careful."
"The next train comes tomorrow at eight A.M.," Nami continued for her friend, forgetting about the youngest boy's annoying remark a moment ago. The whole time Nami and Robin were speaking, most of the boys were paying attention and nodding, all except for Luffy who looked away and started walking off. No one noticed he was leaving, as Nami got a little quieter and kept speaking, "We also heard, from some Fire Nation soldiers we were getting information from, about the Resistance south of us."
The others looked at her questioningly and Nami lowered her gaze to the floor, "We heard that all of the Resistance bases south of us, are going to be crushed soon."
"You guys think Gray's group is going to be okay?" Usopp asked, though the question was already on all of their minds as soon as Nami mentioned it.
"If there really are bases not far south of here, then they've likely come upon one of them by now," Riku admitted. "They should still be pretty far west of us though, considering the train took us pretty far east. Maybe the Fire Nation attacks aren't spreading that far."
"'Pretty far east?' Haha," Nami repeated and laughed at Riku. The others looked back at her and Nami continued smugly, "I found out some of the dimensions of this continent, and we are nowhere near the middle of the continent, we're only a small fraction of the way inland. Even with that train ride and all the walking before it, we're still maybe only a tenth of the way to the opposite coast if we kept walking east."
"Damn!" Franky exclaimed. He thought about that for a second then shouted, "That's SUPER wide!"
"Well it's a good thing we're not heading all the way east then," Killua said.
Sanji nodded and turned to Robin, "How long will the train from here take to get to the next bridge?"
"All together the trip should take five days…"
"Hey guys!"
The group of eight gathered near the ticket booth turned their heads to the north. There was a single figure standing in the glow of the setting red sun on the western horizon, standing on the other side of the train tracks as them, right on the edge of a humongous cliff. Luffy dropped his fake mustache and beard on the floor, took off his hat and tossed it to the side, and he turned his head sideways and looked back at his friends out the corners of his eyes. "We're not taking the train," Luffy said and his lips curled up even more. The others were all starting to open their eyes wide and Luffy turned back to stare out over the massive canyon stretching a hundred miles, basked in a dark red glow that made it seem all the more mysterious. "Shishishi," he laughed and pointed his right index finger forward, before yelling, "We're crossing the Cataclysm!"
On the thirtieth story of a tall building close to the northern edge of Sin City, a figure with purple hair stood facing sideways inside a window, sipping a cup of tea and looking outside out only his left eye. He gazed down towards the train tracks and a large smirk spread across his face as the pirates and their friends started arguing, and then the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates turned and leapt right off the side of the Cataclysm. Mephisto Pheles let out an audible laugh and tilted his head back laughing harder as the others started yelling but chased after him anyway.
"Think it's a good idea letting Rin head down there?" a shadowed figure farther inside the room questioned. He walked out of the dark and up to the window too so that he and Mephisto were right next to each other, though unlike the King of Time he stood with his front fully facing the window as he stared out at the Cataclysm. "You know demons infest the depths of the Cataclysm."
"Ah, I am sure Okumura Rin will be careful," Mephisto remarked. "I am thankful that Rin's flames completely destroy demons, like those ones in Astaroth's cave earlier. I am sure brother will not be happy about them. It makes things easier on me though, as now I don't have to return to Hell and destroy them again to keep them quiet." Mephisto chuckled and then his eyebrows narrowed down and his expression darkened as he stared at the young man in front of him, "Do I have to do that to you, Shima-kun?"
"What? No no," Shima turned and waved his hands in front of him defensively. The eighteen year old with dyed-pink hair stopped looking so innocent and goofy and he started grinning at the demon before him.
Mephisto lost his dark look and he began laughing heartily again. "Shima-kun, you have been the best spy a demon could ask for for years!"
"Thanks," Shima said with a genuine grin on his face. "I really enjoy it."
"I can see you do," Mephisto replied. "So, how are things going in the Umbrella Corp?"
Shima shrugged and began, "More or less the same. Saburota Todo did not report seeing Rin, though I know Rin must have come through his region. Rin's with the group that came through Dressrosa, so Todo must have saw him too."
"Todo," Mephisto hummed. "I wonder what his plans are if he never told Lucifer or Satan that Rin was here. Maybe he did, but they are keeping it from the rest of the demons… no, no Father would want everyone on the lookout for Rin to bring him to Hell as soon as possible." Mephisto scratched the purple stubble on his chin and smirked again. "Keep up the good work, Renzou Shima-kun. Remember, don't get caught."
Shima smirked right back at the King of Time and replied, "I never do."
A/N Shima's a spy?! Sorry non-Blue-Exorcist-manga readers :P. Luffy dives head-first into the Cataclysm, 'cause fuck trains that's why! Earth Rumble, Boulder, and Hippo from Avatar the Last Airbender, Klarion, a member of the Light from Young Justice, and Shima from Blue Exorcist all make first appearances in the crazy Sin City. News coming up from the wars south in Resistance land doesn't sound good for our heroes friends... so let's see how they're faring! Next chapter we get a special for the end of Chapter 8, then Chapter 9 starts up, which I would label in total Nexus: Heroes Will Rise Chapter 9- The Resistance. Look forward to it. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!
Darugus chapter 45 . 8h ago
Nice chapter
Also didn't expect that pairing
Looking forward to the next chapter
Thanks! Happy you didn't see it coming though I did try and hint at it at the end of the chapter where Riku destroyed Zexion, but not much before that. Hope you liked the update!
Espada-001 chapter 45 . 6h ago
Well I certainly enjoyed the last two chapters especially with the fight between Luffy and Saix. I also find it amusing that Sanji seems to have gained the interest of Mephisto unintentionally and luckily that saved him while he was in a weakened state. And Saix definitely screwed up when he brushed Luffy off as just another nuisance (lol). It also seems like Robins message won't being passed on to her Nobody since Killua killed the messanger. I was honestly expecting Axel to take on Saix himself but I definitely enjoyed the actual opponent. Also it seems that Xemnas has been doing something that's probably going to shake Nexus somehow. I know I might sound a bit ignorant in asking this but isn't Xemnas the Nobody of Ansem? I'm still curios as to how you have Rin's father holding a large amount of power on the surface world when there should be other super powers down in hell, but I guess you'll get around to that later. It seems that Sora's off to go and do his actual job now and find the worlds key hole but he's probably going to have some trouble especially since there aren't any known locals from the planet to point him in the general direction. I also completely forgot that Flash was turned into a heartless as well. And while I admit that Killua god speed power is the fastest in the group followed by Luffy's gear 4th state, neither of them would be able to touch the Flash if he doesn't want them to. Anyway it's definitely amusing to see Nami trying to get Riku's affection and for what its worth I wish her luck. Well that's all I have for today so until next time have a good day and I once again look forward to reading the next update!
Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the Luffy v Saix battle, and I thought it was cool you did catch that Demyx was killed before telling Bronxi which I wondered if anyone realized. Mephisto's definitely starting to play a bigger role as it looks like he's following Rin and his friends around now. What is Xenmas doing?! And, he is not Ansem the Wise's Nobody, but he is the Nobody that was created when Xehanort's Heartless (the one inside Riku who CALLS himself Ansem, but isn't really) was created. It's pretty confusing haha. Anyway, how does Satan control Hell(s)? What about his power on the surface?! Where is the Keyholes? What about Timmy and Goku?! So many questions, so few answers ;). The Flash being a Nobody seems pretty unstoppable. Heartless Flash took Dash to take down, but that was Flash without intelligence or the use of his better skills, unlike a Nobody which has some real smarts. We'll see how that goes... later!
LOLYOL chapter 45 . 3h ago
Yayy! Short and sweet, no complaints.
Thanks!
joebob323 chapter 45 . 3h ago
Great job! I just want to know, who the heck was Clayton?
You don't know Clayton? The hunter from Tarzan? The guy who got hung by all those vines in the most gruesome Disney death I've ever seen?! Haha, in Kingdom Hearts 1, he loses his heart after trying to kill the gorillas and Sora puts a stop to him, just so ya know. Thanks for the review! And thanks again to everyone who read and who review so fast that I can post two chapters a day and still have 4 review responses to write by the second one... though I guess since it's almost 2 A.M. it's not technically the same day anymore. XD 'Till next time!