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Chapter 23:
The End of Hody Jones
"Hurry it up, you morons!" Caribou yelled, to the scurrying people below. What remained of his crew and several other human prisoners that had managed to escape Hody's clutches through sheer dumb luck loaded the largest ship in the dock with supplies stolen from a nearby warehouse, said warehouse now sporting a massive hole courtesy of his brother's inhuman strength. Pirates ran around the dock, each and every one in a rush to leave this island they'd expected to be a paradise only to find misery and torment. "Either Hody or Straw Hat will come out on top soon and we don't want to be here to take on the winner!"
"Aye, Captain!"
Caribou huffed, his hands twitching uncontrollably under his sleeves as he morphed them into various shapes. He tried to regulate his breathing, trying more and more complicated shapes to alleviate some of the tension in his gut. His eyes would not stay still, flinting to where he knew the Straw Hats and the New Fishman Pirates were ripping at each other's throats, his mind conjuring images of either sides' warriors baring down on him for his misdeeds this day.
He had never been a brave man. Oh, his brother was too stupid to know fear what with his blind trust, but Caribou refused to stay in a place where he could not beat the strongest thing there. When that blonde woman from the Straw hats showed her ability to injure him, a woman who was by all accounts not even close to one of the strongest of that crew of monsters, Caribou knew his only chance of survival was to run away.
"Uh, Bro?"
The swamp Logia jumped, his hand turning into a hammer and already on a collision course with the sudden sound before he registered both the words and the speaker. The quite-literal hammer fist stopped just short of the cowering Balerion, the lizard clinging to the bald head of the Devil Fruit user's brother. Coribou didn't seem to notice, the hulking man staring off the side of the ship away from the island.
"Don't do that," Caribou hissed, his hand deflating. "I've told you that a thousand times now."
"Has it been a thousand?" Coribou blinked. "'Cause I thought we were somewhere in the six-hundreds."
"That doesn't matter, you idiot! What the Hell's so important that you need me. Is your rubber duckie floating away again?"
"Nah, Bro," the larger brother answered, the mockery passing over him without any realization. "Sir Eggy Benedicts is still in the washroom where I put him after the Bully-winkle sank."
Caribou opened his mouth to remind the lug that their ship had been the Bullwinkle, not the Bully-winkle, but with the ship lost he decided there was no point in correcting him anymore. He sighed, running a sleeve through his greasy hair.
"What is the problem, Coribou?"
"Problem?" he blinked. "Oh. Oh! Yeah, I saw something coming through the bubble hole thingie over there, and you said to get you if anything came through it. Something came through it, so I'm getting you like you said, Bro."
"How big was this thing? A fishman? A Sea King?"
"It could've been a fishman. 'Bout as big as me, maybe."
"Where is it?"
"Oh, I don't know," Coribou shrugged. "Lost sight of it when I came to get you, Bro."
Caribou's eye twitched, every cell in his body screaming to turn his dumbass brother into his moniker: a blood splatter. With the ease of far too much practice, he swallowed that desire and walked to the railing where Coribou had been on lookout. His eyes scanned the water, searching for a shadow of any kind.
"There's nothing here, moron!"
"Oh, that's 'cause he's up here, now," Coribou commented, the Logia of the two spinning around to see the pale brother standing next to a large man with a grey beard. "Found him! I win!"
"Who the hell are you?" Caribou demanded, pointing at the figure. He was shirtless, his tanned torso covered in old scars and dripping with seawater as he wrung out a pink, floral Hawaiian shirt. "Where did you come from?"
"Man, that was a good workout!" the old man laughed, cracking his neck while giving his shirt a final flick before pulling it on again. "First that sword brat for a warm up and then a refreshing dive for exercise. I really need to swim down here more often!"
"Wha… Swim down? There's no way someone could just swim down here to Fishman Island, especially not an old codger like you! Now answer my questions! Who are you? What do you want?"
"Pah, this generation," the man grumbled. "Always in a hurry. No respect at all. You don't even recognize me. Not that we've ever met in person, really, but the young'uns used to know me on sight. I mean, the sword brat did, but he just jumped me out of nowhere! I guess I really am getting old. Must be because I'm a great-grandpa! Haha!"
"You're a freaking whackjob," the Logia said. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, right. I'm here to meet my great-grandson for the first time. See, my brat of a grandson and his lovely wife and crew are here, so I thought I'd come on down and meet 'em. I mean, Senny told me I gotta take the kid from 'em, but I doubt I have enough energy to keep up with an even littler brat. Besides, I don't wanna get into a fight with Dragon about it and Dadan probably ain't about to put up with me dumping another kid on her. Not after the wallop she gave me a couple years ago, anyway."
Caribou's mind stalled, too much information with no real context all culminating in the name 'Dragon' being dropped in casual conversation giving him mental whiplash.
"Hold on," Coribou rumbled, one hand on his chin. Caribou could practically see smoke coming out of his ears as the underworked gears in his brain tried to turn through the rust and cobwebs of disuse. "Dragon's that big, big bad guy, right? The one with the armies and stuff. And the Straw Hat guy kept saying something about being that guy's son, I think. But he wasn't Straw Hat 'cause Straw Hat showed up and beat him up and then beat up the laser robot things and ran off."
Caribou almost swallowed his tongue as several puzzle pieces fell into place with Coribou's nonsensical ramblings: the idea of a great-grandkid and the name Dragon connecting to a certain son of Dragon with a new kid.
This man must be the Grandfather of Monkey D. Luffy.
"A… A-Are you…" Caribou stuttered, terrified of what sort of monster could produce monstrosities the likes of Straw Hat and the Most Wanted Man in the World.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to introduce myself." The man grinned, his smile so similar to Straw Hat's. "I'm Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp. So, which way do I go to find my stupid grandson and his adorable kid?"
Shadows danced in the waters above Fishman Island, the ambient light from the island distorted on its path to parts unknown. In this uneven light floated Prince Fukaboshi, his eyes watching the pink spot that was his little sister in the distance. Arrayed behind him were eight soldiers, one of them wrapping bandages tightly around the prince's chest and torso, alongside Megalo the shark and Ho-e the whale. He mused, his mind conjuring all the best- and worse-case scenarios for his plan.
"I'm finished, Prince," the medic said, pulling Fukaboshi from his thoughts. "Even so, your plan is risky. If you strain yourself too much or something injures you, there is no guarantee that the damage to your lung can be healed."
"And if we wait any longer, then there is no guarantee that my sister will survive," he responded, Megalo at his side whimpering at the reminder. The prince reached out to his right. "Shine, my trident."
"Here, Sire."
The familiar weight of his weapon fell into his hand and he took reassurance in the cool metal against his fingers. Steeling himself, Fukaboshi turned to face his forces.
"Men, you have heard my plans and what has happened to Shirahoshi, but I need to impress on you the gravity of our situation. Our island faces challenges on two fronts with Hody Jones in the Gyonchord Plaza and Poseidon here. We are trusting our island to the Straw Hats to face that traitor, but here our enemy is not one we want to fight. Should the Straw Hats lose, we need Shirahoshi to rally the people in our own defense. Will you fight at my side? Will you defend me as I pull my sister back from the brink?"
"Yes, Sire!" the soldiers saluted.
Their volume caused a stir in the organized chaos before them, red-eyed Sea Kings turning their gazes on the group. Shirahoshi's blank face, barely visible at that distance, turned. She raised a slender hand and pointed, the Sea Kings twisting through the water at her command.
"Charge!"
Mermen, fishmen, and intelligent sea life alike swam forward at the prince's order, the group splintering into cells of two or three. Fukaboshi led Shine and Megalo through the distance as the other soldiers surged ahead, each heading off one of the Sea Kings.
"At our three o'clock, Sire!" Shine warned, Fukaboshi turning his eye to see a Sea King with the eyes of a crab and the body of a long, pink shark. It bared crooked, jigsaw teeth.
"Megalo!"
"Sha!" The shark shot forward in a burst of speed, slamming into the Sea King's side with his snout. The monster nearly folded in on itself, elongating like putty but losing its momentum in the process. It flailed, sinking lower as it tried to regain its place in the water. With it distracted, the trio swam past, leaving it for another squad to deal with.
Another Sea King, this one with green skin of various shades and a pair of front flippers with phalanges similar to fingers, rose from below them. Shine gasped, interposing his spear between its baleen teeth before the beast could swallow him.
"Shine!"
"Go on!" the soldier yelled, his voice already becoming distant. "I'll be fine! Save Her Grace!"
"Dammit," Fukaboshi hissed, turning away from his underling's predicament. "Come on, Megalo. Let's get Shirahoshi."
"Sha!" Together, shark and Shark Merman wove through the underwater battle. Fukaboshi felt pride rise in his gut from the snippets of fighting he saw, pride at the men he'd trained and trained with putting the skills he'd taught them to use. But those thoughts would have to wait as, with a swipe of his trident strong enough to blow a smaller Sea King away in a small whirlpool, he and Megalo broke free of the chaos. One of the blunet's eyes narrowed as his stab wound itched, reminding him that Vander Decken was still around somewhere even with his ship no more.
With the fighting behind them, there was nothing between the prince and his sister, her pink visage a stark contrast to the murky blackness of the ocean. Megalo all but warbled as he saw for the first time with his own eyes what had become of his lifelong companion.
Shirahoshi did not move as they approached, her eyes still that pure, unfeeling, sapphire blue. Her face followed them as they approached, but she made no move to attack them. Covering a little more distance, Megalo's eyes widened and he turned to the prince.
"Sha!" he cried, trying to indicate something. One fin curved, pointing to his eye. "Sha sha!"
Thinking he understood, Fukaboshi focused on the princess' eyes. There, trailing down her cheeks for only a scant time before being lost the waters around, were twin trails of blood.
"Poseidon's power is already hurting her!" the prince said. "We need to stop it now!"
"Sha?"
"Let us take her to the island! Perhaps separating her from the Sea Kings she controls will stop it."
"Sha!"
Megalo pushed forward with a burst of redetermined speed. Shirahoshi's expressionless face followed him as he swam around her, his teeth grabbing the back of her clothing. She let out an echoing call as her chest compressed, her weight slowing the shark's momentum. Fukaboshi turned as the sound passed him, the Sea Kings all stopping their fighting instantly to turn and see what was happening. As one, they pushed away from the soldiers and began advancing toward them.
"Megalo, go!" the prince ordered, wrapping his arms around his little sister's waist and straining his tail for all it was worth. "I'll push from this side, just get us to the island!"
They shot away, carrying Shirahoshi between them, with the hoard of Sea Kings nipping at their tailfins.
"Dammit," Luffy hissed, his hand clutching at a gash in his side as his willpower alone began to stem the bleeding. Hody had no sense of comradery with his crewmates, the rival captain having used several of them as shields to block some of the rubber-man's attacks. In return for pulling his punches to avoid killing the unwilling shields, Luffy had not been able to dodge the bite Hody had landed on his side, the shark ripping part of his abdomen away.
The human growled, a black sheen growing over his wound to close off his veins from the outside air. It was a trick Rayleigh had taught him, but one he knew would result in some form of scar from the wound's continued abuse. Gritting his teeth, Luffy turned his eyes on the battle to take in the states of his Nakama.
The first ones to register were Chopper, Nami, Billy, Usopp, and Ace, the former four working in tandem to fight Sarume. Chopper's titanic Monster Point stood at the forefront of that skirmish, Usopp on his shoulder offering vegetation support while Nami, Billy, and Ace played an annoying distraction by divebombing the Kraken's face whenever Chopper showed an unplanned opening. The youngest of the cell kept encouraging his family to "beat the meanie-ness" out of the octopus.
Coby, Grace, Amy, Merry, Brook, Zoro, and Hachi marched together some distance away, the seven of them having formed an almost tank-like formation as they mowed through the remaining bulk of the army. A swathe of downed opponents marked their trail of devastation.
Robin sat on a small chair set on a pair of poles carried by a multitude of limbs, directing a contingent of freed humans against their former jailors like a general over an army. Hammond, the yellow-skinned fishman that had tried to stop them upon their entrance, was strapped to the back of her mobile throne, the poor fishman making pained cries at her beck and call with a simple twist of her bloomed arms.
Franky, Songboshi, and Danceboshi maintained their spots by the Sunny, said ship starting to move again with the reintroduction of her Klabautermann to her systems. Sanji had joined them with the downing of the last of the flying mermen, the chef fighting alongside the princes while needling them with questions about their sister.
Finally, Luffy's Haki zeroed in on Gin and Hody, but the Logia did not feel like himself. Where Gin usually felt like a calm ocean with activity buzzing below the surface to contain the darkness that they'd named Rum, now that darkness had layered itself over the calm exterior, all that activity working together in an attempt to crush the fishman before it.
"What happened, Gin?" Luffy asked himself as he double-checked the state of his injury. Enough time should have passed to clot the bleeding, so only a thin layer of Haki should be enough to keep it safe unless Hody decided to attack there again, which was a possibility. Luffy stood, popping his knuckles and rolling his shoulders as he prepared to return to the battle.
"Oi!" a voice yelled, the pirate captain rolling out of the way of a giant club that came down where he's been standing. He turned, finding a whole subsection of the New Fishman army facing him. "Looky here, boys! That real pesky human's dropped himself in our laps after taking a beating from Captain Hody! What say you we finish him off for him?"
"I don't have time for this," Luffy whined as he ducked under the first sword that came for his neck. He twisted, kicking the offending fishman in the throat before spinning into a Gum-Gum Whip. Several Frogfish Fishmen managed to jump over it and charged, forcing Luffy to hop away from their spears as they stabbed the air where he'd been. "Back off, bastards! Gum-Gum Gatling!"
"Hidden Shield Squad!" a trio of voices announced, several Eel Mermen popping out of the ground with, as advertised, shields. Said shields rang, their vibrations dispersing the force of the human's punches.
"We are the Hidden Shield Squad!" the one Luffy assumed was their leader announced. "We can appear anywhere to defend our crewmates from the most devastating of blows!"
"Haven't done much good so far," the rubber-man commented.
"Bu… Th-That's…" the leader floundered. "W-We needed to make the tunnels! It takes a while! Anyway, now that we're here, you won't land another hit, Straw Hat!"
Luffy's eyes narrowed, the captain deciding he needed to focus his attacks a little more. As if in response, the eel guys disappeared back into the ground while the regular mob charged with a war cry.
Book smart Luffy may not be, but he'd fought enough battles to know intuitively that these foes, despite their numbers, would be no real match for him. Rather, they were a stopgap to keep him occupied so he could not return to Hody to tip the scales of that battle. With the introduction of the Hidden Shield Squad, that only put another roadblock in his way.
As Zoro might say, there are many ways around an obstacle, but only one is the most fun: busting though it.
"Move," Luffy ordered, a burst of his Conqueror's racing over his foes. They noticeably shivered as his spirit fell on them, their muscles straining to fight the need to fall to their knees and obey the command the human had given. A few fell. One stabbed his spear into the ground as his legs tried to give out, but he stayed upright with the added leverage.
"W-We won't take orders from you," one of the fishmen panted. "Y-You might be scary, b-but you're just a human."
Well, in that case a comment from Sanji might work: if someone doesn't go down the easy way, hit them harder.
Luffy relaxed, balling his hands into fists and putting his knuckles together before his torso. He took a deep breath as he focused. Slowly, the black spots of his Armament Haki formed on his hands and arms, the spots growing and merging until both were covered in his Will made manifest. The fishmen laughed at his stance or the lack thereof. Only then did another lesson, this one from the Dark King, pop into Luffy's head.
'Everyone in the world has the potential for Observation and Armament Haki, and of all three forms, two of them are mental. That is, they cannot be seen. Only Armament has any kind of outward appearance. Oddly enough, though, people can't see Armament until they complete the first step of learning any kind: willpower. Only one who has a level of will high enough to possibly use Haki can start to see it even if they don't know how. This can be achieved through drive or continuous exposure to someone else's Haki, typically through Conqueror's. If someone can't see your Armament, then they don't really have the drive to succeed like you do.'
Now, Luffy might not have understood everything Rayleigh said there, but he understood the general message: weak opponents couldn't see his Haki. And these fishmen were an example of that.
Luffy flowed around the spear that came for his gut, twisting away by a hair's breath before bringing his black-clad hand down on the back of the poor fishman's head. The mook let out an exhale as his world went dark, his body crumpling to the ground at the human's feet. The rest of the fishmen hesitated.
Luffy blinked.
They blinked.
The civilians watching blinked.
Luffy blinked again.
The fishmen glanced at each other.
The civilians blinked.
Luffy's limited patience ran out as they did, the captain stepping forward to launch a punch at their leader. A shielder popped out of the earth just as Luffy expected them to, only this time the metal did not withstand the force of his punch, crumpling under his Haki-coated knuckles and bowling over the merman and fishman alike.
Again, the non-humans hesitated.
"Well?" Luffy questioned, spreading his arms. "I'm waiting and don't have all day."
The fishmen steeled themselves before, as one, they bum-rushed the human. Luffy, for his part, shot several Gum-Gum Pistols forward, the attacks knocking individuals from their ranks one-by-one while the rest took solace in numbers.
They stepped within range of their weapons, activating Luffy's trap. His leg shot out, none of the fighters having enough time to avoid it this time. Even the Eel Mermen that popped out to provide a meager defense could do precious little against the human. Most of them coughed blood as their insides were compressed by Luffy's stretchy leg before being scattered to the winds off in the distance. Luffy panted as he caught his breath. Chatter rose from the crowd above, cheers and calls urging Luffy onward.
"You're our hero, Straw Hat!"
"I'm not a hero!" Luffy rebuffed, feeling the need to respond to such a ridiculous claim. "The meat is only for me and my crew! I'm not sharing!"
His piece said, Luffy banished the confused crowd from his thoughts as he refocused his Observation on the battle. Quickly finding Rum and Hody duking it out in the center of the plaza, Luffy shot toward them in a Shave.
"You might be a Logia, but you don't live up to the hype," Hody sneered, his reflexes just barely keeping ahead of Rum's attacks. The minor mutations granted to him by the healing gel he'd used had rendered the effects of Rum's lightning to the level of static, but the weighted tonfa he used still posed a threat all the same. Another unannounced swing whiffed past Hody's face, the smell of ozone heavy in the air. Another swing, this one downward, came quickly, Hody jumping into a backflip to leave naught but the ground to take the force of the tonfa.
"So what drives you, Hody Jones?" Rum questioned, spreading his arms wide as Gin's face twisted into a too-big smile. "Everyone's got something pushing them forward, some event of their past. An inspiration they want to prove themselves to, a lost loved one they want to honor, a hope for the future… What is your defining moment, Hody Jones? Why hate humans?"
"I can't just hate them because of the way they've treated my kind?"
"Oh, I agree that humans the world over are despicable pieces of garbage. Even those who act in the name of justice are more often than not only doing it because it gives them power. Why, I came about because poor Gin-kun couldn't take the stress of dear old dad's death and needed someone to blame. But that's not what I asked. What, Hody Jones, did the humans do to you?"
Hody blinked, considering the question as a smirk stretched over his face.
"Absolutely nothing."
Rum stalled at that answer. For a being such as him with such a worldview, not even he had considered that someone could perform like Hody and not have any real history for it. Hody was not greedy like Eneru or Crocodile. He was not trying to prove himself competent to higher-ups or following orders like CP9. Even with those individuals, they were not after a whole race of people.
"I don't understand," Rum admitted. "I don't like not understanding."
"What is there to understand?" Hody laughed. "Humans have been nothing but a plague on the Fishman race. All my idols, the ones I looked up to as big brothers, hated humans. Fisher Tiger, Arlong, and all of their crews, they managed to slaughter humans by the dozens! By the hundreds! I will be like them. My hatred of humans will spread to the rest of my race and we will exterminate them, because we want to. What do you have to say to that, human?"
"You may pontificate all you wish, Hody Jones," Rum answered with a shake of his head. "but you have no reasoning for your actions. You have nothing to respect and your words will mean less than nothing once I kill you."
Hody's smile dropped. "Your arrogance really pisses me off. You can claim to be a devil all you want, but there is nothing you can do to stand up to my power." Hody backed away again as the human disappeared with a crack of thunder, rematerializing with another slam on the hard earth below. Much as he was loath to admit it, this "devil" was aiming for his head in all figurative, literal, and lethal senses of the phrase. His realization that Hody had no driving force behind him other than blind hatred only served to make him a more ferocious foe.
Reaching down in the scant moment it took Rum to pry his tonfa from the cobblestones, Hody shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of Zeo's improved Energy Steroids. Before Rum could register what they were, the fishman had downed them, swallowing a dozen whole.
The effect was immediate, his body hunching over in pain as his insides tried to simultaneously accept and reject the sudden dosage of new chemicals. Blood and bile slipped through the cracks of Hody's clenched teeth and he forced himself to keep the pills down even as they tore him apart to be remade stronger than before.
Rum, however, was not an opponent to sit around and wait for his foe to power up, the self-proclaimed devil launching forward to land an upward swing to the fishman's jaw. Teeth cracked and shattered as the centripetal force caused Hody to lose a couple of the pills. Still, he managed to keep most of the handful, his head and arms now twitching violently as his muscles tried to cope.
"You've made a grave mistake, human," the fishman chuckled. "By this point, I must be the strongest creature in the world. You have no chance of beating me."
"You are a foolish monster with lofty, hypocritical goals," Rum responded. "Your kind are a Beri a baker's dozen within this world. You are neither special nor unique, Hody Jones. The only thing that sets you apart is your lack of reason. Otherwise, you are just a sad normal doomed to find yourself a footnote in history."
"Why you—!" Words seemed to fail the superpowered fishman, the xenophobe's eyes flashing a deep red as liver spots began forming over his face and chest. Whisps of black ether formed around his fists like manifestations of his hatred for an unfair world. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, drowning out the explosions and cheers of the world around.
Rum recognized the smoke for what it was, the uncontrolled, unaware potential of Haki, said force making him step back as Hody utilized his own speed to swipe at the Logia. A blood vessel in Hody's temple burst, the damage healing as quickly as it appeared.
Hody stomped forward, his full focus on the being with the wings of lightning, when a stretched fist planted itself into his face. The force sent Hody barreling backward as Luffy landed beside his crewmate's alter ego, a dust cloud obscuring the fishman.
"Rum."
"Straw Hat."
"Where is Gin?"
"He's not home right now. I didn't care for his commentary, so I forced him into a dormant state on the condition I fight on your side. Soon as that changes, he'll know and wake up. I couldn't claim any more power than that."
"I'd rather have Gin, but I guess we don't have time to argue."
"Indeed." Rum tilted his borrowed head. "I am inclined to side with you for more reasons than just the bargain Gin-kun and I struck. Hody—"
And the dust cloud dispersed with a burst of air alongside the mad yellings of Hody Jones. He was hunched over on all fours, panting and growling as his twitching eyes lost all sentience. The black wisps continued to waft from his body.
"Do you feel that?" Rum asked. "He's overdosed, but somehow his body is sturdy enough to keep going. He's little more than a wild beast now."
"Yeah, a dangerous one," Luffy agreed. "I'll go high, you go low."
Rum nodded, accepting the plan as the two uneasy allies split. Luffy jumped, raining punches down on Hody as the man-turned-beast sped toward them. He wove through the hail of fists until Rum met him in the middle, twin tonfa being stopped by Hody's palms. The fishman moved, headbutting the Logia with a strike that left him reeling.
Before Hody could capitalize, his teeth bared for a flesh-rending bite, one of Luffy's fists socked him in the nose. The fighters on the ground stumbled away from each other, opening space for Luffy to land and deliver a powerful uppercut to the fishman's solar plexus. He coughed, unable to respond before the human delivered another pair of powerful blows.
"Straw Hat," the fishman snarled, foam dribbling down from the corners of his mouth. His eyes were not on Luffy's face, but rather the distinctive hat he wore, as if whatever Hody had inadvertently done to himself caused him to lose his ability to recognize faces. "I'll kill you. I'll kill you! KillyoukillyouKILLYOUKILLYOUKI—!"
"Demonic Smite!"
A massive bolt of electricity fell on the frothing fishman, its blinding light coupled with the peel of thunder forcing all in the vicinity to turn away. The light died away after a moment, Rum landing beside Luffy as the two stared at the scorched earth. Some patches of cobblestone had superheated, said patches glowing a faint red as they cooled into glass.
In the center of this mess stood Hody, his body covered in burns of all degrees while his hair was little more than burnt remains. His shirt, already ripped from his repetitive use of the steroids bulking him up, was now naught but scraps at his feet, the last pieces of which were on fire from the ambient heat.
"He's not done." Luffy frowned.
"So I've noticed," Rum nodded. The pair's eyes moved to one gash on Hody's shoulder, the wound already sealing itself as they watched. "He has a healing factor."
"Then we'll just have to give him something he can't heal from."
An unspoken plan all but agreed upon through their Observation/Mantra, Luffy and Rum shot off in different directions arcing around the ruined plot. Hody followed the human captain with his eyes, unable as he was to keep both in his sight. Luffy spun, throwing his hand back with a twist as he lined up his attack. Hody dropped low, charging the focus of his hatred.
"Gum-Gum…" Luffy began, trying to time things properly with Hody's zigzagging advance.
"Road to Hell," Rum announced, twin lines of electricity blooming on either side of the charging fishman. The lines drew closer, narrowing Hody's advance until straight forward was his only option. "Now, Straw Hat!"
"Red Hawk!" Luffy's burning fist barreled down the limited path Rum had made, spiraling as it did to increase its momentum.
Hody jumped, avoiding the attack by inches. His fingers flexed, droplets of steaming water forming on each fingertip. Twin flicks of his wrists launched the Water Bullets at the human.
Rum reappeared over Hody before he could land or control his fall, the tonfa he wielded bashing him down into the ground. The crunch of the fishman hitting the earth front first covered Luffy's cries of pain as the boiling Water Bullets both burned him and sent him skidding through sheer force.
Rum landed, stomping down on Hody's shoulder before the man could pull himself from the ground. Something gave way, the fishman's arm popping from its socket. Hody made no sound of acknowledgement at this plight, all the chemicals inside him dulling the pain to nothing. Rum reached down, taking hold of Hody by the wrist and pulling his arm up.
"You won't be needing this," Rum said with a blood-crazed, the tonfa in his other hand building speed.
"Rum, wait!" Luffy yelled, but Gin's alter ego cared not for the words of his body's captain. The tonfa struck, Hody's elbow bending at an unnatural angle. One hit was not enough for the desired effect, so Rum struck twice more before the muscles in Hody's arm gave way, tearing in half.
"Graaaagh!"
"Kukuku! Ahahaha!" Rum laughed, blood dripping from the severed arm in his grip. Rust-colored spots now dotted Gin's robes from the splatter, but Rum had made his opinions on the choice of attire known before. Hody writhed under the Logia's foot, the pain finally registering through his madness. "Another monster falls at my hands, validating my existence. I am real! I am here! And all may fear me!"
Hody bucked, throwing Rum off in a single, jerky movement. The mental parasite's eyes widened as the fishman spun, backhanding him with a hand wreathed in black vapor. Rum rolled across the cobbles as Hody panted, blood leaking from his new stump.
"Give it up, Hog," Luffy said, turning the fishman's attention on him. "You can't win this. You've lost."
"Lost?" the mad captain blinked, barely hearing the words through the roaring of the blood in his veins. "Me?"
"Yeah, you. Rum ripped your arm off."
He paused, looking down at his missing appendage. "This is just a flesh wound, a small price to pay for your death! After all, Straw Hat, you're just another human. First I'll kill you, then that family and crew you've so desperately made. Beat me down as much as you want, I'll take it all and come back stronger until you're nothing but a bloody pile of remains at my feet."
"Then let's finish this," Luffy announced, his eyes hardening. "You want me? Come get me, Hog!"
"My name-" the fishman growled, ignoring how Luffy was blowing air into his arm, "-is Hody Jones!"
He charged again, but his dreamed-of reign was not to be as a pair of attacks converged on him.
"Gum-Gum Elephant Gun!"
"Defibrillator!"
The giant, black-clad fist drove Hody backward, his feet unable to find purchase with the churned ground. The backward momentum ended abruptly when Hody met an opposing force, the weights of Gin's tonfa digging into his back where they released what remained of the Logia's reserves. Hody's heart, the center point of both attacks, constricted and depressed until even the drug's resilience could no longer take the strain.
It exploded.
Hody swayed as the two forces pulled back. His unfocused eyes tried to clear his blurry vision. That pounding in his head and the rushing blood that had filled his ears was nowhere to be heard, leaving the world eerily silent. He fell to one knee, vomiting blood by the pint as his slowing body clung to life in the hopes for even one more painful second.
"No…" he coughed. His remaining arm came up into his vision, the appendage, once thick with musculature, withered before his eyes. Similarly, he could feel the rest of his body shrinking, losing all the power he'd so painstakingly gained. "It… It isn't supposed to be this way. Y-You're just humans. Y-You can't even swim!"
"Sorry, Hody," Rum smirked, walking around to stand next to Luffy. "If you have any complaints, take it up with the boss when you get to Hell."
Hody's face twisted back into his scowl and he tried to lunge forward one more time, but he stumbled, his legs now too weak to support even his frail body. Darkness crept at the corners of his vision and, as he hit the dirt, the world snapped into focus. One second became an hour, the fishman unable to speak or move or indicate the pain that wracked his body.
All fell quiet as there, under the gazes of Luffy, Rum, and the countless citizens above, Hody Jones withered away and died.
End of Chapter 23
Hody Jones may be gone for good, but the Straw Hats haven't wrapped up all the loose strings. What will be the consequences of Gin's deal with Rum? What of Shirahoshi and Vander Decken? How will Garp put so many wrenches in their plans?
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-SwordOfTheGods