Chapter 19 - Little Garden
Nami deftly sidestepped to evade Luffy's oncoming strike and then swiftly brought her shock staff vertically down on his head. Luffy leaned backwards, allowing the shock staff to pass him, before thrusting a wooden staff he was wielding at her midriff. She nimbly dropped to her knees to dodge before swinging the shock staff toward the back of his calf while in a crouching position. And in response, Luffy intercepted her shock staff with one end of his staff before quickly spinning it and swinging the other end at her head.
Noticing it, Nami also spun her staff and a clack sounded as she intercepted the swing.
"Shishi you finally got it," Luffy smiled taking a step back. It was a move she had been struggling with for a while and she had finally managed to learn to stop that type of attack.
"Yep!" Nami grinned as she suddenly launched herself from her crouching position and thrust her shock staff at him. Luffy gently struck the side of the staff to shove it away and in response, Nami used that momentum to make a full 360-degree spin and swung the other end of the staff at his head.
A series of clicks and clacks of the two staffs colliding sounded on the deck as the two kept up the exchange of attacks. Luffy was more focused on making her learn how to dodge so he made sure to manipulate the fight in such a way that she was forced to move a lot and nimbly bend her body, making her train certain muscles that hadn't ever been used for combat.
And when she went on the offensive, he parried all her strikes, making her learn how to carry the momentum of one strike into the next if her attack didn't hit.
Luffy's staff swept low, making Nami leap gracefully as she dodged his attack and suddenly, she saw a wide opening. She immediately thrust her staff at his neck, but unfortunately, she felt a blow to her stomach that stopped her charge and made her let go of the shock staff as she clutched her stomach in pain and fell to her knees.
"W-What did I do wrong?" She whined, her breaths coming out in laboured pants, as she slowly laid down on her back.
"It was clearly a feint. I let my neck wide open so that you would charge in… and you did." Luffy said causing Nami to groan. He sat down next to her and started to gently massage her arms as he continued. "You're too used to fighting opponents that look down on you and underestimate you. Such people wouldn't even think of using feints or tricks to make you lower your guard. But when you're going up against people who feel threatened by you, they will use all sorts of tricks like feints. Especially assassins. So you gotta keep that in mind too."
Nami hummed and nodded. Luffy rarely hit her hard during their spars but when he did do it, it would be because she had performed a
fatally wrong move or he had to impart some crucial lesson.
'This pain will make the memory more ingrained into you,' He had said the first time she had complained about it… and to be honest, she agreed with him. In the midst of a life-or-death battle, where clear thoughts were elusive, it was experiences like this that would remain vivid in one's mind.
Not that she would ever outwardly agree with him though. Instead, she took advantage of it.
"You hit me today… so…" she trailed off and tilted her head away from him. She then puckered her lips into a pout so that he would understand the unspoken words - '
I'm mad at you. Make it up to me.'
Luffy saw the pout and chuckled, knowing that he would have to appease her in some way so that she would forgive him.
"Well, that's enough for today. Take rest…" Luffy said and Nami nodded before sitting in front of him, with her back facing him. Luffy wordlessly started giving her a shoulder massage.
"This sure is amazing to watch," Zoro grinned ecstatically as he swung his weights around like swords a bit away from where the two had been sparring. "The witch getting voluntarily beat up-"
"Fuck you!"
"-And at the same time," he glanced towards the kitchen door where a very frustrated Sanji was grumbling and pacing around, not knowing what to do with himself. "I get to see that pervert's mind collapsing in on itself."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU CRAP-SWORD?!" Sanji instantly flew in and a more intense than usual fight broke out between the two.
It had already been over a week since they left Whisky Peak and Vivi roughly estimated that it would take them another week to reach their destination, so that gave them plenty of time for relaxation (when the sea wasn't trying to kill them) and also, training.
Nami had already asked Luffy to train her back at Arlong Park but she hadn't really put too much effort into it. In the beginning, she would stop after a few minutes, complaining that he was making her move a lot and tiring her out. But that was exactly what Luffy was training her on and didn't let up. It didn't matter what she did after or before the spars but during it, he was strict and stern. And so, she didn't like it that much and stuck to doing exercises.
But after they met Vivi though, she changed. Perhaps seeing Vivi's bravery and knowing that they would be going up against a Warlord's organization very soon, she had finally gotten the resolve to actually try seriously. Thus, ever since they left Whisky Peak, Nami and Luffy having a spar on deck had become a common sight where she would still whine and complain, but made sure to learn something and took Luffy's lessons seriously.
Sanji was, of course, horrified at the sight of Nami getting hurt during training and at the beginning, he had reflexively attacked Luffy with unbridled rage yelling, "
HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO NAMI-SWAN?!"
But when Nami herself smacked him a few times and blew up at him to not disturb her, he managed to barely control himself. He understood on an intellectual level that this was for her own good, that it was better to get hurt and learn in training spars rather than against deadly enemies… but his heart and body just couldn't accept it.
And thus, it led to the current scene where he would take all his frustrations out on Zoro, who immensely enjoyed seeing the cook looking so disturbed. He also got a good fight out of it, which was a bonus, so he taunted Sanji every chance he got.
Alas, that meant the two going overboard and damaging the ship.
And in entered Usopp.
The first time they went overboard, they ended up destroying multiple floorboards and also a wall. And so the next time it happened, Usopp took it upon himself to be 'Merry's Protector' and stop the two.
"Hey! Don't break the ship, you assholes!" Usopp yelled furiously as he pulled out his slingshot and started launching his special pellets at them. He didn't use any explosives as it would hurt the Merry but used pellets like Egg Star or Chilli Star that did the job of disrupting their fight… and as an obvious consequence, majorly pissing the two off.
"STOP EGGING US, YOU BASTARD!"
The two roared as they ran after Usopp but didn't stop attacking each other either, which gave Usopp plenty of opportunity to run away.
"THEN CONTROL YOURSELVES!" Usopp yelled as he didn't let up and accurately launched red hot chilli peppers into both their mouths, which, of course, made them run to the kitchen for water first, before coming out and chasing the sniper again.
This particular chain of events of Nami training, Sanji and Zoro fighting, and Usopp interfering to turn it into a three-way battle, had occurred a lot ever since they left Whisky Peak, which Luffy thought was a great way for everyone to train and get stronger in their own ways.
Most of the times, he would just let the three men fight each other until they eventually got tired but when they went
too overboard and were about to damage Merry a lot, he jumped in. Like right now.
"Let's continue this later," he said to Nami, who just accepted without a fuss, before jumping right in between Zoro and Sanji.
"Alright, stop."
But they didn't stop.
"YOU BASTARD!" Sanji's target just shifted as he started attacking Luffy, and Zoro started attacking him too to test himself. Luffy just grinned as he became both their opponents and controlled the flow of the fight in such a way that it wouldn't hurt Merry.
"Grrrah!"
But Zoro and Sanji who could see how easily he was manipulating and setting the pace of the fight grew increasingly frustrated and attacked him with more gusto, thus leading to fiercer attacks. That, in turn, led to Luffy nullifying their attacks before they even got into a proper stance to perform them by shoving them off balance or hitting them with the wooden staff, which again led to their frustrations rising… and so on in an endless cycle.
Usopp didn't stop either as he started targeting all three. He was deadly accurate at hitting stationary targets already but reading the flow of a fight and launching a shot to hit moving targets was something he couldn't do accurately.
Yet.
Luffy blocked all pellets aimed at him with the wooden staff but Zoro and Sanji got hit with multiple shots which left them even more irritated. But they just considered it as part of training and tried to sense and dodge Usopp's attacks while still fighting Luffy. By the end, the two men collapsed on deck, panting hard while Luffy walked away without breaking a single sweat.
"You monster…" Vivi breathed, sitting on a beach chair and holding the phone from which the fight was being broadcast to Reiju the whole time. Luffy grinned as he went up to her and waved. "So?"
"
Well, you've certainly improved a lot," Reiju, who had been asked to spectate that day's training, said impressed. "
But it's nowhere near enough to defeat me."
"I'm not going all out, you know…"
"Wait what? You're stronger than Luffy?" Vivi gasped and so did Zoro, who hadn't heard about it.
"Really?" Zoro sat up. "Bubble's stronger?"
"Last time we were together, yeah. You guys think this fight was frustrating for you? When we sparred, she would just stand in a single spot with one hand behind her back, and even if I threw all I had at her, she wouldn't even move or break a sweat. That's how our fights would usually go… Man, those were some extremely frustrating days for me… Now though, we'll have to test it out."
"I can't even imagine…" Nami groaned as she crawled up to an adjacent beach chair and collapsed on it. "What the hell kind of training do you have to do to get that strong?"
"
Ah well," Reiju hesitated, carefully filtering what she said so that Sanji wouldn't realize who she was. "
Genetics play a role but that will only carry you forward for a little while… Being in constant wars and fighting a lot, I guess. You have
to get strong or you end up dying…"
"Wars? You a soldier or something?" Zoro asked curiously.
"
Hmm… when it comes down to it, yeah… I'm nothing but a soldier."
"For which coun-"
"Sanji," Luffy interrupted before they could inquire more. "It's time for lunch!"
"It's only been two hours since we had breakfast, idiot."
"Snack time then! I asked you to make lemon tart, right? Make it now!" Luffy demanded, poking him repeatedly.
Sanji sighed getting up. "Okay okay, calm down. I'll make it."
The rest understood the unspoken message that they shouldn't pry into Bubble's life any more and dropped the topic of what she does.
While Sanji went to cook and Nami chatted with Reiju, Vivi got up and stretched. "Okay, my turn now."
Vivi was, of course, interested in getting stronger and seeing everyone training on the ship, she participated too. She was shown the Rokushiki and Haki too, which had blown her mind. She would usually join Zoro in his morning training of lifting weights (With
much smaller weights, of course) and also spar with him. Her weapons, the Peacock Slashers, were basically blades at the end of a string, so he was much more knowledgeable about how and where to cut a person effectively. She would still sometimes spar with Luffy though, where he would make her move a lot and improve her dodging skills, just like with Nami.
Thirty minutes later, Vivi crawled back to the beach chair while groaning that her body ached.
———
"
Okay…" Reiju sighed exasperatedly. "
First of all, let me ask you a few things…"
"Hm?" Usopp tilted his head. "What?"
"
You said this was supposed to be a weapon, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"
So tell me… Why the hell are you putting in PARTY TRICKS LIKE FLOWERS POPPING OUT OR A STUPID WATER SPRINKLER?!"
"Uh-haha…" Usopp awkwardly laughed. "It can be used to do cool tricks during a party?"
"
Again! You said this was a weapon
! So why does it need to do party tricks?!" Reiju snapped. "
And even the other functions too! I get the three-rod design and how it will create the hot and cold bubbles, which is honestly not bad, BUT what in blazes is that supposed to achieve?! You expect the bubbles to hurt someone in any way?!"
"Umm… ahh… that is… you see… what I ha…" Usopp stuttered trying to come up with something.
"
The only combat-oriented thing that's remotely useful is the Tornado thing. I can see it being useful under some circumstances… But other than that, what's the use of all the other things?!"
"The cool and heat balls are great though," Luffy interjected as he went through Usopp's designs.
"Really?… I mean,
right?!" Usopp brightened up. "It can be used during parties and all!"
"
In what world can bubbles hurt anyone, Luffy?!"
"Shishi this will be great. Usopp, remove the party tricks… Except for the water sprinklers. That will be helpful to increase the humidity in the atmosphere. Build the weapon like this itself…"
"You got it! This is the Great Inventor Usopp's invention so it will be a masterpiece!"
"
Ugh, It's like I'm talking to a wall… Hello?! I'm the scientist here! Listen to me! This is a waste of time!"
"Just trust me, Bubble. You'll see how amazing it is when he builds this."
"
Ugh…" Reiju grumbled and Luffy could
hear her rolling her eyes. "
Fine, whatever. Let's see what great thing this can achieve. Once this turns out to be a waste of time, you'll hopefully listen to me… What do you want my help with?"
"Oh," Usopp perked up happily. "To produce the hot and cold air bubbles, the mechanism I've designed requires blowing into it or shaking it. So, only like three or four bubbles can be produced per second. But if I can understand how your shock staff works, I can just have a button that can produce the bubbles automatically when pushed. And at an
exponentially faster rate too! Maybe even twenty per second!"
"
I see. Yeah, that's doable… And actually, yeah, I can see how this can be helpful. One can produce a large number of bubbles to obstruct an enemy's sight at least…"
"Y-Yeah? I mean, yeah! Exactly what I was thinking!"
"
Okay, let's start with reworking the design a bit…"
The two then began throwing around engineering terms as they worked on the blueprint and Luffy left the phone with Usopp as he walked off.
"Ah, Luffy!" Usopp stopped him and pointed to the corner of the room. "Glider Mk. 6 is ready. Test it out and let me know."
"Ooh!" Luffy excitedly picked it up and ran out to test it. They already had a few different versions of the glider, with each version being labelled 'Mk. number' on Luffy's insistence. The latest version, at first glance, just looked like a long pole that was twice as long as Luffy himself.
He excitedly jumped high into the sky, clicked a button at the side of the pole and out popped two wings to form a wide V-shaped wingspan. At the bottom of the pole, there was a much smaller replica of the wings which acted like a tail. There was a horizontal bar that strutted out perpendicularly to the wings which he held onto before he stopped kicking in the air and fell down at an angle.
"Alright, this works amazingly well!" Luffy cheered as the winds caught him and he glided in the air, circling over the Merry. Control wires went through the inside of the pole itself, which was hollowed out just enough for the wires. The issue of the wires getting tangled up was a huge problem in the previous versions, so that issue was taken care of in this one. The horizontal bar had all the ends of the control wires and thus, worked as the steering wheel, or a steering
bar in this case.
He could pretty much control the glider by shifting his body weight around just like in a normal glider, and he was already good at that. But he couldn't understand how to use the steering bar properly. The steering bar gave him the option of controlling how much the wings extended out and also changing the tail angles, which would give him more mobility, help him make sharp and abrupt turns, and also increase or decrease the speed as needed.
"Hmm… I can't get this right…" Luffy hummed as he tried to randomly change the angles of the tail and wings to see what would happen and learn that way, but he couldn't understand it all that well. "Hmm… Nami would be great at this, wouldn't she?"
She could basically read the winds, so she should be able to do a much better job at handling the glider than him. Once the thought occurred, he glided back down to the ship, intent on making Nami teach him. She was peacefully taking a nap on the deck, so he just scooped her up and jumped into the sky again.
"Ugh…" Nami groaned as her body jerked every time Luffy kicked off the air and she slowly opened her eyes. She blinked drowsily for a second before her eyes shot wide open when she saw she was high in the air. Surprisingly, she didn't scream though and quickly calmed down her racing heart when she saw she was in Luffy's arms and understood what was happening.
"So…" she glared at Luffy while grabbing his shoulders for support. "Do you have a good reason for this or should I throw you overboard when we get back on the ship?"
"Shishi good reason, I think," Luffy said as he handed her a pair of goggles, which she quickly wore. "Usopp made this latest glider…"
After a quick explanation of why he had airjacked her, Nami was holding onto the steering bar while Luffy had wrapped his rubber arm around her waist a couple of times to hold her in place as they glided in the air.
"Hmm okay, easy enough…" Nami mumbled as she got familiar with the controls for a couple of minutes before looking ahead. "Alright, let's fly! Move your body just as I do."
"Alrighty."
And for the next five minutes, Nami masterfully manipulated the glider. Not only was she able to successfully make sharp turns and control the speed at will, but she also performed all sorts of stunts like freedives, loops, and barrel rolls, that honestly left Luffy baffled.
"That was… exhilarating!" Nami breathed in awe. She would usually be too scared to even think of attempting such stunts, but having someone who could literally walk on air right behind her was more than reassuring.
"Yeah! I didn't even know you could do loops using a hang glider!" Luffy exclaimed. "I want to try it too!"
"You need to be able to read the wind at least a little bit to be able to loop and all…"
"Ahh…" Luffy whined.
"Heehee jealous?" Nami cheekily smirked.
"Yes," Luffy answered honestly. "This is way better suited to you."
"Oh…" Nami blushed a bit at the honest praise. "Well, it's not like I can get high up in the first place. Maybe if I'm falling off a mountain or something, this will be useful…"
"Still, it's good to have this in your arsenal. Who knows when it might become useful."
"True."
"Anyway, can you teach me a bit? Like how to suddenly make a sharp turn or perform a loop? I can't understand how exactly these controls work."
She always received training from him on how to fight, so having something to teach him in return made her happy and she readily agreed. She wasted about thirty minutes trying to teach him through words and theories, using terms like pitch and yaw, before realizing he wasn't getting it. He was an instinctive learner, so she changed tactics and began saying things like 'If you pull this wing string, you start gliding to the left. If you pull this wing string and then pull this left tail wing, you make a sharp turn.' while simultaneously demonstrating it. And
that he was able to pick up quickly.
They spent almost an hour up in the air, not straying too far from the Merry, at the end of which, Luffy was able to do a loop perfectly. When they decided to stop for the day and landed back on the ship, Luffy felt an intense gaze on him. He looked around and saw that Vivi was staring at him with big, wide, bright, sparkling, and pleading eyes.
"…Want to fly?"
"Yes!"
"Shishi okay!"
And then he took her flying too, which she absolutely loved.
———o——o——o———
"Yep, the log pose is definitely pointing to that island!" Nami confirmed as everyone on deck watched an island come into view.
"Alright, slow the ship down. Need to do something first," Luffy said as he went to the storage area and came back a minute later with a box of bug repellant in hand, which they had bought back in Loguetown.
"Uhh, why did you bring that out, Luffy?" Zoro asked as he tucked the sails in.
"Why else? Put this on yourselves."
"Why?"
"Do you see the island?"
"Yeah…" Everyone nodded as they turned towards the island.
"What do you see?"
"Hmmm… looks green… Make that
very green," Usopp answered looking at the island through his sniper goggles. "Looks to be a very dense jungle."
"Right," Luffy nodded and looked at the others as if that was enough reason.
"… And?" Nami urged him.
Luffy sighed walking up to her. "Do you like bugs, Nami? Would you like it if all those creepy crawlies with hundreds of legs crawled up your back?" He asked sliding a finger up her back to give the sensation of a bug crawling and Nami wavered. "Would you like it if they bite and
burrow themselves under your skin? Lay eggs?" Nami started shuddering as her face paled. "And when those eggs hatch, there will be hundreds of bugs crawling
under your skin all trying to eat you up from the inside. Would you like t-"
"STOP! STOP!" Nami, along with Vivi and Sanji, screamed feeling a chill run up their spines as they pictured it.
"That's actually not so bad," Usopp said, not at all bothered. "There are only a few bugs that can actually do that and even if they lay eggs under your skin, you can just apply some antiparasitics to kill them all. Even in the worst case, you can just apply heat to essentially burn them."
"And why the hell do you know that?!" Nami snapped.
"Bugs aren't that scary." Usopp shrugged before adding with a reminiscent smile, "I used to play with insects like moths and spiders all the time."
"That's disgusting!" Nami and Sanji snapped.
"Anyway, looks like you need more convincing," Luffy put a stop to the bug-lover shaming before pacing around the deck like a teacher and adjusting his imaginary glasses. "Alright class, can anyone te-"
"Ooh, Professor Luffy makes an appearance!" Nami cut him off with a smile. "Haven't seen him in a while…"
"Yeah. He only came out when Makino was around." Zoro added with a grin. "How have you been, Professor?"
"Ah, I'm doing just fine, Mr. Zoro. Thanks for asking," Luffy said adjusting his nonexistent glasses again while the rest looked on in amusement. "Now, moving on. Can anyone tell me what kind of scary creatures are found in jungles?"
There was a beat of silence before Usopp answered with a shudder. "L-Lions?"
"Tigers?" Nami suggested.
Zoro gave them both a thoroughly unimpressed look. "You guys do remember Roxanne, right? Luffy fought and won against something as big as her so what makes you think he'll call creatures like tigers or lions scary? Even that sea cow on Nami's island was treated like a hammer…"
Nami and Usopp both opened their mouths to retort… and promptly shut them, realizing he was right.
"Who's Roxanne, Mr. Bushido?" Vivi asked curiously.
"A Sea King I befriended," Luffy answered.
"Y-You're friends with a Sea King?!" Vivi exclaimed, her eyes going wide.
"Yeah," Luffy shrugged. "I'll tell you the full story some other time. Now, back to the scary creatures.
Mr. Bushido is right. As
Mr. Bushido said, lions and tigers are not the answers I'm looking for. One point for
Mr. Bushido," Luffy emphasized and repeated the name with a mischievous grin.
"Oh,
Bushido-kun, good job!" Sanji slapped his back with a matching grin.
"Thanks for that explanation,
Mr. Bushido," Nami also chimed in.
"You must be happy getting that point huh,
Bushido-san?" Usopp finished as Zoro's eyes kept twitching.
"Stop calling me that, goddammit!" He finally blew up while the rest, especially Vivi, snickered.
"Anyway, I'm honestly surprised you even consider something to be scary," Sanji commented with a thoughtful look. "Hmm… can't think of anything… What is it?"
Luffy slowly began in a spooky tone, building up the tension. "They're creatures that can kill you in a million different and horrifying ways… Creatures so meticulous and undetectable that you only realize they've attacked you
after they actually do… They can be right under your noses and you won't see them until it's too late!"
"W-W-What are they?" Usopp stuttered while everyone wondered what he was talking about in anticipation or fear.
"Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!" Vivi piped up raising and flailing her hand.
"Yes, Miss Vivi?"
"Pathogens!"
"Exactly! One point for Miss Vivi!"
Vivi grinned, getting too engrossed in the roleplay.
"So… Diseases huh?" Sanji nodded in understanding.
"Hmm… yeah, they
can be deadly," Nami agreed. "But pathogens are around us all the time, not just in jungles. They infect you? Your body's immunity fights it off or you fall ill. With obvious exceptions, you recover from those illnesses… So, why are you bringing that up now in relation to Little Garden?"
"I'm getting to my point. And yes, as you said, your body fights it off first. But that's only possible because humans have been in contact with those pathogens and have evolved over time to become immune.
That island though," he pointed at Little Garden, "is a closed ecosystem. Which means that the pathogens have evolved independently in ways we haven't seen yet and our bodies have no way of fighting against them. They infect you and there's a good chance you'll fall horrendously ill… I've even heard of a fungus called cordyceps that first kills you, grows and takes over your brain, and then makes your corpse move, effectively turning you into a zombie! You then go on a rampage like an actual zombie and kill others to further spread the infection."
"Bullshit!" Nami, Usopp and Sanji instantly snapped while Zoro looked doubtful.
"N-No… I've actually heard of cordyceps," Vivi hesitantly spoke up and the four snapped their necks at her with horrified expressions. "It was only observed in ants and spiders though!" She quickly added. "Pretty sure it doesn't affect humans."
"That's true," Luffy admitted with a chuckle.
"DON'T SCARE US!" Nami, Usopp and Sanji yelled whacking him in the face.
"Shishi anyway," Luffy continued after they calmed down. "My point still stands. There are many more deadly diseases you can get from such islands. And many pathogens are propagated by bugs. Hence, this," he concluded lifting the bug repellant. "So apply an unhealthy amount of this on yourselves so that the bugs won't even think of biting you."
The rest understood where he was coming from but thought that he was exaggerating it a bit too much.
"Ignoring the horrifying and fictional,
and hope it stays fictional forever, example," Vivi spoke up. "He does have a point. I've heard of many sailors dying due to their bodies not being able to adjust to the harsh Grand Line weather or falling prey to diseases. Islands with dense jungles like this would really carry a lot of unknown pathogens."
She stepped up first and took a canister of bug spray and the rest soon shrugged and followed.
"Oh also, do a wardrobe change. Wear something that covers you completely," Luffy said pointedly looking at Nami and Vivi.
"What? Why?"
"Better safe than sorry? It's not like
all bugs will be repelled by this. So wear something that makes sure the bugs can't reach your skin in the first place."
"… Didn't think I would ever see you being this cautious about something," Nami said with a sigh as she and Vivi went to their room to change. Luffy sighed softly, hoping this would be enough to make sure Nami didn't fall ill.
They came out a few minutes later- Nami dressed in jeans and a zipper jacket, while Vivi wore a long-sleeved shirt and pants. Sanji was already wearing a suit so he didn't need to change while the other three men just threw a jacket on to cover their exposed arms.
"Can we go to the island already?" Zoro asked after everything was done. "I want to stretch my legs."
"Yes. Let's go!"
And soon, they were heading towards Little Garden.
"Apart from bugs and diseases," Vivi said eyeing the dense flora nervously. "We should be careful about this island. I'm still worried about what Miss All Sunday said…"
"Y-You don't think there are any monsters here, do you?" Usopp whimpered.
"Could be… Tigers and lions might not be much to us, but they will kill
you instantly," Sanji said with a smirk causing the sniper to whimper more and start talking about his chronic Can't-go-to-new-island disease while their ship trudged inland through a canal they found.
"Just look at this place," Usopp commented in fear and awe. "Looks like a land yet to be explored by people…"
"Yeah," Nami agreed. "These plants are so huge too… and those weird patterns? I've never seen anything like this. Not even in an encyclopedia…"
"What kind of idiot named this place
Little Garden, anyway?" Zoro grunted.
"Right? This island looks nothing like its cute name…"
Luffy turned to Nami with confusion. "You don't know?"
"Huh?" Nami blinked dumbly. "Why would I know?"
"Hmm, I saw you reading that book though…?"
What Luffy was referring to was a book called
Brag Men. It was a book that was comprised of many tales from the Grand Line. Due to the unbelievable Grand Line stories in it that included the tale of 'The Giants of Little Garden' and also 'The Continent Puller', it was mocked by most people - hence the title. It was mostly regarded as a joke book with no one taking it seriously and all the stories being labelled as 'fiction romance'. And the ones who did take it seriously were mocked.
Sabo had actually read that book to him and Ace a long time ago and Luffy was surprised when he recalled that memory. The three brothers had even talked about Little Garden and young him had even declared that he would fight and defeat those Giants which had left Ace and Sabo in a laughing fit. Ace and Deuce had also bonded over the book when they were stuck on Sixis Island.
Nami also had a copy of that book in her bookshelf and he had even seen her read it a few weeks ago, so he thought she would already know, but it didn't look like she remembered, or rather, hadn't taken it seriously.
"Book? What book?" Nami asked confused.
"Br-"
GAW! GAW!
Sudden cries of an animal from somewhere inland interrupted them, causing Nami and Usopp to yelp in shock.
"What was that just now?!" Nami shrieked, hugging herself, the previous topic forgotten.
"Terrified Nami-swan is so cute~" Sanji swooned, just as a giant flying lizard came out of the forest from behind him. Unaware, Sanji placated Nami in a reassuring tone. "Don't worry, that was probably just a bird. And this is just a normal jungle."
"Tell that to the flying lizard behind you," Luffy said just as the lizard tried to make a grab for Sanji, who ducked out of the way.
"Kyaaa!"
"What the hell?!" Sanji grunted as the flying lizard tried to make a grab for him again but received a very painful kick right under its beak. It cried out in agony before quickly giving up on the prey and disappeared into the foliage of the jungle. Before they could process the scene, a huge explosion from somewhere inland rocked their ship and their surroundings.
"DOES THIS SEEM LIKE A NORMAL JUNGLE TO YOU?!" Nami shrieked.
"IT SOUNDED LIKE A VOLCANO BLEW UP JUST NOW!" Usopp joined her in her panic session.
Suddenly a huge tiger jumped out of the forest, scaring the two even more, but it slowly took a few uneasy steps before collapsing and they then spotted the blood pouring out of a bite mark on its side.
"THERE'S NOTHING NORMAL ABOUT THIS JUNGLE!" Nami continued shrieking. "What kind of monster can hurt a tiger like that?!"
"I vote that we don't step a foot on this island!" Usopp declared raising his hand.
"Seconded!" Nami also raised her hand. "Let's just stay on this ship and wait for the log pose to rese-"
"Sanji," Luffy cut her off. "Make a pirate lunch box. I'm gonna go explore!"
"Ah, sure."
"LUFFY!" Nami screeched as she grabbed and shook him, desperately trying to reason with him. "NO! We have to get to Alabasta soon, so you can't just go exploring! Let's just wait until the pose resets and leave!"
Luffy stared at her for a second before turning to Sanji again. "Hurry! I wanna go!"
"Yeah yeah, give me a minute," Sanji muttered as he went to the kitchen.
Nami let go of him and slumped down with tears in her eyes. "He's already made up his mind… It's hopeless…"
"Hey, Luffy!" Vivi piped up. "Can I come along?"
"That's the spirit! Of course!"
"Et tu, Vivi?!" Nami squawked out, feeling betrayed.
"Well, I would only brood more if I just sit around here. It will serve as a distraction until the log pose resets," Vivi said with a smile before pointing to Carue. "Besides, I'll have Carue by my side after all!"
"
Qua-?!" Poor Carue looked like someone had murdered his whole family as his bill hung wide open and he choked on nothing.
"I'll make a lunchbox for you too, sweet Vivi-chwan~" Sanji sang from the kitchen and Vivi asked for a drink for Carue too.
"Alright, I'll go take a walk too," Zoro announced stretching his body.
"Don't! You'll definitely get lost!" Usopp yelled just as Zoro jumped onto the shore, causing the swordsman to glare at him.
"Is Mr. Bushi-" Vivi began but paused when Zoro gave her
a look and she hastily corrected herself. "-umm, I mean, Zoro's direction sense that bad?"
"You have no idea…" Luffy and Usopp said with a snicker.
"… I don't get lost," Zoro grunted simply as he started walking away.
"Ah wait, Zoro," Sanji stopped him, coming out of the kitchen with a couple of lunchboxes and a drink in hand. "We're running low on supplies, so bring back anything that looks edible."
"Yeah sure," Zoro said dismissively as he walked off… but not before adding, "I'll hunt something that
you'll never be able to kill."
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Sanji yelled offended.
"Hm?"
"Did I hear you wrong or did you just imply that you can bag a bigger game than me?"
"Your ears must be filled with bugs if you couldn't hear that clearly."
"Alright, that's it!" Sanji shoved the food into Luffy's hands and jumped off the ship, sending a glare towards the swordsman. "I challenge you to a hunt! Whoever brings back more kilos of meat wins!"
"Fine by me," Zoro snorted. "But I'll be bringing back meat by the tons!"
The two kept hurling curses at each other as they disappeared into the jungle.
"Why does everyone on this crew have to be so crazy?" Nami whimpered miserably as Vivi saddled up Carue and soon, they were ready too.
"Be careful you two. Call me if needed," Luffy waved at Nami and Usopp before jumping off along with Vivi and Carue.
"…"
"And then there were two…" Usopp narrated with a sigh, and Nami finally realized that she was on the ship with only Usopp. Making a lightning-fast decision, she jumped off the ship and ran to Luffy, who was just about to go out of sight, knowing she would be the safest by his side.
"…"
"And then there was one…" Usopp narrated to himself blankly… and a full five seconds later, screamed. "HEY! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"
———
"Hey look! It's a dinosaur!" Luffy suddenly and excitedly yelled, pointing behind Nami and Vivi as they all were examining a huge plant.
"Wh-" Vivi began to turn around but Nami, who was standing right behind her, grabbed her shoulders and stopped her.
"This again?" Nami sighed exasperatedly. "Don't mind him, Vivi. He has this weird thing where he yells out about seeing dinosaurs when he wants to distract you… So," she looked around Luffy. "What are you hiding?"
"Nothing. There really is a dinosaur behind you. A T-Rex!" Luffy said with a grin as he grabbed Carue and didn't let him turn around either.
"Sure there is…" Nami drawled and when Vivi tried to look back again, she didn't let her. "Don't give him the satisfaction, Vivi."
"Umm… I actually feel like there's something behind us though…" Vivi protested weakly.
"Don't worry, it's just your mind playing tricks on you," Nami said as she stared challengingly at Luffy.
"So, not gonna look back?" Luffy smirked.
"Nope!" Nami smirked back, popping the p.
"Heh. Alright, let's have a bet then. If you turn around in the next two minutes, you lose. And you waive off all the debt I supposedly owe you."
"And when I win, your debt triples!" Nami grinned as she brought her hand up for a handshake. "Deal?"
"Shishi deal!" Luffy grinned as he shook her hand and then looked over her shoulder where a giant T-Rex was slowly making its way towards them. He was doing his best
not to jump on it and ride it right that instant while belting out the Jurassic Park theme song, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up to prank Nami.
Thud… Thud…
"N-Nami… I really think that there is something behind us and it's getting closer…" Vivi said with a shudder as she eyed the Captain and the Navigator just looking at each other with grins, each sure of their own victory. "Even Carue is shaking…"
Thud… Thud…
"Oh, don't worry. No way there's an extinct dinosaur behi-"
Thud… THUD…
"T-Ther-"
THUD… THUD…
"Grroooorrrr!"
"T-there's… no way…" Nami's voice lowered to a whisper, her face going pale when something huge cast a shadow over them and she could hear the breathing of some huge creature above her. She still looked into Luffy's eyes who was looking at her with amusement. "N-No w-way…" she whimpered as her hands lost strength and she let go of Vivi.
Vivi slowly turned her head and let out a silent shocked scream when she laid eyes on massive teeth that were attached to the massive jaw of the massive dinosaur that was mere feet away from her. "I-I-It's…" she whimpered, "a T-T-Rex…"
"Quack…" Carue collapsed foaming at the mouth when Luffy let him go and he saw the dinosaur too.
Nami nodded slowly as her body trembled, realizing that Luffy wasn't bluffing… but she still didn't turn around.
"GRAAAWWWWRRRRR!"
She flinched hearing and also
feeling the roar emerging from right behind her… and yet, with a shaking body and pale face, she stood her ground and stubbornly stared at Luffy, whose amused grin slowly dropped. He tiredly sighed when he realized what she was doing. "This has got to be against the rules or something," he grumbled as he wound his arm up.
"N-Nami, you're c-crazy too…" Vivi shuddered, realizing what she was doing too.
"Y-you're r-right in front of me… So t-there's nothing to be s-scared of…" Nami stuttered as she managed to give him a small cheeky smile. "I-I won't l-lose the bet…"
"Fine fine, I lost. Now, duck down, idiot."
Nami instantly ducked down, pulling Vivi down with her, just as the T-Rex's maw was about to enclose on them. Luffy launched his fist at it, snapping its head to the side and making it lose balance.
"Ah damn, I used too much force," Luffy sighed when the T-Rex stumbled, crashed its head against a tree and then collapsed to the ground, letting out a small groan and lost consciousness.
"HOLY CRAP! AN ACTUAL DINOSAUR!" Nami screamed as she finally turned around to see the T-Rex getting clocked in the face and collapsing. "How is this even possible?!"
"This must be a prehistoric island," Vivi mused keeping a cautious look on the dinosaur, which wasn't moving anymore.
"There's such a thing?" Nami asked bewildered as she and Vivi got close to the unconscious T-Rex to touch it while Luffy jumped on it.
"Hey, wake up! I wanna ride you!" Luffy slapped the poor dinosaur while Vivi explained.
"Given the difficulty of navigating from one island to another for some islands on the Grand Line, foreign interaction is very rare. That gives rise to unique ecosystems like this one. Luffy was right… This island isn't just closed off from humanity… but it's also trapped in the age of the dinosaurs!"
"Wow…" Nami nodded before something clicked in her mind. "Wait a minute, I think I've read about this island somewhere before… Where was it…?"
"Brag Men," Luffy reminded her as he continuously slapped the dinosaur. "Even I read about this place when I was a kid."
"That's right!" Nami snapped her fingers. "It was in that, wasn't it?"
"I don't think I've read that one," Vivi hummed thoughtfully. "What did it say?"
"Hmm…" Nami put a hand to her chin as she tried to recall the details. "Something about the plants being huge…" Her face suddenly morphed into horror when she recalled
one particular detail about the island. "No, that's not it…" she breathed in shock. "This place is called Little Garden because all these plants are indeed
little when compared to the inhabitants… Gi-"
"
Ggrrrr…"
She was cut off by the T-Rex's growl which Luffy had successfully managed to wake up…
BOOM!
And not even a second later, the ground shook when a huge longsword came down on the T-Rex, cleaving it into two. All eyes fell on the giant longsword, followed it up to the giant arm holding the giant weapon, and then laid eyes on the Giant that the giant arm belonged to.
"A GIANT!" Luffy exclaimed with excitement.
"A GIANT?!" Nami screeched.
"A GIANT?!" Vivi gaped.
"QUACK!" Carue almost fainted again.
"Hello!" Luffy waved at Dorry, airwalking up to his chest level while marvelling at his sheer size. "Wow! You're so much bigger than I expected!"
"GEGYAGYAGYA! Aren't you a lively one! I haven't had guests in a very long time!"
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King! Nice to meetcha!"
"The name's Dorry! I'm a warrior of Elbaf!" Dorry greeted as he extended his palm and Luffy landed on it. Luffy then launched his arm towards Nami, Vivi and Carue who were gawking at them and pulled them up too.
"DON'T DRAG US INTO THIS!" the two girls screamed and the duck squawked fearfully but when they landed in the Giant's palm, they quietened down and just gawked.
"And this is Nami, Vivi and Carue!"
"Hello, little humans and duck! It's nice to see so many guests! Come along, I'll treat you folks at my place!"
"Alright!"
"Don't just accept without thinking!" Nami whisper-hissed, terrified out of her mind but it fell on deaf ears as Dorry started walking back to his place while dragging the dead and sliced-up T-Rex.
"I'm in the palm of a giant…" Vivi breathed in awe as she hesitantly grabbed a finger. "I've heard rumours about them before but this is the first time I'm seeing one…"
"Luffy, what if the Giant wants to eat us?!" Nami hissed elbowing him.
"We're like the size of an ant to him. Why would he want to eat us?" Luffy deadpanned.
"Yes, Nami. I don't see why such a huge creature would want to eat something as small as us when there are huge dinosaurs around," Vivi agreed.
"Besides, he's a warrior of Elbaf! I don't think they eat humans… or do they? I don't know actually… Hey Dorry! Do you eat huma-"
Nami clamped a hand over his mouth and hissed, "Don't ask him, idiot!"
"There are some Giants who do eat humans!" Dorry answered with a laugh. "But I do not! So fret not, little human! GEGYAGYAGYA!"
Nami just bobbed her head vigorously, scared that she might have offended the giant. As Dorry walked and they marvelled at the view, Luffy's phone started vibrating.
"
L-L-Luffy…h-help…" Usopp's trembling voice came through when he picked it up.
"Usopp? What's up?"
"
T-T-there's a G-Giant here! I-I'm not lying. There really is a Giant here!…. I-I'm playing dead right now… please come back quickly…"
"Oh yeah, we've met one too. Don't be scared, they're friendly."
"
Really?!"
"
GABABABABA! So you're not dead, human! Come along, I'll treat you to some dinosaur meat!" Broggy's loud voice came through.
"GEGYAGYAGYA! You found a human too, Broggy?"
———
Elsewhere on the Island
While the Strawhats got acquainted with the Red and Blue Ogres, the Baroque Works agents were holding a meeting on how to deal with the Alabastan Princess.
"We were just caught off-guard!" Miss Valentine snapped irritably. "We didn't know about the pirates that were with the princess!"
"And that Strawhat!" Mr. Five scowled. "He came out of nowhere and sneakily attacked us! That's why we lost!"
Miss Goldenweek hummed as she munched on rice crackers. "I've never taken down a bounty as high as 45 million…" She trailed off before turning to Mr. 3, who was staring at Luffy's bounty poster with a thoughtful expression. "The biggest bounty you took out was 42 million, right?"
"Yes, that's right," Mr. 3 nodded. "And I had to use my Candle Champion to defeat him."
"It's just a 3 million difference," Miss Goldenweek shrugged. "Besides, this one looks dumb."
"That's exactly it," Mr. 3 mused looking suspicious. "He seems
too dumb… I think there's more to this Strawhat than meets the eye…"
"Huh? What makes you say that?" Miss Valentine asked confused.
"You think someone just gets this kind of picture by accident?" Mr. 3 scoffed, pointing at his poster. "The Marines used this because they probably didn't have any other picture of him. That means that Strawhat has the skill and cunning to make sure that the Marines end up with
only this specific harmless-looking dumb picture of him! Think about it. Do you know how hard it is to make sure that they capture only one image of you?"
"… I guess so… But why would he do that?"
"So that people will let their guards down around him and not take him seriously!" Mr. 3 declared with a smirk. "He's a cunning and crafty piece of work. He must have made meticulous plans to hide his face and may have even threatened someone to have this picture taken… Haha! I almost fell for your trick, Strawhat!" He smirked staring at the bounty poster. "But you tried too hard and just made me more suspicious instead!"
"… But his bounty is 45 million though…" Miss Valentine argued. "That's the highest in East Blue apparently."
"Hm yes," Mr. 3 nodded. "That
is throwing me off a bit. Either he's so strong that even with the dumb picture, he was given this high a bounty, which means he's worth much more. Or there's some other reason I don't know. Either way, he's suspicious…"
"… You could be right…" Mr. 5 agreed. "We didn't take him seriously either so that's why we lost."
Miss Valentine was finally convinced too but Miss Goldenweek was dubious.
"Aren't you being too paranoid?" The painter deadpanned. "You're just scared of his high bounty, aren't you?"
"Scared? No. Cautious? Yes." Mr. 3 said coldly. "You think I got this far by charging recklessly into fights? The biggest weapon on a battlefield is the mind. A little creativity and even the biggest mountains can be made to crumble… If we play our cards right, we can make 245 million from this island!"
"245 million?!" Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 gasped. "How so?!"
"Hehehe," Mr. 3 grinned. "Just do as I say…"
———
A giant axe clashed with a giant shield and the shockwaves generated from it were strong enough to make Luffy fall over. "Wow… that's amazing…"
"It truly is a spectacle," Vivi nodded in agreement as they all watched the Giants' battle. "I still don't get why they're fighting to the death though," she added with a frown. "That too for a hundred years? What could possibly fuel their conflict for so long?"
"
Fool!" Usopp spat with more conviction than Luffy had ever heard from him. "
This is what a man's fight is! Can't you see?! This is a battle of pride between two Warriors!"
"Translation?" Nami deadpanned. "It's a stupid thing men do."
"
You fool! Tell her, Luffy!"
"Shishi I think you covered it nicely, Usopp. Pride is everything for these guys."
"
Exactly! Pride is more important to them than their very lives! Man, this is it! This is what I mean when I say a Brave Warrior of the sea! I want to become a proud warrior just like them!"
"So… you want to become a Giant?" Nami questioned, semi-seriously.
"
You idiot! It's useless telling it to you!"
"Hey, watch it. Your debt just increased for calling me that!"
"
I don't care!" Usopp shot back causing Luffy and Vivi to softly gasp.
"Wow… this is gonna bite him in the ass later huh?" Vivi whispered to Luffy as she watched a vein throb on Nami's forehead and a
sweet smile spreading across her face.
"Just be glad it's not directed at us," Luffy whispered back and she nodded in agreement.
"
Oooh look! The fight looks to be over!" Usopp yelled and they looked over at the two Giants who had just bashed each other in the head with their shields and fallen down simultaneously.
"GABABABABA! 73,466 FIGHTS!"
"GEGYAGYAGYA! AND 73,466 DRAWS!"
As the Giants laughed, Luffy told the others that they should regroup, so Vivi and Nami quickly got on Carue, Luffy grabbed Carue from below and started airwalking towards the Giants.
"Hey, Dorry! Broggy!" Luffy yelled when they got close to them. "Temporary truce? Let's have a celebration!"
The two Giants didn't hesitate for a moment and agreed. "GABABABA / GEGYAGYAGYA! THAT SOUNDS GREAT!"
And so, twenty minutes later, four humans, a duck and two Giants were sitting around a fire, roasting dino meat as they talked.
"I want to be just like you guys!" Usopp yelled up at the Giants with reverence in his eyes.
"You want to become a Giant?" Broggy asked confused causing Nami to splutter out a laugh.
"Not like that!" Usopp snapped and Luffy chuckled as he heard his sniper being inspired by the Giants. While the Giants talked about honour and pride, Luffy checked the barrels of rum for any explosives… but didn't find any. He didn't remember how exactly the battle played out with the Baroque Works agents, but he did recall the rum exploding in Dorry's mouth.
'Maybe the booger guy is here too and he dropped a booger in this rum? Can't exactly find a booger in this… Wait, does he even come here or is it just Mr. 3 and the paint hypnosis kid?… Hmmmm…'
"Luffy!" Vivi suddenly shook him, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Oh sorry… what's up?"
"Human, will you give us the rum? We've been waiting…" Dorry said eyeing the barrels of rum longingly.
"Oh, looks like something got mixed with this and it has gone bad… Sorry," he said as he tossed it away to be on the safe side.
"Ahh…" The Giants looked sad and whined about it but that took care of preserving their duel.
"Forget that!" Nami yelled worriedly. "They say that it'll take a whole year for the log pose to reset! What do we do?!"
"Well, we do have an eternal pose to Elbaf," Dorry interjected.
"In a way, you can say that Dorry and I are fighting for that pose! How about it? Want to try and steal it from us?" Broggy asked with a laugh.
"Nah, Elbaf is too far away," Luffy said before turning to Vivi. "Don't worry, things will work out."
Vivi just sighed at the optimism when the volcano erupted again.
"Oh looks like it's already time for another fight!" Dorry grinned picking up his sword and shield. "GEGYAGYAGYA!"
"Seems like our God is intent on making us fight a lot today!" Broggy grinned picking up his axe and shield."GABABABABA!"
"So soon? Are you guys sure?" Usopp asked with concern. "Your wounds from the previous fight haven't even healed yet!"
The two Giants just grinned pointing at each other as they simultaneously said, "He's in a similar state too!" and walked away, which only further increased the amount of respect Usopp had for them.
Vivi, on the other hand, sighed deeply as she buried her head in her hands. "What should we do now? We can't possibly wait here for a year…"
'Hmm… Pretty sure we get the eternal pose from this island… But from where?' Luffy wondered for a short while before concluding that the Baroque Works agents would most probably have one.
'So just gotta steal it from them…' He concluded thinking it was going to be easy. He was going to stick with Vivi, who they would target, and keep Nami and Usopp close too. Sanji and Zoro could handle themselves, so no matter how they planned to attack, he didn't think they would be any trouble.
'What's the worst that could happen?' He said the famous last words in his head… and as if in response, everything went to shit.
Twenty minutes later
BOOM! BOOM! CRAAASHHHH!
Luffy crashed through a few rows of trees before eventually touching down and leaving a long and deep groove as he slid along the ground.
"Ugh… Well, I guess
this is the worst that could have happened…" Luffy wheezed spitting out dirt as he got back on his feet… when he saw a bunch of velociraptors staring at him. "Oh, did I land in your home?" He waved. "Sorry."
They circled to attack him but when loud thuds sounded, they instantly ran away as fast as they could without a second thought.
"HOW DARE YOU DISRUPT OUR DUEL?!" Dorry yelled furiously as he came running in and swung his huge sword down on Luffy, who quickly jumped out of the way.
"YOU TRICKED US!" Broggy scowled as he tried to stomp on Luffy, who again dodged.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Luffy yelled back. "How did we disrupt your fight?!"
"STOP RUNNING AWAY!"
"YOU HAVE TO DIE TODAY!"
'They aren't listening…' Luffy sighed as he focused on dodging all their attacks. There wasn't much of a pretext. He and the others were just discussing what to do when the two Giants suddenly came running in and started attacking them out of nowhere, yelling that they had disrupted their duel. He had quickly deflected their attacks and dragged the fight away so that Nami, Usopp, Vivi and Carue could escape, thus, leading to the current situation where he was fighting the two Giants by himself.
"Well, if you aren't gonna listen, I'll just have to beat you down first!" Luffy cracked his knuckles and launched his fist at Dorry, who blocked it with his shield before swinging his sword down on him again.
Luffy kicked the side of the sword which left Dorry wide open but before he could attack, Broggy bashed him away with his shield.
'Considering their size, they sure are fast…' Luffy grinned as he plowed through a few rows of trees before grabbing one and slingshotting himself back towards the Giants.
"AT LEAST YOU'RE FIGHTING BACK NOW!" Broggy yelled as he saw Luffy coming at him with his fists raised. Just before Luffy's fist made contact with his face, Broggy ducked down and then bashed him straight upwards with his shield.
"Haha they sure are powerful," Luffy laughed as he made an arc in the air and was planning to launch a Gatling when he fell back down towards them. But just as his downward trajectory began, he saw both Giants swinging their respective weapons up at him. His eyes widened in surprise when two air slashes originated from their swings and he had just enough time to bring his hands forward in defense before the air slashes struck him. That pushed him further high into the sky and after making an ungraceful arc, he crash-landed back to the ground.
"…Wow…" Luffy wheezed as he studied his body. A deep gnash went right across both his forearms and a deep slash went across his stomach, from which blood was spilling out.
"You're still alive human?" Dorry growled. "We should have used more strength then!"
"You'll die for dishonouring our duel!" Broggy growled and brought his axe down.
Luffy used soru to get out of the way before a wide smile spread across his lips. "I'm sorry. I was underestimating you guys… Let's fight seriously!"
Before they could answer, Luffy was right under Dorry's chin and kicked up with a stretchy leg, making his head snap upwards. Even though he was so close to Dorry, Broggy swung his axe at him, barely missing his fellow giant's throat and managed to strike Luffy.
"Gakh!" Luffy got flung away again but he had managed to grab Dorry's long beard just before. Thus, his hand stretched long as he flew away but once his momentum stopped, Luffy rocketed himself back towards Dorry.
"Should have expected this from a devil fruit user!" Dorry growled as he stared challenging at Luffy who was flying right at him. Luffy stretched and twisted his neck multiple times and just when he reached Dorry, released all the tension in his neck.
"Spinning…"
His head spun multiple times building more and more momentum before he bashed his skull against Dorry, who also threw his head back and headbutted him.
"…BELL!"
Unfortunately for him, Dorry won the headbutt battle as Luffy got pushed away but Dorry wasn't unhurt either as his forehead started to bleed.
"GEGYAGYAGYA! NOT BAD, HUMAN!" Dorry laughed, wiping the blood away with a menacing grin, and swung his sword down on where he had landed. Luffy quickly rolled out of the way, but Dorry changed the trajectory of his sword at the last second and managed to strike him down.
Luffy found himself on his back, with his hands and legs raised up to block the sword that pushed down on him. The weight of the sword increased and the ground beneath him cracked but Luffy held on, keeping the sword from cleaving him in two.
"Don't just fight each other!" Broggy yelled as he brought his axe down on Dorry's sword further pummeling Luffy into the ground. The weapons seemed to be very badly maintained so the edge wasn't that sharp, but he still felt the sword cutting into the skin of his palms and legs from where blood slowly trickled out and fell on his face.
"…Okay, I seriously underestimated you guys…"
When he had watched the two fight earlier, he had found them to be quite slow. Even though their attacks were extremely strong, if they didn't manage to land them, it was useless. He was much faster than them, so he had thought that he would win against them by dodging and retaliating. But now that he was fighting them, he realized that earlier, they were charging up before attacking each other, hence leading to the slower-paced attacks. Against him though, they sacrificed some of the strength of their attacks in favour of being faster. It was just a matter of
half-a-second difference but in a death battle, that made all the difference against who came out on top in the end.
And even though they were weakened swings, they were still strong enough to cut Luffy in two if he let his guard down for even a moment.
Luffy let out a deep breath. "Gear Second!"
His skin started steaming and he dug his fingers into the sword. Cracks started forming on the sword and seeing that, Dorry's and Broggy's eyes widened and they yanked their weapons away.
Dorry didn't have any time to check his sword as a steaming Luffy suddenly appeared next to his cheek.
"Jet Bullet!"
Dorry's head snapped the other way. Broggy was shocked at his sudden increase in speed but he didn't have time to think as Luffy appeared next to his jaw. Broggy quickly leaned back while also bringing his shield up and rammed him with the rim of the shield, sending him flying up.
Luffy kicked and manoeuvred in the air using Kamisori, correcting his posture before launching a Jet Stamp straight at Broggy's face. Broggy hastily brought his axe up to defend himself… and the axe crumbled into pieces when Luffy's attack hit.
"You should have better maintained your weapons!" Luffy grinned stretching and twisting his arms behind himself before snapping them towards Dorry, who was about to cleave him. His spinning arms completely destroyed the sword coming at him before pushing through and landing on Dorry's cheek, shoving him back. Dorry stumbled back for a few steps as if in a daze and slowly massaged his chin.
"GEGYAGYAGYA! HUMAN! YOU SURE ARE STRONG!" Dorry laughed with a fierce grin as he wiped away the blood that trickled out of his mouth.
"GABABABA! THAT IS TRUE!" Broggy also laughed as he threw his shield away. "BUT DON'T THINK WE'LL FORGIVE YOU FOR TARNISHING OUR DUEL!"
Luffy didn't care about clearing up the misunderstanding at that moment as he wanted to fight them both seriously. He didn't forget his crew though and shoved an earbud deep into his ear while calling Usopp.
"AND DON'T THINK YOU'VE WON JUST BECAUSE YOU BROKE OUR WEAPONS!" Dorry added as he threw his shield away too and brought his fists up.
"Alright, let's fight!" Luffy grinned as he launched a Jet Whip on Dorry's head before airwalking out of the way of Broggy's fist.
"
Luffy!" Usopp finally picked up and his fearful voice came through.
"What's the situation?" Luffy asked lowly as he continued brawling with the Giants.
"
N-Nami and Vivi! I think they got eaten!"
Luffy's concentration slipped… resulting in him getting slammed by a huge fist which flung him far away. He ended up crashing into a brontosaurus, which instantly tipped sideways as it collapsed and lost consciousness, not even able to let out a roar of pain. Luffy didn't care as he hissed, "What?!"
"
W-we got separated! There was this huge d-dinosaur that showed up out of nowhere and… and… I think it ate Nami and Vivi!"
"Oh… okay, calm down…" Luffy sighed in relief as he looked around and quickly hid inside the brontosaurs' mouth. "You didn't see them get eaten, right?"
"
Well, no but-"
"Just relax," Luffy said calmly as he heard Dorry and Broggy running to where he was and yelling at him to come out. "Listen, there are others on the island. Baroque Works agents. They probably took them."
"
More Baroque Works?!"
"Yeah. They also interfered with the Giants' duel and somehow pinned the blame on us… so now Dorry and Broggy are attacking us."
"
Those bastards!… A-are you okay? I can hear the battle going on between you…"
"Yeah, don't worry about me-"
He heard Broggy saying that they should go after the others who had tarnished their duel, so spoke quickly. "Okay, not much time. Listen, I'll hold off the Giants. You go rescue them."
"
Me?! Are you crazy?! I can't fight them by myself!"
"Now's not the time. You have to or they'll die… Didn't you say you wanted to become a Brave warrior like the Giants?"
"
That's in the future! I can't do anything as I am now!" He yelled self-deprecatingly.
"Nah, you're strong. Not like me but you have your own way of fighting. You're a coward most of the time, yes, but when it really matters, you step up. And now's the time to step up again. Besides, you just have to find and rescue them, not have a full-on confrontation."
Broggy and Dorry talked about finding and killing the other humans again, making Usopp wince and making him realize the gravity of the situation. He was actually just hiding along with Carue, hoping Luffy would come find him, or Zoro and Sanji to find and help him… but looked like that wasn't gonna happen.
"
O-Okay…" Usopp swallowed heavily.
"Carue with you?"
"
Quack!"
"Good. Start searching. I'll be on the call so talk to me when you find them," Luffy said, jumping out of his hiding place and resumed the fight.
———
Usopp winced as he heard the sounds of battle coming from the distance and also from the snail he was holding. He couldn't see them but knew Luffy was fighting a deadly battle with both the Giants and couldn't help but admire his Captain more.
'Will I ever be able to fight like that? Go toe-to-toe with such opponents?' He wondered before shuddering at the mere thought of it and quickly shook the idea away, telling himself to focus on the task at hand. He was riding Carue as the duck ran through the jungle and he kept an eye out for anyone or anything out of place. And it wasn't long before he found something strange.
"The hell is that?!" Usopp exclaimed when he saw something white in the distance. "Slow down, Carue…" He patted the bird who slowly came to a stop and he got off, climbed up a tree from where he could get a clear view of the area, and became dumbfounded by what he saw.
Nami, Zoro and Vivi were standing on some sort of white platform…
'Is that a cake…?' He didn't know what the hell it was but he let out a sigh of relief that they were still alive.
"Luffy, I found them. Zoro's also here…"
"
Good. Zoro's there so… …there should be no problem, right? Is he not fighting? Who else is there?"
"Umm, I'm not sure. They're just standing in place and talking… let me get closer…"
Usopp silently walked over tree branches and got close enough that he could hear them.
"Wow, looks like the fight is still ongoing…" A woman in the lemon-themed clothes said in awe. "You were right, Mr. 3."
"Hahaha!" Mr. 3, judging by the hair, laughed. "Of course I am, Miss Valentine! That Strawhat is cunning and crafty! He makes people think he's weak when he's actually this strong!"
"What gave you that idea?" Zoro asked, curious and amused.
"Yeah, Luffy is cunning and crafty?" Nami said incredulously. "How the hell did you come to that conclusion?"
While Mr. 3 explained his 'theory' which made everyone who knew Luffy laugh, Usopp relayed what he saw to Luffy. "The three seem to be stuck in some white… I don't know but it kinda looks like a cake…"
"
It's wax. Mr. 3 ate the Wax-Wax fruit."
"Ah okay… makes sense. Aside from him, there's a guy - Mr. 5 judging by his clothes."
"
He can make things… …he touches explode. He launches booger… …bombs at people. If he's there, Valentine should be there too. She can change her weight from ten kilos to ten… …thousand kilos. She flies up by making herself weigh less… …and then drops on people with increased weight. Who else?"
Usopp wanted to ask how he knew all that but there were loud booms and sounds of battle coming from his side so tried to keep the conversation short.
"There's a small kid. A painter, I guess? Looks like she's just here to have a picnic and paint…"
"
The paint hypnosis kid. I think she uses paint to control people's emotions somehow."
"Hypnosis huh…?"
"
Okay. Just get Zoro and the others out of the wax as fast as possible. I'll leave the rest up to you."
Usopp was about to protest but Luffy continued. "
Wax melts by fire, so you should be able to work with that."
"Oh… Right…" He stared at the wax, the fire burning at the tip of Mr. 3's hair (
'What the actual fuck? Does he know his hair is burning?') and nodded. "Okay, leave it up to me!"
"
Bye!"
Usopp sighed slightly as the call ended.
'He shouldn't trust me that much. I'm not that reliab-'
He shook his head, cutting off the self-deprecating thoughts, and focused on how to get his crew out. He knew he wasn't a fighter like Luffy or Zoro or Sanji, who would just straight-up charge into the battle, but he had his own way of fighting. He pulled out a bottle of alcohol and carefully observed what was happening.
"How did you even manage to make Dorry and Broggy turn on us?!" Vivi demanded furiously.
"Ahahaha! It was easy!" Mr. 3 laughed. "After your captain somehow noticed that the rum barrels were tampered with and threw it away, I had to improvise."
"Wait what? You messed with the rum?!"
"Yes, I put explosives in it." Mr. 5 drawled picking his nose. "It would have been glorious to see the bomb exploding in the Giant's stomach."
"How could you?!" Vivi spat.
"They had bounties on their heads too, so it's not like we did anything bad!" Mr. 3 laughed again before explaining what he had done. He had interfered in the duel by first making Dorry slip with his wax. He wasn't subtle about it though and a few more similar attempts of disrupting their duel and the Giants grew increasingly furious. A few well-placed wax models of the Strawhat crew, a few believable screams and taunts when the Giants stomped on the wax models, and the Giants became convinced that the Strawhats were the ones responsible and were running away from them after disrupting their duel.
"You're despicable…" Vivi spat glaring at Mr. 3, who just smirked at her.
Usopp was downright furious that they had disrupted the sacred duel of the Giants and felt his fingers twitching but he managed to remain calm. He wondered why Zoro just wasn't cutting the wax but soon found that both his hands were encased in balls of wax, and so was his waist.
'Okay, then this should be easy. Get Zoro's hands free and he'll take care of the rest!'
"Well, I was waiting for the duel to be done but it's taking more time than I expected…" Mr. 3 shrugged. "Oh well, it doesn't matter either way. I'll create my art with you guys first! And when I capture your captain, I can see the anguished look on his face when he sees all his dead crewmates before I immortalize
that look in wax! Ahh, my art will be beautiful!"
As soon as he finished, the top part of the wax structure started spinning and some sort of mist started falling on the three.
"What the hell is this?" Nami coughed inhaling the mist particles.
"It's my special Candle Service! Those are wax particles that are falling on you and soon, you'll be encased completely in wax!"
"So we'll turn into sculptures?" Zoro asked calmly
"Yes!"
"Then, I want to do a pose."
Mr. 3 stopped short as everyone else looked at him with confusion.
"What the hell are you saying, you idiot?!" The Spoiled Queen of Snapping (That's what he called Nami in his head) snapped at him and he grumbled inwardly wondering why she always screamed so loudly.
"If I'm dying anyway, I want to do a pose by raising my sword up," He continued as he looked at Mr. 3 and then gestured to both his hands that were encased in balls of wax. "So remove this."
"Ahahaha! Such a fool!" Mr. 3 laughed but felt like he shouldn't let the swordsman touch his swords. He had observed him for a few minutes before capturing him and had seen him cut down a dinosaur with ease. He felt an inexplicable fear rise up in him and instinctively felt that he shouldn't allow the swordsman to hold his swords, and thus, had encased his hands with wax as soon as he had the chance.
"C'mon, it'll be good for your art too, right?" Zoro continued to press, and Vivi, having realized what he was doing, joined him too.
"Yes, I want to do this pose while holding a sword too!" Vivi added making a pose like she was pulling a sword from her back. "So let us hold the sw-"
"Enough!" Mr. 3 yelled, not falling for it, causing Zoro to internally sigh. He brought down both his hands and rested them on the wax that covered his waist… and Usopp, who was waiting for the perfect opportunity, launched the bottle of alcohol towards his hands at that moment.
"The heck?!" Mr. 3 yelled when a bottle came flying in, struck the swordsman's hands, broke and doused him in a liquid that he soon realized was alcohol.
"What?" Zoro and the others looked confused too but something else came flying in and struck him which caused him to instantly burst into flames.
"ZORO!" Nami and Vivi yelled horrified.
"NO! MY ART!" Mr.3 screamed but before he could do anything, another alcohol bottle came flying in and accurately hit his head, dousing him in alcohol too. The fire at the tip of the hair ignited the flammable substance and his head instantly caught on fire, making him run and scream. "GYAAAAHHH!"
"HAHAHAHA! TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE MIGHTY USOPP!" Usopp yelled, revealing himself, while internally going,
'Great! It worked! Now, just need to buy some time until the wax melts off…'
"USOPP!" Nami and Vivi exclaimed happily, quickly realizing why he had set Zoro on fire.
"I'm here to rescue everyone!" Usopp declared, making himself a target so that they wouldn't notice Zoro, and it worked as Mr.5 and Miss Valentine were glaring daggers at him and the little girl… Well, she just sat munching on crackers without a care in the world.
"So annoying… Die! Exploding Cannon!" Mr. 5 launched a booger at him, causing Usopp to freak out and step back. Since he was on a tree, he fell off, thus dodging it as a result.
"J-Just as planned!" Usopp sighed in relief when Carue suddenly came running up to him, lifted him up on his back and began running just as Miss Valentine dropped where he was a second earlier.
"Stupid Duck!" Miss Valentine cursed as Carue ran, dodging her and also the booger bombs that Mr. 5 kept launching at him, showing everyone why he was called a
supersonic duck.
"Ahaha! Go, Carue!" Vivi and Usopp cheered.
"QUACK!"
"Stay still!" Mr.5 screamed in frustration at not being able to hit his target.
Usopp was grinning that his plan was working when Carue suddenly stopped, making him fall forward on the ground. He quickly looked back at Carue to see what was wrong and found that his feet were covered in wax. "Shit! He's back!"
"You ruined my art and my hair!" Usopp heard Mr.3 scream and followed the voice to see a very haggard Mr.3. His hair was burnt, his face was burnt, the shoulder part of his shirt was burnt, and he had an intense look of hatred in his eyes.
Usopp quickly scrambled to his feet and jumped into a bush but it was no use as Mr.3 made a gigantic sword out of wax and launched it at him.
"Wax-Wax Arts! Sword!"
Usopp barely managed to dodge it but a booger bomb hit him straight on his chest and exploded, causing him to fly backwards and crash into a tree. "Gah!"
"Usopp!"
"My turn!" Miss Valentine also joined in. "Kyahaha! Thousand kilo press!"
"Shit! Shit!" Usopp crawled and barely ducked out of the way as Miss Valentine crushed the tree behind him. "Phew! That was cl-"
"Cannon!" Another booger bomb hit him squarely on his chest and exploded, sending him crashing into a tree again.
"Damn…" Usopp wheezed as he slowly sat up. "Three versus one is unfair…" he whined when he saw Mr. 3 glaring at him, Miss Valentine floating right above him with a grin, and Mr. 5 taking out a gun while glaring at him.
"I'm gonna kill you! Slowly and painfully! And turn you into my masterpi-" Mr.3 began furiously but Usopp just laughed.
"THE HELL ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!"
Usopp sighed as he relaxed and fell on his back. "I think I bought enough time… I'll leave the rest up to you, Zoro!"
"Heh, good job, Usopp!" Zoro smirked as he suddenly jumped in with flaming swords, cutting Mr. 5 right across his chest. He exploded but Zoro grinned thinking it was just more heat for the wax on him to melt off. His jacket had burned off, some parts of his body were burnt, and a thin layer of wax still covered parts of his body, but his hands were free to hold his swords and that was all he needed.
"You?!" Mr. 3 snarled understanding that Usopp had played him.
Zoro calmly looked at the remaining three enemies. "Now then, let's take out the rest of the trash."
"Hey! We're still here!" Nami and Vivi complained as they were still stuck in wax. The fire from Zoro had melted a bit of the wax but their feet were still trapped. "Save us!"
"I'll get them out…" Usopp forced his body up. "You clean up the rest."
"You're suddenly so dependable," Zoro smirked approvingly just as a wax hammer came down on him, which he blocked with his swords.
"No matter! I just have to capture you all again!" Mr. 3 yelled as Zoro shoved his hammer away and Usopp went to get the girls out.
"Quit yapping already," Zoro grumbled as he got in a stance. "Come at me… I'll cut your wax."
"Ahahahaha! My wax is as hard as steel! You cannot cut it! Wax Hammer!" Mr. 3 laughed as he brought his hammer down on him again. Zoro took a deep breath and swiftly swung his sword… and the wax hammer was cleanly cut into two pieces.
Zoro smiled and Mr. 3's eyes bulged out.
"What?!"
"Too bad for you, I can cut steel!" Zoro grinned as he walked to Carue and freed his legs with ease.
"Quack!"
"Now, it's your turn," Zoro pointed his sword at Mr. 3 and lunged forward to finish him off, but suddenly stopped, losing all motivation.
'What the hell?!'
He saw the small girl, who had been eating crackers the whole time, right next to him with a paintbrush in hand. "Colors Trap: Betrayal Black!"
"Ahaha! Good job, Miss Goldenweek!"
"Zoro!" Vivi suddenly yelled. "
Don't attack Mr. 3!"
Zoro automatically moved and slashed Mr. 3, who screamed and made a wax shield, which got cut in two.
"What the hell was that?" Zoro asked confused.
"It's that girl's power!" Vivi answered. "She can use colours to hypnotize people!"
"Paint hypnosis huh?" Zoro sighed as he looked at the black paint on his back. "Things just keep getting weirder…"
"Miss Goldenweek! Paint my Candle Champion!" Mr. 3 hastily yelled making a suit of wax around him. Miss Goldenweek nodded and went to him to paint it but-
"Flame Star!"
Boom!
"Kyaa!"
All eyes turned to Usopp, who had just shot her. "The Great Sniper Usopp strikes again! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Carue suddenly tackled Usopp, shoving him backwards… just as Miss Valentine dropped from the sky where he was a second earlier.
"Stop interfering, you stupid bird!"
"Quack!"
"Ah… thanks, Carue," Usopp patted the bird gratefully.
"ARRGGHH! YOU GUYS ARE DESTROYING EVERYTHING! CHAMPI-"
SLASH!
Mr. 3's eyes teared up as he saw everything around him fall apart.
His Candle Champion's arms fell off, cleanly cut and all he could do was just watch.
His Candle Service set also went up in flames as the long-nosed brat had set fire to it.
"Gunpowder Star!" The long-nosed brat yelled and a scream sounded followed by Miss Valentine dropping to the ground, unconscious.
"WE'RE FREE!" The princess and the orange-haired girl jumped out of the fire with their respective weapons in hand… and Mr. 3, without a second thought, decided to run away.
But just as Mr.3 was about to though…
THUD! THUD! BOOM!
…The sounds of battle between Luffy and the Giants came closer to them and he and everyone else felt a huge gust of wind suddenly push down on them. When they looked up reflexively, their bodies froze.
They stared at the huge fist that was hovering right above them with shock, and everyone other than Zoro dropped to their knees, forgetting to breathe. Their eyes followed the fist to its owner and found that it belonged to an enraged Dorry. They also saw a rubber arm wound around the Giant arm which was pulling the Giant arm and stopping it from landing on them.
"YOU'RE ALL HERE!" Dorry roared.
"DON'T ATTACK MY CREW!" Luffy roared louder as he yanked the arm away, making Dorry fall on his back, and the others started to breathe again.
Luffy looked completely battered as steam came off of him. Cuts that ran across his arms, stomach, and legs were bleeding profusely and his body was covered in mud, blood, algae, moss and leaves.
Dorry didn't look good either as he too was bleeding from a lot of places, including his jaw and forehead on his face and a multitude of other wounds all over his body. It looked like he had walked in some swamp as his feet were covered in moss and algae.
"THE HUMANS WHO DISRUPTED OUR DUEL ARE ALL HERE!"
All eyes blankly turned to Broggy, who also looked battered. He too was bleeding from a multitude of wounds all over his body and green algae and moss covered him too. His foot came down on them as they wordlessly and fearfully watched, and Luffy again caught the limb, preventing it from squashing them.
Luffy yanked the leg up, making Broggy fall too before he landed amongst his crew. If they had time, he would have actually continued to fight them for hours on end, if not
days… but now that they were going after his crew, he decided it was time to stop. Both Giants stood back up and glared at all of them when Luffy yelled.
"LOOK!" He pointed at Mr. 3 and the other fallen Baroque Works members. "THERE ARE OTHERS ON THE ISLAND! OUR ENEMIES, IN FACT! THEY'RE THE ONE WHO TRICKED YOU INTO THINKING WE ATTACKED YOU!"
"YES, BROGGY, DORRY!" Usopp also yelled. "WE WOULD NEVER DISHONOR YOUR DUEL! PLEASE BELIEVE US!"
"IT WAS MAINLY HIM!" Nami pointed accusingly at Mr. 3. "HE CAN CREATE WAX MODELS, SO THAT'S WHAT YOU SAW!"
When Dorry and Broggy reflexively looked at him, Mr. 3's whole body shuddered in unbridled fear.
"GYAAAH!" He scrambled to his feet and ran, but Zoro kicked his feet multiple times to accelerate himself to catch up to him and pinned him down to the ground. He then bashed his skull in with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out.
"You got Soru down?" Luffy grinned.
"Yeah. And I did it before the Ero-cook!" Zoro smiled happily, sheathing his swords.
Luffy chuckled as he looked back up at the Giants who finally calmed down with a thoughtful look and said, "There are others on the island…?" / "I did see something white smeared on my foot at the beginning…"
Luffy sighed as he let his body relax. "I need meat…"
———
"Yeah, we know," Luffy said as he talked with Sanji over the phone just after the fight with the Giants ended. He had apparently found a house made of wax in the jungle and had called him to warn him that there were others on the island. Luffy briefly explained that they already knew, told him about their log pose situation and asked him to see if he could find any eternal poses at the hideout.
Just as he was about to cut the call, a transponder snail started ringing on Sanji's side and Luffy listened silently as Sanji received that call to find it was Mr. 0 himself.
Luffy chuckled as he remained on call, hearing Sanji pretending to be Mr. 3, telling Crocodile that he had killed Vivi and the Strawhats, Crocodile telling him that he did a good job and finally, that he had sent an eternal pose to Alabasta to them through the Unluckies.
"Shishi good job, Sanji."
"
Heh… I guess that solves our log pose situation. What the hell did he mean by unluckies though?"
"Oh, they are more agents - Miss Friday and Mr. 13. It's an otter and vulture pair. Get it from them and come meet us. We've lit a fire, so follow the smoke."
"
Ah, the animals you met back in Whisky Peak, huh? Yeah, alright. I'll get it from them. See ya soon."
Meanwhile, the rest were gathered around a fire and explaining their situation with Alabasta and the Baroque Works agents to the two Giants while roasting dinosaur meat.
"GABABABABABA You should have just said so in the beginning!" Broggy guffawed and so did Dorry.
"GEGYAGYAGYAGYA Yes! If you had just told us, we wouldn't have tried to kill you!"
The crew sweat-dropped at their words before Nami blew up. "You almost killed us because of a misunderstanding?! How stupid are you?!"
Luffy came back to their side and started devouring the dinosaur meat (which was still uncooked as he couldn't wait) without paying them much mind.
"Luffy, how can you act like nothing happened?! Look at what they did to you!" Nami said as she stared at his wounds with concern. "I think this is the first time I've even seen you bleed like this…"
"Eh, let bygones be bygones," Luffy shrugged as the Giants laughed.
"Why are you all covered in moss and algae anyway? You reek too."
"Fell in a swamp while we were fighting… Shishi it was fun! It wasn't deep but I still almost drowned in it when Dorry kept trying to stomp me while I was in there!"
"Not something to laugh about, idiot…" Nami sighed exasperatedly.
"This is all my fault!" Vivi suddenly piped up with a guilty expression on her face. "This all happened because the agents came after me in the first place… I'm so sorry for causing trouble!"
"Don't say that," Nami said pinching her cheek. "It's not your fault."
"Yeah, Vivi," Luffy said in between bites. "It's those jerks who are responsible, not you."
"See?" Nami pointed with a smile. "No one here blames you."
"But still…"
"Yes, don't worry, little human. They were probably after our bounties too!"
"You guys have bounties? How much?" Usopp asked excited.
"One hundred million each!" they both said with a flourish, but they noticed that the humans didn't seem that impressed.
"What?! You think one hundred million is too little?!" Dorry yelled offended.
"Ah no no… Luffy here has a forty-five million bounty and we have just started our journey on the Grand Line. Just expected more from century-old giants, that's all…" Nami placated.
"You have a forty-five million bounty?!" Broggy said astonished. "No wonder you are strong! That was a good fight!"
"Yes!" Dorry also excitedly added. "It's been such a long time since we last fought anyone strong other than each other!"
"Shishishi yeah. You guys are strong too! If you had your weapons and weren't already hurt from fighting each other, I don't think I couldn't lasted against you both for very long!" Luffy grinned up at them. "Besides, that bounty was issued a hundred years ago, right? Don't know how much the currency has inflated or how the standards have changed after Roger, so it would probably be more now if they calculate it."
"Ahh, I see! We are probably worth much more now! GEGYAGYAGYA!"
"Yes! That's right! GABABABABA!"
"Umm, sorry to interrupt," Vivi hesitantly said looking at everyone. "But what are we going to do about our log pose situation? We can't wait for a year here…"
"Ah, don't worry. Sanji called earlier. He should be here with some good news."
"Good news?"
"You'll see."
Before they could ask more, Sanji came out of the forest humming to himself and his eyes fell on the ladies.
"Ahhh~ Nami-swan, Vivi-chwan, I'm so glad you're safe!" he sang before noticing the Giants. "Whoa! The heck is that?! Are you Mr.3?"
"That's not him… Wait, you know about Mr.3?" Nami asked and Sanji laid his eyes on her topless self and swooned more.
"Yeah," Sanji nodded before putting his jacket over her and then kneeled down in front of Vivi. "This is a present for the beautiful princess!" He declared, presenting an eternal pose to Alabasta to her.
"You found one?!" Vivi exclaimed before happily wrapping her arms around him and thanking him while he enjoyed the hug with hearts in his eyes.
"Oi cook," Zoro called out, interrupting his sweet moment and he looked at him irritably. Zoro casually stood up, used Soru to get close to him, then casually turned around and used it again to get back to his original spot beside Luffy and sat down. He then looked up at him and smirked.
"YOU CRAP-SWORD SHOW-OFF!" Sanji roared. "I'LL CATCH UP IN NO TIME! DON'T LOOK SO PLEASED! WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR STUPID FACE!"
"Heh… you'll still be number two…" Zoro smirked again and Sanji lunged at him before the two devolved into a fight.
"GEGYAGYAGYA! Those two have a relationship like ours, eh Broggy?"
"Looks like it! GABABABABA!"
Luffy laughed with the Giants before his eyes fell on Nami, and he gasped when he saw that she was wearing just a bra and a jacket as her top. "Nami! I told you to cover up! Why did you strip?!"
"I didn't strip, idiot! It burnt off… And you're only noticing it now?"
"Ah damn it! Button up at least, will you?" Luffy sighed as he studied her skin for any bites before buttoning the blazer for her, while she let him do it with a roll of her eyes. At least, her legs were fine as the jeans were still intact.
"Vivi, you too?!" Luffy gasped noticing that her situation was the opposite - her shirt was mostly fine but her pants had burnt off up to her knees.
"It also got burnt off…"
"Zoro, strip."
"Wha?! The hell do I have to give my pants?! You do it!"
"Mine don't cover the entire leg. Yours does. So strip!"
Zoro grumbled but complied in the end and he was left with just boxers while Vivi put on Zoro's pants, which were obviously too big for her, and tied it to her waist with a belt.
"Is this fine,
Dad?" Vivi asked irritably.
Luffy blinked for a second before gently patting her head and completely got into the role. "Yes, honey. You might hate me, but know that I'm doing this for your own good."
"Stop it!" Vivi snapped, swatting his arm away. "And what about you, huh?! Your jacket is gone and your arms are exposed! And now, Zoro's legs are exposed too!"
Luffy just shrugged. "We didn't really need it in the first place. We just wore it for courtesy's sake."
"Huh?"
"I've never gotten sick in my life," Zoro interjected.
"Me neither," Sanji and Usopp added.
"Yeah. We're monsters," Luffy finished and the two girls gaped at him and the rest, wanting to refute that it didn't work like that but knew it would be a futile attempt to convince them otherwise.
"Anyway," Nami chose to ignore that line of conversation. "From where did you get the eternal pose?"
Sanji then sat down and began telling them about how he had tricked Crocodile, which left Vivi extremely happy and very generous with her hugs.
"Alright then, our problem is solved! Luffy, eat fast. We should leave soon."
"Right. One last thing," He turned towards the Giants who were enjoying the meal and with hopeful eyes asked. "Do you guys happen to know how to make Semla?"
"Semla?!" Both Giants exclaimed before a huge smile spread across their faces and they licked their lips.
"Now that's a word I haven't heard in a long time!"
"Yes, it's been so long since I tasted one!"
"Wait wait," Sanji piped up. "These guys know what Semla is?"
"Yeah, they have a festival back on their home island where they eat it a lot."
"Ahh, the Winter Solstice festival…" Both said with reminiscent smiles. "I miss it a lot!"
"Do you know the recipe?!" Sanji asked, looking hopeful.
"Yes!" Broggy answered causing Sanji and Luffy to whoop in joy.
"Tell me!" Sanji demanded taking out a pen and soon with a reminiscent smile, Broggy explained the process of how to make Semla.
"What's this about?" Vivi asked curiously while Sanji wrote down the recipe.
"Oh, a friend of ours wanted to taste Semla, but we didn't know the recipe. So we promised her that we would one day make it and feed it to her."
"Ah, I see," Vivi just nodded, not knowing that the 'friend' was a Dragon. Nami told her later though and she was shocked to not only learn that Dragons were real but also that they had befriended them too. For now though, she just looked at Dorry's and Broggy's happy smiles and felt like she should do something about their stupid duel.
"Don't you guys miss your home?" Vivi yelled up at the Giants once Broggy finished telling the recipe, getting everyone's attention. "You talk so fondly about your home… Don't you want to go back? Are you really going to fight until one of you dies?" Vivi trailed off sadly while Luffy glanced at her. She seemed to be trying to play the peacemaker between the two.
'Hmm…' His eyes gained a glint as he looked back up at the Giants.
"Yes! It is our law!" Both Giants declared in unison without any hesitation.
"But it has been a hundred years already! Isn't there some other law that sets a time limit or something? I mean, if a fight has gone on for one hundred years and a victor still hasn't been decided, then perhaps your God finds you both to be righteous?"
"Hmm…" Both hummed for a while before Dorry shrugged. "Perhaps. But we don't remember the reason for our duel. So there is no way we can come to a conclusion other than one of us winning!"
"… I can't comprehend that stupid line of reasoning…" Vivi groaned defeated.
"Don't you want to go home though? I'm sure everyone back home misses you," Nami tried to persuade them too.
"We were co-captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates back in the day. I do think about what happened to them sometimes…" Broggy said in a reminiscent tone.
"After you two left, your crew was hunted down by the World Government and eventually captured," Luffy answered their question, surprising the Giants.
"They were captured?!" Usopp gasped.
"They're imprisoned?!" Dorry and Broggy demanded.
"No. They were all given death sentences and were about to be executed. But a certain human stopped them, saying that executing them would start a war between giants and humans. So the execution was cancelled and they were sent back to Elbaf."
Dorry and Broggy went wide-eyed, clearly not expecting such a story.
"I see…" Dorry said sadly. "So they basically disbanded…"
"Whoever that human is, I thank them," Broggy added solemnly.
Luffy had to bite his tongue and force himself to not say anything while the Giants came to terms with the disbandment of their crew.
"Do you happen to know Captains Jarul and Jorul?" Dorry asked in anticipation.
"Yeah. Co-captains of the crew before you guys…"
"Yes! Do you know what they're doing now?!"
"Umm, I always get the two confused. Who's the one with the waterfall beard?"
"That would be Captain Jorul," Dorry said with a fond smile.
Luffy felt bad for being the one to break the news. "I'm sorry, but he died around 60 years ago."
The two Giants' eyes widened. "What?!" / "How?!"
"He was killed."
"Who dared to kill a Mighty warrior of Elbaf?!"
"Uhh, you won't believe me…"
"Who?!" Both demanded.
"J-Just tell them!" Nami hissed.
"… Okay, just keep in mind that Jorul was old by that point. Age had caught up to him an-"
"
Who?!"
"A human child."
"Lies!" Both roared, standing up and looking like they were ready to continue the fight. Zoro and Sanji got ready to grab the others, who had become paralyzed in fear, and run, but Luffy sighed and held his hands up.
"You're probably imagining him in his prime but remember that he was old and frail at the time of his death. And that child wasn't someone ordinary. She's a Conqueror."
That managed to calm the two down and they went into silent contemplation before silently plopping back down.
"A Conqueror?" Zoro questioned while the rest sighed in relief.
"Someone with Conqueror's Haki."
"Like you?" Nami asked.
"Yeah."
"I've never actually seen you use that," Sanji interjected. "How does it work?"
"Some other time," Luffy said as the Giants took a few more moments before sighing in acceptance.
"I guess age catches up to everyone in the end…" Dorry lamented.
"Yes… I hope he had a good life." Broggy said solemnly. "What exactly happened though? Even if the child was a Conqueror and Captain was old, I still can't believe it…"
Luffy thought for a few seconds before beginning. "Okay, a little bit of history first. The human who pleaded with the Marines that the Giant Warrior Pirates shouldn't be executed was called Mother Carmel. She ran an orphanage taking in abandoned children from everywhere and was known as the Holy Mother. Because of what she did for the Giants, all of them deeply respect her. Even Jarul and Jorul. To the point that they even let her stay in Elbaf and run her orphanage there."
"Wow, she sounds like a goddess!" Sanji swooned.
Luffy paused and stared at him, trying to hold his tongue… but ultimately blurted out, "No. She was an evil scumbag."
That immediately made everyone's curiosity rise and seeing the serious look on his face, Sanji didn't even argue and just lit a cigarette, choosing to listen.
"Why do you say that, human?" Dorry asked. "She saved our brethren, so how can she be scum?"
Luffy sighed, cursing his tongue, before going on a tangent. "Well, that was how she was on the outside. But in reality, she was a child trafficker who would find children and sell them to the Marines to become members or spies or agents. To her core, she was an evil businesswoman who didn't give a shit about the children and just saw them as products… Her plea for saving the Giants was nothing but a scripted act between her and the Government so that the Giants would be indebted to her. When they allowed her to stay in Elbaf, she only got access to stronger children."
"That's horrible…" Vivi stated the obvious.
Luffy gave them a moment to process everything before warning them. "If I go to Elbaf and say something bad about Carmel, every Giant will immediately try to kill me. So, don't mention this to anyone… I have no proof of this and Carmel's been dead for a long time so there's not much point in bringing that up with the Giants either."
"Wow…" Usopp sighed. "That's messed up."
Dorry and Broggy looked like they were contemplating something. "So our side was tricked? How do you know the truth?"
"Got it from a reliable source. Again, you don't have to believe me as I have no proof and it doesn't matter anymore as it's been a long time since it happened…"
The two nodded, satisfied with that answer.
"Now, back to the original topic. The child I talked about was an orphan. Even as a five-year-old, she was about three times taller than me. She has issues with hunger and gets these intense cravings every now and then, where she goes on a rampage, destroying everything in sight until she eats enough food. Her parents abandoned her because she was too much trouble and that's when Carmel took her in, thinking she would fit right in with the Giants because she was huge and it worked for a while. During one Winter Solstice festival… umm, you guys fast for… 7 days?"
"12 days," Dorry answered, intently listening to the tale.
"Right. So the child also participated in the fasting. She couldn't control herself though and before the 12 days were up, she went on a hunger rampage, demanding to eat Semla. Many Giants tried to calm her down, including Jorul, and well, by the end, she had destroyed an entire village, killed many adult Giants and fatally wounded Jorul."
"She was that strong as a
child?" Nami breathed in awe.
"Pretty much… She was eventually calmed by the others feeding her lots of semla and she just fell asleep. With his dying breath, Jorul asked the other Giants to avenge him… Jarul tried to kill the sleeping child, but Carmel interjected and pleaded with him to spare her life as she was just a child and didn't know what she was doing. Jarul's deep respect for her won in the end and he let the child live and just banished her… Don't know what Jarul is doing now though…"
"… And if what you say is true, they let that child go because of a manipulating human witch," Dorry spat with irritation.
"Well, if it's any consolation, Carmel was eventually killed by the same child. She had seen the child take down Giants when she was so young, so there was no way she would allow her to be killed. Thus, she pleaded with Jarul to spare her life. Eventually, just before she was about to sell the child, the child went on another hunger rampage and Carmel was killed…"
"Karma, I guess…" Nami sighed.
"And what is that child doing now?" Sanji asked, concern evident in his voice.
"She's currently one of the strongest people on the planet - Charlotte Linlin."
"Big Mom?! You were talking about
Big Mom?!" Vivi gasped loudly.
"Who's that?"
"She's a Yonko, one of the four strongest pirates in the World."
"And the Ruler of Tottoland!" Vivi added, thinking Luffy was being way too casual in describing her.
"Oh wow…"
"And the other Elbaf warriors let her do whatever she wants?" Broggy asked in disbelief.
"She killed Jorul, many Giants, and someone even saw her killing Carmel and spread the news, so they all hate her with a passion… Actually, it gets
way more complicated," He chuckled. "First off, you guys have a new prince called Loki. So, congratulations. I don't know for sure but rumours say that he's a deeply respected individual in Elbaf."
"Prince Loki!" both parroted in reverence.
"Well, Loki fell in love with one of Big Mom's daughters and proposed to her."
Everyone blinked dumbly at the sudden plot twist.
"What the hell?!" Sanji laughed. "A love story came out of nowhere!"
"Shishi remember that all the Carmel thing happened over 60 years ago. A lot of things have changed since then…"
They nodded in understanding before Vivi eagerly asked. "So? Did they marry?"
"Nope. The daughter didn't reciprocate his feelings and ran away to find her true love. She had a twin too, so Big Mom tried to trick Loki into marrying the twin, but they saw through the deception and the wedding was cancelled. Which further soured the relationship between Big Mom and the Giants."
Everyone chuckled at the soap opera like ending.
"Looks like we've missed a lot, eh Broggy?" Dorry sighed with a wistful smile.
"Yes Dorry, we sure have!"
Vivi tried again. "At least
now will you stop the fighting? You should go meet your Prince and see how the others are doing!"
"GABABABABA/GEGYAGYAGYA OF COURSE NOT!" they both laughed and Vivi slumped in defeat. "Prince Loki and the others will take care of Elbaf. We cannot give up the duel. We don't even remember the reason, so our pride won't allow us to return to Elbaf without having concluded this duel!"
"At least you tried Vivi…" Nami consoled her.
Luffy opened his mouth again, wondering if he could change their fates. "Those houses you live in… They're so huge…"
Everyone was confused by the random non-sequitur and looked at him questioningly while Dorry and Broggy nodded in agreement.
"Our houses? Yes, they are big and majestic, aren't they?"
"They don't seem like mountains though…"
"Hm? I guess not. They
are unique structures… Hmm…" Broggy trailed off with a hum.
"I don't think they were there when we came to the island though…?" Dorry also hummed, as if thinking hard about something.
"…"
"…"
Luffy waited as he munched on dino meat and soon, as if a lightbulb had gone off in their heads, they simultaneously turned to each other and yelled, "THAT'S IT!"
"W-What?"
"I remember now! The reason for our duel! We both had hunted a Sea King!" Dorry began.
"Then that small human girl asked us which one was bigger!" Broggy continued. "I, of course, said mine was bigger!"
"And I said mine was bigger!"
"So we laid down both Sea Kings side-by-side right here on this island…"
"But we couldn't agree on who's was bigger…"
"And since neither of us backed down…"
"We began the duel!" They both finished in unison, laughing like maniacs, while the rest's jaws dropped.
"
THAT'S IT?!" Everyone,
even Zoro, screamed at them incredulously.
"A hundred-year-long duel… was just a dick-measuring contest between two men…?" Nami muttered like she just couldn't believe her ears.
"I feel dizzy…" Vivi's head spun. She thought that it must have been a deep reason like one killing the other's family member or something along those lines, but…
a hunting contest?!
"My respect… it's crumbling…" Usopp mumbled as he almost lost his respect for them but somehow managed to brainwash himself. "No no… it's still pride they're fighting for… but the reason… That doesn't matter! It's all about pride!"
Sanji and Zoro looked extremely annoyed that a hundred-year duel started because of a hunting competition, just like theirs, while Luffy and the Giants laughed.
"Okay… Okay, fine!" Vivi took in deep breaths while mumbling to herself, "Respect other people and cultures even if you can't understand it…" before looking up at the Giants. "So? No matter how absurd the reason, now that you know, can you please make up and end the duel?"
"Only if he agrees that mine was bigger!" Dorry said pointing at Broggy.
"No way in hell were you able to bag a bigger Sea King than me! Mine was clearly bigger!" Broggy declared, growing angry.
"No, there's no way in hell that
you bagged a bigger Sea King!
Mine was clearly bigger!"
"No!"
"B-But the Sea Kings have been reduced to bones…" Vivi desperately interrupted. "What are you even arguing over…?"
"My pride won't allow me to concede that his was bigger!"
"No, mine was
bigger!"
"Gosh… if you ignore the context, the innuendos write themselves…" Nami giggled, not caring much about what the two Giant idiots would do.
They devolved into fighting causing Vivi to get extremely pissed. Luffy watched with amusement as her face became redder and redder as she glared at the two idiots… before finally throwing her hands up yelling, "I GIVE UP! Go kill each other for all I care! Ugh, I can't believe I wasted my brain cells on this!… Father did tell me that it would be much harder to deal with stupid people rather than smart people… I finally understand!"
Nami consoled her while Luffy laughed, but he too was disappointed. He had gone on the long history lesson to see if he could maybe make them curious about their home and tempt them into wanting to leave the island, but looked like their stubbornness was too strong. He still had a few arguments left though.
"Hey!" He yelled getting their attention. "The ones who killed those Sea Kings are your past selves, right? What's the point of fighting now, one hundred years later, when your strength level is obviously different from your past selves?"
"Yes! Yes!" New life shone in Vivi's eyes as she jumped in excitedly, understanding Luffy's train of thought. "That's right! The reason for the duel itself has become void because you are not at the same strength level as your past selves! Shouldn't you go out and hunt another pair of Sea Kings to compare again?" She yelled before grumbling under her breath, "Hopefully this time, there will be a clear winner…"
The two seemed taken aback by the fairly reasonable logic and exchanged a glance. Luffy excitedly watched as they crossed their arms and began
thinking, much like he himself used to do before his death. The gears seemed to creak a lot in their heads as everyone watched in anticipation, but ultimately, they shook their heads.
"Doesn't matter!" Dorry adamantly denied. "Sure, we will have another hunting competition now but Broggy first needs to concede that my Sea King was bigger!"
"Hell no!"
'Okay, that failed. Let's try this…'
"You both fought me, so who's stronger, me or those Sea Kings?"
"You are stronger, human." Both agreed.
"Right. So, you clearly recognize that size doesn't matter when it comes to strength. So, what's the point of arguing as to which Sea King was bigger? Even if one of yours was bigger than the other, it doesn't prove that the Sea King itself was stronger."
The two again thought but rejected the reasoning. "It's different between species. For Sea Kings, the bigger they are, the stronger they are. So, Dorry has to concede that mine was bigger!"
"No! No! No!" Vivi blew up. "That's a stupid line of logic! Some Sea Kings have claws, some have thicker skin, some have strong jaws while some don't! Of course, bigger is stronger is wrong!"
But the Giants adamantly argued that the parameters of their duel was who's Sea King was bigger, so that was the only thing they cared about and nothing else mattered.
"
Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'enculé de ta mère!" Vivi screamed while Nami and Sanji held her back.
'… Okay that failed too… and looks like Vivi's losing it…'
He tried a couple more arguments but nothing worked as they just remained adamant that the other had to concede.
"Give up, Luffy," Vivi said coldly. "They're hopeless…"
"Yeah, looks like I met my match in stubbornness…" Luffy sighed as he stared at the Giants. There was one last line of argument he had- Something he had noticed during their fight… But he needed someone who Dorry and Broggy knew from their pirating days for the argument to work properly. Someone like Oimo and Kashi.
"Okay, if we find some Elbaf law that sets a time limit or some other law that will end this duel, would you accept it then?"
"Of course!" Both readily agreed. "If it's in the law, we'll gladly accept!"
"Okay, good. Keep this transponder snail close. I'll call you in a few months." He said giving Dorry the transponder snail that Sanji had brought back from the wax hideout. They couldn't exactly operate the little buttons on the snail, given their Giant hands, but nudging or even shaking the receiver off when it receives a call was doable.
"Are you going to Elbaf to see the laws?" Broggy asked bewildered.
"Are we?!" Usopp jumped up in excitement.
"One day, definitely," Luffy nodded and Usopp whooped in joy. "But I was actually thinking of Oimo and Kashi."
"Oimo?! Kashi?!" / "You know them too?!"
"Yeah. And they're in Paradise itself. So, when we meet them, I'll call you."
He didn't know if Enies Lobby would happen or not, but he would get in touch with them either way.
"Ah! That would be great!"
———
After saying goodbyes to the Giants, they started making their way to the ship when they came across a T-Rex. Luffy beat it into submission, and was riding on its head, along with Vivi and Zoro.
"I'm riding a T-Rex!" Vivi exclaimed happily. "Today sure was exciting! I did and learned so many new things!"
"You're back to being happy?" Zoro said surprised. "You were pretty pissed until just now while arguing with the Giants."
Vivi's eye imperceptibly twitched but the smile on her face didn't fade. "Hmm? What do you mean? What argument?"
"…"
"Looks like she erased the memory from her mind…" Luffy whispered to Zoro, who nodded in agreement.
"You sure were trying hard to change their mind," Sanji commented as he and Usopp walked, while Nami rode on Carue right below them. "Any reason for that?"
"Nothing major. Just imagine it. If they do change their mind and they left this island, the Giant Warrior Pirates could be born again! Don't you want to see a crew full of Dorrys and Broggys out on the seas with us?!"
Usopp shivered in excitement just picturing it. "Yes, that will be awesome! And I shall be their leader - The Brave Warrior Usopp!"
"Alright, alright, enough talking," Nami sighed. "Let's just leave this island already. It's so hot and humid here… and I have to wear these clothes…"
"Just a little more, Nami. Then you can strip all you want."
"Don't say it like that!" She snapped kicking the poor dinosaur in the leg as she couldn't reach him. The T-Rex looked back and softly growled at her, but Nami just glared back challengingly and scowled, "Did you just growl at me?!"
The T-Rex instantly turned its head forward again with a shiver and increased its pace while Luffy, Zoro and Vivi stared at the whole scene in dumbfounded silence before eyeing each other.
"She certainly adapts fast…" Vivi commented softly. "Just earlier, she was scared shitless but now she's taunting them…"
"Yeah…" Luffy nodded.
"That's because you spoil her too much, Luffy," Zoro said with a shake of his head. "She knows you'll always be there to clean up any of her messes, so she runs wild… She especially runs wild with the debt thing…"
"That
is true…" Vivi agreed. "You do spoil her a bit too much."
"Oh? Are you feeling left out?" Luffy smirked patting her head. "Don't worry, your father won't forget you and spoil you too. Here, have a rice cracker."
"Stop it!" Vivi swatted away his hand with a flushed face while Luffy and Zoro snickered. "How do you know so much anyway?" She changed the topic. "About Big Mom, Carmel, Prince Loki, and even the reason for their duel…"
"Leo told me."
"Leo?"
A quick explanation of Leo followed, which only included that he was a musician and liked to read about history. Vivi just accepted the answer when she learned that he was already dead and didn't want to pry too much.
They finally made it back to the shore, and Luffy patted the T-Rex lovingly and let it go (It ran as fast as it could) while the rest readied the ship.
"Oi, Marimo, don't forget our hunting competition." Sanji smirked pulling a dead dinosaur in.
"Of course I didn't!" Zoro taunted as he pulled his dead dinosaur and they both put it side by side.
"Ha! I win!"
"Open your eyes, ero-cook! Mine's bigg-"
Slap! Slap!
Both men felt a hand on their shoulders, which actually made them jump for an inexplicable reason, before they slowly turned… only to see a benevolently smiling Vivi behind them.
"Ah, Vivi-chwan…" Sanji gulped.
"Hmmmm?" Vivi hummed questioningly as she smiled at them with her eyes closed.
"T-This is j-just…"
"Hm-Hm?" The pressure on their shoulders increased.
"Oi, V-Vivi. This isn't like their du-"
"Hmmm?"
"…"
"…"
"We'll just silently cut it and load it onto the ship."
Vivi finally let go, and opened her eyes. "Good."
———
"No matter what, just trust us and sail straight ahead!"
"Got it! Goodbye, guys!" Luffy and the rest waved when the Giants came to see them off and gave them a warning.
"What was that about?" Nami asked as they sailed farther away from the island. Her question didn't take long to be answered as the sea bulged and the Island Devourer surfaced.
"
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Nami and Vivi shrieked while Carue squawked and ran, burrowing its head under a table and Usopp gaped, his knees trembling.
Luffy grinned turning to Usopp. "Hey, didn't you once tell me a story of how you defeated a Goldfish that was so big that it ate entire islands? This is the Goldfish, right?"
"Wow, he was actually telling the truth?" Zoro smirked as he saw that Usopp was barely able to stand straight.
"I-I-It's real?!"
"Go on, Usopp," Sanji slapped his back, making him jump in place. "It's an old friend, right? Go say hi."
"T-Th-The o-one I m-met was d-different!" Usopp stuttered. "L-Looks like there's t-two of t-them, huh? Haha-ha! The w-world sure i-is big!"
"IDIOTS! NOW'S NOT THE TIME FOR THIS!" Nami shrieked. "WE SHOULD ROW AWAY! GET THE PADDLES OUT!"
"Nah, it's fine."
"Y-Yes! The Giants said to sail s-straight no matter what!" Usopp declared.
While they panicked, Luffy looked back to see how exactly the Giants would help them, given that he had broken their weapons… and saw that they were holding their shields up.
"HAKKOKU!" Both Giants pulled back their shields, their muscles flexing as they got ready to launch their attack.
"SOVEREIGNTY!"
They actually threw the shields and they flew like discs right over their heads at a very fast pace, creating a massive gust of wind which propelled them ahead, while the shields themselves accurately hit the Island Devourer. The poor Sea King got bashed by the shields and shoved away while the Merry flew right over it.
"WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
——o———o———o——
The next morning, Luffy sat in the crow's nest applying new bandages on all the wounds he had gotten from the fight - mostly over his arms, legs and torso. He felt a little light-headed and dizzy -
probably from all the blood loss, he concluded - not paying it much mind. Once done, he sighed, dreading the conversation he was about to have with his crew.
He had prevented Nami from getting sick, so there should be no logical reason for them to take a detour to Drum. The news that three hundred thousand soldiers from the Royal Army had defected to the Rebel side had already come, so it was even more of a priority for them to reach Alabasta as fast as possible.
He stood up letting out another sigh -
'My head's throbbing a lot.' - and jumped down to talk to them, knowing he couldn't put it off any longer. He planned to tell them about Wapol and his plan, passing it off as information Koala had given him, and how he had friends on Drum, so they were gonna go save them.
Vivi would hate him… but that's something he had to deal with.
Unfortunately, he never got a chance to have that talk as the choice to go to Drum was made for them.
He entered the kitchen where only Sanji was present and was about to ask if Vivi was up yet when he sensed despair coming off of someone around him.
He instantly shot out of the kitchen, breaking a floorboard in the process, as he ran to the women's room and hastily opened the hatch to find Nami collapsed at the bottom of the stairs.
"Nami!"
He was quickly by her side and found that she was burning up with her breaths coming out in slow laboured pants.
"Ah, Luffy… you came…" she murmured weakly before pointing towards the bed. "Vivi…"
Luffy's head throbbed violently as he turned and found that Vivi was lying on the bed, looking just as ill as Nami.
'How…?'
A/N: Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it!
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