- Location
- Texas
Just let him drown alittle more next time Shura. The brief shutdown of his brain might work like a factory reset he gets his mind in functional order.
Spring Time (A Bellamy SI)
- Thread starter Arthedain
- Start date
Interlude: the Silver Fox II
– Byron –
When the crew mate Foxy chose to join him had turned out to be his fiancée, Judy had been inconsolable. He blamed himself for losing Marie, as he rightly should, and it was only Shura's promise that he'd get her back in the next round that stopped the young man from causing a larger scene. That said, the absolute despair and subsequent rage the bartender was directing at Foxy was astonishing. So much so, that it had prompted the man to break out into a comically large amount of sweat and look away, clearly unable to meet his savior's eye. The one attempt Foxy made at mediation had been his offer to pick Judy next so the two lovers would be reunited, but the traumatized look Judy had sported on his face had silenced the Silver Fox.Still, the situation was far from unsalvageable. Because as this was a three-coin game, there were another two events in which they could make up for Judy's poor decision making. Byron probably could have also gone up to his fellow captain and convinced the man to choose someone else. Mentioning Judy's history and his experiences on Sabaody would have no doubt garnered the young man enough sympathy points, that when combined with the life-debt Foxy owed him, would have more than likely resulted in Foxy rescinding his initial decision.
But Byron hadn't.
Judy needed to learn a lesson and personal loss (however temporary) was the most effective way of making it stick. Judy was a good lad, but his new way of life demanded more of him and would cost him dearly if he refused to change his ways. In a world where the only people one could rely upon were one's crew and their various allies, shallow morality was only going to be a liability. If he wanted to do good in the world, Judy had to realise that he needed to do it only on a scale where he could handle the consequences. After all, regardless of whether or not a good deed would have a large return on investment down the line, the initial cost tended to be higher than not doing it.
Or to put it another way, Judy needed to learn where his limits were. Those who consistently ignored those limits and challenged fate, either ended up being very lucky or very dead very quickly. So far, Judy had been lucky. Who knew if he would continue to be in the future.
Looking at the steely look in the young man's eyes now, Byron was confident that the lesson had at least begun to sink in. He would turn Judy into a proper pirate yet. However, before he could do that, he needed to prevent him from giving up on life entirely. And to achieve that, winning the second event was a must.
Which ended up being a game of modified dodgeball with an extensive set of rules numbering precisely nine hundred and ninety-nine, intended to cover all possible scenarios. The rules were enforced very strictly too, with any referee making calls, which were not in line with the plethora of regulations, being at risk of literally losing their head. As far as Davy Back Fights went, the event called Hit and Dead Ball was as fair as they came.
"What a great upset, folks! Who would have ever imagined such an outcome! I suppose the moral of the story is, don't get in between a man and his love! It won't end well for you! Oof, what a shot, right to the noggin! Unfortunately for our dear contestant, headshots don't count. Though, you'd think Judy would have learned the lesson after the hundredth time."
Still despite this, with one side drastically outnumbering the other 500 to 4, the entire game seemed like an incredibly unfair matchup. In truth, it also was, with one side absolutely demolishing the other in a very one-sided match. Not that it was all that surprising, because in the face of righteous fury the Foxy Pirates simply hadn't stood a chance.
"How culd yu? And a-agter I was so nishe to you too, Roxy! Ah eben saved y-your life!" Judy slurred in between sobs. "How vould you take mai Marie away von me?"
As if to make up for his earlier mistakes, Judy had imbibed more of his concoctions than he'd ever done before and consequently turned into an angry, sad drunk. Shaking and swaying with no discernible pattern, the bartender danced out of the way of every ball trying to touch him with deceptive ease.
"You will phay!" Judy roared out, glaring at his shamefaced opponents. "All ob u will – Hick – payy!"
Occasionally, he would also catch the ball before hurling it back at a particularly painful spot along with a slurred insult, his tongue having long since been freed from his brain's moral control. It was difficult to judge which of the two hurt the targeted Foxy Pirates more, though if Byron had to make a guess, he would wager that it wasn't the balls.
"I get that you're angry, but can you at least hit them somewhere that isn't Foxy's face?" Shura complained, snatching the ball out of the air. "You're making me do all the work."
Supporting Judy's little rampage were the rest of Byron's remaining crew mates, who were bringing their various gifts to bear in this competition. For one, Shura's observation haki basically rendered Byron's first mate untouchable to his opponents. That this very same ability also made Shura's own aim unerringly accurate resulted in Foxy's team being casually dismantled in front of their captain's swollen, disbelieving eyes.
"Hey, I'm helping too!" Helena protested, briefly taking up her human form to shake a fist in Shura's direction. "I'm helping a lot!"
"Yes, yes you are. Now get me that ball!" However, as could have been expected, Shura's dismissive tone only resulted in the pass going to Judy. "Oh, come on! Not the face again!"
If Judy and Shura constituted the Infield half of the Harmony Team, the Outfield portion was being covered entirely by Helena. Literally in some cases. Taking advantage of the fact that the use of devil fruit powers was not against the rules, the Honey Queen had leveraged her logia powers in order to erect a liquid barrier around their opponent's half of the field. Considering that the outfield's mission could fairly accurately be summarized as delivering the out-of-bounds ball back to the infield team, Helena's control over her fluid form ensured that her teammates didn't have to go without a ball for long.
When combined with an abundance of friendly fire from the Foxy pirates themselves, especially at the hands of their half-fishman-half-giant member, their side of the field had emptied itself out very quickly, until only their captain remained in play after only a few short minutes.
Not that Byron had any right to criticize Foxy, as he'd been kicked off the field near immediately because he'd run afoul of rule #683. Sadly, hoping that nobody else had thought of humming a lullaby to put the opposing team to sleep, had apparently been too much to ask for. Just so you didn't misunderstand, you were allowed to sing or otherwise generate noises which could be understood as being musical in nature.
Unfortunately for Byron, the sole exception to this rule had been lullabies because another pirate had attempted a similar tactic some 183 years ago. Subsequently, the incensed losers had successfully campaigned for an expansion of the rulebook. Hence, Byron had been forced to watch from the sidelines as his team won the second event without being able to contribute at all. While their victory did pave the way for Marie to be rescued, Byron couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to be the butt of many jokes for being the first and only player to be eliminated…
Foxy didn't last all that much longer either, having been mentally and physically exhausted by being forced to rapidly oscillate between one extreme of the emotional spectrum and the other. The catalyst had been the severe dejection and shame which had set in whenever Foxy had met Judy's accusing glare. It had usually ended up driving the man to his knees, which had resulted in Porche doing her best to keep her captain in the game by cheering him up. But whenever she would manage to restore him to a triumphant mood, Foxy would meet Judy's gaze again starting the whole comedy routine anew. This vicious cycle of involuntary squats finally ended with Shura putting the panting man out of his misery with a well-placed shot to the abdomen.
On the bright side, with Marie back on their team, the Harmony Pirates could now have two people participating in the final event instead of Byron being forced to compete all on his own.
Dodge Touch Mr. Daruma was the pirate version of the popular children's game Red Light, Green Light, in which the players had to approach and touch the referee without the referee seeing them move. Essentially, freezing in place whenever the referee was looking in their direction and taking advantage of the moments in which the ref's gaze was turned away to close the distance. Of course, having appropriated the game for the purposes of a Davy Back Fight, their swashbuckling ancestors had put their own spin on it. By which Byron meant, they'd decided that an "everything goes" approach was acceptable when trying to hinder the competition.
As the Foxy pirates weren't idiots, they had quickly clued in to the fact that Byron was behind the recent string of narcoleptic incidents plaguing their crew and had plugged their ears with whatever wax they could get their hands upon. Though, like his traitorous and deceased former first mate, the Foxy pirates had been unaware that Byron's ability to influence people with his music wasn't limited to others. If anything, the buffs he could apply to himself were far greater than those Byron could impart to others, purely because he himself was the audience Byron understood the best. As a result, he could thus tailor his performance to achieve the greatest resonance.
It would have taken a small miracle for a small band of fruit-less, haki-less, generic paradise pirates beat him in a fair fight. Limited as he was by the rules of the game, preventing them from ignoring him and rushing headlong towards the referee was slightly harder, especially since Byron had his back turned to the referee by necessity of his chosen role. Fortunately for him, Byron had recently unlocked observation haki, meaning that he was able to tie Porche, Hamburg and friends down quite effectively. Much to their growing frustration.
It was also thanks to his burgeoning haki, that Byron could tell Marie was being proactive and not standing still at the starting line like his eyes were telling him. Unbeknownst to the Foxy Pirates who were mistakenly reassured by the spectral clone she'd left behind; Marie was making steady progress up the mountain under the cover of her illusionary camouflage. Porche and co may even have started to feel a bit better about their chances, when despite Byron's halfhearted efforts, the Foxy Pirates managed to make some headway while Marie seemed perfectly happy to do nothing at all.
Hence, imagine the surprise the Foxy Pirates must have felt, once Marie reappeared at the mountain peak with her hand firmly grasping the referee's shoulder and thus securing the Harmony Pirates their final win.
As a whole, the Foxy Pirates had a rather inflated sense of importance about themselves. In a way, this was understandable if one considered their history. Despite being hilariously weak individually in the grand scheme of things, practically every member had once occupied a critical role on their original crew. These included positions such as the doctor, navigator or even the captain, which had also made them attractive prospects of recruitment for Foxy's style of headhunting. In short, they had never known a life in which they hadn't been desirable in one form or another.
This being the case, a crew composed of nothing but desirable, skilled and important individuals had to be strong by necessity, no? Their very favorable win-loss ratio over the course of nearly a thousand Davy Back Fights had only further reinforced this self-image. When combined with Foxy's impressive ability to find loot and treasure so that he could keep his large crew properly funded, it meant that his crew was an attractive place to be for the average paradise pirate. All of which ultimately culminated in the piece of comedy playing out before Byron's eyes.
With five hundred men and women doing their best to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible as they could, the once orderly line quickly devolved into a chaotic blob with its members seeking to muscle their way to the back to hide from Byron's sight. A few of them even backed so far away, that they were in danger of falling off the shore and into ocean below. The accompanying murmurs only added to the ridiculousness, especially when Byron didn't even want any of them on his crew. One, admittedly well-meaning, idiot was already more than enough, thank you very much.
"He's going to choose me; I just know it."
"What do I do? I don't want to leave this crew."
"When he chooses me, I'm going to go with a smile. I want my former friends to remember me fondly."
"I better not meet his eyes. If he notices me, he's going to pick me for sure."
Byron could have simply taken their very ugly flag as his spoils of war and hence banned them from flying their colors ever again. He might even have been doing them a favor, as he couldn't fathom that they were voluntarily sailing with an amateurish misrepresentation of a fox displayed proudly on their main sail. While he didn't know what sort of sadistic individual had forced such a cruel fate upon the Foxy Pirates in the past, Byron was certain that they must have been someone with a very callous nature.
Though in the end, when it came down to a choice between saving the Foxy Pirates from the abomination that was their flag and doing something that would benefit his crew, Byron would always pick the latter.
"Captain Foxy. I've made my decision."
"You have?" Foxy asked, before noticing the finger pointed in his direction. "Me?"
"Yes. Welcome aboard."
"I knew it! There was no way that you wouldn't want someone as amazing as myself on your crew!" Foxy exclaimed, his nose pointing tall and proud into the sky. He looked so pleased with himself that Byron didn't have the heart to burst his bubble. Especially when behind that proud look, the now-former captain seemed to be on the verge of tears at the prospect of leaving his old crew mates behind. "Guys, I'll miss you!"
"We'll miss you too, captain Foxy!" Porche called back, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. Those words opened the floodgates holding the watery reservoirs at bay and soon the field was flooded with the sounds of sobbing and teary goodbyes. It was a very touching sight, showcasing the deep bonds of friendship between Foxy and his former crew. It was also somewhat premature in Byron's opinion.
"Crewman Foxy! I have a mission for you, which you are to begin immediately."
"Aye, captain Byron?" Foxy saluted, in response to which Byron's smirk got just a little wider.
"You are to commandeer one of these ships, pick up a crew, raid, pillage, plunder, and otherwise pilfer your weaselly black guts out as you've been doing until now."
"…eh?"
"With the caveat of being the newest affiliate crew of the Bellamy pirates, so our allies and civilians are off limits. Any questions?" Immediately following Byron's question, Foxy raised a hand. "Yes?"
"B-but…but where am I supposed to find a ship and a crew? I'm broke." Foxy stammered out, having gone rather pale. Unmoved by the pitiable sight, Byron just pointed to the small crowd behind him, which had gone suspiciously silent.
"You may want to begin with those guys over there. Something tells me that they just lost their captain and could use a new one."
Author's note:
Don't you just love it when your underlings/partners do your work for you? Bellamy gains his second affiliate crew with no effort need on his part.
While the Foxy Pirates aren't that strong, they can provide manpower for the rank and file which the Springtrap Fleet sorely lacks. Plus, they are a cut above most paradise crews by virtue of their composition. Not to mention, as can be seen from the Movie with Douglas Bullet, they did make it to the New World and survive so they aren't hopeless.
As for Judy, this was a classic case of don't break the cutie. It won't end well for you.
Marie also used her DF to win the third match quite handily. For clarification, her power set is enhanced physical parameters, limited illusions (clones and camouflage), limited earth manipulation (minor swamp creation) and maybe some things she hasn't discovered yet.
Next time, we get back to Bellamy and are introduced to Dragon the Revolutionary.
- Location
- Texas
And lo the dumbass actually understood the assignment! Now he's on his way to being a proper buccaneer!
I imagine an awakened Foxy would be able to speed things up as well as slow down, or maybe even make a whole field instead of a beam.
I imagine an awakened Foxy would be able to speed things up as well as slow down, or maybe even make a whole field instead of a beam.
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Or that the Foxy Pirates are just there as one of the many cameos (previous canon arcs, anime filler and movies) that the audience has to spot in One Piece Stampede.
But yeah it's quite impressive regardless.
Buccaneer is a race of people with Giant's blood who were hunted down by the World Government for worshipping Sun God Nika and Bartholomew Kuma is the last of his kind who gave himself up to become the First Pacifista in exchange for Jewelry Bonney's healing of the Sapphire Scales disease as part of the deal with Jaygarcia Saturn of the Five Elders.
MrRobot
In doubt there's always the Sun!
I mean the good thing about the 500 or so pirates is as long they could get to one of the many moving bases on the grand line they may as well be able to take it and crew it.
Wich is a moving port, wich means a moving territory.
Also when you have so many around even small increments of power dispersed trough the population would make a big impact even basic things like Tekkai and very bare bones observation.
Wich is a moving port, wich means a moving territory.
Also when you have so many around even small increments of power dispersed trough the population would make a big impact even basic things like Tekkai and very bare bones observation.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Well, Chapter 1115 does give the latest developments regarding the Foxy Pirates.
It's just Foxy, Porsche and Hamburg starving in little more than a rowboat.
In short, Foxy had encountered a setback at some point and would bounce back eventually.
Probably something along the lines of what Racer (from fairy tail) had. Just better. So like a field like Preventer Squall said.
Oh yeah, Racer has Slow Magic that slows his enemies down while he becomes fast to them. Lyon Vastia figured it out after tricking Racer to follow him far away which allows Gray, who's out of Slow Magic range, to snipe Racer down.
Well, things will probably go a bit differently (and potentially better) for Foxy & co this time. I did consider giving the Foxy Pirates Turtle Island to operate but that seemed a bit difficult to pull off. But what other viable moving bases are there? The Germa snails are off limits, as is Zou.
Chapter 80: What do you know about Awakenings?
– Bellamy –
Monkey D. Dragon.Son of the marine hero Garp the Fist and Luffy's absent father.
For being part of this rather conspicuous lineage, Dragon was a man whose mere existence evoked many questions, starting with why Garp had decided to name him after a mythical creature in the first place. Personally, I wanted to give the old Vice Admiral the benefit of the doubt and believe it to be representative of his desire to see his son become a noble and strong marine. It wasn't the most polished of opinions, but the alternative was Garp taking inspiration from certain fishbowl wearing idiots, which was as unlikely as it was a cruel thought to entertain.
Either way, from what little I knew about the man, Dragon had followed his father into the marine corps before leaving it at some unspecified time due to the irreconcilability of their sense of justice with his. Fast forward a couple of decades and Dragon had gone from being the leader of a small band of Freedom Fighters to the Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary army. In all likelihood, it must have taken an eye-boggling amount of effort to even reach this stage, not to mention how much was still needed to keep the momentum going.
As such, enough wealth to buy the world or not, arranging a meeting with the leader of a global military organization such as Dragon was never going to be a simple affair. Especially, if the individual in question spent most of his time travelling the world to command his troops, inspect his scattered bases and drum up further support for his revolution. Meaning, that despite Sabo having contacted his commanding officer near immediately upon receiving my offer, it had still taken a good two months before Dragon managed to foist his responsibilities unto Emporio Ivankov and return to Baltigo Base.
As I had little else to do, I'd made good use of that time to explore a train of thought which had occurred to me during my battle with Mad Treasure. Namely, the ubiquitous spring-like nature of our universe. Like I had noted before, everything which was compressible could be understood to be a spring in one form or another, from the largest stars down to the basic building blocks of reality. And if there was one thing springs did very well, it was oscillate.
Just in case you guys weren't physicists… another term for the energy contained within molecular oscillation was heat. In other words, I had the potential to turn into a thermal generator at will, at least once I had gained enough control over my devil fruit. Which in turn meant that I could make use of the Seebeck Effect to convert the generated thermal energy directly into electricity. Admittedly, it wasn't the most efficient method in the world, but unlike my earlier ideas of turning my heart into an electromagnetic generator, the Seebeck Effect didn't require any moving parts. That it would also free up Aisa to act as an independent combatant was an added bonus.
However, as amazing as this breakthrough had been, it paled in comparison to the possibility entailed in Dragon's offer.
"What do you know about Devil Fruit Awakenings?"
"Very little, I'm afraid." I admitted. "Basically that it's the only way to unlock the true potential of a devil fruit and achieving it greatly enhances one's powers. In the case of paramecias like myself, my element affecting not only my own body but my environment isn't outside the realm of possibility. At least according to some rumors."
"That about sums it up." Dragon nodded. "While it isn't without risks, there's usually a near insurmountable gap between an awakened fruit and one that's not."
"Near insurmountable?"
"Yes. While awakening a fruit requires mastery over one's devil fruit, mastery does not automatically translate into combat effectiveness." He explained. "Those who rely only on their awakened devil fruit and nothing else can still be beaten rather easily. Or for that matter, be countered by sufficient expertise in haki or the creative use of another devil fruit."
"You'd think that would be obvious."
"You'd be surprised at how often people miss the obvious. Anyway, it's a good thing that you think so, because that saves me the trouble of having to pound that lesson into your brain. It also means that we have more time for more interesting topics…"
"Pound…?" I mumbled to myself, his choice of words making me uneasy for some reason.
"…and that we can get down to the meat of things." He grinned. "Do you have any idea how one would go about it?"
"If there's a manual I haven't heard about it. As you yourself know very well, awakenings aren't that common in the first place, and those who managed it tend to be close-lipped about it." I sighed, shrugging in a what-can-you-do gesture.
"True. At the end of the day, most people or even most fruit users aren't even aware of its existence, never mind the methodology."
"Unlike you?"
"Unlike me." He confirmed, smirking slightly. "After all, I awakened mine."
"I guessed as much. You wouldn't have mentioned it if you hadn't." I replied, before leaning forward eagerly. "When do we start?"
"As soon as we're done here. But before you get overly excited, there are two things that need to be said first. The first being that what I'm about to teach you are the conclusions I've drawn from my own experiences and may not necessarily be true for anybody else. Exceptions to this may very well exist." Dragon paused, waiting until I gave him a nod before continuing. "As for the second matter…"
"By any chance, is it something along the lines of: you're not ready to awaken your fruit just yet?" I interjected, causing him to raise a curious eyebrow.
"Why, yes. That's exactly what I was about to say. How'd you guess?"
"Just a feeling." I answered, leaning slightly back in disappointment. "Well, that and the fact that I know of a few who have awakened theirs."
"You do?"
"Doflamingo and Gild Tesoro come to mind." Giving Dragon a wry smile, I shrugged again. "Not sure if you noticed but there's a rather large gap between them and I at the moment in terms of devil fruit mastery."
"I'm not sure where you've heard that little tidbit, but that's mighty interesting information."
"You didn't know?" That was unexpected. I guess that even their incredible intelligence network wasn't perfect.
"It's not something you go about proclaiming from the rooftops. For most of us, it's the ace up our sleeves." He said, scratching his chin. "Though, this does mean that we'll have to reshuffle the infiltration teams a bit for safety reasons. That'll push several of our operations back a bit."
"…" We both froze as his words registered, triggering an awkward silence. What was it with members of the Monkey family and casually blurting out secrets? And more incredibly, how had this man kept the Revolutionary Army hidden for so long?
"You weren't meant to hear that."
"I'm legally deaf."
That had to be genetic. Even the response was the same as Garp's and Luffy's.
"Smart man."
Though, on the other hand, it did mean that Dragon trusted me enough to let his guard down around me, didn't it? I supposed that was good news.
"Can we get back on topic, please?" I requested and Dragon complied, eager to move on from his...accident.
"Sure. You were correct when you pointed out the disparity between yourself and the likes of Doflamingo. But the difference isn't quite what you think it is. Awakening goes beyond merely mastering one's fruit. It's a venture into the unknown, using the foundation you've built until then." Dragon explained, waving his hands about like an overly excited magician. I probably just looked confused. "Think of it this way. You are aware of how a devil fruit power manifests largely depends on the imagination of the user?"
"Of course."
"Awakening goes a step beyond that. Whereas before you'd be moving within the rules and bending them to suit your needs, awakening is the process of creating a new rule and enforcing it upon the world. Or at least your own unique understanding of a rule."
"There has got to be a catch."
"Naturally. Beyond needing to be strong enough in body and mind to handle the boost, you must get your fruit to agree with you."
"Agree?" I echoed. "You speak as if devil fruits are sentient."
"While it's true that they aren't sentient in the same manner as your or I, surely someone of your standing is aware that devil fruits have a will of their own?" Dragon asked, one singular eyebrow disappearing into his hair. "Is it so unthinkable that they would have preferences or desires too?"
"I suppose, it is rather telling that zoan users are influenced by whatever creature their powers emulate…" I mused, scratching my chin. "If I've understood you correctly, that's just the process of a devil fruit nudging its user towards a preferred end state?"
"That's right. Personally, I believe that all devil fruits want to awaken and hence seek to prepare their user accordingly. Though some do this more than others. Think of it as a symbiotic relationship." He said, holding up two hands, palms up. "As you grow into your power, so your power helps you grow ever more attuned to it, until you are eventually able to tap into everything your fruit has to offer."
"So…basically, my mind and body have to catch up to my power." I said, quoting Kaido's explanation from the canon manga. It had been a barebones answer and not one designed to be an exposé into the mechanics of devil awakenings, but it was the single biggest clue I had. Dragon looked rather surprised at my words, though he caught himself quickly to give me a wide smile.
"That is the minimum requirement, yes."
"But where does the creation of a new rule fit into all this?" I blinked.
"It's implied in the minimum requirement. Like I said, fruits aren't truly sentient and thus aren't capable of conscious thought. As such, they lack one integral ingredient which we humans have."
"Which is?"
"The ability to dream." Dragon stated in a low tone, lending the simple phrase more gravitas and philosophical depth than it would have had coming from near anybody else.
"I'm assuming you're not referring to the things my brain experiences while I sleep."
"Call it a vision or the big picture if you must. Unlike us, devil fruits do not possess the ability to present a roadmap for the future and are driven by instinct more than anything else. However, as useful and powerful as it can be, instinct alone is never enough to reach the top."
"I'm still not seeing it."
"If we only ever learn and practice that which was already done before, can we call that true mastery?" If nothing else, the exasperated look in his eyes, one which had been a staple on the faces of my professors, made it obvious that that was a rhetorical question. "Every layman can do the same with enough time and effort. No, to truly make the fruit's power your own, one must be a pioneer. And if you manage that get your fruit to fully cooperate with you…you can change the world."
"Okaaay… setting aside that this seems like a circular argument, how exactly am I not ready?"
"You can hardly convince your fruit to follow your vision if you haven't finalised it in your own mind yet, can you?"
– Aisa –
Aisa loved being a member of the Bellamy pirates. They were funny, nice and genuinely cared about her. In a way, they were like a bunch of new aunts and uncles who doted on her and gave her cookies when Bellamy wasn't looking. Though sadly, now that he had unlocked his own haki, it had become increasingly more difficult to slip things by him."Stand still!!" Aisa called out. Olga just turned around and stuck out her tongue.
"Never!"
More often than not, he always burst into the kitchen at precisely the wrong time to find her with her hand in the cookie jar, before proceeding to take her beloved snacks hostage. Aisa always had to work very hard to rescue them from Bellamy and make sure they were safe by winning the ensuing game of tag. She usually did – though she had the faint suspicion that he was letting her win – and the rewards were always very tasty. That didn't change the fact that these training sessions – Aisa wasn't stupid. She could tell! – were very tiring and somewhat stressful. Even if they were fun at times.
"Got you!"
"No, you missed Aisa-chan!" Soren giggled, ducking around a corner.
Getting to play an actual game of tag with no hidden motiv… moti… reasons was something she had missed dearly without having realised it. When she was still with the tribe, she'd used to play such games with the other children. At least until they realised that she was the chief's granddaughter. Things had gotten much lonelier after that.
"Stop running and let me tag you!"
But things were different now because Aisa had friends her age. In fact, she had two! Admittedly, it had taken a little time to coax Soren out of her shell, but now she was very eager to discover what fun was like. Olga was a lot of fun too, if a little odd. She really seemed to believe that she was over two hundred years old, but that was just silly. Aisa was bigger so she had to be older, right?
"Too slow! Better luck next time!"
But quirky or not, Aisa loved her new friends and spent as much time as she could playing lots of fun games. Like hide & seek, jumping rope and tag. To make things fair, Aisa always limited herself so that she was about as strong and fast as Soren and Olga. Oh, and her haki. That had to be turned off too.
Which was why Aisa had no idea why Olga stopped in the middle of the chase to peer around the corner while letting out an impressed Oooh. It was only when she stuck her head out above hers, that Aisa found out exactly what had caught her friend's attention. And even as Soren completed the totem pole of heads, Aisa watched transfixed as a fishman ran through a series of punches and kicks with Nico Robin watching from the sidelines. While the movements themselves weren't anything new, the way they flowed together was…different. In fact, the whole sequence reminded Aisa a lot of her tribal dances.
"Wow."
"Seems like your audience grew a bit, Mr. Hack." Robin said, beckoning the trio over, seeming quite amused to have them here. The fishman seemed less enthused.
"This isn't a playground, children. You shouldn't be here."
"We're not children. I'm a brave shandian warrior!" Aisa declared, puffing out her chest. But like Olga's muttered objections, her statement was similarly disregarded.
"Yes, yes. Run along children."
"Not before you tell us what you were doing." Olga imperiously replied, crossing her arms and staring up at Hack. Soren tried to copy her but ended up looking more like a curious puppy. Instead of answering, Hack just tried to stare Olga into submission. It didn't work.
Thankfully for everyone involved, Robin was rather good at resolving arguments.
"Mr. Hack was showing me the basics of Fishman Karate." She answered the trio, though that told them basically nothing.
"Fishman karate?"
"Yes. Mr. Hack is an expert in this martial art discipline and a combat instructor of the Revolutionary Army." Robin explained. "He was kind enough to offer me lessons."
"Can you show us more?" Martial arts? That sounded interesting. Very interesting indeed.
"No. It is a dangerous art, and I will not be responsible for any injuries resulting from you three trying to copy me without the proper technique."
Apparently, Olga disagreed with the fishman because she leaned backwards to whisper into Aisa's ear.
"Huhuhu. I'll call it boring to trick him into proving us wrong. Then I'll do it again and again until I've seen enough to copy him later."
Unfortunately, Olga was really bad at whispering so that everybody clearly understood her.
"You know, we can hear you, little miss." Hack muttered, looking rather unimpressed. "If you don't want me to learn of your plan immediately, you shouldn't say it out loud."
"Hoh!" Olga said in realisation, lightly bringing her fist down unto her open palm.
"Why are you looking impressed?"
Perhaps it had been Olga's threats or Soren's puppy eyes, but in either case Hack eventually gave in and agreed to teach them his secrets. If only to stop them from hurting themselves. Though, contrary to the trios initial intentions, the lesson plan turned out to be much more time intensive than Aisa had initially anticipated.
And as she lay groaning in bed a few weeks later, Aisa would regret awakening the demon that was the combat instructor Hack and allowing him to take over her evenings. Robin, being her very unhelpful self, kept encouraging everybody involved while providing lots of arms to practice against.
Though oddly enough, the thought of quitting never once crossed Aisa's mind.
Author's notes:
I have no idea how awakening works in Oda's world, so I took liberal inspiration from the concept of the Dao from wuxia/xianxia.
The basic idea is that only by moving beyond the limits of one's own understanding of a certain principle, that one can truly master it.
Or put a bit differently, only in putting a new spin on something can one know that one has mastered something.
Doffy's thing would have been cutting anything into thin enough slices, it can be turned or seen as being a string.
Bellamy is nearly there with his everything is a spring and springs oscillate = heat idea. He just needs to crystallise it a bit for a more specific use case, which will be his awakened devil fruit power.
As always, if you've enjoyed do leave a like and a comment. It really helps a lot to keep up my morale. Not to mention that I've often received inspiration from your comments in the past.
And there's no weak Devil Fruits, only weak users who don't train and realize the full potential even if they somehow awaken it.
View: https://youtu.be/c5Y25FT7DxE?si=IcvyIr5cCTgDQV5u
I'm surprised SI Bellamy didn't say, "Phrasing!" Or perhaps Ivankov had rubbed off on Dragon unintentionally, lol.
Garp must be fuming that his son Dragon and grandson Luffy ate Devil Fruits than relying on good old natural superhuman strength like him.
As Mr. Perfect Cell would say, "The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree even if you shake it hard enough!"
Because Dragon was a former high ranking Marine being privy to secrets of the World Government and knew how the Navy operated so that he can use it to his advantage against them.
I mean its not to different from my own conclusions given the info dump we got from Vegapunk. He said that fruits were the manifestation of desires, so IMO an Awakening would the manifestation of your desire through the fruit rather than just the general desire the fruit embodies, which amplifies and even alters the fruits effects.
Power up arc is needed. Im a bit sad the combination mode will be dropped,hopefully they will find additional synergies even with more power.
-If bellamy can produce energy maybe he can empower aisa instead. Give her a long range supermove long before she would learn it herself?
Controlling ligthning is probably easier then creating and controlling ligthning.
- (Maybe have the alchemist work on a dial-alchemy battery later? Could give her a limited number of boosts,close to choppers rumble balls.)
I would love to see more combos and tactics, but yeah, there is a minimum threshold of power they have to reach before they can fight doflamingo,no matter what tactics.
I also like the steady focus on the crew.The pov are interesting and show a living world outside of bellamy.
Dragon is defenitely a D.monkey.
Maybe they should try to steal gold city next? The rev army has a lot of money now, but there is always more to buy.
Perhaps more importantly, the casino is full of powerful rich monsters from accross the world. A precious bargaining tool. Since the rev. Army is so decentralised,even a moderately influental idiot from some far off place could help one of their groups.
I dont really like training arcs outside of really creative stuff.
Hard training=neutral<training in a creative way=ok<training creative uses of abilities and ressources=awesome
Also, yes it is Mr. Perfect cell.
-If bellamy can produce energy maybe he can empower aisa instead. Give her a long range supermove long before she would learn it herself?
Controlling ligthning is probably easier then creating and controlling ligthning.
- (Maybe have the alchemist work on a dial-alchemy battery later? Could give her a limited number of boosts,close to choppers rumble balls.)
I would love to see more combos and tactics, but yeah, there is a minimum threshold of power they have to reach before they can fight doflamingo,no matter what tactics.
I also like the steady focus on the crew.The pov are interesting and show a living world outside of bellamy.
Dragon is defenitely a D.monkey.
Maybe they should try to steal gold city next? The rev army has a lot of money now, but there is always more to buy.
Perhaps more importantly, the casino is full of powerful rich monsters from accross the world. A precious bargaining tool. Since the rev. Army is so decentralised,even a moderately influental idiot from some far off place could help one of their groups.
I dont really like training arcs outside of really creative stuff.
Hard training=neutral<training in a creative way=ok<training creative uses of abilities and ressources=awesome
Also, yes it is Mr. Perfect cell.
ThatOtherSatori
Lover of Spicy Food
- Location
- Indiana, USA
To be fair, Luffy has proven that even with his Devil Fruit he's still got that same superhuman mojo with all the beatings he survived and dished out across the series. That ain't all Devil Fruit after all.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Ah, going the same route as 'Telling Doffy about Quantum String Theory' I see.
Well, that's a surprise.
And then you realize that's how Garp literally did it.
No mention by Bellamy of Doffy's personal memory censor?
And Aisa gets a Fishman Karate powerup. Not the full package mind you, it's not meant for Devil Fruit users. Techniques like water bullets and the swimming mobility that practitioners like Koala (as well as Olga and Soran eventually) can learn don't play well with those who have Abilities.
But, some elements do work. Robin's improved mastery of grapples and joint locks/breaks. It fits her prefered style of fighting.
Aisa, on the other hand, is a Haki-empowered speedster. She'd be taking stuff like the 5000 Tile Punch and applying it like Kizaru.
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So you're saying that if someone else weak ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, they'd be the equivalent of Mr. Fantastic? The guy stretches but is not really strong on his own and got the Fantastic Four by his side.
Plus the user needs Haki to be in conjunction to inflict some serious damage as well.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Pretty believable characterization of Dragon.
Kizaru: "Are you challenging me?"
Aisa: "Yes. When this is over, you're gonna sing Pineapple Pen!"
Kizaru: "Oooh scary!"
I know. I was hoping someone get the joke of Kizaru looking like this guy and sing:
View: https://youtu.be/Ct6BUPvE2sM?si=FqVHyMqktOfk5yEK
Gild Tesoro will be making an appearance later. Just not quite sure when.