181
Gin looked at the celebration of the people. Unlike what his captain suspected, the execution had gone smoothly. Too smoothly, in fact, it was a bit boring to him.
But then again not every island had giants in them.
Anyway, almost all the people who lived on the small island —from different towns— had gathered to see Wapol's demise. People could finally break from the tyrant's rule.
Even before Wapol was captured, people had decided that Dalton would be the one who would take their kingdom to a better future.
And so, unlike what Dalton expected before the execution of the previous king took place, he was crowned the new king even if he protested quite a bit. There was cheering, there was happiness, and of course, there was hope.
Their new hero was none other than Straw Hat Luffy who had ended the rule of the tyrant. Some people had also flown the flag of the Straw Hat pirates along with the Kingdom's new flag.
Gin couldn't help but be proud in being one of the members of the crew. The third Island of the Grand Line, was already theirs. It just shows that Luffy was no ordinary pirate.
Sure he knew with how the lack of soldiers this island had that any medium-sized crew could take it over. But Luffy did it without any conflict. That spoke a lot about Luffy's charisma and brilliance.
After that was over people prepared the Guillotine for the execution.
Honestly, Gin was unamused by the merciful death. With all the things that Wapol did, —some of them even pirates would frown upon— Gin was expecting some grand torture that would slowly end the fat bastard for what he did to his people. But then again, he knew Coby or Usopp wouldn't be able to stomach it. Some of his crewmates were still on the softer side of things.
The townspeople were all enjoying the seeming execution. Some of them had argued on torturing, but Dalton had reminded them that while Wapol was a tyrant, he was the son of their previous king.
Who was actually a decent one before Wapol took over. So for his honor, Wapol was given a quick way out. Of course, the bastard had shouted, threatened and lastly begged for his life. But that didn't matter. People were very eager to turn a blind eye, like he had done for his own citizens.
The blade had fallen, the head was rolled over. The body had already been taken away, so the only sign this was an execution was the Guillotine that was on the stage, and frozen fresh blood marks on the blade.
After it was over, people had all celebrated with a small party.
The people also enjoyed the free foods and other items that Sanji and Hatchan were cooking up. Luffy had foreseen something like this might happen, so he had tasked Sanji with hunting game from the nearby forest and to cook it for the people to enjoy.
It also was a bit odd —but not unwelcome— that the people of the Island weren't scared or judgmental about how Hatchan looked. It's almost as if they were used to odd-looking characters. But it might also be because the people think Hatchi was one of their crew members. Which wasn't completely wrong, in a way.
Captain Luffy was adamant about Hatchan joining the crew. So it was just time until Hatchi accepted his role.
While some people enjoyed food. Others were even more so interested in the tales that Usopp was spreading about the Straw Hat pirates. Most of it wasn't actually a lie, which was quite appreciated by Gin.
For Gin, the tales of their journey and adventure could stand on their own, it needed no lies. And people really appreciated the honest story.
With the execution done, they also retrieved the man's fruit. The Munch Munch fruit was now safely in Sanji's hand. The chef did accidentally find the fruit when he was distributing the food to the people.
From what Luffy told, it was quite a powerful fruit, if used by a great user. As it could easily mend two different metals together to create a stronger one. Very useful fruit, if used by a proper user unlike Wapol.
So all in all, a new island discovered, a tyrant killed, and a devil fruit retrieved. It was quite the productive day.
Now that things were calming down a bit, people were leaving for their own homes, the sun was setting but problems also came with it.
"Um… we might have a problem, Gin." Usopp said.
Gin looked at the nervous sniper. "Finally! This was getting a bit boring, anyways." He said, picking up his tonfas and cracking his neck. "Who's skull do I need to bust?!"
Coby, who was just walking near them, with a big bowl of fried chicken also stopped. "Wait did something happen?!" he asked, taking a drumstick out of the bowl and eating it. Bone and everything.
Usopp nodded. "I've got bad news and worst news," the sniper responded, "So, uh, I was just showing the town folks about my great sniping skills, giving them a demonstration. And the bad news is, I'm pretty sure the Wapol guy's army is back." He gulped, shaking a bit. "And there were a lot of them."
Gin really wanted to roll his eyes seeing his friend cower like this. But he said nothing because when push came to shove, he knew Usopp was more than capable enough to watch his back.
Coby was wide-eyed, as he took out another drumstick, eating it whole. "That's bad. But how are you able to see that far? You were only using your slingshot to show off…"
"I have good eyesight?" Usopp shrugged, Coby would have doubted anyone else, but with Usopp's skills it could be possible.
"So, what's the worst news, then?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure they also have numbered Baroque Works agents with them." Usopp said.
Gin blinked. "You sure, Usopp? You didn't mistake them for anyone else did you?"
Usopp shook his head. "Luffy was pretty descriptive of the other agent… I only saw Mr 3. That kind of weird hair could be recognized anywhere. He literally has a 3 as his haircut, with candle flames. Also, I saw his partner, the small girl with painting equipment… then there was also the other agent that had a 6 painted on the right side of his face and a very tall woman"
Gin nodded. "So Mr 3 pair and Mr 6 pair. Also Wapol's army… Why the heck are they working with each other…?"
"That's not important," Coby said, finally finishing his bucket of fried chicken. "We have to stop them, before they can reach the town! How far are they?"
"Well, if we move now, we can catch them a kilometer away from the town." Usopp said. Making Coby surprised a bit, just how far could their sniper see? But anyway, they needed to move now, or else the upcoming battle would harm the people of the Island.
Gin smirked. "You know, I'm all up for an after-meal workout." He grinned savagely. "Let's go… we will stop them!"
Usopp blinked, before he sighed. He looked around, and saw that all of the townspeople were cheerful, they all looked peaceful. He didn't want to ruin the moment. "Just one second. I will inform Sanji and the others, you guys go on ahead. In case some of them are able to get past us."
Gin and Coby nodded. And started walking towards the road where the enemies would be. They were strong… with all the training they had done. They wanted to use it in a practical test in battle.
Gin because he was a savage pirate, long before he joined the Straw Hats. And Coby partly because he has battle lust, and partly because of his hero-complex. For Usopp, it was proving that he was on his way to becoming the bravest warrior of the sea.
182
Dr. Kureha narrowed her eyes. "So you guys are pirates?"
Luffy nodded. "Yup, not just any pirates. The Straw Hat pirates! The pirate crew that will sail to every Island in the world, a crew that will be feared and respected throughout the sea. And the captain who will be King of Pirates, and become the strongest man. Monkey D. Luffy, that is my name."
"I don't care, why are you here?" she asked, already getting a headache.
"For a regular check-up, of course," Luffy said as if it was obvious.
She narrowed her eyes, and was about to say something when Chopper spoke.
"Wait, you guys are THE Straw Hat Pirates… as in the hero pirates?" Chopper asked with stars in his eyes.
"Yup, the one and only." Luffy grinned. "It seems you are a fan, little man. Wanna join the crew now?"
Before Chopper could answer, Dr. Kureha spoke, "Chopper, go and bring the stuff from my cart. I had to rush in here because of the commotion… and left it on the snow."
"Uh… yes ma'am." With that, the reindeer mink was gone.
"So… you really want Chopper to be in your crew?" She asked, with narrowed eyes.
Luffy straightened up, and nodded seriously. Looking straight in her eyes. "Yes."
For a while the old doctor didn't say anything, just locked onto his gaze, before she took a chug from her bottle, and threw the said bottle to the side as it shattered into pieces. "Then how does your crew feel about monsters?" Straight to the point.
"We already have our fair share of monsters in our crew. But… Where is this coming from?" Luffy asked. Even knowing half of the answer, some things like a mink or regular reindeer don't change.
"You see Chopper here isn't an ordinary reindeer… he's a mink." She said, "And when Minks look at the moon…"
"Oh, you mean their Sulong transformation," Luffy said, a bit surprised himself.
Dr Kureha didn't like being cut off mid-sentence but nodded. At least the boy was aware of the fact. "That's why you can't take him… Chopper is a gentle soul. And has the heart of a doctor, he doesn't like hurting people. He rarely goes out at night, never being able to see the moon, or he might accidentally transform into his… other forms."
"Not that I know a lot about Minks… but doctor, that's normal for every mink right?" Luffy asked.
Kureha shook her head, "Chopper is no normal mink." She sighed. "I don't know why I'm sharing Chopper's past with you… but for some reason, I want to trust you. Heh, I might be growing old." She chuckled to herself, regretting there was no liquor for this conversation. "But are you really willing to make Chopper your crewmate?"
"Of course, he's the only doctor I will recruit on this Island," Luffy said as if it was final. Because it was. Nothing will stop him from getting the reindeer mink on his crew.
Kureha nodded, "When Chopper was young… he got separated from his parents, things happened and he was captured by marines and given to a mad scientist. I won't say much, you can guess what happened."
Luffy's fist tightened, while his crewmates looked a bit pale. Some looked horrified while some were a bit angry.
Kureha noted it but acted as if she didn't notice, "The reason why Chopper isn't able to control his sulong-from is because of that. His form is also very powerful, from such a young age… and unlike other minks, he doesn't need to see the full moon. The full moon does help, as transforming that way makes his transformation much more stable… but just seeing the moon is enough to make him transform."
Now that was surprising.
"Heck, sometimes he doesn't even need to see the moon. Just his body getting moonlight is enough to make him transform. He can't control his body then, as it moves and creates destruction. He can only see his deeds." Dr. Kureha said. "That is why, I think it's impossible… even if Chopper…"
"One second please." Luffy held out a finger and spread his observation Haki. "Say, it's getting pretty late… and I'm pretty sure the moon's out. And… you just sent Chopper outside."
Dr Kureha went pale and quickly dashed out the door, before jumping down from the third floor to the first one, and kicking the castle gate open. "Chopper!"
And there she saw it. Standing well over 25 feet tall (around 8 meters) was a giant of a beast, with tree-like horns, white fur, and sparks of electricity going around it. And the monster laid its eyes on her, and jumped… she readied herself by crossing her arms… but the attack never came.
She glanced at Chopper… who was somewhat frozen in air… no it looked like his movements were slowed down. What the…
"Oh, it's Sparky and White Fury!" Luffy said, spooking the old doctor from the side. How did the brat suddenly appear by his side? "Why, you guys here?"
Dr Kureha then looked at the two other odd entities that came to view. It was a six-armed monkey and a winged snake. The boy wasn't kidding when he said that his crew had some odd ones.
As if ignoring the giant hulking white-furred beast, the six-armed monkey jumped down from the white snake and went to Luffy's shoulder.
"Cipr Pol Agnt atck' da ship. Me an Kuina stp him. Nw he's tied up." The monkey said with a strained voice. Possible development of vocal cords… but in a monkey. Eh… she had already seen some weird things.
"Wow, you really spoke all of that… man, you will be speaking in no time with how good you're now." Luffy said, grinning.
"Wait, did that monkey speak?" Dr Kureha asked. "Is he also a mink?"
"Wt's a mik?" The six-armed monkey tilted his head. "Me Sparky. Don knw wht I'm…"
Sparky almost seemed depressed, but Luffy patted him. "Don't worry buddy, you are the awesome gun-blazing six-armed monkey of the Straw Hat pirates. He's the one that slowed Chopper down, his devil fruit ability. And he's also my first mate. Shishishi!"
And that seemed to cheer the odd monkey up.
Kurehad blinked. How did the monkey… devil fruit. An odd-looking monkey with a devil fruit ability. Who also seems to be the first mate of the straw hat pirates.
Then she glanced at the winged snake. "The snake also has a devil fruit?"
"Yup." Luffy said, patting the snake. "She's our newest member from Little Garden. Say, can you check up on her… she lived on the island for almost her whole life. Just wanna make sure she doesn't have any diseases that can spread on the ship," he whispered the last part near her.
Kureha snorted. "I will see what I can do."
Maybe Chopper can find his place there.
"Oh, Dr Kureha, how do we deal with Chopper now that he's all big and badass?" Luffy asked with a grin. A grin that overlapped with someone else. Kureha shook her head, the boy might be a D. but he was nothing like that man. "Man, if it was any other time, I would have loved to let loose and do some sparring with you, big guy."
"The only way I know is by knocking him out." She said, sighing. "I will get the tranquilizer. He hates the after effects…"
"Eh… no need," Luffy said, before his eyes glowed and a fearsome aura burst out from his figure. But unlike what he expected Chopper wasn't knocked out.
No, the giant beastly form of Chopper was withstanding his Haki, but he was struggling. Luffy had to raise an eyebrow, Chopper was strong, or at least in this form he was.
So Luffy commanded. "Sleep!" And with that Chopper was out, with foam from his mouth.
Even though Dr Kureha wasn't the target of it, she felt it. That was undoubtedly Conqueror's Haki. And Haki that wild, that free, as if challenging the world to bring it. This feeling, it was just like him. Her former captain.
Dr Kurehad started laughing, "A brat that's new to the Grand Line with that much control over Haki! Either you will die a foolish death like him, or you will conquer the sea and make it yours. Thanks for taking the brat out, by the way."
With that, she grabbed the giant reindeer by its horn. Even if some of the electricity did brush her, it wasn't something that could knock out someone like her. With that, she dragged the mink inside.
183
Right after Chopper was dragged inside, away from the moonlight, his added size was reduced to his previous state along with his weight.
Which was pretty confusing, the mass suddenly shrinking down with size. But then again this was the world of One Piece, so like his own fruit, Luffy accepted it as a supernatural mass that can shift in weight and size.
Dr. Kureha then went on to explain the rest of Chopper's backstory. How he had fled the scientist when he took him out on his ship for one of his pet projects.
How he got lost in the sea, and how he was able to hitch a ride from one ship to another before stumbling on this island.
After that, about how an old quack found Chopper and raised him as his own son, but even that was short-lived. All in all, the backstory of Chopper was truly tragic.
"Doesn't Chopper want to go back to his people? Where the other minks are?" Nami questioned.
"Yeah, I heard that Minks are very rare… but they should have a colony somewhere," Vivi said, also feeling pity for the reindeer mink.
"Almost every day. While he does view me as his mother figure and the late quack as his father figure. The truth of the matter is, somewhere his real parents might still be alive." Dr Kureha said. "You know when he first came to the Island, he thought of himself as a regular reindeer, and when they didn't accept him… he thought that it was because of his blue nose. Apparently, he didn't know the difference between minks and normal animals. So, yes… he does want to get back home."
"Shishishi… if that's the case, then Chopper will have to be ready for a lot of climbing," Luffy said, pointing his finger up.
"So, you even know about that as well." Dr Kureha said, laughing. "For a snot nosed brat to know where the secret home of minks lay… you really are full of mystery aren't you?"
She then looked at Sparky and White Fury. White Fury was trying to curl up near Zoro while he had his sword out and it being on fire. The snake really didn't like the cold but at least with Zoro, she could have some fire to heat her body.
"You weren't kidding when you said you had monsters on your crew," Kureha mumbled mostly to herself. "But then again, you aren't that different from a monster." Luffy didn't say anything, just smiled, taking it as a compliment. Because it was.
Speaking of monsters, Luffy looked at Sparky. "Hey, weren't you saying something about catching some Cipher Pol agent guy? Did he damage the Going Merry?"
Sparky shook his head. "No" he said. "Bt, he hd a dyna ston."
Luffy's eyebrow rose almost to the top of his head. "A dyna stone…? the fuck were they trying to nuke us for?"
"A dyna stone?" Kureha asked. "Cipher Pol agents planning dyna stone on your boat, you know what… for Chopper's own safety, I'm not gonna let him go with you guys."
"Oh, come on! We caught the rat, didn't we?" Luffy asked, while Sparky nodded. "So, nothing was hurt… well, except the agent… he will be in a world of hurt, after I'm done with him." He said, those words sweetly cracking his knuckles.
And it was at that time Chopper woke up.
Chopper's memories were hazy. Dr Kureha had told her to bring some stuff from the cart, so he had gone out of the castle.
But he forgot that it was already quite late and the moon was out. He could only blame himself as he saw himself transform into that monster. But didn't he want to transform today? Something about Wapol's army… he couldn't remember. His memory was foggy.
He saw as his form changed as he grew in size, his fur taking on snow white color as his vision bled red. And now he couldn't control his body.
Right at that moment Dr Kureha came out of the castle. "Chopper!"
Internally Chopper was horrified as his body moved on its own, trying to attack the old doctor. He knew she was strong enough to take his hits, but still she hated hurting people. Good people.
What happened next shocked him. Somehow his body was slowed down to a crawl.
And… wait, when did the straw hat boy get here?
Then he noticed a six-armed monkey, riding on a large white-winged snake. Was he seeing things?
Then the six-armed monkey jumped onto Luffy, who went on to tell Dr Kureha that it was his first mate. His name was Sparky, a six-armed monkey with a devil fruit.
Internally Chopper was shocked. Sparky was just a monster like him! Even if he was small, Chopper's fighting instincts could tell Sparky was dangerous. Minks might be natural-born fighters, but he could tell Sparky was no mink. Heck, what was he?
Then Luffy also said that the large snake was also part of his crew. Luffy… he wasn't lying when he said he already had monsters in his crew.
Heck, he even called himself a monster. What was up with that…? Luffy looked like a normal human to him.
But then, Luffy seemed to be saying something about how to make him return to his normal form. Chopper felt saddened that he would need to be tranquilized, he hated the feeling of getting darted.
Mainly because that horrible man used to do the same, but he was surprised when Luffy stopped the doctor, and did something.
It was sudden, but Chopper finally understood why Luffy called himself a monster. For a while his transformed form fought back… But it was useless. That is when the world turned dark for him.
When he woke up, he felt a bit groggy, but other than that he felt fine. Chopper looked around with blurry eyes, his eyes laid on Luffy, who was giving an ear to ear grin. That is when he had remembered what happened.
"Wait… how?" he asked, grabbing his head. It wasn't throbbing like the after-effect of a heavy dose of sedative.
"How, What?" Luffy asked, a bit amused.
"How did you put me to sleep without…"
"Oh, that…" Luffy then leaned in. "You have to join my crew to find out. Mr. Cute blue nose monster."
"Shut it! I don't want your praise~!" Chopper danced, his words and actions not matching.
But it was right at that moment that Chopper's nose tickled again, and he remembered. "Dr Kureha… Wapol is back in town. I can smell him from here!" The reindeer mink panicked. "Now, that I have transformed once… I can't transform anymore for 24 hours… How am I going to stop him from taking over the castle!?"
"Umm… not to burst your panic bubble mink-san, but I think Wapol has other things to worry about than regaining his castle," Vivi said, before her face had a slight tinge of grimness and anger. "Like his inevitable execution, by his own people."
Chopper blinked, before he sat down. "How?!"
"Well, the ass—"
"Language." Dr Kureha said, cutting him off.
"Oh, come on. We are pirates…"
But her glare left no room for any argument.
"Fine…" Luffy pouted, but continued with his story. "We caught the 'potty-mouth' when he tried to eat our ship, and handed him over to a guy named Dalton when we came to the Island. I'm pretty sure he's already six feet under now. The townspeople were eager to get rid of him."
Chopper blinked, he didn't know what to say. He was glad that the tyrant was dead, but at the same time a bit angry that he couldn't end him himself for doing what he did to Dr Hiriluk. Still, it was a lot to take in.
Luffy then grabbed Chopper by his arm, taking the reindeer on his shoulder, and surprising him. He then looked back to his crewmates. "Hey, guys get checked by the old doc… while I introduce Chopper to the rest of the crew. Adios."
"Wait—" Kureha said, but it was too late, Luffy was gone like he was never there. She then glared at the others present in the castle. "If anything happens to Chopper…" she growled, while the rest of them gulped, and inwardly cursed Luffy for leaving them behind in the witch's den.
Well, almost everyone. "Hehehe… My brother might get lost, so take care, bye!" With that Sabo was also gone.
The rest of them didn't know what to say anymore. Both of them were brothers indeed.
184
"We have to hurry, the king might be in danger by that evil pirate." Said Chess, the clown-looking one from Wapol's army. He was one of the two that was truly loyal to him, "We have to hurry!"
Kuromarimo, the afro-wearing guard of Wapol nodded, but unlike Chess, he was a bit worried. They took a lot of time to find the island, who knows what might have happened. Still, it was a good thing that on their way they met four Baroque Works agents who were after the Straw Hat pirates. The same pirates that 'kidnapped' their king.
Baroque Works was a famous bounty-hunting group. They had a lot of merit in catching rowdy pirates that entered the first half of the Grand Line. In fact, King Wapol had contacted them when Blackbeard attacked, alas help wasn't near at the time.
But now they were here to catch the 'Straw Hat Pirates' at that and, with four members, it was quite the fearsome force. They had weird abilities between each of them. Weird and yet powerful.
One of them, the one who called himself Mr 3, was even kind enough to make wax clothes for all of his men to wear. The clothes were enough to shield them from the cold.
The Straw Hats, those scum not only stole all the valuables on their ship, but they even took all of the soldier's clothes with them, leaving all of them butt naked on the cold sea.
Luckily, they found the Baroque Works agents on their way. Chess was a bit reluctant, but the afro-boxer had come in and explained the situation to them.
And they were kind enough to give a helping hand in finding Drum Island. So for now, both parties joined hands. With them on their side, maybe they would be able to punish the Straw Hats for crossing their ways and harming their king.
They had a lot in number, around 200 soldiers. They weren't much, but they were mere cannon fodder anyways. If only both him and Chess weren't caught off guard and knocked out first, this whole 'kidnapping' situation could've been avoided. But now they would be cautious.
"Stop being a pussy! We will get them and save your precious king. No matter what the newspaper says he's just a newbie that entered the Grand Line, so he can't be that tough." Said the Baroque Works agent guy that had the number 6 painted on his face in red. He called himself Mr. 6 and he looked quite savage, and barbaric.
The man was tall, a head full of black hair and his upper body was bare, having only a shoulder guard on one side while he wore winter-themed pants and boots. But what made him savage was the scar on the left side of his face and his canine-like teeth.
"Kahahaha… Mr. 6 is always right." Said Miss Mother's Day. She was a woman that was overweight, almost resembling Alvida, if not for the elegant dress she wore. She also had a paper fan that she used to cover her face.
"Mr. 6, I will remind you to stick to the plan. The pirate might be a newbie, but two of his members were easily able to deal with the Mr. 5 pair. Sure, we were uninformed, but we shouldn't underestimate them right now." Said Mr. 3. He, unlike the other two, looked quite normal. Other than the fact that he had a unique hairstyle that looked like the 'number 3' and was also on fire at the tip for some odd reason. Resembling a candle.
"Yeah, yeah… whatever you say candle-man," Mr. 6 said, as he picked his ears.
Mr. 3 seemed a bit offended, but he calmed himself down, and fixed his glasses. Looking at his partner, Miss Goldenweek, she wasn't handling the cold quite well, even with the thick level of clothes she wore.
It was getting dark, they didn't plan on fighting today, or confronting the Straw Hats. That's why they were trying to reach the town for the night. Also, their main target wasn't capturing the Straw hats, in fact, they presumed that the Straw Hats wouldn't be on this island.
By their estimation, it should take about at least another week for the Straw Hats to come here. But for some reason, they were here early. It seemed their info on the Straw Hats wasn't as solid as Mr. 3 would've liked it to be.
What they didn't know was that, amongst other things, Nico Robin had forgotten to mention the sea king that was pulling the ship. This brought a miscalculation on their part.
Anyway, the main goal of Baroque Works was taking over the kingdom, not fighting the Straw Hats, but if needed they were confident in dealing with the pirates. Their boss Mr. 0 had revealed himself as Crocodile, who wanted to take over the Alabasta kingdom. But in case the marines get wind of it and want to stop it, he had made a backup plan.
That is why he had sent forces to take over Drum Island, now that it was kingless, taking over the kingdom would be easy.
Along the way, things happened and they had worked with the said king's forces.
Still, it wasn't unwelcomed. If the king's army could keep the Straw Hats busy, then they might be able to take down the Straw Hats along with them. But for that, they needed to have control over the soldiers. Luckily they had an opportunity to do that as well.
Also, if the Straw Hats were here, then it meant that Princess Vivi was also with them. Even if they weren't able to do anything, just killing her would give them enough credit to leave the island if needed.
Still, it would have been better if they were able to contact Mr. 0 about their change of plans. But the boss man had made it clear to not contact him unless he did so himself, or in case there was a chance that the marines might get wind of their plans.
Not everyone had encrypted transponder snails.
But then again Mr. 3 suspected it was unneeded. While he believed in his own powers and his partners', the Mr. 6 pair was also very powerful among Baroque Works. Mr. 6 had once gunned for the spot of Mr 1, he had put up a good fight but was defeated. But that was before he had eaten his fruit, that he, somehow, was able to steal from the giants of Little Garden.
Then there was Miss Mother's Day. The fat woman was madly in love with Mr. 6, but her combat ability might have been better than any of them. Other than Sir Crocodile, she was the only logia fruit user that Baroque Works had.
Mr. 6 and Miss Mother's Day were the wildcards of Baroque Works; they had almost managed to catch the giants of Little Garden in a frontal assault. Or that's how the story went. Both of them had recently gained their devil fruits for about six months, and their abilities were very powerful. Mr. 3 wouldn't ever admit it out front, but even he doubted he could beat one of them.
If Mr. 6 wasn't stubborn enough for the position of Mr 1 then his rank might have been a lot higher. But Mr. 0 knew it, and even though he was in charge of the mission, Mr. 3 knew that he had to be careful around them. Luckily Mr. 6 was a brute, so Mr. 3 could work with that.
"We have company," Mr. 6 said, with an eager, savage grin as two people revealed themselves from the snow dunes. "Man-Demon Gin, and… who the fuck are you pinky?"
Coby felt his eye twitch, he kind of hated not being recognized. But he had other things to say, "Leave the Island, the people of the Island do not welcome you."
"Welcome us?" Chess asked, pointing his finger at Coby. "You filthy pirates! This is our home island… and we are here to retrieve King Wapol. Give us back our king!" He demanded.
"Sure." Gin said, tossing something to Chess, who promptly caught it.
All of them were wide-eyed, comically so, even Coby. Because the thing that Gin tossed was none other than Wapol's severed head. Chess accidentally tossed it, before he picked it up again, trying to do something with it.
185
"Why did you even have that?" Coby questioned, but Gin didn't say anything, just savagely smiled. Mr. 6 was also cackling, at least one of them got the joke.
"Well, they act all high and mighty, and it kind of pissed me off the first time… so what better way to serve their leader's severed head as a welcome. No?"
"No." Coby sighed, before looking back at the enemies.
Chess was now trying to order the twenty doctors to do something about the severed head of his king. But it was obviously too late, the clown was angry enough to jump at Gin, but Kuromarimo stopped him.
"What did you do to our king?!" He asked, his eyes narrowed. There was fury and anger in them.
"Oh, we didn't do anything," Gin said, cracking his neck, resting one of his tonfa on his shoulder. "In fact, the fat cuck was killed by his own people… they were very eager to kill him, I might add. I wonder why? But don't worry, after we are done with you, you guys will join them."
"Wait, we are going to kill them?" Coby asked.
Gin deadpanned at him. "I'm pretty sure if we do capture them, they will be executed. There are roughly more than 200 of them. And do you really want to hold back while fighting them? They ain't saints you know…"
Coby opened his mouth and closed. "Good point there." He then looked at the soldiers, "But… we might not need to kill all of them."
Kuromarimo didn't say anything and was just glaring at him.
Mr. 3 on the other hand looked behind, the soldiers of Wapol's army were in a disarray. Some were horrified, some were wary, but all of them looked quite glad that the king was dead. Even the twenty doctors felt relieved that they wouldn't need to treat the tyrant anymore.
Coby, seeing this, figured out what Gin was planning, and spoke. (Even though he didn't quite frankly agree with Gin's way of doing things) "Listen, I know you soldiers have served him, and we have nothing against you… Mr. Dalton was made the new king, by the people's choice. Your old king is dead! You have no king to serve, no duties to fulfill… so stand down! We will only say this once."
As if listening to Coby's words, one by one the soldiers tossed away their guns. Some even had the bright idea of pointing their weapons at the Baroque Works agent and the two loyal members of Wapol's army.
Gin grinned, impressed by Coby's speech. "Well well well, look how the tables have turned. Hah, you really should have been a marine. You would have been a good scheming bastard." Coby didn't know if he was being insulted or praised.
"How dare you… cowards!" Kuromarimo spoke, but against all the guns pointed at him, he knew better than to suddenly do anything.
"You backstabbing fools, don't believe the words of a pirate!" Chess said, "I'm sure this is all a lie." He then pointed at Gin. "You… bring us to the real King Wapol. Don't try to trick us!" He said frantically.
"Oi, shut it, clown." Gin said, "Soldiers, shoot the clown if he gets any bright ideas." And funnily enough some of the soldiers nodded, quite eager to take orders from one of the Straw Hats. "You know what, I might have liked being a marine as well."
Coby deadpanned, but asked anyway, "Why?"
"Well, we would have tons of minions to control! Gahahaha!" Gin crackled. All of this seemed too easy, it was before Mr. 3 spoke.
"I suspected something like this would happen." He said, snapping his fingers as the clothes from soldiers twisted, fully taking over their bodies as they yelped. The wax surrounded them like armor, wax armor. "But I always have a plan." He said, pushing his glasses up his face, as it shone in moonlight.
You see, when the Straw Hats looted them, they took everything, even the soldier's clothes that protected them from the cold. So, Mr 3 had the chance to give them all wax-made clothes, and with his ability, he could now control all of them, even if they didn't want to willingly.
Now they were his wax puppets.
"Well, back to square one I guess," Gin said, shrugging, while Coby sighed. "But don't worry, I won't try to kill em." he whispered the last part for only Coby to hear, but he nodded.
"What is the meaning of this Mr. 3?" Chess asked. "What have you done to my men?"
Mr 3 snorted. "Your 'men' were so eager to blast you in the head just a moment ago. You should be thanking me, with my powers, now they are your perfect soldiers. And also…" He then snapped his fingers again.
This time the clothes on Chess and Kuromarimo sifted into their weapons that the straw hats stole from them. For Chess it was his bow, and for Kuromarimo it was spiked punching gloves.
Chess wanted to say more, but Kuromarimo stopped him. "We shouldn't fight each other right now." He said, before his eyes shifted towards the two pirates that stopped them. "And thank you for the help… we will kill them for what they have done to our king. Soldiers attack them!"
"Um… I'm the one in charge here, but yes." Mr. 3 pointed out, "Attack them!"
The soldiers pointed their guns at Gin and Coby and fired. Coby came forward and brought his hands in a cross over his chest, before swiping them outwards. Two long blades came out from the back of his wrist, instead of his usual three short claws.
The bullets were fired at the Straw Hats, but Coby was easily able to see the bullets coming and used his now elongated arm blades to deflect the bullets before they could get past him.
Coby wasn't fully using his devil fruit until Luffy had pointed it out. His fruit was the claw claw fruit, his ability was making claws. So why was he sticking to one style of claws? Each day, Coby could feel his powers grow stronger, the Devil Fruit encyclopedia had said that his fruit was similar to the paw paw fruit and previous users had shown weird abilities with it.
Gin whistled from behind Coby, "New move, huh. Show off."
The moment the bullets stopped, Mr. 6 who, suddenly, came out of the ground with his teeth out ready to bite into Coby but he was stopped by Gin, who shoved the ball side of his tonfa into his mouth, keeping him from doing any actual harm. "You are with me, Ugly!" Gin said as he swiped his other tonfa on the man's chin, the man shot off by the attack to the enemy's side. It almost seemed like he was knocked out. "Well, that was easy."
Coby gave him a deadpan look. "He's not knocked out you know…"
Gin almost looked offended. "Hey, not all of us have super hearing or devil fruit powers."
"Heh! You are jealous." Coby shot back.
"Take us seriously! Checkmate Arrow!" Chess shouted as he shot multiple wax arrows.
"Let me!" Gin stepped forward and threw his weighted tonfas in air, as it smashed the arrows out of their trajectory, before returning to him. Coby was questioning how that was even possible, but Gin just smiled. "Neat trick right, Usopp managed to balance out tonfas somehow… now it can do a boomerang back to me. You aren't the only one developing cool little tricks."
Well, if anyone could do it, it might be their long-nosed inventor. He did have quite the keen mind. Also, like previously, the enemy was stalled on their spot, and both pirates were opposite to them, not letting them get any nearer to the town. Their musing cut short when the enemy spoke.
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"This is the reason why you don't attack one by one." Mr. 3 said, "Miss Goldenweek are you done?"
The little girl nodded, poking her head from behind one of the soldiers, now almost all of the soldiers had a red colored 'X' mark on them.
"Okay, then. Attack them with melee weapons." Mr. 3 said, as he poured out even more wax from his body. "Candle Champion!" The wax solidified into a giant armor that boosted his offensive and defensive capabilities. It also seemed to make what appeared to be a machine gun made of wax. "Now, attack at once!"
And everyone did. The soldiers now had maces or swords made out of wax as they charged at Coby and Gin, being more aggressive now that they were hypnotized by the paint. While Mr 3 fired off his machine gun, along with Chess firing off wax bullets.
Gin and Coby had their hands full as they had to defend against the endless stream of soldiers, while avoiding the wax bullets. While Coby could have taken the shots, he knew better than just giving away his trump card.
But the enemy's attacks didn't seem to be coming to an end. The wax bullets seemed endless, considering Mr. 3's power (from what little Luffy told them) he could keep it running for hours.
And the soldiers were also a pain in the ass, as they were a suicidal bunch jumping on Gin and Coby to stop them. Even getting shot by the bullets in the process. The wax armor that surrounded most of their bodies except their face, helped them survive the bullets. But Coby was sure, even if the bullets didn't penetrate their flesh, they would leave nasty impact wounds.
He could see it in their movements, after getting shot, they would be down for a few seconds before they would forcefully stand up and again attack them. It was like an endless cycle of white Zombie horror.
Coby didn't want to harm the mindless soldiers, not when they were so willing to come to their side just a moment ago. He didn't…
"Oi, pinky. Knock them out." Gin called out, as his tonfa slammed into one of the soldier's heads breaking the helmet portion of the wax and knocking them out. "Bash their heads in. It seems that's the only way they stay down."
He was right, while Mr. 3 could control their movements to some degree it was too tough for him to puppet all of them around. That's why he took help from Miss Goldenweek to hypnotize them with paint.
"Well, thanks… but my powers aren't actually meant for bashing things in." Coby pointed out, jumping back. "But I can make an opening for you." With that Coby retracted back one of his long arm blades, and with the other one, he vertically swiped it on the snow.
Creating a large snow cloud that covered the enemy's vision.
"Fine." Gin grunted, readying his two tonfas at his sides. "Heptic Spin!" With that Gin promptly turned into a spinning top as they blitzed past the soldiers. Knocking anyone out that was in his path.
And when he stopped almost half of them were knocked out.
"Now you are trapped!" Mr. 3 called out.
"What the?!" For Gin, he looked down and saw that he was trapped in a piece of white wax that had some blue markings on it. And it slowed him down, and the wax molded around his feet like some cuffs holding him in place.
"Gah! It bit me!" For Coby, Mr. 6 had somehow jumped on him from the ground and dug his shark-like teeth into the pink-haired boy's shoulder, holding him in place. Coby, of course, didn't hold back and shoved his wolverine-like claws into him. But to his shock they didn't penetrate that deeply into him.
Now that he looked at Mr. 6, he was bigger, a lot bigger, and his body didn't look human. It was as if he was wearing some kind of dinosaur hide, with a tortoise-like blue shell on his back. This was his first time seeing one, but this was definitely a zoan ability.
"Momi Momi: Arrrrrowws!" Miss Mother's Day shouted as she had a bow, made out of what appeared to be solidified Maple Syrup, and shot one arrow into the sky.
Both the Straw Hat's were first confused as they saw the one arrow, but their eyes comically widened when it turned into multiple arrows and rained down on them. With them being trapped they had no way to escape.
Even Coby was unsure if he could survive such a wide-scale attack, as taking so many arrows would leave him vulnerable for Mr. 6 to end him. And Gin did have his tonfa on his hand, but with his feets trapped, he wouldn't be able to use his mobility to dodge out of the way.
Hope seemed to be diminishing when suddenly something green was shot out —which looked like a green transparent shuriken— and broke the arrows out of the sky before it could harm both of the straw hats.
"Don't fear!" Said something, stepping into the moonlight, his cape fluttering in the snowy wind. A light coming from behind his silhouette, making his figure look even more imposing. "Why? Because the great Sogeking Usopp is here!"
But the moment was ruined when Mr. 3 called. "Who the heck are you, long nose?"
Usopp almost fell to the ground, revealing Bartolomeo who held a flashlight behind him to give him the dramatic effect a moment ago.
All of them sweatdropped at the new pirates' antics as he fixed himself.
"Ahem… it seems my minion has made a mistake. No problem." Usopp said, puffing his chest with some unknown pride. "For my real goal was to distract you in the first place."
All of them blinked. Only then did they notice that the green-haired pirate that was behind Usopp was gone.
"Bari Bari: Jet Pistol!" Somehow or someway Barto was fast enough to appear right beside Mr. 6 —whose jaw was still clamping down on Coby— and punched him with a barrier-encased hand.
While Mr 6's zoan hide was strong, Barto's barrier was stronger, making the man shot off like a bullet leaving Coby. Still, a good chunk of his flesh was ripped off.
Gin was going to point out that he was still trapped, when he saw that his feets were on fire. He yelped and jumped away, only for him to notice that his feet were now freed. Of course Wax would melt in fire… "Back up has arrived, now you guys are toast!"
Mr 3 snarled. "Bring it!" he said, then pointing to his remaining soldiers (that were less than half in number now) "Attack them!"
And so round two of the fight began.
While all of this was happening a keen reindeer mink was watching all of this happen from the sky, sitting on top of another figure's shoulder.
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Chopper looked down at the ongoing fight with stars in his eyes. Luffy internally chuckled, they were up in air, with Luffy keeping them afloat with Geppo. And like any kid, human or mink, flying was awesome!
"Well, I would have liked to introduce you to them… but it seems they are a bit busy… you know, doing the usual pirate-y things…" Luffy winked. Even he was surprised at the powers that were displayed by the Mr. 6 pair. An unknown Zoan fruit (if he wasn't wrong, it was the same fruit that he was able to steal from Dorry and Broggy.) and a paramecia or, possibly, a logia fruit based around some candy-like liquid.
Very interesting, he knew the battle for his crewmates would be tough. But he didn't doubt his crewmates' skills. He knew they could pull through. Logia or Zoan, there were other ways to fight them without Haki.
"You know… let's go meet Sanji and Hatchan." Luffy said. "They might have some leftover food from the celebration. Hmm… now I'm feeling hungry! And after that let's go to the Merry and meet Kuina. Okay?" The reindeer mink might have wanted to stay and see the whole fight but he was also very eager to meet his new crewmates.
So he nodded. "Yes."
With that, he was off with Geppo with Chopper on his shoulder.
.
"Well, that's the last of them," Coby said kicking one of the soldiers down, without his claws as his wax helmet cracked, knocking him out. Around him two hundred of Wapol's men, controlled by the Mr. 3 pair, laid unconscious.
"M-Monsters!" Chess muttered. Now there weren't any soldiers left, even if Mr. 3 wanted to control them, with them being unconscious, and unable to battle, their forces were reduced to six.
"Don't worry." Mr. 3 said, pushing his glass up his face. He was still in his Candle Champion, the wax robotic armor looked a bit dented, but it was nowhere near its breaking point. "The number means nothing in front of individual strength." Gin put in every effort to smash the robotic armor around him, but even his normal tonfa couldn't do anything more than to dent it. And Gin didn't want to bring out his trump card just yet.
"Flashbang!"
"Gah! My eyes!" All the six enemies winced at the sudden flash of light.
"Couldn't have said it better. Let's show our individual strength!" Said someone, "Exploding Star!
Mr. 3 held up his arm by instinct as the Candle Champion's arm exploded into flames. He felt the flames, but didn't panic like the first time. His arm gauntlet spun at rapid speed as it blew the flame away.
"Thanks for the help, Usopp." Gin grunted as he again appeared right in front of Mr. 3, using soru. The Baroque Works agent still had his arms in a cross in front of his face as Gin hit him. For Gin his whole body vibrated due to his own attack, but he pushed through. "What the fuck is that thing made of?"
The Candle Champion dragged on the snow one of its arms dented from the new strike, but nowhere close to breaking. "Huh!? It's made out of wax, you fool! But I can make it as strong as steel." But then suddenly his arm broke off, and he was astonished. The flames weren't supposed to melt his wax, no, it was to make it soft so that others can break it.
Gin couldn't follow through his attack on Mr. 3 either as he was jumped by Chess and Kuromarimo wanting to take him on. But they were swiftly smashed into a green barrier, as they comically hit it, before sliding down.
"Agh, my nose!"
"My face!"
The shield suddenly dropped when Gin appeared between them in a soru and held his two tonfa to his side, wanting to smash their heads in. He was able to hit them, but not put that much strength into it as suddenly, Miss Mother's Day appeared out of the ground in her orange maple liquid form, encasing Gin and his tonfa on her body. The liquid hardened making it as strong as steel.
"Got you!" the large woman said, the bottom half of her body still in liquid orange maple form.
"Hey, let go!" Usopp shouted, "Flaming Star!"
But the flames did nothing to the hardened Maple construct. A layer of maple just snuffed out the flames, before it could do any major damage.
"Oi, let go. Ugly!" Gin grunted.
"UGLY?!" Miss Mother's Day squeezed Gin in a bear hug, but surprisingly enough it wasn't enough to harm Gin who was holding back her squeeze.
"Hold him in place!" A voice yelled…
A large beast came running at both of them, it was none other than Mr. 6 as he went into his full animalistic form. It was a beast on all four legs, even then it was five meters in height. Being a species of dinosaur, having spikes all over his body, and a tail that ended in a mace with spikes on it.
Usopp was wide-eyed he recognized the fruit. Dragon Dragon fruit: Model Ankylosarus, that was his fruit. The same fruit that someone stole from the giants of Little Garden.
"Back-breaker!" The beast spun as he spun like a bowling ball, a spiked bowling ball, gaining speed with it's tail as he jumped and did a back flip landing on Gin's trapped body.
The form of Miss Mother's Day shattered into pieces and Gin was thrown into the snow with the grace of a rag-doll as he skipped a few times on the snowy ground before stopping several meters away face first into the ground.
"One down, three more punks to go!" Mr. 6 said, as his body shrunk down to conserve stamina, going back to his half-human form. The giant beast that was over five meters shrunk, as if the beast hide was retracting like armor inside of him and his size returned to normal.
"Big Bro Gin!" Bartolomeo screamed.
"Gin!" Usopp called, both of them worried.
But Coby wasn't. "He's fine!" Coby called out, and in his hand was the knocked-out form of Miss Goldenweek.
"What the…"
Mr. 3 and all of the enemies were surprised to see one of their own being held unconscious by Coby. How did he get past all of them and take her out? All of them knew she was by far the weakest member out of them but still…
It was then they figured out that Gin was just a distraction while Coby attacked, reducing their numbers
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"So you took out one of us, eh?" Mr. 6 hummed, rubbing his chin, in his half-transformed state. Having been in his half-transformed state, he still had his mace-like spiked tail. His dinosaur hide protected his body, no wonder he didn't need any clothes. And his feet were also curved giving him more power to it.
Coby held Miss Goldenweek by the neck, she was unconscious and vulnerable. Her powers were a bother from how she used them with the soldiers. That's why Coby targeted her, and also because she was a weak-link. But his crewmates knew the main reason, Coby had a hero complex, and he couldn't let the girl get hurt.
The girl looked severely underaged and so Coby made sure to take her out first, as painlessly as possible. But the enemies didn't know that, only his crewmates did.
Coby dawned a savage smile, he held his three claws near her neck. "Stand down or the bitch gets it!" he said, he might be a hero in heart. But he was a pirate, and pirates fought dirty.
Mr. 3 was about to say something but when he saw what Mr. 6 was about to do, he shouted. "Oi, stop it! You'll hit her!"
"She'll survive if she' strong!" Mr. 6 flung his tail, as spikes came out multiple of them aimed at Coby and by extension Miss Goldenweek. But all the spikes were stopped by a green transparent barrier.
Mr. 6 clicked his tongue, he forgot about the stupid barrier user.
Coby's face fell, before he jumped back several meters and laid down her body. "Well, that didn't work." He mumbled but everyone could hear it.
"Wait, you ain't gonna kill her?" Mr. 6 asked with a confused look.
Coby shrugged, "Eh, we might be pirates, but we have standards." he said, chuckling. "And honestly, the girl gave me no reason to kill her. So I won't. Just because we are enemies doesn't mean I have to kill ya."
Mr. 3 blinked, this was honestly the first time he saw a pirate not actively try to kill a bounty hunter like him. Huh, so the rumors were true, the crewmates of the Straw Hat pirates weren't like other pirates. They weren't heartless monsters. But it was still sad that they were now his enemies, they could have been allies if things went differently. But alas it wasn't the casse.
Speaking of allies, he glared at Mr 6. "Why did you attack him, you could have hurt… hey watch out!"
"Huh?" Mr. 6 was then struck from behind the skull with a spiked tonfa, and flew several meters away as his body dragged a trench into the snow, blood coming out from behind his head. The attacker was none other than Gin, whose weighted tonfas had newly added spikes on it. Not just any spikes in fact, spikes coated with sea stone. This was the upgrade that Usopp had done to his weapon.
"Mr. 6!" Miss Mother's Day shouted trying to get to her partner.
"Worry about yourself!" Gin called out as he threw his weighted tonfa and it smashed into the running form of Miss Mother's Day. But to her surprise, the attack didn't pass through as she was hit and fell in the snow.
Gin's tonfa flew back like it was a boomerang after hitting his target. The attack wasn't enough to knock her out, but it did damage her. And he found some satisfaction in it. "That's for trapping me!"
"You! How are you fine?" Mr. 3 asked dumbfounded, what was with those Straw Hat pirates? He knew Man Demon Gin was strong, but not this strong.
Gin spat on the ground, cracking his neck. "Eh, I might not have fancy fruit abilites… but I'm made out of harder stuff."
"Afro punch!" Kuromarimo was near Gin and jumped him with his spiked punching gloves. Gin easily countered it, and he took the chance to hit him in the chest with his tonfa, as the man also shot off into the sky, his eyes going blank.
But while doing so he left his back vulnerable.
"Die!" Chess said shooting arrows at Gin. A lot of arrows at once. And Mr. 3 also saw the opportunity to take out his machine gun and shoot at the Vulnerable pirates.
Both attacked from different angles, and while Bartolomeo was able to summon a barrier to one side of Gin, the other side was exposed. So the barrier blocked the bullets but the arrows still came.
But Gin didn't need it. He didn't move from the spot, he moved his body and crossed his arms. "Tekkai!"
And he tanked all the arrows as if he were made out of steel, other than taking a step back to not fall on the ground, Gin was completely fine.
Mr. 3 finally connected the dots. "Those… those are the Marine Six techniques?! How did some lowly pirate get hold of it?" He first wasn't able to identify the fast-moving techniques that the pirates used, but he recognized Tekkai. Any bounty hunter worth their name knew about it.
"Lowly pirate? Ironic, since you attacked him from the back." Usopp mocked as he slipped out his revolver. "Take this! Exploding barrage!"
Mr. 3 didn't have the time to jump back due to the added weight of his wax machine gun, and had to tank the attack with his Candle Champion. But he quickly regretted it as his whole body turned into flames.
Before he could snuff out the flames though, someone attacked.
"Bari Bari no Axe!" Barto, whose feet were encased in a green barrier, spun in the air and delivered a devastating axe kick from the top, right on Mr. 3's head.
Mr. 3 almost felt his eyes pop out of its sockets as his Candle Champion was broken down the middle as he hit the floor from the kick and bounced back up due to the force, only to see another barrier-encased fist coming.
"Bari Bari no Jet Pistol!" But Mr. 3 by some luck was able to avoid the direct attack as he quickly formed a thick layer of quick wax, his body flying off a few meters. The bounty hunter grunted as he fixed his broken glasses, his head still hurting from the last attack.
"Four vs Four." Gin spat, having a wild grin. "It almost seems unfair for you folks."
"Fair?" It was Mr. 6 who spoke, having recovered. His previous injury was gone as if it was never there. Ancient Zoans really did have very quick recovery capabilities, Usopp thought. "I thought you folks were pirates?"
Gin looked at him and grinned. "Oh, we are. And I will personally smash your heads in."
"Is that a challenge?" Mr. 6 asked, matching Gin's frail grin.
"Why not? One on one?"
Mr. 6 nodded savagely. "Only the strongest lives." With that, both of them jumped at each other clashing in between. Mr. 6 with his tail that had a spiked mace end, and Gin with his upgraded tonfa.
Both of them clashed as they moved into a secluded place to have their fight.
Miss Mother's Day also stepped forward, she seemed to have a broken nose. "You guys hurt Mr. 6 and me… I will make you regret that! Face the wrath of Honey Queen!" Her body started to transform, she grew in size and the lower part of her body transformed into tentacles. "Momi Momi no tentacles!"
All of the men present felt something very wrong with this situation.
The maple syrup tentacles grabbed the bodies of the fallen soldiers and used them like rocks and stones, throwing them at the pirates. Mainly at Coby, saying he was responsible for some reason.
"Really?!" Coby said as he ran. "Why does every Alvida look-alike hate me!?"
"Huh, no holding back it seems." Mr. 3 said, pushing his glasses up his face. "Giant Candle Champion!" he couldn't keep the giant robot for long, it drained too much of his stamina.
"That's… that's so cool!" Usopp called out with stars in his eyes same with Bartolomeo.
"Eh…" Mr. 3 rubbed the back of his head. "Well, thanks I guess?"
"Tabasco Star!"
"Ah! My eyes! … no, my tongue! Hot! Hot!" Mr 3 said as his face was now covered with hot sauce, some of it was in his eyes, while others reached his nose and mouth. "I'll kill you!"
With that, he gave chase to both Usopp and Bartolomeo.
"Hey, wait for me!" Kuromarimo said.
"On your left!"
"Huh?"
But he was too late as Coby went past him, and one of the maple tentacles smashed into him, burying him into the ground, and knocking him out.
————
A/N: I usually don't like OC villains. But with so many original allies and characters, I thought of including them. And technically Mr. 6 and his partner were never shown so I made it up.
While Mr 6's fruit was foreshadowed. I didn't do it for Miss Mother's Day, well, because she's a character from one of the One Piece movies. I just changed the fruit's name and made her a bit overweight so that she could fool the marines. 🤣
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Coby ran from Miss Mother's Day tentacle monster form, passing Mr. 3 and joining Usopp and Gin on the run. All three pirates comically ran from the two bounty-hunting devil fruit users.
"So why are we running in that direction?" Coby asked as he jogged with his fellow pirates. For them even though they looked panicked on the outside, inside they weren't.
Even Usopp was currently immune to this level of danger, mainly with all the shit Luffy threw him at. He was literally chased by sea kings that were bigger than Momoo, and he did while he ran on the sea. Running on snow was definitely easier by comparison.
Honestly, with all the running it was no wonder Usopp had both Soru and Geppo under his belt. And his soru was one of the fastest in the crew, though he mainly used it for escaping dangerous situations.
Unlike the two bounty hunters that were following them, the three of them weren't winded. The rigorous training that Luffy had put through boosted their stamina to a superhuman level, now they could do this all day.
"Because it's away from the town, and near the sea." Usopp pointed out, taking out two grenade from his jacket's pocket and throwing them behind. Making the chasing bounty hunters yelp, shout, and curse.
"So, we gonna drown them?" Bartolomeo asked.
Usopp shook his head. "We have other plans… you, on the other hand, should go back and help Gin." He said, "Not that I don't trust him in his fight, but I have read the entire devil fruit encyclopedia. And the strength of ancient zoans are no joke. They are kind of like Coby's but give you a massive boost in strength or speed depending on the fruit… and also, they make you really aggressive. Gin might need your help."
Bartolomeo blinked, a bit surprised. But for different reasons. "You read the entire book, but… how?"
Coby sweatdropped. "That's what you're surprised about?"
Bartolomeo then looked at Usopp and nodded. "But Big Bro Gin won't like it if I interfere with his fight."
Usopp nodded. "Just don't get seen. And if Gin is really in a tight spot help him. Gin might be a battle maniac and strong, but one wrong move and he might get critically injured. We don't even have a doctor to help us." He said, not knowing about Chopper. And he doubted some village doctor could help Gin if he lost a limb.
The other two nodded. Not even blinking an eye at Usopp's changed demeanor. All of them had grown after joining the crew, it was natural that Usopp wouldn't be a coward if he wanted to fulfill his dream.
Both Coby and Bartolomeo nodded.
"Special smoke screen!" Usopp took the time to throw a few smoke grenades on the front, distracting the bounty hunters as the three pirates mixed into the smoke. With the moon light being the only source of light, smoke was really effective in confusing the enemies.
Barto crossed his fingers as three small square barriers appeared in his other hand, but they were a bit different, as they were vibrating. He handed them over to Usopp, who nodded and took it. He took out his slingshot and turned around, pulling his sling, "Bari Shuriken shot!"
And the three small barriers spun like shuriken as they grew in size toward the bounty hunters. Mr. 3 was wide-eyed and leaped to the ground, the three large shurikens 2 meters in size going past him and slicing off Miss Mother's Day's body, horizontally in three pieces.
The female agent's body quickly went limp before turning into Maple syrup and readjusting into her figure. But then… a slender figure with blond hair came out of the maple syrup… and she was naked.
"Wait! Who the heck are you?!" All three pirates shouted in shock along with Mr. 3, and all of them were blushing to some degree.
The blonde clicked her tongue. "I just lost some weight you, imbeciles! I don't look 'that' different. Also, how dare you perverts look at me?" she said, before again her figure turned into maple syrup, as an octopus-like giant tentacle emerged from it.
"Bur you're the one who's naked?!" All four of them shouted.
"Shut it!" She hissed, now she had turned into her element and grew in size with monster-like tentacles, that replaced her lower portion. "Now, face the wrath of Honey Queen!"
"Well… at least now I know Mr. 6 likes reverse tentacle play." Mr 3 mumbled before he felt the pirates stare at him. "What? It didn't cross your mind?"
"No, you candle head, we were trying to save our lives from you guys." Usopp flatly responded. "Not all our minds are in the gutter…"
"Wait… Honey Queen?" Bartolomeo said, as if figuring out something. "Aren't you an East Blue pirate? I thought you were dead?"
"Points for figuring out, I had to change my appearance to start a new life… the Marines were after me for a long time, and some Smoker guy was up my ass…"
"Yeah, I don't like him either." Bartolomeo nodded, "We are really like-minded… want to join for a cup of tea?"
"You look ugly!" She said with a disgusted expression.
Bartolomeo fell on the floor with a sad cloud over his head, drawing circles on the ground. "B-But captain said, the worst she could say is no…"
"I'm pretty sure Luffy didn't say to hit on the enemy." Coby said with a deadpan expression as Usopp was patting the green-haired pirate's back.
"Enough with all of you!" Miss Mother's Day screamed. "Mr. 6, you guys hurt Mr. 6, so die!"
Barto stood up, "I finally figured it out!" He said, making the woman pause mid-attack. The green-haired barrier user put his right fist over his left palm. "It's that time of the month, isn't it…? No way someone would reject the dashing and handsome me,"
Mr. 3 burst out laughing, "Buffafafafa… you guys are hilarious!" But then he stopped when he felt the radiating killing intent. He looked back only to see an angered Miss Mother's Day.
Her arms then turned into giant machine guns as it started shooting bullets of amber at all of them, even at Mr. 3.
"Hey! What did I do?" The wax user quickly made a wall of candles to protect himself, but the pirates didn't have that.
But it wasn't needed as Bartolomeo had made a quick shield to protect them, still, she didn't stop it in her mad rage. The shooting didn't stop.
190
"Stop it!" Mr 3 said, still behind his wax shield. "It's pointless anyway…"
"Shut it, glasses!" She said snapping at her coworker. But it was a mistake as at that time Usopp threw several flashbangs into the sky, near both of the devil fruit users. "Ah! My eeeyes!"
"Shit! My ears!"
"Go," Usopp said to the barrier user, "We will handle them."
Barto looked at his crewmates one last time, and used soru to escape, but the bounty hunters didn't see that.
Unlike the others, he started training late, so while he did have the feet-based movement under his belt, it wasn't as fast as a mastered one. Still, with the cover of the flashbang, he was able to get away from them. And with that, he made his way toward Gin.
"Catch us if you can, suckers!" Usopp called out, "Tabasco Star!"
"Agh! It hit my face, again!" Miss Mother's Day cried as she again dragged her face to remove the sauce, pealing one layer of maple skin off of her, as her eyesight returned to normal. "I'll skin you alive!"
Mr. 3 would have found it very amusing if not for the fact that he was also hit by the Tabasco star and unlike Miss Mother's Day, he couldn't just wax his way out of it.
Benefits of having logia over paramecia, he supposed.
Usopp spoke. "Oi, ugly!" he then patted his bum, pulled down his eyelid and stuck out his tongue. "Eat my ass!" Even Coby sweatdropped at how maturely Usopp was riling them up.
"I will kill you!" Both of them said at once.
With that both of the bounty hunters again gave chase.
A bit after Bartolomeo left, Coby looked at Usopp, the chasing game was becoming boring, and they were now near the frozen sea. But before he could say anything, Usopp spoke.
"Who do you want to take?" He asked, giving a knowing smile. "I know you aren't that different from Gin. You also want the challenge don't you? The thrill of the battle."
Coby smiled. "And you don't?"
Usopp chuckled in a mock surrender as they ran. "I do, but to a much lesser degree than the others. Maybe that's why Luffy makes my training extra hard..?" He gave a worried chuckle. "Anyway, who do you wanna take?"
"Give me Mr. 3."
Usopp was a bit surprised. "Are you sure? I have flaming bullets that will help with his wax… I can give you some of my flaming grenades…"
"No… don't… I'm pretty sure Mr 3 will try to avoid fighting you for that same reason." Coby said. "He might act stupid and look stupid but he's not stupid."
"You used stupid three times in one sentence and it made sense. Huh, cool."
"Oi, who called me stupid!" Said someone from the back.
Coby ignored that. "You get the point. Also, Honey Queen is much more of a concern for me. I might have a way to cut through Mr 3's wax. But without haki, I'll be useless against her. She's a logia… I know you have some sea stone bullets with you."
Usopp nodded, so Coby continued.
"I'm usually not the one to say this… but I don't think we should hold back, we made sure to just knock out the soldiers, but she threw them like rocks at us. And I'm sure that many of them died 'cause of that. She's an unhinged monster now… If necessary, do it." Coby said, don't let her appearance fool you. "Like Barto, I also heard about her when I was on Alvida's ship… she was known for being very ruthless. So don't hold back."
Usopp's jaw tightened, but he nodded. This wasn't his first kill, but damn how he hated it. But with how powerful the Baroque Works agents were, Usopp knew for sure if things came to that, he had to cross the line. "Then, let's separate!"
With that Coby and Usopp took two sides. While Usopp stayed near the ocean as he could swim, Coby hit the other direction in case he was thrown around, as he wouldn't be able to swim then.
"Splitting up will get you nowhere!" Mr 3 said, before going toward Coby like they had suspected. "Miss Mother's Day handle the long-nosed idiot, I will finish off the pink one."
Miss Mother's Day didn't say anything as she still gave chase to Usopp.
.
Both Gin and Mr. 6 looked worse for wear. They had multiple cuts over their bodies, Mr. 6 having most of them, but even then, unlike Gin, his wounds were mending themselves. The recovery of an ancient zoan was no joke.
Not only was inflicting wounds on Mr. 6 tough because of his strong hide. But with that much recovery speed, both of them were in a stalemate.
Mr. 6 was double Gin's height, and looked terrifying in his half-transformed state, and yet Gin wasn't scared. He embraced the challenge. The only reason why he went out to sea was to follow someone strong and noteworthy and fight other strong people. So he was very eager for the fight.
And he made a promise to himself that it wouldn't end like the fight with Aramaki.
Mr. 6 on the other hand was angry, he was the superior warrior here. He had a devil fruit. He was stronger, he was more durable, had greater recovery, he had claws and fangs and a mace-like tail. And yet he was losing, he didn't like it one bit.
Gin rested one of his weighted tonfa on his shoulder. "What you looking at? Weren't you going to beat me, eh?" he said in between his pants as he saw Mr. 6 get angry.
"You are a tough bastard." Mr. 6 said his breathing was also rough. The fight had been going on for quite some time now. Normally his stamina shouldn't be an issue, but he didn't know why he felt weak from every attack.
Of course, Mr. 6 didn't know what Gin's tonfas were made specifically to counter devil fruit users. The spikes on the weighted portion of his tonfa were coated with sea stone, making them a devil fruit user's worst nightmare.
"You are strong. One of the strongest men I have ever met, but I'll come out on top!" Mr. 6 said, "I usually don't fight in this form, to reserve stamina. But it's time to start going all out from now on."
Now he was back to his full beastly from. A giant-sized Ankylosarus took form as it glared angrily at Gin. The giant monster looked terrifying in the moonlight, with the primitive spikes that layed on its back, covering his back to his tail. With a beastly roar, he charged forward, shaking the snowy ground beneath him.
Gin on the other hand, took his own fighting stance, and waited for when Mr. 6 to get near.