ALL NOVEL Chapter 31: Hunting and Hunters
Summary: Luffy hunts himself a Doctor, while Baroque Works attempts to hunt some of the crew...
Warning: Chapters 29-32 were all posted back-to-back. Make sure you start from where you left off!
Chapter 31: Hunting and Hunters
Luffy grinned as he found where his target was hiding. Making sure he wasn’t quite close enough for Chopper to smell him over the chemicals the young doctor was working on, Luffy implemented his plan. He carefully shifted his body into multiple different animals. This was something he could not do fast and had to be very careful with, since it was entirely possible to create an unstable form that couldn’t support the whole living thing he rather liked continuing to do. The end result was something like a tanuki, only with enough bits and bobs of monkey and other things thrown in to have him standing on two legs. A bit more like Chopper, though the resemblance wasn’t very close. He’d been working carefully on this form for a while, hoping it might help for this very moment. Popping through the door into the doctor’s lab, he announced himself cheerfully, having retained enough of his human voice box to speak properly.
“Hey, I think you’re right! You aren’t a tanuki! Too different!”
The doctor lept in surprise, whirled the look at Luffy…then froze and stared in shocked silence. Luffy waved cheekily, then pretended to compare himself to Chopper.
“No, no. Certainly not a tanuki. I’m afraid I’ve never met a reindeer though, so I’m not sure I can manage that!”
Luffy plopped himself down on the floor. Slowly and carefully, both because this chimera-form was a bit unstable and because he didn’t want to startle Chopper, Luffy returned to his human form. Chopper’s eyes widening comically as he did so.
“Hey there! So, you’re a reindeer! I’m betting you ate a Devil Fruit like me, hmm? I can’t say I’ve seen a hybrid form like that, though. Just what fruit did you eat?”
Chooper’s brain seemed to still be too surprised to react properly, and so the answer slipped out.
“The Hito Hito no mi.”
Luffy made a noise of realization.
“Ah! So you’re literally a reindeer, that ate the Human-Human Fruit. How interesting!”
That seemed to shake Chopper out of it, and he shouted a denial.
“It’s not INTERESING, I’m a MONSTER!”
Luffy hummed, then shook his head.
“Do you murder children and eat the livers of virgins?”
Chopper looked confused.
“Make grotesque humanoid zombies out of the spare parts of those you heal?”
More confusion and a little horror.
“Stalk villagers in the dead of night, painting blood on their walls in the dark, drive them to insanity, devour them alive, and then make a puppet of their bones?”
Chopper was visibly horrified and aghast.
“Of course not!”
Luffy grinned.
“Well, then you’re hardly a monster are you? Far from it, from I’d say. Anyone who spends their life healing others is a hero, not a monster. Who cares what you look like? No one gets a say in that when they are born. The only thing we can control, the only thing we can be judged by, is our actions, not our looks.”
Chopper’s expression took on a stubborn cast…and Luffy got the feeling he might be here for a while. That was okay, though. It would be worth it in the end, if it worked.
------
Zoro was using the current of the river to train against when he felt a violence-laden spirit enter the range of his Haki. He wasn’t the best at Observation, but that was precisely why he had been stretching it, attempting to keep it up as he exercised against the weight of the river and power of the current. It was, therefore, with little more than a grunt of annoyance and a kick upward that he dodged the explosion that someone had thrown his way. He landed on the riverbank, only to sense an attack from above and casually sidestep it. One eyebrow rose at the dent the woman that landed there a moment later left in the ground. But his hand was already moving…and the woman barely dodged the hilt of his sword that would have taken her in the back of the head.
“Guh!”
She launched herself, with admittedly respectable speed, away from him. A single look at the movement and the way she hung in the air told him the speed hadn’t been the result of pure training. Another Devil Fruit user that slacked and let their fruit carry them, he suspected. He casually parried something the man now next to her flicked at him, cutting it in midair and sending the resulting explosion to either side of him. It was only as his brain caught up to what it had been that he spoke with disgust in his voice.
“Did you just fling a booger at me? You little shit! You’ll pay for making me cut that!”
The man only laughed and leveled a revolver at Zoro, pulling the trigger rapidly…only to curse as Zoro sent a pressure wave of air slicing forward. Explosions erupted halfway between them, and only the woman grabbing her partner and retreating saved him from his head being removed from his body as Zoro flashed forward with Soru a momenta later. The man’s feet ignited a second later, destroying his shoes but sending both him and his light-weight partner flying back into the trees. Growling, Zoro took a bare moment to reset, then chased after the irritating pair. He had no idea who they were, but he’d gone far too long without a real fight, anyway. And together, they seemed like they might be at least half a challenge…
------
The sound of explosions was both a signal and an alert. The remaining Strawhat crew of Nami and Usopp, and Sanji, plus Vivi, were instantly on guard…but it only did so much good when the attack came in the form of a massive wave of wax. The three on deck were forced to jump, while a cursing Sanji was sealed into the lower decks before he could make it out from where he’d been working in the kitchen. Vivi, legs still weak from her most recent training, barely cleared the wax wave, and all three of them ended up ashore…with the Discovery absolutely coated by the rapidly hardening wax.
“Oh, fuck. Luffy is going to kill someone!”
The comment slipped out of Nami before she could even think about it, knowing how protective her boyfriend was of his masterpiece. But it was all she was able to do before she heard a youngish voice behind her.
“Colors:Trap. Yellow of laughter.”
A painted circle highlighted below Nami and, without any reason at all, she collapse into laughter, unable to help herself. Usopp reacted instantly, the revolver he’d drawn firing not at the voice but at the circle. This wasn’t his rifle, which was stuck below decks on the ship, but Usopp had been experimenting heavily. The hold-out revolver was loaded with High Explosive rounds and the wax wave that tried to intercept his shots was blown apart with the first hit. The second and third wrecked the circle, and Nami regained herself, desperately pushing up away from the ground as a spike of wax tried to impale her. She wouldn’t have made it…except that Vivi’s Peacock Slashers were abruptly there and slicing through the spike.
“Look out! They are Baroque Works agents! Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek!”
It was only her half-awakened Haki that let her dodge the strike of Miss Goldenweek’s brush a moment later. The girl had seemed to just fade in from nowhere, likely hidden by one of her own tricks, but Vivi had been training blindfolded to avoid extremely similar strikes in the form of a feather. In that moment, her Haki clicked just a bit into place, allowing her to dodge and kick out. The kick caught the girl, who Vivi was well-aware was older than the little girl she appeared, square in the stomach and launched her back, stunned for a moment.
Nami and Usopp had both hopped into the air to avoid another wave of wax. Usopp unloaded two more seemingly-blind shots in the direction the wax was all coming from, but Nami simply looked frustrated for a moment as she realized she didn’t really have a means of ranged attack. Grimacing, she darted toward the girl who was trying to get back up, trading with Vivi who cut another spike of wax that was chasing Nami with her slashers. Miss Goldenweek eeped, rolled, and managed to tag Nami with her brush.
“Red of Bullfighting!”
Abruptly, Nami found all of her strikes moving her towards a random tree with a painted mark on it. Growling in anger, she simply ripped the tagged shirt off, leaving her in the chest wraps she’s been wearing for training. The moments it had taken her were enough for Miss Goldenweek to crab aside, and Nami had to dodge back into the air as a trail of paint nearly trapped her in another circle, this one blue.
Meanwhile, Usopp’s shots, actually guided by his Haki rather than being truly blind, had drawn a response as one of the explosions wiped out a fake tree. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one man that stepped out from behind and out of other trees. It was five, all of them identical looking, and all of them seeming to control new wax structures that began firing globs of hot wax as Usopp. Usopp jerked around with Geppo, dodging even as he reloaded his gun with deft fingers. Vivi bought him some time by flashing her slashers out again to destroy two of the wax constructs, but a moment later she had to leap again to avoid being completely encircled.
Without the ability to Geppo Vivi was running out of places to go…and the spot she landed abruptly flashed with paint as Miss Goldenweek activated another trap. Vivi sensed it, but not quite in time. She began to laugh, even as she kicked, and thankfully the kick was enough to push her out of the trap. But she was wide open and Nami had to redirect away from Miss Goldenweek in a dash of Soru to grab her out of the way of a dozen spikes of wax. Thinking quickly, Nami strained her ability with Geppo to take them out over the water, already having noticed that the wax stooped at the edge. They could see now where the initial wave of it had been sent down the cliff face across from the ship.
“Usopp! Devil Fruit! Water!”
Usopp seemed to realize what she meant just as Nami herself did something a bit insane, given the dangerous temperatures of the water here. She dove into the river, dragging Vivi with her, and used the insanely powerful leg muscles required for Soru and Geppo to shoot through the water like greased lightning. She felt, more than saw or heard, a splash as Ussopp joined her, and both of them headed down river with the current to get clear of the space their enemies had clearly prepared in advance. Nami was cursing herself for not having noticed, her Haki having felt their enemies but assumed they were just two more civilians gawking at the strange ship. Now, she and Usopp were going to be fighting on a time limit. Soaking wet on a Winter Island, they weren’t going to last long if they couldn’t either take out their opponents or find a way to get warm…
------
Unlike Nami and Usopp, Zoro was more frustrated than afraid. Much to his extreme irritation, the erratic explosion-powered flight of the man and decently fast dodges of the woman had managed to keep them clear of his swords. That wouldn’t have been the case in an open space. But, surrounded by trees they could use as both cover and weapons against him, they were managing to stay ahead of him. The man was more dangerous, lobbing explosions of every flavor and size at him. But the woman was almost as irritating as she kept using her own attacks to destroy tree limbs above him, sending high-speed shrapnel his direction that had to be either dodged, deflected, or armored against with Haki.
It was an effective pattern, but one he could tell was causing them to flag and grow panicked. Apparently, this duo weren’t used to their ‘instant kill’ moves not being worth much against an opponent. Grinning around the handle of his third blade, Zoro decided it was time to switch tactics. The next time he came out of a Soru dash, he took up a different stance, slashing out with all three blades in a specific pattern.
“108 Caliber Pheonix!”
Zoro had deliberately dispersed the strike somewhat, widening its angle, as he wasn’t aiming for the dodging iditols at all. No, Zoro was aiming at the trees, slicing an entire grove of them into pieces in a straight line away from him. Two more rapid variants of the same move and, abruptly, there were a whole lot less places to hide. His opponents realized it, cursing as they desperately tried to get out of the cleared zone, even as Zoro vanished into Soru…
------
Cursing came from inside the Discovery as, finally, a black-clad foot shattered the last of the layer of wax that had trapped Sanji inside the ship where he’d been cooking dinner for the crew. Growling and practically chewing his cigarette, he stared at the trail of wax that moved down river. Showing off his recent mastery of Geppo, he rose into the air and chased after the fools who had attacked Nami and Princess Vivi!
------
Using the current to their advantage, Nami, Vivi and Usopp had managed to outpace their opponents. Unfortunately, Vivi was suffering even more from the dip into the cold than Nami and Usopp, barely managing to stand for her shivering. Still, they had managed to surface in a place of flat rock, with minimal snow and ice. Something which meant they saw Mr. 3 coming…or at least his set of clones.
That fact let Nami Soru into action, using pure speed to eliminate one of the clones, even as Usopp proved he'd reloaded his holdout revolver with something more suited to the wax. Two clones went down and a wave of wax was defeated by the ‘inferno rounds’ he unloaded into Mr. 3’s assault. Vivi went down a moment later to a Colors Trap: Yellow of Laughter. The shivering cold having ruined any chance of her erratic Haki kicking in.
That might have been it, with Mr. 3 being given a free shot at the helpless Princess while Nami dodged wax spikes and Usopp reloaded…except that Sanji had finally caught up. His steel-toed boots whirled in lighting fast kicks, disrupting the Colors Trap and shattering the spikes trying to attack Vivi.
“How dare you assault the beauteous Vivi!”
Faced with a new opponent, an irritated-looking Mr. 3 finally spoke.
“She is a traitor and must be eliminated!”
Vivi, gasping and trying to regain her feet, did the only thing she could think of to contribute.
“Mr. Zero is the Warlord Crocodile! And now that you know, he’ll kill you too!”
That actually caused the spike attacks on Nami and the globs of wax being lobbed Usopp’s way to stop for a moment, but only for a moment.
“It matters not! Only I and Miss Goldenweek heard you. So long as none of you live, he will never know we know!”
That moment to process and decide was one moment too long, however. Usopp, having identified the weak point in their opponents, had switched out to yet another specialized round. This one he’d worked on in conjunction with Kaya and Luffy, coming up with something they labeled a ‘goop’ round. Firing the round would trigger a chemical reaction that created an incredibly strong glob of adhesive. As the adhesive started expanding the moment it left the barrel, the round was short-range only…but it proved its effectiveness now as Usopp switched targets from Mr. 3 and his wax constructs to Miss Goldenweek.
Unlike Vivi, Usopp’s Observation Haki was steady enough that he’d never lost track of the younger Baroque Works agent, even when she applied whatever Colors ability to let her fade into the visual background. Now, the younger woman yelped as six rounds of ‘goop’ pinned her hands, feet, and hips to a tree. Whatever kept her hidden was disrupted, and suddenly Mr. 3 was on his own, having Sanji and Nami rushing him.
Of course, the Candle Man was more dangerous in close combat than anywhere else, and Nami almost immediately lost her staff as she destroyed one of the Wax Clones and it tried to engulf her. Sanji, likewise, was momentarily stymied as he had to spin to get wax off his shoes before it could harden. Usopp was too busy reloading to press the advantage…but Nami was fully capable of using Observation Haki and had known the clone she attacked wasn’t real. While she’d lost her staff, she’d light-fingered one of Vivi’s Peacock Slashers when she’d realized the other girl wasn’t going to be able to fight properly. Now, using the opening from the two defeated clones, she sent it flashing out.
Her skill was far lower than Vivi’s, of course, but the younger girl had shown Nami how to use them. Nami’s dexterity was great enough that she’d picked up the basics quickly, much to Vivi’s astonishment. It was enough now that the spinning blades were right on target, forcing the true body of Mr.3 to stop pretending to be a tree and jump into the open. He immediately began trying to form some sort of armor of Wax…only for three shots to ring out as Usopp was back in business.
One shot exploded against a wave of wax.
The second was desperately blocked with the wax Mr.3 was trying to form into armor.
The third landed square between Mr.3’s eyes and blew his head off his shoulders.
The wax-coated clearing of rock fell silent as the corpse of Galdino, holder of the Doru Doru no Mi and among the top agents of Baroque Works, shuddered and fell to the rocks as blood spurted everywhere…
------
Zoro tisked, sheathing the last of his three swords after flicking the blood off of it. The duo had put up more of a fight than he’d expected once he’d started simply destroying the forest. But once he’d finally managed to kill the bomber man, the other woman had simply lept into the sky with a wail and let the wind take her. He’d sent a few half-hearted air slashes after her, but the truth was that she hadn’t truly annoyed him the way the man had. She also wasn’t strong enough to be a serious threat on her own, so he figured they could deal with her easily enough if she didn’t just cut and run. Sighing as he looked about and realized he had absolutely no idea where he was, Zoro simply picked a direction and started walking. He’d find his way back to the ship eventually...
A/N: So, to be brutally honest here, Luffy is overpowered for this early section of the Grand Line. Crocodile is a serious threat to him, but none of the Agents really are. Yet, I didn't want to be boring and leave out action entirely. So I took this as a chance to show off how far members of the crew I haven't showcased as much have come. Nami and Usopp got a chance to shine a little bit. And we got a more accurate feel for how far along Zoro is. He's already reached the point he wouldn't have been at until Skypeia in canon, possibly even being a touch stronger than that given he knows a little bit of Haki. Sanji, meanwhile, has rapidly picked up Soru and Geppo. Showing that, no, despite some fans' fears, I'm not making him weak. He just has some catching up to do because he joined after the others had done some seriously hardcore training.