Chapter 9: Fighting the future Yonkos
While in his arrogant, yet tsundere state, Viktor said " Hey, Buggy, was it? What's your deal? With that red nose of yours you look like a Clown."
It was then that Viktor's eyes shown with excitement, " Wait, are you actually like some super clown? I mean you're a part of Roger's crew; you must know some cool Clown tricks. Show me! "
Buggy grew pissed at the remark and screamed, " Red Nose! What about my nose? I'm going to kill you!! "
Buggy then attacked Viktor with his daggers. Since he had eaten the split split fruit not too long ago, he managed to detach one of his hands that held a dagger and sneak attacked Viktor.
Since Viktor had observation haki, he saw the attack coming a mile away, but he looked surprised at the detached hand," Yo, the fuck is this? Did you just detach your hand from your body? What kind of wacky devil fruit did you eat? "
By reflex, after Buggy was asked about his devil fruit ability, he immediately told Viktor about it," I ate the split split fruit and became a splitting person, allowing me to split my body however I choose. "
It was at this moment that Buggy teared up, " However, I can't swim anymore because of this devil fruit. My dream is to find all the treasures in this world, but now I can't get the treasure in the sea. Damn you Shanks! It's because of you that I can't get my sunken treasure!"
Shanks was offended by Buggy's statement," Cmon Buggy, you got a good devil fruit as a result. Since you can split your body. Swords and other slashing type attacks don't affect you. Gotta admit, I'm kind of jealous."
Buggy didn't listen to Shanks words of encouragement and continued to berate him. While Buggy yelled at Shanks, Viktor realized that he could slash Buggy to his hearts content and he started to laugh sinisterly, "Ha ha ha ha ha. I can cut you up all I want without worrying about your well-being. Oh, this will be fun! "
Buggy shivered in terror when he realized that Viktor wasn't right in the head. Buggy tried to run away, but Viktor wasn't done playing with him.
To get Buggy to fight him, Viktor poked fun at his sore spot and called him red nose. This was super effective, and Buggy charged at Viktor in a fit of rage.
To no one's surprise, Viktor easily beat Buggy and cut Buggy into pieces. He then tied the pieces with rope to prevent them from moving and said contently, " Ah, it feels good to be able to cut somebody for once. Usually, I'm worried about injuries, so I don't go all out, but with you I can. "
Buggy had tears in his eyes and begged, " Raleigh, please help me, I don't want to fight this maniac anymore."
Raleigh then approached Viktor and threatened him," Release Buggy now. I know your Professor Jones's kid, but I can't forgive you if you bring harm to any members of our crew. "
" Oh right, sorry about that, got kind of carried away a bit when I realized I could slash to my heart's content. "
Viktor then released Buggy from his constraints, " Yeah, sorry about that Buggy, didn't mean to traumatized you like that. However, that power of yours is quite interesting. As long as you work on your cowardly mentality, you could be quite strong. "
" Hey, I'm not a coward! "
" Hold up, I ain't dissing you. Being afraid is completely natural. In fact, if you use your fear to your advantage, you can accomplish great things. Take me for example, the reason I'm so adamant about power is because I'm afraid of having my freedom taken away from me by someone more powerful than me. You are a pirate, so you get what I'm saying right. Having no freedom is one of the worst fates that can befall a person. "
" As for your sunken treasure problem, there are ways around it. I know that there are diving suits that let your body not have to contact the water, so you'll be safe from drowning. Of course, if the suit rips, then you're pretty much done for. "
" Huh, that was weird. " Raven said to Shanks.
" Oh yeah, how so?"
" Usually, Viktor is pretty composed when facing other people. And he certainly doesn't sport some sort of arrogant facade. Honestly, I think he's just fanboying. I mean you guys are the Roger pirates, one of the 3 legendary pirate crews. You guys have lots of powerful people on your crew. "
" At first, he was panicking because he knew there was nothing he could do to resist you guys. Then, he found out you guys are buds with Professor Jones, so the danger aspect was thrown out. Since he worships power so much, he also admires those with immense power. Hence, that's why I said he's fanboying. He doesn't show it because he's being a tsundere."
Then Raven called out to Viktor, " Hey Viktor, how much longer are you going to put on this arrogant tsundere act. I know that you are totally fanboying right now. "
" How'd you know?! Er, I mean, what are you talking about? I'm not fanboying. "
Raven gave him an inquiring look and said, " Oh really, then I guess you don't want to hear this story Shanks was telling me about Garp chasing them and the epic battle that ensued."
Then Viktor said with excitement in his eyes, " What, a fight between Garp and Roger?! That must've been so cool. Professor Jones told us a story about that, but I want to hear it from another perspective. Shanks, tell me the story! "
Raven then said with a smug look on her face, " I thought you weren't fanboying. Not gonna lie, you looking like you fanboying pretty hard right now. "
Being exposed like this made Viktor's face bleeding red like a tomato. " Dammit Raven, why you gotta expose me like that? "
Raven then said with a playful look on her face, " Teehee, because embarrassed Viktor is the cutest!"
Everybody laughed because it was true, embarrassed Viktor is the cutest.
Viktor then sighed, " Welp, I've been completely exposed and embarrassed. Hey Shanks, wanna fight? I already fought Buggy, now I want to see what your made of."
" Sure, I'm down for a fight. " Shanks said while pulling out his sword.
" Hey Raleigh, can you help supervise the fight? I want to be able to exchange Swords with Shanks, but I'm afraid one of us could get wounded pretty bad. "
" Yeah sure, no problem. "
As Shanks and Viktor were about to fight, the crew surrounded them chanting, " Fight, fight, fight! "
Rayleigh then said, " Fighters ready! Battle begin! "
Shanks started the fight by attacking first with a large slashing attack. Viktor was able to predict this attack via his observation haki and parried his slashing attack. However, Shanks's attack was much heavier than he expected.
It turns out that Shanks was much stronger physically than he was. To put it into numbers, Shanks has a doriki value of 100, which is more than 3 times the number of Viktor's doriki value of 30. This resulted in Shanks having a major speed advantage over Viktor.
However, it seems that Shanks had yet to unlock observation haki, so Viktor was able to predict his attacks pretty easily. Shanks swordsmanship and battle experience were far greater than Viktor's, allowing him to predict where Viktor would attack at an effectiveness similar to that of observation haki. This resulting in the two of them parrying each other's attacks for a couple of minutes.
This put Viktor in a huge disadvantage because of Shanks superior strength, which causing his arms to feel heavier and heavier with each sword exchange. Viktor knew he'd lose at this rate, so he took a gamble.
First, he turned on his bullet time ability to gain back the prediction advantage. Then, he turned on the body copying technique to analyze Shanks's fighting style. He noticed that Shanks's swordsmanship was much better than his. It had a fluidity and life to it, while his was rigid in comparison. He wanted to be able to incorporate that into his swordsmanship.
Since he was using the body copying technique while battling, his swordsmanship made astounding progress. Using this and his predicting ability, he was able to gain the advantage in the battle.
However, his stamina took a huge nosedive. He'd have to finish this fight in the next couple of moves. This time, when Viktor parried Shanks's attack, he let go of his parry almost immediately.
This caught Shanks by surprise and caused him to lose his balance. Viktor was then able to knock the sword out of Shanks hand, but before he could deliver the finishing blow, he fainted.
Raleigh then announced, " It's a draw. Crocus, make sure Viktor's alright. He really overdid it. "