The Game (luNa)

17

 'Each gate gets harder, right? If that is only the third hardest, I'd hate to think what the last two are like.'
'Yeah, but at least he is willing to take desperate measures.' Robin pointed out.
'Yeah, that's true.' Usopp agreed.
'He did use it there, didn't he?' Nami asked.
'Sure did.' sanji confirmed.
'Would you guys please tell me what 'it' is?' the game master whined.
'Nope.' the crew answered simultaneously.
'You know what old man, I have a feeling you'll find out by the end of this fight.' Zoro said. The rest of the crew just nodded and turned their attention back to the game. The gates were opening, but it was taking much longer than usual. Luffy was slowly recovering and turned to face the door, eye's widening as he did. 
'Oh no.' Nami muttered. 'What's got the captain shocked.'
The entire stadium shook. The crowd cheered. And then, out of the wall, a giant appeared. 
'Cool!' luffy yelled from the ground.
'Moron.' nami muttered. 
Luffy started to laugh, but he was very quickly cut off by a giant foot.
'Woah, that thing's fast!' Usopp yelped.
Luffy dived out of the way of yet another attack, and as he did the giant scooped him up in his one hand and brought him up to his face, grinning.
''End of the line for you, you scrawny runt.' he boomed. 'I'm going to tear you limb from limb and everybody here is going to watch me do it, including that crew of yours up there.' he said, pointing to the glass panel. At that, he grabbed an arm in each hand and held him out to the crowd. Luffy didn't even struggle. In fact, he started laughing.
'S-stop it, that tickles!' he shrieked, squirming. The giant grinned.
'Oh you think your position is funny, do you runt?' the giant mocked. We'll see if you still feel the same way soon enough. He began to pull Luffy's limbs away from each other. And the squirming luffy began to stretch. The crowd gasped, and a few people screamed. The game master's eyes widened in shock.
'Don't tell me...' he muttered in disbelief, but the moment was over. The giant had dropped luffy, disgusted and swatted him into the barrier with such power that he broke through. He went flying into the grand stands, sending the crowd there scattering off in different directions, screaming their lungs off. One of them dove forwards and ended up in the pit. In blind anger, the giant scooped up the girl and began to crush her. Luffy clambered back through the hole in the barrier and, realising he wasn't going to make it, turned to the glass and yelled,
'SORRY NAMI! I TRIED.'
Before preparing to launch himself towards the giant. 
'Watch this. This is what we were referring to by 'it'.' Usopp advised the game master, looking smug. luffy, having got his wind up let out his battle cry.
'Ok, now gum, gum, BAZOOKA!' he yelled, sending his arms back towards the giant. They connected with his jaw and sent his head back with so much force his neck snapped with a sickening crack.
 As the giant's eyes rolled back into his skull, he let the girl slip through his fingers. She screamed, and luffy darted forwards, catching her and darting out of the way as the giant toppled backwards. He arrived at the gap in the barrier, panting, and passed her through to the girls on the inside, most of whom were sobbing. He then stumbled back onto the field. Multiple doors opened up and various ropes were hurriedly thrown around the giant, and he was dragged out of the arena. Luffy dropped onto his knees, looking pained.
'Did he take a hit?' Nami said, panicking. 
The doctor paled. Luffy's wasn't getting up, and he seemed to be in an awful amount of pain.
'I don't know whats happened.' chopper croaked, fear evident in his voice. 
The game master looked horrified. 'What the hell happened?' Nobody in the crew could figure out when luffy had been hit. Concern bubbled through the group.
'I'm truly sorry.' the game master said, looking upset, 'but the show must go on. Its not fair otherwise. If a contestant is injured, he must either forfeit or die. Those are the rules.'  the was shaking quite profoundly and was clearly unsure about what to do, but it was clear that there was no changing his mind. He reached forwards and picked up the transponder. Nami stood and ran off. The others, knowing that she was probably just overwhelmed, let her go.
'We'll ladies and gentlemen, would you look at this. It turns out this captain has taken a nasty hit! None of us up here can figure out when it happened. Could it be that all the times he has acted completely fine after an attack have been meant to decieve us? We will have to see! But first, you know the drill. We will now be introduced to the members of the crew with bounties!'
He handed the microphone over to zoro. 'Here you are young man.' he said. Zoro shook his head.
'I won't participate. You're claiming a win over an injured man. Thats not fair.' 
The game master chuckled.
'This one's a bit feisty. Give us a minute.' he spoke before turning to zoro.
'The game can't begin until you've been introduced, so i'd recommend abiding by the rules before your captain's condition, whatever it is, gets worse.'
Zoro looked up, shocked, and reluctantly took the mic.
'My name is roronoa zoro. After the captain, i am the second member of this crew, which makes me the first person to join our idiot of a captain.'
He went to pass the mic over, but the man stopped him.
'Your roll and your bounty if you will.' he said.'
Zoro roled his eyes and continued. 'I am a swordsman and by bounty is 80 million beri.' he said, enthusiastically. The crowd gasped, but the crew didn't give time for a proper reaction. Robin took the snail and continued.
'My name is nico robin. I have a bounty of beri and i am an archaeologist. I am the seventh and currently the latest member of this crew.'
She handed the snail back to the game master and looked away, clearly mad. 
'Very impressive bounties!' the game master announced, and the crowd made a sound of agreement. 'If i'm not mistaken, that leaves one more member. Swordsman, would you introduce us to your captain?'
Zoro snatched the snail off him, glaring daggers as he did.
'No problem.' he spat. Then he addressed the crowd.
'The man you see down there is our captain, 17 year old Monkey D Luffy. I'd recommend you remember his name, because this man is going to become the king of the pirates. He won't die here today. Just you watch. He still has so much more to achieve. Oh, and his bounty is 100 million beri.' he said, leaning back in the chair. The crowd looked shocked, muttering amongst themselves and pointing to the captain, who was still coughing up pools of blood on the dirt.
'Well, before our contestant goes and dies on us, i think it's time for our final match. OPEN THE FINAL GATE!' he cried. 
The familiar grinding sound rang through the room, and the crowd went completely still.
'Our contestant form gate ten is a ferocious fishman from the east blue who used to be a captain of his own pirate crew. He came to us not long ago after being defeated in battle, and asked to be part of our game in order to prove to all of us that the race of the fishman is superior to that of the human. Ladies and gentle men, can we have one final cheer for the fishman of gate ten!' as the crowd cheered, the crew stirred.
'That sounds a little too familiar.' zoro said.
'Yeah.' usopp agreed. 'A fishman from the east blue, recently defeated, who's goal is to show the superiority of fishmen over humans. He sounds one hell of a lot like that bastard we fought a while back.'
'Yeah.' sanji added. 'That ass hole who killed Nami's mother.'
'Arlong.' all three of them said at the same time.
The game master whirred around in his chair at the same time robin and chopper asked,
'What are you talking about?'
Before the game master could will his stunned mouth to move, an evil cackle rose up from the arena.
'Well well well.' a voice boomed. 'Straw hat luffy, the rubber man. It's been too long.'
Sure enough, Arlong the fishman stepped into the open. His nose and jaw were crooked, presumably from the time luffy had smashed him into the floor. The captain froze,  swayed and stood shakily, pupils narrowing in anger.
'You.' he wheezed, his voice full of poison. 'I... am going to... absolutely... kick your... ass.' Luffy, wiped his mouth, smearing blood all over the back of his hand. As the two stared at each other in hatred, the door to the arena that the game master had taken burst open and nami sprinted out, panting and looking around frantically for her captain. As her gaze found arlong she froze, choking up, and skidded to a halt. She slowly raised a hand to her mouth, eyes filling with tears. Slowly, arlong turned to face her, a mix of surprise and amusement etched on his face. 
'Oh look.' he said, a wide grin creeping up his face. 'If it isn't my traitor of a navigator.' nami slowly backed away, hands searching desperately for the door she had come through. She never made it. Arlong pushed of the ground, grabbing her and spinning so that he held her from behind, putting her in between himself and the swaying, furious captain. He raised a hand to her throat and rested it there, allowing his sharp nails to brush against her neck, drawing blood.
'Let her go.' luffy rasped. 'Your fight is with me. Don't touch her.'
Arlong chuckled, the grin never leaving his face.
'Oh, your quite wrong.' he said. 'I am going to fight you, But i am going to kill this girl first. You see, i owe her one for showing disloyalty. Im afraid your going to have to watch her die.'
As he spoke, he lifted his hand from her neck and held it a short distance away.
'Now die you filthy human!' he yelled, plunging his hand towards her throat.
'I thought it told you,' luffy yelled, 'to let her go!' 
What transpired next happened far to quickly for anyone to see. As Arlongs hand flew towards Nami. who was frozen in place, tears streaming down her face, luffy launched himself forwards and seemed to flicker out of sight. Arlong's grin disappeared, and, as his hand reached Nami's throat, felt a hand grab him from behind and launch him away from her. Nami collapsed to the ground as luffy begun to swing arlong around, stretching his arms out so that his face was grated against the cage. As he spun, he yelled at the fish man at the top of his lungs.
'IF YOU EVER LAY A SINGLE HAND ON HER, I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU!' he cried as arlong became a blur. With a yell, he swung him up and bought him crashing face first into the ground, sending a massive mushroom cloud of dust into the air. It settled very quickly, but arlong was nowhere to be seen. He had been completely buried in the ground. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Everyone watched in silence as Nami stood and ran to her captain, who stumbled a bit before collapsing onto her. She held him tight and buried her head in his hair, listening as his breath rattled in her ear. Not good. Finally, the girl who luffy had saved from the giant stood and started clapping. Snapped out of their shock, the rest of the crowd stood in a standing ovation, much louder than any of the cheers that come before. Chopper ran out of the door nami had come through with the rest of the crew, who ruched over the captain and helped nami drag him out of the building. 
The game master grabbed the transponder snail, in awe.
'Well, this was by far the best game any of us have seen so far, would you agree?' he asked the audience, who shouted their enthusiasm loud enough for the entire world to hear. 
'This is an extraordinary display of strength by the captain. He has, in an injured state, managed to take down every single one of our contestants so far while sustaining minimal damage. And it seems quite possible that he was holding back up until absolutely necessary. Plus, what are the chances of this crew knowing our gate 10 pirate captain Arlong! Perhaps we can hear the full story on the matter in the papers tomorrow! In any matter, this concludes the final phase, please return to your settlements in an orderly manner! 
'Remember, its not over yet. If the captain can make it back to the village by noon tomorrow, him and his crew will be the fifth crew to ever make it through The Game!'
The crowd began to disperse, and the crew were sent off into their hotel rooms to collect their things and then make their way back to the village to await their captain. After exiting the arena, the rest of the crew had been forced back to their hotels, and sanji and zoro had accompanied them. Luffy came around and started grinning, saying he was completely fine. This convinced the staff, but not the navigator. As soon as everyone had left the two, she turned to the captain and dropped down beside him and put a had on his shoulder.
'Hey.' she said to get his attention. He turned to face her, something clearly wrong. He was hiding it well, but there was definitely a trace of pain etched into his face. His pupils kept loosing focus as he watched her carefully.
'Are you alright.' she asked. He chuckled.
'Yeah. Just hungry.' he said.  Before she could question him further, three men appeared. One stepped to the front. Luffy seemd to recognise him.
'Oh. its you guys!' he said, grinning and waving.
'Hello sir.' the one at the front said, bowing. 'We are here to escort the two of you to your next room, if you will. Your clothing and items have been bought there already. Follow me, if you will.'
He said, turning. Nami heard the captain's barely audible sound of discomfort as he tried to stand. Gritting his teeth, he got to his feet, crossing his arms firmly around his stomach. Sweat plastered the black shirt to his torso. The man was already on the move, so the captain followed. Nami stayed close beside him, knowing full well that something was terribly wrong with the captain. 
'Luffy, please be careful.' she whispered, knowing that the captain would bear any discomfort, even if it could do him permanent damage or even kill him, to keep his crew safe. she could sense that now. He was just holding on. She didn't know what was causing his discomfort, but it made her worry. They continued through a long straight corridor that seemed to be underground. A section of the roof they passed had a trap door, which nami assumed led to their hotel from the previous night. They continued past it for at least 15 minutes before they reached its end. Stairs led up into a small room containing a reception desk and a small woman who looked up at them as they entered. Luffy was starting to look slightly unstable on his feet, but Nami passed it off as exhaustion. 
'Hello and welcome.' the lady said, beaming. 'I'm glad to see that you have made it in good health. These three men will show you to your room, if you don't mind.' she gestured to the door, which the three turned to.
'What do you mean by 'room'?' nami asked, uncertain.
'Well, usually its only the navigator who leaves through here.' the lady said casually. 'So we only have one available room at the time being.'
'Right.' nami said, feeling slightly uneasy. Luffy didn't hear her. He was too concentrated on staying upright. They followed the guards until they reached a hallway.
'We will leave you here.' the man said, bowing. 'There is a bathroom in the hallway. Your room is through that far door. All of your things are there.' with that, they turned and left.
'I'm just going to the bathroom.' luffy said cheerily, pushing the door open and locking it behind him. Nami continued to the room. It was nice enough, but there was, as she feared, only one bed. Her clothes were piled on the bed, and she quickly washed off and got changed. She had been thoroughly scrubbed that morning, so soon enough she was in bed.