-Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Eight-
"Welcome to the Sexy Foxy, rubber boy!" Foxy laughed, proudly motioning all around him while being raised up by a slow-moving cannonball.
"That was a dirty trick!" Luffy frowned as he sat up. "Ah! He got me!" he panicked when he saw an arrow stuck in his afro.
"Just calm down for a second, will you!" Foxy snapped as the rubber man yanked the arrow out of his fake hair, sighing in relief when he saw that no harm had been done. "Can't you see I'm trying to show you some hospitably here?!" he growled, annoyed by the younger male's behavior.
"Those cannonballs are moving in slow-mo too—well, if you can ride one, then so can I!" Luffy huffed as he threw himself over the railing and onto the center of the deck—right in the middle of all the slow-moving cannonballs that sluggishly traversed through the air.
"Be careful, kid, I wouldn't touch that one if I were you" Foxy warned, smirking as the cannonball the rubber man jumped on instantly regained its momentum. Hastily, Luffy grabbed for another one to avoid being hit. "Aw! Or that one either—can't say I didn't warn you!" the opposing captain laughed as the cannonball the younger male grabbed started to pick back up its momentum as well—instantly sending him flying and crashing through a nearby wall. Shaking his head at the rubber man's antics, he jumped off his own cannonball and accidentally sent it flying toward Itomimizu.
"What was that?" Nami asked, squinting her eyes in an attempt to see what was happening on the ship. "I can't make out anything from where we're sitting" she huffed when she realized that they were too far down on the stands to get a proper view of the ship's deck.
"Damn...I can't see..." Skylar frowned, standing up as she climbed on top of her seat—ignoring the frustrated shouts of the men behind her who started to complain themselves that they now couldn't see. "What a terrible place to host a fight..." she grumbled as she squinted her eyes.
"See anything?" Chopper curiously asked, peering up at the brunette as she shielded her eyes from the sun.
"No, just lots of smoke" she shook her head, pouting at the outrageous amount of smoke that now poured from the main deck of the ship.
"Hey, Robin! Skylar! Can you tell what's going on from up there?" Nami shouted up at the three, standing so she could properly see them.
"No!" Skylar responded back.
"No, all I can see is smoke" Robin shook her head as the brunette jumped down and flopped back down into her seat with a huff.
"This sucks!" Luffy huffed, sitting up with a frown as he shook off the debris that had fallen on him. "What's his problem anyway? If he keeps this up, he's going to sink his own ship..." he irritably grumbled before wincing as a bucket suddenly landed on his head.
"I'll sink you first! Slow Slow Foxy Face Bomb Cannon!" Foxy shot what appeared to be his own face at the rubber man.
"Ah! Creepy!" Luffy frightfully screamed as the faces harmlessly flew right past him. "Huh? They're pins?" he blinked. "They sure are bigger than the one I bought though..." he remarked, curiously tilting his head as Foxy walked alongside his faces—perfectly blending right in.
"Of course, we're bigger, stupid! That's because we're bombs, not pins!" Foxy sneered as he passed the rubber captain.
"Wait, what? Did you say bombs?" Luffy owlishly blinked before his eyes widened. "Why is the bomb talking?!" he screamed in panicked shock.
"I'm the real deal, that's why!" Foxy shouted, hitting Luffy with the spiky gloves he now wore—purple smoke seeping out of them the instant they hit the rubber man. "My punches weren't quite doing the trick, so I upgraded my gloves—see? Oh, and fair warning, those bombs are about to go off" he teasingly warned.
"Yeah! Body blow! Body blow!" Usopp cheered.
"Oh, it's Usopp" Sanji blinked as he and the others finally took notice of the sharpshooter beside them, none of them knowing when exactly he had appeared.
"Hey, what's going on with the fight down there?" Nami asked.
"Uh...I don't have a clue..." Usopp shrugged, not having the slightest clue what exactly was happening down on the ship after being forced to leave.
"Are you kidding me?!" Nami scowled.
Luffy's eyes sluggishly fluttered open as he regained consciousness before widening the second he spotted the Foxy face-shaped bombs coming near him—each of them detonating at the exact same time the second they were close enough within reach.
"Oh no! That looks bad!" Chopper worriedly frowned at the sound of multiple explosions followed by the sight of even more smoke billowing from the deck of the ship.
"Damn, if only we could see what's happening..." Skylar cursed, biting the tip of her thumb as she worriedly glared down at the massive ship. It was difficult to tell who was winning and who was struggling with all this smoke—the constant series of explosions wasn't helping any either.
"A series of powerful explosions rock our ship!" Itomimizu harshly coughed as he tried to wave the smoke that drifted up toward him away. "Which just so happens to be the battlefield, the likely cause is some Foxy merchandise that just so happens to be explosive" he theorized.
"Explosive?" Skylar frowned. "What kind of business strategy is that? Are you trying to kill your customers?"
"Oh! This cheating just so happens to be pissing me off, no wonder that jerk never lost a match!" Nami growled
"Luffy, speak to me!" Usopp cried as he now pleaded for the rubber man to say something to prove he wasn't dead just yet.
"Hey, sit down!" Sanji snapped, harshly yanking the sharpshooter down by the back of his shirt when he found that he couldn't see.
"Using his surroundings to his advantage, our boss slams Straw Hat head-on with a strategically placed cannon attack" Itomimizu announced.
"No, he can't lose!" Chopper sobbed.
"He's not going to!" Skylar huffed, refusing to believe that a few explosions would be enough to take the rubber man down that easily.
"All I can see is smoke—was Straw Hat blown to smithereens?" Itomimizu asked, squinting his eyes as he attempted to try and make out what was happening on the battlefield. It was difficult to tell with all the smoke from the explosions covering the deck of the ship in a sea of smog.
"That was a close one..." Luffy breathed out in relief from beside the announcer.
"Indeed, Foxy's onslaught was—" Itomimizu cut himself off once he finally spotted the rubber man seated next to him on top of the Sexy Foxy's mast. "What?" he owlishly blinked.
"Shut up—you're annoying!" Luffy irritably glared, not in the mood to listen to any more of the man's announcements.
"It's a miracle! Straw Hat Luffy is alive!" Itomimizu gaped.
-Skylar's P.O.V-
"Whoa! He's alive?!" someone in the crowd gaped in disbelief.
"There's no way!" someone else shouted.
"He somehow avoided the explosive attack at point-blank range! What amazing speed—the 100,000,000 beli rubber boy is truly a thing of wonder!" Itomimizu awed, amazed that Luffy had been able to effortlessly and quickly dodge out of the way from such an explosive attack.
"That's the power of the fro!" Usopp cheered.
"Hurry it up, Luffy!" Sanji shouted.
"Come on, Luffy! Kick his ass!" I cheered, lips now twisted up into an excited grin as my heart started to pound.
"Uh-oh! It looks like our boss' next attack is already underway—what could he be plotting this time?" Itomimizu questioned.
"I wish I could see what's going on..." I heavily sighed as Chopper nodded in agreement.
"It would be nice to see the Captain in action" Robin hummed...though, despite her agreement, I could tell she wasn't as fully invested in the fight as the rest of us. I couldn't blame her, if there wasn't so much at stake with just this one fight, I probably wouldn't be as invested as I currently was.
"The sneaky Foxy lets out an unsettling laugh from behind the thick screen of smoke, meanwhile, Straw Hat stares clueless into the abyss—the suspense is killing me! Where is our boss hiding?" Itomimizu asked as he dramatically relayed to the rest of us what he could see from his spot above the battlefield. "Is that him?" he wondered.
"Wow, Skylar, you're really getting into this" Chopper curiously remarked as I finally leaned back, huffing and puffing at the fact that I couldn't see what was happening.
"I know...I guess there's just something enthralling when it comes to watching Luffy fight..." I sheepishly admitted, scratching my cheek. "Besides, with how much is on the line, it doesn't hurt to give him a little boost of courage with our cheers" I smiled.
"Look, it's Luffy!" Usopp suddenly shouted as he pointed toward the rubber man who was now out in the open air.
"If he falls into the water, he's done for!" Nami stressed. "Come on, you can't let the fight end this way!" she urged, encouraging the captain to do something before he fell in the ocean.
"Think you can get rid of me that easy?" Luffy growled, shooting himself back onto the deck of the enemy ship.
"Close call!" someone in the crowd grinned as another whistled and laughed.
"Hang in there, Straw Hat! Afro power!" another cheered.
"What have we here?" Itomimizu asked. "Straw Hat's narrow escape didn't seem to impress this Foxy pin, you might even say it's laughing at him—the cabin of the ship is Foxy's playground, will Luffy be good inside?" he asked as Foxy disappeared into the ship's cabin.
"Hold on, Luffy! It's a trap—whatever you do, do not go in that ship!" Nami hurriedly yelled toward the rubber man in hopes of dissuading him from following the opposing captain.