"Isn't this path going downwards?" Law commented, making Luffy and I look ahead.
"Come to think of it..." Luffy trailed off.
Moocy's hooves started splashing up water, which drew attention to the floor. Law yelled, "Stop! He's sinking in the water!" By then, Moocy was already halfway submerged, but there was room to turn around.
"Well... this doesn't look too good," I muttered, looking at the water surrounding us and the dead end wall in front of us. As if Moocy understood what I said, he started freaking out. I jumped off and patted his side, "It's alright, bud, we just gotta-" I heavily leaned against him and groaned, "Oh damn, I'm really dumb. I didn't think the water was this deep." The water was up to my chest. I forgot how tall Moocy is.
Luffy shifted to get off the bull, saying, "Here, let me help-"
"NO! Don't come down here you idiot, you'll get weakened too," I shouted at my captain. He made a little 'oh yea' expression. We froze on the spot, including Moocy, when footsteps echoed in the small
"There's no shortcut here, it's just a slanted waterfill," a familiar voice pointed out. I couldn't see who it was since I decided to be on the wrong side of Moocy, but I didn't have to. Just his voice was easy enough to know.
"You...! Doflamingo!" Luffy shouted.
"Doflamingo...!" Law repeated.
Doffy let out an chuckle and said, "Looks like you're gonna get those handcuffs off soon, aren't you, Law?"
"Why the hell are you here?!" my captain yelled, calling attention back to him. His fist stretched toward where Doffy was standing in order to land a punch on him, but judging from the amount of times his fist hit something, it was probably ricocheting off things after Doffy dodged or blocked it. His arm returned back to him without a scratch, though, so I guess Doffy didn't attack him.
"I came to save you," the man answered, successfully confusing us. "How could you fall into such a stupid trap? That crap about a shortcut..." Next thing I know, a string is shot through Moocy and right into my side.
"What the hell..?" I muttered, my fists grabbing at Moocy's fur. Luffy called out to the animal and to me, and just as he did, more strings shot through the bull, most missing me. Unfortunately, two more struck around the same spot as the first one. I was bleeding just like Moocy was. I tried to hold the bull up but he came falling down, causing Luffy to fall into the water with me. We were both pushed father into the liquid due to Moocy's fall, with us now up to our heads in water. Thankfully, Law didn't fall in the water, but at this point I don't think it's much better considering his shackles are still on.
"Anyone could kill you guys like this," Doffy stated before looking up and laughing evilly. Now I could clearly see him. "There are some idiots saying that they'll kill me, rampaging out there... It's amazing how you found people who side with you even in these circumstances. I've been giving you due respect for that special quality of yours since the War of the Best. But... you're actually this dumb! Why did you choose him, Law? You used to be a more promising man. Even when you were a kid, you were more ruthless and more cunning! Am I right? Who made you... into such a coward-"
"Shut up!" Law yelled, sitting up slightly to look at the blond, "I'm not willing to become like you! I've been... saved!"
"By my brother Corazon, you mean? If you haven't become a coward, then why do you want to die in vain... alongside this dumbshit?" Doffy questioned. I knew he was referring to Luffy, as we all did.
I gripped Moocy a little harder and frowned, "Shut the fuck up... you're the dumbshit..."
"You're no different from him, (y/n). You both chose an idiotic fool," he stated, his finger pointing at Law now, probably with the intent of shooting his string bullet at him.
We could do nothing in the wake of his threatening power. All three of us were stuck. "STOP! Don't hurt Straw Hat-san!" I looked past Doffy with confusion, seeing the same idiots who fell off Moocy earlier at the entrance. The two of them struck Doffy in the back, making strings unwind from his torso.
"It was his clone, as I thought," Law grumbled while the two who saved us were freaking out about the weirdness going on with the clone's breaking body. "That's a string puppet," he explained to them when they questioned what he meant. The string double fell to the ground.
The two of them came into the water to pull us out. They explained that Kelly Funk, the guy that told us that there was a shortcut, was actually just after the prize. The clone had apparently taken Kelly out, and then these two ran after the clone. Doffy technically did save us this time, but just the thought of that was irritating.
"What's going on out there? How are Cabbage and the others?" Luffy questioned, changing the topic.
"We're totally falling behind. I bet everybody else already reached the second level by now!" Jeet informed.
The teen groaned in agony and complained, "Damn! I thought we were gonna take a shorter route to the sunflower field!"
Law turned to us and said, "We gotta go back! Hurry!"
"No... Let's go for it! A shorter route!" Luffy proposed.
I scratched my head, seeing him punch his fist into his palm. "That means it's gonna get pretty messy, huh?" I sighed.
"Shishi how'd you know?" he asked. He looked up and grinned, "If there's no shortcut here, then I've gotta make one!"
"WHAAAAT?!" our two new comers yelled.
Before anyone could object, Luffy used his elephant gun punch to create a hole directly above us. He pulled Law and I up to the surface while the other two were left to take care of Moocy, since the poor thing was shot. My injured but I've definitely seen some worse days. On our way over to the third level, since we emerged on the second, the three of us were picked up by Cabbage. Kyros magically appeared on the horse as well. To our surprise, the group of guys who were previously fighting over who gets to kill Doffy were now working together in order to make a path for Luffy to get to the king. Apparently it was all due to the bald guy who was with the king boxerbald guy who was with the king boxer.
"Cavendish! Take Straw Hat to the Royal Palace at any cost!" the bald guy ordered after they protected those of us on the horse from the troops that were sent at us by the surrounding executives of Doffy's family. I guess his name wasn't actually Cabbage then.
Cavendish took off and we were on a straight course for the Royal Palace. Henchmen were crowding our way, but since they weren't executives, it wasn't much to worry about. When the "Favor Group" were running after us to protect us, Dellinger came springing across the path like the maniac he is and stabbed the bald commander, who was in charge of this team up, right in the stomach, making him topple back.
"DARUMA!" Luffy called out, looking at the scene behind us as well.
The man was holding Dellinger so that the blond couldn't get off of him, and he looked at us with a grin, "Make it to the top, Straw Hat!"
Luffy gritted his teeth and looked forward at the Doflamingo family troops that was pointing guns at us. The horse was dodging all of the shots due to Cavendish's skills. My mind was elsewhere, though. "Hey, Luffy, I'm gonna get off here," I told him, patting his back to get his attention.
He whipped his head back and looked at me, "Why?! We're almost at the palace!"
I shook my head, "You don't need me up there, idiot. I'll stay behind and help these guys."
"But... Alright. I'll see you after I kick Doflamingo's ass!" he said firmly.
I gave him a thumbs up and swung my leg over the horse so both of my feet were on one side. "Take care of my captain, Cavendish!" I called to the blond.
He looked over his shoulder and his eyes glared into me, "Stop telling me what to do! Get off if you want! Farul can't run beautifully with so many people on him anyway!"
I laughed in response and jumped off, rolling to a stop and standing in front of the henchmen who were running after the others. The aimed their guns at me, but I already activated my devil fruit, and was running right at them. Some of them stumbled back, though it was already too late. I was dispatched to get them off everyone's hands, and that's what I'm gonna do. My right arm shifted to chains and I wrapped half of them up, using them as a mace which I utilized to hit their fellow subordinates.
"What are you doing back here, Garp's grandson's friend?" the spike headed old man questioned, having landed near me after getting blown back by an explosion.
I pointed to the struggling group on our side, saying, "There's only so much of you, I figured you guys could use a hand, Pointy. Also, my name is (y/n), not Garp's grandson's friend."
"My name is Chinjao, then," he responded. Before that conversation could go any further, another old man showed up, kicking one of our current allies down. "SAI! Damn you little squirt, I'll take you on!" Chinjao declared, getting ready to face off against the old guy, who for some reason felt the need to point out the Gs in his sentences.
Running away from that, I kicked down some more henchmen on the way to looking for a worthy executive to fight. When I was in the middle of taking down some guys, I was suddenly kicked in the back of the head, sending me flying forward.
"Ouchie!" a voice complained. I skidded to a stop and turned around, seeing the blond guy with the high heels. He was looking at his reddening foot. Seems he didn't use haki.
"Oi! You were fighting with me!" a guy in red and black called out, stalking over to the two of us. He caught sight of me and raised a brow, "Aren't you supposed to be with Straw Hat?"
I jumped to my feet, shaking my head at him, "I can be anywhere I want. He's my opponent now so don't worry about it, go fight somebody else, explosion man."
"What? He was fighting me," he threw back.
"Ok? Clearly I'm more interesting because he's chosen to fight me now," I said, shooing him off with a motion of my hand.
A vein popped out of his head. When another henchman tried to attack me I grabbed them by their wrist and threw them at him, which got explosion man to punch him into next week. The poor guy went flying.
"Nice job," I complimented, giving him a thumbs up.
"Thank you," he replied, dusting himself off.
A giggle made us both look to the side, remembering that Dellinger was still here. "You two sure are funny. Enough of that though, let's get this started~!" he sang as he began sprinting at us. The fight was postponed by Pica's face poking out of the wall on our level. "Ehhh~? What's Pica doing-" Huge spikes erupted from the ground, followed by Zoro showing up.
All three of us had to jump out of the way in order to not get hit by Pica's attack. "What the hell?! Keep your fight on your side!" I yelled at the swordsman. He had already ran off.
"Hey, Pica! Don't forget we're fighting here, too!" Dellinger scolded.
"Destruction Cannon!" the boxer I was with punched one of the giant stone spikes and sent the debris flying toward the blond. He jumped away, and the two of them jumped up to a slanted spike. "Don't get distracted!" he yelled at the executive.
I threw a rock at him and jumped on a nearby spike to get to their height, motioning around us where there were still henchmen, "Oi! Go fight someone else! Or help someone else! I'm taking this one- AAGH!" I crashed into another spike and groaned in pain. That was definitely haki infused. "WHO IS IT NOW?!"
"Me," a deep voice stated. I looked to my side, seeing that it was a muscular man with black goatee and a blue set of bunny ears on. He introduced himself, "I am Lao G's grandson, Grim." I could hear a distant 'there's the G!' across the field. Must have been the old man.
"Alright, Grim. Let's fight! I've been itching for one!" I exclaimed, standing up and falling into a fighting stance. He got into his own. It seems that he specializes in hand to hand combat, just like his old man. "There's something I've been saving for this very moment, Grim. It is now finally time to reveal my true power!" I yelled, striking a pose. He gave me a look of confusion, so I raised a palm to him, turning my forearm into a chainsaw. A look of fear crossed is face as the bladed chains of the weapon began moving. "Time to die!"
He jumped away when I jumped forward and slashed my weapon at him. I managed to slice some of his arm. Blood started spewing from the spot. I was quick to do a 180 and attack him again, only for him to drop to the floor and kick me in my bloody side with haki. I planted my feet into the ground to keep from flying away and extended a spike out from my stomach to stab him. I was interrupted by another stone spike coming from the floor as Zoro ran by us. I jumped out of the way and landed on my feet, realizing that I lost Grim in the process. My side was bleeding more now from the movement and the attack.
"Damnit, Zoro.." I muttered, trying to sense where my opponent was. My search didn't last long since he showed up, grabbing hold of my chainsaw arm, and kneeing my elbow inwards in order to break it. It hurt a whole lot but it didn't break. I shifted my arm back to normal in order to grip the man's shirt, picking him up and smashing him through the spike I was standing on so we fell through and landed on solid ground.
"You're damn tough," he grunted from the floor.
"Yea? You too. I see that you're trying to get rid of my chainsaws because fights usually aren't too gory in this anime," I said.
"Yea, you should be more careful with that. Can't have you ripping me apart with that kinda weapon," he scolded.
I sighed and nodded. Just as soon as I did, he gripped my arm and attempted to break it again with another haki covered knee. I heard a crack. He cracked the metal of my arm. "Alright, that's enough," I grunted, bringing my other hand up and forming a hammer, encasing it with haki. "Sorry, but you're not gonna be able to do that again."
"I disagree," he hummed. Just as I was about to strike him, he used his legs to kick me off of him. He jumped to his feet and watched me as I popped back up on my feet as well. My arm and my side were bleeding, and on top of that I let him get away. "My turn," he said, covering his arms in haki. He ran at me and jabbed at my injured side. I jumped to the side, but it was in vane because he stopped and changed directions, using his other hand to strike where he intended to with the first attack.
I grabbed his wrist before he could move away and slammed him on his back, shifting my foot into a blade and stabbing him in the shoulder, not being able to hit any vitals because he rolled away. Another spike came out of the ground, but I made sure to follow him this time. I jumped over it onto the other side that he escaped to. He was running to the left, probably aiming to go around and surprise attack me again. Hell no. I shifted my arm into a chain and caught him, pulling him up to my height since I hadn't fallen to the ground yet. I encased my other fist in haki and shifted it into a hammer, knocking the wind out of him as I hit him in the chest, the two of us crashing into the stone flooring. The impact kicked up more dust than I expected it to, and I almost fell through a crack I made in the floor. I left Grim to fall while I just got out of the way.
"Whew. That took a bit longer than expected," I mumbled to myself, shaking myself off. The adrenaline finally faded and I could feel the pain in my body. I would have sat down but I didn't wanna get impaled by another spike that erupted form the ground.
"That bastard! He's targeting the injured!" I heard Zoro's voice. I spotted him a few feet away from me, dodging spikes as well.
"Oi! Why haven't you killed him yet?!" I asked, running toward him.
He looked at me, "It's not that easy! Just help all the people getting thrown around!"
I grumbled and split up from him, grabbing the explosion fist guy when he fell from another spike forming beneath him. He looks pretty messed up, to say the least. I wonder if he was able to take on Dellinger, since I don't see that battle crazed guy anywhere. There's so many problems at once, and here I am, injured and taking care of more injured people. On the bright side, though, I think Zoro has the last major opponent to face besides the unknowns that are in the actual royal palace.
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Yea, I rewatched Law's backstory. I just love Corazon. I also love how he just yeets Law as his introduction.
...Y'all have any lemon ideas? I'm currently just writing them as spare times in a draft book.