The sun was rising, and Usopp was fidgeting in anticipation of the coming conflict. There were two slopes that led up to the village from opposite ends of the island, and Zoro had suggested that they split into two pairs to cover both sides. Luffy and Usopp covered the coast where they had eavesdropped in on Klahadore (or rather, Captain Kuro, Usopp reminded himself), while Zoro and Nami covered the opposite side. Usopp had asked how they would signal each other when one group engaged the pirates, and Luffy cryptically stated that he and Zoro had it covered.
As the sun completed its ascension above the horizon, Usopp wondered how much longer they should wait. Suddenly, Luffy's head perked up. "They're here. They're coming from the other side." Usopp's eyes widened.
"How do you know?" he asked skeptically.
"Zoro signaled me," Luffy replied. He grabbed Usopp's arm. "Hang on. It's gonna be a rough ride."
He then used his legs to launch them both high into the air, and started using Geppo to get them to the other side quickly. Zoro had been suppressing his aura enough that Luffy hadn't been able to sense it from across the island, until it had suddenly erupted from his location once again. That was their signal. It was simple yet effective, and no one other than the two of them could interpret it.
Usopp eyes would have widened comically if they weren't shut tightly in response to the wind rushing at their faces. Ok, this was ridiculous. He had overheard that Luffy had eaten a Devil Fruit and was a rubber man. To his credit, he had only blinked when he heard that. But that didn't explain why Luffy could fly. Was he even human? It was about a 6 km stretch between the two coasts, and he crossed it in less than a minute. Usopp was a good runner, but it would have taken him at least 10 minutes to go that distance.
Zoro took notice of them as they touched down on the slope leading down to the north shore. Nami spotted them and frowned in curiosity. Zoro had said he was signaling Luffy a minute ago. How did they get here so fast?
It wasn't long before a large ship with the mark of the Black Cat Pirates pulled onto the shore, and the roar of pirates itching to pillage the village became discernable. They rushed off of the ship and flooded onto the path, running up the hill before stopping when the unexpected sight of their opposition reached their eyes. They looked at each other in confusion, having been told that no one would be expecting them. "Hey, Jango!" one of them shouted back to the ship. "There are a bunch of teenagers in the way! I thought this was supposed to be a surprise attack!"
Jango looked a little confused as well, but shouted back, "Does it matter? If they're in the way, just kill them! We're in a rush, Captain Kuro told us to meet him by morning!" Before the pirate that had given his report could turn back to address the four of them, he felt a painful sting in his back and fell over onto the ground. The other pirates traced the path of the projectile back to one of the teenagers, who had a small green slingshot raised. They scowled, having been robbed of first blood. Zoro grinned in approval. First to hit wins. Usopp's legs trembled as the pirates charged in on him. He shot a few more pellets out, each of them hitting their target as he backed away. He would lose control of the fight once they got to him.
Unfortunately his shots weren't lethal, and once the fallen pirates got past their pain, they got up and continued their charge with renewed vigor. They eventually reached him, and blades surrounded him as he rushed to reload another pellet. He wasn't going to make it. He flinched as the swords bore down on him.
The blades were halted mid-swing, however, and Usopp looked up to see several pirates desperately pushing against a single sword with all their might. Usopp watched his savior with awe as the swordsman held back the blades that he had intercepted with deadly precision without budging an inch. He pushed them off balance with a quick swipe of his weapon and began cutting them down one by one with cold efficiency. Not a single blade reached him. The pirates chose to ignore Usopp for now and swarm the swordsman like wasps. Usopp began to worry as Zoro was surrounded, but he promptly spun around and swung his sword in a circular circumference. The pirates were blown away by the wind produced by the swing, and the rock walls surrounding the path abruptly stopped some of them. But as even the ones who didn't hit the walls failed to get back up, Usopp realized there was more to it. They all had deep gashes where the wind had hit them. Had he just cut them from a distance?
Usopp watched in fascination, and even Nami looked up from the pirate she was redundantly bludgeoning into the ground with her staff. The pirates stopped charging, now wary of the foe that had already taken down a fourth of their members. They quickly realized that it was suicide to take him on close range. The majority of the pirates cursed their lack of funds as a select few pulled out pistols and started shooting at Zoro. The swordsman almost looked insulted, and Usopp's eyes bulged out as he gracefully deflected their fire. Nami also looked on with an awestruck impression. He wasn't lining his swords up with the gun barrels to block their aim. He was reacting to the projectiles after they were fired. She wouldn't have guessed that such a feat was possible.
Usopp turned to Luffy with and shouted over the gunshots. "He can deflect gunfire!?"
Luffy smirked. "Is that what it looks like?" Usopp turned back and his eyes widened further as he saw what Luffy was implying. Zoro wasn't deflecting the bullets. He was cutting them in half.
The pirates finally ran out of ammo and Zoro grinned mockingly. "You done yet?" They looked at him in fury with a hint of fear, and charged again. The pirate leading the charge leapt at him with a giant hammer, intent on smashing his precious sword. The stone hammer was cut down the middle, the two halves falling off of the stick to which it had been attached. Its wielder backed up in fear, but the pirates behind him were still charging. Zoro raised his blade into a horizontal ready position as if he was about to swat them all away from a distance, when a voice behind made him stop and duck.
"Gomu Gomu no...Whip!" Luffy's leg blurred from sight and the charging pirates were all swept off their feet and knocked into the solid wall of rock. "Don't hog all the fun, Zoro," Luffy pouted.
"You could have jumped in at any time," he replied.
Jango was getting frustrated. Half of their crew had been taken out now. He got out his hypnotic ring and turned towards their remaining forces, which were visibly cowering. "Failure is not an option, you dipshits!" he shouted. "When I say 1, 2, Jango, your cowardice will disappear and you will become stronger. 1...2...Jango!"
The men's eyes hardened and their muscles bulged. As if they had completely forgotten the slaughter that had just occurred, they let out a battle cry and charged forward with their fists in the air, "Aaaaaauuuugggghhhh!"
Luffy grinned and threw his fists above his head as he dashed forward, yelling, "Aaaaauuuuggghh!" in mocking imitation. The pirates were not deterred at all under their hypnotic influence. "Gomu Gomu no..." Luffy's fists seemed to multiply for a second before they blurred out of sight, much like his leg earlier. "Gatling!" The Black Cat Pirates, for all their miraculous mental steroids, dropped like flies as they were mowed down by the invisible assault.
Jango cringed. If this kept up, Kuro would have their heads. "Sham! Buchi! Come show these fools what happens to those who mess with the Black Cat Pirates!" Two more pirates jumped down from the ship. One was slim and one...not so slim. It was clear that both took the cat thing way too far, though. They looked at Zoro fearfully, then turned back to Jango, and fell to their knees groveling.
"What are you trying to do to us Jango?" the slim one sobbed.
"They just took down most of our crew! There's no way we can fight those guys," the larger one said miserably.
"Whatever," Jango replied, pulling out his hypnotic ring again. "When I say 1, 2, Jango, you will both stop groveling and get stronger. 1...2...Jango!"
The two men's muscles bulged considerably, but their sobbing only intensified. Jango developed a tic over his eye. "Alright, that's enough already! Get your asses in gear before I kick them from here to the Red Line!"
The two catlike men jumped and ran clumsily in the direction of Luffy and Zoro, arms flailing and tears still trailing down their faces. Jango scowled. That act of theirs was annoying and unnecessary. They were already late.
Luffy and Zoro looked at each other with raised eyebrows as the two homo felinins made their way over to them. "You don't want to do that," Luffy said in a bored tone.
"We tend to get less merciful when our enemies don't get the message," Zoro said lazily. Sham and Buchi continued, breaking off from each other to confront the two. Their arms were still flailing randomly as they drew closer. Luffy sighed.
As they came into range, the doubt disappeared from their faces and their movements became more fluid and purposeful. Nami and Usopp watched in horror as the smirks developed on their faces, contrasting with their false tears. Sham and Buchi lunged forward, claws intent on digging into flesh. These two had severely underestimated them.
Buchi impaled himself on Zoro's sword and his arms fell toward his sides as he coughed up blood. Sham threw himself into Luffy's outstretched leg and felt his ribcage shatter as the crimson liquid spilled from his lips as well.
"Oh well," Luffy said.
"We did warn them," Zoro finished.
Jango gritted his teeth in anger. Those useless felines had been defeated so easily! "I have no choice now," he spoke under his breath. "I'll have to hypnotize myself and finish this. Captain Kuro will be here soon."
"Actually," a voice came from behind him, "your captain is already here."
Jango spun around and almost stumbled as he faced the green-haired swordsman. When had the man gotten behind him? How had he not noticed the man's approach? He jumped back but froze when a familiar voice came from direction of the village.
"Jango," it said menacingly, "Didn't I tell you all to meet me at the mansion?" Jango didn't dare turn around to face his death, but he could tell that the man was walking closer. Kuro stopped in front of Luffy and a fierce scowl spread across his face. "What the hell is going on!?" he shouted.
This galvanized Jango back into action. He whipped out his ring and faced Zoro. "When I say 1, 2, Jango, you will fall asleep!"
Zoro looked at him impassively. "Of course I will," he said as he walked towards him.
"1...2...Jango!" he yelled triumphantly.
Zoro lifted up his sword and slashed down Jango's midsection. Blood stained his clothes and he fell back onto the ground. "How...?" he managed before slipping under.
"I closed my eyes," Zoro said blandly. "It's not hard."
Meanwhile, Kuro was struggling to reign in his temper. He was the only Black Cat Pirate left standing, and he didn't even consider himself a pirate anymore. Useless, the lot of them. If you wanted something done...he thought as he adjusted his glasses with his palm so as to not cut himself with the five katana attached to his fingers...you did it yourself.
He was about to make his move when a voice called out to him, "Klahadore!" He turned to face Kaya, who looked like she'd been crying, which made sense. She'd probably woken up and found Merry in a bloody heap on the floor of the mansion. What surprised him was the gun she was pointing at him. "Please leave this village. I'll give you the sum of my wealth, but you can't hurt anyone! You must leave in peace," she said firmly.
"Kaya! What are you doing here!? Run or he'll kill you!" Usopp shouted.
Kuro started at her for a few seconds. Then he broke out laughing. Kaya's eyes widened. "Sorry, Miss Kaya, but this isn't just about the money. I had plenty of it back when I was Captain Kuro." His eyes hardened as he relived the memories. "What I couldn't stand was the lifestyle. The Marines constantly attacking my ship. Bounty hunters following me wherever I went. It all got so annoying. What I want is a peaceful life. The villagers trust me. I have a good standing within the village. All I need now..." A feral grin broke out across his face as Kaya looked at him in horror, "is for you to die so I can inherit your wealth."
He walked up to Kaya, who despite what she was hearing, couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger. Images of her time spent with the caretaker replayed in her mind and her hands trembled. Kuro reached her and swiped the gun from them. "And you will write that will. I don't care what I have to do," he said quietly, reaching for her face with his long claws. Tears welled up in Kaya's eyes. This couldn't be Klahadore. How could it be?
A shift in the air made Kuro freeze, and he swiftly turned around and blocked an oncoming pellet with his claws, swatting it away. "What a coincidence, Usopp," he said menacingly as he lunged towards the sniper. "I still owe you for that punch you gave me." Usopp got another pellet ready, but Kuro was too close already. He wouldn't make it...
A fist collided with Kuro's face before he got within range. The impact sent him sailing through the air until he collided with the rock wall and fell to the ground. "Now you owe us double," Luffy said with a cocky grin.
Kuro struggled to get up as he fought off the first signs of a concussion. He glared furiously at Luffy. "A Devil Fruit eater. I wasn't planning on killing anyone myself today, but it looks like there are plenty of volunteers. He bent over and started swaying back and forth. "Shakushi," he whispered, before vanishing from sight. At least that's what happened from the point of view of Usopp, Nami, and Kaya. Luffy and Zoro looked on in apathy as he appeared to run around slashing random objects in slow motion. Should they do something...? He wasn't even attacking them.
Kuro was moving at around the speed of a novice Soru user, but he didn't have the reaction speed to keep up with his own movements, and was suffering from severe tunnel vision. Luffy guessed that he was just attacking anything his eyes could perceive. It would work, in theory, against most East Blue enemies. If they couldn't keep track of his movements, they'd eventually be taken down. It would be more effective against a crowd of enemies, though, and Luffy didn't really have the temperament to wait for Kuro to find them.
So he leapt forward, grabbing Kuro right out of his attack, and threw him. He collapsed on the ground and growled in frustration before picking himself up. "You know," Luffy began. "You suck as a fighter, but as a pirate you fail miserably."
"Neither of those things bother me," Kuro responded. "I am no longer a pirate, and after this, I will never have to fight again."
Luffy shook his head. "That's just the thing. You look down at the life of a pirate, but the fact remains that you couldn't handle it. You ran away with your tail between your legs." Kuro's eyes narrowed. He didn't like what this kid was implying. He wanted a life of peace, but a coward he was not. Luffy smiled, knowing he had struck a nerve. "Your will is weak," Luffy continued. "Usopp's ambition is much greater than yours."
This time Kuro scowled fiercely. "What kind of joke is this? You're comparing me to that pretend pirate?" Luffy shook his head.
"Did you even hear me? Like I said, you can't compare to him. You're nothing, just a butler with a get rich quick scheme. There's no one in my crew whose ambition doesn't shit all over yours."
Kuro was really getting frustrated now. "Enough! Just how am I inferior to that play pretend pirate!? Fame? Power? Intellect? Tell me! And don't give me that 'willpower' bullshit! Foolish ambitions will get you nowhere in this world!"
Luffy's grin grew positively bestial. "Would you like to test that out, then? Let's see who will get farther between you and my crew members." Luffy raised one hand to his straw hat and let loose the most powerful blast of Conqueror's Haki that he had used so far in this timeline. Kuro immediately fell to his hands and knees, his eyes widened to epic proportions. He looked up at Luffy with an infuriated and terrified glare. He gritted his teeth and sweat poured down his face as he tried to fight off the darkness that was claiming him, but after a few seconds he gave in and his head fell to the ground with a thud.
Zoro felt the pressure from the blast on his psyche, and raised an eyebrow as he brushed off its effects. Why had Luffy even bothered aiming it at him? Had he just decided to bombard the entire area? His eyes widened slightly at the thought, and he turned toward Nami and Usopp. They were both kneeling on the ground, eyes open but unfocused. Beads of sweat trailed down their faces and their jaws were clenched, as if they were fighting off some unknown foe. After about 10 seconds they both recovered, panting for breath, and looking around frantically. Luffy looked a little guilty as he looked back at them proudly. Zoro snuck a glance at Kaya. She had been unaffected, wondering what was going on with everyone. At least Luffy had left her out of it. Zoro didn't think a whiff of the King's Disposition would help her condition.
Zoro speculated briefly about what Luffy's motive was. The obvious answer was that he wanted to expose them to the effects of the King's Will. Fighting off its effects naturally strengthened one's willpower if done successfully. It was like exercising a muscle. The next time Nami and Usopp encountered a blast of that magnitude they would have a significantly easier time with it. But why so early?
Zoro was confident that Luffy was the only awakened Conqueror in East Blue. Even in Paradise they were scarce. It wasn't until one sailed the New World that the power became somewhat common and resistance to it became a must. Was Luffy just getting a head start with their crewmates? That was assuming, of course, that Luffy wasn't just trying to prove a point. He'd always had a lot of faith in his comrades.
"What should we do with the Black Cat pirates? They'll just wreak havoc when they wake up," he said as Luffy walked by.
"They won't be waking up for a while," Luffy replied. "The Marines will be here before they do." Zoro nodded. If Luffy had aimed his Haki at the entire area, then it wasn't just Kuro that would be out for a while. Nami and Usopp had fully recovered and walked over.
"What the hell was that just now? I felt like death was looming over me," Nami said shakily. Usopp voiced his agreement.
"Ah, sorry. That was me," Luffy replied. Nami rounded on him, infuriated.
"What the hell do you mean it was you!? What the hell did you even do!? And whatever the hell you did, why the hell did you do it to us!?" she yelled with her fist raised.
"Aw, come on Nami, it was just to prepare you. And it builds character," he said cheerfully.
"You still haven't told us what it was," Usopp said curiously. Luffy thought for a moment as if having an inner debate with himself. Eh, what the hell, he thought.
"It's called Conqueror's Haki. One in a million people in the world are born with it. It allows you to forcefully overpower the minds of those with weak wills. Traits like self-confidence and mental discipline help one resist it, but the most important factor is willpower. A person with an unbendable will won't even bat an eye in the face of the most powerful Conqueror. Not doubting. That is true power."
Nami and Usopp took in the explanation with thoughtful expressions, and then they both nodded. Who knew that such a thing existed? The world truly was vast.
That afternoon, after Merry had been bandaged up and briefed on the situation, he and Kaya told Luffy, Zoro, and Nami to meet them on the south shore. When they arrived, Nami's eyes filled with glee. Anchored near the coast was a white caravel that strongly resembled a goat.
"It's called the Going Merry," Merry said. "It's an older model, but it should be helpful to you. Consider it a thank you gift." Nami agreed wholeheartedly. It was still a relatively small ship, but it was much more spacious than what they'd been using up until now.
Luffy and Zoro stared at the ship for a little while. Memories flashed through their mind: some happy, some painful, but all meaningful. After a while Luffy just looked at Merry and Kaya. "Thank you," he said quietly.
Usopp was looking at the ship fondly as Luffy, Zoro, and Nami boarded, but he also looked a bit uncomfortable. He looked from Luffy, to the ship, and back to Luffy. "Um..." he began awkwardly. "I was wondering if your offer to join your crew was still was still in effect." Luffy looked at him confusedly.
"Huh?" was all he said.
Usopp looked down. "Well, it's OK if it's not. I'm sure we'll meet on the sea someday," he said.
"What are you talking about?" Luffy asked, confused. "You already joined, remember? Now get on."
Usopp's eyes widened before a wide grin spread across his face. "I'm...I'm the Captain!" he shouted, jumping into the air with his fist raised.
"Not a chance," Luffy said as Usopp climbed aboard. "But if you want you can be second in command when Zoro's hung over."
"I don't get hung over!" Zoro sputtered indignantly.
Luffy smirked. "You might as well. With the way you sleep, there would be no difference."
Zoro scowled. "Why do people with low tolerances always try to make up for it by talking shit?"
Luffy's smirk grew wider. "You speak as if those swords don't compensate for anything."
It took all of a second for that to sink in before the two were full out brawling on the deck of their new ship. It lasted for a full two minutes before Nami and Usopp decided to risk their well being to pull them apart. They had to set sail at some point.