On the island of Jaya, a crowd had gathered around a certain bar in Mock Town to witness what was rumored to be a fight to the death between comrades.
"Please, make them stop!" one of the crew members of the two combatants shouted. Her pleas were answered by a sinister chuckle which by no means conveyed an intent to comply.
"Enough already! Why are you doing this!?" Sarkies, one of the combatants tried to reason. The taunting laughter only intensified.
"Why, you ask? What other reason could there be? Sarkies, Bellamy...you two have tarnished my flag that you so proudly flaunt around as if it were your own. Sky Island, the City of Gold...I don't care whether they exist or not. As long as you were undefeated, I would allow you to spread whatever petty ideals you deemed fit."
"It's hopeless," one of the observers whispered. "There's no way they can win. That's Donquixote Doflamingo!"
"Are you kidding? One of the Seven Warlords?" another asked quietly. "He used to have a bounty of over 300 million. What's he doing here?"
"But now that you've been put in your place by a bunch of 'hopeless dreamers' as you put it, there's really no room for you as my underlings, is there?" Doflamingo continued.
As Sarkies' blade rose against his will, he cursed. "Dammit! Don't make me do this!" His pleas once again went unanswered as his arm was forced to swing the blade towards an immobile Bellamy unmercifully.
"Please..." Bellamy rasped from his position on the ground. "Give me one more chance. Even if it takes years...I'll get to where you stand one day..."
Doflamingo laughed in amusement. "Do you really think a peon like you has what it takes to survive the New World? Very well, do as you wish. The New Era I've envisioned is approaching. However..." He turned his back and started walking away. "I have no place for you in my ranks," he stated matter-of-factly.
"Doflamingo!" Bellamy shouted in desperation as Sarkies' knife came down again.
"What's wrong? You're slowing down," Luffy noted as he smiled with his eyes closed and his hands in his pockets. Across from him stood Sanji, panting heavily but still focused. Nearby, Zoro was continuing the rest of the crew's training to awaken their haki, while Luffy was training Sanji personally at the chef's request.
Sanji dashed forward again, but his opening kick was dodged easily as Luffy simply leaned back to avoid it. The next hail of kicks were just as casually avoided as the Strawhat captain swayed back and forth in between the blows. Focusing on predicting his movements, Sanji went in for a feint, which seemed to achieve the desired effect, and the actual kick was blocked by Luffy's forearm. Before he could react, Sanji had been grabbed by the leg and thrown back to his starting position.
"Too slow," Luffy commented, earning an annoyed grunt from the chef.
"I noticed, you rubber bastard. Why don't you open your damn eyes now?"
Luffy only smirked. "Why don't you make me?"
Sanji complied, or at least attempted to, as he spun rapidly in a circle before going on the offensive again, leg ablaze this time. Every kick he threw was once again dodged effortlessly. He could try to predict Luffy's movements, but the rubber man could do the same with his counters to said movements, and it was easier to see whose observation haki was superior. Not only that, but he was suppressing his aura, so Sanji was having trouble getting a read on it to begin with. After a couple minutes, Sanji winced and the inferno around his leg ceased as his current limit for Diable Jambe was reached.
"What brought this on?" Luffy couldn't help but ask. "You seemed content with your progress just recently. Now you're working twice as hard as before. Not that I don't encourage it, but is there any reason?"
"It's not that I'm not satisfied already..." Sanji muttered. "I don't have big, grandiose dreams like you or Zoro. My goal is just to find All Blue and be the best chef I can be," he admitted. "But I've started to realize recently...if we're going to keep running into guys like Crocodile and Enel, I'm only going to be in the way." He grunted again as he got to his feet. "You two are way ahead of the rest of us...and for a while, I was content with that. But like you said when we started doing this, there's going to come a time when you two have your hands full, and when that day comes, I won't be a liability."
"I couldn't have said it better myself," Luffy said. "So, what will you do?"
"First, I'm going to wipe that smug grin off your face!" the chef shouted before charging in again, only for Luffy to disappear from his sight.
"You'll have to catch me first!" the rubber man taunted from behind him. He spun around and aimed a kick at the location of his aura, but he only disappeared again.
Sanji's eyes roamed around the deck of the Going Merry as his captain constantly blurred in and out of sight. Something was different than usual. If he was really just taunting him, he wouldn't be able to see Luffy at all. Which meant he was going slow intentionally. Sanji narrowed his eyes and focused his observation haki on his captain's movements, following his blurred form as it drew closer and closer to him. His legs were in constant motion, slowing down only for an instant as his form became more defined, and then speeding up again as he disappeared from sight.
So that's how it is.
As each jump brought the rubber man closer and closer, Sanji got into a ready stance. As he sensed Luffy closing in, he kicked the floor ten times in an instant, resulting in a leap backwards that was much faster than what he could usually accomplish, just as Luffy leg swept through the area he was previously occupying.
Now!
He leapt forward again and feinted a kick at Luffy's head. When he predictably, or perhaps indulgently, vanished from sight in response, Sanji went through the same series of movements again, and tracking him with his haki, aimed another kick at his sternum. As the two appeared back into sight, Luffy was holding Sanji's leg, preventing it from reaching him.
"You learned Soru. I'm impressed," Luffy said with a grin.
"Yeah..." Sanji said, before collapsing back into a sitting position. "But it puts a lot of strain on my legs. I can see why you waited until now to teach me."
"You'll get used to it soon," Luffy said. "When I first started using it, I didn't really notice the strain. Rubber man and all. But I did notice that it got easier to use pretty quickly."
"Sanji learned something again?" Usopp asked. "Why do I feel like he's always the only one?"
"It helps that he has more physical conditioning than the rest of you," Zoro said. "Or, maybe you're just not trying hard enough, Usopp."
"Hey, that's not fair! I think I'm starting to get the hang of this haki stuff!"
Zoro raised an eyebrow, and Usopp faltered a bit. "Sort of...maybe...a little..."
"Well, I'm still not having any progress, so I think I'll just stick to my Clima-Tact for now. How are those upgrades coming along by the way?"
Usopp lit up at the reminder. "Oh, they're coming along! Those dials are worth more than their weight in gold! You'll be lighting up enemies before they even know what lit them up!"
Nami smiled. "Thanks! Just tell me when they're ready so I can test them out for myself," she requested.
"Of course! It might interest you to know that my own arsenal has been improved as well..." he trailed off as Nami was already walking away, not having heard him. "Hey!"
A couple of hours passed uneventfully, unless you counted the octopus balloon's heartfelt farewell, the giant sea monkeys which Luffy tamed, or the seemingly depressed pirate crew they passed on the way, which strangely enough had no flag or sails. After lunch, everyone continued haki training, but once again, there were no breakthroughs to speak of. Despite that sad fact, many of the crew members couldn't help but notice that the training nevertheless helped their physical conditioning, which was pretty essential in any fight.
Afterwards, Luffy and Zoro instructed them to start sparring in order to evaluate each other's strengths and weaknesses. At this point, Usopp took initiative and loudly suggested a tournament bracket. This normally would have been ignored, if not for the fact that Luffy announced his strong support for the idea just as loudly.
Which led to the Strawhat pirates now competing in a tournament.
The fights would consist of hand to hand combat only, which meant no weapons and no devil fruit powers. In Chopper's case, this meant he could only use one form. He wisely picked Heavy Point. For the benefit of the devil fruit users, Luffy declared that you were out of the fight if you fell off the Merry, whether you could swim or not. You were also out if you gave up or were held down for 10 seconds.
"Hey, wait," Chopper said suddenly. "Sanji only specializes in physical combat. How is he not going to win this?"
"A better question is, how is he going to win at all if he can't even attack half of his opponents?" the chef asked in retort as he walked over to the sidelines to stand next to Luffy and Zoro. "Have fun, everyone." This caused Robin to giggle and Usopp to pout.
"You're no fun, Sanji!"
"This was your idea to begin with," Sanji argued. "Next time, think it through, shithead. This is terribly uneven."
Although Usopp protested loudly at this, the chef was soon proven right.
The first fight was between Usopp and Chopper. Although Usopp was by no means incapable of throwing a good punch, he simply wasn't in the same league as Chopper's heavyweight form. The first minute of the fight consisted of Usopp throwing punches while Chopper blocked them, too timid to do anything else against a crewmate. He soon got over it when the sniper declared that there were no holds barred even in a fight between comrades, but nevertheless assured him that he would be fine. Emboldened by this assurance, Chopper proceeded to subject Usopp to a wrestling hold that kept him down for 10 seconds, ending the fight.
"I have no regrets!" Usopp claimed as he went to stand next to the monster trio, making a show of standing by his idea, even though Luffy could tell he was disappointed at having lost first. "Alright, the next fight is between Nami and Robin!"
As the two women of the crew stood across from each other, Nami cringed. "Aren't you an assassin?" she asked nervously.
"I was," Robin answered with a calm smile. "Aren't you a thief?"
"...That's not very assuring."
"And, start!" Usopp shouted, ignoring the navigator's reservations. At first, neither one of them moved. After a few moments of waiting each other out, Robin took a step forward, causing Nami to take a step back. Robin laughed lightly.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Navigator-san, so don't worry so much," she said.
Nami seemed to calm down after that, and as it was soon revealed, she did know some basic self defense even without the Clima-Tact. She would have to in order to survive stealing from pirates for 8 years, even East Blue pirates. And the conditioning she'd received from the haki training seemed to help.
Unfortunately for Nami, her experience seemed to pale in comparison to Robin's, and it didn't take long for the archaeologist to sweep a leg out from under her before pinning her to the ground with one arm pulled behind her back.
"The winner is Robin!" Usopp shouted after 10 seconds of struggling on Nami's part.
"You sure seem to be enjoying this..." Nami grumbled as she walked over to stand with the observers.
"Of course! Tournament matches are also part of a Man's Romance!" the sniper exclaimed, causing Nami to look at him quizzically.
"Walking sticks, swinging from vines, and now this? Where do you get this crap from?"
Usopp elected to ignore her, instead announcing the next spar. "Now for the finals! It's the heavyweight Tony Tony Chopper vs. the quick and nimble Nico Robin!"
Chopper looked nervous again, but Robin merely smiled and said, "Let's have a good match, Doctor-san." The reindeer nodded.
This spar lasted noticeably longer. Chopper was too strongly built for Robin to get him into a submission hold, but Robin was too agile and light on her feet for Chopper to get a hit in or pin her down. Of the two of them, Chopper was more versed in hand to hand combat, but Robin was more analytical and moved with a calculated grace that the reindeer couldn't quite match as she dodged or redirected his blows. She was careful not to get hit and careful not to give him any openings to subdue her, but she also couldn't really hope to overpower him. Eventually, she was seemingly cornered at the edge of the Merry. Her back was to the water as Chopper came in for a blow.
"Robin-chan, watch out!" Sanji shouted in worry as it seemed she was about to back into open air. Instead, she stood her ground until Chopper got close, before moving aside, grabbing him by the arm, and using his forwards momentum to actually flip him off the deck of the ship and into the water.
Zoro sighed. "I'll get him," the swordsman volunteered, before jumping overboard and retrieving the soaked reindeer, who coughed up some water before changing back into his hybrid form.
"I lost..." he pouted, causing Robin to actually feel slightly guilty.
"Well, you're all improving," Zoro commented, still in instructor mode. "Nami, you can defend yourself if it comes to it, but you're too tense. Even if you know how to counter your opponent, it won't matter if you're too stiff to do anything about it. But once you gain more experience, you'll be more relaxed in a fight." He turned to Usopp. "You have the same problem. I know for a fact that you can take a hit with the best of them, but that won't hold you over for long if you freeze up." They both nodded, and Zoro turned to Chopper.
"Chopper, your main issue in Heavy Point is your speed, but that won't be as much of a problem when you can use your devil fruit freely. Honestly, the best thing for you right now is just to keep training your speed and strength. The more you do that, the stronger your transformations will be. I also think you could benefit in training your devil fruit some more, but we'll leave that for later." Chopper looked excited at the thought of enhancing his devil fruit powers.
Next, Zoro turned towards Robin. "You had the least problems as far as I saw. You may not have as much muscle as Chopper, but your devil fruit powers make up for that. Other than Luffy, me, and the cook, you have the best reflexes in the crew. The only thing I'd suggest is getting your speed up so that you can make the best use of them. Even if you can see an attack coming, you can't always stop it unless you can move in time." Robin nodded thoughtfully.
Finally, Zoro turned toward Sanji. "Cook..." he trailed off. "You suck," he finished. Sanji's eye twitched.
"Alright! Good job, everyone!" Luffy shouted. "Nami, how's our course?" he asked.
"It's right on target," the navigator replied. "We should be arriving soon."
"Great! Hey Robin, can you look out for an island?" Luffy asked.
"Roger," she said, making her way up to the crow's nest.
"Hey, Luffy," Zoro said, subtly getting the captain's attention. Luffy looked at him to see that he had a serious expression on his face.
It's almost that time, the swordsman conveyed.
Luffy nodded as he remembered which island they were about to arrive at. They had been blown a little off course compared to last time, so they took more time to actually get here, but they had also spent less time in Skypiea, and there was no telling how long the adversary they were both thinking of would wait for them.
A laidback, lethargic, and very dangerous adversary.
Keep your senses sharp when we get to the island, he conveyed back. Their short staring contest ended, no one having noticed it as Luffy continued walking and Zoro leaned back against the mast, seemingly asleep.
"Maaaan, I'm booored," Luffy mumbled an hour later. "Hey Robin! Have you caught any glimpse of that island yet?"
"Yes, a while ago actually," she responded from the crow's nest. Usopp looked scandalized.
"What do you mean, a while ago! When you see an island you're supposed to shout 'Land Ho!'" the sniper claimed.
"That sounds like too strange of a reaction for my tastes," Robin replied. "But I'll let you know next time."
As soon as they reached the island, which was a wide empty plain filled with really tall trees, Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp all took off, eager for some sightseeing.
As the rest of the crew got ready to depart, Zoro simply stared out at the island with narrowed eyes.
"Is something wrong, Swordsman-san?" Robin asked, coming up next to him. This seemed snap him out of whatever trance he was in.
"No, it's nothing," Zoro answered, piquing Robin's curiosity. He then looked back at the fog over the ocean. "It looks like we're about to have some company though."
Luffy looked in every direction in an attempt to find what he was looking for. But no matter how many times he extended his senses outwards, he couldn't feel anything. Either his target was hiding his aura really well, or he wasn't there. He hadn't considered the latter option up until now.
"Wow, there's really nothing in sight. It's empty," Usopp commented.
"Yeah...completely empty..." Luffy muttered quietly, brow furrowed.
"Luffy? You ok?" Chopper asked, snapping him out of his daze.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, is that a house over there?" he asked, pointing out into the distance.
"You're right! Let's go check it out," Usopp said.
On the way there, the trio encountered a large variety of strange animals, which consisted of elongated bears, elongated dogs, elongated deer, and even elongated birds.
Come to think of it, they were all elongated.
When they arrived at the house, they found a particularly friendly white giraffe, which was in reality an elongated horse. Chopper conveyed that her name was Shelly. Apparently she was alone here on the island, which Chopper found to be strange.
"Hey, is this elongated bamboo?" Usopp asked, looking upwards. There were two sticks of bamboo that were abnormally tall, to the point where they couldn't see the top. This seemed kind of familiar to Luffy, but he couldn't place where he'd seen it before.
Suddenly, the bamboo moved, shocking Usopp and hitting him in the face.
"Aaaah! The elongated bamboo attacked Usopp!" Chopper panicked.
"Bamboo bastard! I won't lose that easily!" the sniper shouted, pulling out his slingshot and letting a lead star fly, breaking through the bamboo.
"Hah! Take that bamboo!" Usopp shouted, throwing his fist in the air.
"That was amazing Usopp!" Chopper shouted happily.
"Was it really?" Luffy asked skeptically. The two were broken out of their celebrations when they heard a panicked yell coming from above them. Luffy looked up to see an old man falling towards him.
Oh, I remember now...
"Who are these guys?" Nami asked. The Going Merry was currently surrounded by two anchors, each of which had attached themselves to the island, and were connected to a rather large enemy ship.
"Doesn't matter who they are," Zoro said. "They cornered our ship, so they're clearly hostile."
"Doesn't matter who we are?" shouted a voice from atop the ship that had cornered them. "Watch your tongue, Roronoa Zoro! We are the Foxy Pirates, and we have claimed your ship as property of me, Foxy the Silver Fox!"
"Whatever," Zoro said in a bored tone as he unsheathed a sword before swinging it downwards. The enemy ship, which easily towered over the Going Merry, was cut down the middle from bow to stern. As all hell broke loose on the ship of the now panicking Foxy Pirates, Zoro casually cut the chains that were rendering the Going Merry immobile from afar.
"Well, that was a waste of time. Nami, how's the log?" Zoro asked.
"Actually, it's ready. It seems the time it takes for the log to set is really short on this island."
"Well, that simplifies things. Now we just have to wait for Luffy to get back."
The old man who had landed on top of Luffy looked horrified. "Oh dear!" he exclaimed. "I seem to have landed on someone! Are you ok, lad?"
"I'm fine," Luffy replied, getting up and dusting himself off. "Because I'm rubber. But anyway, you...you're that guy, aren't you?"
"'That guy?'" the old man asked curiously.
"Yeah, that Jack guy," Luffy said.
"My name is Tonjit."
"No way! I'm sure you're that Jack guy who climbed the giant bamboo stalk to find the goose that lays the golden eggs so that you could have supper. But you're an old man now. Did it take you that long to climb it?" Luffy rambled.
"Beanstalk, Luffy! That was a beanstalk!" Usopp corrected. "There's no way this guy is him!"
"Ah, really? So it wasn't him after all."
"I'm afraid not. You see, I am one of the nomads who travels from one portion of his island to the next. This island is actually a ring of wide open plains, which are all connected and have the same magnetic field. But I've been separated from the rest of the nomads, you see. 10 years ago, I made really tall stilts out of bamboo so I could see the view from the top. But then I got too scared to come back down, and got stuck up there. I've had to survive by eating the fruits off of the tallest trees ever since."
"You're really stupid, old man," Luffy commented bluntly.
"Perhaps, but worry not, youngster! For now that you've forced me back to ground level, I can go and catch up with the rest of the group!"
"I wasn't worried..." Luffy said, before turning to Usopp. "Hey, we should probably get back to the ship. I can sense some unfamiliar auras at the coast."
"Unfamiliar auras? Are they hostile?" Chopper asked.
"Hard to tell. I think they are, but they feel more incompetent than anything," Luffy replied.
When they arrived back at the ship, they were greeted by the sight of a giant pirate ship that was cut in half down the middle, lying in a heap in the shallow water near the coast. When Usopp asked what happened, Zoro simply replied, "It was in the way, so I cut it." The simple explanation was accepted easily enough and the Strawhats got ready to set sail, but before they could, the sound of a gunshot interrupted them.
"Strawhat Luffy!" came the voice of Foxy the Silver Fox, soaking wet and panting heavily. Beside him was a large fishman who had seemingly saved him from the water, along with a blue haired woman and an ape like man. "You dare sink my ship!? You'll pay for this, you lowlife!"
"I didn't do anything," Luffy said in annoyance. "Go away."
"Don't try to deny it! Your crewmate Roronoa cut our ship in half!" Foxy shouted.
"And you still didn't get the message?" Luffy couldn't help but ask. "Anyway, I'm not him, so leave me alone."
"Absolutely not! There's no way I'm letting you go after what you've done to us! I hereby challenge you to a Davy Back Fight!"
"Ok," Luffy agreed easily, before unleashing a blast of Conqueror's Haki on the unsuspecting Foxy Pirates, all of whom keeled over and lost consciousness. "We win," the Strawhat captain declared, before turning back towards his crew and ordering them to set sail.
As the Strawhats rose anchor, Luffy was in deep thought. Aokiji didn't show up this time. Last time he said he originally came to confirm that Robin was in the crew, but if I remember right, that cage lady already saw her setting sail with us in Alabasta. Is that why he's not here?
While he wouldn't rule out the possibility, something about that didn't feel right. He looked to his right and locked eyes with Zoro. The swordsman nodded. It seemed they were in agreement.
There was a storm coming.
A/N: Sorry for the exposition chapter. There's a lot of crap in between Skypiea and Water 7 in the anime, but most of it bored me, so I decided to stick with a single interlude chapter before we got to the good stuff. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, even if it was mostly setup.