One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Sitting on the Waves ❯ Bright Ideas ( Chapter 11 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

ONE PIECE
SITTING ON THE WAVES
CHAPTER 11
BY
Sgamer82

     As Huncaza fell to the ground from Luffy’s punch, his hand began snapping back to the rest of Luffy’s body.

     “Nami! Grab my hand!”

     Nami did so as soon as she saw it come within her sight. She felt a pulling sensation as she held on. The hand was still trying to get back to Luffy. Nami then saw Luffy leap into the air higher than she’d seen anyone jump. She was jumping right towards her and the other kids.

     “Let go!”

     Nami obeyed and watched as Luffy’s arm retreated back to Luffy. The force of the snap back turned Luffy around in mid air, which resulted in him facing Nami when he landed, despite the fact he’d landed behind her. Nami couldn’t turn around with her feet stuck, so she simply looked straight up at the strange man who’d just hit the other strange man who as threatening her. Luffy just looked down and smiled a big toothy smile at her. Nami suddenly felt her fear just leave her at the sight of this guy who simply wasn’t scared at all.

     “Hey, keep an eye on this for me.” Luffy said, as he took of his straw hat and put it on Nami’s head. It was far too big for Nami, but she held on to it nonetheless. Luffy turned to Huncaza, who had backed away a bit when Luffy had jumped in. He was standing between two other kids as he leveled his pistol at Luffy.

     “Heh,” Luffy laughed, “That won’t work on me.”

     “Heh,” Huncaza laughed, “you’re right. They’ll just bounce right off, won’t they?”

     “That’s right. They’ll just bounce off and…” that’s when it hit Luffy. If those bullets bounced off of his body, they could easily wind up hitting one of the nearly two dozen kids he was standing in the middle of.

     “Coward!” Luffy growled.

     “Yes.” Huncaza said, “But soon I’ll be a rich coward. With you and your crewmates I’ll net a good two hundred thirty-nine Berries.”

     “The guy shooting in the forest is your partner then?”

     “Right. Now, let’s keep this simple. I want your word, here and now, that you will surrender quietly, unless…” Huncaza finished his sentence but putting his pistol to the head of a boy next to him.

     “Hey! You’d better keep that thing pointed at me!”

     “Oh…” Huncaza said, then did exactly that as he saw Luffy was charging him.

     “Fine! Be that way!” he yelled as he fired all six shots in his pistol’s chamber at Luffy. Luffy took the first five without stopping. But as the sixth bullet came at him, Luffy put up no resistance to its force. He took the bullet and let the force of the impact bend him over backwards. The six bullets which were still inside him suddenly flew straight up into the sky. They headed up at angles, so when they came down they would be nowhere near the kids.

     Luffy stood straight up after the bullets had gone. He resumed his charge and held his hand back.

     “Gomu-Gomu…”

     He brought his fist up for a punch to Huncaza’s gut, but stopped short at the last moment. However, his elastic body had just enough momentum to spring back and forth into Huncaza’s belly a few times.

     “…Paddle Ball!!!”

     As Huncaza started to fall Luffy grabbed his arm and yanked the gun out of his hand. Luffy then threw it to the ground and stomped hard on it, destroying the weapon.

     Huncaza recovered from the attacked before falling to the ground completely and jumped up and over one of the smaller children behind him. He was frustrated. This wasn’t going as he’d expected. He’d researched Luffy thoroughly before he launched this plan.

     Everything, from “Axe-Hand” Morgan to the rumors he’d defeated Sir Crocodile of the Seven Arms of the Sea. His researched had suggested that Luffy wasn’t the type to let people he liked get hurt easily. The same could be said for innocent bystanders. Right now both were present and he was attacking as he normally would.

     Fortunately, Huncaza also realized that Luffy was unpredictable. That he might do exactly what he was doing now. He opened a pouch at his side and removed a set of what looked like brass knuckles with spikes on them. Though they weren’t just spikes. They were the teeth of one of the powerful most sharks on the sea. Capable of tearing through stone and even iron. Close combat was something Huncaza was adept at. And in this confined space, “Straw Hat” Luffy was unable to use his full strength because he was unable to stretch as much as he normally would without risking injury to a child.

     “I’ll have to take you by force then, eh, Captain Monkey?”

     “No you won‘t. We’ll beat you before you can do that.”

     Huncaza couldn’t help but ask.

     “Who’s we?” * * * * *

     When Nico Robin had spotted the burly man sitting behind a tree, he had been momentarily surprised, but reacted quickly. He had reached into a bag at his side and threw some kind of liquid into the eye Robin projected. Whether it was on a tree or not, Robin’s eye was still Robin’s eye. She’d felt a strong burning in her right eye since. She didn’t know it herself, but it was horribly bloodshot.

     If he had something that could do that, Robin didn’t dare use her eyes like that again. Best wait. Wait for her foe to make his move. She didn’t wait long.

     “Well, now, it seems like the game is ready to begin, eh, Miss Nico?”

     Robin didn’t answer.

     “Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Coverque.”

     With that he stepped out. He wasn’t a large man. He wasn’t fat, but was rather bulky. It was obvious although he wore a long overcoat studded from collar to hem with little rhinestones. The coat was rounded at the edges, showing a bit of his cubby body. He seemed to be moving slowly.

     “You obviously know me already.” Robin said, “Not counting that you called me by name. You weren’t so surprised by my Ojos Flor that you couldn’t act. And your weight, if I’m correct, was a factor in making you my opponent.”

     Robin’s physical strength never changed with the use of her powers. No matter how many arms she produced, each arm was just as strong as Robin’s real ones.

     “Though that will do you little good. Cinco Flor!”

     With that five arms appeared, two from the ground and three on the body of her adversary. They bent his arms backwards, wrapped around his legs, and yanked his head back. However, something in his hand caught Robin’s attention. It was a lighter. Though his hand was bent far behind him, he managed to light it and throw it to his left. Before Robin could react she was suddenly hit dead in the face with a huge flash. It made her lose her focus, and her arms vanished into the soil of the forest and Vaquero’s body. It wasn’t hard to figure out he had moved elsewhere in that time.

     “Nice try, Ms. Nico.” Coverque said, “But thanks to my Phospher Streamers you won’t be able to do much.”

     Robin looked around her and saw, through her squinted left eye, bright white pouches strung up from the trees through the forest. She was about to ask herself how she’d missed them, but the answer was obvious. She and Chopper had been following his nose, and had concentrated on the ground when searching for Nami.

     “Even if you weren’t half-blind, these would do you in. The material inside the pouches is what you see flashing. I got them by extracting the phosphorous fluids from inside of creatures that live so deep under the seas their bodies have to create their own light to see with. I’m a master chemist, y’see. With those extracts, I was able to create a formula several times brighter. All it needs, is a little flame to ignite.

     “Worse yet, one of your powers’ limitations, if I’m not mistaken, is that unless you know your whereabouts well, visual contact is vital in creating your limbs.”

     He wasn’t mistaken. In unfamiliar territory, Robin needed to be able to see what she was doing. She hadn’t been in this forest long enough to be able to create parts without looking. It was very clear that this man knew her and her powers very well. They had done research for this. Which meant only one thing. Pirate hunters.

     What other surprises did this person have in store? What other surprises could Robin come up with?









BRIEF AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know that the most common translation seen for the name Shichibukai is "Seven Armed Seas." However, I've always found that to be a bit too literal a translation for my taste. That in mind, I choose to use the slightly less accurate, though, I think, better sounding "Seven Arms of the Sea."