Chapter 3
Kaiden peeked around the corner to assess the situation. He wasn't bullet proof and didn't have anything to stop bullets so he wanted to make sure of the shooter among the pirates location first. He only spotted three clearly pirate figures.
The first was clearly the shooter, scraggly, sunburned, and holding a large and clearly modified rifle. The second was a short woman wearing an apron filled with vials. Their doctor maybe? Though he suspected at least a few of those vials contained poison of some sort. The last was whom he considered to be the captain given the way she was dressed. She'd clearly taken some notes from the marines as he wore a long blue coat with pauldrons hanging off of her shoulders.
He pulled his head back before he was spotted and faced Mira, “Alright the shooter is the first target. He's off to side by himself. I'll run out to distract him so you can get the drop on him. Try and take out his rifle or disable him somehow. Leg and arm shots if you can swing it.”
Kaiden wasn't willing to commit straight murder so he planned to disable the enemy pirates. He might not be willing to kill them but breaking all of their limbs and spines was totally okay by him. He turned to look around the corner once more, his whole body tensing in anticipation. He waited until the gunman, Reed, was looking in a different direction.
The moment he was no longer in Reed's direct line of vision, Kaiden moved. He kicked off the ground with tremendous force and shot off like a rocket so fast that Mira could barely follow him with her eyes. He was faster than most people could follow but not quite Soru fast yet. Even with that being the case, he still caught all three pirates off guard.
Reed, showing his experience as a veteran pirate, instantly reacted to a threat closing in by lifting his rifle to aim at Kaiden. A window shaking boom came from behind Kaiden as Mira took aim and fired her custom designed revolver. No one had even a chance of reacting to her gunfire. Every aspect of her gun had been enhanced to plus ten so it was no shock to Kaiden or Mira when her single bullet slammed into Reed's rifle, shattering it in the process, and kept going.
The bullet passed through Reed like a ten thousand degree knife sliding through butter. The man barely had time to register that he'd been shot before Kaiden had closed the distance between them. Once Reed was in range, Kaiden slammed his foot into the ground and absorbed his own momentum to come to a complete stop instantly.
He didn't let all that momentum go to waste, instead guiding it through his body as he twisted on his foot to build up even more momentum. In a split moment he completed a full three-sixty spin and drove his fist into Reed's right shoulder. There was a sickening crack as the Ryu Nami enhanced punch completely shattered everything in its path flesh, bones, and muscles, even the wall several feet behind Reed shattered from the shock wave.
Reed was launched back, twisting through the air, to slam into and through the broken wall behind him. Kaiden expected he wouldn't be getting up again anytime soon. He quickly looked away from Reed toward the remaining two visible pirates, the only women on the crew, and found himself staring at two well prepared fighters.
The shorter woman in the apron was laughing as she threw two of the vials from her apron in his direction. He didn't think they were anything good at all. He quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction. His choice was proven correct moments later when the two vial collided together in the air and exploded into a cloud of purple tinged black smoke.
People screamed as the thick cloud brushed past where they were being kept and surrounded a few of them. The unlucky souls that inhaled the mixture didn't even have the time to scream or beg before they fell to the ground, dead.
“Damnit Nimble! I told you not to use any of your 'soups' until we got the information we wanted!” came from the shouting woman who appeared to be the captain.
The shorter bedraggled woman looked a little sheepish, “Sorry Cap'n Mora! You know how excited I get when I see someone I just know would love the taste of my soups!”
“I don't care! You know what'll happen if you screw this up!”
Nimble blanched and nodded her head rapidly in response. Mora looked toward where Kaiden had clashed with Reed and saw no one. She showed no concern for her crewman and instead looked specifically for the interloper, “When Garron and Crag return with their captives, you three will hunt down that little bastard while I interrogate the locals.”
“Yes Cap'n!”
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden hid in an alley a good distance away, but still in hearing range of the pirates. His whole body was shaking with adrenaline as he fought down nausea. He'd been in fights, seen his fair share of blood, even a broken bone or two, usually noses. He'd never dealt with something like what had just happened. He felt his fist completely wrecking that guys shoulder, the felt flesh tearing and bones breaking, vividly.
He knew he was strong, super humanly strong even. He'd just not realized what that meant for getting into fights. He'd smashed that guy like a bug. Worse, he knew he could hit even harder. That attack had only used his own momentum and strength. If he added the strength of someone else to it? He shuddered as he imagine the damage his attacks could do to those weaker than himself, which now covered the vast majority of humans the world over.
He shuddered and forced those thoughts to the back of his mind. He was in a life and death fight and he needed to focus on the enemy in front of him. He took a deep breath to brace himself, then turned to look around the corner. His eyes barely had time to register the danger before he jerked back. Even that wasn't enough as a giant ships anchor slammed through the corner of the house he'd been hiding behind and slammed into his left side.
The only saving grace as he was thrown through the air and driven through the side of the house next door was that nothing had broken. All the bones in his legs, arms, and chest had been broken or straight up shattered by Sensei multiple times each. And each time he'd healed them with a good meal or two and medicine making them slightly stronger each time. Even so, that didn't prevent him from being injured by the massive hunk of iron that had just slammed into him with the force of a cannonball.
“I think I got 'im boss-lady!”
“Make sure he's dead Krag, then find his accomplice!”
The now named Krag walked to the destroyed corner of the building while tugging on the anchors chain to reel it back in, “You got it, boss-lady!”
Krag hefted the mutlti-ton anchor like it weighed nothing thanks to the huge muscles of his nearly ten foot tall frame. He grinned, showing off a lot of missing teeth, while calling into the shattered hole Kaiden had made in the wall of the next house, “You 'eard 'er. Time fer ya ta die.”
Kaiden forced himself to his feet, his left side hurt but he could work through it. He turned to look at Krag while calmly wiping blood off of the side of his face that dripped from a small cut on his forehead. He tried to think of something witty to say but was forced to remain silent and dodge. Krag wasn't one to waste time and chose to immediately throw his anchor at Kaiden the moment he saw him.
Kaiden managed to leap to the side and properly catch himself so he could tumble and immediately rise to his feet. He charged through the now heavily damaged living room he'd found himself in, fully intent on getting into melee range of Krag to beat him down.
He was forced to dodge once again when Krag showed a surprising knack for using the chain of the anchor as a whip. The thick chain links clanked loudly with each swing of Krag's arm making the chain dance like a striking snake. Kaiden was forced to focus on dodging the chain while Krag lumbered closer. When the man came in range he instantly swapped from lashing out with the chain, to swinging the anchor like a gigantic mace in an attempt to crush Kaiden into paste.
Kaiden took the opportunity presented. His left hand raced out and deftly intercepted the incoming anchor. Krag was surprisingly fast given his large size but nowhere near as fast as Sensei had been near the end. His touch redirected the anchor away from hitting him while he took the chance to absorb as much of the anchors momentum as he could. Thanks to his efforts the anchor didn't hit the ground nearly as hard as it should have.
With the stolen momentum he repeated the same move he'd used when attacking Reed, only this time it wasn't just the tiny bit of momentum from his own movement he was using. He spun on his left leg, building momentum and adding his own strength to it while lifting his right leg, “Crashing Wave!”
Kaiden's leg crashed into Krag's torso with far more force than Kaiden would have been able to generate on his own. Krag gagged while Kaiden's foot pushed deep into his body and sent a massive shock wave out the other side that obliterated what was left of the wall.
Krag, unfortunately, didn't go flying which allowed him to roar in anger while ripping the anchor out of the ground and swinging it sideways in an attempt to sway Kaiden like a bug. Kaiden ducked under the swing and jumped forward to punch as hard as he could in the same spot he'd kicked previously. The blow caused Krag to grunt in pain but didn't do much else.
Seeing that his anchor wasn't doing anything, Krag actually released his hold on it and switched to trying to pound Kaiden into the ground with his bare hands. That, turned out to be a mistake. The moment Krag launched his first punch, Kaiden was ready to intercept it. The Ryu Nami school specialized in fighting defensively. It's not that the school didn't have some great offensive moves, it's just that it worked infinitely better defensively.
He grabbed as much as he could of Krag's impressive strength while parrying his punch. Kaiden redirected the energy through his body, planted his feet firmly only the ground, and added his strength into the counter attack. His fist flew through the air and slammed into the exact same spot his previous kick had hit. Just as his fist impacted, he gave it a vicious twist and released the pent up energy from both of their attacks.
“Whirlpool.”
The energy traveled through Krag's body in a twisting whirling manner that, if Kaiden was better and more experienced, would have shredded his organs into confetti. As it was the blow still dealt tremendous internal damage and came blasting out the opposite side of Krag's body in a swirling mass of power that completely decimated what remained of the house they were fighting in.
Krag gagged on bile and blood while holding his stomach and falling to his knees. He stared at Kaiden while blood dribbled down his chin until his eyes whited out and he fell face first into the floor, unconscious and barely breathing.
Kaiden took a moment to see if Krag would move again, but when it seemed like he really was out, Kaiden took off. Gunshots had been ringing out the entire time he'd been fighting and he was worried about Mira. He needed to find her immediately to regroup.
-----Line Break-----
Mira watched Kaiden as he ran toward the gunman almost faster than she could track. She grit her teeth at that realization and promised to work on that in the future. For now she had something much more important to do. She lifted the revolver and held it in both of her hands while sighting down it toward Kaiden's target.
As soon as she saw the gunman lift his rifle to aim at Kaiden, she fired with zero hesitation. Kaiden was a big softy, she knew that. After all, if he wasn't there was no way he would have put up with her for so long! It was one of a hundred reasons why she loved the big lug.
The revolver kicked like a mule when she fired it, the enhanced bullet ripping through the air and crashing into and then through the gunman's rifle. She felt no remorse for shooting him. She knew he'd kill both Kaiden and herself given half a chance and she had no intention of being shot by whatever weird ammo hat guy was using.
She ducked back around the corner and popped open the cylinder for the revolver to replace the spent round while she had a moment. She absolutely loved how she had access to Kaiden's weird power. It came in extremely helpful at moments like this, not to mention the sheer amount of clothing she always had on her available at a moments notice. It was a fashion conscious girls wet dream.
With the revolver perfectly prepped, she peeked around the corner and froze in horror seeing the purple-black cloud skimming the edge of where the civilians were being held. She heard their screams when they spotted the victims of the poison gas. She lifted the revolver, fully intent on ending the shorty in the apron but never got the chance as the two massive bruisers on the crew returned with a vengeance.
The shorter of the two, by maybe a foot, swung his giant anchor and threw it at where Kaiden had taken cover. She switched to shoot at that guy, but was once more thwarted as the second guy charged in her direction while pulling out two huge swords. They were massive cutlasses with wavy edges that almost looked like serrations.
She was forced to change her aim and trust in Kaiden to take care of himself. She pulled the trigger as fast as she could getting off all six shots in less than two seconds. She hadn't successfully made what Kaiden called a 'fully automatic' weapon yet so she was stuck with a low rate of fire. Though, compared to the two to three shots per MINUTE most people had, she was firing at an insane rate.
Garron, experienced with being shot at, didn't panic and lifted his swords to use the extremely wide flat sides to intercept the shots. He was shocked by not just the speed of the bullets, but by the power of their impact against his swords. Each hit actually pushed him back a little, forcing him to brace far more than he was expecting. That didn't even take into account how fast the girl was shooting at him!
He'd heard of the revolvers that had recently been developed but they were extremely rare and ungodly expensive. Which would make the girl in front of him well connected and extremely wealthy since he was sure she had half a dozen of the things on her belt. He grinned and licked his lips. Pretty and loaded, just his type.
Mira holstered her spent revolver and whipped out a fresh one. This time, instead of just firing all of her shots rapidly in the same general area, she started aiming for different spots hoping to catch Garron out and stop him from blocking every shot. He definitely had a large enough body that she didn't have to worry about missing any shots that got past his defenses.
Unfortunately for her, Garron proved to be a master with his blades. The large weapons intercepted each and every shot she fired at him. The weapons rang loudly with the impacts but showed no signs of damage. Mira clicked her tongue as she recognized the quality of the swords, Meito. She didn't know which grade they were, but she expected they were at least on the level of the fifty Ryowazamono making them two of the eighty-three greatest swords in the world.
The revolvers had been improved by Kaiden but they hadn't known by how much. He expected that they were at least Meito of the Wazamono level, in other words the lowest level of graded weapons of which there were an unknown number. Well, given how many were in his inventory that was at least a few tens of thousands at minimum, if they truly reached that grade.
Either way, the bullets didn't have enough power to actually damage Garron's swords making them an excellent shield to protect himself from her shots. She found herself in a situation she hadn't expected thanks to the swords durability. Though each of her shots shoved Garron back a small amount from the force of the impacts, he was still gaining ground and closing in on her. She had no choice but to retreat and while she continued to lay down suppressive fire.
She cursed herself for not working harder on creating the semi-automatic handguns Kaiden had described to her. They would be so much easier to load than the revolvers she was using. This was important because she was going to run out of guns before she could get to safety. The speed loaders were nice, but she expected Garron could close the distance between them before she could finish a reload.
She dropped her current revolver, the shells spent, and whipped out the next one in her belt. She began to vary her rate of fire on top of where she aimed, hoping to throw the giant off and get a hit in. Sadly, things did not work out how she wished. Well, there was a plan for that!
She opened Kaiden's inventory and quickly grabbed the item she needed, an improved redesign of her first grenade. She quickly pulled the pin with her teeth while continuing to fire with her other hand. She held the lever, which Kaiden insisted on calling a spoon for some reason, until she made her opportunity.
Swapping to a fresh revolver, leaving her with just two more, he took aim and fired at Garron's head without remorse. Her lips curled into a smirk as Garron did exactly what she wanted, clocked his own vision with his sword to protect himself from the bullets. She let got of the grenades lever and gave it a gentle underhand toss so it would stay low and out of sight when landing by Garron's feet. She kept up the cover fire until the grenade detonated and she learned a valuable lesson.
KRAKABOOM!!
Never stand too close when a grenade goes off.
Mira hadn't checked the distance between them and had tossed out a plus ten grenade without a thought. Even her original prototype's explosion radius would have been slightly dangerous at the current distance between herself and Garron, let alone her much improved versions. The shock wave of the much more powerful version she'd just used literally lifted her off of her feet and sent her flying backward until she slammed into the wall of a house and crumbled to the ground.
She was still conscious, barely, but her whole body hurt and small spots of red were slowly growing as she bled from multiple small shrapnel wounds. If she'd been any closer the wounds would have been even worse. It was her good fortune that she hadn't actually created fragmentation grenades and it was mostly just force and fire her grenades produced.
That was where her good luck ended. The smoke from the grenade cleared quickly to reveal a mildly injured and extremely pissed off Garron. The grenade had managed to burn him and he had some bleeding wounds from what little shrapnel there was, but he was otherwise unharmed. Where before he was indifferent to Mira, he now glared at her with anger and hatred.
With a roar, he charged at her collapsed form, his swords held high and ready to come down on her with a vengeance.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden pushed himself to move even faster at the sound of a grenade going off nearby. It was close enough he could feel the pressure wave from it, but far enough that it would have only ruffled his hair if he was standing still. He knew that the grenade going off was a bad sign. Mira loved explosive devices, as toys, but thought they were too dangerous to actually use in combat. The fact she had spoke volumes of the danger she was in.
Coming around a corner, he got his answer. She was in a very dangerous situation. In an instant he took in the sight of her, down and bleeding, and him over ten feet tall wielding swords half his size and charging at her with murder in his eyes. Kaiden didn't even think. His feet dug into the ground and propelled him as fast as he could in a straight line turning his body into a blur of color. When he got close enough he didn't come to a stop, instead he pushed off hard with his left foot to send himself spinning into the air like a top.
Garron was so focused on his desire to murder Mira that he didn't even notice Kaiden until Kaiden's foot smashed into his back with the force of a battering ram. Kaiden's blow was so strong it bent Garron backwards while bodily lifting him off of the ground and throwing him into, and then through, the wall Mira was collapsed against, just a little above her.
Kaiden wasted no time in scooping Mira up and running deep into the woods outside of the town. They needed to recover and regroup. At least they'd managed to put down two of the enemy pirates though. Maybe three if he hit that big guy hard enough.
-----Line Break-----
Garron growled as he smashed his way out of the house he'd been knocked into causing the whole thing to collapse behind him as he stepped out. He looked around with narrowed enraged eyes for his target and the little shit that had hit him in the back. Unable to spot them, he growled and spit to the side while sheathing his swords, “Cowardly runts.”
He grumpily stalked back to where Captain Mora and Nimble had kept the civilians in line. He spotted a few dead ones contorted into horrible positions, a clear signs of Nimble's 'cooking.' once he stepped close, Captain Mora turned her ice cold gaze toward him, “They dead?”
He grunted, “No. Little shits ran.”
Mora narrowed his eyes and Garron felt a cold shiver go down his spine. Finally, she released him from her gaze and he relaxed slightly, “Disappointing.”
There was a rumbling crash as another house collapsed with Krag walking out of it, his anchor dragging behind him while he held an arm across his stomach. He trundled up to the group while grimacing in pain. Once close enough he spoke, “Reed's dead. Bled out from that bullet 'e took.”
No one said anything but they could all hear Mora's knuckles popping as she gripped her hands into tight fists, “We'll find those two and return the favor soon enough. Business first though.”
No one argued with her. She walked toward the captured people with her coat billowing behind her like a cape. She stood imposingly before them while Garron and Krag towered behind her like two huge walls of muscle. She glared disdainfully at the people before her while she spoke in a deadly calm voice, “Years back, before the Revolutionary Army freed this island, the Marines had a base on this island. I want to know exactly where it was before it was destroyed.”
She lifted her hand up with her palm facing the ground, “For every minute it takes for someone to tell me, I will kill someone among you.” From her palm a thick viscous liquid began to droop, “It will not be a pleasant death.”
Chaos erupted. Screams of fear, exclamations of shock at seeing a Devil Fruit in action, and even shouts of directions. It took a minute but eventually half a dozen people confirmed where the old Marine base used to reside. With her destination set, Mora addressed her minions, “Garron, Krag, you're with me. Nimble, if any of these people tries to leave the plaza, feel free to feed them as much of your 'soup' as you want.”
As a show of force to put the fear of herself into the people, she flicked her hand to the side to send the thick goop flying. As it flew it took on the shape of a large fist and slammed into a nearby building with tremendous force that shattered the wall completely.
There were more screams, but they quickly quieted down at a glare from Mora. She pointed at two of the men who'd told her where the Marine base used to be located, “You two, lead the way.”
The two men were grabbed by Garron and Krag who then proceeded to drag them away from the others to fall into step behind Mora while the prisoners gave directions.
-----Line Break-----
Mira winced as Kaiden pulled the last bandage tight and tied it off. She didn't have too many wounds and none of them were particularly bad, but all of them had bled a fair amount. Still, she wasn't out of the fight now that her head had cleared up. She silently admonished herself for forgetting exactly how many loaded guns she had access to with Kaiden's power. She needed to remember that because she felt like an idiot for forgetting that, yet still remembering she could grab grenades.
Clearly she lacked critical thinking skills while in the middle of combat. Something she would be berating herself over for a long time.
With Kaiden finished taking care of her injuries, she began to return the favor. Kaiden hadn't bled as much as she had, but the damage to his left side from Krag's anchor had him winning in the damage department. For a level of 'winning' at injuries anyway.
While she worked he spoke, “We got at least two of them down, that only leaves the last three. The weakest, and yet deadliest, seems to be that short woman in the apron. Poison is no joke and we don't have anything to help against it if we get caught in it. We'll have to take her out from a distance.” He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, “I'll do that.”
Mira studied his face but didn't say anything against it. That woman was scary as hell and they both knew it. His eyes focused on hers, “That means you'll need to take on that big guy again while I take on the captain.”
She grimaced and looked away, “I didn't do so good against him last time.”
Kaiden gripped her shoulders and made her look at him, “It was your first real fight, it's okay that you weren't perfect. Just learn from it and move on.”
She frowned, “You did great though.”
He snorted, “Yeah, that's why half my body is one giant bruise. Just don't forget that you have thousands of loaded guns you can pull out and use to your hearts content. If you're going to use grenades, do so while he's still a safe distance away. Don't let him get close, wear him down from a distance. Remember, no one else in the world can do what you can, no one else even come close to being able to fire three hundred and sixty rounds per minute! Just hose him down with lead until he can't stand anymore!”
And wasn't that a disgusting thought for everyone else in the world? A normal person using a revolver could fire about three shots per second. Mira could dual wield to double that to six. With no need to stop to reload, she could swap weapons in a second or less and continue to fire. He expected that even the greatest gunman in the world would have a fire rate of only twelve rounds a minute if they could reload their pistol in just five seconds. Professional soldiers took ten to fifteen seconds, for reference.
Mira slowly nodded and accepted what Kaiden said. She might not be a sharpshooter, but she could definitely do 'spray and pray' as Kaiden called it. He just needed to remind her of that fact. She swallowed, took a deep breath, and firmed her resolve, “Right. I can take him.”
Kaiden nodded, he had full faith in Mira to pull it off. With her part decided, it was his turn. He opened his inventory and scrolled to an item he'd not really ever wanted to use. He'd taken some time to work closely with Mira on the design of a rifle, one that could be used for long distance shooting, something the world was not used to at all.
The rifle, and it was a rifle in every meaning of the word, was a magazine fed bolt action rifle. It had been their first step on the path of making an automatic rifle. It took a lot of experimenting to get it right because Kaiden was not a gun nut in his last life. He knew a lot through osmosis, television (History Channel), and YouTube, but he couldn't have built it by himself. Mira had come to the rescue using her intelligence to pick up where his memories failed.
Mira silently looked at the rifle in Kaiden's hand but didn't say anything. People's lives were on the line, some had already died, so she had no qualms about him using one of their deadlier weapons. Not to mention she tried not to be a hypocrite as much as possible and given her own usage of a grenade...
The two checked their gear and started to make their way back to town.
-----Line Break-----
Mora marched with Garron and Krag, being led by their captives in silence. It took some time, but eventually the men led the pirates to where the Marine base once stood. Now there was a large building in its place that looked like some sort of commercial district. One of the captives pointed at the building, “This is where it used to be. After it was destroyed we built something much more useful in its place. There's nothing of the old Marine base left.”
Mora looked at the newer building, then turned to Garron and nodded. Garron acted instantly, his two swords whipping out of their sheaths and instantly carving through the two men. Their bodies fell to the ground, never to rise again.
Mora didn't even pay attention to the new corpses and instead turned to Krag, “Tear it down.”
Krag grinned from ear to ear while he hefted his giant anchor up and began swinging it around by the chain. With a roar he sent it crashing into the building like a wrecking ball. Stone and wood shattered beneath the weight and power of the anchor. It took Krag less than five minutes to level the entire building by shattering it into small pieces.
Mora lifted both of her hands and aimed them at the rubble. The same goop she'd shown previously launched from her hands with great force and transformed into a slightly curved wall that planted one edge on the ground so it could be used to push the rubble away. In a matter of moments all of the rubble had been cleared out leaving noting but the flat foundation.
Mora generated more of her goop and had it cover the entire foundation. This made it easy for her to find the hairline cracks in the stone where a trap door was cleverly hidden. With no effort at all, her goop lifted the trap door open and revealed a staircase leading down into the dark. Mora grinned darkly, “So, he was right. Good.”
Together the trio entered the hidden staircase and descended into the dark.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden and Mira frowned from their hiding spot. They'd just gotten to where the captives were being held and found only one of the pirates standing guard, the short one with the crazy hair and poison gas vials. On the one hand, that made saving the people a lot easier. On the other hand, they could only spot the body of the gunman and no one else. That meant the guy Kaiden thought he'd beaten was not so defeated.
Kaiden didn't dwell on the future three on two fight and instead focused on freeing the civilians. Without them as leverage the remaining pirates would be easier to deal with. He gently set the rifle on the top of the wall they were hidden behind and carefully aimed with the iron sights. He hadn't a clue how to go about making a scope other than 'curved glass somehow causes magnification,' which basically anyone who'd seen a spyglass knew.
He took his time to aim since the woman seemed more focused on playing with the vial in her hand than actually watching over the captives. Given they were all utterly terrified it made sense that none had tried to escape. He wanted to just disable her, maybe shoot her in the shoulder or something, but he couldn't risk it. If she recovered fast she could hurl who knew what kind of poisons everywhere and kill a lot of people.
He had to take her down.
He took a deep breath and swore to himself that he would try to prepare for all kinds of scenarios in the future. There was no excuse for him not to carry things like gas masks when he had all the space he could ever require. If he had one right now, he could have beat her up instead of... But that didn't matter.
He held his breath and gently squeezed the trigger. It was strange. He didn't hear the gunshot at all. Rather, all of his focus was on watching while the bullet slammed into the woman's chest with enough force to throw her back and onto the ground. He sat there, frozen, his mind blank, while a pool of blood began to spread from her body.
He didn't come out of it until the townsfolk jumped to their feet and began cheering. He shook it off, for now, and stored the rifle away. If he never had to use it again it would be too soon. He did not like what he had done and never wished to do it again.
Mira remained silent, though she did look concerned whenever she glanced in his direction. She clearly had no idea what to say to comfort her best friend and chose to silently be there for him if, no when, he needed to talk about what he'd just done. This whole thing was showing her the truth of what they would encounter on the path to their dreams. It was scary, and depressing, and she didn't like it one bit. Even so, she would stand by Kaiden and push through it because it was what the world required of her to show what she was made of and what she could do!
Kaiden and Mira moved out of their hiding spot and made their way toward the locals. Most had already taken off and run for the hills, only a few had stuck around. As they drew close and older man with gray hair and a scraggly beard looked at them with a mixture of caution and hope. Once they stepped close, he addressed the pair, “You're the ones who attacked the pirates before.” He narrowed his eyes at them, “I don't know you.”
Kaiden took the lead since Mira wasn't so great with strangers, or at least male strangers, “I'm Kaiden, this is Mira. We just stopped to explore on our way to the Briss Kingdom when all this started. We couldn't just let the pirates get away with what they were doing, so we stepped in to help.”
The old man studied them closely, clearly still suspicious, despite what they'd done so far, “If that's true, then you should know where they were headed. They were interested in the old Marine base that was destroyed years ago. We built over it but I can show you where.”
Mira looked toward Kaiden, “Before we go...”
She didn't finish and instead went over to where the gunman's body was located. She quickly took the bag he was carrying and dug through it, depositing items from it into his inventory, including the pieces of his broken rifle. Once she finished, she returned to Kaiden's side. At his questioning look, she explained, “I want to know what was so special about his ammunition. It was... unnatural and I want to know how it was made so I can counter it.”
Kaiden nodded in understanding. While Mira was focused on being an engineer, she was smart enough to learn from other disciplines as well, such as chemistry. She knew a lot of useful little things, like how to make her own gunpowder from scratch.
The old man quickly led them to where the old Marine base was once located. As they walked, he told the pair everything he'd witnessed from the pirates. When they arrived, he stared in shock at the complete destruction of the building that had once been there. He was even more shocked when he spotted the open trap door. He pointed at it, “I suppose that is what they were after. I wasn't aware there was something like that.”
Kaiden studied the trap door and frowned. Going into the dark unknown did not sound like a good idea to him. Close quarters would put Mira at a big disadvantage and possibly give their enemy a large advantage, especially with the Devil Fruit ability the Captain had displayed. Some kind of liquid or syrup-type power would make capturing and drowning them super easy in an enclosed space.
Alternatively, he looked around the wide open area where the building had once been located. With the wide open space, Mira would have no trouble kiting the man with the swords out in the open. It would also give Kaiden plenty of room to maneuver and put his Ryu Nami style to work fighting against two opponents at once.
The biggest problem was the Captain. He didn't know which Devil Fruit she had. The description reminded him of that one movie villain Queen Bee? Whatever he name was, she could turn into some kind of liquid and was a Logia. From the description, the pirate Captain might also have a Logia, which would be a huge problem for them. He was hoping deep down inside, that she was actually a Paramecia. They would only know once they got into a fight.
He turned to his companions. He started with the local, “Thanks for the help old man, go back to your friends and family. We'll take it from here.” His gaze shifted to Mira, “Find a spot to ambush the swordsman from. He'll be your responsibility. I'll take care of the last two.”
Mira nodded with determination and walked toward the edge of the empty area where all the rubble had been piled up. The old man took the advice and vacated the area. Kaiden, meanwhile, stood near the center of the open area and stared at the open entrance to the secret chamber. He didn't know what was going on down there, but he would be ready when they came out.
-----Line Break-----
Mora stood in front of a massive vault door and smirked at the combination lock on it. She calmly placed her hand on the lock and fed some of her goop into the mechanism. She didn't even need to turn the dial as he goop rearranged the interior of the lock to the proper alignment with a click. After stepping back, a gesture from her had both Garron and Krag spinning the massive wheel to retract the thick steel bars.
Both men tugged on the multi-ton door until it swung open to reveal the interior. There was piles of money and even some gold bars stacked off to one side. On the other was an array of decent looking weapons. It would require a closer look to see if any were worthwhile.
However, the true prize was located against the back wall of the vault. There, against the safe wall, was a table laden with multiple items. Each one a different experimental device that was being designed in the middle of the war against the Revolutionary Army. She didn't look at any of those though. Her full attention was captured by three unique pieces.
She walked over to the table where her hands hovered over, but did not touch, the pieces. The first was a strange sphere with honeycomb like structures and tunnels within it making it look like someone twisted a honey comb into a ball. The second piece was a ring just big enough for the first piece to fit comfortably inside of. The final piece was a cylinder filled with complex machinery and wires that the ring looked like it could be attached to.
“You gunna take 'em boss?”
Mora turned to look at Krag, “They're made of Seastone, of course I'm not going to touch them!” She huffed to looked at Garron, “Pick up the pieces of the Resonator and protect them with your LIFE! If they get so much as a scratch you will beg for death and happily die before I am through with you.”
Even though he towered nearly twice as tall as More, Garron swallowed deeply and nodded seriously at the threat. He'd seen plenty of what she could do to people over the years and he had no interest in being on the receiving end of her powers when she was pissed off.
Garron very carefully collected the pieces and stored them in a nearby trunk after emptying it of the clothing it contained. Why there was clothing in a vault like this one, he had no idea, but it might have something to do with all the pearls embroidered into it. He packed some of the clothing back in to act as cushioning for the parts of the machine.
While Garron worked, Krag spoke up, “I still don't get what the big deal is 'bout this thing.”
Mora glared at Krag, “You don't need to know. All you need to know is it's an ancient device worth more than your life!” She looked at the chest the device was being packed into, “And if it works like he said, it will give him all the power he needs to claim the One Piece.”
If she thought for a single moment that she could get away with double crossing him, she'd steal the device for herself and hunt down someone to repair it and get it working. The power to disable any and every Devil Fruit in a fixed area was a game changer. She shook her head, muttering under her breath, “I can't believe he found Uranus.”
Once their main target was packed and protected, they began looking over what loot remained. Mora finally grinned as she examined the stacks of Belly and gold bars, until Krag called out, “Boss! Ain't this one of them Devil Fruit things?”
He held a small chest out toward her and sure enough, sitting on a silk pillow, was a Devil Fruit. The fruit had the size and shape of a Durian but with the expected swirls a T-shaped stem. Mora snatched it out of Krag's hands and cackled, “It is! Excellent! Even if it's an unknown one it will sell for at least a hundred million!” She snapped the lid of the small chest closed and deposited it into an inner pocket of her coat, “Good work, Krag. Now pack this stuff up and let's go. We're going to party tonight!”
That earned her dual roars of excitement from Garron and Krag. The three of them grabbed their loot and began their trek back out of the hidden Marine research center.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden stood with his arms crossed and his eyes closed as he silently meditated to calm his mind and prepare himself for the coming conflict. He hadn't planned to do so, but the pirates were taking their sweet time doing whatever they were doing. Part of him wanted to charge in there and get it over with, but he knew what a mistake that would be so he held himself back and began his meditation to remain calm and composed.
Is ears twitched catching the sound of heels on stone coming from the staircase. His eyes snapped open and focused like a laser on the open trap door. He didn't have to wait much longer. The captain was the first to step out carrying a sack over her shoulder. She was quickly followed by her two huge crewman each carrying a sack with the slightly bigger of the two also holding a vest.
Mora was the first to spot him and she scowled heavily, “You.”
That was as much as she managed to say before every other sound was drown out by a rain of gunfire coming from the side. Garron dropped his chest and bag to grab his swords and defend himself. He moved shockingly fast, but not fast enough. He kept himself alive but several bullets had slammed into his upper chest and arms before he could react. Even so, he wasn't out of the fight. His overly thick muscles saved his life, but he was still hurt and it showed in his movements not being nearly as well coordinated as they had previously been.
Kaiden didn't just stand around twiddling his thumbs while Mira opened up a hail of gunfire on her target. The instant the first gunshot had rung out, he moved. His body became a blur of color when he launched himself toward his first target, Krag. The massive man had more time to react than his partner allowing him to drop his loot and bring his anchor to bear before Kaiden could close the distance between them.
When Kaiden closed into melee range, Krag swung his anchor with both arms as if it were a baseball bat and he fully intended to score a home run with Kaiden's broken body. Kaiden didn't let the presented opportunity go to waste. He jumped into the air and inverted himself so he could reach out and let his hand touch the anchor as it swished by beneath him. Such was the force of Krag's full strength swing that just the lightest touch sent Kaiden into a rapid spin midair. Kaiden took in all the momentum and strength that he could before dumping it all into a kick as he lashed out at Krag's neck with his leg.
There was a sickening crack followed by a massive blast of air when Kaiden's leg impacted Krag's neck. Kaiden rebounded from the powerful kick and flipped backward to land in a crouch a short distance from Krag.
Krag stood for a few more moments before he collapsed to his knees and then onto his face. The unnatural angle of his neck meant he wouldn't be getting up ever again.
Kaiden slowly climbed to his feet trying to hide a grimace as pain raced through his left leg. He'd over exerted it in that last attack. He turned to face Mora and was instantly swept off of his feet and slammed into a pile of rubble by a wave of thick goop.
“You bastard! Do you have any idea who you're fucking with?! I am going to kill you and every last person on this island! You're all going to die drowning and screaming in agony!”
Kaiden managed to get his hands on a large chunk of debris and used it to rip himself out of the thick goop he'd been hit with. He glanced at Mora and hid a sigh of relief. She was covered in the transparent goop but hadn't transformed into it which led him to believe it was most likely a Paramecia. She could emit and control the goop but couldn't transform into it.
Good. It meant he could fight her!
-----Line Break-----
Mira stood near some rubble from the destroyed building, hidden but with a clear view of the trap door. She fidgeted, checking the chamber of the revolver in her hand for the hundredth time. The number of unspent shells hadn't changed since the last time she checked. She was mostly doing it because she found opening and closing the cylinder to be comforting.
Her gaze snapped to the trap door when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She glared at her target, the largest of the three people and the only one carrying a traditional weapon. She didn't waste any time pulling a second revolver from Kaiden's inventory and jumping to her feet. She proceeded to open fire pulling both triggers as fast as she could to ambush her target.
She blew through the six rounds in each gun in seconds, then dropped them to retrieve two new ones that she proceeded to empty again. She didn't care how many guns she was using or how fast she was using them. There were literally tens of thousands of them sitting in Kaiden's inventory waiting for her to use them. She had the firepower of an entire army at her beck and call. She fully planned to use it to its fullest extent!
She noted that her ambush had managed to injure the giant man, Garron, but hadn't taken him down. With his swords in hand, her gunshots became far less threatening. She did note that his injuries were slowing him down and took that as a minor win that tilted things in her favor. Still, she wasted no time in retreating away from the advancing Garron while leaving a trail of spent weapons behind her.
Garron focused through the pain of his wounds to keep deflecting and blocking the hail of bullets raining down on him. He grit his teeth and wondered just what the hell was up with the guns the little girl was using against him. Most normal guns could barely penetrate past his skin yet hers had dug deep and were causing him trouble even now.
Only Reed had ever managed to hurt him with a bullet wound before and his Desert Rounds were deadly to everyone. Not to mention, “Where the hell are you getting so many guns?!” he bellowed.
Seriously! Where the hell had she come across so many revolvers?! He'd heard of them before but not only were they rare as hell, they were also expensive as hell. He only knew of a single gunsmith in all of the South Blue who even produced them and he only produced a handful each year since he invented them! They were so rare he'd never seen one in person, only heard about a bounty hunter who had one in the Grand Line.
So what the hell was going on?! She'd already emptied and dropped more revolvers than should have existed in the whole world! It made no goddamn sense and it was beginning to piss him off!
“Stop shooting at me and fight me you cheap whore!”
He didn't think she would hear him over the sound of gunfire, but he was wrong as a moment later there was silence. He finally had a moment to focus on the girl rather than his defense and he instantly wished she'd go back to shooting at him.
Why?
Because there were already half a dozen of her weird grenades flying through the air toward him. He'd seen grenades before and he'd never been impressed by them. Little iron balls filled with gunpowder and a fuse. Light the fuse and toss it. Stupid and unreliable, not to mention a little water rendered them completely useless.
Her grenades though? He didn't see any fuse at all. The first time she'd used one he hadn't recognized what it was until it had exploded. Now, seeing a half dozen flying at him, he felt like right about then might be an appropriate time to shit himself. If she had as many grenades as she had revolvers... He knew he was tough as hell with muscles like iron, but even he wasn't THAT tough!
For the first time in years, ever since his one aborted attempt to enter the Grand Line, he turned and ran away.
It didn't save him.
He bore through the heat and pressure of the first explosion. He only stumbled a little from the second. The third nearly knocked him over. The fourth did. The fifth sent him sprawling. The sixth rattled him as he curled into a ball to try and defend himself. The seventh rocked his whole body and made him dizzy. The eighth sent his whole body rolling. He lost count at the ninth as the shock wave gave him a concussion and the flames burned his flesh. The tenth at last rendered him unconscious.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden jumped off of the pile of debris and landed back on flat ground, making sure to land on his right leg to give his left a bit of a reprieve. Mora stood, covered in her goop, and glared hatefully at him. There would be no repartee between them, so he didn't bother speaking and immediately went on the offensive.
He dashed as fast as he could toward Mora and lashed out with a right hook. Mora didn't move, she didn't need to. Her goop instantly transformed and became an array of hardened spikes covering her from head to toe. Kaiden had punched things even after those things had broken all the bones in his hands, some spikes were not about to stop him! He drove his fist forward and slammed it into the side of Mora's head.
Things did not quite go how either of them expected. Kaiden's fist hit the spikes with the full force of his blow, breaking them while they lacerated his fingers in return. He'd expected that. What he hadn't expected was for the viscous goop around Mora's head to automatically harden when his fist slammed into it.
For her part, Mora expected Kaiden to destroy his hand on her spikes. Even if he managed to somehow get through those she expected that the gel produced by her Neri Neri no Mi would harden under his blow and protect her as it always had from similar idiots. She was partially correct. Her gel did, in fact, harden as expected and provide her with protection. It just wasn't enough. She felt the impact of his fist against the side of her face, the blow slamming her teeth together and whipping her head to the side.
After landing his blow, Kaiden quickly retreated and frowned while looking at his hand. Hitting her hadn't felt right. Not in a 'I could never hit a woman' sort of way. He was with Kazuma on that front. No, the impact itself had been strange. Somehow the goop she surrounded herself with had absorbed far more of his blow than he would have believed possible.
Mora slowly wiped a small dribble of blood from her chin and glared at Kaiden. She was clearly intent on murdering him. To help with that she lifted both of her hands and aimed her palms at him. The gel on her hands changed shape to become needle sharp points, “Neri Neri no spear!”
The points on her palms launched out toward Kaiden, growing shafts behind them, until they broke off from Mora's hands. They flew through the air fast enough to causing a whistling sound, but nowhere near fast enough to pose a threat to Kaiden. Curious, he dodged one spear and caught the second.
As he held the spear it quickly began to sag and deform. The ones needle sharp tip drooped like a candle until the whole spear dripped through his fingers. The experience caused Kaiden's eyes to widen as he realized what he was dealing with. It was a non-Newtonian fluid! It was like Oobleck, a mixture of cornstarch and water. In essence, the harder he hit it, the harder it would become. It was also obvious that she could harder the Oobleck-like material at will as well making it rather dangerous and highly defensive.
That was so goddamn cool! Also, very dangerous for him as a martial artist. He had no idea what the limit of the fruits power was and expected he wouldn't be able to find out fast enough.
He smirked and curled his hands into fists. Time to use the Luffy method.
He launched himself toward Mora and drove his fist into her spike covered face once more.
Hit.
He didn't let up and pulled his right back while driving his left forward for another powerful blow.
It.
He alternated blows between his fists in a non-stop flurry of powerful punches that jerked Mora's head from side to side while shredding his fists and sending his blood flying.
HARDER!
He rained non-stop blows on Mora until he couldn't feel his hands, until he was certain he'd broken at least a few bones in each one. With a bellow, he put every ounce of strength he could into a right cross. The blow shattered the hardened gel around Mora's head and crashed into her cheek with enough force to send her entire body spinning through the air. She spun until she slammed hard into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust that hid her from view.
Kaiden tilted his head back while gasping for air. He'd put everything he could into attacking and he was exhausted. He jerked as his legs were suddenly gripped tightly and he was lifted off of the ground. He quickly looked down and was shocked to see his legs wrapped in Mora's gel. A thick stream of it lead away from his legs to where Mora was laying on the ground, one of her eyes already swollen shut and he chin covered in blood from a split lip. She definitely looked worse for wear.
Kaiden started to move but Mora was ahead of him this time. Her gel rapidly wrapped around his entire body then swelled into a ball that he was trapped in the center of. Kaiden found himself suspended in the air and surrounded by gel that he could barely move in and definitely couldn't exert any force against. He was trapped and unable to breathe.
He clamped his hands around his mouth as he panicked. He couldn't think of anything inside of his inventory that could help with this situation. It wasn't like scuba gear was something commonly available! His head jerked back and forth as he looked for something, anything, that could help him while trying to think of a way out of the apparently hopeless situation he found himself in.
-----Line Break-----
Mira looked down at the heavily damaged, yet somehow still alive, body of Garron and gave him a swift kick in the nuts, “Call me a whore will you? Bastard.”
Her punishment doled out, she quickly ran back toward Kaiden. As she approached she could hear the sounds of fighting. She came to a stop as soon as she caught sight of the fight between Kaiden and Mora. If it could be called a fight. It looked like a one sided beat down with Kaiden whaling on Mora's face in a non-stop barrage of punches.
She watched, wide eyed, as Kaiden threw his final punch and hit with so much force he sent Mora flying until she crashed into rubble a dozen or more feet away. Was it over? She looked around and spotted the corpse of Krag. That made five, all of the pirates were down!
She laughed lightly and began making her way toward Kaiden, fully intent on kissing his brains out. Unfortunately, her daydreams of hours long make out sessions were brutally murdered when Kaiden was suddenly captured within a ball of Mora's goop right in front of Mira's eyes. She saw him struggling and knew he couldn't breath. He was going to drown!
Adrenaline and rage flooded her system. She spun on her heels and drew a revolver from the inventory. It took her no time at all to aim and fire all six shots directly at Mora's chest. She stared, in shock and horror, at the sight of all six bullets being stopped and seemingly floating in the goop surrounding Mora's body.
She was bulletproof.
Mira's mind went into overdrive as she tried to think of something to help save Kaiden. Then, she remembered the single most horrific death she'd ever witnessed. With speed born of desperation, she opened the inventory once more and dug through it until she found the item she needed. Kaiden probably didn't even remember they were there, she was the one to put them there after all. With the items in hand, she ran straight over to Kaiden and shoved her hands into the goop, not realizing what she had accomplished.
Mora didn't waste the chance and entrapped Mira the very next moment. Mira didn't care. Instead, she was focused on pushing her hand into Kaiden's.
Kaiden, now even more panicked with Mira trapped next to him, took a few seconds longer than necessary to realise Mira had shoved something into his hand. It... Did she give him a bullet? What was he supposed to do with a bullet of all things?! He highly doubted that shooting a Devil Fruit powered non-Newtonian fluid would have any effect at all!
The only thing that kept him from losing his mind was knowing Mira as well as he did. She was far from stupid. There had to be a reason she gave him the bullet. Focusing on it, he realized it wasn't one of their bullets. It was so similar that he'd been confused at first. After all, very few people the world over actually used cartridge bullets. This one though, was far too large to be one of theirs.
So, if it wasn't one of theirs... The gunman! The strange ammo he used that left that poor man as a desiccated husk! This had to be one of his bullets! Whatever made it work had to be inside the bullet, right? Otherwise it would already be doing something. So, he crushed the bullet in his hand.
The reaction was instant. He could feel the skin of his hand drying out so he snapped it open. The results spoke for themselves. Whatever it was that those bullets contained was a truly powerful desiccant. It rapidly drained all the moisture within Mora's gel leaving it as nothing but a dry and very brittle sand-like solid. A solid that Kaiden had no issue shattering to free himself and Mira.
Mora stared in shock, “How did...?” Which rapidly transformed into rage, “Killing Reed wasn't enough?! You had to desecrate his body and steal his stuff?!”
Kaiden didn't answer, nor did he give Mora a chance to do anything else. Mira handed him a second bullet and he charged at Mora with it in hand. It was time to end this! He crushed the second bullet in his hand just before slapping Mora across her face and spreading the desiccant as much as he could. The gel protecting her head instantly dried up and turned to powder that got into her eyes and blinded her. She had no hope of stopping him as Kaiden spun around on one leg, his torso bending, and his other leg coming up at high speed to slam his heel into her head.
There was a resounding crack of bone breaking when Kaiden's foot shattered Mora's jaw and sent her spinning through the air like a top once again. This time, when Mora crashed to the ground, he made sure she was completely out.
Kaiden, grinning from ear to ear, threw his hands into the air and shouted at the top of his lungs, “WE WOOOOOON!!”
-----Line Break-----
AN
10.8k words, and I still need a good title for this one folks!
Also, let me know how this turned out. It's the first time I've really gone all in on multiple points of view and my ability to do so will be important as more characters are introduced and more simultaneous battles happen.
Below this is just some thoughts I had, they can be ignored. Lol.
I've been re-watching One Piece from the beginning, just a few episodes at a time on my projector before bed. It's kind of awesome seeing the show on my wall as at least an 80inch screen. Anyway! Re-watching it I realized something kind of funny. Oda knew exactly how strong Zoro and Sanji were and knew they were way too strong for the East Blue as the 'weakest' sea. So, he nerfed them for every battle they participated in for the whole Romance Dawn Arc.
For Zoro he started by starving the hell out of the guy for WEEKS before the fight against Captain Morgan. Otherwise Zoro would have decimated that whole base easily. For Baratie he fought Mihawk, no nerf necessary, but he used Mihawk as the nerf hammer for the next part, Arlong Park. Without Mihawk damn near slicing him in half, Zoro would have whopped every last fishman's ass solo with one sword.
For Sanji, he held Zeff (Sanji's Father in all ways that matter) at gunpoint so Pearl could whollop the shit out of Sanji before he fought Ghin, the first mate of the Krieg Pirates who proceeded to shatter a couple of his ribs. After which, Luffy became his nerf hammer by being stupid and getting tossed into the ocean at Arlong Park, leading to Sani getting walloped by Kuroobi for a bit in the ocean. Otherwise, Sanji would have laughed while kicking the crap out of the fishman karate practitioner.
Neither got to really show off until the Arabasta Arc where they didn't have to be heavily nerfed BEFORE their fights since they had good opponents.
That just kind of tickled me to realize.
Anyway, since we have no idea what Uranus is, I made one up! In this case, Uranus is a Seastone Resonance Device which creates a mobile energy field that has the same effect as Seastone itself. In short, anyone/thing within 200 meters of the device that has a Devil Fruit power, is disabled as if they were directly touching Seastone itself.
Just imagine the effect something like that would have if deployed during something like the Summit War. Everyone with a Devil Fruit would suddenly be useless, which was almost every single powerful person there on either side. Only a select few such as Garp and Mihawk would have been unaffected. Imagine how devastating Garp alone would be with the SRD. It would have been laughably easy for him to take down Whitebeard, Marco, Jozu, Blamenco and everyone else that fought against the Marines.
BTW! If you don't know who Blamenco is off the top of your head, that's fine. But, he'd the guy with the Poke Poke no Mi, the Pocket Pocket fruit that allows him to make pockets on his body and store tings inside of them regardless of size. Which he, naturally, uses to pull a giant ass mallet from his chin. Heh.
OH! And Don't freak out about Kaiden and Mira getting the SRD and being OP gods with it, that shit does NOT work and will take some serious effort and knowledge to get working. So, for now, it's more of a MacGuffin than anything else.