One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed Island of the Devil Fruit Gods ❯ Titans ( Chapter 22 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Luffy's punch connected with Daikyojin's face squarely, completely catching him off-guard. After all, what shape-changing giant would ever expect someone to equal their size and attack them without warning? A loud crack was heard, Daikyojin's nose dripping human-size droplets of blood as he fell hard into the side of the cliffs above the Paramecian village, crumbling most of it as he lay back and coughed, sputtering, trying to fathom what had just happened. It hadn't been Ryuumaoh, even now the dragon man was shrinking back down to his normal size and cowering, trying to fight off the pain of his new wounds. Sanji carried Chiyu over to him, promising to protect both of them while the battles raged.
Daikyojin righted himself and looked around. Luffy was still floating, airborne, surprising Daikyojin. "How in the world are you able to do that?!" Daikyojin snarled. Pulling back his humongous fist, he attempted to crush Luffy by following the trail of his arm, but Luffy's arm quickly shrank back down to normal and Daikyojin's punch soared narrowly over his head, missing. But Luffy didn't stop there at dodging, he quickly came right back with another strike, pumping the air into his leg and kicking upward, slamming his foot into Daikyojin's chin, once again knocking the giant-man down. "Gomu Gomu no Giant Stamp!"
Daikyojin's back was bleeding from all the rocks in the mountain cutting into his skin. His only remaining piece of clothing was a ceremonial-looking loincloth, so he had no protection from attacks like Ryuumaoh's scaled had provided. The two leaders were like opposite sides of a coin; one of them relied heavily on defense, Ryuumaoh, and the other relied heavily on offense, Daikyojin. "What...are you?" Daikyojin growled, trying to find Luffy, standing up again. This time Luffy's inflated face slammed into Daikyojin's, completely breaking the giant's nose and sending him collapsing face-down against the shattered remnants of the cliffs.
"Gomu Gomu no Giant Bell!" Luffy roared. He was starting to wear down quickly, he realized, panting, and he would be shrinking from the effects of Gear 3 shortly. "I am a Gomu-Gomu no human!" he answered Daikyojin's question as the giant-man sat up and wiped the blood from his nose, spitting.
"You've got amazing abilities. It's a shame you're using them against me, or I might have considered welcoming you into my tribe, even if you are an outsider. Tell me, Gomu-Gomu human...why do you fight for Ryuumaoh? What can he offer you to throw your life away challenging me?" Daikyojin inquired irritably. Frankly he didn't care, he just wondered why things had turned out so strangely.
"I'm fighting for my nakama! For Robin and Usopp and the others, and my new friends!" Luffy declared. "You woke me up with your loud voice, you jerk! And you were hitting that cool dragon-man when he wouldn't hit back! That's not fair! So even though you're a super-cool giant-man, I'll hit you as hard as I can!"
Daikyojin, like so many others, had no idea how to take what Luffy had said. He began to laugh. "You're a fool, I can see. Well, this is no time to be talking. You've hit me thrice now and I intend to pay you back ten-fold." Daikyojin cracked his knuckles.
"Bring it on!" Luffy snorted. Unfortunately his head began to swim and he felt himself shrinking. "Oh no, I'm going chibi!" he gasped.
Daikyojin watched in wonder as Luffy's body became roughly 1/4 of its normal size. Daikyojin cackled, taunting Luffy. "I see now! Your rubber powers allow you to inflate your limbs but once you run out of power, you shrink in size rather than going back to normal! A big trade-off, and risky, if you don't finish your opponent with that upsurge of power. I, on the other hand, don't have such a pitiful weakness. Good-bye, filth." he raised his foot, preparing to crush Luffy under his titanic heel.

"You would turn against us, Queen?" the six soldiers frowned as Robin joined her companions facing them.
"I was never on your side, I was only playing the part until all of my friends could arrive. I'm sorry to have deceived you, but I needed to gain more information about this island and I thought it best if I remained here as your Queen rather than as a prisoner." Robin smiled.
"Your deceit will spell the end for you! Lord Daikyojin already warned you once that your friends would not be tolerated here, and if you stand against him and us, your execution was promised! And we will be your executioners!" the six fumed.
"Well there are six of you, and six of us. So why don't we settle this with one-on-one fights?" Robin suggested. "I never did have an opportunity to teach you all teamwork."
"As you wish...we'll destroy you all one at a time with our superior powers!" the six declared confidently.
"Fan out!" Nami cried. "We can't afford to crowd each other! Just do what you did in the Zoan village and kick their butts!"
"Ha! You expect us to believe you triumphed over the Zoans so easily? You must have tricked their primitive brains!" one of the six, a woman, stuck her tongue out. Each soldier picked a Straw Hat to tangle, and they all spread out, preparing to fight.

Zoro's opponent was lauching and licking his lips, smirking. "Nice swords...I'll add them to my collection." He was weilding two swords of his own.
"Shut up and make a move." Zoro snapped, drawing his swords. A sharp slash cut across his cheek before he knew what had hit him; a small cloud of dust whipped up around one of the six and he vanished. Zoro blinked, but then closed his eyes and listened. The wind had picked up behind him; he whirled around and narrowly blocked his opponent's two swords from catching him. But these were no ordinary swords he was blocking; they were both whirring and spinning like electric power drills. Zoro glared into the eyes of his opponent, who had a tattoo of a whirlwind around his left eye. "What the hell is that all about?" Zoro slashed upwards hard and separated the two of them. In the blink of an eye, a small sandstorm kicked up and his opponent had vanished again. "What the hell?!" Zoro growled, looking around for him.

Nami was screaming as she was being pursued by the one female soldier, who was conjuring dangerous objects out of thin air and chucking them at her, like spears or knives. Nami dared not turn around and see what was flying at her next, until she found herself cornered. She noticed that none of the spears or knives that had been flying her way were there anymore; they had disappeared into thin air. "H-how did you do that?!" Nami panted, as she found herself cornered. The rather fit woman who equalled Robin in height now weilded two large axes.
"You're not going to live long enough to find out!" she laughed.
In desperation, Nami activated her Clima Tact.

Usopp decided to battle with the shortest fighter, who was just a bit taller than Chopper in his small form. "B-beware, for the great Captain Usopp has returned!" Usopp put on a brave front, even though his voice and knees were shaking.
The dwarf didn't appear to be listening, he was actually picking his nose. He snorted, and, shutting one of his nostrils with his finger, began to blow air out of his open nostril. There was a loud bang, like a gunshot, and Usopp felt a sharp gust of wind blow past his face, and turned around, seeing that whatever had flown out of his opponent's nose, had done so with enough force to blast through a rock and leave a hole in it.
"Wh-what the hell kind of Devil Fruit is that?!" Usopp cried, dashing off, with the dwarf not particularly caring.
"You can run but you can't hide." the dwarf sneered, unplugging his nostril, and taking a deep breath.

Robin did battle with the youngest warrior, a young man who looked very angry with her for betraying them. "I will not hold back just because you are a woman!" he warned her.
"Good, because I don't want a reason to hold back against you." she smiled. "Eight-Fleur Clutch!" she folded her arms and grabbed him, trying to bend him over and incapacitate him. But she shriekd in pain and her artificial arms vanished. Her natural arms looked like they'd been burned, as if by acid.
"You cannot touch me without being hurt. How do you intend to defeat me, when you depend upon your body as a weapon?" he laughed triumphantly. Apparently he was one of the few who were able to counter Robin's abilities, and that actually brought worry to her face.
"When it's over, you'll know." Robin said, a slight drop of fearful sweat trickling down her face.

Franky faced off against his opponent bravely. "Come on, chump! I've got two whole bottles of cola left and I'm feeling SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Franky laughed. His opponent was lanky and short, and unarmed. Franky was, unfortunately, underestimating this young man.
The young man chuckled a little. He reached into a small pouch on his belt and withdrew what looked like metal arrowheads. He threw them up in the air where they levitated for a moment, and then shot straight at Franky. Not even bothering to block them, Franky let them bounce harmlessly off his chest.
"Ha! Is that all you've got?" Franky sneered.
The young man's eyebrows raised from the sound of the arrowheads clinking off of Franky's chest. "Hm...I wonder..." he smiled softly as he put his hand out in front of him.
"Eh...? Wh-what? I-I can't move!" Franky gasped.

Chopper's opponent was coughing, his skin looked pale and sickly, and he looked as though he was suffering from some sort of awful disease. "You smell like death..." Chopper told him. "I am a doctor! If you don't fight, I will help cure you!" he tried to reason with his opponent.
"Cure me?" his opponent cackled. "This is my power, you foolish little beast..." he licked his lips. "You should worry about curing yourself when I get my hands on you."
Chopper covered his nose. The smell coming off of his opponent was now close to unbearable, almost as though he was consciously controlling how badly he smelled just to upset Chopper's sensitive animal nose. "I can't fight with just one hand..." Chopper realized. He was going to have to find something to cover his nose with or he'd be at a disadvantage in a hand-to-hand fight.

Shishou whistled and summoned Anu. Climbing onto the wolf's back she rode him back to her hut on the beach and prepared to wait for Kagemaru. Once she was there, Anu let her off, and whimpered. She petted him and kissed his nose. "Anu...you've been my only friend for so long. But you belong in the jungle with the other animals. I'm not going to be around much longer, and there's nothing either of us can do. You should just forget about me, and live a happy life. Find a mate, and have cubs. That would make me happy in the afterlife." she smiled.
Anu refused to leave her side and bristled, growling as the wind changed. Kagemaru had arrived.
"This is the last straw, Shishou." he told her. "Care to try and explain yourself? Or do you just feel like dying today?" he asked.
"You know full well I'm not afraid of death. And I'm not going down without a fight." she turned to face him.
"Oh? But what about your pet? If I can't scare you then I'll have to hurt you some other way to punish you for your betrayal..." Kagemaru laughed cruelly.
"Don't you dare! Anu has nothing to do with this!" Shishou growled. "Anu, run to my hut and bring my sword!" she shouted.
Anu raced into the hut and knocked it down in the process, but came out with a sword in a sheath clasped between his jaws. "Now get away from here, Anu! Go find Zoro!" she told him. "And bring him here before it's too late..." she drew her sword and brought it up in front of her face, glaring at Kagemaru.
"You know you can't hurt me, why even bother? What's the point? Just accept your death if you're not afraid. You should be grateful I'm not killing all of your outsider friends in front of you." Kagemaru scoffed.
"No, but it'll feel good." she laughed, desperation and panic in her voice. She wasn't afraid of dying, but she was worried about her newfound friends's lives. She slashed at Kagemaru's face. Her blade passed through harmlessly. Kagemaru's red eyes blinked.
"Are you having fun?" he sighed.
"I haven't had fun in a thousand years." she hissed. "When you were still my brother. Before you became this heartless beast!" she split him up the middle, only to have him vanish and reappear behind her, again unharmed.
"Oh, please. Unlike you, I grew up. You were the one who chose to remain a stupid child." he snapped.
"Is it stupid and childish to have a heart? To care about others and make self-sacrifices?" she slashed at the sand to create a diversion and burst through it, diving down at him and again failing to do any damage to his unsolid shadowy form.
"Of course! You had the chance to rule the entire world alongside the rest of us and you let foolish feelings get in the way!" he shouted, exasperated.
"Not with the blood of thousands on our hands! I could never go along with that! My only regret was that I wasn't able to stop all of you on my own!" she began to sob. "So many lost lives...mother...father..."
"Shut up!" Kagemaru grew wary of being on the defensive, and formed his arm into a shadowy blade, slashing Shishou across the cheek, cutting her deeply. "Mother and father died before this happened, you dare blame the master?!" he snarled.
"Are you that ignorant?! Or do you just not want to face the truth? The truth about what you really are? They died and we were tricked into becoming slaves! We lost everything, even our souls, our humanity! We can't go back...the only redemption is death! I accepted that long ago, but you never will. So come on...finish me." she stood still, dropping her sword.
"Your wish..." Kagemaru raised his other hand towards her sword, causing it to sink into its own shadow, and reappear in his hand, "is my command. Good-bye, dear sister. You will be missed." he said softly, forcing the sword through her gut, lifting her up, and throwing her bodily back down onto the beach, making the sand turn red beneath her glazed-over eyes.