The Jungle Part 9

The Jungle Part 9

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"Mm hmm mm hmm hm-hh hm-hh hm-hmmm…"

Hand over hand, I unfurled the sails as we pulled away from Gin Mirieniu, Ami and Makoto had come to see me off. I wasn't exactly happy about not being able to do anything about the talks about Ami's betrothal, but there hadn't been any further progress in the week we'd been in town.

It really felt like a different world out here at sea… with the waves and the gulls and the Sea Kings–

… sea king…?

I stopped unfurling the sail and actually looked at the thing I'd seen out of the corner of my eye. It looked like the Loch Ness monster just with a whole lot more teeth. And it was peering over the railing, drool pouring from the corners of its mouth as it started to lift the main mass of its body out of the ocean.

Keeping a wary eye on the Sea King rising out of the ocean I called out over my shoulder, "… Caaaptaaaaiiiin…?"

There was a flash of red as my Captain launched himself through the air, grabbing the corner of the Sea King's mouth in passing, "EYEPAAAATCH–!" There was an almost comical expression of shock on the Sea King's face as it found its head turning against its will as Captain Billy twisted in midair, "SUPLEX!!!"

The Sea King that I was gonna dub Nessy for probably the next few seconds found itself lifted from the water with Captain Billy and Nessy's face as the pivot point, the large body at the other end of the long neck slamming into the water with the king of all belly flops, the nearly hundred fifty feet of Sea King slamming into the water had enough that it sent a geyser nearly fifty feet into the air and the waves made the Patch rock so hard I had to shift my footing.

Satisfied that Captain Billy had it under control, I returned to hoisting the sail.

"CHAIN!!!" With that shout, the Sea King's tearing up eyes widened even further as my Captain twisted its neck even further and pulled it back out of the ocean to continue smacking it about.

It was really different out here. Sometimes, it felt like this was the real world and that Gin Mirieniu was a pleasant dream.

It wasn't. But the dichotomy was striking. My friends… three now? Mm, nah. I wouldn't count Rei as a friend unless she came to greet me or see me off like Ami and Makoto tried to do. Ami couldn't always manage it, but she made the effort and I appreciated it. Though I think Makoto and her were getting along better now that Makoto had a better idea where to 'engage' Rei conversationally.

… I think. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I put them on the right track. I kinda hope that if this trend continues we run into Serena or Usagi or whatever she's called here soon. She's the one that really makes the group gel and mesh together, and even if I could fill the role, which I doubted I could for anything long term, I couldn't be there long enough to do so.

"BAAACK–!!!" there was a resounding crack and I glanced up as Captain Billy slammed his knee into the back of Nessy mid-air, "BREAKER!!!" He more brought himself up into the Sea King rather than slamming the much larger sea monster onto his knee.

If conventions held, whoever was Sailor Moon's Equivalent would also be on the island… would that mean 'Tuxedo Mask' was as well…?

… I kinda hoped they were, because otherwise I'd be weirded right the fuck out. I've moved past being weirded out by the similarities between my friends and a show from my past life and on to the point of expecting it.

Tying down the rope, I almost snorted. No wonder they feel like different worlds. One was a constant reference to a past life, the other was the violence and insanity of being on a pirate ship in this world of One Piece.

"Oi! Captain!" My momma shouted from the railing, "Keep the head intact! I want to try out a new recipe for Sea King cheek!"

-oOo-​

"And… you just ran?"

"Basically," I admitted, "It was a damn Rear Admiral, and while I'm tough, that is not something I want to get involved with without damn good reason."

Claude knelt by the ground, and I let the better tracker do his job, standing back and out of the way even as Wallace frowned at me thoughtfully. "Ach… I'd have thought you could take a Rear Admiral…"

That drew me up short, taking a second to process, "Uh… maybe… now that I've got my Ability it's not utterly outside the realm of possibility, at least given a measure of surprise. And still not something I want to do without damn good reason. But I didn't have my Ability then and I was weaker in the first place."

Wallace grunted, "Never understand not only not fighting for glory but outright avoiding it…"

I shrugged, "Different strokes for different folks."

The larger man still wore his plaid kilt with an accompanying sash and a long sleeved shirt. Thankfully, his nose was mostly straightened back out, but I was no professional and I was working with a nose that'd been broken quite a few times over a surprisingly long life for a berserker.

Claude stood and the two of us looked to the heavily tattooed man as he walked over towards us, "Well, good news, there's something of an avian persuasion around in that direction." He gestured out into the jungle, in the direction we'd already been heading.

"And the bad news?" I prompted with an exasperated smile, knowing that was what Claude had been waiting for.

"Monkeys."

"Monkeys?"

"Ooh, ooh, monkeys."

"They're still around?" Wallace asked with a scowl.

Unable to help the grin, I offered, "Maybe it's some more of your fangorillas Wallace."

The Scottish-seeming man shuddered in revulsion even as the handsome Claude pouted at me, and I chuckled, "Tcheheheh… let's keep going then. We'll deal with the monkeys if they make themselves a problem."

Taking the lead, I pushed the way through the underbrush, my clothing and skin flexing into a dark grey metal as I did, Claude and Wallace both following behind more cautiously as I made a path.

Claude had his eyes set on Wallace, the gunner covered in the tattooed names of the various people… and others…? That he'd bedded. And he was hoping to add Wallace's name to that list. But despite his flirtatiousness… there was always a story behind those names, and not a little story either. I had a feeling he was more discerning than his actions would indicate.

**Snake wants a snack–**

"Hi." My hand snapped out to catch the snake by the nose as it lunged, making its eyes bug out slightly… decent sized snake, ah, serious fangs though so probably poisonous but it was built more like an anaconda… "Huh, you're interesting."

"Hiisss…?" the anaconda-like snake looked at me confusedly as well as cautiously given that I had my hand closed around its still closed mouth.

"You're coming with us." I jerked it out of the tree branch it'd been hanging from like a whip and caught it around its midsection with my other hand. Looked to be about… mmm… twenty five feet?

… huh, didn't know a snake could squeak like that. Fascinating.

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"Hiiisssss-!"

"Oh be quiet," I said to the anaconda that was wrapped around me unhappily, still trying to squeeze the breath out of me. But ribs of steel and metal skin made that sort of silly and pointless, I pried the snake's mouth open with metal fingers and examined its fangs, it had the backward curved teeth of an anaconda, but also two large fangs that… yep, hollow and full of poison.

"Do you have to carry that thing around…?" Wallace asked warily as he followed behind me.

"For a little bit, yes," I said just a bit cheekily.

The larger man shook his head, giving a small roll of his eyes, "Ach, you're a strange one."

"Well, obviously. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be me, would I?" I countered with a small smile as I turned the snake's head slightly to examine it from another angle. I'd have to just memorize it to write down later since there was no way I could sketch while walking and holding the–

*SMASH–!*

–… snake.

"Oooh ooh!"

I sighed, '… damnit.'

The tree that a gorilla had smashed hit the ground with a thud and the snapping of branches as a pair of gorillas even larger than the silverback that Wallace had headbutted, flanked by even more gorillas dropping out of the trees. Apparrently the multi-foot-long pompadour was the 'in' thing for gorilla guys this season, seeing as both of the silverbacks had one that was streaked with silver.

"That… could be bad."

"Mm, potentially."

There was a little screech and a teensy little monkey, and a monkey this time not an ape, leapt out of the trees to land in the outstretched palm of one of the big gorilla where it briefly struck a kung fu stance before slicking back a definite greaser haircut with what looked like a centipede turned comb.

That looked a bit weird with white hair rather than black, but eh, to each their own.

The little monkey screeched, pointing at us, then at Wallace specifically, screeched some more and did a 'put-up-your-dukes' sort of motion. To my mild surprise, the snake recoiled at the little monkey's arrival, which probably meant bad things.

The Scottish man nodded, tossing his sword aside as he strode forward, chin held high and quite confident. I sighed, trying to figure this out… the same tactic probably wouldn't work twice. The little monkey was definitely the boss.

The monkey pointed at Wallace, made a punching motion before pantomiming a faint and then jerked a thumb at itself and doing pelvic thrusts, making Wallace blanch. And then his face turned red with anger, "As if!"

"Uh… Wallace…?" I ventured, having grabbed the snake by the back of its head to keep it from getting away. It's furious attempts to get away from the little monkey in spite of, y'know, me still holding it, probably was a bad thing.

The little monkey launched off of the gorilla's palm, flipping through the air before landing in another kung-fu stance, hand extended in a 'come get it' motion.

Wallace bristled before shouting, "I'll break your face!"

It was at that point that I cringed as my companion threw a punch at the much smaller monkey… and was promptly judo-thrown. Four times.

"Oh… oh shit," the heavily tattooed Claude beside me muttered.

"RRrrraaagggghhh!" From his place on the ground, Wallace swung the hand the monkey had gripped around, lifting the small monkey off the grass and slamming it down. Dirt flew into the air as he created a small crater with the blow.

There was an unhappy screech from the monkey as Wallace raised his hand again with it still attached to, slamming it down again. But this time the little monkey landed on its feet, the opposable thumbs there grabbing the dirt and hauling Wallace back off of the ground, spinning the much larger man over his head. The gorillas arrayed along the rim of the clearing hooted and hollered, pounding the ground with their palms as the small monkey began to almost cartoonishly throw Wallace about.

With a screech, the monkey leader threw Wallace into a tree, making the trunk crack beneath the force. I had a jolt of concern, but the Scottish-seeming man staggered up to his feet quickly, rushing the monkey once more with a roar.

He swung, missing cleanly as the monkey dodged the low blow… but Wallace staggered just a bit and his boot lashed out and he punted the monkey across the clearing, sending it smacking into one of the trees hard enough to put an indent in the living wood.

The little monkey leapt off of the tree and landed on one of the pompadours of the silverbacks… and then bounced off of the thing like it was a diving board… and started to roll once it hit the dirt. In an unnatural way mind you, it basically turned into a morph ball as it took off like a little rocket and slammed into Wallaces gut before bouncing away.

"Huh… it's got a Devil Fruit," I muttered as the Greaser Monkey used Rollout. And it was Super Effective.

Damnit.

"Animals can have them too?!"

"Mmmmhm," I said, watching unhappily as Wallace was knocked around, his wild swings unable to hit the quickly rolling monkey ball.

… huh, I didn't know snakes could whimper.

The monkey leader rolled further away, getting some distance… and then basically did a Sonic spin-dash, launching himself forward as a white blur, slamming into Wallace's stomach hard enough to send him flying past Claude and I, slamming into a tree hard enough to crack the trunk and send it collapsing.

"I could try offering myself up instead…?" Claude said, watching the dozens of gorillas warily, as they hooted and hollered, Wallace slowly pushing himself up to his feet. The monkey leader laughed, slicking back his hair even as Claude continued, "It'd keep you two safe, and since I'm not inherently against it and it could be an interesting–"

But I was done with this mess.

My hands were fists, encompassed by a burst of orange before being stained black by my will, and the snake let out a little sound of fear as I suddenly launched forwards.

"Raging Demon!"

I was a streak across the clearing, crossing the distance between us and the monkey as I loosened my torso muscles just enough that my fists, black with Armament Haki, could blur forward at a speed that would be impossible for me to keep up for any length of time, the monkey had just started to turn before the blurred streaks of black that were my fists of fury obscured his form entirely in a rain of blows.

To the monkey's credit, it fought back, tiny fists meeting my own armament clad ones several times before the blows began to slam home as I moved past the monkey.

And with a final right hook, I sent the greaser monkey flying backwards as I spun to a stop, my hands at my sides and my back to the still-airborne monkey. I glared over my shoulder at the troupe leader as it slammed into the line of its own gang, the Armament Haki fading from my fists, "Or… we could beat them into the ground."

"Or…" Claude started, staring even as Wallace pushed himself back up, "Or… we could do that…"

The monkey scrambled to its feet, screeching at me as it did.

Big deal. My only concern was whether they'd rush us and overwhelm Claude. Wallace could handle himself against the troupe itself for me to finish them off, especially if he got his sword back, but Claude, for all of his being fit, wasn't exactly 'fighting gorillas' fit.

With another screech, the monkey did a spinning backflip up onto the pompadour of one of the silverbacks, going through a kung fu stance thing and slicking its hair back once more.

I rolled my eyes, "Wallace, grab your sword and get over here. We're done playing."

"Rrrr… Right…" The bearded member of our group rushed forward, pulling the claymore from the dirt as I turned and walked towards the line of gorillas. With any luck, I'd keep them focused on me.

The snake still wrapped around me started to try to pull away, but I let the armament fade from around my fists and grabbed it by the back of its head, "No no. You're stuck with me for right now. Don't want you trying to slither off and trip me up… and if you try that I'll break your head off, capiche?" A frantic nod from the snake at that, "Good. Now stay."

The little greaser monkey grunted again from where he stood on top of the pompadour of another of the gorillas, pointing at Wallace where he stood in front of Claude, making hip thrust motions before snarling, then pointing at me, punching into an open palm, then pointing at himself, then hip thrusts, then me.

"I think they're saying that if you don't let them fuck Wallace, they'll fuck you." Claude helpfully supplied. Obviously still a hint shaken from seeing Wallace thrown around like that, but still cheery and snarky.

"Oh… I know what he's trying to say…" I said, stepping forward, a vicious little grin on my face as I slowly flexed my fingers, my knuckles cracking, "I just don't care."

"Ooh ooh!"

"That works too…"

The entire gang of gorilla's leapt into the air towards me and I raised my fists, my legs bunching up, that was damn near perfect. "Tiger Uppercut!" I cleared the dozen feet to the first of the gorillas in the air, an iron fist slamming into the bottom of its chin and sending it flying away. I used the force of the blow to push me back to the ground, and the instant my feet hit the dirt I launched again-!

"Tiger– Tiger– Tiger– Tiger Uppercut!"

The trick, you see, is to use the force of the blow to the chin to push yourself back to the ground, let your legs absorb the shock of the landing and then bounce back like a spring. I turned the bones in my legs into metal to increase the effect of the springiness as I cheesed the hell out this fight, a massive sequence of Tiger Uppercut's, alternating fists and bouncing off of the ground to take out each of the two dozen remaining gorilla's.

"Rankyaku Tiger Combo!" Spinning midair, vacuum blades trailing from my elbows and shins as I spun and lashed out, sending dozens of little blue crescent blades hurtling out through the air at nearly random angles.

And with a bit of flair, I flung both of my arms out wide as I canceled my angular momentum, facing the previously oncoming gorilla's, a wave of glowing blue blades washing over them and sending them all hurtling back, cleaving branches from the trees of the jungle and cutting shallow furrows in the gorilla's thick skin.

I dropped lightly to the ground, and my coat-cape fluttered back down as over two dozen heavy thuds followed as the gorillas and branches hit the loamy dirt of the jungle floor.

"… well shit. Now I feel inadequate," Claude grumbled good naturedly.

The little monkey gaped briefly before angrily screeching and starting a roll-out once more.

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah yeah, bring it on."

It built up speed in place, clods of dirt and dust getting shot outwards as it spun up before it nearly exploded outwards as a white ball, hurtling towards my stomach like a cannonball-!

Hah. No.

I moved the coils of the snake out of the way even as I flexed, "Tekkai."

*BONG!*

Sure, the monkey could bounce around with whatever Devil Fruit it had, but it wasn't rubber, and I didn't exactly have any give to me when I was both tekkai and metal.

The monkey dropped to the ground with a pained groan, unfurling from its ball form, "Yeah, I thought so."

Sticking the steel toe of my boot beneath the monkey, I gave a little kick of it upwards and let go of the snake wrapped around me in order to snatch the monkey out of the air with both hands, "And stay gone this time."

So I dropped kicked the little Greaser wannabe.

"Aaaaand it's gooooood," I muttered to myself as the little ball of annoyance and probable poo-flinging went flying away over the canopy.

"… ooh?"

I brought my gaze down from the disappearing form of the monkey to the apes that had slowly started to stand once more. They were little more than a loose mob at this point, and there was quite a bit of shock and fear in their faces, for good reason, I'd just stomped their big (little) boss. Mostly because said boss was an idiot and had kept up an attack when I'd made no attempt to dodge or get away or block the obviously building blow… but still.

Of course, it was at that point that one of the Silverbacks decided to be manly, one of them stepping up and beating his chest dramatically before roaring. Then the other pompadoured Silverback came up to roar right back in that ones face, and then it went back and forth a bit.

"… what's happening?" Wallace asked after a moment of this.

But they continued and I scowled, I'd… half expected them to keep coming. I'd hit them pretty hard what with having an iron fist and all, but I'd been focused more on speed and rapidity of strikes than power, so I hadn't expected to knock them out or anything. So I'd really only hoped to keep them from assaulting Claude before taking out the most dangerous member… but… infighting…?

"Territorial dispute." Claude filled in, saying it just after I figured it out myself, "Who's the boss now that Florida punted the boss away."

"Sounds about right." I muttered.

To my mild surprise, Wallace walked past me with his claymore in hand.

"Wallace…?" I ventured, not knowing what was going on. Maybe he felt the need to prove himself…? With his sword he stood a better chance and I could relegate myself to protecting Claude… I mean, I had kind of emasculated him there saving him, but he was losing and damnit, I didn't want him to die or anything.

His claymore stabbed into the dirt with a resounding thud, enough to distract the gorillas from their little shouting match.

As one, the troupe turned to look at Wallace as the bearded man took two more steps in front of his sword, planted his feet wide and clenched his hands. He breathed in deep, puffing his chest out before pounding on it like a great drum, easily matching the volume that the silverbacks had managed, though it was a bit of a higher tone due to him being smaller.

And then he roared.

The tails of my coat actually fluttered backwards in the fucking pressure wave that was released, the snake's head flapping as well as Claude and I both leaned back. The troupe of gorillas eyes bulged as they leaned back, the branches of the trees around the clearing actually swaying slightly as spittle flew from Wallace's mouth with the guttural roar.

Color me impressed, I guess he wasn't just metaphorically full of hot air.

Another breath as the roar ended and he boomed out, "I! Am! Wallace! And I'm not afraid of you! If you want to make this a fight, then bring it on!"

With a shared glance amongst them, the gorillas broke and ran back into the trees.

"… huh." I murmured, "Didn't really expect that to work."

Then again, I'm horrible at being intimidating. Wallace, with a torso covered in scars, one on his cheek, and almost two feet taller than me and probably two hundred pounds heavier probably had an easier time of it than I did.

To be fair, from the looks of things, neither had Wallace, who blinked in surprise. Claude rushed up to the kilt wearing man's side with a grin, "That was great!"

I glanced at the snake still dangling off of me, its jaw hanging open. Idly, as Claude gushed over Wallace, who was blustering once more, I reached up and closed the snake's mouth with a finger. I had already catalogued its teeth.

"Come on, let's keep moving." I interrupted the little moment the other two were having, grabbing Wallace's sword in passing and holding out to him, "I want to get to the lake before nightfall."

"Ah," Wallace's bluster and boasting died down quickly, and he gave a little, shaky grin, "Tight."

"And Wallace?"

He paused, his hand reaching out for the handle of his claymore, "Yeah?"

I smiled, "Good job."

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The Jungle Part 9 End