[126] Wood & Stone
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Chapter 126: Wood & Stone
—
Viola didn't know what she was doing. As she hid behind the door of a building's roof, holding a little person in her embrace, she questioned if this was a smart decision.
Feeling the shadow of the stone giant that was outside, she felt her breath catch. He was far from here, but he was big, if he were to accidentally step on this building she would die.
"Umm… you look pale."
A thin voice said, making her look down at her chest. A 7-inch little girl sat there, on the curve that was her chest, while holding onto the fabrics of her outfit to stay in place.
"Haha… I'm just wondering what I will eat tonight for dinner, don't worry, we are safe."
She lied. Hashirama had warned her in the morning, when they first separated, that she should quickly leave the castle as soon as possible, without appearing too suspicious. She had waited until he broke all expectations and destroyed the Colosseum before she fled the royal palace, and she just decided to pick up Princess Mansherry on the way.
Now she wondered if she should have stayed. It would have been safer there as long as she pretended to be in Doffy's team until the end, and then backstabbed. She looked at the snail watch on her wrist and spoke, trying to keep the tone of desperation away.
"Darling, do you really have a plan to take care of Pika? Uh oh-" Suddenly, she paused, her eyes wide as she peeked outside.
A small woman was flying far in the distance and towards Pika. "Looks like your sister is engaging him in an aerial battle soon. Well, aerial for her, he is just that tall right now. She's flying towards him from afar."
Viola saw with the help of her devil fruit as Tsunade Senju rushed to the behemoth of stone that stood a surreal 1500 meters in height, casting a shadow over the world that was darker than any cloud.
That was a true mountain of a man, taller than any giant. Being more than a kilometer tall wasn't a small feat, was there anyone who could stand against that?
– "Wait, Tsunade? I thought she was fighting King?"
"I don't know, she's fighting Pika now."
They couldn't exchange any more words, as she felt a smaller trembling of the ground compared to Pika's awakening. Peeking her head outside, she found a wooden titan, 100 meters tall, rushing towards Pika at an inhumane speed for its size.
It was impressive, scary even, in normal circumstances. But in comparison to Pika's 1500-meter height, it felt… short.
– "Your silence tells me you're judging my size right now."
"Darling, I am not saying it's small, but..."
She paused as the wood titan reached just near Pika. Pika yelled, his thin voice filling the entire country, but Viola didn't laugh when many others did. Because he moved his fist, the size of a small mountain, and threw it towards the wooden titan.
All Viola did was stare, as the wood titan jumped. It leaped through the air, as wings came out of its back and took it to the sky. The wooden titan curled its fist, and the fist began to grow in size. In a matter of seconds, the little fist of the titan was larger than his entire body, matching the size of the stone fist that rushed to clash with it.
Sadly, the clash never happened.
"Galaxy…"
A yell resonated in the sky, as blonde hair fluttered and a small fist slammed into the air above Pika's head.
"Impact!"
Starting from the top of Pika's head to everything downwards, the 1500 meters of mass just vanished, turning into fine dust. Only the arms that were too far from the strike zone fell to the ground, destroying buildings as they did.
The wooden titan was also caught in it, as his figure was close to Pika's body, while his one enlarged arm which too was out of the strike zone, and fell to the ground.
– "..."
"Hashirama, darling,"
Viola took a second as she said.
"Personally, I'd say you go and make up with your sister. I think you should go and apologize to her."
* * *
Hashirama ignored the voice coming from his snail and just stared at the dusty scene ahead with a dissatisfied look on his face.
"Dammit, woman. Why did she have to shout Galaxy Impact even though it's not a Conqueror's Haki punch? Nearly gave me a heart attack."
It was a punch containing a crazy load of Chakra and her Armament Haki, which kind of imitated what Garp's punch could do, so he was a bit taken aback at first. Who knew what he would do if his sister turned out to have advanced Conqueror's Haki; even if he won this battle in Dressrosa, he would lose to her in the grand war.
"Hm?"
He frowned as he stared at the distance, his Observation Haki caught a flying fat object. A man. It was near the scene where he last saw his crew in.
"Huh, Machvise? The Ton-Ton Fruit guy. Goddamit, they recovered."
Machvise was one of the five people who were the defenders of Doflamingo. His clones had done a quick one on them, but since it was a quick one they recovered quickly enough as well. If he was back in his senses and fighting, that meant the others were fighting too.
Not that any of that mattered. Mikita could fight Machvise, and there were others there for the other enemies. His crew too needed some battle experience, even if they got a bit injured. This was good.
"Problem is Ulti, isn't it?"
Hashirama hummed. Ulti wasn't defeated earlier, she wanted to head-butt the Kyuubi, but the merged clones interrupted her. After that, Hashirama didn't know.
"...Oh no,"
Hashirama got up, his back wings flared and he took off to the sky.
"Hancock is in danger."
She was supposed to be with Sandersonia, going against just Smoothie and Page One, her victory should have happened by now due to all the advantages she had. If Ulti joined against her, it'd be troublesome.
But sadly, he knew the situation was worse than that. If Tsunade wasn't with King that meant King must be fighting Hancock, and he was one of the only people on the planet who should be immune to her powers as per his personality, while even his Haki should be strong enough anyway.
As he shot through the air, he heard Viola's concerned gasp.
– "Hashirama, look at the white screen on the air. It's Doflamingo, he is announcing something!"
Hashirama didn't stop. His promised time was up, he had a battle ahead of him. Fuck Doflamingo's mug that appeared on the screen, he had more important things to do.
* * *
The 15 feet tall Hashirama, the same clone who was a merge between a few clones, whistled as he saw the white screen in the air. It was used to stream the entire fight in the Colosseum just earlier, but now it showed the ugly mug of Doflamingo.
"Mhm…"
He was forced to turn his back to the face at the sound. There was a bed behind him, as he was inside a tall building in the town, with a naked redhead under the sheets.
"Where is…"
Marianne slowly got up, pausing midway through her speech as she blinked. She looked down at the state she was in, and then at him. Her face went red but to his surprise, she didn't make any move.
To his further surprise, she lowered her head and sighed.
"Thanks… for saving me," she said. "Sorry for stealing your fruit… and sorry for going crazy in that transformation, that one was out of my control."
It was surprising that she apologized, and more surprising that she remembered her defeat at his hands. Yet, Hashirama couldn't help but scoff. "How is your thanks and apology going to help me now, girly? We'll be talking about proper compensation later, just do as I say for now."
Before he talked about his plan to her, however, the both of them turned to the face of Doflamingo in the sky, deciding to hear him out. The angry blonde man gritted his teeth and growled as he spoke in a majestic voice. Hashirama and Marianne only caught his words from the middle of his speech.
["Anyone who catches this little fool, Hashirama Senju, will be rewarded 500 million. If it's any of his Senju Pirates crewmates, each capture will be rewarded with 100 million berries. Oh, and if it's his sister, however, you'll be rewarded with 800 million."]
Oh, it was the bounty scene. Nothing to worry about, then. Well, a little to worry about, but he could fix that. He turned to Marianne, the gears in his head spinning.
"Change of plans. You're coming with me and assisting the survivability of my crew." He said, and since he hadn't told her about his prior plan, she didn't have any reason to complain and just nodded, clearing her throat and asking for some spare clothes.
Hashirama wanted his crew to have some experience, but if the entire country and the pirates that filled it turned to greed and attacked the girls, they would be outmatched. They might need some backup, in which case Hashirama was going to be anyhow.
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Author Note: New week, vote sum stones!