10 Chapter 10: I will survive

Blood was flowing in profusion on the floor.

Rick fell on his back, surprised. He has a deep cut from his left shoulder to his right waist. It was nasty.

His mind was a mess.

'How?'

He didn't have the time to fully process what happened when a second blow came to him.

He may not have registered it, but his eyes saw it and his body moved by reflex .

His hand was raised and swipe the air fast. A big thud was heard.

Garp "training" was paying off. First because Rick was now used to the pain.It didn't make it insensible to it but a lot more tolerable. Second because his body reacted on its own.

The 5 months of every day near death experience that he had spent on this god forsaken island was not for naught.

Building muscle memory was not an easy thing to do. Only after hours upon hours of severe physical activity can such a thing be obtained.

Rick finally gathered his thoughts and with difficulty stood up.

He looked in the direction of the thud he heard and saw a deformed mass of flesh and blood on the floor.

'Did I do that?'

The pieces of what used to be a body were still sticking to the wall.

'But how? My gravity is not strong enough to do something like that.'

Rick's thoughts were interrupted when he started coughing blood.

'No time for thinking. There is still two guys and the big boss, and maybe more pirates hiding somewhere'

With the severity of his wound he needed to hurry, he was losing a lot of blood.

He walked towards the location of the two pirates left. Apparently they did hear the commotion of their mate that spotted Rick and one of them went to check on things.

'Well that was the plan. Separate them one by one.'

Being spotted was not part of it though. Tha completely changes things.Instead of taking by surprise the group of five and waiting to take one by one the group of 3. One of the latter snuck up on him while he was dealing with the former. Hence how he got hurt.

'I was too hasty, I should have observed the surroundings more… No even by doing that from my position I never would have found the back door the first one came from. It would not have change anything'

From the moment he entered the hideout, Rick could hear the scream of pain and despair of the woman, but as he got closer he could now hear the pounding of flesh and the grunt of the pirates raping her.

' Those bastards..'

He greeted his teeth and hit the wall with the side of his hand.

'No trial for them'.

"Oi! You saw what's going in on?" said one of the pirates.

They had heard Rick hit the wall and thought that their friend was back.

In a different position than when Rick saw them through the door when he was planning,they couldn't see rick.

The two last pirates were now double penetrating the young woman on the bed facing away from the entrance of the room unable to see that it was not their crewmate but Rick.

Rick went through the door and side step so it would not be obstructed and raised his hand.

'Your doom has come' said Rick

The one on top of the woman fucking her ass was projected back with force out of the room and was squished against the wall.

Before the last pirate at time to react. Rick used a heavy gravity pull towards the on him and a light pull on the woman toward the ceiling effectively separating the two.

The gravity applied on the pirate was so great that all his bones had broken in a loud and disgusting sound. He didn't even have time to scream before dying.

Rick landed the woman on the floor next to her pass out friend.

She was in total panic.

"It's okay, miss, it's over. The marines are here. We're getting you out of this hell hole and back to your family"

She was shaking violently, tears running down her cheeks.

"Is there anyone else besides the princess that needs to be rescued?"

Unable to formulate words her head moved horizontally from left to right.

"Do you know where the princess is?"

She pointed her finger towards the ground.

'So in the basement then'

"Thank you. My comrade will be here in a few minutes and will help you back to the ship where you and your friend will nurse back to health. Maybe not now but soon you'll be alright again."

She nods and Rick exited the room and walked away before coughing blood again. He was holding it in. He didn't want to show the miss that he was badly hurt. Seeing her savior on the verge of dying would not give her any hope.

"I will really be done for if I don't hurry."

Somehow he thought that if he subdued the pirate captain and saved the princess everything would be alright. In a normal state of mind he would never have such thoughts, but now… Or perhaps was it his trust in Garp? Trusting him to save the day as a hero of the marine. Who knows?

Rick finally found the stairs. Despite being spacious the hideout didn't have many rooms. The first he tried was the one the pirate that spotted him came from, thinking that maybe he was back from a discussion with their captain. It turned out that it was accurate.

Just as he was about to take them Rick heard his name.

"Rick, you there? Are you okay?"

It was his fellow marines, but he didn't have time for that, he could hear the rhythmic sound of a whip cracking followed by a piercing scream.

They were accompanied by a mad and loud laugh.

"Hahaha scream you noble bitch! scream!"

When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, what Rick saw was a dungeon. There were crude torture divices everywhere . A tall and fat man was holding a whip and using it on a woman chained to the wall in a star position.

Rick's anger, that he more or less contained exploded.

"DIE!" he screamed.

THe fat man turned around . His eyes were wide. He clearly didn't expect someone other than his crew to be here. Before he could react, or even understand what was happening, his body separated himself vertically.

Right and left parts were each sent to an opposite wall.

The much use of his ability were were taking its toll on his gravely injured body.

'Not yet, I need to stay awake a bit more'

He applied the same skill he used on the pirate captain to the four chains holding the princess and caught her to avoid her falling down.

Or tried.

The princess was about 1.65m tall and even though Rick grew up a bit since he joined the marines he was not even 1.40m yet.

She just fell on him

"You're a free princess."

He released her from his grasp. She was hurt but could still stand on her feet.

"Take the stairs, marines are upstairs securing the place."

Rick leaned against the wall and sat.

She looked at this child that just saved her.

"Sorry, I'm at my limit, I can't go with you."

The princess had a worrying look in her eyes, nonetheless she turned around and went up the stairs as fast as her hurt legs could.

'Geez, can't believe That I'm gonna die so soon. I've been here for two years more or less. I wonder where the goddess will send me next. Well that's weird, How come I remember her? Was I not supposed to lose my memory about her and other worlds? Did the memory transfer fail ? I need to talk to her about that, her system failed.'

'Wait the system! Oh My Goddess, I'm a freaking moron!!'

'Store!'

Rick opened the system's store.

A window appeared before him with numerous items.

He had forgotten about the system, with no karma points to buy anything there was no need for it but now he just wiped out a pirates crew and saved hostages.

He has points now!

He can use them on an item with regenerative properties!

He could live!

'Quick! A potion or something!'

Unfortunately for him, the world of one piece was not really advanced. At least technologically there was a surprising thing, like the den-den mushi or the giant screen the government used to broadcast important news.There even wasVega Punk's tech but it was useless for him now.

On the medical side there was nothing helping him.

'Ha! It was a vain hope after all.'

There were items that could help him but they were not from One piece and so were very expensive. Rick didn't even have a tenth of the points necessary to buy the cheapest one.

He then had a stupid idea. If he could not heal his body, why not change the body itself?

Devil fruit could change a normal body into something else after all. A body made of rubber, or flames…

Rick made a quick search and found what he was looking for.

[Imperfect Body] 4500 Karma Points

Description:

Docteur Vegapunk's failed experiment.

This imperfect body is a result of years of research.

Its purpose was to allow a person to eat multiple devil fruits and use their powers.

Though the goal was reached, the negative aspects were too much for calling it a success.

The body has a small regeneration property but lost any possibility to use Haki.

Though those were not that critical, what makes the imperfect body a failure is his 5 years of life expectancy.

'No Haki and a 5 years time limit? No wonder it's cheap. Well I don't really have any alternative.'

[You bought [Imperfect body] for 4500 Karma Points]

[Karma points remaining: 500]

[Changing current body to [Imperfect body]]

[1 %]...

[5%]...

[25%]...

[90%]...

And before Rick could see 100% he lost his consciousness