Chapter 8

(AKA Eraserhead Is My Combat Instructor)

Previously:

Luffy led me and Usopp over to where Zeff and Sanji were standing. Grinning up at the Head Chef, Luffy asked "Hey, if I fight off all of the pirates for you I can go right?"

Zeff looked amused as he said "Sure kid, beat up the pirates and I'll call us even."

'Called it!' I thought to myself with a smirk as we watched Krieg rallying his troops. The prelude was finished. Now the main event was about to begin...

Now: The Baratie

Carne and Patty quickly ran into the restaurant and then to the front where the fish head was. I raised an eyebrow as my Observation Haki tracked them but brought my attention back outside as Sanji said "At this rate, the ship will become a battlefield." Turning to one of the cooks, he continued "Go to the operating room and open up the fins."

"What? Open the fins? That's gonna give a foot hold to the enemy!" The chef said.

"No, Sanji's right. If you fight inside then the fight will inevitably wreck the interior of the ship. And while it's one thing for a wall to get a hole knocked out, we can't take the chance of your kitchen getting damaged. I had a look inside and those are gas stoves you use, rupture the lines and we're going to have problems." I said with a frown before I looked at the chef and continued "That said, just because your fins are outside the ship, we don't want to needlessly risk damaging them either. SO!"

Pointing my arms at the water, streams of grey poured out of my jacket sleeves and the water rapidly fled from the immediate area as a massive slab of duck tape formed. Everyone stared with wide eyes as the tape spread out in a ripple pattern surrounding all of the debris, the tape rapidly thickening until it was twenty feet thick and spikes shot down through the rest of the water before piercing the ocean floor. For the final touch, I put a large dip in the tape next to the ship leaving a six foot wall that the invaders would have to climb up to reach the restaurant.

Usopp let out an impressed whistle and said "And I thought that the training area you made before was impressive."

"Amazing, so this is the true power of those mythical Devil Fruits." A chef muttered.

I let out a chuckle and said "Oh buddy, you have no idea. THIS? This is but a parlor trick compared to what some of the other Fruits are capable of."

I ignored the surprised exclamations that came from the chefs as my phone let out a Sonar Ping. Humming in confusion, I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced down at it. A moment later, I raised my eyebrow in surprise as I saw a text that said Hey Matt, up to a challenge? Go the Eraserhead route for this whole fight and I will upgrade your 3DS to a Switch. Manage to beat Pearl and I'll throw in Sword and Shield as well.

"Huh, well alright then." I said to myself before all of our attention was drawn to the front of the Baratie where the fish head pulled out showing that it was a miniature water craft. An awning popped up along with a fin drawing forward making it look like a fish shaped pedal boat that would have fit right in at an amusement park for visitors to ride. What was less kid friendly were the three canon barrels that appeared out of its mouth.

As Luffy and Usopp's eyes shined at the sight, I heard Patty yell out "OI! Why is there no water?! How are we supposed to go blasting the pirates away if we can't travel through the water?!"

"Guess you'll just have to stick to the edges then!" I called out, not the least bit ashamed that I had unknowingly regulated those two to the side lines.

Shaking my head with a chuckle, I put away my phone then cracked my knuckles as I said "Alright, shall we get started Luffy?"

"Yeah, let's stop wasting time and get to the fun!" Luffy said, also cracking his knuckles.

"Go get 'em you two!" Usopp shouted while pointing dramatically forward before he quickly leapt up to the second story of the ship, pulling out his slingshot as he did so.

I rolled my eyes at that while Luffy laughed then we leapt off the wall, quickly making our way up the shallow incline towards the pirates who were also charging at us. Luffy quickly pulled ahead of me and slammed through the first row of mooks like a wrecking ball, once again laughing as he wove through the Krieg Pirates like a bull through a china store*, only one that actually wanted to wreck it. As I ran, my bulletproof suit rose to encompass my head leaving just holes for my eyes and nose even as I lashed out with a streamer of cloth. The cloth wrapped around the nearest pirate still standing and I leapt, reeling myself in at him and slamming my black shoe into his face, easily shattering his nose and hurling him back with a yell of pain. Landing on my feet, I spun and slammed my right fist into the next pirate's ribs feeling several of them shattering. As he fell to the ground coughing out blood the Pirate behind me swung his sword down with a two handed swing as he shouted "Damn you!"

I side stepped his swing and wrapped his head in cloth. As he scrabbled at the strips with his free hand, I went low and swept his feet out from under him. For good measure, I gave him a kick to the groin before leaping away, wrapping three more pirates as I went and yanked them close, then around my body, then away from me, launching each one into a different group of pirates. Temporarily clear of threats, I stomped hard on the face wrapped pirate's head and he immediately went still.

Looking around, I saw Luffy was currently avoiding a massive spiked ball and chain Krieg was wielding, a lot of the Pirates on the fringe were knocked out with red marks on their foreheads and small metal balls showing that Usopp had sniped them. There were even more pirates knocked out sprung around the battlefield showing that Luffy hadn't been idle before he went after Krieg. As the three groups I had knocked over got to their feet though, I noticed a shadow over me that was quickly growing. Sighing, I sent a strip of cloth straight up and wrapped around the foot of the figure my Observation Haki had already been tracking. A sharp tug forward had the man swing to land in front of me with a startled shout and he landed on the ground with a loud clang as his pearl embossed shields clattered against each other.

As the man quickly sprung up to his feet, I raised an eyebrow and said "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your name's Pearl."

"That's right, it seems that my reputation proceeds me." The man said with a smirk.

I shrugged and said "To be honest, I've never heard of you before, but a guy wearing a pearl helmet, shields covering both sides of his torso, his elbow and knee joints, and on his hands, ALL of them with a pearl on their middle? You've got a theme going, and it's not too hard to guess your name would be part of said theme."

"I suppose when you put it that way, it's not much of a guess at all." Pearl said, idly waving his right hand before he smirked as he continued "Not that knowing my name shall help you at all. After all, ever since I have acquired my indestructible shields, I have never lost any of the 61 fights I have been in, or even been injured at all!"

"That's all well and good for your past fights, but I wasn't part of those fights." I said with a grin before I sent a pair of cloth streamers at Pearl, the two strips of cloth crossing paths before wrapping around Pearl's feet. I gave them a sharp tug, yanking Pearl's feet out from under him and he twisted as he fell, landing face down with a surprised yelp. As he scrambled to stand up, I leapt up onto his back and wrapped a strip of cloth around his left wrist then yanked it upwards as I called out "Why you hitting yourself?!" The shield on his left hand slammed into his face, more specifically his mouth causing him to shout in pain.

Quickly leaping off of him, I watched Pearl twist his hand, moving his shield away and bring the palm of his hand to his lips. Pearl's body started to tremble and he looked over his shoulder at me in fear, blood coming out of his mouth down to his chin as he said "Blood...you hurt me, you. Hurt. ME!"

"Uh, Yeah? That's kind of the point of a fight isn't it?" I asked in confusion.

Pearl stood up and turned around, dropping the several bloody teeth in his hand before he began clapping his two hand shields together like a cymbal clapping monkey as he said "Danger, Danger, I'm in DANGER! YAAAAH!"

The next instant, I flinched back in surprise as he lit up in blue fire coming off all of his shields at once and he let out a deranged sounding laugh as he shouted "NOW NO ONE CAN HURT ME! EVEN THE FIERCEST PREDATOR STAYS AWAY FROM FIRE!"

"LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!" I barked as I wrapped a cloth strip around his neck and quickly yanked downwards on it with my left hand jerking his head down right into my rising blackened right fist. Pearl's head snapped back upwards and he stumbled back several steps, hands clamped over his now shattered jaw.

Staring at me with wide eyes, Pearl said from behind his hands and with a shattered jaw "OOU HII MEE A'AIN! Y ARN' OOU FAID OO E FIE?!"

I scoffed and as I cut off the strand of cloth around his neck which was now burning before it could reach me said "Here's a news flash pal, it takes time for something to catch fire. I just have to make sure I'm not touching the flames long enough for me to do so." Not giving Pearl a chance to retort, I wrapped him in cloth strips, pinning his arms to his chest before I darted in to the side. The cloth quickly caught fire but kept its integrity long enough for me to slam a kick into the side of Pearls left knee shattering it earning me another pained scream from Pearl as he dropped to that knee, causing him even more pain. He ripped his arms free of the burning cloth and tried to hit me with a swing of his left arm but I danced out of the way before I came back in and slammed home another punch into his face, this time in the left eye. Pearl fell onto his back from the hit and I was quick to capitalize, slamming a hard kick into his face that shattered his nose. It also had the benefit of knocking him out.

As Pearl's flames dissipated, I let out a huff and said "You know, given how Taifun made you a bonus objective, I expected more from you." Shaking my head, I took a moment to completely immobilize Pearl in several layers of duck tape just to be sure he didn't light himself on fire. At least I hoped it would keep him from doing that because if he didn't need to clang his shields together to make a spark and could just do it at will we'd have trouble down the line.

That was for later me to worry about if that was the case though. Current me instead turned his gaze to the three groups he had knocked over before. The group were looking at me like I was the Grim Reaper as one whimpered out "He took out Pearl, even when he lit himself on fire."

"What kind of monster is he?" Another pirate whimpered.

"Your worst nightmare." I said with a grin as several tendrils of cloth came out of my jacket and floated around me in a way that was far more menacing than cloth had any right to be.

One of the pirates screamed out in fear and began pulling out pistols from his belt, firing each gun then drawing a new one. Several of the other pirates also fired pistols at me, though the rest of them only had one or two pistols. He fired all twelve of his guns, panting heavily with wide eyes. Cocking my head, I glanced down at where the bullets rested after having bounced off of my Haki augmented bullet proof suit. I then looked up at the pirate with a raised eyebrow and asked "I'm sorry, but was that supposed to actually do anything?"

The pirate dropped the last two guns from trembling hands before he ran away screaming, ducking behind the closest piece of wooden debris. I scoffed at that before I glanced at the others and asked "Well, I feel embarrassed for him. Shall we continue?"

The group of pirates glanced at each other before as one they dropped their weapons and took off running, though rather than joining their crewmate, they ran to the side of the duck tape slab and jumped into the ocean water. And for some reason, they had a dust cloud following them even though there was no dirt on the tape and they didn't run on any of the wooden ship debris on their way there.

I gave the dust cloud a bemused look before I shook my head and asked myself "Now what the hell was that for? They could have just dropped their weapons and surrendered." Shaking my head again, I ducked my body down at the waist and a cannonball on a stick went right past where my head was. Quickly rolling forward and standing up while turning, I said "Oi, oi, I thought you were going to be smart and stay out of this one Gin."

"I'm afraid that I cannot do that Matt." Gin said with narrowed eyes. As he spun up his right tonfa, he continued "After all, I would be a pretty bad Battle Chief Commander if I didn't take part in a battle."

I gave a sigh then glanced up at where Usopp was watching the battle zone with slingshot drawn, looking for anyone else still conscious and called out "OI USOPP! THERE A REASON YOU DIDN'T KNOCK THIS BASTARD OUT WHEN HE CAME RUNNING TOWARDS ME?"

Usopp looked sheepish, releasing the tension in his sling shot in order to rub the back of his head and said "WELL YOU SEE, I TRIED, BUT HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO DEFLECT THE SHOT WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING SO I DIDN'T TRY A SECOND TIME."

I sighed again and said "Of course he did." Shaking my head, I glared at Gin and said "Right, let's do this then."

Gin smirked and rushed at me, swinging his spinning tonfa at my side. I dropped low and went to sweep out his legs only for Gin to do a hand less cartwheel over my leg bringing his left tonfa at me as he did so. I rolled back, but not before wrapping a strip of cloth around the tonfa where the cannonball met the shaft and tugged it with me as I rolled back, throwing Gin over me where I added a kick to his chest for good measure. Gin managed to turn that kick into a twisting flip, landing on his feet facing me and immediately came after with his tonfa spinning while my back was still turned. He got a Haki augmented elbow to the stomach for his troubles as I leapt backwards with a strip of cloth around his waist pulling him in close for good measure.

Before he could properly recover, I reached over my shoulder and grabbed a handful of his shirt before I ducked down throwing him over me and onto the ground. Before I could capitalize though, he was back on his feet and already swinging at me again. Letting out a snarl as I did a clumsy dodge out of range, I said "Alright, time to step this up a notch." Pulling out my knife with my right hand, I flicked it open then spun it into a reverse grip, the blade immediately turning black.

Gin warily eyed the blade, his confusion at why it changed colors plain to see on his face. Still, he wasn't wary enough. When he spun up his left tonfa then came in to slam it into my side, I stepped into the blow, knife catching the shaft of the tonfa just before the cannon ball. I grunted in pain from the strain that put on my arm but Gin's surprise of that action allowed me to head-butt him and he stumbled back a few feet before I wrapped my cloth around his torso then yanked him straight into my left half fist to the throat. As Gin choked from the blow, I slashed at his left hand making him drop that tonfa. Before I could do the same to his right hand he quickly leapt back, left hand to his throat though he tried to kick his dropped tonfa back to his reach. Tried, but failed as a strip of cloth wrapped around it and pulled it into my own left hand, causing me to grunt at its weight and put the cannonball end on the ground.

As Gin recovered, he eyed me with a smirk and asked "Do you really think that you can just pick up that weapon and use it against its owner?"

I gained a smirk of my own and said "Use it conventionally? Probably not. But Gin, there's one thing that you need to know about us Devil Fruit users."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Gin asked, right tonfa beginning to spin.

"When a weapon winds up in our hands we get extra options." I said and the next instant, the tonfa was spinning around over my head, the entire shaft wrapped up in a strip of cloth before I launched the cannonball tipped shaft of metal at Gin like I had seen his boss do at Luffy. Gin was quick to knock the tonfa off course but as he tried to reach me his stolen weapon decided to ignore physics and shot to the right behind his legs causing the cloth attached to it catch on his legs where physics reasserted itself and wrapped around his feet like a bola tripping him.

Before he could even try to get his legs free, I quickly stepped on his right wrist trapping his last weapon and dropped to my other knee with the blade of my knife resting on the back of his neck. Gin immediately went still and I asked "Do you yield? Keep in mind that I'll be able to detect if you try anything the instant you think about it and have no problem severing your spinal cord."

"You can read minds?!" Gin asked incredulously.

"Oh Gin, pretty much EVERYONE in the second half of the Grand Line has learned how to do what I can, I'm just ahead of the curve." I said with a shake of my head.

Gin's hand tightened on his tonfa then immediately after went slack as he said "We really didn't know anything about the Grand Line, did we?"

I used my fruit to tape down the pair of tonfas (The fight was over at this point, it didn't count) and said "No, you didn't, but don't feel too bad, it really is sink or swim in that ocean, at least you managed to reach calmer waters. Not many others get that second chance if they can't handle the currents, as you well know." With that, I withdrew my knife, the floor underneath Gin flowing around until strips of tape kept him pinned by the limbs and torso. He'd probably get himself out with enough time true, but his tonfas were well and truly part of the landscape at this moment.

An explosion rang out and I glanced over at where Krieg was fighting Luffy, finally allowing my focus to expand from just around me to the rest of the battlefield. Seeing Krieg wielding a spear made up of the two golden shoulder covers (Leaving a second layer of uncolored metal uncovered) I shook my head and said "I'll give him points for ingenuity if nothing else."

I then began securing all of the Krieg Pirates in the area, though I kept one eye on the fight as I began 'mop up' operations. Krieg seemed to be having quite the trouble against Luffy as I worked. Luffy's fist was bleeding (Probably from dealing with that spiked cape I saw on the ground thirty feet away from them) but otherwise he appeared uninjured as he deftly moved around the battlefield like his namesake easily avoiding each explosion that came when Krieg's weapon hit the ground.

A few explosions later and Luffy apparently got bored playing dodge the boom, bending his body back a full ninety degrees at the beginning of his spine while keeping his legs straight. (And making me wince in sympathetic pain. Seriously, if that guy wasn't made of rubber...) As the spear passed overhead, he slammed his right foot into the shaft right where the shields joined it and the shaft snapped like a twig causing the boom shields to go sailing off until they hit one of the masts of Krieg's ruined Galleon, detonating and sending the mast careening to the side, thankfully AWAY from the Baratie and hence not in a direction where the knocked out pirates were. Carne and Patty weren't nearly so lucky and they really had to pedal to get their boat out of the way. Their cursing shouts had me clutching my stomach as I laughed.

With the exploding spear now destroyed, Krieg threw out a net that glimmered in the sunlight showing it to be metal. Luffy though rocketed out of the way by grabbing a nearby railing before he reached out his arm and grabbed the net pulling it out of Krieg's hands. Then he proceeded to whip the arm holding the net up into the air then down, smacking Krieg with his own capture equipment and creating a loud crashing sound as the metal net met his armor.

Tossing the net to the side, Luffy then rushed back in and began a furious fisticuffs brawl with Krieg. The pair showed absolutely no regard for defense in their brawl, Krieg seemingly convinced that his metal armor would keep him safe while Luffy was rubber and so didn't actually feel Krieg's hits regardless of how physically strong the man was. Still, while Krieg's armor may have been strong, it was rigid while Luffy's body had a good deal of give. All other things being equal, it was the metal that dealt with the blunt force trauma the worst. Five minutes of furious slugging later and Krieg's armor cracked then shattered like glass when Luffy took advantage of Krieg's shock to launch his arms back then forward with a cry of "Gum Gum, BAZOOKA!"

As Krieg was thrown backwards, Luffy stretched out his right arm and grabbed his leg, reeling him in before slamming a hard punch into Krieg's gut, slamming him into the hard floor beneath him and causing Krieg to spit out blood before going still and my Observation Haki showed that he was most DEFINITELY not waking up anytime soon. Apparently though, waking up and GETTING up were two different things because as I made my way over, Krieg stood up with completely white eyes and shouted out "I WON'T BE DEFEATED! NO ONE IS AS STRONG AS DON KRIEG! I AM THE MOST POWERFUL MAN ALIVE!"

"You're an annoying asshole is what you are." Luffy said before leaping up and grabbing the back of Krieg's head and pulling it into his rising knee strike. THAT finally shut the man up and he fell to the ground with blood pouring out of his now shattered nose causing me to wince a bit at the sight even as I sunk Krieg into the tape slab up to his neck.

Dusting off my hands as I finished walking over, I said "Well done Captain."

"Shishishi, Thanks Matt!" Luffy said with a grin. His stomach then growled like some giant monster and he wrapped his arms around his stomach and said "Sooo hungry!"

I huffed in amusement and said "Well let's grab you a plate of food real quick." My expression then hardened as I said "Then we've got a certain Navigator to question."

Luffy's own expression turned serious as we started walking back to the Baratie and said "Yeah, I need to ask her why she didn't want to be friends anymore." He then stuck his tongue out and said "And give her a good bonk on the head, once you're Nakama, you STAY Nakama."

I ignored how that sounded like something you would say about being in the Yakuza or Mafia and instead focused on removing the massive slab of duck tape sitting in the ocean like a small island. As the tape receded, finally allowing the rest of Krieg's galleon to sink, it wrapped around the Krieg pirates, both the unconscious ones and the ones that had fled, who gave such delightful screams as they were grabbed by tentacles of tape to be brought over, thrashing around until they were cocooned in tape and then gagged.

When Luffy and I reached the Baratie dock (A strip of tape forming a bridge for us to bypass the wall) all of the 'mook' Krieg pirates were wrapped in tape from the neck down, Pearl was devoid of all of his shields while also cocooned, and Krieg was in a giant ball with just his head sticking out. Only Gin wasn't completely encased and that was because I actually liked him though his wrists were taped behind his back and his ankles taped while crossed. (I brought him in on a floating square of tape, like a silver magic carpet).

As our feet touched wood, Luffy laughed and said "Shishi, Hey old man! We took care of the pirates just like I said!"

"Indeed you did Chore Boy." Zeff said, eyeing the pirates with dark amusement.

"Might want to call the Marines to come pick these guys up." I said, the last of the slab reshaping into a barge shaped boat that I dumped all of the mooks, Pearl, and Krieg in. Gin, I placed on an open spot of the Baratie deck, a wide strip of cloth securing him to the railing.

"Indeed Carpenter." Zeff said, making a gesture with a hand which sent one of the cooks running into the restaurant to get on the Den Den Mushi.

"Why'd you leave that guy on the ship?!" Patty asked, pointing at Gin. He and Carne had pedaled the 'Mackerel 1' up to the ship as the field of duck tape shrunk.

I shrugged and said "Just felt like it."

While the chefs all muttered at that, Luffy's stomach growled again and Sanji huffed out in amusement and pointed back inside of the restaurant as he said "Come on, I'll make you some food."

"YAY! I want meat!" Luffy cheered as he quickly went through the doors.

I rolled my eyes and entered as well, though I didn't join the others at their table. (Usopp quickly coming in to join them and Zoro looking like he was just taking a nap thanks to his repaired shirt) Instead, I kept walking, intending to bring the Merry closer and put her back in the water now that the fighting was over. We also needed to get answers from Nami. Maybe I should put her in a trance before bringing her over, just to ensure that she was actually honest this time.

END

Author's Notes: Well, that happened. I THOUGHT about Gin trying to hold Zeff hostage, but a, the guy was surrounded by his cooks and b, Usopp would have shot the pistol out of his hand so no good on that front. Plus, his title is Chief Battle Commander, I think that means he'd go after one of the two guys who were tearing apart his comrades. (Usopp was safe because again, the chefs)

Next chapter is going to be the Straw Hats learning what's up with Nami but that'll be a while since once I have the other two branches updated I'm moving onto Tyrant and Assignment. See ya'll soon!

*Mythbusters did an episode that showed bulls were actually very capable of not damaging shelves holding china. Season 5 Episode 17 if you're curious.