[Episode] The Hijack! The Prisoner Makes A Move!

Q Details:

''BWAHAHAHA!'' Bursting in laughter, Bang spills a few drops of his drink when he hits the table with the bottom of his tankard. With his other hand, he pats a man on his shoulder. Wiping the tears from his eyes from laughing, he takes another sip. At the same time at a different table, some guys forehead hits the table as he fell asleep for drinking too much. Bang on the other hand is ordering for another drink as he finished his tankard. Laughs and laughter accompanied by the soft tones of cheerful music in the background have since two hours filled the room and never left.

Two hours ago..

Scratching the back of his head whilst yawning, Bang looks left and right for some entertainment. Today, the Marine vessel he had boarded had docked at Lvneel Kingdom. He was bored out of his mind after sitting still for way too long. He had just finished eating somewhere and now as the sun started lowering and fading out into the night he was walking around through the streets of the kingdom when suddenly a lot of noise stimulated his ears. They all came from a single building. Some kind of tavern, eh.. Bang put his hands in his pockets and decided to check things out over there.

The sound of metal and wood clattering all around, numerous voices and all sounds you'd expect to hear in a bar like this all get louder every step Bang takes towards the tavern. Aaand...

13 tankards later. Present.

Sitting together with Bang is a new friend of his who goes by the name of Argus. He, together with a group of 12 friends, has been a part of this two-hour long party Bang had found himself being drawn towards. They wore ragged clothes in earthly colors. They also had a few scars here and there, like Bang himself.

Argus was in fact a captain. And not just any captain.. no.. a pirate captain! A pirate captain, ready to take on the world, plunder the lands and conquer the seas. He, together with his twelve crewmates was a part of the quite random party that was thrown when some old topless and shoeless geezer went and ordered drinks for everyone, drinking the most of it himself. Little did they know Bang himself was also a captain. And not just any captain.. no.. a marine captain! A marine captain, quite unfit to be in a position like that, definetely not ready to save the world from the pirates flooding the seas and should've been a janitor for some spoiled rich family. He, together with.. nobody, started to drink through the night to make his stay at Lvneel more fun. He was quite an experienced drinker before he did his time in Impel Down and now seemingly because of old age he thought he could handle drinking even better! There was no point beyond being drunk for Bang whereas in his younger days he'd end up fast asleep or perhaps hanging with his head above the sea water with his mouth wide open.

''Oi, ojisan [mister], why is that..'' said Argus, shortly pausing his sentence to burp. ''You sit so weirdly. Normal people tend to keep their feet on the ground and not on the chair like you.'' Bang, narrowing his eyes, stared at Argus for a second. He then scratched his eyebrow before laughing. ''What are you talking about! All of you sit weird!'' Bang, who prefers to sitdown with his feet planted right before his bottom, has mimicked his foster parents back in the day. Ape Minks. Bang's rather weird habits all date back to his very first few years after he got born where he didn't get teached how to be human and manners and all that.

The reason behind the fact that Cap'n Argus didn't know Bang was part of the Marines is because he left his coat on the coat rack that was in a separate room before one entered the tavern's.. hall. And the reason behind the fact that Bang didn't know Cap'n Argus was a pirate because well.. his perception of reality is a bit different than pretty much any other human. You can call Bang stupid in a way. This doesn't mean that he is unintelligent but the clear signs that someone's a pirate are for Bang not clear signs at all. He grew up a pirate and looks at the Navy's soldiers the same way he looks at pirates.

Raising a flag in the name of being a pirate does not essentially make one a criminal. That is how Bang views the world. The same goes for someone with a Seigi [justice] kanji on the back of his coat. Not all Marine soldiers are just and righteous and therefore being part of the Navy does not essentially make one ''good'' in the debate of good and evil.

Another hour passed and more or less everyone was done drinking. Even Bang. He was tired and fell asleep during a conversation with one of the pirates working for Argus. Not because he was too drunk! No, don't get me wrong. Bang has a tendency to fall asleep. Anytime of the day. Bore him? ZzzzZzz.. His mind wanders off? ZzzzzZZzz.. Hell, Bang could be an inch away from chopping someones head clean off with an axe and he would drop the axe before making contact because he fell asleep.

Bang waved without looking back as he walked towards the exit of the tavern. The pirates greeted the old geezer for one last time. He grabbed his coat, threw it over his shoulders and filled his pockets with his hands again as he used his head to open the door leading him to fresh air.

However, Argus had told one of the guys in his crew who didn't drink to follow up on Bang. See where he was headed. Bang had paid for a lot of drinks that evening and Argus was sure Bang was some kind of rich old geezer with a fortune stashed away at his home. Bang, not sure where to go, decided to just go where his instinct would lead him to. Randomly moving into alleys and all that, till at a point he faced a dead end. He sighed and turned around to head back to where he came from. As he turned around, he saw a guy standing not too far from him infront of him. He recognized him from before. Currently, Bang had been wandering for half an hour in the fresh air that Lvneel offered its citizens and more or less was sober once again.

''.. Do you need instructions?'' Bang asked. ''Nothing of that kind! I want to know where ya' keep ya' money.'' The pirate responded. Bang frowned upon hearing the man. Money.. Oh! He after an awkward silence came to the conclusion that the man wanted to take his money! ''I see!'' The pirate had already drawn his sword and was ready to take the life of Bang in the name of wealth-to-come. ''And since I realized you were part of the Marines, I'll take your life too at the same time. We don't want you to report back and interfere with our plans!'' The pirate thought that Bang had recognized the pirate crew he was drinking with and was going to report back to HQ. As a matter of fact.. he did not recognize a pirate, let alone a whole pirate crew. ''.. Oh! Right. I am a Marine now!'' It was still new for Bang. A few months ago he was drafted into the Navy for his exceptional fighting talent. They thought he'd be of use. He still had to get used that when someone would refer to Bang as a Navy soldier, they were actually talking about him.

The pirate, seemingly agitated by the comment Bang made about being a marine, dashed forward and went straight for Bang's neck. ''Oh.. so that's how it's gonna go..'' Bang said to himself, leaning backwards. Leaning far enough backwards that the strike of the pirate sliced right above Bang. ''Limbo!'' Bang shouted. ''Bwahahaha!'' Seemingly he enjoyed himself. The pirate, shook at how Bang avoided his strike turned around  360 degrees the same way he turned to strike him in the first place gracefully and tried to strike him again. Bang got back up from his leaning backwards position and removed his right hand from his pocket and immediately launched the same hand towards the blade that was now trying to hit Bang in his side at chest level. Bang pointed his finger towards the blade at the middle of it and mummered something. ''Redirect.''

Everything went into slowmotion. The moment right before the blade made contact with Bang's finger - ready to slice it in half and would've followed up by slicing right into Bang's arm - something happened. The powers of the Swirl Swirl Fruit now came into play. Instead of the blade chopping through Bang like a hot knife through butter the blade cracked in two right to the point where Bang's had placed his finger. The pirate, once again shook, dashed backwards in awe. ''What the hell!?'' He said. Bang with a creepy, dark smile on his face looked him dead in the eye and put his right hand back in his pocket while slowly stepping towards the man.

It was not that Bang needed his devil fruit powers for a guy like him, but more or less he wanted to see the look on his face after what happened happened. Like a dream came through, a priceless facial expression was what Bang was after. ''Bwaha..'' He laughed. Less loud than people are used to. The pirate stood there. Frozen in time, so it seemed. He had no idea what he had just witnessed and could not comprehend what had happened. Standing right in front of the pirate, Bang removed his hands once again from his pockets and poked the man on his forehead. ''Are you still there?'' He asked. The pirate did not respond to him. An awkward silence followed as Bang stared at the man. After some seconds, the man started to stutter something but before his lips, tongue and vocal chords could actually form a sentence Bang had jumped up and delivered a right hook on his face sending him crashing into the surface below him creating a cloud of dust.

Bang then fell asleep while standing.

Shaking his head suddenly, Bang woke up once again and found himself standing over the numb and unconscious body of the pirate. Not sure if he's dead though, he thought. He looked up to the sky and fell the sun burning in his eyes as he stared directly into the beaming rays of sunlight. Night had passed, the moon was gone. A new day! As he started to realize what had happened before he fell asleep, it was like a big lightbulb was shining above his head. The alley he was in was surrounded by small houses. He climbed on one of them and saw a lot of commotion coming from the docks. Curious to find out what was going on, he moved towards the docks at his own slow pace.

Sometime later..

Bang had reached the docks just now when a soldier approached him in a hurry. ''Captain! Pirates have taken over our ship and are about to sail away! Our intel is limited, but we are no match for their captain. Another thing we know is that we've counted 12 pirates including the captain and it seems they are waiting for the last one of their crew.'' Bang raised an eyebrow when suddenly he realized yet another thing. ''Oh! I got into a quarrel with a pirate last night. He's about 400 meters from here in this direction. He's knocked out I think. Or he might've gotten up and is now heading to the sh-'' Bang turned his head quickly towards the ship and headed towards it. He had to deal with the situation or he would be stuck on Lvneel till another Marine ship would come and pick him up. How boring would that be?!

Closing in on the ship he took it all in: gunfire from the docks towards the ship and from the ship towards the docks. Shouts, screams filled with pain, people ordering eachother around, fleeing citizens. The Marine soldiers were trying their best to take back the ship with the violence necessary through rifles and flintlocks. The pirates were responding by firing their own weapons and they were even using the ships cannons. He took a hold of his beard, clutching it as he was thinking. At the same time, he heard his stomach roar. I'm hungry.. he thought. He shook his head, trying to focus on the situation at hand.

Bang lowered his body, got into a starting position that athletes use aswell when they do a 100m sprint or something like that and blasted off forward. Right before he hit the edge of the docks he leaped forward, flying through the crossfire and soaring towards the ship that was perhaps a meter of ten away. As he looked as to where he should land, he saw two of the pirates that were hijacking the ship unsheathing their cutlasses and waited for Bang to land in order to attack him. Bang smiled as he came closer.. and closer.. and closer.. and landed.. He hit the floor with a small thud as his feet gently positioned themselves right next to each other and he had pointed his arms outwards. He bowed as if he was some kind of magician that just performed a magic trick. The pirate to his left came swinging from the pirates point of view being right to left and the pirate to his right did the same thing but then from the pirates point of view being left to right so both were trying to slice through Bang from his side.

Bang let himself fall towards the ground backwards at the moment he was about to get struck by the swords of the pirates leading to the pirates' swords hitting each other instead of hitting Bang. Bang rotated himself so he would lay on his belly and then pushed himself off the ground with his palms before spinning 360 degrees whilst stretching his legs in order to perform a breakdance kind of move flooring both of the pirates in a single, beautiful sweep. When he returned to his original position he got back up with a jump and landed on the faces of the pirates: one foot respectively for one face. He wiggled a little, forcing his weight into one leg and the other afterwards increasing the pain inflicted upon his victims.

10 pirates and the Captain left.

As he was noticed by the pirate crew one of the pirates pointed his firearm towards Bang and fired a single shot. Bang stood there looking awkwardly towards the bullet that was about to penetrate his skull through the middle of his eyes. He used his devil fruit powers, guiding the bullet into an arc around him before hitting one of the masts. The pirate looked shocked not being able to comprehend what had happened let alone think of the powers of a devil fruit.

Bang crossed his arms as he looked the pirate dead in the eye. His captain, Argus, then appeared next to the pirate who had just tried to shoot Bang. Argus laughed as he recognized Bang from the night before. ''I see that you're still doing well, ojisan! Why'd ya' never tell us ya' were a World G dog?'' Argus said, laughing at his own joke. ''Bwahahaha!'' Bang too, bursted out in laughter. For real - you can call Bang any kind of name and he would not care for it in the slightest. Argus raised an eyebrow noticing Bang laughing aswell. ''Are you certain about facing me, ojisan?'' Argus said, mildly trying to intimidate Bang aswell. Before Bang could respond, one of the pirates he was standing on tried to say something. Bang lifted his heel and smashed it right back into the face with a sickening crack as it landed. ''Oiii.. quiet!'' Bang said, looking at the pirate. At that point, the pirate who had fired before fired a bullet a second time - with the same outcome however, hitting a mast after rotating around Bang. Bang looked at the pirate before looking at Argus. His eyes moved towards the feet of Argus, studying him from tip to toe before looking Argus in the eye again. Bang then nodded.

Argus cracked his fists and slowly moved towards Bang while holding a hand out towards the pirate with the firearm that more or less meant ''don't interfere''. Bang jumped towards Argus with his arms still crossed leaving the pirates suffering from added weight the moment Bang jumped towards Argus. His first move would be a roundhouse kick with his right leg, trying to hit Argus' head with his shin at about 3/4th position from bottom to top in order to apply maximum force. Argus used both his arms - his forearms to be precise - to block the kick  moving Argus away from where he was standing for a little bit but then Argus immediately went in for the counter move. He had already cocked his left shoulder and arm backwards in order to block the kick to follow up by trying to land a devastating punch as Bang came closer losing momentum in the air. Argus had anticipated where Bang's head would be located and fired his arm in the same direction. However, Bang wasn't done yet with being on the offensive. As he had located his arms to the side of his body once again, elbows tucked in and fists infront of his chest he used his devil fruit powers once more.

All of a sudden, from getting closer to the ground Bang out of nowhere gained a whole lot of momentum, spinning backwards at a high speed before he landed his heels at the back of Argus his head. [Somersault Heels] Because he went spinning, Bang narrowly avoided the punch and from a closer point of view it would be as if he ''rolled'' over Argus his fist. Argus was dazed by the attack however he kept his feet on the ground whilst wobbling a little bit. He did not expect to get hit - let alone in the back of his head - and the element of surprise did the most damage. However! Bang was not done yet. The moment he landed on his feet he crouched down before jumping up and suddenly once again spinning at an enormous high speed, rotating in a 360 degrees trajectory when he crashed his knees into Argus' chin. [Somersault Knees] Bang was now mid-air to the point where his head and feet were aligned in a straight line towards the ground as he utilized yet another technique, violently crashing the back of his elbow in Argus' face [Twister Elbow] before grabbing a hold of Argus' collar and pulling himself over him while also pulling Argus with him so that when Bang landed clean on his feet in a crouched down position he hurdled Argus away from himself slamming his face into the ground.

It seemed as if the battle between Argus and Bang was over. For now. Argus remained motionless on the deck of the ship after sliding a few meters beyond the point of impact. The screeching of Argus' nails over the wooden deck of the ship was an awful sound that led to silence. Some of the pirate grunts came hollering towards Bang, trying to make do for their captain who was seemingly defeated. With simple movement like a experienced boxer, Bang slipped, evaded and dodged the punches, kicks and swordswinging thrown at him with ease. Here and there, he used his butt to push his opponents off balance or trip one with his foot et cetera in a very elegant way of fighting.

After three grunts found themselves on the floor as did their captain they realized their struggle was of no effect against a man of Bang's caliber and they remained at the same position. They would later flee the scene, they thought, if their captain wouldn't save them from their demise that was fast approaching: capture by the Marines.

Bang slowly approached Argus with a casual stroll, hands tucked inside his pockets once again. Argus slowly crawled up, now sitting with his back against a pole. He muttered something, inaudible for Bang, yet it seemed as if he cursed him by the look on his face. Bang decided that in order to end this war waged on them by pirates he'd have to make short matters of their captain even when he already seemed defeated. Argus had given up after the short but powerful beating he received from ''The Prisoner''. Other Marine soldiers were now boarding the ship aswell, putting grunts and fodder on their bellies and keeping them down on the ground while regaining control of their ship.

''Shatter their ribs, crack their skulls and disembowl their very souls. That was a lesson taught to me.. ages ago.'' He said, as he crouched down close infront of Argus, seeking eye contact with the pirate captain. The marine soldiers observered Bang taking down Argus. They figured he was going to cuff the man and deliver him to justice. But for some reason, Bang felt like he wasn't done with the man just yet.

He stood up and raised his arm, his hand palm facing upwards. He looked at his hand palm, thinking for a moment that seemed to take forever for those who were watching. Bang started to create swirls right above his hand in multiple directions at high speeds. He then increases the volume and density, essentially forming a ball that send the lightest props and projectiles lying on the floor to move some distance because of the strength of the ball Bang had created. This was his trademark technique, the marines knew. It was named ''Break''. A fitting name for a technique that didn't keep things in place and only caused destruction. Like a boxer's famous trademark technique being a overhand right, this was Bang's overhand right. His eyes, still watching the ball twist, turn, spin, rotate and swirl hovering above his palm now looked at Argus who looked with open eyes towards Bang. Direct eye contact.

And then.. Boom. In what looked like a explosion of light, the sound of wood getting destroyed was heard and the place where Bang stood and Argus sat was now cloaked in a cloud of dust and rubble.

Bang had sent Argus through the pole he was leaning against with his trademark technique. He had placed his palm against Argus' chest and effectively pushed him through the pole and adding up to that was the enormous force gathered above his hand palm that would definetely hurt anyone getting hit by that. When the smoke cleared, the mast of the ship dropped onto the ship and into the water as it was split in two and Argus laid there on the deck but on the opposite side of the ship unconscious. The fight was over. Now, for certain.

The marine soldiers looked in awe.. but more due to being shocked than a positive emotion. Was this an actual Marine captain, they thought. The guy looked sadistic, evil and more of a dangerous to them than the pirates they had just faced would ever be. He stood there.. smiling. A testimony to who he used to be for we must not forget: Bang used to be Bangzaros D. Skullsplitta before putting a coat of justice over his shoulders. He was like Argus: a pirate traveling the world wreaking havoc, plundering and pillaging. Now the question remains.. will he ever turn back into what he used to be.

In the aftermath of the battle, the marines had to repair their ship and they did so with help of the villagers giving praise to the Lvneel Kingdom for their help and to the marines for their support. The pirates were held in custody and were to be brought with them.