[Arc] Beating Destiny- I Drum Up the Dare

Quest Request:

The hulking contraption lurched over the hill like some stone-faced skeleton, its lanky, mechanical limbs gripping the earth below, screeching beneath the weight of the fortress they carried. Belching plumes of smoke with each movement, the machine made its way across the snowy ridges of Drum Island.

The captain of the fortress stood atop its highest floor, savoring the icy breeze, a bone-chilling reminder of his mountainous homeland; still, like a child in winter he stuck his devil’s tongue out and caught snowflakes upon it. He is mostly oblivious as to where his newfound sanctum has taken him, he seems to savor the freedom found in the unknown; he knows only that the vehicle has ferried him and his crew into the Grand Line, with this revelation Doji has become a blind-man possessed.

Fortunately, there are errant voices of reason amongst the oni’s delusions of grandeur, his companions (at least those who remain awake) have informed him often in the last few days that they are in over their head.

“Asakura-sama, we’re burning through the last of our fuel alarmingly fast. If we don’t find somewhere to resupply soon we’ll be stranded in the middle of this blizzard,” the oni woman spoke plainly from beneath her umbrella.

Nietzche was quite cold, and though he grumbled and shivered, he was rather excited to sit in the hands of an attractive young lady; even if she was a cold-hearted cannibal.

“Eh? Aren’t there any more trees around?” Doji asked, oblivious to all that his crewmates could surveil from their high vantage point.

“No. I don’t see any. This monster eats tinder too quickly anyways, what she needs is coal…”

Squinting and looking out into the distance the girl spotted something out in the distance: a human settlement, in all honesty, not her preferred destination.

“... ugh, speaking of which. I think I may have found our answer. The little people burn plenty of coal, yes?” The blue-haired oni spoke tactfully, buying herself time, trying to think of a way to avoid having to deal with filthy humans.Ironic, considering her stature was rather too short to be a full-bred oni…

“Huh? I guess if there aren’t any trees around probably. Why do you ask?” The red-haired oni responded densely, his village had always had firewood to spare; whatever coal was mined amongst the townsfolk was sold to the kingdom.

“Alright, I have an idea. I see a little village down there, I say we fire every cannon on it, stop the fortress, and raid the town for coal!” draping Nietzche over her shoulders, Juri slammed one of her fists into her open palm as she spoke, as though she had just devised a genius and utterly uncontroversial plan.

Yes! Yes! Slaughter them All!

Even from within the bowels of the castle’s armory, the blood-hungering sword made its will known to its wielder. It hungered for the death of the innocent, and yearned to wield the body of the devil once more.

The red-haired oni had outgrown his careless ambivalence towards the innocent; he had never been fond of seeing women or children suffer, and wielding the power of that monstrous blade, he had even come to pity the men he met in battle.

Doji’s will had grown tempered and temperate, standing at the helm of the castle, he impressed upon his crew his intention to meet with the little people under peaceful terms. In all honesty, a certain sense of fair play was also a part of the oni’s decision, to park a heavily-armed castle above a village and bombard the township below seemed not only cruel, but uncouth and dishonorable to him.

“If we’re already short on supplies it would be best not to waste more, don’t you think Juri?” In their short time together, Doji had already learned to approach interactions with Juri using survivalist pragmatism; she didn’t care much for appeals to ethics or emotion.

“Hmmph. Fine, have it your way. But I’m not leaving Gashadokuro,” with this, Juri furled Nietzche in and threw him over her shoulder, heading into the walls of the castle.

“Always a pleasure Juri,” though the pint-sized oni was a bit of a brat, and was brutally uncivilized, Doji did mean what he said; he found her slightly charming despite her rough edges, like a wild, mangy, little animal.

The oni stood atop his perch a bit longer, embracing the cutting winds as the castle’s mechanical limbs slowly ground to a halt. The settling of Gashadokuro into the ground below was a rough affair, each time that the fortress came to a halt it was as though the entire structure was being subjected to an earthquake; the furniture indoors would overturn, pots and pans would go flying, even shingles of the roof would dislodge. Still, though the skeleton of the castle groaned and bellyached, its structure remained intact as it made its seat on a hill not too far from Cocoa Weed. All in all, parking the walking fortress was a total pain in the ass.

Finally, the movement of the structure had come to its rumbling end, and the castle’s base lodged itself into the earth beneath.

As Juri picked herself off the kitchen floor and began trying to set the kitchen back in order, she was interrupted by the sound of a young man screaming outside the window. She made her way quickly to the port, and looked out just in time to see it…

“YAAAIII! HEEELLLP!”

… a red-haired streak of motion hurtled past the window towards the ground below.

Juri squinted her eyes with a quiet sense of resentment, dumb jerk tryin’ to play nice with the little humans. I should let him fall, the cruel woman thought to herself callously.

“JURIII! PLEEEAAASE!”

Ugh, fine, in truth, despite her brutal demeanor, the half-oni still had some sense of loyalty and affection for her captain. Flinging strings of white-webbing from her fingertips, the cruel cook was able to fashion a safety net for her ally just in time to break his fall.

The blue-haired oni allowed her captain to bounce off of the net a couple of times before abruptly dismissing her power, causing him to fall face-first into a bank of snow below,
“Wai-wai…” Juri hated her laugh, but she couldn’t help but bust a gasket seeing the oni-shaped (horns and all) hole in the snow, “... wai-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu!!”

Pushing himself free from his snowy prison Doji stood back up to his feet, a wide-smile beamed across his face; he knew that seeing his wide bright-faced smile would annoy his cook more than any reprimand he could possibly conjure, “Thanks Juri! Seeya later! I’m off to see the humans!”

With this, Doji began scrambling towards the village…

“You’re going the wrong way dumbass!” Juri screeched wrathfully from atop the Yokai’s castle.

… with this, Doji made his way towards the village.

Word Count:

Meanwhile, Somewhere Near Cocoa Weed…

Riding on the shoulders of his giant slave, the childish boy had tramped across Drum Island, taking in all of the sights to see. Otto, the princely young scion of a Celestial family, had heard rumor of a mythical Zoan fruit held somewhere amongst the island’s populace: the Ushi Ushi no Mi: Model Kirin.

Ever since he was a child, Otto had loved giraffes, he thought of them as mighty, majestic, almost alien beings worthy of great admiration; he had always asked his father if he might someday eat a giraffe zoan fruit, and know what it was like to be so regal as them firsthand. His father thought this preposterous and reprimanded his son for his idiocy, the only Zoan-Type worthy of a Celestial Dragon would have to be Mythical; to gain the powers of a normal animal was plebeian, and beneath the purview of one of the world’s almighty gods.

Otto took his father’s reprimands close to heart, and swore that he would find a mythical giraffe. In his adolescence, his studies led him to a linguistic curiosity, the word: “Kirin,” used in Wano Kuni to refer to giraffes, was the same as one Mythical Zoan type mentioned in his father’s Devil Fruit Encyclopedia: the Model: Kirin. It was then that he set his eyes upon the object of his quest, he would attain the Kirin fruit by any means necessary.

It was only in Otto’s early adulthood that he would hear word of the fruit in the real world, and in some backwater island towards the entrance of the Grand Line no less. Words of traders transporting medical supplies who spoke of a lone white-colored tree in the mountains, upon which hung a gold and white pomegranate with spirals of the devil wrapped along its surface. No one dared go near, as the tree was kept in the garden of a solitary hermit with a rather nasty reputation amongst the locals. Otto cared not, he would find this man’s fruit, and snatch it up for himself.

A voice of reason rang out clear as a bell even amongst the snow-padded winter air, “Saint Otto, I doubt we’ll stumble upon the fruit you’re searching for just trodding through the hills and going out to look at the strange wildlife. We’d best get moving towards a town if you’re serious about getting your hands on this Kirin fruit of yours.”

Otto’s bodyguard: Jaeger von Hraesvelg, a hulking beast of a man with a voice sharp as a knife and smooth as butter, always had his eyes on the prize. He sought to protect, shelter, and nurture the young man; as the boy’s father had ordered him to, in truth Jaeger did find Otto rather annoying on an interpersonal level.

But his duty to serve the Celestial Dragons was unwavering. If he had been born of noble blood, Jaeger would have wished to ascend the ranks of God’s Knights, and serve the interests of the World Government dutifully, protecting all of those people who mattered most.

But this was little more than idle fantasy for a man of a lower caste. He would dutifully serve the brat as a simple bodyguard and nothing more, however he might wish he could conduct himself.

[npc=wgov]“If nothing else, I hope that my letter to the local nobility should suffice in getting the locals to comply with my wishes. However, in the meantime, do you have any bright ideas as to where we ought to go Jaeger?”[/npc] Otto spoke smugly from atop his man-turned-mount.

Finally the boy could be reasoned with, it seemed as though he’d had enough of searching through the cold mountain ridges; and even the novelty of chasing around wild lapins from atop his giant servant had grown stale. Jaeger pulled a map of the island from a scroll tube worn at his belt, and quickly unfurled it, “Hmm, let me see here…”

In the distance, the sounds of something massive moving could be heard; but whatever it was, Otto couldn’t see it from atop his current vantage.

“... seems we’re awfully close to a village called Cocoa Weed, should be around this mountain pass and down a ways. Let’s try to make good time and warm up a bit, eh?” The hulking bodyguard pressed forwards, dressed in formal attire, and holding his signature weapon: a large shovel (which proved rather handy in clearing a path through the snow for the rest of the Dragon’s retinue of slaves and servants).

Otto was content enough to follow after his bodyguard, he was growing hungry anyways and could go for some good Cocoa. Rounding the corner of the hill atop his steed, Otto saw what had been causing the ruckus: some makeshift contraption resembling a castle had somehow locomoted to the outskirts of the nearby village and was settling into the ground beneath it.

The blonde-haired dragon paused for a moment, looking upon the curiosity in awe, it was then that he noticed something that piqued his interest even more: An Oni, marching through the snow towards the village, in truth the oni looked as though he was of notable stock. Otto couldn’t believe his good luck, he would have his devil fruit, and he would add a marvelous new slave to his collection.

With this, the boy hopped down from his giant and began skipping down the hill toward Cocoa Weed.

The Following Letter was given to Sinclair and Cristine to be delivered to the Local Nobility:

[npc=wgov]Hello dearest servants! I’ve heard that somebody on your island has something that I as one of your beneficent Saints have a great interest in obtaining for myself. As a small token of gratitude for the World Government’s ongoing protection of the world, and dutiful service to the people of Drum Island, I ask that you help me obtain this item no matter the cost.

In 72 hours you will bring me that which I seek, the Mythical Zoan fruit held on your island, or I shall wreak havoc the likes of which you have never seen as punishment for your insolence. I hope that you can comply with my most reasonable demands!

– Otto (the letter is then stamped with a lipstick kiss)[/npc]

Word Count:

Before Doji got too far on his trek toward the village, he was joined by a faithful companion; floating down from above, the umbrella-fruit user rode the snowy-winds down to join his captain. Nietzche, a prisoner liberated from his captivity on Tequila Wolf, and the user of the Parasol-Parasol no Mi (a rather useless Paramecia fruit), joined with Doji in hopes of finding his lost daughter and was always eager to investigate settlements with his ally’s strength as added security.

Landing on one foot atop his captain’s shoulder and shielding the red-haired boy from the falling snow, Nietzche spoke to his captain from a creepy-looking mouth stretched across the underside of the umbrella’s canvas, [npc=pirt]“seems you’re planning to meet them on amicable terms, eh Doji?”[/npc]

The parasol pirate spoke pointedly, noticing the sack full of looted treasures carried on the oni’s belt; quite a large portion of the ship’s treasure stores had evidently found themselves into the bag.

Doji was oblivious to his ally’s somewhat scolding tone, “Yup! Whatever we need to do to move forwards!”

The devil smiled to himself goofily for a moment before a single tear fell from his blind eyes, “We’re gonna get you to your daughter, man. All of these things are just objects…” Doji picked a treasure from out of his bag, a beautiful necklace studded with sapphires bearing the crest of some old royal family, “... like dust in the wind. Plus, you think the treasures we were able to scrounge up in the East were anything to go on, just wait till we get our hands on some Grand Line booty!”

Nietzche was moved to tears himself, which fell from eyeballs grown on the underside of the umbrella, falling down onto Doji’s face. The boy and the umbrella continued their little philosophical chat as they marched through the snow, speaking of dreams and of how far they had come to make it to the Grand Line. As their conversation grew dry, Nietzche and Doji eventually came to the border of Cocoa Weed.

As the monster made his way into town the townspeople shuttered away in their houses, and locked their doors. They had heard word of Celestial Dragons arriving upon their shores, and now some horned monster had shown up from a walking castle and was walking down their streets without a care in the world. Dealing with the monster would be bad, but even worse, if they stayed outside they might risk being caught in the crossfire between a monster and a Celestial.

It was here on the increasingly vacant streets that a certain group of pirates would attract Doji’s attention, the sounds of Devil’s tinkering echoed through the city streets, catching the keen ears of the blind oni. With this Doji walked over to the makeshift booth construction, leaning over and waving to the pair before speaking, “Yo! You guys got any coal? We’re lookin’ for other supplies too, but most importantly we need coal, so do you got anything we could buy off ya?...” Doji turned quickly, jingling the sack of treasures at his waist, and pointed back towards the odd-looking castle visible on the outskirts of town, “... that’s my ship! We have to burn a ton of fuel to keep her going, and I couldn’t possibly keep up with the amount of lumber she can eat in a day’s travel!”

Meanwhile, on the Other Side of Town…

With the power of his massive shovel, and the ancient power granted to him by his devil fruit: the Ushi Ushi no Mi Model: Megaloceros giganteus (Giant Elk), Jaeger cleared a path for the droves of slaves who followed in the wake of their giant-riding master, crawling on hands and knees through the blistering cold. Two of Otto’s personal servants dutifully ensured that the slaves were just warm enough that they would not die from exposure.

The Dragon rode into town with the presence of a god; whereas people fled and hid from the devil Asakura Doji, they knew better than to even try this against the might of the world’s nobility. As Otto came into Cocoa miles from its Northern entrance, all those who saw his bubble-headed crown bowed in the presence of the divine.

Otto spoke with the weasley authority of a child who had never been questioned, [npc=wgov]“Greetings humble servants of this, ehm, Jaeger, what was the name of this backwater again?...” [/npc]

“Cocoa Weed sir.”

[npc=wgov]“... humble servants of Cocoa Weed! Count yourselves as lucky, for I am offering you the opportunity to aid in a mission that will ensure the safety of all of Drum Island! I seek the Mythical Zoan fruit of your island! For as long as I have lived I have loved giraffes, I have loved all things tall! And with this, the Mythical Kirin, I shall become the most powerful giraffe of all!”[/npc] The 4 '11 boy stood atop his giant steed, proclaiming to all his desire to be like some great tall animal; the irony was not lost on many, but none dared laugh for fear of instant death.

[npc=misc]“Kerrigan…”[/npc] one person, an elderly man,spoke quietly from beneath his bowed head.

“Speak louder! Our lord cannot hear you from atop his throne!” Jaeger reprimanded the man, Pointing the sharp end of his shovel towards the man’s head threateningly.

[npc=misc]“Kerrigan! The Kerrigan girl! She’s an ice-skater, a sweet girl! She lives on the South side of town! She’s talked about spending time with the old man who owns the pomegranate tree!”[/npc] The old man was sad to sell out his neighbor, he hoped that the Dragon would not hurt her in his interrogation.

[npc=wgov]“Now that’s what I like to hear,”[/npc] Otto purred cruelly from atop his high horse.

Word Count:

“How much do you got and how much do you want for it?” The oni beamed a wide grin, he was happy to have found somebody selling what he was looking for so quickly, with little skill in bartering, the oni pulled out a handful of valuable and historic-looking jewelry; necklaces finely studded with emerald and sapphire, gleaming pearls set into intricately laced silver, each of the artifacts that the horned monster held in his hands looked as though they would fetch a pretty penny in their own right.

[npc=pirt]“D-doji? What’s the deal with this flying lady? Do you know what she just said?”[/npc] Visible to all except the blind man was the horrifying visage of an umbrella with a human mouth and eyes.

“Oh yeah, hyuh. Oy! Steam-guy! What’s her deal?...” Doji tried to gesture toward Jazzy with an extended finger, but could not exactly place her location, “... is it normal for her to be flying around in the wind? Is she a sorcerer?” The swordsman spoke of Jazzy’s skywalk using the terminology that was familiar to him as a descendant of a Wano-kuni expatriate, assuming that the woman’s skywalk was some sort of magical power granted to her by a fruit.

Meanwhile, in the Kitchen of Gashadokuro…

“Whoof, finally!”Juri looked over her work and smiled to herself satisfactorily, even though she knew that the kitchen would be sent back into disarray as soon as the castle began moving again.

Suddenly, she heard something clattering amongst her pots and pans; whatever was moving around was large enough that as it skittered around her countertop it sent some of the pots she had just placed back up flying to the ground below.

“Eek! Damn it! What are you?” The oni girl was frustrated as she made her way over to the countertops. She threw some of her freshly organized cookware to the side, trying to find the source of the disruption.

More skittering from further back amongst the wares, Juri’s fury turned to confusion as she saw the thing poke its head up above one of her tallest pots: it was a girl, a rather weird looking one, but very-clearly she saw the face of a little girl. Before the cannibal cook could react and get a better look she heard the girl thrashing and scrambling in the corner of the counter, and just like that, the child was gone.

“Friedrich!” Juri ran up the stairs to the crews’ barracks and threw open the door of the human’s room; he was a human, a rather tolerable one for that matter, he’d surely know what to do.

“Freddy! There’s another human down in the kitchen! I need you to come down and get rid of her! She’s in our walls! I don’t know how many human children are in this castle, but we might have an infestation on our hands!”

It was only after yammering out her desperate plea that Juri noticed there was nobody in the room, and that the bedroom window of the umbrella man had been thrown wide open.

Did that coward really jump ship and join with our idiot captain? Juri palmed her face and ran back down the stairs, throwing on a warm jacket before heading out into the cold and chasing after her crewmates.

Word Count:

“Fashion messiah…” the red-haired oni spoke the words slowly to himself, trying to comprehend exactly what the title meant, “... oh! So you’re like a really good weaver then, right!?”

In Doji’s home village, before his horns had grown in and his height skyrocketed, he had gotten along well with one of the local garment makers; the oni still had a soft spot for weavers and all those who could fashion fine silk and cotton.

“Can you make me a fresh kimono? Something heavy and comfortable that’ll stick out in the snow?” Now realizing what the skywalker was doing, Doji seemed quite enthusiastic to work alongside the fashionista.

“Oh, and Steam-guy! Who’s Minerva? You got any idea where she’s at? I gotta figure out how much I owe you guys! I’m real lucky we caught you guys in a good mood, I honestly thought that we'd get run out of town by the locals and I’d have to beg whoever runs this town to let me buy anything! Are you guys from around here?” Doji was rather curious, were the people in the Grand Line more accepting of monsters like himself?

Floating down on the winds, being careful not to interrupt Jazzy’s work, Nietzche hopped down to the ground below and returned to his human form: a mustachioed man dressed rather sharply, excepting the fraying at the edges of his jacket, and the striped prisoner’s shirt he wore in place of a proper undershirt.

[npc=pirt]“I uh, didn’t know you were offering your services to the both of us, Ms. Jazz, was it?”[/npc] Nietzche spoke timidly, patiently awaiting his turn to be tailored and trying to make friendly conversation with the seamstress.

As Devil’s minions emerged from the woodworks, both Doji and Nietzche were taken aback; neither Doji’s novice levels of observation haki, nor the finely honed senses he had cultivated to compensate for his lack of eyesight were enough to notice the presence of the hooded goons.

Nietzche whispered quietly and nervously to his captain, [npc=pirt]“I don’t think we’re dealing with locals here Doji…”[/npc]

Meanwhile, a Couple of Blocks Down…

It had been a long morning of ice-skating, and the young Lissandra Kerrigan was excited to return to her family’s humble abode. Every morning, from the hours of 5 AM to 11 AM she would venture out to the nearby village of Gyasta, visit old man Takeshi, and then practice her skating on the village’s frozen lake until the sun had risen high enough to make her return trip to Cocoa Weed a comfortable one.

“Brr-a-la-la!~” The girl chimed brightly as she threw open the house’s family room door and was met with the stove-warmed air within. She quickly headed over towards the table near her mom’s kitchen, and was happily met with the cup of cocoa that her parent had prepared for her.

[npc=misc]“How was your morning, darling?”[/npc] The creaky-voiced elder Kerrigan spoke, her voice leaking meekly out of the kitchen towards her daughter. She was in the midst of preparing a hearty dish for her family, in the depths of permanent winter, the work of a housewife was multiplied several fold.

“It was good! I’ve been leaving some of the other Gyasta girls in my dust out there!...” the girl stirred her hot chocolate and took a hearty swig before continuing a bit more apprehensively, “... old man Takeshi is worried about something though. He says he thinks someone is coming for his weird fruit?”

[npc=misc]“Doesn’t he always?”[/npc]

“Brr-haha! You’re telling me mom! But– he seems more intense about it right now. He said that he can sense it– somebody on the island right now is going to eat that fruit.”

Word Count:

In Gyasta, an Elderly Man Sits Beneath a Pomegranate Tree…

A thin rime of hoarfrost sparkled along the warped surface of the fruit, glittering like an ornament as it dangled a bit precariously from the tree’s branches. It was a pretty looking thing, an abnormally colored (jade-ish blue) pomegranate, its surface marred with the swirled patterns of the devil, tufts of spiky white “hair” sprouted from the bottom of its antler-shaped stem. The fruit held to the tree only by a single “point” of its stem; once, each of the antlers’ seven points had held firmly to the tree.

“Don’t worry Ozzy…” the old man grumbled up to the fruit from his icy stoop, sword clutched at his belt, “... I won’t let anybody defile the King’s legacy. I won’t let anybody pluck ya.”

In the late 1700s, Kitano Takeshi and his stalwart leader Ozymandiaz Z. Zangetsu sailed the seven seas alongside some of the greatest pirates who ever lived. Both would witness men strive for the legendary treasure, and Ozymandiaz himself once sought to aid the would-be king of the pirates in his quest. The pair wished to reach the end of  the New World, but they were not able to reach the final island , and  though he  threw himself recklessly and relentlessly toward his dream Ozzy would not return from the men's legendary voyage.

It was with the death of Ozymandiaz that the spirit of his fruit was returned into circulation, wandering the seven seas for a great many years before settling on a new incarnation.

All those years ago, when Takeshi saw that the swirled fruit had grown upon the branches of his pomegranate tree, he cried with happiness. It was as though a long gone friend had come to visit after years apart.

Dragon’s Procession

[npc=wgov]“Kerrigan! Lissandra Kerrigan! Consider yourself blessed, you have been chosen for an audience of great importance! Please emerge from your domicile immediately! Your safety and that of your people can be continually assured if you answer one simple question for me!~”[/npc] Otto spoke his threat in a sing-song voice laden with utter cruelty and condescension, he was told to look for a young girl; but his cooing was almost as though he were speaking cutely to a baby.

The young manlet still stood high atop the head of his giant slave, proclaiming his threats for all to hear as he and his procession of servants made their way down the village’s central street. The workings of Cocoa Weed began grinding to a halt as people knelt in the face of their Celestial overlord.

“Slaves! Search these houses!” Jaeger would not deign his great ruler to speak to his lowliest of possessions, but what were slaves for if not handling gruntwork?

Quickly, all of Otto’s slaves except his giant mount, sprung into action, breaking into the homes of locals and rummaging around looking for young girls. All of the girls that the slaves could drag out of their homes were quickly brought before the Celestial Dragon.

[npc=wgov]“Hmm…”[/npc] Otto drummed his fingers alongside the surface of the bubble that protected him from breathing the unclean air of those around him, [npc=wgov]“... ARE YOU LISSANDRA KERRIGAN?”[/npc]

The boy abruptly whipped a pistol out of his belt and suddenly pointed it towards one of the girls. All of the girls screamed in terror, the one that Otto was pointing at quickly retorted, [npc=misc]“NO! NO! MY NAME IS CHELSEA!”[/npc]

Otto repeated this process, pointing his pistol at each of the girls and demanding their names. Eventually, one of the village’s women couldn’t stand it anymore; she stood from her kneeled position, and walked up behind the girls, speaking out of turn to the Dragon.

“Do you ever get tired of hearing people scream? The girl you’re looking for looks down that way…” the young lady, Liandry, pointed over her shoulder, whispering to the girls before continuing to speak to the short king, “... girls, go back and tell Liss this creep is looking for her, I’ll handle things from here– But I’m not gonna let you and your goons take that girl.”

[npc=wgov]“Such a brash young lady!”[/npc] The Celestial Dragon snapped his fingers and before Liandry knew it, she had been grabbed under both of her arms by a pair of the ruler’s slaves.

[npc=wgov]“Febeldson! Bring her to me!”[/npc] Lurching forward obediently, Otto’s giant reached down and scooped the girl up in his fist.

As soon as the little girls saw the giant reach down and pick up the sweets-shop owner, they all began running, headed toward Lissandra’s home and looking to make sure that their “big sister’s” sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.

The giant held her aloft, just above his head, the captive merciless against his master’s wishes. The young lady glared toward the ruler with stubborn intensity, even though she was completely helpless, she still wouldn’t submit to the childish sadist’s will.

[npc=wgov]“Tell me! What makes you think that you can stand between me and the object of my desire?!”[/npc] The short, ugly-looking boy pointed his pistol at the young lady’s face as he spoke his question.

“Ngh– I know that little Liss isn’t going to go along with whatever you have planned for her, and I’m not going to let you hurt any of the children of this island! What do you even want here anyway?” The woman choked up a furious rebuttal.

[npc=wgov]“What do I want? Haven’t you heard, woman? Somewhere on this island is the key to my transformation into a creature of legend! I will become the most powerful giraffe to have ever lived!”[/npc] A goofy smile spread across the royal boy’s face, and he threw his empty hand up to the sky with dramatic flair as he described his stupid little dream.

“Ehh– seriously?” Liandry quirked her eyebrow up.

[npc=wgov]“What do you mean seriously? Of course I’m serious. I know that all giraffes are beautiful, mighty, legendary beasts in their own right; but I will be something special, I’ll be the kirin-man, the ultimate giraffe!”[/npc] Otto’s eyes sparkled as he spoke affectionately of his favorite animal.

“Muhi-hi-hi! That’s just a super lame dream man!” The girl couldn’t help but laugh at the Celestial Dragon’s ambition.

A single gunshot echoed out through the streets of Cocoa Weed. Otto had shot the girl dead on the spot.

[npc=wgov]“Don’t you ever make fun of giraffes you lowly wretch. Giraffes are awesome.”[/npc]

Meanwhile, Back with Doji, Nietzche, Jazzy, and Devil…

“Wyow! Thanks lady! This feels great on my skin, I’d tell you how awesome it looked…” Doji mimed looking at the patterns on the sleeves of the garment that Jazzy had fashioned, “... if I could see! Yoka-ka-ka-ka-iii! Visual gag! (ビジュアルギャグ!)”

The blind man cackled and made a joke of the situation, but his companion was rather more composed.

[npc=pirt]“I must say, I find your work rather remarkable as well Miss Jazz! I’ve not felt so well dressed since my wedding day…”[/npc] Nietzche spoke this remark with a bit of sadness in his voice, it had been a long, long time since the prisoner-turned-pirate had seen his family, [npc=pirt]“... I imagine we’ll make quite the impression on all those we run across on our travels across the Grand Line. Oh, but, pardon me– do you mind if I ask where our other clothes went?”[/npc]

As Nietzche spoke curiously to Jazzy as to the nature of her power, something the armored-man had said caught the attention of the red-haired oni, and the boy quickly departed from Jazzy’s “fitting” to kneel down and chat with the guy.

“Alright, so are you guys a pirate crew? Who’s your Captain?” The blind oni spoke curiously, he hadn’t expected to find another group of pirates to trade with; in his brief time making his way into the Grand Line he’d grown accustomed to contending with other pirates, not with trading with them.

“Any grand ambitions now that you’re here in the Grand Line, Devil?” A goofy, wicked-looking smile sprawled across the boy’s face as he spoke this question.

As soon as Devil had finished answering…

… walking down the center street, a massive elk-horned man towered over the people’s homes. Legend once spoke of a reindeer monster who roamed this island, and it seemed that with the coming of the Celestial Dragon that this monster had returned.

Jaeger walked in front of his Saint's mount, Febeldson, and the towering might of the ancient elk stood as a threat of massive retaliation to anybody else who would defy Otto’s will. As the master and his slaves marched menacingly down the village streets, the Ancient Zoan type spoke in a low, grumbling, voice, “All ye people of Cocoa Weed, kneel, and submit before your great and benevolent ruler! Saint Otto of the Celestial Dragons!”

It wouldn’t be long before the Dragon and his parade of slavery came head to head with the gang of pirates doing business near the domicile he was looking to investigate. As Doji lay there, chatting about dreams with Devil, a group of little girls came running up to the gaggle of criminals.

[npc=misc]“Eek! Another one of the monsters!”[/npc] The girl, a curly red-haired little moppet named Chelsea, ran off to the side of the pirates; but she and her little menagerie of girls still seemed intent on making their way to a house, it looked as though they were headed for a doorstep just a couple of blocks down from where the pirates were mingling.

Word Count:

Before the elk could see them, the little girls scattered, Chelsea still consoling one of them as they ran. The children were all utterly horrified by the monstrous creature, screaming as they fled. Fortunately, Jaeger was more preoccupied with the party of dissidents who were refusing to bow to their lord.

Nietzche was quick to kneel in the face of the Celestial procession, speaking up to Doji, Devil, and Jazzy, [npc=pirt]“Get down, quickly, get down! Don’t you know who you’re dealing with? The kid riding on top of that giant, he’s a Celestial Dragon!”[/npc]

“Eh? Do-ra-gon?...” the red-haired oni spoke the word slowly, he had always thought that dragons were just fairytale creatures; his mother had told him that even the powers of a sorcerer couldn’t allow one to truly transform themselves into a dragon, that no man was truly a dragon, “... don’t be silly. Dragons aren’t real!”

While Nietzche wanted to correct his captain, to somehow help him survive the fate he’d just sealed for himself, there was no going back now; the massive elk-man, and very likely the Celestial Dragon himself, had just heard the oni’s brash proclamation.

“You there! Who do you think you are to question the authority of the divine? Kneel and submit yourself before the grace of your SAINT before I show you divine justice!”

A vein bulged in Doji’s forehead, whoever this guy was, the oni didn’t care much for his smug and superior attitude. The oni stood up from his dealings with Devil, dusting off his freshly tailored kimono before sauntering defiantly into the center of the road.

“So is he a dragon or a god? They’re both fake! Which am I supposed to be more afraid of?!”

“HOW DARE YO–”

[npc=wgov]“Ah-ah!...”[/npc] Otto cut off his bodyguard mid-sentence, and spoke calmly before the man began swinging his shovel at the insolent teenager, [npc=wgov]“... how curious that somebody like you would think dragons are fake. We’ve never met boy, but ehm– I can tell just by the looks of you that you’re of good stock, we always used to wonder what it would be like if they got one of you bastard children up on the auction stage.”[/npc]

“Eh? The auction stage? What the hell are you talkin’ about dragon-boy?”

[npc=wgov]“Oh for the slave auctions!”[/npc] Otto beamed with a repulsive smile as he spoke affectionately of the place where other people were bought and sold like livestock.

[npc=wgov]“You’ve done me a rather fantastic service if I’m being honest. You’ve saved me a tremendous amount of time, money, and effort. Rather than having the slave-catchers go out looking for oni, you came straight to me! Now, don’t make this any harder than it has to be…”[/npc] Otto’s servants procured a locking collar as he spoke these words, [npc=wgov]“... I’m sure you’ll be a fantastic slave! Once the other families in the Holy Land hear that our family owns one of the Yonkou’s children!”[/npc]

“Shini-hi-hi-hi…” the red oni laughed, utterly ignorant, but amused at the little man that thought he’d just found a new slave, “... what are you? Stupid? Nothing you just said made any sense. First off, I ain’t the kid of any king, my mom raised me in a village in the mountains of Kano Kuni. And secondly, there’s no world where I’m your slave.”

The implication of Doji’s tone was clear: he thought the Celestial Dragon was the one who belonged in chains.

[npc=wgov]“Mugh-hu-hu-hu-hu!...”[/npc] Otto let out an ugly, phlegmy, sadistic, and pride-laden laugh, [npc=wgov]“... well then! Let me introduce you to the real world then boy! Jaeger, Febeldson, take this insolent bastard down and introduce him to his new life of servitude!”[/npc]

Just as the fight began to break out, another one of the horned devils appeared from the opposite end of the street: a blue-haired oni girl, shivering and covered in snow, “ASAKURA! FREDDY! WHAT THE HELL?”

Doji’s attention was drawn away from the battle for just a moment. But Jaeger was never a hunter to waste his opportunities.

The impact of the Zoan type’s strike sent the rōnin flying in an instant, the resounding sound of a vibrating shovel echoed down along the streets; the weight of the Elk’s blow was unnaturally powerful, and the red-haired oni crashed through several buildings before finally skidding to a halt in the middle of a family’s living room.

Doji coughed up a chunk of brick, speaking apologetically to the family whose peace he had just disturbed, “Eeyugh – sorry for the intrusion. If you’ll excuse me, I got an elk to butcher.”

While the red oni began his return to the scene of the battle, the blue oni was being plenty defiant in his stead, “Hey! He had his back turned to you, you overgrown reindeer!”

The girl was quick to whip out her club and rush in to defend her captain’s honor, though she was obviously struggling to contend with her giant opponents. It was rare that Juri met any opposition that could break out of her string traps, but the ancient Zoan seemed to snap through her webs like they were nothing.

Nietzche found the fight hard to watch. While his crewmate put up a good fight initially, it quickly became clear that she was going to get her ass handed to her. If things kept up like this for much longer, the blue oni was certain to die.

Meanwhile, Back at the Kerrigan Residence

Lissandra was contently sipping her Cocoa when she heard a massive crashing noise from outside, followed by the feeling of tremors running through the floorboards; it was as though whatever was outside had caused an earthquake to shoot through the quiet streets of Cocoa Weed.

Shortly after the clamorous sound had subsided, a wave of small knocks rang out from the Kerrigans’ front door, it was as though several tiny fists were all beating on her door simultaneously. The girl stood up, albeit with some apprehension, and went to answer the knocking.

As soon as she had cracked the door open, Lissandra was met with almost all of her young friends from the village, all of the other little girls had tears in their eyes, snot in their nose, and immediately began crying the girls name out when they saw that she was home.

[npc=misc]“Lissandra! We have to get out of town and go to Gyasta! Some creepy guy is looking for you and he killed Liandry!”[/npc] Chelsea hugged her friend and quickly began ushering her out the door, trying to get the group of girls moving as quickly as she could.

“I– okay, yeah. Mom! I’m gonna head back to Gyasta and show the girls how to skate! I’ll be back later tonight, okay?!” She didn’t know what exactly was going on, but she knew something was wrong. Lissandra was lucky that her mother was going deaf, otherwise she might have had more questions about her daughter venturing out toward the sounds of death and destruction.

[npc=misc]“You know that old guy over in the other town, right Liss? Do you think he’ll be willing to hide us until things settle down? I don’t know why that guy is looking for you, but he’s real bad news. He has a reindeer monster and rides on the back of a giant; oh, and he was wearing some weird bubble around his head?”[/npc]

“I uh – yeah. Let’s go meet with Old Man Takeshi,” the girl was nervous, though it didn’t seem like she had any other option, she was worried that she was just getting the old man into more trouble. She was beginning to worry that his raving prognostications of doom were all too accurate.

Lissandra’s worries were quickly confirmed, as they began making their way out of town, all of the little girls’ blood ran cold when they saw it: unmistakable, the silhouette of the enormous horned devil. Though many of them wanted to scream, the girls remained deathly silent in the face of the demon.

“Hymm…” the blind man almost seemed to recognize the girls, at the very least, he knew that there had been a gaggle of little girls who had been fleeing from the Elk-monster that had proved a devastating enemy, “... where are you girls going?”

[npc=misc]“Ahh! Gyasta! We’re going to Gyasta! We’re going to go hide with Old Man Takeshi!”[/npc] Chelsea was quick to fess up and comply with the monster’s demands.

Lissandra shot the girl a glare, but the cat was out of the bag.

“Yoka-ka-ka-ka-iii! Alright, you girls stay safe. Good luck sheltering with that old man! Don’t worry your little heads too much though…”

As the creature walked by them, the girls were met with an aura of sheer, cold, menacing, intensity.

“... I’m going to kill that sniveling brat and every last one of his precious little slaves.”

It Wasn’t Long Before the Red-haired Rōnin Was Back in the Fray…

Doji made his way back to the fight just in time to hear the monstrous elk wailing down on his cook and surrogate sister, holding the handle of the Muramasa,he prepared to rush into battle; but he heard Juri whisper something weakly up to him before he could,

“Doji, don’t do i–”

The blue haired oni girl was thrown brutally to the ground before she could finish her plea.

The red oni clenched his teeth, brimming with fury, he called defiantly up to the Celestial Dragon and his minions, “That’s my sister, you wretched subhuman piece of shit. I’ll take your head from your neck!”

Before Doji could draw his sword, he was distracted by the sound of a gunshot, and quickly found himself wrapped up in a length of cloth…

Word Count: