[Episode] Ramen River Rumble

Quest Request:

It was beautiful, sparkling like a glittering pool of topaz: broth, warm broth, just hot enough to warm the belly but not so much as to scald the tongue; and floating within the broth: noodles, spiraling golden strands of ramen swam through the river like water snakes. It flowed gently and bountifully, obstructed by the food that it carried along the “island,” an entire river of ramen. Chunks of meat, veg, and mushrooms alike floated at the broth’s surface; whatever toppings one could want, they were present and in abundance, adding flavor, texture, and sustenance to the already tasty soup.

The large insects of the island were no stranger to partaking in the flow of ramen, but this day, a rather different group of bugs stood at the river’s edge; people, a group of five Zoan types four of whom held large pairs of sticks and fished ramen up from the river to eat; skewering the tasty bits that floated and hauling them up to shore.

“Byegh-he-he-he! This really is paradise! I motiii-on we stay here forever~” The pretty pink mantis slurped up noodles in her mandibles; while her allies had to rely on the use of oversized chopsticks, Calliope was content in her ability to use her claws to fish the noodles straight out of the river, and snapped up any tasty morsels she could get her hands on with unnatural speed.

The girl originally hailed from Karate Island, and wore an absolutely defiled gi; the once distinguished white garment had been stained a lavender-purple color, and dyed with floral patterns. Though her disrespect for whatever dojo had trained her was evident, the mantis-girl still wore a black belt with four stripes at its tips.

Fluttering his skull-patterned wings and fishing up a large broth-soaked mushroom, the moth man spoke, “I concur wholeheartedly! Aki, what do you think of the proposition? I propose a full-scale invasion! We shall take these beautiful islands and all of their bounty of food for ourselves and live amongst the wild insects as gods!”

Yorick was a gothic and poetic man who often spoke in lofty terms, he dressed like a dandy, wearing a tophat and a little monocle through rain, sleet, and snow. The moth man preferred to keep a demeanor of nobility about himself despite the rough crowd he had fallen in with, a last, tattered remain of the dignified position he had once held.

“HA-ZA-ZA-ZA-ZA! WHO AM I TO TURN MY NOZZE UP AT FREE FOOD FOR LIFE? AND LIKE YOU SAID YORICK! AMONGZZT THESE GIANT BUGZZ WE’LL FIT RIGHT IN! ANYONE WHO COMEZZ HERE WILL MISTAKE UZZ FOR THE RULERZZ OF THE INSECTZZ!”

“Arach-hem…” Gwen chimed in quietly, not wanting to make her presence more of a nuisance than it already seemed to her that it was.

“AND ARACHNIDZZ!” The largest of the insects pronounced with a somewhat apologetic tone in his voice.

The one bug stood much taller and wider than the others, the strength that had been afforded to him by his Devil Fruit was greater than that of any of his peers; he had taken the form of an ancient insect, one of the largest to have ever existed: that of a massive dragonfly. Because of his size and strength, Aki had become the de facto leader of the Insect Pirates as soon as he’d joined, much to the chagrin of his mantis compatriot.

Still, Aki was a pragmatic and competent leader, the pirates had come to trust in his leadership; he had no lofty ambitions of breaking into the New World or contending with any of the world’s strongest pirates, rather, the dragonfly would much prefer to stay in Paradise and crush the dreams of any budding pirates unlucky enough to cross his path. Alongside his strong crew, Aki and the Insect Pirates had already crushed a number of opposing crews, he hated the ego of the new generation; all arrogant little brats chasing after Marsh’s treasure, they had no idea the length of the road ahead of them.

“Yup. Plus, if we take this place over. There’s enough little islands around here that we could each have one,” the group’s scarab helmsman spoke bluntly and concisely, but was excited both at the idea he had posed, and the chaos he was certain it would cause amongst his crewmates.

Kafka was a mischievous and nihilistic young man who dressed in a punkish style, he sat closely beside Gwen, the group’s resident orb weaver, and laughed over to her as he spoke. He disliked when Aki forgot to include her, just because she wasn’t an insect and she was the newest member, she’d still been with the crew for years at this point.

“Well I’ll tii-ake this island then obviously~” Calliope spoke, kicking her legs behind her back and slurping noodles up straight from the river with a bright smile extending from beneath her chewing mandibles. She couldn’t imagine anybody else would want to take Greenstone for themselves.

“WHAT?! NO WAY CALLIE!” The crew’s massive captain stood up from his meal and began aggressively flexing his muscles towards the mantis, he’d grown quite fond of the bounty of the ramen river himself, the massive chunks of protein always being delivered downstream would be great for his workout routine. The mantis and her tiny little body could subsist on whatever scraps the other islands had to offer.

““Oh you wanna go big boy?! Let’s go! I'll bring you down!” Almost instantaneously the pink mantis sprung from her crouched position and assumed a martial stance, baring her claws threateningly back towards Aki. Though she’d been relegated to the position of navigator, Calliope knew that her speed and grace were more than enough to contend with the raw strength of her captain.

“I’LL SHOW YOU, YOU LITTLE BRAT!” With this, the massive dragonfly swung his bulky fist down towards his crewmate like a hammer. The impact of the blow sent tremors shooting through the earth below, even causing some of the river’s broth to splash up, revealing a hot-looking pepper.

“Ooh! Mine!” Gwen flung a length of web from her hands towards the spicy morsel and brought it over to eat along with some noodles as she and Kafka watched the mayhem unfold.

While Aki’s blow sent tremors through the ground, it struck only the ground, his nimble opponent had disappeared from the place that she stood in an instant, and he quickly felt the feeling of a karate chop land against the back of his neck, sending him tumbling down to the ground and falling headfirst and shoulder-deep into the river.

It was tempting to just stay in the broth and keep slurping up noodles, but the macho-man's pride couldn't abide losing to a girl.

““Anyways, as I was saying! I shall take this island and the rest of you may settle amongst yourselves which of the remaining islands you’d l-iiike domain over!~” The floral martial artist slapped her hands together as though to signal her pleasure with her own handiwork in knocking her boss out.

But without her realizing, a massive shadow had emerged from the river and was standing back at full-height, it was right behind her and its eyes sparkled with malice…

… or soup, one of the two.

““BYEGH-III!!” The mantis girl’s scream echoed out throughout the nearby forest, sending massive insects scattering and flying from the trees. Her captain’s reprimand would be harsh, but eventually the Insect Pirates would come to an arrangement that pleased all of their members.

The bugs set up an encampment all around the ramen river, mutually deciding that this delicious slice of Greenstone would be their base of operations for their upcoming conquest. Each of the bugs quickly went about a task that would help their create a temporary place for them to call home

Kafka used his armored scarab-carapace combined with the strength of his durable armament haki to punch down a number of trees, further processing their trunks and branches into valuable kindling. Before too long, the strong and hospitable man had set up a campfire, warming all the crewmates who came and flocked to it.

Though initially Yorick did his best to aid in the establishment of the camp, clearing out some of the nearby bushes and helping Gwen establish a perimeter, however as soon as Kafka had lit the fire the poet was transfixed. Like a moth to flame, the swordsman came to the warmth of the bonfire; it swirled and flickered in his mind, it transfixed and delighted him, and it had taken everything that he’d known from him: fire. Once long ago, the boy had lived as the heir of a wealthy family; but for one of his birthdays, his parents bestowed the powers of a cursed fruit onto him: he gained the ability to fly and he was stronger than any of his childhood peers. But one day, in his animal state he saw a lit lantern and almost instinctively leapt to the flame, knocking the vessel over…

… the house fire would claim all of the du Grave family except the moth.

Gwen used her powers as a spider-woman to hang the group’s tents, create hammocks (albeit sticky ones), and to set up traps all around the nearby forest. The shy and gorgeous young lady retreated back to the campfire and sat near Kafka once she was well satisfied in her work.

Meanwhile, Aki and Calliope had already managed to get themselves into another argument...

Playing Like Kids

The two oni had been bad influences on each other from the moment they’d met, Doji’s temperate nature egged Juri on to mess with him, and Juri’s more fiery personality reminded Doji of a less world-worn version of himself. The two had not ever, and would not ever think of each other romantically; when Juri joined the Yokai Pirates she very quickly became the red oni’s surrogate sister, and their relationship worked best in this fashion: where they could encourage and compete with each other as monstrous siblings.

Juri and Doji tramped through the underbrush, though the rōnin carried a simple machete, he and his ally were both armed with much more important implements: nets. Though they weren’t being particularly subtle, as soon as they noticed a target they stood still, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.

“There I see one!” The blue oni whispered loudly over to her captain as she came to a sudden standstill.

The red oni did much the same before responding, “Where is it?”

The monstrous duo muttered between themselves for a moment before coming to a consensus, Juri leapt forwards from the brush, propelled from beneath by Doji having thrown her off of his arms, “You’re mine kabuto!”

Pouncing down from above, the smaller of the two oni brought her net down on the beetle, swiping it up and tightening the mouth of her trap before walking over to her captain proudly, beaming with a wide, bright, sharp-toothed grin, “Got ‘im! Wai-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu!”

Doji snorted and choked back a laugh before the girl realized.

In her self satisfaction she had let out her wretched, insufferable, intolerable little titter. As soon as she realized, she crouched down to the ground and drew shapes in the dirt in shame, seeming to project a dejected aura to all around.

“Yoka-ka-ka-ka-iii!” The red oni found it quite funny how much his big sister hated her laugh, it seemed like an odd point for a cannibal to be self-conscious about.

He kept laughing until he realized that the girl was crying.

“Yo, come on! You did a good job! Cheer up, you caught a Kabuto! Now I’ll never beat you, I don’t think there are any bugs around here that are gonna beat that one in size!”

The two had been taking turns working together, but simultaneously in competition, to see which of them could catch the largest insect. Fortunately, assuring the competitive girl that she’d likely win the game was enough to bring her out of her depression.

“Right! This is your last turn, jerk! Better make it count!” Juri smiled goofily and marveled at the bug she’d caught, it was an enormous Kabuto, larger than a dog; her little bro stood no chance of catching a larger insect even if they searched the whole island over.

“Alright, ten minutes! Go!” The blue oni whistled through her fingers as she finished speaking, starting her little bro off to the races.

Doji moved rapidly through the foliage, leaving a trail of grassy wreckage and detritus in his wake. He ignored the large insects that fled the brush as he ran through it, none of them would be enough to best Juri’s catch. A large dragonfly emerged, perhaps it alone would have been enough, but its body was only longer, not stockier; if Doji wanted to win the competition he would need a bug that was incontrovertibly larger than the oversized kabuto that Juri had claimed for herself.

As he progressed forwards rapidly, huge carnivorous plants snapped their jaws down toward the oni, but they were not happy with their catch as the swordsman quickly dodged through their attack and used his machete to sever the jaws of the plants from their stems. With this, the oni’s charge only grew more fervent, he cut through all plantlife in front of him like a merciless and unyielding gardener.

Still, no matter how far Doji plunged into Greenstone’s depths, he couldn’t find a catch that stood any chance against Juri’s Kabuto. It was then that a familiar scent caught the red oni’s nose, Ramen? Why does it smell like ramen?

As a child, ramen had always been the favorite dish that the human-turned-oni boy’s mother would cook for him, he was instantly drawn towards the smell and was immediately distracted from his quest to find the greatest insect.

“Hey! Where are you going jackass?!” Juri, the smaller of the oni duo, struggled to keep up with her faster and longer-legged captain. It was only once she’d caught up to the place where Doji’s path had abruptly veered to the left that she realized what had caused him to deviate.

“Woah! Woah! Woah! Is that soup?! Where is that smell coming from? I smell MEAT!” More ravenously than before, Juri began sprinting on hands and feet in an effort to keep up with the red oni; if she wasn’t fast he’d slurp up all of the broth and eat up all the meat before she could get any, this time she’d show him and eat all the meat herself!

The Pirates Collide

Crashing out of the brush, two giant monsters interrupted Callie and Aki’s fighting, Doji striding towards the smell of ramen with his forked tongue hanging out of his mouth and dripping with saliva, Juri tumbling ass over teakettle and flying towards the river in a forwards facing somersault.

It took a moment for the pair of oni to realize that they had stumbled onto a true jackpot: “EVEN LARGER INSECTS TO CATCH AND A RIVER FULL OF ALREADY COOKED NOODLES?

Immediately, Juri’s eyes settled upon the largest of the bugs, and she could tell that her captain was thinking much the same thing: whoever could bring down that giant dragonfly was sekaiichi no bagukorekutā, the number 1 bug collector in the world!

Juri quickly rushed toward the enemy pirates, her bright red eyes set on the big monster; she’d catch him off guard while he was still fighting with his crewmate, bludgeon him over the head with her kanabō, and then she’d let Doji fight for the leftovers!

But as she tumbled forwards into her attack, the iron of her club was met with a durable, haki-coated carapace that stopped her in her tracks; not that of her intended targets, but of one of his crewmates; the beetle-man Kafka.

“Say lady, ain’t it a bit rude to sneak up and attack a guy while he’s eating?” One of the scarab’s antenna twitched above his eye in agitation as he threw a mean right hook into the blue-haired oni’s stomach that sent her flying backwards into the nearby bushes, where she was caught up in some of the webby traps laid by Gwen.

Gwen quickly stood from the river and rushed to join Kafka, sending a length of webbing flying towards the oni, hoping to fully cocoon her in the brushy trap she had laid. Had her webs not been met with a stronger substance, this plan likely would have gone off without a hitch; slashing the air with a web-like lattice of her own strings, Juri sent the spider Zoan’s webbing flying and scattering off in different directions behind her.

Before the red-haired oni could join the fray, his machete strike was met with the force of a strong-metal sword cane; the swordsman who opposed him fluttered in the air, and pressed forwards into his strike upon swift and strong wingbeats, “Young man! Do you not think it rather improper to interject yourself into matters of crew importance?”

Yorick was speaking way above where Doji was at in that moment.

““What crew are you talkin’ about?! Just let me catch the big bug, will ya jerk?!” In his competitive and hungry state the oni wasn’t much for reason, he barely realized that the opponent standing against him was a bug himself.

“We are the Insect Pirates you cretin! Best remember the name! It won’t be long before we stand as the sole rulers of this archipelago!” As he spoke, the dandy moth swordsman threw a volley of lunges towards his opponent.

Doji wasn’t all that skilled with using a machete as a weapon, but his strength was far beyond what the little man could muster. With the sheer strength of his single retaliating strike, Yorick was forced to use the full force of his armament haki to avoid certain death, and still, the moth was sent careening into the nearby river. Yorick transformed back into his human form as he was submerged beneath the water, he was powerless against the delicious flow of broth.

All in all, if one was to be knocked out of a fight, being sent floating down a river of food wasn’t the worst fate that the gentleman could have imagined. He slurped up some noodles as his bleary eyes tuned in to what was going on back on the shore.

“Hey, can you two stop fighting already?!” Gwen hollered back to her captain and navigator, still pitched in a dire brawl against one another.

“Yeah, we’ve got worse problems now boss,” Kafka spoke nervously to his original leader, Calliope, as he eyed the red-haired oni that had just sent their crew’s swordsman flying.

Though they were in the middle of a heated battle, both Aki and Callie heard the cries of their allies, and they could feel the eyes of their river-floating friend watching them. Each of them thought of themselves as the true leader of the crew, and so both of them stood strong against the coming monsters; they swore in their hearts that they wouldn’t let their crewmates down.

Juri stood up from the tree she had been knocked into and cracked her back, throwing her club over her shoulder and setting down her prized catch-net before cracking her knuckles, “Alright web girl! There’s only room enough for one spider-lady in this Forest of Gluttony! Your ass is going down!”

Kafka and Gwen held their ground against Juri, but the blue-haired oni’s combination of sheer strength and brutality combined with the tricky use of her devil fruit made her a formidable foe.

Meanwhile, Asakura Doji stood against the formidable leaders of the Insect Pirates, one the user of a powerful ancient Zoan type, and the other an extremely swift martial artist with the claws of a praying mantis.

Still, the oni beamed with a smug smirk as he spoke down to the insects (only one of which was particularly smaller than himself), ““so, you two are the competitive type eh? How about ya take me one-on-one then? If one of ya can beat me and the other can’t then you’ve got the answer to your little power struggle.”

““That sounds like a splend-iiid idea!~ Here, I’ll take him on first Aki, I don’t need you warming him up for me!” The pink mantis girl stepped forward past her captain and threw her claws to her sides as she approached the swordsman.

““And you guys are pirates? Ha! I’ll feel bad if I crush your dreams right here! Let’s go hand to hand!” Doji threw his machete and net behind him, he was excited to try some of his new techniques out against somebody with some martial competence anyways.

““Fine, have iii-t your way big boy!~” The mantis girl threw her body into a formidable karate stance, throwing her claws forwards into striking position.

““Just don’t come crying to me when I put you on your ass!” With this, Calliope lunged towards Doji using the extreme speed granted to her by her training and the powers of her Zoan. As she darted around the oni looking for a position to strike, she eventually came upon a weak point: she’d strike him directly on his back!

Before her strike could even have hoped to have connected, the karate-master was met with the sharp pain of a blow to the back of her head, causing her to fly into the ground below and leave a crater with the force of her impact. She struggled to cling to consciousness, but she was still able to fight, the girl picked herself up and struck the monster twice against his chest causing crimson streaks of blood to splatter in either direction.

““What are you, monster?!” The girl continued her onslaught of clawed strikes, digging at the oni’s defenses and hoping to cut straight into his heart. But as soon as her volley faltered for even a moment, the creature disappeared from her view, and she felt another sharp blow to her back. This would be the strike that settled the matter.

““Faster than you seem to think. Be glad you aren’t a swordsman bug girl; though I fought you with fists alone, if I’d allowed you to land your strike against my back it would be a shame that I would have to live with for the rest of my life,” Doji spoke matter of factly down to the crew’s navigator before turning his attention to his remaining enemy.

Meanwhile, the Battle Rages to See who is the True Spider-Woman!

Once Juri learned the trick of Kafka’s durability there was little that the beetle man could do to defend himself against the powers of her string sorcery, and it wasn’t long before the scarab helmsman had been wrapped up in string; now he knew what it was like to be one of Gwen’s victims, he didn’t care much for the sensation, but there was little he could do asides from cheer on his allies at this point.

“Get her Gwen! I believe in ya,” the rough-voiced beetle called over to his golden orb weaver friend.

The young arachnid looked back at Kafka and choked down her fears, turning toward him and giving him a sparkling-eyed smile and nod before turning back to Juri.

Gwen was a fashionable young lady, wearing a Doskoi Panda crop top, a pair of tight-fitting blue jeans, and pieces of jewelry all across her body. She was glamorous, proper, and beautiful– everything that Juri lacked, and that had precluded her from ever living in peace amongst the little people.

“So you’re a spider lady too huh?...” The blue oni was fuming in rage beneath the shadow cast by her hair, “... and you’re all pretty and perfect too. I bet guys fall head over heels for you! I hate that! I bet I’m stronger than you. Much stronger. And still, everybody just wants you.”

“Listen girl, I don’t know what your problem is, but things aren’t perfect for me either! I’m not an insect, I’m just an arachnid, so I get picked on all the time for being different–”

The girl’s prattling was cut off by the impact of a kanabō striking her face, sending the spider girl flying across the ramen river clear over to the other side.

“Will you shut up?!” Juri threw her club back over her shoulder and pointed her finger towards the girl on the other side of the river.

“You’re just a Zoan type! You’re not a real monster like me or Doji! You could always just choose to turn back into a human and everyone would welcome you with open arms! I can’t run from who I am! I’m a monster through and through! You and your buddies are just playing monster!”

Gwen wiped the blood from her mouth before standing back up in her human form, “You’re right. I can always just walk around the islands around here as a normal girl, and everybody would accept me…”

Throwing a length of webbing from her hand to the canopy above, the woman swung back over to meet Juri on equal ground before retracting her web.

“... but what kind of life is that? That’s so easy! So boring! Why would I live as a normal girl when the powers of my Devil Fruit have allowed me to live as something better! I can be a pirate, and with the rest of the Insect Pirates we can all live lives as the rulers of this island! I’m not gonna let you stand in the way of our conquest, string-girl!”

“String-girl?! You bitch!” Juri was enraged, she couldn’t stand the Zoan's smug sense of superiority; from her fingertips the blue oni threw a length of string and connected it to her opponent’s forehead, pulling the woman face first onto the ground below, slamming her head into the dirt.

Gwen was getting tired of being thrown around like a ragdoll, she’d have to use her full transformation if she wanted to hold on to her title of spider-woman. Segment by segment, limb, by limb, the pretty-looking girl turned into a wicked eight-legged monster; she looked like a giant black crab walking upon the earth, her mandibles were massive and her sharp pointed black legs allowed her to traverse the ground and close in on Juri with unnatural swiftness.

The girl’s full Zoan form was a much different animal than either her human or hybrid forms, the power she had obtained was that of a massive species of spider, in the wild; the species was known for spinning webs large enough to catch birds and bats, and was able to prey upon species that would be much too large for a normal spider.

Juri narrowly blocked Gwen’s bite as the giant spider leapt towards her and tried to bring its fangs down upon her neck, the force of the spider’s attack was sufficient to send the blue-haired oni sliding backwards across the dirt; she narrowly managed to keep her footing as she stood against the beast.

“Fine, you know, I can see what you mean bug-girl…” Juri spoke furiously as her opponent began spinning webs, the blue oni stood almost perfectly still as Gwen connected a large matrix of webbing all around her foe, “... I can’t imagine what it would be like to live as a normal person anymore! It sounds so damn boring! And I’m glad that I’ll never have to go back to that life, but people like you, who talk a big game and can’t back anything up? Girls like you really piss me off.”

In the instant that she descended down to strike her prey, all of the webs that Gwen had spun were cut into ribbons by a barrage of slicing strings. The spider Zoan fell down towards her opponent with no way to retreat to her web; she had been severed from all of her protections, and as she fell, her eight eyes locked fearfully onto the large iron club that was headed straight for her thorax.

There was nothing she could have done to protect against the impact of the oni’s club, and with this strike Gwen was sent flying into the tree canopy above, broken and utterly defeated.

“Wai-fu-fu-fu-fu! Ha! Looks like I’m the real spider-woman, weakling!”

With this, Doji and Juri turn their Attention to Aki…

Standing proudly before them the broad-chested and massive dragonfly stood only a foot or so smaller than the giant oni; but in truth, his muscularity and bulky exoskeleton were more than enough to set him apart into a different weight class than the red-haired oni.

“I’m not gonna let you get ‘im first Doji!” Juri sprung towards the giant bug with reckless abandon.

She was met with strength beyond anything she had faced before. The blue oni was knocked unconscious in a single punch, falling to the ground in a crumpled wreck.

““Juri! Hold on!” Her captain crying out to her was the last thing that the girl heard before she was thrown over the giant dragonfly man’s shoulder and sent plummeting down into the ramen river.

“WHY DON’T YOU JUZZT GIVE UP BEFORE THIS GETZZ UGLY RED-HAIR,” the insect-man flexed its enormous carapace-covered muscles in a bid to intimidate the other captain into submission; in truth, Aki was certain that his opponent stood no chance. In these early islands of the Grand Line there were few who could stand up to the might of his ancient power.

““Eh?...” Doji was more confused by the man’s flexing than anything, ““... are you being serious? You really think I’m afraid of some overgrown housefly?”

In no way had Doji ever shied away from insects, he found the sensation of their weird little legs walking upon his skin perplexing, and had never understood why people found the creatures so disturbing. In no way was a group of insect Zoans what Doji would consider intimidating.

“I’ll MAKE YOU EAT THOZZE WORDZZ!” With this, the bug channeled all of his body’s massive strength into a single punch headed straight for the oni’s chest.

Doji’s speed had always been more than enough to outpace his opponents, and his color of observation had only enhanced his ability to predict and counter the advances of his opponents. But this guy was faster than everyone Doji had faced in the Blues except Nox, and he had more than enough strength to back that speed up.

The red-haired oni was sent flying back down the path he had come from, destroying even more of the foliage on his way. Even once he had touched the ground, Doji skidded a ways further, eventually settling his body against the roots of a large pomegranate tree.

It wasn’t long before the oni was met with another punch to the gut, his opponent had followed him even as he’d flown through the air, and was clearly looking to put the fight to an end as quickly as possible. The wind was knocked from Doji’s lungs as the massive brick of haki-armored carapace smashed his lower ribs in.

Though he was still confident in his victory, the air that had been knocked from his opponent’s lungs seemed unnatural. The air around the pair grew utterly still, and even the constant chittering of the forest’s insects was silenced.

“GIVE IT UP. MY POWER IZZ THAT OF ONE OF THE LARGEZZT AND GREATEZZT INSECTZZ TO HAVE EVER LIVED! HOW COULD YOU POZZIBLY HOPE TO MATCH ME?!”

With blood pooling at the corner of his chin and leaking down to the ground below, even in his utterly battered state the oni couldn’t help but find this statement funny. ““Shini-hi-hi-hi…”

“WHAT’ZZ SO FUNNY?!”

““You speak of your power as though your sorcery is the pinnacle of strength…” It was unmistakable, the tremor of a heartbeat shot through the earth all around the two as the oni’s weak blind eyes began to glow with a mysterious golden light.

In an instant, all of the wounds that Doji had sustained were simultaneously healed; cuts knit themselves back together, broken bones rejoined, all pain and impurity was cleansed from the boy’s body in that single heartbeat.

““... but your power pales in comparison to some of the monsters of this world. There are myths, legends, heroes, those who compete for the greatest prizes this world has to offer rather than sticking to small-time dreams like owning an island of food and bugs!”

Though the forest around the two seemed almost perfectly tranquil, Aki was nervous as the golden eyed man who he’d just punched a dent into the chest of stood back to his feet completely unharmed.

““Tell me, what is your greatest ambition? What mark will you have left on this world when you leave it?” The oni spoke wrathfully, his fists wreathed in white hot flame.

“WHAT LIKE KING OF THE PIRATEZZ?! ARE YOU STUPID? I WANT A PLACE I CAN RULE OVER LIKE A KING! THAT’S IT! YOU KNOW MOST PEOPLE DON’T WALK AROUND WITH SOME GRAND AMBITION IN THEIR HEART, RIGHT?!”

““I’m well aware of the cowardice of the unremarkable…” the flames around the oni’s fist grew in size and strength as he gathered his fingers into a fist and reared back for his attack, ““... allow me to demonstrate the difference between those with a dream and those who sit back idly then!”

With this, Doji threw a punch into the giant dragonfly’s muscular abdomen, but this was no ordinary attack, a geyser of white-hot cleansing flame erupted from the other side of Aki’s torso, and the enormous man was sent flying back with incredible force, destroying an entire column of the island’s trees as he flew all the way to the other side of Greenstone and fell prone on its beach.

The rest of the Insect Pirates were quick to retreat and scoop up their fallen allies as soon as they realized their captain had been bested, Doji didn’t pay them much mind as he rushed over to the river of ramen and began swimming downstream. The oni quickly sifted his comrade from out of the tangle of noodles and fished Juri out of the river. When he had hauled her onto shore, the boy went about tending to her injuries with the use of his devil fruit power. Once the two had made certain that the bugs were gone, they quickly returned back to Gashadokuro and began steering the walking fortress towards the river of ramen.

A Day or so Later, on One of the Lower Floors of Gashadokuro…

“Listen, I’m just saying you didn’t actually catch the guy, so it doesn’t count! I’m still sekaiichi no bagukorekutā!” The girl proclaimed with a smug grin, holding her prized beetle high in the air like a trophy.

““Juri you were going to die, forgive me if I wasn’t exactly focused about the game...” Doji responded from under a furrowed brow as he sipped river-broth from out of his bowl, setting the bowl of ramen into his large stack of dishes as he finished it, "... plus, I don't know if bringing that guy into the castle and keeping him as a pet  would have been the wisest idea as it stands. I struggled against him, I'm sure he could break out of this place if he wanted to."

“Make whatever excuses you want! It's still your fault Asakura-Sama! You didn’t keep your head in the game! And now I’m the best bug collector in the world and there’s nothing you can do about it! Ha!” With this, the mischievous and uncivilized girl hopped up from her seat and went outside to fetch everybody in the crew another bowl of ramen; she hoped that she would never have to see the gang of invertebrate Zoans again, so that her little brother would never be able to challenge her title.

But in the meantime, it was time for the gang to celebrate, and as the day wore on nobody grew tired of the bountiful and seemingly endless stream of noodles that bordered their impromptu base of operations; the sparkling gleam of the river, was almost as beautiful as its broth was tasty.

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