Grand Voyage- Log 97

Log 97: Sniper!
Morning dawned bright and early over Crown Island, and all across its expanse the animals woke up and prepared to go about their duties. From hunting food for their younger members to simply hanging out with their companions as they did the daily chores that needed to be done, the island transformed from a sleeping, wild place, to an unexpectedly controlled and fun-loving place. In fact, the author would go so far as to declare it fully civilized.

Knave’s eyes popped open as soon as the first ray of sunlight reached him, and he leaped up on his feet, letting out a huge yawn as he stretched his arm behind his head, allowing it to straighten to its maximum to work out all the kinks. This dawn, the marimo lad allowed the yawn to subside, and he dropped his arm, taking a look out at the island when it wasn’t during the evening.

“Ah, you’re awake this early?” the bald parrot asked, walking up beside him once more, “good, because we need to know what kind of animal you are. That way, we can decide what habitat you’ll be living in-”

“Does it really even matter,” Kumasuke asked, walking up, his ever-present sake mug pressed in his mouth, the panda taking what can be assumed to be an early-morning shot, “the whole damn island’s talking about how the Animal King has arrived. Damn idiots won’t shut up.”

“Don’t call your fellow animals stupid!” Karasuke said as he flew up next to Kumasuke, slightly spluttering in anger, “how would you like it if I called you an idiot?! Even though that wouldn’t be lying, since you are stupid!”

“The hell was that?!” Kumasuke growled, dropping the sake mug and charging at Karasuke, with the bird easily soaring out of his reach. As the bear continued to lash around, Karasuke simply rose higher, dropping more insults and occasionally literal droppings towards his opponent.

“Like water and oil, those two,” the bald parrot said in exhasperation, before turning to Knave once more, “what were you going to say? What kind or type of animal do you call your own, newcomer?”

“Umm...” Knave paused, honestly giving thought to what animal he was for a moment, before remembering his own humanity, “well, you see, parrot-ossan, that I’m-”

“Heh, perfect,” Blitzkrieg chuckled as he observed the scene from his vantage point, a nearby tree that had managed to grow taller than the rock that three animals and one human where currently stationed on, “all it’ll take is one shot and then...” His finger tightened around the trigger.

“Boom.”

He pulled the trigger in a single motion.

“Well, you see, parrot-ossan, that I’m-”

However, before Knave could finish his sentence, his senses kicked into overdrive, having been out of commission for too long during the sickness. The marimo lad’s ears detected something, the faintest possible sound, something whooshing through the air towards him, specifically his head!

He ducked to the ground, and the bullet zoomed over where his cranium had been merely seconds before! The animals squawked and began to walk away, as Knave stood fully up, his eyes scanning the horizon and searching for what had fired the shot.

“Good reactions there,” Blitzkrieg said, lining up and preparing for his next shot, “but you can’t dodge my bullets that easily anymore! I’ve already set up a variety of mirrors around all of this damn island, and the bullets will be fully capable of bouncing off them and hitting ya from every angle! Good luck trying to avoid these!”

He tightened his finger once more.

“And.... fire!”

He pulled the trigger.

The whooshing noise came again, but this time Knave was ready, rushing forward towards the source of the noise as his hand became surrounded by heat and kinetic energy. “Naga Naga no Heat Cannon!” he cried as he punched his hand forward, aiming for the bullet!

However, rather than anything actually striking anything, there was an odd cling sound, and the whooshing vanished briefly. As the marimo lad stopped, allowing the heat energy to vanish around his fist, the noise returned in an instant! But it came too fast, as a bullet plowed into the side of Knave’s back! “GAH!” the marimo lad cried, stumbling forward and grasping the wood, heat quickly emerging from his palms and cauterizing the wound as the bullet dropped out, though a few drops of blood made their way onto his foliage coating.

“A-are you okay?” the bald parrot asked, as he and his two fellow animals had quickly taken refuge behind a nearby rock, and a rather large one at that.

“Yeah...” Knave grunted, straightening up, “but this damn gun guy has more tricks up his sleeves than I expected....” The marimo lad flung his hands into the air, screaming at the top of his lungs. “C’MON! WHY CAN’T I JUST FIGHT HAND-TO-HAND?! EVERYONE I’VE FOUGHT EXCEPT SIRIUS IN THIS DAMN GRAND LINE HAS FOUGHT WITH NOTHING RESEMBLING FISTS!”

The whooshing sound filled the air again, and this time Knave took a slightly better round than he had previously. “Naga Naga no Heat Cannon!” he yelled again, smashing his heat and kinetic energy covered fist directly into the rock beneath them! The structure couldn’t take the impact, and the edge that Knave was standing on completely cracked and began to collapse, Knave dropping down along with it.

“Hey!” Karasuke flew hurriedly forward, “quickly! Grab onto my leg, I can carry you out of here!”

“Nah!” Knave grinned, “you guys have been treating me pretty damn nicely! I don’t want you to fight and get hurt because of me. So run away, please!” And with that, the marimo lad toppled down into the jungle below...

“Hm?” the bounty hunter asked, lowering his rifle as he lost track of his target, “did he...? Damn, he did!” Blitzkrieg quickly slung his rifle over his back again, as he reached out with one hand and grasped the side of the tree trunk, before throwing himself over and and dropping down into the jungle after his prey.

“Like I’ll let you get away so easily, you damn pirate!”

Knave crashed down onto the floor of the jungle, but the marimo lad was quickly on his feet, wiping away some dirt and blood and keeping his eyes keen, looking all around him. Several other animals noticed his arrival and began to walk towards him. “The animal king...” those who could speak mumbled in awe, “the animal king...”

Noticing their approach, Knave whipped his head around, facing them head on. “Just shut up and get out of here!” he yelled, “this guy’s going to-”

Bang!

Another shot plowed into Knave’s stomach, the marimo lad gasping as some blood spilled out of his mouth! He stumbled back a few steps, gripping his stomach and performing a similar procedure as earlier, the wound being cauterized and the bullet dropping out. “...Asshole!” Knave grunted, and then cried as he charged forward, both hands being surrounded in heat energy, “just get out here and fight like a damn man!”

“...No thanks,” Blitzkrieg’s voice finally rang out in response!

''Bang! Bang!''

Knave’s ears detected two shots fired this time, and he quickly began whipping himself around, allowing heat and kinetic energy to wrap around him in a protective tornado!

“Naga Naga no Whirlwind!”

The bullets smacked into the heat energy shield, the first one preceding the second, and was promptly destroyed by the intense power. However, the second made use of the path the first had created, and while its force was diminished by the shield, it still managed to worm its way through and struck Knave in the back!

The marimo lad stumbled forward, hacking a bit more blood out and quickly cauterizing and removing again. “Damn... it....” he grunted, “I can’t... keep doing this... forever... can I?”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Blitzkrieg laughed cruelly from his hidden location, “that’s the way! I’ll just be sitting back here, doing nothing except aiming and pulling the trigger, while an idiot like you just practically wanders into the bullets! There’s no way to escape except taking one to the forehead! But don’t worry, I won’t be killing you right away. I want to see you panicking a bit, fretting about everything that you can’t do! This is what it means to be the world’s greatest sniper, you little shit! You can’t even compare to me!”

“Shut up....” Knave grunted, “there’s not even... a sniper on our crew... but when we get one... he’ll kick your little damn ass... I’m sure of that...”

“Tch!” the bounty hunter growled, “then I’ll just take you out sooner!”

“...We should help him!” Karasuke finally cried as the animals observed Knave’s struggle from the cliff, “we can’t just let him keep getting hurt like this! Especially since he’s doing it for our sake!”

“The hell we should,” Kumasuke grumbled, taking a swig, “it’ll just get us into more trouble. I recognize the emblem on that sniper’s jacket. He’s from the same organization you blabbed to the newcomer about yesterday.”

“Deathwatch...?” the bald parrot gasped, shivering slightly, “it can’t be...”

“Let’s just give up helping this guy already,” Kumasuke chuckled, “if he’s the damn Animal King then he should be able to handle it himself-”

“YOU COWARD!” Karasuke howled, delivering a blow with his wing directly to the panda’s face! Kumasuke dropped backwards, landing hard on his rear as his sake mug dropped to the ground. The bird wasn’t done, however, as he quickly seized the panda ‘round the shoulders with his talons, yanking him closer.

“You damn coward! You’re just going to let someone die because you don’t want to get involved with danger?! You’ve always been like this, always running away with things got tough! It’s a miracle you didn’t straight up beg those Deathwatch guys for mercy! And then you come back and mock our beliefs, try to lead the other animals on your damn path to cowardice?! Even if he is or isn’t the Animal King, we should still help him! Grow a damn heart already!”

And with that, Karasuke delivered a kick to Kumasuke’s chest, knocking the panda down again, before taking off and flying down the cliff!

“I’M COMING, JUST HOLD OUT A BIT LONGER!” he cried as he did so!

Kumasuke and the bald parrot were left on the cliff, staring after Karasuke. Kumasuke slowly got to his feet, not even bothering to retrieve his mug. “...Parrot-san...?” he asked slowly.

“...Yes?” the old parrot answered.

“A-am.... am I really a coward...?”

“Only if you let yourself be.”

“....”

“What the?!” Blitzkrieg gasped as Karasuke flew down towards him, having pinpointed his position from above! The bird soared down directly towards him, flapping his wings as fast as he could and causing a horde of feathers to slowly fall through the air, messing up his vision. “Damn bird-!” the bounty hunter began, but Karasuke was far from done.

“HEY!” he yelled, flying up as high as he could and flapping his wings madly, “HE’S OVER HERE!”

Knave’s eyes locked onto Karasuke, and they did the rest of the math. Grinning, he surrouned both hands with heat energy once more, and charged forward, bringing both hands forward and lunging through the trees, both fists smashing into Blitzkrieg’s chest!

“GRUGHA!” the bounty hunter gasped as the impact knocked him from his perch, sending him sprawling on the ground below and skidding a good few inches away. Snarling, he quickly forced himself up. “Ruining my damn mission... my perfect kill rate...” he growled, hoisting up his sniper rifle again, “I’ll kill you all! Any difficulty here will not be my fault anymore-!”

The bald parrot leaped in as well, delivering a quick whack to the back of Blitzkrieg’s head! The bounty hunter cried out, whipping around and lashing out with his fist, but the crafty old bird managed to lunge out of the way just in time! Before Blitzkrieg could prepare to fire, however, Kumasuke exploded out of the underbrush, seizing him around the neck and pouring the rest of his sake mug directly into his eyes!

Blitzkrieg screamed, swatting through the air again and managing to get Kumasuke to leap back and retreat. The two birds and panda quickly regrouped, and rushed to Knave’s side, preparing to fight once more! “Let’s go for another pass!” Karasuke called out.

“Yes!” the bald parrot affirmed, “though we should do more this time!”

“How the hell am I gonna blind him now...?” Kumasuke thought to himself, looking at his now empty hands.

Knave glanced at everyone around him, then grinned, ignoring the fact that parts of his ‘disguise’ had been burned off in his attacks. “Ciaosususususu! Alright everyone, let’s take him out!” Knave pointed at their opponent, “or at least until my friends get here! Then we can take care of him for sure!”

“Crown Island in sight!” Kagome called from the crow’s nest!

“Thank god we managed to beat the name of the destination out of that cow guy,” D’Artagnan sighed, wiping some sweat from his forehead.

“I hope Knave isn’t dead,” Stormy muttered to herself, “knowing him he ended up overdoing it again, even if he was sick and even if there were no more enemies here.”

“Gonna have to agree with that one,” Pura sweatdropped.

“Gao, gao!” Gopher said excitedly, eager to see his best friend and captain again.

“Mercuia, a little boost?” Art asked.

“Yes!” Mercuia nodded, before taking a deep breath and extending both her hands...

“Let’s go get our captain back,” Art repeated, smiling.

~End of Log~

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter