One Piece of Music: Chapter 10

One Piece of Music: Chapter 9

One Piece of Music: Chapter 10 - The One-Eyed Empress Reclaims Her Spotlight!
"Cause when it comes down to it, they weren't recruited to be of actual use to the Tora no Jijitsu (Times of the Tiger). But rather, they were recruited as a convenience. To lighten the burden. So don't even bother worrying yourself over their defeat, for those four - the Hour of the Tiger, the Day of the Tiger, the Month of the Tiger, and the Year of the Tiger - are more than capable of conquering these piers. All. By. Them. Selves!" chuckled Uchibenkei as he removed his fingers from his ears.

Uchibenkei would've returned to sipping tea without a care in the world, but his teacup crumbled into dust only a moment before he could do so. Uchibenkei couldn't help but to snort in annoyance as the destruction of his teacup resulted in the spilling of his tea onto his lap, noticeably staining his tights as it did so. Immediately afterward, the pupils of Uchibenkei's eyes expanded to the size of baseballs as the implications of his actions quickly dawned upon him.

Without delay, Uchibenkei raised the both of his hand in an attempt to gesture Michael into ceasing-and-desisting what he knew the effeminate man was up to. Unfortunately for Uchibenkei, the damage had been done. And Michael was in the process of making repairs. Before Uchibenkei could utter so much as a single word-

"Tea!" shrieked an infuriated Michael at a pitch which proceeded to prove its considerable height by instantaneously shattering all of the windows that were within the confines of the restaurant. "How dare you lay a hand on my Uchi-sama!"

"Ouch!" hissed the axe-wielding elder as Michael's shriek ravaged his ears to the point where the both of them begun to momentarily bleed with the excessiveness of a broken faucet. With a scowl that would've been a perfect fit on the face of Ebenezer Scrooge himself, the elder turned towards the direction from which the shriek originated and was promptly bewildered by the sight of Uchibenkei being violently hurtled out of the restaurant by a tornado-like gust of wind. The elder gawked at Uchibenkei's violence-induced flight for quite some time before he inevitably sweatdropped. "...the hell are they doing?"

"Purupurupurupurupurupurupuru," rung a Ko Den-den Mushi that was situated on the elder's person, snapping the elder out of the stupor that Michael and Uchibenkei's antics had induced him into. With a roll of his eyes, the elder dismissed Michael and Uchibenkei's actions as an unimportant occurrence. He then removed a Ko Den-den Mushi from the interior of his jacket before picking up the miniature receiver that was attached to the aforementioned Ko Den-den Mushi.

"This is Enrique speaking," answered the elder in a heavily exaggerated yawn of exhaustion, earning himself a huff from the woman on the other end of the "line". With a toothy grin, Enrique snickered at the exasperation that had been perfectly expressed by the tone of the woman's voice. He then silently congratulated himself for managing to piss the woman off so early in their conversation before bracing himself for some nagging. "Would I be correct to assume that this is-"

"Damn it Enrique!" snarled the woman, cutting off Enrique with all of the ruthlessness of a tigress on the prowl. "Even I heard that one, and I'm with the goddamn fleet! What the hell do you think you're doing out there?"

"Oh just a little something that you're not doing at the moment," nonchalantly replied Enrique with all of the seriousness of a certain skeletal pirate. "Living a little. Oh and, you know, FIGHTING!"

"When you're supposed to be CAPTURING!" angrily hissed the woman with the temper of a forcibly bathed housecat. Subsequently, the woman commenced to ground her teeth at a volume that was more than high enough for even Enrique to hear over the "line" with just about perfect clarity. "Listen up Enrique and listen well! We're here to accomplish an objective. Not to avenge-"

"Toranoh," spoke Enrique with the serenity of the stillest of waters, silencing the woman with shock born from the fact that he was bothering to address her by her actual name rather than his latest nickname for her. "I am not him!"

"I-I-I know that!" spluttered a flustered Toranoh, prompting Enrique to burst into laughter at her apparent embarrassment. "Why you, when you get back here I'm going to kick your ass! Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah. Loud and clear," laughed Enrique as he hung the receiver of his Ko Den-den Mushi and then started to unscrew the butt of his axe from the haft of his axe. After the removal of the axe's butt, Enrique used his thumb and index finger to reach into the interior of the axe's haft and withdraw a sizable net of seastone out of it. "Alright. It's about time I round up the survivors. Anyone strong enough to withstand the Bakushou (Roar of Laughter/Damage or Injuries Caused by Bombing or an Explosion) should be more than powerful enough to satisfy even someone as strict as my-"

"Hitojin Dengekite, Gesan-geri! (Humen Electric Shock Hand, Descent From the Mountain Kick!)" suddenly heard Enrique, prompting the elderly pirate into performing an about-face just in time to lay his eyes on an incoming, lightning-like flash of light. With less than even a moment to spare, Enrique managed to raise his axe in time to intercept a brilliantly incandescent kick with the axe's flat. However, much to even Enrique's surprise, the aforementioned kick was immediately followed by a full-blown clap of thunder. Due to the fact his utilization of Bakushou had more than accustomed him to even the loudest of noises, Enrique was spared from being discomforted by the thunderclap. However, Enrique's surprise alone provided his assailant - the manservant Jeeves - with enough of a distraction to allow him to continue his assault unimpeded.

"Hitojin Dengekite... (Humen Electric Shock Hand...)" begun Jeeves as he backflipped off of the flat of Enrique's axe. While he was still in midair of all places, Jeeves threw a pair of rigidly straight punches in Enrique's direction. Peculiarly, Jeeves' punches somehow managed to "fly" from his fist in the form of a pair of lightning bolts. Long before Enrique's eyes were capable of informing Enrique's brain about the "flying" punches, Enrique was struck in the chest by the both of them. The elderly pirate couldn't help but to grit his teeth in agony as he was thoroughly electrocuted by the punches which had "flown" into him. It was at this time that Jeeves awkwardly landed on all fours and then commenced to desperately gasp for air. While Jeeves struggled to catch his breath, Enrique gradually begun to recover from Jeeves' assault. "...Shippuujinrai-tsuki! (...With Lightning Speed, Punch!)"

"More thunder? Damn it Enrique! What did I just say?!!!" complained Toranoh just as Enrique's electrocution begun to subside. Without saying a word to Toranoh, Enrique hung up on Toranoh. Immediately afterwards, he silently restashed his Ko Den-den Mushi back within the interior of his jacket and subsequently begun to hungrily stare at Jeeves. At the sight of Enrique's eyes, which were each twinkling with a rather twisted lust for combat, Jeeves couldn't help but to be taken aback. For Jeeves didn't feel as if he was being sized up by an opponent, but rather he felt as if he was being ogled by suitor. One who wasn't going to be taking no for an answer. To say Jeeves was more than a little creeped out, would be the biggest understatement of all time.

"I'm going to enjoy this," outright giggled Enrique with a demented lick of his lips. With a shiver which had been well-earned by Enrique, Jeeves hesitantly sprung towards Enrique with his right arm at the ready. As Jeeves neared him, Enrique's pupils begun to dilate in anticipation. Much to Enrique's delight, it wasn't long before Jeeves was upon him. With a lion-esque roar, Jeeves launched a right cross towards Enrique's face. It was then that Enrique saw. He saw the events which had somehow managed to elude his notice before. As Jeeves's fist made its way towards his face, Enrique watched as all of the air that was adjacent to Jeeves' fist begun to undergo ionization as a direct result of the friction between it and Jeeves' fist. Enrique then commenced to grin toothily as the velocity of Jeeves' cross propelled the ionized air as a vanguard...

...only a moment before Enrique casually sidestepped the incoming ions and the cross that was following them. "And here I was thinking you were a Devil Fruit user..."

"Hitojin Dengekite, Noboritsumeru-geri! (Humen Electric Shock Hand, To Reach the Summit Kick!)" hurriedly grunted Jeeves as he attempted to respond to Enrique's sidestep with a literally electrifying roundhouse kick. However, Enrique used a simple press of the flat of his axe to intercept the roundhouse kick midway through. Much to Jeeves' confusion, Enrique's interception managed to completely prevent the roundhouse kick from ever reaching the velocity it'd need to be at to successfully ionize the air. "What in the world just-"

"Any technique that has a minimum velocity as a prerequisite, can be counteracted by preventing the occurrence of the necessary acceleration. The moment it became apparent to me that your Hitojin Dengekite was a direct result of your phenomenal speed, it became completely useless against me!" explained Enrique only an instant before he started to inhale with enough suction to quickly produce an inwardly rotating tornado. A troubled Jeeves then took Enrique's inhalation as an opportunity to retract his leg and then hurriedly back away from Enrique. As soon as there was a satisfactory amount of space between him and Enrique, Jeeves stiffened his posture in preparation for his next assault.

"Let's see how useless my techniques are from this distance! Hitojin Dengekite, Sampuugama-geri! (Humen Electric Shock Hand, Mountain Wind Sickle Kicks!)" arrogantly snickered Jeeves as he somersaulted towards Enrique in an accelerated manner that resulted in him "kicking" a number of crescent-shaped mass of ions towards Enrique. However, much to Jeeves' bewilderment, Enrique managed to sidestep the Hitojin Dengekite, Sampuugama-geri just as easily as he'd sidestepped the Hitojin Dengekite, Shippuujinrai-tsuki. "T-t-that's impossible! The ions travel FAR too quickly for any to dodge! Period! No exceptio-"

"Bakushouha! (Roar of Laughter Wave!)" abruptly roared Enrique, exhaling a beam of super-condensed air as he did so. Immediately after Enrique's roar made its way to Jeeves' ears, the aforementioned beam closed in on him like a tsunami's approach of a beach. Jeeves only had time to cross his arms in a vain attempt to guard himself from the incoming beam before...

"Gyojin Jūjutsu, Murasame! (Fishman Soft Techniques, School of Sharks!)"

...an aerial rapid of water swerved around his back into a large number of shark-shaped water bullets which promptly impacted against the very face of the beam. Upon making impact with each other, the air beam and water bullets explosively blended into a miniature hurricane. Said hurricane subsided as quickly as it had been formed, leaving a perplexed Jeeves and an intrigued Enrique in its wake.

"Are you trying to tell me..." happily giggled Enrique, all while his body was quivering from the insuppressible joy that was welling up within him. As Enrique did so, he found himself being steadily approached by Bekki and Samesuke. "...that not one, but THREE of you managed to WITHSTAND my famous Bakushou?"

"Butler boy, you take him head on. Samesuke, you take the right. And I'll take the left," suddenly ordered Bekki as if Jeeves and Samesuke were her subordinates. Both the manservant and fishman were about to voice a complaint about Bekki bossing them around, but they were quickly dissuaded from doing so by the glint of pure, bloody murder that was being reflected from Bekki's eyes. "I'm glad that we've manage to come to an agreement. Now, break!"

"It appears that father was right to assume that this place would turn itself into a total JACKPOT!" laughed Enrique as Bekki, Jeeves, and Samesuke threw themseles at him...

"This seems to be a bit on the easy side of things..." cooed Uwasa as Ruriko took hold of two of the bars of a metal cage and then used naught but brute force to bend the bars as a means of creating an exit for those inside. As the now-former prisoners hurriedly filed out of the metal cage, a contingent of ferals marched into sight. At the head of the contingent were five girls whom were each dressed in a manner that was reminiscent of a playboy bunny. These girls were Harimomi, platinum blonde with a sapling in hand, Kenshiko, a dark brown-haired girl whose very steps were consistently leaving miniscule fires in their wake, Kiko, a steel-haired girl with eerily luminescent glasses, Oniyuri, a dirty blonde with a shotgun, and Torafu, a light brown-haired girl whose clothing possessed a pair of bat wings that it was using to let her hover right above the pier's surface. "...or at least it did until now. How much you want to bet that those gals are the Times of the Tiger we kept hearing about on our way here?"

"I wouldn't risk a single beli on a bet like that," snorted Ruriko as she bent yet another exit into the cage so that the soon-to-be-former prisoners could clear out of the cage faster. "The Times of the Tiger are the four strongest members of the crew, right? No way Fabricio el Tigre isn't one of them. And the last time I asked about him, grandmother told me that he was a GUY," "You make a good point at the great expense of pooping the party," grumbled Uwasa as the five girls continued to make their approach with the horde of ferals following close behind them. Uwasa deeply sighed at the very thought of having to confront yet another horde of weak enemies before she begun to raise her sword overhead in preparation; however, Ruriko forced her to lower her sword before she could even fully raise it. "Something the matter, Ruriko-chan?"

"You protect those people we just let out," flat-out ordered Ruriko in a no-nonsense tone of voice. Ruriko then commenced to crack her knuckles in anticipation. Much to Uwasa's horror, each of those cracks managed to generate a boom that was more than capable of being mistaken for the thunder of the brightest of lightning strikes. Out of all of the waitresses that worked at L'Origine, Uwasa was the one that knew Ruriko best. So she knew what it meant Ruriko begun to crack her knuckles in such an excessive manner. It wasn't showboating as most would have assumed. But rather it was a warning. A warning that things were about to get REAL. "I'll deal with those guys,"

"Y-y-y-yes mam!" stammered Uwasa as she rushed after the people fleeing towards the Tora no Tomarigi. Not so much because she was following Ruriko's orders, but rather because she wanted to live to see another day. Because truth be told; Ruri, Shuga, Kakuzatou, and Zokuwa were better fighters than Ruriko. But even all four of them combined couldn't even come close to being as DESTRUCTIVE as Ruriko. "Hey guys! Forget about reaching the perch! Just get to the next pier for now! Cause I REALLY don't think this one is going to be around for much longer! Dear Gan Fall, PLEASE don't let Ruriko DESTROY US ALL!"

"Stop exaggerating! I'm not that bad you!" Ruriko screamed back at Uwasa after having overheard Uwasa's prayer. Ruriko then turned her attention back towards the five and the many ferals behind them. By this point in time, the five and ferals wer within casual speaking range of Ruriko. And boy did they look mad. While the ferals looked as if they were ready to disembowel Ruriko on the spot, the five looked even angrier. The look on their face depicted a fury which just coudn't be satisfied by simply harming Ruriko. They displayed a fury which could only be fulfilled by butchering everyone that Ruriko had taken so much as a little liking to. Right before the Ruriko's eyes of course. "Here is the deal. You can stop giving me that kind of look on your own, or I can remodel those ugly faces of yours so that you CAN'T give me that kind of look. The choice, like the power, is yours,"

"Do you have ANY idea how long it took us to capture those people?" asked Harimomi while she was visibly shaking from the pure RAGE that was boiling up inside of her. "Do you have ANY idea what kind of RESISTANCE they put up against us? Do you have ANY idea how much we had to STRUGGLE to get them into a cage and how MANY cages we had to go through before we FINALLY found one that could contain the buggers?"

"Sounds about right," chuckled Ruriko as she outstretched her arms in preparation. Ruriko then gave the five the very same look that they were giving her. Except worse. Much worse. While the five looked vindictive to the extreme, Ruriko looked donwright SUICIDALLY enraged. Ruriko looked as if she JUST DIDN'T CARE what happened to herself as long her intended victims got it just as bad if not WORSE. At the sight of THAT kind of fury, the five girls couldn't help but to back off a little. "Tell me, do YOU have any idea? Do you have any idea how long we've been expecting you? How long we have been training for this ONE day? Do you have any idea how TERRIFIED we have been? For ourselves. For our children. For our grandchildren. Decade after decade. Year after year. Month after month. Day after day. Hour after Hour. Minute after minute. And even second after second! We've been scared for our lives and freedoms! Well no more! It all ends today! From here on out..."

It was then, without warning or hesitation, Ruriko raised a hand into the air and then smashed a punch into the wood of the pier. Immediately cracks begun to spread throughout the ENTIRETY of the pier. And it wasn't long before those tiny cracks begun to EXPLOSIVELY widen into fissures. Soon those fissures lengthen to the point where they begun to divide the pier into being naught but a multitude of wooden chunks. And soon after that the force of Ruriko's punch was finally carried into the West Blue, causing the waters the wooden chunks were floating upon to churn as if there was a storm about. By this point, the five girls and the ferals were no long angry. Instead, they were TERRIFIED. So terrified, that those ferals whom weren't dropped into the West Blue by Ruriko's destruction of the pier CHOSE TO LEAP INTO THE WEST BLUE. Out of fear of being attacked by Ruriko if they didn't do so. After about a minute or so, there were no more ferals in the fray. Just Ruriko and the five girls. Each of whom were standing upon their own chunk of wood.

"...you're going to be afraid of US!"

"Gyojin Jūjutsu, Megarodangan! (Fishman Soft Techniques, Megalodon Bullet!)" roared Samesuke as he literally pitched just a single droplet of water towards Enrique's left (which is Samesuke's right). However, as the droplet made its way towards Enrique, it quickly enlarged into a sizable shark by assimilating the water vapor within the air into it.

"Fujitani no Kondatehyou, Kyakusembi no Ohmori! (Fujitani's Menu, A Large Serving of Long and Beautiful Legs!)" cried Bekki while she was descending upon Enrique's right (which is Bekki's left). Not long before she was upon Enrique, the both of Bekki's blurred into a flurry of stamps.

"This will be easy!" bragged Enrique right before he started to inhale with enough to suction simply slurp the Megalodon Bullet into his mouth. While Samesuke gawked at the straightforwardness of Enrique's counter, Enrique condensely streamed the water of the Megalodon Bullet towards Bekki as an aquatic beam. Said beam managed to flow around Bekki's flurry of stamps with little to no loss of energy. It then slammed dead center into Bekki's chest, carrying the local girl into the distance as it did so. "Was that really all you've-"

"Hitojin Dengekite, Yamaaruki-geri! (Humen Electric Shock Hand, Mountain-Hiking Kick!)" snarled Jeeves as he used to a midair to spin to quickly shift from a lunge to a lightning-fast roundhouse kick that had been aimed for Enrique's throat. Knowing that Enrique's preoccupation with Bekki and Samesuke hadn't left Enrique any time to dodge his attack, wasn't at all surprised when his electricity-enshrouded foot managed to impact against Enrique's throat. But he WAS surprised by Enrique's lack of an immediate reaction to the fact that his throat had just been kicked with electricity of all things. And even more surprised when Enrique's late reaction was to toothily grin down at him and then calmly grab the ankle of the leg he'd just roundhouse kicked with. "H-h-how can this-"

"Wonderful. Simply wonderful. I haven't had this much fun in a LONG while," enthusiastically laughed Enrique as he forced Jeeves' foot off his throat. As a result, Enrique revealed that his throat was now as black as the night and as shiny as the day. Though it may have been sparking a bit, Enrique didn't at all looked as if those sparks were having an effect upon him. "You guys have been a much tougher bunch than those Marines. A LOT tougher in fact,"

"W-w-what the? Y-y-you can't be serious. You're THIS strong AND you have the ability of a Devil Fruit?" stammered Jeeves as he struggled in vain to free his foot from Enrique's grasp. Enrique adopted a blank stare for a short while before eventually facepalming.

"How ignorant of you to think that," sighed Enrique right before he effortlessly swung Jeeves overhead and then face-first into the surface of the pier with enough force to perfectly embed Jeeves into it. Enrique then wasted no time in slinging the now-unconscious Jeeves at the gawking Samesuke, leaving a Jeeves-shaped crater in the place where he had perfectly embed Jeeves as a result of doing. The sight of an incoming Jeeves snapped Samesuke out of his shock in time for the Megalodon fishman to catch Jeeves in his arms. However, during the short amount of time Samesuke that Samesuke spent catching Jeeves, Enrique managed to close the distance between him and Samesuke. By the time Samesuke realized the Enrique was before him with an axe raised overhead, Samesuke only had enough time to toss Jeeves out of the line-of-fire before Enrique brought the axe down and diagonally hacked Samesuke's chest open. As Samesuke dropped face-first onto the surface of the pier, Enrique burst into megalomaniacal laughter. "It's over. Over already! But that's fine. JUST fine. It was good fun while it lasted, and Enrique el Tigre shouldn't expect much from-"

"Poppu Karucha, Hyu-man Supea! (Pop Culture, Human Spear!)" suddenly heard Enrique, prompting the elderly pirate into performing an about-face just in time to have the crown of an unconscious feral's head collide directly into his stomach. As he backwardly skidded on the very tips of his toes as a result of the collision, Enrique caught sight of his new assailant. It was an adolescent girl. One with a gangling physique, a rosy complexion, waist-length dirt blonde hair, and a SINGLE eye. The girl was dressed in a black and sleeveless shirt which had a turtleneck collar. She also wore a tie with a red and black tartan pattern, a pair of forearm-length arm warmers which were mostly black but tipped with red, a miniskirt with the same red and black tartan patter as her tie, a pair of thigh-high stockings, and a pair of platform boots. Most notably though, the girl was shouldering a guitar as if it was a weapon... "I'm terribly sorry for being late. But I REALLY needed to change out of that ATROCIOUS uniform and pick up this-here guitar,"

"Late?" asked Enrique as he smacked the feral to the side and then dug blackened hands right into the pier's surface as a means of bringing his skid to an abrupt end. Enrique then warily eyed the girl as she giddily skipped right up to him as if he posed no threat to her at all! Truth be told, Enrique didn't mind being looked down upon by this girl. Because it implied that maybe, JUST MAYBE, this girl would be able to give him the challenge he'd been longing for as long as he could remember. His own father would never engage him in a TRUE battle. He himself refused to engage his siblings in a true battle out of fear of inflicting permanent harm. And the underlings just didn't have what it took to challenge him in a true battle... "Whatever could you mean by that, little lady? I don't remember having any sort of appointment with a one-eyed abomination such as yourself!"

"Oh you have an appointment with Thoosa alright, hurhurhurha!" darkly laughed Thoosa with her head tilted at a disturbing angle and a creepily strained smile on her noseless face. Enrique couldn't help but to grimace as Thoosa continued to literally eyeball him as if he was the obstructive boyfriend of a girl Thoosa was totally YANDERE for. "An appointment that was FIRMLY set when you DARED to make a weapon out of sound!"

One Piece of Music: Chapter 11