One Piece of Music: Chapter 5

“AN ENTIRE FLEET?” shrieked Iroppoi at her Ko Den Den Mushi whilst jogging from pier to pier with the woman from before situated upon her back. To Iroppoi's surprise, her shriek earned herself a look of disapproval from the now shaken Ko Den Den Mushi.

“That's right,” conveyed the Ko Den Den Mushi to Iroppoi in a tone of voice which Iroppoi firmly believed to be much more hostile than the tone Aharon had utilized upon his Ko Den Den Mushi. To Iroppoi's annoyance, her Ko Den Den Mushi convey Aharon's next few words in an outright growl. “Tell me. Have you gotten the woman to the clinic yet?”

"I will salt you," stoically threatened Iroppoi, adopting an eerily apathetic expression as she did so. Iroppoi's Ko Den Den Mushi twitched in fright at threat, prompting Iroppoi to grin in celebration of her victory over the snail. "Not yet. I'm still a couple of piers away from-"

"There she is!" suddenly heard Iroppoi from behind her. Immediately Iroppoi stopped jogging, took a look over her shoulder, and carelessly dropped her Ko Den Den Mushi at the sight of a trio of humanoid tigers whom were each dressed in naught but a tiger skin loincloth. "If you aren't looking for a fight, you best hand that woman over to us!"

"Isn't wearing tiger skin kind of redundant for tiger-man hybrid things?" asked Iroppoi of the trio. The trio blinked in unison before one by one glowering at Iroppoi. "What? You should be happy that I called out such a seriously lame sense of fashion,"

"Just give us the woman!" roared one of the humanoids before all three of them leapt towards Iroppoi, each of their arms blurring in all directions as they did so. With a roll of her eyes, Iroppoi withdrew the flintlock pistol that had been issued to her by the Marines and then flatly shot each of the humanoids in the chest before any of them could even manage to come within striking distance of her. Immediately, one of the humanoids fell at Iroppoi's feet while the other two fell to opposite sides of Iroppoi. Iroppoi holstered her pistol before resuming her jog as if the conflict between her and the humanoids had never occurred.

"I wonder if those guys are the ones responsible for this woman's injuries," pondered Iroppoi as she left the trio of humanoids lying upon the boards of the pier. "Nah. I doubt it. I haven't even seen this woman in action and I can tell she's stronger than those three. The only way they possibly could've managed to harm her is by sneak attacking or something..."

"You mean like this?"

"No," sighed Iroppoi as she lifted the both of her arms into a cross guard, dropping the unconscious woman onto the ground as a result of doing so. A moment later, the integrity of her guard was challenged by a pair of axe kicks. With a grunt of effort, Iroppoi thwarted the momentum of the axe kicks and then lashed out with her arms powerfully enough to send her assailants back-flipping away. "I meant a real sneak attack. The kind where you don't telegraph it to your opponent with idle chatter beforehand,"

"Shut..." begun the first of Iroppoi's two assailants, brunette woman dressed in a qipao, as she landed with a stagger and then positioned herself in a manner most would interpret as a silly pose rather than as a fighting stance.

"...up!" finished the second of Iroppoi's two assailants, brunette man dressed in a Chinese shirt and pants, as he too landed with a stagger and then positioned himself in the same manner as the first assailant.

"I'm Song Mei!" announced the first assailant with gusto.

"And I'm Song Lei!" followed the second assailant with just as much enthusiasm as Mei.

"And I'm shooting one of you now," snorted Iroppoi before firing her pistol at Mei. Much to Iroppoi's disappointment, Mei managed to cartwheel out of the path of Iroppoi's shot. Without so much as a moment of hesitation, Iroppoi proceeded to fire at Lei whom was force to spring into the air in order to avoid being gunned down. "Please don't tell me that I'm going to have to actually fight..."

"Kaiō-rui no Tosshin! (Sea King's Charge!)" abruptly shouted Mei. Before Iroppoi could so much as comprehend the meaning of the words that came out of Mei's mouth, she felt a tug upon the collar of the undershirt she was wearing beneath the jacket of her suit. Without delay Iroppoi looked down and tensed at the sight of Mei with both a hand grasping onto the collar of her undershirt and an arm outstretched as far as even inhumanly possible. "Bananawani no Shippo! (Banana Gator's Tail!)"

"Soru! (Shave!)" spluttered Iroppoi only an instant before Mei nigh-instantaneous arced a chop towards her forehead in a manner which was reminiscent to how the bullwhip arcs its cracker. Right before Mei's chop could impact against Iroppoi's forehead, Iroppoi swiftly took a number of steps back. To Iroppoi's horror, the chop that could have made contact with her forehead, slammed into the boards of the pier with enough force to produce an outright explosion of splinters and sawdust. Not only that, but it also dropped the unconscious woman into the waters below. "Well that can't be good,"

Bananawani no Shippo, Furatto! (Banana Gator's Tail, Flat!)" shouted Lei from directly above Iroppoi as he swiftly arced his palm straight towards the top of Iroppoi's head. Much to Lei's surprise, Iroppoi easily sidestepped his blow before taking ahold of his now outstretched arm and utilizing it to fling him towards Mei. "Kaiō-rui no Tosshin! (Sea King's Charge!)"

"Shousentai no Seitouboueiryū! (Legitimate Self-Defence Style of the Merchant Fleet!)" literally spat Iroppoi onto the boards of the pier as Lei repositioned himself in midair so that his legs were facing Mei and then kicked with enough vigor to "push" off of the air and launch himself back towards Iroppoi. "Now where did a couple of scoundrels like yourselves learn something like that?"

"Jinbē-zame no Hyouhi! (Whale Shark's Rind!)" shouted Lei as he visibly tensed the muscles within his neck during his head first flight towards Iroppoi.

"Soru, Suteppu! (Shave, Step!)" called Iroppoi before she sidestepped Lei's headbut literally at the very last last. Iroppoi then utilized the momentum of the step to slam her knee directly into Lei's stomach at the speed of a bullet. "Hizagan! (Knee Gun!)"

"Oomph!" huffed Lei as Iroppoi's knee collided into his stomach, knocked him onto the ground, and sent him rolling. "Ugh..."

"Look what you did to my hand!" suddenly complained Mei whilst waving a splinter-filled hand around. "You're going to pay for this lady!"

"Yeah! What sister said!" agreed Lei as he stood up with an arm wrapped around his stomach. Iroppoi took a glance at the hole in the pier which the unconscious woman had fallen. Iroppoi then sighed as loudly as she could before commencing to remove her clothes. "W-w-w-what are y-y-you doing?"

"Fighting seriously," answered Iroppoi as she stripped down to her underwear and then dramatically dropped her removed clothing onto the pier. "I acknowledge you as well-trained revolutionaries. So from here on out, I'm going to be using Mona-shishou's Sekushi Kenpo! (Sexy Style!)"

Elsewhere
"Maichimonji Mujihitsurugi-ryū, (As the Crow Flies Merciless Sword-Style,)" murmured Gebahyou as a grand number of ferals approached her with their fangs barred and their claw-bearing fingers outstretched. The very moment the ferals came within striking distance of Gebahyou, the redhead quickly withdrew a katana-like blade from a broom in a manner which allowed her to severely lacerate each of the ferals during the withdrawal. She then sheathed the blade within the broom long before the ferals collapse into a pile at her feet.

"Ittoryu, Makaze! (One Sword Style, Storm Caused by the Devil!)" yelled Chindan while she was practically frolicking amongst a horde of ferals as if she was an intangible as the wind, bringing her katana down upon each and every single one of ferals within the horde as she did so.

Karatakewari! (Cutting Straight Down!)" laughed Uwasa an instant before she cleaved an incoming cannonball in two and and as a result ended the life of the feral within. Uwasa then somersaulted across the battlefield at an impossible angle which allowed her to halve a number of incoming cannonballs just as easily as she had the first.

"Die," calmly demanded Goshippu as she easily gunned down ferals with a flintlock rifle which was chambered to fire bullets the size of the average baseball.

"T-there is no end to them!" whined one of L'Origine's surviving customers whilst hiding within the debris with the children of the deceased mother firmly held within his arms.

"You're wrong," growled Zokuwa as she leisurely caught a cannonball in one hand, slammed the cannonball onto an adjacent feral with enough force to immediately crush the feral like a bug, and then utilize her other hand to saw apart a number of charging ferals with a single swing of her enormous chainsaw. "Because whether they know it or not, I am the end to them!"

"Though the others may not think so, it's a very good thing you're asleep Ruriko-chan," whispered Goshippu to an unconscious as she reloaded her rifle. "If you weren't this entire pier would probably be gone by now,"

"Okay," wheezed an exhausted Chindan as she fell back to the remains of L'Origine and started to take a breather alongside the reloading Goshippu. "Where exactly are Kakuzatou, Shuga, and Mrs. Fujitani? Don't tell me that they've been killed..."

"Don't be ridiculous," muttered Goshippu as she finished reloading and commenced to fire into the ranks of the ferals once more.

"You know as well as I do that cannon fire can't kill those three"

"Then why aren't they-"

"Because it wasn't time for them to show themselves," gasped a tiring Zokuwa as she covered Gebahyou and Uwasa's retreat before retreating to L'Origine herself. Approaching the waitresses was a swarm of ferals whom each looked more than eager to avenge their fallen brethren by ripping the waitresses limb from limb. "If they had showed themselves from the very beginning, this window of opportunity would not had presented itself to them as it is now,"

"What is that supposed to-"

"Sui-to Furasshu!" (Sweet Flash!)" was the only warning the ferals received before they were set upon by a demon. Said demon erupted from the mound of debris which L'Origine's kitchen had been reduced to, explosively launching every single last morsel of the aforementioned debris into the air as a result of doing so. It sped towards the swarm and came to an abrupt halt within the very center of it, producing a shock wave which dispersed the ferals like bowling pins after the roll of a strike. "Nicely done Zokuwa. You're as dependable as ever,"

"Not as dependable as you Shuga," coughed an exhausted Zokuwa at the demon universally referred to as Shuga. The silverette cook flashed a smile at Zokuwa before clapping her hands, causing L'Origine's waitresses to immediately come to attention.

"I'm going to let you know that this is only the beginning girls..." Shuga announced to the waitresses with a serious expression on her face."...for it appears that Fabricio el Tigre has returned to the Tora no Tomarigi! (Tiger's Perch!)"

Elsehwere
"Not cool," stated Thoosa in a tone of voice that was entirely devoid of her usual mirth. From atop of the gate that was barring conventional access to the pier serving as the Tora no Tomarigi's Marine outpost, Thoosa gazed upon a peculiar scene. Across the rotten boards serving as the grounds of the outpost lied a myriad of individual. Some of the individuals were ferals whom appeared to have been struck down through the use of either a blade or a firearm; however, the majority of the individuals were Marines. While the unconscious forms of a few of the Marines were littered with lacerations, the majority of the Marines appeared to be free of injury. Or at least they did from the viewpoint of a human.

From the viewpoint of a cyclops such as Thoosa, apparent that those Marines whom seemed to be free of injury were actually in possession of internal injuries.Contrary to popular belief, the eye of a cyclops doesn't input electromagnetic radiation from its environment like the eyes of so many other creatures. Instead, it conducts its business in a manner which is similar echolocation. The eye outputs Terahertz radiation and then inputs any of the Terahertz radiation that reflects back towards it. This feature of a cyclops' eye allows a cyclops to see in spite of whether or not his or her environment is illuminated. It also allows a cylops to literally see through just about anything and anyone at his or her discretion. Thus Thoosa could literally see within each of the Marines and examine their internal injuries.

"Only a shock wave could have inflicted such injuries. And the uniformity of those injuries suggest..." murmured Thoosa to herself before clenching her fist with enough pressure to pierce her palm with her fingernails. Thoosa then outright tossed the dine and dasher into the confines of the Marine outpost before hopping down onto the boards of the outpost herself. Thoosa walked over to the body of a defeated feral, took a knee, and then quickly flicked her tongue out and then back into her mouth. "What a peculiar scent. It possesses the texture of a tiger but the taste of a human. Not a very civilized human it seems, but a human nonetheless,"

Thoosa spitefully spat directly onto the face of the defeated feral before standing back up. She then took a step in a random direction before flicking her tongue out and then back into her mouth in an attempt to pick up on the trail of anyone with scent that was reminiscent of the funk of the defeated feral.

"Hurhurhurha! Lucky me. I've got it on the first try," yuked Thoosa with with her mouth stretched into a malicious grin. Thoosa then burst into a dash, leaving the diner and dasher behind as she did so.

"On my love for the music of the Soul King himself, I wont let these guys or anyone for that matter..." chimed Thoosa in a singsong tone of voice as she leapt over the other gate of the outpost, landed directly onto the boarss of the adjacent pier, and then once again burst into a sprint. "...get away with weaponizing something as beautiful as sound!"