Chapter 121
[3 Days After]
Above the thick layers of cloud, one wooden ship was found flying with a moving cloud platform of its own underneath it. This wooden ship, which is carrying Smoker and his group, successfully crossed the Red Line by hiding above the clouds as it flew around and avoided the direct flight above the Mariejois.
However, there was one thing that they failed to think of,
"Where the hell are we right now?"
Just as Senor Pink grumbled, they indeed didn't know where they were in the middle of the New World. After all, hiding above the cloud meant that they were also blinding themselves. Even worse, the New World ver. Log Pose, strapped around his wrist, had all three needles spinning endlessly. At this point, Senor Pink couldn't help but shout,
"Everyone, listen carefully... we're officially lost in the middle of nowhere!"
__________
"HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
In the middle of the New World's sea that has momentarily calmed down, a man standing on top of a huge ship with a luxurious appearance was found laughing like there was no tomorrow.
"Look at this, folks!! At last, we're reaching our goal...!"
This man was 'Big Worm' Gaitou, the pirate wanted dead or alive for 230,000,000 Beli—mostly not for his strength, but rather, for the cruel deeds that he committed. After years of sailing, he and his crew were finally close to the end of their journey,
"KAIDOU-SAMAA!!! Don't you dare reject me when I kneel in front of you!!!"
to become a part of Kaidou's crew.
"Anyway, to make sure!" Turning around, Gaitou pointed at his navigator, "Say our destination once more!"
The navigator deadpanned, "Can we stop...? We've been doing this for hours."
"SAY IT!!"
"Haa... Dressrosa."
"That's right!" Nodding vigorously, Gaitou began sprouting, much to his navigator's face-palm, "Dressrosa... oh, the land of weaklings unfit to belong in the New World, speaking of peace and all that shit! Well, that changed around a year ago thanks to the almighty Kaidou-sama, who sent one of his All-Stars to conquer the kingdom... Quuuueeeeeeeennnn!!!"
Unable to hold back anymore, several members of the crew yelled, """SHUT UP!!!"""
"W-Wha?!" Gaitou, with his eyes widened in disbelief, cried, "What have I done for you to yell at me?!"
The navigator groaned. He was about to say something in response, however, was cut off by another member who spoke up,
"Hey hey, why don't we all calm down? Captain, you quit with your endless shit-talk, and others, show some respect to him!"
This man, being the vice captain of the crew, had a huge belly. He, Nill Bye the 'Doriki Guy', rubbed his belly and said,
"Anyway, before we enter Dressrosa, let's have another accurate measurement of our strength!"
"Physical strength only, you mean," Grumbled the navigator.
Forgetting the brief quarrel, Gaitou perked up, "You mean that Doriki thing?"
Nill Bye was another reason why the crew was able to reach up to this point. By knowing their objective strength, they avoided and only faced those whom they believed to be weaker than them.
"Alrighty then~" Gaitou clenched his fist and punched it right into Nill Bye's belly. With a grunt, Nill Bye fell to the ground and said,
"1,020!"
The crew members gasped,
"I can't believe it... captain's Doriki passed four-digits?!!"
"Considering how an average soldier's Doriki is 10, our captain is amazing!"
"Ehem, that's right all of you! Praise me more!" Placing his hands on his waist, Gaitou raised his chin up proudly.
Standing back up while rubbing the belly in pain, Nill Bye said, "Alright... next—"
Nill Bye couldn't finish his words but freeze upon seeing something bizarre,
"...What is that?"
Raising an eyebrow at Nill Bye's sudden change in behaviour, Gaitou turned around along with others and raised their heads up. They then saw,
a long wooden pole protruding out of the thick layer of cloud above. At the bottom of the pole, a huge eye was blinking, staring right exactly at them. Then, the wooden pole shrunk, disappearing back into the cloud.
"Devil fruit," Gaitou's eyes sharpened as he mumbled, "Who's above there?"
They haven't come all the way to the New World for nothing. Honed by years of experience, they were sufficient fighters ready to face anything that was to come in their way. They knew that in this sea, there was a high likelihood of a fight arising; they were pirates after all, and pirates take whatever they see fit.
"Do Doriki test later! What's important now is," Gaitou shouted, "Whether those people are stronger than us or not!"
From the sky right above the pirate crew, a much smaller wooden ship, sitting on top of a cloud platform that began to descend slowly, was seen. The patch of sea next to the pirate crew's ship was shadowed by the wooden ship's appearance, and eventally, as said wooden ship landed on the body of water and the cloud platform disappeared with a puff,
"A... girl?"
the first thing that Gaitou came to see was a girl with long straight black hair, who seemed to be around 16 in terms of age. Said girl, Robin, was staring back at them dully, and one of the pirates couldn't help but gulp,
"C-Captain... she's cute!!!"
Gone was the cautiousness. Instead, there existed a vile excitement in them—especially Nill Bye, who was breathing rapidly with a vivid blush on his cheeks.
Senor Pink and Aramaki, who were ignored by the pirates, shrugged at each other. Then, they saw Nill Bye launching himself at Robin like an animal,
"C-Come to papa!!"
With a disgusted frown on her face, Robin kicked Nill Bye in the balls, causing all men to wince.
"K-Kekk..." Falling to the deck of the wooden ship and holding his leaking balls, Nill Bye said in the midst of his pain, "D-Doriki... 450..."
"Doriki?" Standing by the side was Rosinante, who seemed to have recognized the word, "Isn't that the unit that Cipher Pols use to measure their physical strength?"
"Measure... physical strength...?"
That's when Aramaki and Senor Pink turned, holding mischievous grins. Aramaki turned,
"Oiii, everyone!!! Come and test out this new toy!!!"
Bam! The door that leads to the inside of the wooden ship was slammed open the next moment, before Bastille and Maynard revealed their huge forms hurriedly,
"Toy?! What toy?!!"
"It better be fun, bastard!!"
Two of them seemed to be hungry for entertainment.
'W-Wait...'
And it was at this moment that Gaitou realized something, with his eyes locked onto Aramaki,
'Isn't he... Green Bull Aramaki...?'
His face paled up, knowing full well that they were screwed. However, with his form having gone rigid along with his crew members in fear, they couldn't dare to speak even one word.
'Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!'
"This fatso apparently measures, uh, Do... Dorara?"
"Doriki you mean," Rosinante corrected Aramaki.
"Ah right, Doriki I mean."
Bastille and Maynard grinned knowingly in return,
"Ohh, Doriki!!"
"Damn, I've always wanted to do this! Those Cipher Pol assholes, how come only they get to test out their strength?!"
"...450 only..." On the other hand, Robin stared at her hand in a blank expression. However, those who've known her for a while would've recognized right away that she was disappointed.
And that wasn't the end.
"What's with all this ruckus? Hina can't sleep," Then revealed a pink-haired lady, Hina. All pirates' eyes immediately shifted at her in awe, momentarily forgetting the fear in them, and Hina, noticing the eyes on her, snorted, "Do you want Hina to pluck out your eyes?"
All pirates immediately diverted their eyes to the side.
Aramaki then asked Hina, "What about Drake and Smoker-san?"
Hina simply pointed her thumb at the back, just as the two of them revealed themselves from the opened door. And it was at this moment that Gaitou, Nill Bye, and all crew members' hearts stopped.
'White Hunter' Smoker. There was no one in this sea who wouldn't recognize his face.
'I-I should've realized it when the ship was floating on the cloud...' Gaitou's eyes trembled, but there was nothing he could do but wait for his fate in despair.
"This better be worthwhile," Grumbled X Drake, being unaware of the pirates' despair.
Smoker, on the other hand, seemed to have woken up just now. Staring at the blank space, he blinked his eyes before looking around,
"I lowered us back to the sea after you guys told me to do so, and... where are we now?"
"We got no idea, but," Senor Pink answered, pointing at the pirate crew, "they do."
"Huh."
Walking up to the still-fallen Nill Bye, Aramaki lifted the obese man by the hair, not bothered by the pain that the former was in. He then stated,
"We think about that later! For now, let's measure Doriki! One by one, everyone gets to punch this dude once!"
Hina revealed a dark smile at that, "Now that sounds quite interesting."
"Me first!!" Maynard immediately began moving, however, was quickly stopped by Bastille, who said,
"Weaklings go first. We have to make sure that the fatso stays awake," Bastille turned to X Drake by Smoker's side and said, "Oi, Drake, you first-dara."
"What?!" X Drake grew a tickmark on his forehead, "If anything, you should go first... urghh, FINE!!! I'll instead show you that I'm stronger than you!!"
Walking up to where Nill Bye stood, X Drake rolled his right shoulder before slamming his fist right into the former's stomach. Nill Bye groaned with his eyes closed tight, and his mouth automatically spoke,
"Doriki... 810..."
X Drake muttered, "Is that good or bad?"
Aramaki shrugged, "You beat Robin at least. She got 450."
X Drake turned around and saw a black cloud raining down above Robin who was staring down to the deck. Taking a seat next to Robin, Smoker reached for his pocket and took out a small notebook. Flipping through the pages, he said,
"I think I recognize you."
Gaitou knew right away that Smoker was talking to him. He couldn't breathe properly as the infamous White Hunter's attention was locked on him,
"Ah yes, there it is. 'Big Worm' Gaitou, the known fan of Kaidou of the 'Beast', and has received a substantial bounty because of the incident in the Dartleg, a town in the West Blue—right," Smoker then frowned in a vivid rage as he stopped flipping through the pages, and Gaitou unconsciously shivered, "You are that guy who decapitated the heads of all the civilians in the island and displayed them by plucking them on the metal sticks."
...
"Do... Doriki... huff... huff... 2,100!"
"Above 2,000... very manly," Said Senor Pink, liking his measurement. Rosinante then stepped up and punched with a sigh,
"Kurgh... Doriki... 2,020..."
Rosinante scratched his head, not caring much about the number. Just after he stepped back, Maynard then stepped in with a laugh,
"Hahaha! I was a Vice Admiral before you know!"
As he punched, the response from Nill Bye was evidently different. His eyes became bloodshot, and a trickle of blood came down from his lips. In a shaky tone, he muttered in a hoarse voice out of instinct, "Do... riki... 4,500..."
"Heh—!" Maynard turned around and snickered at Bastille, who seemed to be in a confidence of his own.
"Oh, you have no idea-dara," Bastille stepped up and tightened his fist. Then, the atmosphere around him changed, and then—
—PUK!
"Bwarghh..." Nill Bye vomited blood, and his breathing stopped momentarily. After his body's function returned, he whispered, "8,200..."
"WHAAAATTTTT?!!!" Maynard screamed, and Bastille laughed,
"Seems like someone wasted his past 4 years, daradaradara!!"
"Hina isn't as strong as Bastille in physical strength," Hina stepped up this time around, and punched as Maynard and Bastille began arguing against one another,
PUK.
Nill Bye's vision was spinning at this point. It seems that all functions have shut down in his brain except for one: the ability to measure Doriki.
"5,600..."
"Alright!!" Aramaki then pointed at his hand that was holding onto Nill Bye's hair, "Oi, Drake! Come hold this dude so that I can test out mine!"
Drake grumbled to himself but nonetheless complied. As he took hold of Nill Bye, Aramaki grinned as he clenched his fist. From his arms, the vines began to grow and reinforce—
""NO CHEATING!!!""
—before they had to retract back as Bastille and Maynard roared at him. Aramaki clicked his tongue, "Tch, fine."
Then, without any hesitation, Aramaki proceeded to punch Nill Bye,
BOOM.
Nill Bye's eyes whitened out. The wound on his stomach was vivid, bleeding profusely as his entire body trembled in pain. At last, his mouth opened, and words came out,
"...10,430..."
'Five digits...?!' Gaitou couldn't help but think how such a number was possible.
Tsss...
And then, Smoker who was watching the scene, spread out the black smoke that encased the blood on the deck of the ship and evaporated it, filling the air with the metallic scent of it. Smoker then stood up as all his friends' eyes turned to look at him,
"Is it my turn?" With an impassive expression on his face, Smoker casually approached Nill Bye. After briefly gazing at the obese pirate in a cold manner, Smoker then blasted a punch at the latter's wounded stomach,
BOOOOM!
The tensile hair that Drake was holding onto was ripped off, and Nill Bye was blasted away to the sky. The pirates watched in shock at what just happened, and with Nill Bye gone from sight, Smoker asked,
"So, what's my Doriki?"
Snickering by the side Hina replied,
"0."