The Jungle Part 8

The Jungle Part 8

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Awkwardly, I gave my arms a slight stretch backwards, cringing at the small twinge of pain it sent through my sternum. I was healing pretty well and at what I felt was a surprising pace given the seriousness of the wound.

The boards of the dock creaked a bit as I stepped onto them, following after my momma towards the Patch.

A small cringe crossed my face as there was a thrum of pain in my sternum, the length of the wound was still stitched like all hell, and it stretched from the hollow of my throat down to between my hip bones. My skin had mostly sealed up, and so had the damage to my internal organs… while I totally understood my skin and sternum fixing, and most of the damage to my intestines given that I'd gotten immediate medical attention… the damage to my musculature and to stuff like my diaphragm was healing as well, almost entirely healed really.

The doctors hadn't been horribly surprised by it, neither had Ami, though I personally found my rate of recovery from that serious of a wound weird.

"Jacob?"

I stopped and turned around, finding the three girls at the edge of the dock, "Ah?"

Ami, Makoto and Rei had all come to see me off now that I was healed up enough. Ami was in a simple white blouse and long yellow skirt, Makoto in pants and a t-shirt, and Rei in her normal miko's outfit. Captain Billy had been understanding of my injury, but we needed to get back out there otherwise we'd miss out on the trading event that was happening. It hadn't even been a month yet since I'd been injured and we were heading back out.

Ami's mouth worked silently for a moment, her hands clenching at her waist in front of her. She'd visited me pretty much every day even after her mother's visit, it'd been nice to just have time to talk with her without the pressure of having to leave soon…

Makoto was the one to speak, her arms crossed across her chest as she glared sullenly, "Do you have to go?"

I smiled a bit sadly. We'd talked about piracy as well. What it was like for both of us on either side of the jolly rodger. Her tale of the pirate attack… of the viciousness of those assholes… It'd been a reaffirmation of my choice to avoid killing unless I absolutely had to. But... even if it'd been indoctrinated into me or not... family... crew... nakama... came first. "Yeah, they're family."

Suddenly, Ami nearly threw herself across the half dozen feet that separated us, and despite reflexively bracing myself was nearly bowled over by the larger girl as she tackled me, clinging tightly to me as she cried into my simple T-shirt.

I hissed in pain, because not fully healed yet damnit-! "A-Ami-!"

"Sorry!" Her head popped up as her grip loosened some and I sighed in relief at the easing of the pressure on my wound. But her arms tightened around me, more carefully this time as she buried her face against my shoulder, softly getting out, "I don't want you to go..."

While the sudden hug was awkward, I still wrapped my arms around her and rubbed small circles against her back, "Hey… I'll be back…"

"Still don't want you to go…" she said softly, muffled against my shoulder as her arms tightening around me again.

In the moments that I searched for something to respond to that with tactfully, there was a wolf-whistle from the Patch, making my head jerk around to find a few of the crew members at the railing. Barley, the tall, skinny blond cupped his hands around his mouth and shouting out, "You go heartbreaker!"

I twitched even as I felt Ami's face heat up against my shoulder, able to see Makoto's cheeks turn pink out of my peripheral vision.

Deliberately, I raised a hand to place it over Ami's ear facing my head as I shouted, "Go fuck yourself with a rusty cannonball Barley!"

There was laughter from the crew even as I blushed a bit in embarrassment for the girls and a bit for myself as well. I turned back towards them, "Sorry, they're… crude."

"They're your family…?" Makoto asked even as she walked a bit closer, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, can't really choose your family, and they're not that bad most of the time," a small smirk crossed my face and I jerked my head towards Makoto's 'sister', "Though you're one to talk, miss 'watch out for her'."

'… okay, I'm sure I saw Rei smirk a bit at that.' Makoto frowned, looking away as her arms tightened against her chest.

Rei stepped closer and reached out, placing a hand on Ami's shoulder, "We have to let him leave."

Ami made an unhappy sound and gave me another squeeze, making me cringe just a bit at the pressure it applied to my chest. But she loosened her grip and stepped back, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders as she held me out at arm's length, my own hands resting on her forearms as I gave her my best reassuring smile up at the taller girl, her eyes rimmed with red.

She frowned just a bit, "Just… be safe. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." I said honestly, giving her forearms a squeeze, "And you be safe too, ya hear? I can only take so many axes to the chest saving you."

Her smile in return was weak, but honest. The blue haired ten-year-old took a few steps back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. My chest ached a bit for her, our partings were usually less terribly emotional than this, just smiles and hugs and 'see you later'… but… well… this was the longest I'd been here ever and… well… I had helped save her.

Makoto took a step closer, looking torn between our usual hug or trying something else. So I gave my best cheesy grin and held my arms out and said in a deliberately small squeak, "Don't crush me?"

She snorted, looking a way for a moment before shaking her head and stepping close, basically picking my runt ass up with her hug, and I let out an exaggerated little, "Ack-!" even as I hugged her back. It did hurt a bit, but I considered the pain worth making her feel at least a bit better. I knew she'd regret it if she didn't.

"Don't become like them…" she whispered as she hugged me tight, her chin resting on my shoulder, "Please…"

"Gonna do my best," I said just as softly, knowing full well that she wasn't talking about being crass.

After a moment, she set me down, and I smiled up at my friend. She gave me a smile in return before getting out of the way.

Taking a moment, I turned towards Rei, holding my arms out again. This was actually the first time Rei had come to see me off… so I guess she was my friend? Heh. I gave her a cheesily big grin, "Eh?"

"You truly are a brute." Rei said without the slightest change in her expression.

"Tcheheh," I couldn't help but smile, having expected such as that given she actually was nobility, "Fair enough."

But as I started to lower my arms, she actually stepped forward and gave a small smile, "But you are a brute with honor and at least some understanding of elegance." To the surprise of not just me, but both Ami and Makoto, the black haired girl reached out and pulled me into a light hug, her arms wrapping around my shoulders.

"Ah…?" I blinked in surprise a few times, my arms hanging out for just a second before I loosely wrapped them around her. I… what had I done to earn this…? I was actually kinda confused. Though admittedly I was glad she was only a head taller than me as contrasted to Ami's half a head and Makoto's nearly two heads. Otherwise this kind of hug would be a lot more awkward given my mental age even without the appropriate hormones.

"Do be safe out there," she said softly before pulling away.

"I'll do my best," I said softly, still sorta surprised by the hug.

A wolf whistle broke me from my stupor and I scowled before spinning and shouting, "Go suck a dick!"

My momma giggled, covering her mouth with her hand even as I blushed in spite of myself, she reached out and put a hand atop my head, "Come on my little prince, we have to go."

I pouted with all the elegance available to me, which is to say none, "Yes momma."

'They are so getting something in their meals for this.'

---​

This was surprisingly soothing. The sounds of the jungle. Beasts and monsters and birds and probably a bunch of horrible things out there beyond the light of the fire.

Wallace gave a little yawn, sitting on his log beside Claude as I lay on the other log we'd dragged beside the fire. I was prepping to go to sleep while Claude kept watch, I had the last shift until morning. In my past life I'd been far more of a night owl, but in this one I'd ended up far, far more an early bird just from sheer habit. You woke up with the first light damnit. There were chores to do.

But there was the fire. And they didn't approach.

Why? Eh. Not sure, probably not wanting to try too hard. The gorilla-ess hadn't come back by.

Suddenly I stiffened at a completely out of place spike of unease. The fuck had set my Observation Haki off-?!

The jungle had gone silent.

"… Wallace. Draw your sword."

He was instantly alert, "What is it?"

Slowly, I sat up, "The jungle went silent."

While Wallace slowly drew his claymore, Claude drew a pistol and got between the two of us, crouching by the fire–

"Ooh! Ooh!"

I had a gun in my hand in an instant and turned to see… huh… that's a lot of gorilla's. Looks to be about… two dozen? More than I expected.

"Nice hairdo." I commented, looking at the silverback that had hooted at us, at the head of a… quite a few gorillas, all coming out of the foliage around the clearing, stepping into the firelight. The lead silverback gorilla had this amazing pompadour hairstyle that extended a full three feet in front of his forehead, and he honestly looked like a greaser with that black leather jacket that had the forearms ripped to allow for his larger forearms (Never ask how they got it on in the first place)… in hilarious contrast to the gorilla-ess from before standing beside him in her miniskirt and bow.

Said lady gorilla pointed at me and then let out a little hoot, obviously talking with the silverback.

Greeeaaaaat.

There was an angry roar from the silverback, then some pointing and hip thrusts and some more pointing, and some vulgar motions with his hands. Yeah, I got it. I scowled, what do we do here?

I was reasonably sure I could take them on, the problem was that I was a precision fighter and lacked any real area of effect attacks appropriate to this fight. If I'd been by myself, it wouldn't have been a big deal… and while Wallace could take care of himself just fine, Claude though… I didn't want to bet on him in this kind of fight.

Could I open with a serious horizontal Rankyaku–?

There was a thump beside me though and I blinked, turning to find Wallace standing, his claymore stabbed into the dirt, "… Waaaallace… what're you doin'?"

"They may be beasts, but they understand honor! Don't you?" he pressed as he walked towards the Silverback. To my mild surprise, when Wallace jerked his chin up at the Silverback, the Silverback responded in kind.

"You want to hit him don't you?" he questioned, jerking a thumb at me.

The Silverback hooted and nodded, bouncing on his knuckles.

"Then let's settle this for them!" He thumped his chest as he shouted, "You and me, no one else! We will fight on their behalf!"

With a hoot and holler and screams from the entire group, the Silverback walked forward to meet Wallace who… took off his shirt.

I resisted the urge to facepalm. Barely. But I did.

"Ach! Put 'em up!" Wallace raised his fists in an old boxing stance, just with more beard and less mustache and just a fucking lattice of scars along his front, a few where he'd been run through peeking out on the skin of his back.

"Ooh! Ooh!" the 50's styled gorilla slammed its palms on the loamy ground, making the two logs that we'd dragged around our fire jump. And Wallace had a brief look on his face of regret.

The gorillas came out of the tree line to form a rough half circle on the Silverback's side while Claude and I balanced out the other side… sort of.

The Silverback pounded on his chest twice before roaring, getting cheers from his gorillas.

Wallace recoiled slightly before taking a breath and roaring right back, slapping his bare, heavily scarred belly.

"Wooooo!" I shot a glance at Claude, who looked over at me, "… what?"

With another roar, spittle flying, the Silverback slammed his palms onto the ground, leaving serious indentations in the grass and dirt, making all of us spectators rise an inch off the ground with each slam. The miniskirt wearing gorilla-ess swooned slightly, as well as a few of the other gorillas.

Bristling, Wallace beat his heavily scarred chest like a drum before raising his fists over his head and shouting out, "For glooorrryyyyy!" To my less than mild surprise, even more of the gorilla's swooned at that as Wallace charged, the silverback surged forward to meet him.

I set my finger on the outside of the trigger-guard of my revolver, warily watching as the two slammed into each other like freight trains, trading blows.

Now, if this had been my first life, I'd think Wallace might have a win ready given a punching contest.

But, y'know, in my first life the odds of a vaguely Scottish man that stood nearly seven feet tall with a broad chest that was little more than a network of scars probably wouldn't be getting into a fistfight with an even bigger silverback gorilla with 'do' that jutted a couple feet from his forehead and a leather jacket as his troop cheered him on. So… odds?

Leaning towards Wallace here. The gorilla was stronger, but Wallace was faster… and Wallace was meaner.

The two slugged each other again and again, little in the way of technique or skill or even defense.

And Wallace gave about as many fucks about pain as Goku did about physics.

The silverback slugged Wallace across his bearded jaw, making the kilted man's knee buckle as his foot sunk several inches into the ground as blood flew from his split lip.

At least while in battle…

With a snarl and an incoherent roar, Wallace surged back up, his fist flying into the Silverback's jaw from below in a blow that sounded like a canon shot, lifting the gorilla several feet off the ground.

For Wallace…

Wordlessly, he roared more like a beast than a man and surged forward, his fists turning the gorillas head first one way then the other with the force of the blows. The silverback's hair bounced around horribly until it almost desperately backhanded Wallace across the face, blood flying and I cringed slightly at the obviously broken nose that could be seen in the brief profile we got of Wallaces face.

Was a berserker.

He caught the silverbacks wrist before he could pull back and used that to pull the gorilla onto his other fist with a wordless snarl. Once, twice, three times he hit the silverback right in the face before grabbing the silverback's shoulders and plunging his head forward, headbutting the gorilla so hard that his pompadour hairstyle… shot out the back of his head…?

... the fuck…?

Ohhhhh, he'd headbutted the silverback and the shockwave had actually made the long, heavily gelled hair blast backwards and both luck and happenstance meant that it'd ended up in the same ridiculous cigar-like shape, going off the back of his head rather than his forehead.

The lead gorilla staggered and Wallace let go of his wrist before bringing his fists down together on the silverback's shoulders in a dual hammerblow that made the silverback's feet sink several inches into the dirt.

"Rrrraaaagggghhh!" But Wallace was done, his fist reared back before he practically threw it forward, putting all of his weight behind the blow as his knuckles distorted the silverback's face. And then the gorilla was blasted back, slamming into one of the trees and cracking it in half.

The gang of gorillas stared in silence, and even I had to nod in satisfaction. So long as the other gorillas held to the deal, that wasn't half bad. He took way more damage than I was happy with, but not half bad.

Still, I warily held the gun in my hand as Wallace roared at the prone form of the silverback before beating his chest… and some of the gorilla's swooned. Huh.

Claude cheered as the other gorillas grabbed their boss and scurried off into the jungle once more, the bearded Wallace roaring at their backs as they ran.

Sighing in a bit of relief, I walked over towards Wallace, holstering my gun, "Wallace?"

The seven foot tall man spun around to roar in my face, eyes still wild as blood leaked from a split lip as well as his broken nose, "RRrrraaaagh!"

I rolled my eyes before flicking him in the forehead, startling him, "Yes yes, rawr. Now ease up enough so we can at least try to get your nose straightened.

"Huh…?" he asked dully, blinking slowly.

Rolling my eyes, I reached up with both of my hands to grab his nose and with a quick little motion, jerked it into place with a snap.

"Yyyyyeowch!"

"Now let's get you cleaned up. You did good."

"I-I did…?" he said with a measure of hope and surprise before he straightened himself out and planted his fists on his hips, puffing his chest out, "I-I mean of course I did!"

Giving my head a small shake, I smiled at him, "Of course. Now come on, we don't want the smell of blood to draw anything else if we can help it."

His eyes widened as he paled, "… shit, right."

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The Jungle Part 8