Steve's POV
"What the hell, Nami? You're the reason we're late! You pulled us down the slope!" I yelled, angry at her attitude.
"It's better that only you two fell than all of us," Nami answered without hesitation.
"You were the one who should've fallen in the first place," Zoro said, joining the argument.
Luffy was arguing with Usopp about directions when the pirates started to get up from our previous attack. "We can argue about everything later. We need to pay attention; the enemy is getting up," I pointed out.
The man with the glasses pulled out some kind of pendulum and began doing something to his men. "He's using hypnotism to make them stronger," Nami said.
What an absurd idea, using made-up magic in a fight.
On his count, the men were overcome with a violent bloodlust and grew stronger. "No way!" Usopp screamed, shocked at how the man had successfully powered up his men. One of the newly strengthened pirates punched the cliffside and made it crumble into rubble.
"Holy crap!" I was stunned. They really grew stronger; they went from barely able to stand to being able to crush rock with their bare fists.
"Just how much stronger are they?" Zoro asked. "You two, get out of here. Leave this to us."
Nami and Usopp ran off to the top of the slope to hide, leaving Zoro, Luffy, and me to fight the hypnotized men.
"Hey, Luffy, listen, don't do anything stupid, okay... Luffy?" It wasn't like Luffy to ignore me. I looked over and had to struggle not to go over there and pummel that dope myself when he let out a loud scream.
"You got hypnotized too!" All of us were surprised at just how stupid Luffy was to have gotten hypnotized. That would never happen to me... well, except the time from before when it did.
Luffy ran forward, screaming and throwing his fists around wildly. "Luffy, wait!" I yelled after him, but he wasn't paying me any mind. He just kept running and knocking pirates out left and right with a move I wasn't too familiar with.
"Gum-Gum Gatling!" Luffy took out most of the men but kept running forward and collided with the enemy ship. He then gripped the front and tore it clear off the hull.
I wasn't sure whether to be happy like Nami and Usopp or nervous like Zoro. If he does stop these guys, how are we supposed to calm him down? I don't know if Zoro and I can take him on when he's like this.
"When I say 'One, Two, Jango,' you'll fall asleep," the hypnotist rushed through his command. "ONE, TWO, JANGO!"
Luffy lost all his newfound rage and passed out with the bow of the ship landing on top of him.
"I think they're finished," Nami said.
"Aren't you worried he's being crushed by that ship?" Usopp asked, worried.
I realized that he probably didn't know about Luffy's power, so he didn't understand that he would be just fine. "He'll be fine. That won't kill Luffy," I reassured my long-nosed friend.
"Hey, we're not done yet. Something's coming," Zoro told me.
I looked back toward the battlefield; the fallen pirates were laughing, saying, "Get ready to die. You can't stand up to Captain Jango's secret weapon."
"What's gonna come out now?" Zoro asked.
"Whatever it is, it won't be good," I responded. "But I'm sure we can take it."
Jango summoned his last resort, throwing his hands into the air and yelling, "Come out, Nyaban Brothers!" Two figures jumped down from the ship and landed at Jango's side.
The two men were pretty strange-looking. One was short and skinny with green hair, and the other was a large, fat man with a bell around his neck.
"These idiots are blocking our way. Buchi, Sham, I want you to take them out," Jango commanded the two brothers.
"We can't beat them," the shorter one pointed out.
"Yeah, they look really strong," the fat one added.
"Are they really weak?" Usopp said.
"I don't know, Usopp," I spoke. "The men on the ground said we should be afraid, so I thought they would pose some kind of threat. Also, look at the fat one."
"What do you mean?" Nami asked.
"He's got scars. Scars I'd wager he got in fights. They're dangerous; they're just bluffing to try and fool us," I explained. "They want us to think they're weak so they can catch us off guard. Don't hesitate to cut them down, Zoro."
The short one did some half-assed run toward us, flailing his arms around as he ran. He picked up speed as he got closer and made his move at Zoro. "Gotcha." He reached to attack Zoro, only to get easily blocked. "How did you know? Why were you prepared for my attack?"
"What a childish trick. You really thought you could fool me?" I was insulted that they had thought I was so stupid. "That was a pathetic attempt at misdirection."
"It was still worth it," Sham said, jumping back as I swiped my whip at him.
What's he talking about?
"Zoro, your swords are gone!" Nami yelled.
Zoro looked down, and sure enough, two of his three swords were missing.
"You may have seen through my ruse, but you still underestimated me," he laughed.
"Dammit, Zoro, you should've been more careful," I said in an upset tone. The advantage we had gained by seeing through the trick was lost since they still succeeded in the attack by taking Zoro's swords.
"Sorry. I was more focused on blocking the attack than protecting my swords. That was my fault. A true swordsman would treat his blades like an extension of his body and never let harm come to them."
Zoro was upset with himself for being too weak. He demanded the cat man return his swords, but of course, was swiftly denied. Sham took the katanas off his back and threw them down the hill, further pissing off Zoro and myself as well.
"How dare you treat someone else's property with such disrespect," I charged and swung my whip through the man, making contact. That felt light... I kept up my run so that I could get the swords back to Zoro.
"Did you think you hit me?"
What the?
I felt pressure on my back as I turned and saw the man I just slammed riding on me. "You're a slippery one, aren't you?" I smirked. "Lucky for me, I have a very thin waist. Buchi, it's your turn."
So that's why the blow was lighter. I must have only hit his clothes and not his body.
I saw that the fat cat was dropping like a meteor to crush me. "ZORO, A LITTLE HELP!" I yelled.
"Catapult!" I looked up and saw that Buchi was falling rapidly right at my head. I felt a breeze and realized I was moving. "Get out of the way!" I felt something tackle me to the ground. Upon colliding with the ground, I looked around and saw Zoro was holding me down.
"Made it," he said, gasping for air. He ran from the top of the hill and tackled me out of the way.
"Thanks."
"No problem, but next time, make sure you hit him."
"This time, you won't get away!" The brothers charged at us, and Zoro and I readied our weapons. "I'm not used to one sword style, but I'll have to make do." The two cat men attacked us with a flurry of scratching attacks. Zoro and I were doing our best to block them, but he only had one sword, and whips aren't really meant to be used to block quick strikes like theirs.
Then, I heard Usopp and Nami start talking. "They can't counterattack like this. They need us to create an opening," Usopp spoke.
No, you idiot, don't!
"Special Attack: Lead Star!" Usopp fired off a bullet directly at the larger target, Buchi, whom Zoro was holding off. Zoro, seeing the incoming attack, rolled his body to take the shot himself, allowing Buchi and Sham, who had leapt away from me, to slash him open.
Nami yelled at Usopp for shooting Zoro. "But I didn't! He moved into the line of fire on his own. He took that shot on purpose."
"Usopp, you idiot!" I yelled as I used my whips to pull Zoro away from harm before sliding back in and wrapping them around the thinner guy to throw him into the cliffside. "You wanna die?"
I had barely recovered from my last attack when the brothers charged back in.
"I just need one more sword," Zoro remarked. "If I had just one more, I could finish them easily."
I looked around. The swords were too far away, but if I tried to get them, I would get shredded running to them, or Zoro would get double-teamed when I left. We just need an opening...
Nami suddenly entered my field of vision. She was attempting to get Zoro his swords when she was cut down by Jango's disc. "Nami!" I was worried. That was a serious wound. Wait? I let my guard down; why wasn't I just ripped apart by those two...?
I saw that both brothers had suddenly stopped attacking and were standing there, trembling.
"It's getting late, Jango. Care to explain what the hell is going on?!" I recognized the voice as Kuro's, but I had more important things on my mind.
I had my opening; they were distracted. "You should pay better attention when you're in a fight," I threw my whips back and twisted them together in the air. "Whip Jetstream!" My whips untangled in the air and slammed into a surprised Sham, sending him flying into the cliffside.
"I didn't expect you to be held up by a bunch of kids. You're in a truly sorry state, Jango. The rest of you look even more pathetic. I don't want any more excuses!" Kuro yelled at his crew.
A couple of random underlings attempted to attack him for insulting them, but as soon as they took a swing at him, he disappeared. He reappeared behind the men, wearing two gloves that had a blade attached to the end of each finger. He quickly cut down the men who attacked him and looked at the rest.
How did he pull off that disappearing act? It was like he teleported! Can someone really be that fast?
The men were explaining that it was his Silent Step, a technique in which he quickly moved a great distance without making a noise. That's a powerful technique.
"If the rest of you don't end this in five minutes, I'll kill everyone here," Kuro said, laying out his ultimatum.
"We can do it! We can kill those two in five minutes!" The crew was getting excited again, wanting to protect their lives.
"Zoro, here!" Nami yelled, running up and kicking his swords to us.
"Hey, don't kick my swords!"
"I'll kill you in five seconds and avenge my brother," Buchi said, running at me and Zoro.
Zoro looked at me. "You know there is a difference between using three swords and using Three Sword Style." He placed his sword in his mouth. "Tiger Trap!" Zoro slashed forward and took out Buchi in one move.
"No need to worry," I looked to Kuro and twirled the handle of one of my whips in my hand. "We'll be finished in less than five minutes."
"No way!" I looked over to see what had Zoro so surprised, and I saw that Buchi was still standing. "That damn blubber must have protected him."
The cat begged Jango to hypnotize him, saying that he just needed a little more to finish Zoro and me off. Jango obliged and gave the man a boost.
"This is bad. You saw how he crushed the ground before; he was already freakishly strong. Who knows what'll happen now," I said.
I saw Nami making her way toward the beached ship, attempting to wake Luffy when Jango threw his pendulum at her. She didn't see it; that thing would cut her head off.
"Nami, duck!" I yelled so she would get out of the way.
"Why would you step on my face?!" Luffy yelled, sitting up from his nap and taking the disc to the back of the head. Everyone else got worried that Luffy was killed by the attack, but I was confident he was okay.
"He woke up at just the right time," I reassured. "He saved Nami, and now he can help us fight. Come on, Luffy, nap time is over!"