One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Fifty One [Rewritten]

-Chapter Fifty-One-

"Well, I can only assume that this means that it's my turn to show you what I can do—don't worry, I don't plan on using any party tricks" I said, taking an offensive stance.

"Is that so?" Miss Doublefinger chuckled. "Well good, it was beginning to get old" she grinned before rushing right at me as I blocked the attack she sent my way. For a while, I stayed on the defense, opting to just dodge and block her attacks until I was finally able to spot an opening. Seizing the opportunity, I lunged...only to have her start dodging my attacks as well. It didn't take long for me to revert back to defending myself when she started to lash out once more.

"Only going to defend yourself? What a shame" she mocked.

"There's nothing wrong with being on the defense—especially when your opponent has such harsh offensive attacks" I defensively bit back, suddenly reminded of a certain memory.

"Come on, there's nothing wrong with defending yourself. If anything, it helps in giving you time to come up with a good strategy while in a tough situation, even if said strategy is just running away."

"I don't know, Cloud, I feel like playing the defense can also be kind of dangerous in its own way. Besides, the older boys in town say that playing defense all the time is something only a weak person does?"

"Like those dumbasses know anything—playing it safe doesn't make you weak, it makes you smart. What's more important? Proving your strength or keeping your life?"

"Well...I mean...I don't really—"

"Don't answer that."

"Don't get too distracted now, you might lose your life!" Miss Doublefinger sneered as she lashed out.

'Shit! Now's not the time to be reminiscing' I flinched as I tried to dodge the spike that just barely graze my neck instead of piercing right through it. Jumping away, I quickly shook my head as I tried my best to clear my mind before finally finding a decent enough opening that allowed me to take the chance to go and hide with Nami instead of charging headfirst and risking getting myself killed due to my hazy mind. My thoughts were too jumbled at the moment, it'd be dangerous to keep fighting.

"We need a plan, now" I gasped out as I flopped down beside the ginger, wiping away the thin blood trail that now ran down the length of my neck.

"I'm trying..." Nami muttered, harshly waving at me as she busied herself with examining that piece of paper from earlier. "What's this...?" she quietly asked, curiously tilting of her head.

"What? Going to bore her to death with more of your party tricks?" I sarcastically asked.

"Now's not the time for your sass, missy!" she irritably snapped.

"Now's not the time for your party tricks, woman!" I snapped right back.

"So I'm going to kill you both now, okay" Miss Doublefinger suddenly said from above.

"How is she doing that?" Nami gasped the moment we glanced upward and spotted the woman stuck to the underside of the stone bridge above us.

"My question is why?" I asked. "We already knew she was here so there wasn't any point in trying to sneak up on us" I sweat dropped before flinching when she suddenly released her feet from the stone bridge and curled her body up into a ball of spikes.

"Shit!" Nami and I cursed, jumping out of the way and letting the barrels we had been hiding behind take the impact of her attack.

"Too close" Nami whimpered. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa—wait! Hold on!" she frantically cried, holding her hands up in defense the second the woman started to spin her body around in circles. Snatching up my wrist, she started to run as the spinning woman finally came barreling towards us at full speed. "I said hold on! Just a minute—can't you give a girl a minute?!