One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Four [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four-

"Yes, we're alright" Robin assured the doctor.

"What the heck happened out there?" Luffy frowned.

"I'd like to know the same thing" Nami said, dumbfounded by the sudden loss she and the others had suffered.

"We all like to know what happened—did we lose somehow?" Usopp asked, at a loss just like the rest on what had happened there near the end.

"Looked like you were going to win, but then you suddenly slowed down and they passed you" Luffy answered, telling them what he had seen as I gently patted the sulking sharpshooter's back in an attempt to comfort him.

"Slowed down? That's strange—why would you guys slow down?" I frowned, confused by this sudden revelation. "Did you hit something?" I asked, trying to reason why they would suddenly slow down there near the end despite being so close to the finish line.

"There's nothing strange about that, it was caused by my Slowmo Photon!" Foxy suddenly and proudly boasted.

"Hey! What did you do to Nami's team, you smug bastard?!" Sanji growled.

"What's a Slowmo Photon?" Luffy curiously asked.

"They are particles unlike any other in modern science, whatever this light touches—be it an animal, a liquid, or even a gas—loses a fixed amount of its velocity" Foxy explained, his hand no glowing a light pink. "While simultaneously retaining all its energy" he added.

"You're dumb, that makes no sense at all" Luffy frowned.

"Nice insult there, captain" I sweat dropped as I couldn't tell if the captain's insult was because he was mad at the other captain for making our team lose or because he truly didn't understand what the man was saying.

"He just insults me..." Foxy sulks, dropping to his hands and knees in a fit of depression.

"Ah! Sir, are you okay?!" Porche worriedly asked, quick to rush to her captain's side.

"No way, something that ridiculous is..." Nami mumbled in disbelief.

"Impossible? Is that what you're thinking?" Foxy asked, quick to pick himself back up as his smug posture came right back as if it had never left to begin with. "Surely you know that such a naïve, childish claim has no meaning out here on these waters" he said. "Everything it touches slows down—that's the power of Slowmo Photon!" he boasted.

"Now that makes sense, why didn't you say that before?" Luffy huffed.

"He did" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"After I ate the Slow Slow Fruit, I became a slow-motion man capable of producing these particles from my body—observe" Foxy said as a cannonball was shot straight at him. Lifting his hand, a pink light shot out and enveloped the cannonball—instantly slowing its speed to that of a snail's pace.

"Ah! A floating cannonball!" Usopp screamed in shock.

"The Slow Slow Beam!" Foxy laughed. "The effects last approximately thirty seconds, in which the object will regain its energy speed as if nothing ever happened" he grinned. "Can't believe your eyes, I take it—" he was cut off by the cannonball finally touching the tip of his nose and exploding on impact.

"Boss! Oh no!" Porche worriedly cried.

"I get it, so that's why we didn't win the race" Usopp realized.

"Kind of a cheap tactic, don't you think?" I asked, scratching the back of my head.

"It also explains why they're so confident about the games" Sanji said as he finally understood where the other crew's confidence suddenly came from. "What a joke of a Devil Fruit power" he scoffed.