Screw It, I'm Going Out to Find It!

Chapter XXVI: Party's Over

Blake parried a slash of air coming from a dial. Leaning to the side, she swept her leg under the DJ, tripping him. The attacks of these DJs were fickle to dodge, but her semblance made it easier. While she couldn't keep up something like that forever, it helped with the few moments it mattered most.

Gambol Shroud shimmered like a dark fang in the light, cutting across the white outfits of the DJs. One by one, they fell, and she didn't glance back to see if they got back up. Sun had her back, and she needed to make it to the guy behind the DJ stand.

Ohm kept firing the cloud discs, sometimes spinning them before launching them. Cardin had begun as his primary target until Ohm grew frustrated with the boy's tanky nature. However, trying to hit Blake and Sun proved much more difficult due to their agile nature.

They had been making headway until they reached only some yards from the DJ stand. Ohm spun one of the records and a burst of sound propelled from the speakers behind him. Sun toppled over, Blake barely caught herself, and Cardin just managed to dig his feet into the ground enough to stay standing straight. Even many of their enemies failed to keep their balance.

"They're angled perfectly around me," Ohm gloated. "Enough sound dials to pack a punch."

Blake barely managed to react this time as a disc whirled past her, just barely missing. "Pretty good reflexes, cool cat," Ohm joked.

Blake narrowed her eyes. "Really?" Sun commented for her. "First, you annoy everyone with your music, then you say things like that?"

Ohm raised an eyebrow above his glasses. "What? Don't you know: everybody wants to be a cat."

***

"Oh no!" Ruby cried, blocking an attack with her scythe. "He's singing scat!"

"Ski-bi dibby yo da dub dub!" Hotori yelled as he launched another attack.

Bit by bit, they were getting worn down, and Ren was tired. His movements were growing sluggish by the minute against Kotori. His blades were missing their marks and any of his shots went wide due to Kotori's surprising agility. Despite them being so large and spherical, they moved with a deceptive speed. Not to mention this mantra of theirs.

Satori had mentioned it, but these two confirmed it. Whatever mantra was exactly, it seemed to be some sort of ability that let them predict movements. At one point, Kotori had fun messing with Ren by simply calling out the direction Ren was attacking from, only to sway out of the way far before the strike came.

Slowly, he was getting pressed back. He could tell that it was some sort of messed up game for Kotori. Ren was pushed from the ship step by step until his back hit a tree. Kotori wound his hand up, angling the palm to Ren's face. Then, for some reason, Kotori hesitated looking to his right. A splash of water came from nowhere.

It looked almost like a fluid fist soaring into Kotori's face. While it only made him stumble, that was enough for Ren to slip out of the situation.

"Get away from my friend!" Came a battle cry from the direction of the attack. Ren turned to see Neptune rushing toward them. In the distance, he could see that Neo had joined Ruby in fending off the scat man Hotori. Looking back at Neptune, Ren did a double take.

"Your hand, what happened?" Ren rushed over, seeing that there was an appendage missing from Neptune's arm, yet the boy hardly looked worried. In fact, he looked more frustrated than anything else.

"Oh, ya know," Neptune brushed it aside. "The usual Grand Line stuff. I ate a weird fruit and now I have powers. That," he pointed at Kotori, who seemed to be recollecting himself, and said, "was my fist. I'm still getting used to turning it back to normal."