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| - “Gah!” Sid yelled as the slug blushed heavily for the tenth time, “how the hell am I supposed to do this?! I’m a man, dammit, this sort of thing is my nature!” “I don’t like this either!” Stormy returned, “getting a vague idea of what’s going on in your head isn’t my idea of fun!” “Gaokoro,” one of the shamans said, stepping forward. The two glared at him, and he quickly shrunk back a bit, before the female Shroomian stepped up to translate. “Gakoro gao gao gao’n,” she restated. “She says you were very close that time,” Stormy said, her eyes still narrowed, “3 minutes is your record.” “Dammit,” Sid sulked, “I’m such a total idiot! How I am supposed to go above 3 minutes?!” “Most men would find that easy!” Stormy barked, kicking the navigator’s head into the ground. “Ahhh.... even Stormy-chwan’s kick is graceful,” Sid muttered happily, seemingly ignoring the pain he felt. “And that is why you keep failing,” Stormy growled. “Oof!” Knave cried as he was thrown back by the attack. He whipped around in midair, then landed on his feet, skidding and kicking up dirt. As soon as he stopped, he looked up at the attacker. It was a massive beast, roughly the shape of a bear, covered in blue hair. Many of the flowers that grew in the valley also grew on its hide, and it had large, sabertooth-esque teeth and very fierce, canine eyes. “Wow....” Knave observed, lifting up a hand to shade his eyes, “this thing’s pretty cool!” “Gao!” Gopher said impatiently, swatting Knave on the cheek, “Gao gao!” “I said I’ll answer later- WOAH!” Knave began, then yelped as the beast lunged forward, its claw flying towards the pirate. Knave braced himself, then flung his hands up, catching the claw. He powered up his white aura, then gently removed one hand. “Naga Naga no....” Knave began, as heat and kinetic energy wrapped around his hand, “HEAT CANON!” He punched upward, delivering a massive blow to the paw, also sending a large shockwave that caused the beast to retreat, it’s arm still shaking. “Hah!” Knave said happily, standing up again, “see? Not so easy are I?!” “G-gao!” Gopher said, in complete shock at Knave’s abilities, “Gao..... gao gao?” He swooned, his eyes becoming replaced with dizzy signs as he toppled over, landing in an area between two flowers. “Hmm?” Knave said, still facing the beast, “oh, that! I ate a Devil Fruit, you know! Naga Naga and all that! Really cool, huh?” The beast, seeing its chance for some fresh prey, lunged forward, its head flying towards the unconscious Shroomian, finally drawing Knave’s attention to what had happened to his ladybug-esque friend. “Gopher!” Knave yelled, then lunged forward himself, hoping to intercept the beast. Right as its jaws would have touched the chef, Knave finally caught up, raising an arm to block. However, the beast continued, it’s teeth biting into Knave’s shoulder, his arm now stuck in its mouth! “Gah!” Knave gasped as blood spurted from where the teeth connected, “stupid bastard...” The Flower Beast let out a sound that could only be described as a guffaw, happy in catching its enemy. It then began retching slightly, and thousands of exploding flowers appeared in its maw, even lining its teeth! All it would take was just a bit of pressure and then... “Ohhh, you bastard,” Knave growled, still trying to pry his arm free, “don’t you dare...” The beast bit down slightly, causing all the flowers in its mouth to explode, flame bursting from its mouth and absorbing Knave in their heat and pain! “Ghuh...” Knave gasped, slumping slightly and hacking out some blood as dark burn marks appeared all over his skin, the fire slowly dissolving, “damn it....” Letting go of Knave’s arm, the Flower Beast took aim, then lunged at Gopher once more! “No!” Knave barked, lunging in front of it, its teeth this time clenching around his torso! The young captain let out a shout of pure pain as the fangs dug deep into his flesh. The sound of the first explosion had awoken Gopher, and the young Shroomian struggled to stand up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Gao...?” he asked, finally lowering his hands and looking up. He was immediately greeted with the sight of Knave skewered in place, the Flower Beast biting deeply into his chest! “Gao! GAO!” Gopher cried, waving his arms frantically as he charged towards Knave, who looked back at his Shroomian friend. “Oh....” Knave said, sounding very tired, “stay back a bit, okay? I’ll deal with this guy in a minute....” The beast retched slightly again, as about twice the amount of flowers from before stuff its mouth! “Oh, f*ck you-” Knave muttered, as the beast bit down again, this time releasing a massive inferno that completely covered our hero, as he was released from the jaws, and toppled a bit to the flower. “GAO!” Gopher screamed, darting up to Knave, still moving as though he was about to try to remove the flames by hands. “Guh!” Knave coughed, spitting out some blood, now heavily burned, “you.... still okay Gopher?” “Gao...?” Gopher asked, tearing up a bit as his counterpart struggled to stand up. “T-that’s right,” Knave coughed, “I-I never answered your question, right? Why I’m going so far just to take you with me?” “G-gao,” Gopher gulped, nodding. Knave lifted his head, grinning through the pain. “I decided when I first saw you, you know. Your village.... was far away, wasn’t it? You’re obviously a bit important, being the cook.... so why did you go that far away? Why were you wandering near the shore?” Gopher stood quiet, staring up in awe at the man before him. “Y-you’re,” Knave struggled to finish, “you’re curious, aren’t you? You w-want to see the rest of the world, don’t want to be stuck here for your life, right?” Gopher nodded, tears starting to form around his eyes. Knave grinned, pulling himself fully to his feet, patting Gopher on the head. “Then come with me,” he panted, “and I’ll show you the entire world out there. All the way through the Grand Line, the New World, all of it. That okay?” Gopher smiled, then finally grinned. “Gao!” he said happily. “Allright!” Knave crowed happily, slamming his fists together, “then let’s finish this trail!” Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
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