The sun was shining brightly on this Sunday of December. Complementing the joyous chirps of the tropical birds was the gentle whisper of the waves as they licked the shoreline. It was a great day.
“I am going to kill you.” Spoke Luffy, captain of the Strawhat Pirates. In front of him was a mountain of a man, 'Blackbeard' Marshall D. Teach. The two were together…and as we know, not for the first time.
“You're lying.” was Teach's confident reply. “You failed to kill Crocodile, you failed to kill Lucci, and you'll fail to kill me. I have two of the most powerful devil fruits, I killed Whitebeard, and the one who will be the Pirate King is me, not you.”
“I will kill you, and I will be the Pirate King” was Luffy's uncharacteristically cold reply. There was no sign of the emotion usually found in his rhetoric – his utterance was as a pronouncement in a court might be.
“Try to kill me, then. Zehahahaha!” Blackbeard's unique laugh bounced across the beach. “As you'll find out when you ask Magellan, dying isn't what I do. I'm lucky!”
BAM! In no time, Luffy had engaged himself in his technique, Gear Second, which, by greatly increasing his heart rate, allowed his reflexes and movements to move 'up a gear', so to speak. In one punch, he sent Blackbeard flying over the sand. He must have covered at least 30 metres; Luffy made it over to him in no time, using the Soru skill he had assimilated whilst fighting CP9, the secret assassination corps used by the World Government.
“Zehahaha! That's not a bad punch!” Blackbeard offered. “But if you wanted to kill me, why didn't you punch me towards the sea? I'm a fruit user, and there's no way I would have gotten out of the water. I'd have drowned! Zehahaha!”
“First of all, I knew that you would use your Kurozu technique to drag me with you; we would have died together.” Clearly, Luffy had become more level-headed. “But more importantly, I don't think you deserve that kind of death. You tore a hole in my heart when you got Ace killed. The death I have in mind for you is going to be so painful; I won't let you commit suicide by drowning!”
With a raucous cry of “Jet Bazooka”, Luffy smacked Blackbeard over 9000 centimeters inland. The combination of awesome attacks had only just begun, however.
“Jet Rifle!” Twisting his right arm and extending it backwards, Luffy hit Blackbeard hard with a mighty punch.
“Jet Twin Pistol!” This attack mirrored his “Jet Bazooka”, but instead of contacting the target with his palms, Luffy simply allowed his fists to destroy.
Blackbeard was flying across the sand like a beach ball. Luffy waited for him to land before attacking from high.
“Gomu-gomu no Missile!” Grabbing onto Blackbeard, he launched himself from a significant distance into Blackbeard, ramming himself into his stomach.
“Jet Axe!” Luffy had rebounded from the previous attack and, stretching his leg as high as he could, sent it crashing onto Blackbeard's skull. Unfortunately for Luffy, no cracks were audible: he had failed to crack his skull.
“Damn it!” Luffy suddenly showed a tinge of puce as his rage levels hit a new high. “Gomu gomu no…JET GATLING GUN!” Luffy, about 5 metres in the air above Blackbeard, launched a devastating barrage of punches, at an even faster rate than his usual gatling-gun attack. Moreover, the punches were even more powerful: it was no surprise that this attack pulverized Rob Lucci, despite him using the Tekkai technique used to protect oneself against attacks.
The vicinity around Blackbeard was a mess: sand and dust was everywhere, and as for Blackbeard himself – the man was a complete pincushion. It seemed that every cell in his body was screaming in pain; Luffy's terrible attack was apparently quite effective.
“Zehahahaha!” So Luffy had failed to knock him unconscious, much less kill him. There however was none of the desperation witnessed when he failed to make a dent in Blackbeard's skull – rather quiet assurance.
“It's just as well that you're stronger than that weakling Lucci.” This was to be Luffy's only compliment of the day. “If you had died, that would have ruined my plans.”
“As I said, dying's not what I do! Now it's my turn to attack!” Blackbeard managed a smile in spite of his grievous wounds – his dental count, for example, had halved, from two to one. “Kurozu!”
Luffy was quite aware that this attack might well finish him off. Blackbeard's 'Yami-yami no mi' had the power to nullify any effects of the devil fruit. Him being in Gear Second, his heart rate and blood pressure were far higher than a normal body could tolerate; his ability removed, he would surely die of heart failure. And even if he was lucky enough to survive long enough, Blackbeard's second ability, the 'Goro-goro no Mi', would be certain to kill him: in a normal body, barely anyone could survive the punch of an earthquake.
However, Luffy had arrived to the battle with meticulous planning and a fine eye for detail. “Gomu-gomu no”, he cried as he inflated his body and twisted it in the manner of a corkscrew, “Thunderstorm!” This attack differed from that used against Crocodile in two ways – firstly, Luffy was using his Gear Second, but more significantly, he was propelling himself away from his opponent, not towards him.
“A sly ruse!” Blackbeard grinned. But you won't get away from me! My power will attract you forever, but your propulsion away from me will be finite!”
“Oh no it won't!” replied Luffy with a twinkle in his eye. “Watch and look!” The punches towards Blackbeard began…and Blackbeard realized that he was going to take some beating for some time. Luffy was effectively punching himself away from Blackbeard. The longer Blackbeard applied his ability, the more long-lasting the torment of fists. “I really am so happy that I took the time to read Newton's Second Law: that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”
“It's not over!” I can increase the pull of my ability, while you'll tire yourself out!” Blackbeard had not lost hope. “There's no way you'll be able to punch your way out of infinite gravity!” Quite impressive, Blackbeard – not only calculating a battle strategy, but communicating it while having the crap beaten out of him. How he could speak while being trashed so violently is, I guess, a mystery.
“Once again, you show yourself to have a depressingly poor command of reasoning!” Luffy haughtily huffed. “Of course, I took a risk, but your plan assumes you'll still be standing! There's no way I'll let you kill me!” The intensity of Luffy's fists increased in both speed and power, and in no time he had delivered onto Blackbeard a massive concussion. Blackbeard was bloody, beaten, and unconscious – but not dead.
“I knew my plan would work.” Luffy had smugness etched across his face. “Now, it's time for the fun to begin...”
Note of warning: This story will get a lot more graphic/violent in the future, so if possible I'd like to know of somewhere appropriate for it. Thanks!