Warming Up For Company [Miguel]

SERENDIPITY

Marines were trained to maintain nerves of steel in any situation. Admiral Gintaka personally made sure that no one in his personal fleet had anything less than the toughest of nerves. Now, their conditioning was being put to the test with a homicidal giantess after their blood.

Well it was true for the greenskins, who could instinctively feel the killing intent rolling off of the giantess. The others were too busy laughing at the ridiculous assumption she made about their Admiral. It was a good thing too, or else the atmosphere would’ve been much tenser and uncomfortable than it already was with the suspects still looking at them like they escaped from some asylum. However, it was also a bad thing as it left only the greenskins –who had never been good with either strategy and diplomacy- to try and plan something to either pacify the giantess or get them out of dodge should she actually act on those urges.

Fortunately for all of them though, the lieutenant’s words seemed to actually affect the giantess enough to actually lower her fist and adopt a thoughtful expression. Crisis averted.

Now that there was no chance of being creamed by a giant fist, Gragtar let himself relax and shrug. “Fink watevah ya want. Datz how da Boss rollz.”

“Besides, that wouldn’t be very angelic now, wouldn’t it?” One of the few human Marines pointed out hesitantly. “Torturing pirates.” There was also another thing he wanted to point out, but he wasn’t nearly suicidal enough to do it. He’d seen the tail end of her near explosion, after all.

“Too bad. Dat soundz fun!” One of the other greenskins grinned maniacally, causing some of the pirates within the vicinity to flinch and slowly move away from the crazy greenskinned freaks.

Gragtar levelled a fierce glare at that particularly mouthy greenskin as well as all of the other greenskins, who looked positively giddy at the prospect. “All uv yooz idjitz rein it in. Yoo all remember wat da Boss sed, aight?”

“Yezzir!” The greenskins replied, looking a little sheepish as they lowered their weapons. The other members of their squad simply shook their head wearily, already used to this sort of thing.

“I wonder what the Admiral is doing now…?” The wolf marine muttered as he turned his gaze towards the direction where said Admiral had flown off to. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he could swear that he could hear crashes and rumbles coming from that direction.

What in the world does making a statue have to do with those kinds of sounds? Was he in some kind of trouble? Did he need back-up? Not that they would be able to help much if an unknown threat actually made an Admiral struggle, but they sure as well were going to try.

---

Well, that’s… the easiest part down. Didn’t take as long as I thought.

Miguel maintained his calm composure as he looked at the finished crude outline of the giantess. Right now the statue looked like some featureless golem instead of the three-dimensional representation floating beside him, but that was to be expected. He still had a lot of work to do before this thing actually reached his lofty standards.

Now for the simplest part… the legs. Hopefully this won’t take long. Miguel cracked his knuckles again before he held his hands in front of him. A bright yellow glow encompassed them before they blasted out beams of light that started changing the surface of the figure again.

Maybe I should have brought along some background music to try and cover up the noise…. Miguel pondered to himself idly as he started carving out the giantess’ pants.

I wonder if the boys are behaving like they should? It’s really too bad that I can’t sense them from here.

---

The wolf snorted. He was probably having a better time making that statue than they were with the giant Shichibukai, uppity suspects and overzealous greenskins at this hot spring in the middle of nowhere.

"Shouldn’t the Admiral being a big wuss like that make it easier to kill the guy?” The wolf’s ears twitched when he heard one foolhardy suspect speak up. “After all, sissies don’t deserve to be in the Grand Line! Why should you feel bad about offing a weakling like him? Those World Government people might even thank you!”

At those words, the entire Marine squad started to radiate copious amounts of killing intent as they slowly reached for their weapons. Badmouthing an Admiral was enough to trigger their ire, but death threats? The mouthy moron didn’t know that he was digging his own grave, especially since they didn’t have an alliance to consider like with the Shichibukai.

“I mean, if it were me, I woulda killed the guy myself for thinking like that!” The pirate laughed, completely unaware of the glares being sent his way by the Marines or the warnings that his other companions were trying to give him. “Why, I bet anyone of use can kick the guy’s ass easily! Admirals are so overrated!” He continued, completely forgetting that he was cowering at the sight of him earlier.

“Yoo really fink dat, fool?” Gragtar gritted out as his hands started to clench and unclench.

“Of course! Why, we can all take you wimpy Marines on and win without breaking a sweat! We’ve done it before!” The pirate boasted, laughing heartily. “Right guys?”

However, only silence answered him.

“…Guys?”

Word Count: 911|| Tagged: Valkyrie || Notes: Revival

SERENDIPITY

Silence prevailed amongst the remaining pirates and the Marines for a few moments, before a few of the latter started clapping slowly at the way the blowhard was dispatched. Serves him right for badmouthing the Admiral and the entire Marine corps!

Still, it was rather surprising that the giantess actually acted against the blowhard. Maybe she liked their Admiral enough to defend his honor? The entire squad almost snorted in unison at the thought. A pirate actually liking a Marine? They could believe a pirate respecting a Marine since they’ve heard it happen, but it was preposterous to even suggest that a pirate could actually like a Marine, Shichibukai or not.

They abruptly stopped clapping when the giantess turned her ire on them. Honestly, by this point in time they were more surprised that she actually liked Admiral Gintaka than they were about her threat, because the latter was normal for pirates. Moreover, she actually admitted to it. That was almost unheard of from pirates, even if she was a Shichibukai.

Despite their surprise though, most of the Marines were still nervous enough about her threat that they took a small step away from her, thinking that she might really be serious. The only ones that stood their ground were the furry and the green skinned Marines, who noticed that there wasn’t any real killing intent within her threats.

Both the pirates and Marines let out sighs of relief when a sudden icy gust of wind suddenly blew past and saved the day by making the giantess go back into the hot spring and take her plans of making their lives miserable with her.

However, before anyone else could say anything else, they suddenly heard muffled sounds from the direction of the mouthy pirate’s trajectory. The Marines ignored it –they weren’t about to help someone who insulted the entire corps and their Admiral- but some of the pirates began to subtly edge towards their comrade. Like they like it or not, he was still their crewmember. He was useful even though he did stuff like this all the time.

While some of the pirates were creeping over to help their comrade out of the snow, most of the Marines were completely and utterly quiet; unsure what to do while their Admiral was off doing God-knows-what for that statue the giantess wanted. They didn’t know how their Admiral would find a way to carve out a statue with nothing but his guan dao –which was explicitly not the best tool for carving out detailed figures- his devil fruit powers –which they knew almost nothing about- and his bare hands, but they were sure that he would find a way. After all, he always fulfils his promises… somehow.

The others that weren’t thinking about the Admiral were basically bored out of their minds. It sucked playing hostage to a giantess. They were Marines, damn it all! They were supposed to do the saving, not the other way around! Well, at least they weren’t being saved by civilians, or God forbid, other pirates. That would be extremely humiliating.

Both groups within the squad were jolted out of their thoughts when the giantess suddenly asked them why they weren’t

“Eet dun look like eet, but we’z got real fick skin!” Gragtar grinned and smacked his chest a couple of times with a fist. “Eetz like fur! Only leadery.”

The giantess’ remark reminded the few humans in the squad of the cold, permeating chill that went through their uniforms and seeped to their very bones, forcing them to hold back a few shivers that threatened to erupt from their bodies.

“As for us….” One human female began, shrugging. “It’s probably because we were too busy minding other things, like chasing after them. The adrenaline rush blocked the cold out, you know how it is.”

Smaller creatures were also less affected by the cold since they had less surface area to lose heat from, unlike the sea kings or giants. But she wasn’t going to add that. The giantess might take offense or something.

The place became mostly quiet again for a few moments, with only the shuffling of the pirate’s feet and the muffled complaints from the tossed pirate keeping it from becoming absolutely silent.

It didn’t last long.

"Hmmm~ Wouldn’t you brave Marines rather join me than freeze to death? The water is heavenly, you know~" Now normally, any normal hot-blooded man would snap up that offer in a heartbeat. However, their previous interactions with her were more than enough of a deterrent for them, especially given her hatred for perverted little mice. They didn’t want to be turned into paste, thank you very much.

“No thank you.” One of the human Marines piped up, acting as the spokesperson for the entire squad. “We’re fine where we are. We don’t wish to inconvenience you.” There, maybe sucking up to the Shichibukai would let them keep their hides for a little longer.

“How about us?” The captain of the pirates scowled. “Don’t we get an invite? We are fellow pirates, aren’t we? Even if you are a dog of the government.”

Behind him, his fellow pirates facepalmed while the Marine squad resisted the urge to snicker. Now that was just a stupid thing to say. Who knows how she would react? Why do people around here keep tempting fate without the Admiral around?

The Marines really hoped that the Admiral would hurry up with the statue so that the attention can be focused on him instead. Just how long did it take to make a nice one, anyway?

---

Hiss….

Finally! Carved and polished to perfection.

The Admiral surveyed his work with an approving look in his eyes. The legs of the statue now resembled those of his three-dimensional figure, though it didn’t have any color. Paint wouldn’t work on ice and snow anyway.

Now for the arms, sword, and torso. He resisted the urge to sigh. Well at least I’m halfway through. I wonder if this would have been any faster if I had enlisted my men to help though.

He paused for a moment before shaking his head. Probably not. Oh well.

Word Count: 1029|| Tagged: Valkyrie || Notes: Revival

SERENDIPITY

"To hell with the promise… For that... Everyone dies."

With that, everything exploded. Literally.

A few pirates were able to dodge the Haki-imbued fist, but the rest were too slow to dodge and were struck with that fist. Those pirates had every bone in their body smashed to pieces if not outright turned into powder. The tougher ones were able to hold onto their lives by a thread, but those with weaker constitutions were killed instantly.

The ground below then cracked violently as the giantess’ fist slammed on it, causing the ice-covered earth around them to rumble violently even as she hoisted herself up from the spring again. The pillars of steam created by the huge amounts of hot water spilling out and hitting the ice created a truly terrifying visage of a vengeful goddess, ready to unleash her wrath on the foolish mortals who pushed her over the edge. It was now obvious to everyone at the hot springs that she couldn’t be reasoned with anymore, especially with the Admiral gone.

And just like that, everything that Admiral Gintaka had so painstakingly repaired had come crashing down in flames.

“For the record, pirate, this is why we don’t like people like you.” The female human Marine muttered quietly and disdainfully to the pirate captain while the giantess was ranting at the top of her lungs. “You jackasses keep fucking up the progress we make even when we’re trying to save your hides.”

“Yah!” Gragtar added in a whisper, looking both angry and terrified as he drew out his weapon- a serrated chopper. “Yoo zoggin’ idjitz dun eet now! We’z lucky eef da Boss gitz bak ‘ere in time ta save uz!”

Suddenly, a light bulb went off inside the female Marine’s head at her superior’s statement, causing her to grin. “Who says we have to wait for him to get back here by himself? We can just go and fetch him!”

“Dat’z a gud idea, Gale!” A little hope entered Gragtar’s eyes at the thought. “Private Ryan! Private Raphiel! Yoo twoz da fastest runnahs we ‘ave, so eetz up ta yoo two ta git da Boss ta cum bak ‘ere fast! Dun wurry ‘bout da big lass. We’z hold ‘er off until da Boss gits ‘ere.”

The humanoid wolf and the humanoid cheetah saluted. “Yes sir!” They whispered.

“On mah signal, yooz two make a break fer it, awright? Git me?” The two nodded. “Good.”

As the Marines readied themselves for battle, the few pirates that were still able to stand on their own two feet were looking really pale and sheepish. They had really messed up, and they were just realizing it.

“We’re sorry….” The captain said in a small voice, while the few crewmembers that were still alive and conscious were cringing behind him. “We didn’t mean to set her off…. Can we help?” However, the Marines were now ignoring him out of sheer hatred.

It was entirely his fault, so why should they listen to him, help him, or even try to let him help? Surely Admiral Gintaka wouldn’t mind if they left them in the Shichibukai’s hands once he heard what these idiots did. After all, they knew that he absolutely hated having his plans derailed, especially like this. Besides, they were probably going to mess it up one way or another if their earlier behaviour was any indication.

“Eef itz a brawl ya want, lass….” Gragtar gripped his serrated chopper, looking unusually grim as he stared down the intimidating visage of the giantess. He could already feel his blood boiling. “Den itz a brawl ya’ll git!”

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!” Gragtar and the other greenskins bellowed as they instinctively imbued Haki in their arms and weapons and slammed them into the ground simultaneously, causing an enormous cloud of snow, ice, and debris that was large enough to cover the giantess and probably obscure her vision.

Ryan and Raphiel quickly took off running as fast as they could in the direction that they remembered seeing the Admiral fly off to while still obscured by the improvised smokescreen. Raphiel would have normally overtaken Ryan easily, being of the cheetah breed and all, but he was forced to run at Ryan’s speed since he was completely unused to running in this kind of terrain. Ryan, on the other hand, was completely at home in this kind of terrain and so was able to unleash his full running speed, enabling him to keep up with Raphiel.

Now, the race was on!

---

Miguel slowly put his hands down to his sides and let out a sigh. It had taken him a while, but he had finally finished her arms and torso. He still had to do her sword before he could move on to her face and hair, which was probably the most important part of the statue. As such, he needed a little break to regain his bearings and focus before he started on that.

Just a minute ought to do. Miguel sat on the statue’s shoulder and let himself relax and close his eyes for a bit.

After counting to sixty inside his head, he opened his eyes again and flew off from his improvised perch, ready to start again. This shouldn’t take much longer. After all, it isn’t like anything bad is happening at the hot springs, right?

If only he knew how wrong he was….

Word Count: 897|| Tagged: Valkyrie || Notes: Revival

SERENDIPITY

Gragtar’s head snapped up, somehow rapidly paling even though his skin was a dark green. He’d heard what the giantess said, making his gut

“Boyz! Back ‘way now!” Gragtar bellowed as he quickly turned around and started running away as fast as he could in a different direction from the messengers, trusting his gut instincts. “Move yer zogging arsez!”

If the Marines weren’t as disciplined and well-trained as they were or if they didn’t trust Gragtar the way they did despite him being a fairly simple greenskin, they would’ve wasted time questioning their squad leader’s decisions. But since Admiral Gintaka only allowed the most disciplined Marines into his personal fleet, they immediately turned around and started running after their squad leader as well without question.

It was a good thing too, because if they had stayed where they were standing, they would’ve been turned into bloody smears on the ice by the giantess’ fist. As it were though, most of them were sent tumbling away from her fist by the enormous shockwave, sending them even further away. However, there were a few skilled ones that managed to use the shockwave to propel themselves further away despite the pain.

Among those few were the chosen messengers, who used the shockwave to bring them further away from the battle by riding it as well as they could without cringing in pain. Easier said than done, but they were experts at it.

Surprisingly Gragtar was one of those skilled few as well, which allowed him to see the captain’s body fly past him as he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Acting quickly, he snatched the captain’s body out of the air. “Scattah!” He shouted as an afterthought.

“Yer comin’ wit me, humie!” Gragtar grinned evilly as he instinctively jumped very high to avoid an enormous sweeping leg. “Yooz got lotz ta anzwer fer!”

“That’s if we get out of this alive, Marine.” The captain sneered despite having his hide saved by said Marine.

“We will, humie.” Gragtar boasted with an even wider grin. “We will. Wen we’z get frough with ya, yooz gonna wish dat yooz one of yer downed boyz.”

“Great.” The captain grumbled unenthusiastically. “Why don’t you just kill me already, barbarian? Save yourself the trouble.”

“I’z leave ya to da Boss.” Gragtar shrugged as he landed and continued running. “’e’z bettah at punishment dan me. Much bettah.”

Meanwhile, the others weren’t nearly as calm as Gragtar. Some of them had snatched a pirate as well and slung them over their shoulders as they were running, though they didn’t bother to talk to them. Instead, they just kept running, keeping ahead of the giantess’ leg sweep with the help of the boost that the shockwave had given them.

A few unlucky greenskins were even targeted by the giantess’ hand, but they quickly dodged to the side with determined huffs. Some went to the left, some went to the right; those of the latter had large cuts on their uniforms from her razor-sharp fingernails. That didn’t deter them from continuing to run though. Their subboss Gragtar said to scatter, so they were now going in completely random directions away from the giantess, like the rest of the squad. It was cowardly, but their Admiral preferred his men alive with their honor dinged than dead with their honor intact, especially with a giantess after them. They can always redeem themselves at a later date anyway.

They all just hoped that Admiral Gintaka managed to get here before the giantess managed to catch and kill them all for real. Most of them were praying that those rumors of him being the fastest thing alive were true, because it certainly would help right now.

Like that song said, they needed a hero! And fast! Because frankly, there was no way in hell that they would be able to beat her into submission….

---

“Damn….” Raphiel panted as he continued running beside his comrade. “Just how –pant- far did –pant- did the –pant- admiral go, any-pant-way?!”

Ryan snorted. “He’s somewhat close. His scent’s getting stronger. Still hard to get a bid on since he’s flying, but I still have a hold of it so it’s no worry.” He then added something. “And by the way, you really should get more endurance exercises in, man. The panting is kinda pathetic.”

“Shut up.” The cheetah grumbled as he continued to pant. “Save –huff- your comments –huff- for some other –huff huff- time!”

Ryan smirked. “Gotta keep the spirits up somehow.”

“Jerk.”

“I know.” Ryan smirked even wider. “I know- what the?!”

Ryan suddenly screeched to a halt, kicking up a lot of snow and dust. This caused Raphiel to sputter and crash into the snow-covered ground, making a sizable mound with his face in the process. The cheetah groaned for a bit before pushing himself up, looking dishevelled but otherwise perfectly okay from the impromptu crash.

“What the hell was that for, you stupid mutt?!” Raphiel seethed. “We’re not supposed to be lollygagging!”

Ryan was too busy gaping and staring at something up in the distance to respond, making Raphiel even angrier. “Are you even listening to me?! We’re in a life-or-death situation here!”

The wolf beastman finally responded by raising a hand and pointing a finger towards the sight he was gaping at. “Look….”

“Alright, fine. What’s so special…?” Raphiel turned around with a scowl, only for him to imitate his squadmate’s reaction at the sight of huge hakama-clad legs that was seemingly carved from either a glacier or an icy hill. The statue or carving was so large and expansive that the farthest he could see of the statue was the upper torso and parts of its arms.

Raphiel could only utter one thing at the sight. “…Whoa.”

Hearing Raphiel’s muttered exclamation was enough to snap Ryan out of his own awe-induced shock. “Yeah. It’s freakin’ huge! That wasn’t here before. I wonder who made it?”

It only took the both of them a few moments before they remembered the giantess’ wish before she went absolutely bananas over the government dog comment. Didn’t she say that she wanted a statue? But that would mean that Admiral Gintaka would have done this entire thing by himself. In less than an hour. With only a small floating model as a reference, probably using only his Guan Dao.

“Admiral Gintaka is amazing….” Raphiel muttered in reverence. “To have made this entirely by himself in a fraction of the time a team of professional artists would have taken. It’s just… amazing.”

“I… I have no words.” Ryan admitted, shrugging. “There is nothing that can describe this… this… this… miracle.”

They spent a few more moments gaping at it before they finally remembered what they were supposed to be doing. Namely, getting Admiral Gintaka to go back and solve the mess that the pirate captain’s mouth started. Since he was probably up at the top of the positively massive statue –seriously, it had to be at least twice the height of the giantess- they needed to either climb up or holler.

Frankly, they didn’t have the energy for the former, so they glanced at each other and nodded before cupping their hands in fronts of their mouths.

“ADMIRAL GINTAKA! ADMIRAL GINTAKA! OVER HERE!”

---

With one last wave of Miguel’s hand, he carved out the last few features of the Shichibukai’s face. Finally, he was done! It actually took him far less time than he had estimated, which was excellent. At least he was keeping with his own standards, even though he was stuck doing drudge work for the sake of the alliance that the World Government wanted to keep.

That giantess ought to appreciate this. Miguel thought to himself as he looked over the entire statue in satisfaction. This should be grandiose enough for her.

“ADMIRAL GINTAKA! ADMIRAL GINTAKA! OVER HERE!” His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by… faint shouting from the ground?

Frowning, Miguel enhanced his vision and looked down to the ground to see if he wasn’t just hearing things. To his surprise, he saw two of the Marines he left in the hot springs with the giantess here. A chill crept up his spine at the sight of them; somehow, he got a bad feeling about this. He hoped he was wrong, but he had to check.

Squashing down the dread he was starting to feel, he jumped from his perch on the giantess’ shoulder and dove down. A few seconds before hitting the ground, he spread his wings and flapped them, slowing his fall enough for him to land safely on the ground with a soft thump.

Miguel’s frown slightly deepened at the sight of the two dishevelled Marines. ”Privates, why aren’t you with the rest of your squad?”

“Sir….” Ryan was suddenly glad that no one could see him pale through his fur. “It’s the Shichibukai! She’s gone berserk and started attacking everyone!”

Miguel’s eyes actually widened in shock. ”…What? Explain. Now.”

The two privates launched into the story, recapping the events that had happened since his departure….

Word Count: 1515|| Tagged: Valkyrie || Notes: Revival

SERENDIPITY

“…and that’s all we can say about the situation, sir.”

Raphiel finally shut his mouth after a full minute of constant talking at super speed. He could feel the ache and burn in his throat and jaws from speaking so much in so little time, but he didn’t have the luxury of explaining it to his commanding officer in a normal manner. The lives of his comrades overtook the need to explain it in a calm and orderly fashion and overrode his fear of the tall winged Admiral.

”Very well.” Miguel replied after a moment, his voice utterly cold and unreadable as they glanced at the distance. Raphiel didn’t know what he was looking at but he was sure that the Admiral was seeing something that none of them could even think of perceiving.

”Stay here and guard this statue. I will take care of the Shichibukai myself.” Miguel’s mouth twitched as his demeanour visibly tensed.

Ryan and Raphiel wanted to argue, but a single icy look from their Admiral shut them up real quick. They knew that they were still too raw and unskilled to help with something like a giant, let alone a skilled giant claiming to be the greatest swordsman –or swordswoman, rather, in this instance- in the world. They just wished they could do more to help.

And yet, at the same time they felt glad that they would be safe from the crossfire. No sane creature wanted to be trapped in the middle of what was about to happen, honor and loyalty be damned.

“Yes sir!” As they saluted, their Admiral raised his hands to his chest and cupped them together before turning into blue light and vanishing in a flash.

---

Boom! Ruuuuumble… boom! Ruuuumble… boom!

“Z-zoggin’ ‘ell! Da b-b-big lass eez g-g-gittin’ madder!” Gragtar cursed and glared at the naked captain on his shoulders while shaking violently from the tremors from somewhere, probably the giantess. “Y-yooz a z-zoggin’ i-i-idjit, yooz stooped-d-d-d humie! Dis eez all y-y-y-yer fault!”

Boom! Ruuumble! Boom! Ruuumble! Boom! Ruuumble!

“T-then w-why d-d-don’t y-you j-j-just kill me a-a-a-already-dy-dy i-if I-I-I’m so-so m-m-m-much, bar-bar-barbarian?” The pirate questioned with a slight sneering, yet mostly flabbergasted tone while the vibrations were becoming worse.

“Y-y-yooz deaf?” Gragtar grumbled as he did his best to ignore the vibrations with his training of having to work on a ship that frequently encountered choppy seas. It was the only reason he hadn’t tripped yet like he saw some of the newbies almost did out of the corner of his eye. “I’z t-t-t-t-told y-y-y-ooz already w-w-w-why! D-d-d-d-dun listen-n-n-n-n m-m-m-much, do ya, id-id-id-idjit?”

The pirate captain was about to give him a scathing reply when the vibrations suddenly stopped. “Oh hey, the shaking stopped. I wonder if the Shichibukai got tired of chasing after us?” The pirate sounded cheery at the prospect.

He wasn’t the only one wondering as some of the other Marines and pirates had staggered to a stop, barely avoiding falling on their faces. The faster and less experienced ones actually did fall on their faces in the snow, but they managed to pull themselves up quick and wonder if the giantess had stopped and rethought her plan to kill them all.

However, Gragtar was still running as his gut was practically screaming at him to believe otherwise. He wasn’t one to not listen to his gut. It got him into trouble but it got him out of trouble just as often.

“Keep movin’, ya gits! Dun stop!” The green monster bellowed.

It was only because the Marines were as obedient as they are that they started running away again in a chaotic and haphazard manner. Most of the pirates didn’t listen to Gragtar, a fact that some of them paid for dearly when some of them heard the sharp whistling in the air and still thought nothing of it until the rocks fell on them.

Boom! Whooosh… boom! Whoosh… boom! Whoosh… boom!

“Sky assault! Everyone run faster!” One of the other Marines hollered as she started heeding her own words and moved faster while still making sure that her trail was random and hard to predict.

The Marines started to run even faster at her words while still sticking to the plan. This saved their lives while some more of the pirate crew fell to the random falling rocks whistling through the air. While the earth started to shake again, it was far less than before, making it more manageable for the Marines to run through.

“Yooz know wat?” Gragtar huffed as he started to run faster. “Yooz should make yerself useful an’ watch me back!”

“What the hell-?!” The captain screamed as the green creature suddenly flipped him around and made it so that he was now facing the back, where he could clearly see the giantess tossing handfuls of rocks like pellets in a shotgun. Was this what ants saw when little kids threw sand at them?

“Jeez she’s like a living armada on land!” He exclaimed, paling as she threw even more rocks everyone else’s way but theirs.

“Yooz shut yer trap unless da big lass chucks somethin’ our way!” Gragtar snarled as he hit the human’s thigh roughly.

As expected, the pirate captain complained. “Ow! Hey! That hurt, you barbarian!”

Gragtar sneered though the human couldn’t see it. “Dat wuz da point, humie. Git with da program, would ya?”

“Why you….” The pirate captain began in an irate fashion, only to trail off as he saw something that made his blood run cold.

The giantess had just ripped out the biggest rock yet while looking straight at them. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was about to happen. Not with that look on her face.

“Dodge this!” She bellowed as she threw the enormous rock at them.

“We are so screwed….” The pirate captain groaned, already resigned to his fate, causing Gragtar to look over the shoulder without the human on it and pale as well.

Screwed indeed. There was no way in the four blue seas they could outrace that.

And then suddenly, a bright light appeared out of nowhere and blinded both Gragtar and the pirate captain.

BOOOOOOM!

---

BOOOOOOM!

Were it anyone else, they would have been far too late to save the green monster and the naked pirate. However, Miguel just happened to be one of the fastest –if not the fastest- Marine in the corps. Crossing the distance in a short amount of time and prepping himself by entering his mental battle state was child’s play for someone like him.

Therefore, it is understandable that he arrived there in the blink of an eye. There, he was faced with the enormous rock that he had seen earlier with his enhanced vision. In his calm battle state, he was easily able to tell that the rock was unstable despite the Haki and had several weak points that he could strike.

Without balking or even flinching, his entire forearm turned black before it disappeared into a flash of light that whipped towards the Haki-enhanced rock. At the very last moment, the hand reformed back into Haki-imbued flesh and struck the rock full force. The combination of the significant force enhanced further by Haki and the ludicrous amount of acceleration he provided to amplify the force was more than enough to shatter the enormous rock into a million pieces. A million pieces that he easily blew away from him with a powerful flap of his wings.

”I thought we had an agreement, Shichibukai.” Miguel lowered his fist slowly. His eyes were like frozen chips of amber as they stared into the giantess’ purple ones. ”Why did you decide to break it?”

He already knew what had triggered her rage, but he needed to hear it from her himself for a variety of reasons.

Word Count: 1309|| Tagged: Valkyrie || Notes: The Hero Arrives

SERENDIPITY

Even while the giantess was shouting right at his face with waves of frustration and anger rolling off of her in waves that he could practically see, Miguel remained as calm and cool as ever. He didn’t falter when he was told to shove his deal up his ass despite the crude language nor did he even twitch when the giantess finally screamed out her reason as to why she broke the deal.

If he hadn’t understood what a warrior’s pride meant to a tribal society, then he might’ve done something unseemly in response to such a childish reaction to an equally-childish insult. Heck, if one of his subordinates had done it then he would have him punished for breaking decorum so blatantly and acting like a childish fool. As it was, it was only years of practice and his own steely control over his emotions that allowed him to stare her down with nothing but a poker face for his expression despite what he was really feeling about this situation.

Still, just because she admittedly did a lot of things for them didn’t mean that she would get more special treatment than what was already afforded to her because of that blasted contract the World Government had with those pirates. Absolving criminals of their crimes and turning a blind eye to their lesser ones just so that they had more leverage against the dreaded Yonkou and the other pirates of the seas did not justify the entire process, but he wasn’t in a place to question. Not at all.

Frankly, Miguel was an Admiral. He was only required to answer to the Gorosei, the Commader-in-Chief and the Fleet Admiral. He shouldn’t have to answer the shouted questions of some Shichibukai kneeling down to his level to justify himself. If he were the sort to be pompous, he might have even laughed and not answered her question at all. However, his code demanded that he answer her question as she did have a right to know as to what he believed Justice was.

After all, shouldn’t everyone know what an Admiral believed Justice was?

”Justice is not about blood for any slight against oneself, Shichibukai.” Miguel began as he stared at her straight in the eye. ”Justice is about giving out the punishment that corresponds to the crime. Ideally and more importantly, it is supposed to be a system –a code of honor and ethics supported by the law, if you will- that protects the weak from the strong so that everyone in the seas could live a relatively normal life.”

His jaw steeled as he continued. ”I understand that the warrior’s pride is a very precious and valuable thing, but we must treat every citizen equally, no matter what some sentient creatures might say or what some….” Miguel glanced at the naked pirate captain with Gragtar with eyes that could freeze a lake. ”…sentient creatures –questionable as though the quantifier may be sometimes in regards to their behavior- may do. If we went at it your way, there would be no citizens of the Grand Line or the Blue Seas left because the Marines would have killed them for one reason or another.”

”So I cannot allow you to kill him because of my Justice. Of our Justice.” He paused for a moment, partially for dramatics and partially to see if his main audience was still listening. ”But… it is undeniable that the man is a pirate who had probably committed many crimes, what with his confidence and audacity in talking down a Shichibukai and an Admiral. In fact, he has committed several right now during this entire debacle, as had his men.”

He waved his blade towards the naked pirate captain and the few pirates that remained alive. ”You had already taken the lives of several of his men, but you may not take the rest or that of his own. However, do you wish to be the one to dictate their punishment? As long as they don’t die, it would be acceptable.” He paused for a moment before adding something else that left a bad taste in his mouth but was probably a clincher. ”Besides, if you so wished you can collect the reward on their heads once you’re done with them. I believe that is called ‘win-win’.”

”So what do you say, Shichibukai?” Miguel ended by trailing off and looking at her in the eyes again. What would happen next was up to her now.

---

Down below, the Marines seeing their Admiral still as stoic as ever despite the angry Shichibukai was the only reason why they weren’t panicking like headless chickens, though Gragtar and the pirate captain were holding their chests and looked remarkably pale as they stared up at the silver-winged Admiral.

Some of the Marines even opened their mouth to try and explain themselves when the giantess accused them of protecting him because they didn’t even know that their Lieutenant pulled the guy’s exposed ass out of the fire, but they were quickly silenced with a raised hand. The few pirates that were still alive also wanted to say something but they were silenced by glares from the Marines.

The pirate captain however was undeterred by the glares or the raised hand. He was about to say something about the situation when Gragtar punched him in the mouth with the same hand that he raised.

“Shut up, ya git!” The greenskinned creature hissed. “Yooz made more dan ‘nuff of a mess, ya stoopid git! Da reason why yer still alive iz cuz I’z want da Admiral to deal wit yooz ‘imself.”

The pirate captain looked at him angrily, but a raised and blackened fist courtesy of Gragtar as a threat was enough to make him shut up and look back at the proceedings above them. Better to look at the very conversation that dealt with the issue of the lives of himself and his crew rather than listen to some brutish Marine who used his fists more than his words. It was only slightly less galling than relying on a Marine to be able to see the next day but not as galling as getting killed by the angry naked giantess. As far as he was concerned, being alive but bruised was much better than being deader than a doornail.

Still, he had to be punched by Gragtar a second time in order for him to shut up and not speak when the Admiral started talking and basically offered his head on a platter as long as the giantess kept him alive and breathing. He didn’t want to be a torture chew toy, damn it all! He knew the type who liked those and the crazy huge chick was practically wearing neon signs pointing to all of them. Maybe he should confess to his sins so that the Admiral would let him die instead? It seemed like the lesser evil right now. He loved being alive and all, but not to the point that he wanted to be tortured by a crazy giant chick with the best rack he had ever seen.

Some mountains of gorgeous naked female flesh weren’t worth the trouble, you know?

Word Count: 1212|| Tagged: Valkyrie || Notes: I beg for your forgiveness for this ridiculous lateness.