Chapter 24: Chapter 20

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

Looking at the trio with a sly smile the pirate nudged his crew and said with a laugh: “Look at these kids, so serious!”

*Pupupupupupu!*

*Ghughughughu!*

*Hehehehehehe!*

Hamburg: “Yeah, so serious, Boss!”

Nodding along with the large gorilla-like man, Foxy continued: “Don’t they know how famous I am? We’re on our way to the Grand Line and decided to take you kids along! How kind of me?!”

As he said this, there was a chorus of approving shouts, most notably one man who yelled: “Yeah Boss! You’re Great!”

Seeing this continue on, Bill decided to take a risk and said under his breath to the other two: “Barge!”

Though the kids had been ready to fight, they followed Bill’s intention and the three turned strategically retreated to the dock.

Seeing one of the men who had gotten up drawing his pistol Bill yelled out: “Sasha Rope! Ranse Kickoff!”

Bill’s intention was to drop the few men who had gotten up from the ground. Figuring, if need be, he could swim while pulling Ranse and Sasha along – but for that they needed to get to the water first.

Jumping through the air, Bill led with a flying knee before---

Foxy: “NORO NORO BEAM!”

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

As he heard the shout, Bill perceived his movements slowing down to a snail’s pace. He wanted to move his head to look towards the others, but his head didn’t seem to want to listen.

 ?: “Yeah Boss! You’re Great!”

Unable to turn his face, Bill could only hear Foxy’s say: “Tsk Tsk Tsk, we had a bet, a deal!

Doesn’t that mean anything to kids these days?! Barrie, Give that kid in the air a few good slaps!”

As Foxy said this, the man that Bill was about to hurt put away his pistol and walked up to Bill in a fast pace.

Having only taken a few seconds to reach him, Bill in mid-launch, was now face to face with this man.

Frantically trying to move, but to no avail, Bill watched as the man gave him three hard slaps across the face.

*Slap* *slap* *slap*

Did his face get hit? Bill didn’t feeeellll…

As time seemed to restart for Bills body, his face dented in on both sides and his forward motion was flung back.

Hitting the ground with a hard: “OOMPF!” Bill was completely dazed but could just make out the yells of Sasha and Ranse.

Being lifted up on both sides, Bill turned to glare at Foxy, who was wearing a vicious smile.

Foxy: “Good try! But you’ll never escape me! I ate the Slow-Slow Fruit and these ‘Slowmo Photons’ will stop anything in their tracks!”

As Foxy went on to explain how he had the three cornered and more about his Devil Fruit, Bill could help but to start laughing.

The more he laughed, the more he had to laugh, and after a while he was holding his sides letting it all out.

Sasha: “Bill what’s wrong?!”

Ranse: “Bill!”

As the two reached over to his shoulders, Bill patted them before saying loudly: “He ate the SLOW-SLOW FRUIT. So, he’s a SLOW MAN, hahahaha, a Split-Headed SLOW MAN!”

Hearing this joke, Ranse looked at Foxy and burst out laughing while replying loudly: “And look at that RED NOSE!”

As Foxy heard this, he crouched over miserable and muttering: “Kids are so cruel…” while the final nail in the coffin was Sasha sounding in with a repulsive tone: “I can’t insult you. Your mother already made you look that way.”

Hearing this, Foxy lost all strength in his legs and toppled over.

*Pupupupupupu!*

As he did so, the big one laughed while the others went frantic. The blue-haired girl yelled out: “No! You’re handsome Boss!”

Raising up like magic Foxy yelled out with a teary face: “Oh, you’re right! Having such a beautiful face and awesome personality is a sin!

To repent for this sin, I’ll teach you kids a lesson! The deal was you could go if you won a three-on-three duel, and ONLY IF YOU DID SO!”

Putting one hand on his head, Foxy dramatically continued on: “But now I see your DEVIOUSNESS!” Moving his hand from his head to his heart he said: “And it hurts my heart!”

As he said this the entire mass of people looked at the trio with a mix of disappointment and outrage.

By now calls like “How rude!” and “Teach’em a lesson, Boss!” were mixed in with Foxy’s every-other word.

Foxy: “So now, no more games! Clear the area! Porche, Capote, and… HAMBURG! Go and restrain those brats!”

*Pupupupupupu!*

*Ghughughughu!*

*Hehehehehehe!*

As the crowd moved back, three people walked forward.

Looking at the three walking forward, Bill yelled out to Foxy: “Empty barrels make the loudest noise; did you know that? You’re going to regret this!”

As Foxy yelled back with a ‘Yeah sure, kid’ Bill said to the others: “Sasha, handle the blue headed girl, Ranse you take the fishman – don’t let him hit you!”

Walking forward himself, Bill said for the last time: “Sasha, if you can defeat her, immediately help Ranse. I’ll stall the big one.”

The staging area of the smugglers dock was large, but not so large as to take a long to cross.

Taking the sides opposite of who they were squaring off again, Bill stood in the middle in front of gorilla-like man. Sasha to his right, and Ranse to his left.

Sizing up his opponent, the gorilla-man stood roughly twice Bill’s height and was many times as wide. With long arms, Bill zeroed in on his one obvious weakness.

‘Those puny legs.’

Step by step Bill grew his hair out until it was down to his back.

*Pupupupupupu!*

Hamburg: “Now he has girl hair.”

Ignoring this Bill ran in and feinted a kick.

Jumping back as the big man retaliated, Bill kept the eyes of the man up high with a series of jumps and flips.

He could hear grunts and thuds on his sides, but by Bills estimation this gorilla was far stronger than either the dizzy fishman or blue-haired girl. He knew he needed to finish this fast and couldn’t divert his attention at all.

Fighting for several minutes, Bill was still fresh, but a keen eye could tell he looked thinner than before.

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As the fight progressed, Bill moved faster and faster. but never quite as fast as he could.

Having fought in such a way to prevent the big man from moving too much, Bill set his trap until he was ready to execute it.

Waiting for his chance, the big man finally gave it to him, frustratingly yelling out: “GORILLA GRAB!” he overextended his reach giving Bill just enough time to duck down low to the ground.

Skidding under the gorilla’s reach, Bill sent his hair out to entangle its puny legs, and in one fell swoop, as the gorilla fell forward, Bill cut his hair, jumped into a backflip and yelled:

“GIANT STOMP!”

After Bill’s foot buried Hamburg’s face in the stone, he didn’t take time to hear the shrieks from Foxy and his Pirates and bounded off in the direction he had last heard grunts from.

Now running at top speed, Bill had randomly chosen the direction of Ranse fighting Capote, seeing Ranse on the ground looking up, and Capote saying: “Not fast now, eh? Let’s see how you do once I break those legs!”

Before Capote could stamp down, Bill was there yelling: “FIVE HIT COMBO!”

Taking Capote off guard, Bill quickly connected with a left hook followed by a right-left combination. Grabbing on one of the fishman shoulders, Bill hit with a nasty headbutt on its chin before finally connecting with an elbow to the side of its head.

As Capote fell over, Bill felt blood gush from his forehead. Woozy himself, he reached his hand out for Ranse and shouted: “Come on!”

 Decisively taking Bill’s hand, Ranse was pulled up quickly and the two ran off in Sasha’s direction.

Slower than he had been, Bill focused on both the fight in front of him and on closing the cut over his left eye.

Had he been in the right mind, he would have been surprised how well Sasha held the older girl off. Although she was out of breath, Sasha had stood her ground using a rotation of Ox and Plow stances while the two boys, both woozy and staggered made their way over.

Bill hadn’t cared to check on either of the men he had hit. By now his mind was running on one track, that track was, they had to finished one person off to make it a three on two fight.

After that, he would figure a way to win.

Ranse, for his part, was smart and while Bill ran to confront the blue-haired girl from the front, he ran to get behind her.

 As the girl was nearly in range, Bill sped up before the world slowed back down.

Bill: “!”

Wanting to look over, wanting to do anything, Bill found himself trapped again by the ‘slowmo photons’ as soon as he thought he saw victory.

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

Foxy: Using your hair to fight was clearly cheating! So, this evens up the odds! But if you win, you can go!”

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

To Bill’s absolute horror, as Foxy laughed and said this, the gorilla look-alike moved into Bills vision carrying a massive metallic club.

Also bleeding from his head, the large man looked at Bill and said: “I think this’ll teach you, real good.”

*Pupupupupupu!*

Having a laugh himself, the gorilla took a few test swings, like a batter going up to hit, and walked directly in front of Bill.

Seeing the man do this, Bill thought that not just his body, but the world slowed down, however nothing he could do made him move.

As the big man reared back to swing…

*BOOOM*

Having an explosion from nowhere hit his back, the gorilla’s eyes rolled back in his head. Bill knew it must have been Fia and was all of a sudden happy and worried.

He was not able to get away from Foxy, and now he figured Fia would also get captured.

With this in mind, he immediately scanned the rocks, desperately hoping to find her before the pirates did and tell her to run.

Looking up, Bill saw something familiar… not Fia but…?

Bill: “ITOMIMIZU! CHUNCHUN!”

Seeing salvation, Bill knew he was safe. This was the same weird-headed man riding the Super Sparrow who Ms. Angie had introduced to his pre-K class. He knew that the man was friendly, because if he wasn’t, it would have been impossible for them to have met.

Letting out a bizarre *WATHU???* confused sound the weird headed man yelled: “Kid?! Boss?!”

In his current state, Bill didn’t register everything and when the man landed down on Chunchun, he shouted out: “ITOMIMIZU! TAKE SASHA WITH RANSE AND RUN!”

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

Foxy: “Do you hear that boys?! This kid thinks Itomimizu is here to save him!”

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

Laughing smugly, he continued: “The kid doesn’t realize that with Itomimizu here, he’s completely lost the ability to run away!”

As Foxy said this, his faced changed and he said nastily: “And we’re going to find whoever hit our sweet Hamburg too!”

Hearing Foxy say this, Bill almost slumped down. He was beaten, tired, skinny, and bald. On top of that, Itomimizu’s betrayal had hurt his hopes.

With all of that, if Bill had been alone, he may have quit.

But he wasn’t alone, as soon as he wasn’t slowed, Bill had moved closer to Sasha – who by now had stopped her fight.

Just as Bill was about to curse the weird-headed man, he spoke out instead: “Boss! We have to run! Do you know who these kids are?!”

*Fuehfehfehfeh!*

Foxy: “Of course I know who these kids are! They’re going to be a part of our crew!”

Dumbfounded and scared at this, Itomimizu shook his head wildly: "No Boss! This is the son of Aramaki Ox! The whole town knows these kids are missing and the Marines are turning the place over! It won’t be long until-

*BOOOM!*

Hearing an explosion from the direction of the mill, everyone apart from Foxy started panicking.

Looking at the trio of kids, Foxy railed, this time in real anger: “You cheated again! You Deviants!”

Running past the kids, to the barge he continued on: “Boy! Don’t let me ever find you on the sea! You play dirty? Well, I can be dirtier!”

Seeing everyone shuffle off, Bill looked at Itomimizu with disgust and said: “So you’re a pirate. Does Chunchun even understand what you’re making him do?”

Waving his hands back and forth while shaking his head, Itomimizu answered frantically: “Kid! Being a pirate means freedom! Don’t you understand that there’s a whole world bearing down on us and only pirates can be free?

I’m sorry you had this happen! Really! But it sounds like the Marines will be here soon, and I have to run!”

Falling down on his butt, beside Ranse while Sasha barely remained standing, Bill looked at the weird-headed man and said evenly: “You have chosen to be a criminal and a robber. You think world is bearing down on you? Well in actuality, now you’ve chosen to bear down on it.”

Turning his head down, Bill said finally: “Itomimizu, don’t let me catch you because when I’m older there’s no way that two-bit pirate Foxy will be able to resist.”

Itomimizu looked at Bill for a long moment before quietly flying away.

Bill didn’t know what the man thought, but as the trio sat in silence, it wasn’t long before Marines flooded the smugglers harbor.