A New Path - Chapter 200

A week or so after the events of Enies Lobby, a certain crew had grown immensely in notoriety. The Straw hat crew were now world-famous for their involvement in the destruction of Enies Lobby. Amell and the Gotei couldn’t get any more famous then they were so their name mixed in with the story served to propel Luffy’s fame further.

The straw hat had moved on and now they were currently busy with battling one of the Warlords of the sea. Gecko Moria had made his home on the floating island ship called Thriller bark. Luffy and his crew had just finished their mini-war with Moria. They were helping out a friendly skeleton named Brook and they were resting now that Luffy had fallen unconscious and Moria was defeated.

The crew sat with a bunch of other pirates who had been trapped here on this island thanks to Moria and his powers of shadows. By using that power, Moria could steal shadows and take away the ability to walk in the sun. People who walked under direct sunlight would evaporate slowly and painfully.

The castle on the island had almost completely collapsed and among all the rubble sat everyone that was alive to experience the sensation of freedom.

Through the presence of the snail-phone, his presence was made known just in time for when Nami remembered meeting him. Sitting high upon the collapsed castle tower sat Bartholomew Kuma, another Warlord just like Moria.

“I completely forgot about him, you guys! This is serious, he is dangerous!” Nami said and pointed at Kuma up there on the rubble. Robin immediately recognizes him as her job with Crocodile forced her to know all other Warlords. “That’s Bartholomew Kuma!” Robin said slowly.

“Kuma? Who’s that?” Usopp asked, not yet registering the danger they were in.

“A warlord just like Moria or Crocodile.”

“ANOTHER ONE!?” Chopper and Usopp yelled simultaneously in despair. Their crew Could just barely defeat Moria, and now someone just as strong, or, maybe even stronger appeared here on this island.

“Nico Robin, granddaughter of Emperor Amell.” Kuma turned and said stoically as he put away the snail-phone. His apathetic look made him even more intimidating to be around.

“WHAT?!” The people around the crew screamed and backed away from her in fear. Robin herself looked up at Kuma, “What do you want with us?”

“Obliterate!” Kuma appeared behind Zoro without anyone seeing how or when he had moved. Before any obliteration could be done to any of them, something came and slammed into Kuma’s chest that made him fly away and crash into the rubble.

“WHAAAT! WHAT HAPPENED!?” Chopper ran over and his behind Sanji’s leg. Usopp and Nami hid behind Robin and Zoro drew his sword on reflex.

“Bad kitty, Bartholomew Kuma!” A low whisper, almost sensual voice sounded out behind Robin. Everyone looked back and saw a man standing there with clown inspired makeup on his face and with quite revealing clothes on his body.

“ANOTHER ONE? WE ARE SO DEAD!” Usopp didn’t know who this was but he just assumed everyone was out to kill them at this point.

“What a funny little boy!” Hisoka said while leaning forward and licking his lips.

“GET AWAY!!” Usopp used his long slingshot to wave in Hisoka’s general direction. He was too scared to look so he waved around his weapon with closed eyes.

“Hisoka The Insane” Kuma climbed out from the rubble with little to no reaction to Hisoka’s arrival.

“Hisoka?!” Sanji looked the clown up and down and then turned his eyes to Robin. “This is Hisoka? Do you know him?” What met his gaze was Robin’s silent nod.

“Robin here is my little sweet pea!” Hisoka wrapped his arm around her with a smile that wasn’t quite a traditional smile. Zoro felt the feeling of disgust build up inside as he saw that smile.

“Changing strategy. This became troublesome.” Kuma changed to a horse stance and started throwing attacks made up of compressed air at the crew. These attacks were super quick and as deadly as Doflamingo’s strings.

“Diamond Reflection!” Hisoka threw one of his playing cards against the incoming barrage. The card expanded and became a translucent diamond-shaped shield that reflected all the attacks back at the Warlord. This time the attacks travelled even faster and sent Kuma crashing into the rubble again.

“Thank you, Hisoka!” Robin said and gave a slight bow.

“Just doing my duty, sweetpea!”

“What are you doing here by the way? Shouldn’t you be in the New World?” Robin knew that the commanders rarely spent time in Paradise, and most of them were too focused on dealing with their duties in the New World.

“I got a distress signal from my subordinate so I came here to check it out! I had no idea that the distress signal was because of you guys.” Hisoka laughed to himself.

“Your subordinate?” Sanji asked carefully.

“That annoying sack of shit over there!” Hisoka pointed at Moria with a smile.

“You? He works for you?” Brook the skeleton narrowed his hollow eyes at Hisoka. “Were you the one that ordered him to take my shadow?” He was close to drawing his sword and attacking Hisoka.

“Your shadow? No, I don’t care about that. Moria is my spy inside the Marines. Though, now that his position may be compromised he is useless to me.” Hisoka shook his head in disappointment. “What a waste.” He turned around and blocked another punch from Kuma that had appeared behind him. The shockwave of their clashed caused the people around including the Straw hats to be swept away from them both. After their clash, both of them disappeared from view. The only thing they all could see were the explosions that came from all around then. Sometimes the explosions came from a hundred meters away and sometimes it all erupted right next to them.

“What speed, I can’t even see them!” Sanji said. He was trying to look for them but to no avail. He couldn’t even get a glimpse. Right next to Zoro came to a sudden large object crashing down. That something was Kuma. His body was wrecked beyond recognition, but what nobody was expecting was what they saw. “A cyborg?” Zoro said after seeing his body.

“Vegapunk!” Hisoka appeared next to Zoro with no visible injuries on his body. “That’s the guy who did that to Kuma. This Warlord used to be a human.”

“Is this the difference between Paradise and New World?” Sanji asked carefully. Hisoka wasn’t gonna harm them with Robin here, he understood that much, but this level of power still scared him. Hisoka was like Amell or Toshiro or even Lubbock. So many levels above them that they couldn’t see that level.

“You kids shouldn’t think about the New World yet. You are not even close to being ready for that. Especially not with what’s to come.” Hisoka suddenly held in his hand the joker. He threw the card at Kuma’s very damaged body and did a strange hand sign. Kuma’s body got sucked into the card and instead of the joker appearing on the surface of the card, Kuma replaced it.

“I-I’m so glad he is with us!” Usopp whispered to Nami while his whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Hisoka looked back with on eye closed and his head tilted slightly upwards, “Me too, little Usopp!”

“AAAH! HE KNOWS MY NAME!!” Usopp back off very far very quickly.

“Hisoka!” Zoro turned to the clown with a serious expression. “Is Kenshin in the New World?” His question caused Hisoka to tilt his head in confusion.

“What do you need him for?”

“He is the greatest swordsman in the world! My goal is to beat him!” Zoro said and Hisoka immediately started to laugh.

“You want to beat him? Boy, as you are now, he could kill you with a toothpick. But, to answer your question. He is in the New World, in a country named Wano. Though let me tell you this. If you can’t beat Mihawk first, Kenshin will never accept your challenge. So, defeat Mihawk first, then Kenshin might accept a dual with you.” Hisoka was still chuckling. Kenshin was among the most powerful in the Gotei. Zoro defeating him was something Hisoka didn’t even consider being possible in the next century.

“Laugh all you want! When I see you again in the New World I will make you regret ever laughing!” Zoro fainted soon after saying that as the constant fighting and taking heavy damage from their fight with Moria overwhelmed him finally.

“Robin, what an interesting crew you joined. Take care of yourself, and I’ll see you all in the New World. That is if you can survive that long! Hahaha!” Hisoka and his laughter disappeared as he faded out like the morning mist.

“I-Is it finally over?!” Chopper managed to squeeze out between all his shaking and crying.

“Yes, now we can finally rest!” Sanji said and sat down on the ground. “Why do I have the feeling that things will only get worse from here?” He said and looked at Zoro.

“We are heading into the New World, right? Did you hear Hisoka? We are guaranteed to die!” Usopp said from his position behind some rubble far from them all.

“Maybe you’re right. It’s been a pleasure!” Sanji said as he too fainted.