Chapter 115: No peace till victory

Rick could hear the sound of battle as he made his way through the hole in the ceiling. The thunderous noise of weapons hitting each other hard and with gigantic strength. The tremors of the power of the exchanged hits could be seen through the building which was shaking and could be felt through the air. When he reached the surface, his eyes immediately darted towards the location of the fight. Something that hadn’t been difficult to do by following the sound, he didn’t even have to use his observation Haki for it.
Surprise took him when he saw Kaidou fight not Luffy, but someone he didn’t know. A woman in her mid to late twenties Rick guessed at first glance. She was tall, very tall, estimating her height at 8”5 at the very least and white hair arranged in a ponytail with some hint of aqua green and blue at the tip of them. She was dressed in a sleeveless white garment with a diamond-shaped design on both sides and a pair of red hakama with traditional japanese sandals. What was peculiar was her two red horns.
Two things stroke Rick right away. First she was a total knockout babe with breasts bigger than a watermelon, a nice figure on a well toned body. The second was that she was holding herself up against Kaidou and while the emperor was clearly the strongest of the two it was still an impressive feat.

When both fighters’ mace, laced with emperor Haki met, the woman was pushed back violently, clearly having lost the strength contest. Raising a hand he sprouted an arm on her and stopped her movement less than foot in front of him.

“Are you alright?” he asked the woman.
“Yes. Thank you for… Rick?” she asked as she saw who had helped her.
“Yes? Do we know each other?”
“Of course we… Oh, right you were blindfolded.”
“Oden?” he asked, his neurons finally connecting and recognizing the way of speech and her voice.
“Yes!” she said with a tired but genuine smile.
“I’m sorry, I thought… That you were a man.”
“I am a man!” she replied with a frown and discontentment.
“Oh! My apologies, with your appearance I thought… Nevermind, we have more important things to do.” he answered quickly in embarrassment.

Oden looked at him for a brief moment then softened her expression knowing that his comment had been genuine. She was worried though, Rick was implying that he was here to fight Kaidou but the way he looked was clearly indicating that he was not fit to fight.

“Rick, you should not…”
“Done with your talk? ‘Cause I’m getting bored here Yamato.”

Kaidou was fifteen feet away, his huge spiked mace resting on his shoulders, looking in annoyance at the duo.

‘Yamato?’ Rick thought, wondering why he was referring to Oden like that.
“My name is ODEN!” shouted the man back with venom.
“Will you ever stop with this silly name, son?”
‘Son?!’ “You’re his son?!” Rick exclaimed in surprise.
“Sadly.”
“We definitely need to speak but first he goes down.”

Oden nodded and took a battle stance, disregarding his body’s state. After all, staying and fighting was his choice and he would respect it. If he wanted to die in a worthy fight, who was he to stop him? That was the samurai’s way.

“Really?! You’re going to fight me when you have a foot already in the grave? You’re either brave or foolish but I respect that. Don’t die too quickly.” the emperor said to Rick.
“I’m well enough to have killed Big Mom, I’m well enough to kill you.”
“Lies! As if a runt like you could kill Lin Lin!”
“I did and with witnesses around. The bitch thought she was above me so I taught her her place. She died crawling like a worm.”

In a fit of rage, Kaidou made an over-head move with his mace, embedded with emperor Haki, and tried to hit Rick who simply dodge by quickly floating to the side while pushing Oden back. From there the fight became a bit of a cat and mouse game for Rick. He wasn’t mad enough to get into close quarters with Kaido, that was purely suicide so instead he hang at at distance and let Oden attack his father. Meanwhile, Rick simply made sure that his latest friend could dodge every hit coming his way but also his. He had tried dealing with Kaido the way he did with Big Mom but to no avail. It was like the yonko had armament haki constantly coursing through his body, protecting him from the effect of the black holes. If not for his help he provided Oden he would have been utterly useless in this confrontation.
He was more than an annoyance to the man, really and one that had reached his life expectancy. Kaido had had enough of his timely interferences and transformed into a huge dragon. An adult one, not like the teeny one Momonosuke was. Opening his maw, the emperor of the seas fired a blast right onto Rick. Quickly he tried to dodge but he was too close and the blast too wide. As he accepted that it was his end, Oden appeared right in front of him in a burst of speed and took the hit head on. With the difference in body size Rick was protected but Oden took more than the brunt of the attack even with armament haki covering his whole body.

“Oden!”
“I’m… fine. I suffered… worse.” he replied with a ragged breath.
“You shouldn’t have done that Yamato. Look at him, he’s already at death’s door with two feet in the grave. One just has to push his head into the ground.”
“He’s my friend!” he replied in defiance.
“You don’t have friends because all of them die!”
“Oden, no offense by your father is an asshole.”
“I know!”
“If you like your friend so much then die with him!”

Kaido began charging another fire blast and Rick knew that this time it was the end for good. Oden was not in condition to take another hit, not without recuperating for a few minutes and he was at his limits. His body was way beyond its limits and the mental strength he had left when Zoro freed him had been all used up by his hyper focus during the fight with Kaido. He hadn’t in him to properly pull Oden away or even himself. Once more he faced death right in the eye.

“It was nice knowing you O…”

In a flash, both Oden and he were on the other side of the roof held under someone ‘s familiar arms.

“Luffy!”
“Hey!”

Had Rick got the strength he would have kissed his captain right on the mouth for saving his and his friend’s life.

“Gosh, you shttink!” said Luffy as he made a crunched up and disgusted face.
“That’s why you should always at least wash yourself daily! You may not smell yourself but others sure can smell you!”
“I don’t smell! At least! Not like I’ve never taken a bath in my life!”
“Blame that asshole! He had me locked up for eight months!” Rick retorded.
“...He’s the reason why you looked like this?” inquired Luffy with a frown.
“..Yeah. Thanks to Oden, I could eat and drink a bit but…”

Luffy put his charges down, a mask of fury on his face.

“Can you make things float?”
“I can, but if you expect help during your fight, then no. It’s too much for me.”
“No. I can take Kaidou by myself. Momonosuke needs help, the island is going to crash on the capital.”
“Oh, boy. I don’t know, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good then here you go!” exclaimed the straw hat captain and tossed both Oden and Rick over the edge of the roof.
“Kick his ass!!”

The confident smile that his captain gave him reassured him a bit. Grabbing a screaming Oden as they freefall, he put a stop to it gently.

“Sorry for the uncomfortableness.” Rick said.

“It’s alright I’m used to it by now.” Oden replied with a tired grin.
“Let’s float down a bit and find Momonosuke. In my state I can’t make us float and make the island float at the same time. I could try but I don't want to see the consequences if I fail.”

Oden nodded and slowly, Rick shifted their gravity a bit, making them fall slowly. After a minute or two, trying to ignore the sounds and the rumble of the hits between Luffy and Kaido, they saw another adult dragon close to the very bottom of the island, trying to grab smoke clouds. The pink color of the beast made Rick instinctively recognize the one they were looking for.

“Lord Momonosuke!” Oden yelled as he waved his hand.

Turning around at his name being called, Momonuske, immediately moved at the sight of Yamato and Rick.

“Yamato and… you.” he said in a flat but yet a bit of a surprised tone at the sight of Rick. He hadn’t believed the others when they said that Rick would be there and called him a coward but to the young child's eyes it was clear he had been wrong. He has seen people like Rick during the eight months he had been in his homeland. Of people, dying of hunger. Putting the thought aside at what exactly happened, he didn’t move when both Yamato and Rick landed on his back.

“What happened, my lord? You weren’t so big an hour ago!”
“I had asked Shinobu to use her power on me. I was useless as a child but with an adult body…”
“I’m sorry, my lord.” Yamato replied in sympathy.
“It’s alright. As the lord of this country it is my duty to do all I can do to protect it and its people.  Growing up twenty years was a small price to pay.”
“You’ve… changed.” said Rick.
“I had too. It hasn’t been easy.  In fact, an hour ago I was still…” he began explaining but stopped himself as it was disgraceful for a lord to show weakness. “I remember you could make things float, could you…”
“Yes, I can. But I won’t be able to do it infinitely. I think it’s better if we land it.”
“We cannot. At the lowest basement are bombs that would explode if the impact is too big.”
“Hmm…Perhaps I can extract them from the island and send them away but I can’t make the island float and stop its advance at the same time. Maybe…” ‘Diana, do you think I could…
‘No. Now that I’m not blocking your powers anymore, you’re free of any physical strain while using them a lot, but you still need mental strength to do so. You don’t have enough currently.’
‘Any advice?”
‘If the kid can destroy the smoke clouds, you can gently lower the island to the ground. That should not detonate the bomb.’
‘Thank you.’ “ If you can get rid of the clouds I can lower the island to the ground slowly without setting off the bombs.”
“I… I can do that! I’ve been trying to take control of them and make them go elsewhere but couldn’t… Getting rid of them isn't a problem I think.”

With a nod from Rick, Momonosuke turned his head forward and flew towards the smoke clouds. Grabbing them with his claws he broke them apart easily. Rick immediately sprouted a hand on the bottom of the island and used his gravity, lowering it bit by bit as if it was a leaf slowly making its way down. Due to the pointed shape of the ripped up island this resulted in a tilt.

A scream of rage soon echoed through the area, clearly indicating that Kaido was pissed that his plans had been foiled. Wanting to go up there but knowing that he’d be a burden more than anything, Rick dismounted Momonosuke with Yamato and the trio went back inside the island to help anyone and anywhere they could. As a result of the fights that had occurred during the night there was a ton of debris. Debris that had crushed and blocked enemies and allies alike when the island tilted to the side. With Yamato’s strength and Rick’s gravity they saved as many allies as possible.

They reached a hall where they found Chopper and Reiju, taking care of wounded and injured. The reindeer at the sight of his vice captain went tear-eyed both of happiness for seeing him again and at the state he was in. He tried to tackle him in a hug but the horrid smell made him back out a dozen feet while holding his nose. Rick nervously chuckled at that.

“Sorry, Chopper. Kaido’s cells are not furnished with a shower.”

Nodding, the little doctor of the crew, signaled Reiju to take care of Rick but he declined saying that he was just weak and starved but not hurt unlike Oden who needed medical attention. The pink haired princess nodded and gave him a smile as she dragged Kaido’s son towards Chopper. Looking around, Rick saw Zoro laying on the ground in some sort of cocoon. Walking closer to his friend, he looked up towards a hole in the roof, paying attention to the sound of the battle between emperors.

“Found Robin?” said the swordsman.
“Yeah. Took care of Big Mom along the way.” Rick confessed as he sat down crossed-legged. At the look Zoro gave him he explained himself. “She’s dead. Shouldn’t have stood in my way.”
“...I’d like to hear that story. I’m curious how you did that with your condition.”

Rick nodded in agreement before speaking up. “It has to do with the sea devil. I… made a lot of discoveries about it and devil fruit during my captivity. It’s a rather long tale but the short answer is, it’s not making me work extra hard to use my power at its peak.”
“... I see.”
“...”
“...”
“You think Luffy is almost…”

He was interrupted by something tackling from the back and making him fall forward. 

“Riiick!” came the emotional voice of Nami.
“Na…”

“Arrrgh! You shtink!” she shouted as she separated immediately from him, pinching her nose. Sighing to himself, Rick used his gravity to pull himself up.

“I know.”
“What happened?! You’re all bones!” said Usopp from behind the redhead.
“No, that’s Brooks.”
“Yohohoho! That’s true!”

To the side, Brooks, Robin, Franky, and Baby-5 came to join the group.

“Wow, what the hell did you do?” asked the Cyborg.
“That conversation will have to wait.” Reiju interjected as she came out of nowhere and effortlessly picked Rick up with one arm. Her face was wearing a mask to deal with the horrendous smell.
“Come on! I’m fine!”” the straw hat vice captain tried to shout but it sounded more like a whine.
“That’s to the doctor to decide.”
“Chopper can’t approach me and you’re a nurse!”
“I’m just wearing a nurse uniform because it’s sexier.” she replied, smugness, teasing and flirting in her voice.

Walking to her makeshift station, she began to study him thoroughly.

“Anything you’d like to share.”
“Besides the starving, you mean?”
“Yes.” she replied with a frown as she saw red lines on his arms, going up towards his torso.
“I was crucified with seastone nails.”
“Hmm. That explains the sepsis.”
“What sepsis?” he inquired, confused.
“You see those red lines?” she asked and continued as he nodded. “ Typical of sepsis. Your body, despite his regenerative abilities, proof that you're not bleeding anymore, is not well.”
“Isn’t sepsis blood poisoning? I have a high resis…”
“It’s a mismonner. You’re not poisoned, you’re infected by bacterias. Considering that you’ve been… nailed for months it’s a miracle you’re still alive. Anyone with a body not as durable as yours would have died by now.”
“Can’t my body deal with it on its own?”
“It tries, at least I can tell since you’re still alive but it’s just slowing the sepsis down. Perhaps without the seastone it would have but the infection is pretty advanced and while I'm curious if your body could overcome it, I’m pretty sure with its state that it could not. I also don't want to risk my fiance’s life to quell my curiosity.” the pink head answered with an amused smile.
“Reiju…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll patch you up in no time. I’d say, in three days you’d be back to health.”
“That’s great.”
“Then you can nail me to the bed.” she announced with a smirk.

Any retort he had on the tip of his tongue and about to say was stopped when from the roof everyone saw Kaido being propelled towards the ground. It was so fast that most missed the emperor.

“Luffy won. I guess the war is over. And I didn’t even pass o…”

Just as he was about to pat himself on the back for not being unconscious for once, Reiju injected a sedative onto his neck making him fall asleep.