𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 17 🎄⛄

Loud banging dragged Nanko out of his slumber. Already used to the daily occurrence, he barely flinched when the door opened with a bang and a strawberry blonde barged in.

"Today is the day of the tournament blue brat, don't tell me you forgot?"

Nanko groaned as the light streamed in from the now opened window, " 'Morning, princess."

He rolled away in his bed, avoiding the punch as a twitching Hina glared at the back of his skull, "Don't call me princess!"

"Fine..." Nanko stretched as he got up and went to his private bathroom. "-princess." He chuckled as he heard her curse behind his back.

Finally dressed in a loose white shirt and tight-fitted black pants, Nanko chatted with Hina. The crowd parted for the duo, their gazes still expressing their bafflement as to the strangely matched friendship. One was walking straight, with a non-lit cigarette between their lips and the other was smirking while playing with his katana handle.

When they first saw the two talking, they thought Nanko was in trouble, Hina wasn't exactly known for her kindness to deviants. Only to see her burst into laughter. As time passed and they stuck together, most got used to the strange pair.

"Thanks," Nanko grinned as she stole Hina's dessert from her tray, a chocolate-flavored cake with a strawberry on top. Hina didn't bother fighting for it as she knew Nanko's love for sweet treats.

"Speed up we're late." She said with no real desire to hurry up, instead watching with a hint of fondness as Nanko munched on his cake.

The earth startled trembling and shoutings made themselves heard from not too far away. "Ah, it's starting," she commented almost idly as she got up. The canteen was long deserted, people all heading towards the main center of entertainment.

Nanko looked at her with that glint in his eyes that made a shiver run down her spine.

His slender fingers brought the strawberry to his mouth and with a wolf-like snap, the fruit disappeared. "Time to go!"

They slipped through the crowd with ease, enjoying their feared reputation.

"Marines under lieutenants grade are requested on the platform.", a voice announced to the bustling crowd as groups formed

Nanko turned his head towards Hina. "Good luck, princess." "You too, blue brat, you better not lose." They fist-bumped before heading to their respective stages.

As he stood on the stage amongst close to a hundred others, Nanko stretched his fingers, his posture that of a predator stalking his prey. An empty circle formed around him as his competitors took their distance.

"The competition is now starting! Do your best!" The stadium erupted into a massive cheer, this was the occasion for the lower-ranked to get noticed and nobody wanted to miss the opportunity. The higher-ups watched with the hope of recruiting into their own ranks a talented but malleable newbie.

Nanko could feel the hungry gazes on himself, and the former ninja in himself wanted to remain in the shadows and get rid of the over present attention, but he suppressed the urge. Now was not the time to remain hidden. It was time to shine.

With this thought in mind, he fought.

Bodies flew as did his fists. His smirk brought fear to his opponent, and they did their best to stop the trembling. In an unplanned consensus, all attacked him, with all sorts of weapons. It was a sight to behold, one that attracted the attention of the audience who watched with heated breaths. This would without doubt determine Konan's future status in the Marine.

The dust gathered and a silence ensued before a loud bang-that stopped all the fights in the other arenas-resounded. Time seemed to stop. Before long, they could see waves of people knocked away from the center of the arena where a blue-haired man stood, his fist still touching the now crater-like floor.

"... Ladies and gentlemen, arena 3 has a winner!" The announcer was on his feet and leaning over the edge of his box, "Nanko!!!" The whole stadium got up and shoutings resounded through the whole island dedicated to the annual competition.

Meanwhile, in arena 2, Hina smiled proudly at the s she was in a deadlock with her former white-haired comrade. "Told you he would win!"

Her adversary let out a puff of smoke, two cigars resting between his lips, "Nanko was it..."

Hina vaguely sensed the interest and defensively reminded, "You better not touch him, Smoker."

"Ha! We'll see," he smirked, a part of his body turning to smoke as her blade thrust through.

Meanwhile, Nanko went off towards the backstages, hoping no one saw how his arms trembled. After making sure he was alone, he finally relaxed and allowed himself to wince. His arms ached, and just lifting his shirt, he could see the bruise starting to form. What he did was a trick he learned from his once enemy, pink-haired medic, Sakura. He channeled chakra into his arms to punch a crater into the floor, successfully blowing all the others away. Sakura had warned him it would hurt a lot the first time but he wasn't expecting to have to use it so soon, he wanted to wait longer for his chakra reserves to be larger before attempting this in his current body.

Nanko felt exhausted and he could feel the transformation jutsu being lifted from lack of chakra.

Now back to being a purple-haired woman, Konan's expressions morphed back to a calm and neutral face, one devoid of emotions. She relished in the almost foreign feeling of her body.

While ignoring the tremor running through the stadium, she started meditating, carefully heightening her senses to probe her surroundings.

With her eyes closed, she could clearly see the fight going on on the other side of the walls. Unnoticed by anyone but a few, there was an increase of butterflies that would normally avoid noise and huge disturbances.

All the arenas had finished their fights, save for arena 1 from which she could see a massive green dinosaur swooping his opponents away. As for arena 2, the fight ended with a grey-haired smoking man as the winner. Her heartbeat quickened as she could only see blood in the arena. After a moment of flying around, she finally found a patch of strawberry blonde hair, Hina was walking around the bleachers, looking and searching for something, or someone, probably Nanko. Apart from a few bruises, she wasn't injured much to Konan's relief.