[12] Rematch; Baroque Works
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Chapter 12: Rematch; Baroque Works
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An average helicopter could fly at the speed of 257 kilometres per hour. However, Hashirama's wooden helicopter— being much lighter and the power source being much fiercer— was faster than that.
This wasn't his first time riding a helicopter, but it was the first time in this world. Only thanks to his Master's teaching, he had memorised the blueprint of a helicopter in his past life. If not for that, even without the engine and most other important parts, he may not be able to get this thing flying due to proportional problems.
But since he managed to make the thing work, he flew in the sky fast and soon found himself in the skies of Yuba, just above the place where the fight had taken place. Yet, neither Vivi nor Pell was anywhere to be seen, let alone the two Baroque Works' thugs.
At this point, Hashirama knew how to use Observation Haki, but he had created it to use in hand-to-hand combat, so it had a very limited range– not suitable for searching people.
That was one problem with OH, in the initial levels it only gave the benefits it was trained for.
Precisely because of his short ranged OH, Hashirama hadn't noticed Miss Valentine and later on Mr. Five's presence in the fight earlier. Unfortunately, that was also why he was having trouble finding the two criminals now that he was above the skies of Yuba.
Groaning to himself, Hashirama created wood clones on the cockpit of the copter, and each of them jumped down the moment they were created, moving to separate directions in search of the people.
Hashirama knew it was highly unlikely that they would kill Vivi, but he still felt anxious.
If they did kill her though, their fate was already sealed.
* * *
"Remind me why can't we kill the guard, at the very least?"
Mikita asked, grumbling to herself as she dragged the unconscious royal knight behind her, his face brushing against the sandy ground and surely getting quite hurt.
The unconscious Vivi on the other hand was on one side of Mr. Five's shoulder, as Mr. Zero ordered to not hurt Vivi more than necessary. The girl had tried to resist at first, but upon Mr. Five flicked a booger and made it explode metres in front of them, the girl had fallen real silent– allowing Mikita to knock her out cold.
"I don't know," Mr. Five said in a calm voice. "That's why we are going to find a place to stop and then call Miss All Sunday for her opinion."
Mikita groaned softly at that, but didn't complain any longer.
Mikita was 19 years old now, and had joined Baroque Works just a few months ago. After earning some personal bounty hunting achievements, she was invited to this organisation.
Apparently, the leader of this organisation, going by the code name Mr. Zero, was impressed with her work and wanted her in his organisation. Mikita only accepted because the pay was high and they also allowed her to cause violence without any restriction. She didn't want to lose the job just because she was in a bad mood.
"If I could see ghosts," Mikita said, stomping on the ground hard. "I would have grabbed that brat’s soul and choked him to death!"
"Is that so?"
“...!?”
The person who replied to her statement with a question wasn't Mr. Five.
No, even the usually stoic man beside her had frozen, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead as his eyes focused ahead, on the same spot where Mikita was looking at, with her eyes wide.
After walking for a while, the group had reached a village where quite a few abandoned houses rested. If she could remember correctly from the information she read, this place was abandoned by people who later on moved to Yuba. Some said this place was a ghost town.
A ghost town…
Was that why she was seeing that infuriating brat from before standing in front of her, leaning against the wall of a house with his arms crossed as he gave her a casual smirk?
Mikita ran, not fleeing, but forward. She had a huge grin on her face.
Ghost or illusion, whatever this may be, he was going to help her relieve stress.
When she was closer to him, she abruptly increased her weight to 10,000 KG! Using her shoulder to crash into him.
"Che," he clicked his tongue. "Don't be so agitated, pay attention to your surroundings."
The boy moved out of her way, stepping to the side, and right before Mikita crashed onto the wall, she noticed a huge wooden construct falling from the sky towards her. At a terrible speed.
'Oh no…!'
Then her shoulders hit the wall, and the wooden fly-like thing crashed onto her.
* * *
Hashirama would give the girl some credit, she wasn't that bad.
Landing on the ground after jumping from the helicopter that had just crashed a second ago, Hashirama looked up at the sky where Mikita had jumped at the last second by turning her weight into 1 kilogram.
"How are you alive?!" Mikita yelled, floating in the air thanks to her umbrella, and glaring at the Wood Clone that had lured her to the trap.
In the meantime, the original Hashirama who was in the helicopter had landed in a corner, out of both of the criminals' eyes.
One of Hashirama's clones had found the two criminals coming to this ghost town and had dispersed itself, letting the memory flow to all the other clones including the real body. The plan then was simple.
Now only one clone was activated, the one who Mikita was insulting. While the real Hashirama was flanking around them, waiting for an opportunity.
Hashirama was strong, stronger than the clone who had fought these two before, and also confident enough to defeat both of them at once. The problem was the hostages. Vivi and Pell. They might get hurt if Hashirama attacked outright and didn’t play smart.
He had to take out Mr. Five first. That guy was a bit too dangerous.
From a corner, Hashirama watched as his clone indulged in a dirty conversation filled with insults and whatnot with Mikita who refused to come down to the ground. She was clearly fearful that she would face the same vine-related fate she did just a while ago.
Using the opportunity, Mr. Five was loading his revolver from a corner to get a target on the clone. Except the real Hashirama was in another corner, his target already set on the shade-wearing man.
Hashirama knew he had to attack Mr. Five in a way that wouldn’t shock him too much which may force him to accidentally blow himself up, along with Vivi who was on his shoulders.
The problem was, attacking lightly wouldn't do either. Binding him would also not do since he was a living bomb unlike Mikita.
After five seconds of deep thinking, just as Mr. Five was about to pull the trigger, Hashirama mentally apologised to the man.
Then he gestured his fingers upwards, causing a rectangular shaft made of wood to erupt from the ground between Mr. Five's legs, rising up at a fast speed and hitting his balls.
Through his connection with the wood, Hashirama felt two little orbs shatter like eggshells, which in turn made him shudder in pain.
But he knew better than to waste time, as such a pain may make a man lose all his senses and blow himself up regardless, so even before Mr Five could realise the pain, Hashirama controlled more wood to attract him.
A wooden pole came from the front and another from behind Mr. Five's head. They hit his head at the same time, from front and behind, and Hashirama watched as the man shuddered before losing consciousness between the grip of the two blocks of wood.
"...Mr. Five?!"
Mikita noticed the incident from the sky and stopped arguing with the clone, looking down in horror as blood was trailing down Mr Five's pants.
"Oh no…"
Taking her shock as a chance, Hashirama nodded to his Wood Clone, who nodded back and then ran to grab Vivi and Pell before jumping out of the battlefield.
Now, only the original Hashirama and Mikita remained.
"Y-you will pay for this!"
Mikita said after noticing the escaping clone and looking at the real Hashirama. She finally understood how there were more than one Hashirama.
"Kgh…"
Mikita crouched in the air, glaring down at Hashirama and then she started to fall from the sky, coming at Hashirama at a terrible speed.
"10,000 Kilo Press!"
She yelled her technique's name aloud and then crashed onto the ground, as a result making the ground crack before the land erupted from inside out, the force making everything tremble as if an earthquake had hit and the ghost town was devastated.
– Bo…oom!
With that single attack, the ghost town ceased to exist on the map of Alabasta.
However, Hashirama was unscratched, having made a timely decision to jump high in the air just when she landed.
Mikita stood up from the rubble, dusting her clothes off with a satisfied smirk that froze once she noticed Hashirama facing her.
She immediately reduced her weight to jump in the air, but Hashirama had predicted so. Just when she was metres higher in the air, he clasped his hands together and controlled vines to erupt from the ground and grab her legs.
“Ah-”
Her expression turned horrific as she cried in surprise, the vines pulling her down while wrapping around all her limbs, with one extra vine wrapping around her waist and squeezing it.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!”
Miss Valentine kept yelling, her eyes teary and her face red from the lack of air.
“I will do a-anything you say! I will give you i-information! Stop this! This hurts! I am going to d-die at this rate! D-don’t kill me!”
Hashirama loosened the vines just a bit, enough to not kill her, and then pulled her down on the ground and made her land softly.
Mikita gasped in extreme relief. Now the look in her dark green eyes said that she understood the difference in power. Meaning that now—
She could be used for his benefit.
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Master4thWall Note: Funny how it's always the "Webnovel.com" readers who are mad. They're so disappointed because mc's WOOD-CLONE was caught off guard in a fight. Haha.