Journey to One Piece

135. Diable Jambe

While Ken was busy interviewing Jabra, Chopper, Nami, Robin and Vivi congratulated Luffy for his awakening of the Conqueror's Haki. This made the crew feel that their Captain was more reliable than he looked. Even though they had always had faith in him, this only served to confirm that their Captain could be taken seriously when it counted.

Luffy actually knew by that point that he would have to battle his way out and get stronger in order to defend his friends, his meat, and everything else he loved after having lived the life of Hiruzen and witnessed the wars. Since Ken insisted so often that they weren't actually strong on a larger scale, the character development that ought to have taken place after his encounter with Aokiji had already occurred for a considerable amount of time.

He had therefore always taken his training seriously. Although Luffy's urgency wasn't as strong as it had been following his near-death experience with Aokiji or Ace's death in the original story, he was still making headway towards greater strength much more quickly than Ken had anticipated.

Meanwhile, Jabra had his jaw on the floor hearing the words of Ken.

"You.. You.. Who are you?" Jabra asked, his voice faltering.

"Didn't you see the bounty posters or are you just playing dumb like you always love to do with your opponents?" Ken queried. Jabra was known for toying with his "prey" constantly. Ussop had once endured in Enies Lobby as a result of his antics.

Jabra had never experienced fear before in his entire existence. But he could certainly feel it here. He saw no other option but to fight this guy in the open. All this time he had manipulated the soldiers to do his bidding. When Vivi came forward to talk with the Rebel army, it was him who shot at Vivi couple of time after using Soru (very fast body movement, one of the styles of Rokushiki, also known as Navy 6 styles).

He had seen the Straw Hat crew in the bounty hunters, so he was aware that even for him, battling all of these men might be challenging. These people were not to be trifled with, as evidenced by the large bounty, which was placed on their heads by knowledgeable individuals.

Their bounty implied that they were worth exactly as many zeros as there were in the bounty. They might even be stronger than their bounties but there hadn't been a case where the bounty proved to be wrong. Though Jabra didn't think that these newbies would be more powerful than him but he didn't underestimate by many degrees like the other pirates and bounty hunters tended to do so.

"Shigan"

Jabra yelled and attempted to strike Ken with his finger acting as a gun. Just in time to avoid Jabra's strike, Ken dodged. Even though he was taken aback, Jabra wasn't demoralised by this evasion. He carried on with his next round of assaults.

"Shigan"

"Shigan"

"Shigan"

"Rankyaku."

Jabra became enraged and launched a longer-ranged assault after using several Shigan and failing to even tear Ken's cloth. The Rankyaku air slice attack could be launched with the feet, and it moved through the air at a fairly fast speed.

Ken decided not to dodge this Rankyaku and took the hit o his Stormbreaker. Ken could only respond to the assault head-on because he was still not skilled enough to cover the Stormbreaker with his Haki. The axe-hammer withstood the blow admirably, and Ken was only slightly shoved back.

The other soldiers of the Rebel army had faces like they have seen some of ghost. Truly, this appeared ghostly to them. Jabra moved far too quickly for them, and Ken's evasive manoeuvres appeared phantom to their eyes. They were unable to precisely track Ken's motions, and to them, he appeared to be completely immobile.

The other troops were forced to disperse after witnessing such an intense battle. Whatever level of brains these people had, they eventually realised that this soldier didn't precisely belong to their group and that perhaps this was done to trick them.

After witnessing Jabra engage in such combat manoeuvres, Koza was certain they had been duped. In fact, it was Jabra who had approached him a few days ago with proofs that the King was a scum and was exploiting his citizens. Koza was already enraged, and after viewing the purported proofs, he set out on a mission with the Rebel army to retake the nation he cherished.

But everything ended up being a massive hoax!

"Everyone get away from the two or else you will be hurt. As far as you can, leave." Koza yelled. There was no need to tell the men twice. They had already started to disperse. Jabra had a bad feeling when he noticed the folks avoiding him. He used Geppo to fly in the air and then give a kick on the side to catch one of the men that was flying by. These Straw hats might be just pirates but the way, Vivi had fiercely tried to stop them meant that the crew would care for the men here. In actuality, none of the blows aimed at the Rebel army were lethal, and the fire that lit their clothing was quickly put out by sand on the ground.

And in cases like these where there were many men and he was singled out, it was better to take hostage. As he was inches away from catching the neck of a feeling Rebel soldier, he was kicked right at the face with a fiery foot. He didn't even have time to sidestep because the foot was moving so quickly. The foot fire reached such a high degree that Jabra's side of the face was burned.

And that force was strong enough to blast a few metres away.

Of course, it was Sanji and the history almost repeated itself with Jabra.