Echoes - Chapter 2

“Yo.”

As soon as Echo greeted the pirates, there was an uproar as shouts about an intruder were called out. At the same time a couple of guys pulled their swords and charged at him. To an untrained civilian these guys might have come across as intimidating. To a bounty hunter who'd taken out men with enough strength to rule East Blue? They were a joke.

Echo drew his own sword, sadly it was just a normal sword. He'd been unable to get himself a sword with a name. He might have been able to afford one if he hadn't given the majority of his bounty money to the people of his hometown. However, those people took care of him, raised him, protected him from pirate raids, trained him where they could, and all around made it so he lived long enough to become the bounty hunter he was. Still, his unnamed sword was decent workmanship and easy to handle.

As the men attacked him with their blades, he didn't even move to block or dodge, rather he let their blades harmlessly pass through his nice Logia body. The lack of resistance, or blood, from their attacks shocked the pirates and it was in that moment of shock that he struck. His own sword flashed through the air three times easily cutting through the clothing and flesh of the pirates. All three fell down with deadly wounds.

From the outside his sword strikes looked deadly accurate and made by a professional, at least to the pathetic rabble under Don Krieg. To Echo, his swordsmanship sucked. He mentally grumbled to himself, 'Damn Smoker, have you never picked up a sword before?'

He hated this particular drawback of his own ability. He wasn't the world's greatest swordsman or anything, he wouldn't dare compare himself to that man. However, he was somewhat accomplished being able to cut through steel and launch small wind blades. Smoker, on the other hand, seemed to be more of a brawler and using his abilities was limiting what Echo was capable of with his sword. It might have been better if he had his own jitte to use, but alas he did not.

Still grumbling to himself, he flicked the blood off of his sword and sheathed it. If Smoker sucked with a blade then he'd use hand-to-hand combat to deal with the Krieg pirates. By the time he started moving down the stairs the pirates below had all pulled out pistols and began firing at him with abandon. Before meeting Smoker the bullets would have been something to worry about and Echo would have had to be more cautious. Now? The bullets just passed through his body to pepper the stairs behind him. The only sign of their passing being little puffs and swirls of white smoke as the holes blown through his body automatically closed.

What followed next could only be classified as a slaughter. Anyone that came into sight of Echo ended up with a fist impacting their body with enough force to break bone. When he copied Smoker he also copied many of the man's moves, this was a portion of his ability that he loved. It let him learn how to use the abilities he copied within moments of copying them without having to go through the same trial and error attempts as the originals. Thus he was already using Smoker's moves such as 'White Blow' with the same precision and power as Smoker was capable of. Looked like he and Smoker were pretty close in physical strength.

It was only after he'd taken out over a dozen mooks that someone that had made a name for themselves finally showed. Don Krieg himself came out of the main cabin of the galleon and shouted at the top of his lungs, “What the hell is going on out here?!”

His wide eyes look over the bodies of his crew while the ones still standing start all shouting at once. For his part, Echo just sits still and lets them do whatever they want. Clearly the crew expects Krieg to take care of him and he's not the least bit worried. Once Krieg finally gets the details he can, he faces Echo with a sneer, “So you came out of nowhere, boarded my personal ship, and attacked my crew?” If possible his sneer grew, “I don't know if you're stupid or overconfident. Either way...” He turned his head and shouted, “PEARL!”

In no rush and honestly hoping to get the three with bounties all in one spot, Echo doesn't move. Rather, he takes a calm and relaxed position with his arms crossed over his chest while he leans on a railing. It takes a minute or two, during which no one really does anything except give Krieg more details of the fight, including what they'd seen Echo do. Hearing about it just makes Krieg scoff. Having never seen a Devil Fruit in action, or having set foot in the Grand Line, he has no concept of how truly weak he is and therefore dismisses anything outside of his experience as myth, legends, or drunken ramblings.

Finally, a truly massive man with a height closing in on two-hundred and fifty centimeters (nearly eight feet), climbs over the side of the galleon and stands on the deck. The huge man is sandwiched between two equally massive iron plates with huge pearls embedded in the center of them. He also wears smaller shields on his knees, elbows, and carries two in his hands, all with large pearls located in the center of them. Lastly, his brown shoes also contain another set of large pearls on the top of them with a final one topping the crown of his head.

Echo couldn't help wondering what the value of all those pearls would be. Especially with how large they were. Hell, they might be worth more than Pearl's actual bounty. Krieg, confident in the strength of his crew, gives Echo a cocky smirk while addressing his second unit commander, “Pearl, kill this fucking bounty hunter.”

Pearl lets out a cocky laugh while clanging his shields together like a cymbal monkey, “As you command Don Krieg!” He focuses his beady eyes on Echo, “I'm going to enjoy this little man! I've never lost a fight! In fifty-nine battles, I've never even shed a single drop of blood!”

Echo finally levers himself off the railing and uncrosses his arms, “That so?”

As Pearl opens his mouth, no doubt to make some comment to insult Echo or for some weak brag, Echo throws his right arm forward. His entire hand turns to smoke and blasts across the distance at extreme speed. Before anyone can react his smokey hand plunges into Pearls open mouth, down his throat, and into his lungs.

There were exclamations of shock and surprise from the mooks watching. They'd just been cheering Pearl on and now they were watching as Pearls face turned blue while he struggled to try and breath. See, it wasn't the flames that killed people in a house fire, it was smoke inhalation. With Echo's hand, converted into smoke, refusing to leave Pearl's lungs, the giant man couldn't breath and was suffocating to death.

While Pearl fell to his knees while scratching at his throat to try and get much needed air, Echo turned to look at the shocked and somewhat fearful face of Don Krieg. Seeing Echo staring at him in silence does more to terrify Krieg than he would ever willingly admit.

There is silence as no one moves, everyone's focus is on watching Pearl slowly suffocating to death. As Pearl collapses onto his face with his eyes rolled up in his head, white smoke leaks out of his mouth and nose to flow back to Echo where it reforms into his hand. Echo, still staring into Don Krieg's eyes, smirks, “He's only alive because he's worth more that way.” He takes his eyes off of Don Krieg and looks over the cowering mooks, “Unfortunately for all of you, you're worthless so there's no reason to spare any of you.”

As Echo stared at them as if they were the lowest forms of life, the mooks all found themselves taking a step back in fear. They'd just watch Echo easily handle one of their strongest fighters without even needing to break a sweat. Hell, it didn't look like he'd even put in any effort! Krieg, tired of being ignored and insulted shouted, “What the hell are you, you freak?!”

Echo slowly turned his focus to the nearly frothing Krieg. He'd forgotten his fear in his anger. Krieg was not a man used to being ignored. He was tall wearing a long fur covered cloak slightly reminiscent of the ones worn by Marines with a rank. Considering how often he pretended to be a Marine officer it wasn't such a surprise. Underneath the cloak he wore a simple patterned shirt and purple pants. Though anyone who looked could see a glint of gold colored armor near his neck that was clearly worn under the shirt.

Amazingly, Echo noted Krieg was actually a bit taller than Pearl had been. He couldn't help wondering if some giants blood had been diluted into the East Blue somehow as he had run into several people of unusual height so far. Echo was considered rather tall back home, and while he'd met people taller than him, he hadn't met people so much taller than him so often. It was rather odd, to him. For all he knew, it was perfectly normal here in East Blue.

Krieg took his eyes off of Echo and glared at his crew, “All of you! KILL HIM!”

Every member of the crew could hear the threat in Krieg's voice. They looked nervously between Echo and Krieg. Echo could see the moment they made their choice. They knew Echo had no mercy for them, he'd just flat out told them all he would kill them. Krieg, while a backstabbing bastard who couldn't be trusted, was far less likely to kill them at that moment. Unless they refused to attack, in which case Krieg would kill them all for sure. To them, it was a pretty obvious choice.

With angry roars, the mooks of the crew charged at Echo. They had no idea what his power was and it freaked them out. However, they believed that they could overwhelm him with numbers. They avoiced using firearms as they'd surrounded him, rather they all charged with swords and other melee weapons drawn to fight him in close quarters.

While Echo is pounding the crap out of the mooks, Krieg retreats into the cabin of the ship and sent one of his minions to get Gin, the combat commander of the Krieg Pirates. Gin was currently on his second largest ship running that crew through some drills for their trip into the Grand Line. He glanced at the door to his office where he could hear his crew getting the crap beat out of them. He didn't care. Eventually that Devil Fruit user would die to sheer numbers and exhaustion if nothing else. Still, he sent messengers out to pull people off of the other ships to really pile the bodies onto Echo.

Outside, Echo was having the time of his life. Back home pirates were always a big problem. His village had been raided a dozen times before he'd turned fifteen and had gained enough strength to actually fight back. He still had scars on his body from the wounds he'd gained doing so. It was probably something of a miracle that he was still alive. Or it was fully thanks to his ability to copy the skills of his opponents. Once he copied someone it all came down to a contest of physical strength. If he was stronger, he would win. It was thanks to his obsession with stopping pirates that he forced his body beyond its limits on a constant basis. He hated pirates with his entire being and wanted to put an end to the 'Pirate Era' with his own hands. That was his life's goal and he was determined to see it through or die trying.

Normally someone with his goals would have joined the Marines. In fact, Echo had planned to do so when he was a child. But when he was fifteen he'd learned that the Marines, the people meant to protect innocents and dispense justice, employed vicious and notorious pirates. As far as Echo was concerned, that willingness to forgive and work with evil people made the Marines less than they should be. It meant they were compromised, that they were willing to give in and accept the help of scumbags while protecting those bastards. Echo could never bring himself to work with pirates. Not unless his life depended on it.

He was self aware enough to know that sometime there might not be another choice. He'd only be willing to compromise himself to save his life so that he could continue his crusade. Dead he was useless. Dead he could never again capture a pirate and send them to the hell that was Impel Down. He'd only heard rumors of the place, but those rumors were enough to bring a smile to his face knowing he'd sent some pirates there. Not enough though, many pirates were just hung by the marines after being turned in.

So, he'd gone down the only other path available to him, Bounty Hunter. As a bounty hunter he got to kill pirates without consequence, capture the ones with bounties, and provide for his home island with the cash the bounties gave him. Thinking about it now, he couldn't help but smile at how much better being an independent bounty hunter was. Besides all that, he now knew he'd suck at taking orders. He was definitely far too independent for Marine rigidness and orders.

Case in point, as a Marine he wouldn't be smashing his fist into some mooks face like he was now. He wouldn't have several ships worth of mooks to enjoy beating the shit out of or outright killing. Some might think he was a monster but he didn't care. The pirates he killed were the true monsters, they chose to pillage, rape, and murder of their own free will. What was wrong with returning the favor on that last one?

So, Echo happily caved in faces with his fists until he noticed that no one had fired a shot in quite some time. That brought a smile to his face. As much as he liked Smoker's Devil Fruit, his other skills were pretty lacking. Clearly the man relied rather heavily on his Devil Fruit and hadn't developed his other skills nearly enough. That being the case he swapped to one of his favorite people. He didn't know the man's name, just that he was some petty officer he'd shook hands with after dropping off a bounty back home.

One might wonder why such a low ranking marine, barely above mook level, would be one of his favorites. It was simple really, for a low-level officer, the man had known some crazy martial arts. Echo expected that man would be promoted rather rapidly given his martial strength! Echo considered himself lucky to have learned the moves from that one handshake. He was working on incorporating them into his base abilities and the fastest way to do that was to use the skills in live combat and remember how to perform the moves when he wasn't copying the petty officer.

The moment he changed his selected abilities to emulate, his very being seemed to shift in an unidentifiable way. The pirates attacking him didn't have any time to register the change as Echo moved. His hands shot out at extreme speeds and plunged into their bodies leaving bullet-like holes where he struck them. This was probably Echo's least favorite ability among the martial arts, Shigan. It, essentially, let him use his finger to stab someone to death. Despite not liking it all that much, because sticking your finger in someone like that was kind of gross, he still practiced it as much as he could. If he ever lost his weapons and was stuck in melee combat, it was a good skill to fall back on. Punches and blunt force trauma were alright, a single stab to the heart was better.

His arms became a blur, each time they moved another pirate fell down dead. When one would get a little too close and swing their weapon at him, he would respond in one of two ways. If they were using a blunt weapon, such as a club or their fists, he used the martial art, Tekkai. This hardened his body to steel and let him easily shrug off the blows. The only downside was he couldn't move, at all, while using it.

On the other hand, if the weapon was edged like a knife or sword, he used the other defensive martial art, Kami-e. This one was kind of the opposite of Tekkai. Instead of stiffening up his body into iron or steel, it relaxed his entire body so he could flow around attacks like a piece of paper in the wind. With his personal fighting style, he preferred Kami-e over Tekkai, however he could see the benefits of knowing both of them so he didn't neglect either.

Once he finished dodging or blocking attacks, he used one of the two movement styles of the martial arts. His right leg turned into a blur as he kicked the ground several times near instantly. The blowback from doing so propelled him in his chosen direction faster than most eyes could follow. This one was known as Soru, a skill that let the user cover a short distance near instantaneously. He used it repeatedly to dash all over the main deck of the galleon. Everywhere he appeared holes appeared in pirate bodies turning them into corpses.

With his new speed, erratic attack pattern, and ability to either block or dodge any attacks, Echo ripped through the Krieg pirates with relative ease. He was making it harder on himself to practice the copied skills, but otherwise he went about his job in the most efficient way he could. It wasn't long until everyone on deck was either dead, or Echo.

Hearing no more sounds of combat, Krieg climbed to his feet with a smirk, “That'll teach that punk. Devil fruits mean nothing against a superior force!”

He threw his door open and stepped out into the light while shouting, “IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH TO...to...”

He trailed off as all he could see was dead crew and the young bastard standing in the middle of their corpses. Fury overtook Krieg's rational mind in that moment, “WHAT DID YOU DO YOU BASTARD?!”

Even as he asked he ripped off his coat and shirt, tossing them aside, to reveal the golden armor covering his torso... and only his torso. What kind of idiot leaves his legs so exposed like that if they're going to wear armor at all? Hell! Even his head was completely exposed! Though, he did pull on a pair of gauntlets that protected his hands and forearms. Practically frothing at the mouth, Don Krieg screams at Echo like a petulant child throwing a tantrum, “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?! I am DON KRIEG! I am the Pirate Admiral!”

Krieg lifted his hands up to show off the golden gloves covered in sparkling diamonds, “I have the best armor! The best weapons! The strength! The determination! The numbers! You will not defeat me! I WILL BE THE PIRATE KING!”

At that declaration, Echo vanished from where he was standing. Krieg's eyes didn't even have enough time to widen before Echo appeared behind him. Krieg started to turn to look at Echo before he found himself collapsing down to his knees. Surprise at falling was quickly followed by agony. He looks down in shock to see his knees had been destroyed, utterly obliterated.

“A king shouldn't kneel, ya know?”

The absolute loathing he put into the word 'king' would have had any nearby royalty demand Echo's head on a platter. Echo was done talking and acted. His whole body spun as he brought his leg up in a powerful spin kick that slammed into the side of Kriegs head with enough force to crack his skull and shatter his jaw. Krieg was out cold before his body slammed into the deck.

“DON KRIEG!”

----- Line Break -----

AN

This idea seriously wouldn't leave me alone. Sorry about that. I just hope it's at least entertaining enough until I can get another chapter of Fabricator of Biokinetic written out. Hopefully this is enough of this story for me to move on.

If you're a fan of One Piece, give me your thoughts on Echo and the story please. If not, I seriously hope this was at least enjoyable.