Chapter Three: The Thirty-Fingered Man

Ivalice, Shetoshia, September 15th, 1391 a.c.

The semi-finals of the tournament started normally. It was now down to Quel, Saida, Chuldo, the man who had held a rock as long as Quel, whose name was Jorgen, and four other shifty characters including one woman, two sword wielders and a misshapen man in a large cloak who hid his figure. Eight remained from what had once been over three-hundred and it was only day three. Currently Saida was on one end of the ring and Chuldo was on the other. They had somehow managed to meet up in the semi-finals and by the expressions on their faces they were both glad for it. Dong Dong was sitting next to Quel in the stands, both were watching the match start, occasionally visiting with each other as time passed by.

"My pa will beat yer friend mister." Dong Dong said matter-of-factly. "He's faced tougher foes than her before."

"I have no doubt he is strong, but I also know Saida is equally as strong if not stronger," Quel shrugged. "The match will end any debate soon enough."

"Yessir, it sure will," Dong Dong agreed. She swung her legs forwards and backwards through the air in front of her seat like any child her age would do. Her feet didn't quite reach the ground when she was in the stands anyway.

The referee announced Saida and Chuldo, listed the rules of the game and dashed out of the ring at full speed. Saida and Chuldo stood still as stone, regarding one another sternly. Then Chudlo ended the staring contest by charging straight at Saida screaming taunts. Saida calmly waited for him to arrive. When he got within striking range he let loose with a strong right jab at her midsection that Saida leapt over, landing on his extended arm as he retracted it. He swiped at her with his left arm and she jumped up even higher and did a diving kick straight at his head, which he ducked. Saida grabbed his ponytail as she fell and pulled him over backwards.

The impact was loud and raised a fair amount of dust as Chuldo slammed into the ground. Saida used this opportunity to leap up into the air and do another diving kick, this time with both feet. Chuldo, seeing her decent, used a last resort defense.

"INVINCIBLE STEEL ARMOR!" cried Chuldo, making spikes shoot out all over his armor. Each spike seemed to extend differently from its brethren but all of the spikes extended at least four feet out with the highest being five feet. His spiky armor literally raised Chuldo off of the ground. It lacked enough impetus to dig through the sun baked earth that was the arena floor. Saida was on a crash course for serious injury, or even death if she landed badly. Quel's heart raced in fear as adrenaline shot through his system. He could save her if he wanted to, but she would be disqualified and angry, very angry. This was her fight and he had best stay out of it.

His worries were needless as Saida had the situation well in hand. She saw the giant nasty spikes shoot out of Chuldo's armor right below her, their sharp points glinting wickedly in the sunlight. She had her own burst of adrenaline shoot through her lithe body and as she fell towards Chuldo she cocked both her arms backwards, bent her legs at the knee and punched both arms forwards, snapping her upper torso forwards.

Two powerful shock waves shot out of Saida's fists and slammed into Chuldo and his spiky armor. He was smashed into the ground, making a crater all around his form at least three feet deep, cracks spiraling outwards and dust rising up high into the sky. Saida was lifted by her own shock waves and used their updraft to throw herself to the side of Chuldo. She landed on the outside of the crater as the dust cloud formed a blanket over the arena, blocking vision of the battle for a few seconds. When the dust cleared it revealed Chuldo getting shakily up on his feet, coughing up a bit of blood and glaring at Saida out of his right eye, his left eye was swollen had retracted the spikes into his armor again otherwise he would still have been staked into the ground.

"Do you yield big guy?" Saida asked, smiling in a predatory fashion and breathing a bit faster than usual.

"N-never! It takes more than these flea bites t' fell me lass!" roared Chuldo, standing up to his full height and managing not to wobble at all.

The fight continued. Saida and Chuldo raced at each other and met in the center of the arena. Saida leaped up and was level with Chudlo's head as they met. She was tucked into a ball. Chuldo aimed a strong right hook at Saida's small form, planning on sending her flying out of the ring. Saida had no chance of dodging, nor did she intend to. As their collision was about to happen Saida snapped her legs out in front of her, planting a double kick on Chuldo's fist, breaking a few of his fingers. Chuldo let out a yowl of pain and anger and managed to hit Saida with a strong left hook, sending her flying through the air. Saida had blocked his fist with both of her forearms, but the blow still sent her flying to land near the edge of the arena's ring. She had the wind knocked out of her from both the force of his blow and her painful landing. The end of the arena was right behind her, her hair billowed in the breeze over the edge.

Chuldo rushed Saida, as was his custom, and Saida met him head on, which was her custom as well. This time they didn't break apart immediately. They exchanged blows with their fists and kept at it for over two full minutes; raining blows onto each other and grunting in pain whenever one manage to get past their guard to impact on their torsos or heads. Saida now had a cut lip and Chuldo had a lump over his right eye and he was bleeding from a cut over his left eye. Finally Chuldo picked Saida up and tossed her high into the air. Saida flipped at the top of her ascent and rapidly punched the air in Chuldo's direction as she descended, sending multiple shock waves out of her fists that smashed Chuldo into the ground and continued to slam him further down with every impact. She stopped and dropped the last few feet to the ground, rolling to lessen the impact. Chuldo was very still, immobile and seemingly unconscious.

Then he groaned and staggered up onto his knees and then, with heavily shaking limbs, he managed to stand back up. Saida was breathing heavily from the exertion, covered in sweat and he was breathing heavily from the punishment of it all, bleeding and sweating profusely. He was on his last legs and he knew it, but he would not yield. It was as admirable as it was foolish. Looking over at Dong Dong, Quel could see she was worried and doing her best to hide it. If he interfered they would both be disqualified, so Quel stayed put. Chuldo raised his head high and looked at Saida defiantly. She in turn stood to her full height and regarded him with equal defiance.

"I will retire for now lass," Chuldo said nonchalantly. "Chuldo, King of Destruction doesn't fight girls."

"Then what do you call what we've been doing for the past ten minutes?" asked Saida irately gesturing at the battlefield. "A lark!?" she yelled, furious.

"N-no, I was jus' exercisin' and now I can see you are no match for me, so I'm lettin' ye off the hook lass." Chuldo grinned arrogantly. "Bwa-ha-ha! Consider yerself saved lass!"

Chuldo, King of Destruction never saw Saida's fist coming due to the fact that he had his eyes closed as he laughed. When he awoke ten minutes later in the underground assembly area where all of the contestants had gathered in the beginning of the tournament he found only Dong Dong looking at him with a sad frown on her face.

"Arrrrgh, I underestimated that lass," Chuldo groaned. "She be a most dangerous foe."

Dong Dong shook her head wearily. "You were a bit too easy on her Chuldo," she said.

Chuldo couldn't argue with that, he had been off his game lately.

Back in the arena the semi-finals were coming to a close and it was Quel's turn to enter the ring. Saida gave him a half hearted grin as he stood up to leave for his match. He barely noticed the cut lip.

"Good luck Quel, I doubt you'll need it, but for some reason I feel like saying it."

"Thanks Saida. I can always accept good will from a girl like you." And then with a wink he was gone, reappearing at the edge of the arena, ready to go.

His opponent was a man wearing a cloak with his face hidden in the darkness of the hood. As Quel appeared he pulled back his hood to reveal a battered and scarred face that had seen many things, least among them peace. He unsheathed a short sword from his belt and snapped his left wrist, extending a long staff in that hand that was made out of some hard metal. Quel nodded his head in reflection. This looked to be an average fight, easily won if he played it safe. But Quel was tired of playing things safe, using his abilities to garner easy victories. This time he would play the way his opponent did and go for close quarters combat. Drawing his own cutlass from over his right shoulder, Quel did one practice swing before he charged his foe at a run. Quel's opponent responded by jogging forwards and positioning his staff behind his back, short sword extended forwards and down. It was a good position for countering.

A sudden movement at the edge of Quel's sight prompted him to halt his charge and see what the cause of the movement was. A misshapen man had clambered out onto the arena and was trying to walk forwards to where Quel and his opponent were fighting. Two security guards for the tournament were running out to stop the man from interrupting the match any more than he already had. Quel and his opponent regarded one another and nodded at each other, halting their advance. They had silently agreed to wait until this disturbance was handled before continuing their fight.

That was when everything fell apart.

The misshapen man struggled out of, in fact tearing to pieces, his large beat up cloak. Underneath it was revealed he had a gray complexion, red armor and six arms! A wave of disbelief and dread overcame Quel, making him almost fall over. The misshapen man drew forth six varied weapons and laughed all the while. He tossed two throwing stars at the security guards, aiming for their heads and killing them instantly.

"Ha-ha-ha! You can't forget me Quelly! I told you I'd find you." Grinning wildly, but not madly the misshapen man approached steadily.

"You're supposed to be dead Gilgamesh!" yelled Quel, anger and sorrow warring for control within him.

Quel's first opponent didn't understand what was happening in front of him and he also didn't care. He didn't last very long as he picked Gilgamesh as his first target and tried to stab him at close range with his short sword, but he didn't even get that far. He made it three steps before Gil's throwing stars took him in the chest, ending his fight. By now Quel and Gil were only separated by ten feet. Quel knew he had little choice. He had to bring out the big guns, his last resort weapon: his zanpakuto: Kaze no Koe. Quel reached over his left shoulder, drawing forth his zanpakuto and raising both swords for battle. Gil eyed this new weapon, undoubtedly remembering the last time he had fought it.

"That sword will be mine this time," Gilgamesh said. "And your head along with it!"

"Clichéd banter will kill me if your blades won't!" laughed Quel. "And for the last time, you can't use this sword even if you tried, moron!"

By now the crowd's anxiety was palpable and security guards could be heard racing towards the fight. Quel could see Saida standing and looking at him with both wariness and suspicion in her eyes. He couldn't focus on any of that now, Gilgamesh was one of the most dangerous and powerful enemies he had ever faced or heard of and he needed all of his concentration to stand a chance at surviving, let alone winning.

Gilgamesh raised his three swords up high and sliced downwards with them, two were wielded by his right arms and one was wielded by one of his left arms. Quel dodged to the side and blocked the three throwing stars that had been dirtily tossed at his torso when Gil had slashed downwards. All three throwing stars bounced off his cutlasses' hilt in quick succession. Now it was Quel's turn to strike and he wasted no time in using his zanpakuto. Raising it up over his head he slashed downwards and unleashed crescent wave of energy that shot out at Gilgamesh fast as a bullet, slamming into his upraised three swords. He managed to block the full force of the energy wave on his three swords, but he was still pushed backward four feet. Quel used the distraction to teleport behind Gil and slash at his exposed back, but Gil had anticipated that and had his naginata positioned to stab backwards. Quel had to fall over backwards instead and throw his left hand out to catch himself to avoid the vicious blow.

Gilgamesh jumped backwards, over Quel, spinning a mace on the end of a chain and throwing more throwing stars at Quel. Quel had to block all of the throwing stars with his zanpakuto and on his back no less. When he got back to his feet he had to immediately jump to his right as the mace came slamming down, creating a small crater and kicking up dust and debris. By then twenty-plus security guards had arrived, all with guns pointed at Quel and Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh responded to the overt threat of the guards by stabbing two of his swords into the ground and forming a set of rapid hands sign with his now free appendages. Quel, knowing what was coming yelled a warning but was too late as Gil finished his hand signs and breathed a huge wall of fire that immolated all of the security guards, some of whom managed to get off a few panicked shots before being cooked alive in their armor. It was a deadly fire jutsu.

Gilgamesh was now involving passersby by in their fight and Quel would not stand that. Putting all of his rage and remorse over the needless deaths—even if they were hired thugs—he unleashed a devastating ability of his zanpakuto.

"Okotte iru Tatsumaki!" yelled Quel at the top of his lungs as he raised his zanpakuto over his head and slashed it down and forwards, straight at Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh looked back at Quel from his quick survey of the dying guards to see a giant tornado suddenly sprout into existence and race towards him, blotting out the sky and sucking up all loose debris. Everything weighing less than two tons got sucked into the tornado, such as bodies, rocks and other paraphernalia. Before Gil had time to move the tornado swept over him and sucked him up high into its midst, battering and beating him with the debris inside it and disorienting him as it spun him about faster than the eye could see. Gil's flames were snuffed out by the gale force winds as the tornado grew to encompass the center of the arena, deafening in its intensity and might.

Quel used the time he had bought to teleport back to Saida's side, appearing in front of her, making her jump in surprise.

"Are you coming with me?!" he yelled over the sound of the wind. He held out his hand to her as they were both buffeted by the winds.

Pausing only to think it over for a brief two seconds Saida nodded her head. "Yes!" she yelled back.

She grasped Quel's hand in her own and tried to smile, her hair got stuck in her right eye and before she could move it Quel had teleported them both back to his ship. Saida was a bit disoriented, this being her first time teleporting with Quel. It was an entirely different world from where they had been a second ago, though the tornado was still visible as a dark blotch in the distance. It was quiet and the sounds of normalcy echoed out of the city proper to this section of the aerodrome.

Quel was already walking towards his ship when Saida recovered.

"Wait a minute!" she said. "What was that back there?!"

"Later," he said over his shoulder, still walking. "As soon as we get somewhere safe I'll tell you what that was all about. But not until then, okay?"

"…Fine," Saida said quietly, eyes downcast. "I am mostly certain I want to hear what you have to say."

"That's a good thing, I think?"

"Yeah," she said following him. "I think you shady and naive, but I somehow feel like traveling with you anyway. Against all of my common sense."

"No, no," Quel said sarcastically. "Tell me how you really feel."

After they had taken off, bypassing air control and no doubt having a minor bounty placed on their heads, Quel put his ship on autopilot over the inland sea as they flew over it again, this time heading north northwest.

Quel turned and faced Saida. "What would you like to know first?"

She undid the ribbon holding her hair up and ran her hands through it, letting it hang around her shoulders. "How do you know that man?"

Quel looked out of the cockpit for a second, blocking out everything by looking at the sea and sky. Finally he turned back and regarded Saida carefully. "We used to be friends a long time ago."

Saida remained quiet, so Quel continued.

"I won't bother telling you the exact year and date, but I will tell you that I was the best of friends with Gilgamesh. We traveled all over the Circle together. That was back when his brother Enkidu was alive. We were quite the terrible trio." Quel smiled as he recalled long buried memories before a frown claimed his face and his brow furrowed in thought. His next words were soft enough that Saida had to strain a little to hear him. "It was very sudden, our falling out. We met a man by the name of Djkarta. He caused a rift to form between the two brothers and I. There was a terrible fight and in this fight Enkidu lost his life. Gilgamesh blames me for his death and I blame Djkarta. Gilgamesh doesn't see things that way, so he has pursued me for years, single-mindedly determined to kill me for a wrong I know I didn't commit."

Quel stopped and looked Saida in the eye, trying to evaluate what she thought of his tale.

She tilted her head coyly to one side, teasing him. "Is that all you have to say? Not how Enkidu died, or how Djkarta could destroy your friendship so easily?"

"Enkidu fell into the abyss that is at the center of the Core Islands." Quel said somberly. "Why was my friendship tarnished with Gil? He wanted two things I would never give him: my zanpakuto and the keys to pillage my family's graveyard."

Saida hadn't been expecting that answer. "Why would he want that?" she asked incredulously.

Quel shrugged. "Gil has always been a collector of rare swords and my zanpakuto, being the only zanpakuto that has a physical body besides its reitsu one, is a one of a kind blade. My family's graveyard is said to hold many powerful artifacts, but Gil didn't really want that, Djkarta did." Quel grimaced. "What Djkarta wanted, Gilgamesh supplied."

Saida remained silent for many minutes processing it all. Quel turned back to his controls, taking the ship off of autopilot.

"Not sure how I feel about telling you all of this..." Quel mused aloud.

"Why?" Saida asked. "Because you don't like being honest?"

"No," Quel said. "Because I don't like talking about my past, sordid details and all."

"This wasn't such a big eye opener Quel, get over yourself."

"Excuse me for being private woman," Quel said frowning. "You haven't been that honest with me and I hate giving away potentially dangerous information."

"How was it dangerous to share what you just did?" she said angrily. "What the hell do you think I'm going to do with it?"

"Nothing! But with most people this kind of information could get me into a world of trouble. You could sabotage my ship, poison me and call Gil to come finish me off, or something."

"Well aren't you a paranoid psycho," Saida was now incensed. "If you really think that little of me then I think I need to get off this ship."

"I don't!" Quel said loudly. "I just..."

"Just what?" Saida asked. "Are you afraid?"

"One step before that, actually." Quel said. "I'm in new territory sharing things like this with someone I've barely just met. It's going to take more time for me to feel comfortable around you Saida."

"Hell, I'd think you daft in the head if you weren't a little cautious," She hunkered down into her chair a little more. "Sorry," she said softly.

"No need to apologize. That was crazy back there. We just need to calm down and evaluate what we want to do next."

She didn't reply and a tense silence, the antithesis to the comfortable silence that had developed on their southern journey to Despian Isle, clogged the air. A lot of time passed, enough for her to think of and toss about numerous plans of action. Hours came and went like this and all the while Quel let her think. When he saw her shift in her seat as if to get up he knew it was time to settle things between them.

"I'll drop you off anywhere you want to go," he said into the silence.

Saida didn't respond, making Quel fidget slightly, wondering what she was thinking about. Probably thinks I'm deceiving her somehow. Well I sorta am. I won't tell her about my family yet.

"I want to stay with you," she said quietly, making Quel turn to regard her in surprise. She was smiling, showing a bashful side to her personality Quel had heretofore not seen.

His mouth dropped open, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He was completely caught off guard by her feelings for him. Who knew she liked me that much!?

Saida teasingly punched his right shoulder as she made her way to the small lounge. "Come on, don't be so surprised. You still owe me for ruining my chances at winning that tournament. I estimate that's about 10,000 in prize money. You've got a lot to make up to me"

Quel's mouth was now hanging open for a very different reason, smile effectively turned upside down. From the warm tender heart of a woman to the cold clammy fingers of a miser. She just rocked my socks off and not in a good way!