Hey y'all, sorry for the delay. I've been at some dance performances, and I had a few last minute projects due in school. I think I should be able to get some chapters up now though.

A decently long chapter with the finale to everyone's fights.

Enjoy!

-Kai


~Regular POV~
"A weapons master, I see," Robin said as arms appeared everywhere to catch all manner of weapons: knives, scythes, those ninja throwing stars (shuriken, Robin remembered), swords, Robin swore she even saw maces and a few axes.

"Those hands must come in handy, eh?" Suka grinned, twirling a chain with a scythe attached to the end. "Wish I had those." The scythe came hurtling towards Robin at a dangerous speed, pointy end first. Robin dodged it and caught it with one of her many hands, twirling it back at her opponent.

"Indeed, it seems like you would put them to very good use," Robin commented as she hurled the weapons back to their owner. The girl was much more coordinated than she let on, however, and she caught each weapon and placed it back in her arsenal of weapons she had not yet used. "You seem to be doing fine without the extra arms though."

"Yup, but think of how much more I could do with them!" Suka said cheerfully as she pulled out a staff. She vaulted it like a pro, landing on her feet, swinging the staff at Robin. The archeologist caught the blow with an arm, extra hands cushioning the blow. Suka dropped the staff and swept a leg under Robin, hoping to knock her off balance. Robin took a light jump back to dodge it and swung the staff down on the girl, who expertly caught it and spun it above her head, ready for the next attack. Robin smiled.

"I do believe this could be quite a match," Robin said. Suka grinned.

"Yup!"


"Wait, we can't even WATCH!" Luffy complained when Chieko and Hiromi told the two crews to return to their rooms. Chieko shook her head.

"I'm afraid not," she said. "Part of the individual battles is to be able to fight without the support of your crew. Please return to your rooms and we will inform you when and who is the victor of the battles." The remainder of the Straw Hat crew looked at each other exasperatedly, and the Silver Dragons looked just as worried.

"They'll be fine," Sanji said at last. "C'mon, you know them. They won't lose." Only somewhat convinced, the Straw Hats reluctantly returned to their room. Most of them were worried at least to a slight degree.

"Sanji is right," Luffy declared. "They'll win for sure. So we gotta stop worrying and believe in them!"

"Yeah, the only thing we can do now is wait for them," Nami agreed.

And so they waited and hoped and believed.


Len pulled the goggles over his eyes and from his pocket pulled out a flute. Brook unsheathed his sword and prepared himself.

"Is that your weapon?" Brook asked in mild surprise. This was a first: nobody he had met so far had ever used an instrument as a weapon.

"Yup!" Len said cheerfully, swinging the flute. To Brook's surprise, the flute extended into a metal staff.

"I see," Brook murmured. Len grinned and charged. The ring of metal clashing with metal resounded through the air. "Are you not worried about your instrument being broken?"

"Suka made it for me," Len answered, whirling around and parrying Brook's swing. "All of her creations, mostly weapons, are made from the toughest steel. It won't even scratch."

"Oh? We'll see about that," Brook chuckled, slashing at the staff. Len blocked the blow with both hands, but to his surprise a small scratch appeared where Brook had hit. Len grinned.

"Nice," he murmured. "It's been a while since I've had a challenge..."


Ryuu snarled and snapped at Chopper, who squeaked, "Walk point!" and dodged the hyena's teeth. The beast turned and stared the reindeer down, growls erupting from its throat and its mouth locked in a permanent snarl.

"Heavy point!" Chopper transformed into his "human" form and began attacking his opponent, who clumsily dodged out of the way. Chopper leaped back, leaving a healthy distance between the two, and transformed to his Brain Point. He decided he needed to use a Rumble Ball, NOW. Ryuu had already begun snapping at his limbs and many times Chopper had barely escaped.

"Rumble!" Chopper bit into the pill. "Scope!" Aha! His stomach! "Jump point!" The reindeer leaped high above his opponent's head, landing behind the bewildered hyena. He slid under the beast, quickly changed into Arm point and punched Ryuu's stomach. The hyena whimpered and was sent flying.

And it simply lay there.

~Ammy's POV~

Instinct.

That's all I was going on now. Kill or be killed, hunt or be hunted. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, kill for a kill.

Well. There was only one person available for killing in return for over a dozen. But it would have to do.

They say that love is blind. If that is so, then hate and rage are senseless. They block out everything and all is seen through a red haze.

Absently, I remembered that the red was blood.

A scream. It wasn't mine; that's all that mattered.

Fires burned all over the room. Somewhere in my mind, I recalled that I had caused those.

Frost covered her coat. I envied her somewhat; the heat was near unbearable. As I reflexively used my beads to cool myself down, I thought that she might be too cold.

The door opened and Chieko walked in. Emotionless, she escorted me out, passing her brother as he entered. When I saw him next, he was dragging Shirayuki's limp body out of the burning room.

~Zoro's POV~

When I first saw the kid, I knew he was gonna be tough. But I hadn't expected him to be at this level of difficulty.

We spent the first several minutes poised for battle, daring the other to make the first move with our eyes. In the end, young will be as young are, impatient and frustrated, he gave in and charged, sword flashing in the light.

Hmph. No wasted or excess movement, so efficient and movements so perfect, lacking sloppiness, that it was nearly scary.

With two quick slashes almost too quick for the eye to see, he nearly stabbed my face and cut the bandanna off my arm. My eyes narrowed as I quickly changed from defense to offense.

But fuck, was the kid fast! He was dodging so quickly he was a blur and I had a hard time pinpointing where he was in that mess. It was like trying to cut down a feather; it just won't stop damn moving!

I growled in frustration and finally gave up, leaping back to leave a healthy distance between us. I took a deep breath to steady myself, pulling the bandanna off my arm and tying it on my head, as was my habit when I became serious. The kid readied himself in a single, swift, fluid motion, not slowing down to be dramatic like some fools did. I smirked.

Heh. This kid was serious business.

In the same instant, we leaped at each other, metal clashing with a clear ring resounding through the air. We began the deadly dance of blades, weaving in and out, parrying and dodging stabs and slashes, each barely avoiding being cut to ribbons.

Finally, I slashed at him with a sword, which he blocked, and added the other two swords to add even more pressure as he slowly began to slide back. His eyes darted behind him, mouth locked in a snarl when he realized he was close to being cornered with his back to the wall. His eyes turned back to me with new determination. When his feet touched the wall, he jumped up and kicked off the wall, soaring above my head. I whirled around just in time to block his sword, which would have cut across my back if I had been a second late.

Now I was the one cornered. But hell, I don't care if the kid was the second best fucking swordsman in the world, there was no way I was losing. With one arm already keeping him occupied, I swung at him with my other, the blade nearly taking his head off had he not quickly retreated. I maneuvered myself away from the wall and once again, we were at stalemate.

The kid muttered something under his breath that I couldn't hear.

"Ah? Say again?" I asked, readying myself.

"We're too evenly matched," he murmured, louder this time so that I heard.

"I agree with you on that one. We could be here for quite a while if just want us to duke it out till one of us loses," I answered. I could've ended this with one of my special moves, but most of them would've blown the room to pieces and others I didn't want to resort to till I lost my swords or something other than that. But I had a suspicion that he was holding back as well for similar reasons.

"So let's end this," the kid said, slowly raising his sword toward my neck. I suddenly realized what he was doing and I raised my sword as well. Now both of us had a sword at each other's necks. The slightest wrong move and either of us could easily kill each other.

Neither of us moved. Neither of us could move. All we could do was wait until someone realized that it was taking too long and came to get us to declare out match a draw.

~Regular POV~

Chopper stared at Ryuu's limp body warily in case the beast stood back up. When the hyena didn't move, Chopper cautiously took a step towards it.

The next thing Chopper knew was that he was bleeding with three claws stuck in his stomach, pinned against the wall with Ryuu's face in front of his, eyes glowing blood red.

How... And then Chopper fainted.


To Brook's surprise, Len folded his flute into its original form.

"What do you intend to do with it in that form?" the skeleton asked, readying his sword.

"Do you really think I'd tell an enemy?" Len sneered as he placed the flute to his lips. "Even if he is an awesome walking, talking pile of bones?"

"I shall take that as a compliment," Brook answered in a low, dangerous tone, tipping his hat lower. "Very well. En guard!" He held his sword up and Len placed the flute to his lips.

Then he began to play.


Robin shifted her stance as she realized that Suka was attacking with a different tactic. Rather than throwing the weapons concealed all over her body, she was now using them as they were made to be used. Robin smiled and began to fight seriously as the younger girl came at her with a sword.

"Clutch!" Suka stopped abruptly in her tracks as arms sprouted from her back and began to grab her in a way that would easily snap her neck. With a single, fluid movement, the girl sheathed her sword, grabbed a dagger that was just beneath it from its hilt and stabbed its blade into the nearest arm. Robin flinched as a trickle of blood appeared on both the stabbed arm and on her own arm. Suka smirked as she pulled the dagger out with a sickening squelch and raised it for another jab. The arms quickly disappeared and the girl quietly sheathed the dagger and withdrew her sword once more.

"Found out your weak spot, eh?" Suka grinned. Robin was unfazed as she wiped away the blood.

"Seis Fleur Twist," she said calmly, as arms once more protruded from Suka and began to twist her around in an abnormal way. For good measure, Robin added a few more arms to grasp the girl's arm so that she wouldn't be able to reach any of her weapons.

Or so the archeologist thought.

Suka had inched her way over to the staff that was laying discarded on the ground. This she kicked up with her foot and grabbed with her hand. Despite her limited movement, she managed to beat the arms away. Robin stubbornly held on, refusing to lose her grasp as she tightened her hold, slowly twisting the girl more and more to the point where her back was about to break. Suka clenched her teeth in pain but didn't cry out, something that Robin admired. In a last ditch effort, the girl twisted her neck and bit into one of the arms with teeth sharper than they appeared. Robin winced and twisted a bit more, not wanting to rob the girl of her life just yet, but not wanting to submit either. Silently, Robin hoped that the girl would give up so that she wouldn't need to kill her.

Neither woman released their holds, Suka biting harder and harder as Robin twisted her back as slowly as she could. Though that would prolong the pain, Robin rationalized, it would give the girl more time to think things through and forfeit. Finally, the girl's spinal cord was at its limit and there was a sickening crack heard. With a quick cry of pain, Suka loosened her jaw and crumpled to the ground as Robin's arms disappeared, leaving a deep, bleeding bite mark and a bloody wound on each of her real arms. Robin's gaze softened as she looked down at the girl.

"It was a good battle," she said softly. "I hope you have someone to live for... And make sure you don't disappoint them with death."

Then the raven-haired archeologist left the room.


Brook's brain (if he had one, being a skeleton) felt like it was splitting in half.

Len played and swayed to the music, the sounds emitted from the flute so high pitched that it was barely within the range of human hearing, yet played so loudly that it made Brook's ears ache. The skeleton was surprised that they hadn't started bleeding yet.

Brook knew that if he was to stop the hell-music, he had to get the flute away from Len. But the pain was so unbearable that he could. Not. Fucking. MOVE!

Len's lips formed a smirk against the cold metal as he continued to play. He had accomplished his goal. Now if he wanted to win this rather than paralyze and torture his opponent, he had to step it up a bit.

The music changed from an earsplitting noise to a low tone that nearly lulled Brook to sleep. He managed to keep on his feet, but his recovery from the high-pitched screeches before was not so quick. Sluggishly, he began to move towards Len when suddenly his vision became darker and blurry. The skeleton froze in his tracks.

Hypnosis? Brook wondered, somehow managing to think coherently. This suspicion was confirmed when the boy's form changed from normal to a blur of colors. The world that Brook saw changed drastically. Suddenly, he found himself in a room full of flames, unbearable heat licking at him.

Must be hell, he managed to think. But how is he able to stand it? He's not covering his ears...

But the goggles covered his eyes. Brook suddenly realized how Len's fighting style worked. The sound affected the brain waves so that you saw images, and according to the image your brain registered what it thought it should: pain if you saw yourself getting "hurt", heat if you "saw" flames.
A wonderful trick, Brook thought. And I have no tactic to counter it...
And the skeleton collapsed on the ground.

Len smirked and stopped playing, pulling his goggles to his forehead once more.

"Good game, Mr. Skeleton," he commented, tossing the flute into the air. He watched it spiral a few times in the air before walking away, catching it behind his back with his other hand without a backwards glance.

~Zoro's POV~

I knew that they were gonna take a while, since the rules of the game were to, "Fight until one is dead or otherwise incapable of fighting back," and the two of us were most certainly capable of fighting. Neither of us had even gotten serious yet, but we both knew that when we did, the match would end with both of us unconscious or dead, and the risk of death was just not fucking worth it.

But my arm was tired. It. Was. Very. Fucking. Tired. And I wasn't alone, the kid looked just as irritated, annoyed, impatient, and tired as I was.

Hell, we had been standing there for what must've been a good two hours with our swords at each other's necks, not moving an inch. If we did, we would've killed the other. That was a cheap shot. And honorable swordsmen don't do cheap shots.

Where are those two? I nearly growled out loud, but managed to simply think it in my mind. I know for a fact that they watch the battles. Otherwise, how the hell would they know when a person loses? OK, so maybe they think that we might start fighting again. But we've been standing here like statues for at LEAST two and a half hours and they STILL AREN'T HERE. GOD DAMMIT.

"They are beginning to get on my nerves," the boy snarled impatiently. I saw his sword waver a tiny bit, and my eyes narrowed. If his arm got tired...

Then the door opened. FINALLY. Thank God... even though I'm an atheist.

"It's about fucking time," I snarled as Chieko walked in.

"We had to make sure," she said, apologetic. "This match will be declared a draw, the only draw in the history of these games. You may lower your weapons. Your other teammates have concluded their matches two and a half hours ago, with two losses and two wins to each side." The kid and I lowered our swords, sheathing them as we followed the woman out of the room.

"So which team advances?" I asked.

"Both," she replied. "Hiromi will take you to your crew, Mason-san. Zoro-san, please follow me." The kid and I exchanged a glance and nod, and he went off to follow the woman's brother.

"Who won and who lost?" I asked as we arrived at the Straw Hat's room.

"Chopper-san and Brook-san have lost and both are injured rather severely, but both will survive," she informed me quietly. "Kenya-san and some of our medics are attending to them at the moment. Amaterasu-san and Robin-san have both won, both them and their opponents injured as well. There were no casualties this round."

"Hm... Thanks," I said, entering the room. Robin, Ammy, Chopper, and Brook were all being wrapped in bandages. Well... Not really Brook. Not much you can do about a skeleton. And from what I could tell, he hadn't been injured much. So how did he lose?

"You may call either me or my brother if you are in need of assistance," Chieko said, bowing. "The medics will leave shortly after they finish treating your crew mates." I waved a hand absently, and she left. I observed all of their injuries. I, like Brook, hadn't been hurt so nobody came to treat me. Chopper was probably the most severely injured: he had three bloody gashes on his stomach that looked pretty bad. Robin had a few cuts and what seemed like a bite mark on her arms, but was otherwise uninjured. Ammy looked fine except for a few minor cuts here and there. The medics finished up and left.

"So..." Franky looked at the five of us. "Anybody gonna tell us how their battles went?"

~Kenya's POV~

I didn't hear what Zoro-nii and the others were saying as they described their fights, prompted by Franky-nii. The moment Zoro-nii had entered the room, I had begun to feel a chill that reached my bones. In an attempt to keep myself warm and protected from the sudden biting cold, I had curled up into fetal position with my back to a corner of the room. No one had paid attention to me since they were all absorbed in the telling of the battles.

No one seemed to notice the cold either.

For no reason, memories had begun flooding my brain, mostly of Mason and the times before the islanders had accepted me, with a few images of Kyuubou and Kyonda thrown into the mix.

"Kenny!"

Emerald green eyes, messy light brown hair.

"Hey, Mase. Your mom finally let you out?"

"Yeah. She's so frustrating."

"I had to work for a long time before she let me take a break."

"It's worth it to see you though."

"Wolf child, Devil child, Wild child!"

"Hehe, you guys are so cute! I gotta name you guys. Oh, I know! The fox will be Kyuubou and the ferret will be Kyonda! We're gonna be bestest friends!"

"You live with a wolf?"

"Ammy is really nice. She takes care of me like a real mom!"

"Hey Macy.

He looked like he hadn't been living for the past three months.

"I feel terrible. I... I told my mom about you. You know how parents gossip."

I didn't, but I nodded anyways.

"Ken... I'm so sorry..."

"I can take this."

"No, you can't."

"No one can carry the sea."

Kyuubou and Kyonda's frantic thoughts shot across my brain, showing me images of where they were and what they were doing. They were tailing Ammy. And Ammy was going straight for Mason.
I don't know why, but I was scared. For Mason.

What is she doing? Kyuubou and Kyonda told me.

No! No, no, no, NO! MASON!

"Kenya?" The captain's curious and worried voice broke me out of my memories.

More like my nightmare, I thought, snorting.

Then I realized that everyone had broken the conversation and was staring at me, worried looks etched onto their faces. I was curled up, hugging my knees to my chest, rocking back and forth almost violently, eyes wide and quietly but frantically whispering, "No, no, no," over and over again to myself.

"I... I'm OK," I said, blinking as I realized there were tears in my eyes. I wiped them away and smiled the fake smile I had perfected over the years. "Really."

"Like hell you are," I heard Zoro-nii mutter. The others nodded in agreement. I sighed, knowing that they were right and that they wouldn't back down.

"Just gimme a minute then," I said. The others backed off, knowing that nothing would come of it if they questioned me now.

"I'm already dead," I whispered quietly to myself. "My emotions have abandoned me."

"We are all dead from the moment we are born."

I couldn't tell who told me that.


Just a warning, the next couple chapters are a bit depressing. Don't worry, it'll get back up to cheerful and happy after a bit.

Reviews/criticism/comments/questions?

Don't forget to check out Paths to a Dead Heart, Ryuu's counterpart to this story. It gives a different version of this story, kind of like xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, if you know what I mean.

-Air Beast

(KAI)