Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. All rights go to the respective owners.

And here it is, a day later than I planned for it be, but hey, sometimes things just go like that. Enjoy ^_^

Oh yeah, almost forgot. We're double digit chapters now!

New World Bound

Chapter 10: Fighters of the Karkade Division

There was the sudden sound of metal clashing on metal as the two weapon masters collided with equally powerful blows. The water below the wooden dock they stood upon shook violently just from the force of their weapons colliding. They seemed to be at a stalemate as the two of them pressed on their weapon to attempt to gain the upper hand in this power struggle. It was Haze's nodachi against Rin's naginata. Both weapons essentially were used for the same purpose when it came to combat as well as had equal reach to each other. No weapon held an advantage over the other.

As Rin stepped back to make distance between them once again their weapon grinded against eachother slightly and sparks flew into the air. Neither weapon had been damaged, indicating that the quality of both of them was pretty high.

Rin looked back to Haze as the swordsman had begun to breath heavily, the mermaid couldn't help but spread her lips into a small smirk. "Come on dear, I haven't even gotten serious yet and you're already beginning to tire?" She commented with disappointed sarcasm.

Rin seemed to be enjoying this, but Haze on the other hand was only serving to grow angrier. This mermaid was making a joke out of this while her captain's life was on the line. Every moment wasted fighting her was time that could be potentially spent helping. "How about you just get out of my way before I do get serious?"

Rin adjusted her hair slightly as she talked. She had stabbed her naginata into the ground and was hardly even paying attention to Haze at this point, obviously an attempt to annoy her. "You know, I never did understand you pirates. Such selfish people you are. Stealing from innocent people and sailing the seas causing trouble. Yet you always say you have some kind of honor amongst yourselves. It doesn't make sense."

A slightly red aura ran down the length of Haze's arm and down to the blade of her sword. In one might swing she fired off an arc of this energy at the mermaid. Rin got a tight grip on her weapon and instantly pulled it out from the wood. As she did so she managed to pull out a chunk of the deck as well as bringing up a surge of water to counter the energy attack.

Rin laughed now. "It's all too easy to get into the heads of you pirates. Get a little riled up and you're suddenly so reckless."

Haze didn't seem to hear her say this though. By using the sudden splash of water as cover she had already moved in on the marine and was in perfect striking distance. "Hana-Kai!" She called her attack while making a swing at the mermaid's chest. Rin seemed to be caught off guard at first glance, but quickly regained composure and swung her blade down in a quick slash.

Their weapons collided and Rin successfully deflected the attack, though it didn't end there. "Undertow Crush!" She commanded as she used the momentum of the swing to keep her weapon going. Her naginata spun around in her hand so that it was now being held upside down. It continued to swing downward and as Haze's body was now wide open, the butt of the handled slammed into her head. The swordsman was then pushed down and pinned to the dock by pure strength alone. She struggled for breath as Rin began to press harder on her chest.

Laying the sword to her side, she took a grasp on the weapons handle and swung it behind her, lifting Rin up as well and throwing the pink haired woman across the dock. Haze was quick to get back on her feet and leaped into the air before Rin could get up as well.

As she came down her sword began to glow a bright red. Rin had no time to get up to avoid this attack, she'd have to block it instead. She raised the naginata and used the length of the handle to block. As Haze made contact there was a sudden explosion of red energy and a torrent of water splashing upwards. "Hanazono! (Flower Garden)" She screamed in the midst of the attack. Around the area there were bits of red energy floating on the dock and atop the water, giving the vicinity the look of an actual flower bed. Where Rin had once been was now just a massive hole in the deck.

Haze exhaled slightly as sweat ran down from her forehead. The energy of her weapon shifted from red back to its usual pink and the fight was over. The swordsman was exhausted. Resheathing her blade she slowly approached the veiled ship from before, but stopped. The fight wasn't over yet.

"Don't take me so lightly! It truly is insulting to be underestimated by a pirate of all people." The mermaid actually sounded angered for once since the fight had started. The blade of her naginata suddenly stabbed into a side of the deck and raced down to the other end, moving like a bladed shark fin. Haze raced to get off the dock, but its wooden support had been cut and it not fell into the water below. It managed to stay a float but rocked back and forth dangerously.

This was not good. Making her way to the end of the dock to escape she was stopped by a sudden waved rising from the water. She grabbed hold of the edge of the dock and held tightly as the wave crashed down on her. The worst thing she could right now was to have an attack like that draw her into the water. When she opened here eyes again she was soaked to the bone and had been drawn out in the middle of the water. It was a good thirty feet or so from where they previously were.

The blade of the naginata suddenly rose from the water like a shark fin once again and swam around curiously. "I see you managed to stay top side huh? Oh well, it's only a matter of time before the shark manages to get their prey." The blade suddenly raced forward towards Haze and she rolled across the deck to avoid, being careful not to accidently go over the edge and into the water.

Looking back at the new makeshift raft it had now been effectively cut in half and the other half now sinking. "You're just going to continue cutting away at it until I'm forced into the water!"

"Oh, you're smarter than the average pirate aren't you?" Rin commented and charged again.

x-x-x-x

Charlotte grinned evilly, something that caught Takato off guard. "You won't make it past this street pirate!" She charged at him. Takato really didn't want to waste time fighting her, but with such reckless fighting tactics this wouldn't take long. He quickly loaded an arrow and fired at the marine but once it made contact it passed straight through her body and out the other side.

"A logia!" Takato's eyes went wide.

Charlotte placed her hand on Takato's chest; he had still been momentarily frozen by the shock of her devil fruit ability. As she did this, her arm suddenly molded into an odd black liquid. It dripped to the floor and actually spread a bit across his chest. "Clean Sweep!" A sudden surge of the liquid fired from her arm and propelled Takato backwards and into the wall of a building. It managed to hold him there as he struggled to move.

"What is this stuff? It's so thick and adhesive." He muttered to himself, he was getting nowhere trying to get out of the stuff.

"That doesn't matter to you. Now I'll be taking you to the prison for tonight." She fired a small orb of the liquid and it managed to stick to Takato's mouth and nose, preventing him for breathing. He could tell that she would just wait until he passed out and then take him away. That couldn't happen.

Underneath the black mass of sludge one of his hands managed to get hold of one of his knives and he quickly sliced his way free. Removing the liquid from his face he breathed heavily to get oxygen back in his system.

Charlotte however was not pleased by this at all, a black orb of the liquid began to from and take shape around Takato's head, though he quickly sliced this open and escaped once again. "You keep doing this and I'll be forced to use lethal attacks pirate!" She screamed out in frustration and forced the sludge still stuck to the wall to shoot out in spikes.

Takato managed to duck and roll away from these attacks but still took several cuts and stabs. He stopped in place though and spat out bits of the black stuff. "I know what you're made of now. This should be a pretty simple fight." He reached into his quiver and pulled out a Gunpowder Bolt. "You're logia is made of tar, which is a flammable substance. Goodbye, Tar Woman" He loaded the bolt and fired.

Just before it made contact with the logia user however she split her body in half and let it pass through the opening. The arrow went on and exploded as it made contact with a nearby building.

"You're pretty smart to guess my logia, but don't ever call me Tar Woman again! Before he could put the next bolt to the bow the tar on the ground began to move swell into the shape of four large hands, each one grabbing one of Takato's limbs. "You ruined my clothing with that stunt earlier and made me dirty. Filth is a sin! A horrible, horrible sin! Pirates are probably the filthiest things in this world though, so if I must lower myself to the level of hideous tar to cleanse the world, then I will."

He used the bolt he had previously prepared to load and stabbed it into the tar restraining him. The resulting explosion tossed him into the wall, but at least he was free now.

"Don't ease up yet! Clean Water Bath!" Charlotte's legs now turned into the black substance and actually spread to the ground, essentially turning the area into a mini tar pit. Takato attempted to raise his feet but found them to be glued to the ground.

"Well, you just made things much easier for me marine." He threw another gunpowder bolt into the tar near Charlotte and watched it go up in flames. The marine quickly controlled the substance and threw it to the side to prevent herself from being caught in it. Using that move as a distraction however, Takato threw another arrow at her that managed to lodge itself into her arm.

He waited for the explosion and flames to occur, but it never did. She simply pulled it out and tossed it to the floor. Had it been a dud? "Too easy. I may not be a chemist, but I know my basic science. Fire and explosives need oxygen to react and combust, I simply had to use my abilities to smother the arrow and prevent any air from reaching it.

Takato faltered, without being able to exploit her weakness how could he win. There was no water around, so that wasn't an option. And he obviously didn't have any seastone on him.

"Clean Cut!" A sudden spike of tar shot from the ground and impaled the boy against the wall. Blood managed to run down the spike and into the pool of black on the ground. Takato didn't move, he remained lifeless against the wall. "Don't try to play possum. I only stabbed you through the shoulder."

Takato had been lucky that she wasn't going to kill him. If she had really wanted to that could've been a lethal blow. The spike was only inches away from his heart. The spike forcefully pulled itself out and he fell to the ground. He landed on his back and was stuck there due to the tar on the ground as well as the wall.

"Well, it's over now pirate." Charlotte said as she stood over him, Takato quickly shot out his last able gunpowder bolt and it harmlessly passed through her and into the sky above them. She sighed slightly at his last futile attempt and formed an orb of tar around his head. The marksman struggled for breath for a while, but exhaustion and now, lack of oxygen, caught up to him and he lost consciousness. Charlotte was prepared to leave the area until the wall before her was now engulfed in flames.

Inspecting the wooden wall up and down, she realized that the flames had started from the roof. "That last arrow!" The combination of the arrow as well as the tar spread all over the wall had engulfed the building in flames. The flames quickly spread down the building and on the marine, forcing her to expel all the tar in the area. Though she had expected this to keep her safe from being lit ablaze it was already too late, the fire was spreading too quickly on the black surface.

In a panic she hit the floor and began to roll around in an effort to put the flames out. Unexpectedly, Takato then rose to his feet, clear of all the tar previously holding him.

"You! I thought you were knocked out cold!" She screamed while still rolling.

"Oh that? While working for my original lord, Lord Oda, I was taught many things in order to be an effective tool and assassin. That includes feigning consciousness and even stopping my own heart beat for a short period of time." Takato mentioned as if it were no big deal, as he put away his bow and knives. "Thank you for an interesting battle Ms. Charlotte. If you just keep rolling around like that ma'am then you should be okay after a while. Though I'd suggest not going through any strenuous activity afterwards."

Still rolling around in a frenzy Charlotte began to scream even louder than before. "Ms?! Ma'am?! I'm not old! I'm only 22!" By this point her voice wasn't heard though, Takato had already taken off to the marine building.

x-x-x-x

Takato stood on a hill over the marine base looking down on them with his accurate eyes. He stabbed on of his knives into a tree beside him. He had been too late. The prisoners had all already been loaded on the ship and the vessel was now taking off from the harbor. He sat there gripping his bleeding shoulder. Had all his effort been for naught?

"No, I'll continue fighting for my lord." He readied an arrow into his bow and made his way down to the marine base. "Even if it means the death of me." He slowly began to limp down the hill.

Whoo, that chapter took a bit longer to type than I thought it would. Mostly because of the fights though. I often typed them, didn't like how they went and then completely redid the battle. It happened about twice with Haze's and probably 2-3 times with Takato's as well

Anyway, sorry for the delay, hope you enjoyed, see you next week~