Manic enthusiastically dragged Old Pops down the grassy field towards the isolated house near the cliff overlooking Marine Harbor. He was only fourteen at the time, but he was strong enough to pull the old man towards the house with vigor.

"We're almost there!" Manic said with a smile.

"Yes, yes, not so fast, Manic, we'll get there," Old Pops said with a smile as well. They slowed their pace while they walked up the wooden porch steps to see a man sitting on an antique rocking chair. He wore black sunglasses and had a wheat grain in his mouth. Manic looked at the man after peering inside the house.

"Um, excuse me mister," Manic asked, "but where's the family that was living here?"

"Oh?" the man said as he kept rocking on the chair, "That family moved away... or at least that's what the rumors were..."

Manic was now crestfallen. All he had worked for to find where his family was, now seemed to be all in vain.

"Wh...where did they move to?" Manic asked the man.

"Don't know... they just picked up, one day, and left... simple as that..."

"Oh..." Manic said as his head fell. "Thank you..."

Manic and Old Pops then walked off the front porch to the house.

"Manic!" a voice yelled to him. Everything seemed to get darker.

BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga

"Hey, Manic!"

Volume 2: Pokerface

Chapter 14: The Voyage to Bandit's Cove

"Manic, wake up!"

"Huh?" Manic stirred from his dream and saw who was waking him up. He had been utterly exhausted from the training he had done with Koro. The pain was excruciating, but the knowledge he learned from it was well worth it. "What's the problem?" Manic asked, groggily.

"They're giving an announcement for the tournament," Kinzoku said as he pointed towards the intercom that was hanging on the main cabin wall of the ship. The ship was immense, with the cabins and bridge in the center building.

~To all participants, here are the current teams on board the Electopian Vessel:

Team Viper

Team Ironfist

Team Kimitsu

Team ZX-One

Team Oni...~

To Manic and the rest of the elites, it seemed as if the list of names droned on from the announcer.

~...Team Deity

Team Maverick

and Team Nightstrike. If you will notice, there are sixteen teams currently on board the Electopian Vessel, the same as the other three vessels, the Netopian, Northern Republic and Eurasia. However, if you will all notice with your invitations, there are sixteen teams total in the tournament.~

There was a quiet unrest among the rest of the passengers. Most of them tried to figure out what was going to happen, while some of them already knew what was going to happen.

~As many of you have figured out from the previous tournament, the ride towards Bandit's Cove is the preliminaries. Each team, choose one participant to compete in the preliminary. The top four participants representing their team will move on to Bandit's Cove. To all those who lose, good try, we will go back home. Thank you, and good luck with the preliminaries.~

"Preliminaries..." Ryuu said in thought as he wondered what this meant.

"This can't be good..." Joseph said in response as he looked around the boat and at all the rogues on board. They all seemed to have a bloodlust now, due to the announcement, and they were all preparing for the tournament.

"Seems we can't back down from this fight..." Ryuu said as he stood up from his seat against the sideboard of the ship.

"Wait, Ryuu," Manic said as he leaned forward, "You're going to fight for us?"

Ryuu looked back and gave Manic and Kinzoku a thumbs-up. "I won't lose to them, trust me." Ryuu then walked towards the middle of the ship, where it seemed the rest of the fighters were gathering. The mysterious man who had trained Joseph, Kinzoku and company was fighting for Team Ironfist.

~Well, it seems as all the participants have been chosen.~ There was a long pause from the announcement.

~Now, representing Team Viper is...~

Manic stopped paying attention to the announcer as he took off his hawaiian shirt and his bloodied white undershirt, reached into his small backpack, and put on a new set of clothes. He now wore a gray shirt under a dark blue hawaiian shirt, left unbuttoned. Kinzoku had been dressed in his hakama with both his katana and a wakizashi, both resting next to him as he, Manic and Miyuu watched the fighters prepare for the oncoming fight.

~Next, representing Team Ironfist, their substitute... Klove Bartlett, a veteran of the first Bandit's Cove tournament...."

Joseph had looked towards the mysterious man. They now knew his name and how he knew so much about the tournament.

The announcer went on with the names until Manic heard the word 'Deity' mentioned.

~The young Seitamashii Ryuu. I must also state that Ryuu, along with the rest of his team, are the honorary guests of the supporters of this year's Bandit's Cove tournament...~

Manic noticed that the fighters of all the other teams had now started to glare evilly at he, Miyuu and Kinzoku. It seemed as if being the honorary guest wasn't such an honor after all.

"Be on your guard..." Miyuu said as she slowly reached for Amethyst's katana, which she had been taking care of for a long time.

Finally, the name roll call had finished.

~Participants, on your mark...~

Ryuu's attention snapped towards the fray as he reached behind his back for an instant.

~...and BEGIN!~

Suddenly, the sixteen participants had leapt into the fray, fighting for the top positions. Ryuu was utilizing his knowledge of martial arts to down as many opponents as he could that tried to attack him. However, it seemed as if Ryuu's strategy would stop working soon as they all started to cut into each other. Klove, however, looked as if he was winning the bout as he cut through various opponents with two shimmering sickles, one in each hand.

"Kid! Don't just stand there!" Klove yelled at Ryuu as the mass of fighters started to overtake Ryuu.

"Gah!" Ryuu let out as he felt a knife cut into his forearm as he threw down another opponent. The number of opponents was dwindling slowly, leaving Klove as a clear-cut winner. However, Ryuu had to resort to the nunchaku that Manic gave him to fend off the opponents more. However, Gaius was in control of the nunchaku now.

"That's it," Gaius said as the crowd backed off. There were eight left, waiting to kill him. Gaius then spun the nunchaku around his body and stopped in a defensive stance, awaiting the others. He then noticed two of the men whispering to each other.

"...if we kill the guests... then we get a bonus..." one man said to the other, who nodded. It seemed as if everyone else, minus Klove, had the same idea, and lunged towards Ryuu, while the other teams had lunged towards the rest of Team Deity.

"Damn!" Manic shouted as he pistol whipped one of the men in the mouth, sending him down instantly. Kinzoku and Miyuu were already standing at ready with their swords, along with Joseph and the rest of the Iron-Fisted Few. Ryuu and Gaius were easily warding off the combatants with Koro's nunchaku as they all fought.

"Kya!" Miyuu yelled as she blocked one of the fighter's attacks with her katana. She then kicked the man in the stomach and cut into the man's arm. He fell to the deck, gripping his appendage while Miyuu glared at the man.

"Miyuu!" Kinzoku yelled to her as he hit a thug next to the deck in the chin with his katana sheath, "Don't kill! That'll just lower ourselves to their level!"

"Hai!" Miyuu yelled in response as Jet picked up the man Miyuu fell silently and threw him overboard. Jet was fighting with a large broadsword while Derek and Taichi were fighting with knives on the other side of the ship, defending Team Deity as well.

"Come on!" Joseph yelled as he hit another man overboard with the side of his sword.

"Grah!" Manic yelled as he quickly rushed through three of the men, using the blunt side of his ninjato to injure them.

During the fighting, Kinzoku was keeping watch as to see if they were about to land soon. However, after he threw another fighter into the ocean, he saw land.

"We're coming near!" Kinzoku yelled to the others, "Just a little longer!"

The announcer's voice couldn't be heard over the combat on board as the number of combatants on board dwindled rapidly. Many of them were being thrown overboard while some of them were killed by other combatants with a thirst for blood. However, a short moment passed, and all the combatants, save for Team Deity, Team Ironfist and two other men, were defeated. Manic sighed as he picked up the sheath to his ninjato and slung it over his back as he sheathed his sword.

"Hell of a workout..." Manic said spitefully as he sheathed his sword. The rest of them had done the same as they waited for the ship to land.

"No kidding..." Ryuu said in agreement as Gaius slid the nunchaku into Ryuu's belt again. Klove had already sheathed his sickles and watched as land came into sight. The two men left from other teams were standing in the back of the ship, one of them the leader of his team, Team Oni, watching as his men swam towards shore while the other, the leader of his team, Team ZX-One, was sitting in a chair. He was a short, pudgy man with white, balding hair. He silently laughed to himself as he watched Team Deity defend themselves.

"Guess my work will be done once I face them..." the old man said to himself with a chuckle.

~Erm... um... ahem... the winning four teams are...

Team Ironfist

Team Deity

Team Oni

and Team ZX-One.

And just in time, too! We are nearing shore, where our teams will be let off to compete in the tournament tomorrow morning! Good luck to all of you.~

The Electopian vessel had beached on shore and the fighters walked onto the shore. The leader of Team Oni had been the last to come off the boat and walked towards his teammates, drenched in water, but they were all ready to fight.

"Where do we go now?" Joseph asked the others as he looked around the island. The area was desolate. No buildings could be seen, no trees, just sand for miles. Manic squinted his eyes as he looked at the desert.

"Guess we have to walk..." Kinzoku said after a moment of silence as he picked up his pack and started walking. The rest of Team Deity and Ironfist had started walking as well through the desert.

It had only been a few minutes through the desert until they had come across a large stadium-like building with a three-storied hotel to the right of it. The stadium seemed to be empty while there were signs of life at the hotel.

"I guess that's where we're staying..." Miyuu said as she pointed towards the hotel. Klove laughed to himself.

"What's so funny?" Joseph asked.

"Nothing, just brings back old memories..." Klove said in response as he led the group towards the hotel. He then stopped and looked back at the group. "I warn you now. Be prepared for tomorrow, your first fight begins."

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Volume 2 Chapter 14 finished. Read and review, please?