Eye of the Dragon

by dragonofraven

He roams the seas, taking down the greatest pirates in fights to prove to himself that he's good enough to beat the person that he hates the most, the person who had left him when he was a child, the person with eyes like a hawk.

8. Into the Grand Line

Into the Grand Line

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

---

Draconian shut the hatch above, putting him in darkness with only the sound of the rain thudding on his ship and thunder booming in the cloudy sky. He held his hand up, igniting a small fireball in his palm so as to make the darkness cower in its own shadows and reveal the wooden staircase leading down to the storehouse and his cabin.

The ship had only been in the storm for about a minute, but already Draconian was completely soaked. Normally, he would just consider a storm like this as nothing, but this wasn't normally. Dark clouds covered the sky all the way to the horizon, obviously a signal to the start of the Grand Line.

With heavy thumps, Draconian walked down the wooden staircase towards his cabin, making a squeak with every step. His hair was no longer spiked, the long locks hanging over his bandana and plastered against his face. He looked as if he had just jumped into the sea so much water was covering his body. This was easily remedied, however, as a thin lick of flame, barely a centimeter thick, started to cover his body. Steam started to slowly roll off of his skin and clothes, slowly drying him off until his vest no longer clung to his chest and his skin wasn't so wet that even sand paper would slip off it.

Draconian reached his cabin, his body almost completely dry, and opened the door. The fireball in his hand split up into many smaller balls, each of them shooting out of his palm and landing on a candle, basking the room in a soft, flickering light.

With a weary sigh, Draconian headed over to his small book shelf. He reached his hand up and absentmindedly picked out a small book from the top shelf. After throwing the book on his desk, Draconian went over to his chair and flopped down. His head fell down to rest on top of his left hand as his eyes fell on the book before him.

The cover was tattered and brown, not a single word was found on it. It was pretty old, Draconian wasn't really sure how much, but he knew it was older than him. Many pages were sticking out, those being the ones that couldn't handle sticking to the binder any more after so long. Inside this book was every single bit of information about the Grand Line that Draconian had heard over his years. Each bit of information, even the most crazy of rumors, was essential to his survival of this wild land. It was one of his most prized possessions.

Giving a sigh, Draconian reached forward and grabbed the book, flipping open the thin cover to reveal his thin writing. After a while of flipping through, putting back the torn off pages as he did so, Draconian found the area he was looking for.

"Let's see... after going through the storm, that's a no brainer... come to Reverse Mountain... each of the four seas... yeah, yeah already know that... here we go, there's a river running up the mountain, at the top meeting up with the other rivers. This then pours down one side of the mountain to empty into the Grand Line... what, I'm still not in the damn thing?" Draconian tossed the book back on the desk and stood up, walking back towards the door.

Once more summoning a ball of fire, Draconian walked back up the wooden stairs. He stopped once he had gotten to the small "fork" and turned left, heading down the other side to where the storehouse was.

The fireball grew in size, creating enough light to make the whole place visible. Draconian headed over to where he kept some clothes and searched through the small rack. After a while he picked out a green raincoat and turned around, heading right back out and once more going up the stairs. He pulled the raincoat down over his head, completely covering his body in the green tarp so that only his head showed.

With a small push, Draconian opened up the hatch, letting in the heavy rain so that it splashed down upon the stairs. Immediately, he stepped out onto the deck of his ship and closed the hatch once more.

The rain came down in sheets, as if the sea itself had rose up in the air and was now falling upon the earth whence it came. Wind relentlessly blew through the air, making good sized waves which continually reached out, hands trying to grab onto anything and pull it down to the bottom of the water's stomach.

Draconian had already unfurled the sails, afraid that the force of the wind against them might completely topple the ship into the endless darkness of the sea below. Even without it, though, his small ship rocked side to side, just waiting for a push large enough to send it completely sideways. If it hadn't been for all the other storms in which his ship had proven itself, Draconian would have been afraid for his life.

With measured steps, Draconian headed towards the back of his ship. All the years of training had given Draconian a kind of graceful balance, but even with that he kept stumbling across the wet floor as the ship rocked from side to side. It took him a while, but he finally reached the steering wheel, which he had lashed down just minutes before going to his cabin so as not to veer off course.

After untying the knots, Draconian took ahold of the wheel, making sure to keep it steady. Surprisingly, the wheel didn't move, just stayed right where it was. So, with a relaxed grip, Draconian rested his hands on the handholds, casually starting to move it side to side so it didn't leer to far in one direction.

It didn't budge.

Draconian looked down at the wheel curiously and started to pull it to the left. Once again, the wheel didn't budge a centimeter, only staying in one position. Giving a furrow of his brow, Draconian tugged on the wheel, just pulling it out to the side to try and turn it, but even with his strength it barely moved.

This definitely wasn't good for Draconian. Moving crazily left and right from the wind was one thing, but at least it could be controlled. But when the rudder locks up, there's pretty much no way to stop you from crashing into something. At the moment there wasn't much to worry about, at least he'll stay on a straight course, but once he gets to the mountain there's a good chance that the ship is going to crash into a wall. There seemed to be only one real option for Draconian at the moment.

Just sit back and wait.

---

The rain splashed against Draconian's face as he stood at the front of the ship. His eyes squinted through the thick sheet of water, looking ahead so that he could try and see the mountain soon enough that he had time to prepare. He had been at this ever since he learned the wheel had stuck, not really knowing what he would so when he saw the mountain but looking nonetheless.

Normally Draconian would have gone up the crow's nest to try and get a better view, but with winds such as these he was afraid that the thing might lean over a little too much. And besides, for all he knew it might be even harder to see things up there.

Suddenly, his view of the air in front of him seemed to darken. Draconian leaned forward, his body now hanging just above the dragon's head, and squinted his eyes so tight it looked as if his eyeballs might get squished. As the darkness became clearer, Draconian could start making out different colors. The darkness started to form itself into a giant wall, stretching up into the sky until he could see no more. The surface of it was made out of rough rock but was slick with rain.

One last thing appeared through the rain. A path of water ran up the side of the mountain, heading into the abyss of the sky above. It was wide enough to take a ship up it, but two wouldn't fit. Interestingly, there were stone arches lined up in the beginning of the reversed river, surrounding the water like guardians making sure the playful waves didn't wander out of bounds. They were made out of a white stone and were each beautifully carved, each of the two pillars on each bending ninety degrees to form together and create the top of each archway. From what Draconian could see, they didn't line the whole river, as they stopped a far way from the start of the river but didn't disappear along with it.

Unfortunately, the river was some distance to the left of Draconian's ship, which meant that with the stuck wheel he would crash into the rocky wall. Instead of running back to try and move the wheel again, however, Draconian moved to the right side of the front of his ship.

After a while of being at the front of the ship, Draconian's mind had started to form an idea on what to do if he needed to steer. It was probably had a fifty-fifty chance of working, but it was the only thing he could think of.

Draconian sat on top of the railing, keeping his legs inside the ship and his back to the water. He fell backwards, his legs hooking on the rail by the knees and keeping his body suspended. His back was leaning against the wooden side of the ship, his head pointed straight down.

Fire erupted along the length of Draconian's arms as he raised them up, both palms flat and pointed at the water. With a shout, a huge blast of fire stormed out of Draconian's hands, flying through the air and slamming into the sea far out to the right.

At first, nothing happened, other than the steam rising from where the fire poured into the sea. But slowly, oh so slowly, the ship started to move to the left, giving a creaking groan as the fire pushed it to fight the immovable rudder. After a while, the turning gained in speed, moving from the rate of a snail to almost that of the ship under regular conditions.

Draconian kept the fire up, only stopping when he pulled his body back up to see his position compared to that of where the river started. It took him a good while to get the desired course, the steam from where the flames hit water now created a small cloud to the right of his ship, and when he was lined up pretty well his ship was just a minute away from the crashing waves of the mountain's side.

With a heave, Draconian hoisted himself back up, jumping off the rail as soon as his spine was once again pointed up. His plan wasn't finished, though, so Draconian went over to the dragon's head, where he started to study his specific position in terms with the entrance to the river. The ship wasn't completely center with the passageway, and with the waves crashing against the mountain having such a high force, there was a good chance that they'd jerk the ship a little too much in one direction.

As the ship got closer and closer to the river's entrance, Draconian's heart beat faster and faster, his nerves standing on end at the thought of what might happen. It could all end right here for him, his whole life's work gone because of some damn waves playing against the side of his ship.

But it wouldn't, he vowed, not after so long, he wouldn't lose to something like this, of all the fights he had gotten into he had only lost one, and he was going make sure it stayed that way.

The ship finally made it to the mouth of the giant beast, and Draconian set his legs firmly into the ground. Just as he had thought, the ship bucked to the right from the waves, the end of the giant's tongue trying to smash him against its teeth.

Giving a shout of defiance, Draconian raised his right arm and pointed it towards the side of the wall. Fire erupted from his hand in a torrent of heat, lunging from Draconian's hand to smash into the rock wall. The ship started to slow down in its jump towards the side, but Draconian knew it wasn't enough. He turned to fully face the wall and raised his other arm up, sending a second blast of fire to join its brother in the fight.

The ship sharply slowed down as Draconian pushed against the rock wall so that it went from a bucking horse to the speed of a turtle. It still moved towards the wall, it would most likely reach it in a few seconds, except that it didn't have a few seconds. Already the ship was past the waves at the mouth of the passageway, and the river had taken hold of it, straightening it out and moving it up the mountain.

Draconian gave a sigh and sank to his knees, the fire on his arms dissipating into the air. Slowly, his mouth started to form a smile, a sign of how overjoyed he was to have just beaten this great foe. Soon, laughter joined his smile, starting small and increasing in size until Draconian had to steady himself with his hands so as not just collapse on the deck of the ship.

After the laughing had subsided, Draconian pushed himself up from his position on the deck and walked up to the head of the ship. Already his ship had passed all the archways and was now on its trip up, the river going up it just as well as if it was going down.

Draconian leaned on the back of the dragon's head, look forward at the river before him. After a while the mountain side started to slope up a little steeper, and Draconian's ship started to head towards the clouds.

It took only a few seconds and Draconian's ship blasted above the clouds. The mountain steepened even further so that the river was almost vertical. At the top of the mountain, which peaked at a height higher than any other thing Draconian had seen, the river splashed up to join the spray of water Draconian could only guess as the rivers from the other three seas.

Immediately after going above the clouds, Draconian's eyes were riveted to the scene around him. The world above the clouds was bright and beautiful, the bright tops of clouds stretched for miles around the mountain. Of all the things that Draconian had seen in his life, this was definitely the most wondrous of a sight.

Once he had finished gazing at the beauty around him, Draconian's mind once more focused on the task before him. He knew what it would be like at the top; there would only be a split second of time for him to turn his ship at a sharp angle and head down the river that poured into the Grand Line.

His muscles tensed in apprehension as the ship got closer and closer to the top of the mountain. The air started to get colder as he climbed ever higher, but was easily kept away as Draconian covered his body in a thin coat of flame.

Finally, Draconian could see the very top of the mountain. The water from the rivers that splashed up instantly froze in midair, sending icicles flying up to dance in the sun's light, only to come back down and join the flowing water down the side of the mountain leading to the Grand Line.

Draconian had already formed a plan on what he would do, hoping beyond hope that the river would do what he thought it would. And so, getting in preparation for the top, Draconian moved once more to the right side of the ship at the front, this time just sitting on top of the rail instead of hanging upside-down from it.

With a rush, the river launched Draconian's ship into the air to hover over the joined rivers below. Fire swirled around his arms, and with another shout from Draconian erupted from his hands.

Immediately, the ship swung sharply around to the left, the air flowing around it freely opposed to the water, which would have slowed it down greatly. Once lined up with the river flowing down, which was located right next to the river the ship had climbed up, Draconian extinguished his flames and hopped back into the ship.

The ship fell straight down, giving a rush of air that made Draconian grip onto the rail just so he didn't fall off. It landed with a huge splash, sending a great amount of water back up into the air, only to freeze once more into the dancing icicles.

That didn't stop the ship, however, as it immediately went right down the river, aided by the flow of the other four waterways emptying into the passage.

Draconian stood right at the edge of the railing, his hands still gripping it so hard it looked as if he'd rip part of it off. He gave a few blinks, his mind doing its best to try and take this in. After a year of traveling, he had finally done it; he had entered the Grand Line. Every single pirate's dream, other than finding One Piece of course.

A small laugh came out of his throat, sounding more like a cough when it made the trip. Another one came after it, soon followed by an even bigger laugh after that. They were followed by a long train of joyous laughs, and for the second time that day Draconian fell down laughing.

He had made it; Draconian was heading into the Grand Line.

---

Draconian took a sip from the mug in his hands, giving a grin while he did so as he looked upon the party around him. People were drinking, singing, dancing, everything you'd expect at a party and more. At the moment there was a girl leaning against the right side of his body, her hands wrapped around his arm.

"So, what else have you been up to other than conquering the seas, got a girl in your life yet?" She had short brown hair that came down to her jaw line, and she couldn't have been older than twenty-five or so. Interestingly, she was wearing a tight, red silk dress, but could move in it just as well as Draconian moved in his own clothes.

"Well, not yet at least." He pulled her a little closer to his body, in which she responded by snuggling into his side.

"Draconian!" The voice erupted from a group of people nearby, and out walked the mayor of the city. He was wearing a black pinstriped suit, a red handkerchief in the breast pocket and a Capone hat resting on top of his head. His height was at about five feet ten inches, and his face gleamed as if he had been laughing his whole life. Oddly enough, the suite and hat made him look like part of a mafia or something.

With a huff, the mayor fell into the seat next to Draconian, draping his arm across the swordsman's shoulders in a friendly manner. "How are you doing so far, what do you think of the drink?"

Draconian gave another grin and raised an eyebrow. "So far, I'm doing pretty well. And as for the drink, it's the best I've ever had, and I don't usually like alcohol."

The mayor belted out another laugh and pounded Draconian on the back. "What did I tell you? Misty Peak makes the best! Now, are you sure you don't want to join the meat pie eating contest? It's a hundred thousand beli."

"Nah." He gave a wave of his hand. "I'm not really the kind of guy that can just eat like that."

"Oh?" A glint appeared in the man's eye. "I bet I could persuade a few people to... go easy on you."

At this Draconian belted out a laugh. "Sorry, but I don't like cheating. Besides, I bet even with that kind of help I'd still lose."

This caused both of them to break into another series of laughs.

It had only been a little while after coming out of the river that Draconian's ship had come upon the island, which he later learned was called Misty Peak. As soon as he had entered the city, he was greeted with a huge cheer as the whole city came out to welcome him. After that he had met with the mayor, and soon after that the greeting party was thrown, which most of the townspeople set into with abandon.

The girl on Draconian's arm traced a finger along his jaw line, her gaze intent on his face. "You have the most beautiful eyes..."

Draconian cast a warm smile down at the girl. "What can I say, I get them from my father." He then pulled her in closer, causing her to squeak in pleasant surprise.

The mayor of the city chuckled softly. "Well, it looks like you two have some talking to do, so I think I'll just go." He started to move out of the booth, only to stop as another man plopped down right next to him, blocking the exit.

It looked as if the guy had too much coffee; his body looked as if it was always twitching. On his head was a shock of messy orange hair, which looked as if a hand had just messed it up. He was wearing a wrinkled yellow shirt with an unbuttoned, skewed denim jacket over it and a pair of tattered jeans.

"Hey guys how you doin' I just got back from the contest it looks like the competition should be easy maybe I should join what do you think?" His mouth moved without pausing as his eyes flicked excitedly about the room.

"Might as well, sadly Draconian isn't going to join in, so at least you'll have a fair chance. Now move, I've got to get out." He tried to push the man out, only failing as the man got even twitchier.

"What you aint going to be in the contest that's too bad I'm sure you'd win so where you from when were you born what's your favorite color can you show me some nice sword tricks huh huh huh huh?" By now he was literally hopping up and down in his seat in excitement.

"Uhh... hey, look, the contest is starting!" Draconian pointed over to the table to where the pies were laid out.

"Really?" The man looked over his shoulder. "Okay got to go see you later." He shot off to the table and immediately started eating the pies, not even noticing that no one else had started.

The mayor gave a sigh. "Thanks, I was afraid he'd start one of his hour long rants. He's a good man all in himself but just a little too... excited for his own good. I'll talk to you later; hopefully you'll be able to escape him before he learns of your trick. But I wouldn't worry about that, it usually takes him about an hour to figure that stuff out." With a groan, the mayor moved out of the booth and started to walk away.

"Wait." Draconian called out, making the mayor turn around in curiosity. "I'm going to need to find the magnetic position of this island, is there any place in the city with navigation books where I can work?"

"Sure, there's a map room in the library, it's just around the corner, you're welcome to go in it."

"Thanks." And with that, he turned back to the girl on his arm, leaving the mayor to walk away. "So, what shall we talk about next?"

With a mischievous smile, the girl leaned up and whispered something into Draconian's ear. Soon after, a blush spread over his face.

---

Draconian walked out of the bar, leaving it filled with collapsed drunks and many empty tankards. Luckily, he had only drank one mug; even if it was the best drink he'd had, he would still follow his self rule of only a little alcohol at a time.

He turned to where the mayor had indicated the library was, only to swing right around the other way to point in the direction of his ship. It had just hit him that he might want to make his own little map of his path through the Grand Line, and to do that he'd probably need some materials from his ship.

Plus, he had accidentally left the Grand Compass back in his cabin.

So, with an easy gait, Draconian strolled over to the harbor, enjoying the night air as he did so. The buildings around him stood like big, spaced out square blocks, giving the place a feeling of desertion yet, at the same time, giving a kind of cozy feeling in the light of the moon.

Unfortunately, the path between the harbor and the bar wasn't exactly a straight line, and after a few hours at the party Draconian had a hard time remembering exactly where to go. More than a few times he had to backtrack in his steps, and after a while he just gave up and decided to take the easy way out.

So, hopping back and forth between the walls of two buildings, Draconian landed on the rooftops. With a quick gaze he spotted the harbor and set off across the tops of the buildings.

He reached his ship in less than a minute, immediately jumping in it and going down through the hatch. For a couple minutes the night air was silent, until the hatch opened up to reveal Draconian carrying some papers, writing utensils, and measuring devices. In his right pocket was the Grand Compass.

Once again, Draconian jumped on top of a roof, not trusting himself to remember the way to the bar by ground. His steps were once again easy and calm as he walked through the night. Instead of looking for the bar, his eyes focused on the sky above him. The stars covered the black expanse of the night sky, surrounding the beautiful face that was the moon.

After a while of walking, the soft hum of voices from the street reached Draconian's ears. At first he just ignored it, until a specific sentence came out loud and clear, catching his attention.

The first voice was that of a woman. "Well, well, Mr. Seven, it seems we've reeled in a nice bounty in this one."

Draconian stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening in surprise. "Seven?" His lips mouthed silently.

"Nice is an understatement, Saturday, this is the biggest bounty that I've ever gotten." This voice was from a man.

The first voice, probably Saturday, gave a laugh. "What do you mean gotten? From what I've seen, we haven't even made a move yet."

"So? I'm going to get it anyways; there hasn't been a single bounty that I've lost. Besides, it's a whole city against one person; do you really think he'll escape?"

By his time Draconian had gotten down and had inched to the edge of the roof, just barely keeping his head visible as he stared down at the people talking.

There were three people in the street; the one who had just talked was the mayor, who must have been Mr. Seven. It was obvious who Saturday was, as there was only one girl there; it was actually the one that he had been talking with earlier. Finally, the orange-haired hyper person was also with them.

Saturday gave a little tisk. "Well, a city wasn't enough to stop that Straw Hat kid when he came here, and that was only when facing the swordsman. Plus, Five and Valentine had come down then too, and if they lost to someone with a bounty of thirty-million beli, what do you think are the chances that members of our rank will beat someone with a bounty of thirty-five million?"

Seven rolled his eyes. "Number Five? Please, I'm easily better than that pathetic freak; everyone knows that I should be Five instead of Seven."

For once the twitchy person interjected. "Yeah but the thing is you're not which I admit must not feel that good but I bet you'll get it soon I mean he's sure to get a demotion or something just look at me I mean when the original members in this city were found to be traitors and gotten rid of I got moved right up from Ten to Eight which is just an honor I mean I knew I was better than Nine but EIGHT I always looked up to that guy too bad he was a traitor though I..."

"Eight." Seven interrupted. "Shut. The hell. Up."

With apparent difficulty, Eight closed his mouth and bowed his head in silence.

Saturday gave a small chuckle and moved so that she was walking in front of Seven. "He's right, you know, sooner or later you'll get to the rank of Five, and I'll be right by your side when you do."

A low growl escaped Seven's lips. "I don't want the rank sooner or later, I want it now, and I'm sure this bounty will get me what I want."

Saturday pursed her lips in a pout and looked behind her at Seven. "What you want? You make it sound as if that rank is more important than me."

With another growl, this one filled with animalistic lust, Seven walked right behind Seven and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Of course it's not, dear, you know that. No matter how much I want something in business, I'll always want you more."

"Hmm," Saturday turned around and wrapped her own arms around his neck. "I guess that I'll have to believe you. But, just in case... that Draconian did have a nice body." She looked off to the side, pretending to be considering the possibility of Draconian as a partner.

Seven bared his teeth and chuckled. "Yeah, like you're going to go to that guy. If you forgot, I know you better than you know yourself, and from what I remember there are specific... perks to a person you like in bed that only I can fill." He accentuated this by pulling her closer and stroking her back.

With a sigh, Saturday traced a finger along Seven's neck and jaw line. "Are you sure you really know me that well? I may like specific perks with a person, but I don't mind settling for nice bodies, especially when they're really... nice."

A look of knowing showed itself behind Seven's eyes. "True, but why would you settle for a nice body when you can easily have this." With that, he grabbed the back of her head and pushed her face into his for a forceful kiss. After only a second, her hand found its way behind his head and the two continued to push into each other.

It was about a minute before the two separated, their breaths slight labored as they took in air. Saturday turned back around to get out of Seven's embrace and grabbed his hand, dragging him along with her. "Come on, I need to get this little urge fulfilled now."

Giving a mischievous smile, Seven followed willingly behind her. "I'm right behind you, dear."

Eight lifted his head up and started to call after the two. "Hey wait when are we going to get the guy's bounty?"

Seven shouted back at Eight. "We'll do it once he's asleep, just in case."

A few more twitches hit Eight's body as he looked around, not really sure what to do. After a few seconds of silence, he ran off down one of the alleys, looking about for anything to do.

Draconian stood back up, giving a sigh as he did so. "Baroque Works again? This is the second time in a week. Why the hell can't I just find an island where there aren't people trying to kill me? Well, I guess this is what happens when word of you spreads."

Turning his walk into a dead run, Draconian continued his look for the bar, which eventually would lead to the library. "I've got to get there and do my things fast, otherwise I'm going to have a whole city on my back faster than you can say ahoy."

He had no idea if it was luck or if he was just close, but it only took Draconian a few seconds to locate the bar. From there, he ran along the rooftops of the buildings on the street, coming to the intersection that Seven had earlier mentioned. There was no real reason to keep going along the roofs, since the library should've been close; so Draconian hopped off the building to the ground below, slowing his fall with a burst of fire.

Once on the ground, Draconian ran through the intersection, looking left and right for any signs of the building he could think of. Just as Seven had said, Draconian found the library at the beginning of the intersection, or in other words right around the corner.

It pretty much looked like any other building at night, except that in big letters was carved LIBRARY above the door. The doors to the front were open, probably opened by Seven so that Draconian could use the map room.

Draconian rushed in, looking around for any signs of, well, anything. There wasn't anyone at the desk, or anywhere else that he could see. But that still left a lot of places he couldn't see, since the place was filled with shelves of books, blocking the view of much of the room.

With cautious steps, Draconian started to walk around the room, sticking to the walls, this way if there were people hiding he'd be able to see them and wouldn't be trapped between book shelves, open for attack. His walk didn't reveal anyone hiding, and if anyone would know it'd be him. If he couldn't see them, which would be difficult because of Draconian's sharp eyes, he would have most likely heard them, seeing as they would probably have to keep moving to escape his vision.

It did reveal one thing interesting, that being a staircase leading to the second floor of the building. Most likely it also lead to the map room, since Draconian hadn't found any doors in his search either.

Eyes wary, Draconian walked up the wooden steps to the second floor. It wasn't really that much to look at, not like the downstairs. Pretty much, the second floor was a hallway with a few doors on each side and one at the very end.

Draconian walked down the hallway, looking at each door as he passed. He kept his hand on the hilt of his katana, ready just in case someone jumped out.

Not surprising, the door at the end of the hallway read MAPS, making it so that only complete idiots wouldn't know it was the map room.

With a light push, Draconian opened the door, staying back as he did so as not to be caught surprise. It opened up to reveal a small room, about the size of his cabin, at the center of which was a good sized desk. Along the wall was a shelf crammed full with books and scrolls, obviously the maps.

He dumped everything he was holding onto the desk and took out the Grand Compass given to him by his father. And with frantic hands, Draconian went over to the shelf and passed his fingers over the spine of the books, looking for something good.

After a few moments, he found the books he needed, and with some quick movements tossed them down on the desk. Immediately he grabbed a feather, ink bottle, and a piece of paper and opened one of the books.

Over the next couple hours; or maybe it was just a couple minutes, Draconian wasn't completely sure of how the time went, it all just blended together; Draconian searched through all the books there was on the desk, finding the information he needed. His hands were constantly moving, his left turning the pages of the book while the right wrote down what he needed; they seemed almost a blur. The only time that he deviated from writing was when he would adjust the compass.

With a sigh, Draconian closed the last book, setting his feather aside after finishing the last of his writing. He looked over the last page that he had written, scanning through everything in case there was something he missed.

Giving an approving nod, Draconian lifted the Grand Compass so that he held it just in front of his eyes. With a careful hand, he slowly turned the little dial on the glass orb, until with a satisfying click it landed on the final digit needed. The needle swiveled from the string it hung from, landing so that it pointed out to sea, where the next island lay ahead for Draconian.

Draconian placed the compass back in his pocket and stretched, giving a small groan as he did so. Pushing back the chair, he stood back up and walked around the desk. Grabbing the books, he walked towards the shelf and placed them back in their original positions.

As he started to turn around, Draconian's eyes spotted something interesting. His eyes full of curiosity, he turned back around and looked back at the book shelf. Immediately he spotted a thick, leather-bound book, which read Maps of Grand Line along the spine.

With a grin, Draconian plucked the book from the shelf, immediately staggering as the weight caught him off guard. Giving a small chuckle, he heaved the book up to his shoulder and turned around once more. He finally walked over to the front of the room and opened the door to exit.

Only to be faced with a hallway full of Baroque Works employees brandishing various guns and blades.

"Well, well," the leader of the bunch tapped the end of his rifle in his palms, "what could we be doing up at this hour? Not thinking of leaving the island, I hope."

"Actually," Draconian responded, "I really need a bathroom break."

"Hmm, I don't think that's true at the moment, but I'm sure it will be after this." He snapped his rifle up to point at Draconian and pulled the trigger.

Draconian rolled to the side, dropping the book as he did so, and taking cover to the right of the door. Other shots erupted from the hallway as the rest of the people followed suit with the leader. Bullets went flying through the doorway, ripping through the frame and smashing into the desk and wall at the other end of the room.

Luckily, Draconian had gotten far enough away from the door frame, as bullets sailed right through the walls along the door, creating an outline of holes. Almost innocently, the book that Draconian had dropped lay just in the middle of the doorway, kind of reminding him of a child standing in the middle of a crossfire.

Just as soon as the shots had started did they stop, giving Draconian only a moment's notice for action.

That was all he needed.

Draconian snapped around the doorway, slipping his swords out of their sheaths as he did so. In the snap of a finger, he was facing the crowd of townspeople once more, this time with his swords out. He rushed towards the huge crowd, his vocal cords screeching out an earthshaking battle cry as his swords erupted in flames.

"Blades of the Dragon Brethren!"

With Draconian so close, none of the shooters could take a shot without fear of injuring a comrade, and Draconian took full advantage of this. His swords slashed in an intricate blur as he moved through the crowd like it was regular air. All he needed was one quick slash for each person and they fell down like a row of logs.

People clutched at slashed arms, cuts to the chest, or fell down in unconsciousness from deep cuts and the shock of pain. Through all this, Draconian moved his body and swords in a graceful yet frenzy form of attack. He barely ever went right down the middle, using the sides of the hallway to get through the person's side. Constantly he was found jumping from the walls and the ceiling to come in at unexpected angles, laying his enemies low before they even knew where he was.

Once in a while there actually was some idiot who would try to shoot him, only to miss horribly as Draconian twisted to the side and cut him down. Smarter people, however, tried to slash him with a cutlass; only to fall down even faster than the people with the guns.

In no time Draconian reached the end of the hallway, leaving a trail of fallen, bleeding people to clog the hall behind him. As soon as he got to the end, however, another crowd of townspeople started to rush up the stairs.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Draconian jumped up and grabbed onto the edge of the wooden frame attached to the ceiling. Immediately upon grabbing it, his legs kicked out so that the flat of his feet were facing the crowd below him.

He let go of the frame only a second after he had first grabbed it. His body started spinning in midair, the swords out to the side to create a giant flaming wheel at the top of the stairs.

"Attack Fusion, Dragon Tornado Comet!"

Fire erupted from the edge of the spinning blades, creating a vortex of fire that completely covered the walls of the stairway and trapped the newcomers in a prison of heat. Draconian's body shot right through the middle of it, feet out and spinning, flames twisted around their length like a snake.

The new Baroque Work agents fell faster than the previous ones as every one of them was smashed by Draconian's feet. Even if they had dodged the flaming battering ram, the spinning blades behind them would cut them down just like they had done to the previous crowd.

Draconian reached the bottom of the staircase in only seconds, the people previously in his way now laying behind him bleeding, burned, and some even unconscious. Once more, however, he was faced with another challenge just as hard as the previous two as the first floor was packed with people. They were along the edges of the walls, in between the book cases, even on top of the book cases; it was just as crowded as the upstairs had been.

A glint reached Draconian's eyes as he gazed upon the men between the bookshelves. With a grin, he rushed forward, just barely dodging the new shots.

As soon as he had gotten to the nearest bookcase, Draconian jumped up and kicked his feet out. The giant thing tottered a few times, but after a while toppled down, knocking into the one behind it and starting a domino affect with all the others in the line as they all fell down one after another.

Right on top of the men between the cases.

Shouts rang out through the room as the men tried to get out, only to have the book case topple down on them before they could get out of the way. Draconian didn't pay any attention to these, however, as he ran to the next book case in the line. That one was knocked over just as easy, starting another chain reaction just like the first.

He moved through the whole room like this, going from shelf to shelf and knocking everyone standing over. Many times he would stop for a quick second and knock someone down with a flaming kick or a fast strike of the sword. At one point he even jumped up to knock a case down, then ricocheted off of the thing to land a spinning aerial kick on a few people near him.

In no time, the first floor was cleared. All the cases were fallen, all of them having people underneath, the conscious ones moaning in pain. Many others were laid out around or on top of the cases, either a burn mark on some part of their body or a deep cut running along them.

With a sigh, Draconian went over to the front of the building and walked out of the doors, slipping the swords back into their sheaths as he did so.

"What a surprise." His tone was dry as he looked upon the streets around him. Just as he had suspected, there were towns people pretty much everywhere he looked; in doorways, standing on the sidewalk, and many on the rooftops, all of them holding a gun or weapon of some sort.

The hand resting on his katana moved in a blur as he snapped his tanto out of its sheath. Immediately after doing so, a long tongue of flame erupted from the dagger's blade and reached out into the night.

"Dragon Whip!"

Draconian snapped the blade to the side, sending the length of flame to the top of a building to the side of him. It wrapped around the legs of one of the townsmen, and with a small tug lifted him off his feet and dragged him through the air. His path took him right down to the ground to crash into one of the people below.

Even before this had finished, Draconian had jumped over to the nearest person and smashed a flaming hand into his face. He then brought the whip around and wrapped it around a small group of people on the street. With a heave, he lifted them into the air and smashed them into the side of a building, almost sending them through in the process.

By this time, the people on the rooftops had started firing, peppering the ground around Draconian with bullets. This had Draconian moving left and right, bouncing off walls, and just plain doing insanely complicated maneuvers just to dodge the onslaught.

Thankfully, this problem was easily solved, as Draconian gave a snap of the whip. The flame reached up and wound around the barrels of every gun along the rooftops to the right of him. After giving another simple tug, all the guns were yanked out of the men's grasp, and those stupid enough to hold on were sent flying down to the concrete below.

Draconian gave another snap of the whip, easily getting all the rooftop guns on the other side of him. This only lead the people on the rooftops across the street left, and that meant he would have to cross so that he could get to them.

So, heading out in a dead run, Draconian ran towards the other side of the street. Bullets from the other buildings rained down upon him, making it so that he had to zigzag as he ran. As he ran, Draconian often had to kick or punch someone aside, lighting his feet and fists in flames so as to make sure they didn't get up for a good while.

His body spun around, bringing the whip to fly around in circles, grabbing onto random people as they crossed its path and hauling them up into the air. The bodies often smashed into other people who got into the path of the flaming circle, and those who didn't get hit were picked up to add to the length's numbers.

After he was almost at the other side, Draconian stopped his spinning and straightened out the length of flame. This sent the bodies of the townspeople in a head-on flight right into the wall of the buildings nearest them.

With two more casual snaps of the whip, Draconian took away all the weapons from the people on the rooftops; leaving the only people left with guns being the ones on the street.

As Draconian started to dispatch with the few people left on the street, and take down the people on the rooftops with his whip, Mr. Seven, Eight, and Saturday came in view of the tussle near the library.

"You idiot!" Seven smacked Eight over the head. "I told you to attack him after he fell asleep! Can't you follow one simple order! No wonder they hadn't promoted you before now!"

Eight's shaking turned from excited to frightened as he started to cower under Seven's upraised hand. "Sorry sir I guess the men just thought he'd fall asleep in the room and figured they'd wait outside until he went to bed I didn't have anything to do with that idea sir I promise please don't hurt me again I..."

"Shut it!" He slapped Eight once more. "If you want to make this up you better go over there and take care of him, now!"

With a gulp, Eight headed over to Draconian, who was just finishing off with the last townsmen.

Saturday gave a smirk as she watched Eight waddle off to battle the fiery teen, but soon got rid of it as Seven turned to her. "You're going too."

"What!" Saturday shouted. "Why do I have to go, I didn't do anything wrong."

"No," Seven answered in a level tone, "but I want this kid taken care of, and there's a better chance of that happening if Eight had help."

"Well why can't you go?" Saturday gave a pout and slowly leaned against Seven's frame suggestively. "Besides, I'm tired out as it is with all the 'action' that we just went through. Speaking of it, I bet you and I can get in some more tonight."

"If you've still got energy to go another round," Seven stated, his brow furrowed in annoyance, "then you have enough energy to go out there and help Eight. Now get moving, I want to see this kid's money in my pocket by tomorrow." He gave a push against the small of her back, sending her stumbling forward.

Meanwhile, Eight was now in sight of Draconian, who had just finished off with the last person and was slipping his tanto back into its sheath.

"Well Dracky boy," Eight said while reaching into his skewed jacket, "looks like you and me are headed into a one on one confrontation I guess it was expected seeing as I'm so good it's only a wonder you didn't ask sooner to fight a guy as great as me but I've got to warn you..."

"Don't call me Dracky," Draconian turned to stare at Eight, his eyes set in a cold gaze, "otherwise I'll beat your ass so hard you'll wish you were unconscious, and even so you'll still feel it. Now, stop the talking and bring it on, Eight."

"Ah I wondered if you heard that little conversation of ours or not but I guess I should shut up so that we can get to the fight which I can assure you you will lose." He pulled two things out of the inside of his jacket, one was a glass bottle filled with what could only be alcohol; the other was a black aluminum staff, a few feet long, with a round, cylindrical black pad at one end and a leather strap for holding at the other(like those things that fire eaters use).

Eight clicked something along the length of the staff, and soon after the black pad erupted in flames. With a grin, he took a deep swig of the alcohol, placing the flaming end of the staff in front of his face as he did so.

His cheeks puffed out, Eight blew out every drop of alcohol he had just took in, creating a huge swath of flames as the liquid hit the fireball in front of it. The swath took up half of the street's width and reached for Draconian like a giant's tongue.

Draconian gave a small chuckle and rolled his eyes. "Please."

Soon the rage of fire rolled over Draconian's body, completely eliminating every part of him from sight. This had Eight's cheeks go up in a grin as he continued blowing, taking a few more droughts of the drink to replenish his supply fast enough so that the original swath of flames didn't disappear before he began blowing again.

For a few more seconds Eight kept on blowing, the streets full of silence except for the roaring of the great tongue of fire reaching for every inch of air it could use for fuel. The grin on Eight's face was wider than ever as no clue of Draconian could be found, it looked as if the grin would stay on him forever.

Until Draconian's face appeared just inches from Eight's own.

Eight gave a yelp in surprise, almost dropping the staff and abruptly stopping the giant beast of fire in the process. The glass of alcohol fell from his grasp and shattered against the ground as he stumbled back.

With flaming fist drawn back, Draconian leaped towards the shocked Eight.

"Dragon Fist!"

His fist shot forward with deadly speed, smashing into Eight's face and sending him flying backwards. He landed with a thud just feet in front of Saturday, who was now carrying a red fan in each hand and holding them up in a battle stance.

"What's wrong?" Draconian asked. "Did I forget to call you?"

Saturday ran forward in response, her teeth bared as she let out a feral growl. Her hands struck like snakes, fans aiming for the warm veins in Draconian's neck. You could almost hear the wind whistle by as the fans cut through the air like a shark through water.

But Draconian was faster.

Draconian rotated his shoulders back and forth as he casually dodged the swift attacks. As the fans passed inches away from his face, Draconian caught a small glint in the moonlight, leading him to notice that the edges of the fans were covered in a sheet of metal sharp enough to easily cut through his skin as if it was melted butter.

He placed his hands in his pockets as Saturday continued to attack him, keeping his movements seeming as casual as possible. She relentlessly continued her onslaught, striking in every possible way she knew and doing it as fast as a snake, only to keep missing as Draconian easily dodged. He treated her attacks as if they were nothing, easily stepping to the side or bending his head back to dodge each attack by bare inches. Many times he would just rotate his body a little bit to let Saturday's fans pass just by his vest.

This went on for about a minute, Saturday's anger growing with every easily dodged strike. Her speed and frequency increased, her strikes coming right after another.

With the increase in attack, Draconian also stepped up his evasive actions, taking his hands out of his pockets and moving with even more speed and flexibility. Instead of just bowing his head back, he bent his body completely back, making himself look like a table with only two legs. His body moved left, right, back, up, down, and many other directions as Saturday's deadly fans sought his flesh.

Quite a few times, Draconian found himself flipping over attacks or doing some kind of quick maneuver to get out of the way of the deadly attacks. One time, after bending his body completely backwards again, as Saturday struck for his legs, Draconian braced his hands against the ground and bent his legs completely up so that they were now inches away from his body; Saturday then struck for his arms, prompting him to push the ground and flip completely backwards, landing back on his feet and dodging the strike.

"I'm not sure about you, baby," Draconian said while dodging a few of the strikes, "but I just don't think this will work out."

With a growl, Saturday struck both fans towards Draconian's head. He responded by ducking down and spinning completely around, stretching his leg out as he did and taking Saturday's feet out from under her.

Continuing his spin, Draconian placed his hands on the ground and lifted his legs up from the ground, lighting his feet on fire as he did so. Still spinning, he slammed the upraised feet into Saturday's side as she fell down, sending her tumbling off to the side.

Draconian stood back up and looked down at Saturday, who was pushing herself back up, teeth once more gritted in anger. He looked over to the side to where Eight, who had used the distraction from Saturday to get back up, was taking out a second black staff so that he now had one in each hand.

Eight rushed forward screaming, both staffs spinning around in circles as he held onto their leather straps, the flames making giant circles in the air as he ran.

All Draconian did was stand completely still as Eight rushed forward, not even moving a centimeter.

In no time Eight got to him and swung the first staff, having it smash against the side of Draconian's face. The second one came in right behind it and smashed against the other cheek and snapping the face to the right. Again the other staff came in, scoring another hit just as easy as the first two.

This went on a few more times, until finally Draconian snatched the staff in mid swing and head butted Eight squarely on the nose, sending him stumbling back a bit.

His face wasn't even damaged, the only evidence of fire touching it being a few ash marks that had carried over from the ends of the staffs. He gave an inquisitive look over to Eight, who was clutching his nose, which was most likely broken at the moment.

"You do realize that the term 'fighting fire with fire' isn't supposed to be literal, right?"

At the moment, Saturday had gotten back up and was now behind Draconian. Both she and Eight rushed Draconian at the same time, attacking him from both sides.

Even with both flaming staffs swinging and bladed fans striking, Draconian was able to dodge their attacks. His body moved in a complicated series of movements as he stood between the two attacking forces. Constantly he had to do aerial moves so as to dodge the four weapons, doing complicated series of flips and hand stands so the weapons wouldn't hit. Still, he barely missed them as they passed just centimeters from his skin.

Finally, after batting the staffs aside from an attack, Draconian jumped up and kicked off of Eight's chest, sending him stumbling back a few feet. He then landed his right foot on Saturday's shoulder and pushed, sending her backwards just like Eight and sending himself up into the air.

Draconian came right back down, doing a back flip as he did so and landing on one hand. Saturday and Eight had already recovered from the kicks and once more rushed towards Draconian.

His legs spread out so that they made a flat T with his body. Flames erupted from the feet and spread over his legs as Draconian started to spin.

"Dragon Hurricane!"

The legs spun around in a blur, creating a huge flaming circle and knocking right into Saturday's and Eight's bodies, sending them hurtling back to land hard on the ground.

Eight was the first to get up, his first order of business being to, once again, charge at Draconian with staffs spinning.

Draconian stopped his spinning and landed back on his feet. Instead of just standing still for Eight like he did before, Draconian grabbed both staff's flaming ends in midair, the fire licking at his hands doing nothing to affect him.

Giving a shout, Draconian jumped up, still holding on to the staffs, and tucked his feet up so that they were parallel with Eight's chest.

"Dragon Stampede!"

His flame covered feet struck out, slamming over and over into Eight's chest, creating burned footmarks wherever they hit. The only thing keeping Eight standing throughout the onslaught was the fact that Draconian was holding onto the staffs, which had their leather straps wrapped tightly around Eight's hands.

After delivering an uncountable number of kicks, Draconian finally let go of the staffs and spun around in midair, delivering one final, powerful kick to Eight and sending him flying off to the side to land with a solid thump on the ground.

He landed solidly with both feet facing Saturday, who was now in a mad rush towards Draconian. Both fans struck straight out towards Draconian's chest, the blades at the end of them gleaming brightly in the moonlight.

Draconian ducked out to the side, his right hand slipping the katana back out of its sheath. Flames erupted along its length as Draconian reversed his grip so that the blade was pointing backwards.

"Dragon Thrust!"

The katana stabbed backwards, going right through the weak paper of both fans. He gave a spin of the sword, reverting it back to its original position, and pulled the fans right out of Saturday's hands.

Once the fans were taken away, Draconian spun around, his right leg drawn back and lit up on flames.

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

As Draconian completed his spin, standing upright as he did so, he swung his flaming foot to slam into Saturday's side. This sent her flying to the side, all the way to the other side of the street to smash into one of the walls.

With a sigh, Draconian slipped his katana back into its sheath, the flames on it once more extinguished. An angry shout vibrated through the air to Draconian's right, prompting him to turn his head towards the frustrated Seven.

"Why is it that I am surrounded by idiots!" He took off his hat, twisting it about in his hands in frustration, staring at it as if it held all the answers. "Do I have to do everything myself?"

Draconian turned his body to fully face Seven, who still stood staring his hat, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his katana. "In my opinion, I'd say that's a yes, but I highly caution you not to."

Seven's face of frustration turned to that of curiosity as he heard this. "Hmm... interesting opinion." For a few seconds, he seemed to ponder over the hat in his hands.

Suddenly, Seven bent his knees and threw the hat, making into soar through the air at an incredible speed towards Draconian.

Normally, a switch from passive to aggressive at such a speed would leave very little time for a person to dodge the attack due to the surprise. Of course, Draconian wasn't exactly the kind of person to be caught by surprise, add to that his reflexes makes the instant it takes for the hat to get to him seem like ten seconds.

After passing by Draconian, who had twisted his upper body to the right so as to dodge the projectile, the hat slowly turned around in midair and came right back.

Again Draconian dodged it, bending his already twisted body ninety degrees to the right to let the hat go sailing over his head. Once it got back to its owner, Seven caught the hat in midair and spun around, bringing the hat back and throwing it once more so that it was now sideways.

Draconian, who had already straightened back up, bent his body back at the waist, just missing the hat as it traveled just inches above his body. For a second time, the hat slowly turned around in the air and sped towards Draconian's bent body.

With quickness born from years of training, Draconian twisted his body and placed his hands on the ground. His legs snapped around, following the twist of his body and smacking into the side of the hat as it came by, sending it reeling off to the side.

The hat ran right into a wall, the rim of it slicing right through the rock and getting itself stuck.

This made Draconian chuckle, and in no time he was running towards the unarmed Seven, his hand already gripping his katana.

He stopped as soon as he had started, however, when the hat zipped from the wall back into its owner's hand; and with a casual flick of his fingers, Seven sent the hat soaring right towards Draconian once more.

The move had actually caught Draconian slightly by surprise, leaving him little time to react. That didn't stop him, however, as he fell backwards, landing on his hands and bringing his legs up so that he was just barely above the ground.

Once more, the hat went sailing over Draconian's body. This time, however, he noticed something as it went by. Right behind the hat was what could only be a thin wire, reaching all the way back to Seven and, from what Draconian presumed, going up his sleeve.

Draconian kicked his legs out, bucking his body back up to stand on his feet. His hand shot out before the hat got back and took ahold of the wire, giving a small tug to off balance the hat and send it tumbling to the ground.

Seven frowned, giving an annoyed look at the fallen hat. "Huh, so you found that part out, did ya?"

In answer, Draconian gave a tug on the wire, causing Seven to stumble forward and fall on the ground.

With a grunt, Seven picked himself up, dusting off his suit as he did so. "A simple 'yes' would have sufficed." And with a jerk, he brought his right arm back, the wire in the sleeve easily visible under his flattened palm.

A small yelp escaped from Draconian's lips as the wire whizzed right back into the sleeve, cutting right through his palm in the process. He had no time for contemplating the pain, however, as the hat came right behind it.

He rolled to the side to dodge the hat, leaving it to fly right back into the hand of its owner, where it was immediately thrown back into the fray.

Draconian dodged to the right, letting the hat whiz by his shoulder. Instead of just going on and turning around like it normally did, however, Seven yanked his arm over, making the hat take a sharp turn towards Draconian's side.

In response, Draconian leapt up and did a back flip right over the hat, having it just go underneath his feet.

Seven pulled the hat back, but had it stop about six feet in front of him. He then grabbed onto the wire and began spinning the thing in a circle by his side like a giant pendulum.

Giving a shout, Seven ran forward, the spinning hat on a string by his side, the rim of the hat itself carving a small trench in the ground as it passed. He swung the thing like a bat, letting the whirling circle pass in front of him to carve anything in its way.

Draconian jumped back, just missing as the thing carved a trench just feet in front of him. Immediately he ducked as it came back the other way, now angled as Seven lifted it above his head and swung it diagonally down.

Once he had ran past the spinning circle before it got him, Draconian leaped forward and tried to drive his shoulder into Seven's chest. His attempt only hit empty air, however, as Seven leapt over Draconian's body, actually pushing off the back of his shoulders for leverage.

Once he was past Draconian, Seven flipped his body upside-down so that he was now staring at his opponent's back. The hat stopped its spinning as Seven shot it at Draconian's back, leading it into a head-on collision with his shoulder blades.

Sensing the attack, Draconian jumped up and back flipped over the hat, twisting around in midair as he did so and kicking out kicking Seven in the chest. This sent him right down to the ground, where he expertly caught himself with one hand and flipped back onto his own feet, bringing the hat back with him as he did so.

Before Seven could get the hat going again, Draconian landed back onto the ground and launched a fist towards his head.

The attack was easily dodged as Seven ducked, spinning his body with the leg out to try and trip Draconian much like he himself had done to Saturday earlier. Of course, it's almost always a stupid mistake to use someone else's own attack, which Seven found out as Draconian jumped over the leg and kicked him in the face.

Draconian landed on the ground a few feet away from Seven, who had turned the kick into a backwards roll, landing back in a crouch. He then spun around, swinging the wire around with him so that it went out wide.

On its course, the wire ran into the side of Draconian's neck, in which it swung around and wrapped itself around his throat. Before he could do anything to take it off, Seven had gotten back up and was now holding the wire in place, tugging on it to tighten the hold on Draconian's neck.

"You feel that?" Seven whispered into Draconian's ear. "Sooner or later this wire will cut right through your flesh, too bad for you it's going to happen before you choke to death."

Draconian tried tugging on the wire with his right hand, only to do nothing except slip around as the blood from his earlier cut spread itself around. For a while it looked as if he had truly lost as he struggled against the wire around his neck.

After a few seconds, though, Draconian gave a defiant shout and bent his body forward in a sharp jerk, sending Seven hurtling over his body.

Seven landed back on his feet, his back facing Draconian, and kicked backwards. The foot didn't make any sound as it went right through air, Draconian having dodged to the left to avoid it.

His arm took a firm hold of Seven's leg, and with a shout Draconian jumped up and kicked Seven in his shoulder blades with both feet, sending the man toppling down to the ground.

With a growl of frustration, Seven got back up on his knees and swung the wire around. This was easily dodged as draconian did a back flip over the wire, leaving it to go flying off to the side. He then leaped forward, aiming the bottom of his feet for Seven's back to try and knock him back down on the ground.

His feet only landed on ground, though, as Seven's body was somehow tugged towards the left. The hat had lodged itself into the side of a building after Draconian had dodged it, allowing Seven to go along the line towards the place.

As soon as he had gotten to the wall, Seven yanked on the wire, tugging the hat right out of the stone it was lodged in. Once out, Seven spun the hat above his hat and threw it up, making the hat once more lodge in the building, this time near the top.

The wire once more tightened as it moved back into Seven's sleeve, making it so that Seven could easily pull himself right up the wall. This allowed him to easily get to the rooftop. Once there, Seven ran along the edge of the roof, away from where his hat was lodged into the stone.

By this time, Draconian had started to head to Seven, who was now standing on the corner of the roof's edge, the wire now a good length.

With a shout of defiance, Seven launched himself from the rooftop, grasping onto the wire as he did so. Because of the length of the wire and position of the hat compared to where Seven was at the moment, instead of falling to the ground his body was now swinging along the wire as if it was a vine in the jungle.

Seven raised his legs up, the feet out, so that he'd kick anything in his way; and judging by the path of his flight, that something would be Draconian.

Draconian chuckled as he saw this pathetic attempt at attacking him. It would only take a few seconds for him to reach the aerial Seven, and that was definitely not enough time for Seven to realize his mistake.

During those few seconds of waiting, Draconian's feet had erupted in flames, but in his rushed flight Seven didn't notice them until it was too late.

"Dragon Wheel!"

Draconian turned to the side and gave a sharp twist of his body, bending at the waist and lifting his legs up to travel in an arc through the air. His feet went right over Seven's legs, crashing right into his chest and sending him falling right back down to the ground in a heap. The feet extinguished themselves right when they touched back on the ground, Draconian now standing upright once more.

Another growl escaped from Seven's lips as he once more moved to get up. Before getting all the way up, he gave a sudden jerk of his hand, dislodging the hat from the building and sending it flying back. He then gave a little swing of his arm, curving the path of the wire so it came around instead of just going straight.

This time the wire was able to actually get to Draconian before he could dodge, wrapping continually around his body. The hat traveled in circles around his body, continually getting closer as the length of the wire got shorter, like a shark circling its prey.

Seven stood back up, taking a firm grip of the wire and giving a grin. "Looks like you're stuck, and sooner or later my hat's gonna get close enough and cut you to pieces."

A bored look stuck itself on Draconian's face as he calmly stared at Seven, his eyes partially closed as if he had all the time in the world. He gave a small sigh and pushed against the wire.

Fire erupted along the length of both arms and immediately started to eat through the wire wrapped around Draconian. In no time, the wire was burned completely through and fell around Draconian's feet, the hat falling from the air along with it.

Seven's eyes widened in shock and anger, and soon his lips formed themselves into a twisted snarl. He started backing up from Draconian, who had extinguished the flames and was now reaching up to his scimitar with his right hand.

"If I were you I'd give up, from the looks of it you have nothing else to offer in terms of a challenge, and even if you did you'd lose anyway." His hand had taken ahold of the sword's handle and was beginning to slide it out.

Seven's snarl slowly turned into a sneer as he heard what Draconian said, and soon after he started chuckling. "Who ever said anything about me having nothing else to offer to this fight? I think it's time you say hello to my little friends."

He reached both hands into the opposite sides of his suit and pulled them back out. In each of his hands was a Tommy gun, the automatic weapons looking just as deadly as their cold black color.

The barrels blazed into fire, the cylinders holding the bullets on each spinning in an intense speed.

Draconian whipped his scimitar out of its sheath, immediately having flames cover its length as he started to spin it in front of him.

"Dragon Whirlwind!"

Bullets bounced off the flaming blade, making a constant ringing that sounded like hail hitting the roof of a building. The blurred fire from the spinning blade made a giant circle completely covering Draconian's body from sight.

A fireball blasted from the center of the flaming circle, going right down the middle of the Tommy guns' fire and smacking right into Seven's chest.

This had Seven stop firing his guns so he could beat out the flames, which were already starting to spread.

Taking the advantage presented to him, Draconian spun his body around, stopping the spinning of the scimitar as he did so and raising it up. He took hold of the scimitar's hilt with both hands, bringing it up and over his shoulder so that the back of the blade was lying parallel to his own back.

As he completed the spin, Draconian bent his knees and crouched down; the flame on the scimitar grew so that it looked like a giant fin extending from Draconian's back.

"Dragon Crush!"

The sword whipped down, crashing right into the ground and releasing a giant slash of fire. The ground between Draconian and Seven split into a crack as the flaming slash shot right for Seven.

It was almost too late when Seven noticed the attack, having just beaten out the last of the flames on his shirt. He tried to leap to the side to escape the blast, getting most of his body out of the way of the flames except for his left hand.

Flames ran right into the gun, the force of it cutting right through the metal as if it were butter; and cutting off Seven's fingers as if it was air. The slash of fire passed right by, leaving the metal and fingers to fall to the ground with some clinking and soft thuds, to smash right into the wall of one of the buildings, creating a giant crevice up its side.

Seven yelled out in pain, falling down to his knees and holding up his hand. Five stumps extended from his palm, the ends of each blackened and sealed by the flames.

Draconian stepped forward, the scimitar resting across his shoulders with the flames gently licking the back of his neck.

He may have been in intense pain, but Seven easily registered the person in front of him, the one who had cut off his fingers. The Tommy gun in his right hand rose up, the barrel once more blazing as Seven pulled the trigger.

Draconian leaped forward, jumping above the bullets and spinning his body around.

"Dragon Sweep!"

The scimitar swung from its position along his shoulders, curving down and across to follow the path of the spin, making contact with the gun and slicing it right in half.

His body continued the spin, the left arm bending itself and following the sword to smash its elbow right into the side of Seven's head, sending him crashing down to the ground.

Immediately following the fall, Draconian landed back on the ground in a crouch, slipping the scimitar back into its sheath as he did so. The hand automatically filled the empty space in its palm where the scimitar had been earlier by traveling down to the waist and grabbing onto the handle of the tanto.

He stood back up, taking a few steps towards the fallen Seven and sliding the tanto out of its sheath. As soon as he was at the fallen Seven, Draconian reached down and took a hold of the man's hair. Placing his knee between Seven's shoulder blade, Draconian gave a yank of the hair, bringing the man's head bending up and slightly back.

Seven gave a flinch as a cold sensation hit his neck, and with a panicked look down he saw the source to be the tanto's blade pressed against his throat.

"Now," Draconian said, "you're going to tell me everything that you know about Baroque Works right now, and you'll cooperate, otherwise I'm going to remove mister Addams apple."

Immediately Seven started to thrash around in protest, only to stop cold as Draconian pressed the blade harder against the throat, cutting just enough into the skin to draw some blood. A growl escaped Seven's mouth in response. "Why the hell do you want to know about Baroque Works? You don't seem like the person who'd care."

"Well, usually I'm not, but when I get attacked by a group like this twice I kind of start to get interested. Now pipe up, and I don't want to hear about any of that numbers and days crap, I already know that stuff."

Seven stared coldly at the blade against him, and giving a sigh he began to talk.

---

Draconian slammed Seven's face against the ground and stood up. He turned around and began to walk back towards the docks.

A groan escaped Seven's lips as he tried to push himself up with one arm. When he was supported by his knees, Seven raised his right hand up and wiped away the blood from his mouth.

Spit flew out of his mouth as he yelled at the top of his lungs at Draconian's back. "You're a stupid fool! You'll never win against him, no matter what you do! I am absolutely nothing compared to him, don't you understand that! Why do you even bother looking for the man when you know you'll lose?"

The small taps made from Draconian's steps stopped, the new, cold silence of the night clutching at everything like a blizzard.

"Because I made a promise to myself to beat my father, and that means constantly improving, and the only way to do that is to fight as strong opponents as I can. Even if I do lose, I'll just come right back and challenge my enemies until I beat them, because I won't stop fighting unless I'm unconscious."

For a few seconds, silence greeted his answer, only to be filled with Seven's laughter. "What does that matter how hard you work? Zero's not the type that's just going to spare you, when you lose to him you'll die, there's no coming back!"

Small chuckles emanated from Draconian as he started to walk away once more. "Who ever said I was going to lose to him?"

Seven's eyes widened as his face started to contort in fury, his teeth bearing themselves as a feral growl escaped his lips. He brought his right arm forward and pushed himself up, keeping his injured left hand close to his body.

Blood and spit flew from his mouth as his teeth gnashed in anger, even a tooth dislodged itself to be immediately shot out.

As soon as he was back on both feet, the injured left hand kept close to his chest, Seven immediately went to work digging through the inside of his suit. His arm shaking with anger, it took him quite a while to find what he was looking for and take it out of the inside.

In his right hand Seven now held a rose, the stem completely removed of all thorns. The blood red petals gleamed in the moonlight, beautifully shaped and delicate, yet somehow looking as deadly as a bloody sword.

He brought the rose up to his face, opening his mouth up slightly once it was near and gnashing his teeth onto one of the outside petals. With a small jerk, he ripped the petal completely off the flower, somehow releasing all the other petals in the process and making them fall off the stem like a group of delicate leaves.

His head now twisted all the way to the right, Seven gave another jerk in the opposite direction, releasing the petal still held in his mouth. Its delicate form was sent soaring through the air in the direction of Draconian, going at a speed faster than that of the hat previously.

The petal through right by Draconian; though not without leaving a mark as it cut right through the top of his shoulder as if it was paper.

Draconian grabbed at his shoulder in surprised shock and turned around to face his attacker.

Seven struck out at the floating petals, hitting them with his palm to send them all hurtling forward at Draconian in a manner like the first.

Now aware of the attack, Draconian jumped into the air and right over the leaves, which passed harmlessly underneath him to continue on and slice right into the ground. The tanto was brought back up, the giant tail of fire once more reappearing along its blade.

"Dragon Whip!"

The fire snaked through the air, easily catching the standing Seven and wrapping around his neck. Leaving the flames to hold Seven still, Draconian landed back on the ground. With a tug, he sent Seven hurtling forward, and right into Draconian's field of attack.

As soon as Seven was near enough, Draconian slipped the tanto back into its sheath, extinguishing the fire. This allowed him to flip over Seven's head, wrapping his left arm around his neck as he did so. Draconian landed in a low crouch, bending Seven's head back as he did so.

"Dragon Crossbow!"

His left foot shot out and hooked around Seven's right ankle, while his right arm grabbed onto the left leg, completely keeping him from moving. Finally, his right foot snapped out to push against Seven's back, making it so that his spine bent almost completely in half.

Seven yelled out in pain as he tried to struggle out of the hold, doing no good whatsoever as Draconian held his body completely still.

This went on for many moments, almost going a whole minute as Draconian calmly crouched in his position with the squirming, screaming Seven behind him.

After a little over a couple minutes, Draconian let go of all of Seven's body parts. The sudden effect of taking out all resistance to Seven's body had his spine snap forward, so that now he was leaning forward at a ninety degrees angle to his almost straight legs.

Following the release, Draconian swung his body to the left so that now he was facing Seven's right side. He jumped into the air, raising his left leg above Seven's back and placing his right near the ground. Flames erupted along the length of the legs as he shouted into the stillness of the night.

"Dragon Scissors!"

His left leg slammed down as his right snapped up, smashing into Seven's back and under his chin. The weight of the leg against his back sent his body straight down to the ground, while the one under his chin kept his head up.

Seven's head fell limply to the ground once Draconian removed his right leg from under his chin, the punishing vice having done its toll on the man's body.

For the second time, Draconian turned his back on Seven, taking his final stroll in the city towards the docks.

---

The ship's back lay pointing towards the receding island.

At the front of it stood Draconian, his eyes content on his tanto, which was working on the top of the dragon's head.

Draconian drew back, giving a sigh as a small smile of satisfaction spread on his face. He slipped the tanto back into its sheath as he surveyed his small work on the figure at the head of his ship.

Right between the two horns on the dragon's head was a small, curved hole; much like a small crater.

He reached into his right pocket, fishing out the Grand Compass he had finished working on. With an excited hand, he placed the globe into the small crater, fitting it in perfectly so that it wouldn't move.

The small arrow pointed ahead, towards the next destination in the Draconian's quest for perfection.

---

Finally, finished with another long chapter. Hopefully you liked this one, I personally did, I was thinking the fighting would be quick but, hey, I guess I just carry on with these things. Now, I'd like to apologize if there already was a Seven showed in the series, at the moment I haven't gone that far ahead so I wouldn't really know. If there is, please don't beat me up too much, I try my hardest to make these things good for you guys, because you deserve it. Now, onto reviews eh?

Yachtzee: Eh, I don't mind the long reviews, I actually prefer them, even if they are full of criticism. Also, as for the dragon thing, I guess my ideas (or at least for main characters) revolve around that stuff. Let's see... sorry for the paragraphs, I'm trying to space them out more, but I don't like doing just sentences, it feels as if I'm just doing them too short. As for the descriptions, sorry, but I just like doing descriptions, I feel it helps people get what's completely happening, it's just a thing of mine. Sorry about the sentences, there are some that I don't want too short, but there are also others that I find dividing into sentences wouldn't suit it, so some I have to actually keep long, but I'm trying to improve. Now, as for chapter length, try not to think of them as chapters, but more like sections of the whole story. Plus, just so you know, I think a lot of people take longer to get their chapters out than I do, and that's saying something considering how long mine are and the fact that nowadays I don't have much time do to school and other stuff I have to do. Well, I hope you review more often.

Iwin Ulose: Well, I believe I already reviewed your fight scene. Thanks for the compliment on my fight scenes, I feel honored for you to think that. Um... I have a question for you. I'm sorry if this sounds presumptuous, but do you know Hutchy? I don't mean know of him, but have you two talked or something? I mean, for some odd reason I just get the feeling that you two might know each other through fanfiction, you two just seem like that, plus I saw both of your names (and only yours) on a C2 staff, so I kind of presumed you two might talk or something. The reason I ask is that Hutchy hasn't reviewed my last chapter at all. I'm not trying to appear desperate, it's just that Hutchy is the only one who's actually stuck with me and reviewed every single one of my chapters, she's just one of those special reviewers, you know? I was just wondering if you knew any reason of this, I just really don't want to lose her reviews. Again, sorry if this is really presumptuous.

Well, that's that, I'll see you all in my next chapter.