Chapter Six
The Prize Fight
The wool gloves on Aries' arms rippled against her pale skin as she bounced closer to the intimidating man before her. Zoro walked around the bar, following Shin's movements with wary eyes.
"What the hell is he doing?" he asked as he sheathed his sword. Luffy hopped over the debris from his crash and put his straw hat back on his head. The dark haired boy watched Aries with observing eyes, curious about her fighting style.
Aries laughed and shifted her stance to be closer to Shin. "That's his fighting style. It's known as the Drunken Fist. Basically, he gets beyond wasted and no one can beat him."
Her opponent chuckled darkly as he jabbed a punch in the blonde's direction. The sheep girl was only barely able to dodge it. He kept attacking Aries, his punches getting harder and harder to dodge.
"Ya know, Ram, that cocky attitude of yers is gonna be yer downfall," he slurred. Aries let loose a low growl from the back of her throat and sent a couple of straight punches towards his face. She smirked as she saw her fist flying towards his large nose.
As her clenched hand made contact, there was no satisfying crush of his nose breaking, no howl of pain. Instead, the surprised girl's attack went through him. The blonde stumbled as she tried to rebalance herself, but a strike to the back of her head sent her tumbling to the floor.
The sound of Luffy's and Zoro's shouts of disbelief was fuzzy in her ears. She slowly pushed herself up onto her knees, blood dripping down her face from a rough scrape on her forehead.
"Yer never gonna beat me, Ram. Ya pathetic sheep, doomed to be my slave until I decide to kill ya." His large hand grabbed her soft, wavy hair and yanked her head back, pulling her into a kneeling position. A pained bleat passed her lips. "Ya think yer so smart. Ya think ya got me figured out, but yer nowhere near close." His voice grated like sandpaper against her eardrums as his speech slurred even more.
She opened her eyes weakly, giving him her best glare before spitting in his face. Shin growled as he wiped the spit from his cheek. He let go of her blonde ponytail, pushing her forward. A sadistic grin stretched across his chapped lips.
As she straightened, the tall pirate appeared in front of her. He dodged a sloppy punch to the throat and kneed her in the gut. His drunken laugh echoed in the dingy room.
Aries gritted her red-stained teeth, spitting the copper tasting substance onto the concrete floor.
Shin grabbed another mug of beer from behind the bar and chugged it down quickly.
"When did you get so fast, you bastard? Have you been holding back this much?" she coughed out, holding her side, blood seeping through the bandages wrapped around her mid-section. She grimaced as she twisted her body to glare at her opponent. His last attack must've ripped some stitches. Shit. The sheep girl staggered as the dull throb became a searing pain.
Shin laughed again, running his large hand through his short hair. "It's not that I'm faster, Ram. The problem is that yer thinking too much."
On the other end of the room, Zoro scoffed under his breath. "This doesn't seem like a fair fight, Luffy."
Luffy looked up at the taller swordsman. "Sheep-girl will win," he said simply. He adjusted his straw hat on his head as he watched the fight in front of him.
Zoro resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was used to his captain's antics by now. "What makes you so sure?"
A cheek-splitting grin stretched across the young rubber boy's face. "Because she's gonna be our new nakama!"
This time, the green haired male couldn't hold down his groan. "Of course you already decided that. But just how are you going to convince a girl who's terrified of pirates to join a pirate crew?"
The captain tilted his head. "We're her friends now. She isn't scared of us."
Zoro shook his head and moved his attention back to the fight. Aries and Shin were circling each other like lions in a cage. His dark eyes grazed over the blonde girl's form, taking in the subtle changes in her personality. She was no longer the scared, trembling girl he had encountered on the Merry. Now, she was sarcastic and confrontational. It was like she was someone else altogether.
Aries watched Shin's every move, trying to figure out what his trick was. He had never been this much faster than her. Every time she tried to follow his movements, he would be where she least expected him. She, once again, launched a strong right jab to his chest, only to hit air. She bared her teeth and turned around just in time to block a strike to her head.
"Ya can't figure it out, can ya?" the burly man laughed as he swayed slightly.
Aries snarled and spat out a curse at him as she pressed her hand harder against the wound. She pushed herself to stand up straight, her wool gloves bubbling against her skin. The soft material shifted down and gathered around her clenched fists. She looked down, her dark blue eyes widening slightly as she took in the shape her gloves were in. The gloves were now short, ending just above her wrists, with extra padding around her knuckles and first finger joints.
She opened and clenched her fists a few times before her lips turned up in a cocky smirk. She shifted her body weight onto her back leg, bouncing as she tried to forget about the blood that was now running down her leg. She pulled her arm back and struck at him with a quick jab to the chest. Once again, her fist hit nothing but air.
Aries spun around on the ball of her foot to strike behind her, expecting Shin to be there. But once again, she hit nothing. Frustrated, she jerked her head side to side, scanning the room for any sign of the bulky man. There was no sign of him anywhere in the bar. Over against the wall, Zoro and Luffy also searched the room with their eyes.
"Does he have Devil Fruit powers?" the swordsman growled. "I've never seen a punch go through someone like that. And now he's disappeared?" The older teen cast a glance at his captain, who was silent. His dark eyes watched the blonde girl's every move.
"Now ya aren't using yer brain at all, Ram. How pathetic." his slurred voice came from behind her, slowly drifting through the musty air.
The girl knew that he wouldn't be behind her, the acoustics in the room allowed his voice to bounce off the walls and almost fill the space with its sound. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, trying to listen for the sound of her opponent's footfalls. She cleared her mind and focused only on the sounds around her.
Where is he? she asked herself. Shin is tall and bulky. Even if he tried his hardest to be stealthy, his feet would still make sounds as he shifted his weight. So which direction is he gonna come from?
The room was silent. The pirates stopped their whispering (or what they considered whispering. Neither one knew how to be discreet) and watched Aries as she stood completely still in the center of the room.
Her head lifted slightly and barely turned to the left. There!
Her eyes snapped open and she threw out her fist in a sharp punch. This time, there was the feeling of her knuckles meeting skin and the sweet sound of her opponent's breath catching in his throat. A sadistic smirk stretched across her pink lips as she launched punch after punch at Shin's unprotected chest and abdominal area. As she pulled her fist back to deliver her final blow to his windpipe, she froze under the man's frightening glare.
Shin's eyes had narrowed to thin slits and his face was blank of all emotion except for rage. He was clearly sober now, and that realization terrified Aries. She took a half step back only to be punched in the jaw. The force behind his fist sent her spiraling to the ground. She skidded across the floor, her arm scraping painfully against the rough concrete floor. A pained bleat left her lips as her skidding stopped. She twisted her body, trying to push herself back onto her feet, when suddenly Shin was at her side, slamming his large foot into her unprotected side.
She grunted through her clenched teeth as she fell back down. Hot tears squeezed past her eyelids as Shin's violent attack continued. She felt her strength leave her with every one of Shin's kicks. Pathetic whimpers came from her throat as she felt a few of her ribs crack under the force of her beating. Shin felt her bones start to break under his foot and started to laugh cruelly.
Damnit, I can't die like this! I wanted to see the world! I wanted to make friends! I will not die a slave!
Aries struggled to lift her head and glare at the tall man. He caught her glaring and placed the heel of his shoe against the back of her head, pushing her head back down and grinding her cheek against the concrete floor.
"It's a pity I have to kill you here, Ram. But, you've outlived your value. The captain won't be pleased, but there isn't a shortage of slaves to be bought." he sneered down at her, an evil smirk stretched across his thin lips. As Shin ground her head into the floor, the skin around her horns started to burn and itch again. Her rough horns began to shrink as more hot tears fell from her eyes.
"ARIES!" Luffy shouted abruptly, his deafening voice caught everyone in the bar off guard. Aries forced her eyes open and stared at the older boy. Her dark blue eyes appeared almost black, her pupils had dilated so much.
As her eyes met his, the world seemed to stand still. There were no words shared between them. The look in his dark eyes said it all.
Kick his ass.
Those three words echoed in her head, every echo seemed to get louder and louder, until the words were practically being screeched in her ears. Her dilated pupils constricted into tiny dots as her heart rate picked up. That cocky smirk worked its way back onto her lips. Luffy smirked back and gave a tiny nod.
And just like that, a moment that seemed to last minutes, was over in a few seconds. Their connection was broken.
As her smirk stretched wider, her brown horns spiraled out of her head wildly. They grew so long and fast that they ended up stabbing Shin though the ankle. The man let out a surprised wail and jerk his leg away from her, stumbling back a few steps. The blonde flipped onto her back, rolled back so her legs were tucked into her chest and her palms were flat of the ground above her shoulders, and sprung back onto her feet.
Her foe's face was twisted into a vicious snarl, his aura screaming murder. "You're dead!" he spit at her, trying to move towards her, but his injured leg was almost useless.
Aries gave him a wicked grin as she knocked her knuckles together, her fleece fighting gloves making small clanging sounds not normally heard from wool. The more she hit them together, the louder the noise became. The grin on her face grew as Shin backed away.
Zoro and Luffy watching on, both confused by Aries' sudden change in personality.
"You know Shin," she paused, holding her fist up by her face, inspecting her glove, "I've had enough of your shit."
In a flash, she was beside the tall, burly man, her tightly clenched fist pounded into his right cheek. His head whipped to the side, a bloody tooth flying out of his mouth due to the force of the attack. His heavy body dropped to the floor but he was able to quickly get back up, cautious of his injured ankle. The evil look in his eyes had been replaced by pure fear and confusion.
The young teen girl held her fist out in front of her, the normally white wool was stained red with blood. Her eyes drifted over the red stains, trying to remember if it was hers or Shin's. "Are you gonna beg for your pathetic life? Huh, Shin? Aren't you gonna beg for mercy?" Her harsh blue eyes glared daggers at him. She punched her fists together again and said loudly, "Steel Wool: Iron Fist!"
The white fleece fighting gloves quickly took on a silver sheen as Aries let loose a flurry of punches in Shin's direction. The bones in the man's face broke under the blows, blood streaming from the numerous cuts littering his skin. Her attacks felt like he was being hit by a cannonball over and over again.
A loud war cry tore from Aries' throat as she launched one last attack to Shin's abdomen. Shin crumbled to the ground, unconscious. The blonde girl stood over her opponent, gasping for breath, but victorious. She heard the cheers from Luffy, but they sounded fuzzy to her ears. She stared down at the body of the man that had made her life a living hell for the past four years. Her legs felt like jelly as she knelt down by his head. She threaded her fingers in his short brown hair and roughly yanked his head off the floor.
"Fuck you, Shin. I'm free now." she growled in his ear before slamming his forehead against the floor. She released him from her grasp and slowly stood up again, taking her first deep breath as a free woman.