Hiro-Shu stopped at a wall. The map said there should be a room here. He looked up at the wall again. He put his hand to it and tired pushing. Nope. The wall is as solid as a rock. Maybe there was something on the other side, but it was covered up. His fist became coated in a hard iron glove. He punched the wall. The entire wall crackled with his fist at the center. The wall collapsed before him. He looked down at the mess and then on the other side of the wall. It was an old room? He walked into it and looked around. His natural curiosity urged him to do so. On the table he found a nameplate that read 'Vice Admiral' Jugo.
"I heard something this way," someone shouted. A female shouted. Hiro-Shu turned his attention to voice. He got ready to punch whoever turned the corner first.
Valerie turned the corner and looked into the room. Hiro-Shu stood there arms in hardened iron. He looked stunned to have ran into Valerie again. Valerie looked back. More marines were surrounding the duo.
"Who is that?" said a first voice, "Is he one of the pirates?"
"Look at what he is wearing! It's a prisoner's uniform!" shouted a second one.
"Its Hiro-Shu the Golem!" shouted a third. "I remember when he arrested."
"Get him captain Valerie," chimed in the first voice again.
"Crap," though Hiro-Shu, "so close. Oh well, I might as well get ready to run." Hiro-Shu braced himself for a run.
"He's going to tackle you!" shouted another Marine.
Valerie fell to the floor in pain. She grabbed her knee and screamed. "My leg," she said in a faking voice, "I think I twisted it…or maybe its broken! It must have happened with all that running we were doing…"
Hiro-Shu smiled. Valerie was faking leg trauma to let him get out of here. He was about to take off when another Marine voiced his opinion.
"Valerie! You can't be serious! You are about to loose your job!" shouted a Marine. "You keep getting marked down! If you let a prisoner escape you'd definitely be demoted, fired, or worse they could think you've joined forces and you could get executed in his stead!" Valerie looked sternly at the Marine. She knew she was going to lose her job.
Hiro-Shu stopped in his tracks and straightened back up. His freedom was going to cost Valerie her job maybe even her life. He had saved her life before another time wasn't going to make a difference to him.
"Give the girl a break," said Hiro-Shu donning a more serious voice, "She couldn't have beaten me even if she tried." He walked up to Valerie. He slugged her once with his plain fist to her cheek. She toppled over.
Valerie glared at Hiro-Shu. She was trying to help him! She was trying to let him escape! She looked at his fist. It was still human. He could've broken her entire body if he would've made it iron. He was trying to save her! Why couldn't he just let her repay him? She was trying to repay her debt to him! He saved her and know she was saving him! It would've been that simply. But Hiro-Shu decided to end with even more gusto and make himself seem like a hero again! Valerie stood up bracing herself.
"Looks like all my leg needed was a good punch to the face," said Valerie. She smiled. "I am a fair lady so I figure I should warn you," her knees to her toes all became incased in pure steel, "I am the vessel to the almighty spirit, Kjósa the Valkyrie of Steel. My entire body (and any clothing touching it) is capable of becoming solid steel. Any swords you have are basically useless against me."
"As you probably already know I am the vessel to Iguko, the Golem of Iron," said Hiro-Shu. "Get out of my way before I have to hurt your pretty face."
One of the younger marines looked at the eldest marines there, "What is a vessel?"
The eldest marine scoffed, "A vessel is a human that houses two spirits. His own and an ancient spirit. The spirit lends its power to the human in an equal trade for a body to inhabit. Spirits would natural deteriorate if they weren't in a human body or an animal body. So it's basically an even trade."
"So, they are like Devil Fruit users, huh," said the younger one.
"Close to. Devil Fruits have a much wider range of powers and the two spirits inside a human body will sometimes have conflicting ideals and will refuse to lend the human their power. Of course Devil Fruit users are hated by the sea and will drown. The same isn't true for vessels."
"Wow," said the younger marine. "I hope Valerie can win."
Valerie jumped towards Hiro-Shu. She brought her steel encased leg down through the air aimed at Hiro-Shu. "Heel of Steel! Valkyrie's Ax!" She brought her heel straight into Hiro-Shu's shoulder. Hiro-Shu simply responded with a smile as his iron encased shoulder wasn't even dented.
"Fist of Iron! Golem's Fury!" shouted Hiro-Shu. He encased his fist in iron and then he punched Valerie hard in the gut. Valerie skidded back some, fortunately though she was unharmed.
Valerie prepared herself for the next attack. "Let's get going, I have no problem with a little bruise here and there." Valerie flipped over into a handstand and encased her legs in even more steel. "Heels of Steel! Kjósa's Windmill!"She spun around launched several kicks from her handstand position.
Hiro-Shu brought his iron encased hands up to protect him from most of the sharp kicks she was delivering. Her attacks eventually stopped and she jumped back onto her feet. She was ready to fight the iron golem that saved her life a few years ago. More then that it almost appeared as if she was winning.
Hiro-Shu brought his arms down and examined them. Despite the earlier fights that left him completely unscathed, this fight had already left several scratches on his iron arms. A prolonged fight might not be to his advantage. He'd have to step it up a notch.
"First Stage! Golem Brawler!" Hiro-Shu slammed his knuckles together as they became encased in metal. His legs underwent a similar reaction. Soon both of his arms and both of his legs were iron.
"That's seriously it," said Valerie, "I'll show you a real first stage! First Stage! Valkyrie Scout!" She gained pure steel shoulder pads, forearms bands, a tiara, and a small breast plate. Her heels became flat regular boots with wheels embedded in the bottom.
The two equal iron and steel clad warriors grinned at each other. The fight was winding down into something more and more interesting with each and every passing attack. Before this was just a somewhat trivial battle, but now neither warrior wanted to back away and lose. Both of them wanted to prove their strength to the other.
"Heel of Steel! Valkyrie Axe!" Valerie brought her leg straight up and down upon the iron warrior once more. Hiro-Shu blocked with his simple iron fist.
Before Hiro-Shu got his turn to launch a blow, the ground beneath started to crack and crumble underneath their combined nearly colossal 1200 pounds! The ground split up and swallowed them whole. Hiro-Shu landed painfully on his rear end, Valerie was much more fortunate and graceful and was able to land on her two feet. However the increased strain with her kicks and now the fall were apparently starting to take a toll on her steel legs. The new battle field they were in was coated with slime, dirt, and grime. It was some kind of garbage room. It was filled with trash like banana peels, tissues, and even a few traces of used toilet paper. Ew.
Valerie dusted off a little dirt. Hiro-Shu calmly and slowly got up after her. Valerie chuckled at the poor iron warrior. The applause and commotion from above was still able to be heard and none of it was very kind towards Hiro-Shu. Valerie motioned for Hiro-Shu to make the first move. He didn't budge.
"Come on, Hiro-Shu," taunted Valerie, "I know you want to fight me as much as I want to fight you, but sometimes you got to do something you don't want to do. So attack me!"
"Can't," replied Hiro-Shu. He brought his arms up to a blocking posture.
"Can't? You can't what? Can't hit me?" said Valerie, "Just because I am a girl and you saved my life once doesn't mean you should take it easy on me."
"No, I'm not taking it easy on you," said Hiro-Shu, "I just can't move…the increased weight from my arms and legs makes it difficult."
"You're kidding me, right?" laughed Valerie, "you are not attacking me because you are too heavy? Don't you have any far distance attacks."
"None that works too well in the grime," said Hiro-Shu as he moved his heavy hand to his shoulder and threw a banana peel off of him.
"Fine," said Valerie. "I'll just take you out then!" Valerie darted towards Hiro-Shu. She was rapidly speeding towards Hiro-Shu on the hidden wheels in her boots.
"Fists of Iron! Iguko's Hammer!" shouted Hiro-Shu. He locked his two fists together and brought them down in a hammer like fashion at Valerie. Valerie tried to dart away but the grimy residue on the floor made her wheels lousy at moving and she quickly lost her balance and slammed onto the floor. Hiro-Shu brought his iron fists straight down upon her.
The marines up top started yelling and screaming something fierce. Valerie got up and darted away. With this sight they started to cheer once again for their beloved captain. Valerie jumped back down and did another handstand. "You could barely block it last time so let's see it again! Heels of Steel! Kjósa's Windmill!" Her spinning legs repeatedly slammed into Hiro-Shu's arms. She then stopped spinning jumped to her feet and launched another kick. "Heel of Steel! Valkyrie's Lance!" This kick decimated Hiro-Shu's defense blasting his arms away from his face and causing him to fall back into the grime.
Valerie stood above him. She brought her leg straight up preparing for her next attack, but Hiro-Shu still had a trick left. "Forger's Fire! Iguko's Flame!" Hiro-Shu blew a large amount of fire from his mouth towards Valerie. Valerie's entire body was soon wrapped up in scorching flames. She stumbled back giving Hiro-Shu a brief opening. Hiro-Shu jumped to his feet and punched Valerie with his hard as iron fist. Valerie was thrown back from the near devastating punch. If she wasn't being protected by a thin suit of steel that punch would've devastated her body.
Valerie was quickly getting back on her feet. Bad news was with that last punch she was thrown into the dirty garbage water. Good news was the dirt garbage water extinguished her previously burning body.
"Ew," squeaked Valerie as she pulled dirty pieces of trash off of her body, "ew, ew, ew! You are going to pay for that Hiro-Shu! Heels of Steel! Valkyrie's Lance!" Valerie slammed her hardened steel heel into Hiro-Shu's gut forcing him to stumble backwards. "Heel of Steel! Valkyrie's Axe!" Valerie brought he heel straight up from that position and brought it back down slamming it into Hiro-Shu's body.
Hiro-Shu remained where he was his iron body not flinching for even one moment due Valerie's attacks vicious and continuous -Shu breathed flames onto both of his hands. "Forger's Fire! Shiba's Knuckle!" Hiro-Shu unleashed a devastating flaming punch at Valerie. Valerie tried dodging it by jumping back but it was to little avail. Despite it only barely nicking her chin the fire spread over her garbage littered body catching each individual trash molecule on fire, lighting her up.
Valerie fell straight into the trash and started splashing herself with water trying to cool her off. The fire was barely doing its job, but slowly the fire to become extinguished. The heavy iron around Hiro-Shu's legs disappeared. He charged towards her.
Under his breath, low enough were the marines above them were incapable of hearing anything that he could possibly say, he said "I'm sorry, Valerie." Then in a more uproarious tone of voice he shouted, "Fist of Iron! Golem's Fury!" He sent one straight punch into Valerie's nearly unguarded face and sent her flying into the walls behind her. "Maybe next time we meet we can just grab something to eat instead of fighting." He quickly ran out of the room to find his way out of the labyrinth that is the Marine Base.
(-The Harbor-)
"Crap," said Ridley, "I can't find Mikoto…I've been to the gym, locker rooms, bedrooms, ship working shops, I've been everywhere…" he looked around and saw the large ship. "Maybe he beat Kin already and decided to get to work on setting off." Ridley jumped onto the ship. He noticed no one else was on the ship yet. "Crap! Still no sight of Mikoto." Ridley was about to go out and look for Mikoto, but something stopped him. Zesiro was throwing cannonballs into the sea.
Ridley jumped down from the boat. "What are you doing!" he shouted. "Do you want the Marines to kill us!"
"No, that is why I am getting rid of their ammunition!" Zesiro shouted back, "no cannonballs means no getting fired at when we set sail!" Zesiro shoved another cannonball off of the dock. The ball made a large splash in the water.
"Wow, that is actually pretty smart," said Ridley, "I guess you aren't just two swords and muscle." Ridley ran over to a cannon ball and started pushing it towards the sea. "Two men are better then one."
So with that the epic fight between Valerie and Hiro-Shu draws to a close. The only ones remaining are Mikoto and Kin. But other real questions remains what is Hiro-Shu going to do? Where is Mikoto? Is Mikoto going to win? And where is Sage right now? What is the deal with this 'Jugo' fellow? Are you guys going to keep reading and reviewing? I hope so!