A Confrontation of Swords and Hunters!

Zesiro tried to remain calm. He quickly brought one of his feet up and onto the short sword that he had just ripped out of his chest. With any luck that would be the only weapon his opponent had and the fight would end like that. If his opponent couldn't grab the sword it would be his win. Zesiro looked down at the hole in his chest and decided against that. It was 1-0 in favor of his opponent. If the fight ended now it would be his lost. Zesiro kicked the sword out over to a bush. The sword disappeared within seconds.

Zesiro was already preparing for the next attack and the next counter. His body was too badly injured. The exertion of the multiple normal attacks that would be required to take down his opponent would put a lot of stress on his wounds, his best bet would be a one-hit kill and the best way to do that would be a counter, especially considering the fact that his opponent appeared only for attacks and then quickly disappeared. The counter-attack would require perfect timing...and before his swing's timing was off.

Zesiro quickly performed multiple short downwards swing preparing for the next attack. Something was definitely different. His swing was faster, he didn't notice it when he was practicing, because he was focusing on the routine rather then the blade. However, he quickly adjusted to the speed of his new swing. Zesiro turned around and looked at the bushes.

There were a lot of bushes around him. There would be no way to get away from them either. Zesiro looked around, his eyes falling on each individual bush looking for something out of place. The flash of his opponent's weapon or even a group of leaves parted where his opponent could see through it. He didn't see anything.

Similarly, his opponent was also worried about it. His opponent was dressed completely in black with small dark green and brown patches on his skin. He was perfectly camouflaged to his surrounding. He even wore a black head wrap to keep his entire body hidden. He was terrified of making another attack having witnessed Zesiro's last attack. His heart was beating faster then it ever had. He had seen the downwards slash coming, but that didn't make him feel any better. With the speed and power behind it he couldn't have dodged it or blocked it had he been in its range.

He remained hunkered down in the bushes. He had a small thin tube that barely poked through the bushes. It allowed him to see through the bushes and see his opponent, but it was colored just like sticks. So, unless you knew that he was using such a device and that he was in that specific bush, you would never notice it sticking out. It severely limited his eyesight, but it was more then enough for an expert like him.

He liked to remain at the side of his targets. Most people expect an attacker to strike out and aim for their backs, so they put up a barrier against it. They train to counter such cowardly tactics. Of course, what they don't do is train to counter a side attack. Weapon users that hold their weapon in their right hand has a bigger opening on their right side as a result. The longer reach of the weapon creates that opening, so with his speed he could easily take him down as soon as he saw the perfect opening. Even if he had to wait all night, he would take him down and give his head to Trevor to save his own life.

He specifically targeted the Fishman. When they were at the shipyard early, he was the only one not carrying anything heavy. He had noticeable bandages on him and it was obvious to see his injuries. Best of all, if he beheaded the Fishman he would just show the head to Trevor. The head was free of all bandages and even recently healed scars so Trevor would assume he was perfectly healthy when he took him down. He highly doubted Trevor would accept him taking out a half-dead pirate and showing it to him would appease him. He smiled as he quickly dashed to another bush as Zesiro began to pivot around to face him. He only had to remain in Zesiro's blind spot in order to avoid getting spotted.

He smiled as soon as he noticed Zesiro's guard dropped just slightly, but it created a big enough of an opening for him. He dashed, coming out of the bush once more a blur as he hurtled toward Zesiro. Zesiro separated his legs and brought the sword around aiming for his opponent. With his newly adjusted timing to his new-found speed and power. His opponent noticed this and in a brief moment dashed to the side desperate to avoid the blow. Zesiro felt the blade hit home and cleave into meat, however, the attack wasn't enough to finish the fight and his opponent disappeared back into the bushes.

Both of them let out an upset sigh as neither of their attacks resulted in the finishing blow they wanted. There was blood from the attacker that had spilled out on the ground and onto the ground, but that was it. Despite Zesiro's power he couldn't bring the sword all the way through it. His opponent was much more skilled he had used his sword to deflect the blow, not block it, and then he brought the rest of his body out of the way. The two movements didn't amount to much by themselves, but combined it was just barely capable of diverting the blow away from his head and just into his hand.

Zesiro's eyes fell onto a bush. The trail of blood was now a dead give away to his opponent. His eyes flickered into mere slits as he stepped forward approaching the bush. He grabbed onto his sword with both of his hands. He lifted the sword upwards and then brought it down in a diagonal motion. With the combined power of both of his arms on the sword, the attack came down with an unbelievable level of power. His opponent just barely managed to get out of the bush and out of the way of the sword.

For the first time in the fight, Zesiro got a good look at his opponent. His high level of camouflage was amazing. Only part of the human that Zesiro could see was his eyes. And even then his eyelids were painted black, so that the only thing he had to do was close his eyes and his entire body would disappear against the dark sky.

The man once more disappeared running to another nearby bush. "Sorry," said Zesiro as he lifted his sword up into the air, "but with that heavy stench of blood on you...there is no way you can hide from a shark!" Zesiro brought his sword down upon the small bush. The man dashed out of it just in the nick of time avoiding the deadly downwards slash. He was only out of the bush for a split second before going back into a different bush. "Crap," muttered Zesiro as he once again missed, the fight was just getting annoying now. His adrenaline rush from fighting a short sword was wearing off.

The man charged out of the bush using his superior skill to break out of the bush, he was back on the attack. Zesiro brought his sword down and prepared to block the attack. Zesiro saw the flash of the sword as he prepared for a thrust. Zesiro brought his sword down and buffered his defense. Zesiro felt the thrust hit his sword, but something else happened. The man rotated his arm, putting a spin on his blade. Using the rotation on the tip of the blade it rolled to the side and past the blade without losing any momentum from the man's dash. Zesiro was forced back as the blade drove into him.

Zesiro watched as the man drove back away into the bushes. Zesiro was forced to fall down onto a knee as more of his blood pooled onto the floor. Looks like Enma would end up patching him back up. That last attack was definitely something to watch out for. The rotation on the tip of the sword basically turned it into a drill and made it even more deadlier.

Zesiro grunted as he stood back up and watched the bushes. He gripped the sword tightly with both hands and prepared for his next attack. His muscles tensed as he lifted the blade up and into the air. He was about eight to nine feet away from the bush, his enemy was hiding at. His opponent was mystified as he watched him take up such a strange stance, the only thing that would make sense was if he was preparing for a counter-attack, but in exchange he left his entire body open for an attack. It would be a matter of speed...

Zesiro saw it differently. He brought the sword down with tremendous power and brought his entire body leaning down and forward. His attack didn't see anything as the power of the sword sent the air flying forward in a superfine blade. The air blade dug into the man's shoulder and forced him back and across the ground, more blood splattered off of his body as the drove through him. That was it, the fight was over with a win for Zesiro.

(-With Mikoto-)

Mikoto stood on top of the large ship that was decorated with numerous skulls. Mikoto didn't have a singe clue as to where Trevor would be, but Ridley's description of a ship decorated with skulls brought him here. The ship was giving Mikoto the goosebumps even if Mikoto could get past the skulls and the rest of the unnerving decor, like the blood on the ground, the smell was still there. It was a really strong stench that forced him to breathe through his mouth.

He thought about it for a second and then looked at the skulls. Mikoto jumped off of the ship and began to dig holes in the sand. Once he dug enough, he jumped back onto the ship and began to carry the skulls off of the ship one by one and place them into the holes and covered them back up. He slowly did this to each skull, burying each and every one of them into the sand.

Mikoto didn't like the fact that the skulls being paraded around on Trevor's ship, just to intimidate his opponents...or just to satisfy Trevor's own sick thoughts. The fact that the sand helped get rid of the smell and that burying the skulls would probably annoy Trevor were just small bonuses.

Mikoto stopped as he picked up another skull off of the railing of the ship. He wondered if it belonged to one of Melanie's parents. If it did, should he take it back to her? Give her some kind of closure? Or would that just be some form of cruel torture?
"Marco Villabon...male, 28 years-old, died within five minutes during our fight," said Trevor as he walked up and onto the ship with a happy smile on his face. "It was one of my favorite kills...it was such a clean slice through his neck...it was such a PERFECT kill! Such a nice sweep through the neck and the head came off with incredible ease! No head trauma at all, no bumps, no breaks. When he fell to the ground, his fall was cushioned and poof no damage to his head."

Mikoto looked over at Trevor and slowly put the skull back up and onto the railing. Their eyes locked as they slowly tried to size each other up. Mikoto was stuck on the ship, still bobbing over an ocean. A fall from the ship would be the end of him, straight into the ocean where he would drown...or Trevor would jump in after him and kill him that way unless Trevor ate a Devil Fruit. No! Mikoto's plan was to dodge past him and get back onto solid ground to fight. There was no need to worry about what would happen if the fight continued on the ship.

Trevor's smile never left his face even as he continued, "now, do you want to tell me what happened to half of my skulls?"

The Preparations for a Funeral!

I'm a bit worried about the big 100 chapter thing I was planning. It looks like it should still work, but I'm not sure any more. Its nothing worth getting upset about as its not like the 100th chapter surprise is an entire chapter...I'm not even sure how many of you guys will actually care about it...but I'm going through with it anyways!

Also, 499 reviews...not quite 500...not quite yet.