Entrance Forms!

The Three Groups!

"We are here!" shouted Hiro-Shu as the ship came up onto the docks of the island. "Everybody get ready to board the island!" The ship immediately became ten times more lively even Ichi and Nito were jumping around excited, despite not knowing why they were here at this island. They probably just figured they were here to win tons of money and even more fame at the island. Whatever was good for their new friends was just as good for them.

"I'll go get Sage and Enma," announced Rosa as she charged down to the lower levels. Lily followed closely behind her galloping along on the ship. First up was Sage. She still wasn't sure how Enma felt about her, so she decided it would be best to get the cheery and helpful Sage first and then talk to Enma.

Rosa quickly came upon Sage's room and walked right in. It was the middle of the day, they were drawing in on the island, she had no excuse to be hiding anything right now. But still Rosa was shocked at the sight. Sage was curled up in a ball underneath her blanket. Rosa walked up to her. Her hand paused as it touched the blanket, "I have no confidence to live...I should just die," murmured Sage from beneath the blanket.

"Wha! What was that!" Rosa dashed off. She ran to Enma's room and barged in on him. Enma didn't hear her entering instead he remained focused on his work.

Enma's head was in his hand and he was doubled over a beaker filled with a mysterious liquid. He had several books that surrounded him, they were all opened with several dog-eared pages. "I still can't figure out how to create it. Even after all these years no one ever figured out how to create that miraculous drug."

Rosa didn't waste a second for Enma to finished his thoughts. She grabbed him, pulling him away from his work and dashed off back to Sage's room with Enma in tow. "Something is wrong with Sage!" shouted Rosa as she walked over to the blanket once more, "She's not in a good mood. I think having Mikoto kidnapped took a bigger tole on her then we thought!"

Rosa gripped the blanket and ripped it off of Sage. Sage was curled up in a ball. The air around her seemed incredibly heavy. "If I'm going to be reborn...I want to be a shell," murmured Sage as she grabbed the blanket and pulled it back above her. "I'm the worst...I should die." The blanket continued to curl up with Sage in the middle of it.

"You don't know, do you?" asked Enma as he paused looking at her. "You see, the majority of the crew is perfectly healthy, only a few of us have any abnormalities when it comes to health. Sage...is the exception. She suffers from a disease called Seasonal Affective Disorder. In other words, during the winter and spring months her personality becomes one of two extremes. We've previously experienced happy Spring Sage, but this is the first time we've experienced negative Winter Sage...I think."

"I think the world would be a better place if we all just gave in and remained in all of our houses...never working...and then we'd all be reborn as seaweed," mumbled Sage as she retreated further beneath her blanket. Rosa stared at Enma expecting some big medical cure to return Sage to her bright and shiny self, but noticed that he had already left. Lily was sitting in one spot with her head twisted around in the direction that Enma left.

Rosa jumped up and landed on Lily's back. Lily let loose a mighty roar and chased Enma, back up the stairs and to the final floor. "Why aren't you doing anything?" asked Rosa, "Sage needs your help!" Rosa jumped off of Lily and walked up to Enma. Enma waved her away and collapsed into the nearby chair. Rosa paused as she looked at Enma.

Before she had been so consumed with Sage's state of health that she had ignored Enma's. After all, he was the doctor, the thought of him getting sick seemed impossible. But looking at him as he was now it was obvious he was less then healthy. He had enormous bags under his eyes, probably from several sleepless nights working. He was less then clean, he normally worked hard to keep himself in prime condition and with good hygiene, but his hair was messy and his clothes looked absolutely horrid. He was already starting to fall asleep on the floor.

As she paused to think about it. The entire crew seemed to be in a similar state of grogginess. These past few days she hadn't bumped into many of them. Zesiro had been busy training with the three brothers ever since they picked them up, but even before that he had set aside several hours of the day to train with Maria or Hiro-Shu. The entire crew was working over time in order to prepare for the upcoming days. Rosa was an honorary member of the Infinity Pirates, but compared to how hard these people were working...she wasn't even an 'honorary' honorary member.

"Let's get going!" shouted Ridley as he came up from the bottom of the deck. His loud voice seemed to give the necessary boost to the rest of the crew. Enma immediately stood back up. The entire crew began moving off of the ship and onto the island. Rosa was in the back, behind all of the real crew members and even the three Fishman brothers who were attached to Zesiro. Melanie was resting on the ship, waiting for them to leave as she didn't want to be seen with any pirates.

At the front desk sat a Longarm. He was wearing a shirt with horizontal black and white strips and black pants. His eyes were kept down and at the table. His hands were continuously moving from one side to another, moving papers about as he finished page after page of registration forms for the big upcoming fight. When the crew appeared in front of the desk, he moved his arm around and lifted up one finger to signal them to wait.

The crew waited impatiently for their turn. The pirates and bandits and all other forms of warriors that surrounded them murmured. The name of the Infinity Pirates had grown apparently. There was no shock to it as the crew's reputation was known for taking down not one, but two Marine Bases. Even worse at the most recent Marine Base the causalities were incredibly high. Even so, the majority of the pirates around them didn't even bat an eye at the pirates whose bounties were on the rise.

Loud music was playing in the halls and it seemed to put everybody on edge. It was the kind of tension that even simple eye-contact would start a fight between two people. The crew was too focused on the Longarm in front of them to pay any heed to the pirates bustling around them, itching to fight the newcomers to the Grand Line.

"And done!" shouted the Longarm as he pulled the remaining paperwork aside. "Nice to meet more customers of the world-wide famous Underground Rally Arena. Are you here as participants or..." the Longarm finally pulled his attention away from the paperwork and up at the pirates, "UWAH! You are the Infinity Pirates! The boss said that you'd be coming!"

"Yeah," muttered Ridley as he reached across the table and grabbed a hold of the man's collar. He pulled him across the table and towards the entire crew, "we are here to meet with Trevor and only Trevor. The rest of this crap doesn't interest us."

"Sorry!" apologized the Longarm, bowing his head. "But you see...the boss knew about you guys coming, so he set up a bit of a back-up...big name rookies like the Infinity Pirates are the biggest draws in this business. After all, really big name pros don't come around all too often and when they do, their fights are usually completely one-sided and that bores the customers! So, you see, the boss doesn't want to lose you guys! You are too valuable of an attraction!"

"I think you got us mixed up with somebody who likes your boss!" shouted Ridley as he pounded his fist on to the desk. The Longarm cringed, despite being the front man of a bloody business like this he didn't seem like he could stomach violence at all.

"I understand...but the boss said your friend, Mikoto, I think his name was, deeply wanted you all to participate," said the Longarm with a shudder. "Trevor said that he believes it would be most regretful for you guys not to participate. He told me that Mikoto asked for you guys to take part." Ridley loosened his grip and let the Longarm slide back into his chair.

"Sign up some of the guys behind me...they'll tell you who," Ridley grabbed his guitar and left the room. It was an obvious threat, but the bad news was it was a threat that Trevor could easily carry out. In the long run it would've been best to just go out and beat Trevor, screw the URA and the fights, but that wasn't about to happen now. At least not easily...the rest of the crew would just have to provide a distraction.

The Longarm ignored Ridley and returned to the rest of the crew. "Well, the entry fee is about 500,000 belies for Fishmen and 300,000 belies for humans. Its our corporate policy since Fishmen have innately stronger bodies then regular humans we make them pay more in order to lower our loses. Like how Fishman slaves sell for more then human ones do."

"SLAVES!" shouted Nito looking around panicky, "What slaves? We are just a bunch of pirates and ambushers! We are innocent, we have never been slaves before! We are the three Fishman brothers!" The saying lost a certain amount of impact since Sanada was outside, incapable of fitting into the building and Zesiro refused to join in. But Ichi and Nito's nervous energy seemed to provide a certain boost to it.

"Ignore them," suggested Zesiro as he moved forward, trying to distract the entire area from Nito's and Ichi's weird little panic attack. "I'm sorry, but we aren't exactly rich pirates. Is there any other method of payment that we could use?"

"Well, there is one method," proposed the Longarm, "its not exactly widely used as in comparison to the other one it sucks. But you can bet your lives...if you win...or since you are Trevor's guests if anyone on your crew wins you get away free of charge and even pocket a small amount of money, but if you all lose...you are put under our care as slaves to do with and sell as we please."

Rosa was about to speak up. The idea was ridiculous! Put their lives on the line to become slaves rather then spend money, who would do that. Especially fishmen! Fishmen slaves cost millions of belies, but they are exchanging their lives for only half of that, it was insane, but even as she was about t voice her opinion without even thinking about Maria, Zesiro, and Hiro-Shu agreed in a heartbeat. "What are you guys thinking becoming slaves?"

Zesiro chuckled. "The stakes were already incredibly high. Trevor is using our captain as a betting chip, so we are going to use us. Besides, didn't you hear what he said...only if we all lose do we become slaves. Me, Hiro-Shu, and Maria will just meet in the finals."

Rosa nodded. "Then as an honorary member of the Infinity Pirates, sign me up, too!" Enma nodded. He would stay back and heal the crew's wounds. He didn't trust the enemy's doctors to necessarily play fair. He'd just have to make do with Sage's help as well. That just left Ridley to do whatever he was planning.

(-With Ridley-)

Ridley was back on the ship. He went straight to Melanie. The crew was simple-minded and simply wanted to play by Trevor's rules. Ridley chuckled at that premise. He knew that Trevor wasn't going to play fair. Trevor and his dad were on the same crew and were the same kind of monster, they were going to do whatever it took to win. Too bad for Trevor, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. Ridley was going to do whatever it took to win, but for him to do that he needed to play a different game.

The crew would enter the fight and be the perfect distraction. Trevor would be satisfied that some of them joined the fight and he wouldn't kill Mikoto. Then while Trevor is watching the fights, he and Melanie would easily avoid all of the troubles and break Mikoto free. With Melanie's powers of control it would be simple.

"Melanie?" shouted Ridley as he got on the ship and finally saw her. Saying that the sole reason he wanted her help was to save Mikoto, wouldn't motivate her. She needed something else entirely. She needed a personal motivation to help him out. "If you wanna stick it Trevor then your best bet would be to work with me!"

"I thought I told you I didn't want to be seen with any pirates!" she reminded Ridley. "As it currently stands I am one of the proud Shichibukai, I cannot be seen with pirates or else my standing will crumble. This island may seem lawless and forsaken by the Marines, but the reality is several Marines come here, off of the books, to get the same enjoyment pirates come here for. Of course, no arrests are allowed to be made under Trevor's agreement. Each pirate ship has a good five minute head start since it leaves this island until it can be arrested by Marine forces."

That was a nice thing to know. "Still we need to save Mikoto and you need to defeat Trevor! Trevor is in there with several pirates and since you can't make arrests on this island either, you might as well just say you met us here and you were just checking out your enemies."

Melanie paused for a moment as she considered this. It was true that on this island the title of Shichibukai didn't mean that much. The only title that mattered here was 'The Strongest'. Of course, Shichibukai were also forbidden to enter the tournament. She did not know if that was one of the Government's conditions for Trevor to help prevent Shichibukai from ruining the name of the World Government by taking part in such merciless blood baths like this or if it was Trevor's idea in order to stop himself from killing any and all participants. That meant she could do nothing, but sit around and watch...

"Sure," said Melanie with a smile.

The First Round!

Zesiro versus Magic!

This was supposed to go up Friday...I have been really blanking when it comes to actually updating my stories. I wonder if I should get checked out?

HOO-HAH! Another chapter, another day! Okay, the three groups are the contestants (Zesiro, Maria, Rosa, and Hiro-Shu), the supporters (Enma and Sage along with the Fishman brothers), and Ridley's group (which consists just of him and Melanie). Just wait for the next chapter for the action to begin in a truly...weird way.