Author's note from last chapter (continued at the bottom).

The Devil's Offer!

"I'll say it one more time," offered Trevor as he stared into Maria's eyes. His creepy smile was giving her goosebumps. A deal with the devil was exactly what Trevor was offering to her right now and his smile proved it. "My offer is if you join me and my crew at the URA for the rest of your life and swear your undying loyalty to me, then I will free Mikoto and the rest of your crew and let them sail happily away from this place."

"Get out," muttered Maria as her arms and legs sagged. She was tired. She had been in a nonstop state of worry for Mikoto along with the rest of the crew. She had been in a bad mood ever since then. Even now after she stepped out of the ring after beating someone, she was ticked off. She didn't know what was holding her back, what was preventing her from landing a good, strong punch into Trevor's face. Maybe she was too tired to even do that.

Trevor shrugged as he turned around and began to leave, "my offer will remain standing until the finals of the tournament. If you don't get back to me by then, forget about it. You and your entire crew will just have to try your best to survive." With that Trevor left the room all to Maria.

Maria was breathing heavily in the room, just trying to recover her wits. She was just ticked off and it was getting worse and worse. Mikoto getting kidnapped, the damn Marines doing something like that to a human being, and now Trevor acting all friendly with her. It made her sick. She just leaned back and tried to recover, she still had another few minutes before she had to get out of the locker room. A knock on the door woke her up, "Hiro-Shu?" she asked, expecting her crew-mate as well as the next fighter to come in, but it wasn't him.

Duncan was standing in the doorway. Maria recognized him as the man who was standing next to Trevor in her fight. "I noticed Trevor-sama left," he said as he walked into the room. Maria had to assume that this wasn't a happy meeting, like saying hello to a new staff-member. He was frowning and looked annoyed. "I heard Trevor-sama's deal with you is to save the rest of the crew for your loyalty and while I am one-hundred percent behind Trevor-sama...I am five-hundred percent interested in prolonging both his life and the life of the URA. And I don't think you are good for either one."

"OH, YEAH!" shouted Maria as she stood up. She was about to take a step forward, but felt her legs stick to the ground. She looked down at her feet, to check on them. The normally gray floor tiles were glossed over by a thick black liquid. It had to be this man's doing! Maria returned her attention in front of her.

Duncan was smiling looking at her now. A big thick blob of tar was dripping out his body and on his hand. "Tar Cannon." Duncan said it in a stoic voice. He flung the black blob of tar forward and at Maria. She couldn't move and dodge the blow, the only thing she could do was bring her arms up and block it.

Even with her mechanical arms sheltering her body, she could still feel the damage ring into it. The name cannon was appropriate. She was flung back, but since her feet was stuck in the ground only her upper body fell. She was being blown back by this one man. He was definitely at a higher level then anyone else she had ever fought. The tar that stuck to the ground disappeared back into Duncan's body. "Remember this, little girl, this is the strength of the URA! The strength to kill even a champion in an instant! Me and Makada both possess this strength while Trevor-sama possesses an even greater strength! If you want to join the URA remember this is the strength of the man who wants you dead! And I will make sure I get what I want!"

Duncan twisted around and left the room, he left a puddle of tar where he was standing. Maria got up, using the bench for support. She wobbled as she tried to pull herself back up and onto the bench. Her arms were broken. She had forgotten that she had taken several shots from Shigeta during their fight and now she took a powerful blast from that man. All of them were guarded against, so her body didn't feel a thing, but her arms...they took all the damage. If she could feel them...if she had normal human arms again...she could've remembered the damage she had taken and blocked in a different way. If only...she had her arms back again.

"You alright?" asked Hiro-Shu as he put his hand on Maria's shoulder. Maria jumped at the sound and touch. She had been so consumed with her thoughts, she had ignored the sound of even Hiro-Shu walking into the room. He wasn't quiet at all, his footsteps were like iron hitting iron, and yet she still couldn't hear him walk in.

"I'm fine..." muttered Maria as she gathered up her things and stood up. Her hands were trying to grasp her towel and other belongings, but they couldn't. They wiring in the arms were busted up and made it impossible to grasp them. She ended up slinging them over her shoulder and walking out. Hiro-Shu sighed and sat down. It seems like everybody had their own problems to deal with right now. He just had to stay focused on his fight.

(-in the stadium-)

After Maria's fight, but before Hiro-Shu's fight there was one more fight. It would be determining Hiro-Shu's next opponent after he won today. Ridley was sitting in the crowd today, watching the fights. He had heard that Mikoto wasn't up here, which means wherever he was the guard would be thicker. He had originally intended to go down and search for him using that as a tip-off, but...as soon as he set foot in the hallway he saw Makada and Duncan and another three URA staff-members all grudgingly walking about. He decided that he would take the day off and just watch the fights from up here, everybody else was busy practicing, so he'd just make a few mental notes on Hiro-Shu's next opponent, but in reality...Ridley didn't need to. The opponent was beaten pretty badly and it looked like he only won due to sheer luck. Hiro-Shu would win with ease.

"Now before we announce the last fight in this tournament, we would like to introduce our second guest!" shouted the Longarm. The crowd gasped as they listened to the introduction, "he's a demon who once sailed the high seas alongside our very own Trevor! Nowadays, he manages the entire Black Market! He is...'Pure Demon' Karasu!" The entire audience shuddered as Karasu walked out.

Ridley's eyes went wide as he saw his old man. The man he had hated his entire life just walked out and he was looking like crap. He had had his ass handed to him by someone since the last time they met. It had been quite awhile since they met face-to-face. A lot could have happened, but this! Karasu was always an insurmountable wall. His power was said to rival even Shichibukais and yet he looked like he had been torn apart and tossed around like a rag doll.

Regardless of seeing his own father in a state of such disrepair...Ridley couldn't control his own body. Seeing him again only added fuel to the fire. Ridley was up and out of his seat in a matter of seconds, rushing past the numerous fellow audience members. He touched the stadium's floor and raced across the ring. The spectators were incapable of stopping him, many of them didn't even notice the sole figure racing across the ground and at the man.

"What is this?" shouted the Longarm announcer as he caught wind of it through the shouting of the crowd. He turned his attention away from the ring and at Ridley. "It looks like someone is charging at Karasu! What is going on?"

Ridley took a final leap and jumped into the air. He took his guitar out and swung downwards with it as if were an ax. Karasu brought his remaining arm out and blocked the swing. Karasu grunted as he swatted Ridley away. He smiled as he stood up and looked down at him. "Looks like we get to have another family reunion..." Ridley glared up at him. He jumped back up onto his feet and prepared a second swing with his guitar. Tons of URA guards flooded out and around, grabbing a hold of him and pulling him back and out of the way. Ridley struggled and cursed loudly as they did so.

"It looks like I just got an update!" shouted the Longarm announcer after checking in with another Den-Den Mushi. "It appears that...that that man was Ridley Blackwell! Not only is he the only son and successor of the Karasu Blackwell, but also he is also a member of the Infinity Pirates! It appears that this is just another one of their-" He was shut up by Karasu who jumped up next to him and stole the mic from him.

"I would like to make an addendum to what this brain-dead announcer just said," ordered Karasu through the mic. "He called that disrespectful, pitiful, worst-then-trash, piece of shit my son and successor. I want everybody to know he's not even close! He's just some pathetic whelp who inherited my blood due to some freak accident. My true successor is the man who will be fighting in the next fight against one of my son's precious friends! He is MA-SHI-BA!" The crowd immediately went wild at the statement, though in all honesty after what just happened and Karasu's little speech they probably would've went crazy over any statement.

Karasu smiled as he dropped the microphone into the hands of the Longarm and walked away. The Longarm remained frozen solid for a couple of seconds as he looked on at the man walking away from him. He felt scared for a second. He didn't quite understand it, but he believed that Ridley riled him up more then he lead on. Karasu seemed anxious to kill someone...the Longarm chuckled nervously and returned his attention to the audience. "After that introduction who cannot be interested? The man entering the arena at this very moment is none other then Mashiba, the head of Karasu's very own personal guards!"

The man who walked in was carrying a long spear, but dragging it along the ground like he didn't have the strength in his arms to lift it. He wearing a heavy black cloak that covered his entire body, including his face, from view. He stepped forward and walked into the arena. He tore the cloak off of his body. Beneath the cloak was truly another sight to behold. The man beneath it had muscles to spare, but it wasn't the muscles that made it a frightening look. It was what was on top of those muscles. Mashiba had several weights strewn all over his body several of them were more then 100 pounds. One by one Mashiba took the weights off and threw them out of the ring.

"His opponent is another member of the Infinity Pirates and is the one with the third highest bounty amongst them! It is Hiro-Shu, the GOLEM!" Hiro-Shu trudged into the arena. He felt all of the eyes on him as he walked in. He felt slightly embarrassed. The rest of his crew had done insane and reckless things to show off and he was just walking in. It made him think that he should do something just as insane or weird...but he wasn't that kind of guy. He'd just make sure the fight was something to remember.

The Fall of a Giant

Ma=Demonic, Shi=Death, Ba=Tyrant...Mashiba is one frightening as hell name, isn't it?

Sorry, I just had to get my joke out there...onto the problem of my story. For the time being I have removed the submit your own OC section from my story as it does technically go against the rules of the site (as much as it irks me). In the meantime I am looking for another site that allows SYOC if I find a good one, this story will be moved there. Don't worry as this story is not only backed up on both my computers as well as thumb drive AND I will continue to update here for the time being just don't submit any more OCs for the time being.