A Grim Premonition...
The fights for the tournament had ended for the days, but the atmosphere remained heavy. The crew had gathered around the bed of Hiro-Shu as Enma continued through his examination. Hiro-Shu still hadn't woken up since his last fight. It was hard to imagine that he was still alive as Mashiba was so intent on delivering the finishing blow. Even now Enma had no idea what compelled Trevor to step in and stop him. If anything Enma was expecting Trevor to kill him himself. Did he really have that much honor that he wouldn't let people kill them because he forced them to participate? Somehow he doubted that was likely. It had to be something.
A quick glance at his crew showed that they were all equally worried about Hiro-Shu, but nothing as to why Trevor saved him. Enma sighed and leaned back in his chair. Lily was once more in a tiger form giving Rosa all the comfort she needed. The Fishman brothers, despite just meeting them were probably more torn up then anybody else. Sanada was crying waterfalls and Nito and Ichi weren't faring much better then him. They really wore their emotions on their sleeve...or something to that effect.
"Relax," said Rosa with a calming voice, "everything will be alright." The crew gave her quick glare as if she had just suggested tossing Hiro-Shu overboard. She shuddered and backed up, blending into the gloomy atmosphere.
Zesiro quickly excused himself from the table. It made sense...he had been with Hiro-Shu longest out of anyone here, excluding the damaged Ridley who had seen his own mother get killed as well as have his own father try to kill him and Sage, who was already a ball of depressing thoughts. Zesiro was probably extremely irritated and wanted to leave the room quickly to clear his head.
"This is just a terrible day...a terrible week...a terrible life," muttered Sage as she collapsed onto the floor from Hiro-Shu's bedside and curled up into a secure little ball. "Even a sea sponge is more useful then I am. The only way I could be any more useless was if I was Ridley."
Ridley, who seemed the most unfazed by Hiro-Shu's damage, but that was probably due to his complete lack of any real human emotions like empathy, swiveled around and brought his leg back to kick Sage. A roar from Lily quickly got him to halt his assault on the poor depressed girl and return his attention to Hiro-Shu. "So, anyone else up for a bottle of alcohol?" asked Ridley with a fake smile and even a hint of laugh as he tried to lighten to mood.
The entire crew ignored him and remained focused on bed. Ridley frowned as he backed up and took a seat in one of the chairs, meant for loving and caring members of the ill, but he sat there anyways. He took out his guitar and strummed a couple of notes. Unlike his usual loud and obnoxious music, Ridley had calmed the music down and made it much more soothing. A more classical tone of music then his usual. The crew appreciated the sentiment. Rosa smiled for a moment and then brought out her own instrument, a small violin. She played a couple of notes after she learned the tune from Ridley.
After a couple of notes, Enma had had enough. He rose from his seat and ordered them out of the room. The music and the people gathered around the body made it ten times harder for him to do any sort of real work. He knew it was painful for them to leave their friend lying in the bed in his current state, but nonetheless he wanted them out. He pushed them out of the room and closed the door behind them leaving them out of the room. Enma did another quick check-up on Hiro-Shu, his worry obvious as he renewed his bandages for probably the tenth time this hour and he would probably renew them another 30 times this hour, just to be sure his wounds would properly close.
Enma sighed as he realized how foolish and stupid such actions were. The wounds would close when they closed and no matter how many times he changed the bandages, they wouldn't close faster. He returned to his research. He had already watched Trevor's impressive display of powers and knew that as it currently stood he was probably at half of Trevor's true power...Mikoto was closer, but probably not quite there. Enma had remembered something that may just give them the edge, but that was only if he could complete it in time.
He let his mind wander due to worry and looked back over at Hiro-Shu. He could only focus on one thing at a time and it should be the long term goal of beating Trevor, something he could actually effect, but that didn't matter. His mind was still focused on Hiro-Shu! He was just about to stand up and change the bandages for the eleventh time when there was a knock at the door. Enma wandered over to the door and opened it, hopefully whoever was on the other side could offer more help rather then stand there and stare at Hiro-Shu's body.
Enma paused as he looked in the door, he didn't recognize who was on the other side. It was beginning to become a bad habit for him, opening the door and finding a complete stranger on the side. "Um..." was all Enma could think of as he stared at the woman in front of him. She was kind of tall and rather then looking at the guy, who opened the door and was conscious, she stared past him and at Hiro-Shu. She pushed past Enma, which was quite rude and ran up to the Hiro-Shu's body.
Enma turned to talk to her, but was greeted by another face in front of him...or something close to a face as he was wearing a mask. The masked man smirked and explained, "she's an old friend of Hiro-Shu's. She's kind of shocked to see him here. To be all honest, I was kind of shocked to she her get this emotional." Enma stared at him, it was hard to tell if he was lying with a mask on, much less the fact that his entire body was covered, not even an inch of skin was showing. He turned his attention back to the woman intending to console her, but was surprised when he saw something in her hand. A Marine's cap.
Enma jumped across the room and pulled her away from Hiro-Shu. "Get back, Marine," he hissed. He knew that the Marines were not allowed to technically arrest any pirates while here, but some of them still did detestable acts.
"Relax!" said the other man, the one in the mask as he appeared besides Enma. "Like I said she is a friend of Hiro-Shu and for the time being we are also your allies." Enma looked at him with suspicious eyes. Was it really possible for a Marine to be allies with pirates, much less friends. "Look I was against coming here, but she wanted to." He said nodding towards the girl. "She is Valerie Steele."
Needless to say that didn't convince Enma. Hiro-Shu never talked about his past, so the name naturally never came up in conversation. The man sighed, "look, for the time being Marines are too hold off on two things in the Grand Line. One, making any kind of ruckus at the URA and two, attacking the Infinity Pirates."
Enma looked at them with the highest of suspicions. The man shrugged once more as he sat back down in one of the nearby chairs, motioning for Enma to get out of Valerie's way, he didn't. The man sighed and shrugged once more, "need more convincing? Fine! The Marines are about to extend an invitation to Mikoto to become a Shichibukai. His latest antics makes him a perfect target."
"That's odd," said Enma as he thought about the latest news, "I didn't hear anything about a Shichibukai dying or being fired. Nothing of the like at all was in the news." Valerie sneaked around Enma and had returned to Hiro-Shu's side. Enma stood there for a couple of seconds, debating about whether or not pulling her away would do any good.
"Didn't you hear for the first thing?" asked the man. "No making a ruckus at the URA. Trevor is being demoted back to a regular pirate and as a result we need a new man to fill his shoes." Enma nodded, considering Trevor's personality it was highly possible that that was the Lucifer's honest truth. The man looked up at him and shook his head, "you still don't get what I'm getting at, do you?"
Enma looked at him, "seeing as how you are not being exactly clear, no. I have no idea at what you are trying to hint at. Then again with that mask on, its hard to know if you are even being honest."
"I'll try to be a little bit more clear...but the mask stays," said the man. He was different then what he was like in the stands, he seemed more confident. Then again this was one-on-one with a pirate rather then being surrounded by them like in the arena. "The URA is to be demolished, destroyed, removed from existence," he said repeating for emphasis. "The URA is only still running because Trevor is a Shichibukai, once he gets his pink slip...the URA is going to be shut down and all the pirates here will be fair game to be killed or captured."
"Except for Mikoto...if he accepts your offer," replied Enma. "If he doesn't accept your offer, then I'm safe to assume our safe passage won't come either."
"I'm glad I get to talk to a smart pirate for once, rather then a knuckle head," laughed the man. "Yup, you got it on the head. We weren't exactly supposed to tell you, but Valerie needed to see Hiro-Shu and I don't blame you for wanting to try to kill us. Speaking of which...where is Mikoto?" asked the man as he looked around. He hadn't seen him when they walked onto the ship and watched the crew leave.
"Captured by Trevor," replied Enma trying to keep the reasons brief. "He'll be out in time to take you up on your offer...if he wants to." It was hard to say whether or not Mikoto would want to...he wasn't exactly the smartest tool in the shed, but as far as Enma knew Mikoto had nothing actually against the Shichibukais.
"You have the sincerest acknowledgment of your help," said Valerie as she straightened out and returned the Marine cap to her head. She hadn't seen Hiro-Shu since the fight that they had back at the Marine Base. It was nice to know he was doing well...until today. She returned her glance back down to Hiro-Shu, before bowing to Enma. She wouldn't normally lower her head to a pirate, but he was caretaker of her friend first. "If after a careful evaluation of your choices, you believe that Mikoto will reject the benevolent offer of becoming a Shichibukai...I advise that you depart as quickly as possible. Two Vice Admirals are coming to assist in the defeat of Trevor."
Enma paused as he took in the advice. He waved them good-bye and saw them out as he returned to his worries about the Vice Admirals. It was the third highest ranking in the Marines, the only thing more powerful was the three Admirals and the Fleet Admiral. Which meant...they could be dealing with the fourth strongest Marine in the world. His worries were only compounded as he looked back at Hiro-Shu. He was heavily damaged...that was one-eighth of their power out of commission...actually considering that Mikoto was kidnapped for the foreseeable future and Sage was too depressed to lift a finger...one-third of their power was gone.
Their only chance of escaping with anything was if Mikoto accepted the offer. Enma thought about that possibility as he tossed it around in his head. He had completely forgotten about both Hiro-Shu and his own special project as he thought about this. He was slowly coming to the realization that in the majority of all the scenarios he ran in his heads...Mikoto said no. Enma looked back over at Hiro-Shu and ran the scenarios one last time. He came to his final decision...they were screwed.
The Pressure of a Fight!
The Problems of a Slave!
I wrote this chapter twice with completely different content. The other one was slightly better in terms of suspense, but I didn't like how the characters acted. They didn't act like they should've, so I went with this one instead. I still have not decided about Mikoto joining the Shichibukai, so don't take Enma's word for it. But with the Marines coming to eliminate the entire island it doesn't look like he has much of a choice. Next chapter is the chapter you have ALL been waiting for...well, maybe not all...the fight between Rosa and Zesiro is about to begin, but first something even more exciting...the Fishman brother's past!
Bad news time. I am going back to school in like a week...which means my updates will slow down. I promise it will NOT get worse then once every two weeks...but it may get as bad as once every two weeks.