Killing Cuts Between Friends!
Zesiro moved forward making rapid downward slashing motions with his sword. He was using it more as a feint and a taunt then an actual attack. It was just like simple shadow-boxing, it wouldn't do anything to the opponent, but the opponent still wouldn't rush in at him. He was taking a systematic and slow approach to the fight. He wasn't about to make a mistake right now. It fit into his fighting style as well. Zesiro's fighting style was all about power and skill, he forced his opponent's back with a constant combination of big and powerful swings with his sword. A single mistake in a fight with him could prove fatal. Of course, he also had skill to take advantage of every opening, even the smallest one. In this moment if you failed to execute on an opening, you'd lose, he was sure he had the advantage.
Rosa took a different approach to preparing for the final attack. She was bouncing about from side-to-side, she'd jump to the side, bend her knees on impact, then immediately spring back up and to the other side with renewed speed. She didn't move her sword as much her attention was much more focused on her feet. Unlike Zesiro who relied on strength, Rosa was a faster fighter. With the range of her sword and the speed of her feet, she'd enter her opponent's range and exit in almost the same instant, leaving them with a new wound from her blade. In a sudden death moment like this she thought she had the advantage.
The entire audience went quiet as they realized the climax was drawing closer. They all prepared for the final clash between these two fighters. The fight had started off as the most dreaded for everyone. The two fighters were fighting their own friends and allies and the audience were disappointed in the fight between a girl and a Fishman, but now they were all captivated as the fight wore down to its final leg.
Rosa lowered her body and dashed forward. She couldn't allow Zesiro to have the first attack, if that was the case she'd definitely get in trouble. She moved forward with an insane amount speed. He moved at such an incredible pace that she was almost within his range within seconds. Rosa spun forward launching a lightning fast thrust from a lightning fast rush. The sword moved forward, becoming a silver blur.
Zesiro brought his two swords together like scissors, slamming them into Rosa's sword at the same instant clasping the sword, bringing it to a standstill. Zesiro twisted the blades around, swinging them both up, his blades tipped upward knocking into Rosa's sword's guard and lifting it up. Rosa's blade was lifted into the air along with her hands, which remained fastened onto her sword's hilt.
Zesiro lowered his blades, preparing for a quick simultaneous thrust with both of his blades intent on immediately taking advantage of this opening. Rosa leapt up into the air, jumping backwards desperate to avoid the ferocious attack. Zesiro's blade stabbed the air, but not even touching Rosa's shirt. Rosa caught herself as she stumbled back briefly, bringing her sword back down to her regular stance.
Rosa charged forward, before Zesiro readied for another full power swing. She weaved her head in-between the two blades as Zesiro withdrew them. Zesiro quickly brought his two blades together, with enough power to cleave her head off if it hit. Luckily for Rosa, it didn't. She ducked underneath them. She stepped in and brought her sword forward with a thrust aiming for Zesiro's gut. Zesiro brought his arms down, slamming them into the back of her blade and knocking it down, but not completely avoiding it. The blade went through and sliced into his thigh. Zesiro smiled through the pain, giving Rosa a brilliant view of his jagged teeth.
His hand shot down, grabbing a hold of her blade and holding it steady in his own body. Then with his other hand he brought his sword around and at Rosa's side. Rosa twisted her body around, lifting her sheath up to her side and using it to block Zesiro's mad slash. However, the power from Zesiro's slash didn't disappear, blowing Rosa away. Rosa used that to wrench her blade out of Zesiro's leg. Zesiro grunted again as he check his leg out. He kicked it up and into the air, just to make sure it still worked.
Rosa skidded on the ground as she tried to regain her footing by the time that she had recovered Zesiro was ready to go again. Zesiro charged forward at her, this time he was going in to start the exchange. Zesiro slashed downwards, using the speed of his own rush this time to increase the dangerous power of his slash. Rosa dodged backwards and watched as the blade smash into the ground where she was standing, sending up a blast of debris and rocks. Zesiro struck out with his sword, he used the back of the blade knocking it into the rocks. He shot the pebble forward as if it was a baseball. Rosa bobbed her head to the side to avoid it. Zesiro continued to send small pebbles at her head as if he was a machine gun, Rosa twisted her body, bobbing and weaving through the spray of rocks, closing in on Zesiro. When Rosa finally got into slicing range she brought her sword forward and tried to mow Zesiro down. Zesiro's sword smashed into hers, knocking it aside. He stepped forward and brought his second blade forward with a thrust. Rosa jumped up into the air above his sword, then using Zesiro's own blade as platform, she leapt into the air again flying over Zesiro's head. She twisted her blade, where it was pointed downwards then she altered her trajectory and moved down falling towards Zesiro's head. This time it was Zesiro's turn to move away. He jumped back and watched as Rosa's sword went into the rocky floor like a knife into butter. She pulled it out just as easily.
"Wanna finish this up?" asked Zesiro as he began to draw line in the ground with his sword.
"I was going to finish it up whether you asked me or not," mocked Rosa, she planted her feet onto the ground. Ordinarily she had her heels in the air to allow for faster dashes, but weaker attacks with her feet planted squarely on the ground she could deliver more powerful slashes.
Zesiro skipped the pleasantries and charged in. Zesiro unleashed multiple flying slashes that soared through the air at Rosa. Rosa weaved through them as she rushed forward to meet Zesiro. She finally got in his range, just in time for Zesiro to bring both of his swords down on top of her. Rosa stopped, and lifted her sword up above her head blocking the blow. She lifted her hand up too and placed it behind the blade to further brace for the impact. Zesiro's two swords slammed into hers. She grunted as she tried withstand the blow.
Rosa was stuck. She had fallen down to one knee in order to get better balance in blocking his attack and now her sword was stuck in a position to block both of Zesiro's blades. The difference in strength was obvious. She flinched as her sword was finally pushed out of the way allowing for both of Zesiro's blades to drop and slice into her.
(-In the infirmary-)
Enma sat in his infirmary. He tapped his foot impatiently onto the hardwood floors of the ship. His eyes drifted over to Hiro-Shu, who still hadn't woken up. There were many horror stories of fighters, who just never woke up after a fight. He just hoped this wouldn't turn out to be one of them. He turned back and tried to return his attention to his experiments, but couldn't focus. In a few hours...they'd be one more crew mate in here. Would it be Zesiro or Rosa? He tapped a random melody on the desk just trying to distract his thoughts.
His eyes drifted out over to the window and stared outside of it and at the sea. He sighed as he tried to keep a level head about all the problems popping up. His mind drifted from troubling matter to troubling matter, but for the most part stayed on the Marine's planned attack on the URA.
A Marine ship was outside of his window, bobbing up and down in the water. Enma had a slight trepidation towards the ship from being a pirate. He peered out the window a moment longer, this time focusing on the ship. A man walked off of it and following him was one or two other Marines. Enma frowned as he couldn't see who it was due to the distance. He got up and began to head off of the ship and to the new Marine ship when Lily, in her animal room, was thrown into the room. Enma immediately jumped up onto his feet and produced his bone spear aiming it at the next man who walked in. It was the masked man from the other day. Despite it being someone he knew (or thought he knew as his red mask made it hard to identify) he kept his spear up and aimed at the man.
"Easy, tiger...relax. I'm sorry about being cruel to your friend, but she didn't get out of my way when I asked her to...if it was just a regular animal I could understand. But as a human I expect a little bit more intelligence." How the heck did he know she wasn't a normal animal? "I just had some news I wanted to give you. A new Marine ship just landed."
"Yeah, I thought so," said Enma turning his gaze back to the window. "Why are you telling me this? I thought as a Marine it was your job to capture pirates, not help pirates. Even if we are the first choice for a Shichibukai. I think I could feel a little bit safer if I knew your reasoning."
The masked man scoffed at Enma's worry. "I suppose saying 'A friend of my friend is my friend' wouldn't work, will it?" Enma shook his head no. "Consider it...placing a bet on the new world. I don't think Marines will be in control forever, so having strong friends wouldn't hurt, whether they are pirates or Marines. As a matter of fact...I think the World Government is falling apart fairly quickly nowadays too many powerful pirates for us to deal with. I'd just rather be on the winning side."
Enma still didn't seem impressed, but he supposed right now he had to go with every ounce of help they could get. "What makes you think that? Some problems in the World Government? A recent falling out or something?"
The masked man shook his head, "Let's just say that for every one Marine there is fifty pirates. Its becoming a dying profession, everybody thinks that they can be the Pirate King. Not only that, but Impel Down has already become a laughing stock...one of our top three facilities are being laughed at. Not to mention...ah, nah! I shouldn't tell you, some things got to stay a government secret."
Enma nodded and went onto the next subject. "Is the Vice Admiral on it?" With any luck they may be able to get the drop on him, get rid of the ship and the Vice Admiral before they started the attack push the luck a little bit more in their favor. He looked back over at the masked man and frowned as he remembered he was talking to the Marine. Why would he sell out his own team just to make nice with a standard everyday pirate?
"I have no idea, I don't talk to the Vice Admirals very much...the higher-ups aren't usually too friendly to us lower ranks," said the masked man as he hurried to the window and peered out of it, probably just checking to make sure he couldn't be seen from the distance. "But I did something that almost made me jump out of my skin." He pulled one of the cabinets in the room over and in front of window, blocking them completely from view. "One of the things that is wrong with the modern government. A Golden Den-Den Mushi."
Enma's Workload Increases!
Ridley's and Melanie's Search Bears Fruit?!
Da-Da-DUH! I hope most of you know what a Golden Den-Den Mushi mean, if you don't...oh, well, you'll just have to wait until my next chapter! The story just keeps climbing higher and higher with suspense, so I hope you guys are already for one of the most interesting (or most disappointing) arc endings ever!
Now for the next character profile the ever-noisy and kind of dark musician of the Infinity Pirates, Ridley Blackwell!
Full Name: Ridley is my name, making music is my game!
Aliases (or nicknames): 'Noise Maker' Ridley, like it? I suggested it myself. I'm currently the lowest in terms of bounties of the entire crew (except for Enma and Maria who don't have any) only at 17 million, but hey I'm famous enough!
Devil Fruit/Weapon: My special weapon is noise. I use a guitar that is strapped to me as well as two speakers fashioned out of tone dials and using some high-end technology from the land of cyborgs.
Physical Appearance: Jeans and black shoes along with a solid colored shirt completes my soon-to-be clothing line when I make it big as a pirate/musician. I have a green Mohawk, because, come on, they are the coolest hairstyle. I have brown eyes.
Personality: If one word describes me it is LOUD! I hate peace and quiet and I will disrupt it the first chance I get! I know I ain't the strongest guy out there and on the crew, but I still have my pride, so you better not call me weak! I was also kind of ruined as a kid, Karasu' parenting techniques aren't the nicest thing in the world, you know. But on the upside I'm used to most horrofic things in the world...like a mother getting murdered in front of her son.
Goals (Or Dreams if you prefer): My music! Nothing else quite matters to me. I can do without becoming world famous pirate as long I become a world famous musician. I guess I'll also add in beating the crap out of my dad, the dude messed me up, I'm gonna mess him up!
Opinions on his crewmates:
Mikoto: A pretty decent guy in perspective. The kid's a bit slow and doesn't always realize it when I insult him, but even when he does he doesn't care! With his thick skull and thick skin I can tell he's a good guy to have around at all times.
Sage: Opposed to popular belief amongst the crew, I don't hate Sage. She's a good girl (both personality wise and body), but that's just it...she's a GIRL! She needs to remember that she has to leave the fighting to guys like Zesiro or Mikoto and stay in the kitchen. I'm not being sexist either! She's just a weak girl who belongs in the kitchen. I don't wanna see her die like my mo...erh, let's skip this.
Zesiro: I was raised in a household that didn't look too kindly on Fishman. I've heard several different disgusting remarks about them and Zesiro blew them all out of the water! He is a faithful, smart, and kind enough guy...the kind of guy that makes me want to puke...but a nice guy all together.
Hiro-Shu: The lug doesn't know a thing about music! He likes classical music, which ain't bad, but he's missing out on the good stuff! And when I play the good stuff, he gets mad at me! I'm just trying to educate him! Oh, yeah, he's a nice guy, too...I guess.
Enma: He's my kind of guy! I don't mind his little cult religion, I just like that he's a gambling man! Me and him play cards all day and night to past the time! I usually win! Besides even when we are done playing cards he's a nice person to chat with.
Maria: Eh, she saved my life and she made some renovations to the ship. She's helped me out a lot since I first met her and has asked for nothing in return! She's exactly the kind of sucker...erh, friend I like to have. Unlike Sage I don't mind it when she fights, she ain't going to go dyin' me.