We're In Hell

Mikoto blew through another stray Marine, he wasn't slowing down at all. The Marines kept pouring in, but they were no match for Mikoto. He zipped by them at high speed, landing a punch or two while he was at it and moved on to his next target. He kept it up, weaving through the mass of pirates that were still trying to escape taking one or two of them down while he was at it.

Most of the pirates scoffed at Mikoto as he blew by, calling him 'suicidal' or an 'idiot'. But in Mikoto's eyes it was the other way around. He saw it as embarrassing that they were clamoring around, trying to escape. It was a battle running away wouldn't solve it. He knew for a fact that Trevor would see it the same way. They both had the same idea here. That it was not the Buster Call they had to watch out for, but losing their pirate pride when they ran away from it. It was quite possibly a delusional fact at this point as everybody thought of this as 'life' or 'death' not 'pride or coward'.

However, it was with that delusional concept that Mikoto knew way Trevor would be waiting. Trevor wouldn't run. He wasn't graciously accepting death, he was gloating. He was declaring to the world that he hadn't lost a step. Mikoto knew that without a doubt Trevor would be waiting in the URA's arena and nowhere else. He wouldn't back down. And that suited Mikoto just fine, right now he wanted nothing more than to shove that pride right back at Trevor.

He stopped as he came to the clearing. The majority of the pirates had managed to shove themselves past him. He was lucky that he made out this lucky, he broke through the mass and now he was free of them. He took a deep breath. His legs were shaking from all the running he was doing recently. It was tiring, but that didn't matter now. He was almost there. He would be in the arena in a matter of seconds. He would get there and take down his first Shichibukai!

(-with Ridley-)

Ridley was still lying on the ground. The warm blood pooling around his head was waking him up. His eyes strained to open. When his eyes finally did open up, he was met with the startling sight of the red liquid all around him. Ridley's stringy arms slid under his body as he tried to prop himself up. He lifted his heavy body up and watched as his bloodied forehead continued to drop down his face forming a bright red curtain in front of his left eye.

Ridley brought his body up and was almost immediately brought back down. His legs were shaking beneath his body and his entire body felt like it had lead chains wrapped around it. He caught himself before he fell and grabbed a hold of the wall. He propped himself up, he slid down to the railing and he used it to keep himself up since his own feet seemed incapable of that act. All the while Karasu stood in his corner of the room, watching this act. He had the smile of a Cheshire cat.

The reason for his smile was unknown. Was he smiling with admiration for his opponent's will to live? Or was it a more evil intention, the fact that Karasu would be able to pound on his opponent for another few minutes before he gave up? Then again maybe there was a slight flicker of fatherly love in Karasu's body that was warmed up when he saw his own son was still alive. It probably wasn't the last one. Karasu had a much stronger reason to be grateful that his living punching bag was still alive rather than that his only son was still awake and going.

Ridley pushed himself off of the walls and towards his opponent, he stumbled forward briefly. He brought his right first out weakly and punched. It was a slow punch, one deprived of any and all forms of strength. Karasu's smile grew wider. He brought his arm up and between them, he pushed Ridley off of him. The poor kid didn't even have enough strength to bring him down. His ability and will to stand was impressive, but it was also stupid. Karasu chuckled as he turned around and began to head back up the stairs. He stopped as he felt another fist tap his side.

"What?" asked Karasu as he turned around and saw Ridley throwing another desperate punch into his side. Karasu rolled his eyes as he stepped forward and gently tapped Ridley's skull, sending him back down to the ground. Ridley landed on his butt, but immediately started to stand again.

"Mi-Mikoto is go-going to fight…Trevor," muttered Ridley as he stood back up. He stepped forward again and landed another punch on Karasu's jaw. Karasu's head was actually pushed to the side. So he still had a little power left in him, but not enough to defeat him. "And I-I am Mikoto's first mate…I wi-will take you…down."

Karasu shook his head and swatted Ridley down. "I'm sure Mikoto appreciates your strength and will in continuing to fight, but that's not going to let you beat me. I've won…I've won with an arm missing! Admit it! You are no pirate! You are no brave swashbuckler of the sea! Give up! Go back to the damn East Blue you ran away to."

Ridley struggled to the side, he rolled onto his back and next to his guitar. Ridley's hands crept forward and onto his guitar. His fingers crawled around on the guitar. They found the strings. Karasu smirked, but brought his foot down on top of Ridley's fingers, smashing them into his guitar. "Heh ha ha ha ha!" laughed Karasu, "nice try. I admit it was a nice set-up! Have me bash you around until you were close enough to your guitar to play a few notes. A single strum on your guitar could prove fatal I suppose, but it looks like I…"

"Walked right into my trap," said Ridley. He motioned upwards with what little energy he had left in his body. Karasu's head jerked upwards. On the bottom-side of the stairs was a Tone Dial along with a blinking red light. The red light suddenly became permanent. The sound blasted downwards, growing louder as it went. Finally it was as if Karasu was trapped in a hurricane of sound. The sound was nothing specific, it was just growing feedback that Ridley had left in it. But nonetheless it appeared to have an effect of Karasu. With only one arm, he couldn't even cover his ears.

Karasu stumbled backwards in a vain effort to avoid the noise. He stumbled around trying to break free, almost immediately he met with Ridley wrapping his arms around him. "What are you-?" began Karasu but he quickly felt another object butt up against his unguarded ear. He could barely see it with his peripheral vision, but it was another Tone Dial.

Ridley activated the Tone Dial. Almost immediately there was a blaring noise in Karasu's ear. Karasu pushed Ridley off of him with all of his strength. The noise was still circling around in him; it hurt him like hell to listen to the noise. He couldn't believe he walked into such a simple trap. His ears were in a horrendous pain. He was moving sluggishly. He was stumbling about, he had heard of people's balance being disrupted by damage to the inner ear, but this was the first time he had ever personally experienced it. He was still foggy when once more he felt Ridley's arms wrap around him and the Tone Dial nudged its way into his peripheral vision again.

Karasu couldn't push Ridley off of him in time. The blaring noise came pounding in his ears once more. Karasu shoved Ridley off of him and walked a few steps forward, trying to get away from the noise. He walked forward and crashed into the nearby wall, his sense of balance still gone. He tried to push himself off of it, but once more Ridley had caught up to him. The sound blared in his ear again, forcing Karasu back. He whipped one arm around and elbowed Ridley in his gut, trying to knock him loose and off of his back.

However, his lost sense of balance was once more his undoing, almost the instant he brought his elbow back he fell from the momentum of his turn, sending both him and Ridley crashing to the floor. Karasu woke up in that instant, he had fallen unconscious for a brief second due to the noise. He couldn't focus, he was fading away into unconscious. He couldn't believe it. He struggled to bring himself back up onto his feet, but with Ridley on his back and his sense of balance gone, he couldn't. His one arm pinned beneath his own bulk and the ground. He rolled over and felt Ridley release him.

Karasu looked straight up at the stair case in front of him. Back at the damn Tone Dial Ridley had hid up there and wondered when he had put this plan together. He two Tone Dials ready with loud noises stored up in them. He had the forethought to place one on the bottom of the stairs…probably when Karasu was chasing him. Ridley had jumped over the rails and was ahead of him by a few flights for awhile. He had enough time then, but even after that Ridley had bluffed his way through.

He survived his barrage of punches, kicks, and head butts by a thread. He had Karasu knock him around until he was near his guitar, which Karasu had originally thought was Ridey's whole plan, but that was just a bluff as well. He wanted Karasu to be there and acting like an idiot Karasu positioned himself perfectly underneath that Tone Dial. Multiple clinches and a Tone Dial right next to his head followed and now here he was staring up at the ceiling. His legs felt like jelly, but he could still stand he just needed a few more seconds. Ridley was worse off.

Finally, Karasu felt his legs returning to their former glory and began to sit up only to be met with a guitar straight to his forehead. Karasu's entire body jerked into the air with the momentum behind the guitar being forced through his head and into the cement below him. Ridley stood up straight and dragged his guitar back to his side. Ridley breathed heavily as he looked down at Karasu's beaten body.

"I…won," Ridley muttered out as he turned around and tried to walk another few steps towards the stairs. He stumbled forward and quickly latched out, grabbing a hold of the railing and pulling himself forward. Ridley's glazed over eyes looked down at the stairs and he couldn't believe how comfortable they looked. They looked like the perfect place for a nap…Ridley's entire body lurched forward, landing on the stairs. He was out like a light in the middle of the ongoing war around him.

(-in the harbor-)

"Are we ready men?" asked a Marine Vice Admiral as he paraded about on the ship. He was extremely hairy, his mustache and beard covered up almost all of his face. "We need to be ready to attack the arena when they give the signal. Our cannons are at all full-power. When our men finished cleaning up and exiting the island, we'll fire."

A small Den-Den Mushi turned on. "Vice Admiral Sasquatch…I mean, Sazkach…our radars have picked up a human traveling at high-speeds to this location. My commander states that we are going to start the assault because of this." Sazkach slowly nodded and let out a deep sigh.

"Well, we better act fast," said Sazkach as he walked by. "If he gets here before we leave our causalities will sky-rocket!" He moved over to the cannons and gave the signal. A single red flare flew up into the air. Almost immediately there was a sudden outburst of cannon-fire. After that there was a loud whooping sound as another weapon fired, a simple catapult weapon armed with a barrel.

The barrel smashed into the ground, exploding releasing a massive burst of flames, lighting up the island. Another one from another ship flew out, crashed into the island and exploded. One after another, the barrels flew out of their respective ships found their way onto the island and exploded. The island kept growing new blemishes of beautiful red flames.

The URA's Strongest Champion

Wow, guys, just wow. I'll admit death is in the story, but now just yet. I remember back when I 'killed off' Sage during the earlier chapters I got so many complaints of 'you can't kill Sage! Why Sage?' or earlier this arc with Hiro-Shu's near-death experience when I got 'Not Hiro-Shu. He's a good guy'...but now I 'kill off' Ridley and everybody is...perfectly okay with it? Geeze, now we know why he drinks so much alcohol.

Anyways, yeah, he's not dead. Not yet. The URA Arc is heating up, Ridley's near-death experience leaves us with only one fight left, Mikoto versus Trevor. Animal versus animal! Who will win?

Also expect a change in avatar coming from me soon!