The Race is On
"And the racers are off!" shouted the announcer immediately attracting a large crowd to the shore. It was an amazing rush watching all the ships get going and the business was beginning to boom, the townspeople had come on down and set up shops, sporting worthless trinkets and fair food. They were all aiming to make a killing off of the Blue Sea people's little competition. There were even betting booths getting set up all around them where people could try their hand on betting on the winner. Shane's well-designed boat seemed to be in the lead, but Kraven's Sea Charger and even his Backyard Bloody Boys were ranked high up. Zesiro's small one-person ship seemed to be after that followed once again by Kraven's third ship the Mini-Shooter, finally by Rosa's and Lily's ship…and 'Just a Plank' was entered in a different category…how long would it stay afloat. With bets being placed based on five minute intervals…so far not one person had betted on the ship staying afloat for more than ten minutes. Even now as the rest of the ships were pulling away Mikoto's little certain sinker was bobbing in the water. It didn't have sails or paddles or any form of forward momentum. Instead it was left with Mikoto paddling it using his own two hands…and mostly in the wrong direction…towards shore. However, asides from a few shouts and curses from Maria, Aaron, and even a few non-Infinity Pirate members he kept going…in the wrong direction. The majority of the rest of the pirates had focused on the actual contenders who were already beginning to have covered one-eighth of the smallish island.
Like predicated by the bets Shane's boat was in the lead, however, Kraven's Sea Charger seemed to be fighting it out with Zesiro's for second place and Kraven's two other ships were slowly sailing behind in fourth place, neither one really seeming too determined to battle it out. Despite appearing to be on the verge of losing again Kraven didn't seem worried unlike Mikoto's crew and even Shane's crew who knew one of their members could be picked if they didn't keep this lead. However, it seemed fairly certain that they would keep this lead.
"Wanna place any bets?" asked Kraven turning to face Ridley, who was remaining silent up until now. He had to admit that separating Mikoto and Zesiro into two separate ships were interesting, but he had initially planned on using Mikoto's fast feet to power the boat when he signed them up. "Who do you think is going to win, eh?" Ridley paused for a moment and considered this it definitely seemed like an interesting match, but Ridley knew for a fact that Kraven's crew was definitely holding something back. He looked over at Kraven and confirmed his theory. He didn't look worried in the least. That was a staunch difference to how the Infinity Pirates were looking what with Mikoto in dead last…and Rosa in second to last. Their hopes were hinging solely on Zesiro.
"Why did you challenge Mikoto anyways?" asked Ridley, "especially to a Davy Back Fight." Ridley looked away and back at the scene unfolding below. "You and I both know that there's no way Mikoto could win in a match like this." Kraven smiled and nodded, happy he had picked probably the only crewmember who had already put together Mikoto's weakness in the Davy Back Fights, but nonetheless he didn't seem to have grown any more worried about it.
"That's right," Kraven said breathing out deeply and calming down, "when you think about Mikoto most people probably think of his speed, however, most Davy Back Fights an overwhelming amount of speed would do you nothing. The flags are too heavy to move, there's a limited amount of space to move around in, you are out at sea. I have successfully managed to seal away Mikoto's speed. Ordinarily even without his speed Mikoto could still be a deadly foe as he has a secondary weapon even greater, his instincts." Ridley nodded, he knew very well that his captain wasn't a one-trick pony, however, the realization suddenly crossed his face. "That's right, his animal instincts only trigger when he's under attack. Do you see anybody attacking him out there?" Ridley frowned, asides from the crowd shouting at him nothing was even paying attention to him. "Exactly, in other words, your captains two greatest strengths his speed and instincts have been taken away from him…try to see if you can win this fight now." Ridley paused for a second and looked back over and at his captain, who was desperately trying to stay afloat.
"Oh, but to answer your question," continued Kraven, "I want Mikoto to lose a crew member just as I have. I want him to know the pain of that feeling." Ridley looked over at Kraven about to ask why, but a look at the man told him that the painful memories were beginning to surface and not to mention that the rest of his grounded crew looked annoyed that Ridley had even brought such a thought up. Ridley nodded and turned back to watch the race. Shane's ship was still in the lead, but just barely. However, it was obvious that the entirety of the 'Ghost Hook' pirates were waiting for something big.
"Let's stop messing around!" shouted the Squid Fishman in the first ship, the Sea Charger. He jumped up and moved to the back. The rest of Kraven's crew also did a similar re-arranging fashion. All eight of his arms opened up as he revealed the real reason why he was on the crew. Similar to Azu it was unknown if he was already on Kraven's crew before they became Davy Back Fight specialist or if he was added after since he was so perfect for this event. "Eight-Arm Engine!" As a Squid Fishman he was gifted with two unique traits the first was what all Fishmen, including Zesiro, had, sheer strength. The power of 20 men. The second unique trait was what only Squid Fishman had, eight arms. Each arm had the power of 20 regular men's arms…so combined with all eight fists his strength easily topped out at that of 160 men's arms…even Zesiro only had 40 of that…in other words one fourth of the power and Zesiro was the one that was closest to his power level. Shane's ship which was the only ship to have three men on it had the power of 6…in other words not even quite four hundredths of that power. The ship reared back, but due to a design that has been tested and proven during numerous Davy Back Fights it stayed on the water began quickly passing by Zesiro's ship and almost just as quickly surpassing Shane's.
"What the-" cursed Shino as he spat out water looking on at the ship sailing by. It was odd to think that a Fishman can drown, but it was true. While on land they subconsciously switch to a human mode and take in air through their lungs and if water gets into those lungs while in human mode they drown, similarly to how they can take damage if they are underwater and air is forced into their gills. It was an odd and rare event, but it has happened before. But Shino had bigger problems to worry about besides drowning. The other two ships the Mini-Shooter and The Backyard Bloody Boys were about to show their own power. The Mini-Shoot was short with two barrels connected with a long bar in between them. The Backyard Bloody Boys Ship, the B.B.B. was long with a barrel in the back and a barrel in the front rather than side-by-side. The B.B.B. lifted its front compartment into the air and collapsed down on the Mini-Shooter almost making it look like it trying to sink it, but the Mini-Shooter stayed strong and stayed afloat. Then the two ships clasped together forming one ship, the B.B.B.'s massive backwheel was still in the back and gave it its own propulsion system while the Mini-Shooter's small propulsion systems stayed in the front and gave it a boost.
"Hey, that's not fair!" contested Maria, standing up and putting her hands on her hips, clearly upset and visually displaying it. "Those two ships combined so technically they used a maximum of six barrels for it! In other words, it is against the rules!" Maria was happy that the first person to break the rules wasn't them.
"Eh, excuse me, lady," said the shipwright as he walked forward and shrugged off her words. He was a big burly man about twice the size of Maria and obviously very capable in both ship building and in a fight. "But can you repeat what you just said most importantly that part where you said 'those TWO ships' in other words even you admitted that it was two ships and not one. In other words, two ships can have a maximum of six barrels being used in it. In other words, it is allowed." Maria pulled her sleeve back and took a step forward ready to knock his block off, but Aaron quickly stepped in grabbing a hold of her and pulling her back.
"Relax," he said, "I'm fairly certain hitting him would be against the rules." Maria mumbled something about 'screw the rules', but she calmed down and joined Aaron for a seat on the sidelines once more. Their luck wasn't completely out yet as Zesiro was still somehow managing, he actually crawled up to third place and was fighting it out with Shane's crew as the two of them tried to compete with the overpowered 'Ghost Hook' pirates' ships. Meanwhile Rosa's and Lily's ship gets further pushed back into the darkness of ensured second-to-last place…however, it was better than their captain's ranking.
"That's it!" said Suzanne descending from her chair and resting on the ship's floor, "I'm tired of losing!" Dango and Shino both glared at her. 'Tired'? From what? They were the ones pushing themselves to the limit trying to move this floating piece of crap…with a name they didn't even agree on. "Let me take over." Vines eeked out from Suzanne's body and grabbed ahold of the paddles, practically wrenching from free from Dango and Shino's hands. She began rowing and speeding the boat up a bit, but the real benefit was that it freed Shino's hands. Shino smacked his hands together and smiled.
"I can't pull our ship, but I can certainly go ruin someone else's day!" Shino moved to the side of the ship and jumped in. He was tired of being turned into the butt of everyone's jokes around here. He got his butt handed to him by Mikoto and then again by Azu two rounds ago. He wasn't about to sit back and not have his fifteen minutes of fame. Besides during this round you were allowed your weapons, he smiled and looked down at his perfect brass knuckles now lining his fists. He'd make sure that at least one of those boats wouldn't stay afloat.
"Aren't you going in," asked Zesiro looking over at Dango who stayed pretty calm and collected, despite not doing a thing. Suzanne had taken over rowing and had managed to add a few new paddles, but through sheer perseverance and a hidden vat of untouched strength Zesiro managed to plow ahead a little further and keep with them. Shino was gone, but that was only one Fishman…and on top of that Dango looked much more capable of sinking ships than his little pink counterpart.
Dango shrugged and laughed, "well, I ate a Devil Fruit. I heard somewhere that if a Fishman eats one, they blow up and I wanted to see if that was true." Of course, it wasn't true several history books would've taught you that.
"Wait, you ate despite knowing that you might blow up?" asked Zesiro, Dango nodded. It was to satisfy his curiosity so it was worth it in the end. Zesiro shook his head and instead decided to keep his eyes forward and on the race before him rather than the less than stellar example of his race.
"Oh no!" shouted the announcer with fake empathy practically dripping from his voice, "there's no way for the remaining teams to come back now! It looks like with the latest revelation in Davy Back Fight technology the 'Ghost Hook' pirates win again!" Ridley grunted, he couldn't believe it…even worse he was fairly certain that they would be picking somebody from their crew…for some reason Kraven really did seem hell-bent on seeing to it that Mikoto lost a crewmember. And if Mikoto lost this one chances were they would never be able to recover their entire crew again from the last two fights…they were sunk. "Oh, what is this?!" Ridley turned his head down to the where the announcer was pointing. "It looks like the 'Kid Coyote' has landed, it looks like he has given up!"
"Who's given up!" shouted Mikoto throwing his arms up into the air as he picked up his 'ship', the Riddle King of Awesomeness Mach 200! He moved to his back and produced a set of straps that were barely visible on the small wooden plank and tied them together. He then went into his signature stretching pose. "Hey, Maria, where are the rest of the competitors?"
"Uh…Zesiro is about a third of the way, Rosa and Lily are probably only about one fifth…I think the two team leaders, Kraven's ships, have made it to the halfway point," brought up Maria as she looked on and into the distance. They didn't have any fancy Den-den Mushi's set up to relay the video from one end to the other, but still it would be obvious who won by who made it to the other end. Mikoto smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. He would win! Out of nowhere Mikoto began pouring on the speed moving faster and faster all the way down the line as quickly as he could. His speed undoubtedly surpassing even that of the fore-running ships.
"Eh…wait!" shouted the announcer as he panicked from his spot high above the arena. "That's not fair! I call cheating! He can't carry his ship!" Most of Kraven's crew went into an uproar obviously upset that this was happening, it wasn't fair! Everybody else was sailing along the island, but this kid got to run? Where was that in the rulebooks? The announcer quickly brought out a book and skimmed through it, flipping through the pages until he got to the Donut Race. He scanned through the rules and things that would result in instant disqualification, eager to prove to the Infinity Pirates that what Mikoto was doing was clearly against the rules. "Uh…it is not in here…" the entire crowd fell silent. What Mikoto was doing wasn't against the rules! "Wait! Of course, it is not in here! Who in all of the bloody blues would be stupid enough to carry their ship all the way to finish line!?" Hiro-Shu kind of shrunk back…the guy wasn't wrong…that was basically why it worked like that. He was fairly certain that Mikoto won because of nobody else in these 'bloody blues' was as stupid as he was.
"Take away his speed, huh?" smirked Ridley as he reclined backwards and into a comfortable sitting position. "It looks like he just proved you wrong. No matter what Mikoto isn't going down like you expected him to. He has broken through your rules once and managed to do what he's good at…he'll just do it again!" Kraven laughed. His head hung between his shoulders as he shook it. "What's the matter? Too scared to watch the fight unfold? We've won this round just like we'll win the remaining two rounds!" Ridley pumped his arm up and into the air, he wasn't afraid of Kraven at all.
"Idiot," Kraven whispered as his head rose back up and he looked over at Ridley. He nodded forward, forcing Ridley to watch Mikoto finally get going. For the first time this match it seemed like he was finally going forward. "He may just finally be getting his engine going, but that's just the thing." Kraven smiled and looked over to the distance past Mikoto and at his crew, who were already well past the halfway point. "He's JUST getting his engine going. He can't recover that lost time and distance. You've lost again."
Now The Real Race Begins
AND RE-WRITE! This was done all within the course of the past two days. Fun, times...fun, times...anyways, here it is I think I hit everything. But ultimately the most important part was just that Mikoto is insane and decided to take the race on land. And, yes, no where in the Davy Back Fight rules does it ever state the ship has to be in the water. It just states that the competitor and their ship must both pass the finish line. Mikoto's way of handling does certainly fit that rule, but as Kraven pointed out despite his insane leg speed the chances of victory is still fairly small.