Another Yonkou?

The Third Side of the War

There was a quiet murmur as almost everybody boarded their respective ships. A few lally-gaggers from each ship were still yet to be found, but a delay of a couple of hours was fine. Besides they understood why they were waiting up, so they would do so.

Mikoto's and Shane's shocking loss injured both teams greatly. As far as they were concerned the two captains stood on two different peaks of the world. Mikoto had other worldly speed and Shane had other worldly power. And both of those two had been brought to heel at the hands of the same guy. If the ultimate speed and the ultimate power wasn't enough what could possibly defeat a man like Kai.

Of course, Enma and Shane's ship's doctors were both hard work examining their captain. They shared ingredients and medicine, sparing whatever they had a lot of to aid the other. But ultimately both captains were horribly wounded. Even if they treated the bodily injuries, the ones to their pride and souls would remain.

Both captains had remained quiet. Mulling something over as they didn't say much, they had their own worries and no members of either crew dared to pry. Kurai Ai had stopped by and left them a note. She had decided she would join up with the Revolutionaries. She had no care for their promise of a world changing charade, but if it meant gaining the ability to dig a little deeper into the Marines' past. She would go for it.

The Fox Brothers had disappeared. Apparently they saw their odds of survival against Kai as extremely low. They vanished off of the face of the Earth. Bando, the proud warrior of this island, also disappeared. Shane didn't say anything more on that subject, just that he doubted he'd be talking to either one of them again. Mikoto left it on that.

"We're lucky, you know," Enma stated as he checked Mikoto's fist once more, "I know you were probably aiming to use it, but couldn't find a proper opening, but if you had used Rapid-Fire against Kai...I highly doubt you would've managed to come out of it with both arms."

As usual Enma was the voice of reason even in the darkness. The Rapid-Fire was something that multiplied Mikoto's power, but also multiplied the backlash. Mikoto was gaining a firm grip on it and his time between uses was shortening up, but still against someone like Hiro-Shu or even worse Kai, whose body was coated in an incredible thick armor the backlash became more worrisome than it was worth.

Many professional fighters wore bandages or gloves, something to cover their fists and help fight back against the rebound. In other words if Mikoto wasn't going to use something like that his fists were taking the full beating right back at him. It wasn't a good thing. The harder an opponent's armor the more damage would be dealt back to his fist as recoil.

"I don't think I would've used it," Mikoto murmured as he settled down and slumped his head into his hand. He knew better than to use it, just a couple of regular punches left his hands stinging. He could only imagine the pain he would be in after a stronger one. Shane's fists were probably in horrible shape, if not straight up broken. "I need to evolve."

The premise of Mikoto's words were very simple, but Enma had a feeling it was one of those things that were much easier to say than to do. Becoming strong was a man's eternal quest. And there were no shortcuts. Your only option was to charge forward with as much momentum as physically possible. If you hit a wall you can't overcome, you fall. The day you can't pull yourself back up and onto your feet is the day you quit.

The goal for them was to just to pull themselves back up and onto their feet now. Enma was confident they could do it. They were just that kind of a crew. Standing up after they got knocked down was just their style. "We're pulling ourselves back onto our feet as we speak," Enma stated as he separated from Mikoto and moved back.

"I think we need to speed up," explained Mikoto as he settled down a bit, "we've tried our best and we got fairly far, but as it stands there's still too much ground left to cover. We've done a good job covering up our own ground, but I think from here on out taking everybody out may be a little tougher than we've thought."

"You're thinking about Kai and the Revolutionaries," Enma stated.

Mikoto nodded, "also Kurai Ai and Trevor now. The Revolutionaries have a large force even more if that Victori Shogun girl is actually on his side. Even if you ignore the Revolutionaries and just focus on the Marines they are still even more. Shichibukais, Admirals, a lot more. I don't know if I can do it on my own."

"Well, then you're lucky you don't have to," muttered Enma with a slow shaking of his head, "did you forget whose all on your side?" he nodded back and motioned to the stairs. "As Hiro-Shu told that Kai guy WE are the Infinity Pirates. And WE are coming for his head. And I don't care who your god is be it Satan, God, or a group of cows. I am standing by Hiro-Shu's words and I'm standing by you.

"And everybody else feels the same way."

"Good," Mikoto stated with a swift nod. They were together and there goal of conquering the seas seemed a little easier at that point. The title of King of the Pirates didn't come to those who just stumbled onto the One Piece. You'd have to be capable of holding your own and defending whatever treasure you have.

The title of King of the Pirates meant a lot. A lot more than even the One Piece itself did nowadays. Even Marines respected someone of that title. But it meant you had to be someone they could respect, someone with enough power to command the world. Mikoto wasn't there yet. He turned over and faced Enma, "now what are we going to do about this pesky war that's a brewing?"

Enma shrugged and smiled, "captain's choice."

"So much for 'we' when it comes to the big decisions, huh?" Mikoto chided causing Enma to get a little bit of a smile. "Its coming to a decisive split between the Revolutionaries and the Marines, not much room for a small pirate crew like us to escape absolutely unharmed."

"It'll probably become one of those things where you are either them or against them," Enma agreed as he pushed off of Mikoto's bed to attend to some more medicine, "you're going to get shafted even if you try to stay out of it."

"Then let's dive right on in," declared Ridley as he kicked open the door and with a proud stride barged right on into the waiting room and sat down on one of the beds.

"Who do you want to side with?" humored Mikoto. In the end it would be Mikoto's decision, he knew his crew would probably be fairly evenly split between the Revolutionaries, Marines, and just staying out of it. There probably wouldn't be a clean majority leaning towards one side, so it would all fall on his shoulders. But still it was nice to hear Ridley's side of thing.

"Ours!" Ridley boasted as he puffed out his chest, "if the Marines and Revolutionaries want to have a contest to see whose is bigger, I say we put ours out and compare it with theirs!"

"I really hope you are talking about heart or army size here," muttered Enma causing Ridley to utter a fake laugh in his direction. Enma just shrugged and shook his head, "and even in the case that you are in terms of army size. Look at us. One pirate crew won't change the world."

"Then what about two?" Ridley stated nodding towards Shane's ship, "or three? Or four? I'll tell you one thing I learned while I was with my father running his business. There are a hell of a lot more criminals out there then there are heroes."

"Why don't we count the citizens while we are at it? Or the fish? Or how about the stars?" Enma pulled them all back to reality, "just cause there are a lot of people out there who may be able to help us I don't want you to think there's even a 10% chance they'll join up with us, what do we have?"

"A Shichibukai killer," Ridley pointed at Mikoto before shifting his hands up to the roof, "Maria, someone who fought and won in numerous tournaments all over the world. Zesiro, a proud Fishman. Not to mention I can guarantee you that we've met enough people to form an army who would be proud to lay down their arms next to us. Just tell Shane he'll get a bunch of good fights out of the deal and he'd sign up."

"Anyone else?" Enma asked, "you know like someone strong enough to fight a Yonkou? Or another Shichibukai? Or Satan forbid the Marine Fleet Admiral?"

"Yup," Mikoto stated. It was his first word since Ridley had brought up the issue, but Mikoto was slowly nodding, "Ridley's right. We did meet people like that. I don't know if they'd want to jump on with a half-baked army like ours, though. I mean, 'The Siren' Melanie is still a Shichibukai, but she'd be strong enough to go toe-to-toe with them then."

"Shane also mentioned Armani Dove," explained Ridley, "if we can talk him into joining us he'd probably be another. He's a Revolutionary right now, but only just."

"Simon Dew was rich," Mikoto recalled, "we helped him out back at the URA, as long as there is no hard feelings he may be willing to sponsor us and throw a little cash our way."

"Not to mention Corra, the pirate doctor we met right around when you joined us Enma. She even said her big brother was another pirate. As well as the Fishman brothers from the URA and all the other fighters there," Ridley pointed, "I'm sure I could even dig into my dad's past business contacts and find a few willing friends."

"There's also Kraven's old crew and the whole mess of people we sprang from Zenith Gaol," Mikoto recalled as he kicked his head back and began to smile. He was liking this plan. Everyone was placing their bets on black or red unaware of the third color beginning to form aboard this little ship.

"Okay, that's great," Enma stated getting slightly worried they were taking this half-baked battle plan of theirs too far, "but is everybody really forgetting about the Yonkous or the Fleet Admiral. I haven't really heard the name of somebody capable of taking them down."

"Well, that's because we haven't met her yet," Mikoto smiled causing Enma to sigh with exasperation.

"We cannot step off of one boat until we're sure another boat is actually there," Enma stated, twisting an old proverb into a more relevant one.

"I've jumped up off ships before I knew another ship was there waiting for me," Mikoto joked, however, he could see that Enma wasn't exactly pleased with his humor this time around. "Relax. Me and Shane got an invitation from a Yonkou to go see her. I'm thinking I'm going to take it."

"Great, we're hitting the big times!" shouted Ridley as he jumped back and landed on one of the semi-cushy hospital beds they had.

"Did your guys' brains get knocked loose on the last island or something? Did you forget what the last Yonkou did to us. Its no small joke to look down on them. If she decides to attack us what are we going to do about it? We have no idea for what possible reason she could be calling us out to her for. If there even is a reason."

Crew Split