The Highest Gear

The race was off to a surprisingly good start...for one of the racers. Mikoto remained rather dominant during the race. It all came down to who had the second head start. If Aaron had had it, he would probably be leading right now. That being said Mikoto still couldn't relax. Even if their speeds were equal like everybody seemed to think, neither racer had decided to go full-blast just yet. They were both holding back, resisting the urge to go full-blast and exhaust themselves quicker.

In other words neither fighter had even entered top gear yet. Nonetheless they were both thinking it was about time. It was a nearly simultaneous shift in speed. They both took their gears up, their feet rocketed up. First gear to second gear and it accelerated even further past it and right into third. By now they figured most people would be straining to keep up with them, but they could still go faster.

Not a single word was shared by the two racers and yet both of them seemed to be moving in perfect synchronization. Mikoto kicked himself up to top gear as did Aaron. If somebody hadn't lost sight of them before they probably did now. Their speed was on a whole new level then when they fought.

During a fight they would have to be constantly turning and dodging their opponent's blow, but this time all of their attention was on their feet there was no sudden turns which ate away at their speed, this was their true top gear. Well, at least it was Mikoto's. Once more Aaron found himself completely walled by Mikoto's instincts. Mikoto was easily preventing Aaron from truly taking it up another notch. If Aaron indeed had one.

"Its about time Aaron starts to learn just how outclassed he is in the world of speed," Ridley muttered as he sat down. And the sad thing was it wasn't even going to be by someone faster than him. It appeared as if they were the same speed, but Mikoto was actively trying to prevent Aaron from utilizing a single boost of speed to surpass him.

It was probably beginning to seem hopeless for their latest son of a Marine turned pirate. He was going to learn the hard way something Mikoto had also just learned. Being the fastest didn't mean much.

On top of being fast you needed enough stamina to keep running, the instincts to take advantage of your speed, and even the strength to push your opponents aside. Just one or even two of those elements didn't mean much when you factored in the entire world.

From the looks of it it appeared that their stamina and strength were about equal, meaning that Mikoto's instincts were the only thing that was allowing him to win. It was impossible to tell for a certain, but it seemed like Mikoto had this match locked up. That split second head start as well as the ability to perfectly read Aaron's movements. That's why instincts was a needed element to be fast.

Aaron still couldn't give up hope and he wasn't going to either. A sudden burst of speed originated from his legs and he poured on the gas. It was a sudden and slick burst of speed, faster than either of them had gone in a while, but it shocked Aaron to see that Mikoto was still hanging in front of him.

"Was that another higher gear?" asked Lily as her jaw dropped, "I can't believe that these two can still go faster!"

"I wouldn't necessarily call it another gear," explained Enma, "its more like pouring a lot of fuel on the fire. I would call it something similar to overworking the muscles. Basically what you see right now is their most comfortable speed. Its the speed their used to using so stamina exhaustion is actually fairly low, if they were told to run they would naturally go to this speed, but in exchange for a little extra push and a little extra motivation they can temporarily push past this limit into their true top gear."

"Then why aren't they staying in that top gear?" asked Lily cocking her head to the side and looking up at Enma.

"Like I said its overworking their muscles, it'll heat them up and burn through their stamina and possibly even cause leg injuries if they continued it," Enma stated, "the damage would probably be worse off for Mikoto though. Aaron uses Soru which involves kicking off of the ground to begin with so his legs would be more used to rough treatment like that."

"I don't think you're giving you're nakama enough credit," muttered Shane. "If it comes to it, they will accelerate to their true highest gear. Ignoring their own pain and that'll be the true moment we see their true highest speed. The only question is who will be willing to push themselves the furthest."

In this case there was only person it could be. Mikoto was winning and he was fine with just leaving it at that, the lower the chance of either of them actually causing any injury to themselves the better. Which meant Aaron needed to step it up, however, using such a risky move would be like admitting Mikoto was faster.

Unless they could win with what they practiced with their natural speed limits, it wouldn't be a real win. They needed to feel like they could do it again and again. They needed that higher speed to be natural. Nonetheless even that natural higher speed didn't mean much if they didn't win.

Aaron would just have to drive for the win first and in order to do that, he needed to break past Mikoto. However, as Aaron was psyching himself up he heard a few quiet words come from Mikoto's mouth, "we're at the halfway point."

"Crap," muttered Aaron as he also took it in. He was too busy focusing on Mikoto that he didn't really even notice how far they had gone, but here Mikoto was even capable of taking in the scenario while he completely blocked him out. Aaron still needed a few more good moves to burst past Mikoto, but he was doing a really good job...just like the captain of a crew should.

It seemed like within all the hype of fighting someone equally fast as him Aaron had went and forgot Mikoto's true capabilities. He wasn't just a racer he was a pirate captain. Someone who had taken down three Shichibukais so far and was already on his way to go to see a Yonkou. Thinking of him only as a racer would be Aaron's last mistake this match. He couldn't just rely on his top gear. That wasn't the way of his technique.

"Falco Swift Technique: Ghost II." Aaron stated as he began to change up his technique. If Mikoto wanted to block him then fine, he'd levy all of his power once more. However, this time his charge had changed. Rather than going to the sides or going straight forward, Aaron had begun twisting. He was zig-zagging.

"This is new," stated Enma with a raised brow. "I think our little friend Aaron may just be able to force Mikoto to the ropes with this."

"You're looking down on our captain," muttered Ridley, although he also saw what he meant.

"He's combating Mikoto's instincts with feints," Enma brought up, "If Mikoto thinks Aaron is going to go straight he'll turn left, he thinks left Aaron goes right. Its a three pronged attack which allows him to rush along either side or straight down the middle. And the wrong guess from Mikoto could cause him to lose his lead."

"But shouldn't zig-zagging use up more energy and cover less ground?" asked Rosa. The shortest distance to your goal was always a straight line so Aaron's over-energetic rush seemed like it would be like taking the long way.

"Just like Hiro-Shu's technique for speeding up his punches, Aaron is using a twist to gather momentum and dash using that momentum," Enma pointed out, "and since Soru already depends on massive stress to the legs as well as kicking off of the ground after gathering that stress, Aaron's probably managing to make up for the loss of speed with even more speed."

"So, not only is Aaron going faster technically, but he's also adding in feints?" questioned Rosa, "so Mikoto's instincts are dulled and Aaron now has the advantage in speed as well. That means Aaron is still in this!"

"You're looking down on our captain," Ridley muttered.

"Oh, come on," shouted Sage jumping into Ridley's face, "you're just upset because after that whole macho act Aaron is going to win against Mikoto in a footrace using a clever tactic, come on now and give Aaron his dues."

"Okay, Aaron is talented, but Mikoto is better," Ridley stated clearly.

Just like Aaron began a three pronged offense to pass Mikoto by, Mikoto had kicked things up as well. Into a three-pronged defense. Just like Aaron had used his Ghost II to launch into a triplicate of offense, Mikoto had his own attack to launch into to form a triplicate defense.

"Afterimage!" Aaron was feinting in all three directions, but Mikoto was actually going into all three directions and was constantly in all three. Three separate Mikotos appeared before Aaron each one blocking off a different one of his escape routes. It was as if Mikoto was plainly stating 'anything you can do I can do better.'

And Mikoto was really putting such a brag to the test. Aaron's good speed and timing was already sealed away with the split second lead Mikoto had, but now he was doing his best to seal everything else up as well. Even Aaron's quick-thinking feint was dead. It didn't matter if he went left, right or straight there was a Mikoto meet him at each turn. Mikoto's goal was to really bury him with everything he had.

Then again anything lesser and Aaron couldn't say he was the faster of the two. If Mikoto wanted to really have at it than he would oblige him. However, if he was going to do so he was going to go all the way, not these half-measures any more.

He went up another gear. As Enma put it he was going to a gear that would burn up his energy faster than it should, put more strains on his muscles, the pay-off was more speed, but if it failed he would be burned out completely. However, while Aaron kicked himself into that gear the idea of failure didn't even cross his mind. As a matter of fact, to show that idea off Aaron didn't stop there.

He went to even higher gear. Faster than he had gone before, the stress and stamina loss would soon accumulate. And when it did it would hit them both like a bag of rocks. In order to keep pace with Aaron's new speed Mikoto had to step it up as well. Losing even an inch in this speed battle could be deadly as Mikoto had just demonstrated to Aaron.

And now their previous battle had been kicked up. Aaron's feints had grew and opened up new pathways before it was just going to the sides, but now he could jettison further out of his way and return to start, which meant in order to prevent him from doing so Mikoto had to block those paths off as well. He split off and immediately five more clones appeared all of them forming an impressive wall to block off Aaron.

Aaron kicked his impressive multiple pronged attack right at him. However, as Aaron began to blast past Mikoto using all of his leg strength he was met by a surprise. Mikoto fired an actual punch at him. At Aarons current speed he had to basically slam on the brakes to avoid having his head taken off by that punch.

Aaron twisted around to avoid the punch, but the momentum he had lost was obvious. While Mikoto didn't want to actually hurt Aaron, he was pulling out all of the stops in order to ensure his win. That was indeed what a true fighter should do. Friends or allies, one-hundred percent of Mikoto's power was coming out.

To answer that Aaron to used his full-power, once more he kicked his legs and took off at full-speed. He charged forward and used twisting motions to accelerate. He rocketed forward, squeezing a little bit more life out of his own legs. He had to. Just a little bit further!

Aaron crossed over, bolting for Mikoto. Once more his highest gear was shown off, several images all of them heading towards Mikoto as if forming an offensive Afterimage. A truly impressive display of speed. However, Mikoto didn't mind it, he charged in and met the offense head-on. That was truly the way they should head into the final leg of the race.

Goals Greater Than King of the Pirates