Speed and Sound

Mikoto held his left arm in front of himself lamely as he tried to keep an eye on his opponent. Raphael, Ravenbone, was still being cautious, but not to the same degree Mikoto had to be. Mikoto's wildness seemed to be clipped at the moment. Ravenbone was dangerous and Mikoto had a sneaking suspicion the Shichibukai had not yet revealed his full hand.

But that was no excuse for Mikoto to hold back yet. Mikoto slipped backwards and then slammed his foot right down against the ground, rocketing his feet against the ground and launched himself at his opponent. Ravenbone was quick and dodged it with ease, watching Mikoto's powerful punch screeched past him. But Mikoto didn't worry, he flipped around, twisting all of his body around into a whip and shooting a single kick right into his opponent's gut. Once again having it coated in Haki definitely increased his offensive power as even Ravenbone seemed to ache a little after that blow.

Then again with the way Raphael just resumed combat like it was nothing, probably wasn't the best of news. The man was obviously on a whole other level. He chased in and let a powerful punch with his own Haki embued into it fly right into Mikoto's cheek and nearly managed to take off his head with that one single tremendous blow.

Mikoto was beginning to learn a little bit more at a time. It appeared that Ravenbone was definitely out-pacing him in terms of Colors of Armaments Haki, in that area Mikoto didn't know if he stood a chance. Raphael was much more skilled with it. It was amazing, the difference between the two of them.

Ravenbone was strong and would continuously just land hefty blows on him, but it was still not enough. Mikoto dodged to the left and right, his regular speed was still more than enough to match Raphael's. As a matter of fact despite his previous boasts even Raphael, a master of sound seemed to be lagging behind Mikoto.

Mikoto just made sure to keep laying on the hits, he wasn't certain if his attacks were doing enough, but he knew that with enough of them he would go down, so Mikoto just made sure to stick with that. He would just grit his teeth and make sure to keep layering them on. He kept it up. The punches were rapidly firing right through the air and made sure to keep up on his opponent.

Though Raphael jumped back, dodging it simply and made sure to keep the distance. And once he had it he just took a deep breath, however, before he even shouted he created his own noise. A separate entity, catching Mikoto's attention with a deep breath while simultaneously releasing a second sound. A creeping noise which grew into a loud buzz right in his ears. Mikoto recoiled, but the real problem came as Raphael brought his own punch forward, a screeching blow right into the side of his face and sent him flying through the air, hitting the ground hard. Mikoto tried to stand back up, but a massive Haki imbued kick right into his abdomen which made him fly backwards, spinning and rolling along the ground.

Of course Mikoto was still not done, transforming into his full beast form Mikoto gritted his teeth and prepared to bare his fangs, a flash of white teeth and brown fur as Mikoto rushed once again bringing all of his power behind his fangs and digging them right into Raphael's skin and bearing them all the way down onto it. However, Raphael refused to back down, unleashing another blast right at him and tearing Mikoto off of his skin.

Mikoto skidded on the ground, turning back into his hybrid form and charging in once more for the next charge. Gritting his teeth and tightening his fist. "Rapid-Fire-"

There was no worry on Raphael's face, just a proud smile, "Tilt." The sound suddenly exploded into Mikoto's ear. Mikoto suddenly lost all control of his balance, scrambling to the floor like a kid who had lost his left leg. His sense of balance was off, but he doubted that was a good enough reason to call a time-out. Not that Raphael would let him.

The man was on top of him at all times, taking to the air even to stay above him occasionally sending a pummeling blast of sound down upon him, and at other times it was just a powerful fist. It would just come down like a boulder, smashing into the space where Mikoto had laid. While his balance was shot Mikoto still had decent agility, rolling to the side and twisting about to avoid the incoming blows.

Each blow would grow closer every time Raphael let it fly, so Mikoto knew there was no chance he would just stop Mikoto would have to break it up. Mikoto gritted his teeth and bucked, lifting his legs up he slammed one confident foot right into Raphael's face, burying the sharp claws on each of his toes into Raphael's forehead.

Although the action just seemed to confirm Mikoto's dreadful thoughts from earlier. The man was indeed better at Haki as Mikoto found his Haki empowered kicks unable to pierce the man's Haki-imbued skull. There was indeed a different in skills, but that didn't mean Mikoto was out of things yet. Rotating around on his head Mikoto spun about launching a new series of kicks. This time focusing the point of impact on the ball of his feet.

It was like a tornado, spinning around and kicking up dirt, slamming each blow right into Raphael's gut and forcing him back. The man was huge, but was being gradually worn down and that would be Mikoto's best bet at winning. Mikoto kept up the offense, finding small gaps in his guard and letting a punch fly squarely into it.

"Graze," Ravenbone's maddening voice once again whispered. Mikoto's rapid-fire punches began to grow shorter. His string of attacks seemed to have been cut short, no longer performing powerful combinations as all of his punches began to seem shallow. It was as if something else was influencing his powerful forward punches.

"Its amazing how much of the human body can be influenced by just a simple noise wavelength," explained Raphael as he walked forward and towards Mikoto, "even the smaller decisions the human body makes such as its sense of distance can be thrown off and made so the body thinks the enemy is closer or farther away.

"But in case you were wondering," Raphael stated as he brought his arm up and prepared for a single solid punch, "but I'm not affected by it." The punch came in and knocked Mikoto back with a solid blow. Mikoto wheeled backwards, throwing another punch only to find out that once more he missed.

The attack was still going to shy and now Raphael knew enough to follow the attack up.

A powerful gut-busting blow, knocking him back. Mikoto spun backwards trying to stay standing, but he once again struggled to do even that. He stomped his foot down with as much conviction as he could muster, but even that didn't seem to do very good for him. His balance was shot, his sense of distance, everything seemed horrible.

Though he didn't stay standing, a powerful punch immediately came right into his face and knocked him back. Raphael was definitely not about to allow Mikoto to stay standing, another kick right into his gut and forced him further back. Mikoto pushed himself back up and onto his own feet, but wasn't too surprised when another punch screeching right for his head, knocking him backwards and sending him stumbling backwards.

Mikoto picked his beginning to bleed body off of the ground. His attacks had hit him harder each time, he had lost his balance and his sense of distance. The only thing he had left was his speed and even that was being stripped from him because of his lack of balance. Nonetheless he would pick himself off of the ground each time.

Tightening his vision Mikoto locked his fists onto Raphael and began throwing powerful forward punches, stepping forward and making wide swings trying to take him out, but all of his punches seemed to be a bit shallow. He still couldn't seem to land them and as the fight dragged it seemed like that was going to become more and more the case.

Although that didn't mean Mikoto was going to stop trying, stepping in and letting a series of punches fly from his sides, applying pressure onto his opponent with his attacks. However, they all ended up a bit too short, but his opponent was completely unaffected by it and showed it off with another powerful blow right down the line and into his opponent's gut. But Mikoto didn't go down.

Instead Mikoto gritted his teeth and brought his own punch shooting forward. He may have taken damage, but he wasn't going down. He gritted his teeth and let his own punch streaming forward at him. Landing a square punch in his jaw.

If Raphael could hit him than he could hit Raphael. That was the only thing Raphael could manage right off the back. He would grit his teeth and kept punching at him, powerful forward punches right at him, landing it heavily on him. Mikoto's main point of strength was in speed, so he wouldn't slow down, he'd just keep at it, swinging away, pushing his opponent back with every punch and trying desperately to win.

"Still not enough," Raphael stated even through the flurry of his punches, "I'm still stronger than you. Learn your place as a regular pirate, not as someone on my level. I'll crush you with all of my might and there's not much you can do to counter it. Listen to this," Ravenbone swept his arm through the air, creating a crescendo crash all around him.

Mikoto was forced onto the ground, nearly dying from Ravenbone's vicious attacks. The Shichibukai was on a whole other level. Mikoto hadn't faced off against a guy like this in a long time. Distance, speed, power, there wasn't too many things that Raphael didn't have. The guy was skilled.

Mikoto took a deep breath and brought his arms together. He would charge in once more. Dashing forward Mikoto brought his fist forward, missing once more as Ravenbone's sound effect still affected him. With that Raphael stepped forward and slammed a punch right into Mikoto's gut and knocked him back.

"This is the power of a Shichibukai!" Raphael stepped forward and brought an open palm forward and firing a powerful forward blast of sound waves right at his opponent, but Mikoto was still careful, dodging to the side he avoided the blast, but Raphael was right on top of him. Already swinging right at Mikoto's head and knocking his head back, which was immediately followed up by a powerful kick right into Mikoto's gut and knocked him back once again.

"Come on," Raphael stated, stepping forward and suddenly blasting forward and bringing one of his arms forward and releasing a shockwave of sounds all around him. The sound waves slammed into Mikoto even though Mikoto managed to dodge the actual punch cleanly. The sound waves were just completely messing with Mikoto. The damage was beginning to build-up. But Mikoto still wasn't done. Swinging his foot forward, he stopped himself from falling down. "I'm not done yet. I'll just grit my teeth and keep trying."

"Keep failing," corrected Raphael.

"I may have been a bit foolish in thinking I could handle you like this," Mikoto stated sternly, "I was thinking that it was possible that I could handle you without any problem as I am right now, but it appears that this still isn't enough." Mikoto pushed his feet into the loamy soil of the ground beneath him. "I was hoping I could spend a bit more time perfecting this technique."

"What technique could possibly turn this fight back into your favor?"

"It was a technique I was saving for Kai, but I suppose you're just as good of a test subject as he would be. Hellhound."

The Reasons We Fight