BlueRyuu- smiles mysteriously Trussssst in meeeee, jussssst in meeeee...

Cookie to whoever can name that movie. Two cookies if you've already reviewed.

-Nek'ros loa din-

I sat in my seat and listened with half an ear as Nicole muttered incomprehensible phrases she read out of the rule book in her hands, the rest of my attention directed curiously at the swordswoman, Shasta, if I remembered the name Smiley had uttered earlier, as she explained the Legend of the Blind Gunfighter to whoever had been interested. She didn't know I was interested, but be honest; how many of you would like to hear what other people are saying about you straight from their mouths without them knowing?

Exactly.

"It all began about four years ago, on an island in the far edges of the East Blue." She folded her arms across her chest and shook her head, her gray-blue ponytail swaying behind her before she continued. "Nobody knows its name anymore; it was destroyed a year ago in one of the battles of the Sea Devil Wars."

My ears perked up as a voice piped in. "The what?"

"The Sea Devil Wars are what the constant battles between the armies of the Sea Devils are called."

"Are weh tahkin' 'baowt t'eh sahme S'eh Dhevils th't made t'eh Dhevil Frhoots?"

She nodded at the woman. "Yes, they are three beings that constantly war with each other over territory on the edges of the world, with armies of superhumans, demons and humans with insanely high levels of skill in fighting. The Blind Gunfighter is said to have been one of the survivors of another island that had tried to hold off one of the armies, although it's just a rumor I heard a while back."

"Isn't this the same guy that one fellow in Roguetown was calling 'Gargoyle' as well? I heard the names a few weeks ago; some huge giant of a fellow was looking for this chap."

There was a moment of stillness, then the swordswoman spoke again, dread in her voice. "If that's true, then this man is almost the same as a demon. They say that Gargoyle is chief of the Warriors of Gorgon, one of the elite units in the Sea Devil Wars; he's said to be able to create hurricanes and destroy islands with just a swing of his ax, Yamakaze."

"If he's so tough, how come we've never heard of him before now?"

"It's because both the Blind Gunfighter and Gargoyle were only seen once each in action by the outside world; from those individual actions came their bounties."

"The Blind Gunfighter came to the island I spoke of before on a small raft, instantly making friends with the people there by his honesty. I cannot remember his name, but I remember the blindfold around his eyes very clearly, because I was stopping in there while on my way to a swordfighting competition on a nearby island."

"When I first met him, the Blind Gunfighter was working as a hotel janitor, cleaning up people's messes and giving a kind word and a smile to everyone. At the time, however, a gang of pirates were taking over the island and they demanded the hotel he worked in to give a monthly tribute equal to twice their monthly intake."

"The hotel manager refused and tried to hire mercenaries to help him, but none of us would risk our lives for the pittance he was offering. Imagine our surprise when the janitor stood up among us and laughed at us, calling us pathetic for not wanting to wager our lives on a little battle. He said the little battles are what make life interesting; he then proceeded to leave the hotel, running into the pirates just as they were coming in to destroy the hotel and kill everyone inside."

"Those of us who went outside were terrified by what we saw next; he threw off the slighty run-down suit he had been working in and stood wearing only a pair of pants and enough weaponry to flatten the entire island; twin pistols on his sides, shotgun and rifle strapped to his legs, ammunition everywhere. Before the pirates quite knew what happened, they found themselves short fifteen of their eighty-seven lives, a single bullet killing the group in an instant. Before anyone of us could move, he began moving, his actions beyond our ability to follow as he simply ripped them apart, bullets moving almost slower than he did as he caught whatever projectiles they managed to shoot and redirected them back at the pirates. When it was over, the pirates were all dead and he, and his raft, were gone." She paused, then continued in a hushed tone, "When we tried to find the pirates' base, all we found were sunken ships and burning bodies piled on top of the few structures they had actually built for themselves."

I smirked slightly; that had been a fun fight, although it had lasted a tad longer than she remembered; two of the pirates had actually had some skill. Not enough, though.

"Damn. He sounds like a demon, all right."

"But I still don't know who this Gargoyle is that he's supposed to be."

"That's because the only witnesses who survived the incident succumbed to their injuries soon after help arrived and only a handful of people heard their tale. We all brushed it off as the delusions of maniacs, but they all stuck quite stubbornly to their story."

"One night, on another island that was supposedly on the edges of the Sea Devil battlegrounds and three years before the other island, a tall, high-shouldered man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a battle ax as tall as he was with a head three times as wide as him came to this certain island asking for a loaf of bread and a glass of water. None of the inhabitants cared to help him, as the island was a suspicious one with a deep-bred hatred of the rest of the world born of being so close to the Sea Devil battlegrounds."

"When he had asked every last person on the island for what he wanted and had been turned down every single time, he strode down to the edge of the island and turned to face the villagers that had gathered to make sure he left. Reaching one hand back, he told them to prepare for death and then drew his ax. After that, no story was very clear on what happened; they all spoke of three things that all had seen, however. A hurricane sprang to life around the island, cutting all but a few from escape; his form seemed to change and his face, which had been hidden from view until then, revealed itself to be a misshapen, hideous stonecraft with a blocky jaw and fiendish eyes; and, when he had cut down most of the villagers, men, women and children, he moved to the center of the island, raised his ax, roared and then brought the weapon down, shattering the island into four pieces which then sank into the ocean, sucking in almost all of the survivors and battering the rest to the point that they died within days of reaching safety."

There was a silence, then a voice, the woman captain's voice, spoke up skeptically. "Still, I don't believe that this man is the same one; I mean, c'mon. The guy's fast, I'll grant him, and he's got some decent moves, but I doubt he's anything to worry about."

There were several approving mutters and dark glances thrown my way, then the swordswoman spoke up again.

"I don't know if he's the Gargoyle; that thing was probably killed in a battle somewhere far away. I do know, though, that he's the Blind Gunfighter; as such, he's fully capable of killing us all without breaking a sweat. If he is the Gargoyle, however... It'd be like finding the infamous Rekondo and discovering that it was also the same weapon that destroyed Deli. The end of the world would be nigh."

I almost laughed at that. Almost. She didn't know how close to the mark she had hit; the world had, indeed, almost ended. Ironic, though; it was only because of me that it was still around. I took great satisfaction in that.

"The first round of the competition will now begin!" The voice came from the ceiling and almost caused me to jump out of my seat with all weapons engaged, then it continued calmly, "Black Wolf Pirates, Nezzer Pirates, please enter the stadium."

Two doors shot open on opposite sides of the room and the two teams exited, jeering and making catcalls at each other as they left. The instant they did, Nicole leaned forward and placed the book down.

"All wight, guys, hewe's a wundown of the game." Turning my attention fully on her, I joined the rest of the crew in leaning in toward her as she continued speaking, all other matters relegated to the background. "Fiwst wuwe; the winning cwew of the most battwes gets fiwst pick of fouw ships, with the second-best getting next pick and so on." She ticked off one finger of one hand. "Second wuwe; the battwes awe decided by stwaight-out fighting, no unusuaw stadiums, nothing. The stwongest team wins, that's it."

Aliza cracked her knuckles and grinned brightly. "Then we win automatically! I think I'll name my new ship Death Doom!"

Nicole giggled as Reza and I chuckled, then she continued, ticking off another finger. "Thiwd wuwe, only thwee membews of any team may pawticipate in a battwe unwess a Bwitz is cawwed, in which case both teams wush the fiewd and the wast one standing is the winnew. Onwy one Bwitz may be cawwed pew team, though. Keeps stwong teams-"

"Like ours!" Aliza piped in.

"-fwom sweeping the game." She ticked off another finger. "And wast but not weast, if, at any time, all thwee membews of the fighting ewement awe defeated, then that team woses."

I frowned. "What about the fourth member?"

"He is a wesewve. If one of the team is wosing badwy, the team weadew-"

"Me! That's me!" Aliza waved her hand happily.

"-may switch that membew out with the wesewve membew of the team, the two switching positions in the team."

Reza cackled and spread his wings. "Au! So be it! Arau!"

I smirked. "Just a little like old times, eh, Reza?"

His dark eyes flashed and he smiled wickedly, his beak glimmering and what might have been fangs rippling across the inside. "Battle and war, triumph and pain, the darkness consumes never again! Au!"

Nicole gave him a weird look, then raised her hand and rubbed the back of her head embarrassedly. "So, with onwy thwee fightews, no one is awwowed to wose on this team ow we aww faiw."

I raised an eyebrow. "But there are four of us."

"But I can't fight!" She waved her hands around in panic. "I wouwd wose!"

Aliza smiled. "Not if Licky helped!"

Nicole shook her head. "I haven't been abwe to bwing hew out unwess I am cwying; she doesn't wisten to me. I don't think she knows I know she's thewe, ow she doesn't want to admit it."

I smirked and leaned back in my seat, interlacing my fingers behind my head and resting my head on them. "So, got any idea when we can get this fight started?"

"Since we awe the wast to sign up, we wiww fight the second-to-wast team to sign up." She shrugged. "It wiww be a wittwe bit, but the time between fights wiww gwow smawwew evewy wound because it's a touwnament."

I looked around the room, my vision delving into the different groups before I brought one hand out and pointed it at a group of pirates that were sharpening their swords calmly. "Them. We're fighting them."

Aliza looked curiously over at them. "How d'ya know, Argy?"

"Au!" Reza puffed up his feathers before letting them fall back down again. "He is strange that way, Captain, arau!"

Replacing my hand behind my head, I closed my eyes and began to doze off. "Wake me when it's our turn, Captain. I don't want to miss this."

"Righto, Argy!" As I slowly drifted away, I could hear her chattering excitedly about her new ship, Death Doom.

-Via col rens'aar-

I woke up to talons digging into my shoulder. Opening my eyes, I tightened the muscles of that shoulder to let Reza know I was awake.

"Au! Fight's on, Boss!"

I looked around and saw Nicole and Aliza looking at me, the former a little worriedly and the latter impatiently, and also spotted the crew I had pointed out before exiting through the far door, their faces expressionless.

"Right."

Standing up, settling my hat down over my face as my coat billowed around me, I followed Aliza as she bounced out of the room. We moved through a narrow hall that wound its way around the mountain until it emerged in a massive open-topped coliseum carved out of the mountain's peak; we found ourselves on the side opposite our opponents, who were also standing in their respective hall.

"And now for the final match of Round One!" The announcer was female and loud, sounding like she was inhumanly excited over the previous matches. "Last year's second-place finishing team, the Scarlet Eyes, will be facing off against the dark horse of this year's tournament, the Pirates of Doom!" There was a loud round of cheering as our opponents calmly took their places, then boos and jeers filled the air as we took our own places on the bench at our end. Aliza almost attacked the crowd at that point, but I hooked a finger behind her collar and sat her down, smirking as she glared at me.

"Save it for them." I nodded toward our opponents and she nodded, then stood up and took a deep breath.

"I'M GONNA KICK ALL O' YOUR BUTTS AND GET THAT SHIP!"

The entire stadium started laughing, then the announcer came back on.

"And now they will take their places!"

A referee in a white-and-black striped shirt stepped forward and yelled, "Will the first two combatants please come forward!"

Aliza hopped off the bench and stormed forward, while her iron-faced opponent strode up and stopped facing her. The referee looked at the both of them and I concentrated on reading his lips to figure out what he was saying.

"You begin in three seconds!"

As he started counting down, Aliza said something to her opponent and a smirk crossed his face. "You are too weak, little girl. That ship is mine."

Fortunately for us, the referee finished counting down, because Aliza snapped and, leaping up, slammed her small fist into the man's chin, staggering him back a half-stride. That wasn't enough compensation, however, because she followed it immediately by dramatically pointing both fingers at the man.

"SWEET-SWEET WARHEADS!"

Dozens of hard candy spheres burst into existence and hovered around her, the entire stadium silent in shock before they shot forward and slammed into the man, who was staring openmouthed at her. He flew back and into, then through, the wall on the far side, the candies pummeling him beyond the stone walls of the stadium before Aliza's wrath was assuaged and she stopped, her shoulders heaving from her rage as she screamed a defiant cry.

"I AM ALIZA ALICIA ALIMONIUM AND I'M GONNA BE THE GREATEST PIRATE EVER WITH THE BIGGEST TREASURE IN THE WORLD!"

Reza spread his wings and screamed a war cry, while Nicole jumped up and cheered. I just smiled quietly to myself as I stood up and called to the opposing team, "Next time you fight a little girl, send your best fighter instead of him, okay?"

Their impassive faces looked a little shaken, but the next man stepped forward, drawing a pair of swords out; the announcer began getting excited, her words completely ignored by those of us on the ground. The referee dropped his hand and the opponent shot forward, his sword slicing through the air toward my captain, who could barely dodge the first strike. She managed to avoid the next few slashes, then one of the blades cut into her side and she cried out; her opponent backed away and brought the sword that had cut her up to his mouth, licking the blood on the blade and smiling wickedly.

"My swords grow impatient for blood." His eyes snapped open wide in a ferocious gaze as he leaped forward. "Now DIE!"

Aliza grunted and snapped her hands out in front of her. "SWEET-SWEET CANDY COATING!"

Her entire body rippled, then the swords bit into sugar, the hard candy coating causing the blades to bounce off before Aliza brought her right hand back behind her head.

"SWEET-SWEET MACE!"

A massive sucker appeared, candy spikes littering the ball; with a scream, she brought the mace down on the man, who could barely block it in time. Grunting, he spared a glance back at the men behind him, one of whom nodded somberly.

"BLITZ!"

The other two drew swords and leaped forward and, as the announcer began crowing over this latest turn of events, I almost leaped from my seat, praying Aliza would Blitz as well. She had already been having a hard time with one opponent; having more would mean defeat for her.

Instead of returning the Blitz, however, my captain laughed mockingly. "CAN'T BEAT A LITTLE GIRL, CAN'T BEAT A LITTLE GIRL!"

Leaping back, she performed a one-handed cartwheel as she spun the mace around her body. "SWEET-SWEET CHAIN BALL!"

A line of double-headed candy canes emerged, snapping together to form a chain that connected the sucker's handle with the head. The head smashed into her opponent's blades, sending him skidding back as she swung her other hand back over her head and landed on her feet.

"ULTIMATE SKILL! SWEET-SWEET CANDYLAND!"

The ground rippled, then I felt my eyes widen slightly behind my blindfold; beside me, Nicole gasped and Reza cawed in amazement as the world around us burst into a thousand new and vibrant colors. Candy canes the size of trees erupted from the earth, blossoming with smaller candies and surrounded by gumdrop mushrooms. A river of chocolate burst from one of the walls, while the gummy grass shimmered and danced as our captain attacked her opponents.

I was impressed by her fighting skill; she had far more ability then her age would have suggested. Her first strike was impressive by itself. Dropping her sucker, she raised both fists and then snapped them open, causing two of the nearby candy canes to burst into splinters which then blazed toward the incoming men. They had skill as well, as evinced by the fact that they managed to avoid the storm of needles moving toward them, but then Aliza brought her hands together and clapped, sending a ripple through the grass before the river of chocolate burst from its banks and slammed into the trio, driving them into the ground from the sheer ferocity of her attack.

Aliza raised both hands up, spinning them together as the swordsmen got up. "And now... SWEET-SWEET DESTRUCTION!"

One of the swordsmen, who bore three swords in his two hands, flung one of them at her just before the world around them rippled, then exploded. Hard candies pummeled and impaled them; gummy candies choked them and curled around them; chewy candies blasted them and skinned them; soft candies drowned them and ingested them. The sheer force of the attack nearly sucked Nicole in; I had to step in front of her and reflect the energies back into the maelstrom to keep her from flying in, Reza creating a barrier around us as we watched the scene worriedly, keeping an eye out for our captain.

When the storm subsided, we found her; Nicole gasped in fright and Reza flapped his wings in shock; even I ground my teeth. Her little body was still standing, partially from sheer force of will and partially because the sword that the final swordsman had thrown had impaled her through the stomach and was holding her up. Her eyes were hidden behind her blood-spattered candy-cane hair, and she was panting horribly. But when her head came up, there was only defiance in them.

"I AM ALIZA ALICIA ALAMONIUM! I AM THE GREATEST PIRATE EVER!"

As the crowd found its voice and began cheering, she began to collapse; as she fell, she dropped into m arms, my coat billowing around us as I caught her. The referee, who had just made the ruling that she was the winner after checking the lifeless bodies of the other pirates, attempted to say something, but I simply looked up at him from beneath the brim of my hat and his words died in his throat. Flashing back to where the other two were, I pulled the sword out, causing our captain to scream in pain before she fainted from the toll taken on her body.

Reza settled to the earth by her head. "Au! Will she live, Boss?"

I smirked as I inspected her body. "She's a tough kid; the sword missed the vital areas, but she's losing blood."

"Wight, move ovew." I looked up to see Nicole kneeling down on Aliza's other side, a first aid kit in her hand as she checked our captain. "I don't know if I can fix the internal injuries, but I can at least stop the bleeding." Opening the kit, which I finally realized had come from the line of the box-shaped things on the back wall behind us, she pulled out a roll of bandages and began working on Aliza with a sureness that surprised me a little. Reza and I exchanged a look, then I stood up and folded my arms.

"Uh, excuse me..."

I turned to see the referee looking at us a little nervously. "Um, we need to get the next round going..."

A brief frown from me and he skittered away, then I sighed and looked down at the girl on the ground before reaching up and moving the blindfold down, letting my naked eyes gaze on Aliza.

"Nicole, we are moving her."

She looked up at me, a protest on her face that died the instant she saw the lights that were my eyes. Silently standing, she gasped as Aliza silently lifted into the air, not budging an inch in her position as I moved her back down the halls into the room.

The wild partying that had been going on died as Aliza drifted into the room, Nicole having taken advantage of our captain being in the air to wrap some of the bandages around her little body as Reza stalked in at our feet, flapping his wings and glaring at anyone too close to us, clearing a path for us as I drifted back to our corner, my coat billowing with every step as I moved her over to the corner and gently set her down after cleansing the area. Once satisfied that she was safely in place, I replaced the blindfold over my eyes and, turning to face the room, I moved one of the chairs so I could sit facing the rest and placed my butt on it.

The silence in the room was deafening; then the captain of the swordswoman's crew walked over to us, a dark look on her face.

"Congratulations on making it through the first battle." She cocked her head at the girl behind me. "She was a pretty good scrapper. Too bad she's-"

"If she dies," I interrupted her softly, "we will deal with it as it comes. But she's not going to die." I raised my head to bring my blindfolded gaze into view, a smile crossing my face briefly. "This is mere fact, my dear."

She shrugged and turned away. "Whatever. I just wanted to tell you that your opponents in round two are the Dead Bones. They were first-place finishers last year, beaten only by Don Krieg and his team."

I smiled softly. "I do not care who it is that we face. They will be defeated and my captain will have her ship."

She turned her head back to eye me. "What is it about her? Shasta's been telling us that you're some hotshot warrior that can destroy an entire crew in the blink of an eye. Why're you her crewmate and not the captain?"

I shrugged slightly. "I volunteered to be a part of her crew. That's all it is." Still smiling softly, I added a little bit of a snake to my voice. "I am her first mate and that is all that must be said, no?"

She sighed and turned back away, the entire room silent at this point. "You know how much a crew formed entirely out of Devil Fruit users could do?"

The change of topic didn't phase me; I knew exactly where she was going already. Predictable pirates bore me; still, I wanted to see how far she would go. "The East Blue would be easy prey."

She barked a laugh. "Ha! The East Blue? You think too small." She turned to me and smiled wickedly. "Join me, gunfighter, and you'll be a part of my crew's conquering of the Grand Line and have your own piece of the One Piece!"