Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.


Hour four wasn't going sos well for the captains to be. Rez was pouting angrily, raging when his stomach growled. Zan was still meditating, but even his minimalistic appetite was working itself up. Bard acknowledged his stomach's growling like someone acknowledges a cold wind. It happens and it can be annoying, but who really cares. His mind was occupied entirely by his book.


The Defense Arts 1. Tekkai

Tekkai involves a hardening of one's muscular structure, from head to toe, so the body imitates steel. This allows for a passive defense that requires little energy but comes with great results. Physical damage is almost always negated while one uses Tekkai. Entire battles can be turned around because of this technique. Blows powerful enough to damage metal will still have an effect on the user. Tekkai is also only an external defensive mechanism, and cannot be used to protect against attacks that occur from within or from Rokuogan when properly delivered. Keep in mind that as the body imitates steel, it becomes difficult for the user to move, as if they were truly made of steel.

The proper practice for Tekkai involves a source of outside input to master. First, measure the degree of pain you can take normally. Find someone to train with you who will hit or otherwise harm you on a skin-level and have them do it until there is no pain. Relocate the locations where the pain is delivered regularly, and do not confuse numbness with solid muscular deflection. The user should still a very muted sensation of touch along the course of mastery. Regularly increase the level of pain, from pinch to smack to punch, until the feeling from anything is faded. Once physical pain can no longer be used to advance training, switch to basic weaponry such as wooden swords.


Bard kept reading, deeply enthralled in his lecture and not falling asleep for the first time that he could remember while reading. Any book that detailed some form of fighting technique capture his attention for days on end. Anything else in text was a waste of his time.

"Oh, that's cool" Bard muttered mindlessly. Zan opened an eye in his direction, curious to see how Bard was coping with the hunger. He turned and caught him reading a book with ancient looking pages mixed in with more recent looking pages on a faded, cracked cover. Zan became curious, but not enough to move and see what he was reading. He turned back and continued meditating.

As for Rez, the aspect of torture was finally becoming clear for him a he stared down the huge platter of cool food that was still left. In the dining room there were still pirates working and loafing about. Some played cards and others were building a table out of spare wood from the main hold above.

"Hey" Bard shouted, not letting his eyes leave his book. "Either all of you work or none of you work. The imbalance is disturbing me..." The pirates looked at him with a strange feeling of quiet astonishment. It was as if Bard didn't realize how long he had been in this challenge.

"Say, Captain" the biggest pirate called out shyly while the others picked up and prepared to help, "What'cha reading?"

"Huh?" Bard called out, finally prying his eyes away with a firm understanding of what he'd read. "Oh, a training book for some martial arts. It's pretty cool. There's some other stuff in here, too." He flipped through the pages of the book, trying hard to ignore all the porn that Mars had inexplicably placed between the major areas of text.

"What martial arts?" the pirate again asked, holding down a board of wood for the others to hammer.

"Uh, Rug-something. I can't pronounce it that good." Bard explained. He closed the book and stuffed it in his inner coat pocket again, patting it safely. "Hey, who wants to help me train?" Bard asked.

"What do we have to do?" one of the pirates asked in dread.

"Just wail on me for a while" Bard said, flexing a happy hand and thumb. "Am I still in the contest if I leave the kitchen?" Bard asked the silent Zan.

"Sure" Zan said. "Just make sure you don't eat or drink anything."

"'Kay" Bard said. "C'mon, men, let's beat me up on the deck!" The eager pirates roared out and left some of the stronger, more devoted men behind to continue their construction.

"Can I take a nap?" Rez asked weakly.

"Go for it" Zan said. "As long as you don't eat you're-" Rez hit the floor hard and started snoring and moaning in pain...Smoarning...


"What else can we do?" a strong pirate asked excitedly. Bard scratched his head with one hand and scanned his book with the other.

"Punching and Kicking are in" Bard said, trying not to add any committal tone, "but just above the belt for now."

"Great!" the pirates said. "To be honest, I feel kinda bad about this, but if it'll help us all get strong then I'm in!"

"Great" Bard said happily, stowing his book again. "Okay, read-" Before he could say ready, his loyalist pirate gang started punching and kicking that crap out of him. Bard was unprepared for the first few seconds, but focused his energy into his skin once he was balanced again.

Concentrate Bard said to himself. It's the same principal in general Kung-Fu and Sumo. Become heavy and unmovable, like a mountain. A mountain made of steel!...Ow, these guys can hit pretty hard. It's starting to really hurt. Okay, I guess I'll just try the technique now... Bard straightened up, his head peaking over the pirates assaulting him, and he flexed. Not just did he flex, but he flexed every muscle he could, even those in his face, which made him flushed and tense in the face.

"Hey, you alright Cap'n?" one asked, still punching him anyway. Bard didn't talk. He realized how stupid he must've looked to work up some concern, so he calmed down. In an instant, he felt a calm area where his breathing became short and his face became straight and emotionless. He could see the punches and kicks, but they felt like gently pokes and strokes. He tried his hardest to concentrate on the feeling, but it was lost as a massive wave splashed up on the deck and soaked everyone.

"Crap" Bard said stiffly. He snapped out of his more awkward Tekkai and became limp and wiggly. "We're in a storm again! Get the sails ready!"

"Yessir!" the pirates shouted. They ran off and told the others about Bard's forecast and the ship was set once again for a storm. Down below, Rez was awake and painfully glaring at the pile of food, which was cold and unappetizing by now. Even Zan was considering cutting his losses and letting the others have this win for now and make it up later.

"Oh, good god" Rez moaned. "I need to eat."

"Don't give in, Rez!" one pirate shouted. "Just concentrate!" Rez looked at him, then slowly turned his head back to the food. It was tempting him to a maddening degree. Zan was smoking to distract himself, but even he was eying down the still dry slices of bread that wen untouched by the blood-hungry pirates.

"Man, this is harder than I thought it'd be" Zan commented. Rez's eyes went blank for a moment in rage.

"THEN WHY DO IT!?" Rez shouted with all his diminished strength.

"You two!" Marco shouted for the stairs. "Stop dying for a sec and come up here! We're caught in a swell!" Zan kept his cigarette in his mouth and rushed off with renewed vigor in duty. Rez propped himself up on his huge cannonsword and shakily tried to stagger to the stairs. Then he noticed that no one was around. The other pirates had left out the other door to help above, Zan was gone...but the food was still there. Despite his determination and discipline, Rez had never been as depravedly starved before in his life.

"Screw it!" he whispered, dropping to his feet and picking apart the disgusting food with relish.

"I saw that!" Zan called from above, half-fused into the ceiling. "You lose!" then he left, leaving Rez with a wide open mouth and a repressed anger that would take quite a while to vent.


"Zan!" Bard called out into the lower deck. "Where's Rez?"

"He lost" Zan replied. "It's you and me here on out." Bard was sad at that news, but the brewing storm gave him worse concern.

"Where's the log pose, then?" Bard shouted down.

"Yo!" Marco said, holding it up proudly.

"Get up and help me steer!" Bard ordered. Marco dashed up into the building rain and they both took the wheel. Marco shouted his instructions over the wind and waves while Bard effortlessly ordered the ship about with his strong arms. His arms didn't give slack, despite how tired his muscles were, and his feet didn't move from their planted places as he twisted the wheel around to direct the ship.

"This is hard!" Bard commented in surprise, spinning the wheel to his mate's directions. The rest of the crew held out their own, tugging ropes and spinning gears. Zan helped by operating the more complex machines from within, finding it easier to manipulate the levers and ropes from inside the constructs.

"This is insane!" Zan commented, twisting random gears and pulling other random ropes. On the main deck, the sails were all up and the ship was barreling through the storm with no effort at all. Such massive power and precision in the huge, lofty galleon gave surprise to the seasoned adventurers aboard.

"This rocks!" the burly pirates all cheered.

"Have you ever seen a ship this big move like this?" another asked. Astounded questions abound down below where everyone was happy to be alive in the protective hull of their giant ship.

"It's great, isn't it?" Bard remarked, looking ahead to the icy-clue sky. "This ocean is amazing!" The rain stopped without warning or even slow down. The waves became calm and tranquil again. The warm ocean breeze picked up and blew over the damp and soaked pirates on deck. Everything was right again.

"So," Marco started, "tell me. What will you name this thing if you win?" Bard looked at him and took a second to think. His mind drew a blank for a moment, but as the Grand sail unfurled, his mind snapped out a brilliant idea.

"The Imperial Dragon!" Bard shouted spontaneously. "That will be the name of the ship we Buster Pirates rip through the ocean on if I am to be the captain! And I will be" Bard said with great finality, "just wait and see!" His resounding confidence made Marco, jaded as he was, crack a confident smile.

"HOORAY, CAPTAIN BARD!" one pirate cheered on his way up to the deck. Zan even phased up through the wood behind Bard and gave him a solid pat on the back.

"Here, captain" one pirate said, handing Bard a cup. "Have a drink for victory."

"Okay!" Bard said, swilling the wine in the cup in one solid gulp. The crew look at him with total disbelief, and it wasn't until a few moments later that Bard realized what he had done. "AHHH! CRAP!!"

"I win" Zan said. Rez stepped forward, being the one who stealthily tricked Bard into throwing his game, and laughed haughtily at Bard. Bard hung his head down in shame and bit his quivering lip.

"Cheer up Bard" the burly loyalists said. "You'll still win." To that Bard sniffled once, then shot his head up with a beaming, happy smile of raw confidence. "That was easy" the pirates nervously commented.

"What's next, Zan?" Bard asked. Zan was leaving down the steps to the main deck floor and gave a shrug as he kept walking downward into the wood. Marco's lips pursed like a fish in surprise.

"I'll never get used to that" Marco said with a cringe. "Looks like you two have to fish for dinner" he directed at the losers. Bard sighed and took off his jacket, then gave it to a random pirate.

"Can you put that in my room for me?" he asked politely. The pirate saluted and ran over to the aft deck while Bard stretched his aching muscles and prepared to jump into the ocean of crystal blue.

"Can't you fish normally?" Rez asked meanly. Bard turned to him with a smile and replied

"Nope!" Then, he jumped and spun elegantly into the water. Rez watched after him with some strange sense of confidence. He felt that Bard was a strong young man, one with a sense of destiny, a guy he could follow if he had too. Then he remembered how annoying Bard is and dismissed the chances of losing the next challenge no matter what.

I was close Bard thought as he swam around, looking at the various marine life that he could eat. I could feel myself in the zone, like I knew what I was doing. I could feel 'Tekkai' working, so I just need to remember it. The relaxation I got while I was getting beat up. I forgot my life was on the line and it worked, that's it! If I can abandon my natural sense of pain, I'll be able to flex my muscles to extreme measures, like an adrenaline rush or something. Yeah!

"Yeah!" Bard shouted, underwater, then realized it and grabbed for the air bubbles that rose from his mouth. He smiled stupidly and caught the view of a delicious looking shark stalking him. He smiled a challenge at the fish and got ready to catch it with both his massive arms.