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.
The days had passed since the Captain challenge was won by Bard by default due to Rez's fault harness, a point he still contested and hated Araly for. Bard took his rightful place as the proper captain of the Imperial Dragon, flagship for the Buster Pirates. With his new position, fame and renown were sure to follow as soon as word got out that he and his first mate killed a Sea King or until the pirates came across someone to fight in the meantime. Until then, however, his job hadn't changed at all. Still the jack-of-all-Trades strength wise, Bard commanded the sails of his ship in time with the ever changing winds as the crew made its final stretch towards the island just over the edge of the horizon.
"What's our heading?" Bard asked Rez at the wheel. Rez glanced at his log on his wrist and responded.
"We're straight. Shouldn't be long now." he noted. "By the way, DROP DEAD!" Rez went back to scowling ahead with his hands locked in position and Bard hopped off onto the deck.
"Man" Bard huffed to his confidante Zan, "being Captain isn't that great, is it?"
"Not here" Zan admitted, dragging from his cigarette, "and not now. You'll like it once we hit land."
"Really?" Bard asked. "How do you figure?"
"Not sure" Zan said. "Maybe you just need to get all this pent-up fighting out of your system or something." Then, to Zan's learned horror, Bard gasped loudly and deeply. A bright, almost blinding smile lit up his face, his eyes were wide with prospect and his arms were straddled out to his sides.
"That's it!" Bard shouted.
"No" Zan whispered in fear.
"I have an idea!" Bard continued, raising up his arm and pointing to the sky.
"No" Araly muttered from instinct.
"EVERYONE ON DECK!" Bard shouted throughout the ship. "We're having a martial-arts tournament!" There was a mixed feeling among all the pirates. The strong and agile ones roared happily, charging up the deck and pushing each other to work up a preemptive anger. The intellectual, experienced and above all older pirates who stuck to their literal guns groaned and obediently went up to the deck at their captain's order. Araly groaned loudly in her bedroom hammock and Rez just slumped his shoulder lower and deepened his scowl.
"Bard," Zan began to ask while he had the chance, "why?"
"Because!" Bard replied, hopping to the center of the ship's huge deck. "How else can we all stay sharp and strong if we don't practice occasionally?"
"That's a good point" Marco said as he came up the stairs. "Maybe we should invest in a weight-lifting set once we hit port."
"Yes!" Bard said, making a serious mental note. "But for now, we all need to stay sharp. Who knows what awesome fighting styles we may encounter upon this ocean? We must be strong and solid fighters for freedom and glory so the incredibly strong crews will flock to us!"
"Then what?" Zan asked. "We die?"
"No" Bard dismissed. "If we're really strong, we'll beat 'em all!"
"HELL YEAH!" Bard's loyalist muscle-headed crew cheered. Everyone else seemed dissatisfied but compliant with the idea. Rez, of course, ignored the fiasco and kept to steering. He tried hard to continue especially when Bard decided that his first-mate needed to participate in the tournament as well and physically tried to pry him away from the wheel.
"Let Max steer for a while" Bard insisted. "Come on, fight us!" Bard's tone was eerily happy for what he was discussing. Rez refused to budge but Bard was literally lifting him over his shoulder at this point.
"I'm not fighting!" Rez declared.
"Of course you are!" Bard laughed. "Your Captain COMMANDS YOU!" And so, Rez's grip lost out to Bard's insane strength as he heaved him over his shoulder and onto the deck. As the ship slowly and slightly started to lean in another direction, Bard rushed over and threw Max and his chair over to the wheel. Max's leaned his feet against the wheel and kept the ship straight while the rest of the crew gathered around.
And so, Bard finished knotting down Araly's intricate hammock/throne just in front of the aft deck so she could watch the crew beat themselves silly. The idea sounded interesting, but the method left her a lot to potentially grieve about. While the Captain worked with his cabin-mate, the pirates all decided on a proper pecking order for the actual bracket. Zan had offered an interesting position for whatever prospective yellow-bellies to grab while they could.
"Whoever has the best organizational abilities" the assassin began to explain, "should sit out and plan the bracket themselves. During the matches, that person can be the referee and judge, assuming we aren't just going until we pass out or get thrown overboard."
"What's wrong with that plan?" Bard asked seriously, just now blinking into the area.
"Well," Marco started, "not all of us can swim like you, Cap'n."
"And some of us can't swim at all" Zan added, referring intentionally to himself alone.
"And some of us think this is stupid!" Rez said discontentedly.
"We all kinda do" Marco said to him. "Just roll with it." Rez rolled his eyes and focused on the floor while Bard paced about thoughtfully.
"How can we do this?" Bard said aloud. "We should have more than one referee and just have duels on time limits. Whoever fights the best and takes the least damage will advance."
"That's reasonable" Zan said. "Does anyone have a watch?" His question was answered with silence.
"There's a clock down in the dining hall" someone pointed out.
"Great!" Bard declared. "We'll move the table and fight downstairs for a while!"
"What about me?" Araly shouted, wanting to stop the madness before it could start.
"Oh, yeah" Bard said. "Never mind! First one to bring the clock up here gets to fight me!" So no one moved. The prospect of fighting their invincible, stupendously powerful Captain was to intimidating for even Bard's most loyal pirates.
"Fair enough" Rez said. "Anything to get to wail on you again!" Rez departed with the crew looking after him sadly, then soon returned with the clock on his back. The large, classical grandfather-style clock was planted next to one of the Grand masts and held in place by the not-fighting pirates.
"One minute" Bard declared, tossing his coat off to the cheering sidelines. "No giving up or tapping out."
"That's fine" Rez said, tossing away his own shirt in a pile with his weapons. The pirates formed a radius around the fighters as an excited crowd. "What about the arena?" Rez asked. Bard perked up and looked around at the constricted ring his crew had formed.
"Oh yeah" Bard suddenly realized. "We can use the whole ship, just stay on the main deck." The pirates dispersed except for the ones who had to stay there and observe the fight for foul play and whatnot. "After one minute, we'll stop and the ref's will decide a winner. And they can't decide Rez won just because they're friends!" he said in their direction.
"And you can't choose Bard" Rez added "just because he's Captain!"
"Well, naturally" Bard agreed. The clock continued to tick with the diligent refs watching it. As soon as the minute hand changed its place, they would initiate the match and watch the spectacle unfold. The ticking of the clock continued as the minuted hand carefully started to twitch itself out of place. Bard prepared himself with his own pose. Legs spread out with his right in front, his left arm curled beside him and his right arm out in front with a semi-clenched fist. Rez took up both of his fists to collar-bone level and set them outward with his feet shoulder width apart. The pirates continued to eye the clock down until at last, the time changed.
"GO!" Marco shouted. Before his hand went down to signal them, Bard was already at Rez's face and sweeping with his fist aimed at his face. With a thunderous impact, Bard sent Rez flying and twirling through the air and off the ship. The crew looked with terror as Bard disappeared yet again and hit the water below. Without sinking, Bard jumped up from the waves and kicked Rez back towards the ship. Unfortunately, Rez was instead sent flying over the ship's deck, just barely missing it. He was able to regain consciousness just before plummeting again and grabbed onto the side of the deck. Bard jumped back up onto deck and ran across it to meet Rez again.
This won't work Rez said, anticipating another fierce blow from Bard. He rolled and dodged, sending Bard careening off the ship again with his leg extended out. I can't fight him barehanded! This guy K.O.'d a Sea King! I need to outsmart him, make him hurt himself. Bard flipped back up on deck in front of Rez, who resumed his pose. Bard was quick, but the eyes of Rez the Duelist were quicker, and he dodged another firm blow to the jaw. As Bard's undefended torso sailed closer to Rez, he took the opportunity and delivered a solid punch to Bard's gut. His abs were completely flexed out, acting like steel and forcing Rez to recoil in pain.
"CRAP DAMMIT!" Rez shouted, holding his most likely shattered hand. Bard didn't let up at all, bashing Rez across the deck with the back of his arm. Rez rolled along, stopping himself with his knees and crawling slowly up in time to see Bard prepare to punt him far away. Rez ignored the pain, clenched his teeth and used both his hands to push his whole body up and away just in time for the wind from Bard's kick to knock him over on his back. While lying on the deck, Rez saw Bard's leg go straight up. Bard's back was bent to keep his leg perfectly perpendicular to the floor on which he stood, letting his foot loom over Rez like a deadly ax of an executioner.
"And..." Bard started, preparing to shoot his leg down and split open his first-mate's skull, "STOMP!" The foot bashed into the solid deck. Rez managed to spin away on his side and get back up while Bard recovered from the shaking vibration that came from knocking into the insanely dense wooden deck of the ship. As Bard stood paralyzed, he knew Rez would take the chance and beat him up, so he prepared his mind. Focus on the pain Bard told himself, tensing up every muscle in his body. Focus on making it go away...
"HAAAAA!!" Rez's battle roar echoed out as he punched and kicked with karate accuracy. Kicks to the face, the shoulders, the neck and the legs. Punches across his face and drilled into his torso. The beat-down seemed to be worse than the one that Bard had delivered previously, but as the referees watched they noticed something strange. Despite the damage, even the kicks to his eyes, Bard didn't react. He didn't even blink.
I don't feel anything! Bard cheered internally.
"It's like punching iron!" Rez noted, continuing his onslaught. The refs didn't notice that the time limit had passed until they took a double take and had to stumble with their reaction.
"TIME!" Marco shouted. Rez connected one last punch, then fell over and bit his lip to prevent the cries of unbelievable pain from leaking out. Bard broke his statue stance and stumbled a little to regain his posture after being a statue for so long. Bard put his fists to his waist triumphantly and smiled seriously.
"Tekkai!" he announced to Rez who was curled over in pain.
"Okay!" Marco announced to the crowd. "The voting spread is a little iffy, but we think Rez won out in pure force." Bard's face darkened with disappointment and his jaw dropped low. Rex raised his hand up in victory shakily, not wanting everyone else to see his tear-and-snot soaked face of twisted pain. The pirates all cheered except for Zan, whose surprised mouth let his cigarette drop out onto the floor.
"Tek...kai?" Zan muttered. Bard sulked away and retrieved his coat while the other pirates gathered and doubled up to fight the rest of their tournament.
"Bard?" Araly asked, watching the sullen boy walking back into the bedroom. "Are you alright?"
"Sure" Bard said. "I'll just read for a bit."
"Read what?" Araly asked. "You never really read before."
"I have a book now" Bard said. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine!" His smile reassured her, so she leaned back again in her super-hammock and watched as the pirates made fools of themselves all day long with their fights.
