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.


Reginald ran with a growl at the shocked guards. He made a dashing kick that sent one high up and bounced him off the wall. Then he stomped that foot and threw both his arms forward, bashing two guards into two others. There was just one very frightened man wielding a spear against the overwhelmingly powerful foe that was the demonic Drakengard left. Reginald just gave him a stern glare and he fell down. Then, feeling confident from vanquishing a whole line of weaklings, Reginald spun around at the waist and flashed a thumb up at the observing Rez and Zan.

"He's happy" Zan pointed out. Rez looked very bored and bothered with a dark shade over his eyes.

"He's too happy" Rez said. "He reminds me of the idiot Bard."

"What's wrong with Bard?" Zan asked. "I think he's a fine captain."

"I'll admit" Rez said, walking forward with Zan on his shoulder, "that he's a good fighter. Hell' he's a better fighter than you or me, but he's an idiot! A golden-haired moron. He shouldn't be put in charge of even pulling up the anchor on the ship or keeping the deck clean. He'd throw the anchor on somebody or scrub so hard the wood would come off!"

"Strength" Zan began "does not always bring knowledge or responsibility. Give him time and he'll grow to be a great captain."

"You think we have that kind of time?" Rez asked. Reginald was still fighting away from them. He picked up a guard by the ankles and swung him around like a mace, bashing away the other guards who attempted to encroach upon him. Rez and Zan ignored his rampage and made for the stairs. "This is the Grand Line. We could all be dead tomorrow from who knows what! Bard is still wet around the ears as far as being a captain, or even a pirate, is concerned."

"True" Zan admitted. "Perhaps he just needs more practice in flexing responsibility." Rez and Zan both ducked down to dodge a flying, screaming guard that Reginald had thrown.

"You think he'll get that practice here?" Rez asked.

"Anything's possible" Zan said. "Like you pointed out, this is the Grand Line. Fortune and dread are waiting behind every tossing wave out there." Rez smirked in response and started slowly guiding his friend down the stairs.

"Halt!" a guard shouted form down the steps Rez walked. "None shall pass!" Rez drew out his gunblade with lightnings speed and shot him with a rubber bullet. The guard was sent flying off the steps and into an ornamental brass pole that held unlit candles.

"Ah shut up" Rez taunted. He twirled his gunblade before sheathing it and finally hit the ground floor he was waiting for. "There's the door. Let's go."

"Seems a bit coincidental" Zan pointed out "that there aren't any guards from here to there."

"Don't jinx us" Rez warned. "We're lucky right now. Let's just leave it at that." Reginald incapacitated the last of the guards above. Now he was going down to join the pirates in his own pompous way. He made a break for the stairs, but he didn't go either right or left to head down. Instead he just dropped straight down with a flip in the air. He landed with a roll and came out of it in a pose. His feet came together, his legs straightened and curved back a bit, his torso curved forward and his neck was flexed hard so his head wouldn't move in appropriately. He brought his huge arms around in full, opposing circles to join them at the backs of the wrists at his waist. Then he cocked his elbows out and flexed everything he could, from his toes to his chest to his arms and even tensing up his face to reveal its startling detail, and held that pose for a few seconds.

"Nice pose" Zan quietly complimented. Reginald broke it at once and made a modest, slumping, hand-waving, stupid-smile pose.

"Aw, that wasn't much" Reginald humbly said.

"This guy..." Rez began insultingly. A whole legion of soldiers armed to the teeth with spears, swords, shields and the odd crossbow came out of nearly nowhere.

"Hark!" Reginald shouted. "The Royal Guard is here!"

"Hark?" Zan repeated. Reginald was too late in catching his personal blunder and ignored it. He got into fighting pose, squaring himself off against the unholy line of emotionless armor suits, and made a menacing face. His fingers writhed and ringed, ready to grab some poor man's throat and throw. He let his arms go out from his body, rather than keeping them close for defense, giving him a sort of odd wrestling pose to fight with.

"Dammit" Rez cursed softly. He made a grab for his broadsword with his free hand and kept his grip tight as a gesture of threat. "Can you walk on your own?"

"I'll be alright" Zan said. "Just lure them close to the walls if you can. I can easily take care of them there."

"I gotcha" Rez growled. He adjusted his bandanna while Zan limped into and through the nearby stone wall. Now all one could see beneath the red band beneath black hair were the mad and scanning eyes of a monstrous duelist. Right now I count about thirty of these guys. Each of them has enough weapons to arm four men. Worst case scenario, ninety more guards come out of the masonry and equip themselves off of these guys. I should switch to normal bullets for this fight. Rubber won't do me any good. "Got it" Rez said aloud.

"Got what?" Reginald asked.

"A plan" Rez said, rearming himself with a huge clip of bullets from his jacket pocket. He loaded both guns with ludicrous speed and sheathed them again. He stood cocksure, with his arms crossed and heels together. He seemed less ready for battle, but in truth, he was more ready than his line of enemies.

"What-ho!" the front most guard shouted. "The crazed Drakengard has sided hisself with the heathen likes of yonder knave! Let us make proud our King and country! Slay them both!"

"Aye!" the guards shouted in unison. Rez and Reginald mentally prepared themselves. The battle was beginning!


Out in the courtyard the fighting had taken a temporary stand-still. The shocking ugliness of the White Knight's true face was so displeasing that the King excused himself from his audience for a moment to properly vomit. Gretta leaned with boredom in her seat, having expected the whole moronic circumstance all along and wondered why no one else did.

This place she internally sighed is so full of predictable idiocy. After all I have seen on this island, right now I feel as if I have seen enough. It is boring. I just wish these outlanders would abandon fair play and finish off this stupid tournament of losers so I can see Mr. Demon fight again.

The crowd was equally displeased with the results of their valiant knight's true, hideous face. They decided to whisper about other things, like how strange this tournament was and how unexpected the results had so far been. A young girl with nearly no physical strength had already bested the brutishly strong seamstress Morgan. Now the demon girl was almost out of energy and still had a newly enraged knight to face.

"I..." Edmund began, "I shall smite thee! Prepare for divine retribution, foulest of Succubi!" He came hard upon Collen. She raised her armored arm to block his sword strikes, but the difference in actual strength was surprising to her. Edmund kept swinging predictably for her neck, trying for a quick kill by decapitation. Colleen kept her arm up and braced it with her free hand, feeling the still warm metal of her heat cannon with her bare skin.

Should I use it again? Colleen asked herself. She felt an odd collapsing in her legs and fell over. Edmund kicked her and made a stab that she rolled away from, just in time as the sword became lodge deep into the stone ground. Colleen could have attacked, but she needed to breath and think much more. I...I can't keep going like this. I can barely stay standing. Besides that, I've never used my Hellcat so rapidly before. It's too much on my body. The steam especially is what drains me. Perhaps I should give in and request miss Araly's help. But then, I will abandon my honor, I will dishonor Captain Ramone!

"Oh my" Emily sighed from the stands. "I do hope Sir Edmund can keep up with that...wicked girl..."

"Well said" a fellow villager agreed as they watched. Edmund pulled his sword out finally and came for Colleen. She tried to back peddle away, but ended up tripping over herself to dodge a mighty swing for her head. Edmund made another ground-sweeping swing for her neck but missed as she rolled away. Colleen got up to crawl but the mad Edmund grabbed her wavy blond hair and yanked her to her feet.

"Now die!" Edmund growled. Coleen struggled for a moment, knowing the sword behind her would soon chop through the flesh of her neck, but the tiredness she suffered from consumed her and she fell forward. The sword came in a perfect horizontal swipe for her neck, but in falling she had made Edmund lose his hold. Her beautiful, silky hair flowed through his grasp and got cut in place of her neck. She was alive, but unconscious...and Edmund was angry. "Wench! You dare to mock me even now!? You are dead! Defeated! Admit the sorrowful cause of your fall or be swiftly destroyed!"

"Oh no" Araly said. She decided enough was enough and hopped down to the ground with cards and cloth at the ready. "I can't let this happen! Colleen is a good person, even if she's a pirate, and she can't die!" Araly was coming fast upon Edmund, who noticed he by the crowds reaction of shouting.

'The other one approaches!' 'Turn around!' 'Watch thy back, Sir Edmund!' 'Turn now!' By these shouts Edmund had gathered that he was in danger. He spun on his heel gracefully with an ugly face full of hate and started rushing at Araly.

Oh that's right Araly nervously said to herself as she skidded to a stop. Sword slices cloth and paper. That's why I wasn't attacking earlier...heh heh... After her nervous realization she started fleeing at full speed. Edmund chased her down quite quickly with his superior speed and tripped her with a fast sweep to her legs. He's fast! Araly realized. She hit the ground rolling and stopped with one hand clawing the ground to face her opponent. He approached with a vengeful sword held high over head, ready to slice Araly's skull open. She made a desperate move and threw a piece of cloth over his eyes.

"Gack!" Edmund shouted, dropping his sword behind him. "I am blinded! And it burns! IT BURNS!!!" Edmund was reduced to a writhing, twitching pile on the ground.

"I made that ink" Araly said "with lost of spices. I call it the Tabasco Blinder. You won't see anything for a long time, buddy." With her piece said, Araly made a break for the disabled Colleen and inspected her quickly. "Colleen!" she shouted, holding the poor girl's cheeks. Her hair was cut in an oddly stylish way. The sides continued down past he shoulders at their original length, but the back of hair, from the top of her head to the part beyond her neck, seemed to end abruptly from the cut. It was like looking at waves stopping in mid-motion from above as they impacted on the cliff face of an island. Her hair still had its original oceanic splendor, but now it was much shorter.

"Uugggghhh..." Colleen moaned painfully. She finally opened her eyes and started panting. "I can't keep fighting" Colleen admitted. "Araly, I'm sorry, but I can't move either. Can you carry me to safety?"

"Of course" Araly said. She picked up Colleen and dragged her with her heavy arm clanking on the ground beside her. The audience was in a quiet and fearful awe as they watched Edmund cry and toss around on the ground while the enemies made a slow escape.

"Curses!" Edmund shouted. "CURSES! Know this, you women, I have never let an enemy get the best of me!" He finally stood up and ripped off the bothersome, spicy paper. "You....you and your Pepper Paper! Young miss, beautiful though you may be, you have incited mine wrath! Prepare for an early grave!" Araly finally set Colleen among some safe and soft brush, and now she turned sternly to face her red-eyed opponent. Araly adapted her own serious, nearly emotionless, pirate-fighting mentality and prepared for her round two.


And, of course, the battle between Bard and Ramone continued to quietly rage far away from the fighting.

"Another tie" Ramone said blankly. "You sure you can keep going?" Bard had long been reduced to a blithering, sad heap of his former self. All those ties and all this time without any possible progress being made had broken him.

"It's impossible!" Bard sobbed. "Statistically, this crap is impossible! Admit it already!" he bellowed, thrusting his finger at Ramone. "You can predict the future, can't you!? One of this bugs is a fortune-teller!!!"

"That doesn't make sense" Ramone said. "Let's just go again. We aren't going out there at the same time." Another match, another tie, and Bard started shaking. He fell to the ground and pounded his fist into the dirt out of frustration. "Why don't you lose on purpose?"

"I've been trying!" Bard admitted. "You're too good!"

"Ggggg...." Ramone growled. "We're gonna die here..."