Method to Getting Stronger

"It would definitely be hard to hide this from the Marines," stated Zesiro as he settled down into a small seat, watching Mikoto and Colt, the Marine Admiral, exchange blows once more. This was their fifteenth fight and the record was currently Colt 14, Mikoto 0. It was marvelous that Mikoto kept picking himself up after each and every loss. Most men probably would've surrendered and those that hadn't would've resigned themselves to another lost, but Mikoto was still charging off into every round with the same headstrong belief that it would be his win.

Of course, these were two incredibly powerful opponents that were exchanging blows and noise, screams, and shouts were to be expected. This would've piqued most Marine's interests and had it not been for the Admiral himself vouching that everything was okay on this ship, the Marines probably would've stopped by and expected. But according the Admiral it was just a couple of farewell fights with Marines he will be sorry to leave behind.

"How is Mikoto holding up?" inquired Sage as she walked into the room with a tray filled with piping hot food. She was the crew's chef and she imported food on a daily basis to Mikoto, the Admiral had his own supply and didn't wish to intrude. Although he always swiped the sweets she brought down. "Its amazing that he can fight toe-to-toe with an Admiral."

"He's really not," explained Zesiro, "the gap between them is widening. As the Admiral learns more and more of Mikoto's techniques and tricks he's beginning to slowly edge Mikoto out of any chance of winning. Mikoto is quick to adapt so he was doing better during their first few fights, but against the same techniques Mikoto is beginning to drag behind."

Sage looked very unhappy with that answer, a bit uneasy as she watched the fight. While she had grown considerably over the course of her time on the ship she was still a far sight away from Mikoto and Zesiro.

"You can follow Mikoto now," stated Zesiro with a smirk as he glanced up at her. "I remember when we first met you talked about how fast Mikoto was and how you thought he was so strong because you couldn't keep up with his movements. But now it looks like you are keeping track of him quite well. Any thoughts now?"

"I can keep up with him and its because of that that I think he's even stronger than he was before," Sage stated with absolute confidence in her captain. "I'm not getting lost, but I can see every slight angle he tilts his feet at to keep his momentum going, the methods he's going to to reduce recoil from his own attacks, the slight weaving he gives himself to help him dodge incoming attacks. Before he was just fast."

There was a slight look of surprise on Zesiro before a smile overtook him and he stood up, grabbing his own two blades, "do you care to have a sparring match?"

This time it was Sage's turn to look surprise, jumping back half a foot she shook her head quietly mumbling, "I d-don't think I can-" she shut herself up this time, looking down at her own hands she seemed to freeze momentarily. But she soon seemed to gather up enough confidence to speak again and this time with a much more assertive, "yeah, I think I can."

The two of them headed out of the room, leaving the tray of food on the floor for Mikoto when the fight was over. Even though everybody was keeping their mouth shut they all knew the Admiral was holding himself back. Right now the Admiral was probably at 70% of his full-strength and Mikoto was managing to push him to using every inch of that power. The Admiral had carefully calculated that that would be low enough that Mikoto would push the fight longer and longer, getting stronger each time, but high enough that he would win all of their bouts. And given this was number sixteen and the Admiral was already beginning to edge out the captain, he was true.

Swinging his sword around, a new swirl of black powder was already beginning to leak out of his blade as he stepped forward, slashing his sword forward and letting a blast of pure black powder right at his opponent. Once again Mikoto was already taking himself into a higher gear, jumping forward and swinging himself around the blast and closing in.

There was still a large opening in Mikoto's fighting style and that was the one or two seconds it took for him to close the distance. He had no methods of dealing with attacks from a range and so Mikoto would always have to push in. And the Admiral would always have an answer for that.

A sword swing this time coming in from the side with a trail of black powder mimicking that movement coming in from the other side. Mikoto stopped short, swinging himself about and pivoting around like a top, placing all of his weight on his hands, he swept his legs around in a circle, taking the Admiral's out from under him before shifting his weight around in a complete loop and suddenly bringing the fist right down on top of his opponent, a flaming punch right to his face. "Hellhound's Fang!"

"Black Wrap!" Bringing forth one hand the Admiral sent a blast of powder around his opponent' waist and then clenching his fists he ignited the powder, blowing Mikoto off of him. Or that was his plan, but Mikoto had already sunk his claws into his opponent's chest and suddenly yanking himself forward and landing that punch with all of his might behind it.

Admiral jutted one of his feet forward, lifting the rabid coyote hybrid off of him before tossing him with his lower leg strength and jumping to his feet. But Mikoto knew he had the upper hand for the first time in several of their fights and so he lunged in deeper, landing another severe blow to the Admiral's cheek and causing him to wobble backwards, off-balance and in bad shape.

Another powerful dash to right beneath the Admiral followed by a surprisingly powerful uppercut, incorporating a mid-air vertical dash, sent a punch careening into the Admiral's chin. The Admiral swept his sword around, spinning the black powder into a shell around him, trying to ward off all attacks for the time being.

But even then Mikoto was ignoring the attack. Mikoto flipped himself around, putting his entire weight on his hands and immediately beginning to spin using his upper body strength and keeping his lower body spinning in such a quick pattern, landing one, two, four, seven, thirteen spinning kicks even through the black spell knocking his opponent backwards and out of the shell. The Marine snapped his fingers and exploded the black powder, which had left its lingering effect on the legs of the captain, lighting his leg on real fire.

Landing on it awkwardly, but Mikoto didn't seem to mind. While he was highly dependent on his legs, he didn't seem to care. Scrunching down on his legs and rocketing forward at his first opponent, the Admiral opened his stance and lifted one arm up as if inviting Mikoto's assault, his sword was drawn and ready to be swung,

(-With Victoria-)

Settling into her seat Victoria lifted her head up and examined the world through the window. The Marines were beginning to get into a partying mood, many of them were already beginning to yell and shout, drunken slurs being thrown in every now and again. She had forgotten why she had become a pirate in the first place. "The World Government is disgusting," she stated sternly.

Her partner, Johnathon, lifted his head and smiled, slowly nodding. "I can agree with that," he muttered, "I can understand that it's especially bad for you. If you feel like I'm pretty sure we can leave whenever we need. The Admiral surely has back-up plans for Mikoto. He doesn't seem like the kind of person to just rely on us. He probably has a back-up plan, an escape plan, a back-up escape plan, and a fourth kind of plan I'm not even aware of."

"As long as one of those plans doesn't involve betraying us," Victoria complained, but Johnathon seemed a little bit unimpressed with her anger. The Admiral had thus far been nothing but a joy, he has been constantly sparring with Mikoto, but out of those several hours spars, nothing happened. The Admiral was even admitting he was becoming more and more impressed with him.

Another fire-cracker went off as a couple of Marines howled in pleasure. They were happily dancing outside the window, drawing the two of theirs attention. "How can they act like such at the heels of a war?" asked Victoria, "Do they not care for the lives they are going to be ruining? Or at the very least their own?"

"It takes intelligence to worry," complained Jonathon with a shrug as he turned back around and started to work back to the belly of the ship. He may as well get some training in, maybe the Admiral would indulge him.

The ship rocked uneasily as Mikoto and the Admiral traded blows again, undoubtedly signaling the end of their fight as the Admiral undoubtedly had knocked Mikoto into one of the walls. "Maybe Mikoto is training too hard," offered Johnathon as he cringed slightly. "You've fought him a couple times, haven't you?"

"I believe we've exchanged blows maybe ten or so times, the Admiral has mostly been claiming times," Victoria pointed out. "We haven't been here for too long."

"Chances are he's just learning how close to the bottom of the barrel he is," offered Jonathon, "too many fights with two true titans. Mikoto was offered a position as a Shichibukai, got noticed as a potential Supernova, and then gained fame as a Shichibukai killer. Surely he seemed to have been living a blessed life."

"He got kidnapped by Trevor, crew beaten by Kraven, and Raphael even curb stomped him. Before that I heard through the grape vine that Karasu Blackwell kicked his ass left and right," recalled Victoria, "I don't think he's all too big on giving up. He's probably just now learning what the top of the mountain is like. And how if he doesn't climb to the top now he'll get caught up in an avalanche."

"Have you heard from Shane?"

"That's an odd digression," offered up Victoria with a questioning look, "I'm surprised to hear you even care about him. You didn't seem too thrilled with him the last time I stated I was going to try and get him and Mikoto on our side."

"I didn't care much for Mikoto either. He's proven me wrong and I imagine Shane is doing similar things to upset the World Government. Or if you want a more accurate reason why," sighed Johnathon as he reached over and picked up a newspaper, lightly plopping it into Victoria's lap. "I'm pretty much certain you didn't tell him to do this."

There was a moment of complete concern in her eyes, as she froze, reading over the newspaper for a couple of seconds. A bit amazed at what he did, "I'm surprised," she voiced her own ideas, "I can't believe he even tried to do such a strange thing."