The Realm of Martial Arts [Invite Only]

[BlacKitten]

“Ryuto, Raku, this is good bye,” Pluto soaked the tears into his sleeve as his voice regained its composure. “For the time being, look after my sister.” He turned his attention towards his little sister, “Rebecca, do not follow me.” Standing up, he took his first few steps, “I think I know where Yui is. Do not follow me, or you’ll end up like what’s in that box.”

---

The cabin, it was where it all started since he stepped foot on this island, and it was where he will find his answers. Yui was taken as bait to lure him out into the open; this move could only be done if the enemy knew about his connection with her. For that to be known, spies would have seen him near the cabin, and from that, his educated guess led back to this placid place.

A hooded figure leaned his back against a tree, hiding beneath its shade. “It’s about time you showed up. The girl is inside the cabin, unharmed but chloroformed.” Two massive dark-furred dogs immediately crawled up and snarled at the presence of the boy.

Pluto did not recall in ever meeting such a person, and those dogs did not ring any bell. Nevertheless, it was obvious who this man worked for, and that made him an enemy. “Three weeks ago, I would’ve run away in a situation like this,” the boy said softly before ending with a stronger tone, “but this time, it’s different.”

“Different as in… you’re stronger?” the shrouded one asked but did not waited for an answer, “In that case, I suppose the waiting was well worth it.” Turning his back around, he and his two obedient wolf-sized dogs strode further towards the coast, saying nothing more with each step more and more silent than the first.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Pluto gave a perplexed look, “You went through all this trouble in finding me; aren’t you going to kill me?”

“For us, finding you is child’s play. We’ve come here for your scent. No matter where you go, we will always find you now.” The enigmatic man used the word ‘us’ in reference to the two massive-sized dogs. “As for killing you, someone else wanted the honor in doing that. We were sent by him to pinpoint your location, and after that, he’ll come looking for you. Bloodhounds can follow the trail of scent for over 200 kilometers; you have no escape.”

Recalling with what he was told, Pluto labeled this man as one of the trackers whose duty was to pinpoint the location of victims through whatever means. In this case, this hooded figure used powerful senses of smell, and now, the boy’s scent was memorized. “Who sent you?”

“You’ve already met him," the man left that as the only hint, "Lucky for you, he wants to fight you at your top condition.”

Then it can only be him. I was hoping he forgot about me, The Berserker. “That head you sent me; were you the one who killed him?”

“Perhaps,” he answered vaguely.

“So you like ripping heads off, huh?” his eyes grew murderously while his fingers curled into claws, “How about I rip yours off right here… right now?” Regardless of how beneficial it was for his death being postponed, the emotions that lurked inside swelled into a lust for blood. All this time, he sought out power for the sole purpose of killing people like this tracker, and now that no one else was around, this was a golden opportunity to unleash his Devil Fruit power that he hid for such a long time. To master one’s Zoan powers, one must first master the human form, and Maru’s job was to assist him in that first step.

“Heh-ha-ha! Are you sure about that? I can already the smell blood from your body. You’re already quite wounded, and you know it.” He and the dogs continued their steps towards the coast, “But… for you to say such threatening words, I’m starting to like you.” Soon, they were all out of sight, hidden within the overlapping branches of leafs and trunks. 

In the end, Pluto stayed where he was, letting his racing heartbeat return back to its regular pace. It was true; his body was severely weakened with his fight with Kite. Even with his Zoan powers, he was still fragile. Besides, he needed to be alive to at least be with Rebecca who was now probably worried sick.  

[Shinku]

The broken sword was lying in the sun, held together by some sort of superglue that still needed some more drying. (“It’s 100% natural and as strong as iron once it’s dry! But don’t ask me what it’s made of. Believe me, you don’t want to know.”)
A glued together sword wasn’t exactly a good or sensible thing, a new one would be the more rational choice, but Kyou didn’t have the heart to separate from it.

He was sitting alone by the seashore, holding a small turtle in one hand and a letter in the other. The turtle was without doubt Yuushin, nicknamed Yuu, sometimes known as Slowpoke albeit it wasn’t all that slow. It was easy to tell, though most turtles really were hard to keep apart from one another, this one had a special feature. That feature was a big, well-noticeable and not very artistically drawn YUU on its shell. The turtle had always been there from his earliest childhood memories until the day his sister had left together with it. It was also his sister who had asked him to write down the name on a paper and then drawn it with waterproofed color on the struggling turtle. That had been long ago when both of them had still been kids. Time had worn out the color a bit, but it was still there. Not in bright black letters, but in dark grays of different shades.

Carefully Kyou set down the turtle on his knee and turned around the still closed letter in his hand.

It was wrapped in a water-repellent envelope and had “For Brother” written in nice and neat letters on it. Not Lili’s handwriting. That would have looked as if a spider with dirty feet had run over the paper. Not to mention that the only words his sister knew how to write, when they last met, had been “Pizza”, “Spagetti” and “Broccoli”. Kyou still wasn’t sure how and why she got broccoli right when she wasn’t able to spell out her own name. Sometimes she wrote her name as Lily, sometimes right as Lili and he had seen versions going from Lil to Lillily and worse. Quite a feat considering that there were only two different letters in her name.
She wasn’t exactly stupid. It was just that there were so many things that were more interesting than writing, food for example. And yes, while she wasn’t really stupid, she was not intelligent either. And she lacked common logic, or how else could one explain that she believed that a letter, without even a name or an address, attached on a little turtle that was mindlessly sent on a long way, would be able to reach him?
But then again it HAD reached him, and somehow that was worrying.

Kyou unfolded the letter and began to read.

“Dear Brother
It has been a long time since we last saw each other and I think it might be time to meet up again.”

There he stopped and looked up from the letter, watching the waves rolling onto the shore without really seeing them. Whoever had written the letter for his sister, had also “improved” her talking to something the person might have felt more fitting for a letter. Knowing his sister, she had probably said something like: “Hey Brother! Let’s meet up, it’s been a while.”
Not sure if that was good or bad he continued to read.

“My journey through the gastronomical world had brought me through many interesting experiences that I’d love to share with you.”

Translated from: “I know some cool restaurants, let’s go eat together!”, no doubt.
The rest of the letter was written equally translated and was all in all not very informative. He got that she was healthy and that she was having lots of fun. He also got that she wanted to meet him, though she completely forgot to add where she was, when and where she wished to meet up and even small things like when the letter was written and sent on the way. There was no way to find her, even if he wanted to and Kyou wasn’t sure at all that he desired a meeting. His sister was a trouble magnet but unlike him she never got hit herself. Meeting her sounded like an invitation to pain and he just had enough of it.
Folding the letter into a small and handy sized bit, he pushed it down his shoe for safe-keeping. They had miraculously appeared again. Or rather, he had found them lying in the little lifeboat he had been repairing over those weeks. It was still not fully seaworthy, but if he could persuade Inari to take the boat with them, then he could work on it on the way and hopefully leave the sly fox before the man got him into trouble again.

“Yeh look wack, even more wack than before. I can see yer lost the fight big time.”
Kyou spun around. Of course the Gangster Lizard would turn up before he got the chance to get off this island. Why hadn’t he thought about the reptile? Forgetting his other “teacher” would probably get him another beat up again, for the lack of impressive fighting he had shown during the match. Worryingly he watched the komodo dragon approach, but to his surprise the Gangster Lizard just sat down next to him without making any threatening movements.
“Be easy, bro.” He told him with a calm voice that didn’t sound angry or disappointed.
“Loosin’s no thing to be cryin’ bout. Ye just need mo time to find yer beat. Dancing’s an attitude towards life. Once ye find yer heart yer beat will fall into rhythm and then ye’ll be able to beat them all.”
The Gangster Lizard sounded very convinced about this and Kyou didn’t know what to say. Those words, as lousy and unreal as they seemed (and hard to understand as well), were still the warmest words he had gotten since a long time now.
“Ye’ll be aight. I know it.”
Still not knowing what to say, Kyou only nodded. He would be all right. In the end, he always survived.