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| - “...So is he coming back or what?” Sid finally asked after standing in the starting corridor for five minutes, waiting for the first mate’s return. “He’s been called to a personal game against the boss, dammit...” Crowe muttered, “but the game’s still on, so get ready to play, dammit...” “Hmph,” Sid muttered, walking towards the connected corridor and taking his position in front of the punching machine, “I guess I can’t do anything, can I?” “Except beat me, as impossible as that may be, dammit...” “Impossible, huh?” Sid grinned, “I think I might enjoy proving someone like you wrong... this time.” “Save those words for when you actually do it, dammit...” Crow mumbled back. “Then go ahead and start the game,” Sid demanded. “If you say so, dammit...” Crowe answered, before the sound of a button being pressed reached Sid’s ears... Yet another door slid open, and three figures walked into it. Kagome shivered as she did so, gripping Gopher’s small hand as tightly as she could, while Pura simply glanced around the completely dark space, looking for any identifying markers that could help them given the situation. “G-gopher-san, please don’t let go or w-wander off,” Kagome murmured, her free hand tightly gripping a part of the robe she was constantly wearing. “Gao...” Gopher muttered, his head jerking this way and that as he looked around fiercely. “I-is he mad?” Kagome asked Pura. The older swordswoman simply smiled back, her eyes becoming closed as well. “I don’t think so,” Pura answered, “I think Gopher’s just upset because he wasn’t able to do anything during the last battle.” “Sorry about that, Gopher-chan!” Kagome hastily apologized, rubbing the back of her head in a bashful manner. “Alright!” Knave said, pumping his fist into the air, “we’re almost there, so we’d better get ready to fight, right?” “Hell yeah!” Art concurred, joining Knave in the fist pump. “Gaoooo....” Gopher growled, still jerking his head in every possible direction, in the hopes of spotting their opponent first. “Still,” Pura observed, glancing around at the darkness that surrounded them, “I assume we can expect a gambling game of some kind. At least,” her face took on a slightly apologetic expression, “that’s what I got from the horrible name.” “Exactly, eyup!” came a far-too high octave voice from directly above them. The pirates scrambled out of the way as a gargantuan figure dropped down from the ceiling, smashing onto the barely visible floor. As soon as its feet touched the surface, lights flashed on throughout the room. The one who had spoken was, for lack of a better term, a massive, neon pink bear with a contrasting brown nose and wearing a large yellow ascot around its neck. Its eyes were simple black spheres, as if its design had come out of some children’s coloring book and not a serious band of bounty hunters. “I’m Pinkuma, eyup!” the bear said, clapping its hands together loudly, “ready to play now? Eyup?” “It’s...” Kagome paused, seemingly terrified of the creature, before her eyes suddenly became heartlike in shape and color, “it’s so CUTE! I wanna cuddle it!” “W-what the hell, eyup?!” Pinkuma gasped, taking a step back and pointing angrily at the young girl, “what’s that supposed to mean?! I’m a serious bounty hunter, not some little kid’s toy or pet, eyup!” “Then why are you dressing in an outfit like that?” Pura asked skeptically, sweatdropping slightly as she observed the scene. “I just like bears, okay?!” Pinkuma defend himself, “is that so wrong, eyup?! If I want to be a bear than I can dress like this, right, eyup?!” “Gao, gao gao!” Gopher laughed as he scrambled all around the bounty hunter’s pink bear suit, exploring every nook and cranny and chuckling in a mix of happiness and wonder. Kagome quickly joined him a millisecond later, with the result being two small beings crawling all over the gigantic, pink bear bounty hunter (a sentence one cannot type lightly). “Grrr... STOP IT ALREADY!” Pinkuma finally yelled, flinging his arms up into the air as several concealed vents released a massive amount of air and steam, communicating his rage. Gopher and Kagome quickly abandoned the premises, hurrying back to Pura’s side. The bounty hunter relaxed his arms slightly, panting and clearly still mad about the whole thing. “Gggghhhh... you..... you WILL take my seriously!” he snarled at the pirates, “so... let’s just play our game already, okay, eyup?! Or I’ll automatically fail you, and you won’t be getting that damn medicine cabinet, eyup!” “Fine, fine, let’s just play already,” the swordswoman answered confidently, stepping up and placing her hand around the hilt of her blade, ready to unsheath it at a moment’s notice, “what game are we playing?” “Craps, eyup!” Pinkuma replied simply. “...We’re gambling on our poop?” Kagome asked, tilting her head to the side with a finger on her lip as a question mark appeared in the air next to her right temple. “No!” the pink bear bounty hunter snarled, pointing angrily at them once more, “we’re betting on the outcome of a dice roll, eyup! Several, really, but it doesn’t matter that much! And besides...” And at this his voice became slightly deeper and more sinister, “There’s a few... variations, let’s say.” As soon as the words left his mouth, the area to their right was illuminated! The addition of lighting revealed two massive, square-shaped tubes that were connected to rectangular sockets on the walls. The tubes lead to small space enclosed in a clear dome, allowing them to see what was inside, though for now the space was empty. “The dice will be dropped into the space here while being rolled,” Pinkuma explained, his massive mechanical arm gesturing towards the machine, “and whoever bets correctly on the end result gets a free hit for their side.” “A free hit?” Pura asked, raising an eyebrow. “We’ll be battling while the dice are rolling, eyup!” Pinkuma answered, “I’ll be playing alone, so I’ll have to battle and bet at the same time. Since you happen to have three people, two of you need to battle while the other actually does the betting.” “L-let me do the betting!” Kagome said, stepping up with a surprising amount of confidence between Pura and Gopher, “I-I’m not that good at actually fighting, but I played games like this a lot back at home, s-so I think I can do this pretty well! You two fight, okay?” Gopher and Pura paused for a moment, and then nodded, smiling confidently. The swordswoman patted Kagome on the head. “Just make sure that you get us a bunch of free hits,” Pura half-joked, winking at her. “Gao!” Gopher said happily, jumping up into the air with his ‘wings’ fluttering slightly, giving Kagome a thumbs up. The little girl nodded, clenching her fist in determination, before turning to Pinkuma himself. “S-should we start, then?” she asked. “Of course, eyup!” Pinkuma cried excitedly, slamming his mechanical bear hand against a large red square near the tubes. All the lights turned on, revealing a large fighting arena and small platforms on either side of the tubes, Kagome quickly scrambling over to the one nearest to her. “BEGIN!” Pinkuma cried as he lunged into the arena, Gopher and Pura following shortly thereafter! Sid rocketed into the playing field, launched by the punching machine. As soon as it was fully within his sights, Sid engaged his Rokushiki, hopping on the air and zigzagging around the entire playing field. “Geppo!” As he did so, a few feet above him, a small slot opened in the top of the board, right where the upward slant reached the ceiling. Crowe lunged out of it, his raven-esque wings expanding behind him. As soon as he did so, wind began blowing rapidly throughout the entirety of the board, allowing the wings to catch hold of them and therefore allowing Crowe himself to fly! “Hmph,” Sid half-smiled as he saw this, “so you fly THAT way, huh? Alright, I’m game. Let’s see which is better, your damn cosplay or my Rokushiki!” “The winner’s obvious, dammit...” Crowe muttered, as he began flapping the wings at a greater speed than before, “but I’ll end it now, dammit! CROW DOWN!” He suddenly thrust both wings forward, and a variety of feathers shot out, speeding through the air directly at the blue-haired navigator! Sid applied one last Geppo, leaping out of the way of the majority of the feathers, though one managed to graze his leg. Surprised by the grimace that he reacted with, Sid looked down and saw that the feather had sliced through his skin, leaving a small trickle of blood! Can’t be... he thought to himself, looking up at the bounty hunter, who had resumed circling above him, ...or can it? Concentrating now, Sid’s legs tensed, and he allowed himself to fall, as his feet flew through the air! “RANKYAKU AMI!” he cried, as a net of compressed air slashes flew from his legs and hurtled towards his opponent. “CROW WING SHIELD!” Crowe countered, simply lifting up both his hands, the crow wings attached to them following. The air slashes smashed against the wings, managing to dent and bruise them slightly, but not breaking through in the slightest! Sid landed on one of the pins, crouching while using one of his hands to stabilize him. “So those things are pretty strong, huh?” he asked. “Strong as steel, dammit...” Crowe murmured, “a pirate like you doesn’t have a prayer of breaking through them.” Sid grinned as he heard this. “Didn’t I say earlier?” he shot back, “I think I might enjoy proving someone like you wrong.” Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
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