Akio and I stood in the middle of the office, neither wanting to move first. It seemed we were both waiting for the other to make the first move and in that moment, I mentally prepared myself for what was to come. Despite my previous bravado, I knew this fight wouldn't end well. From the purple-haired male's smirk, it seemed he had high faith that Akio would win, and having seen the man's cowardice, he wouldn't have risked being so close if he thought Akio would lose. In that moment, Akio's patience appeared exhausted and he drew his sword, rushing forward to meet my own.
With every attempted swipe of Akio's, it was swatted away with my own, and we continued this twisted dance of me defending and him attacking at the same time. I was hoping to tire Akio out before moving on the defensive, but every strike only landed harder each time. I pushed away, hoping for some space to think and re-evaluate my strategy when I noticed the purple haired male had scarpered off, slipping away when the attention wasn't on him.
"Where did that little rat run off to?" I mused, half hoping Akio would take offense. It seemed for our earlier conversation that he found my offensive sarcasm irritating. It worked because his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes glaring as he swung his sword threateningly.
"That man happens to be in charge of one of the most important buildings in the Navy. Show some respect" Akio informed me and I smirked at his answer, which only peeved him off further.
"Why should I? He hasn't exactly earned it, with him running off at the first sight of trouble. Bloody coward" I taunted trying to get him angry and it did the job. He lunged forward, his stance less than perfect and that gave me the opportunity I needed. I managed to get in a few cuts here and there but in return his aggressive manoeuvres were tiring me out quickly. Our fight was slowly moving towards the open doors that I had previously entered from, him pushing me back and out into the barren hallway. Just when I had the upper hand, he roughly pushed his sword against mine, shoving me away and into the wall before running off. The motion was disorientating but I couldn't let up, not now. Quickly moving away from the wall, I gave chase.
The fight had clearly not finished, and despite the obvious notion that he was leading me into a trap, I still followed. Anytime I attempted to swing my sword on his retreating back, he would quickly meet the swing of my blade before continuing to run.
When he did finally stop, I found that we had reached a large bricked room with a domed ceiling. The most notable thing about the room was that walls were painted red (A/N: Just imagine where Luffy and Lucci had their fight), and other than that, it was completely barren apart from the door we had just entered from, confusing me further.
"Was there any reason for leading me here?" I asked casually, not showing my confusion at the apparent unnecessary theatrics. He replied by smiling devilishly and throwing aside his sword, the large clattering of steel meeting the floor echoing in the large room.
"Well, Zoro would have killed you for doing that" I murmured clearly offended by his lack of respect for his weapon. I had the inclination earlier that this fight would have turned sooner or later as I returned my rapier to its sheath, it only surprised me that he had kept up the pretence of our sword fight for so long.
He took a stance that was similar to a martial artist's and with a motion of his wrists, my body was forced to stand up straighter. The restriction of not having control of my body left me breathless, not being able to comprehend what had just happened. My arms started to bend in abnormal ways as his hands moved, the pain unbearable at the odd angles my limbs were being forced to move in. I gritted my teeth in agony, not wanting to give the satisfaction of Akio hearing my pained screams. Akio smirked seeing me incapacitated, his body relaxed but his hands kept the motion that I guessed left me as I was.
"I ate the blood blood fruit. I can control every particle of blood in this room" At my apparent confusion, he gestured to the walls that surrounded us with a nod. My eyes moved to examine the walls, and what I realised made my stomach churn. The red on the walls weren't painted like I had initially thought, but covered in blood.
"You lot are downright morbid you know that right?" Akio chuckled, his hold on me loosening enough for me to move away, breathing heavily as the dizzying feeling of having my blood circulate again left me disorientated.
"I've been curious about something. Why is it you pirates care for the Devil Child enough to risk your lives? Enough to try and take Enies Lobby?" He asked, the both of us circling each other, neither of us giving way for the other to make a move. The fact that we were in this room had made Akio overconfident, and that was something I could use.
"You really don't get it do you?" I dragged my answer, hoping to draw his attention away from my hands that moved in small circles, pulling a pool of water together above our heads from the water moisture in the air. "That's just what you do for your friends" I created shards of ice from the water I had gathered, throwing them at Akio.
He sidestepped the spikes, them piercing into the ground where he had once stood before pulling the blood on the walls away, forming blades, each a metre long and throwing them at me. Manging to avoid the majority of them, I rolled away in desperate attempt to get away but some still managed to reach their target. Cuts littered the expanse of my arms and abdomen, before gathering the shards of ice and transforming them into a wave to crash onto the man.
"You'd go that far for a friend? Humans are selfish creatures, they only care about themselves and only know pain and betrayal" He growled. I couldn't help but pity the guy a little. Not too long ago, I had been the same way. Thinking the same thing. Until a group of misfits came along and managed to change my mind.
"Well someone didn't have a happy childhood" I stated sarcastically, he growled, throwing a large blade my way. I barely avoided it by pulling a wave of water in front. The constant onslaught continued, him managing to cut me more frequently as my energy depleted.
"Back to my question, why?" he said through gritted teeth, taking a break from throwing everything he had. My exhaustion was ignored as I noticed Akio wasn't doing to well either. I staunched the cut that sliced the side my abdomen, which was bleeding the most.
"It true, majority of people are like that. If anyone knows betrayal, it would be me but not everyone's the same. I found people that want me as a person and not for my abilities, and no way in hell am I going to let someone take that away from me" Throwing everything I had in what seemed to be the final stretch of the fight. It was clear neither one of us were going to last much longer.
Our breathing laboured as each progressive use of our powers cut deeper into our bodies. Akio at times would possess my body, forcing me to throw myself into the blood covered walls but it wouldn't last for long, I'd noticed this particular power seemed to drain him more and he tried to avoid using it.
The concept of his power frightened me; to have the power of controlling one's body from the inside seemed impossible and inhuman. To remove one's will I felt reached a whole knew level of depravity, even for the cruelty of humans. Seeing his ability made me think of the monsters I'd met and the abundant devil fruit powers across the Grand Line. That then brought me to think of my own.
What was my power? Being that my power was water, I had long been told that the possibilities my power could unlock were endless. For so long I hadn't understood what those people had meant but then I thought to Akio's power. How he had thought to manipulate the blood within a body and not just isolated on it's own. It then clicked.
Water was in everything, water changes everything. It was in the ocean, in the air... and in our bodies. Just this thought made me understand the true potential of the Mizu Mizu fruit, and why people had feared it so.
"When are you going to give up?" He asked in exasperation. We were barely hanging on to consciousness, both heavily battered from the long fight. I didn't know if it would work, but if it did, I knew there was no turning back.
Not from something like this.