Trinket of Syzygy | One Piece fanfic

006.

Chapter 6: Rigged Game

Quince glanced at the red haired man, before craning back to Ruby "So is he bad or not?" Ruby sighs "Obviously, he hunts pirates."  She stopped for a moment, recontemplating what she just uttered. "On hindsight, I suppose that's not so bad from an outsider perspective-" Albeit Ruby was a pirate herself, she knew all too well that being a pirate was tantamount to being a crime offender, unintentional or not. Rogue purely watched the two argue, as they looked slightly daft in the process. "Ruby, I'll have you know that Esmeralda won't kill you even if you come crawling back to her, like the worthless rat you are. Besides, I'd rather earn my payment as early as now. Emphasis on the now. Don't make this more difficult than it already is." Ruby stared at the man, coldly. "Well why don't you tell her to piss off? I'm not interested in returning as of now. As you may have seen already, I have my own personal matters to deal with. Besides, aren't I supposed to be your senior? What gives you the right to lend me such domineering orders?" Ruby declared in a rather surly tone. Rogue's facial expression suddenly took on a hostile shift. A barb of frustration struck his face in a flash. However, this was shortly doused after he cleared his throat. "We should take this conversation outside. I plan on ordering some booze here after I finish my business with you." Quince then turns to the bounty hunter, his face dotted with a weight of seriousness. "Mind if I handle this in her stead? Seems unlike that scum Orion, you at least don't cause pointless damage." Rogue walks out and unsheathes a sword case. A long silver blade hissed open. As it slipped out of its sheathe, Ruby's eyes widened in shock, upon fixating on the blade. "Wait! Is that a meito?!" Quince looked at Ruby in complete oblivion "A what now..? You people like to use a whole lot of fancy terms now, don't you? Is there really anything in this world that is actually simple enough for me to understand?" Quince took a moment to voice out his quick rant. Ruby turned to him, with a rather contemptuous tone. "Are you an idiot or something..? Meitos are a collection of legendary swords. Thirty five in total. They're widespread news. How come you've never heard of them?" Quince looked at the sword in awe "That's so cool! He must be skilled with the sword!" Ruby then turned to Quince "Well, bounty hunters have to be skilled in order to take down high bounty pirates." She stated, whilst taking on her fighting stance.

Rogue then charged at Quince. "Guard Pulse!" Quince completely deflected the attack taking merely a minor scratch. "So it is true. You possess the fruit of Aries." Quince started to get hot headed "No! No! No! It's a sheep fruit! Stop calling it Aries! Orion did that too!" Rogue sighed "To think that a hopeless lout like you managed to get your mitts on such a powerful fruit. Unfortunately I now have to kill you. Zodiacs make disgusting money." Quince then grinned "And what if I defeat you? Do I get something in return?" Quince inquired, genuinely expecting a response. Rogue charged again at the ram "That won't happen. I'm too skilled to lose to you." "Power pulse." Quince landed a punch at Rogue, which he deflected with his sword. "Seems you do pack a bit of a punch at the very least. But you should know by now that anything you do will never be enough to vanquish me. As proof of that, let me show you what real power truly is." Rogue slanted his body downwards, as to position himself. He held a rather firm comportment and snuck his blade past his hips. Quince eyed the swordsman with a confuddled expression. He tilted his head, clueless on what's about to come for him. Finally, Rogue spoke. "You just gonna stand there or what? If you really aren't that pathetically weak, why don't you try giving me all you've got? That is if you're capable of it." His choice of words and tone clearly displayed his attempts of provoking Quince. "You shithead! I'll show you..!" To Rogue's surprise, it worked. Almost too perfectly. "Huh..? How can a person be this stupid at such an impossible rate?" The swordsman thought to himself. For a moment, his confusion overrode his awareness. Shortly after, Quince capitalized on his boosted maneuver to close the distance with Rogue. In the nick of time, Rogue returned to full consciousness, before finally unleashing his channeled attack. "Crimson Sting: Flux de Angoisse!" Like a meandering river, a shade of dark red flowed and rippled through his blade. "Time to administer the coup de grace." With no hesitance, Rogue heavily thrusted his blade into Quince's solar plexus. The silver haired ram gasped out of shock, as sharp crimson tendrils violently brandished through his body; which eventually waned after what appeared to be a few seconds. The boy fell on his knees before Rogue, still petrified. Rogue scoffed in disappointment. He initially had high expectations of him, only to be met with what he viewed as a half-baked outcome. "To think that you'd still lose, even while possessing a zodiac fruit. Underwhelming. Truly underwhelming." Rogue turned his back on the now immobilized Quince after the battle concluded. Seemingly. "Hey." A remote, yet impactful voice could be heard from behind. Rogue flinched in distraught. "What?! But how? I hit a vital spot!" Quince emanated a mild groan as he lifted himself up. "You mean this?" He revealed his wool covered abdomen. Rogue's eyes dilated. However, he also felt slightly relieved. Relieved to know that Quince is one of his few opponents who could genuinely put up an excellent fight. "Well, that was quite a sharp-witted move, I'll give you that" Rogue began treading in a semi circle, spinning his blade repeatedly. "I guess I'm not so much of a dumbass anymore, eh?" Quince grinned confidently, before the two proceeded to continue exchanging blows, both gaining slight bruises. During the brawl, Quince had a slight upper hand, but the two were relatively even. As they fought a bullet came at the two with rapid speed, Rogue used his sword to deflect it. "Aries, you bastard! This was meant to be a fair fight!" "Me the bastard?! You're the one who got their lackeys to fire guns at me!" Rogue then showed a face of horror "Don't tell me..." Rogue paused for a few seconds "I anticipated for this, but I would have expected after I achieved the goal." He then turned to a nearby bush "Come out you Chrysanthemums." A small hoard of female pirates, roughly six could be seen. "Rogue, unfortunately Captain Esmeralda wants your head. We'll be taking Aries too." Quince charged towards the women, and socked them all with ease. "Tell this to Esmeralda! I'm coming for her!" The women started to shudder in fear as they fled from the scene.

Rogue sighed "You're a complete dumbass you know Aries. You have no chance of winning this fight." Quince looked at Rogue "I need to become Astral King. If I can't defeat Esmeralda, then this is all a pipe dream!" He then paused "Power Pulse." "Calm down Aries. I have no benefit in fighting you. Besides I acknowledge you as strong. I'll buy you a drink and we can call it even." "Make it an apple pie, and you have a deal!" "Yeah, that's fine." The trio head back into the bar. Rogue ordered himself a pint of beer whilst Quince had an apple pie. Quince turned to Rogue "Well I guess we have a common enemy in Esmeralda." Rogue looked quite irritated at the white haired boy's naïveté. "You are aware you declared war on someone you and I both have a very low chance of defeating right?" Quince laughed "I know right! I sounded so cool when I said I'd come for Esmeralda!" Ruby was very close to giving Quince another whooping. "Quince... you need to stop putting us all in danger!"

The Chrysanthemum pirates ran back to a much more muscular woman. "Commander Diana! Those two are too strong!" Diana turned to the six beaten down women "How shameful to be so pitifully taken down by two men." She grabbed her rifle and aimed at them "I don't waste my bullets on my small fry lackeys. I'll beat them at their own game."

Quince and Rogue were near done with their food and drink. "Is all he eats apple pies? This is his third one. He's lucky I managed to cash in a few hundred thousand beli on an asshole pirate, or he'd probably starve." Ruby sighed "He seems to love them more than anything, however I'm sure this is your fourth pint. I'm surprised you haven't even gotten tipsy yet." "Yeah, I do spend a pretty penny on good booze. The lager here is delicious honestly. I can get you a drink if you want?" "No... I'm fine."

As the two were enjoying their food and drinks, a bullet bolted into the bar and struck Rogue's leg. It was a direct hit. He immediately fell off his stool and landed on the floor. In a desperate attempt, he instantly held onto his leg and applied pressure on his wound. Ruby grinned a bit, yet to pick up the entire situation. "Looks like you've finally reached your limit!" Rogue started to groan with a rather husky voice "arghh..." Ruby started to get very bothered, still unaware of how his agony came to be. "Rogue, you just fell off a chair, stop being such a drama queen." Quince gripped onto Ruby's arm and looked at her coldly "Someone's here." Slowly, Ruby turned her head to a silhouette's direction. For some reason, terror reigned on her face. She couldn't help but hold her breath.

Diana showed her presence to them. "I planned to sneak attack and kill Vespertine. After all, my captain loathes men." Quince then directed his vision towards her "At least fight him fair and square! He got me apple pies! I'll fight for him even if it costs me my life!" Rogue's face once again showed a very denoting disappointment "Aries you dumbass. I can't believe I'm depending on you." Ruby averted her attention to the two. She admired their charisma. Soon, Ruby stepped in and grinned at Rogue. "Quince is very tough. He made quite easy work of Orion, haven't you seen?" Rogue looked interested "Well, he does seem quite frantic about Aries." In preparation, horns grew out of the silver mane lad, as steam blew through his gritted teeth. This time however, he stood on two legs; almost as if he was a hybrid. "It's time to get this party started!" Quince slammed his hooves together. Once again, sheer resolution flared up in him.