- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
(To get to this island you need to be an officer of the Revolutionary Army or have a Vivre Card of someone on it.)
Special Content Baltigo
- Thread starter Ziosa
- Start date
(To get to this island you need to be an officer of the Revolutionary Army or have a Vivre Card of someone on it.)
- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
'Most Wanted Wan in the World' Monkey D Dragon
Level ?
Chief of Staff Sabo
Level 80
80 x 5 = 400
Strength: 65+16=81
Speed: 55+16+10=81
81x2=162
-Reaction: 81
-Movement: 81
Vitality: 58+16+5+5=81
81x2=162
-Durability: 81
-Stamina: 81
Haki: 67+24=91
91x2=182
-Armament Haki: 100
-Observation Haki (Precognition): 82
Devil Fruit: 81
-Mera Mera no mi (Flame Flame Fruit); Logia
Martial Arts: 76
56x2=152
-Ryusoken: 91
-Pipe: 61
Koala
Level 70
70 x 5 = 350
Strength: 62+14+5=82
Speed: 86+14=100
100x2=200
-Reaction: 100
-Movement: 100
Vitality: 70+14=84
84x2=168
-Durability: 84
-Stamina: 84
Haki: 81
81x2=162
-Armament Haki: 81
-Observation Haki(Precognition): 81
Martial Arts: 29+21=50
50x2=100
-Fishman Karate: 100
Hack
Level 60
60 x 5 = 300
Strength: 57+24=81
Speed: 73+6+5=84
84x2=168
-Reaction: 84
-Movement: 84
Vitality: 48+24=72
72x2=144
-Durability: 82
-Stamina: 62
Haki: 81
81x2=162
-Armament Haki: 81
-Observation Haki(Awareness): 81
Martial Arts: 41
41x2=81
-Fishman Karate: 81
Revolutionaries (800)
Level 20
20 x 5 = 100
Strength: 29+4=33
Speed: 30+4=34
24x2=48
-Reaction: 24
-Movment: 24
Vitality: 20+4=24
24x2=48
-Durability: 24
-Stamina: 24
Martial Arts: 21
21x2=42
-Swordmanship/Gunslinging: 42
- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
Level 62
62 x 5 = 310
Strength: 45+36=81
Speed: 57+24=81
81x2=162
-Reaction: 81
-Movement: 81
Vitality:62+17=79
79x2=156
-Durability: 81
-Stamina: 75
Mind: 12-12:0
Haki: 62
62x2=124
-Conqueror's Haki
-Armament Haki:62
-Observation Haki (Awareness):62
Martial Arts:72
72x2=144
-Kaika no Ken (Flowering Sword):72
-Sunshine: 72
62 x 5 = 310
Strength: 45+36=81
Speed: 57+24=81
81x2=162
-Reaction: 81
-Movement: 81
Vitality:62+17=79
79x2=156
-Durability: 81
-Stamina: 75
Mind: 12-12:0
Haki: 62
62x2=124
-Conqueror's Haki
-Armament Haki:62
-Observation Haki (Awareness):62
Martial Arts:72
72x2=144
-Kaika no Ken (Flowering Sword):72
-Sunshine: 72
"Talking"
Thoughts
"Attack Names"
Story Mission start
The waters of the Grand Line are known to be treacherous, the weather being chaotic and deadly and the pirates who sail it being dangerous. Many people fear it, some relish the challenge it represents, others travel it to find treasure or other things. And then there are those who have never known anything but the Grand Line, having been born here and seeing quite a few of its islands during their lives. One of these people was a Dwarf from the island of Green Bit in the New World, who has had a very eventful life despite her young age.
Jade was self reflecting on things a bit, which was quite rare due to her personality. She was sat in the crows nest of her ship, the Sea Pixie; looking out across the uncommonly calm waves. Her group had just finished liberating Drum Island from its tyrannical king, Wapol, in the name of the Revolutionary Army; an organisation dedicated to bringing down the corrupt World Government and the Celestial Dragons. Due to the events not giving her much to really relax or think about anything else, she was trying to make the most of this quiet period. They had plenty of time before they reached their destination, the island of the Revolutionary Headquarters; Baltigo.
Sophie was giving all the necessary orders and doing all the important tasks, giving Jade peace and quiet after all she did on Drum. "Keep this heading, we have quite a distance to travel and there shouldn't be any reason to change it unless we run into pirates or Marines" The deputy gives an order to the navigator who locks in the heading they were on, she then heads towards the helmsman and repeats the instruction.
We did good getting rid of Wapol, but I still want to find those pirates Jade was thinking about the people responsible for the massacre on Cactus Island We thought they might be on this island but they must have went a different direction... She knew they didn't have to find them straight away, but it would've been good to quickly catch them straight away. The Revolutionary officer was a protector of the innocent, so letting them get away with it was definitely not something she could do. Reporting to her superiors was a bigger priority currently however, so she would have to find them another time.
"Is now a good time to make myself known? I feel it is but it would be rude to assume" The dwarf suddenly hears a mysterious voice, causing her to instantly raise her guard, starting to look around while activating her Observation Haki to try and find the source. Despite this, she could not locate them and was confused but didn't stop concentrating on finding them. "I suppose this was quite sudden. Do not be alarmed little one, you will not locate me like that and I mean you no harm."
"Where are you? Actually more importantly, who are you and why can't I find you?" It sounded like the voice, that didn't seem to be male nor female, was right by her; easily within her range of Observation Haki and her sight.
"I am a spirit. I reside in the sword you found under the snow" During her time on Drum, Jade had taken cover from a snowstorm in a small cave. While in there she found a sword that seemed more powerful than her then current one, so she had started using it. This sword was now in the scabbard on her back.
The small girl moves her head to look at the sword slightly "Why are you in the sword?"
"I am the sword, I have always been in it and always will be. I was born from the many users it has had, the strength and will that has been put into it. The emotions they felt and the hardships they endured helped shape me. Their power and skill gave me abilities. Their personalities and soul gave me sentience"
Jade didn't really understand, but she got that it was a very special weapon that was basically sentient. "So you aren't a normal sword..."
The sword was silent for several moments "...That's one way to think about it yes. I am a Cursed Weapon, a weapon that has become something else entirely compared to normal ones."
She was quite intrigued, despite her connections to both the Revolutionary Army and the Marines; she had never heard about Cursed Weapons before. Jade had heard of Graded Swords, some of which were said to be cursed but this seemed quite different. "How are you different? Just sharper and generally more powerful?"
"That is part of it yes. But there is one other thing; a unique ability" A strong breeze blows the crow's nest as the sword says this.
"A unique ability? Like a Devil Fruit kind of a power or something more natural?" If anyone was nearby they might think that Jade had gone mad, since she was speaking to thin air; the voice actually being in her mind.
"It varies, but yes these abilities are similar to the things you call Devil Fruits. However obtaining and using these abilities are much harder than just eating something"
"What do you have to do to gain this power? I feel I might need it if I wanna keep protecting people" Jade had seen the power that some people had first hand, and she knew she wouldn't stand a chance if she needed to fight them.
"You need to pass a test, I need to decide if you are worthy and powerful enough to use me and my abilities"
Last edited:
- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
Standing up in the crow's nest, she moves to the edge and looks out across the sea, Jade thinks for a few moments but had pretty much already made up her mind before even asking the next question "What kind of test?"
The voice replies in her mind again "Some weapons have a random test that depends on their mood and others have a set one that tests particular criteria. I use a very simple one, you must beat me in battle"
"...How are you going to fight me, you are an inanimate object" The dwarf points out the obvious flaw in its test
A bit surprised at her blunt reply the sword replies "We will fight within a mindscape, created from the connection you created when you picked me up and the combination of our cerebral cortex. It will be a neutral environment that will allow me to see how powerful and worthy you are"
Jade blinks a few times. She only understood a small part of what they had said Fighting in a mindscape? What does that even mean
Either sensing her confusion or being used to people understanding they try to clarify "Basically it will be like a dream, nothing that happens there will effect you but you will have all your abilities and knowledge" They pause to let it sink in "Its not uncommon for warriors, especially ones who use weapons to mediate and train by creating a mental simulation or looking back at previous battles and trying to come up with other ways it could have gone"
She comes away from the railing and sits back down, taking the scabbard off her back and laying the sword in front of her. The second part helped her understand more than the first part, while she hadn't ever done that kind of training she knew a few people who did. "I think I understand it enough, do I get to try again if I fail?" A large seagull lands on the railing near her, it is scared off when it sees Jade and the weapon in her hands
A noise similar to far away thunder fills her head, the sword's equivalent of laughter "I'm afraid not, however the fact that I changed to this weapon is a good sign that you will pass"
"Changed to this weapon? You can become things other than a sword?" Jade wasn't sure what to make of that statement Perhaps that's the unique ability they mentioned earlier
"Cursed Weapons can change their form to suit their user. Before you neared I was a spear as that was what my last user liked to use as a weapon. Its a natural ability that we can't really control, its to make potential users pick us up so we can then try and test them; but it also helps the user as they aren't forced to use something they don't want to use or have no skill in using" While explaining, brief images of a spear and a shadowy figure enter Jade's mind
"So as I like using a sword that is bigger than me, you became one..." The Warrant Officer was beginning to realise how rare these weapons must be, as she had never heard of them despite being in the Revolutionary Army and previously being a decently high ranked Marine. A few members of the crew run around the mast and sails below her, making sure all the ropes were secure "Are you rarer than even Meito? They are very rare and are extremely sharp and durable, there is only 12 of the highest rank ones" She adds the brief explanation as she wasn't sure if it would know about Meito or not
"I am familiar with Meito. I do not know how common Cursed Weapons are, I have clashed with several across multiple users; but it is possible they are the only ones aside from me but there also might be many more around the world"
Feeling like she had asked enough questions, Jade decided that it would be better to try the test before reaching Baltigo "Can we start the test or do I or you need time to prepare?"
"The test can be done whenever and doesn't really need any preparation. However it would be best if it was done in a place you will have no distractions as if it is stopped you will have to start again, or I might decide that this is considered a failure" A peaceful and serene image of an island appears in her head.
"Well I don't think asking to stop at an island just so I can mediate would go over well with my crew so somewhere on the ship will have to do" There was a few places on the ship she could go but as she was the leader of the group people might try and ask her things. I could ask Sophie to keep people away but she will ask what I am doing and why I can't be disturbed...unless I go into my office to do some paper work. She might be a bit surprised but asking not to be disturbed while doing that makes sense
"Before we go and do the test, would you mind telling me your name or what I should call you if you dont have one of those" She didn't want to just call it 'sword' the entire time she was using, assuming she passed the test "My name is Jade Belle, Warrant Officer in the Revolutionary Army"
"I already knew your name and occupation as I heard it when we were on that island but it is nice to be officially introduced" There was a pause, which the Dwarf thought was for effect more than a real need for one "I am Nikko"
"We are making good time Miss Sophie, but we will soon be close to a Marine base" The navigator and Jade's second in command Sophie were standing towards the back of the ship near the helmsman and ship's wheel, a table was in front of them with a map of the immediate islands and area.
Tracing a line from the estimated point they were at, Sophie moves it away from the area near the Marine base "As we aren't really in a rush, no need to take risk so we can go this way instead"
James the navigator looks at the course she is suggesting "There is whirlpool that often forms along this course but once we have moved away from the base we can move away from it, shouldn't get close enough for it to be a problem"
"After we take the usual precautions, it should be a straight course to home" Although it wasn't on the map for obvious reasons, Sophie was looking at the place where Baltigo would be
"It will be nice to be home again, even if it isn't likely to be long" James smiles and then looks at Sophie "I will tell everyone the course change" After waiting for any reply or additions, he salutes and heads to the helmsman nearby.
Folding up the map, she calls over some people to take it and the map back to their usual spots. Sophie looks up at the crows nest just in time to see a small figure making their way down. Nodding and answering a few people's questions, she makes her way to the bottom of the mast.
Jade gets down before she reaches it but waits by it as she notices her approaching "Everything ok? I notice we are changing course slightly"
"Everything is fine, we were just going to be near a Marine base so are adjusting for it" Sophie tries to not look down at Jade too much but that was impossible due to the size difference
"Ah I see" She tries to not leave too big a pause while she thinks how to word her order "I will be heading to my office to do some paperwork, unless the ship is sinking I do not want anyone coming in"
Jade's second in command resists the urge to raise her one eyebrow slightly "Are you sure you will be doing paperwork and not sleeping?" She manages to make it seem like a normal reply rather than the joke it was
The Dwarf tries to act surprised and offended but fails "Of course not! I would never do such a thing"
After a few moments both of them can't help but smile "I will make sure you aren't disturbed, the files in the center of the desk are the most important ones" Sophie heads off towards a group that were busy talking rather than doing work
Making her way towards her office that was under the quarterdeck, she has to apologize to a few people who want to ask or tell her something and have them find Sophie instead as she was a bit busy. Entering it, Jade finds the Do Not Disturb sign and has to jump to put it on the door. Closing the door and ignoring the desk with several files on it in the center of the room, she heads towards a small chair in the corner. She makes herself comfortable and places the sword in her lap
Taking a small amount of time to prepare herself for whatever was about to come, she tells the sword "I'm ready for the test" After a brief pause her vision blurs slightly and she feels the chair and all her surroundings disappearing
Then everything goes white
The voice replies in her mind again "Some weapons have a random test that depends on their mood and others have a set one that tests particular criteria. I use a very simple one, you must beat me in battle"
"...How are you going to fight me, you are an inanimate object" The dwarf points out the obvious flaw in its test
A bit surprised at her blunt reply the sword replies "We will fight within a mindscape, created from the connection you created when you picked me up and the combination of our cerebral cortex. It will be a neutral environment that will allow me to see how powerful and worthy you are"
Jade blinks a few times. She only understood a small part of what they had said Fighting in a mindscape? What does that even mean
Either sensing her confusion or being used to people understanding they try to clarify "Basically it will be like a dream, nothing that happens there will effect you but you will have all your abilities and knowledge" They pause to let it sink in "Its not uncommon for warriors, especially ones who use weapons to mediate and train by creating a mental simulation or looking back at previous battles and trying to come up with other ways it could have gone"
She comes away from the railing and sits back down, taking the scabbard off her back and laying the sword in front of her. The second part helped her understand more than the first part, while she hadn't ever done that kind of training she knew a few people who did. "I think I understand it enough, do I get to try again if I fail?" A large seagull lands on the railing near her, it is scared off when it sees Jade and the weapon in her hands
A noise similar to far away thunder fills her head, the sword's equivalent of laughter "I'm afraid not, however the fact that I changed to this weapon is a good sign that you will pass"
"Changed to this weapon? You can become things other than a sword?" Jade wasn't sure what to make of that statement Perhaps that's the unique ability they mentioned earlier
"Cursed Weapons can change their form to suit their user. Before you neared I was a spear as that was what my last user liked to use as a weapon. Its a natural ability that we can't really control, its to make potential users pick us up so we can then try and test them; but it also helps the user as they aren't forced to use something they don't want to use or have no skill in using" While explaining, brief images of a spear and a shadowy figure enter Jade's mind
"So as I like using a sword that is bigger than me, you became one..." The Warrant Officer was beginning to realise how rare these weapons must be, as she had never heard of them despite being in the Revolutionary Army and previously being a decently high ranked Marine. A few members of the crew run around the mast and sails below her, making sure all the ropes were secure "Are you rarer than even Meito? They are very rare and are extremely sharp and durable, there is only 12 of the highest rank ones" She adds the brief explanation as she wasn't sure if it would know about Meito or not
"I am familiar with Meito. I do not know how common Cursed Weapons are, I have clashed with several across multiple users; but it is possible they are the only ones aside from me but there also might be many more around the world"
Feeling like she had asked enough questions, Jade decided that it would be better to try the test before reaching Baltigo "Can we start the test or do I or you need time to prepare?"
"The test can be done whenever and doesn't really need any preparation. However it would be best if it was done in a place you will have no distractions as if it is stopped you will have to start again, or I might decide that this is considered a failure" A peaceful and serene image of an island appears in her head.
"Well I don't think asking to stop at an island just so I can mediate would go over well with my crew so somewhere on the ship will have to do" There was a few places on the ship she could go but as she was the leader of the group people might try and ask her things. I could ask Sophie to keep people away but she will ask what I am doing and why I can't be disturbed...unless I go into my office to do some paper work. She might be a bit surprised but asking not to be disturbed while doing that makes sense
"Before we go and do the test, would you mind telling me your name or what I should call you if you dont have one of those" She didn't want to just call it 'sword' the entire time she was using, assuming she passed the test "My name is Jade Belle, Warrant Officer in the Revolutionary Army"
"I already knew your name and occupation as I heard it when we were on that island but it is nice to be officially introduced" There was a pause, which the Dwarf thought was for effect more than a real need for one "I am Nikko"
"We are making good time Miss Sophie, but we will soon be close to a Marine base" The navigator and Jade's second in command Sophie were standing towards the back of the ship near the helmsman and ship's wheel, a table was in front of them with a map of the immediate islands and area.
Tracing a line from the estimated point they were at, Sophie moves it away from the area near the Marine base "As we aren't really in a rush, no need to take risk so we can go this way instead"
James the navigator looks at the course she is suggesting "There is whirlpool that often forms along this course but once we have moved away from the base we can move away from it, shouldn't get close enough for it to be a problem"
"After we take the usual precautions, it should be a straight course to home" Although it wasn't on the map for obvious reasons, Sophie was looking at the place where Baltigo would be
"It will be nice to be home again, even if it isn't likely to be long" James smiles and then looks at Sophie "I will tell everyone the course change" After waiting for any reply or additions, he salutes and heads to the helmsman nearby.
Folding up the map, she calls over some people to take it and the map back to their usual spots. Sophie looks up at the crows nest just in time to see a small figure making their way down. Nodding and answering a few people's questions, she makes her way to the bottom of the mast.
Jade gets down before she reaches it but waits by it as she notices her approaching "Everything ok? I notice we are changing course slightly"
"Everything is fine, we were just going to be near a Marine base so are adjusting for it" Sophie tries to not look down at Jade too much but that was impossible due to the size difference
"Ah I see" She tries to not leave too big a pause while she thinks how to word her order "I will be heading to my office to do some paperwork, unless the ship is sinking I do not want anyone coming in"
Jade's second in command resists the urge to raise her one eyebrow slightly "Are you sure you will be doing paperwork and not sleeping?" She manages to make it seem like a normal reply rather than the joke it was
The Dwarf tries to act surprised and offended but fails "Of course not! I would never do such a thing"
After a few moments both of them can't help but smile "I will make sure you aren't disturbed, the files in the center of the desk are the most important ones" Sophie heads off towards a group that were busy talking rather than doing work
Making her way towards her office that was under the quarterdeck, she has to apologize to a few people who want to ask or tell her something and have them find Sophie instead as she was a bit busy. Entering it, Jade finds the Do Not Disturb sign and has to jump to put it on the door. Closing the door and ignoring the desk with several files on it in the center of the room, she heads towards a small chair in the corner. She makes herself comfortable and places the sword in her lap
Taking a small amount of time to prepare herself for whatever was about to come, she tells the sword "I'm ready for the test" After a brief pause her vision blurs slightly and she feels the chair and all her surroundings disappearing
Then everything goes white
- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
Actions
"Talking"
Thoughts
"Attack Names"
Jade wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the white slowly disappeared and her vision took in the new landscape. She wasn't sure what to expect but what she saw was definitely not it.
A sprawling city was there before her eyes, people moving about all over the square she was in. The Dwarf looked around and saw shops selling all sorts of items, cafes and even what looked liked a theater in the distance. A massive fountain was next to her; it being the center point in the very large and open square, spraying water out of the various branches on a tree statue. Down the street in front of her she could see large buildings, including several skyscrapers that were jutting out above the city.
Some movement above her caught her attention and when she looked she was even more surprised by this mysterious location. Many airships were flying in the sky, all with different shapes and colours. Despite all of the stuff she was seeing feeling real, Jade felt something was off aside from the fact it was all fake. While trying to figure out what it was, the small girl moved away from the fountain and towards a shop nearby.
Just as she was about to walk in it suddenly clicked. Most people in the city were her size, although she could see some that were human sized and even a few Giants. Jade hadn't been around other Dwarves for a long time, her last visit was not long after leaving the Marines and she had been a Revolutionary for a good amount of years. It felt odd not having to look up at people and avoid being stepped on; as the taller inhabitants of the city all seemed very used to the Dwarf population.
Is this the test? Do I have to do something or find something in this city? She wasn't really sure what she was doing here. A very peaceful city didn't seem like the sort of place that could test her knowledge and abilities in any meaningful way. Jade suddenly realized she had a sword on her back, so used to the feeling she hadn't even noticed. As she went to the nearest cafe and placed it on a table, she quickly saw that it was her original sword and not the Cursed Weapon. Maybe I can't use it while being tested by it so this one was given to me instead.
The sound of thunder brought her out of thoughts. Looking up, there didn't seem to be any clouds at all in the sky so Jade was a bit confused at what caused the sound. As she went to look back at her sword, a figure drew her attention.
Nothing about him was super distinctive and it was mostly the fact that he was looking at her that had made her notice him. No one else in the city had even looked at her, even the people at the cafe tables very close to her didn't seem to even know she was there. As a member of the Revolutionaries and with her small size, Jade was used to hiding in plain sight but she wasn't even trying and this just seemed to be sort of automatic. The man starts walking towards her and seemed to shrink as he came, ending up at the exact same height when he stopped a metre or so away from her.
He also now looked a lot younger, almost like a young boy/teenager. His short brown hair had a few bits sticking up slightly and he was wearing a long orange and aqua hoodie with navy blue sleeves, quarter-length navy blue pants, and short boots with large buttons whose colours matched the hoodie. Having a very casual stance, Jade was pretty sure this was Nikko; mainly due to the fact he altered his appearance.
The first words he said confirmed it "Welcome to your mind"
"My mind is a city? Is this some sort of metaphor?"
Nikko smiled before replying "Everyone's mindscape is different and is often based on ideals, goals and subconcious thoughts". Looking around at the city, he continued "It wasn't what I was expecting either, a peaceful city seems an odd choice for someone in your position; have any ideas on why it looks like this?"
Feeling like the test might have already started, Jade takes her time before answering "You said it was based on ideals and goals right? I think it might represent what I want the world to be like, a place where innocent people can go about their lives without worry"
"And how do you intend to do that?"
"The World Government has control of a lot of the world but is corrupt and evil; the organisation I'm in is trying to take it down and replace it with something better" She had been part of many similar conversations, many islands didn't fully understand how bad parts of the government was and felt their protection was needed; never even considering any alternative.
"Ah yes, the Government was around last time the other times I was active; doesn't seem to have changed much" He motions towards her sword that was still on the table "Why don't you pick up your sword and then we will get started"
Picking up the sword and scabbard, Jade places it on her back. Turning back to Nikko, she sees he has somehow acquired a weapon of his own in the brief time she wasn't looking at him; carrying it in one hand and without a scabbard. For people of their size it was more of a short sword rather than the small dagger it actually was and seemed to have a glow to it.
"Where did the sword come from?" She decides to just ask him about it.
"In here I can control what I look like and can create basic items. I made myself your size so its fair and I imagine you are very used to fighting people with swords; I want to see you at your best" Nikko's sword suddenly starts glowing even more "I will also be using the ability you will gain if you pass"
With only his oral warning, the sword was glowing bright enough to blind her; catching her nearly completely off-guard. Drawing her own weapon and quickly getting into a defensive stance, she then activates her Observation Haki but saw no one was there. Once her vision had cleared, she confirmed Nikko was gone.
Being sporting for this one, he might not be next time. How do I deal with being blinded... The Dwarf gets into a more neutral stance and makes sure he couldn't attack her by moving back across the open square to the fountain, as there wasn't much chance he could attack without her being able to spot him due to it being in such a wide area with nothing to block sight. She had deactivated her Observation Haki. as it seemed to work fine in here but since she still didn't know what he was or if it could sense him, she wasn't going to rely on it until she was actually sure it could see him.
Having been trained by multiple people in both the Revolutionaries and the Marines, Jade was able to quickly react to the sound of fast movement to her right that came a few minutes later. Nikko's short sword was stabbing towards her legs so she jumps onto the wall of the fountain and attacks with a return stab.
Her opponent moves to the right causing the attack to miss and would've put him in a good position to counter if he had a longer weapon. Instead he backed up and swung his weapon hard to create a small but fast air blade.
Feeling like she might lose her footing and give him a chance to fully attack if she moved on the narrow wall and not having time to jump back into the fountain itself; the small girl decides to deal with it straight on. Aiming to hit the blade a bit infront of her; she doesn't really have time to do a full technique as she has to get the timing just right; this causes Jade to horizontally slice without much build up. This didn't make too much difference however as was very strong even for a Dwarf, hitting the air blade with the slice immediately disperses it and she gets into a defensive stance just in case he was going to follow up.
Nikko does follow up but not in any way she expects. Bringing the short sword to his side and raising his foot, he stomps on the ground with enough force to shake the immediate area; including the fountain. Jade jumps into the air to stop herself from being affected and aims to land on one of the branches that's part of tree statue in the middle of the fountain. Either anticipating something like this or just quickly reacting, Nikko launches himself off the ground and intercepts her. Clashing weapons, his momentum causes them both to go flying out of the square and over some buildings into another street.
Jade crashes into a clothes shop and ruins most of the display. Trying to apologies to the people in there, she has to suddenly duck under a diagonal air blade that then cuts multiple mannequins and clothing stands. Using various parts of the destroyed shop as cover, she tries to locate Nikko and quickly spots him in the middle of the road outside the store.
Using the same strategy against him, the Dwarf points her sword out to the side and swings it horizontally with quite a bit of force; creating a fast blade of air "Tiny Slash". She doesn't wait to see him deal with it, instead making her way to the edge of the store and then towards the front of it.
She sees him walking towards the shop, seemingly having dealt with it very easily. Letting him actually walk through the entrance, Jade darts forward and strikes low with a sliding tackle.
Although it takes his one leg out and makes him wobble, he remains standing. Taking advantage of him being off balance, Jade spins slightly on the spot as she comes up causing the flat of her blade to strike his chest; which sends him sprawling across the shop floor.
Seeing that he doesn't quickly get up, she cautiously approaches and is ready when he suddenly sits up and points his sword at her. Expecting an air slash or trying to blind her again, she is surprised and doesn't react in time when the blade instead glows and fires a large blast of light at her.
Although she was blocking, the projectile was powerful enough to take her small body off her feet and into the street. Jade manages to disperse it before hitting the building opposite, but Nikko had got up and followed her; giving her no time to recover. Rather than waiting for him to reach her so he could attack, the Revolutionary waits until he got a bit close and then goes on the offensive; bringing her sword up while pointing it to the floor. The resulting stab to the ground creates a shockwave and small crater.
Knocked back a fair distance, the brown haired boy then had to instinctively deflect her sword as it nearly slashed his leg. Despite being seemingly at a disadvantage and being the only one who had taken any sort of meaningful damage, Nikko was smiling.
Jade back-steps so he can't counter, as his shorter weapon was quicker than hers in such close quarters. Her opponent had been using the sword with one hand this entire time, but now wrapped his other hand around the handle as well. Almost a blur to the untrained eye, he came at her with such a low sweeping slash that it nearly scrapped the floor.
The sudden increase in speed didn't really surprise Jade, as a swordsman she knew most people were generally faster when using a weapon with both hands. What did catch her by surprise however was the fact that when she brought her own sword to meet it, he overpowered her and caused her weapon to end up above her head due to the angle he was attacking from.
Before she can fully bring her sword back down, Nikko slashes her chest. Due to her durability, the cut barely bleeds but she was pretty sure he still wasn't using his full strength or Armament Haki.
Forcing him back by wildly swing her weapon and creating some space; Jade reflects a bit on the exchanges so far. I'm used to fighting people much bigger than me so adapting to that took a bit of time. Originally I thought I was stronger and faster; but that last clash has me doubting a bit, has he really been holding back so much? Also does he have more than one ability he can do, as blinding and firing some kind of concussive blast don't seem to have much correlation? While having her inner monologue, the brown haired boy pointed his sword up and put it above his head.
Due to the previous clash and the odd abilities he had already shown, Jade was prepared for basically anything but couldn't decide if she should try and interrupt, move away or just defend. Nikko quickly makes the first option pretty much impossible as a large glowing ball rapidly forms on the tip of the sword and is then 'fired' up; stopping just below the tops of the nearby buildings. Suddenly bursting apart, it becomes a mass of projectiles made of light; all of which immediately start falling. Jade looks around and realizes the street is still full of people, even though they had been fighting and causing damage to it for a good amount of time. But she had no time to really do anything to help before the first projectiles started to reach the ground. Putting her sword above her head in a horizontal position, it protected her from most of them and due to the amount she kind of just wait it out.
Once the 'rain' had stopped, the Dwarf looks around at the chaos it had caused. Most of the nearby people were dead or injured, nearby buildings/shops were ruined and the road had numerous large craters. It was like a powerful bomb had gone off in the street, anywhere she looked she saw damage and destruction.
Looking at Nikko, she saw that he was completely unscathed; apparently having some sort of control over the projectiles and making them miss him. "You killed these people and destroyed most of the street!"
The boy tilts his head to one side slightly "They aren't real. This is like a dream or an illusion. It makes no difference if they are killed or survive; all of them, and the city, will disappear once you leave."
"That doesn't mean anything, its the principle. They look and act like people so they should be treated like them." As she was speaking, Jade's blade slowly turned black "If you can't respect something like this, maybe I don't want to pass this test or use your ability"
"Oh? Why don't we see if you can even stop me and can pass this test before deciding anything like that" His own weapon turned a similar colour as both of them prepared to attack "Show me your 'resolve' Jade Belle" Nikko smiles again, but this time it somehow comes across as more sinister.
As they both close the distance and clash swords, it creates a shockwave that was powerful enough to send anything not nailed down/very heavy flying; which includes the very large amount of debris from Nikkos earlier attack. This signals the start of the real battle/test.
"Talking"
Thoughts
"Attack Names"
Jade wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the white slowly disappeared and her vision took in the new landscape. She wasn't sure what to expect but what she saw was definitely not it.
A sprawling city was there before her eyes, people moving about all over the square she was in. The Dwarf looked around and saw shops selling all sorts of items, cafes and even what looked liked a theater in the distance. A massive fountain was next to her; it being the center point in the very large and open square, spraying water out of the various branches on a tree statue. Down the street in front of her she could see large buildings, including several skyscrapers that were jutting out above the city.
Some movement above her caught her attention and when she looked she was even more surprised by this mysterious location. Many airships were flying in the sky, all with different shapes and colours. Despite all of the stuff she was seeing feeling real, Jade felt something was off aside from the fact it was all fake. While trying to figure out what it was, the small girl moved away from the fountain and towards a shop nearby.
Just as she was about to walk in it suddenly clicked. Most people in the city were her size, although she could see some that were human sized and even a few Giants. Jade hadn't been around other Dwarves for a long time, her last visit was not long after leaving the Marines and she had been a Revolutionary for a good amount of years. It felt odd not having to look up at people and avoid being stepped on; as the taller inhabitants of the city all seemed very used to the Dwarf population.
Is this the test? Do I have to do something or find something in this city? She wasn't really sure what she was doing here. A very peaceful city didn't seem like the sort of place that could test her knowledge and abilities in any meaningful way. Jade suddenly realized she had a sword on her back, so used to the feeling she hadn't even noticed. As she went to the nearest cafe and placed it on a table, she quickly saw that it was her original sword and not the Cursed Weapon. Maybe I can't use it while being tested by it so this one was given to me instead.
The sound of thunder brought her out of thoughts. Looking up, there didn't seem to be any clouds at all in the sky so Jade was a bit confused at what caused the sound. As she went to look back at her sword, a figure drew her attention.
Nothing about him was super distinctive and it was mostly the fact that he was looking at her that had made her notice him. No one else in the city had even looked at her, even the people at the cafe tables very close to her didn't seem to even know she was there. As a member of the Revolutionaries and with her small size, Jade was used to hiding in plain sight but she wasn't even trying and this just seemed to be sort of automatic. The man starts walking towards her and seemed to shrink as he came, ending up at the exact same height when he stopped a metre or so away from her.
He also now looked a lot younger, almost like a young boy/teenager. His short brown hair had a few bits sticking up slightly and he was wearing a long orange and aqua hoodie with navy blue sleeves, quarter-length navy blue pants, and short boots with large buttons whose colours matched the hoodie. Having a very casual stance, Jade was pretty sure this was Nikko; mainly due to the fact he altered his appearance.
The first words he said confirmed it "Welcome to your mind"
"My mind is a city? Is this some sort of metaphor?"
Nikko smiled before replying "Everyone's mindscape is different and is often based on ideals, goals and subconcious thoughts". Looking around at the city, he continued "It wasn't what I was expecting either, a peaceful city seems an odd choice for someone in your position; have any ideas on why it looks like this?"
Feeling like the test might have already started, Jade takes her time before answering "You said it was based on ideals and goals right? I think it might represent what I want the world to be like, a place where innocent people can go about their lives without worry"
"And how do you intend to do that?"
"The World Government has control of a lot of the world but is corrupt and evil; the organisation I'm in is trying to take it down and replace it with something better" She had been part of many similar conversations, many islands didn't fully understand how bad parts of the government was and felt their protection was needed; never even considering any alternative.
"Ah yes, the Government was around last time the other times I was active; doesn't seem to have changed much" He motions towards her sword that was still on the table "Why don't you pick up your sword and then we will get started"
Picking up the sword and scabbard, Jade places it on her back. Turning back to Nikko, she sees he has somehow acquired a weapon of his own in the brief time she wasn't looking at him; carrying it in one hand and without a scabbard. For people of their size it was more of a short sword rather than the small dagger it actually was and seemed to have a glow to it.
"Where did the sword come from?" She decides to just ask him about it.
"In here I can control what I look like and can create basic items. I made myself your size so its fair and I imagine you are very used to fighting people with swords; I want to see you at your best" Nikko's sword suddenly starts glowing even more "I will also be using the ability you will gain if you pass"
With only his oral warning, the sword was glowing bright enough to blind her; catching her nearly completely off-guard. Drawing her own weapon and quickly getting into a defensive stance, she then activates her Observation Haki but saw no one was there. Once her vision had cleared, she confirmed Nikko was gone.
Being sporting for this one, he might not be next time. How do I deal with being blinded... The Dwarf gets into a more neutral stance and makes sure he couldn't attack her by moving back across the open square to the fountain, as there wasn't much chance he could attack without her being able to spot him due to it being in such a wide area with nothing to block sight. She had deactivated her Observation Haki. as it seemed to work fine in here but since she still didn't know what he was or if it could sense him, she wasn't going to rely on it until she was actually sure it could see him.
Having been trained by multiple people in both the Revolutionaries and the Marines, Jade was able to quickly react to the sound of fast movement to her right that came a few minutes later. Nikko's short sword was stabbing towards her legs so she jumps onto the wall of the fountain and attacks with a return stab.
Her opponent moves to the right causing the attack to miss and would've put him in a good position to counter if he had a longer weapon. Instead he backed up and swung his weapon hard to create a small but fast air blade.
Feeling like she might lose her footing and give him a chance to fully attack if she moved on the narrow wall and not having time to jump back into the fountain itself; the small girl decides to deal with it straight on. Aiming to hit the blade a bit infront of her; she doesn't really have time to do a full technique as she has to get the timing just right; this causes Jade to horizontally slice without much build up. This didn't make too much difference however as was very strong even for a Dwarf, hitting the air blade with the slice immediately disperses it and she gets into a defensive stance just in case he was going to follow up.
Nikko does follow up but not in any way she expects. Bringing the short sword to his side and raising his foot, he stomps on the ground with enough force to shake the immediate area; including the fountain. Jade jumps into the air to stop herself from being affected and aims to land on one of the branches that's part of tree statue in the middle of the fountain. Either anticipating something like this or just quickly reacting, Nikko launches himself off the ground and intercepts her. Clashing weapons, his momentum causes them both to go flying out of the square and over some buildings into another street.
Jade crashes into a clothes shop and ruins most of the display. Trying to apologies to the people in there, she has to suddenly duck under a diagonal air blade that then cuts multiple mannequins and clothing stands. Using various parts of the destroyed shop as cover, she tries to locate Nikko and quickly spots him in the middle of the road outside the store.
Using the same strategy against him, the Dwarf points her sword out to the side and swings it horizontally with quite a bit of force; creating a fast blade of air "Tiny Slash". She doesn't wait to see him deal with it, instead making her way to the edge of the store and then towards the front of it.
She sees him walking towards the shop, seemingly having dealt with it very easily. Letting him actually walk through the entrance, Jade darts forward and strikes low with a sliding tackle.
Although it takes his one leg out and makes him wobble, he remains standing. Taking advantage of him being off balance, Jade spins slightly on the spot as she comes up causing the flat of her blade to strike his chest; which sends him sprawling across the shop floor.
Seeing that he doesn't quickly get up, she cautiously approaches and is ready when he suddenly sits up and points his sword at her. Expecting an air slash or trying to blind her again, she is surprised and doesn't react in time when the blade instead glows and fires a large blast of light at her.
Although she was blocking, the projectile was powerful enough to take her small body off her feet and into the street. Jade manages to disperse it before hitting the building opposite, but Nikko had got up and followed her; giving her no time to recover. Rather than waiting for him to reach her so he could attack, the Revolutionary waits until he got a bit close and then goes on the offensive; bringing her sword up while pointing it to the floor. The resulting stab to the ground creates a shockwave and small crater.
Knocked back a fair distance, the brown haired boy then had to instinctively deflect her sword as it nearly slashed his leg. Despite being seemingly at a disadvantage and being the only one who had taken any sort of meaningful damage, Nikko was smiling.
Jade back-steps so he can't counter, as his shorter weapon was quicker than hers in such close quarters. Her opponent had been using the sword with one hand this entire time, but now wrapped his other hand around the handle as well. Almost a blur to the untrained eye, he came at her with such a low sweeping slash that it nearly scrapped the floor.
The sudden increase in speed didn't really surprise Jade, as a swordsman she knew most people were generally faster when using a weapon with both hands. What did catch her by surprise however was the fact that when she brought her own sword to meet it, he overpowered her and caused her weapon to end up above her head due to the angle he was attacking from.
Before she can fully bring her sword back down, Nikko slashes her chest. Due to her durability, the cut barely bleeds but she was pretty sure he still wasn't using his full strength or Armament Haki.
Forcing him back by wildly swing her weapon and creating some space; Jade reflects a bit on the exchanges so far. I'm used to fighting people much bigger than me so adapting to that took a bit of time. Originally I thought I was stronger and faster; but that last clash has me doubting a bit, has he really been holding back so much? Also does he have more than one ability he can do, as blinding and firing some kind of concussive blast don't seem to have much correlation? While having her inner monologue, the brown haired boy pointed his sword up and put it above his head.
Due to the previous clash and the odd abilities he had already shown, Jade was prepared for basically anything but couldn't decide if she should try and interrupt, move away or just defend. Nikko quickly makes the first option pretty much impossible as a large glowing ball rapidly forms on the tip of the sword and is then 'fired' up; stopping just below the tops of the nearby buildings. Suddenly bursting apart, it becomes a mass of projectiles made of light; all of which immediately start falling. Jade looks around and realizes the street is still full of people, even though they had been fighting and causing damage to it for a good amount of time. But she had no time to really do anything to help before the first projectiles started to reach the ground. Putting her sword above her head in a horizontal position, it protected her from most of them and due to the amount she kind of just wait it out.
Once the 'rain' had stopped, the Dwarf looks around at the chaos it had caused. Most of the nearby people were dead or injured, nearby buildings/shops were ruined and the road had numerous large craters. It was like a powerful bomb had gone off in the street, anywhere she looked she saw damage and destruction.
Looking at Nikko, she saw that he was completely unscathed; apparently having some sort of control over the projectiles and making them miss him. "You killed these people and destroyed most of the street!"
The boy tilts his head to one side slightly "They aren't real. This is like a dream or an illusion. It makes no difference if they are killed or survive; all of them, and the city, will disappear once you leave."
"That doesn't mean anything, its the principle. They look and act like people so they should be treated like them." As she was speaking, Jade's blade slowly turned black "If you can't respect something like this, maybe I don't want to pass this test or use your ability"
"Oh? Why don't we see if you can even stop me and can pass this test before deciding anything like that" His own weapon turned a similar colour as both of them prepared to attack "Show me your 'resolve' Jade Belle" Nikko smiles again, but this time it somehow comes across as more sinister.
As they both close the distance and clash swords, it creates a shockwave that was powerful enough to send anything not nailed down/very heavy flying; which includes the very large amount of debris from Nikkos earlier attack. This signals the start of the real battle/test.
As this is more about testing her, Nikko has no actual set stats; but is a bit weaker than Jade. Due to this all his and Jade's techniques are mostly just references
Name: Sunshine: Blast of Light
DPR: B
Requirements:
41 mastery, 50% charge
61 mastery, 35% charge
81 mastery, 20% charge
100 mastery, 5% charge
Description: holds the weapon horizontally and then thrusting it forward as it fires a blast of light from the end of it.
Name: Tiny Slash (Miniature Slash with Haki)
DPR: C
Requirements: 21 mastery, 21 strength
Description: a flying slash that is smaller than a normal one but a bit faster
Name: Sunshine: Light Rain
DPR: B (Each Hit)
Requirements: 71 mastery
20% charge at 71 mastery
10% at 91 mastery and above
Description: firing a blast of light into the air, it bursts into many rays of light that rains down doing damage to anything they hit.
Name: Sunshine: Blast of Light
DPR: B
Requirements:
41 mastery, 50% charge
61 mastery, 35% charge
81 mastery, 20% charge
100 mastery, 5% charge
Description: holds the weapon horizontally and then thrusting it forward as it fires a blast of light from the end of it.
Name: Tiny Slash (Miniature Slash with Haki)
DPR: C
Requirements: 21 mastery, 21 strength
Description: a flying slash that is smaller than a normal one but a bit faster
Name: Sunshine: Light Rain
DPR: B (Each Hit)
Requirements: 71 mastery
20% charge at 71 mastery
10% at 91 mastery and above
Description: firing a blast of light into the air, it bursts into many rays of light that rains down doing damage to anything they hit.
- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
The sounds of impacts, metal clashing and buildings being damaged echoed across the city; the same sounds that had been reverberating throughout the area for an unknown amount of time.
Both combatants were hyper focused and made no effort to keep track of how long they had been fighting or how much time passed between attacks. Early on in this 'second part' to their battle/test they had moved to the rooftops, as Jade still wanted to keep the people of the city safe and Nikko understood that she would be more willing to use her full power if they were not fighting in the streets. Many buildings had holes and other damage on their roof or top floors, several even had slices/chunks of them missing where one of the Dwarves attacks hadn't defended well enough, missed their intended target or been deflected. Despite them fighting quite intensely, neither had taken anything more than superficial cuts or damage.
The two were currently battling on top of a tall square-ish building with an odd-shaped hole in the middle. The roof was obviously a cafe that would have a very good view and was probably quite popular, it was currently closed and all the chairs were on the tables. A few lights could be seen through the windows on some of the lower floors but no one seemed to be on any of the top floors.
"Flowering Sword: Blossoming Thrust!" Standing on one of the tables near the edge of the building, Jade leaps to one slightly further in; that Nikko was standing on, and thrusts her sword as she does; hoping to use the momentum to make it harder for him to read the timing and therefore make it more difficult to block or dodge. Seeing her coming, he brings his short sword up just as she is range; pushing it up from the bottom and making it go over his head. Before she goes past him and lands, he turns on the spot and slashes towards her side.
Due to her sword being above her and being too large to be brought down to block his attack in time, the Revolutionary imbues invisible Armament Haki into her body. Although the damage is greatly reduced, his power is enough to send her flying across the cafe; several chairs go into the air from the impact or her hitting them as she goes. A table stops her, but is destroyed in the process; broken into a dozen or so pieces. Picking herself up and quickly moving the debris away, Jade keeps an eye on her opponent who had got off the table he was standing on and slowly walking towards her. The weapon at his side was pointed at the ground and still glowing faintly. After closing about half the distance, Nikko suddenly starts running and brings his sword up to around head height; he then swings it horizontally creating an air slash that cuts through chairs and tables as it flies towards the female Dwarf. Already prepared for an attack to be sent her way, Jade brings her sword up above her head and as if she had all the time in the world despite her opponent also still running towards her; slowly breathed in and out "Flowering Sword..." Moments pass and two chairs a few metres in front of her are slashed in half just before she brings the sword down to create her own flying slash "...Flash Flower" A much larger and slightly zig-zagging blade of air devours the short distance between the two air slashes, and then the smaller one is destroyed as if it wasn't even there.
The sudden appearance and power of the Warrant Officer's slash catches Nikko so off guard that he slows down in surprise. The large air blade moves in a Z-shape as it powers towards him, destroying several more chairs and tables as it came. By the time he had snapped out of his surprise, the slash was already way over halfway towards him; as such he did one of the few options left. He leaps into the air, high enough that the slash goes past him without hitting his legs. Seeing an opportunity, Jade follows the same path her slash took, using the debris and intact tables/chairs to hide her whereabouts from the airborne Nikko. Knowing that she was probably coming to try and attack him before he lands, the young boy points the sword to the sky and uses the same technique from earlier; blasting a large ball into the sky that then breaks apart to rain down projectiles. Unlike the previous 'rain', this one didn't cover as large an area but the amount of projectiles was the same; causing it to be more intense and powerful. The Dwarf had seen what he was doing and had thought up a counter to the technique. Just before it broke apart, she took a stance with her sword held out to the side and then using her high strength swung herself around hard enough to create a small tornado. The projectiles, which were starting to reach the rooftop, were suddenly whisked away and pulled into the twister; being destroyed by the pressure inside it. Having landed, Nikko could only watch as most of the 'rain' was either destroyed by the tornado itself or sent off target by the wind, causing damage to other parts of the roof or the building below.
As she slowed down, the tornado stayed around for a bit before disappearing; Jade taking the time to recover from spinning so much. Looking around for Nikko, she found him not far away with a neutral stance and no signs of preparing an attack or looking for an opening.
"Tell me Jade, do you seek power?" He suddenly breaks the silence they have had since they started their 'real' fight with a question. Although his expression was casual, Jade could see his eyes was intensely observing her; however it didnt seem to be for signs of her attacking but rather it felt like he was looking at her soul.
The Revolutionary also adopted a more neutral stance before answering "...No I don't seek power. Even if I was weak I would still try to do the same things I am doing now, but I wouldn't go looking for something to make me stronger even if I knew it would help me change the world"
The mysterious figure took his time time to contemplate her answer "Do you not like being strong?"
Putting her sword in to the ground at her feet, Jade leaned on it slightly "I don't have an answer for that, or at least not the words to describe it well enough. The world runs on strength but I have seen places where its not necessary at all and in fact they are probably better off because they are weak." She pauses for a few seconds "Power is an addiction, no matter how much you got its not enough as there is always someone stronger than you. So you seek out more to try and reach your goal or protect your ideals, but lose yourself in the process; becoming reliant on it and then when you are beaten or lose it; you can't go back to what you were before."
Obviously not expecting this kind of answer or possibly not expecting her to have a thorough, Nikko doesn't say anything in reply for a few minutes. He looks across the city in the distance and then looks back at the Dwarf "I think I understand why your mind looks like this now"
The air seems to somehow change slightly and wondering if that plus the words he just spoke means she passed, Jade asks him a question "Is this the end of the test?"
A second sword suddenly appears in his left hand, although it doesn't glow like the first one. Holding them both out horizontally just above his shoulders, Nikko slightly smiles "No" As soon as she saw movement, something like a sixth sense made her take her sword out of the ground and be on guard.
However he didn't attack her and instead slashed at the ground beneath and around him. The cafe seemed to shift slightly before suddenly everything started to slide and the 'ground' behind Jade started rising upwards. The young boy had slashed the parts of the building that connected it all together and the entire top part was now starting to fall. Seemingly unaffected by gravity and the roof falling, Nikko ran towards her and slashed downwards with both weapons. Unable to keep her balance and grip on the moving floor, the Warrant Officer let herself fall; which made her roll past him and land on a section that was kind of upright. Getting to her feet, Jade brought her sword up just in time to block a downwards diagonal strike from his right sword which for some reason was now not glowing.
Realsing just in time that he had switched the hands his weapons was in, the Dwarf was somehow prepared when a blinding light appeared just below her face; Nikko having put his left sword in a position where it would shine up through the space between her sword and body. With her eyes closed and Observation Haki activated, Jade also turned her sword black to help gather enough power to push him away while also fighting the gravity trying to pull her off her feet and the debris falling around them. The ground below them seemed to give away and they were suddenly freefalling through the hole in the middle of the building towards the lower half of it below them.
Still somewhat blinded and with debris and large parts of the building also falling with her, Jade senses something coming towards her from above; Nikko with his two swords imbued with Armament Haki.
Both combatants were hyper focused and made no effort to keep track of how long they had been fighting or how much time passed between attacks. Early on in this 'second part' to their battle/test they had moved to the rooftops, as Jade still wanted to keep the people of the city safe and Nikko understood that she would be more willing to use her full power if they were not fighting in the streets. Many buildings had holes and other damage on their roof or top floors, several even had slices/chunks of them missing where one of the Dwarves attacks hadn't defended well enough, missed their intended target or been deflected. Despite them fighting quite intensely, neither had taken anything more than superficial cuts or damage.
The two were currently battling on top of a tall square-ish building with an odd-shaped hole in the middle. The roof was obviously a cafe that would have a very good view and was probably quite popular, it was currently closed and all the chairs were on the tables. A few lights could be seen through the windows on some of the lower floors but no one seemed to be on any of the top floors.
"Flowering Sword: Blossoming Thrust!" Standing on one of the tables near the edge of the building, Jade leaps to one slightly further in; that Nikko was standing on, and thrusts her sword as she does; hoping to use the momentum to make it harder for him to read the timing and therefore make it more difficult to block or dodge. Seeing her coming, he brings his short sword up just as she is range; pushing it up from the bottom and making it go over his head. Before she goes past him and lands, he turns on the spot and slashes towards her side.
Due to her sword being above her and being too large to be brought down to block his attack in time, the Revolutionary imbues invisible Armament Haki into her body. Although the damage is greatly reduced, his power is enough to send her flying across the cafe; several chairs go into the air from the impact or her hitting them as she goes. A table stops her, but is destroyed in the process; broken into a dozen or so pieces. Picking herself up and quickly moving the debris away, Jade keeps an eye on her opponent who had got off the table he was standing on and slowly walking towards her. The weapon at his side was pointed at the ground and still glowing faintly. After closing about half the distance, Nikko suddenly starts running and brings his sword up to around head height; he then swings it horizontally creating an air slash that cuts through chairs and tables as it flies towards the female Dwarf. Already prepared for an attack to be sent her way, Jade brings her sword up above her head and as if she had all the time in the world despite her opponent also still running towards her; slowly breathed in and out "Flowering Sword..." Moments pass and two chairs a few metres in front of her are slashed in half just before she brings the sword down to create her own flying slash "...Flash Flower" A much larger and slightly zig-zagging blade of air devours the short distance between the two air slashes, and then the smaller one is destroyed as if it wasn't even there.
The sudden appearance and power of the Warrant Officer's slash catches Nikko so off guard that he slows down in surprise. The large air blade moves in a Z-shape as it powers towards him, destroying several more chairs and tables as it came. By the time he had snapped out of his surprise, the slash was already way over halfway towards him; as such he did one of the few options left. He leaps into the air, high enough that the slash goes past him without hitting his legs. Seeing an opportunity, Jade follows the same path her slash took, using the debris and intact tables/chairs to hide her whereabouts from the airborne Nikko. Knowing that she was probably coming to try and attack him before he lands, the young boy points the sword to the sky and uses the same technique from earlier; blasting a large ball into the sky that then breaks apart to rain down projectiles. Unlike the previous 'rain', this one didn't cover as large an area but the amount of projectiles was the same; causing it to be more intense and powerful. The Dwarf had seen what he was doing and had thought up a counter to the technique. Just before it broke apart, she took a stance with her sword held out to the side and then using her high strength swung herself around hard enough to create a small tornado. The projectiles, which were starting to reach the rooftop, were suddenly whisked away and pulled into the twister; being destroyed by the pressure inside it. Having landed, Nikko could only watch as most of the 'rain' was either destroyed by the tornado itself or sent off target by the wind, causing damage to other parts of the roof or the building below.
As she slowed down, the tornado stayed around for a bit before disappearing; Jade taking the time to recover from spinning so much. Looking around for Nikko, she found him not far away with a neutral stance and no signs of preparing an attack or looking for an opening.
"Tell me Jade, do you seek power?" He suddenly breaks the silence they have had since they started their 'real' fight with a question. Although his expression was casual, Jade could see his eyes was intensely observing her; however it didnt seem to be for signs of her attacking but rather it felt like he was looking at her soul.
The Revolutionary also adopted a more neutral stance before answering "...No I don't seek power. Even if I was weak I would still try to do the same things I am doing now, but I wouldn't go looking for something to make me stronger even if I knew it would help me change the world"
The mysterious figure took his time time to contemplate her answer "Do you not like being strong?"
Putting her sword in to the ground at her feet, Jade leaned on it slightly "I don't have an answer for that, or at least not the words to describe it well enough. The world runs on strength but I have seen places where its not necessary at all and in fact they are probably better off because they are weak." She pauses for a few seconds "Power is an addiction, no matter how much you got its not enough as there is always someone stronger than you. So you seek out more to try and reach your goal or protect your ideals, but lose yourself in the process; becoming reliant on it and then when you are beaten or lose it; you can't go back to what you were before."
Obviously not expecting this kind of answer or possibly not expecting her to have a thorough, Nikko doesn't say anything in reply for a few minutes. He looks across the city in the distance and then looks back at the Dwarf "I think I understand why your mind looks like this now"
The air seems to somehow change slightly and wondering if that plus the words he just spoke means she passed, Jade asks him a question "Is this the end of the test?"
A second sword suddenly appears in his left hand, although it doesn't glow like the first one. Holding them both out horizontally just above his shoulders, Nikko slightly smiles "No" As soon as she saw movement, something like a sixth sense made her take her sword out of the ground and be on guard.
However he didn't attack her and instead slashed at the ground beneath and around him. The cafe seemed to shift slightly before suddenly everything started to slide and the 'ground' behind Jade started rising upwards. The young boy had slashed the parts of the building that connected it all together and the entire top part was now starting to fall. Seemingly unaffected by gravity and the roof falling, Nikko ran towards her and slashed downwards with both weapons. Unable to keep her balance and grip on the moving floor, the Warrant Officer let herself fall; which made her roll past him and land on a section that was kind of upright. Getting to her feet, Jade brought her sword up just in time to block a downwards diagonal strike from his right sword which for some reason was now not glowing.
Realsing just in time that he had switched the hands his weapons was in, the Dwarf was somehow prepared when a blinding light appeared just below her face; Nikko having put his left sword in a position where it would shine up through the space between her sword and body. With her eyes closed and Observation Haki activated, Jade also turned her sword black to help gather enough power to push him away while also fighting the gravity trying to pull her off her feet and the debris falling around them. The ground below them seemed to give away and they were suddenly freefalling through the hole in the middle of the building towards the lower half of it below them.
Still somewhat blinded and with debris and large parts of the building also falling with her, Jade senses something coming towards her from above; Nikko with his two swords imbued with Armament Haki.
Name: Flowering Sword: Blossoming Thrust (Blossoming Hardened Thrust with Haki)
DPR: C
Requirements: 31 mastery, 21 Movement Speed and 11 Strength
Description: a thrust that strikes with hard to read timing
Name: Flowering Blade: Flash Flower (Flashing Flower with Haki)
DPR: A
Requirements: 81 mastery, 71 strength
Description: Sends out a zig-zagging air slash of considerable power, its movement is erratic making it hard to follow slightly
Name: Sunshine: Light Rain
DPR: B (Each Hit)
Requirements: 71 mastery
20% charge at 71 mastery
10% at 91 mastery and above
Description: firing a blast of light into the air, it bursts into many rays of light that rains down doing damage to anything they hit.
Name: Flowering Blade: Soaring Lotus (Soaring Black Lotus with Haki)
DPR: A
Requirements: 81 mastery, 61 strength, 61 movement speed
Description: creates a tornado that slashes and blows away target(s) by swinging the sword and spinning slightly
DPR: C
Requirements: 31 mastery, 21 Movement Speed and 11 Strength
Description: a thrust that strikes with hard to read timing
Name: Flowering Blade: Flash Flower (Flashing Flower with Haki)
DPR: A
Requirements: 81 mastery, 71 strength
Description: Sends out a zig-zagging air slash of considerable power, its movement is erratic making it hard to follow slightly
Name: Sunshine: Light Rain
DPR: B (Each Hit)
Requirements: 71 mastery
20% charge at 71 mastery
10% at 91 mastery and above
Description: firing a blast of light into the air, it bursts into many rays of light that rains down doing damage to anything they hit.
Name: Flowering Blade: Soaring Lotus (Soaring Black Lotus with Haki)
DPR: A
Requirements: 81 mastery, 61 strength, 61 movement speed
Description: creates a tornado that slashes and blows away target(s) by swinging the sword and spinning slightly
- Messages
- 6,643
- Reaction score
- 23,605
- Points
- 21,400
- Salty Doubloons
- 11,711
Jade's POV
The wreckage of the top floor of the odd shaped building continued to fall, small parts of it was starting to rain down on the 'roof' of the lower section but wasn't causing much overall damage. The two sides of it was somewhat struggling to remain upright but was succeeding currently, the sudden impact and loss of the upper floors making them start crack and strain. They were also a bit lopsided as the side closest to Nikko's 'attack' had lost several more floors than the other one.
Jade was unaware of any of this however as she had to concentrate on something else. She would probably survive the fall due to her sheer durability, and the fact it was happening somewhere in her mind, but it would definitely hurt and cause an injury of some kind. But even that wasn't the immediate concern, as she had a Dwarf with two swords hurtling towards her from above. Somehow he had given himself a lot more momentum than her so he would catch up to her very quickly, and probably go through her as the difference between their two speeds was that large.
Looking around, the Revolutionary could see lots of debris around her but they were either not really large enough to be of use or too far away. While thinking of other ways to avoid or stop his attack she comes to a bit of a realization I'm going to have to be aggressive, I can only counter his attacks with attacks of my own until we are on solid ground again. Now she had arrived to this conclusion, she makes the grip on her sword tighter and looks up at her opponent.
Nikko's POV
This wasn't exactly going how Nikko had imagined his first 'host' in many centuries going, but he wasn't going to stop just yet. I have tested her power and skill, I have seen her resolve and ideals; all that is left is her aptitude and luck. I doubt this final section will cause her to pass but I don't exactly want to go dormant so soon after waking and I am not just going to say she has succeeded when she hasn't really ticked off many of my criteria; plus she did say she doesn't even want to use my abilities if I don't stop killing people who aren't even real. Hopefully she at least uses me as a sword when she fails, just so I can see other places again...
The Spirit didn't actually know his own origins, it was just a normal sword until he 'woke up' after being used by various people and slowly developing an ability, which also eventually allowed him to change the weapon form so he could change to best suit the people who used him (although he couldn't change it once it was set). Nikko wasn't even sure what he was. Was he the weapon itself? Something inside it? A ghost that attached itself to it? Or was he 'Haki' from all the people who have used it becoming sentient?
Most of his hosts had either been bloodthirsty people who loved to kill or loyal warriors who would do anything to reach their goals. He enjoyed being wielded by both, for very different reasons.
All of this and more was going around his head as a charged towards the female Dwarf. But something appeared in the way before he reached her, a barrage of air slashes.
Jade's POV
The Warrant Officer hadn't been sure how easy it would be to create air slashes while in midair, but she had managed to create a good number of them. After seeing his power she knew they wouldn't be strong enough to work normally, but they might be able to do something in this situation. Jade didn't just want to wait for him to come to her and was hoping the number would make up for how weak they were, plus his momentum would probably help counter this as well.
She watches as he decides to just put his black swords infront of him in an X shape to block them. However the wind is quite strong and makes him have to use a large amount of effort to do this, which delays Nikko enough that one of them gets through and slashes his forearm; although it doesn't seem to bleed despite being cut quite deep. The others either miss him or hit one of his two swords and dissipate. Her opponent is slowed down from the air slashes force hitting him, but not a massive amount.
Moving his weapons to point towards her, Nikko seems to be aiming to skewer her. But Jade had already thought of a sort of counter, she manages to maneuver her body somewhat to the side so he has less of a target to hit and points her own sword up at him. Due to her weapon being much longer, he will end up impaling himself first and she gives herself the best possible chance of not being hit by his own swords if he doesn't stop enough for her to be out of range of them.
Seeing that he will have to take her attack and without any guarantee to stab her, Nikko pulls his swords back (they also slowly lost the imbued armament Haki) and spreads his body out wide. The sudden increase in surface area causes him to slow down dramatically and he ends up moving in the air enough that he is no longer directly above her. Bringing her own weapon back to a more neutral position, and battling the wind to do so; Jade is nearly hit by a piece of debris that had come towards her after it bounced off the side of the building that had somehow ended up much closer to her during the time she was distracted by her opponent.
Using the weight difference between herself and her large sword, she manages to control her fall enough that she heads towards the windows flying past her. Once close enough, she silently apologies to anyone close to the outside of the building and plunges her sword into the side of it. Suddenly being jerked upwards, Jade nearly gets whiplash from the shift in momentum and her weapon slashes through windows and brick as it helps slow her down.
After avoiding most of the glass and shards of stone that comes towards her, she manages to grind to a halt; dangling from her sword handle. Pulling herself up to instead stand on her weapon, which is stabbed so far in that it barely moves; the Revolutionary looks at all the debris still falling. Trying to find her opponent, she finds that he is nowhere in sight and ends up looking downwards. Jade had ended up on a floor that was only 3 from the spot where the odd shape started and could see that most of the lower structure that was in the way of the remnants of the upper floors had been smashed and was barely standing themselves. A large part of the roof hits it as she watches, quickly destroying what looks like a conference room and the rooms underneath it.
A semi-bright light suddenly catches her eye and due to it not blinding her, she risks quickly looking at it. The light seems to be coming from a small ball that was heading towards her from above, it wasn't going very fast and didn't seem to be like the concussive blast or the blinding light he had used earlier. Jade didn't really think it was that big of a threat but because she knew it had to be one of his abilities, she was still on guard. Instead of looking directly at it because it might suddenly blind her, the Dwarf looks away and uses her Observation Haki to 'see' it instead; which seems to work fine even though they are in her mind. Thinking about that too much was going to give her a headache so she concentrates on just the ball. Feeling slightly exposed due to her positioning, she hangs from the closest window and starts pulling her sword out of the wall.
Just as it comes out, Nikko either makes the ball attack or it gets in range to activate. Firing a short beam of laser-like light at her, Jade has to jump backwards into the building to avoid it; luckily it wasn't as fast as light itself so could react to it while 'watching' with her Haki. The ball flies in after her and she turns around to start running through the corridor she found herself in. It fires again at her and takes out the wall to her right. Deactivating her Color of Observation and now holding her sword in her left hand, the Revolutionary suddenly changes direction and heads into one of the rooms on the left of the corridor.
The room was completely empty but had closed doors to two adjacent windows. Turning around, Jade brings her sword up and holds it in two hands in her normal stance; preparing to unleash an air slash. As the ball floats into the room, it is quickly destroyed by the resulting arc of light.
Before she can relax, one of the doors suddenly splinters and a blast of concussive light brightens the room and then dissipates when it hits the wall opposite of where the door used to be. The brown haired Dwarf runs into the room and is already preparing an attack with his two weapons, but the Warrant Officer was ready so their swords clash together in a large clang of metal. This time it seems she is stronger as he is pushed back a bit when they try to overpower each other. Nkko immediately recovers however and crouches down low to attack her lower body with his longer sword.
She sidesteps and places her sword downwards in to block the follow up slash, one hand still on the handle at the top and the other bracing the blade. Her opponent then basically jumps backwards and lands with his legs on the wall. He then pushes off with enough force to crack the entire wall and hits her 'sword shield' with his flying body. The force knocks it out of the way and sends her flying backwards. As she stops her momentum by dragging her feet on the ground, Nikko gets up from where he landed with a flip and then pulls his swords in close, one horizontal in his front and the other also horizontal but pointing the opposite way at his back. He then spins similar to when Jade created the tornado but only turns 360 degrees and then stopping. This creates a large circular air slash that quickly expands outwards towards Jade.
Holding her sword up to the sky, she knows she doesn't have enough time to create an air slash of her own to meet it; so has to hit it directly with her sword instead. Just as its about to hit her, she brings her sword down and slashes through it; destroying a small section of it and allowing it to pass by without it damaging her. The room and entire floor wasn't as lucky as it cuts through all sides of it and keeps going, essentially decapitating this entire side of the building.
The effect was immediate, the entire room shook and then the roof partly caves in due to various parts of the upper sections collapsing. Using her small size to avoid the falling debris, Jade keeps an eye on Nikko; who was doing the same thing a short distance away.
Something heavy must have landed on the section above them as a very large chunk of the roof suddenly starts to fall. Deciding that she needed to get out of this room, Jade heads to where the door that wasn't destroyed should be; but finds it blocked by large amounts of debris. Not having time to clear it, the Dwarf takes a bit of a risk and just charges at the closest section of the wall that wasn't blocked by anything. Holding her sword horizontally by her head, she spears through the wall and ends up back in the corridor.
Which wasn't much better as half of it had already collapsed and the floor was starting to go as she stood and watched. A large crash coming from the room behind her signals that the entire roof has now fallen; which starts causing cracks in the wall and the part that she is standing on. Jade runs further into the corridor, going around piles of debris and jumping over holes in the floor.
The entire building starts to shake while she is in mid-air so she lands slightly awkwardly, having to stagger forwards a fair distance and nearly tripping over something before getting her balance back. Navigating the hallway much slower due to everything now shaking, she somehow manages to stay upright when an explosion happening somewhere above intensifies this quaking. I need to get out of this building before it starts to fall over. Making her way through the corridor, she takes several detours through some rooms and ends up going through parts of multiple different hallways; most without much flooring. One of them has a hole that seems to go to the bottom of the building but everything around it (and down it) is unstable, much more of the various floors she can see actually fall as she watches. Deciding to find an alternate way even though the shaking has mostly stopped, she jumps down several floors via a much safer way down; a collapsed floor that has created a sort of ramp, and a smaller more stable hole.
Sophie's POV
Standing at the front of the ship, Sophie watches the waves part before it; she was getting a few rare minutes of peace. I wonder if Jade is actually doing paperwork, that would be a first. A light breeze ruffles her hair and a few bird fly over the boat.
A member of the crew wanders towards her and stops to her left "We are about to enter the waters close to Baltigo"
"Start the necessary procedures and slow our speed down" Sophie turns around and looks towards the Crow's Nest "Keep an eye out for any other ships and follow the usual plan if one is spotted" Jade's right hand woman didn't really need to give these orders at this point, as most of the people on the Sea Pixie has been through this dozens of times; but it was good practice to remind people of certain procedures every now and again.
The crewmember heads off to give her order to the relevant people and she follows him after a few more minutes. What had been a fairly quiet deck with people sitting around and talking had suddenly transformed into a busy space; with many of them now running, climbing/tying ropes or shouting orders.
After making sure everything was fine, Sophie heads towards her leader's office; under the quarterdeck near the back of the ship. Since they were getting close to their destination, she thought it was about time for the Dwarf to stop doing work so she could have a break before they reached Baltigo.
Ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign on it, she knocks on the door. Receiving no answer, she just enters the room "Jade?". Seeing that she wasn't sat at the desk and all the paper looked to be in the same place, Sophie looks around the rest of the room.
It takes her a few moments to find her, the Warrant Officer blending into the chair due to their small size and the fact she wasn't moving. Jade's large sword (well large compared to her body anyway) was across her lap and she had her eyes closed.
Shaking her head, Sophie walks towards her and starts getting ready to wake her up "I knew you wasn't actually going to do some paperwork, but I didn't want to to distrust your word so I gave you the benefit of the doubt..." She trails off as she starts to notice something.
There was something off about the room, like it was full of pressure and static air. Looking around again, the lavender haired girl couldn't see anything different in the room so was confused at where this feeling was coming from. Eventually she realizes its coming from her leader.
Taking a closer look at the Dwarf, Sophie notices her expression isn't her sleeping one; instead its one of slight concentration. Is she mediating? I have never seen her do that before and she has never mentioned doing it. Her sword is in her lap so maybe she is doing something like image training. Due to her family, Sophie herself had done quite a bit of mediating as part of her swordship training; although she hadn't really done much recently. She doesn't notice that the sword looked very different compared to the one they had been using for years.
Leaving Jade alone, she leaves the room again and makes sure people still know not to disturb her; telling them to come to her instead if they need something that requires a high rank.
Jade's POV
Wandering and looking for a window or even just a hole to the outside; it was only her battle hardened instincts that allowed her to dodge the sudden slash that came from her left. Her opponent had somehow got on the same floor and in front of her, then hid himself behind a collapsed wall until she reached him. Bringing her sword up to meet his low second strike, she quickly realizes its a feint and pivots to try and avoid the high slash he changes it into. Due to her positioning and not being fast realizing he was doing a feint, she is hit by the attack and sent flying into a wall. As she lands, the floor under them gives way and lands on the area below; that also collapses. Falling through several more floors, Jade gets backs up into a fighting stance. Hardening and preparing to use her sword to do a sort of V-shape slash, the Warrant Officer quickly covers the distance between them and unleashes her attack "Flowering Sword: Twin Black Thorns!".
Nikko tries blocking with his weapons but the female Dwarf's two slashes was too fast/strong and they both get through his guard. The first pushes him back slightly and the other knocks him off his feet into the air. He lands quite hard but quickly gets back up and seems to be about to do an attack of his own but their surroundings start shaking again causing the roof above them and the floor below them to both fall. Doing a sort of flip in mid-air, Jade lands and immediately starts running to avoid being hit by all the things falling towards her. She heads away from where her opponent should be and towards what she think is the edge of the building.
Before she can reach it, a blast of light flies just past her head and half-blinds her. Closing her eyes so she can concentrate better, the Revolutionary activates her Color of Observation and 'looks' at Nikko and her surroundings. In front of her was a window that had become crooked in its frame, to her right was a barely standing wall and walking towards her from behind was her tester. Just standing there with her back to him, she allows him to get close and watches as he brings his left longer sword up to slash her neck and has his smaller one across his chest to protect him when she tries something. Breathing in and out slowly, Jade allows him to start bringing his sword down about half way before making her move.
Using her left elbow and forearm, she brings it up to meet his arm and knocks it off course, causing his slash to miss her and take him slightly off balance as he wasn't expecting her to do something like use her arm to stop it; especially from that position. She brings her own sword up into a stabbing stance, sword horizontal and pulled back with her two hands on the handle. The Dwarf then spun on the spot with her left foot out slightly, catching his own right foot and causing him to be pulled to that side; opening up his stance and causing his short weapon to no longer be blocking his entire chest. "Flowering Sword..." just as she ends up parallel to him with her body weight down low, she thrusts her weapon forward into his now exposed chest and then fully turns into the strike; giving it even more power "...Pierced Oak"
Although he resisted it for a few seconds, Nikko was then sent flying into the unstable wall; a large mark now on his chest where her strike hit. The Dwarf lands in a heap on the floor and the wall then collapses onto him, semi-burying him in bricks.
Standing up right, Jade takes a more casual stance but keeps an eye on the head she can still somewhat see sticking out of the pile that used to be a wall. That wouldn't of killed him, if he can even die here as it is my mind. The last attack I hit him with barely did anything even with Armament Haki so this shouldn't affect him much more. As if on cue, the bricks suddenly scatter as he uses his strength to push them off and instantly jump back to his feet. For a brief moment he looks at her with a frown and then it suddenly transforms into a sinister smile.
Nikko holds up his main sword in a familiar stance, but this time its pointed more towards Jade than the sky. Is he doing the technique that causes projectiles to rain down? In this closed space I will be unable to deal with them at all, in fact they will probably all just hit me as soon as they are unleashed All the ways she could think of how to stop it had problems, mainly because he had already formed the ball of light that shatters into the rain of light and would probably just hit her with it point blank even if she got close before he 'fires' it.
So Jade does one of the few options she has left, she jumps out the window.
Nikko's POV
If someone was watching the collapsing building, they might be able to spot a very small figure falling from the third floor; although they would need superhuman sight to do so. A few seconds later and clearly visible was the same floor being lit up and then exploding outwards, taking out a massive section of it and finally causing the structure to tip over.
The hotel was a shell of its former self, about 20% of it had been destroyed when Nikko had broke the top. Another large percentage immediately fell off or collapsed when he cut it in half. And about 80% of the remaining structure demolished itself over the next 30 minutes of their battle, with the final parts still standing now falling after his last attack. The area surrounding it was littered with debris from it, to the point that it looked like a battlefield.
Walking to the broken window, the Spirit casually watched Jade fall; even though the part of the building he was in was now rapidly approaching the floor. Barely affected by this momentum, he defies gravity by staying on the ground of the 3rd floor and then steps out just before it hits the path in front of the once luxurious hotel. Slowly walking to where the girl taking his test should be, Nikko slightly whistles; seemingly ignoring the loud sounds coming from behind and the rubble falling all around him.
Somehow seeing the Dwarf standing on a patch of grass a large distance from him to his left, he changes direction to walk directly towards her. While doing so, he takes note of how uninjured she is, as she sees to watch the building I had somewhat forgotten how naturally durable some races are, Dwarves must be one of them. Either that or she is just very powerful despite her young age; although that is probably to be expected based on how she seems to a decently high rank in a large organisation. Shame she failed, it would be nice to be used by a non-human for a change.
Nikko stops with a short gap between them and makes his presence known "Didn't want to risk riding the building all the way down?" He has a slightly jokey tone, similar to the one he used when first speaking to her. Like he had planned it, an incredibly loud crash happens behind him and reverberates around the area like thunder; the hotel had finished collapsing.
Jade looks away from the pile that used to be something very tall, towards him. Even though he is some kind of Spirit and therefore not really alive, a jolt goes through him as he sees her expression. The best description of it he could up with was anger mixed with disgust.
"Despite what I said earlier, you had no regard for the people of this city and its buildings. There could have been hundreds of people in the hotel and many more in the surrounding area; and you have just killed them all!" As her eyes flash with anger, the brown haired boy notices a very small 'spark' coming off her sword; which he ignores as its likely just Armament Haki. "This is my mind so you should respect everything in it as if it was an extension of myself; even if its just because you want me to use you if I pass the test." Jade swings her sword slightly so its pointed half towards the remains of the hotel "At this point you could have an ability that rivals a Logia Devil Fruit and I wouldn't care; you have clearly shown you do not have the same ideals as me and at the very least do not mind doing a lot of collateral damage in a fight. No matter what you think, for me this test is over"
After just standing there blinking (more figuratively than literally) and opening his mouth to reply, the Revolutionary Army member continues, not giving him a chance to reply "I think I have also realized what my mindscape represents." Nikko closes his mouth, curious what she will answer with "It represents the end of my dream, a city of peace; with no violence and everyone living in harmony. Possibly even an entire world without the corrupt government and evil pirates."
Her large sword turns black as night and several small bolts of lightning comes off it and Jade's body; her face then hardens into an expression of seriousness "But just because I'm done with the test, doesn't mean this fight is over; I need to drill into you why your actions were wrong and make you see that you shouldn't hurt people, you should protect them" Faster than he can react to her statement, the small girl covers the distance between them and was already swinging her sword in a diagonal slash "Flowering Blade: Lucky Five Leafed Clover!"
Although he quickly brings up his one sword to meet her attack, she had already hit him and was following up with a second, third, fourth and fifth attack; creating an almost clover-like pattern in the air with her sword swings. Due to the power of all the sudden attacks, Nikko was hit into the air and flipped several times; crashing about 10 metres away from where he originally stood. Jade pulls her sword back and gets into her usual stance, steeled to deal with whatever he responds with.
Staggering to his feet, the Spirit feels something off about the weapon that tried to meet her first attack. Looking down at it, he is very surprised when it suddenly ends up disappearing Impossible...That was created by me in this mindscape, it can't be destroyed unless I want it to be; and it certainly can't disappear like that. He looks up at the girl in the battle stance Unless that spark and black lightning was... His eyes widen in understanding Well that is unexpected and changes my mind considerably.
Jade's POV
Is he not going to attack? I guess I did destroy one of his weapons so he is probably thinking of a new approach. Jade doesn't relax despite her opponent not moving Although if I am remembering correctly, he said he could create basic items like that quite easily so he should be able to just recreate it. But maybe he is trying to use that to his advantage and he will recreate it after an attack or something, trying to surprise me. She is brought out of her thoughts and caught somewhat off-guard when Nikko starts laughing.
"There is no need to continue, Jade Belle. You have passed my test" No longer laughing but still smiling, he spreads his hands in a manner that shows he no longer has a weapon in either hand. The other sword somehow disappearing while she was concentrating on watching for sudden attacks or really any sort of movement. "It wasn't exactly the way most of my users have completed it, but I guess that doesn't really matter."
Taking a few moments to try and figure out if this could be a trick, she comes to the conclusion that it is genuine. "But I said I was done with the test and wasn't going to use your abilities" She relaxes into a neutral stance, but keeps her two hands on her sword.
Nikko waves his hand in a slightly dismissive way "That was one of the reasons you passed. The test is just as much about character as it is combat." He pauses slightly before continuing "In fact your personality and ideals are actually more important than how you handle a fight."
"But that still doesn't mean I will use you, I could easily just place you in an armory or throw you in the ocean". Although Jade was fairly serious, the other Dwarf just smiled
"If this trial has taught me anything, its that you won't do that. You are a kind heart girl who is trying her best to create a better world; I am a special sword that can help bridge the gap between you and the powerful individuals in your way. Plus its not in your personality to just abandon people, especially someone like me who is just following their nature and isn't hurting anyone." He then adds to the last statement, seemingly expecting her to say something "Anyone actually alive or real that is"
"That doesn't mean I will use your abilities, as you have proven you don't care about hurting people so I will never know if I can trust you or the powers I can use" The Revolutionary wasn't going to back down yet as the Spirit hadn't proved he wouldn't just try to hurt people as soon as he was allowed to leave, or however her using his ability would work.
Nikko holds up his hands in a show of surrender "I will now follow your lead. Since you don't like hurting people, I won't either. You want to create a world without violence? I will help as much as I can. My ability is yours to use however you like. I cannot leave the weapon so you don't have to worry about me breaking my word and have to protect people from me."
Jade finally sheaves her sword, for the last time with this blade as she had left the real version on Drum "I'll take that as some sort of vow, so I guess I can accept you and your abilities" She smiles at her new partner.
The 'boy' lightly chuckles "Usually people are begging me to accept them when they fail, so its nice to be on the opposite side for a change even though you passed."
"Can you tell me what your ability actually is now? Or do I have to try and work that out?" The Warrant Officer had a few ideas but nothing definitive.
"Don't take it personally that you never figured it out, about half of my users never realized what it is; probably because its a bit abstract." Holding out his hand with the palm facing towards the sky, it starts to glow "My blade absorbs light, mostly from the sun; which I can then use to create blinding lights, projectiles and even semi-autonomous balls of light that can attack targets independently"
Jade takes a few moments to process this information "That seems like quite a few different abilities"
"True, but they are all derived from the main one, the absorption of light. And I couldn't do them all immediately, I have slowly acquired them over many years; helped by my users" Seeing the expression of slight confusion on her face, he continues "I started off only being able to absorb a small amount of light and then using it to glow to try and blind people; but could only use it like once before needing to recharge. Then I became sort of more efficient, allowing me to blind people more times without requiring the re-absorption of light. One day when my user was losing a fight, he was able to use the light to fire a sort of concussive blast; and overtime that ability also became better. I acquired the other abilities through similar circumstances. Many people have also used them in various special ways, such as firing a smaller blast from both ends of the spear I was at the time; instead of one big one."
"So you could actually use it even more ways you just have discovered them yet?" She was still trying to come to terms with all the new options she already had, let alone the potential for even more.
"Don't get ahead of yourself just yet, Miss Belle. My users have to get used to using me and the various abilities for quite some time before there is even a chance of 'discovering' a new ability. But I think we should leave this topic for another time, despite this only happening in your mind it will still exhaust you physically" Nikko starts walking towards her
"I don't feel that tired.." The Dwarf moves her arms about a bit and does a few short tests with her fingers & legs.
"You won't feel it until you leave, it would be a bit odd for you to get tired inside your own mind." He stops infront of her as she stands back upright.
"How do I leave? I doubt I can just close my eyes like I did to get here" Jade looks around a bit but the surroundings are as solid as they have been since she entered.
"Once we have finalized our sort of partnership, you will leave and wake up back in the real world" He holds his hand out "A handshake will do for the finalizing, I don't need anything complicated now we have come to an agreement"
She holds her own out as well and shakes his hand. Immediately after, the world seems to blur and things start disappearing. A white void descends on them from above, swallowing the tall buildings still standing near them first and then pulls in the large piles of rubble and debris. Nikko himself doesn't change until the last few moments, stepping back and eventually being the only thing in the white space aside from Jade herself.
"I hope you are looking forward to working with me just as much as I am to work with you, Jade. And I am not just saying that as its been who knows how long since I was last out in the world; I really am interested in you and where your dream will lead" She barely hears the last part as she can feel herself waking up. "Will you conquer the world if it means saving it? Or will you choose your own path...One without rulers"
Before she can try and process what he means, everything goes fully white...
...And she wakes up in her office a few moments later. The sword in her lap seems to faintly glow and then returns to its normal state; making her know that it was no dream even though there was no way she would think that. Standing up and motioning to put the weapon in the scabbard on her back, Jade is suddenly hit by a wave of tiredness. And hunger, but mostly fatigue.
Managing to shrug it off, she was mostly okay when she opened the door and stepped out onto the deck. Greeting and nodding to a few people, she made her way to where she could see Sophie talking to their head navigator; James.
Deciding to keep it a secret for now, Jade wasn't sure if Sophie came into the office or not; but knew she wouldn't believe she had actually been doing paperwork; so was trying to come up with an excuse when she reached her right hand man. "Hi Sophie, everything is going well I trust?"
"Everything is going fine, I was about to come to get you as we are about to dock" Sophie turns to look down at her.
The Dwarf hadn't actually realized they were at Baltigo as she had been concentrating on her best friend. She steals a glance off to the side of the ship and could easily make out the distinctive white soil that made up the Army's home.
"I'm feeling a bit peckish so I'm going to go to the kitchen before we get off. Don't fancy having to deal with the cafeteria as soon as we have arrived" Hoping to use the time to try and finish coming up with an excuse, Jade's plan was ruined when Sophie said she could do with a drink so was going to join her in her visit.
Seeing that everyone was hard at work preparing to dock, the two of them head towards the kitchen. Neither of them say anything as they walk, just enjoying the company and quiet. The galley was basically empty when they reached it as most of the staff that worked here had other jobs elsewhere on the ship; especially when they were about to arrive at their destination. There was however a couple of cooks taking inventory and making sure the food was secure, but they just wave at the two high ranking Revolutionary members and give them some space.
"You never told me you mediated" Sophie breaks the silence with a casual statement, although it confuses the Dwarf slightly.
Mediate? What does she mean...The only thing I can think of is that she came into the office and saw me sat on the chair and mistook it for mediation. Jade was standing on one of the counters, as she of course couldn't reach anything otherwise "Well I tried doing some of the paperwork but I couldn't concentrate. So I thought something like mediation might help since I used to see you do semi-often. Unfortunately I think I became to relaxed and fell asleep at one point, so I never ended up doing any work" Jade decides to just that as an excuse, as she wasn't going to come up with anything better if her right hand man had been in the office and seen her.
"If you aren't used to it then that can happen, you have to concentrate and relax at the same time; its all about balance and focus." Sophie pours herself a glass of water and leans on the same counter slightly "I'm sure I can find time to teach you the best method of doing it if you want."
Getting herself some grapes, she is a bit distracted by the conversation so doesn't notice some of the are a bit odd. "As long as you aren't making time for it, there is more important things than teaching me how to mediate"
"Worst case scenario you can just ask someone else, a lot of people at Baltigo probably know how to do it at least somewhat. Were you trying to do image training or just generally mediate?" She adds the last part after a bit of a pause.
After eating a few grapes, that were around the size of her hands; Jade replies "A bit of both. I probably should have only concentrated one thing at a time but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere so I kept trying new things and hoped they worked"
Sophie stops leaning on the counter and walks past her "Yeah that's defintley not how you are suppose to do it. But I think I will head back up and report to the dock-master now there shouldn't be many people trying to get off all at once" She checks with the cooks and then makes her way upstairs
Phew, think I somehow got away with it The Warrant Officer didn't really want to have her second in command be annoyed at her, especially since it was possible they could be sent on a mission very soon after arriving. Jade was so distracted by these thoughts that she doesn't even notice how bad the grape she was eating tasted until she swallowed it. Who bought these swirly grapes? And why are they white? Shrugging to herself, she throws them in the bin and gets some more; eating them as she heads towards the exit.
Despite the sudden cold wind that hits her when she comes above deck, Jade doesn't notice it at all.
Story Mission end
The wreckage of the top floor of the odd shaped building continued to fall, small parts of it was starting to rain down on the 'roof' of the lower section but wasn't causing much overall damage. The two sides of it was somewhat struggling to remain upright but was succeeding currently, the sudden impact and loss of the upper floors making them start crack and strain. They were also a bit lopsided as the side closest to Nikko's 'attack' had lost several more floors than the other one.
Jade was unaware of any of this however as she had to concentrate on something else. She would probably survive the fall due to her sheer durability, and the fact it was happening somewhere in her mind, but it would definitely hurt and cause an injury of some kind. But even that wasn't the immediate concern, as she had a Dwarf with two swords hurtling towards her from above. Somehow he had given himself a lot more momentum than her so he would catch up to her very quickly, and probably go through her as the difference between their two speeds was that large.
Looking around, the Revolutionary could see lots of debris around her but they were either not really large enough to be of use or too far away. While thinking of other ways to avoid or stop his attack she comes to a bit of a realization I'm going to have to be aggressive, I can only counter his attacks with attacks of my own until we are on solid ground again. Now she had arrived to this conclusion, she makes the grip on her sword tighter and looks up at her opponent.
Nikko's POV
This wasn't exactly going how Nikko had imagined his first 'host' in many centuries going, but he wasn't going to stop just yet. I have tested her power and skill, I have seen her resolve and ideals; all that is left is her aptitude and luck. I doubt this final section will cause her to pass but I don't exactly want to go dormant so soon after waking and I am not just going to say she has succeeded when she hasn't really ticked off many of my criteria; plus she did say she doesn't even want to use my abilities if I don't stop killing people who aren't even real. Hopefully she at least uses me as a sword when she fails, just so I can see other places again...
The Spirit didn't actually know his own origins, it was just a normal sword until he 'woke up' after being used by various people and slowly developing an ability, which also eventually allowed him to change the weapon form so he could change to best suit the people who used him (although he couldn't change it once it was set). Nikko wasn't even sure what he was. Was he the weapon itself? Something inside it? A ghost that attached itself to it? Or was he 'Haki' from all the people who have used it becoming sentient?
Most of his hosts had either been bloodthirsty people who loved to kill or loyal warriors who would do anything to reach their goals. He enjoyed being wielded by both, for very different reasons.
All of this and more was going around his head as a charged towards the female Dwarf. But something appeared in the way before he reached her, a barrage of air slashes.
Jade's POV
The Warrant Officer hadn't been sure how easy it would be to create air slashes while in midair, but she had managed to create a good number of them. After seeing his power she knew they wouldn't be strong enough to work normally, but they might be able to do something in this situation. Jade didn't just want to wait for him to come to her and was hoping the number would make up for how weak they were, plus his momentum would probably help counter this as well.
She watches as he decides to just put his black swords infront of him in an X shape to block them. However the wind is quite strong and makes him have to use a large amount of effort to do this, which delays Nikko enough that one of them gets through and slashes his forearm; although it doesn't seem to bleed despite being cut quite deep. The others either miss him or hit one of his two swords and dissipate. Her opponent is slowed down from the air slashes force hitting him, but not a massive amount.
Moving his weapons to point towards her, Nikko seems to be aiming to skewer her. But Jade had already thought of a sort of counter, she manages to maneuver her body somewhat to the side so he has less of a target to hit and points her own sword up at him. Due to her weapon being much longer, he will end up impaling himself first and she gives herself the best possible chance of not being hit by his own swords if he doesn't stop enough for her to be out of range of them.
Seeing that he will have to take her attack and without any guarantee to stab her, Nikko pulls his swords back (they also slowly lost the imbued armament Haki) and spreads his body out wide. The sudden increase in surface area causes him to slow down dramatically and he ends up moving in the air enough that he is no longer directly above her. Bringing her own weapon back to a more neutral position, and battling the wind to do so; Jade is nearly hit by a piece of debris that had come towards her after it bounced off the side of the building that had somehow ended up much closer to her during the time she was distracted by her opponent.
Using the weight difference between herself and her large sword, she manages to control her fall enough that she heads towards the windows flying past her. Once close enough, she silently apologies to anyone close to the outside of the building and plunges her sword into the side of it. Suddenly being jerked upwards, Jade nearly gets whiplash from the shift in momentum and her weapon slashes through windows and brick as it helps slow her down.
After avoiding most of the glass and shards of stone that comes towards her, she manages to grind to a halt; dangling from her sword handle. Pulling herself up to instead stand on her weapon, which is stabbed so far in that it barely moves; the Revolutionary looks at all the debris still falling. Trying to find her opponent, she finds that he is nowhere in sight and ends up looking downwards. Jade had ended up on a floor that was only 3 from the spot where the odd shape started and could see that most of the lower structure that was in the way of the remnants of the upper floors had been smashed and was barely standing themselves. A large part of the roof hits it as she watches, quickly destroying what looks like a conference room and the rooms underneath it.
A semi-bright light suddenly catches her eye and due to it not blinding her, she risks quickly looking at it. The light seems to be coming from a small ball that was heading towards her from above, it wasn't going very fast and didn't seem to be like the concussive blast or the blinding light he had used earlier. Jade didn't really think it was that big of a threat but because she knew it had to be one of his abilities, she was still on guard. Instead of looking directly at it because it might suddenly blind her, the Dwarf looks away and uses her Observation Haki to 'see' it instead; which seems to work fine even though they are in her mind. Thinking about that too much was going to give her a headache so she concentrates on just the ball. Feeling slightly exposed due to her positioning, she hangs from the closest window and starts pulling her sword out of the wall.
Just as it comes out, Nikko either makes the ball attack or it gets in range to activate. Firing a short beam of laser-like light at her, Jade has to jump backwards into the building to avoid it; luckily it wasn't as fast as light itself so could react to it while 'watching' with her Haki. The ball flies in after her and she turns around to start running through the corridor she found herself in. It fires again at her and takes out the wall to her right. Deactivating her Color of Observation and now holding her sword in her left hand, the Revolutionary suddenly changes direction and heads into one of the rooms on the left of the corridor.
The room was completely empty but had closed doors to two adjacent windows. Turning around, Jade brings her sword up and holds it in two hands in her normal stance; preparing to unleash an air slash. As the ball floats into the room, it is quickly destroyed by the resulting arc of light.
Before she can relax, one of the doors suddenly splinters and a blast of concussive light brightens the room and then dissipates when it hits the wall opposite of where the door used to be. The brown haired Dwarf runs into the room and is already preparing an attack with his two weapons, but the Warrant Officer was ready so their swords clash together in a large clang of metal. This time it seems she is stronger as he is pushed back a bit when they try to overpower each other. Nkko immediately recovers however and crouches down low to attack her lower body with his longer sword.
She sidesteps and places her sword downwards in to block the follow up slash, one hand still on the handle at the top and the other bracing the blade. Her opponent then basically jumps backwards and lands with his legs on the wall. He then pushes off with enough force to crack the entire wall and hits her 'sword shield' with his flying body. The force knocks it out of the way and sends her flying backwards. As she stops her momentum by dragging her feet on the ground, Nikko gets up from where he landed with a flip and then pulls his swords in close, one horizontal in his front and the other also horizontal but pointing the opposite way at his back. He then spins similar to when Jade created the tornado but only turns 360 degrees and then stopping. This creates a large circular air slash that quickly expands outwards towards Jade.
Holding her sword up to the sky, she knows she doesn't have enough time to create an air slash of her own to meet it; so has to hit it directly with her sword instead. Just as its about to hit her, she brings her sword down and slashes through it; destroying a small section of it and allowing it to pass by without it damaging her. The room and entire floor wasn't as lucky as it cuts through all sides of it and keeps going, essentially decapitating this entire side of the building.
The effect was immediate, the entire room shook and then the roof partly caves in due to various parts of the upper sections collapsing. Using her small size to avoid the falling debris, Jade keeps an eye on Nikko; who was doing the same thing a short distance away.
Something heavy must have landed on the section above them as a very large chunk of the roof suddenly starts to fall. Deciding that she needed to get out of this room, Jade heads to where the door that wasn't destroyed should be; but finds it blocked by large amounts of debris. Not having time to clear it, the Dwarf takes a bit of a risk and just charges at the closest section of the wall that wasn't blocked by anything. Holding her sword horizontally by her head, she spears through the wall and ends up back in the corridor.
Which wasn't much better as half of it had already collapsed and the floor was starting to go as she stood and watched. A large crash coming from the room behind her signals that the entire roof has now fallen; which starts causing cracks in the wall and the part that she is standing on. Jade runs further into the corridor, going around piles of debris and jumping over holes in the floor.
The entire building starts to shake while she is in mid-air so she lands slightly awkwardly, having to stagger forwards a fair distance and nearly tripping over something before getting her balance back. Navigating the hallway much slower due to everything now shaking, she somehow manages to stay upright when an explosion happening somewhere above intensifies this quaking. I need to get out of this building before it starts to fall over. Making her way through the corridor, she takes several detours through some rooms and ends up going through parts of multiple different hallways; most without much flooring. One of them has a hole that seems to go to the bottom of the building but everything around it (and down it) is unstable, much more of the various floors she can see actually fall as she watches. Deciding to find an alternate way even though the shaking has mostly stopped, she jumps down several floors via a much safer way down; a collapsed floor that has created a sort of ramp, and a smaller more stable hole.
Sophie's POV
Standing at the front of the ship, Sophie watches the waves part before it; she was getting a few rare minutes of peace. I wonder if Jade is actually doing paperwork, that would be a first. A light breeze ruffles her hair and a few bird fly over the boat.
A member of the crew wanders towards her and stops to her left "We are about to enter the waters close to Baltigo"
"Start the necessary procedures and slow our speed down" Sophie turns around and looks towards the Crow's Nest "Keep an eye out for any other ships and follow the usual plan if one is spotted" Jade's right hand woman didn't really need to give these orders at this point, as most of the people on the Sea Pixie has been through this dozens of times; but it was good practice to remind people of certain procedures every now and again.
The crewmember heads off to give her order to the relevant people and she follows him after a few more minutes. What had been a fairly quiet deck with people sitting around and talking had suddenly transformed into a busy space; with many of them now running, climbing/tying ropes or shouting orders.
After making sure everything was fine, Sophie heads towards her leader's office; under the quarterdeck near the back of the ship. Since they were getting close to their destination, she thought it was about time for the Dwarf to stop doing work so she could have a break before they reached Baltigo.
Ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign on it, she knocks on the door. Receiving no answer, she just enters the room "Jade?". Seeing that she wasn't sat at the desk and all the paper looked to be in the same place, Sophie looks around the rest of the room.
It takes her a few moments to find her, the Warrant Officer blending into the chair due to their small size and the fact she wasn't moving. Jade's large sword (well large compared to her body anyway) was across her lap and she had her eyes closed.
Shaking her head, Sophie walks towards her and starts getting ready to wake her up "I knew you wasn't actually going to do some paperwork, but I didn't want to to distrust your word so I gave you the benefit of the doubt..." She trails off as she starts to notice something.
There was something off about the room, like it was full of pressure and static air. Looking around again, the lavender haired girl couldn't see anything different in the room so was confused at where this feeling was coming from. Eventually she realizes its coming from her leader.
Taking a closer look at the Dwarf, Sophie notices her expression isn't her sleeping one; instead its one of slight concentration. Is she mediating? I have never seen her do that before and she has never mentioned doing it. Her sword is in her lap so maybe she is doing something like image training. Due to her family, Sophie herself had done quite a bit of mediating as part of her swordship training; although she hadn't really done much recently. She doesn't notice that the sword looked very different compared to the one they had been using for years.
Leaving Jade alone, she leaves the room again and makes sure people still know not to disturb her; telling them to come to her instead if they need something that requires a high rank.
Jade's POV
Wandering and looking for a window or even just a hole to the outside; it was only her battle hardened instincts that allowed her to dodge the sudden slash that came from her left. Her opponent had somehow got on the same floor and in front of her, then hid himself behind a collapsed wall until she reached him. Bringing her sword up to meet his low second strike, she quickly realizes its a feint and pivots to try and avoid the high slash he changes it into. Due to her positioning and not being fast realizing he was doing a feint, she is hit by the attack and sent flying into a wall. As she lands, the floor under them gives way and lands on the area below; that also collapses. Falling through several more floors, Jade gets backs up into a fighting stance. Hardening and preparing to use her sword to do a sort of V-shape slash, the Warrant Officer quickly covers the distance between them and unleashes her attack "Flowering Sword: Twin Black Thorns!".
Nikko tries blocking with his weapons but the female Dwarf's two slashes was too fast/strong and they both get through his guard. The first pushes him back slightly and the other knocks him off his feet into the air. He lands quite hard but quickly gets back up and seems to be about to do an attack of his own but their surroundings start shaking again causing the roof above them and the floor below them to both fall. Doing a sort of flip in mid-air, Jade lands and immediately starts running to avoid being hit by all the things falling towards her. She heads away from where her opponent should be and towards what she think is the edge of the building.
Before she can reach it, a blast of light flies just past her head and half-blinds her. Closing her eyes so she can concentrate better, the Revolutionary activates her Color of Observation and 'looks' at Nikko and her surroundings. In front of her was a window that had become crooked in its frame, to her right was a barely standing wall and walking towards her from behind was her tester. Just standing there with her back to him, she allows him to get close and watches as he brings his left longer sword up to slash her neck and has his smaller one across his chest to protect him when she tries something. Breathing in and out slowly, Jade allows him to start bringing his sword down about half way before making her move.
Using her left elbow and forearm, she brings it up to meet his arm and knocks it off course, causing his slash to miss her and take him slightly off balance as he wasn't expecting her to do something like use her arm to stop it; especially from that position. She brings her own sword up into a stabbing stance, sword horizontal and pulled back with her two hands on the handle. The Dwarf then spun on the spot with her left foot out slightly, catching his own right foot and causing him to be pulled to that side; opening up his stance and causing his short weapon to no longer be blocking his entire chest. "Flowering Sword..." just as she ends up parallel to him with her body weight down low, she thrusts her weapon forward into his now exposed chest and then fully turns into the strike; giving it even more power "...Pierced Oak"
Although he resisted it for a few seconds, Nikko was then sent flying into the unstable wall; a large mark now on his chest where her strike hit. The Dwarf lands in a heap on the floor and the wall then collapses onto him, semi-burying him in bricks.
Standing up right, Jade takes a more casual stance but keeps an eye on the head she can still somewhat see sticking out of the pile that used to be a wall. That wouldn't of killed him, if he can even die here as it is my mind. The last attack I hit him with barely did anything even with Armament Haki so this shouldn't affect him much more. As if on cue, the bricks suddenly scatter as he uses his strength to push them off and instantly jump back to his feet. For a brief moment he looks at her with a frown and then it suddenly transforms into a sinister smile.
Nikko holds up his main sword in a familiar stance, but this time its pointed more towards Jade than the sky. Is he doing the technique that causes projectiles to rain down? In this closed space I will be unable to deal with them at all, in fact they will probably all just hit me as soon as they are unleashed All the ways she could think of how to stop it had problems, mainly because he had already formed the ball of light that shatters into the rain of light and would probably just hit her with it point blank even if she got close before he 'fires' it.
So Jade does one of the few options she has left, she jumps out the window.
Nikko's POV
If someone was watching the collapsing building, they might be able to spot a very small figure falling from the third floor; although they would need superhuman sight to do so. A few seconds later and clearly visible was the same floor being lit up and then exploding outwards, taking out a massive section of it and finally causing the structure to tip over.
The hotel was a shell of its former self, about 20% of it had been destroyed when Nikko had broke the top. Another large percentage immediately fell off or collapsed when he cut it in half. And about 80% of the remaining structure demolished itself over the next 30 minutes of their battle, with the final parts still standing now falling after his last attack. The area surrounding it was littered with debris from it, to the point that it looked like a battlefield.
Walking to the broken window, the Spirit casually watched Jade fall; even though the part of the building he was in was now rapidly approaching the floor. Barely affected by this momentum, he defies gravity by staying on the ground of the 3rd floor and then steps out just before it hits the path in front of the once luxurious hotel. Slowly walking to where the girl taking his test should be, Nikko slightly whistles; seemingly ignoring the loud sounds coming from behind and the rubble falling all around him.
Somehow seeing the Dwarf standing on a patch of grass a large distance from him to his left, he changes direction to walk directly towards her. While doing so, he takes note of how uninjured she is, as she sees to watch the building I had somewhat forgotten how naturally durable some races are, Dwarves must be one of them. Either that or she is just very powerful despite her young age; although that is probably to be expected based on how she seems to a decently high rank in a large organisation. Shame she failed, it would be nice to be used by a non-human for a change.
Nikko stops with a short gap between them and makes his presence known "Didn't want to risk riding the building all the way down?" He has a slightly jokey tone, similar to the one he used when first speaking to her. Like he had planned it, an incredibly loud crash happens behind him and reverberates around the area like thunder; the hotel had finished collapsing.
Jade looks away from the pile that used to be something very tall, towards him. Even though he is some kind of Spirit and therefore not really alive, a jolt goes through him as he sees her expression. The best description of it he could up with was anger mixed with disgust.
"Despite what I said earlier, you had no regard for the people of this city and its buildings. There could have been hundreds of people in the hotel and many more in the surrounding area; and you have just killed them all!" As her eyes flash with anger, the brown haired boy notices a very small 'spark' coming off her sword; which he ignores as its likely just Armament Haki. "This is my mind so you should respect everything in it as if it was an extension of myself; even if its just because you want me to use you if I pass the test." Jade swings her sword slightly so its pointed half towards the remains of the hotel "At this point you could have an ability that rivals a Logia Devil Fruit and I wouldn't care; you have clearly shown you do not have the same ideals as me and at the very least do not mind doing a lot of collateral damage in a fight. No matter what you think, for me this test is over"
After just standing there blinking (more figuratively than literally) and opening his mouth to reply, the Revolutionary Army member continues, not giving him a chance to reply "I think I have also realized what my mindscape represents." Nikko closes his mouth, curious what she will answer with "It represents the end of my dream, a city of peace; with no violence and everyone living in harmony. Possibly even an entire world without the corrupt government and evil pirates."
Her large sword turns black as night and several small bolts of lightning comes off it and Jade's body; her face then hardens into an expression of seriousness "But just because I'm done with the test, doesn't mean this fight is over; I need to drill into you why your actions were wrong and make you see that you shouldn't hurt people, you should protect them" Faster than he can react to her statement, the small girl covers the distance between them and was already swinging her sword in a diagonal slash "Flowering Blade: Lucky Five Leafed Clover!"
Although he quickly brings up his one sword to meet her attack, she had already hit him and was following up with a second, third, fourth and fifth attack; creating an almost clover-like pattern in the air with her sword swings. Due to the power of all the sudden attacks, Nikko was hit into the air and flipped several times; crashing about 10 metres away from where he originally stood. Jade pulls her sword back and gets into her usual stance, steeled to deal with whatever he responds with.
Staggering to his feet, the Spirit feels something off about the weapon that tried to meet her first attack. Looking down at it, he is very surprised when it suddenly ends up disappearing Impossible...That was created by me in this mindscape, it can't be destroyed unless I want it to be; and it certainly can't disappear like that. He looks up at the girl in the battle stance Unless that spark and black lightning was... His eyes widen in understanding Well that is unexpected and changes my mind considerably.
Jade's POV
Is he not going to attack? I guess I did destroy one of his weapons so he is probably thinking of a new approach. Jade doesn't relax despite her opponent not moving Although if I am remembering correctly, he said he could create basic items like that quite easily so he should be able to just recreate it. But maybe he is trying to use that to his advantage and he will recreate it after an attack or something, trying to surprise me. She is brought out of her thoughts and caught somewhat off-guard when Nikko starts laughing.
"There is no need to continue, Jade Belle. You have passed my test" No longer laughing but still smiling, he spreads his hands in a manner that shows he no longer has a weapon in either hand. The other sword somehow disappearing while she was concentrating on watching for sudden attacks or really any sort of movement. "It wasn't exactly the way most of my users have completed it, but I guess that doesn't really matter."
Taking a few moments to try and figure out if this could be a trick, she comes to the conclusion that it is genuine. "But I said I was done with the test and wasn't going to use your abilities" She relaxes into a neutral stance, but keeps her two hands on her sword.
Nikko waves his hand in a slightly dismissive way "That was one of the reasons you passed. The test is just as much about character as it is combat." He pauses slightly before continuing "In fact your personality and ideals are actually more important than how you handle a fight."
"But that still doesn't mean I will use you, I could easily just place you in an armory or throw you in the ocean". Although Jade was fairly serious, the other Dwarf just smiled
"If this trial has taught me anything, its that you won't do that. You are a kind heart girl who is trying her best to create a better world; I am a special sword that can help bridge the gap between you and the powerful individuals in your way. Plus its not in your personality to just abandon people, especially someone like me who is just following their nature and isn't hurting anyone." He then adds to the last statement, seemingly expecting her to say something "Anyone actually alive or real that is"
"That doesn't mean I will use your abilities, as you have proven you don't care about hurting people so I will never know if I can trust you or the powers I can use" The Revolutionary wasn't going to back down yet as the Spirit hadn't proved he wouldn't just try to hurt people as soon as he was allowed to leave, or however her using his ability would work.
Nikko holds up his hands in a show of surrender "I will now follow your lead. Since you don't like hurting people, I won't either. You want to create a world without violence? I will help as much as I can. My ability is yours to use however you like. I cannot leave the weapon so you don't have to worry about me breaking my word and have to protect people from me."
Jade finally sheaves her sword, for the last time with this blade as she had left the real version on Drum "I'll take that as some sort of vow, so I guess I can accept you and your abilities" She smiles at her new partner.
The 'boy' lightly chuckles "Usually people are begging me to accept them when they fail, so its nice to be on the opposite side for a change even though you passed."
"Can you tell me what your ability actually is now? Or do I have to try and work that out?" The Warrant Officer had a few ideas but nothing definitive.
"Don't take it personally that you never figured it out, about half of my users never realized what it is; probably because its a bit abstract." Holding out his hand with the palm facing towards the sky, it starts to glow "My blade absorbs light, mostly from the sun; which I can then use to create blinding lights, projectiles and even semi-autonomous balls of light that can attack targets independently"
Jade takes a few moments to process this information "That seems like quite a few different abilities"
"True, but they are all derived from the main one, the absorption of light. And I couldn't do them all immediately, I have slowly acquired them over many years; helped by my users" Seeing the expression of slight confusion on her face, he continues "I started off only being able to absorb a small amount of light and then using it to glow to try and blind people; but could only use it like once before needing to recharge. Then I became sort of more efficient, allowing me to blind people more times without requiring the re-absorption of light. One day when my user was losing a fight, he was able to use the light to fire a sort of concussive blast; and overtime that ability also became better. I acquired the other abilities through similar circumstances. Many people have also used them in various special ways, such as firing a smaller blast from both ends of the spear I was at the time; instead of one big one."
"So you could actually use it even more ways you just have discovered them yet?" She was still trying to come to terms with all the new options she already had, let alone the potential for even more.
"Don't get ahead of yourself just yet, Miss Belle. My users have to get used to using me and the various abilities for quite some time before there is even a chance of 'discovering' a new ability. But I think we should leave this topic for another time, despite this only happening in your mind it will still exhaust you physically" Nikko starts walking towards her
"I don't feel that tired.." The Dwarf moves her arms about a bit and does a few short tests with her fingers & legs.
"You won't feel it until you leave, it would be a bit odd for you to get tired inside your own mind." He stops infront of her as she stands back upright.
"How do I leave? I doubt I can just close my eyes like I did to get here" Jade looks around a bit but the surroundings are as solid as they have been since she entered.
"Once we have finalized our sort of partnership, you will leave and wake up back in the real world" He holds his hand out "A handshake will do for the finalizing, I don't need anything complicated now we have come to an agreement"
She holds her own out as well and shakes his hand. Immediately after, the world seems to blur and things start disappearing. A white void descends on them from above, swallowing the tall buildings still standing near them first and then pulls in the large piles of rubble and debris. Nikko himself doesn't change until the last few moments, stepping back and eventually being the only thing in the white space aside from Jade herself.
"I hope you are looking forward to working with me just as much as I am to work with you, Jade. And I am not just saying that as its been who knows how long since I was last out in the world; I really am interested in you and where your dream will lead" She barely hears the last part as she can feel herself waking up. "Will you conquer the world if it means saving it? Or will you choose your own path...One without rulers"
Before she can try and process what he means, everything goes fully white...
...And she wakes up in her office a few moments later. The sword in her lap seems to faintly glow and then returns to its normal state; making her know that it was no dream even though there was no way she would think that. Standing up and motioning to put the weapon in the scabbard on her back, Jade is suddenly hit by a wave of tiredness. And hunger, but mostly fatigue.
Managing to shrug it off, she was mostly okay when she opened the door and stepped out onto the deck. Greeting and nodding to a few people, she made her way to where she could see Sophie talking to their head navigator; James.
Deciding to keep it a secret for now, Jade wasn't sure if Sophie came into the office or not; but knew she wouldn't believe she had actually been doing paperwork; so was trying to come up with an excuse when she reached her right hand man. "Hi Sophie, everything is going well I trust?"
"Everything is going fine, I was about to come to get you as we are about to dock" Sophie turns to look down at her.
The Dwarf hadn't actually realized they were at Baltigo as she had been concentrating on her best friend. She steals a glance off to the side of the ship and could easily make out the distinctive white soil that made up the Army's home.
"I'm feeling a bit peckish so I'm going to go to the kitchen before we get off. Don't fancy having to deal with the cafeteria as soon as we have arrived" Hoping to use the time to try and finish coming up with an excuse, Jade's plan was ruined when Sophie said she could do with a drink so was going to join her in her visit.
Seeing that everyone was hard at work preparing to dock, the two of them head towards the kitchen. Neither of them say anything as they walk, just enjoying the company and quiet. The galley was basically empty when they reached it as most of the staff that worked here had other jobs elsewhere on the ship; especially when they were about to arrive at their destination. There was however a couple of cooks taking inventory and making sure the food was secure, but they just wave at the two high ranking Revolutionary members and give them some space.
"You never told me you mediated" Sophie breaks the silence with a casual statement, although it confuses the Dwarf slightly.
Mediate? What does she mean...The only thing I can think of is that she came into the office and saw me sat on the chair and mistook it for mediation. Jade was standing on one of the counters, as she of course couldn't reach anything otherwise "Well I tried doing some of the paperwork but I couldn't concentrate. So I thought something like mediation might help since I used to see you do semi-often. Unfortunately I think I became to relaxed and fell asleep at one point, so I never ended up doing any work" Jade decides to just that as an excuse, as she wasn't going to come up with anything better if her right hand man had been in the office and seen her.
"If you aren't used to it then that can happen, you have to concentrate and relax at the same time; its all about balance and focus." Sophie pours herself a glass of water and leans on the same counter slightly "I'm sure I can find time to teach you the best method of doing it if you want."
Getting herself some grapes, she is a bit distracted by the conversation so doesn't notice some of the are a bit odd. "As long as you aren't making time for it, there is more important things than teaching me how to mediate"
"Worst case scenario you can just ask someone else, a lot of people at Baltigo probably know how to do it at least somewhat. Were you trying to do image training or just generally mediate?" She adds the last part after a bit of a pause.
After eating a few grapes, that were around the size of her hands; Jade replies "A bit of both. I probably should have only concentrated one thing at a time but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere so I kept trying new things and hoped they worked"
Sophie stops leaning on the counter and walks past her "Yeah that's defintley not how you are suppose to do it. But I think I will head back up and report to the dock-master now there shouldn't be many people trying to get off all at once" She checks with the cooks and then makes her way upstairs
Phew, think I somehow got away with it The Warrant Officer didn't really want to have her second in command be annoyed at her, especially since it was possible they could be sent on a mission very soon after arriving. Jade was so distracted by these thoughts that she doesn't even notice how bad the grape she was eating tasted until she swallowed it. Who bought these swirly grapes? And why are they white? Shrugging to herself, she throws them in the bin and gets some more; eating them as she heads towards the exit.
Despite the sudden cold wind that hits her when she comes above deck, Jade doesn't notice it at all.
Story Mission end
Name: Sunshine: Ball of Light
DPR: B each hit
Requirements:
81 mastery, 50% charge
100 mastery, 25% charge
Description: creates a ball of light that fires at things, can be destroyed and can only have one at a time.
Name: Sunshine: Light Slash (Blinding Light Slash with Haki)
DPR: B
Requirements: 61 mastery, 61 strength
20% charge at 61 mastery
10% at 81 mastery and above
Description: concentrating the light within the sword, sends out a flying slash that is made of quite bright light.
Name: Flowering Sword: Twin Thorns (Twin Black Thorns with Haki)
DPR: C
Requirements: 21 mastery, 11 strength, 11 Movement Speed
Description: a high level two handed sword technique, two slashes that are done near instantly in a v shape
Name: Sunshine: Blast of Light
DPR: B
Requirements:
41 mastery, 50% charge
61 mastery, 35% charge
81 mastery, 20% charge
100 mastery, 5% charge
Description: holds the weapon horizontally and then thrusting it forward as it fires a blast of light from the end of it.
Name: Flowering Sword: Pierced Oak (Pierced Strong Oak with Haki)
DPR: B
Requirements: 41 mastery, 41 strength, 21 movement speed
Description: while moving, thrusts the sword towards an enemy and keeps going; can damage internally
Name: Flowering Blade: Five Leafed Clover (Lucky Five Leafed Clover with Haki)
DPR: A (combined DPR) or B (each hit)
Requirements: 61 mastery (Air slash 71), 61 strength, 41 movement speed
Description: does five quick slashes in a clover like pattern at an enemy, can also be used to destroy obstacles and to block attacks etc.
DPR: B each hit
Requirements:
81 mastery, 50% charge
100 mastery, 25% charge
Description: creates a ball of light that fires at things, can be destroyed and can only have one at a time.
Name: Sunshine: Light Slash (Blinding Light Slash with Haki)
DPR: B
Requirements: 61 mastery, 61 strength
20% charge at 61 mastery
10% at 81 mastery and above
Description: concentrating the light within the sword, sends out a flying slash that is made of quite bright light.
Name: Flowering Sword: Twin Thorns (Twin Black Thorns with Haki)
DPR: C
Requirements: 21 mastery, 11 strength, 11 Movement Speed
Description: a high level two handed sword technique, two slashes that are done near instantly in a v shape
Name: Sunshine: Blast of Light
DPR: B
Requirements:
41 mastery, 50% charge
61 mastery, 35% charge
81 mastery, 20% charge
100 mastery, 5% charge
Description: holds the weapon horizontally and then thrusting it forward as it fires a blast of light from the end of it.
Name: Flowering Sword: Pierced Oak (Pierced Strong Oak with Haki)
DPR: B
Requirements: 41 mastery, 41 strength, 21 movement speed
Description: while moving, thrusts the sword towards an enemy and keeps going; can damage internally
Name: Flowering Blade: Five Leafed Clover (Lucky Five Leafed Clover with Haki)
DPR: A (combined DPR) or B (each hit)
Requirements: 61 mastery (Air slash 71), 61 strength, 41 movement speed
Description: does five quick slashes in a clover like pattern at an enemy, can also be used to destroy obstacles and to block attacks etc.