A Trade Gone South

**Date Started:** July 13, 2018
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Users Involved:** User:KontonMan, User:RavenAsh
**Setting:** Al-Shams
**Characters Involved**: Berkowitz O. Crane, Morion, Tsubasa Kōkō

## All Clear

Crane looked around the tavern patiently, awaiting for his client to show up. The crowd was loud and bustling, and he made sure to not let them spill any of their drinks onto his pristine white robes. He also protected his back, where one of his artifacts was located, within a metal sheath.

Eventually, a petite girl jumped onto him from behind, squealing. “Crane!” she exclaimed. Crane only sighed in response. “It is good to see you as well, Cocoa. Would you please get off of me?”

The girl giggled, letting go and climbing up one of the stools in front of him and smiled. She pulled out a small amulet from her pocket, and gave it to Crane. “I had to sell a lot of good swords for this! Be grateful!” she whispered harshly. Crane nodded, sliding over a stack of Belly. “I am. Now, leave. Hurry.” Crane said. Cocoa simply nodded, running out of the tavern through the back entrance. Crane pushed up his glasses and put the amulet into his jackets inner pocket. Now, all he had to do was get out of here.

Crane knew that this tavern often had Marines visit. But it had also been the quickest place for him to meet Cocoa and perform the trade. As such, he decided the risks outweighed the benefits, as he and the rest of this crew had been hunting for this artifact for quite some time. He looked towards the entrance, and began to walk towards it. So far, it had been all clear.

Throw the tavern's entrance a fancy dressed man suddenly appears, wearing a long black jacket with the marine symbol on the back. Looking around him he begins to analyze the people's faces in search for wanted criminal as that was his current mission. Standing in front of him was not just any man but one that since his first appearance on the journals caught Morion's attention.

Putting his hand on his sheathed sword, Morion addresses the man. "Berkowitz O. Crane, navigator of the Sparrow Pirates." Pulling a wanted poster from his belt bag. "You will pay for your crimes committed against the world government, come with me or you would have to taste my sword."

Crane sighed in exasperation. He too had recognized the individual who had walked into the room. Morion, a former Bounty Hunter. Crane had no idea why he had become a Marine, but he had. And Morion wasn't bad at what he did, his time as a Bounty Hunter sharpened and honed his skills. No doubt his time in the Marines so far had only increased his abilities.

It often came to this, Marines trying to stop him. All he and the rest of the Sparrow Pirates did was search for artifacts and the such. Sure, they had broken a few laws, but they weren't that bad. Crane shook his head, pushing his glasses up. "I'd prefer for us to not start a fight. I'm not a fan of unneeded violence." Crane stated. "That being said, I will not pay for any crimes. I recommend you let me go."

Analyzing his situation Morion takes a second to make his decision as he is aware that the man in front of him is a very skilled individual. "Sorry, but unfortunately that's not how things go." Morion stated as he unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Crane. "You are a rational person, they don't call you Quetzalcoatl just for show." Looking him right in the eyes with a more serious expression he said. "As long as you come with me no one needs to get hurt."

Crane put his hand onto the hilt of his blade, which was sheathed on his back. As he slowly removed it, the sounds of the blade against the metallic sheath should have caused a screeching noise to fill the air. But it didn't. Instead, the blade was removed without making a sound, creating an eerie atmosphere. He spun the blade gracefully with one hand, yet still no noise escaped. It was complete silence. Crane proceeded to break that silence with a simple statement, "If you must try and arrest me, I welcome you to do so."

With a smile on his face Morion stated. "I always wanted to have a go against the so famous Museihishō-ryu." Starting to make his way outside Morion get himself ready, removing his jacket as a form of respect placing it on the side, getting ready for a fight he decides to assume his stance with his clean blade right above his shoulder. "Come on then I'm waiting."

There were a few options that Crane could pursue. One of them being to flee, but he wouldn't, especially after Morion rejected his kind offer. The second option was to cause a distraction, by causing others to burst via the power of his Devil Fruit. The third option was to cause the ground beneath them to burst, and see if Morion could react. The fourth option was to make Morion's blade burst. But of course, where was the fun in the fourth option?

Crane simply blinked and the ground beneath the pair burst outwards, launching around sporadically. Chunks of the ground broke through the walls, and pierced through the patrons of the . It caused the interior to begin to collapse, which wouldn't be good for Crane. There would be too much dust on his outfit.

In order to avoid the chunks of wood flying around sporadically, Crane had used Kenbunshoku Haki. He sensed the presence of the wood from all directions, weaving through them expertly, his training from his past becoming his ticket to safety. He quickly managed to find an opening in the wall, and he escaped as the tavern came crashing down on itself. He looked at his robes, and nodded in acknowledgement. Only a few specks of dust, nothing that he couldn't deal with normally.

Sighing out of the man's sudden decision of destroying the tavern Morion took a fraction of seconds to realize all of his options. Due to his choice of protecting people no matter the situation, he made the riskiest desition of utilizing his kenbunshoku Haki in order to predict were the chunks were going to fell and utilizing his speed and technique he cut all of the chunks in order to protect everyone on the bar.

But due to his choice of protecting others, he had to abdicate of some of his angles, which lead to one of the pieces to fall on his back. As he made sure that everyone was fine, he went into the pirate's direction now with an angry look on his eyes. Infusing his sword with the armament Haki Morion prepares to attack Crane.

"So you did escape." Crane noted, applauding Morion's efforts. "I am impressed. You may not have saved everyone and may have harmed yourself, but you did save quite a few and survived. Well done." Crane continued, acting somewhat condescending. He spun around his blade with one hand yet again, as well as creating no sound from it once more. "I made the first move, so I believe it is your turn now."

At this point in time, the destroyed tavern that had been in the middle of a town in Al-Shams, had gathered a crowd of sorts. Most of them cried at the tragedy, knowing that some of their friends had been crushed by the wood in the tavern. They stared at Morion with awe, grateful that a Marine had showed up to protect them; a Captain nonetheless. But they looked at Crane with a mix of fear, anger and awe, wondering how Crane had been willing to simply kill others to escape. A man tried to approach Crane, but Crane simply made the mans shoe burst, causing the man to stagger back in pain due to the leather now impaling his right foot.

Now with a heavier breathing due to his injury, Morion screamed "SORU: VIPER THRUST!" with his sword in a horizontal position right over his shoulder, Morion used his Soru in order to do a very quick forward movement and thrusting his sword right at his opponent.

A plan blitzed it's way into Crane's mind. For one, he knew Morion had some prowess over Kenbunshoku Haki, having been able to gracefully attack the chunks of wood he had created. Secondly, Morion was obviously somewhat skilled with his blade if he had been able to do that. The moment Morion had screamed, his eyes had blinked; it was a simply biological instinct that happened to people, they tended to blink every now and then. And when Morion had done so, Crane had used one of the techniques of the Museihishō-ryu; **First Step**.

Crane had launched himself forwards at speeds far greater than Soru, and had displaced his presence by using his Kenbunshoku Haki, something that would definitely be a distraction for Morion. And as Morion launched forward with his Soru, Crane was at the position where Morion had been standing. However, he wasn't done yet. He quickly caught up to Morion, and brought the flat end of his blade down into Morion's back, an attempt to slam him straight into the ground.

As Morion was in the motion of his sudden charge, his kenbunshoku once again activated allows him to feel what appeared to be Crane right next to him reading an attack. Realizing that his momentum was too great to change dodge, he decided to change the position of his sword in the attempt of blocking the attack. But as his arm begone to realize the movement the previous injury begins to affect him causing his arm to froze leading to Crane's attack to connect forcing him into the ground.

After falling and realizing that his injuries were getting worst, he made the fast decision of quickstepping a few steps back and suddenly hit himself with his finger on some specific spot that appears to have somehow slowed down the bleeding from his black. Now stretching his arm he readies himself for his opponent next move.

Crane sighed, the desert winds blowing through his white hair. "I could have ended you just there and then if I had used the sharp edge of my blade." Crane said, saying it in a louder tone so the assembled crowd would hear.

The crowd was looking at the two with strange expressions on their face. How was a Marine, a symbol of justice, being hurt so badly? It confused them, and it truly scared them.

Crane looked at Morion, and shook his head. "That was somewhat disappointing, Morion." Crane called out. "Let's see if you can redeem yourself." Crane continued, snapping his fingers. With that, the walls of the building around them burst outwards, into the crowd. Some of the chunks pierced into individuals, killing them within seconds. And as the object came towards him, Crane used his Kenbunshoku Haki to avoid the chunks, gracefully weaving about. But he wasn't going to simply avoid, he was getting slightly fed up of this whole thing. He had come for a quick trade, and the whole event had become a battle.

As he weaved through the chunks of wood, he made sure he could see Morion, and waited for the moment he blinked. When the Marine did blink, Crane used **First Step** yet again. He burst through the storm of flying objects, not making a single sound, all while displacing his own presence. Crane came to a halt behind Morion, still making no noise and having his presence staying displaced. With that, Crane went for a kick to the same spot he had slammed his blade into, meant to not only harm Morion, but to send him flying into the storm of sporadically moving objects, in hope that some of the objects would hit him.

"I guess you really can't contain yourself." Staying still as the civilians start to scream with the many shards of the buildings begone to pierce them killing most of them. "Why do pirates need to do this kind of things." Grinding his teeth Morion starts to destroy the chunks coming in his direction. Knowing that Crane wouldn't just destroy the buildings for mere show, but realizing that he wouldn't be able to predict his opponent's position he decided to go for the more violent option.

"Boas Mind!" Saying that he took on a crouched stance holding his sword flowing from his arm position and utilizing his Kenbunshoku with a smaller range around him, and begun to wait for the perfect moment to deflect utilizing all of his senses to their max potential. Doing that for a mere fraction of second he was able to feel a very small movement behind him, knowing how bad his backside was eh knew that it

Immediately responding with his most common stance that made his movements on the eyes of the opponent the same as a serpent becoming harder to predict. and doing this he launch an attack.

As Morion brought his blade down with all of his strength down onto Crane's blade...it made no sound from the clash. Despite Morion's great strength, Crane was unmoving. Crane was on his last few straws, he'd give it a while before he'd follow through with what he should have done from the start, a method to end the fight before it happened.

Crane smiled, and the ground beneath them burst. The sands launched upwards, surrounding the pair in a geyser of the material. Crane had surrounded himself in Busoshoku Haki simply so his clothes wouldn't be damaged, and used Kenbunshoku Haki to look around. There were still some civilians, screaming at the creation of the geyser. The broke out into a sprint, running away from the scene of battle.

The geyser came to a rest, and soon Morion was facing Crane's direction, albeit them being a few feet in distance from each other. "A decent counter to my attack. Once again, it is your turn to make the initiative to strike me."

With everything destroyed around the two fighters, Morion decided to bring the fight to its final act. With his Sword still imbued with Haki and a body falling apart more and more, he decided to once again charge at his opponent but instead of a straight charge, he begone to use his immense speed to vary his trajectory and his sword beginning to move on his common stance. As he got closer to Crane he launches a rampage of attacks at Crane.

Using Kenbunshoku Haki, Crane was able to determine the exact moment Morion began his barrage of attacks. Morion was fast, but Crane was simply faster. Crane had more years on Morion, and his speed was simply greater, as seen when he had outspeeded Morion when the Marine had been using Soru. Crane moved his blade around gracefully, countering every attack. When the blades collided; there was no sound. When Crane moved his blade rapidly; there was no noise. Museihishō-ryu was truly a formidable style of Kenjutsu.

As the barrage of attacks kept going, Crane looked at Morion's feet, and the boots he was wearing. With a tilt of his head, Crane caused the boots to burst, which would most likely cause the leather to pierce and impale Crane's feet.

As his attacks kept on being parried by his opponent, and the sudden burst on his feet causing them to begin to bleed, he stops and quicksteps to a more safer situation. Seeing as the fight was completely being onesided Morion decided to make the more rational decision. "Ok fair enough I admit defeat." Surprising the few citizens that were still alive and watching Morion's surrender was something that would normally never be an option.

Crane scowled at Morion, taking a step forward. "Not only are you weak, you have no conviction. I don't care who you are, you should stick with your belief's to the end, fight to your utmost ability! And you...surrender?" Crane continued, practically growling the words.

The pirate shot forwards, grabbing Morion's blade and kicking him against a wall, which created a cloud of dust. Crane shot forwards into the cloud, digging Morion's blade through his shoulder and into the wall. The blood splattered against his robes, and Morion yelled in pain.

Crane stepped back, looking at his clothes. "Look what you've done! I'll have to get these cleaned!" he spat. Crane stopped, taking in a deep breath to calm himself down, he wasn't supposed to get this angry. He was meant to be the calm and dignified individual.

After calming down, he looked at Morion and sighed in disappointment. "Do not worry, I would never directly kill a person. Those civilians were all indirect deaths, caused by you initiating the fight." Crane continued. "That is the sole reason why I dug the blade through your shoulder, and not your heart."

Crane turned away, and began to venture towards the ship that had brought him here. A few days journey. "Farewell, Morion."

*Fin*