"You can't actually tell the difference between Ley users in the dark...can you?" The question was so direct, so dangerously direct, that it would have made Schweitzer leap up from the deck...if he had the strength to do it.

Instead, he laboriously hauled his body up, starting on all fours, then on his knees, on one leg, and then on two. He was aware of the blood splattered everywhere, aware of the liquid running down his nose and mouth, but first and foremost his attention had to be turned to Mizuki.

Her Primis was still active, so he knew she was alright...for now. "Mizuki...Mizuki! Answer me!" He called, and she responded with a weak cough.

Not like this. Not like this. He shuffled over to her and lowered himself to his knees, groaning slightly as he did so. "Listen to me, Mizuki. He knows my weakness. You have to take off the earrings. Take them off and get as far from my voice as you can." He said, not caring about whether or not Leonardo heard. That wouldn't matter anymore.

She whimpered, and tried to resist as he brought his fingertips closer to hers. "No. I can still fight...I'm still..."

"Listen to me. You have to hold up the Veil. You're barely holding yourself together, aren't you?" He asked, grasping her wrists and tugging on them firmly. It was all he could to, with the massive gap where the right side of his waist should have been.

He felt around her chest, and understood the seriousness of the wound. The dagger had pierced through an area close to the middle of her chest, close to the lungs, but not close enough to kill her immediately. Regardless, she was bleeding badly enough to die eventually, without treatment.

As for him...he just wasn't sure.

And I must keep my own Ley active on him as well. At all costs, he has to remain powerless.

CLINK. CLINK.

He was relieved to hear the sound of the bells drop to the ground, and felt her slowly begin to slip away from him. "Don't die, Lloid. Don't you dare." She whispered, before the last bit of warmth he felt from her slender body vanished into the cold darkness surrounding him.

How he yearned for that warmth back.

The young man's voice drifted back to his eardrums, this time not far behind him. "I wondered about one thing, you know. You two were oddly distant from me for two opponents with an advantage in numbers and power over me. So I started to think about whether or not you had a reason to actually be so wary of me, and realized there couldn't be. Which narrowed it down to you. Something about you was not right, and was forcing you to stay away from me at all times." His voice was circling him now, like a shark that had just found fresh meat floating in the water.

"And what sealed it was the bells. They might have worked wonders confusing someone you could kill in two hits, but you took too long to finish me. If she was using the bells, I started to question why you weren't, Schweitzer. And from there on out, it was easy to bring forth the theory that you couldn't sense the difference between my Ley and hers...and backed into a corner, there was nothing else I could possibly do but shoot in the dark."

Schweitzer smiled despite his desperate situation. "And you shot me right in the waist, young man. I underestimated your wit."

"An eye for an eye, Schweitzer." He said, and then swung himself towards Schweitzer's voice. He raised his arm and arced the sword at where the enemy was-

And hit a solid wall of string.

What the?

He turned, and felt a whoosh of air beneath his arm as Schweitzer narrowly missed and struck the wall himself. "I'm not quite out of tricks yet, you know!" He huffed, and swung the dagger above his head to scratch Leonardo's chin.

I get it! He used the wall of string as a means to echo his voice to decieve me!

But Schweitzer had just wasted a golden opportunity to stab him and finish this fight. "I'm not letting you go this time." He grunted, and thrust his sword blindly at Schweitzer. He felt it hit something, and suddenly stop.

"Heh...that's my line, you know..." His sword had been caught by Schweitzer's bare hand. "Hey, hey. You're kidding!" Leonardo exclaimed, and lowered his left hand to his waist. Perhaps he really would need to go all out after all.

Instead of replying, the Captain simply laughed. Leonardo wrapped his left hand around the weapon's hilt...and felt a sharp pain that sent waves of agony down his right arm. "MIZUKI! STRIKE!" Schweitzer screamed, and Leonardo felt the dagger dig deeper into his forearm, effectively trapping him before he could retract his second sword.

He felt the entire ship begin to rumble as that monstrous thing he had glimpsed at before began to roll towards the two of them.

Helpless and cornered, he lowered his head with his eyes tightly shut, ready for the back-breaking collision that would take his life.

A collision that never came.

BOOM.

An explosion far louder and overwhelming than Mizuki's strings suddenly shook the dome above them, making Leonardo's teeth rattle. He opened his eyes and waited for his eyes to adjust to the sudden stream of light so that he could recognise who it was.

He didn't need to wait. "My, my, Lenny. To think you'd be so beaten up by some tricky bugs like them!" The only day he would be unable to recognise the cheery voice of his constantly drunk lieutenant would be the day he messed up and died.

Borris landed on the floor, seemingly surrounded by the light that streamed in...light that was fading fast as the woman began to rebuild the roof above. "GET OUT!" She screeched with anger, but Borris hardly seemed to notice her.

Instead, he was more curious about Leonardo's condition. "Lenny, what the hell are you doing?" He asked, carrying Leonardo off with him on his shoulder.

Huh? Wait, wasn't I just stuck to Schweitzer's dagger?

He looked up and saw Schweitzer's back, and then he saw nothing but darkness again. "Well, no light wouldn't be a problem if Schweitzer didn't remove my ability to use Ley at the start." He explained, and felt Borris lower him to the ground.

"Get yourself patched up, Lenny. I'll take care of this in a jiffy." He was unable to see what kind of expression was on Borris' face, but felt somewhat glad he couldn't.

From his tone, he knew Borris was pissed.

And now Schweitzer's voice came through the air, now sounding more laboured and troubled than ever. "One thing going wrong after the other. Today really isn't my day, is it?" He murmured. "Well, no matter. You won't be able to use Ley anymore either. You can stand and watch as you get beaten the same way he was!" From the way his voice shook as he said this, Leonardo had a feeling even Schweitzer himself didn't believe those words.

Borris stepped to where he assumed was the center of the dome, and chuckled. "I see, I see. So you remove the ability to sense Ley and confuse your opponent before cutting them down. Quite a troubling tactic indeed. I can't sense your Ley or my own either. When did you even remove my ability to sense it, I wonder?"

He shrugged. "Well, whatever. I can't expect an answer to that from the enemy, can I?"

Silence.

Borris waited to see if he would perk up again, or to see if he could hear anything from the two.

Once again, nothing more than silence. He would have thought he was alone, had he not seen the two inside just before the roof closed.

He tightened his grip on the sabre in his hand. "Based on what you just said, I think it would be safe to assume you weren't a part of the battles between our fleets three years ago. Am I right?"

This time, the silence gave him an answer.

"I see. Then you don't know who exactly I am. You don't understand."

He raised his free hand to his hair and scratched it. "Hmm...how should I put this? I really got far too drunk last night..."

"I am Jamieson Borris of the Whitebeard Pirates. I am the right hand man of the kid back there." He shuffled his left leg back and moved his right leg forward, before bending his knees. "I can't use Elemental Ley. Everything I use is in my sword, Captain Schweitzer. So whether you take away my ability to sense Ley or not...it just makes absolutely no difference, does it?"

He now crossed his arms across his torso. His left arm he tucked around his waist, and his right arm he bent around his left. He angled the sword in his right hand so that the sharp end was facing away from his body. "Ah, and one last thing. I am..."

"...the second strongest man on Whitebeard's ship."

The dome cracked open.

It was done so unbelievably smoothly, with a perfect circular cut that showed no signs of imperfection or difficulty in getting cut. The light that peeked through the thin gap between the lower half of the dome and the rest of it embraced the silhouette of Borris for a second.

And then, the top half burst into flames, starting from the detached line at the bottom and spreading all the way to the center. In seconds, the entire dome was in flames, and a massive BANG completely wiped out the charred remnants in mid-air.

The explosion sent the unprepared Schweitzer and Mizuki flying, though they found their feet almost immediately. Schweitzer gazed at the sizzling bottom of the dome that was left circling them, and felt his knees start to shake. He left us alive on purpose. He could have cut us in two that very moment, but he left us alive.

Borris straightened his knees and stood up, his right arm now pulled behind his back. "I didn't leave you alive because of pity or something like that. I just dislike unfair fights." He said, pointing his sabre at Schweitzer. Just a bit behind him to the left was Mizuki, with her form now fully visible in the light. Attached to the stump of her left arm was a huge mass of strings, all lined up to form a long, thick cylindrical structure that was formerly connected to the dome, before Borris' attack.

"How awfully kind of you." Schweitzer muttered. He knew there was no means of escape. And yet...

Borris bent down and bent his arm around again, preparing for a second strike.

And yet what? He still wanted to live? He was afraid?

Of course he was afraid. But the rationality within him wouldn't stop, wouldn't quit thinking and calculating. The human within him felt fear, and yet that rationality remained cool and composed.

That was what had gotten him out of tight spaces before, many times over.

What is his ability? He obviously cut through Mizuki's threads like butter, so it is undoubtedly not just an ability. He is skilled with that sabre. Then what about that explosion? The ignition must have been caused by...

He saw the sabre whip across the air, and finally realized what it was. Borris sent his arm in a wide arc once more, ripping through air and flesh with ease.

"Oh? My, my. You were undoubtedly one of the more intelligent opponents I've faced, Schweitzer." He said, looking surprised at the speed at which Schweitzer threw himself across the deck to shield the woman. He stood before her, mirroring that stunned expression on his own face.

Borris closed his eyes. "But you were wrong about a few things, you know. Hiding your Ley...that cannot be enough. If an animal hides from a forest fire, it will burn as long as what it hides in is a hollow log." He said, and watched as Schweitzer's entire midriff disappeared in a blast, sending his blood and pieces of smoking gut flying into the face of the woman behind him.

"Mi...zu..." Schweitzer collapsed, his mouth releasing small puffs of smoke as he unsuccessfully tried to speak out one final word.

"Now, then. Lenny. How are you feeling?" Borris asked casually as he watched Leonardo climb up from the floor with pieces of his coat now ripped and tied around the wounds in his waist and arm. "Its going to take a lot more than that to kill me, you know." He said.

Mizuki stared at the pool of blood gathering under the mangled body of her beloved Lloid.

Why couldn't I move?

She began gathering her Ley and focused it all on her left arm. "I'll kill them, Lloid." She whispered, as if to convince herself before anyone. Her black, string-filled eyes bulged as her face twisted in anger. "I'll kill yoooouuu!"

With one final push, she raised her entire body up with half of her strings, and lifted the other half around her like dozens of sharp limbs. Even without Primis, even if she had to die, she would kill these two animals.

"How scary. Can you end this, Lenny?"

"Sure, with two."

She felt something sink into three places in her body. She didn't know where, but she suddenly realized she could see her own back now.

Ohhh. So that's what I look like from behi-

The woman fell forward, missing an entire chunk of her left torso, her head and right arm. The sliced pieces flew through the air, just behind Leonardo, who softly landed on the deck with his coat fluttering behind him.

THUMP.

He didn't need the wet sound of her body slamming onto the floor to know she was dead. It was over the moment his second sword had been drawn. "This is really fucking embarrassing. I almost lost to cheap opponents like these just now." He said to himself, replacing his swords. Truth be told, he didn't really know what he could've done with two swords when he barely survived with one.

"It happens to the best of us. Now pull your collar back up and draw both swords. Its about time the world saw how skilled a dual wielder you are." Borris said, playfully tugging at Leonardo's coat collar.

Despite promptly slapping away his hand, Leonardo did feel somewhat proud to hear that. He was happy-go-lucky, but even so, Borris was notoriously hard to please.

"Still, to think the Captains Blackbeard would choose to bring with him would be so awfully weak...quite strange." Borris wondered aloud. It was odd, but Leonardo couldn't quite agree with the statement that they were weak. The hole in his side still ached like hell, and his arm remained in terrible condition, albeit usable.

The two men now looked at the looming shape of Blackbeard's Lonely Angel, which was now a good three hundred meters away thanks to the rough seas below. "Think we can reach it?" Borris asked.

"Reach it? I'm more worried about whether the two of us can survive that, forget reaching it."

"Oh, really? Then let's find out."

The two spun around to find a tanned man with long brown hair sitting on an overturned crate behind them. "Yale Tavares, the second vice-captain of the Blackbeard Pirates. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He said smoothly, clutching the massive weapon hidden underneath grey cloth behind him.

Borris smiled. "Oh I know who you are, Saw. Where's the "See" of your crew? I presume he must be beaming at the prospect of opening fire on a ship without Brice to get in his way."

Leonardo frowned. "What's with all this "See-Saw" business?" Borris laughed. "That's the names they have designated themselves. The See is Franco Materazzi, the sniper who sees all. And the Saw-"

"I can show you that myself, newbie. I've been quite interested to see exactly what kind of a person had been appointed to succeed Dot Leopards...and it seems I wasn't wrong to assume you to be an impressive boy." Yale motioned at the pieces of Mizuki lying on the floor, each piece partially engulfed in blood. Simultaneously, he raised another hand to the cloth over his weapon and ripped it off.

"But a boy is all you are." The cover fell to the ground, revealing a huge saw strapped to his back. It wasn't quite as long as it was wide, wide enough to almost completely cover his back.

He reached up and removed it from the rope strapping it to his back with ease, and lowered it to his side with a single hand. "Now let us see just how good a boy you are."

Borris sighed, and raised his rusted sabre. "I'd like it if you wouldn't simply brush aside the fact that I'm here as well, you know." He said.

"Oh, I can see you're here, Borris. I just don't care enough to address you."

Borris opened his mouth to retort someone back, but Leonardo cut him off.

"Enough talk. If you want to fight me so badly, I'll give you one to remember!" He said, crossing his arms across his chest with his swords in hands.

Yale raised his saw. "I think you'll find I've been through far too many battles to remember one from you, brat."