Seraph vs. Deli

"Valentine", the paper read in bright red, nagging at Deli who was constantly staring at the huge letters, stinging her eyes.

Thierry Valentine was the new General that was supposed to lead Mercae. It wasn't entirely surprising for me to find the name of one of the most prestigious families in the paper. Deli, on the other hand, was awfully quiet since this morning and her sole focus had been this new piece of news. The fresh General had given something of a sermon upon his assignment and this address got tremendous adulations from the people. Their spirits had been restored and they had completely vested their faith in General Valentine.

I wasn't going to interfere in her business, I tended to avoid most everything now. I believe this trait was one of the many that were instilled into me by Chopper. Chopper left this morning on another one of Lady's errands, though he told me he was going out to find the cause behind the red sky. I wanted to go along but he patted my shoulder without saying anything and went on his way. Naturally, I had no intention to insist in any case.

"Oi, Seraph", Deli approached me just when I had returned from seeing Chopper off, "You aren't tied up anywhere, are you?"

I couldn't lie of course, so I nodded.

"Then, come spar with me."

I was definitely up for something like that. Instead of going to the backyard where we usually butted heads, Deli proposed going to the forest. There was a clearing somewhere there that she thought fit for such a thing.

"This looks nice", I commented as soon as we got there.

She looked at the sky, realizing the weather was awful for sparring then, without giving way to any second thoughts, jumped into action. She didn't even give me a chance to take a good look around. Her monstrous kick closed in on my face as she swung her leg with lightning speed. I managed to block her off purely by instinct, otherwise I'd have had my jaw dislocated. She quickly went in from the other side too, an unusual thing for her to do, I was caught off guard this time, having failed to put up a block on time. I was thrown off a little distance but quickly picked up my balance.

She was finally getting serious with me, I suppose this meant she was finally acknowledging me. I wasn't going to let her down either. She thrust her feet into the ground, using up an enormous force to build pressure and then shot towards me, landing one punch after another, each one of them strong enough to easily break a couple of bones. The ground beneath my feet was bogged down, as I deflected every attack. She was raining it down on me, as she floated above by the mere force of her attacks.

Unlike our usual spars, she wasn't smirking, she wasn't talking and she certainly didn't seem to be enjoying it. If anything, I'd say she was taking it out on me. No matter, I was willing to take everything she could possibly throw my way.

As I continued to deflect her perfectly, she realized she wasn't getting any of her attacks in and decided to back off. Delivering a final blow with her legs, she used the force to jump back. I had already displaced plenty of Earth, that I was practically half buried. I began to wonder if she chose this place in order to immobilize or limit my range of movements. I wasn't running away so I wonder if that would have helped. Both of us were pretty direct with how we fought, there was no wasting time. What it boiled down to was a match of pure strength and perseverance.

In any case, it was my time to attack. I could feel a rage filling me up as I closed the distance between us. I took a deep breath and then let it out, firmly setting my feet down, as a whirlpool of pressure built all around us. Deli was caught up in the excitement, she closed in on me too. Once we'd found the perfect distance, we were locked in a state of a strange ecstasy and intensity that words simply cannot describe. Deli was quick to shatter the ground beneath us before the two of us collided. It sent waves around the whole forest.

What followed was a mindless brawl, with both of us spilling our strength raw onto each other, careless of the collateral destruction we were wreaking all around us. The clearance was expanding every second, as we fell down anything that obstructed us. We were locked in this perpetual engagement until we had gone numb to both ourselves and everything around us. My strength simply kept surging until it was boiling over and I simply couldn't be expected to back down anymore. I'm sure Deli was the same, she was losing restrain.

It was around sun down when I began feeling too hazy, and as the dark spread over the horizon, I had lost conscious. I found myself floating in an endless black expanse. I wasn't thinking about who won or what happened to either of us when I was in there. I turned my head to my side and could see, in the distance, a small flickering and dancing. It looked just like Nasty II. I turned my head away, recognizing it.

The flame grew bigger but I didn't look its way. I realized what this meant and I found that I wasn't as empathetic towards Nasty II as I used to be, even though he was someone that saved my life.

"I'm sorry, Nasty", I spoke, "I know but I can't yet. Not without Chopper-san around."

I had pledged my life to Chopper in a way, I couldn't let Nasty II run amuck and swallow me whole when Chopper wasn't around to kill me. Saying that, I closed my eyes and fell in a deep state of calm.

When I opened my eyes, a bloodied Deli lay before me, as I held her down, punching her face into a pathetic mush. She was lifeless, I knew I had lost myself and she had succumbed to the growing power within me. I pulled myself back and got off her, catching my breath beside her. When I had calmed down, I noticed she was wheezing. So she wasn't dead, I thought, which would have been fine either way. It was the most fulfilling thing either of us had done and we didn't mind if either of us died during it.

I myself wasn't in a very good situation and the gazillion aches were beginning to settle in. I didn't mind.

"...o Sera-", she forced herself into saying that.

It was surprising that she could talk through all the beating she had taken. I looked her way. She grinned, painfully. I chuckled, which brought tears to my eyes because of the pain.

The moon was up in a smile, at least at night the sky was clear and from where we were, it looked pretty scenic. I laid down beside her and we gazed at the stars together for a long time.