"She has improved," said the bald old man sitting next to the Doflamingo family's contenders in the VIP box.
"Do you know her?" Diamante asked curiously and slightly nervously.
"I've met her by chance before," said the old man.
Below them in the arena, Nightmare slipped between Zoropp's swords with a mastery of Kami-e that was rarely seen among practitioners of Rokushiki. The old man was genuinely impressed that she had achieved this level in only a few years, and he had taught Rokushiki to many geniuses over the years.
Her application of Soru was even more brilliant, clearly having taken more of her focus than Kami-e. The number of times in the last minute that she'd managed to get behind Zoropp couldn't even be counted with all his fingers and toes. The old man didn't doubt she could use the other 4 skills just as well, but she didn't seem keen on using them at the moment. Undoubtedly that was due to the fact that she was in disguise, after all Rokushiki wasn't universally used by the marines so using a few wouldn't reveal anything about her.
The old man saw through her disguise immediately, though. That was only natural, as she had only altered her physical appearance. Her soul looked the same as it had two years ago, at Marineford.
The crowd erupted into whistles and laughter after Nightmare pulled down Zoropp's pants.
It was about that time that the air around Zoropp seemed to change.
"It seems he's gotten serious now. We already worked out who he was so there wasn't really a need to keep holding back anyways." Diamante mocked.
"He doesn't like being made a fool of, that's a weakness we can exploit in the finals." Machvise stated.
"Oh, that'll be fun~!" Dellinger cackled sadistically.
We will Goad him into makinG a mistake! With a capital G!" Lao G said nonsensically.
"..." Senior Pink sucked his pacifier stoically.
Zoropp took an odd stance and waited. Nightmare circled him cautiously, before flashing away into his blindspot behind him.
Zoropp's body exploded into motion, his swords barreling towards a single point, right behind him! It looked like Nightmare would be cut to ribbons, but at the last moment she thrust herself hard towards the ground and sweeped Zoropp's legs out from under him.
Zoropp neither panicked nor hesitated, already moving into his next attack like a flowing river. Nightmare rolled sideways, causing Zoropp's swords to narrowly miss as they cut three long gashes through the stone floor.
Zoropp entered into a spinning motion, sending flying slashes through the air around him that carried across the moat and cut through the wall below the stands. The audience desperately tried to reach higher ground in fear of being hit by one of those stone rending slashes, which would undoubtedly result in death for ordinary folk like themselves.
Zoropp looked disappointed, but not surprised to see Nightmare land, having leapt into the air to avoid his horizontal devastation.
"ZOROPP HAS NIGHTMARE ON THE ROPES! SHE HAS NARROWLY ESCAPED DEATH THREE TIMES IN QUICK SUCCESSION, BUT WILL SHE BE ABLE TO KEEP IT UP?!" cried the announcer.
Nightmare's chest was heaving in apparent exhaustion. Zoropp knew it was bullshit that she was getting tired, but he also knew that she needed to keep her cover. This was also a sign that she was planning to end it soon.
"Once more then, Zoropp?" Nightmare said.
"I won't let you escape this time." Zoropp said cryptically.
Nightmare charged and Zoropp reared up his blades. Zoropp was faster on the draw and this time his flying slashes were not limited to the horizontal plane but radiated out in the shape of a sphere.
The audience went ballistic trying to escape the arena, but it was unnecessary. The slashes traveled a much shorter range, barely reaching the edge of the arena platform. However, they were much more clearly defined and an expert observer would see that signature black sheen hidden within each one.
Nightmare leapt into the air, it would leave her helpless to dodge! Or perhaps it would not, as she twisted unnaturally in the air and jerked in various directions. By the end of Zoropp's sphere of destruction, Nightmare came out the other side with only superficial cuts. She reached him before he could make another move and within a single second he collapsed to the ground, asleep.
"Shouldn't have wasted so much stamina trying to hit everywhere at once. Only made it easier to put you to sleep." Nightmare said, dusting off her hands dramatically.
"UNBELIEVABLE FOLKS! NIGHTMARE HAS WON THE FIRST BLOCK AND WILL ADVANCE TO THE FINALS! NEVER BEFORE HAVE I SEEN SUCH A SLIPPERY CHARACTER, NOR ONE THAT COULD DEFEAT SO MANY OPPONENTS SO EASILY WITHOUT DRAWING A SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD!" the announcer shouted the results. "BUT WILL THAT BE ENOUGH TO TAKE THE FINALS?! IT DOESN'T SEEM VERY LIKELY TO ME! THE ODDS ARE CERTAINLY NOT IN HER FAVOR!"
Nightmare shot a look at the announcer and he pretended to cough and averted his gaze. She scooped up Zoropp and his swords and brought him out of the arena personally. The other contenders had all been knocked into the moat and retrieved from there during the battle.
Once back inside the waiting area, she surreptitiously gave a little vital energy to Zoro to wake him up. The first thing he did was frown as he knew he'd lost. Still, he'd learned a bit from the fight and even thought of a few new moves. With some meditation and practice he could improve upon them. His only real regret was that he couldn't kick Sanji's ass in the finals.
Well, Sanji had even more hang ups about women than he did, and he wasn't disillusioned with Cherry yet so he was sure to be in for a bad time.
"Come this way, sir. We'll have our medical staff check you out." One of the employees said.
"No, thanks." Zoro answered. He was basically unharmed, in fact he felt a bit better than he did before the match started aside from being a bit tired.
"I'm afraid this is the Corrida Colosseum's policy. We have to give you a check up for liability reasons." The employee stated adamantly.
Zoro grumbled in annoyance but was just going to go along with it when Cherry grabbed his hand and pulled him close. "Hey, big guy. When this is all over let's have dinner, hm?"
Cherry leaned in right next to his ear. "If you feel that anything they do is suspicious, don't hesitate to start cutting people down," she whispered. Then she whispered something extremely raunchy that made him flinch away and blush furiously. She gave him a wink and a wave as she walked away biting her lip.
Both of their reactions sold the idea that she was only flirting with him instead of giving him a warning, which convinced the employee and the vast majority of the other fighters.
Mr. Store, aka Sanji, was practically burning with rage. Wait, no, he was literally on fire! An employee even tried to put him out with a big bucket of water, but it all evaporated on contact.
The announcer started to introduce the big names of Block B as they came into the arena and would soon start the match. Cherry was actually quite interested in this match. Firstly because Bartolomeo would be fighting in it and she'd never seen him fight against proper opponents, so it ought to be interesting. Secondly because of the large blond king with the creepy military advisor.
"You see that guy, Lucy, Rebecca?" Nightmare pointed out the king.
"You mean King Elizabello II? What about him, do you think he'll win?" Rebecca asked while Lucy observed him lazily, still stuffing food into his face.
"What do you think he's doing right now?" Nghtmare posed a question.
Elizabello was airboxing with his gloved fists, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary about it to Rebecca or Lucy.
"He's just warming up, isn't he?" Interjected the blond pretty boy.
"No, he's not warming up. He's beating the drums of war, building up a massive amount of power to throw into a single, devastating attack I'd wager." Nightmare said.
"That should be his King Punch." Rebecca said.
Nightmare snorted. "King Punch?! That's what he calls it?!"
Although she was clutching her ribs in laughter, Cherry was very interested in seeing the result. It was terribly inefficient in spite of its frankly remarkable nature, so she reckoned she could copy and improve it. Truly the greatest honor she could bestow upon someone was to steal their techniques.