An airhorn was sounded early in the morning. Interrupting my sleep.
"Son of a..."
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!! THE TIME FOR THE SPECIAL EVENT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!! IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN ON THE EVENT, REGISTER YOURSELF IN THE ARENA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!"
"Oh~ it looks like something interesting is going to be happening. We should go and see," Stussy said after the loud announcement finished.
"Better be something good."
I grumbled while getting my clothes on, I had been was sleeping good for a while before he woke me up.
"Don't be such a pain. It's got to be something huge if they had to create such a grand announcement."
"Whatever."
Soon, we were out and about on our way to the arena. We ignored breakfast under the pretense that we would eat something after whatever happened in the arena.
However, as soon as we reached the arena's entrance. We were stopped before we got the opportunity to get tickets of our own.
"Judging by your appearance, I take it that you two are the Division Commander and Vice Commander of the 0 Division of the Whitebeard Pirates?" A lady with a tight bodied suit appeared in front of us.
"What's it to you?" Stussy asked kindly, but coldly.
"You've been invited by the Master of Festivities to watch the tournament with him!" The lady replied jovially.
"What do you think?" Stussy looked at me.
"Free tickets, I don't care," I replied.
"You heard him, take us to him!" Stussy replied with a smile.
"Follow me, then."
We followed the lady through the numerous corridors that was the arena seats. The arena seemed to be built long ago, because of how ancient the designs looked. I could see countless pirates flooding through the doors as they tried to get to their seats before the event started.
We all ignored them and finally reached a room that showed the entirety of the whole arena. The room almost looked like an announcers square, anything and everything within the arena wasn't hard to see from there. Moreover, there was a balcony near the view of the arena so you could get a clearer view of the Arena without too much effort.
Standing on the balcony, a familiar man with a pot-belly and an afro could be seen standing proudly. I couldn't see his face because we were behind him, but I could tell that the man had a stupendous smile on his face.
"THE TIME HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!"
"Allow me, Buena Festa, to explain to you this year's competition!"
"This year is going to be a tournament of power. Between us, the Administrators, and you; the people!"
Festa raised his hands as the entire arena roared excitedly. As soon as the arena calmed down, Buena Festa opened his mouth to speak once more.
"We have accumulated quite the number of capable individuals that will put on a good show for you all!!!" Festa's voice boomed through the arena.
"Our first competitor: An infamous menace of the sea, Mont. Fiore!!!!"
A man with a long-ass mustache stepped forward. On his belt, he had a rapier and held himself in a somewhat dignified manner. I could already hear what they had to say about him.
"He's got a bounty of over 10 million Berries! I heard he's notorious for his slashes and piercings!"
"Next up....This year's Rookie: Bubble Jack!!"
A man with a sleeveless vest slowly walked out with an intimidating face. He looked around before landing his eyes on me and then grinned.
"Last but not least, coming from the New World. A subordinate to the Strongest man in the World, Whitebeard, himself. The Right hand of the Storm Dragon: The Lightning Tribulation Ken!!!!"
If the whole arena was roaring excitedly. Then it went completely ballistic when they saw Ken step up from the stage. He had a scowl on his face, and looked like he didn't want to be there.
"Also, his subordinate, The Racoon Dog!!!"
Pato slowly trudged up right next to Ken. His face was down, so it was hard to see what his facial expression. However, I knew how one person felt about Pato's sudden appearance.
Festa was about to say something when he froze, sweat slowly began trickling down the back of his neck as he slowly turned to face us.
"Buena Festa, if you don't have a good reason as to why you put a child into this bloody tournament. I'm killing everyone on this island, including you~" Stussy said coldly as she let out some palpable killing intent.
Everyone on the crew had already known that Pato was almost like a little brother to Stussy. She had always kept an eye out for him on the ship, and this time she had entrusted Pato's safety to Ken: who was also in the arena. It was obvious that she'd be seeing Ken soon after this.
I didn't say anything because I wanted to see who was going to move first. However, disappointingly, it was Festa who had folded first.
"Relax, Vampire Queen. I have no intention of harming any member of your crew! If you want to save your subordinates so much, you're free to join in at any point of time."
"What did you just say?" Stussy's voice became even colder.
Festa quickly turned to me pleadingly, almost as if he wanted me to back her off. Stussy's fingers slowly turned into claws as they almost reached Buena's head.
"Stussy, back off for now, let's hear what this man has to say for himself."
"Fine." Stussy clicked her tongue as she retracted her claws. She slowly made her way back to my side, but that didn't stop Buena from keeping a weary eye on Stussy.
He slowly turned back to the arena before finishing off what the Tournament's rules were.
"The first contest is going to be an all out battle between the contestants from your side!" Buena started, "the last ten contestants to remain standing, will win the round!"
"The second contest will be against each other once again. The first five contestants will finally have the opportunity to face our three Contestants in the Third Contest! The first to defeat these three will win the Devil Fruit as a prize!!!"
The entire arena roared in cheers as they all waited in anticipation for what was to come.
The rules seemed simple nonetheless, but Stussy wasn't happy about Pato being in the arena.
When Festa was finally finished with his speech, he immediately turned around to face us with a smug smile, almost as if he knew that everything was going to his plan.
"Care to explain? Why a child is in that arena?~" Stussy said coldly, her killing intent slowly coming out of her again and paralyzing Buena Festa.
"L-listen! We had already heard that you didn't care what the rest of the crew would be doing! So why are you so upset that they're in the arena?!"
"Who gave you that information?" Stussy hissed coldly.
"It was just a word off the street! We didn't know whether the information was credible or not!"
"That's stupid of you to assume that we wouldn't do anything when we wouldn't act if our crewmates were in danger."
"It's too late to do anything now! Just sit back and watch the show! What's wrong with you pirates!"
"What?" Stussy's hand immediately grabbed Festa's neck as she lifted the man up.
He choked and thrashed as he tried to pry himself off of Stussy's grip.
"You have exactly ten seconds to plead for your life. The clock is ticking," Stussy hissed furiously, it was clear that blood was going to be shed.