Previously...

"Good to see you again, Ara." Koyuki leaps back in surprise, and I involuntarily flinch. Sitting in the tree across is Trafalgar Law, collected and amused.
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The Surgeon of Death jumps down from the branches of the tree, clearly pissed.

He looks at the two girls still high up and announces loudly, "If you don't come down by yourself, I'll bring you down myself. And I can guarantee that it won't be pleasant."

Hurriedly, they scale down the tree trunk and face him.

He pokes Ara, rather, Kija, in the stomach with the, thankfully, sheathed tip of his nodachi. Hard.

"Don't ever disobey me again. I'm your captain, and my orders are to be followed. Do you understand?"

Numbly, Kija nods, and he relaxes slightly, all traces of fury gone into a stiff and unwelcoming posture.

Slowly, he turns to face Koyuki, tense. "Should I call you the name the Marines gave you, or are you going to tell me your own?"

"Koyuki," she said shortly.

"Must be nice to have an artificial devil fruit, huh? The World Government is still wondering how you managed to steal one."

"It's none of your concern. After all, aren't we all thieves?"

He laughs humorlessly, sending a chill down Kija's spine. "Well, Miss Koyuki, I'm afraid that since we're both pirates, that makes us enemies. Unless, of course, you'd be willing to join my crew?"

"What do I get out of it?"

His gaze darkens. "You don't die."

She breaks out into laughter, clutching her stomach. "Yeah, a rookie like you killing me? In your dreams, pretty boy." She looks him in the eye defiantly. "Alright, I'll make you a proposal instead. Fight me." She stops, clearly uncomfortable with what she's going to say next, but continues nonetheless. "If you win, I'll join your crew. Whatever it is that you want. But if I win, I can tag along with you as a... neutral acquaintance. No one bothers me, final."

"I accept your proposal," Law says, with a smirk on his face. "But I want to add one condition at the end."

Koyuki stays silent, waiting for him to continue.

"The winner, whoever that may be, gets one answer to any question."

Without considering any consequences, Koyuki nods, and they square off, ready to begin their duel.

Law crouches to the ground, his nodachi unsheathed and glittering in the faint sunlight, the sheathe tossed haphazardly to the ground. He smiles grimly, waiting for Koyuki to make the first move.

She obliges, frost spreading from her feet, forming cracks in the ground as a battle between Devil Fruit users begins.

When neither moved for a few seconds, Law shrugs, and they rush at each other, Law swinging his nodachi in a long arc.

Koyuki jumps up to avoid the slash, and one of her feet kick away the dull side of his blade, the other aiming a swift kick to his throat.

Unfortunately for her, his 'room' comes up and he vanishes, reappearing a few feet away.

However, Koyuki recovers from her midair kick, landing with a sweep of her legs, crouched, on the ground.

With one hand on the ground, she covers the already frozen earth with jagged spikes of ice, which make their way towards the surgeon, reaching up from the ground to tear him apart.

"A lethality attempt?" he muses. "No holds barred, then, I suppose."

He expands his 'room' to include the rest of the 'arena', and with quick, precise cuts, he sends marred ice spikes back to their creator, quite literally.

Koyuki holds a hand out, stopping the frozen precipitation in their tracks, and they crumble to a fine powdery snow.

"You're going to have to do better than that, Trafalgar Law. I have no intentions whatsoever of joining you yet."

He lowers his 'room', smiling grimly. "I'm just getting started, Fuyuno Koyuki. I was hoping to finish this quickly, but I'm afraid that won't happen as easily as I had hoped."

"I can tell that you're using Haki. Clever, figuring out how to imbue it in your blade yourself."

"I could say you were even more so, covering your ice with Armament Haki."

She shrugs, responding,"An old friend showed me how."

They resume their fight, Law aiming a punch at her stomach, which she blocks with her forearm. The ice woman counters with sharp shards of ice that shoot out of her palms.

Law deflects her attack with his sword, sweeping the shattered shards to the side in a shower of crystalline snow.

Finally, Koyuki forms her own blade made out of ice and swings it at Law. He parries, pushing her sword aside and feinting with a jab to her midsection, deftly switching to a swipe at her neck.

She pushes his blade back before it can reach her throat, and counters with a flurry of strikes, all of which Law blocks except for one, which manages to leave a cut above his eyes.

Grimacing, he puts a hand to the cut, trying to stop the flow of blood so that he can see.

Unhesitating, Koyuki leaps forward, bringing her sword up to position it under his neck. Law jumps back, avoiding defeat, and scowls, commenting,"Not above underhanded tricks, are you?"

"Neither are you."

He grins. "True enough." As he says this, he brings his 'room' back up, teleporting behind Koyuki.

She notices, and anticipating his strike, she brings up a wall of ice from the ground, shielding her unprotected side.

Law cuts the wall down, but by the time he has, she's turned around, ready. They exchange more and more blows, and time drags on until the sun starts to set.

At this point in their fight, they're both exhausted, panting and carrying several wounds.

Law sports a shallow cut on his side, a deeper cut on one of his shoulders, a nick below his knee, and the first cut he has received above one of his eyes.

Even Koyuki has her own wounds as well, although they number fewer, they're more sever than Law's. A long, deep gash runs down her arm, accompanied by a thin trickle of blood that runs down her neck and a stab wound in her foot.

"I must have underestimated you, Trafalgar Law. You're pretty good for a damn rookie,"Koyuki pants.

"You're strong as well, Miss Fuyuno. You live up to the bounty you have."

Again, they charge at each other, but this time, it's obvious that this last bout will decide the fight.

Law swings an uppercut at Koyuki, and she throws that aside carelessly, surprising the surgeon. However, he recovers quickly and counters, bringing his blade up in an arc, much like in the beginning. It leaves him defenseless, and the ice woman takes advantage, swinging her own blade as well.

They stand there, breathing heavily, and with both blades under their chins, pointing at their necks. A draw.

However, they seem to find this unacceptable, glaring at each other. Law is the first to lower his blade, using his powers to bring his sheathe to him. With careful movements, so as to keep his throat from being slit, he sheathes it, therefore admitting defeat.

Grudgingly, Koyuki lowers her own sword from his neck, and it shatters once she lets go, tiny crystals of ice drifting to the ground.

"I have a question I want answered, Trafalgar. Let's go back to your... ship."

Slowly, the trio trudges off to the coast, tired and spent.
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So here's another chapter, I guess. I won't be on after this week as much, considering that school starts again, so this might the latest chapter for quite a while. >_<

This is the first real, prolonged fight scene I've had, so I had to look back through the story a lot to get a grasp of what I wanted to happen.

I'm probably going to be heavily editing a few chapter, and I'll post a quick authors note telling you which chapters I changed so you can go back and read them.

That's it. =^~^=

HAPPY (late) NEW YEARS!