"Hey! You guys snap out of it and focus!" exclaimed Subaru.

Emilia as well as felt and Rom were still mentally absent. Through Subaru's words, they snaped out of it and prepared themselves for combat. Felt pulled a dagger out, Rom took his wooden club, and 'Satella' made a a few ice shards that were aimed at their enemy.

"So what do you want?" asked Subaru as he griped his sheathed nodachi.

"I was hoping to buy an insignia for my client, but that can't happen now can it? After all, the owner is present."

"Look, the fact that you're trying to kill innocent people because of a failed job is already starting to piss me off, so just leave now before I make you." said Subaru as he started to glare at the women.

"Oh? I wonder where your confidence comes from." the women drew a blade out and took a battle stance. Subaru knew what was about to happen. He turned towards his allies and thought for a moment.

'This place is to crowded for me to use my more advanced moves, if I do they'll end up getting caught in the attack. So I'll just have to use some of my basic moves until the opening comes for them to get out of here.'

While he was thinking about this, their opponent saw an opening and did not hesitate in charging towards him. She rushed directly at Subaru and tried to slice him diagonally, from his right shoulder through to his left waist.

'Satella' was about to shoot the women but Subaru was already counter attacking. He grabbed his sheathed nodachi and blocked the attack. He then kicked her in the side of her head, which sent her a good 5 meters away from the group. The women then used the momentum and backflipped back to her spot before she attacked.

"Interesting. I thought you were a fool for letting your guard down, but it seems like I'm the one who got fooled."

"Nope, I'm just more faster than you."

"Is that so?"

"Honestly, I have no reason to fight you, I just want to give that girl her insignia back. Can't you just say something to your client and leave?" said Subaru as he kept his guard up.

"Well then why don't I give you one?" said the women as she charged towards Subaru again, though his time aiming at his legs. The pirate dodged to the left with a jump, and since he had jumped to the left, 'Satella' and the others were unprotected and straight ahead of the enemy. The women suddenly increased her speed and aimed at 'Satella's' gut. Subaru was still in the air at this point so he couldn't reach her.

"Do not underestimate me!" said 'Satella' as she made a barrier out of ice to protect herself.

"Dark Claw!" Subaru began to cover his arm in shadows, he then divided the shadows into numerous tendrils in the shape of claws and sent them towards the women, but she responded with her blade meeting the tendrils.

'How does he manipulate his shadows like that? He doesn't seem to have any blessings. It must be his magic or technique.' thought the women as was done countering the attack.

"We can't keep watching Felt!"

Rom swung his club at her which caused the enemy to dodge. Felt appeared behind Rom and was about to cut her face, but unfortunately for her she was stopped in mid air and was sent flying backwards, away from them, causing Felt to miss.

"Idiot, you won't be getting away with anything as long as I'm here." said Subaru as he looked towards the wall he sent the women crashing into.

Under normal circumstances, Felt and Rom would question the ability of Subaru, but right now they were focused on the enemy since they saw what she was capable of. The first blade, which was meant to splatter Rom's head was way faster and stronger than her attacks are right now.

"Hey what was that about?! I almost had her!"

"Sorry, but this is my fight. And besides, that women is a lot more dangerous then she looks, if you went with your attack you would have died if I didn't intervene." Subaru didn't have any future sight ability, but his instincts were screaming at him to pull the women back from the two, and it's a good thing he did.

"Again, you're underestimating me. I do feel a little annoyed about not cutting the half-elf as well as you not taking me seriously."

"No, I'm not taking you AS seriously, I am wary of you though if that makes you feel better." replied Subaru, which just made the women more annoyed then she already was. Before she could say anything, her attention was suddenly turned to the scream of the young blond girl known as Felt.

"W-What the hell?!" Was all she could say as she felt herself sinking in her own shadow. But it wasn't just her, Rom and 'Satella' were also experiencing the same thing as she was. She then looked up to Subaru as he began to speak.

"Forgive me for this you three, but I can't focus on fighting her when she can easily strike all of down. So in order for me to fight without worrying about getting you caught up in my attacks, I'm sending you out. Make sure you go look for help while I fight this crazy lady."

Those were the last words they heard before being sent out of the loot house and into the streets of the slums.

Once they were gone, Subaru turned his attention back to the attacker as he began to speak.

"There, now we have no distractions, so now I can fight seriously as well as yourself. So pull that second blade out already."

"Oh my, you're quite sharp. Well before we start I'd like to know your name, you seem interesting to me. My name is Elsa Granheirt, the bowel hunter." said Elsa as she got into a stance and pulled out her two knives.

"Subaru, Natsuki D. Subaru. I'm a pirate! And I won't lose to someone like you!" said Subaru as he charged forward.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

"Entertain me more, Natsuki D. Subaru!" said Elsa joyfully as she threw needles at the charging boy.

The Pirate sidestepped to the left and the right to dodge the needles that were thrown at him. When he was close enough, he swung is sheathed nodachi horizontally, only for Elsa to dodge the attack until she was suddenly pulled back to where she was right in front of Subaru.

She widened her eyes in shock as she felt Subaru's foot connect to her stomach. The Pirate then used his other foot and kicked in the same spot as he did before and finished it off with uppercutting her in the air with his sheathed nodachi.

When she landed, she looked at Subaru as she realized that he hasn't unsheathed his blade not once during this whole fight. Which lead to her thinking that she hadn't pushed him to that point, but glad he was taking her more seriously then he was before. She charged at him but decided to to speed up to a much more faster speed.

'She's fast!' Thought Subaru as he jumped in the air and swung his sheathed blade downward,  only for Elsa to dodge the attack by jumping backwards. When Subaru landed, Elsa went for a slash toward his neck but he dodged it and countered with his own attack.

Elsa then did a couple backflips to gain some distance between the two while Subaru kicked a nearby table towards her. She quickly cut the table in half and immediately blitzed around the room.

In an attempt to stop her advance, Subaru summoned shadowy tendrils in the form of snakes.

"Yin-Yin Dark Snakes!" said the Pirate as he launched them toward her direction.

Elsa was dodging the snakes at a really fast pace and within a second she was then behind the young pirate and was about to slash his back until she was grabbed by tendrils made of shadow and was flung towards a nearby wall.

But before she could even react, Subaru was already on top of her with a giant shadowy claw ready to strike her.

"Yin-Yin Giant Claw!" said Subaru as he swung it down like a hammer towards Elsa, she was able to roll towards the left in order to dodge it but it still grazed her.

"This is fun, but I really need to finish you off so I can cut down the other three, especially the half-elf." said Elsa as she dodged two swings from Subaru's sword coming from the left and the right.

"No way! If I let you beat me, then there's no way I'd reach my goal especially when you're trying to kill innocent people!" said Subaru as he jumped backwards in order to dodge an attack from one of Elsa's knives. And when he saw an opening, he kicked her square in the face, sending her flying towards the bar.

"Got her!"

AN: The song ends here.

Once the dust cleared, Subaru was able to see Elsa and on her knees as she was slowly getting back to her feet. But the more he looked at her, he realized she was smiling with a huge blush on her face.

"Hey! Why are you smiling for-?!" The pain hit the boy like a brick, he felt hurt. No he felt a strong pain from his right hip. Elsa must have cut him when he kicked her.

"W-When did you...?" asked Subaru as he fell to the ground on one knee.

"Surprised? I am quite skilled with knives after all. And I must say you're quite skilled and powerful, but nothing else. Now if you excuse me, I have to go and finish my job, that's why I'm here after all." Said Elsa as she began to leave the loot house.

As Subaru watched her leave, he was berating himself for letting himself get injured like that. He just started his journey to become one of the best pirates the world has ever known like his father, yet he let himself get cut down like this.

'Come on...! I can't die here...I haven't reached my goal yet!'

Subaru then had a flash back to when he was younger, being trained by his parents.

"Damn it! I lost again!" said the younger Subaru as he threw his sword to the ground out of frustration.

"Hey come on, you lasted a bit longer this time son, so that's an improvement." said Kenichi as he began walking towards his son.

"But I don't want to lose, I want to be strong like you so I can protect the people I care about, even with my devil fruit power, I can't do a damn thing!

"..."

"You don't even have a devil fruit but you're one of the strongest pirates in the grand line, it's not fair!" said Subaru as he began to punch the ground.

"...Listen Subaru, I felt that same frustration when I was your age, but I sure as hell didn't get to where I am now by sitting on my ass and crying."

"Huh...?"

"I faced many hardships in order to get to where I am today by overcoming those hardships."

"...!"

"Listen Subaru, by experiencing both victory and defeat, running away and shedding tears, a man will become a man. It's okay to cry, but you have to move on from this defeat and overcome it!"

"You said you wanted to become the strongest pirate that's ever lived right?! That you'd surpass me?!"

"Y-Yeah..."

"Then before you even have a slither of a chance to fight me, you'll have to fight even more stronger opponents in order to reach your goal and beat me! And when that time comes, I'll be waiting!"

"...!"

It took a few seconds for the younger Subaru to process what Kenichi just said but he soon gathered his wits, wiped his tears away, and had face full of nothing but determination.

"I swear it..."

The younger Subaru grabbed his sword and looked at his father as he stated.

"I will set out to sea and become an even greater pirate and find a crew even better then yours, and when that happens, I'll fight you and other strong pirates and win, because I'm the one that's gonna be the strongest pirate! I swear it!"

As he was done reminiscing about that memory he had with his father, he grabbed his nodachi and stood up.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

AN: start it at 1:03

"Wait...!"

Elsa stopped walking as she turned around and saw Subaru standing up as he glared at her.

"I'm not done yet, if finishing your job means killing those people then there is no way in hell I'm letting you leave."

"Ara ara, it seems you still have some fight left in you after all~"

"Well yeah! I am a pirate after all, and pirates don't go down that easily!"

Subaru then unsheathed his nodachi and pointed it towards the bowel hunter.

"Because I'm Natsuki D. Subaru! The man that's going to become the strongest Pirate, and the man that's going to kick your ass!"

Subaru charged at her with Elsa doing the same, their blades clashed as not one of them were letting up.

Ignoring the pain on his right hip, Subaru swung his nodachi after every clash but due to the amount of blood he lost, his movements were starting to get sluggish.

This in turn, gave Elsa the chance to give him a kick to the jaw on the said wound, causing more pain to Subaru as he coughed up blood.

"Ack!"

"You're really determined, but you're at your limit, you lost a lot of blood." said Elsa as she stood above the injured pirate.

She raised her blade as she was about to swing it down on her opponent, but to her surprise, despite being injured Subaru quickly got up and swung his nodachi at her, with Elsa quickly countering with one of her blades.

"I DON'T CARE!"

"...?!"

"Whether I lost blood or not doesn't matter! I'm not gonna die here, especially by someone like you! I made a promise with someone really important to me, and until I reach that goal I won't let you kill those people, they're my friends!"

It may be true that Subaru barely knew them, but he considered them to be his friends as well as really good people.

"If I'm not strong enough to defeat you, then how the hell can protect the ones I care about from people like you?"

Without giving the bowel hunter a chance to reply, he gripped his nodachi in his left hand as he charged forward, in a blink of an eye he was right in front of the women with her barely countering his downward slash.

The both of them continued their onslaught of slashing and countering each other's attacks until it got faster and faster.

*clash* *clash* *clash*

"To protect them!"

*clash* *clash* clash*

"To become the strongest pirate!"

Subaru swung his nodachi horizontally as Elsa backed a few feet away, in order to dodge his swing. Subaru seeing that there was an opening, quickly gave the women a devastating uppercut as he yelled.

"I have to kick your ass!" said the Pirate as Elsa spat some blood in addition to her jaw being dislocated as she was flung towards the air.

As Elsa was in the air, Subaru quickly took this chance to finish her off.

"Now it's time to finish you...!" said Subaru as he reeled the blade back.

"Yin-Yin..."

Subaru's nodachi was suddenly covered in shadows and darkness as he aimed it towards his target.

"Shadow Barrge!"

Subaru bombarded her non-stop with his thrust as the shadows from the nodachi mimicked the movements from Subaru's blade which made the move more effective.

Each thrust was putting Elsa steps away from consciousness. She later on passed out due to the amount of times, the blade penetrated her skin with the addition of the pain it inflicted.

"AAAAAAAAAAHH!!"

With that last battle cry, Subaru gave his last thrust as both fell to the ground. Subaru on his back and Elsa laying on her stomach with holes all over her body with a pool of blood forming under her as well as broken bones.