Serious: A Ballad for the New World ((Open to Shadow and me, if others want to join, you will just observe))

[[Long Ring Island]]

The round island was something to behold. The sight of the island was amazing to the eye. The pirate ship which was enclosing the island was very generic with the number 1 and the pirate mark of the Anubis pirates printed on the side. It was the 1st divisions ship. On the ship was a handful of people and of course the most important player in the events which were about to transpire. He wore a yukata and had green eyes and white hair. His three swords were gleaming as he stood up. He looked to one of his division members "Stay here..... ill be back later......" He jumped off the ship and onto Long Ring island. He walked further, distancing himself from the ship. At the moment the sky was clear. It had been a few days since the war of Alabasta ended. A few days had been used to rest and meditate for this. Satoshi was now at prime optimum level. All the fatigue washed away as he walked on long ring island. He sat cross legged at the meeting place.

Two days ago,
"What are you talking about ?! You are all ordered to return back to Marine HQ once this thing was over. We had enough failures already !"
".. I merely informed you, I didn't asked for your permission .."
"What ?! You will come back along with the rest ! Don't push your luck .. or rank, Commodore !"
"See ya .." Todd merely closes the Den Den Mushi, as an unknown, but obviously superior compared to Todd's rank, voice is heard yelling at him.

Current timeline, at Long Ring Island.

Wearing a large cape that is wrapped around him, Todd slowly walks across the landscape. His large axe is seen behind him. Slowly he comes closer and closer to the meeting place. In his mind, their last confrontation replays.
"Meet me at Long Ring Island, in 1 week."
Something was different about him that day. Otherwise, Todd would simply attack the man right on the spot. But he could sense, at that moment, that Satoshi wasn't who he was. Not like when he smashes him at Impel Down, or when he overpowered both him and Ryan. This time he sensed that ..
Todd reaches the spot, and sees a sitting Satoshi waiting for him.
Todd: *smirking* .. This time, you are a rival, not pray .. !

Satoshi got up as soon as he heard footsteps. It was Todd obviously. Satoshi stood up and took a deep breath. "You made it..... having you withdraw from the battle was a good play on my part....." Satoshi drew his swords out, God of Lightning and God of Cloud were both unsheathed, their blades shining as if the heavens were singing. The pure white blade and the sharp blade. Satoshi thenmoved his shoulders "Last time we met.... well, things didnt go so great for me.... so now.....ill be fighting to be rid of some personal demons...."

Todd smirks again, and slowly pulls down his large, trimmed cape.
"This battle was really of no interest to me .. only reason I joined was to hunt down some .. "lucky pests" .. interestingly enough, your stature looks different than back then .."
He cracks his fists, and then takes a deep breath. He then slowly moves his hand back, and takes a tight hold of his axe's handle.
"However .. just because I can tell you are no longer just "some prey", it doesn't necessarily mean that you can match me .. but, let's see .. no more talking, now .."
The wind is blowing, and that's really all that's heard, as the two men are staring down at each other, not moving, waiting for each others initiative, each one waiting for a move so they can counter-attack.

Satoshi , walked foward slowly and then lightly thrusted his blade foward. It was meant to damage or even harm him. It was simply to test the overall reflex speed of Todd. As they began to fight, the sky began to darken.

Todd's sharp, eagle-like eyes focus on Satoshi's light, yet agile and precise movement. He, oddly, moves his left hand, held in a fist, and stops the sword attack. It wasn't very strong, obviously it was to simply test Todd's reflex time. He was able to stop it like this, apparently due to him wearing what appears to be a ring, which he used to stop the blade. He knows it was a bit of a gamble to do this, as a strong attack would probably cut his hand, despite the ring's being made from super dense metal.
"That feels awkward .. you testing me first .." Next thing that happens, Todd, using his right hand that was holding his axe's handle, moves the axe forward, and fires off a massively strong slash. He also tries to check Satoshi's reaction time, but, typical to him, he is not the type of person to use an average attack for testing, rather than a full-power blunt attack.

Satoshis eyes gleamed as he twirled on his step, using Todds hand as a pivot he was able to completely dodge the attack and appear behind Todd using his legs to propel him foward in an instant. Satoshi looked away and said "Flash step...... im afraid that will not work... i will not attack you from behind so your better off facing me straight... and prepare for this" Satoshi squatted down , slightly resheating his God of Lightning.

"How noble .. however, no more words for now." Slowly, Todd turns towards Satoshi, and wield his axe downwards. He doesn't wait though, as soon as he faces Satoshi, he moves his hand at extremely fast speed, attempting to slice Satoshi in half. As soon as the move was executed, he jumps backwards, something tells him that Satoshi would be able to dodge that too. He was arrogant, but not a fool, he could tell that there's something different this time, it wasn't like in Impel Down, nor when he fought alongside Ryan. It was different now, so he was gonna play more carefully, at least untill he could see the exact level of Satoshi's current skills.

Satoshi immediate jumped up to face the sword and then with eager intent he crossed his swords and twirled upwards in a 360 degree angle, this attack was strong enough to cut through metal "TORNADO BOLT!!!!" He slammed upwards and spinned as if it was a twister of lightning.

Todd's impressed that Satoshi's managed to block the strike and actually approach him right away. He knows he's stronger, alot, but it's true that he still believes that Satoshi has no chance. So he swings his axe, firing off one of those monstrous "Big Cutter" strikes that use to strike fear to his enemies, to match Satoshi's Tornado Bolt.

Satoshis Tornado Bolt and the big cutter slammed against each other and spiralled into the sky above as Satoshi lands safely on the grass. As soon as he lands Satoshi dashes with flash step , instantly bringing him at close range with Todd, as his blade swings continously, now he was using storm , aiming about 20 cuts, all aimed at vital areas of the body. These were fast aimed cuts, so it was like a blurry of attacks with a sword.

Todd puts his axe right in frond of his body. The axe's really large, and really durable, so he uses it as a simple yet effective shield to Satoshi's powerful "Storm". Using his right leg, he stomps the ground, moving towards Satoshi, and swings the axe to the right, and the same time, his left hand torpedoes towards Satoshi's chest. "Shigan; Revolver !" the axe is also coming back towards the frond of Todd, he is ready to simply use it again as a shield if his attack fails to hurt Satoshi.

Satoshi counters immediately by matching the hand torpedoes with cuts, if any of the cuts make contact with Todds fingers, they would certainly be sliced off, Satoshi then used God of Cloud with his other hand to hold up Todds axe to stop him from blocking. Satoshi was now a seasoned warrior with built up power, there was no way in hell he was going to allow Todd to get away from this easily.

Seeing Satoshi's quick reaction time, Todd extents his hand instead of pulling it away, and performs his special move, "God's Hand", cancelling out the attack, although, it still manages to draw some little blood, impressive considering the move's great ability of cancelling attacks. Since Satoshi is blocking the axe from coming completely in frond of Todd, he decides it's time to go heavily offensive. "Rankyaru; Gaichu !!" he fires a powerful rankyaru from a really weird angle, aiming to slice Satoshi in half.

SAtoshis immediate response as he felt something sharp coming was flash step to slam away from Todd, as the Gaichou missed him, a second later and he would have been cut in half for sure. Satoshi then dashed and sent a energy wave across the ground to Todd, this one could slice through steel.

Not wasting any time, Todd begins to move towards Satoshi, and then takes a sharp turn to the left, letting the energy wave pass right next to him, while he still keeps moving towards Satoshi. He then performs a backflip, sending a pair of rankyaru towards Satoshi, and as soon as he is done spinning, he begins to dash again towards him, being basically, right behind the energy waves he himself just fired, reading to begin an all-out barrage of attacks.

Satoshi then held his stance and held his ground shouting "LIGHTNING BEAST STYLE, 30 ANGRY RONIN!!!!!!" The rankyaku slam against his blades as he maintains his defensive style and then he sends the rankyakus back at the arriving Todd. Right behind that attack, he begins twirling his sword.

"Big Cutter !!" starting to get a bit irritated by the fact that Satoshi is actually fully capable of blocking all of Todd's "normal" style attacks, he fires off one of his finishers, to completely break away the deflected rankyarus, and, from his point of view, slash down Satoshi. Due to wanting to go all out, he then swings his axe again, stopping to dash towards Satoshi. "Big Cutter !" he fires off yet another one, just a few seconds after the first one. He believes that, those 2 attacks combined, should be enough to kill Satoshi, especially from the fact that they were fired at a distance of 25 feet at most.

SAtoshi had already prepared his blades, they had been spinning at an alarming rate. He had prepared this attack for a while, it was spinning and spinning at almost sonic frequency. in an instant Satoshi unleashed the boom, that humoungous shockwave from the blades slamming into the air, destroying the rankyakus and clashing with Todds attack yelling "Sonic BOOM!!!!!!" The attacks exloded into a crater. As the dust settles, Satoshis eyes glared, his body sweating as he was getting into beast mode "Todd Tamuri...... you are a pompous arrogant being..... i will defeat you honorably..... i will avenge the lives you have look down upon.... for even a god of war like yourself... will FEAR THE BEAST!!!!!!"

Todd looks in disbelief, as Satoshi managed to actually neutralize such a powerful barrage. His left eye twitches a bit, he's getting irritated.
Could Satoshi actually close this large gap those two had ? No, that can't be it. It's impossible. After all, Todd trained too. Those months in this horrid island, filled with animals not seen anywhere else. He and Nemoushi trained there, overpowered all those beasts on their own. So it cant be that. Todd must still be stronger !
He tilts his head slightly, as he hears Satoshi's speech towards him. He grits his teeth, obviously his anger and, unfortunately, arrogance, begin to show off. "Shut up already !" he dashes at an amazing speed, faster than their previous short but intense showdown, and aims to slice Satoshi cleanly in half, swinging his axe to the right.

Satoshi then grits his sword and slams it against todds axe, holding it to a standstill. His eyes were way more focused , he was much more sharper than before. He was now using his muscle flxeibility and expansion to his advantage. There was only one thing which made Satoshi better. He had fought this level of opponent before, so many times till his eyes and body had adapted to this. He could see that Todd was stronger, but no matter what, nothing could match the fact that Satoshi had fought life threatening battle after battle. Nearly dying several times, only to claw out victories. It was strength built from struggle, it was strength built from desperation. Satoshi then looked into Todds eyes " I am better than you.... accept it!!! SAtoshi then pushed off Todds blade and aimed his god of cloud sword, his white sword, cleanly vertically aimed at Todds torso

Everything goes quiet. Very guiet. Todd wonders why is everything going so faint, so out of noise. He slowly looks down, and sees a slash going all over his torso. His eyes open wide, shocked, not expecting this. It all feels so weird, it's like he's seeing a dream. A very bad dream ..
Todd stands there, looking at the sky, his eyes seem so dark, and so empty. There's a really dangerous looking cut, going all the way down to his abdomen.
*What just happened ? .. Did I got .. Did I got hit ? .. how ? ..*

Satoshi stepped foward carefully as Todd was looking at the sky. His beast mode deactivated at that point as Satoshi was now breathing normally. He looked at Todd and shook his head. He could never feel any remorse for this man, the man who had killed Daniel, the one who had tortured and killed many pirates. Still though, as he looked at Todd, he felt slightly pitiful. Satoshi then sat down "We can take a break.... i can see that you need it..."

"She died .. she was killed .. this is all YOUR FAULT !"
"How could you let her die like this !"
"I TRUSTED YOU !!"
"..."
"Mika .. wasn't that the name ? .. strength .. I wasn't strong .. I must be strong .. I have to be strong .. Stronger than everyone .. always the strongest .. who, who is it that .. get's in my way ? .. you .. you .."
Todd is looking up, apparently unconcious. But that seems to be about to change. "You .. you are standing in my way .. you .. YOU WILL DIE !!!" Todd's eyes suddenly widen, and he tightens the grip on his axe.
"YOU BRAAAAAAAAT !!!" What follows is a "Big Cutter", stronger than ever before. The attack is blinding, and formidable. It keeps going, whether it hit Satoshi or not, it keeps going, and going, destroying everything in it's path.

About 2 miles away, some people are walking.
"Say, Luke .. is this normal ?"
"Not at all Boby, not at all .."
A massive jet of energy, Todd's attack, even reached that far off, and smashes into the sea, only the stopping, but still causing the sea to split in half there for some moments.

Todd appears to have snapped. Something that would strike fear to even his own brother.

Satoshi saw Todds grip tighten and then immediately flipped up, he activated breath of the beast and kicked the air to dodge Todds massive attack, he slid on his feet and then held steady, he was still shaky from all that power Todd had exhumed. Satoshi then drew his blades as suddenly his yukata front tore, Satoshi dropped his yukata down leaving his bare upper body exposed, it was muscly and full of scars. Satoshi then glared at Todd "So you finally know defeat... good.. good.......the world may fear you ..... but i wont....." SAtoshi stood steady and got into stance, his sweat almost as if it was steaming, his eyes glaring, the ominous air around him, as sharp as lightning. IT was like, any move that he was to do, would be lightning strike. Satoshi was the worlds greatest swordsman, he knew that, through years of challenge and pain and fights he had barely kept that title. He had to win here. Satoshi then charged at Todd, it was if a beast was about to bite another monster, thats how amazing these two were.