Carmine Having a Drink

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Ryota raised an eyebrow as Carmine placed himself between the goons and himself, he honestly hoped that Carmine didn't believe that he needed protection from these idiots. Then he listened to Carmine talk and nodded his head, it wasn't a matter of protecting him it was the simple fact that Carmine wanted to kick these idiots asses probably about as much as they wanted to kill Ryota. Ryota was rather impressed with the loyalty Carmine had to the city and was even more impressed with his skills in combat, while the men weren't particularly impressive Carmine still managed to quickly and efficiently put the man down likely before the man even realized he was in danger.

"My crew and I aren't the type to prey on the weak. We prefer a true challenge and those that most would consider 'innocent' don't seem to fall into that category." Ryota said as he drew his sword, the men had shifted there attention onto Carmine as he decimated the idiot with the chain and in that moment of distraction Ryota created a rift, stepping through it he appeared behind the group. With another quick slice he created a new rift to replace the old and just as the men realized he was gone he grabbed hold of the biggest of them and hurled him through the rift. The end result was the large man falling from the ceasing of the bar onto the rest of the group. A few managed to jump out of the way but most were caught in some way by the man's fall.

Ryota noted however that they were all still conscious after that and not wanting to be outdone by Carmine so quickly he snatched one of the me who had rolled in his direction up off the ground and with a quick jolt into his Makaioken Ryota smashed his fist into the man's gut sending him flying through a wall, the chances of the mans survival were slim. His chances of remaining conscious however were most definitely nil.

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Carmine watched as Ryota stepped in, impressed. Either that sword was magic or Ryota was just that good. For a split second his scanners went absolutely bonkers, and then a man went through the wall. In the meantime, a pair of thugs had gotten up and snatched up broken beer bottles.

Carmine looked at them and beckoned to them. He didn't even bother getting into a proper fighting stance. This wasn't a battle, this was barely an exhibition. This was just wholesale slaughter. The two leapt forward bottles first only to find their hopes and dreams shatter against Carmine's metal chassis. Hands full of broken glass and pants likely full of something else, Carmine grabbed them by their collars and tossed them clear through the door they came in, but not before knocking their skulls together hard for good measure.

"Ryota, let's take these gentlemen outside. We've caused the bartender enough troubles, eh?"

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Ryota chuckled a bit as he watched the two of the goons fail miserably to stab Carmine, either Carmine had some sort of barrier technique at his disposal like Miles had or he had to have skin that could rival a few demons Ryota knew of if he was tough enough to not be stabbed by those bottles. Ryota watched in mild confusion as Carmine tossed the men out of the bar but his confusion was quickly cleared by Carmine's request.

Shrugging Ryota walked over to the pile as a number of the men started to pull themselves to there feet groaning in pain as they had only just managed to get the big guy off of them. "You heard the man out ya go!" Ryota said with a grin as he grabbed two of the men by there collars and hurled them out of the bar. As he did so one of the men who he had squashed started slowly trying to sneak up on him with one of the bar stools in hand. Ryota turned around to grab a few more goons just in time to spot the man.

The man with the bar stool froze when Ryota spotted him, he'd been planning to just crack the stool over Ryota's head and then make a break for the door. Ryota just laughed snatching the stool out of the man's hands and nailing him over the head with it. The man crumpled to the ground while Ryota returned to trying to get the rest of the guys out of the bar. Now however because of the guy with the bar-stool the rest of the gang was up on there feet including Big McNasty.

"Alright then I think I know a decent way to get them out of here." Ryota said with a shrug as he walked right out of the bar and into the streets the goons were so caught off guard by the direct approach that none of them made a move to stop him and a few were still staring at the spot where he had been. "If you didn't notice I walked outside" Ryota called into the bar to the goons as he booted one of the goons he'd tossed out there in the head just to make sure he was out cold.

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Distracted. Pathetic. Carmine was about to teach one of the four remaining gangers a lesson in keeping yourself aware, a lesson taught by the sole of his boot to the back of his head. The man went flying head first, tumbling in midair through the door. His friends turned, surprised and tense.

"Outside."

Carmine stepped around them and joined Ryota, followed not-so-closely by the goons that were about to become little more than wet paint on the cement. He looked at the pirate, and then at their opponents. Two thugs and Big McNasty. Carmine pointed at McNasty.

"Meat?"

He pointed at the thugs.

"Or potatoes?"

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Ryota chuckled as the goons followed Carmine out of the bar, that was probably there second biggest mistake of the night, the first of which being coming to the bar in the first place. If Carmine had been holding back at all in order to keep the bar relatively safe then this would truly be amusing as Ryota couldent see these guys lasting more than a minute. "I'll take the big guy he seems like he might actually put up a bit of a challenge." Ryota said before sheathing his sword. He knew that wasn't exactly true, the man was still much too weak to pose any real threat but compared to the other goons he could probably take a hit or two.

Grinning Ryota shot through the air and nailed Big McNasty in the face with a hard right sending him tumbling away from the other goons, Ryota didn't want his... 'fight' if you could even call it that. To interfere with Carmine annihilating the goons. Big got up relatively quickly scowling as he wiped some blood off of his face. He then charged at Ryota and started swinging at him with all of his might.

Ryota sighed as Big started attacking, it seemed that while the man was considerably stronger than the others most of it was just pure brute force as the man's actual attacks were no faster than a normal human punch allowing Ryota to avoid them with ease causing Big no end of frustration. Ryot had to admit though that if a punch did land i would likely hurt a bit since not only was the man focused solely on his hitting power but he also had a set of brass knuckles on that he was fairly certain the man was unwittingly enhancing with his own ki.

"It such a waste that you ally yourself with these weaklings Big, you've got so much more power than them and yet you seem to be nothing more than an enforcer. Do you even know what you could do with all of your power?" Ryota asked as he just kept on dodging the large man's attacks.

"The fuck are you talking about. " The large man questioned as his attacks seemed to slow down further likely because he now that Ryota had something he wanted to know he wasn't trying to his nearly as much as before. "Are you aware of the concept of a 'power level'?" Ryota asked getting a quick nod from the large man, he didn't know MUCH but he knew enough to get by. "Well you my large friend have a power level one hundred times that of those weaklings you work with." Ryota said causing Big to stop mid punch as his eyes widened.

"They probably let you think you weren't much better than them. You should be doing something better than working with weaklings such as these who only seek to prey upon those even weaker than them. You should be testing yourself against those as powerful and more powerful than yourself. Those who command you likely have some idea of my power from my fight with the robotic man assuming they keep tabs on this sort of thing at all. They sent you and those weaklings here on a suicide mission. You may be one hundred times there power. But I can easily be more ten times your power. I rarely give this option out but you are a lucky man. Surrender, join me instead and become something better than these weaklings."

The man listened to Ryota in stunned silence for a few moments before looking back at the goons who were now likely beaing beaten to a bloody pulp by Carmine. "Alright." He said as he pulled off his jacket and tossed it off to the side. Ryota grinned and nodded at the man thankful that he'd finally made an intelligent choice. "Step through this and find a woman named Keyra. Tell her you are a new recruit that is to be tested by her. She is my first mate and you will show her respect. Understood?" Ryota said as he drew his sword and cut a rift to the Galleon for the man. "Understood." the man said as he walked through the rift. "Excellent" Ryota said to himself with a smirk as he closed the rift and turned to see if Carmine had taken out his group yet.

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In the time it took Ryota to finish his battle, Carmine had laid to waste the two smaller thugs, the first with a left handed jab - barely a punch at all, but more than enough to suffice - and the second he beat to unconsciousness with the now unconscious first one, swinging him like a meat bat.

He'd heard everything Ryota had said to Big, and once the man had walked through the rift, Carmine applauded. "Well done, very well done. The art of fighting without fighting. Best hope he doesn't go up against someone stronger than you who's also recruiting though, else you'll be down one chucklehead."

He looked at the unconscious thugs all around him.

"These guys are scum. Cute trick you pull with that sword by the way. Is that tech, or ki? Hard to tell the difference sometimes."

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"Sometimes that's just how things work out. If I'm lucky he'll find his place among the crew, grow more powerful, and even if someone stronger comes along perhaps he'll stick with the crew. If not then hopefully he'll be strong enough to give me an actual challenge when we inevitably have to fight again." Ryota said with a shrug, it had happened a few times before while he was captain and he'd seen it a number of times when he'd just been apart of the crew himself. It was always a calculated risk 'converting' enemies as if they turn traitor once there's always the chance of it happening again.

"True, though I'm glad at least something good came out of there idiocy." Ryota said obviously referring to Big. "My sword is... special. It's whats known as a Demon Blade, something every demon native to the Demon Realm is born with. The blade itself is apart of me and it's abilities and composition are a mixture of ki and demonic magic. Not every demon's blade can actually 'do' anything aside form be a powerful weapon, I'm just lucky I suppose." Ryota said with a chuckle, he didn't particularly mind giving Carmine a bit of information on the blade as his blade was as he'd said an extension of himself and couldn't actually be used against him.

"Even though you were willing to join the... i cant even really call what just happened here a 'fight' I do have to apologize for this since these idiots were after me. I'd hoped that after defeating the last one that came after me they would have given up or that I'd perhaps killed them all." Ryota said with a sigh of annoyance.

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"Don't worry about it. I probably would have run afoul of these guys eventually. Seems like heroes would rock their boat something awful, and it was just a matter of time before I stepped into a mugging or something anyway." Carmine leaned against a nearby dumpster.

"So this Demon thing...is it what it sounds like? Because it doesn't sound very nice - won't lie, if it's what it sounds like I don't know if we'll be having too many more of these cordial conversations. If you couldn't tell, I'm kinda big on the protection of innocent Humans and preservation of proper justice. Usually Demons are described as...well, demonic and evil. If the whole 'taking pleasure in causing suffering in others' is true, it'd probably be best if we parted ways here with a handshake and a friendly nod."

Carmine eyed the man and his sword. If this turned into a fight, Carmine's best bet was to try and escape, maybe dropping a Typhoon Kick right off the bat to buy him a head start, or hoping the Cyclone was faster than Ryota's apparent teleportation capabilities. He simply wasn't going to be in proper fighting shape until after a good night's rest period.

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"Heh.. I was wondering if you'd ask about that." Ryota said as he sheathed his sword once again. "Demons are a bit more... complicated... than that. The Demon Realm is a world where the weak are usually weeded out very quickly. It's the very embodiment of the concept of 'survival of the fittest' so yes many demons probably do fall into the stereotypes... However, there are a decent number that don't. I was taught by my previous captain never to prey upon the weak, it's a pointless endeavor that does nothing more than over-inflate the ego. Myself and the vast majority of my crew are firm believers in are last captains beliefs. I've lead my crew into battle against some of the most vile creatures of the Demon Realm because generally speaking they are also some of the most powerful. We fight to become powerful so that we can achieve whatever goals we have."

"I personally don't think we need to be enemies, My crew and I wont be attacking the earth because to be completely honest the vast majority of the human population here is incredibly weak and honestly my crew and I wouldn't get anything out of raiding the planet other than a swift repair of the ship as I wouldn't need to buy the materials necessary to repairing it. But that's simply not how we do things. If you still wish to part ways now that is fine by me, however I'd rather have you as apart of my crew. Even if I cant actually tell how powerful you are I can tell by the way you fight that you've fought people leagues beyond these idiots."

"While I wouldn't exactly consider us the 'good guys' we're far from what most probably know of demons and I think you would fit in perfectly. As well you'd have myself as well as the entire crew as allies if you needed aid against someone or something that threatened the city because we will always back-up a member fo the crew when they are in need. " Ryota said letting out a sigh after the rather lengthy speech was over. He was rather hopeful that he'd explained things well enough for Carmine as this was a situation quite like with Miles it hadn't taken him particularly long to find that he got along well with Carmine even if there conversation had been cut short.

"Even if you do not wish to join the crew I do not think we need to part ways and never meet again. I do believe you said we could have a spar once you were back at one hundred percent and as I can't figure out how powerful you are from a glance I'd still like to see what you can do in a fight when your not battle worn and fighting incompetent thugs." Ryota said with a chuckle as he booted one of said thugs in the head as he seemed to have been starting to regain consciousness.

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Carmine listened, nodding. Something about Ryota's speech rang true - he could just sort of sense the man's honesty. Even if other demons were evil incarnate, Ryota it would seem was actually a fairly decent guy.

"I'm not entirely sure I'd make much of a pirate. I have some unique requirements that would potentially be made more difficult through a life of travel, and I don't know much about...well, whatever the hell it is pirates actually do. That said, I don't have much else to do, or really even a proper home to go to, and I know my way around a machine like I said earlier. I'm not one to be confined to a ship, either. Protecting the weak is something you have to do out on the streets, in the rough places of the world, so I'm not even sure how available I'd be for whatever kind of responsibilities a crew member has."

Carmine looked up to the sky.

"If all that sounds like the kind of guy you want on your crew, and if you can show me some decent technology and give me the opportunity to protect people even outside of Earth, then I guess I might consider it, sure."

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"If all you need is a chance to protect people while still being apart of the crew and access to new technology then I think you'd definitely make for a good member of the crew. As for you not knowing what a pirate actually does, don't worry about it few people actually know before they join up. You'd be surprised how little actual 'pirate stuff' there is to actually learn though and considering you know technology I think I might already know where you'll fit in among the crew. My first mate Keyra is more or less in charge of the technological aspect of maintaining the ship as of all of us she's the most knowledgeable. I'll set you up with her once we actually have the ship up and running again." Ryota said glad that Carmine had accepted, even better now Keyra would actually have someone who could help her out that actually knew what he was doing.

"At least for the time being your 'responsibility's aren't particularly much aside from helping the rest of the crew try and get the Galleon back into working or at least semi-working order so your more or less free to do as you wish. The best way to actually do so would probably be to help me with earning some Zenie to get the parts needed for the ship's repair. I've got about a tenth of what should be enough to get the ship into working order but as we're not planning to raid the planet and as amongst the crew I'm the only one that can without fail pass myself off as a human are ability to get the money needed for the repairs is... hampered to say the least." Ryota said with a chuckle, if only they'd arrived on aplanet filled with powerful warriors then they'd have the perfect reason to launch a raid to get the parts but unfortunately the burst engine had left them outside earth.

"Once we have the ship up and running and we head out to see the other planets of the Mortal Realm then so long as you can help Keyra with various minor repairs it shouldn't be too much of a problem for you to go out to the various planets we will be checking out in order to protect the people. As we'll if you choose to come to the Demon Realm with the rest of the Crew once we can do so I'm certain you'll find yourself with plenty of people to protect as like I said the majority is as vile as story's like to portray."

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Carmine thought for a moment, and then nodded. The opportunity to defend not just Earth, but other worlds, and then potentially the downtrodden in such a place as the Demon Realm itself was just too much to pass up. He wasn't sure where his desire to save people came from, or really any of his desires considering his mechanical nature, but he knew he had them and he knew it would be a mistake not to fulfill them. He held out his hand to shake Ryota's.

"If I win this tournament, I'll be sure to contribute some of the Zeni to the cause, Captain. I'll of course have to keep some for myself, for personal repairs and general personal business."

He paused, realizing that he hadn't exactly explained himself at all, and that Ryota was likely thinking that he was still human. He decided that he would let it stay that way until Ryota asked him specifically what he was or until it became impossible to hide. No reason to play all of his cards right off the bat, especially when ultimately it really didn't matter.

"So I need a place to crash for the night. The tournament will probably be over tomorrow or the next day, depending on how many fighters remain by lunch time. I imagine I'll have to fight one of my previous opponents a second time - a human calling himself Oda. If I do, maybe I'll pass along the word about a certain pirate Captain looking for crewmen. Is there...some kind of uniform or something I need to be wearing? Like I said - no idea what being a pirate entails."

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Ryota grinned as he shook Carmine's hand, it was unfortunate that Carmine wasn't at one-hundred percent quite yet as that would mean a delay on the 'welcome to the crew' spar but that could wait. "Thank you Carmine, any assistance in getting the ship up and running is much appreciated." Ryota said not quite having expected Carmine to rather soon have some available Zenie to contribute. If the tournament he was competing in paid out well perhaps they could actually get the ship up and running relatively soon.

The mention of 'personal repairs' struck Ryota as a bit... odd for a moment but he simply brushed it off as perhaps an odd way of saying that he either needed or likely as some point would need some sort of medical attention or perhaps he had one of those flying vehicles that most humans seemed to use rather than learning how to fly. It wasn't inherently a bad thing as flight in of itself was a bit of a drain though Ryota was fairly certain that a sufficiently powerful warrior would probably easily outpace one of them without draining them self too much.

"Well you've got the Galleon for that whenever you need it. If you want we can head there now and I'll have Keyra hook you up with a link to the ship that way you can call to have the ship come in a bit closer so that you can get back on once you head out." Ryota said as last he'd checked the ship was still fine for moving small distances as they'd needed to do so a few times upon arrival to keep the ship from simply orbiting around the planet. "If Oda wishes to join then by all means bring him to the ship or to me if possible, as for a uniform, not particularly it would be a bit too difficult to in force as a number of the other members of the crew simply wouldn't be able to properly wear it. I once tried as a bit of a joke, the entire plan was mainly just that I wanted to see Keyra in the uniform..." Ryota said as he laughed a bit at the memory.

"The only real 'uniform' sort of thing we have is the ship's insignia, most all of us have it somewhere on us be it on clothing or for some of the crew skin." Ryota said as he turned around to show the insignia on the back of his captain's jacket. "It's your choice if you will display the insignia and where though" Ryota said with a shrug. "Would you like to head to the Galleon?" Ryota then asked as he drew his sword and cut open a rift onto the Galleon showing Carmine a glimpse at the ships deck likely still bustling with activity.

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Carmine nodded. He wanted to see this ship, but more importantly he wanted to rest before the next day's tournament events.

"I'll consider the ship insignia somewhere, thought I'm not sure where. And you'll have to tell me more about the uniform you tried to put them all in sometime, it sounds like a funny story. I don't think I'll need to call the Galleon too often, as I've got a means of transportation, but it's good to know I've got a shelter for when I need it. Snow really does a number on my systems."

Carmine gave the Captain a pat on the shoulder and walked into the open rift to the Galleon.

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"Even if you won't need the Galleon too often it's always better to have the option. As for the story, heh I'll be glad to tell you it any time Keyra isn't around to hear the story since she doesn't exactly like it when I spread it around." Ryota said with a laugh as Carmine headed through the rift. The mention of snow bothered him slightly. Places of cold were a rarity in the Demon Realm and thus some of the most dangerious creatures and warriors of the realm liked to make there homes there, creatures even Ryota wasn't quite interested in having to fight. As well snow was a pain in the ass to navigate through.Shaking his head as he knew earth snow would likely not be nearly as bad as snow in the demon realm Ryota followed his new recruit onto the deck of the Galleon.

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