[The Demon Galleon] /Finally Home/

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Ryota cracked his neck as he headed into the lower parts of the ship, after the whole fiasco at the banquet he was quite glad to be back home on his ship, however before he could relax or anything really he had one thing he wanted to take care of and after briefly speaking with Keyra Ryota was on his way to do so. Zach was still thankfully on the ship as he'd listened when they first arrived and followed Jaan down to the training area where he could blow off a bit of steam however Ryota was reasonably certain that simply letting out his frustration on the training equipment wouldn't quite be enough for the young warrior.

Opening up the door to the training room Ryota grinned at Zach once he caught sight of him. "I'm guessing your probably still a bit steamed over Touketsuki's threats and the general mayhem that went on as a whole so how about we have that spar we said we'd have eh? It'll give you a chance to cool off a bit by trying to beat me to death rather than you trying to do the same with Touketsuki because I can guarantee that I'm not going to try and kill you, him... probably not so much." Ryota said as he headed in and shut the door.

"Have you ever tried fighting or training under the effect of greater gravity than earth provides naturally? Keyra told me that she got the artificial gravity thing working to the point where we can finally enhance it past the 'basic' amount that happens to be the natural level of Earth and a bit beneath most of the Demon Realm. I ask because if you want I can activate it for are spar assuming you still wish to spar that is, as while it'll make are movements a bit tougher the benefits power-wise are amazing." Ryota asked as he walked over to the very simple switch based gravity controller that seemed to be positioned rather low on the wall, likely in the inevitable case that someone tried a level of gravity that was simply too much for them to handle.

[Zach]

When Zach arrived on the Captain’s ship he was truthfully expecting something different; metal floors and walls and computer screens, not wood, wood and more wood. Needless to say the mixture of anger and confusion formed a hilarious visage on the teen’s face. It didn’t last long, within the first few minutes onboard, he’d gotten used to the olden theme of the vessel and settled back into being generally disagreeable as he was shown to the training area. At first he didn’t even realize that there was something off about the person guiding him. When they left him however he noted a few anatomical anomalies that did not belong on a human being. Shrugging Zach just reasoned the crewman was an alien recruited by Ryota on his travels, it was a space ship after all.

Finally the impeccably dressed man arrived in the training room and started to talk to the teen. As he spoke and closed the door, the subject of the pompous alien at the banquet came up and drew a growl from Zach, it was obvious the boy was still angry, his pores practically oozing hatred by this point. He was trying his best not to get snippy with the captain though, the man had after all in all likelihood, saved his life. Then the offer of another spar and the question of whether he’d ever trained in enhanced gravity came along and prompted an actual reply from the boy.

“I think… I’d like that… And no.” Zach started. “I’ve heard about gravity training but never had the opportunity to try. If you think it will help use put that little shrimp in his place and protect Earth, then I’m game. Crank it up.” the boy continued and for the first time in hours, smiled. It wasn’t a genuine smile, more one of finding amusement at the thought of crushing the Changeling’s neck. He of course had no idea just how strong the gravity pull could become but trusted the Captain wouldn’t set it too high.

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Ryota nodded glad that while Zach had never experienced gravity training that he was however aware of it and thus would not be completely surprised when the increased gravity finally hit him. "I think I'll start us out at ten times normal gravity, considering how strong you are I'm certain you can handle it and it'll also do well to help me get back into the swing of things since it's been a while since the gravity system's have been up and running." Ryota said as he flipped the first two switches on the wall, initially the room would slowly rise to five times earths gravity pausing there only momentarily before continuing up to the full ten times.

Ryota stretched himself out a bit cracking his neck and shoulders as the full effect of the gravity settled upon him. He smirked a bit as while the increased gravity was still tough it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time he'd been under it's effects, a testament to all the work he'd done. Grinning Ryota pulled his coat off and tossed it off to the side causing it to make a thump far louder than a coat should make due to the coats own increased weight. "Considering your in a pretty foul mood and I can take a few hard hits I'll let you start us off. Feel free to take a bit of time to adjust to the gravity, there no real need to rush considering I've got nothing much to do other than deal with are tag-along." Ryota said with a sigh as he remembered that he still needed to deal with the other makaioshin and his goons since they had hitched a ride through his rift.

[Zach]

“Ten?” Zach asked, not entirely sure what to expect. All it meant to him was that he’d have the weights of ten head, ten torso’s, twenty arms and twenty legs. The numbers didn’t mean much to him though as quantifying that amount of mass in his mind was a little difficult for the former farm boy. Still, he had more energy then he could burn off safely doing anything else so the gravitational enhancement seemed like a good idea at the time.

Widening his legs just incase things got weird on him, Zach waited as the Captain turned the machine on. As the first wave of increased gravity settled down on the blonde he flexed the appropriate muscles and stud, all be it unsteadily. He was just thinking that it wasn’t so bad and didn’t know why people had such a hard time adjusting, and then the second wave hit. Zach went a little wide eyes as the increased weight of his body proved to be a bit too much for him to coordinate. Oh he had plenty of strength to deal with the gravity, but the effects of having so much more mass were disorienting to say the least. While trying to keep from swaying, the blonde overcorrected and ended up tripping over his own feet, dropping to the deck on his bum.

“Foul mood nothing… That jerk… Errrrr…” Zach replied as he struggled back to his feet. “…had the gal to bomb Earth and then demand tribute. I wish I could have killed him right then and there.” He added and finally got himself into a standing, if not entirely stable position. Taking a few deep breaths, Zach could feel how heavy his chest had gotten too. His diaphragm having to work extra hard to move his ribs and operate his lungs in the intense gravity was something akin to having a dozen men sitting on his chest. Still he was coping as best he could. Eventually the boy raised his fists when he though himself acclimated enough, although he still wasn’t, he just didn’t have the patience to stand around any longer. Taking one lumbering step after another, Zach ‘rushed’ Ryota and launched an uncoordinated first strike, aiming an unsteady right hand at the man’s chest followed by a quick left towards his face, although the punch was off and ended up heading for his shoulder. The third punch was anther right, intended for the chest but the downward pull from the off course left punch, brought the right lower as well, heading for Ryota’s upper stomach. Each strike was accompanied by a grunt of frustration as Zach struggles to get his arms to go where he wanted them to.

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Ryota was rather impressed when he noted that Zach seemed rather unaffected by the initial five times gravity though it quickly became apparent that ten times was pushing it a bit for the younger warrior at least for the moment, though with time Ryota was certain that Zach would become accustomed to the extra weight. "Touketsuki seems to have a mindset quite similar to that of a Makaioshin, he's got the power to seize whatever he wants and if he's the top dog of where he comes from that's probably why he doesn't care that what he's doing will cause people to openly oppose him." Ryota said as he slipped into a defensive stance as Zach came at him.

Ryota simply raised his arms in a defensive manner and spent all of his focus on blocking and avoiding Zach's various strikes, due to the gravity causing Zach's movements to become significantly more sluggish than they normally would be It was rather easy to do so even with his own movements being similarly hindered. Ryota grunted as Zach's final swing managed to land as he had moved his arms to block where the attack should have gone but thanks to the gravity the attack had inadvertently been sent lower than he had expected.

"It's a bit unfortunate that Earth doesn't seem to have a ruler that can defend it properly, from what little I've learned of your planet I believe your current leader is a bit below the average power for a human, though considering it seems that leadership of Earth is more a matter of diplomacy rather than actual power. Touketsuki might think twice if he knew Earth was under the banner of a legitimate threat." Ryota said as he kept up his defensive rather than making an attack, he still wanted to take a bit of time to acclimate to the gravity while he let Zach blow off a bit of his steam. As well his statement was a bit of an attempt to see how Zach would feel about Earth's rulership being changed as while it was evident he had no interest in Touketsuki taking over it would be interesting to try and see Zach's opinion on his own rulership over Earth if for no other reason than to know if Zach would be an ally or enemy when that day finally came.

[Zach]

Pulling his fists back up into his usual defensive posture once he realized Ryota wasn’t making any moves to counter or even fight back, Zach started to get a bit angrier. He wasn’t in the mood to talk but that seemed to be what the Captain wanted to do. ‘Fine, he wants to talk, I’ll talk and hit him at the same time.’ the blonde though to himself redoubled his efforts to land a proper blow where he wanted it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he started and swung another right handed punch up high. “Makawhat? Sounds like those sweat cherries.” Another right handed jab. “And I don’t care…” A left handed jab this time, headed for the chest. “…what that shrimp’s attitude is like. He comes to Earth…” A combination this time, two quick rights and then another left, all aiming for the chest. “and me and anyone else I can find will kill him.” Zach continued as he pulled his arms back in from the attack.

“And you’re talking about the president… Or prime minister. Yeah, it’s all diplomacy. But that’s just the way the world is, can’t have politicians that can go around beating the crap out of people, people don’t like that kind of thing. Heck, you should see some of the reactions I get sometimes.” the teen continued. “I supposed if someone strong ran for office that would make Earth’s enemies think twice, but they’ve got to be smart enough to work the office too, otherwise the planet falls apart… Now are you going hit me or what?” Zach concluded, somewhat missing Ryota’s implication that of a takeover and interpreting it instead as musings about having a different prime minister. Once he finished speaking, the blonde tried to entice the Captain to go on the offensive by opening his guard even more then usual. He thought he was acclimating well enough and wanted to push himself hard before all of this wonderful, angry energy was burned off.

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Ryota grinned as he blocked and deflected Zach's attacks occasionally as Zach become more accustomed to the gravity it started to become more difficult to deflect the younger Warriors attacks with the same level of ease, a few punches would just barely slip through his guard and land true striking him in the chest and earning a grunt of pain from the captain. Ryota was rather amused by how eager Zach seemed to be to actually fight Touketsuki though he was quite glad that Zach planned to at the very least find some allies to fight Suki as Ryota was fairly certain that unless a lot of training was done it would definitely take more than one person to defeat the tiny tyrant.

"Your fearlessness is sort of refreshing Zach, while I'd like to have a fight with Touketsuki I'm not afraid to admit that actually fighting him to the death as you likely intend is something that would definitely give me pause. I've sensed his power and his 'relaxed' level of power is a bit above mine and while that in of itself isn't particularly threatening it's almost guaranteed that he has some way to make himself stronger." Ryota said with a chuckle. He then listened intently as Zach spoke of the earth's 'Prime Minister' and had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He wasn't a war-monger by and means but leaving control of your entire world under the sway of a someone who was a politician at heart was an utterly foolish idea in his opinion.

"Thats... I wont lie that sounds like a rather poor system. I suppose it would work so long as Earth remained a separate entity from everything else but it's not. From what I know most if not every other planet places there 'most powerful' and most loyal at the helm of there planet. It generally keeps the world safe from many threats to it such as perhaps an intergalactic warlord who wants to exterminate your populace if you dont give him soldiers or money." Ryota said with a chuckle as he decided to take the offense considering just how much seemed to want him to to do. With a sudden drop from his defensive stand Ryota quickly switched it up and unleashed quick flurry of five punches aimed at Zach's chest and face followed up with Ryota dropping down slightly and attempting to sweep Zach's legs out from under him.

[Zach]

“I think I’ve got too much hate in me to fear him. I’m not stupid though, gathering a force is the smart way to go about killing him.” Zach responded. He wasn’t sure where all of this talk about Earth’s political structure was going though and had tried to steer their time together towards beating the tar out each other rather then talking about one of the most boring topics an eighteen year old could think of, politics. Having left himself open in an attempt to get Ryota to take some action, Zach didn’t respond to the second statement. He quite frankly didn’t care who was in charge as long as they weren’t a monkey or any other alien, except maybe a Namekian, they were one of the more respectable races, and that the people were kept safe and free. Zach might even have accepted a despotic leader provided they didn’t take advantage of the people.

The boy’s momentary musing about Ryota’s question earned him an unguarded punch strait to the chest. A grunt escaped the boy’s throat as another landed and then a fist cracked across his jaw. Sure he’d left himself open but the teen’s self confidence was just a bit too strong to let him see he wasn’t fully acclimated to the gravity. Ryota got anther two punches in, totally all five hitting their marks before the blonde’s arms even made it half way to a guarding position. He did however catch on to what the Captain was attempting when he ducked down to perform the sweep.

Thinking fast, Zach threw everything he had into a jump towards the ceiling. He’d intended to grab onto the overhead rafters and use them to accelerate his fall back towards Ryota to unleash a powerful kick to the other’s head. Instead the blonde teen barely made it up to them, grabbing one beam in each hand. His muscles strained as he tried to secure his grip on the supports but the maneuver and the gravity were just too much. Zach’s hands slipped free of the beams, drawing a surprised yelp from the boy and then a groan as he crashed into the floor on his back. He’d ended up right where Ryota wanted him except for the fact that he’d done it to himself. Still Zach wasn’t going to give up and rolled himself over onto his hands and knees and then climbed back to his feet. He turned back to Ryota and in spite of the slight puffiness of his lip, seemed to be enjoying himself slightly more then hating the world.

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Ryota was quite surprised when his leg made no contact with any part of Zach as instead of having his legs swept out from beneath him Zach chose to launch himself into the air taking advantage of one of the overhead rafters. Ryota grinned as the young warrior clung to the rafter and prepared himself for what he expected to be an inevitable aerial attack... however rather than the expected attack all that happened was that Zach lost his grip and plummeted to the ground.

Had this been a more 'serious' fight Ryota would have lept upon the chance to take advantage of Zach being sprawled on the ground but this was no such battle and thus Ryota took a moment to chuckle at the mild hilarity of the situation. "You know catching yourself with flight might have been a good idea." Ryota said with a smirk as Zach got back up, once Zach was back up and ready Ryota continued the fight moving in and throwing a few punches and kicks at the young warrior. "So would you like to keep this strictly to brawling for the time being or would you like to make thins a bit more 'explosive' "Ryota would ask obviously implying the usage of ki techniques.

If Zach agreed to the use of Ki or simply attacked with Ki as a response Ryota would back off from him and draw his blade once the blade was drawn Ryota would immediately begin infusing it with his KI in preparation for an Arc Slice albeit due to the nature of the fight the slice would be a blunted version as he had no intention of actually killing Zach which was pretty much all a normal Arc Slice was meant to do

[Zach]

“Oh I can fly…” Zach started in response to Ryota’s suggestion that he should have used his power of flight to arrest his fall. “…but if you want the truth… I’m working hard just to stay on my feet.” the blonde continued and pulled his arms in tight to block Ryota’s barrage of punches. The other man’s fists thudded against the boy’s fore arms for a few moments and then the Captain resumed talking, this time inquiring as to whether the teen wanted to make use of ki energy.

Zach truthfully didn’t know if he could coordinate the extra effort needed to remain functional in the intense gravity and focus his energy for battle. Still he didn’t want to look weak in front of the other man and grinned. “buddy, if we keep things just fists you might be at a disadvantage.” the teen joked and relaxed his stance a bit, trying to get a better feel for his increased mass rather then rigidly fighting it every moment. He knew un-tensing his muscles left him vulnerable, especially below the rib line, but he needed to get a better idea of how his body responded in the gravity. Besides, he was built like a tank and had taken punches from Ryota before, he could stomach a few more un-flexed if he had too.

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Ryota chuckled at Zach's comment as he continued to focus his energy into the blade causing it to glow in similar manner to how his aura glowed when he activated his Makaioken, he had to wonder if Zach was aware that he possessed the Arc Slice, he'd used it in both of his matches in the tournament but he he knew that Zach had not gotten to see the first match though it was possible that he had gotten a chance to witness his fight against Carmine.

"Perhaps if the gravity is giving you that much of an issue you might want to up your power a bit, i know from your fight with Dao that you posses a lot more power than what your currently using and in my experience it becomes easier to move and fight under intense gravity the stronger you are in addition to how often you are exposed to it." Ryota said hoping to give Zach a way to fight are his peek, as well once Zach decided to power up if he proved too tough for 'base' power than Ryota had every intention of using his Makaioken.

Ryota had to wonder why Zach had chosen not to make another attack, perhaps drawing his sword had been enough to give the young warrior pause as trying to fist fight someone who was wielding a sword and happened to be quite good with it was not exactly the greatest of choices. Regardless Ryota decided to take Zach's pause as a chance to launch is attack. Taking a swing at the air Ryota released the Arc Slice causing the focused energy to rip free from the blade and fly through the air shaping into a slightly rounded crescent rather than it's normal sharp angular style. The 'Slice' itself was aimed to hit Zach's general Chest and ab region.

[Zach]

Standing loosely and swaying from one side to the other to get a feel for the increased gravity pull, Zach listened to Ryota’s suggestion that he make use of his transformed state to better deal with the environment. This of course prompted the head strong teen to shake his head and flatly refuse. He wondered if Ryota had forgotten what was motivating him at the moment, the bubbling anger left over from his unsatisfying final round and the banquet was still churning within him and to offer an easy solution to his problem was like offering charity to the boy, he’d never accept it in his current state of mind.

“What would be the point in that? Training like this give me the best results. If I ascend it’ll only be like we’re in a room with three G’s.” the teen responded. What little of his mind that wasn’t still clouded by the afore mentioned anger, was too focused on his own body to really register that Ryota had drawn out his sword, at least until he spotted the quick motion of the swinging blade and the glint of light off of it’s sharpened surface.

“What… wait…” Zach barely managed to get out as he tried to raise his hands as a visual signal to the Captain to back off. but an instant later the energy wave discharged from the weapon plowed into Zach’s body, slamming him up against one of the room’s bulkheads. Although his skin seemed unharmed, the teen could feel a tingling and burning sensation across his chest and stomach where the energy had dissipated into his body, not to mention the dull ache from the impact.

It took a moment for the blonde to pull himself away from the wall but he did so without complaint and raised his arms back into a proper defensive posture about his head and chest. “Sorry, coordinating all of this is a little distracting… But let’s try this…” Zach stated and tried to divert energy into his body armor technique. The result wasn’t the usually as while the energy coalesced in the right locations, it was as if transparent jelly had replaced the usual glass like armor plates on his chest and legs. The bracers formed too and even appeared to be solid but their color shifted back and forth through the spectrum as Zach concentrated to keep himself standing strait and mold the energy to his will. The strain on his body was approaching the extreme and by now he was slick with sweat, both from muscular action, adrenalin and the effort of concentration. Worry was also mixed in as well. While he had a brash attitude that screamed loner, Zach did care what people he liked thought of him and was starting to worry that he was looking weak in front of the other man. The compliments that Ryota had paid him aside, this malfunction of his armor was an embarrassment which showed through to his cheeks.

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Ryota cringed ever so slightly as the Arc Slice smashed Zach into the other side of the training room just as the other warrior had seemed to be trying to ask him to hold off. Once the boy got back to his feet Ryota gave him a slightly sheepish grin. "I suppose I may have jumped the gun there a bit." He said flipping his sword around in his hand while waiting to make sure that Zach was still up for continuing.

It became obvious that he was still in for the fight when Ryota sensed Zach's energy begin to raise ever so slightly, the telltale sign of someone using a technique, as such Ryota took up a defensive stance once again fully expecting the technique to be something that Zach would try and use to send HIM flying. However rather than Zach sending out a blast of energy the energy instead seemed to shape itself around his body in what appeared to be a sort of jelly-armor. The appearance of the armor made Ryota chuckle ever so slightly but he remembered how well it has served Zach against Midnight.

"Not what I was expecting, but it seems the gravity having even more of an effect on your control than I'd expected but on the plus side that can only end up being a good thing for how much you'll get out of this fight." He said with a grin before slashing open a rift to his right which would lead on over to Zach's left. Ryota would leap through the rift almost immediately and send a hard kick aimed directly for one of the 'armor' pieces hoping to get an idea of how tough they were.

[Zach]

As Zach concentrated to force his energy into the shape and consistency he wanted, he detected Ryota’s chuckle from across the room and looked up growling. He was still red in the face with embarrassment and didn’t need the man laughing at him. It hadn’t dawned on him that being half covered in ethereal jelly might look ridiculous, all he knew was he was being laughed at. The Captain’s comment about the likelihood of him improving from the training didn’t stick, only the chuckling that preceded it. The boy’s anger was becoming less focused, now ending up getting directed toward Ryota, which probably was the man’s intention anyway.

“It’s difficult I’ll admit… But I don’t need to get laughed at.” the blonde responded to the Captain. Clenching his fists tighter, Zach watched the familiar motion of Ryota summoning a portal. He reacted instantly knowing it could only come from three direction, above him, or from one of his sides. A quick glance upwards while he was turning his head to the right told him above was clear. His eyes darted down and revealed nothing to his right as well. Without bothering to confirm, the boy tensed up and started to twist his body to the left to intercept the expected attack. By the time he head had come around, Ryota was already through the portal and mid kick offering no time to avoid the strike. With his arms in a defensive posture though he managed to get his right bracer in the path of the Captain’s foot and complete the interception.

The force of the kick smashed into the energy bracer and although they were more solid then the chest or leg armor, the energy directed against them was enough to dispel the entire package after a portion had been absorbed. Zach didn’t care though, he had a beautiful opening and didn’t even have to take a huge hit to get it. Acting fast, the teen attempted to grab hold of Ryota’s leg and charge forward, bull rushing the Captain back through his own portal. With any hope the sudden aggression and captured leg would put the man of guard enough to allow Zach to slam him into the wall opposite the portal on the other end of the room. If he met with success in these steps, Zach intended to capitalize on the advantage and drop the leg to begin a flurry of hard uppercuts into the man’s midsection.

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Ryota was more than a little surprised as his kick managed to destroy the bit of rmor that he had managed to connect with, likely the combination of his power and the fact that Zach was having trouble simply createing the armor had been a bit too much for it to handle, interestingly however was that the rest of the armor was left unaffected, likely because they were not actually connected. As well it seemed that even though the bracer had been destroyed it had done it's job quite well as it had effectively negated his attack.

Ryota was further surprised by Zach rather suddenly latching onto his leg and shoving him backward causing him to let out a confused 'ack' as they ran through. The sudden and unexpected nature of the attack was enough that it allowed Zach to do exactly as he intended slaming Ryota against the wall of the training room. Ryota then felt the grip on his leg release just as he'd been about to make an attempt at breaking it only for Zach to follow up with a quick flurry of hits. Ryota quickly lifted his arms in defense only however managing to block about half of the attacks Zach sent his way with the remaining more or less hitting there marks.

With so little room to maneuver Ryota was not exactly in a position he liked much and so he opted to strike back at Zach in a way that he hoped would give him a bit more space to work with. Lifting ever so slightly off the ground Ryota placed his feet up against the wall and with the combined might of his legpower and the force of his ki Ryota rocketed forward shoulder first right at Zach.