Anime Lottery System

Charlemagne's question was heard by Yuma who was at the helm and was the current Vice Captain of my crew.

"Hey! I'm the Vice Captain here. I was the first member of this crew. You can't just waltz in here and claim the Vice Captain spot for yourself!" Yuma shouted.

"Why not? I'm stronger than you. Therefore it only makes sense that I am ranked higher than you. Isn't that right Captain?" Charlemagne asked me.

"Hmm, you both make pretty good points. On the one hand, Yuma was my first crew mate and he is my oldest friend. But on the other, the hierarchy of the crew should be based on merit. I guess it all depends on whether or not you're really stronger than Yuma." I said.

"Heh, I think I can see where you're going with this and I'm all for it!" Yuma said as he was getting pumped up. "Let's go Charlemagne! Me vs you! Winner is the Vice Captain!"

"Ha! I like your style. It really was a good decision to join after all." Charlemagne replied readying himself for the fight.

"Hey now, if you're having a fight for Vice Captain then I ought to throw my hat in the ring." Jack said as he walked over.

"Nice! This just got more interesting! Any of you ladies want in on this? I asked Claudia and Rei.

"What? Of course not!" Rei replied emphatically. Claudia just sheepishly shook her head.

"Yeah fair enough. Anyway before you guys start we need to have some ground rules. After all I don't want any of you guys to get seriously hurt. First rule is that you guys can't have any hard feelings about the results, no matter the outcome you have to accept it." I said. "Second rule is that the winner will be decided by the last man standing in an all out 1 vs 1 vs 1 Battle Royal. You'll be considered eliminated by either admitting defeat or if I determine that you can't continue the fight. Finally for the method of combat, it'll be a fist fight, no weapons allowed."

"Oh come on captain that puts me and Charlemagne in a disadvantage. You know we're both weapons experts, Yuma's the one who's most skilled in hand to hand combat." Jack protested.

"Speak for yourself. The method doesn't matter to me as long as I get a good fight." Charlemagne said.

"It's exactly because Yuma has the advantage is why I picked it in the first place. I figured since you guys are fighting for his position, I should give him a bit of a leg up on the competition." I said.

After the explanation of the rules the battle for the Vice Captain position began. As Jack was a specialist in long range combat he struggled against the others at close range. While Jack was no slouch in hand to hand combat, he wasn't a match for the two powerhouses that he had for opponents. It then became a 1 on 1 match between Charlemagne and Yuma.

Their fight quickly devolved into a slugfest, completely devoid of any tactics or technique.As the fight progressed, Charlemagne seemed to have the advantage in the exchanges because of his superior physical strength and durability. However, Yuma would quickly turn the tables when I revealed a card he had been saving up his sleeve.

"Fire Kata: Flashfire!" Yuma had picked up a couple techniques of the Niko style martial arts through sparring with me. Flashfire is a technique that allows the user to move like a flickering flame, creating afterimages that dance around the opponent. As he moved around Charlemagne, he started landing blows while Charlemagne wasn't able to counter due to being unable to follow his movements.

"Whoa that's impressive. Did you teach him that Captain?" Jack asked me.

"No, but we have been sparring together for over half a year. He picked it up just by watching me. Yuma might be some kind of fighting genius. Even when he's totally outmatched he digs deep and finds a way to win. Right now he's completely outmatched by Charlemagne in terms of power, but he's finding a way to turn it around."

Yuma continued to pummel Charlemagne using his new tactics, and Charlemagne was the one that was now being backed into a corner.

"Water Kata: Bind of Pisces!" Yuma now had Charlemagne in what was essentially an inverted armbar. If Charlemagne didn't concede defeat he would have his arm broken, either way he would lose. Yuma had a knack for digging deep and finding a way to win even against superior opponents. The determining factor in this battle though, was that Charlemagne dug even deeper.

Charlemagne hoisted Yuma up in the air and slammed him into the ground which knocked him out. "Ha! Those were some nice moves, you almost got me! But there's no way I'd taste defeat for a second time so easily." He said with his arm raised in victory.

"Nice job, Char. I guess this makes you the Vice Captain now. Congratulations you earned it." I said giving Charlemagne a pat on the back. I then went to help Yuma back up. "That was an amazing fight. Your mistake was trying to finish the fight with an armlock, Char would never tap out and concede defeat and you hesitated to break his arm to win. Still I was really impressed by your performance, Charlemagne is strong."

"Yeah I know what you mean. Still I know we said no hard feelings after the fact, but I have to admit I'm really bummed about losing my Vice Captain spot." Yuma said.

"If that's the case you can keep it. I was never actually interested in the position to begin with. I just wanted to see how strong you guys are and I'm thoroughly impressed, looks like it's going to be a lot of fun sailing with you guys." Charlemagne said with a grin.

"Are you sure? I mean you won fair and square. You don't have to do it for my sake." Yuma said.

"It's fine like I said I don't care about positions. I only care about who's strong and who's not. And I can say that you guys are all crazy strong." Charlemagne said as he and Yuma shook hands.

So in the end Yuma kept his position and we set back out on our journey, other than an occasional skirmish with small time pirates, things went on smoothly until we finally reached our destination of Water 7 and we went on a search for a new ship and a shipwright to join our crew.