"And we have our players, folks!" Itomimizu announced. "The arena's bounds have been placed, so all that is left is for the riders and their mounts to arrange themselves! Will the greater experience of the Whitebeard Pirates win them the game, or will the Straw Hats' youthful gumption prevail?!"
As anticipated, Marco was the one who sat atop the shoulders of Atlas and Jozu. Speed Jiru was just sort of standing in front of them with one of Marco's feet touching the top of his head since he was so much shorter than his fellow horses, though he somehow managed to look daring and confident rather than awkward.
Sanji jumped up to stand on Jinbe's shoulder as the tension rose before the game even began.
*Pweeeet!*
Foxy blew a whistle hanging from a lanyard. "Straw Hats, assume the proper starting position!"
"I'm not touching the ground!" Sanji shouted back.
"You have to be sitting on the shoulders of your two rear horses, while at least one foot is 'held' by the foremost horse. Some allowances can be made for height difference or missing limbs, but that shouldn't be an issue for you!" Foxy sounded professional, but one could almost smell the metaphorical shit in the teeth of his grin.
"Wait…" Sanji looked at his teammates. Calculations churned in his mind as he compared their heights.
There was no way he could sit on Jinbe and Zoro's shoulders. It was just infeasible.
"Zoro and Jinbe are too far apart, so we get one of those allowances, don't we?" Sanji asked.
"You have two horses of similar height. No allowances, fefefefefe!" Foxy corrected him.
With dawning horror, Sanji realized he would have to sit on Robin'sshoulder to continue.
"It's impossible," Sanji concluded. "We'll have to forfeit."
"What the hell are you saying, you shitty cook?! It'll only be for a few seconds!" Zoro growled at him, but he didn't care. Impossible was impossible. "I shan't defile Robin-swan's shoulder with my unwashed buttocks."
"You take a bath every damned day! You iron the wrinkles out of your stupid slacks!" Zoro argued.
"That is the least I can do to be less offensive to our feminine crewmates," Sanji scoffed. "I am still a man, and a man should not sit on a woman!"
"It's no big deal, Sanji," Robin spoke reassuringly, but even her opinion could not sway him.
"We can win Wano back in a later game," Sanji said. "It only matters at the very end."
"I suppose there isn't another option, then," Robin hummed.
"See? She agrees with me," Sanji gloated.
"I'll just have to be the rider myself," Robin brought his words to a grinding halt.
"That settles it then," Zoro said. "Get down here so we can get on with this already."
"But I-" Sanji began, but Jinbe picked him off of his shoulder and set him down behind him, next to Zoro.
Could Robin handle Marco? Sanji didn't know for sure, but fire wasn't exactly a good match up for her own powers.
Sanji was still a bit lost in his daze when he felt a weight on his shoulder.
Looking up, he very nearly died of delight to find Robin sitting there, on his shoulder! On the Moss-head's shoulder as well, but that was of secondary concern.
*Pweeeeeet!*
The game began before he even realized.
…
The mix up of the Straw Hat team was a bit odd to Marco. He didn't really get what was going on, but that Foxy freak did, judging by his radiating amusement.
When Nico Robin ended up being their rider, he was even more surprised.
It wasn't that he believed her to be incapable; in fact it was the opposite. As a rider, she couldn't use her devil fruit to her full advantage. Her limbs sprouting from the ground would count as her loss as a rider, but not as a horse.
Marco wasn't too arrogant to admit that they had a very real chance of winning with that strategy, so he really could wrap his head around why they'd abandon it.
*Pweeeeet!*
Foxy blew his whistle and declared the beginning of the game.
Marco's horses surged forward, but he stayed behind, transforming into his hybrid form and taking flight.
Atlas, Jozu, and Speed were already upon the other team when something changed.
An array of hands burst from Nico Robin's back, spreading out like… a pair of wings! A single flap of the hand wings sent her soaring up towards him.
Marco's eyes widened at the same time that his smile did. She fully intended to fight him! How long had it been since someone dared to challenge him in the air? Too long for his liking, so he was glad to meet her half way.
"A brave one, aren't you?" Marco spoke. "Maybe a little stupid, too, since you came straight towards me."
Marco ignored the concerning burst of killing intent directed at him from the crowd below. It wasn't a deliberate attempt to harm him, he judged, so it wasn't worth accusing them of cheating at this point.
Though he might have been a little spooked by how clear the image implanted in his mind's eye was, of himself roasting with herbs in an oven. It took more than sheer power to accomplish that.
He didn't need to guess who had done it.
Nico Robin didn't waver with his taunt. She dodged beneath his grasping talon and reached up to grab him in turn, but Marco simply brought his legs closer to his body to prevent her-
She grabbed his legs anyways.
Marco found himself getting swung through the air towards the boundary. Robin had arms growing out of her hands, and more arms growing out of those, forming a chain of arms that didn't let him dodge her grapple.
Before he was bodily thrown out of the arena, because that would be pretty embarrassing, he turned up the heat on his legs.
Robin let go instinctively, the extra arms vanishing into pink flower petals. Her bloomed limbs were just as sensitive to flames as her real arms, apparently.
Marco seized the initiative with a powerful beat of his wings, sending a wave of heat washing over her and her tumbling back.
Her wings disappeared and her body started to fall rapidly. They weren't that high up, but it was far beyond what a regular person could survive.
Marco dove. This was just a friendly game, even if the stakes were high. He couldn't just let her fall to her death.
It was cutting it a little close, but he reached her before she reached the ground.
Something was… off. Why wasn't her team trying to catch her?
She locked eyes with him and smirked. His feet grasped only flower petals when she returned to nothing.
Marco's eyes widened in shock at the same time that his observation haki warned him of an attack… from above?!
When did she-?! When she grabbed him! He'd lost sight of her for barely a second!
Two feet crashed into his spine, hard. He'd brought himself way too close to the ground with his dive. He couldn't pull himself up!
The game had started only half a minute ago, and he'd already lost?!
*WHAM!*