Where the game of the Unfairdictable Circle goes rather well for Geno and while resting for tomorrow to face his final opponents, somewhere else on the ship silly drama happens.

No one's POV:
-

The duels kept going. Geno had fought against 6 more pirates. With the 5 of them he wasn't quite familiar, nor had many interactions. He didn't know how, he had no clue most of the time how he had made it this far, but damn, for someone who was playing such game for the first time he had proceeded well.

"Luck of the newcomer." Some pirates would whisper at each other bitterly and looking at Geno not with the most positive expressions on their faces. The siren was mocking these expressions.

At some point one of them had taken the mockery less well than the others and was ready to walk up to Geno to give him a piece of his mind. Alter, like the loyal guardian angel he was, appeared out of nowhere behind that pirate and pat his shoulder gently. Immediately the pirate was put back in his place.

The only of the 6 pirates Geno had fought against and he was more familiar with was Yalin. Despite the small skeleton was picked first and the snake second, he had done the mistake to ask for the duel to be without weapons or magic. Just with fists and such. He was confident in his abilities, but oh how he was going to regret picking the duel to be in such way.

Combat with just fists and kicks and basically the body? Terribly bad idea against a python-based monster, who can literally cause almost instant suffocation with the amount of power it has if it wraps around somebody. Even crack their bones. And Geno had almost gotten himself cracked by Yalin about 5 times.

He was fast and sharp. Despite having such a long body Geno couldn't land a hit on him and instead would get wrapped up by the python monster, or get slapped by the edge of his tail. And after getting many times almost choked, he decided that his strength would only just keep helping him to barely escape him, for how much longer?

And so, he decided to put his skull to work and find another way to beat Yalin. He looked at his opponent as he was crawling towards him in maneuvers. And then he grinned, an idea had popped in his skull. But before he could imagine his plan proceeding, Yalin surprised him by dashing unexpectedly faster than before and wrapped around him.

This time he was wrapped around him tighter than ever and Geno almost lost consciousness from the pain. The python was smiling gently, close to the win as he thought he was. With the last amount of strength in him, Geno managed to open his mouth wide and bite down at Yalin's body.

"Bok! Bu acı!" The snake yelled and his grip loosened just enough for Geno to free himself before Yalin could tighten his grip again, jump at him and... unwrap his turban.

"Daaamn." The smol had think then.

So Alter wasn't lying. Long hair crawled out of the turban that was containing them all. They literally slapped Yalin to his face and he lost orientation. Before he knew it Geno had grabbed him, twisted his whole body once and made him look like a rope with nautical overhand knot.

Yalin couldn't crawl as fast now, move for that matter, but even if he could he was way too confused from all the hair on his face and couldn't see Geno as he then punched him in the head and pinned his head on the floor. 10 seconds later he was announced the winner.

"Impresssssive fight güzel. You almossst knocked off a fang though." Yalin said, accepting the defeat and smiling at Geno as he was slowly and carefully tying his hair beneath his turban.

"Al wasn't joking when he said ya had veeery long hair."

"Haha, yesss I have."

"Haven't you thought ever about cuttin' them though? They could be a hazard and-." Yalin interrupted by gasping loudly and long, looking at Geno almost offended.

"Cut them?! Over my assshesss!" He said slightly angrily and then started saying more in Turkish. Geno raised hands in the air in defeat.

"Alright alright! Your hair, your business!"

Aldo was an absolute beast in the game. Against the 5 pirates he fought with he was making them beg for mercy as once he was capable to make then fall prone he would climb on top of them and hit them with his elbow on the middle of their spine, causing them to paralyse.

Then instead of letting them on the floor, he would keep giving them sharp hits, mainly stomping them, each causing the opponent scream and be unable do anything about it. 10 seconds later Adrian was asking Aldo to stop and announce him a winner.

With Geno having the knowledge of Aldo being a Stellar, he would compare the beaver's style with Alter's. Both soldiers of the monsters once, but damn they were fighting in a completely different manner. Alter was tiring his opponents until they were way too slow from fatigue.

Only then he would proceed to knock them out. He was defending himself by mainly evading, rarely blocking if he had no room to do so. Aldo was straightforward 'going for the kill'. He wasn't defending himself or evading and dancing around to toy with the opponent, he was maneuvering towards them to hit them.

His defence seemed more as a consequence, as each attack he was receiving from his opponent, he was quick to respond with a sharp and in most cases final blow for them. Geno recalled parts from Aldo's narration, mentioning a little bit of how Stellars fight.

And by watching Aldo and Alter, he concluded and got convinced that definitely the Stellars were far more brutal than the Asteras who were more pacifist and graceful on their fighting. But to be seeing the beaver and tall skeleton, at the same time he was almost ready to laugh.

Alter seemed far more intimidating with his height. Especially with the burn mark on his left eyesocket he gave more of the impression that you really didn't want to mess with him, yet he wasn't hitting to cause pain. Aldo seemed far less harmless but he was the one who just meant dangerous business.

And there came in Geno's mind the rather fair question. What would it look like if these 2 were fighting, who although were trained for the purpose of defending monsters of their respective lands were taught to face the enemy differently?

"I've never seen the cook fighting like that, what the f*ck bro?" He heard a pirate nearby saying to another one on Aldo's fourth fight. They both were looking at the beaver with expressions as if they were ready to sh*t themselves.

Ah, so in all years Aldo was in the crew of Reapers, he had layed low and until now never showed much of his combat skills. Then the smol skeleton looked at Ramirez. He was observing the fights with his back against the gunwale and crossed arms.

Everytime Geno would win he would roll his eyes and press his lips together more firmly. Everytime Aldo would win he would just turn his eye to look at the sky and his lips would move to form silently the words 'As expected'. That's what the wind was telling Geno. Was that supposed to be praise or sarcasm now?

Whatever. He had put his name on the game too and had beat the crap out of anyone thrown at him, though he had gotten beaten up well. Yet he was standing and refusing to quit the game. The fights proceeded, quite fast one could say, because there were only 10 participants left at the end of the day.

In the game had stayed Aldo, Alter, Ramirez, Michael, Geno and 5 other homies of little importance. For now. Perhaps.

Perfect way to stop the game, as the most beaten up ones could gather back their strength until the next day, if they weren't quitting. As Geno and Alter returned to the hermitage, the smol observed the taller being thoughtful. He asked what was wrong.

"Are you up to continue the game tomorrow?" He asked quietly.

"Duh! I've made it this far, there ain't no way now, 'specially that I got the thrill! Why, ya plan to stop?" Geno asked at the end teasingly. The other's expression didn't turn cheerful immediately. He looked at the siren silently for a few seconds before humming, smiling gently and petting Geno's skull.

"Best of luck then."

~

"Are you planning to come out clean?"

"Mhm."

"Why all of a sudden?"

"Support."

"For who?"

"Alter."

"Will you just explain properly and stop giving me one-word answers?"

"Oh really now Leandro? Aren't you the one who hates my voice, even now as we speak?"

Ramirez walked up to Aldo and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, ready to lift him. They were in the medbay as the beaver had helped the alsatian to treat his wounds.

"I can tolerate, but not this attitude."

"Treat others as you would like to be treated then." Aldo spoke back and clenched Ramirez' hand that was holding him by the collar. Ramirez started growling but the beaver didn't budge. "Really now? See Leandro, I said I want to support Alter, but right now you remind me another reason. The disrespect. So many years I tolerated most of the others' behavior towards me. They see me as little and easy to mess with. Because I was silent and unable to say anything quickly, they would sh*t-talk. You disrespect me too."

"What now?!"

"You. Disrespect. Me. Me and the Captain are probably the only ones who really understand you better, yet here you go and just treat me worse than the others most of the time." Aldo sighed. "In what way you've got it so bad in life I don't know. And I can't tell you to just stop. But do you even realise how you treat me? Do you just stop for one second and judge your own actions?"

"Not this again..." Ramirez growled as he looked away.

"Now that I answered your first questions, will you let me go and let me hold my peace since you so much like it that way, or will you keep holding me like that until somebody sees us and gets some false idea?" Aldo asked chilly.

"What are you supposed to mean by false-?" Ramirez stopped talking abruptly and let go of Aldo with a triggered expression.

"Thank you."

"WHAT THE F*CK?!" The alsatian barked.

"We are on a pirate ship Leandro. Most of the minds in here are trained and used to be thinking ill. Or dirty."

"OH F*CK NO!"

"I'm almost certain Michael has gotten the wrong idea despite being still young, from that one time in the kitchen, you know, when Alter and Geno were in Lisbon."

"Don't remind me..." Ramirez pinched the base of his nose so tightly he almost pierced himself. "If this little sh*t has spreaded any false rumors from what he saw, I'm going to hang him upside down by hooks until all his blood has run out of his body."

"Even if he's false, we're monsters and we can't really control who the one we're gonna be attached to is going to be like."

"Since when are we attached???"

"I didn't talk about us, I talk generally. Truly, for us monsters, it is far more easier for somebody to misunderstand something if 2 are way too close no matter the gender, than if they see 2 humans."

"Still, ew and I'm not having feelings for males."

readers' reaction to this statement:

"Here you claim you don't have any left."

Ramirez snarled lowly and annoyed. Knocks were heard on the door then.

"WHAT?!" He barked.

"Come in." Aldo said quietly and the alsatian shot a glare at him. The door opened to reveal Michael.

"E-Excuse me. I just wanted to ask if..." He stopped talking.

"Speak you little sh*t."

"Uuuh, did I interrupt something important?" The boy asked hesitantly.

"We were just talking. What's wrong Mike?" Aldo asked.

"Captain wants to speak with doctor Ramirez."

"Very well." Ramirez just said and walked out without looking behind him once. In fact Aldo with Michael walked out too, they had nothing to do in the medbay.

"Tough today, wasn't it? For a little human you did extremely well on the fights. I don't think you've ever reached this far."

"I'm surprised too." Michael said shyly.

"I don't think you should be this surprised. You managed to be on the final 10 through your hard work and dedication to it." Aldo raised hand and pat the blond human's shoulder. "You're going to be an excellent fighter Michael. You have the advantage of being trained by monsters and learn many more ways of combat, ones that humans wouldn't be able to teach you and wouldn't want you to learn probably."

"I learned from many, but I also had the greatest privilege of having received lessons from you and priest Alter. He taught me how to be more swift, you taught me where to hit." Aldo laughed lowly.

"Hmmm. Let's see if tomorrow you'll be able to handle whoever comes at you. And know this Michael, if we get paired up..." He turned to look at the boy and got dead serious. "... No. Holding. Back." The human gulped.

"I'll try." He said hesitantly.

"Now, for the little champ, you, how about a calming tea of your choice?" He asked and Michael nodded fast with big glowing eyes and a bright smile.

2390 words

*inhales*

*slams all tables available in pelo style*

just a heads up for ya all, in some future chapter, ya will enjoy for appetizer some afterdeath moment AND more cffap reaper lore. his story has just been teased lightly and barely scratched the surface of it, but eventually you will get much more story.

until the next time *grabs you and fly away (basically kidnapping :D)*