Mission #: Ω (172): Hunters & The Hunted(Shinku/Kiwi/Flame)

[Flame]

Mission #: Ω (172)

The island of Port West has become eerily silent. All communications have been cut off and the island has become a zone of nightmares. A very rare and dangerous quarantined species has unexpectedly arrived onto the island. Few in number to begin with, the Alpha female has begun to devour the indigenous fauna, laying eggs to sprout new offspring that contain traits of what was eaten. Recently, the first human had been devoured, a marine recruit. Now obtaining human characteristics and capabilities, this dangerous species, Dubbed the, "Carnivora," has grown abnormally powerful. the Alpha female demands more and more to breed her royal family. The people have becomes cattle, being taken away to the almost impenetrable nest of the Alpha female, being prepared to be eaten now in mass amounts. All the marines have been eaten. You and your party have now arrived to this island with no way to escape. Your only hope now is to venture deep into the island into the center where the nest lies. Be cautious, the Carnivora have a hierarchy system comprised of henchmen and Elite officers. The nest itself towers as a miniature mountain. If you wish to escape with your lives, you must fight your way through to the center of the island and destroy the Alpha, thus causing the nest to crumble and shutting down all of her spawned minions. The locals will pay you handsomely. If you fail, EVERYONE is doomed.

Rinnnnggggg~~~

The sound of the den den mushi in the room caused something to move below the sheets. They convulsed, twisting and turning until finally a head of black hair poked out from what would normally be considered the foot-end of the bed. "Ugghhh" came the groaning voice of what seemed to be a young girl. The covers shifted once again as the body beneath them sat up revealing a black-haired girl wearing a dark t-shirt and a dark mini-skirt. She sat straight up with her legs crossed in the bed stretching her arms into the air pushing off the blanket that had previously laid over her. Then like a cat she leaned forward, stuck her butt into the air and her arms out before her and stretched out her lower back. Below the still constant ringing a yawn could be vaguely heard coming from the girl's mouth.

"What do they want now ..." She asked the room her rhetorical question. Scooting to the edge of the bed she swung her legs over onto the wooden floors beneath. For a moment she left her feet there reacquainting herself with the rocking of the boat. Then she turned around to look for the infernal den den mushi that had interrupted her peaceful slumber. Noticing it in a corner far away from her bed she stalked over. She was in a particular mood having been awoken from her slumber, she of course had never been a morning person. So she forgot, that they had requested her be here for something and that they were going to pay her handsomely. She was not exactly in a position to be pissed at them, they were paying her she should just accept it. But just at this moment she was not in a mood to do any such thing.

"WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME!!!" The girl screamed at the Den Den Mushi without warning. The den den mushi frowned back at her, of course she knew den den mushis displayed the emotions those on the other side, so she paused. Her anger subsiding she maintained a firm face. "Miss Firefly, it is time. If you will meet us up on deck we will explain what you are here for. You should bring your weapon." The calm voice came out of the den den mushi it was a little displeased but that seemed to be about it. Syphalia paused looking at the den den mushi as thoughts ran through her head about what she had just done. "Uhh ... ok then, I'll be up in a moment." She said to the den den mushi taking a moment to breath in and out. It calmed her down definitely. So they were finally here, she had gotten on this ship a while ago after having received the request via a note tied to the leg of a carrier seagull. She was curious, they had gone to her and not the marines, that thought entertained her. It was something the marines were unwilling to do, should be fun. That of course and getting the nice paycheck they were offering sounded great.

She rolled her head cracking her neck not once but twice. Now then, they said to bring her weapon, she looked around the room for where she had placed her blade. It was where she had remembered placing it, resting on a chair, blade firmly within the sheath. Walking over she grabbed it, placing it at her waist where it was meant to be. Taking a moment to look around the room to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything important she nodded to herself, all set. Walking out the door she turned down the corridor of the cabin and towards the main entrance. Pushing open the door she was greeted by the sea air, the sky was a beautiful sky blue, perhaps a sign of good things to come. Syphalia smiled, she was not one to believe in such things but a little favor could never hurt. 

Squinting she looked forward towards the island before her, it seemed to be mostly just a town-based island. Nothing special, from the outside there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. Made her wonder what they needed her for, from what she could see, which wasn't actually much the island seemed fine. Looking up and down the deck of the mid-sized boat she noted a man waving to her from the stern of the ship. Syphalia waved back giving them the best smile she could muster.  Walking down to the stern of the boat she found a group of a few men standing around a table with a map on it. One of them handed out drinks to the others who stood around. She did not recognize any of the people around the table in particular, not surprising she did not bother herself with knowing the names of prominent anything. If she needed to know them, they would meet, that was all. 

Still not the most awake she took a sip of her drink, it was rather cool thus helped to wake her up. "So what exactly are we doing here?" Syphalia asked the gathering. The others turned, for a moment before beckoning her to walk to the table. Upon the table was a map of what she assumed to be the island that was sitting before her. A man who seemed to be heading up the conversation was pointing at what seemed to be a marine base. "As far as we can tell it is here. It seems the most likely place ..." He said with a deeply concerned voice.

Syphalia frowned she did not like being ignored especially given that she was taking on this job. "What exactly is there?" She repeated her question once again. There was a pause, a silence that overcame the group. Until finally the man who had been explaining before looked up at her and gave her a hard look. "A monster, some rare species that the marines brought over for testing or something. It got loose, its turned all the humans on the island into food stores. It needs to be eliminated, that is where you come in." He said seriously at her.

Syphalia paused now wondering exactly why they were pointing at the marine base. "What about the marines, this is there mess isn't it? Why haven't they fixed it already. Its not the like the marines to just ..." She paused thinking of her last encounters with the marines. She was not sure if she could seriously make the statement she was about to say. "They tried, they are all either dead or soon to be." Was the reply, now that was concerning. Syphalia's brows furrowed, she was not a fearless person. The only ones who were fearless were fools and priests, and she'd never been on the best terms with 'God'. Look at her life, why would she.

Stepping back from the table, she was thinking of declining the job now. "You know, I think I do-" her voice trailed off as suddenly an immense weariness overcame her and she dropped to the ground. Everything went black and she passed out, vaguely she thought to herself damn ... drugged

SPOILER: Click to show

Ok so you can either be in this gathering, or be being brought to the island by someone else. Either works, either way I think currently the way we are getting trapped on the island is being drugged during an explanation of the mission and then being dropped on the island, survival ya know.

[Shinku]

Kyoukichi’s Daily Fortune: Don’t cross paths with black cats!

A young lad, just shy of adulthood, sat alone at the bar and spooned something up that tasted great but was of indefinable ingredients. The innkeeper had called it stew and the thick brown broth hid everything that could call him a liar. None of the customers had ever complained or inquired for more information about the junk the innkeeper used to cook with. There was a lot of good fat or at least fat swimming on top and the taste was all you could ask for, so most considered it a very good and cheap meal and the lad was inclined to agree.

The boy was wearing simple sandals, black shorts and a clean white T-shirt with an over-stylized mouse printed both on the front and on the back. The front only showed a mousy face with large ears and a big smile while rays of yellow light adorned the figure from behind to give it a more dynamic background. Below that, large letters suggested the possible name of the animal in question. On the back the whole mouse was visible. It was wearing a yellow costume and a red cape and the drawn motion-lines suggested that the mouse was flying. There were words on this side of the shirt as well, forming a short sentence that was probably the catch phrase, written in bright red color.
Normally Kyou wouldn’t have worn something so childish - or bright. Flashy colors were just not his style, and white never stayed white for very long, unlike black that usually resisted most attempts to take on the surrounding colors, like earth-brown or grass-green or whatever color the ground he would slip on was.

But it had been a gift.

The middle-aged woman had wanted to thank him for taking down her trapped cat from the tree – “The poor thing can’t get down by itself anymore!” - and Kyou had seen no other option but to accept it, because the little kitten had shredded the shirt he had been wearing during the saving mission and he didn’t own a second one. The T-shirt appeared to have belonged to one of her boys - “they’re all adults now” - but the condition of the fabric suggested that the kid hadn’t worn it a lot, if ever.
But it was that or going topless and going through town without proper clothing was considered impolite and anyway it would make him stand out. Kyou hated to stand out, it only got you into trouble. On a normal day he wouldn’t even go topless around the beach because he had just too many scars he was self-conscious about, so he wore it, and hoped he wouldn’t meet anyone who knew him.

The nice animal-loving woman had also given him some money for lunch, because apparently he looked “all skin and bones! Oh dear! When have you last eaten something good? A boy your age needs proper meals…”
For the lunch-money he was grateful at least because she wasn’t far away from the true. The boy wasn’t starving yet, but his last good meal had been a while ago. So he politely thanked her and walked away before she could make an attempt to cut his hair. The dirty-pink mess on his head had seen better days but no scissors for quite a while and even on the whole the wannabe bounty hunter didn’t make a good impression. He had washed, sure. Hygiene was important and so he kept a regular washing schedule, but somehow he never looked as if he did. Kyou was not heavy enough to be called skinny and the dark circles around the eyes made him look even more tired and hungry than he really was and his hair was ever unruly. And then there were the bandages that usually gave him a ruffian look. The newest he had to add after his fight with the fierce cat, who wanted nothing less than being saved. Both of his arms were practically covered in bandages and there were various Band-Aids on his face, a big one on the right cheek and one over the nose.

And so the fretful young man had found his way into the inn that served indefinable but well acceptable stew.
Unfortunately he was soon joined by a big fellow of man who’s whole existence spelled “TROUBLE”, in big letters.

“That’s my place you’re sitting on.” He told Kyou.

“…”

They locked eyes for a second and then without any resistance, Kyou just took his stew and drink and went to sit two chairs away. That left the man baffled for a moment. The troublemaker had expected the frowning boy to rise up to his taunt.

“I see that you know who you’re dealing with boy.” Said the man, who’s identity was completely unknown to Kyou, before seating himself right next to the pink-haired boy, despite him having moved away at said man’s request.

“…”

“You’re a bounty hunter or something? That’s a nice sword you have there.” The man went on and pointed at Kyou’s bokken, probably mistaken it for a “real” sword, because of the special metallic property of the used wood.

“Maybe it’s time to answer”, Kyou thought. “Before the guy takes control over the conversation.”
But it was much too late for that.
“How about a drink boy?! I’ll invite you. HEY BARKEEPER! Two vodkas, for me and my new friend here!”

“…”

Great! Kyou hated alcoholic drinks. They made thinking harder than necessary. When life had first served him with more than just the common nastiness, the boy had shortly considered to become an alcoholic, but in the end decided against it. Life was bad enough without a world that was spinning around and buggers that came with doubles. Not to mention the vomiting and the hangover.

“Juice for me.” The other man looked as if he wanted to protest, but a third voice interfered.

“I’ll pay for the drinks. Barkeeper, if you would be so nice.” The newcomer’s voice was polite and refined. With a meaningful nod to the barkeeper he sat himself next to the troublesome man who had actually ordered the drinks.
“Nice to meet you Mr. Axbloede. I’m your contact man.”

What Kyou gathered from the talk was that they had agreed to meet in order to discuss a job, but since it had nothing to do with him, he allowed himself to turn back to his stew and enjoy the fact that no one would bother him now because they had better things to do.
The drinks came and the pink-haired boy enjoyed his completely non-alcoholic and over all free juice.
Kyou was starting to feel really tired all of a sudden, when Mr. Axbloede jumped up from his chair and loudly declared that they would have to do it without him, because he wasn’t THAT mad. His contact tried to calm the man down but only managed to enrage him even more. Without saying a word of goodbye Mr. Axbloede stormed out of the bar, while Kyou noticed that no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. The last thing he saw was the contact exchanging looks with the barman who just shrugged. The contact let out a sigh when the boy felt forward, deep asleep. That wasn’t who he had planned for but it would have to suffice…

[BlacKitten]

It was ironic for a bat to be sleeping during the night, but if he was to act nocturnal, his time would never overlap with the time of normal people. Last night, he hitchhiked upon this ship, preying upon his next target. Unlike the previous one, who possessed the bounty of 35 million beri, his next one lived up to the reputations of pirates sailing across the Grand Line. Never had he been this close to someone whose bounty was of this magnitude, just what sort of heinous crimes did this girl commit to have obtained a head worthy of 52 million beri? The fact that he even had to ask such a question revealed his ignorance of his potential enemy, and fighting an unknown battle wasn’t favorable even if the element of surprise was on his side. From the bounty poster that his little sister was under possession of, the picture suggested that Syphalia was a swordswoman. How placidly cliché; it felt as if everyone used swords lately. Although, he shouldn’t let this mentality become his downfall; even sword-users had their own distinct styles in combat.

He was awoken from the sound of footsteps; his cup-shaped ears could even pick up the repetitive noise of a Den Den Mushi. From the highest yard of the ship, perpendicular the mast, his tiny form hung upside down with the black claws of his feet clinging onto the wood. Wings were folded around his body, acting as an air-tight seal that kept him warm from the chilly night.

Minutes later, a conversation struck his attention. A rare species of man-eating monsters -that were brought by the marines- had escaped. Apparently, the crew wanted to hire Syphalia to handle this situation. It made sense to have someone of her caliber to do so. But somehow, these weren’t ordinary monsters. Not even the marines could deal with them? They were almost completely wiped out? Pluto began to hold doubts about the entire story in itself, questioning the validity of such an outrageous claim.

Huh? The sentence was cut off from the girl as a loud thump hit the floor. What… just happened? His dark beady eyes glared into the distance below him, watching as the notorious pirate collapsed onto the floor, much to his surprise. Did she not get enough sleep? Was the great criminal with such a high bounty not that deadly after all? He had such high expectations of her, but for her to just collapse so suddenly, his mind became befuddled from this contradicting scene.

This isn’t good. Are these men after her bounty too? That would make things complicated for me. Tch… she didn’t seem that lethargic in her manner of speaking. Was it that drink they gave her? But why would they drug someone they planned on using? Isn’t this a bit counterproductive? Was that story about monsters just a complete fat lie? Not a very believable story anyways.

He had planned to gather data on his target, but there wasn’t much info to gain from a motionless corpse. From here on out, there needed to be some adjusting to his next step of action. For starters, he had better wake up a certain somebody. Splaying out his wings, he flipped himself over, descending towards a pile that was masked by the thick cloth over it to protect it from any rain. Situated on the deck, located at the side of the ship, inwards from the bordering fences, the shadowy flying mammal shaped back into his human form. Pulling one corner of the cover, a little girl was revealed beneath it, sound asleep with her head resting on a bag of rice.

“Oi! Wake up!” The boy nudged her gently while whispering. Rebecca’s eyes opened halfway before widening completely at the sight of her older brother.

“Plu-" Her mouth was covered by a hand just when she wanted to call out his name.

A finger over his lips gestured her to shush and stay silent. There were still people on board who could very well hear them if the two of them weren’t careful. Removing his hand from her mouth, he stood up, gesturing her to follow him.

Crawling out of the waterproof sheet, Rebecca tagged along, unsure what was happening to be on the move so suddenly. She never realized how comfortable a sack of rice could be when used as a pillow. The firmness yet indentation from the weight of her head was perfect.

[Flame]

She had been drugged, but still she was vaguely aware of what was going on. Her senses told her enough even if she was not fully capable processing them. Syphalia along with her sword had been carried onto a smaller raft. From there somebody, she was assuming one of the men at the table had carefully rowed the raft up to the docks of the island and dropped her off there. It was there that he had left her, laying defenseless upon the docks. There she lay for a short while as the drug wore off. Thankfully the villagers had been smart enough to use a short-lasting drug otherwise the people they sent to rid their city of the pestilence would probably have been killed as they lay on the docks.

Coming back in control of her body she groggily groaned "Ughhhh". Pressing both of her hands against the wooden dock she lifted her body off the ground bringing herself into a sitting up position. Bringing a hand to her head she rubbed her temples, what a foolish thing for her to do. When she had met these villagers they had not seemed the type so she had let her guard down. She cursed her own stupidity for a moment, bringing her hand down she rubbed her eyes wiping away some of the crud that had built up on her eyes. Her other hand searched the ground for her weapon, she assumed that it had been brought with her. Finally she found it, still sheathed, laying on the dock next to her. Gripping the sheath Syph gave a small smile, it was a comfort to have her sword with her.

Shaking her head out a little she stood up and took a moment to observe her situation. Looking back and forth across the docks she saw that the ships had all been destroyed in some way or another. Some with massive holes in their hulls, others had broken masts and lost rigging, in other words none were sea-worthy. No way out huh, probably anyone who could've escaped already had. She sighed, no way out ... at least no immediate way, which meant whatever was on this island was a danger to her. Carefully she began to walk down the dock towards the town, at least out here she could not see any immediate signs of danger. Grabbing the rope wrapped around her sheath she slung it around her shoulder allowing the blade to hang loosely across her back. Normally she would have put it at her waste, but given the situation she figured it'd make less noise on her back. If these monsters were here then she did not want to alert them to her presence.

Making it to the edge of town she looked up and down the main road leading into the center of town, did not seem promising to go inwards. Concentrating for a moment she tried to remember what she had seen of the map. Supposedly the pests were centralized in the marine base which was deeper into the town. So hopefully she would be safe out here, she needed a plan to get out of here. Walking along the edge of town she looked into the windows of shops, most were broken. Syphalia shook her head, she needed a shop that was still in fairly good shape. Walking down she finally came upon a store front that was still in good shape. The door was wooden, looked a little flimsy from the outside but it was unmarred which was what she was looking for. The window was still whole, it was large, but she could live with that. Grabbing the handle she turned it slowly, it was unlocked. Smiling at her luck she opened the door stepping inside. The shop was in fact a pub, she had not noticed before because of tinted windows but though most of the tables and stools were a mess upon the ground the place seemed otherwise untouched. For a moment she wondered what had happened to the original residents, stepping in quietly she listened intently to make sure she was alone. There was always the possibility that the creatures were nocturnal, she sort of wished she had gotten more information when she had been on the ship.

Walking over to the bar she wondered for a moment if there were still supplies, food and drink. Now that she had some sort of shelter those were her next priorities. Food would probably be harder to find, but on the other hand drink, alcohol did not go bad. And as a pub they were likely to at least have some sort of drink that had not yet gone bad. Coming around the bar she turned to see a mess of broken bottles on the ground. No luck? Treading carefully between shards of broken glass Syphalia looked under the bar for anything. There she found a few dark bottles, there was some sort of liquid in them. That was promising, grabbing one she popped the cork out of them with some careful movement of her blade. Tentatively she took a sniff, did not smell rotten. She nodded, pouring a little down her throat. It tasted, well she immediately recognized it as apple cider. Confident that it was drinkable she pulled out all the bottles she could placing them on the bartop.

That was when she heard it, the sound of feet on the ground. Immediately she reached over to the hilt of her sword over her shoulder. It was coming from, she turned around a door in the back of the shop seemed to be the source of the sound. Biting her lip now she was actually concerned, she had assumed this place was safe. Maybe it was a human, she thought optimistically before chiding herself for such optimism. She knew better. But still she did the simple test that would tell her. She spoke all the while holding her sword now firmly in her hand.

"Hello?"

[Shinku]

The boy was running. And running. And running. But he didn’t get anywhere. Kyou was faintly aware that he was running away from something, something horrible, but even with a lot of effort he just couldn’t name what it was. But it was horrible, so much for sure. If it wasn’t, why would he run away?
“What’s going on? I can usually run much faster than that.” He thought. His legs were getting heavier and heavier and moving forward took more and more effort. It was as if he was moving through semi-fluid syrup. Now it became impossible to lift his arms, as if they were held down by some invisible force that felt like gravitation, but was much too strong to be that. Desperate, the pink-haired boy tried to push his way forward by will alone but his body failed him, the malicious power nailing him to the spot he stood. Panic rose in him like the sun out of the sea, blinding every other feeling but the queasiness inside him that made him want to throw up if his throat wasn’t feeling so constricted. If he didn’t get moving, the monster would catch up to him and then…

Some strong evil smell tickled his nose and Kyou opened his eyes, feeling disorientated for a moment. Why was he lying on the floor? And ugh- what was this kicking odor?! There was a little uncorked bottle in front of his nose and strong evidence in the form of faintly visible vapor suggested, that the smell came out of it. With a deep frown on his face the boy sat up and put the cork on the flask with the smelling salt to stop it from distracting his thoughts. Still groggy from sleep they just wouldn’t line up like they should.

Had this all been a dream? Or rather, which parts had been a dream and what was real?
It took him some time to fully awaken even under the force of the smelling salt or he would have noticed the rowing boat sooner. Splashes in the water, caused by the rowing, finally got his attention.
Far too late however.

The men who had brought him to this island he was now standing on, were rowing back to their ship already and the distance between the shore and the little rowing boat was too big to jump without risk. As a person suffering under the curse of a Devil Fruit, the risk was much too high for Kyou to take. He contented himself with throwing the little flasks after them, though he missed the target by at least two feet.
His kidnappers had drugged him thoroughly, since they had needed to move him over a greater distance, bringing him here from the previous island and the drug was still inside his body. The smelling salt just helped to drag him out of his unconsciousness but it hadn’t gotten rid of the stuff itself. How long would it take for his body to metabolize the noxious substances and get them out of the system?

“Probably depends on what exactly they have used on me and how much of it I drank.” How could he have been so stupid to get his drink poisoned?! It was his habit not to accept drinks from strangers and to be very careful about being invited, but the one who had served the drink was the barman. Did that mean he wouldn’t even be able to ever eat in an inn again? Considering that he was passable cook this wasn’t the end of the world, but it would still be troublesome to make sure that none of the ingredients he got had any unwanted addition to them.

With a sigh Kyou turned to inspect the island. The dock he had been dropped off was… lonely…
Yes, for some reason the word “lonely” seemed to fit it very well. Normally the docks were one of the busiest places in a town that had lot of shipping traffic, a thing he guessed was true for this town as well considering the size of said port, but this one was completely abandoned. Not a single soul was to be seen and an eerie silence was hanging over the town, one that even the sounds of the lightly blowing wind couldn’t completely drown out.
The sinister feeling in the air was that bad that his hair stood on end. Kyou didn’t like this at all, oh no… he didn’t. But neither did he see any way out of here, short of swimming… which he couldn’t. There was only one direction Kyou could swim and that was straight down to the bottom of the sea.

At least he still had his bokken, one small and lonely advantage in an otherwise worrying situation. With one hand on the sword tucked in the belt on right side, ready to draw it at once should it turn out to be necessary, the young man braced himself and walked into town.

[BlacKitten]

As they continued on lurking about in silence, their eyes curiously stared out into the distance, watching the unconscious girl being escorted away on a raft. This only made him feel even more perplexed. After knocking out the pirate, they merely carried her off. At her defenseless state, they could have easily eliminated her by throwing the girl overboard, but despite their methods, these people wanted that swordswoman alive. But why were they going so far as to drug the person that they were transporting upon this island?

Waiting around wasn’t going to answer any of his questions; the longer he loitered about, the further his target drifted away. It went without saying that his little sister wanted to help the swordswoman out, but that intention conflicted with his own. Before he knew it, a pair of arms coiled around him tautly by the waist. How annoying, the girl had already anticipated his thoughts; she knew what he was about to do next. This wasn’t something he wanted to use in the daytime, but it was the only way to transport another human being over a body of water. One slip and he would drown to his demise.

Extruding from his back, a pair of leathery black demonic wings sprouted and fanned out. This was a partial transformation as everything else about him remained humanly normal. Leaping off the deck, the extra appendages flapped suddenly, propelling them through the air. Hovering across the water where he could see his own reflection, the zoan-user kept his eyes fixated on the pirate’s whereabouts. Immediately, fingers pointed towards him. Eyes gawked at him, mouths gaped at him. It was inevitable. His appearance was simply too noticeable in the morning. Black as a color contrasted too perfectly with the light blue sky; anyone, who wasn’t blind, could spot him immediately.

This was when Pluto took a detour after getting the gist of where the raft was going to head towards. He went ahead and jetted towards this foreign piece of land. When passing the docks, his eyes starred incredulously at the damaged ships below him. Whatever happened to those wooden vessels was beyond him. He continued to travel further inland before landing onto the rooftop of a two-story tall building that was still close in proximity with the coast. Immediately, his wings retracted and vanished, and Rebecca released her clutches.

Sitting on his buttocks, the boy rested while glancing at the town from a high angle. Something became noticeably odd: this place was deprived of people. Many windows had been shattered with fragmented shards of glass scattered about. His sister sat beside him, gazing at the same scenery in a curious manner.

At the corner of his eye in a far distance away, Syph was lying there unconsciously by the docks as her escorts abandoned the girl, drifting away back to where they came from. Right now, he needed some time to soak all of this in. Something mysterious about this town and those ships nudged at his composure. Monsters… what did those men meant by that? The story actually filled in on some of the plot holes that his previous theories contained. If a pirate raid had caused this there would at least be corpses scattered around, perhaps some bloodshed. But if the people were eaten up by these bizarre creatures, then it would explain the deprivation of civilians around here. However, such an explanation was too ludicrous for him to believe wholeheartedly.

After some time passed by as he dwelled within his own thoughts, the pirate girl began to awaken, causing the boy to immediately roll down the steep end of the triangular rooftop. Lying at an angle, he hid quietly while peeking out from time to time. Rebecca did the same thing, but she left the spying to her brother.

Syphalia was on the move, ambling around the town while eyeing on many of the shops. Eventually, the black-haired girl with the sword across her back entered inside a pub.

A bead of sweat rolled down the back of his neck as he reminded himself to breathe. There was no one else around; this was a perfect opportunity for an ambush. But something unsettling about this town made him cautious. A gut feeling or instinct that told him that acting recklessly could mean death.

[Flame]

Pulling her sword out of its sheath she now brought it out in front of her. With not one but both hands on her weapon she eyed the door warily. There had been no response to her prompting whoever ... or whatever was behind that door. Quickly she eyed her surroundings building a layout of the room in her head. Stepping back for a second she flexed her fingers for a moment as they held onto the hilt. The footsteps stopped for a moment and was replaced instead by a low rumbling from the other side of the door. It was a disturbing sound, like perhaps a growl even. "grrrrr~~" came from the door. On reaction Syphalia took a step back for a moment. She shook her head, why was she so scared, had she not been in more dangerous situations than this.

'CREEEEKKKK'

The wooden door shifted, swinging outwards slowly. Syphalia's eyes were held locked upon the opening door. The first thing she saw was a paw, it appeared on the outside of the opening door. Just a dog? Syphalia's shoulders relaxed a bit, dropping lower and one of her hands let go of the hilt. The door slid open moor revealing a medium sized ... dog? Syphalia's eyes narrowed slightly as all of the 'dog's features were revealed. It was a large dog, easily standing taller than her waist. It had muscular proportions and a feral look in its eye. But what concerned her more was not those almost wolf-like qualities. What concerned her was not its dimensions but what she noted upon it. A pair of bug-like ... well what could only be antenna sprouted from its head and two massive canines were easily visible as they stuck out of the animal's mouth. One last thing of note was the eyes, she had seen dogs and wolves before. These eyes were special, they were ringed, a bright yellow with dark rings appearing again and again around the pupil. This was if anything a little disturbing for Syphalia, was this the monster? It was definitely not something she had ever seen before.

The growl continued as the monster padded forward out of the backroom locking eyes with her. The golden eyes fixed onto her own, they focused slightly before it gave off a growl. This time it was much more obvious, less of a growl more of a snarl as it bore its teeth at Syphalia. The hand that had fallen to her side returned to its former position on her hilt. Her eyes narrowed and if she was an animal her hackles would probably have been up at the challenge. The two of them stared each other down for a moment, a distance of perhaps two meters between them. But that was only a momentary distance. The wolf-thing took one step, two steps, and was suddenly bounding towards her. With its large muscular size it launched itself into the air before her, both forelimbs swinging out towards her claws out. It's mouth was likewise wide open, the large canines exposing themselves to the world aiming to take a chunk out of her.

Syphalia was not surprised though, she was ready, prepared. Deftly she skipped to one side using her sword to catch the paw on that side and push the thing aside. Due to its large size she was able only to redirect it slightly at it went careening into a wooden table on her right. The impact was not much to it it seemed as it recovered nearly immediately. Coming back to its feet its padded in circles as she did keeping it at the opposite side of the room from her. For a moment she wished she had more experience fighting with monsters, most of her techniques were not meant for fighting wolves or any sort of beasts for that matter. Again it charged at her, this time she would not block it no, she had decided already to meet this challenge head on.

She swung her sword to her side, the blade was pointed behind her facing the ground as she looked forward to her opponent. She took a deep breath and swung her blade, the wolf was already charging towards her. But she was confident, her sword swung out early, riding along the ground there was a flash as a slice of compressed air ripped along the ground meeting the monster part way through its charge. It caught the wolf in mid-air and a line of blood splattered into the air as it cut across the monster's chest. Crashing backwards it fell to the ground, laying there for a moment before picking itself up again. However it looked a little off balance, if this was the strength of these monsters then this would truly be an easy job. Just for a level of certainty she swung her blade again a bullet of compressed air forming as she did, it flew across the room crashing into the wolf's limp body sending it flying into the wall behind. She heard one last whimper from it before it went silent. Had she killed it? That was ... disappointing, were the marines really so weak they couldn't deal with something of this caliber? 

Walking over to the bar once more she grabbed one of the bottles upon the counter. She took a quick swig of the cider and let out a small belch. "BURRPPP~" It was quite unladylike but she did not really mind, anyways there was no one here to hear her. Her eyes traveled back to the door to the backroom, she figured at some point she should probably search out the back rooms make sure there were no more surprises back there for her. Placing her sword back within its sheath she took a seat on a stool at the bar grabbed the bottle of cider. Leaving an eye watching the door she relaxed a little. Placing her arms upon the bartop and looking out to the docks she wondered if there was anyone else on the island. Were they counting on her doing this alone? Possibly, but perhaps not. 

[Shinku]

While the town didn’t show much obvious damage at first glance, the buildings were all standing and intact, there were still signs of a close fight. The struggle showed itself mostly in overturned objects, hasty left-behind tools that laid where their owners had dropped them while fleeing and worrisome scratch marks one could find all over the place. There were no signs of any human bodies or any sort of body anywhere. Had everyone managed to escape the disaster or had someone removed the corpses?

From the corner of his eye Kyou noticed a motion but when he turned around to see what it was, only an empty street revealed itself to his watchful green eyes. The young man had chosen to walk down one of the bigger streets, keeping himself close to the middle of it where he had a good overview of his surroundings. It was no place to hide, everyone would spot him immediately, but on the other hand he would be able to spot everyone who tried to get close to him as well. Or so his hope was. Dark side-alleys made him nervous as he passed them, deep dim shadows possibly hiding something nasty and hostile, but as long as he could avoid them he would.
Again there was a movement, this time at the end of the street, but again Kyou didn’t manage to catch what it was. It seemed as if Motion itself had partly solidified and became a living thing rather than just being a concept applied on things.
And then he saw them. First one then two and then some more were poking out their little pointy noses from a side street to his right.
Rats…

This made sense, since Kyou faintly remember the other bounty hunter and the contact guy talking about some pest that needed to be taken care of. Rats certainly fitted the description of “pest” though the pink-haired boy couldn’t imagine how the little animals had managed to drive out the whole human population from the island. They certainly were a plague but over hundreds of years of human population, people had managed to live with them and sure as hell the rats had learned to live alongside the humans as well. So what had changed now?

Very high squeaks alerted Kyou to the presence of other rats on the other side of the street. They had seemed shy at first but they were getting bolder now, approaching him in the open rather than following him through the dark cracks along the house walls. They were strange rats. While their size was that of very well nourished big exemplars, something about them was odd. The eyes were a striking thing. Bright yellow with black rings around the pupil and shining with mean intelligence, but at least the intelligence seemed normal enough for rats, cursed bastards! If it weren’t for the insect-like antennas on the rats head, Kyou wouldn’t have found them special but considered them just a variety of the normal rat society that had evolved on this island.

Of course the major thing about rats was that they were omnivores and would not say no to a piece of human flesh if they were hungry and those specific group of individuals were giving him much more attention than he felt comfortable with. In his childhood Kyou had read a book about a man who saved a village from their pest of rats by playing them music that was so good that the rats had to dance to his tune. And then he leaded them out to the river where they apparently drowned.
It was a nice story, but it was very hard to transfer into real life. First of all, Kyou couldn’t play any musical instrument. And second, he knew that rats could swim, having watched them a lot on the riverside in his younger years.

So he did what he always did in those situations. He ran. At first the pink-haired boy had tried to count them, but after reaching twelve he stopped. There were at least twice as much and maybe even more but he decided that if there were more of them he didn’t want to know it.
High pitched chirping sounds that were barely audible for the human hearing were rising behind him and started a pursuit. They soon caught up to the running boy who, despite being a very fast runner with high stamina, wasn’t fast enough to outrun the animals for very long. Strange…
Many animals were faster than humans, especially the bigger predators but some herbivores as well since they had to run away from said predators. But when it came to running then mice and rats were slower than humans. They appeared fast enough but because they were so small, their progress wasn’t comparable to that of a running human. Kyou’s knowledge on biology was not extensive, but he loved to read books and was sure that the speed of a normal rat shouldn’t be over 20km/h but was probably even slower than that. This pests weren’t the first rats pink-haired boy had ever met, Kyou often slept alongside the animals when he was out of money and had to spend the night in the streets and until today he thought he knew them well. Or so he thought.

So how did those rats manage to keep up with him?

[BlacKitten]

“Pluto!” she called to his attention as she lied there comfortably against the sloped side of the tiled rooftop on her back. “Is there really a reason for us to be hiding like this? That girl doesn’t even know us. We should try to interact with her.” Naturally, her brother had the mindset of treating others as enemies, but getting to know someone up close would really help them gain an insight of the swordswoman. Besides, compared to all the previous people they encountered, this particular girl seemed a lot nicer.

Crossing his arms, his head sharply turned away, “I don’t wanna!” Interacting? That wasn’t really his area.

“Aw… why not?” Rebecca waved her arms, “There’s no one else around.”

“Greetings, handshakes, conversations, fake smiles, fake laughter, and acting skills, I hate them all!” His eyes squinted at the very thought of the idea of interacting with a stranger.

Tilting her head back, she didn’t realize her brother had such an odd interpretation on the matter, “not everyone is a salesman. Just be yourself, Pluto.”

“Humph. Not interacting IS being myself,” he counter argued. Staying in the shadows and keeping a low profile was how it’s done; publicly announcing his existence to another conscience would violate this pattern. Countless of assassins and mercenaries were tracking them down to end their lives; interactions with others only increased the chance of being founded. The whole purpose of moving from island to island was to keep on running away from the unknown number of people coming after them.

A flock of white feathered birds soared in the sky above, taking a sharp turn and diving straight at them

“Seagulls!” Rebecca pointed above her with an index finger. Her brother sharpened his eyes as if something urgent needed to be realized. The alarming appearance could be noted by those strange antennas sprouting out of the birds’ head, and their strange yellow ringed eyes send a chilling creepiness down his spine. When the beaks of the birds opened up, revealing triangularly shaped set of teeth, sharp as a canine, that was the final hint needed to label them as downright dangerous, “Hey now… birds aren’t supposed to have teeth!”

He rolled to the side, evading the feathered beast that swooped back up before crashing into the tiled roof. From a squatting position, Pluto swiftly avoided the next aerial assault by somersaulting towards his younger sister. Clutching her wrist, he dragged her to her feet, “Let’s go!” After gathering some momentum by running towards the edge, the boy leapt off. Plummeting several meters below, the siblings landed roughly on their feet, and from there, they headed into the center of the road before halting.

Rebecca didn’t question his decisions; she knew he had a good reason to stop. Even as the flock of seagulls dived towards them, there was not a single grain of hesitation.

Reaching the ground wasn’t so that could run away because the birds weren’t something they could easily retreat from on foot. The unleveled surface of the roof merely made it harder for the boy to gather power from the earth. His hands raised in front of him with his fingers curled up into a claw-shaped position. An arm crossing in front of the other, Pluto jolted a half-step forward and swiped his hand diagonally outwards, “Swarm!”

For the first split seconds, an arc of thin air from each fingertip flew out, resulting a total of ten, but immediately, they dispersed and scattered into a cluster of tiny slashes of air, all flying towards the flock of birds that were diving straight into them.

Wounded chirps and squawks sounded through the air as seven bodies of mutated birds crashed into the ground, twitching. Dozens of white feathers rained down, drifting and swaying as they slowly made their way to touch the paved streets below. There was no blood, and none of the birds appeared dead.

“Pluto…,” Rebecca gave a look of surprise, “You can do that in human form?”

“No… it’s as I thought. Such attacks are too blunt without entering into hybrid form,” the brother stated in disappointment. His hands can mimic the shape, but in the end, they weren’t actual claws. Nevertheless, these creepy-looking seagulls weren’t capable of flying any longer. Damage to the wings crippled them severely.

[Flame]

She sat there for a moment, pondering. Originally she had felt like someone was going to enter this room, potentially multiple people,but that feeling passed from her. No it did not seem now very likely at all, she frowned knowing what she had to do. She had to go through and make sure there were no more of these monsters in the back rooms now. Syphalia sat there for a moment relishing the idea of leaving her comfortable position at the bar, but priorities. They were important, they had kept her alive so far, and she of course knew better than to question herself. Taking one last swig of the bottle of cider she allowed herself to enjoy the sweet drink once again. Before going into the back she looked over at the collapsed wolf-monster thing on the floor. Perhaps she should remove it from the premises, it seemed a decent idea that was for sure.

Hopping off the stool she walked over to the creature. Using the end of her sheath as a prod she tentatively poked at the monster's limp body, no response. That was promising, once more she did so and again no reaction. Syphalia smiled a little before she made her way to the door dragging the little monster along with her using her sword. Once she came to the door she opened it slid the body outside a little before bunting it away with the swing of her blade. For a moment she watched her handiwork before closing the door once more. As the door closed she looked to the back wondering if there was a lock for this door, unfortunately there was not. Sighing she thought for a moment to bar the door with a table, or chair or something but decided against it. It was not so simple a door that it could be easily opened by just any creature. More likely they would break it down.

Turning toward that other door she was a little more hesitant, she knew not what was behind the door. After all that had just happened she approached the door carefully, while it had been pushed open before the door was closed again. Perhaps thankfully, perhaps not, but Syphalia at last was a little thankful as it gave her a moment to compose herself. She took a deep breath, eyes narrowing and with both hands with a firm grip upon her sword she took one away and pushed open the door. Well it was not unexpected, she opened the door only to see a long hallway on the other end, doors littered the hallway, they were probably for all sorts of things. At the end of the hallway there was of course a stairwell. The building from the outside had been at least two stories tall, mm that made sense. The hallway more importantly was empty, there were no enemies through door number one. Stepping toward the closest door, she assumed this was the kitchen.

Before opening the door she listened, carefully through the door, she heard the soft thud of objects though not necessarily from the other side of the door. No they seemed farther away than that. But still now slightly concerned she pushed open the door and revealed a small kitchen, it was barren. No food in sight, how long exactly had this place been emptied out she wondered. The same was true of the other rooms she visited on the first floor, they were mainly empty, the pantry had had a sort of bed-like thing made from some ruined boxes. It was the size of the wolf-thing probably where it had been sleeping here. All in all the place almost seemed in some odd way like that monster's bachelor pad or something. Not that Syph really knew what that kind of stuff was, but the term sounded right in her head.

Now for the upstairs, she came to the stairwell then one by one tested each step climbing up to the second section without any issues. The second floor has a few rooms as well, they were more evenly spaced, bedrooms? Yep she confirmed as she walked into the first room and the the second. Unfortunately they had been basically stripped of all their usefulness, frames remained but the mattresses, well there was maybe two in decent condition the rest had been ripped apart or were simply missing from the bedroom. She'd keep in mind which mattresses were still there perhaps she would sleep up here tonight. It was a vague possibility which was becoming more likely to her as the day was going on. At least for now she needed a base of operations. She could do this, she felt it, but she needed a safe place to sleep. Feeling confident in this she headed back down to the first floor and opened the door back into the pub area.

"This should be interesting." She said to herself out loud as she pushed open the door revealing the pub.

[Shinku]

Sharp teeth bit into the back of his leg and made it all too clear that the strange and dangerous rats were hard on his heels. The pink-haired boy cursed himself. Why was he wearing shorts today of all days? With clenched teeth and most of all without slowing down even one bit, Kyou shook off the persistent rat by forcefully kicking his legs forward as he ran. That made him look ridiculous but as there was no one to see him and even if there was, Kyou wouldn’t have cared, as long as he could get the rodent off himself. Yet as soon as he managed to shake one rat off, another sank its teeth into his flesh.
The strap of his sandal snapped, probably due to the attack of the out of control pests and with a big thud the unlucky boy landed flat on his face.
In the blink of an eye the rats were all over him and Kyou had the unpleasant oppressing feeling of being buried alive under a furry ball of teeth. Panic rose inside him like a flash of light from an oncoming train, but Kyou pushed it away desperately, trying to keep his head cool.

A hand pressed to the ground as a leverage to turn his body around and then spin it into a windmill, a common move in breakdance, Kyou started his newest attacks. At first it was difficult because of the sheer weight of his little attackers that kept him down, but as he turned around and around the boy picked up more speed and the rats started to fly off into all directions, unable to keep their hold on him under the power of the centrifugal force that was created by his spinning. Soon he was rat-free and could jump up to his feet. The windmill had created him a spot clear of rats and while the rodents were still around, Kyou felt very relieved nevertheless. His opponents were far from beaten, only lightly confused and dizzy from the unfamiliar spinning movement, but at least he got some space to breath now.

Not like they gave him much time to breath. As soon as the well-nourished rats saw straight again they tried to jump at him. And how they could jump! Where those really rats or big fluffy grasshoppers?! They seemed to have no trouble to jump up to his face. Creeped out the stumbling fighter remembered his origins and drew his sword, smashing it down on the rat before it could reach him. The wooden sword connected with the fur ball and sent it flying to the ground where it laid still for a moment, before it shook its head as if to clear it and got to its feet again. More and more rats attacked and Kyou sent them all flying, but as he struggled to keep up, he couldn’t help thinking that he might have been better off with a normal and ideally sharp sword. If he could just cut the rats in half, they wouldn’t get the chance to get up to bother him again. It was still possible to kill them, even with a blunt weapon. Most mousetraps worked by breaking the spine of the rodent and if he aimed properly Kyou could do so with the wooden sword as well. It needed more precision that killing them with a normal sword would have required, but it worked.
The young man could have swapped to a normal sword when his first bokken had broken apart, but he had chosen not to do so, and now he had to deal with things as they were.

Swinging the bokken like some baseball bat he sent a very inveterate foe flying over the roofs. That was quite enjoyable but left him in a bad position to fend off the next rat which tried to jump at his throat in the meantime. Bringing the sword around would take too long, so he took one hand off and simply grabbed the rat’s tail and started to spin it around to prevent it from biting his fingers instead. Without delay his sword was pushed back into his belt to get the other hand free as well. Or rather than free, he soon was swinging a rat in his right hand as well.
The situation made him think of his sister. For some reason he could not imagine that Lili would have left this uncommented. In his head a mental image of his sister was forming. It was grinning as always with overflowing energy and enthusiasm and he could even hear her shouting happily: “Rat-chucks, yo!”

But the fact remained that he couldn’t go on like this forever. Some new strategy was needed.
Still spinning the rats he had, Kyou caught some more and tied their tails together. The young man had to do so in a hurry to prevent them from escaping or biting him, but making knots was much more easier than untying them and he soon succeeded. Then he proceeded to throw the struggling ball of fur and tails into the air and over a clothesline where he left them hanging like some fish hanging out to dry. It was good luck that despite the disaster that had befallen the island, some little stuff like the lines that stretched from one building to the other and were used to hand out the laundry. Now it was full of tied-together rats which despite much struggling, couldn’t get down by their own strength. For a moment the boy wondered if his catch was eatable, but then he decided that he wasn’t that hungry.

Kyou left the rats behind and strode away through a side alley, entering a street that ran parallel to the one he had come from. He had barely made a few steps into the new direction when he noticed the seagulls lying on the ground. Or maybe they weren’t really seagulls as they had the same yellow-rimed eyes and antennas as the rats he had fought, on top of having very canine teeth, despite being birds, something that made the coward wary at once.
And the birds weren’t the only ones in the street. On the other side of the seagulls the young pink-haired man noticed two people… Siblings…

“…”

“Why him of all people…”

[BlacKitten]

The depravity of people that left the town in its deserted-looking state had only enhanced the speed of his response upon something that moved. There was someone else on this island besides the Syph, and upon meeting such a person eye to eye, he felt that destiny was playing tricks on him. A reddish pink-haired clumsy boy with a wooden sword had coincidentally stepped foot onto the same street as him, and unfortunately for the both of them, they knew each other from a while back. This self-serving cowardly wannabe of a swordsman was the very manifestation of misfortune and bad luck; for someone like him to step on this island, something really dangerous must be stirring about behind the scenes.

Something tells me today is going to be a bad day.

After a mental sigh, Pluto diverted his gaze away, pretending he never saw anything. Simply looking at him made his eyes hurt; he would rather stare at the mutated seagulls. If there was a choice, he would rather be the only human in this town than to be stuck with someone like Kyou, and quite certainly, the pink-head probably thought the same about him.

Rebecca switched glances between the two of them, curious to see how this antisocial development would progress. The most memorable image in her mind about Kyou was when a swarm of bees from a beehive stung the poor soul, making his face almost unrecognizable from before.

“Don’t mind him, let’s just go,” he whispered to his little sister before stepping diverging off the pathway and into another street. There was a particular destination in his mind, and the moment they stepped into the proper lane, something huge caught their attention. As the siblings approached the dog-like carcass, several features should be noted: the eyes that were identical to the seagulls, the antennas on its head, and the abnormal size of this canine.

Squatting down in front of the entrance, Pluto went to take a closer glance at the wounds. The blood was still wet; this creature died just recently. “Ah… just look at the clean cuts, you can tell that these wounds were inflicted by a swordsman of a very high caliber,” he praised Syph despite never having confronted the said person directly, but simply the example of her work hinted the level of skill in handling a blade.

I better not underestimate her for being a girl. Otherwise, I might die. From then on, the boy cladded in black stepped into the pub as his sister followed from behind. As expected, there a malodorous scent of alcohol lingered in the air; it was as if he could tell what the drinks tasted like without having to physically gulp down the liquid. And in front of him, there she was, standing before him: the one who collapsed on the deck and was carried to this island, presumably against her will.

A bead of sweat flowed down the back of his neck. I hope she didn’t hear what I said about the cuts.

Now came the hard part, introductions. What would people normally do? Some sort of greeting. He paused, unable to think of words in his head, and once there words did form into thoughts, they couldn’t be emitted from his mouth. “… Mmm… Uh….,” an awkward pause seemed to have erased his mind into a blank white sheet, empty and devoid. And now, the speechless one pondered the reasoning behind his disability to form words into verbal sounds. What happened? Speaking to Rebecca was so easy. How was this any different?

“If you’re too afraid to talk, then why did you come here?” the smallest one in the room looked up and questioned the boy’s decision.

“Humph,” Pluto looked away. It wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter. Between staying outside with that bokken-user and coming inside with his prime target at sight, the final decision was obvious.

A smile quickly grew on the sister’s lips as she waved her hand at the black-haired swordswoman, “Hello, sorry to come in so suddenly. There’s hardly anyone left in this town, so when my brother saw the giant dog outside, he figured someone would be inside.”

Hesitantly, Pluto nodded with what she said.

[Flame]

Pushing open the door she stepped back into the main pub area. Her eyes immediately came to the view of two people, a young girl, must have been even younger than herself and also what some guy, probably about her own age. Maybe a little older she could not decide for herself which was more likely. Her eyes rapidly darted around quickly trying to analyze the pair she was looking at. The boy was more concerning in the end, the girl did not seem to be dangerous or even have a weapon. He was different, he was wearing chest plate, arm guards, etc. he was set up to fight. It set her on guard slightly, she tensed a little gripping her sword a little harder. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she realized her sword was flickering along that vein of metal on the blunt end of her sword. A devil fruit user, now that was troubling. Her shoulders tensed as she considered everything. Then she heard a mumbling a sort of nervous mumbling.

He seemed flustered to say the least. It was actually quite amusing as wordless sound came from his mouth. Syph's grip loosened slightly, her concern was dropping, this kid had a dangerous look but by how he was acting he was not to be worried about. Deftly she manipulated her blade and flourishing it over her head before sticking it in the sheath which still laid upon her black. "Yes?" Syphalia asked as sweetly as she could do. Which in the end actually wasn't very sweet, as it was not something she had ever practiced before. She waited for an answer but nothing came and instead she noted the little girl was talking to the boy.

On instinct she eavesdropped on the conversation. Or rather it would have been a conversation if the boy had actually said anything. But it was only the girl commenting on his behavior. He was afraid? Perhaps, she had thought it to be flustered but perhaps this girl would know better. She accepted the possibility that the boy was simply afraid, of what? her? Syph paused looking down at herself, picturing what she must look like at this point she was confused. She did not even look as old as she was, there was no way that she was a very impressive opponent until she actually got to fighting. No that could not be it, they must have seen something. She thought back quickly coming to the conclusion that it must have been the wolf-creature. She had kicked it out the door before going up to deal with the upstairs. She had inflicted one major wound on it only, was it that fearsome? She shook her head maybe, she doubted she would've been concerned had she seen it but maybe that was just her. Syph had never been particularly good at making the right choices, if there was a simply enough example it would have been Jack.

As if to confirm what she said the young girl walked toward Syph waving her hands explaining the situation as she did. But there was something curious about their story, why were they in town? In fact how did they get here in the first place, neither of them looked like they were ship-worthy folk. All these questions pressed through her mind as she glanced quickly at the boy who was nodding in agreement with what the girl had told her. She did not believe her, not completely at least, but Syphalia smiled at the pair anyways. No reason to seem hostile right now, so she took one quick look at them and then turned back to the bar grabbing the opened bottle off of the counter. Taking a quick swig from the bottle she paused looking at the pair of them. "Would you like some? It's apple cider." She took the bottle away from her mouth and offered held it out towards them.

Pausing for a moment she continued on. "I suppose you are aware of the monsters that are currently on the island? Like the one you saw out there on the street ... the big dog." She asked the rhetorical question towards them. Before continuing on with her thoughts more of just spewing them out then actually trying to get a point across. "If you aren't here to deal with them I'd recommend you leave. Its no place for ... amateurs." She paused before she said the last comment, it was not meant as an insult even if it did come out as one. In her own way she was looking out for their own good, they were quite young to be on an island that was so dangerous.

Placing the half drunk bottle on the ground she looked to the other bottle she had left on the counter, no that was not needed yet surely. Then she thought, perhaps they would want a glass, so she leaned over the bar counter to check whether there were any unbroken glasses behind there. Finding a few mugs she grabbed them pulling them over the counter and placing them on the stool next to her. Realizing she had not actually given them time to respond to her query. "Well? Do you?" she asked a little more seriously.

SPOILER: Click to show

sorry about the short post couldn't think of anything to do

[Shinku]

The island had been spooky, deserted from people as it was and infested with strange animals, but if he was going to get company, Kyou preferred it to be someone else, anyone else than the Bat Boy and his little happy-go-lucky sister. Or maybe not. On a second thought, there were worse people than the dark-haired boy, people that would straight out try to kill him, for various reasons or no reason at all. A quick calculation in his head resulted into the conclusion that from all the people he had met so far, seventy-six percent were actually worse than the Bat Boy. That didn’t mean he was glad about the other boy’s presence. In Kyou’s list of familiar faces, Pluto was categorized under “People to watch out for”, which was below “Dangerous Enemies” and “Very Dangerous Enemies” but above “Stone”, a category reserved for neutral people who didn’t seem to have any opinion of him and most of all didn’t try to interact with him and were therefore considered part of the landscape.

They weren’t enemies. Kyou wasn’t sure what their relationship really was, but the Bat Boy would probably not try to attack him if Kyou left him alone and didn’t try to harm the little sister of whom the teenager was very protective of, Kyou had noticed.
But still it was better to watch out around the bothersome guy even if he wasn’t exactly an enemy. They did have some conflicted history with each other after all. Not to mention that the last time they had met, Kyou had found himself on a ship with murderous crew and for some reason the other boy had tried his very best to get the pink-haired boy involved. And just after they had managed to escape to an island, the Bat Boy had dragged him into a team fight against the local dojo, but ended up doing his best to help out Kyou’s enemy rather than helping him! It was true that Kyou had ditched the quiet boy back on the ship, but if the boy had just accepted a NO when Kyou told him, it wouldn’t have come to that. Surely the annoying boy wasn’t still hung over that?

No matter from which point the young man looked at it, seeing Pluto here was NOT a good sign. Admittedly there was only one person, Kyou would have been happy to see, but that monkey-guy was far away and unlikely to show up. And other than him there were just … more bothersome people and less bothersome people.
Not to mention there was also the little sister, who Kyou wasn’t quite able to make head or tail of. He had never seen her fight and wasn’t sure how strong she was, if she could fight at all. But she had shown some uncanny ability to manipulate her brother with her pestering. She was also a lot more talkative than the quiet Bat Boy.

Frozen to the spot and frowning, Kyou was still trying to figure out what to think about this unexpected meeting, when the other boy turned around and walked away. That was just as well.
Kyou ran his hand through his dirty pink hair to get the bangs out of his eyes and shifted his focus to the animals on the ground. The seagulls had scary looking eyes and the antennas didn’t look quite attracting either, but they were a lot tastier looking than the rats and a growling stomach told Kyou that he hadn’t had the chance to eat his fill in the bar from where the unknown men had abducted him.

Out of habit Kyou turned to the opposite direction to go to, but then he stopped.
Wouldn’t that be too predictable? And if it was then wouldn’t that make him easier to find?
After some careful consideration the pink-haired boy turned again and went straight into the next alleyway, walking away in a ninety degree angle to the Bat Boy and his sister. This would get him less far away from the annoying teenager than going the opposite direction would, but at least it would be harder for the Bat Boy to find him, should the boy for some reason choose to seek trouble.

Some hundred steps later he chose a house at random and cautiously entered it. Or tried to, but the door was locked. Not bothering himself with it, Kyou went to the next door and tried it out. The residents of this domicile hadn’t taken their time to bar the door when they left and Kyou stepped in into the mess that was obviously the kitchen, the door he had chosen probably a backdoor rather than the front entrance. There were splinters of glass from a broken window all around the floor, implying that whoever had entered the house to mess things up hadn’t done so through the unlocked door.

Maybe entering a building was not the wisest choice to make? Who knew if there wasn’t something waiting in here. And even if not, it was so easy to get trapped inside without a decent escape way that could be used.
But on the other hand, if he stayed outside he would be easier to spot…
Kyou put the seagull he had taken with him on the table and opened the door to the hallway of the house where he stood for a while, listening for any disturbing noises. After five minutes silently listening he was convinced enough that nothing was trying to sneak up on him from that direction so he took a broom into his hands and started to work. With a few fast sweeps the majority of the broken bits of glass were wiped out of the way and not needing the broom anymore now the frowning man used it to secure the door in an open position, making sure that there was nothing in his way should he need to run out. And should someone come in through the door there was always the broken window he could jump out of.
As content with his surroundings as he was likely to get, no matter how you looked at it this situation sucked and it was likely to get even suckier without him being able to do anything to prevent that, but at least it was quiet now so he started to cook. The bird would need some preparation with feathers not exactly being tasty and all…

From the outside, up on a close-by rooftop, a raven was watching the boy with the dirty-pink hair take out a soot black kettle and putting it, filled with water, over a hasty constructed fire. It was one of the poorer houses and the means of cooking were simpler too. But there was a sharp knife in the cutlery tray and after a quiet moment where the boy was just standing in front of the seagull, doing nothing but starring at the bird as if he was trying to find his resolution or maybe simply praying silently, his hands moved deftly and the bird’s head parted from the feathery shoulders.
The seagull was soon hanging upside down in front of the window bleeding all out, while the water started to get close to boiling point, warm enough to wash the poultry in preparation to pluck it later.
The raven was watching with interest, its head slightly tilted, the yellow eyes wandering from the pink-haired boy to the bleeding seagull and the dirty black kettle over the fire. Then, as if it had come to the conclusion that it saw enough, the raven flapped its wings and flew off, heading to the islands marine base where more of his species waited.

[BlacKitten]

Being called an amateur immediately reminded him the moment when he called Scarlette an amateur in using her Devil Fruit powers. Thus, he felt that denying Syph’s label on him would only turn him into a hypocrite.

“I assume you’re here to exterminate these monsters then,” he crossed his arms over his chest, pondering on that very thought. What distracted him was Rebecca’s outreaching hands for the mug of apple cider. A thankful smile grew on her face as she quickly sipped the sweet drink. Her eyes gazed curiously at the girl whose age resembled closely to his brother’s age.

While holding the mug in the palm of her hands, she spoke in awe, “and you’re going to do that all by yourself?” From the looks of it, the three of them could very well be one of the last remaining humans on this island. It was lonely when thinking about it. She felt that they should all stick together as a team, but her prediction was that neither of them would agree in aiding each other. Syph might see the two of them as burdens, and Pluto would do whatever he wanted which did not involve the genocide of monsters.

Pluto spoke his thoughts while avoiding eye contact, “We have yet to encounter the real monsters. Even if there was an army of those dogs, it wouldn’t have been enough to eradicate the entire human population on this island that was protected by a marine base.” Images flooded into his head from the time he flew by the docks, “all those damaged ships, only monsters that are far more fearsome than that dog could have wrecked them.” Linking this back to his sister’s question, can this lone swordswoman deal such a major task on her own? This wasn’t as simple as pest control.

“Ah!” The little one traded glances with the boy, adding on, “and where did everyone go? They couldn’t have all escaped, right?” With the ships in their state, it seemed unlikely. Plus, were there even enough ships to transport that many people?

“Well…,” he still couldn’t shake off the nasty images of those seagulls from before. The thing that disturbed him the most were those carnivorous teeth. “From how those birds tried to bite me with their teeth, perhaps the folks in this town were gobbled up,” he suggested. There were still many puzzling mysteries. For starters, what sort of freak phenomenon gave birth to all these nature-defying creatures?

As soon as she settled down the empty mug, the youngest one among gave out the introduction, “By the way, my name is Rebecca.” She then pointed at the only male in the room, “this is my brother, Pluto.”

Giving out their names struck him as risky and daring, but he supposed it was the first step to at least ease any tension between them. Gaining trust with another person wasn’t such a bad thing, but he didn’t entirely grasp the essence of this pirate’s true nature just yet. From the looks of it, this teenage girl didn’t had the same rowdy, greedy, condescending stereotypes that he pictured pirates to have. Syph had recommended them to leave due to the dangers, but even if they were to take up on her advice, there was one little problem. “We can’t particularly leave because… all the vessels by the dock were destroyed,” he then pondered upon how any of them planned on leaving this island at all.

Addressing towards the older girl, Rebecca smiled cutely, “I guess you’ll have to protect us then.” She was simply teasing her a bit, knowing full well that her brother was another main source of protection.

Pluto nodded in agreement, “yes, we’re amateurs. Protect us!” Problem solved. For the time being, bounty hunting would have to be postponed. There was no one around to turn in a criminal; any manner of fighting would be pointless. Despite her appearance, anyone with such a high bounty strongly suggested that he wouldn’t have the luxury to hold back any of his strength if a fight between them was to break out. She wasn’t someone he would want as an enemy at a time like this.