M37: Have you heard of the magic goldfish? (Gaz)

[odango]

”Man, it’s hot…” she gave out, wiping her forehead and pulling her hair back with both hands, one of them also holding a white ribbon. It took a few moments, but she tied her long, brown hair back and continued on her way through the busy streets filled with.

A various mix of wonderful scents filled the air. The streets were crowded with merchants. It was hard to believe the city was occupied by fishmen. Come to think of it, the report said that the entire island was occupied. What would fishmen do in the desert, anyway? However, she did see the charm of the place. It was packed with beautiful  fabrics, carpets, perfumes, trinkets, amazing sculptures and a variety of other beautiful and alluring things. It also seemed that the civilians were used to the scenery. While the buildings themselves didn’t differ much and one could notice clothing lines stretching from window to window above their heads, the city life was something to marvel at. Tsubaki herself was from Toroa. The hazel eyed marine was used to quite beautiful surroundings and views but this was different. Somehow, everything seemed new and exotic, even if it didn’t seem that much out of the ordinary.

I guess, I chose the wrong clothing for this mission. The young woman thought while continuing on dressed in an over-sized marine shirt, black, low-heel shoes and trousers that fit the uniform, yet seemed a little tighter fitting than the usual model. She had a katana strapped to her hip and a holster of long needles strapped to her opposite thigh. The sword looked like it was longer than your average size katana. She was also carrying a light brown shoulder bag.

The hazel-eyed soldier had been sent there for a mission. She was also told she would be joined by another individual. Who exactly, she didn’t know. The nineteen year old didn’t even know what he or she looked like. Yet, she was probably the only one with the name “Marine” on her back, so the person would find her easily. Right, I hope I don’t get in trouble because of this shirt. At least, I hope I don’t get into trouble off the bat. She thought while stopping for a moment and looking around. After confirming that she did indeed know where she was, Tsubaki kept going. The girl soon came to a cozy looking tea shop. It seemed they were selling a variety of interesting tea blends inside and the place also worked as a teahouse.

I just have to wait here for the other one… I hope they arrive soon… or maybe that person is already here? She looked around, her hazel orbs scanning her surroundings. This was the place she was said to meet her “partner”. He or she wasn’t lost, right? She hoped not. There was no telling how or if she could find someone who she had never seen before in a town this crowded. There were street merchants almost everywhere and she had already found out what it was like to try and politely refuse from offers. Turns out the trick was to either pass by or forget about the overly polite approach. The young marine also figured none of them were supposed to be the person she was waiting for.

How do the marines even expect me and this person to solve this situation? We don’t even know who runs the show yet. Sure, I feel like I’m getting stronger but this is a little too much… Not like I have tried to do something yet, but what if we screw up and end up shark food or something? How come I have felt like my life was in danger in every mission thus far? Honestly. I wish I were one of those inhumanly strong people, capable of moving mountains. Then I wouldn’t feel this way, I think. Her thoughts traveled as the hazel eyed brunette gave a heavy sigh and hung her head. This day will be troublesome as well… won’t it? Perhaps no one will notice if I just stay here and sip tea for a week or something…

[Kami-Gaz]

Heat, sand and the pungent smell of rotting fish…. That is all that greeted Kai as he made landfall on Zarzara, his mission and why he was here? To clean up the smell of rotting fish… well that was the fun way of saying what this mission was, the mission that the marines had hired him to do initially. The actual job was to answer the challenge of a notorious fish man pirate who had set up shop on the dessert-trading island. For what reason he did or why he even issued the challenge to the world was a mystery, but it was not one that was really pressing on the mind of the bounty hunter that had been hired by the marines to do the job.

Kai had been on the island for a while now, and the fishy smell was still bothering him, how long did he have to wait in this stupid café, behaving, only because he had to wait for the marine overseer that he was forced to have tag along. The young man was sat in the shade on a small round table in the corner, his hair, and face covered by cloth wrappings to hide his face from the sun and any pirate that would recognise him in the heat. Yo-yo in hand the stranger was bouncing it up and down, feeling the breeze down his legs as the heavy metal object dropped and rose by his uncovered legs. “First time I get hired by the marines and this happens, they are the ones who are late.” He grunted, feigning annoyance. However, if the truth were to be told he was actually happy they had hired him for this job.

The wait had not been so bad, he was using it to relax after a certain incident that he had upon his arrival. As the young man walked off of the boat that had transported him to the island he instantly bumped his stubble coated face bumped into a rather large looking fish man. The bounty hunter stepped back, gave the man a small smile, and bowed his head in apology “Heyoyoyo, sorry I wasn’t paying attention…” He said before scratching the back of his messy brown hair, and offering a nervous smile to the man who was reeking of rotting fish. However, the fish man he bumped into was not one for a few words as an apology.

“Puny human! Why do you walk into me as if I am not here? Do you think you are better than me?!” he barked before raising his webbed fist, ready to punch the small human in the face. The fist moved quickly as it moved towards the face of the clumsy human.

“Saru Te: Strike” The young man uttered as the yo-yo in his hand suddenly was launched with the simple flick of the bounty hunters wrist. The heavy metal would spinning and impact into the fish mans chest, stopping his movements instantly, making him freeze as his body didn’t know how to react. The aggressive fish man flew back a fair few feet as the sound of his ribs cracking rang in the immediate area. “I said sorry buddy, heyoyoyo. Next time you can just be nicer too~” Kai said as the yo-yo snapped back into his hand and he carried on walking down the street towards the café he was supposed to meet his supervisor.

Kai had been sat there in the cafe for about an hour now waiting, but it looked like his partner had just arrived. A rather small looking marine, still in her training uniform by the looks of things… perfect, just perfect, they stick Kai with such a green horn that it actually lowered the chances of the mission succeeding. No matter now, she would have to just stay out of the way and make sure the pirate sticks to his word.

With a long sigh, the bounty hunter would pull the rag away from his face before standing up and tucking the yo-yo into his pocket. If this girl was his supervisor he had to go and introduce himself, hopefully she would have a picture of him, or a description. If not this was going to be a task and a half convincing her that he is the guy the marines think is good enough to challenge a fish man with a 20 million bounty, a dangerous man indeed.

The young man stopped a few feet from the marine; with a smile on his face, he tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, are you my supervisor? Here to make sure this challenge goes as plan?” He asked, his happy lighter tone, it was obviously more friendly than the fish men that were now making up a large part of the populace. “You look pretty green to get a job like this…” The Yo-yo user added as he tilted his head to the girl and held his hand out to shake hers.

[odango]

Someone tapped her on the shoulder and the hazel eyed marine turned to see a young man her height. He had brown hair and brown eyes. However it looked like he had something smudged in his hair? Was it paint, or? Wait, no, one strand was just in a different color. Eh, is it dye or something? Or is he already getting grey hair? she pondered, blinking a few times at the sight and then giving her whole attention back to the boy in front of her.

It was true what he said. She had really been sent there to oversee the challenge. At first the marines had thought of not stepping in the matter, but then, when the news of the fishmen invading the city had spread all over and some critique had gone marine way, even if they were not responsible for the island, they had planned on invading Zarzara and cleaning it up by force. However, that intention disappeared when the fishmen proposed to leave willingly if beaten in combat. This was seen as a better way out and so the marines hired someone from the hunters to do it. While there were enough capable soldiers in their midst, they did not wish for a picture of a marine soldier and a dead fishman in the paper. The times were still hard and there was still a lot of bad blood between the merefolk and the world government.

”I am here to supervise a match, yes.” she gave out thoughtfully. Was this guy with a goatee really the person? He seemed about her age. The nineteen year old soldier raised a brow. She didn’t want to seem skeptical, but he did seem quite … well, normal. She knew there were a lot of powerful people her age but didn’t they have to look more scary or have wings or something?

”Well, you look about my age and height, so are you really Kaito Penn?” She asked, taking in accordance what he had said about her looking green. No matter if he was right, it had sounded a little rude. Why would you say that off the bat? Man, how am I supposed to believe I can do this if that’s the first thing you say?

”But I’m sorry. I guess I just had a different image in my mind. I didn’t mean to be rude.” she gave out before a light sigh. The heat was probably getting to her. She didn’t even sunbathe because she was unlucky or lucky enough to only get burned. So, the hazel eyed brunette had spent most of her summers in the shadows, literarily speaking.

”My name’s Tsubaki Taighana. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” she spoke in a polite, kind tone and gave a warm smile to the young man in front of her. She would shake his hand if he still had it reached out to her after what she had said.

”So, how long have you been here? Have you noticed what their system is like? Do you know who’s in charge? Do you already have a plan? Oh, and if you do, what do you think is your success rate?” she asked nonchalantly to Kai. After all, it was part of her assignment. If he were to lose, she would have to call in the marines. If he were to win and for some reason take the fishman’s place, she would also have to call in the marines… so she wanted to know as much as possible.

[Kami-Gaz]

Was she judging him by his looks? Yes, yes she was… Well kai couldn’t complain, he did do the exact same thing to her. As he judgement was being passed she wore a sceptical look to, it was a a look that Kai always got, he did look young and inexperience and it annoyed him when he was underestimated by his enemy, it meant that they never took the fight seriously until it was too late. Though it was always fun to see the look of regret both his allies and opponents got on their face when they were proven so wrong by this 'Kid'. “Yes I am Kaito Penn, but call me Kai. I don’t like Kaito, to troublesome to listen out for in a fight.” He replied to her first comment, still smiling away, letting his eyes scan the greenhorn that was stood in front of him better.

“It’s good to meet ya Baki, or do you prefer Tsu? And don’t worry I get that all the time, being a nineteen year old bounty hunter that can do what I do leaves a lot of people feeling like that.” They silver streaked man said as he shook her hand vigorously with the smile on his face only growing, she needed to loosen up a bit, though she was right about the being rude thing, he was exactly the same to her. The warm smile that he received blew over all the misgivings between them and the young man pulled his hand away from the handshake, pulling the bulky metal yo-yo from his pocket and letting it drop. The second the string was taught the muscles in Kai’s fingers twitched, barely noticeable and caused the iron back up, into his hand and was caught.

The questions she was asking were basic, yea this girl was a marine greenhorn, all paper work and precision. If she was anything like his father, she would have made the numbers up and the report would be made to work out later. The mischievous bounty hunter was considering the possibilities of messing with the girl, but that would only cause him problems later when it comes to being paid once this job was done. The yo-yo fell again and rose with little movement from Kai as he shifted on the spot and headed for the open table nearby, it would be better to be sat down during this.

“I’ve been here about 3 hours; I got on the island this morning… Bumped into a fish man, broke his ribs because he was being unruly and was about to punch me.” The yo-yoer said as he sat on at the table, the yo-yo still bobbing up and down with little effort from the person controlling it. The happy smile on his face didn’t fade, he was just waiting for the girl to sit down so he could talk her ear off and she could note down his actions, for her report to her captain of course. “There are witnesses all over so you can’t arrest me for an unprovoked fight… If that was what you were thinking of doing.” He teased, changing the direction of his Yo-yoing from straight down to a 90 degree angle.

Kai continued, closing his eyes and not paying attention to whether or not the young marine girl he now called Tsu was sitting down or not. “Like I said, I have already taken one of the fish down, I think we can be sure that a group will come looking for me. If that is the case, we ask for a Parley, if they are smart enough they will take us to the captain and we can do the challenge… If not we go looking.” Now came the issue of probability, how should he know? Kai is the kind to play it by ear and doesn’t normally plan out a fight… The most fight this guy does is hit harder than the other guy. There was a second where Kai simply thought about a number to give her, then suddenly he laughed. “Heyoyoyoyo! Slim, if the challenge goes as expected then it will be fifty fifty… If not I say I have a 3 percent chance.”

He carried on chuckling as he contemplated what could go wrong and the results, now he was purposefully playing with her. “You could get captured, turn into a fish man cabin girl, eating sushi forever, maybe be made to be the captains wife! I will be killed, it won’t be too bad I will haunt you as you clean up the fish guts that they get all over. Heyoyoyoyoyoyo. Maybe you get killed and they hurt me so bad I have to be made into a cyborg! We just don’t know, that’s why I tend to focus on punching the other guy harder than they can hit me.” He said, finally outlying what little plan he liked to do. Kai was more one for actions than words… even though he did like to run his mouth, it was just proof that he could do more outrageous things.

The bounty hunter opened his eyes and caught the yo-yo, stopping his blind playtime, he was already bored of sitting around and waiting so it was time to get up. “Are you ready then? I wanna go and beat up the pirate and get paid. ” There was still one question on his mind though as he got up, stretching his legs and arms. “can you fight?” The young man asked with his head tilted slightly to the left.