A Hunt for the Fabled Treasure! A Friendship Blooms!

[SnowDog]

Quiet footsteps walked across the dusty dirt road that ran through the main part of town. The hustle and bustle of the citizen’s everyday life felt like a spectacle to the fishgirl samurai who traversed the town square, her eyes wide behind the the face mask she wore. Adorned in her armor, she hid any reference to her fishman biology from the denizens of the town as to not draw any unnecessary attention to herself. However, by utilizing her sword as a makeshift bindle to carry what little belongings she held, many curious eyes turned her way when the blue was more often know for their gunslingers.

”The surface world is so strange.” She thought to herself, looking around while taking in the various sites. The stories Sutora told her growing up did this place no justice. ”I like it!” Her time spent within the town was short, as she was here on a mission of sorts. She had overheard dock workers around the port talking about treasure hunters on the island. Mayhaps said hunters were pirates, maybe even the crew she was searching after. Either way, Arashi figured if she could locate these hunters that she might be able to utilize the treasures found to set up a trap for those nasty pirates. Once acquired she could spring out and catch them off guard! Problem is, she still had to the hunters or the treasure itself before she could get that far with her plan.

Stepping further into the small forest, the barracuda fish girl scanned the ground for possible tracks she could follow. Treasure hunters had to have come by here recently according to those dock workers, just had to catch their “scent.”

[Kami-Gaz]

“Yooo! What’s the plan for your day off Ravin’ Raven?” An older gentleman had shouted, announcing his presence to the world as he barged into one of the many newly occupied abandoned buildings that littered Winchester Island. A place that was said to be haunted, or so the stories said. In actual fact it was littered with different crews of treasure hunters and a few pirate crews making use of the island as a safe haven away from prying eyes of the world.

The older gentleman had wandered in to a pitch-black room and flooded it with natural light from the outside causing the woman that inhabited this building to jolt awake. “INK GUN!” she shouted, her dark form in the back of the room scooting back into the darkness and obscuring her appearance. A shot of pure black liquid came out of the darkness and hit the scraggly bearded old man square in the face, knocking him flying out of the door he had used to enter this temporary home.

“Piss off Fred!” She bellowed now that she had registered the situation, having been rudely awoken from her sleeping in. A black tentacle extended out from the back of the room and flicked a light switch before retreating back to the young woman who was finishing off her routine of getting dressed.

A cacophony of laughter could be heard outside, it seems Fred had accepted a dare to wake the rocker up. A dare that got him blasted with a blast of ink that was now staining his white beard and the rest of this face. “Tch.” Raven had spat in reply to the laughter, not enjoying a jump scare to wake her up.

“Go and tell Captain I’m going to explore the island a bit!” She called out of the open door to the men that were around, basically there to keep tabs on the woman. She had been granted permission to go wandering around the island by the captain the day before and it was something she was going to take advantage of. Screw being a prisoner, essentially held captive and oppressed… all because she was an asset to this crew, not a true member.

“If anyone follows me, you’re getting hurt!” She followed up with as she left the building, a skirt covering her lower half to hide her squid physiology. Her walking was not natural… there was no bobbing motion to her ‘steps’, it was as if she was gliding along the floor. The trail she left in the dusty floor was also odd, it was like a mass of vines shuffling forward. All of this was something the crew ignored as they did what she said in a hurry… they didn’t want to get inked either.

[SnowDog]

Arashi haltered in her path and knelt down to examine the path she was walking along. She studied at the divots within the dirt, trying to deduce if what she was following was even the tracks of treasure hunters. The fish-girl samurai let out a self-defeating sigh as she stood back up and moved to take a seat atop a fallen tree, removing her ornate helmet and shaking her long flowing teal hair out of her face. She had been following the trail for minutes and was beginning to wonder if whatever she saw in the dirt was even tracks at all. She needed a moment to collect herself, try and ease her mind to remove any doubt.

Arashi then sat her bindle down upon the log and untied the knot holding her things together, resting her sword against the side of the log. Digging through her supplies she pulled out a small bento box and set it neatly into her lap. Removing the top, she took the chopsticks placed inside and began to pick at the sashimi she had prepared before leaving. The samurai glanced around the woods as she sat there chewing her food, pondering to herself if maybe she was going about this all wrong.

"Those have to be somebody's footprints I'm following," she muttered under her breath trying to reassure herself as she reached for the next piece of food. "I probably should've asked for help back in town..."

[Kami-Gaz]

The sun beating down on the small abandoned island was not something the young squid-woman was a used too. It was bright and hot and she could feel each individual ray of sunshine caressing her skin with the light of nuclear fusion. Shade was in desperate need and Raven had left her umbrella back in her room, it would be too much hassle to go back now and interact with that crew of dunces. They would tease and pick a fight, entirely too much trouble. So the next best thing was in order, head through the woods on the edge of town towards an un-ransacked area of abandoned houses.

Her ‘walk’ whilst unnatural did quicken in pace as the tentacles that were hidden under the long skirt slid and pulled her forward with more gusto. To any onlookers the young woman would appear as if a ghost gliding through the world, leaving behind a nonsensical trail of scrapes and scratchings on the floor that would leave anyone confused as to what caused it. Whilst the extra energy output was meant increased speed to her destination of the shady woods it also highlighted another thing. Raven had not eaten breakfast today….

The growl in her stomach was almost as unearthly as the being that produced it… “I should have gotten something to eat.” Raven mumbled to herself in a melancholic tone, not realising that on the other side of a bush that was just in front of her was someone.

She carried on her path, through the thin part of the bush and onwards towards the houses where she could maybe find an umbrella and maybe one of the local treasure hunters for their lunch pack. She pushed through the bush using her two longest tentacles to force the branches aside before standing on the tips of her tentacles making her stand nearly as tall as some of the trees before taking some large strides over the parted bush, with her skirt raised up so it wouldn’t get snagged. As she came over each of her tentacles would fall around Arashi in a weird apocalyptic rain.

Once she was over the bush, she dropped the skirt down so it covered her unusual physiology and completely enveloping the samurai fish woman in complete darkness beneath it. “That’s…not right.” Raven told herself as she slowly returned down to a normal size feeling something between all of her squid limbs.

[SnowDog]

Arashi picked at her next piece of sashimi, looking off into the distance through the trees as she tried to plot her next course of action. The brush didn't seem that thick, and glancing a bit ahead some of the grass stalks seemed toppled over. Hard to tell from where she was sitting if that was just apart of the trail or if it was the path the supposed treasure hunters had taken. Once she finished up her snack, she figured that would be the best place to check first.

Looking down as she went to pick up her next piece of sashimi, Arashi's eyes widened as a looming shadow fell over the fishwoman. She didn't even have time to react before large tentacle-like tendrils began to descend all around her. The young samurai made an attempt to stand up from her seat but that shadow soon dropped another blanket of darkness around her. In a panic, she reached for her sword but the tentacles all seemed to close in all around her, blocking her path while also managing to get herself wrapped up in the suction-cup-covered arms.

"EEEEEEP!" Arashi screeched letting slip a cry of surprise trying to combat the mess of tentacles beginning to encase around her, "Help! Somebody!"

[Kami-Gaz]

“EEEEEP” A feminine voice screeched out from beneath the tentacles and skirt. It caused Raven to jump, raising her tentacles and her body high enough to dart froward and spin around. Leaving Arashi where she was. This was bad… Raven had stopped paying attention to her surroundings because of her rumbling stomach and had not seen the samurai that was previously enveloped in her nightmare of legs.

“I’m so sorry!” She called out, now sitting at a more normal height of roughly five feet and eight inches. That was always a bonus of having such a physiology, she could alter her height on a whim to suit her emotional state. “I didn’t mean to do that, I was just hungry and not looking where I was going.”

The squid like mermaid felt terribly guilty for scarring some one that didn’t deserve it, even if she was hungry and in a bad mood from being rudely awoken, she should have still watched her surroundings. This was something that rarely happened and it always shook Raven up when it did, it was embarrassing. This girly samurai was under her skirt! All wrapped up in her many legs and squished between them.

‘God, I hope they didn’t enjoy it…’ Raven thought, she had heard of people who liked this sort of thing and had fantasies revolving around it. ‘They are perverts and degenerates if they do…’ she considered, her day-old makeup hiding the annoyed blush that was on her face.

[SnowDog]

When the curtain lifted and light fell back upon her, the tendrils released their hold on the samurai and soon moved around and stood before her. Arashi fell to the ground once the tentacles had returned to underneath the body they were attached to. The barracuda fishwoman rose and dusted off herself before turning to face the squid-mermaid, meeting her exactly at eye-level.

"Oh no, don't worry, it's fine!" Arashi replied, trying not to get flustered from the ordeal. She began to think it was her fault for even taking a seat where she did, red beginning to run to her face and changing her soft blue cheeks. "I'm so sorry to hear! My name's Arashi. If you're hungry, I might still have some food in my bento-" The samurai girl looked down to her fallen bento box, traces of food scattered about at her feet. She knelt down and tried to salvage what she could of the mess, the red of embarrassment taking more and more territory upon her face. Oh no, nonononono!

"Th-there might be some poke in my bindle there if you'd like!" She quickly told the mermaid as she tried to save what she could of the rice and sashimi, dusting away dirt, grass, and other "tainted" pieces of the food. "Oh nononono!"

[Kami-Gaz]

Raven finally got a good look at her accidental tentacle smother victim. It was a fish-woman, a FISHWOMAN SAMURAI! This was amazing! She had not seen another fishman island denizen since leaving her home! She had started to apologize for what had transpired; she shouldn’t have because it was not her fault.

The mermaid started to scratched the back of her own head, ruffling her loose black and glitter speckled hair. Now the woman was going to offer her Bent- it was all over the floor. That was Raven’s fault. She was hungry and now felt bad for causing more hunger. ‘Shit… now we’re both hungry!’ She swore to herself in her head as the poor samurai did her best to clean up the least dirt covered bits of sushi.

“Y-you don’t have too.” Raven said, shuffling closer and gently putting her hand over Arashi’s with a devious smile. It was the kind of smile that instantly gave away a person for having a terrible plan. It was a smile that with Ravens dark day old make up gave her the look of a horror story monster. Something that would truly drive fear into the hearts of dumb story victims.

“Arashi, I’m Raven… and I know exactly where to get us some dinner.” She said with that twisted grin permeating the words she was speaking. There were some people on this island that had got on her bad side, more than her current crew. It was time to get some pay back.

“How do you feel about stealing lunch from some racist thieves? People who really deserve it?” She asked, holding out both a hand and a tentacle from under her skirt to Arashi, to shake her hand. The black suckered thing was thin at it’s tip, but wrapped around Raven’s forearm.

[SnowDog]

Ah, Raven was her name. It was nice to finally be able to put a name to the face of the person who had just "attacked" her. Seeing another sea-folk also managed to ease her previous anxieties a tad, but the situation with the bento wasn't helping the current fluster she found herself falling into.

Arashi looked up from her sashimi dusting when Raven had made mention about something about getting themselves some dinner. Surrendering her efforts to save the dirty rice and sashimi, Arashi stood back up to her full height just as the Octopus woman continued on. Wait, *steal* their food? Why would we need to do that? She thought internally, accidentally letting her face sour into a grimace at the idea. Raven appeared to hold a sinister smile as she had laid out this idea to the barracuda fishwoman, but Arashi's naivety about most things left her completely oblivious to the common sense most others would've had upon seeing this expression.

"Racist thieves?" The samurai inquired in her usual hushed tone, "I mean, yes those don't sound like very nice people, but wouldn't we only get in trouble if we try and take their stuff?" She closed her bento box shut and returned it to her spindle before reaching down and picking up her sword off the ground. She returned the blade to its previous position leaning against the log before she hopped back up to her seat as well.

"How about this; I'm not too keen on the idea of being a thief, but I would be willing to help you. However, afterward you have to help me find the treasure on this island." Raven had extended her hand outward after making her previous off to the samurai barracuda, but after making a slight alteration to the plan, Arashi was hesitant to immediately shake on the new deal with her. Instead, Arashi extended out her own finned-palm before offering Raven a sincere smile.

"Deal?"

[Kami-Gaz]

Oh, this one was an innocent one, someone who hadn’t experienced betrayal and heartbreak after being used as a thing and tossed aside. Raven just felt her own heart beat with a moment of warmth at the memories of her old and naïve self. The deal that this samurai proposed was a nice work around, finding treasure would be a good way to spend her day off exploring. If the pair were to raid the treasure hunters camp, they could get clues to where it maybe.

“Deal. Arashi The Samurai Fish-Woman. I will take you under my wing for this day.” Raven replied as a tentacle slipped from under the skirt, wrapping around her own arm as she extended it to shake Arashi’s showing that sign of trust in Raven’s physiology. Humans would have run screaming at the sight of tentacles but a fish woman, a blood sister could understand the implications. “These treasure hunters were getting on my nerves the other day attacking me and the others in the group because they thought we were there to find the treasure… we aren’t My boss just likes using this island as a base.” She explained once her hand was pulled back.

“Follow me, I know where they made their camp.” The squid-woman noted as she shuffled away, her gate unnervingly steady and head moving in a perfect line forward as she traversed over the ground on a shambling of writhing tentacles that were hidden under the thrice folded fabric of her extremely long skirt.

[SnowDog]

Raven, rather than taking her own hand and shaking Arashi's, reached out with one of her tentacle legs and gripped the samurai woman's hand. With their deal struck, Arashi smiled towards her new partner in "crime" while she began to lay out an explanation. After Raven released her grip on the samurai, Arashi turned back to her supplies and began to tidy up the mess. She grabbed her sword and fixated the sheath back onto her hip, turning back towards the squid-like mermaid once she was ready.

"Oh gosh, that sounds awful!" The barracuda fishwoman added, "Hopefully you or your friends didn't get too hurt. Is getting attacked like that a common thing for you guys?"

[Kami-Gaz]

The mermaid eerily shuffled along the path forward, looking back to the armour-clad fish woman. This was an odd pair to be in the west blue, normally their kind of people never left their homeland down in the depths of the grand line. It was almost nostalgic to see Arashi and gave her a sense of homesickness. She was so innocent and cute too!

“Often?” She asked, not slowing down her movement as they headed through the bushes and into a deserted western town, saloon doors hanging off of hinges and everything. “Why do you think we’re here hiding? Pirates, Bounty hunters and Marines all have it in for our group.” She said flippantly, not caring of Arashi’s opinion of her. There was a reason she rolled with pirates and she would give it if asked.

“Nah, I can fight and slip away from nasty situations.” Raven noted with a chuckle. She paused their treck as they approached a building and holding a hand up as a sign to halt. “They have a sniper covering that street, let’s take the alley.”

[SnowDog]

Pirates, Bounty Hunters, Marines... Arashi made a mental note of each of these factions while the octo-mermaid began to explain what made this place so dangerous. Sutora's teachings explained a bit about the broad strokes for these big three, but there was still a lot that the samurai fishwoman did not know about either. But, if Raven and she managed to pull this off, Arashi would be one step closing to drawing out the gang that killed her parents.

The fishfolk duo then slipped down an alleyway as Raven made mention of a sniper that covered the street. Following close behind the jet-black mermaid, the samurai woman fixated her helmet onto her head proper and pulled the protective face covering over her mouth. A sniper? What are they guarding to warrant the need for a sniper? she thought to herself.

"Is their food that good that they need snipers to watch the streets like this?"

[Kami-Gaz]

The punk rock mermaid stopped in her tracks for a hot second with Arashi’s last question… Was she so innocent that she thought all they had was food? No no, this gang had some forbidden treasure that they had pulled up from somewhere on the island. With a stiffled giggle she looked back and let her eyes examine the samurai for a moment. “More than just food, they have things they stole from real treasure hunters. The archaeologists that catalogue it and put it in a museum.” The mermaid said, a playful smile on her face.

In her mind treasure was fun to look at and hold for a short time but if she could sell it to the right people for a lot of money then that was best… but deep down she knew it all belonged in a museum, cared for and shown to all so everyone could understand the past. Then again, some things are buried for a reason, maybe they should be left that way… like her own past.

She continued her shuffling down the alleyway and around the sniper’s watchful gaze. “They do have good food, I’ve smelled it sometimes when out on a scouting mission with some of the crew. They must have a really good chef to keep making all sorts of food smell that good.” The mermaid noted just as they got to a wall that had a hole in that was barely covered by a thin sheet of plywood… this was their entrance to the enemy camp… their ticket to a good meal and some fun.