Mission #9: Rescued

[Kurosaki]

Even in the most pleasant of towns and places there are sometimes rumors of foul happenings or mysteries. Often times these rumors were found to be unvalid. Other times they were strangely based on some parts of truth of what really did take place; especially when it came to history. Strawberry Hill had always had a strange rumor about its Orphanages.

One of the ones that was unsolved, however, was that children had always gone missing from one particular one up until the point it was shut down. Even the authorities hadn't been able to prove or disprove the claims. In the end, however, they had still shut the place down because it was a health hazard, they said. Perhaps it also had to do with the fact that the place gave them the creeps.

A thin figure was starring up at a building with calm dark brown eyes. A hand reached up and pulled the scarf that they wore around their neck a little tighter as a chilly breeze blew past them. Those calm eyes didn't change, however. They seemed almost vacant as though they didn't care at all about what they were currently looking at. Then again, the smooth skinned face of the person was flat as well. No smile or frown was worn.

"Hm."

The boyish looking girl took a step forward and placed their hands on the metal railing that closed off the Orphanage. Her eyes continued to look upward for a moment before she turned to leave, fingers slipping away from the metal slowly.

Just as she was a few steps away, adjusting the pack on her back, however, Kaede paused. Was she really going to leave this place without every detail of Strawberry Hill written down? It was her home town. If she really was going to be an Archaeologist and a Researcher she should at least know everything about the place she grew up in. Shuffling around in her pocket, she pulled out a notepad and flipped it open. There was lots of writting that suddenly stopped at a big white space after one question...

"Where did the children from Sophia Orphanage go?"

A sigh escaped her slightly pale lips.

[xenprince]

A large figure walked through the town. He wore an odd array of grey-scale clothing. His long-ish silvery hair flowed passed his ears and flopped a little as he took each step. He was a giant of a man, easilly taller then any average tall person. He had his hands in his pocket and his walk was weird, as if he wanted to grab the attention of the locals here.

He had a large grin, which was accompanied by a lit, half-smoked cigarette. He his grin was cocky and his eyes were narrowed, as if he wanted a fight. He stopped walking and looked at a large run down building, an old orphanage. He stopped grinning and took a long drag off his fag. "Tch...." He kicked the front of the door lightly and it shuddered. "Snap...." He came here to find some answers... he wasn't a curious guy and he didn't usually do things like this, but Henry couldn't resist as this included children.

"Strawberry Hill... it sounds so pleasant...." He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He didn't notice, but if he had taken one more step forward he would have stepped on someone. A small... boy?... girl?... boyish girl?... He looked down and looked at the child.

"...." He jumped back. "Huaaaaaaa~ Sorry I didn't see you there, hehe!" He shut his eyes and smiled nervously. "Sorry..."

[shinku]

It had been a long time since he had taken any vacation, but when Rince heard the story about the children that went missing from the orphanage, he just knew he had to go. He didn't knew any of the children, and he absolutely hated mysteries, they all turned out far to quick to be deadly traps for the curious, but just thinking about the unsolved mystery made his mood drop down to the basement.
The missing girls and boys where children with no family. Children that belonged to nowhere. Children that people didn't care about at all, if they vanished.
Children like himself.

For Rince it was clear that for this children he had to solve the mystery of their spiriting away. He absolutely had to, he felt responsible for that, since there didn't seem anyone else to do it. The other marines didn't care at all, and also the authorities in this town didn't bother themself any further.
This time there would be no running away, this time he would see it through the end.

The small and very feminine looking boy had bright red hair and green eyes and since he was on vacation he had left his marine uniform behind. He wouldn't have worn it even if he hadn't been on vacation. After all, a single marine would be in trouble if he was spotted by a pirate crew. A thing that was very likely to happen, considering his luck.
The only thing he took with him was his wooden sword. He was holding it in his left hand, while he was walking up the street leading to the orphanage.

[Farris (Kuro)]

A dark haired man walked through the town that was Strawberry Hills. The wanted man, Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates was fed up with his crew. This was nothing new of course, but he need time away from those idiots. He needed time to think and be alone for a while... That's why he was here. Just for a day or two. The strategist was clad in a white dress shirt and black slacks as not to draw attention to himself. His trade mark weapons, his cat claws were carried in suitcase which he kept on his person encase he needed them.

The man hadn't been to this village yet, but he had heard something about children in this village. It wasn't until he got here that he learned of the Orphanage of vanishing children. Normally the feline lover wouldn't really care, but their was a part of him that pulled him to look into this. Perhaps it was that he was once an orphan too, or that this was what he needed to get his edge back.

Things hadn't been going so well after he rejoined his crew as their captain and the defeat by a certain strawhat wear boy. His crew seemed to have gotten less competent in his absence and Jango was missing. He never did figure out what happened to the hypnotist but that hardly mattered anymore. The cat-like man had started to think that he was lacking something with his change in luck, thus was part of his need for this little away time from his crew.

Before long, Kuro found himself at the "dreaded" orphanage. He had been so lost in his own thoughts he hadn't realized the progress he'd made until now. He found himself simply staring at the place a moment. It reminded him of his own youth, even if this was not the town of his birth. He started to walk again, pulling himself out of his thoughts as he made to enter, before stopping quick.

Kuro quickly realized he wasn't alone as he spotted a tall man clad in gray and... a girl. Yes he was sure that it was a female even with their boyish features. He was about to turn and leave, not about to involve himself in business that didn't concern him when his sharp senses alerted him that someone or thing was approaching. He likely wouldn't be able to leave without being noticed at this rate. Thus he turned back to the two, maybe it would hurt to check out the orphanage problem with these two presant, they might even be their for the same reason.

[Kurosaki]

If she didn't do this she would regret it, she decided. Kaede walked to the gated entrance and tugged a little at the lock that was on it. The lock was a bit weather worn. Taking a rock that was laying on the ground nearby, she smashed it off and then opened the gate. It squealed a little as it opened as though protesting but she ignored it. After that she made her way inside fairly easily.

Just as Kaede was turning to head inside of the building to explore, however, she saw someone heading forward toward the Orphanage. Kaede ducked down low and hid in some bushes next to the entrance. The larger man with the grey hair kicked the door, causing it to shudder slightly. She wondered why he didn't just try the door knob. It would have been more effective.

Before she could slip away, however, to let the man deal with trying to find a way inside, Kaede was very nearly squashed when the man stepped forward near the bushes. Kaede sort of rolled out and looked upward with wider dark brown eyes. The man jumped back, apologized, and told her that he hadn't seen her.

"It's... Alright," Kaede told him before standing up and dusting herself off a little bit. She looked upward at him and felt suddenly short though she wasn't exactly height challenged herself.

"So, um, what are you doing? I don't think this place is scheduled to be demolished until later this week..." Kaede said as she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her flat chest. It was the most that she would normally speak at a time. The man, if he had known her, would have been surprised.

[xenprince]

Henry looked at the child. "Ah, that's funny, Rarhahahahahahaha!" He grinned widely, taking another drag out the of the cigarette and blew it out from his nose. The smoke made his nose feel all funny, sort of like making it itchy and sting whilst at the same time it was pretty addictive. He sighed, and the rest of the smoke came out threw his large mouth. He looked at the old place.

"I'm just here... to check it out... I want to know what's going on here..." Henry turned around and took a few steps away from it and sat down. He was a large man so he took a lot of space. He sat cross-legged and looked up at the sky. He took another drag, and tapped the end of his cigarette. The ashes fell onto the ground, swirling down. The smoke, which was calmly spiralling into the air was disrupted by this action.

"Ah..." He leaned back and looked at the child. "My name is Henry... Henry Rackam... Do you know anything about what's going on here?." He looked blankly at the child, taking out his nearly finished fag and tapped it again.

[shinku]

Rince stopped on the spot, when he noticed the huge man standing in front of the orphanage. It didn't took him more than quarter of a second to turn around and run away.
"Just why does there have to be a scary man like that on this place. I thought there wouldn't be anyone else here. It looks like trouble it looks like trouble.. I sooo should have know that I will get into trouble!" he told himself.

After he run hundred meters his sprint came to a sudden end, because he tripled over a tree branch that was lying on the street. He felt head on to the ground and slid another meter or two, before he stopped.
It was depressing, he didn't even had the strength to say "Ouch!"
"What the hell am I doing? I run away again. Even though I just promised myself that I wouldn't."

He stood up again and tried to clean his face from the mud as good as he could and went back into the direction of the orphanage. This time a bit more cautious but undoubtedly to the right direction.

When he came close to the orphanage again, Rince noticed that there were two other persons. He had been so focused on the man that he had overlooked them. He felt like running away again, but since that was not possible he tried to approach them.
The large man was of course still scary and so was the man with the white shirt and black slacks, but luckily there was also a boy around his age. At least he didn't look so scary, so Rince decided to address him.
"Hi. Uhm.. Hi. I'm Rince, nice to meet you. I didn't expected there to be so many people here. Err.. What brings a boy like you to this place? Did you lived in this orphanage?"

[Farris (Kuro)]

It seemed no one had taken notice of him until a young man came past him. The boy seemed a bit cowardly to him and a bit like another boy he was familiar with but lacking the loud obnoxious personality and distinctive physical features. As the tall lanky man listened in on the conversation between the three as he passed through the gates of the orphanage. It wasn't like he was trying to eavesdrop really, but he'd heard enough to confirm that they were all their for the same reason.

The Pirate Captain adjusted his glasses with his palms before deciding to address the group. "Excuse me, I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I take it we are all hear for a common reason... To find out about these disappearances and their relation to this particular building." Kuro stated, deciding to go with a bit more warmer personality while he was here. It wouldn't be the first time he had acted in such a manner to benefit his own motives. At this point, Making allies of others seeking the same goal was more useful.

"Might I suggest we work together?" He suggested as he casually walked passed them and toward the orphanage's door. He placed a hand on the door handle but paused and looked behind him at the three behind him. The feline-like man's mind was already planning, working out what his next course of action would be. Now it was just a matter of if they were going to work together or not.

[Kurosaki]

The rather large guy said that was funny and laughed a strange laugh. Kaede really didn't get the humor and merely raised an eyebrow at him with a detached expression on her face. It was sort of her trademark... Expression. If you could call it an expression, that was. The large man took a breath in of his cigarette and then blew it out through his nose. Kaede sort of squinted her eyes as the smoke blew past her and waved a hand slowly in front of her face. Once the smoke passed, she resumed breathing steadily.

The man told her that he was just there to check out the place to find out what was going on. Kaede nodded her head, realizing that their motivations seemed to be very similar. What were the odds? The man took a few steps back and then sat down. Kaede decided to park herself on one of the steps leading up to the door. She listened as he introduced himself as Henry Rackam and asked if she knew what was going on at the Orphanage.

"I'm Kaede and I don't know much about it. Just what I've read. This Orphanage was recently shut down a few months back and is scheduled to be demolished at the end of this week," she told him with a flat tone. She coughed a little and shuffled to the otherside of the step to escape the smoke. Her brown eyes flickered upward when she heard footsteps.

A young boy approached them, looking nervous. He introduced himself as Rince and referred to Kaede as a boy. She didn't even flinch. Most people got that wrong, after all. He asked her if "he" had lived in the Orphanage.

"No," she told him, shaking her head and not bothering to correct his mistake. "I live with my father. But, I was curious so I came here." Kaede gestured a little bit with her hand to the larger man to show that they had that in common.

A thin bespeckled man joined the group, pushing up his glasses with the palm of his hand. Kaede thought the gesture was odd but said nothing. He addressed them all and said that, since they were hear for a common goal, they should probably work together.

Kaede stood up and brushed herself off.

"Okay," she said simply before waiting for the others to agree. Her eyes wandered between them before she pulled out her notepad again and prepared to write as they made discoveries. That was, if there was anything to discover.

[xenprince]

The overly sized man looked at the new comer, someone who looked very feminine. It seemed as though they were trying to avoid Henry, whom personally was very fond of children and the like. He grinned widely. He stood back up, taking a rather long drag of his small cigarette and 'finished it off'. He tapped it again before putting it out with his lather large boot. He glanced over and saw another person, a very tall, and thin man. He nearly blew the smoke out through his nose again, letting the same sensation burn through his nostrils.

It stang rather a little too string and nearly made his eyes water but he brushed it off as if it was nothing. For some reason he felt cold as the man walked passed him. This sensation... Could he have been... a pirate?... He feels heartless... and the way he adjusted his glasses... RARHAHAHAHA that was pretty funny . Henry smiled.

He listened to their reasons and nodded. He looked at the small boy (Kaede) and frowned. "They're gonna bury this thing without even finding out what's going on?!" His brow came down and he looked very angry, and silly looking. Since Kaede had decided that he (she) would work with the tall, but to him short, thin man he also nodded.

"Lets go!"

He noticed the girl (Rince) had a wooden sword and smiled. "Are you a swordman little Chan?" He ruffled her (his) hair.

[shinku]

Having his hair ruffled by Henry surprised Rince and he froze up, but when he noticed that the other one didn't had anything bad in mind he relaxed a bit. The man was huge but it seemed that he was friendly and nice. The exact opposite of the other man who was still very scary. Not only that, but Rince also got the feeling that he had seen him before somewhere, but he couldn't say where. He just hoped that it hadn't been on a wanted poster.

But since everyone was fine with working together, he decided it would be best to join in. After all, being in a group meant that you weren't alone, so you weren't the only target if there was someone who wanted to attack you, which might been an advantage, even though he knew that normally he was the first one people chose to target anyway.

He nodded, barely visible. "I'll .. uhm.. I'll join you too if you don't mind me."
He looked from one to the other and thought that maybe an explaination was a good thing to make them trust in him. "I don't like it either that their just going to leave things unsolved. It looks like they don't care what had happened to this kids at all. As if there's no difference wherever they are alive or dead. I think that's kinda sad so I want to solve that mystery." it was the first time he had spoken with a clear and loud voice, even though him himself didn't noticed that at all.
"Uh.. and yes.. I am a swordsman, sort of .. kinda.. a bit.. I guess I am?" he asked them.

[Farris (Kuro)]

Kuro was starting to take a shine to the girl. She was quiet and to the point for the most part. Sadly their were few like that on his crew, he might have found being a pirate a bit more comfortable if they were more like her. The large gray clad man and the bokken wielding boy both seemed to agree to working together. The boy seemed quiet confident as opposed to earlier, maybe his first impression had been wrong? No matter, as long as the boy wasn't a hindrance to their investigation it shouldn't be a problem.

In truth he too found it offensive on a bit of a personal level that the town cared so little about their orphans. It was likely because he himself had been an orphan and it was do to such lack of care he was stuck with the world government as a child. He recalled the days of training with a bit of bitterment, but it had proven useful so he couldn't say it was all bad. Still, such things did hit a nerve in him, he was good at hiding it though, his control over his emotions remained in check.

The feline like man, noted that the gray clad man might have suspected him. May have even known who he was, but if he did he didn't say anything. All the better for the strategist, he really didn't need the "wonderful fame" of being a wanted pirate right now. So with that in mind, he decided to use an ails, one he'd used before but he doubted would matter. "Excellent, I am Kurahadol. Pleased to meet the three of you. Shall we proceed?" The Captain of the Black cat Pirates introduced before suggesting they get to work. They only had a week after all, and he had a feeling this was ether going to be a short investigation, or one where they would need that full week.

[Kurosaki]

It seemed that the grey-clad, silvered hair large man was agreed that they needed to figure out what was going on. If they really were planning on demolishing the building, they would never know what had happened to those missing children. Worse yet, someone might have gotten away with doing some very rotten things. The man even seemed angry by the entire concept. Kaede wondered why it mattered so much to him. Did he know any of those kids?

Perhaps he simply liked children. Kaede watched as he reached down and ruffled the girly looking boy with the wooden sword's hair who had also said that he was willing to go. It seemed that the boy agreed that it mattered to find out if the kids were still alive. Henry asked if the boy was a swordsmen and he said he kind of was.

The bespeckled man told them that his name was Kurahadol. he asked if they should proceed. It seemed that he was aware that they had a short window in order to solve what was going on. And if no one else had done so yet... It might take a while.

"Kaede," she said to introduce herself in case the newer comers hadn't heard her tell Henry. "Alright, let's go." She calmly went up the stairs, pushed open the door, which squeaked a little, and went inside.

The entrance way was fairly stark save for some furniture that had been covered over with white sheets. Kaede slowly progressed forward and then wandered off to the side, tugging at one of the sheets gently until it fell off. The book case that she revealed had photos in small frames that had been left on each of the shelves. Each had at least twenty children in the pictures; all different.

"Maybe we should take these photos since they were left here anyway..." Kaede suggested out loud before she started to work to remove them from their frames.

[xenprince]

Strawberry Hill... now why does that sound so darn familiar... Well it doesn't matter I'm still gonna check this place out! Henry patted the little girl's (Rince) head and smiled. "How cute little swordsman Chan, I bet you are already really good!" He grinned widley. For some reason Henry liked kids, not in the pedo way, but in a brotherly way. He'd always help out children whether he had a choice or not.

The skinny man, whom looked and sounded like a posh butler, introduced himself as Kurahadol. "Hey Kurahadol! The name's Henry Rackham, you'll hear it echo soon!" Henry produced a mighty laugh before stepping into the desserted orphanage. "There's no real rush, we have all the time in the world, but I would like to get this solved quickly so I can go back to kicking some butt RARHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Henry saw how empty this place was. It was really dusty and all the pieces of furniture, which was pretty bare too, was covered in white sheets. That was also fairly dusty too and Henry coughed everynow and again. He nodded to Kaede's suggestion of taking all the photos and making sure they were safe.

Henry got started near Kaede's area and starting to take the photo's out. He stopped when he saw a small baby with a full head of white hair. It was impossible but he knew, straight away that this was Damon, his child hood friend. He stared at it with an open mouth for a little while. He then put this in his pocket, to give to Damon when he next met him, as he knew he'd meet him eventually. Henry kept an eye out for pictures of the white haired boy.

[shinku]

While the other ones were busy with saving photos, Rince walked around and hit the wall every few meters with his wooden sword to see if there might be a hole in it. Maybe there was a hidden room somewhere, or maybe there would be just a little room beneath the floor, where one of the children hid his treasures, he didn't know, but he was sure it wouldn't hurt to look around and try it out. This was just like a story from a book, he thought, but Rince wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"That place sure needs some cleaning." he said. "Well... I guess they weren't really thinking about dusting here, when they decided to close it down."

He then remembered that it might be a good idea to know how the kids looked like and went over Kaede and Henry.
"Some of this photos look old. Which one do you think are the kids that went missing? Is there a date written on the photographs?"

A sound coming from a corner of the room let him turn around. Rince didn't wasted time and raised his sword, just to hit one of the picture off the bookshelf.
A mouse passed by him and made him feel really stupid. "Erm.. " he lowered his sword and picked up the picture. "Who do you think is that man that is there on the picture together with all the children? The man running this orphanage? Or the one who did run this orphanage I mean."