Mission # 24 : Let's burn!

[shinku]

Toroa was an island with a very high culture and a lot of theaters, balls and operas which the townspeople were very proud of. They sure belonged to the elite and they had the money to show it. A lot of mansions were lined up one after the other, but the most luxurious and extravagant ones were on top of the little green hill at the end of the town. The people living here were richer than rich and could afford the best food, the best entertainment, the best of the best in everything and anything they could think of and the best protection for there beloved and costly property.
Unfortunately for them, the best protection you could get on this island wasn't really worth to mention. The island wasn't part of the World Government and couldn't rely on the marines and their protection. Even so the island had it's own famous swordsmanship, but for quite a while now they failed to protect their people from the danger that turned up some weeks ago in form of a group of evil con men.
This con men hardly got them self involved into man to man fights, which the swordsmen could have surely won. They fought dirty and were always where they were least expected. The islands swordsmen just couldn't handle them.
With their actions they scared a lot of people to pay them money or they would burn down their houses. And they didn't leave after getting payed, they came back every week.

Somewhere else in the town, in the hideout of the con men group, their leader Inari sat on a chair and read the newspaper. "So they try to get ride of us now, and they offer to pay a "nice vessel" for someone who can stop us." he said aloud but more to himself than to anyone else. However one of his fellows, a bunch he gartered together not so long ago, answered.
"Let them. They won't catch us. They are too stupid to do so." he laughed.
Inari frowned but said nothing, but he decided to be even more careful from now on.

[outsanity]

It was something of a problem, at least for Jazz...

He hadn't yet found a way to get from island to island as of yet, and his last attempt to get money via running errands failed. Up to this point he really only got around by piggy-backing on the ships of merchants and passers-bye, but the last of such ventures ended alot less lucratively for him. A poor navigator led the ship he was last in into a storm, not only testing his own mortality but also banging up their ship and throwing them off course. They were forced to dock here, at this island, until they could fix the boat, but with all the merchandise lost, the people he had come with were also 'up the creek without a paddle'. It was only now that Jazz found himself wandering the streets of a high class society, to his surprise. He hadn't a clue as to where exactly he was, and wasn't sure where to find himself a map. It was a frustrating ordeal indeed...

With a deep breathe he attempted to calm himself, reminding himself to 'take things one problem at a time'. The ultimate goal was to find himself a ship worth sailing and start his own pirate crew, though one can't just go poking around for a ship and the more higher of quality ships were in fact quite a bit more expensive then he would be able to afford any time soon. What a slow start to his adventure; it was almost enough for him to give up all together. However, what did he see before him? Ahh! A glimmer of hope. A news paper article, apparently littered on the ground, gave details as to the state of the island itself. Apparently, a group of thugs were taxing the town, which was otherwise defenseless. Even more interesting, the fact that the reward was a ship! His ticket off the island was secured... but...

If it was this simple for him to find the information as to his ticket out, then wouldn't it be just as easy for them to know that the towns people were trying to resist them? This would probably make things much more troublesome for him, but why not make a mission out of it. He scooped the newspaper article from the ground and folded it into his pocket. Now, he waited curiously in the town, ever vigilant in an attempt to catch someone in the act. There was one house in particular that stood out among the giants of houses that existed here, and if he just stuck around long enough, it would certainly be a victim, or the thugs recent threats.

(Vague for the start just to get a sense of how I got on the island... YO TURN!)

[shinku]

While on the outside it looked as if everyone of the townspeople went on with their normal everyday life, everyone was, maybe except the little children, very nervous. They were especially nervous about foreign people. The townspeople eyed everyone with suspicion that came to their island this days and not even the well known traveling theater groups that came every year to preform their play or the trader families that were trading their goods around this seas for ages and ages were really trusted. So of course they were even more suspicious of people they never saw before. Especially when they had tattoos or too much strange looking jewelry and were looking like pirates or otherwise fishy. In other words, people who looked like Jazz.

Because of their wariness with foreign people, a lot of the towns swordsmen were guarding the port and they didn't like it at all when the outsiders were wandering around in their town just like that. That said, it didn't take long until a patrol stopped Jazz and wanted to know what he was doing there.

"What are you doing in front of this house Mister?" one of them asked, but the other one didn't give him a chance to answer. "Are you one of the con men?! If not you better have a good answer as to why you are here on this island!"

Near them two middle-aged Lady's and a short teenager, probably around Jazz's age, turned their heads and watched them to see what was going on. They started to whisper at one another but they whispered so loud that it was easy to hear what they were saying.

"How scary, so that's one of the con men?" said the woman with the big blue wig and the over-sized jewelry around her neck. But the boy smiled to her and answered in a sweet voice. "You can't say that just like that Mrs. Tupper. He might just be a sailor stopping at our island."
"But look how he looks like!" said the other woman. "I'm SURE he's a pirate!" The boy looked over to Jazz and smiled, for some reason looking very amused and said. "You can't judge people by their appearance. Appearance can deceive you because you can never know what lays behind it."

Suddenly some people started to scream and pointed to a direction from which dense pillar of smoke was rising to the sky. "It's the con men group! They started to burn down a house over there!"

(I hope you don't mind me playing some of the townspeople as well for now, but since I thought it would be strange for the con men to just appear out of the blue in the first posts, I had the townspeople react to you first)

[outsanity]

(Nope, thats fine, dont mind at all!)

Need less to say the paranoid civilians had spotted him out as a potential threat to the island. After all, he didn't look like one of the high class individuals that would stroll through the place. It was something he would have to take note on fixing! If he was going to be here he would need a disguise... it was also interesting that they would point him out as 'different' and even go as far as accusing him of being one of the con men. Did they not know what this group of thugs looked like? "No no no! It's not what it looks like." He said with a nervous, convincing smile and non-threatening tone as he gently waved his hands in front of himself in a 'not me' sort of gesture. In an attempt to be resourceful he reached into his pocket and lifted out the news papers clip that he had stumbled upon earlier. Unfolding it, he presented it to the men that had stopped him. "See I'm here cause of this... I'm gonna stop the con men, im not one OF them. " He explained with haste to bring quick justice to his innocence, though he was only going to ignore the ideals of him being a pirate. At this point he was only a pirate by name, not necessarily by acts or miss deed.

In the classic 'saved by the bell' fashion, the whoops of panicked individuals yelling about the con men had saved him from some complications. The smoke rose high into the air now, but was a distinguished white color; a flame still controllable, as he recall from his own experience on his original island. Only when the smoke grew dark was it considered beyond the point of control. Mainly on impulse he turned his direction toward the smoke and started toward it, turning back to state, "Sorry! I gotta go!" to the men that had confronted him. As he ran toward the situation he thought for a moment. Maybe if he was able to put our the fire and that was supposedly started via the con men, then he would gain some of the favor of the islanders! Hopefully that wouldn't also catch the attention of some other more notable figures as well... namely the con men themselves.

Upon coming to the scene, there were many spectators to the fire; like waiting for a bond fire to erupt, people stood in helpless awe as their fears were realized. This was one of the smaller of the mansions, and probably just a 'warning shot' as it were. The owner of the house, however, was much more noted for their frantic panicking. There weren't yet any signs of fire from the outside, however white smoke still poured from the windows... "Jeeze, doesn't this place have firemen!?" He announced he thoughts out loud as he sprung toward the house. It was only then that he had noticed the two men from before having followed him to the scene.

There was an open window toward the top that he had slung himself inside; the main source of the smoke. Even thought the smoke was white there was nearly no visibility in this room and he had to stumble about to find his was to the opened door to get a look down into the house itself. There was a grand stair case and at it's center a living room in flames. The fire itself was quickly spreading up the stairs and the only things that kept the whole house from crumbling at this point were the marble slab columns that didn't catch fire. It was only a matter of time until even those hadn't any importance. But what now?!

He was a Logia DF user, which was considered quite rare. His element being clay he could contain the heat, however too much exposure to the flames would harden the clay into a baked form. It was an odd exchange. There was a bathroom on the same floor as him, and without hesitation he ran inside to find... yes... a shower as well. Turning the water on and embracing the chill of the cold water, he covered himself in order to moisten his clay form; this would give him precious extra seconds in which to contain the fire. Was it really worth all this to expose his Devil Fruit ability? After all, the towns people may be more frightened of
that then of the con men.

"Atlas Giant ARMS!" He announced as about his arms grew exponentially in size thanks to the generation of further clay. As quickly as he could he brought his hands down to 'stomp out' the fire, starting with the stair case. He could feel the hands losing their mobility the more the attempted it and it became difficult to be gentle with the house itself; after all, massive clay appendages weren't the greatest tools of dexterity. However, even though th difficulty, he was able to calm the fire. There was still a big mess, however at least the house was saved right? He sat at the top of the stair cause, propping himself against the wall and sighed, letting himself catch his breathe.

[shinku]

When the firemen finally arrived, (they had been occupied at a different place where the con men had set a fire as well), the fire in the mansion was already under control and thanks to Jazz there was not so much damage as there might have been, if the fire had not been extinguished. Everything was black where the fire had ravaged and some of the furnitures were reduced to ash, but the house itself wasn't damages as bad as it looked at first.

The last bit of smoke found it's way up to the sky, when the firemen ran into the house, just to find the crazy man that was reported to have run into the fire hell and didn't come out again, sitting on the stairs and leaning against a wall and with big strange hands of a sort no respectable human should ever have.
They stopped half confused half scared and not believing what they were seeing. A fireman that came in later and didn't notice Jazz at first ran into the man in front of him, because he couldn't stop his steps fast enough.
"What's wrong?" he asked but on the same time caught glance of Jazz. "What the hell is that?!" he stuttered out loud.
Slowly everyone of them stepped back, not exactly slow but not to fast either to not provoke the strange man to a maybe violent reaction. God knows what such a man could do!

They were still halfway through the doorway when a small man with a mustache and elegant cloths pushed his way through them and with a crying face went over to Jazz.
"Are you the one that saved my little home?" he asked and took, or at least he tried to take Jazz's hand and shake it. "Thank you. Thank you very much. How can I thank you?" he asked him while still crying tears of joy.

Outside the house, a lot of spectators were still standing around and talking to one another. The two ladies and the short boy with the orange hair that watched Jazz being held up by the swordsmen were there too.
And not far away from the crowd in a dark alley, two figures that were deeply involved in the fire "accident" that happened.
And they weren't the only suspicious characters around. A bit back, just next to the house where Jazz meet the swordsmen, a group of three con men were using the confusing over the fire to "talk" to Miss Dupree and convince her to donate a respectable amount to the special "Fire preventing Squad".

Even though the plan went well and his group received a donation, Inari the leader of the con men group, wasn't as pleased as he should be. Things weren't going as smoothly as he wished. His "men" were quite a problem, since they weren't as controllable as he wished them too. They tended to overdo things and even if Inari was a con man by heart, he didn't like to hurt people in the process. A small fire that made a lot of smoke but not so much damage should have been enough, but this guys went ahead and nearly burned down the whole house.
And there was something else.
Jazz wasn't so unnoticed as he wished to be. Inari had noticed him very early, but when Jazz jumped in to safe the house he was really worried. This wasn't someone to underestimate, he told himself. He would have to plan ahead, because this man was trouble for sure.

[outsanity]

Time passed from the event pretty smoothly. After the shock and awe of the moment wore off, it came to the attention of the towns people that they needed to take action and take action soon. Jazz was carted off to the hospital for a 'check up' however it was soon made apparent that he was fine; after all, he was a Logia. When it was asked how he was able to pull it off, he could only do his best to come up with 'beat around the bush' type answers, as the only people who had even caught a glimpse of his DF ability in use were the firemen that eventually barged in, and even they hadn't said anything. Even though the paramedics were stunned to see Jazz walk away alright, they themselves claimed that more crazy miracles had taken place and were simply thankful that he was there to help. He was relieved that he had dodged a serious bullet of revealing his DF ability to the masses, as it was often received as a curse more than a gift. By the time he had gotten out and signed many-a-paper giving away any amount of his rights to be used by the one hospital on the island, it would appear as though the sun was already setting. He quickly heard news of a town meeting that evening taking place at the single biggest house on the hill top; a mansion large enough to fit every person on the entire island.

He himself was informed by one of the firemen earlier that day and considered it an obligation to go. Not only that, but if it helped in his personal mission of getting a boat, then it would be wise of him to go. He was speechless at the size of his house from the inside. It was almost as if an entire battleship could have fit inside of it comfortably, and to believe that this entire thing only belonged to one little ol' lady. Everyone else, however, seemed uninterested in this fact and so instead of jumping about in shear 'OMG' fashion he kept his excitement of the place to himself and just sat about as if he too had done this many times before. In standard 'town meeting' style, there was a stage and podium for someone to do the talking while throngs of fold out chairs made up the audience of fancy town people. He showed up a bit early, though people continued to trickle in; many giving him odd looks and others recognizing him from the situation before and whispering to their friends about him being there. He did after all stick out like a sore thumb.

It was only a matter of time, or rather, a long time of waiting; so long that a number of butlers came out and began serving little snacks to people and... wine? He couldn't help but to help himself, after all it was free food and he hadn't eaten anything substantial for awhile. By the time someone semi important looking stepped up to the podium he was alittle bit tipsy on the wine itself, as it was the only thing that was provided to drink. He did his best to keep his composure.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, I think its about that time..." The older man said. It was only then that he had noticed that a large number of people in the audience had blades at their sides; they reminded him of the people that had confronted him earlier.. maybe some form of militia that the island had scrambled up? In he thought maybe he would have a better understanding of the situation if he just listened. The man continued to speak, summarizing the events that had taken place the past few months; the mobsters that had landed on the island, the swordsmen who had failed in spite of their brave efforts to drive them out, and now their helpless state of being threatened by the thugs for protection taxes. He sobered up during the extent of the two hour discussion, hanging well into the morning hours, and leaving him basically fatigued by the time it was over. However he had learned valuable knowledge, and the town was starting a crime watch to keep the arsonists from striking the town. If he was going to confront these individuals and chase them out, it would would take some serious force, but he would have to first find out where they were located...

Immediately after, as people were trickling out, he was approached by a few individuals who asked him if he needed a place to stay. There were, after all, no inn or motel on the island, and with no where to go, it would make for a rather miserable evening. They too were spectators of the earlier fire incident, and had come to trust him. He thanked them for their hospitality and took them up on their offer, going to their own mansion in which he would stay the evening... however though the towns people and Jazz were busy thinking how they could drive out the con men, the con men most likely had plans of their own...