Protecting the Peace (8 Page Crew)

[Kurosaki]

For Conomi Island that had been burned in it's history before, it was no big surprise that they had two watchmen focused on the two strangers that had entered into the village. Arlong had left a lasting impression upon them. After accidently encountering a man who explained that he was also with the crew that had just landed, one of the two quickly rushed off to warn the others that there were more prospective pirates on the lose on the island. From the boy's words they sounded harmless but they weren't going to fall for that again. No sir.

As events played out around them, the 8 Pages Captain and the Muscle of their crew continued their search for supplies, known the wiser to their cover having been blown.

For a moment Kaede was thinking back to the Wanted Posters that she and Ruslan had passed a moment prior. Something about one of them had looked familiar to her. But surely not someone from her crew?

For a moment she tried to picture the wall again in full detail but realized that she had only looked for herself at first and therefore hadn't paid enough attention to any of the of the other ones. But if the Marines knew about any one of her crew it wouldn't be long until they would have to stop putting up the front that they were just harmless adventurers and begin to really live like real pirates.

Kaede had hoped that it wouldn't come to that until after they had hit the Grand Line but sometimes there was no helping certain aspects of lifes ups and downs.

She wanted to go back to the wall again but caution kept her from doing so. If she did it might look suspicious. Even though she didn't know she was being watched, Kaede didn't want to look like she had an interest in criminals. That might raise questions with anyone that happened to look their way.

So instead she continued to walk until she and her crew mate came to a Supply store for ships. Ruslan said something about there not being a big enough front door for him. He would wait outside unless there was another way to enter around back.

"I'll see if they might have another entrance for when they load their merchandise. If so, I'd like you to join me so that we're sure to get all the neccessary supplies we need," she told him before walking into the store, waving with the back of her hand to show that it would only be a moment, hopefully.

The bell chimed as she pushed the door open. Kaede stepped inside, brown eyes sweeping the place and picking up certain items in her mind that would be useful such as rope and even gun powder. Were there even canons on the ship? She doubted it but they would eventually need to get some.

"Welcome! May I help you with anything, stranger?" questioned the man behind the counter wiping his greasy hands with an already dirty cloth, one elbow forward. He proceeded to wipe his nose with his hand, smearing some grease onto his mustache.

"Actually, there is something. Do you have a larger entrance for my companion?" she questioned, pointing out the window.

[captianjim]

ruslan nodded in response to his captain. He stood outside and waited to see if there was an entrance to the back. The store was pretty big, he thought, surely there would be some sort of loading area in the back for the bigger items.

The generator on his back sparked and crackled as it drew what little moisture was in the air on this hot humid day. A small bead of sweat appeared on his brow and he took off his hat to wipe it off. He began to fan himself with his hat, forgetting that with his hat off his brain was visible in a green liquid under a glass dome where the top of his skull should have been.

He yawned and stretched as he turned around away from the store. When he opened his eyes, he realized many people were giving frightened looks. Ruslan blinked a few times before realizing why they were looking at him that way.

"Gah!" He stammered as he quickly turned on his foot away from the people, pulling his hat over the top of his head.

He turned his attention back inside the shop as he watched Kaede speak with the store's proprietor through one of the front windows. When the manager looked out at Ruslan he did a small wave and a slightly awkward smile.



The manager paused for a few seconds before hesitantly nodding to Kaede.

"Yes, Ma'am...I'll go open it up so your...uh...big friend may enter."

Seconds later Ruslan heard a voice come from the back of the store.

"Yo. Big guy! Back here!" shouted the manager.

Ruslan stepped to the back of the store where there was in fact a loading room, with a door big enough for him to enter.

Ruslan bowed to the manager,

"Danke, commrade." Ruslan said in a soft but intimidating voice that made the manager shiver slightly.

Seconds later he joined his captain, and was perusing the items the store had to offer.

"So, Captun..." Ruslan asked, "Vat are we be needink?"

[flame08]

((OOC: this is going to be slightly a rewrite from last time because we need to make sure the events are known to everyone in . . . even so my muse is kinda low atm so it'll be a short post))

Meanwhiles aboard the Eight Pages ship, unknown men roamed the deck checking out the ship looking for any signs of life or goods worth stealing. Throughout the ship they charged checking room after room carefully so they wouldn't miss anything. Little did they know hidden in one room behind closed doors lay a young girl with a bounty worth fighting for. It is possible that she was their main objective though she was a rather new head on the bounty list. Her poster having not been issued until a few days prior to the events. It was so new that the one who's head was being chased didn't even know of the existence of the bounty yet.

It was she, Natsuki who was hidden in her own room in the ship waiting for her nakama who was now trapped, by the men who had secretly and without warning boarded the ship who unknowingly held her almost captive in her own home. She breathed quietly as to not alert anyone of her presence, her door closed shut was locked for obvious reasons as she waited to hear a more friendly voice.

At the door she stood her staff in hand waiting just in case someone tried to barge into her room and succeeded so that she would be able to smash them over the head with the staff and incapacitate them at least for a while. From her room she could hear the constant beat of steps upon the deck and through the halls but as of yet they had not tried to gain entrance to her own room.

[shinku]

Inari had rushed back to the ship when he saw the men on board, where they clearly didn't belong, but when he finally reached it they were nowhere to be seen. They had entered the ships body and were now in the kitchen, where Inari had left some of the things he had stolen from the passengers and the captain of the cruiser liner.
"Look at this!" one of them said. "This jewelry has to be stolen! This guys clearly are pirates! Now there's no mistake, we can prove it. So let's take this things and go to get the others." he told his friends smiling. They nodded in agreement, but the jewelry had made them greedy and instead of going away with their proof they went deeper into the ship to search if there was more of it.

Meanwhile Inari was more concerned about his friends that were still in the doctors room as far as he knew, so he went straight to it, only to find the door locked. He wasn't sure if he was more anxious or relieved about not finding anyone until now. Did the men enter the room and locked it or did the girl wake up to do so?
The only way to find out was to open the door and since locks had never been a hurdle to him it didn't took him long to open it.
Carefully and slowly he entered the room.
"Anyone here?"

(OOC: Great picture Hanzo!)

[Kurosaki]

It was humorous in how the store manager reacted to Kaede's request. He stuttered in his speech and referred to her nakama as her "big friend". Shaking her head and smirking, Kaede then returned to her exploring of the supplies available for purchase. As she moved, she picked up a thing of rope and put her arm through the loop, carrying it with her. Rope was definitely an essential and she wasn't sure if they had any extra on the ship. After snatching up a few more things her brown head didn't even lift when Ruslan approached and asked what they would need.

"Hm, tools for repairs are something we definitely need. Do you know what we have already? I saw you working on... Well, yourself earlier," Kaede mentioned, gesturing to him non-chalantly. She was sure that Rusland already knew how much of an oddity he was but thought he didn't need to have a constant reminder of it from his crew mates on top of that. Besides, Kaede knew there were lots of strange things in the world. After all, she had heard about tons of oddities throughout history. She cherished those stories.

"We could probably use a cannon too," Kaede mentioned thoughtfully as she came across one that was in the very back of the store. A hand came to her chin thoughtfully. It looked fairly old; like it had been through a lot. But with some repairs it could definitely come in handy if they ran into Marines. Since their boat was a simple merchant ship it didn't come equipped with anything like that.

"How much is this?" Kaede questioned the manager who was anxiously shuffling around, watching them. He seemed to be worried that Ruslan was going to tear down his shop just by being present inside of it.

"Um, uh, that one's not for s-sale! I-It's... It's an antique. It probably doesn't even work anymore anyhow," he told them, causing Kaede to frown. Something like this, so full of history, would be perfect on their ship in her opinion.

"How old is it? It looks like it was probably made about 150 years ago," Kaede said, answering her own question as she bent down to examine it, being careful not to touch it with her hands.

"Y-yeah, it is actually! It was made 147 years ago! How did you know?" the man asked. Kaede let a sigh out and looked longingly at it.

"I would love to restore this... It's sad how rusted it's been allowed to get over the years..."

[captianjim]

Ruslan joined Kaede and noticed that she already had begun picking up items to buy. She had a coil of rope around her shoulder, clearly she had an idea of what they needed more or less.

A few seconds later she asked him if they needed any tools for repairs. Ruslan smiled.

"I be havink tools," He said with a whisper as he opened the large compartment on the front of his torso. On the inside side of the latch hung a small assortment of tools such as hammers, wrenches and a crowbar.

"No needink to worry about tools," Ruslan whispered with a nod.


When the captain's attention turned to a cannon in the back she made her way towards it. Ruslan followed. When the captain expressed her knowledge of the history behind it Ruslan was a bit surprised. He didn't know that this young girl was such a historian. When Kaede asked the shopkeep about purchasing the cannon he refused. Saying that it was an 'antique'.

Ruslan knew that he could help Kaede restore it easily. The shopkeep was a bit nervous about something so Ruslan used it to his advantage. He turned to the Owner and Hunched downwards, gettiung closer to his height level. He made a menacing, intimidating face as he asked the man one more time.

"Maybe you can... reconsider...Hmmm?" Ruslan growled.

[flame08]

From her position next to the door she held her staff out as a bat to swing at the first person who came in. The long bamboo staff seemed very unbalanced in her hands as it came out long across the door. In the quiet room seconds passed like minutes, and those minutes like hours, the tension of not knowing what was behind the door held them in an infinite time stop. The young girl with white hair waited for the a move or a sound, and then click. A few clicks and other such noises came from the door knob as someone tried to unlock her door.

She waited in silence, pulling the staff backwards to get a full swing. Her fingers and arms itched to make that swing, and as the door finally made its click to signal being unlocked she pulled a backswing to increase her momentum at the time of impact. An orange haired man started to step in, a cool calm voice following it
"Anyone here?" it said.

Only seconds after she had unwinded her swing did she notice who the owner of the voice was, and in an effort to stop the staff she cut off her spin as fast as she could. The bo would make contact though only just bopping his nose slightly. She quickly whispered "Sorry!!! . . .I thought you were . . . .well them . . ." she signaled to the continued soft sound of stomping on the wood. She checked to make sure no bleeding was happening as she leaned her staff against the wall so it made no sound.

Inari had appeared.

[xenprince]

Sleeping under the bed of his nakama lay Ken. He had not yet realised the dire situation at hand, infact he was still asleep, snoozing and staying in his own little fairy tale world. His mind was filled with wonderful thoughts as he laid there, forgotten.

He was the one who had to look after his nakama, Natsuki. He was the ship's doctor after all, even though he might look a little... incompitant at times. He had lain under her bed because he was tired and if she woke up and made noise he would have heard it... or so he thought. He was pretty beat after his last adventure with the crew, having to deal with using his DF powers more then usual and what not. He wandered off to his dream world seconds after his head touched the floor, wanting to relax.

He hadn't noticed when Natsuki woke up, nor when she had hidden herself into her closet. It was only when she came out and waited for a while before hitting someone, did he hear the light thunk of wood hitting flesh. He yawned a little, quite loudly before he rubbed his eyes and rolled out of his hiding hole. His eyes were still closed as he finish his roll and sat up.

[shinku]

From the corner of his eye Inari saw something moving in his direction, but it was to late to do more than a little step back, yet the movement of the staff changed a bit and all that was hit was his nose, which immediately started to bleed.
He held his hand to his nose to prevent more blood to flow out. It hadn't been a very hard hit, but noses were rather frail and his nose was no exception.

"No problem. I'm glad you're alive and lively as always. And very happy to see a beauty like you, I sooo happy I can't even stop my nose from bleeding when I see you." he told her. 'And I'm glad I'm not THEM.' he thought. 'That could have really hurt if it had fully hit me on the head. I better be careful around her from now on. She's not someone to underestimate.'

Inari watched how Ken rolled around and went over to him.
"You alright Doc?" he asked him, still holding his nose. "It sounds as if we have a bit of a trouble on board, so you better wake up now, so we can think what action we shall choose for now."

The last part was directed to Natsuki, who was already alerted by the sound of approaching footsteps. But before she could answer, some men appeared. It were the same that had searched through the ship for more gold and jewels and whatever could be made to money.

Inari took his hand from his nose that had stopped bleeding, but his hand was still red from it. He run his fingers through his hair, leaving red blood on his forehead and on his hair and turned around to face the newcomer, who glanced at one another and felt quite uneasy about that guy who's head was red from blood and was smiling at them in a very creepy way.
He looked mad. And you didn't mess with mad people.
However the other two looked harmless and they were outnumbering them. Should they run or fight? The girl looked weak and the other boy looked still half asleep...

[Kurosaki]

Just when Kaede was about to give up, her lips turning slightly downward, her eyes reflecting disappointment Ruslan took matters into his own hands. Or metal parts. Whichever made up his hands since Kaede wasn't really sure herself. He leaned down closer to the store manager and asked him to reconsider. From her standpoint it didn't seem intimidating at all. That was probably because at the moment she wasn't the one being intimidated and couldn't see the expression on her crew mates face.

The store manager, on the other hand, looked about ready to faint. His knees were shaking and looked about ready to buckle out from underneath of him.

"A-ah, on second thought, s-since you like it so much... why don't you take it! Free of charge even! Yeah, exactly!" said the store manager nervously, backing up away from Ruslan and accidently hitting something with his back and knocking it over. The lamp shattered but he looked too nervous to even look behind him.

"Really? That'd be wonderful. I'm shocked you would reconsider so easily. Not to mention, free? How about we'll at least pay for that lamp?" Kaede offered gently. The store manager just nodded and sweated a ton as Kaede counted out some beri into his hands.

"Ruslan, help me outside with the cannon?" Kaede wasn't all that great with upper strength so she planned to wheel the massive thing outside using the same back entrance that her crew mate had entered into the store from. She grabbed the back end and began to pull.

[flame08]

Inari held his nose, it seems the contact had been great enough to deal some damage to the nose. A steady, though light stream of blood was making it down his face as he tried to stop the flow. Addressing her he said "No problem. I'm glad you're alive and lively as always. And very happy to see a beauty like you, I sooo happy I can't even stop my nose from bleeding when I see you And I'm glad I'm not THEM. That could have really hurt if it had fully hit me on the head. I better be careful around her from now on. She's not someone to underestimate."

Looking at him she smiled slightly, she wasn't completely trusting of Inari, but more so than she trusted the men who were on their ship. "I don't know if I should take that as a compliment from you . . . " she said uneasily. Grabbing her staff again she saw that Ken was finally coming back to himself.

Inari took a look at him commenting "You alright Doc?" he asked holding up Ken's nose. "It sounds as if we have a bit of a trouble on board, so you better wake up now, so we can think what action we shall choose for now."

The last part which was directed at her, was the troubling part. She had no idea what they were going to do. She wasn't sure as to their numbers nor how capable Ken would be of fighting them. Before she was able to answer a few steps could be heard from the opening. The men had found them, more than enough than looked to be necessary to take on this wounded man, fragile girl, and barely conscious doctor.

What hesitation they had quickly disappeared as they evaluated their enemies quickly. The men walked in confident in their abilities. Now it was time to see how their confidence was to pay off. Natsuki took the first attack swinging her staff straight at the man closest to her.

[xenprince]

Ken rubbed his eyes, not fully awake just yet and blinked a few times. Everything was still blurry and his ears, nor his mind, were working right. He rolled once more before starting to get up, getting on all fours and getting up one leg at a time. He stumbled a little before yawning wildly and taking a ginormous sniff.

However his nose crinkled up tight and his head started to hurt as he smelt blood before his eyes shot open and his head clicked towards the blood. He gasped at the bleeding man, his nakama Inari and fumbled about trying to find his first aid med. He completely ignored the strangers at the doorway as if they weren't there.

He dove under the bed, his legs kicking out and hit the knee of one of the men. He used his elbows to propel himself towards his first aid med kit under the bed before grasping it's handle and jumping out with the box, hitting the face off one of the men whilst exclaiming "YATTA!! I FOUND IT!" He then clicked it open and took out some bandages and cotton buds. "Mr. Inari! Come here!!" He said proudly.

[shinku]

Inari was impressed at how easily Natsuki swung her staff around in this confined space, where even a fight with a sword, who was much shorter than a staff, could trouble a not so skilled swordsman. Not that this fighting place would have troubled him, but swinging around a sharp sword when there were people you didn't want to hit was always just the second choice when there were other options at hand.
In Inaris case this was the baguette he bought earlier, which was shorter than the average sword, which made it easier to swing around, blunt, which saved him from worrying too much about cutting someone he didn't want to cut and, yes Inari took a bite of it, rock-hard, which made it useful as a weapon in the first place.
Using a baguette as a weapon was a bit of a lame joke he had to admit, but it was useful nevertheless. He smacked one man on the head with it and turned around to kick another into his groin and added a kick to the man's face when he bent down in pain. "Fighting Fair" was a foreign word for Inari. He certainly knew what it meant, but it was a language other people spoke and had long ago he had decided that he would not use it. As long as you didn't lose, the HOW you fought didn't matter.

From the other side of the room, which wasn't that far away since there wasn't that much of room anyway, Ken shouted something to Inari.
"Uhm.. Just a moment Doc. I'm having my hands full with this guys right now, but I'll join you as soon as I finished this guys off." he told him.
His nose had long stopped bleeding, but the little doctor-boy seemed so exited and honest about helping him that Inari didn't found the heart to turn him down.

[Kurosaki]

Three men had entered into the confined room and spotted them. Each had their orders to find out what the people on the boat were doing and put a stop to it. One went to grab the first person he saw, Natsuki, a grim look on his fat face. That was before her staff struck straight into it. The man backed up, blood spurting from his nose.

"Ah, jeez, what did you do that fo-" started the man just before he was kicked in the knee by someone else crawling around on the floor. That someone else was the Eight Page Doctor, Ken. He fell over backward, fat luckily helping cushion his fall a little but he was dazed.

Inari, meanwhile, was dealing with two other men at once. He wacked one with the Baguette, then took out the other with hit to the groin and a kick to the face. The skinny man was out like a light, passed out on top of the fatter one. The guy that Inari had first hit tried to come at him from behind, face red and muscles tensed, thick eyebrows drawn so tightly together that he looked like he had a unibrow.

-----

Kaede and Hanzo had somehow managed to get the cannon out of the store and fixed to a wagon. It had taken much effort but it had been worth it to the Captain. It was unusual for her but she actually smiled at the sight of it as they hauled it back to the ship. It was harder getting back than it had been going to the little store but they finally made it.

"Wonder how Natsuki is doing? I'll go find Ken and ask him," Kaede told Hanzo, leaving him to handle getting the new weapon onto the actual vessel for the most part. She was sure he could figure it out. Kaede opened the door to Natsuki's room, expecting to find her still resting with Ken keeping a close watch but instead she found...

[dabods]

(Occ:Hope ya dont mind me intruding on this good ol thread here0

Mist was lazily walking around the town his tall figure standing out from the rest of the crowd. People were starting to stare at the tall man dressed in casual business attire looking very classy but intimadating at the same time. Mist heard a little boy tell his mother "Look hes sooo twall momma". Although mist was a very fun loving individual he kind of took it personal about his height and preferred not to be teased about it. Mist ignored it he was on the search for some items that always made a journey fun.

Soda,Lots of meat and books.He came upon a local grocer;Although Mist may not look it but he was quite a wealthy man due to his bounty hunting days and caught a few high caliber pirates a couple of weeks back. He ducked as he was walking through the front door and found the cola section. He preffered the more exquisite kind in the cool looking bottles. He bought 22 cases. Venturing to the meat section he found the most high quality chicken and other meats and he literally purchased it all. The stores owner looked at him like he was insane and Mist just smiled politely and paid him the money. Mist loaded all of his items onto a wagon outside.

Being the eater of the Rensa Rensa devil fruit Mist had gained the ability to creater and manipulate steel chains. He used his powers and suddenly two steel chains appeared from his hands and he attached them to the wagon he accquired and rolled on the way through town . Mist thought he heard some commotion whereabouts nearby. He walked in that direction trying to see if he could be of any assistance.