Mission 79| Three Way Hunt (Blab/ Gaz)

[Kami-Gaz]

Witches? Well this was a bounty Kai was not going to regret picking up, a witch hunt seemed fun to him, or at least uncovering if it was really a witch. Even the island that the ‘witch’ was based on suited a creepy theme, dark depressing and creepy. Then again creepy to Kai was not the same to everyone else, it was more of a fun themed adventure park for him where the scary stuff were more gimmicks than dangerous. This was also the young bounty hunters first venture into the grand line, everyone he met on the way here had decided that the young man was doomed to fail, based just on his appearance alone. However, that opinion on him changed rather quickly after he did some ridicules feet most people wouldn’t even dream of attempting. The yo-yo toting bounty hunter had arrived on the island of Houma that morning and was spending his time doing some investigation around the dark and dreary port town of Houki.

He had spent most of his time investigating the shops, cafés and a few government buildings with in the dark dank town. Mainly he was buying trinkets and other nick-nacks to show off to the people back in south blue when he made his eventual return at the end of this trip. If only he had a camera to document his trip, then this place would be a good thing to say he has done. However, most of the people he associates with back at his home blue would not even believe he was on the grand line let alone some creepy island hunting witches down for money. This didn’t really get him anywhere on the investigation, he hadn’t even met up with the person who contacted him with the bounty. Apparently a lot of people had been contacted and a few actually came to investigate, though all had gone missing. Now it was Kai’s turn to try and prove to the world that the witch that plagues the island exists.

After the trinket hunt was over and the procured items stored safely in an inn on the dock Kai was finally in hunt mode, with a smile on his face as he usually did. His first port of call on this investigation into the rumoured witches of Houma was the port… He thought that if he could grab one of the local fishermen and get some friendly banter going with him he could eventually get some more of the juicy information out of him. Why a fisherman? You may ask, well fishermen are terribly superstitious, so rumours of withes causing misfortune when you make eye to eye contact with them are easily going to be believed. Somewhere in rumours and myth there is normally a hint of truth that started all of it off, or a story behind it that references the history of the island. It was a tactic normally used by investigators, not bounty hunters.

So as previously mentioned Kai spent the rest of his day on a fisherman’s boat gossiping and bantering with one, exchanging stories of how he would sail alone for days when he was a child for stories about these witches and other mysteriously creepy things that went on on this glorious island of Houma. There were a few interesting ones that really caught the young yo-yoers eyes, one that is fairly recent too. The story of the marine captain who vanished into the woods, leaving his crew to search for him for days, slowly getting picked off one by one either by the local fauna or the witches themselves. Either way their bodies wouldn’t be found… in one piece.

It all started the day they arrived; they came to make a small supply run to restock some of the food on their ship. Whilst they were docked they were asked by the mayors of all of the towns on the island to look into this problem, their citizens going missing and their bodies never returning. The noble captain of course accepted this little task, thinking it was all just superstition, but he walked into the woods to investigate this himself and has still not been found. His men after a few days of concern eventually built up the courage to follow him in… and one by one their screams went silent, not to be heard again. Some were killed by the wildlife and others claimed by the witches, the story obviously got more and more twisted along the way, people saying the marine captain was a Logia fruit user and others saying that he used it as a chance to go AWOL, no one knows.

The last rumour that Kai had found interesting was one that revolved around the mayors themselves, saying that the mayors offered citizens up as sacrifices to the witches, but the people were getting sick of that so outsiders were being used. The fishermen were really talkative about this one, saying their opinions, but they all still revolved around outsiders being used, none of them even thought the bounty hunters being contacted was a lie to draw them in as sacrifices.

The Bounty hunter was returned to land late in the afternoon, on the dock that was on the edge of town, meaning there were only a few people there. He left them with a smile on his face and some new creepy friends. As he walked away his hands automatically slipped into his pockets and pulled out two large metal Yo-yos, without hesitation they were dropped to the ground and bobbed back up with little movement from their owner, he made it look easy, only twitching his finger muscles to control the spin. “I’ll try and see you guys before I go! I’d love to go fishing with you again!” The young man shouted back to his new fisher friends that he had just made while info gathering. It took a special man to see past the people creepy exterior and make them his friend, but Kai did it and with relative ease too!

[Blaka]

The Dream Route Ferry! A fine vessel for anyone that had to cross the dangerous waters of the Grand Line without having access to any proper ships. Let alone ones with a navigator who would actually make it through emergencies. Many civilians used this form of transportation to see the wonders the Route had to offer. On each island, half of the passengers got off and the room was refilled with other eager tourists.

On Huoma island however, only one person got off. Actually, the ship lost two passengers that day, but only one of them was stepping on solid ground. And was actually alive for that matter. The other one had mysteriously vanished from his cabin the night before. Later that day, someone would get suspicious and get the idea to maybe knock on the cabin door. Tomorrow they'd break the lock and find a few bloodstains, but by then both corpse and culprit would be too far away to start a succcesful investigation.

In any case, the reason nobody wanted to get off here should be quite obvious to anyone with a right mind. If not by looking at the sinister black pine forest, then certainly by just one look it the tourist guide. Here it warned people of looking the inhabitants straight in the eye, as it may result in bad luck. Good (or bad, depending on the point of view) thing Kulira Cheteria Akuvutika did not posess a right mind. Good thing if you were to ask the people on the ferry. Bad if you were to ask the villagers on Houma.

A faint drizzle started falling from the gray sky as the blonde stepped of the boat. As always, from top to bottom she was wearing her black longsleeve shirt, tight black jeans and mousegray  fur boots.
Her ice-blue eyes under the curtain of hair made out a busy port. All sorts of busy looking folk was running around here, mostly looking slightly to the ground. Likely because they wanted to protect their eyes from the rain. Shame, it would be a pain to actually light a cigarette in this weather. Hopefully it wouldn't last long.

Finally, her eyes stuck to the guy she had already seen from on board the ship. It was the young cyborg woman's custom to declare the first person she spotted on an island her target for the day. This dude in front of her couldn't be from around here. First of all, he wasn't looking down, like the folk around him was. A good deal shorter than herself and probably also a little younger. Her future victim's head was graced had short brown hair with a strange silver streak in the front, as well as a brown goatee. In his hands, two large Yo-yos bobbed up and down as he walked away from the port into the village. Thankfully, he had turned his back to Lila, so she could easily disappear unnoticed into the crowd. Sometimes, making eye contact with a person made them remember Chete and give them a hint that they were followed. However that was not the case here, randomly being spotted one or two times wouldn't attract his attention to her. Unless he was looking for somebody else who was not from here, she would be safe. Carefully, Miss Akuvutika followed the unsuspecting stranger.
Hopefully they'd pass by an interior or at least a porch for a quick smoke. For now Kulira was left with thoughts about what she would do to him once they arrived wherever he was headed. And it got more and more creative the longer they walked.

[Kami-Gaz]

The young man quickly turned on his heels as he let both of the yo-yo’s bob up and down, and without hesitation he took his first few steps back into town down the side street, he had a general idea now and thought it would be best to check the island out for himself now. There was no better way of doing that than by wandering into the wilderness all by himself and hoping for the best. After all this island was only home to dangerous beasts and these rumoured witches, what was the worst that could happen to the yo-yo sensation?

The young man happily wandered down the main street stopping occasionally to peer into windows of some stores at certain items of interest, he was thinking of picking some up on the way back as a celebratory treat… but that would be after he had solved this witch thing and had gotten the reward. Each time he stopped, he would lean over and cock his head to the side as his mind ran through scenarios of what he would do with said item and after each one his smile grew, just a little bit. By the time the young man had made it to the opposite end of the town he was so excited that he could just burst, he let his hands clasp the yo-yos in his pockets and pulled them out into the sunlight.

The young bounty hunter carried on his travels yo-yos in hand, knowing that this was the only road to the next town on the island, as he walked he noticed that he was the only person walking on the path. As he looked over his shoulder, he noticed some odd-looking person behind him but he really played it no mind, he had seen plenty of them on this island anyways. The young male returned to looking forwards as the odd feeling inside of his belly grew and grew, there was something watching him, hungry, and bloodthirsty and he could feel it being close. This feeling made is blood race and his heart pound, he knew there was something trying to hunt him, and it was close.

Kai stopped still and looked to his right side, this path was too open and any killer could hide to the bushes in the side… so could witches. Sadly, it was not a witch that made the first move it was a large beast of a wolf, leaping out from the brush as it snarled. Teeth and sharp ones were the first thing Kai saw, but the young man didn’t panic, even as the large maw grew to reveal a massive head, in Nano seconds the heads gigantic body appeared. This wolf was easily the same size of the bounty hunter that it was pouncing on.

Kai’s face let the smile that was plastered on it form a grin as his right and moved to flick the yo-yo, and with a twist the large spinning clump of metal was launched into the wolfs ribs. A large thud sounded as the wolf stopped dead in its tracks mid-air and just fell. The yo-yo being pulled back with the slightest twitch of Kai’s finger, the fist sized metal contraption spun back and wrapped the cable up neatly inside of the little groove and stopped in its owners hand all before the wolfs unconscious body slumped to the floor. To Kai this was not even warm up, to the wheezing wolf this was a bad decision, something it wouldn’t try again… if it wasn’t killed off by any other animals around while it slept it off.

The bounty hunters face returned to a soft smile from its dark grin that was showing just moments ago. “Hayoyoyoyo~ It’s good to know I still got it, sorry wolfie but ya gotta try harder… try bringing ya whole pack next time~.” The young man said as he walked beside the wolf and into the forest, if there is one of them there will be more and to Kai it might better to be in the wood any way if he was hunting this witch. His hands gripped the metal yo-yo’s, he was getting eager and the thought of fighting packs of monstrous animals and magic using witches just raced throughout his head. Snarls could be heard and the panting of the wolves starting to circle the man echoed around the trees of the dark forest.

The tension in the air was thick, and the young man looked like he was ready for this, but there was something off about the look on Kai’s face, where as a normal person would be showing focus or terror Kai was grinning. “Wolves?” He asked himself quietly as his eyes scanned the surroundings and noticed a small hut in the distance, giving him the bright idea of trying to taunt the witch. “I KNOW YOU ARE OUT THERE COME ONE OUT! I want a real fight and not to play with these puppies!” He shouted with the dark grin.