A Clarion Call {Shoguns}

[White Mimic]

“You see that big ol’ building over there?” Nori pointed over the wall on the other end of the alley as she swiveled around in her seat, once again reaching for her water bottle. While she took another swig, Pierce leaned off the railing and wandered over to the partition, glancing across the landscape of mossy grass and twisting roots. The wall was built rather low and it seemed to only be there to separate the properties from one another while giving structure to the ebb and flow of an otherwise organic landscape. As such, the fishman was tall enough to just look over without having to adjust or anything. Just below him he could see another street filled with restaurants and booths just like the one Nori ran, and many of them had houses built behind them belonging to the owners. Small homes, nothing fancy or space consuming, but they seemed rather quaint.

Not too far in the distance, beyond a tree or two was a tall imposing building made of brick with a what appeared to be a thin glass dome bubbling out of the top. It might not even have been glass on a second glance. It seemed to rise up from beyond the edge of the grove, like a massive peg sticking straight out of the ocean. Or, at least Pierce imagined that’s what it was like since he couldn’t actually see the base of the building. The roots of the trees wrapped around in a mass that kept anything directly below them invisible for someone who would try to peek from so far inland, if you could call it that.

“That one?” Pierce turned back to Nori as he tossed a thumb over his shoulder, poking it at the domed brick spire. She nodded as she wiped her mouth again before reclining in her deck chair. “You got it! Yeah, that’s about where they are, the big ones.” He looked back at the building, scaling it with his eyes. It seemed to loom over every other fixture on the grove like a lighthouse guarding a mainland, though given how nestled it was within horseshoe of groves, that couldn’t possible have been its purpose could it? It didn’t have a light on it, not one that the fishman could see. Nori continued as he stared out at it. “See, it’s built on the only bit of actual land here, smack dab in the middle of the reef, right about where it’s at its thickest.”

That made sense. Sometimes the thickest parts of a reef offered the most protection for the less predatory fish, but then when the population became too thick it could evolve into a feeding frenzy for those at the top of the food chain. That’s probably how the deeper Klarian got so big in the first place. “Ace. Alright, I’ll be right back.” Pierce was hoisting himself up onto the wall when Nori suddenly rocketed out of her chair and tried tugging him back down. “No wait!” He nervously looked down at the woman who had latched around his waist and was doing her best to get him back on the grass. He held his quills tightly to his body, but even then he didn’t want her to accidentally hurt herself on him and he was forced to oblige. “What, what is it?”

“The last thing I need is someone poaching our deal!” She seemed as mad as a cut snake so this probably wasn’t Nori’s first rodeo as far as cutthroat business went. “No, no, I have a better idea. Here, follow me.” With a fist on her hip, she lead Pierce up onto the deck and opened the front door to her home. He was reluctant to follow her inside for a number of reasons: First, he wasn’t used to being invited into a human’s house all that often and second, it seemed a bit cluttered inside. It wasn’t cramped by construction and he imagined he could stand up completely straight without difficulty, but there were bits and bobs, knick knacks, shelves and tables everywhere furnishing the kitsch little home. He didn’t want to accidently knock anything over and break it, not if he was going to get paid by this woman.

Luckily, she only took a few steps inside before turning to a nearby door built right next to the entrance. Pierce followed her inside, glancing around at the little urns and figurines while Nori fiddled around with the lock on the door. The house smelled like old people and vanilla, so it probably belonged primarily to Granny Menma. That or she stayed inside the most out of the three of the shop runners. “Alrighty, just down here.” Nori sort of waddled into the passageway that had opened up just beyond the door. There was a little wooden staircase that seemed solid enough but carried a rickety air about it. As the ramen chef took the first few steps, none of the wood seemed to budge but there was a definite creak.

“Oh don’t mind that, it’ll hold ya. This house may be old, but she can handle it.” Nori had glanced back at Pierce who was eyeing the passage skeptically. Her efforts to assuage his anxiety weren’t too effective, but they got the job done. “Oh o-okay.” The fishman angled himself a bit so he could fit his shoulders into the narrow opening, leaning in a bit. It was just like the tunnel passage he, Syph, and Garuda had taken to escape Port West, but warmer, homier, and much more spacious. That wasn’t to say it wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was miles better than being sandwiched between two concrete walls covered in god only knew.

As Nori continued down the dimming passage ahead of him, Pierce was cautiously testing his weight on the old driftwood beneath him. They creaked considerably more underneath his weight than his employer, but held up just fine. Satisfied, the fishman gulped, and followed the ramen cook into what he thought was going to be the basement.

[Flame]

Clearing out of the sushi restaurant Syphalia stepped back out onto the streets of Inlet Grove Stop. The residents of the island in their daily bustle were unchanged from her last time she had stepped out. Looking left and right Syph scanned the area to look once again for her elusive fishman friend. It was a hopeless effort in the end, he did not seem to be anywhere within her field of vision. Shaking her head she felt rather, sheepish in her reminder to herself how ineffectual her search for Pierce had been.

Her arm reached up scratching the back of her head, it was funny how much she looked for him. A fishman, on an island full of humans, a task that sounded rather easy, was proving quite difficult for her. Biting her lip momentarily she reoriented herself, figuring out which way grove fourteen would be. It took a second but once she regained her bearings she headed on her way. The rush the same as it had been for ages, or at least the time she had been upon the island the black-haired swordgirl passed through it without paying much attention. Her hopeless watch for Pierce somewhat un-ending she was always vaguely on the search for him.

Her route once again took her past the main island, now knowing better than to deal with the overly crowded stairways Syphalia jumped down and then passing across the island leaped up to the next one. Landing atop grove fourteen her eyes swung around, until she found what she was looking for. An alleyway passing between a pair of inns, just as the man at the sushi shop had said. Filtering her way through the crowds she came upon the narrow corridor and slipped in. Undeterred by the raucous sounds coming from either inn she came out on the other side.

Before her lay a bay, of sorts, as her eyes swung across the view of the island, it was the same one she got on the main island but from here she felt she had a better view. In long arms she could vaguely see the island as it extended out in front of her forming its semi-crescent and creating this inner area. The waves in here were smaller, perhaps because many of the ocean waves crashed and broke against the roots of the mangroves. Funnily enough she did not spot many ships taking harbor in here. She frowned wondering why not, it should at least keep them safe from the worst of the weather which the Grand Line had to offer. At least in her mind that would have seemed to be the case, but obviously the members of this island knew better. So there was probably a good reason, perhaps she’d ask the fisherman when she met him.

Looking along this thin ‘coastal’ area of the island she found the small hut she’d been looking for. A wooden building, probably large enough for a man to keep a bed in, was surrounded by large tanks within which fish of many sorts swam about. Crossing over she came before the door and knocked twice. “Yes?” A grumbly voice echoed from inside, a few loud thuds told Syphalia that someone was approaching the door. Then suddenly the wooden door creaked open to reveal a man, multiple years older than she. He wore nothing above his waist, a large scar ran along his chest from the top of his shoulder to about half way down his shoulder on the other side. He was ripped, not an inch of fat on him. Wearing a simple pair of shorts and sandals below Syphalia looked over the man, “Well? What do you want girl? Why are ya botherin my sleeping time?” His grizzled face was staring at her with what she assumed to be a slightly annoyed look.

“The sushi-store owner, the day-dreaming one,” Syphalia added just in case he knew more than one, “said that if I wanted to catch some Klarian Fish, I should come to you, and you’d get me situated.” The sword lass looked up at the fisherman and smiled. In return, he stared at her like she was crazy. Running his hand through his hair he looked down upon her lost in thought for a moment.

“You? Want to catch Klarian?” He began to laugh, a great throaty. He was looking down on her, underestimating her. His arm reached out and grabbed her own. “With these flimsy things? Oh, whats that?” He reached down for the sheath at her side. That was far enough, her free arm grabbed his wrist as his hand wrapped itself around her sword’s hilt. “I wouldn’t do that fisherman.” She said her voice no longer nice and kind as it had been before. The fisherman stared at her before trying to pull the sword out anyways. His surprise was sudden as she held his wrist in place with her own hand. After a few seconds of trying he relented and let go of her hilt. She in turn let go of him and allowed him a view of the red marks that wrapped around his wrist where she had held him in place.

“I’ll ask this once. Will you lend me what I need to go and fish for Klarian.” She was not particularly happy with this guy at the moment and her voice made that absolutely clear. The grizzled man was looking back at her, he still looked a little apprehensive of this whole deal. Looking at his marked wrist he gently held it with his other hand and then finally seemed to make a decision. “Alright lassie, don’t say I din’t warn ya. Give me half a moment” Turning away from the door he walked back into his little hut.

[White Mimic]

As the staircase wound downwards, the corners cutting into a jagged coil that didn’t seem as square as it should have been, Pierce saw a little light ahead. A space opened up before him but the stairs continued down, along with Nori who kept heading towards the wavering blue-green light beneath them. The space was filled with more cans and jars and now machinery. A washing machine and dryer, a refrigerator, a boiler, everything a little house could need as far as utilities went were down here. An old looking frame was tucked away in the corner, squeezed between the washing machine and the wall before it became shelves stocked with supplies. The frame had handlebars and peddles, as if it belonged to a bike, but there was nowhere for the wheels to go and the design was perplexing and foreign.

Nori had walked down a few more steps past the basement to an old wooden door fashioned from driftwood. A few holes dotted the spaces between the boards where the drift wood had knotted back and forth and it was quite clear that not a ton of work had went into making the door in the first place though it didn’t really matter. When the ramen chef opened it, Pierce could see why. At first it looked like another room in the house, a big one with what looked like a pool seeing as the curving ceiling twinkled with the dancing ripples of the water beneath, but as the fishman drew closer, he saw it wasn’t a room at all. The door opened up onto a hanging wooden platform underneath the roots of the grove, situated up above the ocean by posts bolted into the roots from underneath. There was a smaller platform hanging off the side of the main floor by a few old ropes and it looked to be only barely attached if at all. All around there seemed to be similar structures as well, hanging down from underneath the different establishments, though it didn’t look like everyone had them, and only so many appeared to be in a presentable condition.

“Woah are these… these fishing docks?” Pierce figured the restaurants and booths up topside would have had their own storage for fish, either freezers or barrels or maybe even fully fledged aquariums for the more luxurious establishments. However, he wouldn’t disagree that the fresher, the better, and if these people spent the time catching their own product, more power to them. “Kinda sorta, yeah. Over here.” Nori made her way over to the bit of platform suspended by rope and gave a hearty slap to its weathered banister, shaking the gnarled grey wood it was carved from and causing the structure to swing slightly. “Gunna send you down on this doohickey and get whatever you catch back up here in a jiff. ‘Most surefire way to keep you true to our deal, yeah?”

Pierce eyed the platform nervously. It looked old and beaten and the ropes seemed a little too old to carry too much weight. If it was designed to hoist massive catches he would be fine, but since he didn’t know a thing about rope, the muted dull color of its wires gave him a bit of concern. He leaned over the edge, of the platform, trying to gauge the distance he would fall if the rope snapped. It was survivable to be sure, he had dived from higher spots than this, but he didn’t have the weight of a shed toppling down after him during those. “Yeah… sounds good.”

Nori tilted her head down, giving the fishman a suspicious look as he glanced back at her lift. “What?” Pierce looked back over at her, poking his fingers together nervously. He was sure the lift was fine, but at the same time he was finding himself reluctant to approach it, let alone get on it. It felt like each time he took a step down here under the house, the creaking of every board got louder and louder. “Nothing it’s just… you sure it’ll hold me and a Klarian?”

Nori scrunched up her nose as she turned to the lift, sort of examining it with a skimming eye. She looked up at ropes which, Pierce finally noticed, were attached to a pulley system that hooked up to a motor just above the door they had come out of. With a firm grasp she tugged down on one, testing its strength and give, but even with her rigorous strength the lift seemed content to stay where it was, albeit it was now swinging again after dying down from her previous slap. “Yeah, she should hold ya. Not sure about that fish though, don’t think we’ve ever had a super big load since she got her weight tested but I’m sure this old girl can handle whatever you throw at her.” She then turned to Pierce, giving him a stern look. “Why, you got a better way of getting down there?”

Pierce looked over the rail with a super quick side gaze before looking at Nori sheepishly. “Well, I mean…” As he spoke he raised his arms a tad, giving them a gentle flex as he frilled his fins out in a full display. The ramen cook took a single look before clicking her teeth and shaking her head. “Oh! How silly of me, nearly forgot you were alright alright alright. If you don’t wanna ride you just go on ahead, I’ll send her down after so ya know where to come back to. Just send the fish up first and you’ll see how safe this baby is.” Nori made her way over to the engine hooked up to the pulleys walking past the fishman as he took a sweeping step over the rail of the fixed platform, standing on the other side.

“Aces. Alright, I’ll be right back.” Pierce smiled back at Nori, flashing his trademark pointed grin while she got the engine running. In response she gave him a little wave while fiddling with one of the pumps. “Mmhm~” With that, he turned to look down at the water, sunlight glinting off of its wavering surface underneath the shade of the roots of the tree. The blue-green ribbons of dancing light shone up into his face and suddenly rushed past him as he leapt off the platform, diving into the water far below him.

[Flame]

Standing before the hut the black haired girl found her patience being tested slightly. Her foot tapped incessantly against the ground as she awaited the return of the fisherman. It was not a particularly large hut so she expected a very short while until he returned. Or at least he shouldn't take long in her estimation. Turning to look towards the waters of the Grand Line behind her she wondered what exactly he was obtaining. This was for her to fish for these Klarian, or so they'd been called. Everyone she had talked to so far seemed to think they were dangerous to fish for. She had no such belief, it had been a long time since she'd met a monster even on the Grand Line who could overpower her. She was not concerned even if it was in the water.

All she needed was some way to breath under the water. Air, unlike Pierce, was a requirement for her to survive, no matter how strong she was she had a limited air capacity, so long as the fisherman's solution solved that, she figured it'd be fine. What would it be? The question brought her to pause, she had heard of suits that fulfilled such a requirement. But, from everything she knew it would be cumbersome. And for she who valued her dexterity over her brute strength that would likely be more trouble than it was worth. The soft clomp of feet became louder again from the other side of the door. Her head perked up again and brought its attention straight at the door. There was a small creak and the knob rustled slightly. Then in a moment the door swung away from her once again revealing that burlish man standing in the entranceway of his hut. He was not carrying anything of any size that might seem useful for this job. A curious thing given what she had sent him back in to do. "Well? Where is it?" Syphalia asked, there was a testiness to her voice. Was he making fun of her?

Instinctively her hand started moving down towards the hilt of her sword. Displeasure spread across her face and she continued to watch him with unsettled eyes. "Alright lassie, here it is." Came the man's gruff voice as he produced a small item in his hand. Looking like a small ocarina or something, he held it up before her. "This'll do the trick for ya. Just blow into it and everything'll be kay." He said in his own gruff manner. A little confused Syphalia reached out and picked up the object in his hand. Pulling it before her to inspect it, it looked to be a small piece of coral on close inspection. Spinning it in her hand she came to a tube sticking out slightly almost like a mouthpiece. Then licking her thumb quickly she brought it to the opening and rubbed her thumb over it. Once or twice she rolled over the top rubbing it in before pulling it against her shirt and wiping it dry. She didn't know who last used it but just as a precaution ...

Moments later she had her mouth to the small piece of coral and was blowing. From the coral amazingly a bubbled formed, expanding to a size much greater than the coral itself this bubble did not float away. It simply sat there above the ground, "Needs to be larger than that lassie." The gruff man said and so Syphalia continued to blow. Soon the bubble was so large it began to envelop her as well. The odd feeling of a wet surface expanding across her body was rather interesting not that she was sure if it was good thing. Soon enough it engulfed much of her body leaving only legs arms and neck outside of it. Finally she was finished, confident that the bubble was easily large enough she removed her mouth from the object and then threw it back to the fisherman. "So is this it?" She said looking down at the bubble which was engulfing most of her.

The man looked her over up and down. "Yeah that'll be fine. Just get your head in there." He said nodding to her. Syphalia frowned slightly before trying to pull her head into the bubble, retracting her neck felt a little odd. After a few odd moments of odd maneuvering her head popped into the bubble. She was a little surprised but very relieved to find there was air inside the bubble and she could breath perfectly fine.

So accepting what was done she began to make her way to the edge, it was a short walk though a little odd with the new feeling of the bubble upon her. Standing before the edge she looked down at the water below, it sloshed up against the large roots of the mangrove trees Inlet Grove Stop was made of. As she looked down she wondered if she had a fear of water. The obvious answer was no, she was no DF User she was not useless in the water. Taking a moment to remember why she was doing this she nodded to herself before launching herself off the edge of the 'beach' flying through the air for moments before she tumbled toward the water's surface. It was only a few seconds until she found herself completely submerged. The odd coating of the bubble kept her from getting wet, or at least more wet than she felt with the bubble coating around her.

In the light of the ocean, with the sun still close enough to make its rays known a world spread out before her. Large roots strung their way down in long networks towards the deeps below. Around her fish swam left and right and in all different sizes, it was a crazy world. Now then, where were these Klarian?

[White Mimic]

Bubbles whirled around Pierce as he twisted in the freshly broken deep, twirling to upright himself. Far above him was the sea floor, gleaming with coral. Beneath him, the glowing hills of the rippling waves he had just created, vanishing into the choppy sunlight from which they came. After drilling down through the water, the fishman tucked, flipping his perspective topsy-turvy once more. With a strong and gentle wheeling of his arms, he floated back into the proper position, his legs extending into a stance almost like standing.

The salt water he was enveloped in quickly soaked through what bandages he still wore, filtering into his healing wounds. Little stings here and there, but the lack of bite was a good indicator of his stage in the healing process. The urge to scratch was strong, but the last time Pierce succumbed to the itch, everything unraveled and he had to dress himself from scratch. Instead, he placed a firm grasp on his bandages and squeezed. Rubbing the rough gauze into his skin. It appeased the scratch, sure, but grinding such a texture directly into himself was more pain than relief.

“Ah.” Pierce grimaced at the self-inflicted discomfort before looking out across the landscape around him. The roots from the trees were as spires, stabbing and twining through the sea before descending into a darkness dotted with stars, lights from the coral houses below. The coral fields on one side were shrouded in the shade of the grove above, only lit from the houses nestled among them and refracted sunlight from the edge. Given the hour of the day, the brightest this part of ‘town’ so to speak must’ve been comparable to a late dusk on the surface. Come to think of it, the night would also have brought no moon, shrouding those districts in a darkness the likes of which most humans would never even dream.

On the other hand, the reef cradled in the crescent of roots and shade looked like a submariner’s paradise. In contrast to the twilit world behind and below, day clearly ran through a full cycle on the ruffled luminescent fortress at the base of the stone pillar ahead. That must’ve been the main island as it was the only out cropping that stretched upwards through the surface that didn’t look even remotely close to stone. So the largest of the Klarion must’ve dwelled with the stony cloud creeping up the walls of the pillar. “Alright… easy enough.” Pierce placed a hand on his shoulder and loosened up his arm, glancing down at the house lights below as he did.

Pierce was eager to go down and see who exactly lived down there, if they were indeed some of his own kind. There was always a chance that they could be some other society of sea people not even remotely related to Fishmen or Merfolk, the Grand Line was filled with oddities. But he had a good feeling. Maybe after all this was said and done, there’d be some time to drop in and have a look around.

For now though, there was a reef to delve into, a fish to catch, and money to make. Eager to get his swimming stripes back, he interlocked his fingers, cracked his knuckles and wound up into a tuck. His knees had nearly touched his chest before he swiftly extended into a pike, torpedoing through the water while his fins frilled out around him. With his health, he hadn’t ventured far from the ship while he was healing, but it was just about impossible to get too hopelessly lost down here where he had an extensive view of the groves from below.

As he drew closer to the mound of flowering pink and orange, Pierce noticed the teeming life living amongst the coral growths. Schools of fish weaved in and out of the shelter of the reef like glittering clouds of leaves, filter feeding on the dust of plankton while larger solitary fish slowly followed. Every so often, a larger predator would wander through a school which would dip out of the way in response. Anemones sat sedentary, their tendrils bobbing gently in the currents, some growing large enough to reach up to Pierce’s waistline. It put the reef near his home island to shame for he had never seen such vibrance and variety, the sheer number of species and colors. And yet, nothing resembling Klarion caught the prying eye of the fishman. He’d have to go and get a closer look. He knew the fish was territorial at least, so if he wandered into a taken zone perhaps one of the larger aggressive specimens would come to him.

[Flame]

Her legs fluttered together propelling her downwards through the water. Her eyes sped from side to side canvasing the great blue looking for signs of her prey. Her prey, the Klarian Fish, of which she knew almost nothing about. Syphalia paused, now realizing the slight flaw in her plan. She did not actually know what this fish looked like, all she knew was characteristics about it that had nothing to do with its appearance. Floating there in the waters of the Grand Line she found herself stumbling, she was here to hunt Klarian without knowing what it looked like at all. It brought her pause so she stopped and just floated there.

Taking stock of her situation once more she surveyed the area. One large pillar of earth rose up from the sea floor below heading skyward. It along with those many thick roots came toward the surface forming what seemed to her to be a large curtain surrounding the waters she swam in. Light shined down through the central circle she was in illuminating the water causing it to sparkle slightly or was that ... she peered more carefully at the roots which ran down from the mangrove trees around her. Barely visible upon them were small lights, shining like torches. The ones closest to her were farther down into the water, but as she squinted Syph thought she could make out the form of a small hovel next to the root almost like a pimple upon its massive stem.

Curious she kicked her legs and started to descend toward it for a few seconds before stopping herself. Unwilling to distract herself too much from her original plan she stopped and waited for a moment. Putting her feet to work once again she delved deeper into the depths, pushing on carefully she kept her eye out for any fish who might fancy her a snack. With her two feet rhythmically beating the water one of her hands sat upon the hilt of her sword. Her two eyes, burning red in the darkness, were ever looking out and watching, both for enemies and for her prey. It was then that she noticed something, barreling towards her from the right was what must have been a fish. It drove towards her, growing larger by the second. It grew in size by the moment until she got the picture and realized that the fish was easily her size in diameter which did not even mention its length.

As it cleared 20 meters distance, its gaping maw opened itself wide to reveal pearly white teeth. Sitting like razors upon its mouth they could only wait for the chance to tear her to shreds. The killing intent was real but Syph was not cowed by it. With a few short kicks to rotate her into a correct position she gripped her hilt tightly. Under her breath her voice was dulled and broken up by the sea, but she heard it and that was enough for her. "I Sekai" Her thoughts and actions were much louder than her words in this case. In a rush of movement her sword swung out of its sheath pushing water before it she could feel the extra density of water fighting her movements, trying to hinder her. But she called upon her own strength and broke through without much of any hindrance. A slice of water emanated out from her sword, like a blade it split the waters before it and contacted her attacker only five meters away from her. It hit the fish cancelling out its momentum and seeming to stun it in position. Syphalia took no time taking advantage of this, kicking her legs together in one large push she advanced upon the unmoving fish.

Stopping only inches away she had her sword pointed behind her with her elbow pointing towards her enemy. Flicking her elbow out she whipped her weapon forward with destructive power honed into the bladed tip of the weapon she contacted the fish in its side. The bladed tip broke through the scaled armor and allowed access to the soft insides. Blood held in by the pressure of the water rather than emptying itself everywhere floated like a red mist around the wound. But her sword did not stop there, with its tip already within the beast she put effort in and carved the beast up. Moving in an arc it opened a wide wound in the fish's side. Seeing no reason to stop she continued her attack. Swimming slightly she brought herself to the side of it, its undefended flank was ripe for the picking. Twisting in the water she began to spin, and then allowed her blade to come down and cleave the fish in two.

Satisfied at her work she looked at the cross-section of the inside of the fish. That small red mist began to spread as it poured out from the fish. Like a cloud it grew slowly in size dissipating outwards away from its original source. Looking at the fish she wondered if this was in fact her prey. If so it was not a particularly difficult enemy to deal with. Smiling and nodding to herself she eyed the bleeding corpse. At least I'll need more than this, whatever this is.

[White Mimic]

Approaching the coral forest below felt a lot like cliff diving; it always felt somewhat slower than it actually was until the last few meters where it the floor seemed to rush at you much faster than in reality instead. As soon as the ground began expanding in the familiar expectation of impact, Pierce spread his arms out, pooling the local current in the frills of his fins to slow down. Likewise, his legs ceased their swift flutter kicks and swung down to align with the rest of his body. With the sharp dampening of his motion, the once rapid torpedo had died down to a mild descent as the fishman allowed himself to sink into the colorful glade beneath him.

He touched down upon the surface of alien rock much like a child who had jumped off a swing. His feet made contact about as firmly as he found comfortable, but he was still a little out practice, recovering from injury, and the coral floor was a bit slicker than he had anticipated. Failing to stick the landing, Pierce staggered slightly at his own impact and had to take a few extra steps to slow down. “Alright, hopefully nobody saw that.” This sort of thing was equivalent to tripping over nothing up topside and the last thing anyone could ever want is to give Syph more material to ridicule them with.

“Alright. Alright alright alright, let’s have a lookie…” As Pierce straightened himself out from the rather embarrassing way in which he made contact, he got a good look at his new surroundings. The ground on which he stood was a fluffy looking brain coral with a yellowish aqua hue coating its surface and dark blue colors lining the inside of the various shallow ridges twisting across the brain much like grass grain enveloped a countryside. Most of the so called ‘trees’ forming the forest around him were gigantic, gnarled red elkhorns, reaching up to the shimmering sky above before fanning out like savannah trees, hands warming their palms in the sun. Farther out in the woods were sections formed by pillars and stag horns, branching coral spears stabbing upwards through the marine canopy and those darting every which way like brambles, respectively. Softer corals decorated the stony foliage of the reef like leaves, gently bending in the breeze of the currents that passed through and above. All in all, the imagery was pleasant to say the least, though the fishman was gobsmacked they had even grown this big in the first place. “Well I’ll be stuffed, it’s bigger than I thought.”

Throughout the forest, Pierce could make out slight edging movements sneaking among the elkhorns. The fish he had seen frolicking from above were now mere shadows and glimmers of life, simply keeping their distance from a potential predator. “Let’s see… not here, are ya mate…” Nothing even remotely like Klarian caught the eye of the Lionfish however, though that would make sense now that he thought about it. There were too many other species here for a Klarian to have possibly made it’s lair nearby; the territorial fish tended to scare off prey and competitors from its resting zones so to speak, if it didn’t completely pick such grounds dry first. If he really wanted to find one of the biggest Klarian, the fishman would’ve had to head deeper into the darkening wood of stony coral, closer to the towering mount nearby. As the forest crept up the spire of stone, it became thicker and thicker, with the scarlet elkhorns clambering over each other to form an almost spongy looking horizon rising up to heaven. By comparison, the curvature of the brain descended into the thick darkness at the base of the island. It was surreal, looking into the underbrush that descended up the monolith of rock.

Pierce grimaced a little but shook off the discomfort of conflicting visuals. “Only way in is forward I guess.” Admittedly, he could have just swum up to the thickest part and maneuvered through the palms of the elkhorns, but there was no telling how long that could take or what he would find in such horrifying darkness. Besides, he’d rather have an idea of a way back beyond the risky business of worming his way through a labyrinth of red fingers or the more direct option of brute forcing his way out and possibly bring the entire upper forest down on himself.

However, after wandering a few steps into the shade, there was a sudden darting movement deeper in, and a wet rustling behind him. “Wha-?” Wide eyed, Pierce flashed a nervous look over his shoulder. What looked like hundreds of fish were glittering up and out of the reef to a small… dot, hovering quite a ways up in the water. Perhaps he would’ve had more time to see what it was if the shadow twisting through the coral trees hadn’t flung itself in the lionfish’s direction so swiftly.

Pierce dropped into a combat stance as fast as he could and braced himself for a tussle. His brow buckled into a frustrated bend and his sharp teeth grinded together as he reeled an open palm back, prepared to strike. A thick vein bulged out of his thick, tightening biceps and his temples hardened with anxiety. His strength was building, ready to let loose a sudden singular fury, but just as the arm was just about ready to launch in preemptive retaliation, the fishman stayed his palm. Well before even reaching the pirate, the shadow slicing through the water curved off to the side and continued on its way. As it slithered out of the shade, the chef could immediately tell by shape and color that the silhouette belonged to a reef shark, reaching about 15 feet in length. All tension escaped his shoulders and arms as he watched the shark dart past and onwards towards the expanding dot.

Relieved, Pierce stepped out of his stance, allowing his arms to drop to his sides momentarily before they folded up in slight confusion, with the knuckles tucked neatly in the crux of his elbows. The dot had expanded into a pluming mist, leaking out of what looked like two limp white flecks. “I, uh… huh. Lucky break.” If he had to guess, it looked like a fight had broken out between two competitors in the food chain and both of them were about to become a feeding frenzy. That was of course, if the glinting shape the lingered around them couldn’t inhale their meat first. Unlikely, as only so many creatures that size could completely strip a carcass of its carrion and he wasn’t sure any of them were shaped like that. Come to think of it, he couldn’t think of anything shaped quite like that. It looked like… a round shiny humanoid, but also kinda see through and at the same time not quite… no really, what was that? Apprehensive at first, Pierce’s curiosity got the best of him and he kicked off into a cautious advance. It didn’t look too terribly dangerous.

[Flame]

Floating a short distance away from the carcass of the fish she had been in combat with moments ago Syphalia looked around once again. Her eyes glanced momentarily at her prey as it began to sink towards the ocean floor. She frowned, what was she to do with this, she had gone down without any good way to secure anything she caught, No way to round up her prey so they did not float away or were taken away by other sea creatures on the prowl for food. How would she get her catches back to the surface. She glanced at it again as it drifted ever downwards. There was one thing, she could throw it. Not that she was sure it would work, but it was the only idea that came to mind right at this moment.

Swimming over towards the beast she placed one hand upon it and clenched down upon its scaly exterior. Giving it a test she tried to spin her body and pull the fish along with. The fish moved rather easily, or at least half of it did, as she swung it around the part of the body she was holding was split completely apart from its fellow, and she left a light trail of blood floating diluted in the ocean water. The fish half just kept moving in the end spinning her around and forcing her to kick to balance the new force being applied to her. It was that or let it go, and she was not about to let her first catch go. She was if anything a little proud of it so she was not about to let it go. Then she looked up, glancing upwards toward the surface above she tried to estimate the distance, it had to be at the least 30 feet. Probably ... actually it was likely more than that but she honestly could not tell. Frowning to herself she twisted in the water and flung the fish upwards.

The fish carcass, or at least the top half pushed through the water for a while. Moving through the ocean its speed quickly began to slow without the force behind it and Syphalia frowned to see that the fish did not make it to the top instead stopped a short distance from it. That was disappointing, grabbing the other half of the fish she began to swim upwards towards the thrown half. Making her way with the extra weight on her arm was a little annoying but she put such thoughts aside and continued on her way upwards. As she approached she suddenly had this feeling, it was an odd feeling but it bothered her, something was coming. Or not something, somethings, Syphalia stopped where she swam and turned her head around doing a sweep of her surroundings. Immediately annoyed by the fact she had to watch so much more area she checked the quarters. Above, only the half carcass. To the left, nothing. To the right? Her head swung over to notice not one but a large number of shiny silver objects heading towards her. Slightly confused as to what was happening she stopped in place and looked out at them.

Her thought process thrown from checking the remaining positions she stopped there letting go of her prey for a moment with her hand moving straight to the hilt of her weapon. Like before these were approaching her but they were definitely approaching faster than the last fish. Her eyes widened, there had to be at least ten of them? If not more, but why were they coming this way, she could not figure it out. Glancing around her she then realized what exactly was attracting these monsters. The blood from the carcass, it had to be the smell of that, bringing in these guys from all over. Syphalia smiled, whatever they were, it was now her prey.

SPOILER: Click to show

Sorry for the short post but i could not for the life of me figure out what to do.

[White Mimic]

Pierce followed behind the reef shark that had abandoned him for the better prospect of free carrion, riding its slipstream in an effortless glide and taking care to stay out of its line of sight. He was fairly certain the shark didn’t mind that he was there, but he didn’t want to tempt fate by separating the beast from its meal a second time. Yard after yard, the shark tail speedily propelled its owner through the waves and the fishman following was forced to stare at it for the duration, at least until the unaffiliated pair drew closer to the bubble man thing floating near the surface. Features obscured in its ever so slight reflections became clear with a shortening distance, though the dark colors inside didn’t really help distinguish what lay inside its film. It wasn’t until he was close enough that Pierce could suddenly recognize the general appearance of what he was looking at.

“Is that…? That’s not possible.” He could swear that those clothes inside the bubble were what Syph had been wearing before the two of them separated. Sure enough, a few more yards brushed by and he could see clear as day that familiar friendly face.

The reef shark sped ahead to join the other predators picking at the carcass floating in the water, which Pierce could now see was half a carcass. The other half was drifting up near the surface and had attracted only a few feeders, though more were starting to crowd around it as the first half had become a bristling feathered mass of carnage with not much more in the realms of space. At least, not until the shark swam up and started tearing chunks off with its massive rows of teeth, chasing some of the smaller predators away. Meanwhile, Pierce had diverted out of the slipstream to swimup to his companion, wide eyed and dumbstruck.

“Syph!?” He was clearly more concerned with what she was… wearing and how she was able to safely submerge herself, though at first he was just trying to put his thoughts together, figure out what he was looking at. “How are you here? What is this… thing, what is this?” Indecisively moving his hand around, he gestured the general shape of her bubble thing with a webbed hand while refraining from actually touching it, worried that doing so would pop it and consequently drown his friend. While he poured over the oddity, fish had already started pecking at the other half of the fish cut cleanly in twain.

“You can breathe alright? This thing safe?” Pierce inquisitively looked inside, his eyes darting around suspiciously. Eventually he braved a hand on the membrane of the bubble, which yielded at his touch much like a wet balloon. To his relief, it remained intact at the contact it made to his webbed scaly palms. “Can you hear me through this thing?” He imagined she could, but it didn’t hurt to check. It was only immediately after this question had he realized he was getting unnecessarily handsy with Syph’s personal bubble, so to speak. He quickly removed his hands and looked away. “Sorry about that but like…”

Pierce scratched his head and continued to stare into the bubble suit, wary and confused. “What are you doing here? Where’d you get this do-dad?” He gestured the bubble again before glancing back at the fish halves which were still gaining scavengers. Putting two and two together, he looked back at Syph, shrugging a little. “No wait, sorry for the third degree. But like… what are you doing here again?”

SPOILER: Click to show

Also sorry for short post. Mostly conversation starters, most of them questions... figured it was appropriate given Pierce not knowing flutterkick coatings were a thing.

[Flame]

Like moths to a flame the fish headed towards her and her catch. Her eyes shined brightly with excitement as she dropped her grip on the half a carcass she was still carrying. Watching them advance she wondered how this would go. With a quick swing of her neck that let out a nice cracking sound, she readied herself. She was aware of at least ten fish heading towards her. Her feet kicked slowly in the water as she tried to maneuver herself into a more solid position, keeping all the fish before her. As they came closer and closer Syph suddenly realized something.

In her mind as she calculated their trajectories, they were changing. Or perhaps not changing but instead were never heading toward her. No they were going towards something below her, twisting in the water she turned her field of vision downwards. Following the imaginary line in her head she noted their target, the carcass she had let go of was now floating downwards away from her. Lessening her resolve on the grip of her hand suddenly something popped into her head. An odd feeling, that she had seen someone as she had changed her field of view. Her head began to move backwards and then there as she returned over she noticed it, him? An orange figure was moving towards her, her hand tightened about the hilt once more. A fishman? What else could it be given the shape that was heading towards her.

As the fishman came in closer still and that familiar feeling passed over her. It seemed like it was in fact her crewmate Pierce. His voice carried through the water, her name, or at least her nickname reached her ears only confirming what she had already guessed. As he swam up to float before her his voice gave her many a clue as to his reaction to this meeting. Questions rolled out of his mouth, in combination with a somewhat dumbstruck face and randomly moving hands he looked quite the idiot before her.

Figuring the danger for the most part had passed as fish, by the handful swarmed around the carcass she had left she sheathed her blade. Patiently she waited for his barrage of queries to complete, all the while she held a cheeky grin on her face. It was not as though she had not been surprised to see him as well, but well apparently she handled surprises much better than he did. It was quite amusing. As he continued he approached the bubble that was keeping her separated from a watery demise. Glancing at it and even placing his hand on it she simply folded her arms across her body and watched. Given what she had done with a sword she thought it unlikely that something like this would be much of an issue. Finally as his rain of questions came to a close she prepared to answer them as best she could.

With a wide grin rolling across her face she spoke. "Hello, Pierce." Her voice failed without a doubt to hide her amusement. Visibly failing to hold it in she faked rubbing her chin, "What am I doing here? That was your main question ... well. I'm making money to pay for the coating of our ship." She frowned slightly, looking at Pierce. "Apparently the next island on the route is an underwater island of some sort. So we need to coat the ship to allow it to submerge and go down to the said island."

"I think the real question is what are you doing here?" Looking the fishman over she asked her own question to match his money. "You were supposed to meet me at the town center and instead I find you here, underwater, no where near the our chosen meeting place." Her voice was somewhat accusing though she did not really care or mean it. She was just poking fun at her comrade. Raising her hand she pointed it out straight at Pierce. "Well what do you have to say for yourself?"

She stood their patiently waiting for his response. Her eyes scanned him very any signs that he might have gotten hurt. A reason that he might have been stalled in his apparently minimal efforts to come find her at the town center. Not a surprise though a little bit of a disappointment she had to say. After hearing his response she responded simply, "Well anyways, I'm out hunting Klarian Fish, apparently we can get good money by catching them and selling them to a restaurant or a market." She smiled slightly "Though... I've got no idea what they look like." She stuck out her tongue rather amused.

[White Mimic]

While Syph answered a few of his questions, Pierce found himself staring at the glossy membrane of the bubble, distracted. Every so often, he realized that he wasn’t paying the amount of attention he should have been, glanced back down at Syph for a while, and then slowly started looking at the glimmering spot of reflected light in the bubble’s surface. “…underwater island?” The idea was confusing but not exactly infeasible. After all, Fishman Island couldn’t be the only one, if indeed it was an underwater island as well.

Eventually, his friend started chastising him for not showing up on time at the town center. Admittedly, Pierce had almost entirely forgotten about it in his similar venture for a hard-earned commission. He had been distracted by a vibrant market centered around one of the more expensive meats used in widespread modern cuisine, how shameful. “Holy dooley, I am SO sorry!” He scratched the back of his head, looking away with only the deepest chagrin, trying to avoid the accusatory eyes of his comrade. “It’s just we needed the mon- no, wait a minute.” He looked back at Syph with an inquisitive look of his own. “You’re down here too and I was right behind you so like… did you even wait for me at all?”

Naturally, Syph changed the subject immediately, leaving Pierce to float and judge her as she had done to him, albeit his was a silent judgement to counterpoint her own more overt style of critique. It seemed he wasn’t the only one with the bright idea to go out and catch one of those money making beauties of the deep for Syph had also found that the market paid a pretty penny for Klarian meat. “Klarian?” He turned back to look at the carcass halves, still being nibbled on by predators. A concerned grimace twisted across his face, furrowing his brow as the swordsmith admitted she didn’t know what one looked like. “I was about to say.” The poissonnier pointed out a bit of the slain creature’s tail, relatively untouched by the swarm of opportunistic feeders. Most of the scales were intact, so it could at the very least be identified as NOT Klarian.

“The scales are the wrong color. Klarian looks more like a Marlin, but it’s got a green stripe down its lateral line and kind of like… a pinkish dorsal coloring that gets super dark as it goes up. Also that caudal fin is the wrong shape. If I had to guess…” Pierce squinted his eyes for a second, getting a good look at the shape and size of the two halves, trying to mentally piece how they might have fit together. “That was… a Jolly Longred Grouper. I bet. They don’t taste very… they’re mostly decorative.” As he looked at the two chunks of what used to be a massive grouper, a sudden thought occurred to the chef. His eyes widened in horrified realization. “Wait. Wait what is this? This isn't how you do it!” As his webbed hands cradled the back of his head, he tried his best to not antagonize his friend though the frustration built as he understood how restrained his sword wielding pal would have to be if they were to get the most money out of this little endeavor.

“You don’t… you don’t cut them up like this!” Exacerbated hands flew up in the water, gesturing the carnage above and below the pair, still being ripped to pieces by the local wildlife. “No one’s gunna buy sections cut like this! That’s almost a third of our profits gone right there!” As he panicked, a gesture was tossed out like flinging something into the abyss, gone forever, because that’s basically where the money would be going with this sort of handiwork. Pierce shot Syph a confused look of revulsion before returning to just staring at the two halves covered in glittering carnivorous leaves. “Look. You need to stun it first and then get it out of the water before actually killing it otherwise you get this sort of mess happening!” He lightly tugged at his hair, his shoulders tense and his noggin filled with worry. Eventually he exhaled and shook it off, because really it could’ve been worse than it actually was.

“Sorry, it’s fine. It wasn’t a Klarion and the cut was clean it’s just… not what we want…” Massaging his temples, Pierce swiveled around in the water to face Syph, who hopefully had not taken offense to his insistence on what exactly the right way to fish was. She was always quick to do things her way, which usually involved the gleaming sword she carried, but there was a time and a place and the chef was quite confident this wasn’t either of those. “Look, I’m down here for Klarian too, thought we could use the shopping money and I found a buyer and everything so how about… You help me catch and clean it, but I would like it if we did this my way. This is kinda my best subject, yeah?”

It wasn’t like Syph to play assistant to anyone but it never hurt to ask. Besides, her company was a step up from the cold loneliness of the reef below, barely. He was still a teensy bit mad about the circumstances under which he was rescued from the prison on Port West but not enough to venture the darkness alone when there was someone right here who could come with. Besides, this was the perfect opportunity to for the two of them to actually get to know one another, especially down here where Syph could get a front row seat and see Pierce for who he truly was: a being of the sea, not some marine body to tell what to do and little else. “Sound good?”

[Flame]

As Pierce began to respond, he corroborated that she likely had no idea what Klarian looked like. Obviously true, as apparently the prey she had caught and decapitated was not even a Klarian to begin with. Pierce identified it as a decorative fish or something. Syph sighed slightly to herself as Pierce continued. Watching him as he looked over at the fish more closely it appeared that something else dawned on him and he brought his hands to his head in disbelief. His voice rocketed upwards an octave or two as he took issue with how she caught the fish.

Syph bit back a little, before starting to exclaim "What's wrong wit-" Her interjection was cut off as Pierce gestured madly at the carcass being torn apart and exclaiming something about how the way she cut it would not sell for anything. All of that apparently earned her a look of revulsion as Pierce glared at her momentarily. She could dare say that she saw some of his quills perk up. As tempted as she was to prodding him to see how far this might go Syph didn't. There was a greater task at hand and having this fishman at her side she knew would be a great boon. So she listened, intently as it was to what he had to say. Understanding at least that she would have to stun first and kill later. How she might stun with her sword was a little beyond her at the moment but she supposed she may be able to use the back-side of her blade. Whether the amount of strength she needed would still only stun rather than tear was unknown to her but that was just something they would have to see about when the time came.

It seemed finally he calmed down completely, apologizing a little for his outburst. Which she was very tempted to answer with a thank you, but she resisted the urge. She had the distinct feeling that in the water she would be at Pierce's mercy if he so wished it. With his calmness set Pierce made his offer, they would work together to catch the Klarian to fulfill their money needs. He even had a buyer, something she had yet to procure, though she vaguely remembered that she might owe someone a Klarian. She thought on it for a moment then pushed it out of her mind. Did not sound like her to do such favors so lightly. The only thing was, that she'd have to do it his way. Well his way is probably the best way ... whether or not I can actually do it that way ... hmm She paused in thought glancing over at the fishman as he floated about in front of her.

From a logical point of view it was a very reasonable suggestion, they were on the same team, buying stuff for the same cause. There were in general no downsides to this agreement. But still Syph was a little hesitant, she'd didn't like the wording of doing it his way. However in the end it was irrelevant was it not. Without any feet to stand on, her independent side gave in. Okay, she could do it this was agreeable to her. Glancing at Pierce she threw her hand out, it popped out of the bubble and sat open in the water between the two current and former crewmates. "Sure, we'll do it your way." She said with as muffled a grit in her teeth as she could muster.

Waiting patiently for him to shake her hand and seal the pact, she smiled, and watched him. So when he did grab her hand she gave it an extra strong grip. Almost to the point it might be construed as a threat. Then she released it and smiling sweetly once again swam a few feet past him and then stopped as she peered out into the distance. Squinting slightly as she looked on it was apparent that the current fish making a meal of the carcass were not the only ones who had noticed it. In the distance, shooting through the water she noticed it, a fish with a pink stripe or something at the top. It was coming towards them, well more likely the carcass fairly quickly.

So she turned as best she could in the water. "Well I'll let the master, prove his technique." Syphalia said smugly and then gestured towards the fast approaching fish. She was at least fairly sure that it was the first of their prey.

[White Mimic]

“Ace.” Pierce grabbed Syph’s outstretched hand in agreement. She gave a fairly tight squeeze, a bitter sign of her reluctance of the situation, but with Pierce’s strength and the size difference between their hands, it amounted to the discomfort of a child’s glove. “Firm grip ya got there.” When the shake concluded, he rubbed his hands together, eager to get to work. “Alrighty, let’s see if we can’t catch us a Klar-” He stopped himself short when Syph gestured to the fish off in the distance, a silvery streak with a pink stripe on top. Mostly pink, not much in the line of darkening rosy brown or jet. If it were Klarian, it was too young for its meat to go for full price and any discerning buyer wouldn’t use it for your typical high cuisine. Still, they might’ve been able to get a decent buyer along the lower circuits, fried food, processed, anything you could get your hands on fast. Although, it’s size was well above what it should’ve been. If only he had seen where it had come from, they’d know exactly where to go cash in.

“Good onya!” Pierce gave Syph a playful punch on the shoulder before his body curled up in the water and darted away, streaking towards the sliver of encroaching pink. As he drew closer to the fish, it twisted around slightly, at first looking to get around the new obstacle placing itself in the path to food. When the fish realized that the orange figure was challenging it, however, its movements became much swifter, more violent. It charged the fishman, holding its long narrow needle of a nose straight while it entered a drill spin and dove straight for the approaching orange.

It all happened so fast, and Pierce was forced to dodge out of the way as the spinning adolescent tore past him. He felt the displacement of the water as the creature whizzed past, like the wind of a bullet narrowly missing its intended target but much, much larger. The fishman twirled around to watch the fish lean off to the side, speeding away as it exited the spin. “Haha, close one there!” It was trying to get some distance before turning around, the bigger fish usually did when they were the ones making the first move but it gave the chef an opportunity to properly identify it. Indeed, it was Klarian, big but young and unsuitable for cooking. Still, he wasn’t one to leave a job unfinished.

As the young Klarian straightened out for its, Pierce likewise prepared for his own move. He spread his legs out in a stable karate stance, his knees bent and his muscles gently tensed. He held an open palm in front of him and a fist to his side. He had done stuff like this before but this would be his first time incorporating some of that Fishman Karate he had remembered into his technique. Usually, he had to catch the fish first before stunning it, or if he got lucky, a formless well-timed punch could do the trick. Naturally, with his new found training, poissonier expertise, and the relative inexperience of the fish, this would be a piece of cake.

Just as before, the fish torpedoed at its bright orange prey, spinning to viscerally impale the fishman. Pierce smirked a little, as it seemed a little too easy: an adolescent Klarian only old enough to have mastered one fancy hunting technique, it wouldn’t matter how violent these things could get if they left themselves wide open like this. “Gunna give it another burl? Be my guest!” As the eviscerating whirl of the fish’s body and nose closed the distance between pink and orange within a matter of seconds, Pierce quickly leaned over to the side, rotating his fist side backwards. The pike of the nose darted past him, sliding right in front of his chest while he himself lifted his fist up and over the organic pink spear, unclenching the fingers wrapped up in his hand and revealing the solid scaly palm underneath.

“Kouseichisu Shotei!” He thrust the palm forward, over and along the Klarian’s nose. His hand slammed right into the ‘forehead’ of the fish, right between the eyes. A tingling wave shot up through Pierce’s arm, like a weaker funny bone, but compared to what happened in the fish’s body, the sensation was like complaining about a splinter. The Klarian was slammed out of its spin and was left floating in the water, twitching in shock and confusion as its body gently thrashed around, trying to figure out what had happened, where it was. The fishman took no time in capitalizing on such a massive stagger. “Sanbyakumai…” The open clutching palm immediately drew back, shaking off the pins and needles it was feeling just a moment before to take a new shape. What had been a gently open claw tensed into an almost absolutely flat hand, it fingers standing straight and the palm tensing into a sheet of strength. Power built up within the bones and muscles, sending the hand into a slight quiver before it shot back down between the Klarian’s eyes to finish the job. “GAWARA SEIKEN!”

The palm slammed into the fish to be sure, and the impact made a distinct thump that rang through the water, but even then, it seemed the Pierce had pulled his punch. The Klarian’s head buckled downward at the impact, but the body did not displace all that much. After all, the chef wanted to make sure he didn’t have to chase after his catch, not with all these greedy opportunists above him nibbling at Syph’s handiwork. Making no waste of time, he swam underneath the large beast and wrapped an arm over its thick body before it had the time to float up to the feeding frenzy. He imagined none of the smaller fry would dare come close to this species, especially since it wasn’t dead, yet, but he didn’t want to start tempting fate.

Pierce quickly flutter kicked up to Syph, the Klarian tucked snugly underneath his bicep, before he started to show it off. It was about as long as Syph was tall not including the nose, a little longer than that actually. It was unusually large for its age, but as he noted before, if the two of them REALLY wanted to make bank, they’d need an adult. “See, like that. Smack dab in the noggin. Now we’d wanna bleed it out quickly, humanely. You know, no suffering, that sorta deal. Not here though.” Pierce gave a cautious leer up at the quivering cluster of predators that looked to be about finished with most of Syph’s pieces. What was left looked to be like meaty bones, something for scavengers to pick clean once the parts sank down into the reef. “I promised my buyer a big one, but I think we could probably still get something outta this lil guy.” He ran a hand over it’s back, slippery, sticky, a little bony. “Gal, my bad. Like… I think their skin is used for something outside of food I think, but I can’t quite remember. Pretty sure this is a good age for it though. Fish oils.”

Pierce smiled at Syph, beaming with his pointed grin as he wiggled the stunned fish in front of her. They would be relatively safe for a good while, he had hit this thing hard enough to knock it out for a solid 20, maybe 30 minutes. “What do you think? Wanna go up topside and I can show you how to bleed her properly? Let her go? What?”

[Flame]

Having had the incoming fish pointed out to him, Pierce gave her a soft punch in the shoulder before spinning around. In the water the force of the blow was decreased so she barely felt it, and was mainly aware of it due to actually seeing it happen. So she gave an inexpressive smile as he swam off to intercept the incoming fish. Lazily her feet paddled in the water, it was a minimal amount, just enough to keep her floating where she was. Alright lets see what hes capable of ... Her eyes maintained their position tracking Pierce's every moment as the oncoming fish came closer and closer yet. It was smaller than she had originally imagined it being, probably in full it was near her size.

Yawning she watched as the fish flew past Pierce on its first charge. He seemed to be having fun, well that was good for him. Though she'd rather he just do it efficiently. Both he and the fish seemed to straighten out once again. Apparently the fish had decided he was to be the target, once again it barreled toward him. The fish came in spinning this time, its apparent purpose was to barrel through her crew-mate its nose acting like a drill or something. Pierce shifted slightly in the water in response, the fish's pointed nose sliding right past his chest. Syph's forced smile broke apart cooling down into a more friendly one. Slightly impressed by his efficient movements she was if only a little proud of her former and perhaps current crew mate as he battled against his fish foe. Her eyes paused momentarily upon his changing form, specifically his arm as it swung back preparing to attack. Along with it his voice echoed through the water as he announced his next move.

Her smile disappeared into an unemotional face as she watched the fishman. His hand swinging through the water and contacting the fish straight at the front of its head. Its forehead, if a fish could be said to have one. So this is it huh, Fishman Karate. The fish seemed knocked out and dazed but Syphalia was unimpressed so far. As far as she could tell it was a simple punch, even she would be capable of that, perhaps not to the same affect, but she was not as strong as Pierce in the water, at least she figured as much. That natural fishman advantage would probably be the undoing of her, if it ever came down to that. His second attack continued, the fish was dazed obviously but not down yet. His palm slammed in near where it had gone before. But this time there was a noticeable difference, reverberations. Even she floating a few meters away could feel them this time. The fish didn't move far after contact, gaining very little in terms of momentum away from its enemy. This time she could tell it was down for the count, but that wasn't what Syph was concerned with.

It was that move, the dull force of water being pushed away from that punch had made its impact on her as well. Is this the true power of Fishman Karate? She wondered to herself. She had always assumed that was Pierce's forte when it came to combat. Given that he had joined the Dancing Blades and yet she had never seen him wield a weapon she figured there must have been some reason Jack recruited him. Perhaps this was it, a grin was glimpsed upon her face as she found herself more interested in Pierce than usual. It disappeared quickly as Pierce grasped his catch and began to turn back towards her. Even if she was interested she was not about to let him see that.

As he swam up to her, fish tucked beneath his arm he seemed happy with himself. That alone was a little annoying but she bore with it, he had done a good job so there was no reason to berate him. Stopping before her he began to explain what he had done, pretending to be as attentive as possible she did her best fake student look. Or at least what she figured one would be like. Nodding along as he talked and watching him with both eyes, if only vacantly so. As he carried on, Syphalia did her best to not allow her eyes to wander, floating, still in the bubble she wondered why Pierce needed to be so long winded at times. Finally he came to the end up his talk, his last point was a question, did she want to go up? Learn how to properly kill a fish, to be humane or what not. Kind of surprising to hear from a fishman, she had always thought them to not have a particular loyalty to their non-humanoid brethren perhaps Pierce was different.

In any case, his suggestion seemed for the most part to be a waste of time. If they brought the fish above water it'd die anyways, owing to the inability to breath on land obviously. She needed not waste time with such trivialities. "You can go up and gut your fish if you like. I'm staying down here for now. Don't like going up with nothing to show for." Syphalia responded plainly, before kicking her feet and swimming slightly past Pierce. Her eyes no longer needing to track his movements put themselves back on active duty staring into the distances. They eyed the distances looking for signs of her quarry, her fingers adjusted their grip on her blade. She was still yet unsure how exactly she'd recreate blunt attacks with her blade but she left such a concern until it was necessary. It was finally in the distance that she spotted her quarry, or what she figured must have been it. In the distance, that same pinkish hue atop a fast moving target. It sped in towards this central area as the other had.

She of course said nothing, simply smiling to herself. It should be a fun test she figured. Limiting her own repertoire to see if she could pull out an unusual result. It was like a challenge, if fulfilled it would open new options for her, allow for new paths. It was like training, ooh yeah, this could be good.

[White Mimic]

“Well I mean like… she’s not big enough.” Syph floated away a little ways while Pierce continued to examine the massive Klarian in his hands. Nori wanted one of the adults that lived at the base of the island in the coral forest below, and she didn’t seem like the type of person who wouldn’t take it personally if someone jilted her on a deal. It wasn’t as if it would be an easy job for just one person to keep more than one fish stunned at all times anyway. If one of those fish had to be the size of full on leviathan, even less so. “Ah whatever, it’ll be fine. See ya around, Sheila.” With a gentle shrug, the fishman allowed his relatively minute catch to slide out of his hands, gently pulsing away back down to the reef. Considering how quickly it had been bested by its opponent, it was likely content with a shot at certain survival over a continued struggle with the stronger predator.

As the Klarian bobbed away pitifully, Syph instead had taken off through the water in the opposite direction, though not quickly enough to keep a slightly arrogant smirk from creeping across the lionfish’s face. Pierce found it rather amusing, watching humans swim, seeing their sluggish bodies trudge through an environment they weren’t built for. However, he had to admit that while she still wasn’t nearly as fast as he was, the bubble suit his friend was wearing seemed to make her job a little easier. Hopefully it would be enough to help her handle the unbridled aggression of their full-grown prey. Just in case, he cupped his hands around his mouth and called after her once he realized where exactly she was heading. “Oi Syph! If you absolutely have to, it’s totally okay to just stick ‘em in the brain!” What mattered was getting the fish as undamaged as possible to the surface to clean and gut it properly, and a good old fashion brain pike could do that just fine. The only problem were all the opportunistic bottom feeders finishing up the corpse Syph had left behind. What would they do once they smelled the blood leaking out of a puncture in the cranium of a deceased Klarian was a puzzle any five year old could solve. On that front, a quick look over the shoulder revealed all that remained of the first of the blade’s victims were two skeletal halves rapidly descending to the fluffy looking coral bed below.

“Igh.” With only a blade to work with, Pierce wagered his friend would at some point bloody the water and send the reef-life into a frenzy. Perhaps it would be best to distance himself and stick to the original plan of braving the dark mound of red antlers piled around the pillar of the island. “Back to work then, I suppose.” The scavengers probably wouldn’t venture too far in there, not with the risk of the ever dangerous beasts lurking within. If blood were drawn in such treacherous waters, there was at least the benefit of nary a starving crowd to be attracted by the lingering taste.

With half a somersault, Pierce twisted downwards once again, fluttering towards the ‘entrance’ of the mounded forest. It was just as he left it, dark, winding, creepy. Danger could be lurking behind any given corner, or branch, and one wrong move could get the fishman seriously hurt on top of his burns, still healing after all this time. To be fair though, he had probably faced worse situations than this before and was simply forgetting thanks to the heat of his excitement. For instance, evading some of the larger marine predators of the South Blue before eventually meeting up with Jack and Syph was a pretty direct comparison as far as danger went.

After touching down onto the ridge of brain coral forming the ground, Pierce retook his first few steps into the ‘woods’ as it were, confident in his safety at least this far in. If the freshly fed reef shark had already returned, or even if it had yet to return, it wasn’t likely to bother the forest’s new intruder. Sharks without hunger tended to be big curious sooks so as long as you didn’t look like a tasty snack that one would usually see from day to day, you would remain relatively bite free. Just in case though, Pierce flexed his shoulders and fists, just a smidge. The last thing he wanted was to be juked and done-in by a cunning neighbor. Or worse.