Mission #78 - The Witch Hunt! (Kiwi/Cremuex)

[cremuex]

When the fragile little girl told the sailor not to worry at that they were safe, he couldn't help but notice how surreal the experience was. The small child was comforting him. As he looked upon the elder sibling he couldn't help but feel that her confidence was somewhat misplaced. Even with the ability to transform into a bat, such a small animal would offer them no protection and at best would simply serve to fly around some heads. Based on the face the boy had pulled and how he'd shifted slightly, he could tell that 'Pluto' as he gathered the boys name to be, wasn't too thrilled at the statement either.

The boy interjected with disinterest that the safety of the crew was of none of his concern and that he'd rather stay put for the time being seemed just as odd to the man. Pluto certainly seemed capable of taking care of himself, and his sister, just by his manner of speaking.

The doctor returned her attention to the young ones, taking into consideration how much faith the girl had in him. To her, it was just a barrier, a wall put up to help her deal with the situation- daydreams of a child where safety was ever assured and nothing could touch them. Such a youth had probably never seen death, or at least didn't have the same fear of it that any mortal reasonably should.

"Well. You might not have that much time kid. I don't know when those crazies are gonna make their move." Referring to the townsfolk as 'crazies' wasn't what she would normally do, but they had put her at the end of her tether and their actions fitted that of a cult. She recognized that they could still go, and if the townsfolk were caught up with trying to recapture her and her men, that they might be able to sit still for the time being and venture out when the threat had subsided. Nobody checked inside a crate once the beast was out of it.

Her crew seemed to have readied themselves, and being told to wait only served to heighten their stress, like they were itching to get out of the building. to taste the freedom that they had all too often taken for granted.

She went over to see if the situation had changed at all, joining one of the crewman, a ship-swain, as they continued their vigil over the islands citizens. It seemed that they hadn't noticed anyone enter, nor any noise that they had made. Perhaps the distance from the bonfire had been a blessing in disguise.

"They seem on edge doc." The young 18 year old mumbled to her. She had noticed that as well, but hadn't been able to figure out what they were waiting for. They were planning something, though she couldn't tell what. Still, their attention wasn't on the building and they might have assumed that once they'd done that, that there was no chance for them to escape, or even so much as wiggle free, leaving the place unlocked. This made the hairs on the back of her neck tingle. They didn't seem the type that would pull back from setting their own things ablaze if it meant that they'd extract whatever misplaced ideals of vengeance they were after.

As a merchant vessel, they didn't exactly have scouts or anything of the like. Though she was wary and suggested that if one or two could slip out now, than at least that was a higher chance of survival for them. She'd rather go with the safe bet, than a riskier one.

She deferred to the Captain, not wanting to be responsible for this and that her role was limited to that of fixing people up, not commanding them around, no matter how suited for such a position she might be.

[BlacKitten]

A look of pity grew on the girl’s face, knowing that these people didn’t truly understand the value of sticking close with Pluto. Even though her brother likely didn’t care the lives of strangers, they all shared a common enemy. Simply letting him eliminate the threat for his own gain would indirectly help the rest of the group; at least, that was the thought process in her head. Her gaze shifted towards the one who she bet all of her hopes on, wondering what he plans to do. While he didn’t have any copious amount of pride, she imagined that he may be feeling a bit ashamed of himself to have been captured. It wasn’t his fault. She was the one who couldn’t dodge the net fired at her earlier while her brother reacted to it masterfully. Because of her burden to him, he sacrificed himself to be captured along with her. If she wasn’t dragging him down, he would have been perfectly fine.

“Sorry, brother,” she bowed her head down apologetically.

“Huh?” He remained seated against the wall, feeling this type of response to be uncharacteristic of his usually cheerful sister.

“It’s my fault that you got captured. I’m just a burden to you.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re still quite young; there was nothing you could have done. You did all you could do. I couldn’t have done any better back there if I was at your age,” it felt tremendously unnatural for him to be trying to comfort her like this. He wasn’t entirely sure what a brother was supposed to say. The two of them only met each other two years ago. Before then, neither of them knew they even had a sibling, and because of that, he didn’t know what kind of a role a brother is supposed to fulfill. But, there was one role he did tasked himself for her sake, and that was to protect her from harm and wither down any bloodshed that may stain her innocence and view of this world. The deeper they journeyed down the Grand Line, the more difficult this task had become.

That being said, I need to fix this habit of mine of holding back. Back then, I could have blown away the smoke easily. As a Zoan-user, his alternate forms amplified his physical prowess; in other words, the stronger he was as a human, the stronger he’ll be in his more beastly state. Even though there were no drawbacks, he had constantly tried to hide his powers out of habit from his sister who found out about his cursed powers a prior to their crossing of the Reverse Mountain. Perhaps deep down, he felt like it was cheating –that this power wasn’t his own strength. Maybe for other classes of Devil Fruits, that could be the case. But, a Zoan-class was different; it couldn’t be relied upon solely for its power. Zoan-users can only rely on themselves because they become such power. There shouldn’t be a distinction between him and that power; it was time to accept that this ability was a part of him, even if it means turning into some freak.

What sounded like the turn of a doorknob had caused many souls within this cabin to be more vigilant. The siblings turned their attention at their only exit from this structure as the wooden door creaks open on its hinges. An elongating shadow emanated from the fiery orange light outside. A figure whose front remained shaded stepped in, holding a pitchfork in on hand. “Eeh!?” An eyebrow rose at the sight of these captives being untied from their ropes. Furthermore, someone appeared to be missing. The siblings that were captured were more noticeable from the rest of the group that was comprised of a lot of adults, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

Pluto! When did you-? Rebecca gazed beyond the man’s head where a familiar silhouette squatted upside down, directly above the man’s head. Her brother had transformed just his hands and feet into pitch-black claws that hooked into the surface of the ceiling.

“Y-,” Just as the townsman was about to scowl with a disgruntled look, a sharp blow struck him at the side of his head, directly at his temple. After having struck the man with the second joint of his index finger, Pluto straightened himself, appearing to be standing on the ceiling, defying gravity. The farmer -without a chance to even speak a word- collapsed to the floors on his side, unconscious. 

[cremuex]

The sound of the door knob turning and the large door creaking was only amplified by the stillness of the night. The sailors that were already on edge turning their attention to the door all at once, like a hive mind, the orange light from behind the man the only thing to tint their visage. They couldn't see a face- but the Doctor didn't need to. What they looked like didn't matter, they were all the same. All sheep following the herd without freedom of thought enough to question the ways that had been bred into for countless fearful generations. It was inevitable that they would have made eye contact with at least one of the men from the crew, and the posture they were holding only showed that they were acting as much of a deer in the headlights as the crew, only, without the immediate back-up of the town behind them. The numbers seemed to be on the merchant's side and a few crooked smiles started to show on the men.

It took everyone by surprise to see the black out silhouette that obviously belonged to be the young boy, crouched upside down hanging from the ceiling. His movement was so fast that nobody even noticed how or when he'd gotten there, and his movement to knock out the unfortunate intruder was just as swift. While she didn't see it very clearly thanks to the shadow play, she could infer that he'd struck the man with enough force on his temple to knock them out, she wasn't sure about acupressure and pressure points, but even the western medicines agreed that a swift hit to the temples would make anyone crumple. The villager wasn't dead, he would have needed to have struck an area at the top or posterior of the head to cause damage to the brain.

As the boy straightened up from his crouched position to standing fully she could better see the boy's hands and feet. It was something of interest to her- she wasn't aware how devil's fruits properly worked, but it seemed that he had the option to perform partial transformations, or just transform certain sections of his anatomy. Silently wondering how he had such control over the molecular level enough to change genetic structure on will was amazing but to do it in localized area's was a feat beyond that.

The captain however, was a bit quicker to act- pulling the downed farmer from view of the door, another crew mate picking up the pitch fork and glancing out of the door way cautiously to see the state of things.

"Guuuys- that fire's gettin' pretty biiiiiig-" he said with a tone of anxiety clear enough without his antsy movements.

The Captain rolled the cloaked farmer over, trying to get a look at the man's face. It was completely unremarkable, the type of face that was easily forgotten from how regular it was. It was the sort of face that after five minutes if you had to tell a police sketch artist how they looked you'd be double guessing yourself. The captain gestured for the man with the pitchfork to come over, clear that he wanted to send the closest looking of the crew out in case they were sent to keep an eye on the hostages so that nothing untoward would happen. Even though they were ready, one man with a pitch fork couldn't hope to move all the hostages by themselves.

The doctor's golden eyes had fallen on the young girl and wondered if it was perhaps better to send out the one called Pluto in the place of the farmer. Of course he probably didn't need a disguise with his devil fruit powers, and even to suggest such a thing could offend the young man.

'Pluto." came the no-nonsense voice, "That's quite an impressive display, and while I would love to get into this further I fear there isn't the time, but I would like to request a favor- Could you fly up and see where the port is? Of course, it's fine if you can't, but without a ship it could prove impossible to get off the island." It was only once she'd made her request that she realised her error. It would have been best to have asked the young girl, who would be more eager to help and more likely to accept then to ask the boy who had no reason to want to help them.

[BlacKitten]

“Huh!?” He tilted his head upon hearing the golden-eyed girl giving him a request. Flipping midair from the ceiling, the boy landed firmly on his feet while returning his darkened hands and feet back to their original humanly state. His eyes glared sharply at the girl, expressing no sentiment to her crew’s situation.

“Couldn’t you just retrace your steps?” The reluctant zoan-user questioned. The girl just so happened to be the only one who hasn’t been captured yet. However she managed to find them, she could just backtrack.

His sister immediately interjected, “But Pluto, it’s dark out there. They might get lost.”

“My eyes can’t see through darkness any better than their eyes,” he stated while gesturing to the group of sailors with an open palm.

“But you have echolocation,” her sister retorted.

“My echolocation is limited in range. Even if I flew up high, the distance from the port is too far for my soundwaves to return back to me. I would have to fly around the island to find it.”

It didn’t sound like he was lying, but there was something that she hadn’t considered until just now, “Then how do you plan to go back?” Her brother was the type of person who always thought things through.

“I don’t know. Wait until it’s daytime?” He casually shrugged, acting as none of this was his business. Yet, his nonchalant demeanor made it appear as if he had all the means to make it out of here alive and unharmed.

“Come on, don’t you have any plan that can get us out?”

“No matter what plan you follow, there are no guarantees that all of you can make it out. We’re already in enemy’s territory, located exactly where they want us to be. They know our numbers, that we’re mostly unarmed, and our positions. They know their way around the island. This is their turf. And, what about us? We know jack about them. We don’t know their numbers. We don’t know what weapons they use besides this guy with the pitch fork. We don’t know where they’re located. Do you think we can just linearly run towards the port all at once and make it out unscathed?”

“Then what should they do?”

“Splitting up won’t work because guess what? They can split up too, so decoys are pointless unless we’re up against enemies whose numbers are in the single digits. But has it occurred to any of you of something rather alarming?”

“What?”

“We’re still alive. They knocked most of us out, but they didn’t kill a single one of us. Why is that?”

“Ah!” Rebecca perked her head up at the realization that they were all still fine. With the giant fire being set up outside, she was under the impression that the villagers wanted to burn them alive. But, why go through all that trouble? “Hmm,” she began scratching her head to find an answer or at least a hypothesis.

“Here’s a likely scenario: they don’t want to kill us in just any ordinary massacre; they want all of us to suffer with excruciating pain and agony, as we all die in a torturous manner. It’s not that they’re sadistic, at least not their primary reason. But, out of all of you, I think I know who they want the most,” he then gave a sidelong glance at the older of the two girls, the one with the golden, yellow eyes.

“Why her?”

“Because you two are the only females here, and it would only make sense for her to be the more wanted one for a variety of reasons. Long story short, from the villagers’ perspective, she is the witch among us,” the raven-haired boy then gazed away, grumbling to himself, “and I’m likely the second most wanted person on their list.” He based that off of the fact that he revealed his Devil Fruit power to one of the farmers.

In other words, it’s partially her fault that I’m in this mess.

“If splitting up won’t work, then that means we must stick together!” Rebecca concluded based off of her brother's previous statements.

“HUH?” His eyes widened, “A-ah! No! I don’t think we’re on the same page here. I was referring to their group, but you’re referring to all of us including me. It’s perfectly okay for them to split up from us two. We’re just children in their eyes; they won’t take us seriously.”

[cremuex]

((OOC: Sorry for the two month wait there Kiwi @_@ I honestly thought that I'd answered. Also uhhh, I might retire this character so this might be the last thread she's in? Ultimately it's ok if she dies, I just thought it wasn't fair on you that the thread stopped just because I lost interest in a character.))

His additional flipping in mid-air made him seem like a bit of a confident show off, though without it he still would have been upside down, so she guessed she wouldn't hold it against him that he liked to do things with a bit of dangerous flair. She might even do such things if he had the potential.

"Unfortunately not, we can't retrace our steps in the rain, the ground would have quickly soaked up the tracks.". It wasn't entirely her fault, though they could just go to in whatever direction and follow the edges of the island until they found the port they were docked in.

The little girl adding in about the darkness was another fair point, and she had assumed that echolocation would make his vision slightly more enhanced in such a situation, but the distance of the port was equally valid.

She waited silently, unashamed to be listening in to the conversation between the siblings. It was useful information and told her a little more on how their minds worked. If she wasn't impressed before, she certainly was now. The boy seemed to have been through a lot more- and a lot worse, than his more naive younger sister. Although she didn't know exactly what, something told her it was along the lines of torture to have such a dark view of the world- unless that's just what teenagers were like these days.

Waiting until it's daytime could be an option for the youngsters, but eventually the townsfolk would look for their comrade. As for going back, how had they gotten here in the first place? Apparently not by boat. Had he carried his sister here in his bat form? There was no way that little girl could fit on the back of an even smaller bat. He did have partial transformation, she reasoned, but the nearest island was far too distant for him to both fly and carry such a weight.

This Pluto surely was a clever soul, not that his deductions were miraculous by any measure, but he was paying attention. When he mentioned that she was probably the reason they were there she couldn't really counter it. She hadn't done anything to them to antagonize the village, but her looks seemed to have been the main reason that they were in such a predicament.

She gave a smile, internally praising the young girl for gearing the conversation in such a favorable manner.

"Won't take you seriously?" She repeated as she kept an eye on the two from a safe distance. "Who here has the power of a devil fruit? Not I, nor my crew. Who was it that fell the villager just now? Not I. Nor my crew. Unless you're abilities include reading minds don't tell me what I'm thinking, even more so since your assumption on how we- or at least I, view you is incorrect." She didn't have time to stand on graces so she was a bit more forward in speaking. Of course, that might be considered insulting to talk back to the person you're asking for help from, but he didn't need to do anything he didn't want to. It just made things more... difficult. Dangerous. In all probably, fatal.

"Either way, I respect your decision- but like you said, Your their number two target, so as soon as I'm out of the picture you've got a whole island on your back. And you escaping your bonds will only mean that they won't play nice this time, so do be careful. I don't want any deaths on my conscious just because some back water inbred society decides to fear outsiders." She scorned the village while eying the door with a gaze of daggers. It wasn't intended as a threat to the two, more an observation.

"You can wait for sunlight, though I doubt they won't get curious as to what happened to their friend you knocked out. Thank you, for that, by the way."

With a sigh she considered her options. If it would save the crew their lives, of course she'd give up arms- she just highly doubted that they wouldn't consider her crew associates of witches and the devil and burn them on the pyre all the same. What to do, what to do.

[BlacKitten]

“Alright! Alright! I get it!” Pluto held out a hand to halt any further commentary. He was utterly outnumbered, not by the villagers but by everyone in this room including his own little sister.

“What’s the plan, then?” Rebecca asked, feeling the mood of her brother shifting to their favor.

“I have none because I don’t really need a plan. I never intended to wait until daytime. I simply wanted to wait until the paralysis to completely wear off in my body, but since you guys are impatient, I’ll have to fight them handicapped,” he approached the door, opening it nonchalantly as if the naïve of the fact that there were hostile forces right outside.

The bonfire danced in the distance with several dozens of villagers –composed mostly of men- gathered around in a scattered fashion, all murmuring secretly among them. They all shared one commonality in the wait they stood; they all were facing anywhere except towards a particular old lady with freakishly enormous eyes. All of their chattering turned into silence as their eyes directed towards a black-haired, violet-eyed boy, casually walking towards them without a shred of fear in his visage.

“Let’s cut to the chase! I want to get off this island, and you’re going to leave me alone,” he spoke up towards the entire audience in front of him. In response, all he got were raised up pitchforks, shovels, torches, saws, and a variety of other tools for farming.

“Oh, I see! You’re not quite aware of the consequences of going against me. I’m already kind of grumpy for being captured by you lot. So, if you insist of fighting me, I’ll bring havoc to all of you at once,” as his own form of intimidation, Pluto shape-shifted into his man-beast form. Large wings splayed out behind him with its limbs elongating from his shoulder socket. Hands and feet became pitch-black claws. Ears shifted upwards while becoming more cat-like. All sounds around him became clearer to him. He could any mumble or whisper that would be said. His devilish form only reassured the fear that clung onto the hearts of these villagers, but he didn’t care.

“Don’t just stand there like a bunch of scarecrows; take him down and burn him!” Granny Goldgather shouted in an elderly tone. She was the mayor, and her words brought forth authority. As such, all of the men charged forth with those of the sides circling around from either side to surround the sole figure, blocking off any path of escaping.

“Rebecca,” He called to his sister’s attention, “Close the door. It’ll get pretty windy soon.”

“Okay!” The little girl replied cheerfully before closing the door to the cabin shut. Hurryingly, she dashed towards the window to peek out on what would unfold.

His wings splayed out fully, one tilted upwards as the other tilted downwards. They resembled the blades of a spinning fan or a pinwheel in the way they were positioned. With his weight shifted towards one leg in his wide stance, Pluto positioned himself in quite an odd pose. It didn’t appear to be a fighting stance at all. The angry mob around him charged at him from all sides. It appeared that his only escape route was either back at the cabin or to fly away, but this boy stood his ground in that very spot, not moving an inch.

When the timing seemed about right, the Zoan-user suddenly rotated on the spot, “Coiling Serpent!” In a blink of an eye, his wings casted the surrounding air upwards, suddenly generating a large, powerful whirlwind that shrouded him completely. All of those who charged at him found themselves sucked into the vortex. Scream and cries were muted by the gush of the wind that threw countless of bodies upwards in the spiraling tunnel.

Several seconds later, the whirlwind dissipated, and the night sky rained down flailing, screaming bodies that scattered across the open field. In an instance, the entire army of armed villagers was disposed of in a heap.

Rebecca gaped a little in awe at the beauty of her brother’s technique. Could that even be called a martial art technique anymore?