Mission #45: The old switcheroo! (bladeninja)

[Farris (Kuro)]

The long blonde hair of the shapely nurse walked through the village clinic. Syrup wasn't very big, but the rich young woman, Kaya was always in poor health. She was doing better in more recent years though, but the clinic was still very much needed. It had important, hard to get drugs and medication that the village and Lady Kaya would need.

Maple Clinic was not where this nurse worked however. Lushia was here to see if she could restock some of her own supplies in exchange for aiding the Clinic for a few weeks with her services as a nurse. It seemed like a very reasonable exchange and she was certified to do the tasks they needed. Fortunately she was on her second week and it looked to be without incident. She had a patient coming in to refill a prescription, and then she could clock out for the day. Until then she was responsible for things here.

Of course Captain Walt was not so considerate as he kicked the door in and stormed the Clinic. "You know what to do boys! Get to work! Getagetagetaa~!" He laughed rolling his eyes delightfully as he laughed. Walt had a skinny frame, hairy, knobby, bowlegged legs and tan shorts. His shirt was a light pastel green and he had a long face with a hooked noes and strong chin. his grey hair was receding and pointed on the top to ether side as if they were horns. His shoulders were broad but he was rather short and his arms were gangly and long. He held a sword and shield in hand, gesturing this the former to direct his two crew men.

The people screamed and ducked for cover in fright while Lushia narrowed her large green eyes in annoyance. "If your here for treatment you can wait like everyone else." She spoke loudly and boldly to the Pirate and his crew who were already starting to rob the other patients of there valuables. Walt himself was busy stalking towards the pink ribboned nurse and the Drugs. "What did you say ta me Girly?" He growled out, clearly displeased...

[Bladeninja]

Four hours past noon, David Ikito was walking from the docks toward Syrup village, A small strange ship was also by the docks, but David paid it little mind. As he walked down a hilly road, he thought about how Gecko Island was known for being a peaceful place. This thought brought him boredom, but he nonetheless hoped to enjoy the company of the locals. He entered the village, and found himself a bite to eat at a simple fruit stand. The fruit-seller had a distrusting look, and watched David carefully as he reached into his jean jacket for money to pay for the fruit. David was briefly confused, but didn't care too much. "Not that welcoming. Maybe he didn't like my shades," he thought to himself casually. The adventurer walked on enjoying his fruit, climbing a hill that would conveniently give him a decent view of the surrounding land.

An interesting sight met David as he looked down from the hill's peak. Some sort of disagreement was going on between a resident and three suspicious men. One of the suspicious men, a thin character with a shield on his belt, threw his arm forward and shoved the resident onto his back. David's face turned sour, and he walked downhill with concern. As he got closer, David noticed that the thin man was a pirate since he also had a sword equipped. The man on the ground rolled off his back and angrily called out, "Your kind isn't welcome here. Take a hike, there's a cliff down the road!" The shield-bearing man, seemed to take the retort with offense. "Oh, a funny man huh? I'll pass on the hike." The pirate grabbed his shield and bashed it into the man's face. The victim lost his defensive expression, and fell yet again. "Damn... pirate..."

By the time David reached the man on the ground, the pirates had already moved on to a nearby building. Aiding the bruised man to his feet, David questioned the man about the situation. The bruised man told him that the pirates had somehow stolen a bag of his harvest, and that he had tried to confront him about it. Adding insult to injury was the sound of the pirate laughing away. Now that David knew it was more than a disagreement, he hastily chased toward the building where the pirates had escaped to. He noticed that the building was a clinic, and thought about the bruised man, "How ironic. The bruised man's outside and I'm chasing his attacker into a clinic. Oh well, I'll bring him here later." David walked through the doorway, its doors already broken from the pirate's entrance, and entered the clinic.

[Farris (Kuro)]

Lushia frowned as her hand moved to her garter slowly. She kept three tranquilizer darts hidden there. Even in a peaceful village like this one, you never knew when you'd get a rowdy patient that didn't want to be treated. As a nurse and someone that was well versed in the ways of the world, the blonde knew it was better to never be unarmed. Captain Walt was within a few paces of her now, the busty woman was sure that she couldn't miss him at this range, but she was less sure about if she could hit the two men with him.

Fortunately she didn't have to worry about that as in walked a perfect distraction. A man with short black hair, Lushia didn't spare more than a glance really. The important thing was that Walt and his two crewmen noticed him and were paying him a bit more attention than she was. pink ribbon wearing nurse new she had to act fast. She withdrew the three darts successfully and expertly threw them in a horizontal arc releasing one aimed at each man. "Sedation!" She stated firmly the name of the attack. This brought Captain Walt's attention back to her in a snap.

The wicked grin that creeped across his face as he directed a finger at her and at the newcomer, wasn't pretty to say the least. What exactly was he up to... She heard more than saw one of her darts hit something, but before she could see if it hit it's mark, or if the second would hit Walt, the mangy looking pirate did something weird. A beam shot from his fingers. both the one pointing at her and the man that had just entered. "Watch Out!" Lushia called out trying to warn the man as she moved. Unfortunately she was already caught by the beam herself.

[Bladeninja]

As David entered into the lobby, a dozen people charged in his direction in a panic. He raised his arms innocently, trying to convince them that he was not a threat. This became unnecessary however, as the people continued past him, one of them tripping over a door on the ground. Based on their clothes, some of them were probably working in the clinic so their exit was concerning. "What on earth did this guy do?"

With the runners out of the way however, David could easily spot the pirate on the other side of the lobby. The jacketed adventurer approached the pirates at a normal pace ready to confront them. but spotted one of them stealing personal belongings and stuffing them into a bag. David motioned toward the thief, but heard the voice of a woman rejecting the pirate captain's rudeness. Turning toward the voice, David spotted a pink ribbon on top of a blonde woman's face. His eyes lowered toward her pink dress, but twitched back up as he remembered what he came here for. David heard the pirate leader talking back to the pink-dressed woman, and saw the leader as a more urgent threat than the thief.

David called out to the leader, "Hey we need to talk! I was gonna be calm about it, but I can see that you guys are low-lives who would rob a freakin' clinic!" He now had the attention of the three pirates on him, but wasn't afraid of the type of pirates that would rob a clinic in East Blue. He rushed toward the pirate captain's side so that he could get her away from the woman, but found a pirate holding an axe in his way. The axe-wielder swung his weapon downward, but the blade sliced air as David side-stepped before kicking him. The pirate captain, now angry, grabbed his sword and shield and slashed horizontally. David ducked below the slash and swung his leg backward, before kicking forward shouting "Lion Leg!". The pirate leader barely reacted in time to block it with his shield, but his hasty defense was not enough to avoid being sent into a wall by the sheer force of the Lion Leg.

Troubled by his opponent's strength, the pirate captain decided to switch tactics. He put his sword and shield away, which confused David. "Oh, had enough? Good, just leave all the stuff you stole." David looked toward the pink-dressed woman to ask if she was alright, but heard her shout "Sedation" and throw something at the pirates. Captain Walt turned just in time for one of the syringes to collide with his shield, which made a "ting" noise. David wondered what she threw at the pirates, and looked back at them to see the captain raising his hands. David prepared himself for a gun, but saw that the captain was merely pointing at him and the woman. Still on his guard, David expected a snarky comment from the pirate captain, but instead saw purple rays of light being emitted from the pointed fingers. David moved leftward to avoid one of the beams, hearing the woman's warning but not needing it. Unfortunately, he saw one of the pirates raising a pistol toward him and instinctively motioned rightward. David immediately regretted his decision as his head overlapped with the purple beam.

The beam overwhelmed David, making him feel like his head was shocked. As the seconds passed, he felt his body tingling and his awareness fading. He glanced at the pirates, and saw that two of them were losing their balance, but saw the pirate captain standing strong. David's consciousness... was... fading...

After David lost consciousness, Captain Walt looked at his men and was angry at the jacketed adventurer for intervening. He noticed a syringe on the ground, but didn't immediately realize its significance. The pirate captain stood over David's body, declaring, "I should kill you, but now you're not in this body anymore." Looking at the pink-dressed woman, unconscious as well, Captain Walt felt it would be too much of a shame to kill such an attractive body. "Hmm, you're lucky. I'll leave you with this merciful punishment."

[Farris (Kuro)]

Lushia collapsed shortly before The spiky black haired man had. Had she known her darts had struck at least two of the invading pirates she might have been proud of herself. As it was she was out cold as Walt left with his two nakama in tow. Given their condition, the captain took them too their ship along with the stolen goods and several drugs from the pharmacy. No doubt he would try to "treat" his men through trial and error or simply planned to try or sell them.

In ether case, the Clinic was a mess and even a good hour later no one had dared step in. Lushia stirred and eyes slowly opening but the nurse felt something was wrong immediate. She was not behind the counter where she thought she should be. The normally blonde woman's next thought was had they done something lewd to her after she had passed out and left her here? Shaking of the unpleasant thought of that, Lushia started to pick herself up off the ground and noticed... These were not her hands! Theses were not her clothes even! Her eyes widened in shock. This was not her body! A loud scream rang through the clinic at this realization.

She knew her captain was capable of such a thing but Trafalgar Law was not here. This had been her own little adventure away from the crew for a while. She had even had permission so she knew it wasn't his doing. Then her memory started catching up to her. That Pirate, the strange beam... It must have swapped her with someone but who? And more importantly she needed to make him switch her back. Sure, Law could fix this too but if she let the others hear about this she'd never live it down.

[Bladeninja]

Holding the bag of loot from the clinic, Captain Walt looked at his crew mates and figured that he would have to carry it on his own. He dragged the bag out of the clinic, and carried it up a slight incline through the forest so that he wouldn't be easily seen. Halfway into his journey, Walt thought back to his crew mates and figured they had had enough time to rest from whatever made them fall. Leaving the bag in a dense patch of trees, he returned to his friends and tried unsuccessfully to wake them up.

That's when he noticed the syringes in their backs, which prompted him to pull them out and wonder how they got there in the first place. Fortunately he was in too much of a hurry to think about it further. One at a time, he picked up his two crew mates with their weapons and left them where the treasure was stashed. The pirate captain sat down and took a breather. Not only had he carried heavy loads, but he had done so after a fight in which he used his ability to switch the hardest thing of all: minds. He laid down with his face within the shade and quickly fell asleep.

Meanwhile, David slowly opened his eyes, only to have his view obstructed by a large desk. He felt his back against the wall and realized he was sitting on the ground. Still feeling uneasy, especially after his back hit the wall, he was unsatisfied with looking at the desk and wondered what happened. He quickly noticed that he was now wearing white shoes, which puzzled him. He began moving his hands and feet to get up, but everything about the action felt unfamiliar. His limbs felt weaker, which he could have attributed to having lost consciousness, but that was not all. Looking down at his own body, he found two masses of flesh on his chest, wrapped in a pink-white dress that he was wearing. "Why do I have... Why am I cross-dressing?" Now that David was more confused than ever, he pressed on through the weirdness and rose to his feet to figure out what the hell was going on.

He looked over the desk and saw the familiar sight of the clinic's lobby. Remembering the events that transpired, he recalled the fight and wondered if he had lost. "What, now way I was defeated! To some pirates in East Blue?" Disappointed in himself, he saw a black-haired man in a familiar blue jean jacket sitting on the floor. David thought to himself, Man, couldn't help this guy either. Wait, that jacket looks familiar. Is that my weapon sticking out of it? The person in front of David looked exactly like him, at least how he normally is. David called out to his look-alike, "Hey, you stole my clothes! And my weapon!"

[Farris (Kuro)]

"Hey, you stole my clothes! And my weapon!" came the strange Accusation from the man that was now in her own body. Lushia frown as she looked at the state of her person that was in the man's control. Her hair was a mess, but at least it seemed the rest of her body was alright. "Your mistaken." She stated calmly, still adjusting to the male voice that belonged to the body she was in. "Both of us didn't expect that Pirate to be a Devil Fruit user..." She stated and paused making her way towards the owner of the body she was in. "He switched us. Your currently in my body and vise versa." She informed him, offering him a hand. "I'm Starchaser Lushia, a temporary nurse at this clinic." She offered, at this point it was best to remain calm.

"We should stick together until we find that Pirate and make him switch us back." Lushia stated after a moment, not mentioning her captain could solve their little problem without worry. The nurse had her pride, she wasn't going to run to Law over a problem that she got herself into. Especially not when it was possible to get herself out of it without his help. "Let's check around the village, the tranquilizers I hit at least one of his men with will would have slowed him down." She stated finding one of her syringes on the floor the potent fluids gone, suggesting that she had hit her mark. "They may be still on the Island, but I'm not sure how long we were out. We may need to move quickly." Lushia informed him curtly, ready to move out when he was ready.

[Bladeninja]

Understandably, David was reluctant to believe his twin's claim that they had swithed bodies and clothes due to a Devil fruit. Nonetheless, he had previously heard a woman's voice come from his own mouth when he accused the man of stealing his clothes. Once the person in front of him spoke with David's own voice, David couldn't even begin to argue. ".... You're right..." Embarrassed at his accusation, David listened to the person introduce herself as the nurse Starchaser Lushia. "Um, I'm David Ikito. Sorry about what I said.", apologized David, before be proceeded to awkwardly shake his own hand.

The nurse with his body then suggested, "Let's check around the village, the tranquilizers I hit at least one of his men with will would have slowed him down." David felt like he had forgotten something, having heard the words nurse, tranquilizer and his new voice that he had heard somewhere before. A few seconds later, he connected the dots and recalled the woman working behind the counter before the fight. Oh, so that was her. Which means I'm now in her body. That aside, David was getting off-track and thought back to Lushia's suggestion. He too noticed the syringes, which might have been the tranquilizers she was referring to. One of them was more damaged than the other, but David wasn't at his best right now so he didn't notice. "Tranquilizers huh. Okay, that helps. Come to think of it, I actually saw a strange ship near the docks when I got here in the first place." Unfortunately, David's train of thought was cut off after once again hearing his female voice. His hand flew over his mouth, still not used to this state of existence.

He resumed his speech, partly trying to deepen his voice but eventually giving in to the unfamiliar sound. "Anyway, it'll probably take them a while to reach their ship... There might be a shorter route than what I took, but if the tranquilizers are good then maybe we still have a chance." Since finding the pirates was their task, David considered whether they should split up. While he didn't want to stray far from his body, splitting up might let them find them faster. However, he didn't really have a reliable signaling method in such a hilly place, thinking of his colored smoke bombs that would be too small. Moreover, he wasn't confident in his ability to defend himself in this form. "Okay, we'll stick together. I don't know this area very well, So I'll leave it to you to decide which way we should go." The nurse might not have had a strong looking original body, but David felt like she was handling the situation better than he was.

[Farris (Kuro)]

While the man, now known as David, seemed skeptical at first he ultimately listened to reason without further issues. "A pleasure Mister Ikito, a shame it isn't under better circumstances." She stated politely, though the male voice she spoke with was still a bit unsettling to hear, she willed herself to remain calm. Lushia was calm and collected on the surface but internally she was panicking as much as David was. What was worse was she didn't want to think what would happen is this change was irreversible, even by her captain.

After inspecting her used syringe, she heard her own voice as David spoke. It was still an odd thing to hear and she smiled slightly as he covered his mouth as if it would somehow make his voice more manly again. "Yes, I'm something of a throwing expert. I prefer not to kill so you'll find a number of tranquilizer syringes and a few Senbon needles hidden in the garters on my thighs should you need them." She offered helpfully. She had a few other hiding places for her weapons but she wasn't about to share those. It was nothing against David, but she barely knew him.

"A Strange ship? That could be his... We should check there first make sure it's still there and see if he's returned to it." Lushia stated in agreement, It would do them little good if they gathered information only to have Captain Walt escape. "I think there are a couple local boys that know all the secrets and short cuts of the Island. It may take time to find them but I hear they spend time with Lady Kaya, the richest woman in the village." Lushia offered, it paid off listening in on the locals gossip as they had come into the clinic. Though Lushia wasn't one for eavesdropping, there was little else to do while filling out orders and doing paper work in the clinic... at least at that time.

their plans decided, The nurse politely beckoned David to follow as they left the clinic. Lushia's destination was up a road leading to a large mansion, the home of Lady Kaya...

[Bladeninja]

David took note of Lushia's information about her tranquilizer darts, looking down at his leg where he was told they were hidden. He wasn't sure how well he could throw them, but perhaps they would be useful even at close range. Though she described them as an alternative for killing, David had never heard of a nurse using darts for self-defense. He thought to himself, "Guess you can't be too careful, and they certainly came in handy.".

He listened to Lushia's suggestion about consulting local boys for information, but questioned if these younger people would be able to help them find pirates. He took Lushia's word on their knowledge, and they seemed a bit more interesting when he heard about them hanging around a mansion. "Hmm, maybe these guys are actually important.", he thought as he followed Lushia towards the mansion.

It wasn't long before the estate came into view. Surrounding it was a large perimeter of gated fence, which David found more noticeable than the house itself. "I'm guessing that's the place. Now how do we get in I wonder?" he said to Lushia. His female eyebrows furrowed as he was caught off guard by the issue of the gate. They were low on time, but shouting to be let in or hopping the fence might have caused problems.

Fortunately, the voice of several children laughing could be heard before David had time to ponder his ideas further. The voices had seemed faint, like they were coming from an adjacent side of the house. David walked a few feet to the corner of the gate, and he found the source of the voices as he approached a tree extending towards the mansion."Hey Lushia, you think those are the boys?" asked David. He wasn't particularly impressed when he actually saw them, but David and Lushia had already went through the trouble of finding them.

Though he couldn't see who they were talking to from his angle, he urgently called out to them. "Excuse me, um, young men. Sorry to bother you, but we had a run-in with some pirates and we need to find them. I have a good idea of where their ship is," he called out. Realizing that he had not introduced himself, David continued, "Oh, my name is... Starchaser Lushia? Anyway, they would have went from the clinic toward their ship in that direction," he said, pointing accordingly. "I heard you boys know this place well, so I'd like to know what path you think they might take."

[Farris (Kuro)]

She allowed him a moment to familiarize himself with the location of her throwing weapons. If they had to fight Captain Walt and any of his crew mates they would need to know the strong points and combat style of each other, at least to a point. Lushia had never used a sword before, but she had seen Law use one. Perhaps it wouldn't be so hard to do, especially with a body that was trained to handle a blade properly.

The Mansion wasn't hard to find and it seemed her information was correct. Down to the wall and the bodyguards unfortunately, but she sort of expected this. "I'm guessing that's the place. Now how do we get in I wonder?" She heard David ask with her own voice. "We may not need to." She stated as she heard the sound of young voices first, then spotted the large tree. Her companion seemed to come to the same conclusion. "Hey Lushia, you think those are the boys?" asked David. The short dark haired head gave a slight nod. "More than likely. Yes." She replied. They matched the gossip she'd heard well enough.

The three boys froze and swallowed hard. It seemed they understood the seriousness of Pirates. Lushia briefly wondered if these boys had some incident with pirates in the past but brushed it off for now. "I'll show you a short cut to the beach. Ninjin, Tamaneji... you stay here and protect Kaya-Sama." Stated one of the boys to the two others before climbing out the window and out over the tree to where Lushia and David stood. "Thank you for your help." She stated politely as Piiman lead them through the quickest short cut to the beach... There would make it there in a matter of minutes.

[Bladeninja]

Though David had been concerned before, it seemed that looking to the well-known locals was the right move. A boy whose head was topped with a green-pepper hairstyle volunteered to guide the body-swapped pair. David appreciated the speed of the boy and believed his claim that it'd be an efficient route. By this point David had been doing a lot of jogging in his borrowed body, and had become more comfortable controlling it.

That said, he wondered how they would go about getting their bodies back. Looking back to previous events, an important detail flashed in David's mind. Even in his own body, when everything was more familiar, he still ended up losing to the pirates. Although his current body was holding up well so far, he still figured that he would be at a disadvantage. He nervously wondered how he was supposed to win in this situation. Sure he hadn't been using his weapons before, but at the moment they were in Lushia's possession while he was left with hers. Still jogging toward the thieves along Lushia, David turned toward her and looked at his body. He had recognized that the woman in his body was focused on their goal, but questioned how well she could fight.

After a moment of looking at himself, David began to acknowledge that he wouldn't be fighting alone. As awkward as it was, it seemed they would have to work together even in combat. "Hey Lushia, we're probably gonna have to fight together," he stated. Even so, David was still brainstorming on how they would actually pull it off. Since Lushia shared her weapons, David was willing to do the same. He requested his bag from Lushia's possession, offering to share his arsenal of smoke bombs and explosive shuriken. "I'm fine with sharing, but I'd like to trade back some of your needles for some of my shuriken. This way we can use what we're already good at."

Meanwhile, two pirates were waking up not too far from David and Lushia's location. Opening their eyes to a bright sunlight, they felt disoriented as they crawled onto their feet. One of them, who normally wielded an axe, questioned, "Hey, weren't we in a hospital? Where's the loot?" The other thief gave no definitive answer, and walked for a bit to figure out where he was. Moments later, the simple scenery seemed familiar and he figured that they might have been on the route from toward their ship. He was only half-sure, but it was enough certainty for the two pirates to follow the route in search of their captain. Ironically, their captain was dozing off in a hidden shade, sitting in the opposite direction from which the pirates had left. They must have been too groggy or impatient to search for their captain in the surrounding area. In any case, the thieves had chosen the wrong direction from their ship and were headed straight for the body-swapped pair.