Priceless [Jillian, Lee]

[pepsi]

"And this chick?" The hooded figure nodded towards the raven-haired silent girl by Matthew's side. She hadn't said a single word during all of their exchange, but nevertheless she had listened to the whole thing. She met Matthew on the island, when she got off the ferry between the previous island and Veldesh; he had started talking to her out of pure curiosity, and while she didn't exactly feed the guy's hunger for words it served as a nice decoy to be a little less suspicious while walking around the suburbs of the Queendom's main city. The guy seemed to enjoy her company more than what was worth to her.

"She doesn't talk much. She's Jillian." Jillian moved her hand awkwardly, an attempt to greet the hooded man.

"Well, I can tell you what I know." The shady bloke sat on a nearby chair of his house, where the two had agreed to meet him again. In fact, right as Jillian and Matthew strolled across the street they rand into Matthew's cousin, who admitted to being there waiting for someone to come by. After a few minutes, they had been approached by a shady looking woman, and after a few minutes of negotiation, the woman got away with a small sum of money.
Matthew, curious, decided to ask him about that business.

"It's a family of bounty hunters. They laid their hands on something good, something real good. Now they're getting strong and... you know, my shop." The tone of the guy was gloomy and resigned. "They're making me pay for 'protection', and..." "What was it?" Jillian said, interrupting the sulky speech of Matthew's cousin. They both looked at her funny; she didn't say a word all that time, but the mere idea of something "valuable" stirred her up just enough to speak. "I... I don't know. I only heard it's a valuable weapon and-" "Where are they now?" The girl asked.

It was odd. Matthew had tried to talk her up all morning, hoping for something interesting to come out of it, maybe, but she didn't budge at all. Yet, just mentioning value... "Jillian," Matthew said, in utter disbelief, "why the sudden interest?"

The girl didn't look at him, nor did she reply. It would've been hard, way too hard, to explain him from the very beginning. If he had the ability to instantly transfer the information from her brain to his, she would've done so; but the mere act of communication, with its inherent inefficiency, tired her so. Instead, there were a few seconds of complete silence, before she repeated herself: "Where are they now?"

[Mr. Moon]

Reznikov Family #1 (NPC) 

“We did it! We really did it!

Laughed Ivan Reznikov, youngest of the three bounty hunter brothers who were hiding in a rented house at the edge of Queendom.

“Yes, we did it, so why don´t you shut your mouth before everyone will know we are here?”

Snapped his eldest sibling on him.

“Hey, leave him be, it was his first real job after all.”

Smirked the middle one, to great annoyance of his elder brother.

The three Reznikov siblings were bounty hunters and rising stars of local underworld community. The oldest one, Fedor, was large man with bald head and hulking muscles that preferred his two giant fists hardened by brass knuckles, over any sort of weapons. He was broody, but also extremely protective of his two younger brothers.

The middle one Aleksander would probably look like almost identical twin to his elder brother if not for his thick black hair and the fact that he was around five kg lighter in muscle mass than Fedor. He also specialized in the use of giant sword rather than fist fighting.

The youngest brother, Ivan was nothing like his two brothers. He had only average height, coupled with athletic figure and compared to his two brothers was actually pretty good looking. What he lacked in pure strength he had in quickness and agility, which coupled with his bow and throwing knives made him into dangerous fighter, yet his two brothers always tended to underestimate him.

The three of them were the only members of their “Family” that were actually related by blood, but that did´t mean that they were the only members. Over the last few months they managed to gather several followers who were helping them there and there, but the three of them never really acknowledged them as a part of their family that was also why, they didn´t take them for their last job...speaking of which...Fedor angrily punched small locked box from solid steel, that even after whole day was beyond they skills to open.

“Yeah, but we still have to open that damn thing before celebrating.”

He growled.

[Aromancer]

Lee's arrival in the Valdesh Queendom was much less boisterous than previous excursions. Recent events had somewhat humbled the young bounty hunter, and he was now trying to lay lower than usual to avoid direct confrontation. Cassandra might still be about, although the pirate captain was so impatient that he wouldn't put it past her to have already moved on while his log pose was resetting on Arabara.

Yet despite his muted arrival, it seemed the people of Valdesh were inexplicably drawn to him. Offering him all manner of discounted services with a nervous smile and a wringing of hands, as though they were terrified of him for no reason! This was only exacerbated whenever he introduced himself; the name Viper Lee seemed to assuage their nerves somewhat, but when he mentioned his occupation, they went right back to fear. Could there perhaps be somebody on the island with a bounty on their head?

Whatever. He wasn't really in the mood to psychoanalyze the locals. All he needed was to find a place to rest and replenish before moving on to the next island.

But as he entered a local inn, he was suddenly accosted by a couple lowlifes. "Hey, kid! The hell do you get off, walkin' around saying you're a bounty hunter?"

Lee gave the thugs a sidelong glance. "What do you mean? I'm a bounty hunter. I look for individuals with bounties and I turn them in for a reward."

The larger thug snickered to his smaller friend. "You hear this guy, Khabib? Idiot don't even know what a bounty hunter is!"

Khabib snickered. "Listen kiddo, you must be new here. 'Round these parts, the only bounty hunters are the Reznikovs, ya hear? So when you say you're a bounty hunter, it sounds like you think you're part of the gang!"

The larger hunter smirked. "Only we can't have random Johnnys goin' around sayin' they're Reznikovs, right? Bad for the image. So I think we're gonna have to teach you a lesson about respectin' your elders!"

Lee stared at the two men flatly for about ten seconds. "Are you serious."

Khabib pulled out a pair of knives, his grin suddenly vicious. "As a heart attack."

Lee sighed, rolling his eyes as he pulled out his sword. So much for laying low.

[pepsi]

"I don't know! I only know their name..." The man replied, just a few moments after. Jillian looked annoyed, but she wouldn't pass up on the opportunity to learn more. She waited, until he finally said: "The Reznikov. Their name... they're the Reznikov."
Jillian nodded, realising that all the information the man could provide was finally exhausted. Matthew, on the other hand, was rather dumbfunded by the girl's actions: did she really only care about them, and not his cousin? Unbelievable.

The two spent a few more minutes chatting, and in the end Matthew decided it was time to get something to drink. He was less and less fond of the girl as time passed, but maybe his last hope could have been getting something to drink that would make her more... disposed.

Jillian and Matthew eventually found an inn not far away from his cousin's house. They entered and, after ordering a single pint of beer - since Jillian didn't want anything, much to Matthew's dismay - they sat at the first available table.
It didn't take much for action to happen, as is usually the case in such places. Two men, quite shady looking people, approached the table right next to Jillian's and threatened the sole customer.

"Did they just mention the Reznikov...?" Jillian voiced in her mind, right after the fight broke out. Matthew on the other hand started gathering his things in order to get up. "Jill, come with me! What are you doing?!" He was very evidently scared by the situation; Jillian on the other hand seemed more interested in looking at what would happen next, and didn't even reply. "Jillian!" The man called again, and again he received no response.
He looked at her for the last time: long, flowing black hair; a black, very light undershirt and black tight pants of the same fabric. She would've been a dream, but he could not put up with it.

"That's it," he said, amid the fear and the disappointment, "I'm through with you. I'm out of here." Having declared this, he turned around and disappeared from sight. Jillian, on the other hand, reclined in her seat and watched the fight unfold.

[Mr. Moon]

Reznikov Family #2 (NPC) 

Both Chuck and Khabib had especially bad day. They were young, not only by their age, but also as the members of the Reznikov. They were both eager to prove themselves to their bosses, so it was huge blow to their self-esteem when they learned that the three brothers didn´t include them in some super secret job of theirs that made the whole city talking about them. So they decided to drown their sorrow in the bottle, or rather many bottles, when they overheard conversation of two yokels about new bounty hunter who entered the town just today. Both of them immediately realized, that if they got rid of any potential competition they may get favor from the three brothers and so they tracked the intruder down to nearby inn.

Well to be completely honest, they were disappointed by his look simply because their vision of independent Bounty Hunter was someone like Fedor or at least Alekander and not this little shrimp who looked small even compared to Ivan.

Both Khabib and Chuck were bounty hunters only by name. They were more thugs than anything used to intimidate local yokels not fight against real warriors and so they started flexing on him from the very beginning.

When Lee decided to retaliate and pulled sword on them, they looked at each other and started laughing, only to pull single gun each on him in return.

“Hey kid do you really thing it´s a good idea to bring this stupid toy into gunfight?”

Chuck tried to paraphrase this old joke, while Khabib nodded his shaved head.

“Yeah, be a good boy and drop it on the ground so we can beat you up nice and clean. Or would you rather prefer to be shot?”

[Aromancer]

Lee couldn't help himself; he snickered. Who did these jokers think they were? It was clear that they were just some overconfident imbeciles who thought they could make a name for themselves by beating him up.

"Alright gents," he said, brandishing his blade defensively. "If you're such a big deal, why don't you tell me what's the biggest bounty you've ever claimed?"

"W-well we-" said Khabib, stuttering just a little bit.

"We just ain't had the chance to prove ourselves yet!" Chuck cried out. "Heh... heh heh heh... lucky you, you'll be our first kill!"

Lee smirked. "Well, unfortunately for you two, ya boy is a law-abiding citizen who doesn't have a bounty just yet. But seeing as I took down a fishman worth 18 mil, how's about we count it as an even 20?" He neglected to mention that he'd lost handily to a captain worth 30 million, or even that he'd had help with the fishman; it didn't seem terribly relevant, and anyway, looking back he was pretty sure he could beat Kratos one-on-one nowadays.

Chuck seemed a little nervous, but Khabib merely laughed. "C'mon, man! He's clearly bluffing! How could this shrimp beat a fishman captain?"

Chuck nodded. "Yeah... yeah! Quit tryin' to scare us, man! Ain't no getting out of what we're gonna do to-"

The large man didn't even get a chance to finish his statement. Getting hit on the back of the head with the blunt end of a seastone sword at blinding speeds has a tendency to shut a guy up.

"Ch-Chuck!" Khabib cried, jumping back as his friend fell over. "Why you... you're gonna-"

WHACK.

Khabib crumpled to the floor with his bounty hunting companion. Lee sighed, sheathing his blade once again.

"Couldn't bring myself to kill them," he said, grabbing his drink from the counter and taking a swig, before setting it back down and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "They're just misguided, is all." He glanced over at Jillian, a slightly annoyed look on his face. "And what're you looking at?"

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 1 // PRICELESS

The fight was well over before she could even say "money". The harassed man had been putting up with the antics of the two bounty hunters for too long, it seemed, and after revealing himself to be a bounty hunter - and, Jillian thought, a much better one than them in every conceivable way - he ended the hostility with a quick two-strike assault. Then, as if those two were nothing, he went back to his beverage.

But then, he decided to also call out the girl that had been staring at him the whole time. Jillian, completely unfazed, had better things to do than respond to a borderline rude call out.
"They were Reznikov." That is all she said. Not a word more, not a word less. And it might've been obvious, given that he had been part of the conversation too, but the obvious wasn't meant by Jillian. What she should have said was: "I needed them because I'm looking for the Reznikov." She definitely wanted to do such a thing, but there was nothing in her brain that sparked the connection between her head and her mouth.

Eventually, after a few seconds of staring into the man's eyes, she said it. "The Reznikov have something I want." Opposite with respect to the previous sentence, there was nothing more she should've added. "Are you a Reznikov?" She asked. Now again, there was something quite obvious in her statement that concealed the true meaning of the statement.
Of course she knew he wasn't, but what she needed to know was that he, at least, would have some connection to them. Unconscious men couldn't tell her anything, anyways.

-- NAME // Jillian Nexus

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Mr. Moon]

Reznikov Family #3 (NPC) 

If the two Reznikov wannabe had a bad day, even with all that beating and humiliation from Viper, it was nothing when compared with Vilem´s feelings right at the moment.

Vilem was no fighter. Actually he was the most ordinary guy, anyone could even imagine. Around 180 cm high, in his early forties, slightly overweight with short brown hair that were slowly turning into silver. He was married with women, he liked. They had three, already almost adult children together and...he was owner of that Inn.

The inn he owned was running in their family already for three generations with his eldest son being the fourth one. The inn was his whole life...literally. He was born in it, raised in it, learned everything he knew in it and he intended to die in it as well. He loved his job and to be able to do it, he did many things that someone else could consider to be...little shady. Paying regular protection money to the Reznikovs was one of them. And now...some one one just burst in and beat two of their lackeys.

“Are you completely mad?”

Even through he never really fought in his whole life Vilem straightened himself to his full height and rushed to Viper with heavy mug in his right hand.

“Do you have any idea? What you just did and to whom? Do you have any idea what their bosses are going to do to me because of this?”
His voice was little jumpy as if he was on the verge of hysteria.

“Get out...get out of my inn now, or I will call the guard!”
His left hand pointed to the exist, while he raised the mug in right one as if prepared to punch Lee with it.

[Aromancer]

Lee looked down at the innkeeper's mug, grabbing it right out of his hands and bringing it to his lips. He took a big gulp of the liquid inside, wiping his mouth on his sleeve as he handed it back to the man. "Listen bud, if you're seriously scared of those jokers, I dunno what to tell ya. But if their bosses come around, you just tell them to come find me and I'll take care of it."

He turned to look back at Jillian. "Chatty sort, aren't ya?" He asked, smirking slightly at his joke. "Sorry, but I dunno what a "Reznikov" is. Tell you what, though, soon as these fine gentlemen wake up they're all yours. Might need a little help with interrogations, though, if you're gonna keep being such a chatterbox."

With that, he headed for the door. He could tell when he wasn't welcome, and he got the feeling now was one of those times. He was about done here, anyways. He flipped the innkeep a few berri for the meal and the drink and walked out, looking for somewhere else to stay the night.

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 1 // PRICELESS

Jillian looked at the bartender come rushing towards the self-proclaimed bounty hunter. It looked rather distressed, although Jillian didn't pay much attention to what he said; for the remainder of the conversation between the two, she just crouched next to the unconscious bodies and looked for any clue that might lead her somewhere.

Before the bounty hunter took his leave, she decided she had to take advantage of the situation until the very end. Disregarding the cries of the bartender, she picked up one of the two thugs - for a girl her size, she was quite strong - and quickly walked past the door. "Hey!" She called, hoping to catch the swordsman's attention.
She definitely got some attention, rushing out of a pub carrying an unconscious guy on her shoulder.

"I need help... yes, I need help for the interrogation." The swordsman did give her a very good idea with his suggestion, and since he mentioned that she would've needed some help with it, she wasn't going to let it slide just yet. Maybe he was joking, but she was awful at detecting sarcasm. "What I'm looking for is valuable. Enough to keep a whole city under the grasp of the Reznikov."
It was almost a miracle how much she had to talk just to get her point across, and she absolutely hated it. "If you help me... we can talk about splitting the money."

What the thug saw when he opened up his eyes was just the sea, a shore, and the set of ropes that tied him tight to a chair. Jillian was sitting on the sand, looking impatient for him to wake up; her gaze was very focused, as if she was sent into a trance. A trance was probably actually what she was drifting into, judging from how her head wobbled up and down. When he finally opened his eyes and she was made aware, she immediately stood up.

"You," she started, walking around the chair, "are you a Reznikov?". Jillian stopped, and looked at him into the eyes with her characteristic frowning expression.

"Tell me where they are."

-- NAME // Jillian Nexus

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Mr. Moon]

Reznikov Family (NPC) #4 

The Innkeeper was watching the Lee and Jillien as if they were completely crazy, especially after Viper took the mug from his hand and drank from it as if it was his own.

“What...are you two completely mad?”
He expressed his thoughts verbally after snatching the mug from Lee´s hands again.

“Do you have any idea who the Reznikov´s are? They are not normal humans they are beasts in human skin and when they´ll find out what you did just now, they will turn this city upside down before making examples of you!”

With that he quickly turned around and walked away as if he wanted to show everyone around that he has nothing to do with the two of them.

---

When Khabib finally woke up after his humiliating defeat from Viper´s hands, he saw nothing except the sea, the shore and many ropes that were used to tie him to the chair he was sitting on.

“What´s the meaning of this, hey! What do you think you are doing?!”
He yelled immediately with mixture of anger and fear in his voice. Than he noticed Jillien and her question and regained his lost confidence once again.
“If I am Reznikov?”
Khabib asked with smug tone.

“Of course I am Reznikov! I am like sworn brother to Aleksander, the middle brother, so if you don´t release me right now, they will...they will”

Defeated once again, this time by his own lack of imagination he stopped for a moment, before yelling

“skin you alive? Do you hear me?!”
He tried to fight the ropes but they were too hard even for his unusually high strength.

“Where they are?”
He repeated Nexus´s question.
“The better question is where they aren´t, because Reznikovs are everywhere! The whole city is their territory and with the new thing they got the whole city will soon belongs to them!”

[Aromancer]

Lee merely smirked at the innkeeper's words. "Listen up, old man," he said to him, "These Rez-nee-kovs can try to come at me as hard as they like! But Viper Lee ain't going down without a fight!" The easy win had gotten him some confidence back, bringing with it some of his zeal.

As he moved to leave, the quiet woman spoke to him once again. He sighed, turning to face her, the cocky smirk gone now. "I was joking, you know. But alright, if what you're looking for is really so important, I guess I could work with you on this one. But seeing as how I'm the one who apprehended the criminal, will be doing most of the questioning during the interrogation, and has no personal investment in this island or its criminal underbelly and is thus working exclusively for pay, I'll naturally be taking most of the dosh for myself. Say, 70 percent?"

He had to admit though, if nothing else, the chick was good with knots. Lee stood, impressed, as she got started on the interrogation.

Oh. Oh, Lord. She was a complete novice at this, wasn't she. Alright, he could probably save this; Lee had gone to the Marine Academy for four years, and he'd picked up a thing or two about proper interrogation techniques.

"You better watch yourself around my friend, here," Lee said, placing his arm on Jillian's shoulder and attempting to fit into the role of the Good Cop. "She's the impatient sort. I got no idea what she might do to you if you don't talk."

Getting the guy to talk seemed easy enough. He was flapping his gums so fast Lee could barely keep up! "New 'thing?' What 'thing' is this, exactly?" Suddenly he was significantly more concerned; he might have a hint of an idea of what it was.

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 1 // PRICELESS

The man didn't quite reply with the kind of information that the girl hoped for. Somewhere in her mind, she couldn't tell if it was just a matter of him not understanding her question, or something else entirely. She was just about to ask the same question again, when the worst possible thing happened.

She felt a sudden weight press on her shoulder, and something in her brain fired unexpectedly.

"ACK!"

She retracted, jumping almost a meter away from Lee and sprawling on the sand. She rolled around in the sand to face the source of such pressure, finding it to be none other than her unlikely partner in crime. Her expression, characteristically frowning, had become a snarl of actual rage.

She got up, huffing and puffing in some kind of badly controlled child-like fit. Ever since she was born, she had a very odd relationship with being touched, grazed, or having any sensorial stimulus of that kind. she didn't like it, she didn't like it one bit. Every single time she felt as if even wearing her skin was uncomfortable.
With a fist full of sand, she scrubbed the touched shoulder. The only way to make the bad feeling go away was to initiate the act of touching herself: press, scrub, or rub something on her skin.

But alas, her nerves had been riled up. She clenched her fists, looking at Lee; her left fist charged for an attack: the hand, however, never went for the swordsman.
Her knuckles smacked only the tied up man's face. However, that was a very firm statement from her - since her eyes never stopped pointing at Lee.

"I don't like talking..." she said, turning to the self-proclaimed Reznikov. "Tell me where they are, or I'll throw you in the ocean."

-- NAME // Jillian Nexus

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Mr. Moon]

Reznikov Family #5 (NPC) 

Watching the two bounty hunters Khabib found again his previously lost courage. When Lee touched Jillian´s shoulder and she jumped away like scared cat his eyes widen and he start to laugh.

“Impatient indeed.”

He said between fits of laughter.

“So let me guess, you are the good cop and she is the scared one? Oh man, you two have no idea what did you stick your nose into, right?”

Said Khabib, looking at Lee whom he considered to be the weaker link of that two. After all, courageous or not, that girl was giving him weird vibes, so even through it was very atypical for him, he rather looked that the young guy who was with her.

“Well listen up kid, you maybe beat some low level pirates so you think you are the biggest s**t around but we Reznikovs are the real deal, do you understand? We are hunting pirates that would give not you, but your grandchildren nightmares if you only saw them with the corner of your eyes. There is so many of us that we basically run this place and once Fedor´ll eat that fruit, we...”

Khabib suddenly stopped his speech. Not because he would realize that he said too much. He wasn´t smart enough to figure out that much, but because Jillian´s fist hit his face, breaking his nose in the process.

“Uaaaaaaaaa, you crazy ****, you broke my nose?! Uaaaaa my nose! My nose! You broke it! Just wait when Alexander will learn about it, he will beat you so hard that you will wish to be dead!”

Obviously one punch from her was enough to shatter his newly found courage together with his cool.

[Aromancer]

Lee stared back and forth between Jillian and Khabib, absolutely dumbfounded by this point. That she could be so singularly awful at interrogations... and he could be so breathtakingly dimwitted that he'd tell them everything they needed to know regardless...

"Wow. Wow, okay. Wow, jeez. Wow." He put his head in his hands, groaning as he felt a migraine coming on. "Alright... Khabib, was it?" He rubbed his temples for a minute before looking him dead in the eyes. "Full confession: I had a bad read on my partner. I thought she could be the bad cop, but clearly that's not her deal. So I'm not gonna bother being the good cop, either. Tell me where we can find this "Fedor" guy, or I'll cram my sword so far down your throat you'll look like a human coat rack!"

Fedor clearly had a devil fruit, and Lee got the feeling he knew the guy it had come from. Honestly, he felt a little bad retrieving that dude's money, considering all the grief he was now causing Lee, but he stood by the idea that he'd done the right thing.

No, right now his main worry was his "partner;" Jillian was obviously very far along the spectrum, and he was a little worried that she wouldn't be able to handle herself in a fight, especially if a light touch was all it took to cause her to jump away in fear. He walked away to talk to her out of earshot of the prisoner. "Hey," he murmured, "what's your plan once we find these guys? We taking them down or what?"