The crashing of bottles and the screams of grown men emanated from a tavern as two drunks were thrown out one of the windows as if they were light as feathers. A muscular man with flaming red hair followed after the disoriented pair, towering over them. Sobering them up with a piercing amber glare, he growled:
"I'll ask one last time. Where the fuck is it?"
Usually, nobody sailing the Grand Line would even consider disembarking on this tiny wooded island that housed only a dock and a few shops. Only recently had it become the center of attention to gangs, bandits and now the Kidd Pirates, who were all competing to rip the fabled Devil's Fruit out of someone's cold dead hands and harness the incredible power for themselves.
"T-There was a fight over it between the local bandits and another pirate crew just off the docks a few days ago," one of the men squirmed, trying to avoid the Captain's menacing eyes. "The pirate ship hasn't left the dock since then, s-so they're likely dead...The bandits use the old lumber mill as their base, b-but there's no telling what they've done with the Devil's Fruit if they have it." The other man nervously nodded his head to verify the statement.
"Now, was that so hard?" Kidd grinned, offering his hand to the talkative man, who cautiously pulled himself up off the ground and quickly limped away. The other man, still quietly bobbing his head, began to shift his weight off the ground before he was sent flying back by the impact of Kidd's foot slamming against his face.
"Killer! Take a few men and meet me at the lumber mill...and grab me a another beer on your way out!" Kidd called into the tavern through the shattered window. He kicked his victim once more in the stomach and started for the woods, leaving a trail of bloody boot-prints behind him.
Just as Kidd's informant had said, the old lumber mill was far from abandoned; even in an area dense with thick-trunked trees, one could hear the trigger-happy firing of flintlocks and the thudding sounds of bodies hitting the creaky wooden floors. Kidd waited to be joined by his masked First Mate and a few other rough-and-tumble men before rushing to join the commotion.
The pirates hacked and slashed their way through the crowd of men that surrounded the building without much effort. In fact, none of the bandits were initiating combat, Killer observed through the holes of his mask: instead, the conflict was focused inside of the mill itself.
"Those idiots fighting amongst themselves? Makes things easier for us," Kidd huffed, a bit disappointed that he wasn't the center of violence. No, that wasn't it, Killer thought. The way the bandits gathered, defending the entrances; rather than keeping intruders from entering, it was as if they were keeping someone from leaving...
As the pirates drew closer to the building, the faint cries radiating from within became clearer and formed into words:
"Find the girl! Don't let her escape!"
"Huh?!" Kidd exclaimed. He stormed over to the mill's front gate and lifted one of its guards by the collar while his crew subdued the others.
"You've got a hold of my Devil's Fruit and you shits are wasting my time by fighting over a girl?!" he roared, eyes flaring. The bandit struggled to escape the pirate's grip, frantically looking over his shoulder as new comrades replaced the fallen ones to defend the entryway.
Suddenly, a large semicircular blade with gear-like spokes sliced through the shoulder of one of the men. The irregular weapon was strapped to the forearm of a girl with long brown hair that was tied back and a scar just under her right eye. It seemed as if she would lose balance under the weight of the blade, but the girl swiftly pivoted on one foot and slashed open the back of a second bandit with an identical blade on her other arm. As the girl continued to swing her blades around, trying to cut a path to her freedom, the Kidd Pirates pondered how a single girl could cause so much commotion.
She's pretty, but not THAT pretty. Why fight over her when you can get yourself a better one on the next island over? Kidd evaluated.
She's good with those blades, but not THAT good. It's just one girl against hordes of men, and she's probably exhausted by now. Killer observed
Why not just kill her, it can't be THAT hard. They both concluded. Kidd began to loosen his grip on the bandit.
"Look, I don't give a shit about the girl- hell, I'll even take her out for you if she's giving you that much trouble. Just hand over the Devil's Fruit and maybe I'll let you live," he declared as the man dropped from the pirate's hold. The bandit hurriedly scrambled to his feet and growled,
"You idiot, the girl IS the fruit! Don't let her escape!"
Kidd's eyes widened and his dark lips curled into a sinister grin as he twisted his body to watch the girl dash past him and head for the woods. He stretched out his arm towards her shrinking silhouette as if he could snatch her from the distant landscape. The knives and guns in each of the bandit's hands began to tremble and pull their owners towards the pirate, who let out a low chuckle:
"Well, this just became a lot more interesting"
Author's Note: I'm not Oda, so I don't own anything from One Piece. Otherwise, enjoy!