As soon as the trio got back to home base, all three were called to the Captain's office. Reina looked to the two officers, confusion evident in her honey brown eyes. David and Jack both put on their best blank faces and started to walk to their superior's office.
"Hey, where do I put this guy, I don't know where the stockade is!" Reina complained to the Marines. To drive her point home, she unceremoniously swung the chain with the still unconscious bandit over her head and slammed him face first into the ground. David thought about it a moment and went to take the chain out of Reina's hand.
He pulled the end of the chain up to a stone brick wall and pointed at the wall with his finger. "Shigan,". A small cloud of dust erupted from the point of contact and the end of the chain was now buried in the stone wall. David dusted off his hands, gave the chain a yank to be sure it would hold, and resumed walking back to the other two marines. "I think he'll be fine there, we are in a Marine base right?" He said with a relaxed smile. With that the group continued their walk to meet the Captain.
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The three Marines waited patiently outside the office. David was leaned up against the wall, head titled down, snoring quietly. Jack was standing at attention, right next to the door while Reina was seated on a bench beside the Lieutenant. A bored expression on her face showed exactly what she thought of this meaningless waiting. Looking up at the stoic swordsmen, she decided to ask a question that had been bugging her. "Why did you guys let me claim that bounty?" She seemed a bit suspicious, if not accusatory, but Jack didn't seem to mind her tone. He glanced out the corner of his eyes at her, folded his arms, and let out a sigh.
"Have you ever heard of Rokushiki?" He asked in a serious tone. Reina shook her head, never before having heard of that term. Mulling over the word, she translated it and spoke it out loud to herself.
"The Six Powers? Never heard of it. Is it some kind of organization or something?" Jack smirked a bit and whispered a word too quite for anyone to hear. He jumped into the air and just as he was about to fall back to earth, pushed off the air with another jump and went even higher. Placing his feet on the ceiling he jumped back towards the ground flipped over and landed next to the shocked Reina.
"That is Geppo, one of the Six Powers." He relaxed his stance and leaned back up against the wall. "There are five other powers that can be learned. What I just used Geppo, or Moon Step allows the user to jump off the air itself. David can use all of the Six Powers, which in of itself is no short of extraordinary If you payed attention you should have noticed it on a few occasions."
Reina thought back to when she first met the Commander. "Soru" And David disappearing and reappearing directly in front of her. The fight with the bandits. "Tekkai." All of the bandits weapons deflecting away from him and jarring their arms. David firing a blue blast of energy from his legs. Seeing him jump high into the air to fire another blast of blue energy at the bandit leader. "Shigan" and forcing the chain into the wall with a single finger. She thought about it and it all seemed to make sense, but that's only five. "What's the sixth power called?" Jack smirked again and gave her an approving look.
"Already figured out what the other five are, eh?" I must say that I'm impressed that someone at the rank of Seaman Recruit could figure all of that out so quickly. How are you still that low in rank anyways?" He asked with lopsided eyebrows.
Reina started to panic a bit at his question, but hid it behind an annoyed mask. "Hey, I'm the one asking the questions here guido, so stay off my case!" She slid farther the bench and crossed her arms in anger. "Anyway, you still haven't answered my first question, Liutentant." She growled at him. Her outburst seemed to have no affect on Jack at all and he thought back to her original question.
"If you want the nice answer, it's because we thought someone like you could use the berri and the fame. But if you want the real answer, it's because Commander David likes it here in the lower ranks. How do you think I raised through the ranks so quickly after becoming an ensign? He enjoys being on the battlefield with the non-coms. He likes being one of the guys, not sitting at a desk signing papers and going to meetings. Also... it's because he's lazy." He said with a bit of venom, directing the last bit at the still dozing Commander.
David's snoring stopped abruptly and he opened up one eye. He looked at Jack with a frown on his face then shrugged his shoulders and put his hands behind his head. "Sure, I'll claim all of that. Anyways, it's worked so far hasn't?" He grinned a little. "After all, I'm still here right?" He then put on a straight face and straightened out his jacket. "I guess we should probably go in there and get this over with. Hopefully she has cooled down some now and won't be too cross with me. Plus if we don't hurry, we'll miss dinner!" And with that he pushed the door open and came to attention with a smart salute, Jack and Reina shortly followed suit. Reina's eyes bored holes into the back of her Commander's head as she realized the long wait could've easily been avoided.
Sitting at the desk was a newly promoted Captain Tashigi. Pushing up her glasses she saluted back. Rustling through some papers she drew out a wanted poster and slapped it on the table. It was a picture of Yareej Abershaw with DEAD or ALIVE and 12,000,000 berris written underneath. "So who captured the bandit chained to the wall outside?" When no one answered, David sat down on a comfy looking chair and motioned over his shoulder at Reina.
"Seaman Recruit Reina Chase apprehended the bandit just outside of the pub in town ma'am." With that he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. After sending him a disapproving glare, Captain Tashigi looked through some more papers and came up with a list of marines under her command. She furrowed her brow and glanced up at the now relaxed David.
"Commander, I don't see anyone by that name here. Care to explain?" She seemed to already know what he was going to say, but seemed more annoyed than angry. Without changing his current position, he pointed at Jack and continued to nap.
"Captain, we both agreed that a battlefield commission was in order for Reina Chase. She showed great skill and bravery during the fight and we believe that she should be promoted higher based on her strength alone. However we chose to promote her to Seaman Recruit just until you can give her an official promotion. It was not our intention to usurp your authority ma'am." With the formalities out of the way, Jack stepped back and relaxed on a couch. The raven haired Captain now turned her attention to Reina. She stood up out of her chair and adorned her pink Captain's jacket. She then pulled her sword out of it's sheathe and pointed it at Reina.
Reina seemed a bit confused and on the verge of putting up her angry face, so David pulled on her sleeve and whispered, "Take a knee Red, otherwise we'll be hear all day." Quickly Reina went down on one knee and lowered her head. The cold steel of the Captain's sword tapped her on both shoulders once and was quickly sheathed.
Captain Tashigi cleared her throat and announced, "Rise, Warrant Officer Reina Chase and be recognized." Jack did a crisp salute as did the Captain. David merely hung his hand above his head and waved. Reina and Captain Tashigi both gave him a dirty look, while Jack simply smirked.
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The three squad mates shuffled through the dinner line, picking up various fruits and meats. As they took their trays to an empty table, Reina continued to talk to Jack. "So you told me about five of the powers, but what's the last one?" They all sat down and relaxed on the picnic style table. Unexpectedly, David was the one to answer.
"It's called kami-e. By completely relaxing your body, the user is able to sway with an opponent's attacks and avoid being hit. Personally, I find Tekkai more useful though." As he was about to engulf a handful of blueberries, a marine cried out "Commodore on deck!"
As one, the relaxing marines jumped to attention and saluted. As the trio looked towards the line they saw a tall man making his way down the lunch line. He had long, straight black hair that hanged down to the middle of his back, with some of his hair obscuring his face. His skin was pale, which contrasted with his black suit and silver tie. He was also wearing a pair of white gloves and a black fedora. Over all of this he wore an officer's jacket with black shoulder pads, instead of the usual blue ones. His eyes scanned the food in the line and became very angry when he saw that someone had taken the last of the blueberries. He turned to look at the still saluting marines and his gray eyes scanned over all of their frightened faces. Seeing a pair of scarlet eyes stare back at him with a look of boredom caused him to walk towards the table. All of the marines in his way quickly moved to the side. He stopped when he reached the bored Commander, looking down at him, a scowl evident on his face.
"Do you know who I am, Marine?" The imposing commodore asked with a growl in his voice. Obviously he was giving the Commander a chance to redeem himself for his attitude, but the albino officer didn't seem to catch on. David dropped his hand and put them in his jacket's pockets. Many of the marines paled, as relaxing before an "adies" was given showed a great amount of disrespect. The towering Commodore also noticed this, a vein started to bulge on his forehead and his frown deepened. David looked up and smiled in a friendly manner.
"Yeah, you're Commodore Chiaki, head of this base sir." Commodore Chiaki's hand unconsciously rested on the black and gold hilt of his sword. He stared down at the still smiling Commander and was about to say something else when he noticed the pile blueberries on David's plate. His eyes widened considerably. The Commodore's expression instantly changed from angry to hungry. He pulled an orange from his tray and eyed the blueberries, his face thoughtful.
"Would you trade your blueberries for my orange?" The entire assembly of marines fell on their backs, many seemingly to have fainted. David looked confused for a second, then nodded, smiled and held out the handful of blueberries. In a flash the pile of delicious blue spheres were replaced by the single orange and without a further word, Commodore Chiaki swiftly left the cafeteria.
Smiling, David began to peal the orange with his hands like nothing had happened in the first place. Reina's angry shout pierced the silence of the food court. "You complete idiot! Don't you realized that you just disrespected the most powerful Marine on this base? Seriously, what were you thinking!?" Her face was red from rage and Jack calmly grabbed the back of her jacket to keep her from pouncing on the now depressed commander.
"Yeah, what was I thinking? I could've gotten more than just one measly orange for all those blueberries." He stopped as a thought came to him. "I know! I'll just go back to the line and get some more!" Fueled by his genius scheme he hurried to the line, only to find that all of the blueberries were gone! Appalled by his loss he dropped his head and a dark cloud rested over him. "I didn't even get to eat one." While he was still depressed, Reina finally broke free of Jack's grasp and threw a handful of mashed potatoes at the commander. Without looking, David's body swayed out of the way and the airborne potatoes hit another marine straight in the face. David looked up when he heard the splat and an evil grin spread across his face. Grabbing a whole armful of tomatoes he crowed in joy, "FOOD FIGHT!" In an instant chaos erupted in the cafeteria. Food went airborne and many of the tables were turned over to create makeshift barriers. It quickly became a grudge match between enlisted marines, led by David and Jack, and the non-comms, under the command of Reina. As pastries and potatoes continued to fly, an annoyed Commodore Chiaki walked back into the cafeteria, muttering to himself.
"I forgot to get some milk, seriously, what was I thinking? Of course apple juice wouldn't go with blueberries and I forgot to get some sugar to put on them." He made his way through the chaos of the food fight, effortlessly avoiding the various projectiles. Picking up a glass of milk and grabbing a small sack of sugar, he walked back out without even glancing at the childish antics of the marines.
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A few moments later, the trio was again waiting outside the Captain's office, this time covered with various types of consumable material. Someone had nailed Reina pretty good with a couple of tomatoes and Jack looked like he had walked under an orange juice waterfall. David on the other hand was relatively clean. The other two did little to hide their looks of jealousy at his clean attire. After a pause Reina, again, broke the silence, "Seriously, how did you not get hit once? I had like three other people focus all of their fire on you." It seemed her pride was hurt from losing the Great Food War of Dinner. David laughed and feigned dodging imaginary projectiles.
"I told you, it's called kami-e, Red." He dodged a slap from the angry Warrant Officer and laughed as she kept trying to hit him and he kept dodging. This further infuriated Reina.
"And I told you to stop calling me Red!" She unleashed a barrage of blows at the Commander, which he dodged with a smile on his face. Deciding to change tactics, Reina brought a leg back and kicked right between David's legs. He cringed and rolled up into the fetal position on the floor, tears flowing from his eyes. Reina smirked with satisfaction and sat down just as Captain Tashigi opened the door to admit them. Motioning Jack and Reina in, she completely ignored the suffering albino officer on the floor and Reina shut the door in his face with her tongue poking out.
"Doesn't matter, my team still won." Moaned the white haired teen, as he continued to roll around on the floor in an attempt to ease his suffering.
As Reina and Jack relaxed in a few chairs, Captain Tashigi read them their mission statement. "I am to dispatch a group of Marines under the command of Commodore Chiaki to meet at an island off the coast of Navy HQ to rendezvous with Admiral Kizaru and a platoon of Marines. Then you will travel with them to their destination and meet with a pirate that is eligible to fill a position as Warlord. Understood?" Both of the Marines nodded their confirmation, but Jack had a question written plainly on his face and Captain Tashigi nodded for him to voice his concern.
"Ma'am, why are so many Marines needed to meet with a pirate? I know that we need Warlords to fill in the positions of the deceased and traitors, but isn't that something for the Fleet Commander to worry about?" The question was a reasonable one, but the answer wasn't.
Captain Tashigi stood up and turned to look out her office's window. "The pirate in question specifically asked an audience to be there for his "coronation". Since we can't send a whole base without compromising an area, command has seen fit to send marines from various bases to be this pirate's "audience". I guess since we are already three Warlords down, they would do anything to get a strong enough pirate to join up. The strange part is how they met him. Somehow he tapped into HQ's transponder snails and demanded to become a Warlord. When they tracked the signal and sent a group of Pacifista's to deal with the problem, they were destroyed. Anyone with the power to destroy multiple of those machines is someone we want on our side." Jack was shocked, but Reina didn't seem to understand even what a Pacifista was. David had finally recovered and crawled onto a couch in the office. He spoke with a serious face.
"Those machines are based off the most loyal Warlord to the Marines, Bartholemew Kuma. Just two of those machines were sent to a Buster Call on the Seabody Achipelego. The time it took to clear out the area took less than half the time it normally takes for a Buster Call to complete it's mission. It is also rumored that just one of those things was strong enough to defeat a number of the Supernovas who were there." He looked up and he wasn't smiling. "Now do you understand? Those things were created for the sole purpose of destroying powerful pirates."
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On a flying ship, in the middle of a thunderstorm over the ocean.
A few men in white robes were bowing to a figure in shadow atop a throne. One of the worshipers approached the figure and whispered into his ear. "The Marines have sent the location of the meeting place. They say that you will have your audience and your title, as requested Lord." The acolyte bowed his head and retreated back to the rest of the followers. The figure stood up and raised a gold staff to the sky and brought it down on the floor. As if in answer, thunder shook the sky and lighting crackled in unison. A smirked adorned the mysterious figures face and he spoke.
"Of course they'll give me what I want. Who would say "no" to God?"
