Chapter 2

The man slowly opens his eyes only to cry out and shield them with a hand, the sunlight like a spear to his skull. A frantic chirping grabs the man's attention and squinting makes out a white... rooster?

"Gagh!" he coughs up blood and starts convulsing, the pain all over his torso almost unbearable. He struggles to breathe properly as if his lungs are filling up with water. With a herculean amount of willpower he forces himself to sit up, causing him to expel an unsettling amount of blood from his lungs. He struggles to hold himself up, not willing to repeat the near-drowning like experience again.

Slowly taking a deep breath he automatically adjusts a cap on his head only to wince as he brushes against the wound on his temple. Taking in his surroundings he can make out that he was on a beach, and from the vegetation could determine that he was on a tropical island.

A sharp jab at his elbow brings him back to the rooster.

"Ouch! What the hell, ja?" He glares at it, not understanding why but it seemed to remind him of someone irritating. Trying to recall who, he's startled to realize...

That he has no memory of who he is. The man concentrates, scrunching his eyes closed from the effort.

Let's start with something simple... What is my name? My name. My name is...K-K-

"Kaku!" he shouts. Grinning at the small victory he tries further. With no more results.

"I suppose I should be lucky that I know what a name even is." he muses out loud. "Better yet that I can comprehend that I have no memory, ja." He turns to the rooster.

"Chirp!" it replies. If Kaku doesn't know better, he'd say the thing has just insulted him. He shoos it off him, much to its annoyance as he slowly rises off the ground with the aid of a boulder next to him. Something clatters at his feet and looking down sees two swords. For an unknown reason he feels compelled to pick them up and turning around notices a small path in the jungle.

He heads towards it, only to hear the frantic flapping of wings and a weight settle on his shoulder.

"And what makes you think I'll let you come with me?"

The bird just gives him a "Don't-take-me-and-I'll-annoy-the-living-hell-out-of-you" look.

With a sigh the swordsman heads off to find civilization.

Back to CP9

The group of ex-assassins were leaving the shores of St. Poplar far behind on the horizon on a pirate ship they have claimed.

Earlier

The bowling match isn't really much of a competition. Every member gets a strike, effortlessly hurling the bowling ball down the lane to practically explode like a cannonball complete with a cloud of dust and bits of pins flying everywhere.

"Yosh! Watch this all of you, this is how a master does it." Jyabura holds his ball up and cleans it with a towel, all attention focused on the prey (pins) at the end, his tongue sticks out from the smile on his face.

Blueno is tallying the score (again, all strikes so its really a wasted effort) when a ruckus in the background catches his attention.

"-Candy Pirates have taken a bunch of hostages at the docks. They're threatening to kill one for every hour we delay giving them all the money in our banks!"

Blueno puts down the scoreboard. "Lucci!" The others stop at his tone as the leopard-man turns to him.

"Pirates have taken hostages at the harbor."

His eyes narrow at 'pirates'. It was their civic duty to defend the innocent from the scum.

Grumbling, Jyabura drops his ball on the ball racks on the way out, the bowling alley owner collapsing in relief. If the group had continued he feared he would've needed to get a new wall!

Lucci walks up to a police officer. "Which way to the docks?"

The man startles as a civilian tall and slim man with a closely shaved goatee and … a pigeon on his shoulder confront him.

"I don't know who you are young man but if you haven't heard the docks are overrun with—"

"Which way to the docks?"

Sweating bullets the officer swallows a lump in his throat and points with a shaky finger, too intimidated to actually speak. On their way out he can hear them arguing.

"Oi, I got dibs on the captain, you hear me, Monster-Cat?" Jyabura shoots at Lucci as they rush to the scene.

"As if you could handle it, Half-Breed Mutt." he replies coldly.

"The hell'd you say?"

"Now's not the time to be arguing you two," Blueno intervenes.

Jyabura is about to retort when they stop within sight of the docks on a roof. The group all switch to assassin mode, assessing the situation.

There are thirty-four hostages total, the pirate crew penning them in like sheep with guns and cutlasses trained on them. The crew itself range from eighty to 130, the captain in full view.

The boat itself is a decent size, a piece of candy with empty eyes for the mast head. The captain is a pompous, ugly man with a beer gut, a fancy coat and clutches a bottle of alcohol in one hand while he holds a sword in the other. To top it off, on either side of his head are a bun wrapped similarly to a piece of hard candy with the rest of his hair down.

Lucci breaks the silence. "You all know what to do...soru!"

As bystanders and pirates watch a group of six people appear out of thin air. The captain chokes on his drink as they continue pacing froward slowly.

"Oh ho, looks like you all want to die that badly huh?," he slurs. "Fine, I'll oblige ya'! Scotch! Pepper Mintle!" Two men appear and charge at the group of elites and are immediately thrown backwards, one taking a blow from Kumadori's staff and the other from Kalifa's kick.

"That's sexual harassment," she informs the one named Scotch who had charged at her, his hair and wardrobe's color scheme similar to that of butter yellow.

"H-how so?" he gasps before blacking out. At the same time Lucci continues walking and nonchalantly kicks the captain in the face and out of his way, stepping on him without a glance. The remaining five pounce on the buccaneers and through them to the remainders on deck. The citizens cheer as they witness their saviors jump in midair and cut the scum with the air itself.

A gurgling sound draws Lucci's attention. "You goddamn brats...! Do you know who I am? As soon as I get another crew I'll kill every last one of these people-"

C R U N C H!

The cheering halts and women scream as Lucci carelessly pulls his foot out of the captain's skull, leaving a grotesque shape akin to his boot in it as blood pools around him.

The citizens flee the area, not taking too well to his 'Excessive Justice!' as the newspapers will later report. The group are left alone in a silence unsettlingly similar to Enies Lobby after the Buster Call, the natives fearing them too much now.

None of them speak. "...We cannot remain in this town..." Lucci states.

Jyabura grabs his head. "Dammit, and I was actually enjoying myself here!"

Behind him Kumadori was mimicking his posture although a smile was present upon his face. The rest were turned, facing the town they had come to fondly enjoy. Suddenly a little girl appears in front of Kalifa, one of the hostages she had saved just as a pirate was about to skewer her. In her small hands she holds a beautiful flower.

She walks forward boldly and presents it to Kalifa. "Onee-chan, this is for you. Its the prettiest flower on the island, just like you!" she smiles brightly.

Jyabura, Kumadori and Fukuro are behind Kalifa in an instant, terrified of how the woman will react. Most likely she'll accuse the girl of sexual harassment and kick her to death (unintentionally of course). Kalifa leans forward and they panic, Jyabura's arms reach out ready to grab the woman as she... crouches down to the girl's eye level smiling, brushing her hair behind her shoulder and takes the flower with a smile of her own.

"Thank you, little one." she says, a totally different sentence than what the three are expecting.

The child happily skips away and her mother appears and grabs the girl, fleeing.

The group then turn back to the pirate ship and kick off the unconscious members and set sail for their homeland, the island where future generations of CP9 were trained.

Kalifa holds the flower close and smells its sweet aroma.

It isn't much but things like this are what they truly protect in the end for the sake of justice...