- Prologue: Part Two -
The man was relatively tall, disregarding the mountain of mutants and freaks that seemed to inhabit the world, and his tanned skin was muscled and well-toned. His short blue hair was spiked up and a purple headband covered his forehead, framing his dark brown eyes. He was wearing a navy blue jacket, fur lining the collar, with brown shorts tasselled in green, and dark brown boots on his feet. Strangely, he was wearing a set of fingerless gloves that had small metal disks sewn onto the knuckles and the palms had been cut into open circles.
He was lounging on a dark leather sofa, shifting through a small pile of paper he held in his hands. More paper surrounded him on the sofa and even more so was spread across the floor in various sized piles; most of it looked well used. Even as he lounged there, he shifted and placed the paper from his hands to a pile on the backrest beside him, and picked up another pile from where it had been resting at his feet. As his eyes read through the lines, the far door of the room opened to reveal a uniformed man with a cap pulled low on his head.
"Susumu?" he questioned, glancing around the room while trying hard not to look at the man on the sofa. When there was no reply, the man stepped further into the room, cleared his throat, and tried again. "Royal Shichibukai Susumu?"
The man on the sofa jumped at the voice this time, sending paper flying in all directions, as he scrambled to turn around and face the man. After a quick scan of him with delving eyes, he settled back on the sofa with a warm smile plastered on his face; although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Commander, how can I help you?" Susumu asked, leaning back against the back of the sofa, pushing more paper to the floor.
"May I come in?" The Marine Commander asked.
"Well, since you're mostly in already, you might as well complete the journey." Susumu said, gesturing into the room. "I'd offer you a seat, but I fear there is no room to spare."
The Commander looked around the room as he stepped in, carefully avoiding the stacks of paper, and closed the door behind him. "What I am about to say is not to be repeated to any authority, it is of the utmost secrecy." The Commander said, reaching into a pocket on the inside of his jacket.
"I'm sorry?" Susumu said, his smile wavering slightly as he tried to figure out what the man was. However, his unasked question was answered as the man pulled out a bronze emblem shaped in the joined five dots of the world government. "Well, well, well, I haven't had contact with a 'Shadow' for a very long time."
The Shadow smiled slightly as he slipped the emblem back into his pocket. "We aren't sent out very often, certainly not to the same person twice. It seems, however, that you are somewhat of a special case; thanks to your…unique abilities."
Susumu frowned at that but he understood what the man was talking about. "Fair enough, what do the old men want with me this time? I've got other things planned."
It was the Shadow's turn to frown this time, but he let the comment slide. "You should know that a direct order overrides anything you may wish to be doing yourself. Especially when it comes from…" he stopped as Susumu raised a hand.
"Don't spool that at me." Susumu said sternly, a hint of anger on his normally aloof face. "Now get on with it."
Again, the Shadow frowned but continued. "A particular pirate has re-emerged recently into the world of pirating recently and we want you to destroy him and the new crew he is gathering." Susumu raised an eyebrow and the Shadow continued. "He is a very dangerous individual, one who shouldn't be underestimated in the slightest. A number of years ago, he was probably the most dangerous individual in the world; along with his old crew."
"This is starting to sound familiar…" Susumu muttered and started shifting through a pile of paper to his side as the Shadow continued.
"He has already met up with one of his old crew, and it is suspected he will try and meet up with anyone of the others. Should he gain the power he had back then, the world could fall apart at the seams."
"Is this him?" Susumu said, throwing a sketch at the Shadow, who snatched it out of the air with surprising nimbleness. The picture was a sketch of a man's face, blue hair spiked up, clear blue eyes, and a number of small scar-marks running down the side of his face. "Kai Velure, right?" The Shadow nodded and placed the picture on the floor. "We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago; the Fleet Admiral warned us about this guy. As a nice coincidence, he was also about to become my next target."
"Why is that?" the Shadow asked.
"That's my business. Your business just seems to be that I will go after him and his crew as you wish." Susumu stood up and brushed himself down before heading for the door. "You can tell your bosses that I will start immediately." He swung the door open slowly, as not to disturb the paper in the room, and started out before stopping at a cough from the Shadow.
"Clearly, you already know where you are going so I will not need to tell you. However, you must be aware what my bosses will do if you should fail this task."
"I am well aware of the nature of their threats, Shadow. Just be sure no-one gets in my way." Susumu said darkly before the warm smile he had at the beginning of the conversation sprang onto his face again. "Have a nice day, Commander." He stepped out into the hallway and shut the door, leaving the Shadow to sit alone in the dark.
The door from his current quarters led out into a curved hallway, abandoned except for a pair of boys mopping the floor at the far end. Flashing his smile at them, making one of them jump and the other drop his mop in surprise, Susumu turned the other way down the hall and strode quickly towards the set of double doors at the far end. He didn't slow down as he reached it, instead lifting his arms and swinging both doors open before he passed through them.
The doors led to what was the inspection area for troops when the Marine-In-Charge decided they needed one. It was a large open plan room with a white tiled floor and railed balconies running along three sides of the room, the ends disappearing in the fourth wall. With the exception of one man, sat at the far end, the room was completely empty. Susumu's smile flickered but he kept it up as he strode across the room towards its sole inhabitant.
"You!" he called, making the individual jump to his feet and get half way to a salute before freezing, finally looking at who was approaching him. "What is your name…" he paused to look at the rank on his shoulders "…Petty Officer?"
"Sir, Ryan Lockhearth, Sir." Ryan said slowly, clearly unsure how to address the pirate before him.
"Well, Petty Officer Lockhearth, I need you to go and find me a commissioned officer and ask him to meet me at main door to the docks. Be sharp about it." Susumu was all politeness, but the clear order was easy enough to see, even to a Petty Officer. As such, Ryan jumped away and dashed to one of the doors in the back of the room, no doubt aiming to find a higher ranking marine to pass the message on to.
Susumu was in a rush, but he didn't show it as he casually strolled through corridors full of marines, greeting a few of them he knew by name and others by rank. He dodged through people when he needed to, but most of the time the marines, no matter what rank, parted to give him room. Because of this, he reached the door to the docks, just as a Marine Captain stepped up to him.
"Royal Shichibukai Susumu, how may I be of assistance?" He had a stiff voice that made it clear he didn't like talking to a pirate, no matter their role.
"I need someone to fetch my weapon from the armoury, I'm sure you're aware of which one it is?" The Captain nodded, Susumu's weapon of choice was well known. "Also, I need someone to bring me the bounty posters of Kai Velure and his new crew."
"The Silver Age?" The Captain asked.
"What?"
"I believe that is what people are calling that man's new crew; the Silver Age of Kai Velure."
"Interesting…" Susumu mused before nodding and gesturing the Captain to his duties. Which he did with great haste, all the sooner to be away from him, Susumu guessed.
Without further delay, he swung open the dock doors and immediately stepped out into thick snow, like a blizzard. With the exception of the wind ruffling his clothes, the snow did not seem to affect him in any way as he pushed his way through a couple of feet of it towards the water. When he reached the water's edge, nearly a whole ten minutes despite the relatively short distance, he ignored all the massive marine ships and instead headed for a small one-man dinghy type boat with a single small sail planted in the centre of its deck.
Kicking snow out of his way as he went, he hopped into the boat and set about clearing the heavy snowfall of the deck, sail, and rigging so as to make as quick a getaway as he could manage. It took him a good half an hour to get everything clear to his satisfaction, but it was actually well timed as two figures in heavy winter cloaks pushed through the snow to get to him.
Susumu watched casually, ignoring the slow falling snow, as the two figures approached; one with a bundle of paper and one with a huge battle axe in a small sledge. The axe seemed to be made for someone a lot bigger then Susumu, the thick handle being nearly as long as himself, and the broad moon-head blade easily wider then a human waist. A thick, foot and a half of spiked steel reared out of the opposite side of the blade, to balance the blade's weight and made it look a hundred times more deadly.
When the two marines, neither of them the Captain from before, stopped at the edge of the water, as he had done earlier, Susumu hopped up to meet them, directing his attention towards the one with the papers first. He held out his hands and the marine straightened the pile before dropping it into Susumu's hands and didn't say a word before turning on his heel and heading straight back his own path to the building.
"Thank you." Susumu said, despite the man already out of earshot. The stack of papers now in his hands consisted of only four sheets, the face of Kai Velure prominent on top. "Good, this will do." He muttered to himself before turning to the second marine.
"Thank you very much, Marine." Susumu said politely, stepping past the man and picking up the massive axe as though it was made of paper. "You've done well to get this here as fast as you did; it is not an easy thing to carry." The marine nodded and then he too turned on his heel and walked quickly back to the building, sledge dragging behind him as he went.
Susumu stepped back into the boat carefully, the added weight of his weapon rocking it precariously, and rested the axe against the back of the mast. At the same time, he pulled a number of small knives from the back of his shorts and with a definitive 'thud' sound he stuck the four posters to the wall; Kai at the top, followed by Doctor, Marshall, and finally Nate. "You don't stand a chance 'Silver Age'…" Susumu muttered, as he raised the anchor and let the sail loose, the vicious icy winds sending him speeding into the straight that would lead him into the open sea.
When he was happy he wasn't going to sink, Susumu dropped to the deck and rested his back against the railed side. He dug into his jacket and pulled out an object that looked a little like an hour glass, only there was no sand inside, just a needle floating in the middle. He turned the object around in his hand until a name plate flashed in the light.
'Jazaquia'
Susumu stared at the name before jerking forward and placing the Eternal Pose by the head of his axe, eyes locked onto it to make sure he was always going the right way. He leant back, eyes still locked on the Pose, and began preparations in his mind about how he was going to take down Kai and his Silver Age.
A/N: 'Royal Shichibukai Susumu' is the brain child of Newtilator, so credit goes to him for that particular character. With that, the introduction to the beginning Arc for this story is revealed; it gives you a little bit of an idea of what you can expect, but don't think you'll be able to figure it all out! :) So keep on reading, my dear readers!