Don't Own One Piece or Detective Conan Case Four: Shades of Red: Redemption of a Fish-Man
The day after the case of Roshio's murder and the revelation of the crime boss and serial killer Scythes, Kudo remained with the Axe-Head detectives for a brief period in order to help them fully understand their situation. He, Kirsty, Niri, Devon, Axe, Pingu, and Chizuru sat around the meeting table for a serious discussion. The world's greatest detective sighed. "I'm sorry to have gotten you all caught up in this, I should have told you while I was really in the area when I first came here." He took off his odd hat and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm tracking a few highly wanted criminals and crime bosses that are rumored to be in the area. Most of all International Criminal 1412, also known as the 'Kaitou Kid' and of course, this Scythes guy now."
"Why are there so many criminals here though Kudo-san?" Kirsty raised an eyebrow. "Why here? Isn't there a better place for them to hang out?"
"Actually no…" Kudo put the pipe from his pocket into his mouth, chewing on the end a bit without lighting it. "The police force in this town is pathetic, the only liable force is under Inspector Smoker's care. All those who fight crime have a bad habit of… dying in this town."
Dusty, Kirsty, and Pingu gulped. "Dying?" ("Honk?")
The detective took the pipe out of his mouth and examined it for a moment, toying with it in his fingers for a bit. "Now that I'm here, and you guys seem to be doing well as well, hopefully we can break that habit… I brought you along with me on Roshio's case to test whether you could help me, and you passed with flying colors. I'm going to need more than the police's help on this case. Will you help me?"
Axe smirked and put up his feet on a stool, a gleam in his eye. "Of course… what kind of detective… no, what kind of man would I be if I passed up an adventure this exciting?"
--
Herman looked into the wok of chicken he was frying, his mind elsewhere as he thought about recent events. Kudo had declined his invitation to stay for lunch, leaving on some urgent business. It was to be expected that such a great crime-solver would surely be busy in such a crime-infested town. The encounter with Scythes concerned him, but not as much as what had happened before that with Kaitou and Hatchan
The Fish-man sighed. 'The line between good and evil should be clear… but it isn't always so neat…' He thought to himself, remembering his days when he was a part of Arlong's gang before coming to reside with the Axe-Head detectives in an attempt to make retribution for his wrongs. 'In a world that hates our kind, it's natural to want to be with others like you and who will accept you, but at what price? Arlong may look similar to me, but we're nothing alike inside…I would never take joy in hurting people like he does. But I can hardly blame those who align themselves with him like Hatchan. Not everyone is lucky like me, not everyone can find someone in the world who accepts them, nevertheless a whole group like I did. Hatchan's a good example, since he's not a bad person at all, but what other choice did he have in a world that abandons Fish-men than to join Arlong? Even the company of an evil person is better than being all alone…'
Azu sniffed the air. "Something smells good… is that… lobster?"
"Holy crap, Herman!" Niri screamed. "Your hand!"
The food expert looked down to see that while he was lost in his thought, his hand fell into the wok and began sizzling away. "OW!! Not again, damn I'm on fire!"
After a few panicked shouts and four letter words, Niri called Kirsty in to treat Herman's burn. She put some cooling pads on his hand before wrapping moistened bandages on his hand. "Man, you're lucky for that tough skin of yours Herman, if it were anyone else, the burns would have been much worse."
"Sometimes I don't think I'm so lucky…" The Fish-man murmured, his eyestalks turning away.
The doctor stopped bandaging and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" She looked back at the wok where he had burned himself. "And what were you thinking about so much that you didn't notice your own hand burning anyway?"
Herman stood up and sighed. "It's nothing… the past is the past…" He trailed off, finished wrapping the bandage himself and walked out of the room without another word.
--
While something seemed odd from before, the detectives still needed to earn an income, so they had accepted another case from a museum that was worried about one of it's treasures. The group of detectives walked up the marble steps in into the large building which had a plaque of a hundred hands, stemmed out like branches on a tree, holding up a globe. Dusty walked up to the plaque beside it and read aloud. " Dedicated to the Cien Fleur Museum, where History is the most beautiful flower."
Axe let out a low whistle. "This place sure is classy, feel like I'm spending money just standing here, oh well, better make it worth it." He grunted and sighed as a sound came from his backside. "There." He let out a big grin.
"Eww, Axe!" Niri held her nose and waved at the coordinator threateningly. "At least have some decency, it's a museum for god's sake!"
"Not like I farted on any of the artifacts or anything…" He defended.
The group watched as a beautiful young woman in a slightly open purplish dress shirt and black pants walked up to them slowly and smiled politely, almost too much so. "Greetings, my name is Nico Robin, and I am curator of this establishment."
Instantly, DJ and Azu rushed forward, the former bending on a knee and uttering poetry to the beauty, the latter with… less noble intentions. Azu was bonked on the head by the end of Niri's pistol and DJ was eventually dragged away by Dusty. Axe stepped forward and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that, they're… well morons."
"HEY!"
Robin put a hand to her mouth and giggled lightly. "It's alright, now if you'll follow me…"
"I'll follow you anywhere Robin-chwan!"
BONK!
"But my heart still belongs foremost to Dusty-chan!" DJ rubbed his new bump on the back of his head.
"Well then, let's get going shall we?" Robin turned around and began walking, beckoning for the detectives to follow. "One of our artifacts was stolen recently, and we've gotten a new and extremely rare artifact as well and we want to make sure that it doesn't have the same fate…"
"So which one of your treasures was stolen?" Chizuru tilted her hat downward while following close behind Robin.
"Well, we consider History to be the only real treasure, but our artifacts are important as well, since they reveal history to us. It was… Oh, hello." The female curator stopped while they approached three men in security uniforms.
One man was short with half of his face badly burned, the other was a blind man with a cane, the last one was a man with messy black hair who appeared to be asleep standing up. "Sam, Ichi, Makura, meet the Axe-Head detectives, they're going to help us protect the artifacts.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Devon held out his hands. "This is your security staff? You have a blind guy, a midget, and a narcoleptic protecting the museum and you're wondering how you got robbed!?"
"That's my cookie damnit!" Makura snapped awake, yawning loudly. "What'd I miss?"
"Miss Robin, are you sure it's alright to let someone of… his kind in?" Ichi nodded to Herman.
"Yeah, ain't that kinda the point of what we're trying to prevent sweet cheeks?" Sam also gave a glare to the Fish-man.
'Great, now even the blind are discriminating me because of how I look…'
"I assure you, these people are professionals, they aren't here to steal anything. They're not well known but from what I've read they're pretty good."
"Yeah, Herman's one of us, we don't go anywhere without the big guy." Axe nodded. "If he don't come in, we don't come in…"
Sam and Ichi both sighed and led the way along with Robin into the exhibit in question. The group was amazed at what they saw. It was a huge room dedicated to the history of the sea. There were tanks all over the room filled with all kinds of ocean life, from clams to smaller Sea Kings to angelfish, including evolutionary charts of how different sea animals came to be what they are. There were also smaller tanks for petting manta rays and smaller animals and test stations and printouts to show the sedimentary content within the oceans as well as many other exhibits of the life in the ocean and things that came from it.
"Wow…" Several of the group uttered in unison.
"This place is awesome!" Dusty exclaimed, looking around and pressing her face against one of the tanks. "It's a fishie! Hi fishie!" She waved at one of the angelfish, which quickly swam away. "Look! He's waving at me with his tail!"
"Uh… Dusty? That's called swimming…"
Kirsty let out a whistle. "This place almost makes me wish I could swim…"
Robin led them all away from the tanks and pointed them in the direction of two glass cases, one case was empty, cut into by what looked like very sharp knives. The other held a large pearl-shaped green orb. The curator turned to the detectives and pointed to the green pearl. "Have you all heard of the substance called Kairoseki, or seastone?"
"That's the stuff that cancels out the power of Devil Fruits, right?" Niri answered.
Robin nodded slowly. "That's correct. It is also very rare and a treasure of the sea, leading us to have a small collection of it here, especially since certain pieces of ancient jewelry used Kairoseki as ornaments. By studying these pieces, we can learn more about the sea and about ancient cultures."
"However, seastone is also very valuable, and is the target of thieves, as we have seen in the past few weeks." Ichi growled, still keeping his sightless eyes on Herman.
"What's his problem?" Azu crossed his arms and nodded to Ichi.
"He's a bit upset about the recent theft we've had." Robin gestured to the case that was cut open. "This contained an ancient necklace with a seastone ornament, we believe it was stolen by a group of Fish-Men, but we don't have any proof of such a claim."
"Fish-men?" Herman raised an eyestalk. "Why do you suspect the fish-men?"
Robin gestured to the other green pearl again. "Well, we believe they were after this treasure instead, and simply got them confused because of the size and confusion during the robbery. We've hired you to catch whoever stole the necklace before they have a chance to steal the greater treasure."
"What is that one?" Kirsty raised an eyebrow to the curator.
The raven-haired woman took a deep breath before continuing. "This is a sediment that has a close relation to Kairoseki, and for our purposes, we shall call it Kairoseki II. Kairoseki II has the same effect of canceling out Devil Fruit abilities, but has an added effect on the Fish-Man race. It uses all the elements of the sea to simulate the power a Fish-man has when submerged underwater."
"And since Fish-men are ten times stronger under water then they are on land, this is a major problem if a mob of them got their hands on it." Sam added, giving a disapproving nod to Herman, who was looking fairly ticked by this point.
"Why haven't I heard of this Kairoseki II before?" Chizuru took a long look at the green pearl of the sediment.
"It's much rarer than it's seastone brother, it is believed that there is only ten pounds of it in the whole world, two of which is sitting in front of you." Robin answered.
"So, with your less than capable staff and this huge treasure, it's practically shouting 'Fish-men, come steal me!' That's why you want us here." Devon crossed his arms and also stared at the orb.
"Precisely."
"HEY! I think he insulted us!" Makura snapped awake and glared at Devon.
"You're so fricken slow!" Ichi and Sam facefaulted.
Before the group could argue any further, the lights suddenly went out, making the exhibit pitch black.
"Oh shit!"
"Where is everyone?"
"Who's hand is on my ass?!"
"That was there before the lights went out…"
SLAP!
The lights suddenly came back on and everyone looked around, noticing two things were missing. One was the pearl of Kairoseki II, and the other was Axe!
"Hey guys. I found our culprit." Axe smirked as he held a large blue figure's hands behind it's own back, walking back into the exhibit from the outside. Herman's eyestalks went wide when he saw who it was. "ARLONG!"
"I knew that red guy had some connection to his gang!" Sam Rico pointed to Herman. "Arrest him too!"
"Shut it shorty." Kirsty gave him a swift kick in the groin, sending him to the floor. "Herman's with us and fights for justice, that's all that matters."
"Sha ha ha ha ha… I didn't do anything wrong, you got the wrong guy!" Arlong protested, giving a small evil grin when he saw Herman.
"A Fish-man just happens to be running from the scene of a crime where Fish-men are the prime suspects after the lights go out and a treasure is stolen… yeah I'll believe that when leprechauns fly out of my butt." Axe held Arlong with all his strength, determined not to let him go.
"You hear this guy Herman? He's totally racist, he thinks I did it just because I'm a Fish-man!" Arlong growled, struggling against Axe. "I was running because I was trying to figure out what shut the lights off and get out of here because I knew some racist bastard would blame me for this, you humans are always blaming us for everything!"
'You're one to be calling someone racist, Arlong… you practically defined the term Fish-man supremacist.'
"Nope, I frisked him and everything, couldn't find it anywhere…"
"Should have known the Fish-man would stick up for his kind… he's probably in on it…" Sam mumbled, earning another kick from Kirsty.
Herman growled and ignored the midget's racism, putting his claw to his mouth in thought. 'It's obvious Arlong is the culprit though, who else could it be? I know who did it… I just have to prove it!'
"You've got no evidence, so let me go!" Arlong shouted, struggling in Axe's grasp. "It's bad enough people blame me for this gang of Fish-men on the streets, but I don't need people framing me for a robbery, bastards!"
Herman took a deep breath and sighed, looking around. 'If I could find that pearl, we can nail him….' He looked at the case where the Kairoseki II pearl had been, it had a very fine cut circle into it just like the last one, however this time it appeared that some of the glass cracked while the culprit was taking the pearl out. "Arlong, open your mouth please…"
"What? You actually think I did it Herman? Don't tell me you're on the side of these humans…" Arlong protested but opened his mouth as the detective instructed, having no other choice in his position.
Herman picked up the glass disk that had been cut away from the case, holding it up to Arlong's teeth and nodding. "Arlong… you stole the Kairoseki II! No one can escape the One Truth!" He stared hard at his former boss.
"What? Have you lost your mind Herman!?" Arlong gaped and looked at him.
"As they say, the proof is in the pudding, well in the case, the glass. He pointed to the two cuts in the two cases. These cuts are clean and the perfect shape of a Fish-man's mouth, however you can tell Arlong specifically has done it because of these…" Herman pointed to the cracks in the hole of the Kairoseki II case. "These cracks are from Arlong shedding his teeth, as he often does. But they suggest that Arlong was not used to the sharpness of his new teeth and broke the glass more than he intended when he first punctured the Kairoseki II case, not bothering to smooth it out because of his limited time. Because no other Fish-man in the area has this exact mouth size and sheds it's teeth like a Sawshark Fish-man, so they wouldn't have produced such cracks."
"Whoot! Way to go Herman!" Dusty cheered, "Take that Ar-long!" She pulled down on her eye and made a face, sticking her tongue out at the fish-man.
"So… where's the Kairoseki II?" Devon question, looking back at Arlong.
Arlong grinned. "Sha… Sha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" He started with a slow laugh before throwing his head back in a roar of laughter. "You've caught me Herman… something only a Fish-man could do… but you'll never find the treasure, I've hidden it in a place where none of your puny human friends could take it!"
"Damn, just tell us where it is already!" Azu growled.
Herman sighed and thought for a moment. 'To figure this one out, I'm going to need to think like him… he would keep it somewhere safe, but somewhere close enough where he could still gloat over it in secret, that ego of his will be his downfall…' Herman looked around the room. 'Somewhere close… somewhere where only a Fish-Man could find it…' His eyestalks snapped open. "I've got it!" He pointed to the tank of water behind them. "It's inside the clam's mouth, where along a creature of the sea would be able to find it and crack it open!" He pointed to the bivalve in the tank, whose mouth was clamped shut. "You dried off before Axe could catch you, but your arrogance in telling me it was only where a Fish-Man could get it serves as your defeat!"
Everyone watched as Herman dove into the fish tank and nimbly swam down to the bottom, opening the clam gently and retrieving the green orb. "You're finished Arlong!" Herman held the Kairoseki II in his hands while Arlong glared up at him.
"Not quite!" Arlong rammed his saw-like nose quickly into Herman, knocking the Kairoseki II out of his hands and sending the pearl clattering across the floor and Herman into a wall, a small bleeding hole in his chest. During the confusion, he broke out of Axe's grip and grabbed the orb before anyone could react.
"Sha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" He held the seastone triumphantly. "I finally have it! This will multiply my power tenfold and give the Arlong gang the power to crush all the non-Fish-men of the world!"
"Not if I stop you!" Axe threw his fist hard at Arlong , who met it with his own fist, quickly sliding the Kairoseki II orb into his mouth, grinning with his dangerously sharp teeth as he swallowed it whole, making it a part of his body to reap the effects forever. Surprisingly, Axe's fist hit dead on, but was shown to actually be pushed back slightly by Arlong's own, sending the young detective sliding across the floor a few feet.
"Sha ha ha! I'm invincible now!" Arlong moved across the floor with surprising speed, appearing right next to Kirsty, Sam, Austin, and Pingu with a speed that rivaled Soru. "Shark on darts!" He spun quickly, ripping into the four people and sending them flying across the room, each with fair sized gashes in them. "You may have caught me, but try to stop me!" He laughed, jumping from the floor to a stellar height and into the water tank, scooping up some water in his hands.
"Take this, bastard!" Niri held up her father's pistol and unloaded a few bullets on the Sawshark fish-man.
"Not good enough!" Arlong threw the droplets of water and turned them as hard as bullets, deflecting Niri's own bullets and pushing a few into her with the same force, sending her flying into one of the empty cases. "Sha ha ha! None of you puny humans can hope to defeat me, especially not now!"
"How about we give it a shot!?" Devon and DJ both appeared before Arlong on top of the tank, swinging their swords at him, only to have all three blades be stopped in an instant by Arlong's saw nose.
"Shark on Tooth!" Arlong spun again, making a larger circle this time and opening his mouth to bite the swordsmen, whom he threw bleeding into the water. 'Damn… caught me… offguard…' They both thought as they sank.
After disposing with the others, matching Azu's boxing with an improved version of his 'Tooth Gum' attack, ripping into him and tossing Ichi, Makura, Robin and Dusty aside with his immense strength, he turned on Axe, again, his blood stained teeth grinning in malice. "You're the last one… coordinator… Do you really think you can beat me when I'm ten times as strong as normal?"
"Hmph, You've gotten lucky so far, that's all, you caught them offguard because you look like such a wimp." Axe taunted and ran a thumb across his own cheek, getting into a fighting stance. "You won't be so lucky with me, I know every single person in my team is stronger than you, and they don't need a boost from some stupid stone to prove it!" Axe rushed Arlong, activating Soru and bouncing along the walls with Geppou to match and move past Arlong's increased speed. "Kachi Kachi no Bazooka!" He rammed his stone fist into Arlong's jaw, shattering the Sawshark's teeth, grinning at his victory. "Is that all ya got? Big bad Fish-man…?"
Arlong growled and pulled out his shattered teeth, another pair growing in their place instantly. "I'll show you the difference between us…" His eyes turned red as he unleashed the rage of the Fish-man race, his veins popping out in his muscles from the power boost on top of the Kairoseki II effects. "It's our species! Die Human! Shark on Tooth!" He spun, opening his mouth again, ready to bite into Axe with teeth that could break nearly anything at this point.
"Tekkai!" Axe shouted, turning his body to stone at the same time as activating his defensive Rokushiki. Arlong's teeth dug into the stone easily, and ripped into Axe's flesh, but were somewhat stopped by the hardness of his Tekkai, leaving a much more shallow, but still very painful wound in the coordinator's chest.
"Sha ha ha ha ha!" Arlong laughed as he listened to Axe's scream. "I've beaten you, lay down like a good little human and I'll let you live as my pet!" He kicked Axe in the gut and propped his webbed foot on him as he fell to the ground. The Fish-man monster repeatedly kicked the coordinator, his eyes still red with rage.
Axe grabbed the giant stone and diamond axe off his back and swung it hard at Arlong's leg while still on the ground, panting loudly. The Fish-man dodged but was forced to step away from his place torturing the detective leader. "Rankyaku!" Axe kicked the air, leaving a trail of blue where he kicked, which Arlong sidestepped easily.
"Give it up human, I'm going to win!" He watched as the Rankyaku arc went into the wall behind him.
"I don't give up easily…" He panted, as most of my team can tell you, my head is full of rocks."
"Bad joke…" Azu groaned and rolled over from his place on the floor.
"Let's see who's head is harder!" Axe used Geppou to jump into the air, then closed his eyes and focused for a final attack. "Tekkai… COMETES!" He pushed back to the ground quickly, heading straight for Arlong, who jumped after him, plowing the Fish-man right into the stomach, leaving a large bruise and spilling some of his blood before both fighters clattered to the ground, worn out.
Axe felt like he was going to pass out, but he looked over to Arlong, who was holding his gut in one hand, and his mouth in the other, screaming and gurgling like he was about to vomit.
"Dude, is he going to barf?" Dusty winced and stood up, beginning to help the others as they recovered from their injuries as well.
Arlong let out a loud scream as something round and green came flying from his mouth, but it wasn't puke, it was the orb of Kairoseki II! "The seastone!" Arlong cried as the pearl went flying into the air.
"That is the first time I've ever been happy to see a Fish-man puke…" Devon smirked as he and DJ climbed out of the tank of water, virtually unharmed aside from a few painful, but non-life-threatening cuts.
Everyone watched as the orb came rolling to a stop, right by Herman's feet. The lobster Fish-man was now standing, only slightly harmed from Arlong's attack. "I don't understand! I thought I killed you all!" Arlong wailed, standing up with one of his arms hanging at his side, panting from his battle with Axe.
The coordinator grinned as he sat up, unable to stand but still full of energy. "I guess we're not as weak as you thought, Arlong."
The Sawshark Fish-man growled as he turned to Herman. "Herman! Give me back the Kairoseki II! You can't really be on the side of these humans who mock and ridicule you, you wouldn't choose them over your own people, would you?!" He shot a glare around the room, especially to Sam and Ichi, who were also standing after the assault, stopping when his eyes met Herman.
Herman closed his eyes, picked up the Kairoseki II and began walking over to Arlong. "Big guy, don't!" Sam protested and Ichi growled.
Herman's eyestalks narrowed at the two, giving an evil glare that shut them up on sight. He extended the claw with the pearl to Arlong, smiling slightly. "I've made the right choice…"
"Yes you have Herman…" Arlong laughed triumphantly. "It's natural for you to want to be with your own people than in the world of humans, all alone." He reached for the orb, only to feel it go out of his reach, a fist connecting with his face and shattering his teeth again as Herman punched him through a wall into the next room thanks to the power of the Kairoseki II, which now worked it's tenfold benefit on Herman.
"I am never alone… I have friends now who protect me, as I protect them! They are my people Arlong! You and I may have similar genes, but we're nothing alike inside! These people that surround me, they believe in peace and protection, and in justice and dreams as I do, true friendship, that's something you could never understand! ARAGOSTA BATTUTA!" Herman sped towards his former leader, ramming a fist in his gut before he could even fully stand up, sending him flying through the air. Before Arlong landed, Herman curled into a ball and sped along underneath him. "Aragosta Gyorai!" He pushed off the ground and rammed into Arlong, sending him flying through the ceiling and a few upper floors before he came crashing down to the floor, bleeding profusely with many broken bones, but still very alive and in a lot of pain.
"Y-You've won… finish me!" Arlong mumbled through his now toothless lips, since his teeth had failed to grow back right away because of the onslaught. "I-It's what I would do…"
Herman scoffed and tossed the Kairoseki II to Robin, who was still in the other room. "Don't you get it yet Arlong? I'm not you, I'm not cold-blooded like you." He turned and began to walk away from the defeated Fish-man. "I'm not the bad guy… I won't kill in cold blood like you would, jail will be good enough for you."
Arlong groaned and before he could utter a reply, fell unconscious.
Makura sat up in a pile of debris, yawning softly. "Hey, what happened here, did I miss something fun?"
"YOU WERE ASLEEP THE WHOLE TIME!?"
--
"I can't thank you enough for helping to protect the Kairoseki II, and the price of this treasure is a little more than the damages you caused in the fight, so it's well worth it." Robin gave a small smirk as she looked at the group of roughed-up, but still very healthy detectives.
Axe smiled while leaning on Niri for support, still worn out from the fight. "No problem, it's what we're paid for."
"Yosh! It's the least we could do for a lady who…" DJ was cut off by the sound of Dusty clearing her throat loudly. "… is very pretty but is not as much so as Dusty-chan."
Robin gave a small giggle as the rest of the team groaned. "Unfortunately we lost the seastone necklace that was stolen before the Kairoseki II. Arlong confessed to stealing it, but he said he sold it to a man in a white top hat and cape in exchange for helping them kidnap someone named Kaya."
"A white top hat and cape!?" DJ's eyes widened quickly. "The Kaitou Kid! So that's why he was working with Hatchan to begin with…"
"I wonder why Kaitou would go to such lengths for normal seastone, it couldn't be to sell it or else he would have wanted to wait and get a piece of the Kairoseki II…" Niri pondered for a moment.
"Oh well, that's all in the past, the only thing we can do is focus on the next case, right Herman?" Axe grinned up to the large Fish-man.
Herman looked out the window to the sun shining brightly over the town, a new start for all it shone on. "Yeah, the next case…" He grinned broadly. 'The line between good and evil may not always be clear, but at least I have friends that can help guide me through it and help me decide when I can't on my own. And as long as they're here, no matter who has a grudge against me or Fish-men, I know I am never alone…'
Ichi and Sam walked over to Herman, the former giving a polite bow. "I misjudged you Fish-man, please forgive me…" He nudged Sam with his cane, who grumbled and gave a small bow as well.
"I'm sorry too…" He mumbled reluctantly.
"It's Herman, and really, it's no problem." He waved his hands in front of his face and smiled warmly.
Sam got a lecherous grin on his face. "So… Herman, think you can set me up with one of those hottie teammates of yours?" He made hands like he was pinching the air.
"What was that… pervert?" Niri, Kirsty, and Dusty cracked their knuckles from their place standing behind him.
"Well… here it comes…" The midget held his hands in front of his face. "Not the face, not the face!"
WHAM!
--
Meanwhile, Inspector Smoker sat at his desk in the police headquarters, filing through his paperwork in his office and smoking his trademark two cigars. He stood up and stretched grumpily, heading down the hall when he saw a figure dressed in white, simply standing at the end of the hall.
"Hey, you!" He put a hand on the handle of his jutte and walked towards the figure. "Only authorities are allowed back here, you need to leave now or else I'll be forced to make you!"
The figure disappeared, only to reappear behind Smoker. "Well, well… if it's isn't my old friend, Inspector Smoker. I was hoping to run into you here." The figure smirked, it was wearing a white hooded robe with the hood up so Smoker couldn't see his face, only the bottom half of his head was showing through his clothing.
"Co…" Smoker was cut off as the figure, now confirmed to be male, put a hand on his shoulder.
"Ah, ah, no names Smokey. Besides… I have a different name now."
"H-…" Smoker was cut off again as the man cleared his throat and wagged his finger.
"Now, now Smoker-kun. You know if you call for help all you'll end up with is a bunch of dead bodies, you know I'm even stronger than you are." He made a 'tsk' sound.
The figure disappeared again in a blur, appearing in front of Smoker with incredible speed so the back of his robe was now visible to Smoker. The man was a little taller than average, but his robe had very distinctive golden letters on the back. 'El mano del dios castiga todos' (1) On either side of the phrase were white, feathered angelic wings.
"W-What the hell are you doing here?" Smoker growled, blowing a large puff of smoke out of his cigars.
"Lord Scythes has made his move in this town and began Operation Rapture." The figure turned around and grinned. "I'm simply here to warn you that the police will have a part in this plan, what that part is will soon be up to you, choose wisely Smoker-kun…." He walked down the hall again, the sandals on his feet making a small clapping noise as he sung a haunting melody.
"Careful what you do, for God is watching your every move…"
The man disappeared one more time, his laughter echoing through the halls. "Ma ha ha ha ha ha…"
Smoker's eyes widened as he fell down and leaned his back against the wall in a sitting position, the adrenaline of the situation wearing off. "Why up to me… Scythes? What the hell is he doing here… We're all in a shitload of trouble…"
--
"The hand of God punishes all" in Spanish if I'm correctWhoo, well this one was a fun one to write for me, not only because I'm a big fanboy of Nico Robin, but also because of all the emotion with Herman and suspense with the mystery man and Smoker. Sorry if the mystery wasn't that hard to solve, but I tried to make up for it with action.
Next time on One Truth:
Axe: Now that Arlong's gang has crumbled… why does it seem more trouble is starting up than before?
Kaku: Well, you see there's a problem with some of my animals…
Devon: Let me get this straight… we have a witness to the crime… but the only problem is… he can't talk…
The Giraffe Whisperer
Pingu: Honk!
Next Detective Hint: Leaves