"How interesting, hmm," Rhythm commented as she studied the layout of the marine base, before biting into her peanut-butter lathered piece of toast. It was neither too hot nor too cold, but instead the perfect temperature. The thick, cool peanut butter she had originally spread onto the toasted piece of bread had since melted a little on the hot toast, creating the perfect creamy texture. Her black stuffed rabbit was held upright against her body by the inside of Rhythm's arm, long ears flopped over, so that she could freely use both of her hands.
Rhythm knew there was a risk in reading the layout like this, before the building was completed. She knew that she may go in expecting a certain area to be there, while it very well could not have yet been built, therefore throwing her entire plan off. Still, she had a feeling that close to everything had been built in and all that needed to be done yet were the finishing touches. The reason she had this feeling was due to her witnessing the marines now taking in prisoners—a sure sign that the building was at least secure enough to contain them in their cells and for a little while if they were to somehow manage to escape.
Rhythm frowned from her position at the table on her ship, which Regis had placed below deck, as she took in her last piece of toast. Now she'd had to go put in more pieces of toast; how distressing. The worst part about doing so was all the negative possibilities that could occur by doing so. Perhaps after putting the toast in and heating the toaster, she would forget to watch the bread, and the toaster would catch fire to her ship, and then the ship would burn down, leaving her with no method of transportation. Having a lack of transportation may mean that there is a less likely chance of Drake agreeing to become apart of her crew. That wouldn't do at all.
Despite her reservations about putting more toast in the manually heated toaster, Rhythm stood up, and headed over to where her toaster and many more pieces of un-toasted bread waited. She never had been able to stand untoasted bread, besides a couple certain exceptions.
As Rhythm placed four new pieces of bread into the toaster Regis had given her—the limit with having four slots, of course, or else she'd have placed in many more pieces—she reviewed everything she knew about the base. She quickly checked the settings on her toaster to make sure it was the perfect temperature for toast before walking calmly back over to her chair and sitting down. She continued making quick glances over to the device, making sure nothing bad happened.
Because the island of Sharuu Port was only a few days journey from Ringo Island, Rhythm had had the opportunity to learn a small amount of information about it from her fellow islanders before arriving. Well, through Regis, that was, since the villagers would simply run away at the sight of her. She had discovered that there was both a leiutenant and a leiutenant commander stationed at the base in Sharuu Port's capital—Sharuu City. She had known about Leiutenant Commander Kai from rumors, but had not heard of the Leiutenant stationed there with him until the marine with the messy desk had informed her of it.
Rhythm was quite confident in her fighting skills, and knew she would have an easy enough time beating the lieutenant, but the lieutenant commander was a whole other story. She was hoping that she wouldn't have to fight him, because even she was unsure of which of the two would come out as the victor. Even if she did somehow manage to beat him, she would be incredibly injured and that wouldn't be beneficial to her if any more complications arose between now and their journey to the next island.
A possible solution to is scenario was for Drake to fight the lieutenant while she battled the lieutenant commander. Of course, that would only be possible if she was to convince Drake that she could break him out, and get him to come with her. If she managed to do that, she would still have the responsibility of getting him to forgo his laziness and actually fight. Still, there were many things that could go wrong if she used Drake as her only trump card. For example, Drake's axe was most likely taken away, and they may be forced to fight the two before the axe is back in Drake's possession. An even worse yet still probable setback would be the two highest ranking officers approaching her even before she set Drake free.
By the clearly displayed layout of the base on the papers she carried, Rhythm knew exactly where the jail was, how it was set up, and practically everything else about it. She also knew the layout of the rest of the building. Luckily for her, she had photographic vision and was able to memorize everything shown to her on the design papers the second she looked at it. Having this ability was quite useful most of the time, though it also proved irritating at night when she would go to bed and have nightmares, during which she would experience every single detail—big or small—of her past.
Judging by the unfinished roof Rhythm had noticed upon entering the marine base last evening, the majority of the roof around the rest of the base most likely consisted of only rafters as well. This would prove quite advantageous for sleuthing around unnoticed, Rhythm decided. She knew it wasn't a foolproof idea though, because it was easily possible for a rafter to not be attached properly, causing her to fall down, and perhaps land in such as way that she is immobilized for the rest of her life. Even worse, perhaps on the fall down she would somehow gain a ton of weight, and die as an imprint in the ground. That wouldn't do at all.
Rhythm had formulated a semi-official plan just a few seconds after looking at the layout, but she had to think out the finishing touches before she went ahead with it. After having reviewed all the information she knew, her plan was complete. Of course, nothing ever went according to plan, and for that reason Rhythm had thought out a variety of other plans for each possibility. Now she could only hope that there hadn't been a possibility she hadn't thought of. Of course, there probably was one, she thought pessimistically to herself, which would cause the entire operation to go wrong.
There was one main thing that could make everything go awry, and Rhythm was quite aware of this. It was the possibility of either the Leiutenant or the Leiutenant Commander having devil fruits. There seemed to be a limitless amount of devil fruits, each coming with a different and sometimes incredibly unusual or powerful ability. Some were zoan types, where the user was able to transform into an animal. The second type was called a logia, where the user could actually transform into the element of their fruit. The only thing that would make someone able to defeat an opponent who had consumed a fruit like that was haki. She had learned a little about haki from the pirates she had previously sailed with, but never had anyone to teach it to her, and therefore didn't know how to harness it or put it to use during battle. She knew a bit about the theory behind it, but had no idea how actually do it.
It was the paramecia fruit, though, that Rhythm was most concerned about. Logias were the most rare, so it was highly unlikely for any of the marines stationed at this small South Blue marine base to have gotten ahold of one. The reason paramecias were so dangerous was because of their limitless abilities, each fruit having abilities uneasy to determine upon first glance unlike with the other two categories. Sometimes paramecia fruits could even be more powerful than the logia types. It all depended on the power contained within the fruit; the possibilities were endless.
Although it was far more likely for the marines stationed at the base in Sharuu City to not have a devil fruit, Rhythm knew that she must be prepared for any and every negative possibility. And positive possibility, but the idea of a positive thing happening was beyond Rhythm.
Knowledge is power, was her motto. Something seemingly small and pointless could destroy and disrupt an entire plan. For example, it was even possible for Drake to have aquired a devil fruit, though that was something Rhythm had already thought of and accommodated for.
Rhythm purposefully leaned way too far back in her chair, staring blankly at the ceiling as her head fell back and smacked down hard against the floor, creating a heavy pounding sensation inside of it. She sighed, realizing that she had the entire day to go before she would be able to complete the operation she had so thoroughly planned out. What to do, what to do.
Perhaps she should go and purchase some food for her future travels. She had long since used up the stock of food she had ordered to be placed on her ship before setting off from Ringo Isle. If she were going to have crew mates, she would be in need of food for both them and herself, and a lot of it, considering her tendency to eat such a large amount of food each meal. As of now, she'd already consumed thirty-two pieces of peanut butter toast, and her growling stomach still wasn't near satisfied.
Flipping backwards into a standing position, Rhythm pushed her chair back up into its original place beneath the side of the table and then walked up onto the main deck. She climbed up onto the tall lookout tower, and from that viewpoint, she was able to see a good portion of Sharuu City, and even a portion of one of the smaller towns just a few miles away from the main city. Remarkably, she could have cared less about the fabulous viewpoint she currently occupied, and chose to jump down from her ship and unintentionally obscure herself from the viewpoint.
Rhythm landed lightly on the ground, despite having come from such a high place. The reason sudden shock or pressure applied to her legs didn't affect her was due to her fighting style, which she had spent years perfecting, though even she would admit that she wasn't anywhere near mastery. Still, what she had accomplished in the period she had trained for was incredible, to say the least.
Rhythm felt a slight déjà vu as she once again began to scower the city—though this time, she was in search of a grocery store or food market instead of a restaurant. This task proved to be far less tedious than the first, and Rhythm soon found a large area in the centre of set set aside for a few dozen food stands, creating quite a nice-sized marketplace—by South Blue standards, that is. She entered the bustling area, weaving through the crowd of people.
A man at one of the booths to her right immediately begun selling his business upon seeing her. He approached the green-haired woman, and in a joyous tone he exclaimed, "Hello here! I'm Barte, and over at my stand we have the most delicious—"
"Goodbye," Rhythm nodded at the man, walking straight past him and towards the area of the marketplace that sold mostly food. She found it quite silly for booth owners to come up and try to get the attention of customers. If they needed the items being sold at that booth, then they would have come there already, and if a person was so easily swayed so as to buy something they didn't need simply because a booth owner made it seem appealing, then there wasn't much hope for humanity, in Rhythm's opinion. Perhaps normal individuals enjoyed having their ears talked off and wasting their money on things they didn't need, but Rhythm knew she didn't care much for it. Instead, she simply wanted to buy the items she required for sailing and get back to her ship as soon as possible.
Rhythm scanned the entire market within a few seconds, her photographic memory retaining every detail she saw. She noticed an unoccupied chair seated behind a booth that lacked an owner, who was probably off doing some quick errand, which had a sign propped up against it, reading, "Do not sit." Disregarding the sign, she sat herself upon the chair and leaned back, closing her eyes and thinking about her options and using the three-dimensional picture in her mind to do so.
The best types of food to buy for sea travelling were those that kept good over a long period of time, and did not rot easily. Unfortunately, maintaining a diet like that without any source of Vitamin C would easily cause for scurvy, which was annoying to acquire. Perhaps she should invest in some sort of tree or small garden when she got a larger ship, so that she could have fruits filled with the necessary Vitamin C readily available. It was pointless to do so now, however, since her ship was small and she would soon be discarding it.
"Hey, that's my chair!" an angered voice exclaimed, causing Rhythm to slowly open her eyes and look at the man who was yelling at her. He was middle aged with greying hair, and had a finger pointed accusingly at her.
Rhythm rolled her eyes, scowling at the fact that her train of thought had been interrupted. She stood up, grabbing her apple pie-shaped bag and completely ignored him as she walked away. The man turned and tried yelling after her to get some sort of explanation as to why she had so randomly sat in the chair behind his booth, but none was given him as the woman's green head of hair disappeared within the crowd.
She immediately came upon the stands who sold edible goods, and selected a variety of items that she deemed would be most suited for her journey. In addition to the foods that she could store over a long period of time, she also purchased some fruit, which she decided she would eat while they were still good. The rest of the food could be eaten after that was gone. Despite being a pirate, she paid the stand owners the money they asked her. That had been something her father had told her to do, after all. *Never deny someone what they have worked hardest for.*
She'd managed to get a couple large barrels which she'd used for storing all the food she'd purchased, causing more than a few people in the crowd to give her odd looks as she carried the two wooden cylindrical containers, one in each arm. She had attached her black stuffed rabbit to the necklace she always wore for this specific purpose. A tiny hole had been punched through the stuffed rabbit's left ear, where the detachable necklace looped through, so that she could keep it on her person while her arms were busy.
Wooden barrels in hand, Rhythm set off towards her ship to unload the excessively large amount of food she'd purchased.
XxxxX
"S-sir, you called?" a middle aged marine managed, squirming in discomfort and fear before Lieutenant Chargic, who was sitting at a large wooden desk looking down upon his receptionist.
"I did," came back the cold reply, his gaze unwavering and unnerving, doing nothing to ease the nervous receptionist.
The Lieutenant stared without saying a word to the lower ranking marine in front of him, each passing second causing the receptionist to become more and more terrified.
After a few moments of this—though it seemed more like an eternity for the receptionist—he finally got the courage to question the Lieutenant about the purpose of his visit. After stuttering out the question, his superior officer did not react in any way, nor give an answer for a good sixty seconds. At the end of that amount of time, Lieutenant Chargic suddenly bolted up from his chair, slamming his hands down upon his desk hard enough to cause the desk to immediately break beneath the sudden pressure. It cracked in half, each piece falling to their respective side with a loud *thud* while the wood directly under the man's two hands broke into shrapnel, the action and deadly expression on his face causing the already scared receptionist to back up against the wall opposite of the Lieutenant completely, his face as pale as a ghost's.
With an unnaturally loud voice, Lieutenant Chargic began to scream at his underling, "You stupid filthy pig! Do you really have the nerve to ask me what I called you in here for? Do you actually think that I wouldn't find out about you supposedly losing one of our very few layouts for this marine base? Do you know what could happen? *Do you?*" The terrified receptionist rapidly shook his head from side to side, causing his superior officer to stomp his foot, rattling the entire room. He continued his rant, "Anyone could find that and then use the knowledge to ambush our base, and kill everyone inside! Do you understand what you've done, you disgusting traitor? You're not fit to be a marine! As of now, I'm discharging you! Someone new and more fit for the task will take your place as receptionist. I'm through with you! Now, get out of my office before I show you just how angry I am!"
The ex-receptionist didn't need to be told twice. The second he heard of his dismissal, he bolted out of the office and down the hallways towards the exit, never once looking back.
Lieutenant Chargic groaned, his left hand covering a large portion of his face, "Ugh, this is bad." He picked up a mini Den Den Mushi, which had been sleeping up until this point, speaking into it, "Hello? Yes, this is Lieutenant Chargic. I would like an immediate boost in security around the base."
XxxxX
Sitting at the very top of her tiny vessel's lookout tower, Rhythm smirked widely. "Ah yes, choosin' ta not give the building plans back is gonna be amusing. Extra challenges jus' make a plan more fun, hmm."
XxxxXxxxX
A/N: So, nothing all that interesting happening this chapter. Just Rhythm pessimistically planning out how she would infiltrate the local marine base, rudely ignoring overly-friendly salesmen, and causing a marine to get fired. Nothing that out of the ordinary. XD
Oh, P.S., just wanted to say a special thanks to AnimePhysco1 who reviewed last chapter. Thanks so much!(:
