Hard Lines: Beware of the fairies

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Sanji's ciguette fell from his mouth. "Eh?! What was That!"

"What did he do?" Franky exclaimed.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the people fall back away from the place where the fight had almost taken place. 'It wasn't much of a fight more like a slaughter. I'm glad now I had the sense not to challenge him. It would appear that not all marines a slackers, obviously.'

"Wow! You made a hole!" Luffy yelled as he inspected the gaping gap in the floor. He walked right up to it having no problem being near to the guy that had just made a well in the middle of a restaurant.

"Being blind has its advantages. Because there are many filthy things in this world that I would rather not look at." His voice sounded growly as if he was angry and sure why not he had good reason to be. With Cheaters not only trying to cheat him out of his money, but also trying to kill him as well, they had it coming.

Inch by small inch a few of the other guests crept closer to the gaping hole in the floor and gasped as they looked down into it.

"Please excuse me." the old man said.

"Who is that?" I heard some guy whisper.

"Was that a devil fruit ability?" Sanji crossed his arms and put his cigarette back in his mouth.

"Probably, but what type of ability was it?" I muttered. 'It's not every day you get to see something like that happen before you.'

The marine guy made his way to the desk at the entrance. "I'm very sorry for the trouble. You can send the request for compensation to this address.

"Uh, I see..." the speechless cashier spoke softly almost rendered speechless. 'It's not like she was going to argue with him and demand payment right then and there after seeing what he just did to her other regular clients. I doubt that the mingo guy will be all that understanding when he finds out what happened here, but then again if no one tells him how his subordinates died he'll have no one to blame. But then again maybe he won't care all that much to look for lost men and women. Sucks to be them.'

The Cashier looked down at the piece of paper again as soon as he turned his head. "What! Sir, are you...?!

"Excuse me." He replied with a firm tone in his voice. 'It's evident that he doesn't want everyone to know who he is. Smart move. If people find out that a warlord's underlings were trying to mug a marine official there might just be hell to pay.'

"You're really strong, old guy!" Luffy spoke up, sounding cheerful. "Who are you? are you some Marine guy!?"

'What the hell does he think he's doing!? Tashigi told us all who he was. We do not want to get involved with him just yet. Why can't you just back off Luffy. Idiot.'

"It would seem... that it'd be better for the both of us if I didn't tell you." Fujitora muttered carefully before walking out the door and closing it softly behind him.

"Hey! Why don't you watch where you're going!?" Some random dude in the room split the silence to say.

"I'm very sorry. Are you hurt?"

A man was walking back towards his table after inspecting the gap in the floor and suddenly screamed. "Hey! My bag is gone!"

I shook my head. 'It doesn't matter how nice a place can look there's always bound to be a pick pocketer somewhere. Dumbass shouldn't have been lured away from his table by the swam of people inspecting the hole.'

"My watch is gone!" yelled his companion.

'Watch? Wouldn't that have been on his wrist. Damn that's clumsy.'

A woman with blond hair screamed. "Where'd my wallet go?!"

I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the sudden cries and screeches that everyone started to make. 'They were probably able to sneak in when the cloud of dust rose into the air caused by the floor when it gave way under the gravity push thing the guy did.'

"Did the old guy pickpocket everyone, or something?" Sanji speculated.

'No, there is no way he would have done it. He didn't have the mindset for it.'

Tashigi suddenly appeared infront of Sanji with a scowl on her face. "Don't go speculating such ridiculous nonsense." She said pointing her finger. "he is blind and kind and isn't capable of it."

Sanji looked ashamed. "Yes, of course my sweetpea! But if you had been mistaken and he wasn't in fact your friend and just some old man, then maybe he might have done it. I'm just keeping all our options open."

She continued glaring. "There is no way that I'm mistaken. And he is not the thief." She turned around to the rest of us. "Now, did any of you notice someone walking around as you guys were sitting here the entire time, and has anything been stolen from us?"

I shook my head looked around the table. "I didn't see anyone, and nothing..." I turned towards my chair and there was only two of my katanas there. I felt my jaw drop. 'This is impossible!' "One of them is missing!"

Tashigi looked as if someone had just slapped her across the face. "WHAT!?"

"What do you mean?" Kinemon looked down at me, and then proceeded to look under the table. "It could just have fallen."

"No. It's gone!" I exclaimed and reached for my remaining swords.

Tashigi lunged forward and got them first, grabbing a hold of both Wado Ichimonji and Kitestu the third and hugging them tightly as if her life depended on it. "Where's Shuusui!?" She looked around the room her eyes glaring at everything and everyone before resting back on me. "How dare you loose that sword!"

"It's not my fault!" I glared back at her.

"What?! The treasure of the Wano Kingdom!?" Kinemon added. "How dare you!"

"Stop blabbering at me and leave it! The sword was mine!" I turned my back on both of them and looked under the table and the next one. "Damn it! Where did it go!?" 'The guy that stole my sword is going to regret ever being born.'

Tashigi started running about the room looking into all the nooks and crannies and checking anyone that so happened to have a sword on their hip.

"It seems everyone's been had." A voice cried out.

'BOOM! BOOM! BOM! BOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOM! BOM!'

The sound of a drum sounded in the background and we all looked to see where it was. The toy that had been playing the drum suddenly stopped and announced in a clear non toy-like voice. "The fairies stole them."

'I've had enough. There is no way in hell! They're covering for the thief!'

"What's that supposed to mean?!" I yelled in the damn toy's direction "Is that some sort of stupid pet name for a criminal organization?"

'BOOM! BOOM! BOM! BOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOM! BOM!'

The little stupid looking toy cleared his fake throat again. "Fairies are fairies, You just have to laugh and accept what they do."

"I can't laugh at this!" I felt my temper increase.

The dumb toy continued. "The fairies cannot be seen, but they have been the guardians of Dress Rosa for generations." The toy bent sideways in a way that made him look like he was falling to pieces mentally and physically. "We must turn a blind eye to whatever they do!"

"Good grief... well, if it's the fairies doing... I guess there's nothing for it." a woman said to her toy companion.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I shook my head.

"Indeed!" Kinemon added. "That is a national treasure of the Wano Kingdom!"

"No! It's my sword!" I glared at Kinemon as I stood up to talk some sense into him, but before I could retaliate Tashigi pushed both Wado Ichimonji and Kietetsu back on me and then leaping over a chair and dashing towards the toy she grabbed a hold of the drum from it's wooden hands before using it to bash and flatten the wooden thing to the floor.

She looked mad. "No Fairy has ever helped me in the past! And I see no damned reason that any fairy would have need for wallets, purses, bags, and swords. If they need anything it would have been the food!" She pulled the toy back up off the floor. "They have no use for weapons, and so if I don't get back what was stolen then this establishment owes us all about five million berri in total!"

"Yeah!" Luffy added his voice to the mix. "And bring us all your food while you're at it. No one steals from my friends!"

"No, that is not our policy." The toy said calmly. "We have it in writing on the door."

"Shut up!"

"No. It's our policy." The toy pointed.

Tashigi dropped him and ran to the door and opening it began to read the list of things they were not responsible for in an angry tone. "We do not accept responsibility for any crimes committed in this tavern! We do not pay back money that has been lost in gambling or around that area! We are not to blame for any fairy crime undertaken in this area! Visitors beware!" She fumed and glared at the piece of paper. One might have almost expected it to catch fire.

I carefully put both of my remaining swords back in place by my hip. 'Think calmly. I've got to calm myself. The thief can't have gotten far. The door has only been opened twice, and I haven't seen anything flying...'

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a window in the far corner partly open and moving just a little back and forth. My sword had got whatever was carrying it jammed in between the frames. I grinned, my sword won't be stolen for long. "Your greed was your downfall, fairies! You're not getting away from me!"

"Where are you going, Zoro?" Luffy yelled at me.

"Hold it!" Sanji yelled. "We don't have time to let you wander off on your own!"

"Have you found the culprit!" Kinemon added. "I will not let you run off with one of the Wano Kingdom's treasures!"

I ran up to the window and crossing my arms over my face I leapt through it smashing the window into smitherines. I rolled on the ground as I landed and thankfully no glass decided to embed itself into my back. I started running as fast as I could after what looked like a small ball of stuff. The short guy must be very strong to carry such a thing if I couldn't even see him. I ran after him as fast as I could. "There you are! Stop right there!"

I heard Sanji and Kinemon yell after me but I ignored them. I'm not going to wait for anyone.

"Hey! Stop! You stupid fairy!"

"You stop!..." "Give …. treasure back!" I heard the other two yell at me.

I turned around another corner, and I couldn't see where the fairy had gone too. "Damn it! Where did that thing go?!" As I spun around and turned down another road I smacked into and tripped over...

"Zoro!" Tashigi growled, pushing me off her. "Look where you're going!"

"That's rich, coming from you." I stood up and looked around frantically. "Thanks to you I lost him!"

She stood up and pulled her glasses down to balance them on her nose. "Okay, what did the thief look like?"

"He was either short and like a fairy as they said, or the guy had the bag of stuff attached to a string and was pulling it through the streets, he might even be a tiny toy." I answered.

"Over there! By that bush near the fountain!" She yelled. And whoever was near enough turned around to look at us.

I clicked my neck. 'Time to die fairy. You wouldn't be able to escape the two of us.'

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I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Years! It feels like I haven't been spending enough time writing as of late. I think I have a lazy tendency to extent my deadlines...

I can't believe that they've just finished episode 724 when I'm just writing from episodes 631 and 632. There has to be a better way to fill up all the episodes... that's 92 episodes for most of the the Dress Rosa arch. Terrible. Rather than fill it with intro after intro and repeated flash backs and shots or punches taken they should have the spin off episodes of random characters in the grand line or alternative universes or something. It's to painful watching a dragged out episode.