Lies On Top of Lies!
Finally Found!
Satoshi's mad dash had knocked Reggie's frying pan free from her grip and she heard the horror as it slid against the ground and away from her. Satoshi charged forward, regardless of the fact that Reggie was both unarmed and a woman. He brought the sharp kitchen knife forward and toward's Reggie's throat. It was pure luck that she managed to squeeze her arm forward and block the knife arm before it got any closer. Reggie brought her other arm around and at Satoshi's head, but Satoshi brought his other arm up and blocked it.
The two of them stayed their for a second each one of them trying to defeat the other one and creep their arms closer and closer till they could get a good swing at them. It was easy for Reggie to say that she was stronger, she was a Marine. This kind of stuff was day-to-day business even in the kitchen, but Satoshi had his entire weight bearing down on top of her. She took a deep breath as she tried to push him off, but she couldn't. She looked around trying to find something she could use since her frying pan had skitted out of reach. She found nothing, she banged her head backwards as she tried to think. Her eyes went straight up to the ceiling. Finally, she found something worth her interest.
Reggie banged her head back again, this time slamming it into the oven that stood behind her. Satoshi laughed, "what's the matter girl? Got an itch? I'll scratch it for you if I could just get my knife closer!" Satoshi leaned in even closer as he tried to push the blade forward and into her neck. Reggie grunted as she banged her head backwards once more. The oven rattled, but neither Reggie nor Satoshi could hear it over their frantic breathing and Satoshi's brief insults.
Seth stood back, just watching. He could move forward, snatch the knife from Satoshi and stab Reggie himself...or stab Satoshi. Both of them seemed to be becoming more and more appealing, but he decided that in the end whoever won in this fruitless fight deserved to walk away. No...if Reggie walked away he would move forward and take her down. Either way she was going down, the question was would Satoshi.
Reggie leaned back once more and with a thunderous bang. Her head hit the oven, giving her a massive headache, but regardless of the pain she smiled. Other then the now throbbing pain in her head, something else had happened. The pot of boiling water that was on the stove that she was using to prepare dinner, came clattering down and spilling its contents. Luckily for Reggie she had a human umbrella that was bent over her and trying to stick a knife into her.
Unluckily for the human umbrella the full pot of water came splashing onto his back and head. A few drops got past his back and sizzled onto the floor and a couple landed on Reggie, but it was worth it in her mind, both the headache and burning water was worth it to see the look on Satoshi's face. He roared back as the water continued to burn into his skin. He was shaking frantically trying to the water to splash off of him, but no matter how hard he shook the water stayed glued to his almost crispy back.
Reggie got up and took a slight moment to revel in her happiness, ignoring her own pain and taking delight in Satoshi's. The bastard deserved it! He truly did for what he did to Rina and Alexander. After her short moment of watching Satoshi thrash around in pain, Reggie drove forwards and grabbed her frying pan, once again she was ready to take him down for good. She turned around to face Satoshi and deliver the finishing blow to his seared face, but as she pivoted about she saw a fist flying at her. She had no time to react as Seth stepped forward and delivered a quick punch to her face.
Reggie's head screeched back. She stumbled back as the pain ran through her body and the injuries from her earlier fall came back into her. She looked around and frantically grabbed onto the nearby counter trying to hold herself up, but alas her strength had been replaced with momentary weakness. Her head was throbbing from banging it against the wall, the few water drops that had landed on her seared her skin, her legs had turned to jelly, and that was it. Her body collapsed onto the ground as her hand fell open and released the counter top.
Seth looked down at her as her eyes fluttered close. He looked back over at Satoshi who was still stomping and screaming in pain. He had a very colorful choice of language, most of which was directed at Reggie. Seth had thought that he was going to take them both down, but the loud noise of the pot clattering to the ground and now Satoshi's panicked screams had apparently began to attract attention. He could already feel the ground shudder beneath his feet as a group of Marines came charging through the halls.
When it came to lying Seth was neither a big fan of it nor good at it. While he believed he could charge through a Marine Base and take them all down, he was in no mood to try and prove it. He needed Satoshi to once more weave a very colorful web of lies and get them out of this troubling situation. He looked back over at Satoshi who was now biting into his own hand trying to muffle his screams and dull the pain.
"I'm fine!" screeched Satoshi as he straightened up and removed his hand from his mouth. He shook it for a second. He had bit it so hard he had drawn blood. He shook it, flinging the blood around the room. He reached over and picked up a towel and wiped his hand clean. "That little bitch!" screamed Satoshi as he stepped forward and launched a quick kick into Reggie's side. He kept kicking her, ignoring the fact that she was unconscious from Seth's punch, but he didn't care. "How do you like that, huh, huh...HUH!" Satoshi delivered a final kick into Reggie's gut.
"Hey," said Seth finally speaking up, "didn't you say you were a pacifist?" Satoshi swiveled his head at him. His mouth was set into frown, dumb Seth asking him a question like this.
"Even Buddha has a breaking point," said Satoshi with a shrug. He looked over at the door as he finally heard the Marines' loud foot stomps nearing the door. Satoshi looked up at the ceiling as he tried to think about his next lie. However, as soon as he let his mind wander the searing pain in his body came surging back. "Argh!" groaned Satoshi as he went over to the sink. He started to fill pots up with cold water and pour them onto his back to give him temporary relief.
"What the heck are you guys doing in my kitchen," said an old man as he walked in on the scene. Satoshi froze for a second as he watched, not only a chef, but also three or four Marine soldiers walk into the room. The chef looked around the kitchen, when his eyes finally landed on it they stayed on it, Reggie laying on the ground. "What the heck did you guys do in my kitchen!" The man shouted raising his voice and grabbing the nearest weapon, in this case a ladle, and charging forward at Satoshi. Two of the Marines leapt forward and grabbed him, holding him back.
"I'm sure he has a good reason! He is a Marine Captain after all," said one of the Marines as he looked over at Satoshi and back down at the fallen Reggie. "And he better have a damn good reason at that." The Marine scowled and turned his full attention over to Satoshi.
Satoshi frowned, "of course, I have a good reason! I was out today busily hunting down the trail of the man who impersonated me and killed my crew when I first noticed it. Reggie was acting highly suspicious she had left her brother's bar and I saw her down on the first floor talking to someone else." Satoshi's mind flipped back to earlier that day when he saw Reggie and another Marine on the ground, he had presumed they were taking a nap, but he quickly pieced together that it was Reggie and Alexander. They must've met and that was when she had figured out he was lying, but it didn't matter when somebody catches you for lying, you make a bigger more intricate web.
"I was surprised at first to see such a friendly face that I almost ran up and greeted, but I was lucky I didn't for I saw the man she was talking to! It was the scum I was hunting down!" Satoshi proclaimed proudly. "She was having a conversation with the fake 'Alexander'! I immediately rushed up here to garner some back-up, but apparently she had noticed me and gave chase. I got here and, being in a foreign base, got lost and wound up here. Once here that witch poured searing water all over me!" Satoshi turned his back to the Marines and they all flinched at the sight of the burnt back. "It pains me to admit it, but due to Alexander's early ambush and now this wound I was powerless and I was nearly defeated, but Se...err, Specter saved me!"
"It makes sense," said one of the Marines agreeing with Satoshi, the powers of Satoshi's Uso-Uso no mi persuading him easily. "You know what they say 'when it rains, it pours'. There are just as many bad Marines as they are bad pirates nowadays...its a sad fact."
"But...but," stuttered the chef as he tried to protect Reggie, "maybe she was being coerced, forced to do these things against her will! She is a good girl! She would never do anything like this...I bet it was Alexander's fault! He probably held a gun to her head and her brother's head, right? Things like that happen, right? Reggie's innocent..."
"Yeah...yeah..." shouted the first Marine agreeing with the chef. "That makes perfect sense! 'One bad apples ruins the bunch'! Alexander probably made Reggie do that against her will! He is the real culprit! He's the one who should be punished!" The rest of the Marines howled in agreement. He turned around to the chef, "sorry, but Reggie will still have to be detained for the time being due to the assault, but we may be able to overturn it if we can bring Alexander in."
"Then what are you waiting around for!" shouted the chef as he whipped him aside the head with the ladle. "Aren't you Marines? Isn't this your job to go arrest the criminal? I'll watch over Reggie, while you bring that scoundrel in! That's what your jobs are!" The Marine nodded and then with another hoop-and-holler they charged out of the kitchen. The chef turned his head around to Satoshi and Seth. "You two...get out of my kitchen!" Satoshi grimaced at the man's harsh words, but he decided he had pushed his luck far enough with his lies and stepped out of the kitchen. Seth followed right behind him, grunting at the chef as she passed by.
"It looks like we took a small hit," said Satoshi with a sigh, "we can't keep pointing our fingers at people. We need to catch Alexander fast or else we just might be found out. Our only saving grace right now is my Devil Fruit...if it wasn't for that we'd have been caught by now."
Seth shrugged. He didn't much care for all this sneaking around. It may make the jobs easier rather then fighting an entire Marine Base most of the time, Seth still preferred just running up to someone and landing a good hit on him. However, he really didn't have that option now. Seth looked around just in time to see the dog that had been following them running right past them.
"HEY! Hayate! You just gonna run away and leave me to fight all of these guys by myself!" shouted Alexander as he gave chase to Hayate. Right after him a large group of Marines followed.
"Well, well, well...it looks like once more our luck holds strong," said Satoshi. He looked over at Seth, who had a face of anticipation. "Don't worry, Seth, my boy! If he is strong enough to fight you on equal level then those Marines definitely wouldn't be a challenge. Besides, even if we don't kill him ourselves we still get paid, so let them do the dirty work of killing a Marine officer! Once more we won't even have to lift a finger! Mwa ha ha ha ha!"
I wasn't going to post at all this weekend, what with moving, mowing, roofing, and yet even more moving...but next week may just be worse...
Okay, this arc has gone on long enough! From here on out, I'll be working hard on bringing it to the end! Reggie, Specter, and Rina are all in jail and it appears that Alexander may just follow them soon. He's finally been found out! But really he wasn't really hiding all that well...he was just sitting out close to the Marine Base waiting for Reggie.
