After the group had fallen into a trap laid by Hatchet, they were surprised to find Rob lucci! For a second, it had seemed that all their troubles were over...until Hatchet broke the news to them all. Cannibal wants to have the friends of the ex-cipher pol for dinner, and not in a good way. This was a compromise that apparently was made after Lucci pleaded with Cannibal.
"You can't be serious! He wants to eat them", Fukurou asked.
"Lucci! Go back and tell him no deal! Those sick bastards aren't getting anything out of us except an ass kicking", Blueno yelled. He tried to break free from his restraints but it was no use.
"This shouldn't be all too surprising for you Jabra. You and Lucci have a history of trying to taste your opponents. Afterall you both have carnivorous Zoan fruits."
"We never tried to EAT people", Jabra shouted.
"Potato potota! Either way, don't be angry at me, he's the one who offered the idea." Hatchet pointed over towards Lucci. I mean I was content with simply killing them.
"It was the only thing I could think of. It was in YOUR best interest since I don't know them", Lucci said.
"As awful as it seems, it makes sense. If he could save them, at the cost of the lives of people he barely even knows then of course he'd take the opportunity", Raymond said.
"It doesn't matter. Lucci, go negotiate with Cannibal and tell him either find another deal, or we'll resume our pursuit", Kalifa said. "They are NOT on the menu."
"No...", he simply said.
"What!? We do not want to hear your NO! We want you to reconsider", kumadori shouted. That ever-so rare anger was starting to show. This time, Lucci didn't say anything. He simply walked off through the door.
"Ouch! He doesn't value those five at all. Oh well! By the way, I'll be here keeping an eye on you, since I know I cant trust you. Talk about boring", Hatchet said as he pulled up a chair to sit on. "Oh, and just as a little assurance...", several lance-like streams of water positioned themselves in front of each captive. Try ANYTHING and I'll end each of you. Cannibal never said I had to bring you to him alive.
Jabra growled and looked over towards Raymond. "Raymond, you got a plan, right?" There was no response. Raymond, you got a plan...right!?" Again, there was no response. "Dammit Raymond, answer me! They're going to kill you!"
"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do. Besides...I think this is pretty much how I expected I would end up anyways. As long as you can live, then I kept my promise", Raymond replied.
"Ah, crap. I told Heaton I'd come back...but I guess this will be a real letdown for em huh", Borya said. He had a huge frown on his face.
"You two are just giving up!? We travelled all the way here, and you're just giving up!?' Kalifa was actually yelling at them. It would seem that hearing them caused her to become a bit more aggressive.
"This isn't our fight anymore anyways. Its yours. I'm sorry I couldn't save the rest of us", Serenity said.
" Kumadori-San...I made a promise that I'd protect you and that's what I did. I can't say I saw this coming though...".
"No don't talk like that! We're going to get out of this together. You must all survive", Kumadori shouted. He had tears pouring down...and they weren't his usual dramatic ones.
"Well, aren't you guys awfully accepting of your fate. How admirable. Almost unnaturally apathetic", Hatchet said. He almost seemed to be enjoying this.
"Thats part of being an adventurer. Your game could end at any moment. I guess we kind of made peace with it already", Moira said. "Sure, it's scary, but we're not going to cry." Blueno simply looked over at them in horror. "Dont worry...Everything will be fine, as long as you can keep dreaming...As long as you see the stars...just don't worry. As long as I'm your heart...don't worry. As long as I can make you smile...", Moira said all in sing song. It was a lullaby her mother would sing her, whenever she was worried about her dad. Then that's when they heard something unexpected. Hatchet let out a yawn. Funny, he didn't seem tired at first. "Wait...is it possible? But my devil fruit powers should be negated...", she thought to herself. "Maybe he just gets sleep easy? It may be more effective if I had something else to help." She looked over towards Raymond, and motioned towards her eyes.
"What? Eyes...no wait...is she pointed towards her glasses? No! MY glasses. My star pupil...but if he notices me trying to attack, he'll attack! We have to distract him." Raymond then looked over at Gurin, and motioned towards Hatchet.
"Hm...what is he trying to tell me, she thought to herself. She knew it wasn't to attack. She couldn't do much right now as is. The only thing she could do right now would be to create some kind of distraction. Perhaps that's what he wanted her to do. "Moira looked over at Gurin and nodded, before looking back over at Raymond, and holding her cuffs up just enough for Raymond to see. "Oh! I see now. Ok, here goes nothing", she thought. It would seem that her bag had been taken away so she had nothing to use as a distraction...well almost nothing. She managed to pry her left shoe off with her right foot, and move it to the edge of the cage she was in. There was enough room for her to slide the shoe out of the cage. Before doing anything else, she looked over towards Raymond, and Moira to make sure she was following them. Both of them smiled and nodded, giving her the "good to go look". She nodded back, and pushed her shoe out of the cage, causing it to make a slapping sound once it hit the ground.
"Hm? What was that", Hatchet said as he quickly glanced over at the shoe that fell from above the caged captives. As soon as he did, Raymond shot a beam from his glasses, that broke Moira's cuff. The sea stone cuffs weren't lined with Haki like his and the rest of the captives who didn't possess a devil fruit. The cuffs made a loud sound, as they broke, but Moira quickly put her hands down as to hide the evidence. "Hm. What happened? What was that sound!?"
"What sound? What the hell are you going on about", Jabra shouted. Yes! He caught on already, as they had hoped he would.
"Sound? You feeling ok", Serenity asked. Luckily, they all knew each other well enough to play along when they were trying to fool someone.
"Damn...must be more tired than I thought. I've been chasing these goons for a while...", Hatchet thought to himself.
Moira slowly removed the broken handcuffs from her wrists. "Raymond...lets put this guy to bed", she quietly said.
Raymond nodded. "Hey Hatchet...", can you answer me one last thing before we get eaten?"
"And whats that?"
"Come here for a second. I don't want the others to hear."
"Oh, come now Raymond. Last words should be heard by everyone", Jabra called out, still playing along.
"Yeah, I agree, Raymond. Say it out loud for your comrades", Hatchet said as he smirked.
Kalifa nudged Jabra as to tell him to 'dial it back just a bit'. They wanted it to be believable, but they needed to make sure they don't ruin it either.
"Leave him be. If he wants to share a secret in privacy, then what should we care", Blueno said.
Hatchet sighed. "Alright, fine! Only because it's the last thing I say to you before you five get hauled away." Hatchet made his way over to the cage that Raymond, Moira, Gurin, Borya and Serenity dangled in. He manipulated the water to form a current to lift him up to the cage. "What is it? And no funny stuff. Remember, I'll kill you if you even THINK of trying anything.
"Right, right. I just have one question for you", Raymond said as he scooted up to the bars of the cage.
Hatchet too came up close enough to speak directly to Raymond. "Yeah, what?"
"Your getting sleepy aren't you", Raymond asked.
"No, im not. Why do you ask."
"Yes...you are getting sleepy. Your wanting to go into a deep sleep, aren't you?"
At that moment, Moira began singing her lullaby again. "Dont worry...Everything will be fine, as long as you can keep dreaming...As long as you see the stars...just don't worry. As long as I'm your heart...don't worry. As long as I can make you smile...Dont worry."
"Shut up Moira", Hatchet said as he seemed to get a bit grouchy.
"She's not bothering anyone... you'll let her sing, won't you", Raymond said.
"Yes...I guess I'll let her sing", Hatchet replied. It almost seemed to sound like he was in a trance but he kept fighting it. Moira continued singing.
"Your very tired, aren't you? You could fall into a deep sleep right now", Raymond asked.
"Yes...I could. I'm so tired", Hatchet replied. This time he closed his eyes and seemed to sway.
"You're an idiot for forgetting to take away my glasses. Aren't you", Raymond asked as he smiled. "I made them with the ability to hypnotize."
"Yes...I should have broken them...", Hatchet said before he fell over. The combination of suggestion, and Moira's devil fruit-based lullaby song put him into a deep slumber. Each of the water lances that hovered in front of everyone fell to the floor with a splash.
"Wow... I cant believe that worked", Borya said. "Even I was starting to get sleepy."
"Thats the power of teamwork. Now hold still so I can get those cuffs off of you." Raymond, used his start pupil attack to shoot the cuffs off of each of his captive friends. Though the cuffs that bound, him Fukurou and Kumadori would take much more effort to get off. "Well...as long as some of us are free."
"Exactly! Blueno broke the bars off of the cage that held the former agents, and Borya did the same. Each of them landed on the floor with ease. Hatchet didn't seem to stir. "If it weren't for our friends, we would be killing you right now. Blueno said towards Hatchet.
"We shouldn't waste time anyways; he won't be a threat to us anymore as long as we don't drop our guards again", Kalifa said.
"She's right. We have to catch that leopard man before he gets away. He couldn't have gone far", Gurin said. I'm not a hundred on this, but I think I saw him make a left after he walked out the door.
"Please go on after him. I shall get rid of these cuffs on Raymond, Fukurou and myself", Kumadori said. The rest of the group nodded and proceeded down the hallway.
"Kumadori how do you plan on getting these cuffs off? We can't break them", Raymond asked.
"Fear not! For I shall use my locks to pick the locks." Both Fukurou and Raymond looked over at each other, seemingly very confused. "Observe! His hair sharpened, and entered the keyhole on his cuffs. "I must maintain utter silence...for the insides must be done perfectly...as to open the hatch and...'Click'!" The Cuffs on his hands fell to the floor.
Raymonds jumped up in excitement. "Woot! Go Kumadori! Hey wait a second...why didn't you do that before? You could have easily done that without Hatchet knowing."
"Well...hm? I dare say. Why DIDN'T I do that earlier", he asked as he rubbed his head.
"Oh, just get our cuffs off already", Fukurou shouted.
"What do you think is at the end of this hallway? If we let him get away, we'll have no way of finding him again", Borya said.
Jabra shook his head and growled. "Don't worry! We'll catch up to him and punch holes in his head. What the hell was he thinking offering you all as sacrifices. Wait. Stop", he yelled. "I hear talking." One of the voices was definitely Lucci's...but the other one also sounded familiar.
"It's been taken care of. Now all we have to do is leave them be. As long as they stop trying to look for us, they'll stay alive at least", Lucci said.
"I see...that's good at least", the voice replied. It didn't exactly sound happy.
"What's the issue? I told you, those five mean nothing to us."
"Yeah, but I mean they did help them. Don't you feel at least somewhat bad about it?"
"I already told you. It wasn't my decision. It was the only compromise that Cannibal would accept."
"You didn't answer my question. Don't you feel some shred of guilt about it?"
"I know that voice! That...", Jabra began to say before he jumped out into the open. "Kaku!" There he was. Not only was Lucci here, but so was Kaku. "Should have known you wouldn't be too far away!"
"Well...it's nice to see you all conscious. I didn't think you'd escape though", Kaku said.
Just then, Raymond, Kumadori and Fukurou caught up with the rest of the group. "We're here! Did you find...", Raymond began to say.
Kumadori nearly fell over. "Kaku! You were also here the whole time?"
"Of course! This IS where our mission was moved to Afterall. How did you all escape anyways?" There was no reply...more or less a look of malice from everyone at the group. "Um...why are you all looking at us like that", Kaku asked.
"Get them", Jabra shouted! An explosion of rage filled the group, as they all pounced on Lucci and Kaku at once!
When Lucci and Kaku came to, they both realized they were handcuffed by the Haki lined cuffs. Hatchet also had a pair on as well, but he was already asleep. "What is the meaning of this", Lucci shouted.
Jabra quickly grabbed him by the collar. "Shut up! We should kill you for this...but that would make this whole journey pointless. Not only that, but I guess I'm happy to see you two. No explain yourselves! Did you have anything to do with sending these silencers after us?"
"Tch. Don't be stupid. If I wanted you dead, I would have done it myself." That was a huge relief. At least they were now assured that this silencer ordeal was not because of them. But that was just one question answered on a list of many more. "As for the deal, as I stated it was all I could manage.
"We get that! And it was a stupid deal. We told you to come up with another one and you ignored us. No matter what you were trying to accomplish, we wouldn't sacrifice anyone just to live."
"I see. Its because of them, that you have gone so soft, isn't it?" He directed the comment at the friends of the ex-agents. "This is what happens when you associate with normal people."
"They nearly DIED trying to help us! And they could have died trying to help us locate you and that's all you have to say", Blueno asked. While its true we didn't ask them to do it for us, they did. We used to be exactly like you of course but..."
"We don't owe him an explanation. Just like he said to us", Kalifa said. She was sure to put some venom into that as well. We came all the way here for their sake...and... Well, I guess I cant be too upset. Its not like he didn't care enough to try to save us. BUT as we said before, offering up our friends to the person we've been hunting is NOT going to happen.
"You can either willingly come back to the ship with us, or we can drag you both back. You may be strong, but we got stronger too", Fukurou said.
"Good luck with that. Your ship is miles and miles away from Last Call. Between this and there there's nothing but sea. And its too risky to steal a ship to get back", Kaku replied.
"A risk we're willing to take", Gurin replied. "Shall we formulate a plan? We'll need a good one to get out of this situation.
"I have a few idea. We'll spitball and see what sticks", Raymond replied.
"What!? Just like that? Did you already forget how we were going to let you die", Lucci asked.
"No, we didn't forget. But a friend of our friend is a friend to us. Afterall, you were only looking out for them. Truth be told we kind of understood your methods. Of course, we weren't happy with that either, but you get my point", Moira said.
Raymond agreed with a nod. "Yeah we kind of knew your choices were limited, which is why we've come to take care of the source of everyone's problems, and that's Cannibal."
Lucci was honestly surprised. They all were pretty much risking their lives to save him and Kaku. They were doing all this for each other. "And you realize that Cannibal is..."
"Yes, we know. Really strong. A lot of people we've fought were really strong, but we still fought them. Consider this the final hurdle. At least for now", Gurin replied.
"Then count me in. Working for the government is about as boring as I remember it being", Kaku said. "Going after a bigshot sounds a lot more exciting."
"Like we said, we were going to drag you both along anyways. Only difference is going with ot without a fight", Jabra said with a smirk.
"Oh bother. I guess I truly don't have a choice. Very well then. I'll aid you...but not because you asked me to. I only want to see how this end. It was faint, but he gave a small smirk.
"That reminds me! The other reason we came all the way here", Kumadori shouted. Everyone turned towards the loud Kabuki man. "Wheeeeeeere is Spandam?"