Chapter 4
Tobitsu Island, Goto Archipelago, Grand Line
'I am forever grateful that these clothes are high quality or else I'd have to of gone shopping again and lord knows I don't wanna enter Quentin's again for my own mental sanity.' I think to myself while on the ground, gasping for breath while Haynes stands over me, I see his lips moving forming words but all I'm hearing is the noise that Charlie Brown's teacher makes as I feel like I've been hit by a speeding semi-truck. When I finally collect myself enough to process talking I hear Haynes mocking me. 'I'm only three days into basic combat training, give me a break.'
"Come on Alani, I thought that you were better than this, this is basic swordplay that you need to learn." He drops the wooden practice sword and crouches down next to me, I finally get the strength to sit up and say something back.
"I don't think you can call it 'basic swordplay' when you one, don't give me a sword back, two, hit an average person with a wooden sword that feels like an iron skillet when it connects, and three, BIND MY HANDS TOGETHER IN FRONT OF ME SO I CAN'T EVEN TRY TO PROTECT MYSELF!" I scream out while wobbly standing back up on two feet, 'I knew I made a mistake when I accepted his offer!'
"I mean the best way to train reaction time and dodging skills is when you're in actual combat getting attacked, and I technically have a disadvantage also." He points to his right arm and gets up from his crouching position in as I gain my balance, I don't even bother saying anything back, I just sigh in response, 'If you're fighting an elephant without one of its tusks as a beetle, It doesn't matter if he's missing one of his tusks because you are still a BEETLE!'
He swings once again at me and I try to back up, tripping over my own foot and falling flat on my butt, my bound hands falling into to lap as I land. I get a second of rest before Haynes overhand swings towards me on the ground, I twist my body around dodging it getting up as fast as I can, I don't even get a chance to react before the next attack before I feel a familiar feeling piece of wood slam down on the top of my head, thankfully without the extra added Armament Haki.
"See you're learning! This time you dodged my attack twice this time instead of not dodging at all!" He pulls the blade off my skull and I at least try to massage the strike zone with my bound hands.
"This can't even be counted as training! You are basically just using me as a punching bag to take your anger out on!" I scream as I duck beneath the hit that would've hit me straight in the collarbone, 'At this point, it feels like he is going for a kill shot!'
"Is it not beneficial though? 4 hours ago you couldn't even dodge one attack, now you're dodging multiple in a row!" He lunges towards me trying to hit me with a stab but I twist out the way just in time almost falling flat on my face in the process.
"I'd rather do actual field work rather than this!" The second I blurt it out I regret my decision, Haynes' flurry of attacks come to a standstill as he stands there, a look on his face almost undeniably filled with a mixture of amusement and actual thought, my face pales as I realize Haynes is most definitely going to do something that will result in me quote, exploring the uses of my power, unquote.
"Wait-" I don't even get to backtrack in order to get out of the situation I put myself in, Haynes walks up to me with a smug grin and cuts the tape bindings my hands together. He gestures to follow him as he enters his cabin, 'Why did just have to open my stupid mouth!' I accept my fate and follow Haynes back inside the cabin, I pick up my bag and my trench coat that was sitting on a nearby piece of firewood and enter the cabin.
I follow Haynes inside and wait inside the living room as he opens up his closet and pulls out some kind of file folder with a picture of Ikeda 'Red Hot' Yoshita sticking out the side, I feel my stomach drop when I see it. He puts it down on the coffee table in front of me and sits down on the couch leaning toward me.
"So, Ikeda Yoshita, quite the target to go after as your first mission from me but I think you got it." He says, 'This is the first time I've seen him so serious! He feels like a different person.'
"Not much is known about Yoshita but he has a special kind of power, his body is made almost entirely of metal and seems to not have a weak point. His last known location is in the city of Kreali which is conveniently not that far away from where we are!" He puts down the file and stands up looking down at me.
"I'll follow you until we get to Kreali but I can't enter the city without the risk of being seen and reported to the capital and if that happens our goal will be over before it even starts." Haynes freezes and seems conflicted for a second before moving, he walks into his bedroom and after a minute or two comes out with a sheathed rapier.
"I know I have not trained you in sword fighting and sure as hell not trained you in the specialized training needed to wield a rapier correctly but I would like you to have her just in case you need her." He hands me the eloquent blade and I take it from his hands like a father who was just given their baby for the first time. "Her name is Jinsokuna-Unmei." I pull the rapier out of its scabbard and it doesn't give the sword justice to how beautiful it is.
"She's beautiful…" I say under my breath and I hear Haynes chuckle slightly.
"I'll teach you how to use her correctly once you come back after beating Yoshita. It would be a shame if the new owner of a Great-Grade sword didn't even know how to use it." Haynes laughs as he throws me a black belt with a place to put Jinsokuna-Unmei.
"Come on, if we keep up the pace we should be able to get to Kreali before sunset!" He yells out to me while I put on the belt and put Jinsokuna-Unmei's scabbard in the part of the belt that a specially made to fit a scabbard, I feel the weight of the sword on my right side and run out the door trying to catch up to Haynes.
I huff and puff trying to catch my breath when we reach the entrance to Kreali at dusk.
"Did we really need to *huff* run all the way here?" I ask Haynes, I turn right and see Haynes looking better than ever and even stretching his legs!? 'Is he even human!'
"Stop complaining Alani, it wasn't even that long of a run. When you finish your mission go to the southern gate and look around the base of it, there should be a cardboard box and under it will be a Den Den Mushi, when you call it I will pick it up." Before I can even question his questionable placement of Den Den Mushi's he is already running back to the Cabin, 'I swear he is going to be the death of me.' I sigh and look around me, already missing Haynes' exposition. Kreali looks nothing like the small quiet and cozy town of Donguri and more like a more rustic version of a town in the midwest of America, almost every street has a bar on it and the town seems to be a gambler's haven by the looks of the giant casino in the center of town named The Golden Crown.
'I guess I better start off in a bar, If I can get some information I'll be in a better location than I am right now.' I walk into the nearest bar I see called Garmen's Bar.
I enter the bar and was immediately assaulted by the smell of hard liquor and body odor. I gag and cover my nose with my arm walking up to the bar front. I sit down on one of the seats and keep my head down, eavesdropping for any information.
"You hear of that new bar…" Useless, "Hey Richard! I haven't seen…" Even more useless.
After what feels like hours of just sitting and refills of water I get a small lead. "Yea of course I know the owner of the casino personally! Red Hot was the…" Got it! I turn toward the people talking and see a group of four people sitting at a table next to the exit I wait for their leave. Once they exit the bar I say my goodbyes to the barmaid who has been refilling my water cup the entire time and start following the group.
"Just *hick* follow me guys. I'm pretty high up in the casino so I have the key into the back so we don't have to walk through the casino floor to get to the employee lounge!" The man says while slurring his word almost falling over in the alley. I run up the group of four and shoulder bash one into the ground, the shock and the alcohol combined will make sure he won't get up for a while.
"Huh? Who are you, little girl?" The rest of the three turn to me and throw a slow punch compared to Haynes', I easily dodge it and elbow him in the nose and he falls backwards knocked out. One guy tries to tackle me but I twist to the left and he falls flat on his face, I take the scabbard of Jinsokuna-Unmei out the belt and smack him with the bottom of it, the sound of the metal scabbard against his skull tells me he won't get out of this without a slight concussion.
"Huh, so you think you're hot shit girl? Take this!" The last guy pulls a switchblade out of his pocket and lunges towards me trying to stab me, I simply do an overhead swing without taking Jinsokuna-Unmei out of the scabbard and he falls right in front of me once it connects with his head. I put my sword back in my belt and search the main drunken for his keys and sure enough, I find the keys in the left pocket, 'If what these guys were saying is true, Yoshita has some kind of connection to the casino, and if I'm lucky enough I can get information out of the Casino.' I put the keys in my bag and start jogging towards the back of the casino through the alleyways.
I make it to the back of The Golden Crown and see the backdoor the drunk was talking about, I put one of the keys in and enter the casino. I put my head on a swivel on soon as I enter looking for anyone that could see me, luckily no one seems around as I hear the noise from the casino floor through the wall. 'I look so out of place! Thankfully It seems like it's a busy day so there shouldn't be a lot of people not working, I need to get what I need and get out fast.'' I go towards the arrow on the wall that points toward the employee lockers. 'Or I could do this!' I run down the hallway and see a door on the left that says employee lockers.
I quietly open the door and see I giant room filled with what seems to be a hundred lockers all with names on them. 'Geez, I knew that this casino is big but damn!' I take out the keys I took from the drunk and along with three keys there is a name tag on them, 'Jeremy F., now to find the locker with this idiot's name on it.' I walk to the first row of lockers and they seem to be sorted alphabetically by the last name as the first couple row's names are all A. last names. I back up from the 7 rows and on all the first lockers in each row have a sorting tag on them, the second row has my answer, 'E-H last names, got it!' I run down the row until I find Jeremy F. I hastily open his locker and find an extra casino outfit. 'Thank god this Jeremy guy isn't insanely tall.' I grab the extra outfit and walk towards the changing rooms at the back trying to act like I fit in.
Once I enter the changing room I take a sigh of relief and start changing into the casino uniform, It consists of a pair of black slacks, a white dress shirt, a tie, a black sweater that goes over the dress shirt with a nametag connected to it that says Jeremy F. on it, I take it off and throw it into my bag without much thought, and some basic black shoes. I attempt to hide Jinsokuna-Unmei under my casino outfit but it doesn't fit, I reluctantly put her in my bag with my outfit and walk out of the changing room without as much worry as I had when I first entered it. I look around and see everyone currently in the locker room wearing the same outfit as me but without the black sweater over it, 'I mean he did say he was high up in the casino but how high up do you need to be to get a special outfit?' I shake away my thoughts as I exit the employee lockers.
I look down the hallway I just ran down earlier and start to actually take in information instead of sneaking around, the doorway to the lockers is on the corner hallway as it continues down to what I presumably assume to be the casino floor which is where I don't need to be right now, If this guy is so high up that he gets a special outfit I don't need people questioning me on who I am. I turn around and see the backdoor and past it the hallway continues down. 'Guess that's where I'm going.' I walk down past the door and the hallway turns to a bunch of offices and one of the doors says Files Room on it.
I open the door and see a giant amount of filing cabinets all labeled with different tags on them, 'Geez, I guess this is going to take a while, considering Jeremy said something about how he used to be here I guess I better start with the terminated employee files.' I walk up to the cabinet and start sifting through the files Before I find what I was looking for, I grab the file named Ikeda Yoshida, I stuff the file in my bag and when I turn around I see another employee staring at me.
"It looks like I finally found the person I was looking for."
