A/N: GRR Evil end of term tests! I've been so busy trying to boost my marks up the percent I need to get an A at the end that I haven't had much free time and when I did I really wasn't in the mood to write... Sorry to those people who I told it would be up around mid November... I'm a bit late ^^;

Rein clapped her hands to brush the dirt off once she was satisfied that her raft was difficult to find by prying eyes. She had found the perfect crevasse in the rock wall; it just barely reached the full height of the mast so she had moved a boulder to hide it from anyone who would come down the beaten path, and lucky for her, the earth was similar in colour to the treated wood. Before leaving she did one last check to make sure everything was in place and out of sight. Content that it was, she headed up the hill towards civilization.

It took a little over an hour to reach the end of the road the winding path had led to. The young pirate blinked at the sight before her. A massive gate was imbedded inside the equally massive stone wall that surrounded the entire town, well, it wasn't a town exactly; it resembled a high class city more. There were guards stationed at the only way inside, both carrying several fully loaded guns and large swords holstered at their sides. The girl eyed them warily, she didn't want to cause any commotion: not yet anyway. She wondered if they were as updated with bounties as some of the Marines. Another scan of the area revealed that there were strategically placed market stalls that stretched along the wall for a kilometre on both sides of the gate to maximize the profits the island could receive. Judging from the line of people waiting with papers to enter the city and the snippets of conversation she could catch, it seemed like the place was called Agora City and it was renowned for its shopping. This was perfect. All she had to do was lift some papers off of a visitor, act calm, and bluff her way in. It was worth a shot, and it was definitely better than trying to find a nice cozy place to start wall climbing.

Rein may not be an expert on pickpocketing, but she did know a few handy tricks. Some of the tourists decided to browse the market wares before moving on to the probably more expensive things inside; it would be better to steal one of theirs since it'd take longer for them to notice than those already in line. If she was going to rob someone then she at least had to make sure it wasn't anyone she'd regret taking it from. She spent the next several minutes surveying the crowd; she walked along the side roads gazing at each person she passed, doing her best to size them up. Eventually she found herself stopping next to a jewelry stand: almost as if the sparkling precious metals had drawn her like a moth to a flame. Gold and jewelry weren't something she would wear, her plain black choker was more than enough, but she had to admit that the shining necklaces were definitely beautiful.

The merchant noticed her eyeing his wares and so he began his pitch. "You have a fine eye. These wares come straight from-"

She cut him off, "I'm not looking to purchase." As soon as the words had left her mouth the merchant lost interest and the young pirate was unceremoniously shoved from behind. She made a noise of indignation as she took a couple steps forward to regain her balance. "What was that for?!" she demanded, turning to look at the culprit.

Said person was a tall brunette young woman wearing the latest fashion and showing off several, most likely expensive, bracelets on her tan arms. "If you're not going to buy anything then make way for paying customers," she sneered.

"Ever heard of browsing?" Rein retorted, shocking herself. Just a little while ago, after the initial push she would have turned to see who it was but other than that she would have done nothing. This entire conversation was out of character for her, or maybe it was completely in character, she honestly wasn't sure anymore, and all this thinking about who she was was going to give her a headache. Rubbing her temples in a circular motion, she stared straight into the woman's eyes.

"Only the lower class stare at things they can't afford," she said haughtily, "It's a form of poetic punishment they inflict upon themselves."

The redhead looked at the other person in disbelief. "Excuse me?" What was wrong with this woman's attitude? And her view on things was majorly skewed.

"You heard me. Now move aside, your shadow is stopping my new earrings from sparkling."

Rein rolled her eyes but complied. She brushed past the brunette on her way back to the main road, leaving the other woman feeling like a chilling breeze had swept by her; she shivered slightly as she tried on golden necklace after golden necklace. After her encounter with that brunette she went back towards the gate and joined the line that had grown since she had last been there. She unclenched her hand and took a look at its contents. In her grasp was a slip of paper: a document she had lifted from the rude woman at the stand. The name on the sheet identified the other woman as a Katarina Summers, and informed Rein of her new alias. She opted to read the entire document as she stood in line, which was a good idea since it had several guidelines and laws of the city and stated how the document worked. There were different levels of permits because apparently the city was popular enough to warrant limits on the amount of time people could spend inside: the shortest being two hours and the longest being a week. The longer someone wanted to stay the more it cost, lucky for them that buying a higher level permit also included the cost for a hotel. The papers Rein had pick pocketed from Katarina were of the highest level which gave the girl plenty of time to accomplish her goals and reassured her that it would not be truly missed. After all, if Summers could afford something like this then it would only be a minor nuisance to get another delivered.

As time wore on, the redhead found herself getting irritated. It wasn't that she was impatient, she was actually very patient, but the longer this line took the higher the chances that Katarina would realize she was missing something; thank the gods that she was a ridiculously slow shopper. Another 20 minutes later it was finally Rein's turn to meet the guards, she swallowed and calmed herself.

"Pass," the guard on her right demanded. She handed him the slip which he studied for a moment before starting with the usual round of questions. "Name?"

"Katarina."

"Reason for visiting?"

"Pleasure; I'm here to get something I've got my eye on."

"Duration of stay?"

"Not sure, less than a week."

"Which hotel you staying at?"

Rein hesitated; she didn't remember the document saying anything about her hotel, and she couldn't just take it out of his hand to check. Finally she answered, a tiny hint of uncertainty hidden in her voice, "I'm staying with my boyfriend, but if we have a fight the hotel is my back up plan."

The guarded eyed her for a moment. Silently she prayed that there really was a residential district inside. Apparently there was. "Very well." He stamped her papers with their expiration date and handed them back. She thanked him and headed pass the gate, disappearing from view on the crowded streets almost immediately. Once she could no longer see the massive structure she let out a heavy sigh of relief. She had made it inside, now came the tedious part, and then the fun would finally begin. On her way towards the centre of the city she passed an abundance of stores and even a few more stalls, which she shoplifted a baguette from and, thanks to the mass of people, managed to get away unnoticed.

Rein stared at the tall stone structure with a devious smirk on her face. It had taken quite a few hours of searching and getting lost, as well as some innocent questions to other shoppers, but she had finally found this island's Marine base. Now it was time to get to work.

The building was far too large to merit her taking a walk around the entire perimeter; it didn't help that it was stationed with its back to a cliff, though she had to admit that that was a smart move on their part. The only way to enter was via the main entrance or a fun wall climbing trip. Although, flying would sure make things a lot easier, sadly, there were only a few Devil Fruits that could do that, and her's wasn't one of them. She hadn't done anything like this before, but she had an idea that should work. Well, it was now or never. With a sigh she resisted the urge to roll up her long blue sleeves for no apparent reason, and went through the door. Almost literally; well to be more exact she went through all the cracks. Once she passed by the Marines that were standing guard right on the other side who blinked at the sudden breeze, her body reformed rapidly in a nearby room.

As soon as her body was materialized again she peeked her head through the doorway and looked around. No one had noticed anything: so far so good. However, at the sound of incoming footsteps she ducked back inside and waited. As she waited she opted to take a look around the room she had emerged in. It was an office of some sort. On a wall adjacent to the large pane glass window hung a faded map of the city. According to the map, Agora was spilt up into five districts, each with their own classification be it dining, shopping, residential, recreational, or political. The shopping sector was by far the biggest of them all. The map was even colour coded; apparently this office's owner was somewhat of a neat freak. Regardless, as great as a map of the city was, what she needed right now was to find her way around the base, and here she couldn't ask for directions. Once the talking and footsteps faded she made her move.

The building was bigger than she gave it credit for, and, annoyingly enough, Rein was quite certain she had seen the exact same landscape painting three times now. She huffed and opted to make a turn to the left instead of the right she had planned on taking. She turned the corner at the same time that two marines were heading down the hall.

A brunet was recanting some story excitedly and directed all his attention towards his friend since eye contact was said to be key when trying to engage an audience. The other, however, looked quite disinterested about the whole ordeal and was staring straight ahead; it was this man that halted in the middle of his stride, forcing his now confused friend to stop as well. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. "Did you just see...?" he started, still blinking.

The brown haired man raised an eyebrow. "See what?" he questioned. After he looked around for a moment and saw nothing out of the ordinary he stated, "I think the hours are getting to you man."

"But... there was red!" His friend protested, rubbing his eyes once again just to be certain.

"Red?" his friend asked, raising his second eyebrow to join the first.

"Not just red, but black and blue too! And-" he cut himself off and shook his head. "Right... never mind... I think the light was being weird or something, ignore me."

The brunet laughed. "I was planning on it," he replied with a grin. His friend nudged him as they started walking again. They turned to the right and their voices died out the farther they got.

Rein exhaled in relief that they were finally gone; her limbs were starting to cramp up, overall, she was not in the most comfortable position. She relaxed her muscles and dropped down from the ceiling where she had stretched herself out to cling to the overhead rafters. One of the marines had caught a glimpse of her before she had jumped up, but lucky for her they hadn't thought to look upwards. The girl bit her lip; she really needed to be more careful.

After almost an hour of hiding from the naval officers and stealthy sneaking around the more crowded areas, the redhead managed to stumble across an empty office that held a map of the base. "About time," she mumbled as she smoothed the parchment's creases to get a better look at the layout. As she tried to plan her route she talked aloud, finding it easier to keep her thoughts in order once they were voiced. Her black eyes scanned the blueprint as she tried to get a sense of where she currently was. "I passed by the infirmary a little while back," she mused before placing her finger down on the little square labelled "infirmary" and traced the route she thought she had taken. Once she had an approximate location she began to search for the word "archives". Less than a minute later she located the small printed word and groaned aloud at the realization that she was at the opposite end of the base from where she wanted to be. With a sigh she rolled the paper up, tucked it into one of the deep pockets of her black capris, and headed off.

Now that she actually knew where she was going, it took just over twenty minutes to get to her destination. The girl came to a stop in front of a set of large oaken doors. Rein frowned at the doors as she noticed they were closed, if she just opened it and someone was inside she'd have a problem; there might not be time for her to thoroughly search the place if someone alerted the others, but she didn't see any other way inside. She shrugged, took a deep breath, and opened one of the doors.

An awkward moment of silence stretched on as the young pirate stared at the older marines and vice versa. They had paused in the middle of reorganizing files: one was on a ladder as he tried to grab a high up folder, another one was balancing way more manila envelopes than he should have been holding in his arms, and the other one was blinking at her as the ink from his quill splattered onto the document he was supposed to be updating. No one said anything for what felt like several minutes, but it had actually been twenty or so seconds. Eventually, one of the marines dropped what he was carrying and open his mouth to shout. Rein's eyes narrowed in determination as she sprinted forward and tackled him to the floor with a hand covering his mouth. He struggled and slowly managed to pry her hand away; she was stronger than she looked. Frowning, the red haired girl tensed her hand and and hit him in the throat roughly enough to cause the man to blackout from the sudden deprivation of oxygen and the force of the hit.

"Ensign!" the other two called out when they saw their superior officer wasn't going to get back up. They drew their weapons and simultaneously charged. Rein blinked and swiftly rolled off the unconscious marine just in time to avoid the swings of their swords. Straightening up, she eyed the door to make sure no one else was coming before running towards them. They raised their swords again to strike but she ducked under the swings. From her new position in between them, the girl grabbed both of their heads and bashed them together, successfully knocking them out. She hopped over a limp body on her way towards the door; once there she looked around and after making sure the coast was clear she gently closed the door.

Turning back to look more carefully at the room, she vaguely notice it was in fact quite large. There were shelves upon shelves filled to the brim with files on every and any pirate one could think of. Rein crossed her fingers that there was some sort of easy to understand filing system or else she would be here quite a while. The girl ran a hand through her shoulder length hair before cracking her fingers and getting to work.

Over an hour and a half later the redhead stood in front of the umpteenth shelf with a deep grimace and a slight twitch in her eye. "Why does the print have to be so small?" she whined as she grabbed another couple boxes of files and dropped them automatically on the nearby table. They landed with a thud which instantly brought her out of her stupor. She bit her lip and hoped that no one would walk through the door. When no one did, she breathed a sigh of relief and plopped down in a chair. She took the lid off the first box, took out the top file, and felt her breath hitched in her throat. A smile broke out on her face as she squashed the urge to cry out in joy that she had finally found it. Although, there were way too many for her to read on the spot. Quickly she skimmed through the papers and pulled out only the things that caught her interest: bounty posters of the most prominent figures from the Whitebeard crew and a quick overview of their stats and crimes. She was still left with a small book worth of pages but it was better than the two full boxes that were filled with every little detail they had on the crew. Tucking the folder under her left arm she replaced the boxes back on the shelves to give the Marines pause at what her objective was during her little break in and then walked over to the window. She sighed when she saw that there was no way she could leave through there, however, it did have a nice view of the ocean from where the cliff ended.

With another sigh Rein turned back towards the doors and threw them open, for effect if nothing more, straight into the face of yet another marine. "Man my luck sucks today," she stated rather calmly considering the situation she was about to be in.

"Whirlwind!" one of the men who had not had their nose smashed into a door exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!" He eyed the folder she was carrying warily.

Said girl smiled sweetly before leaping over their heads and running down the hallway they had just come from. They stared after her in shock for a moment before they also started running, yelling after the wanted pirate. A minute later the alarms started.

Thanks to the loud and persisting blare from the sirens Rein now had at least half the base after her. And they were pissed: not about the fact that she had stolen information from them, but the fact that she had been able to calmly wander around their base for hours doing as she pleased before they had finally become aware of her presence. When one of them brought up that fact her taunting reply had been, "Well it's not my fault you can't do your jobs properly." Her words were met with angry shouts and gunfire. She sped up after that.

The girl burst through the doors at the main entrance and took off down the streets. They were half as crowded as they had been earlier, but that was to be expected since night had fallen while the redhead had been touring the area; well, getting lost would be more precise. Agora still had enough of a night life that several people were unceremoniously shoved aside to make way for what probably looked like some strange comedy skit: a hoard of strong men chasing after a lone girl as they waved their weapons in the air threateningly and shouted angrily. This scene soon became a common sight since the group ran through the majority of the city as Rein led them towards the only exit; there were quite a few close calls, but overall she managed to stay a good distance from her pursuers and got away with only a scratch or two.

The chase had been going on for quite a while now and people were tiring. One of the Marines at the front of the pack groaned out loud and said, in between pants, "What is with her stamina?! This is ridiculous!" By now they had reached the path that led to her raft, which she had dubbed the "Breaker"

for its knack to get away from some absurd situations unscathed. Instead of using the dirt road however, Rein ran straight off the cliff, prompting cries of "Is she insane?!" and "Stop! Cliff!" as everyone huddled around the edge to try to get a closer look at the expected body. To their astonishment and dismay, Rein merely waved up at them from her position on the ground with a cheeky smile; she was perfectly fine and standing in the midst of newly risen cloud of dust.

"What the hell is up with this girl?! She can't be human!" One of the Marines cried out, eyes wide as he studied the great distance from where they were standing and the ground below.

An older marine, and most likely a superior officer, responded, "She's a Devil Fruit user."

"Then why hasn't she fought back yet?" another questioned.

To this Rein replied, "I will if you insist on following me."

"The hell?! She can hear us?!"

"If you listen carefully, the wind carries your voices quite nicely," she yelled back up at them. Murmurs swept through the officers and Rein made a motion that looked similar to a shrug before bolting for her Breaker. Shouts followed as the Marines scrambled to sprint down the road to get to her before she got away; some poor unfortunate souls ended up being shoved off the cliff in the mad rush and plummeted to their deaths. She jumped down into the crevasse, landed firmly on her raft, and shot out of there, not even bothering to unfurl the sail, it was faster this way anyway.

The girl cast the occasional glance at her log pose as she sailed away from the island. She debated between the steady needle and the semi shaking one when her thoughts were interrupted by a large splash from beside her. She swerved somewhat as she heard more blasts on the way. Turning to look behind her she made a face at what she saw. Two large battleships were in hot pursuit and firing their cannons at her. She zigzagged as more cannonballs landed in the waters beside her, soaking her from the residual spray. Honestly, she was amazed that they had managed to spot her in the darkness, but now was not the time to be impressed. She took a breath, clenched her hand into a fist, pulled back, and punched as she called, "Gale Strike!" A large current of wind emanated from her fist and shot towards one of the Marine ships. Said ship halted its advance and was forced backwards as the wind made contact with it and the water in front of it. Shouts were heard and half the cannonballs stopped. While she had been paying attention to the ship on right, the one on her left got a lucky shot in; a ball landed a mere few inches away from her transport causing the whole thing to tilt precariously to the side from the resulting wave. Rein did her best to hold on, but the wood was made slippery from the ocean spray, her hands slipped several times, worst of all, her log pose, which had always been a big large for her wrist, slipped off and fell into the dark waters, never to be seen again. The wet redhead let loose a string of curses as she readied to finish off the Marines.

It had been several days since Rein had lost her log pose and she was still sailing through the waters of the Grand Line, starving and thirsty; without any way to find the next island she was lost at sea and getting weaker by the moment. She fought hard to keep her eyes open in the scorching heat, but it was a losing battle. Black was creeping across the edges of her vision and she knew it wouldn't be long before she passed out.

Several thoughts ran through her head. Was she really going to die this way? She had always wanted to be laid to rest out on the ocean, but this was too early. Way too early. She hadn't even gotten close to her goal yet. She was going to die and all because of a foolish mistake on her part. She knew she should have gotten the bracelet tightened ages ago, but it always kept slipping her mind and she hadn't deemed it a priority so there was never great initiative for her to do anything about it.

Soon her thoughts became muddled and she was forced to lean back to help stop her reoccurring dizziness. The last thing she saw before blacking out was a large white blob that looked like it was heading in her general direction. Her last thought was the hope that the blob wasn't a seaking; that was the last thing she needed.