Hi again~ As promised, this chapter has much more Law in it. Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece. Only the characters you don't recognize. A.K.A.: Any injured character up to this point.
Chapter 2: Another Knock-Knock Joke
"Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects." -Dave Barry
As Law sat in the office of the mayor the only thought in his head was, 'What an ass.'
His gray eyes glanced to the clock at his left to note that the mayor had gone on and on for the past ten minutes. The pirate captain didn't know what about of course, as he stopped paying attention after the first two minutes of the mayor's pointless rambling. He was pretty sure that a few of his men were asleep if Shachi's light snoring was anything to go by. The last time Law had tuned into the man's ramblings, the mayor had been talking about his father and how he died and left the office to him... Or something like that. Truth be told, nothing short of threatening to spell out the location of Raftel could get Law's mind back in the conversation.
Out of the corner of his eye, Law saw Bepo nodding off as well. The polar bear in the orange boiler suit that held his Captian's nodachi in his claws was struggling to stay awake. The bear was seated between Shachi and Penguin on a leather sofa a few feet away near the fireplace. The only member of the trio on the sofa who seemed fully awake was Penguin.
"... And my father saved the town from the bandits by utilizing the force of 120 mansion guards when I was ten and- Are you listening to me, Captain Law?"
Upon hearing his name being called, the pirate looked to the mayor with his usual smirk. However, before the young man could answer a sound of knocking reverberated through the room.
Knock, knock, knock-knock, knock
Recognizing the ever famous "shave and a haircut" knocking style, the mayor blinked. None of his guards would ever dare to use that. Silence reigned for a few moments; only light snoring from Shachi and the gentle crackling of the fire was heard.
"Shall I see what that was, Master?" The butler asked, his hand across his chest in waiting.
"Yes, do see what that was about," The mayor ordered.
The butler bowed and stepped away from the desk. His polished black shoes clacked on the tile floor as he approached the large wood doors to the study. As sudden as the knocking had taken place, a sound of splintering wood was heard. Then, a sofa came sailing through the wooden doors, knocking said doors off their hinges and pinning the butler beneath them with a crash as the sofa soared over Law's head and hit the wall behind the mayor's desk with an ear-splitting crack. The mayor yelped as he got up from the desk with a start as he moved away from the desk lest there be any more flying sofas that come sailing through the broken down doors.
"Huh! I'm awake!" Shachi declared as he sat bolt upright. The ginger haired man looked at the door and then to the sofa behind the mayor's desk with surprise written across his face.
Bepo had long since perked up and was now on guard while Law was slightly curious as to who (or what) could toss a sofa through thick, wooden doors. A sound of sandals hitting the hard wood of the doors caused the pirate Captain to look over his shoulder. A young woman stood atop the fallen doors, her bloody arms crossed over her chest as she took in the sight in front of her.
"Knock, knock Mayor dear," She said in a mocking voice. "You seemed to have neglected to send my invite to this little party."
The mayor blanched.
"Guards! Guards!" He screamed.
The young woman merely sighed and then tried to hide a grimace. Hopping off the door, she made contact with the tile floor; her sandals slapping against the ground. The first thing rather noticeable about the young woman was the fact that she was covered in blood. Her arms were coated in the red liquid while her clothes were either spattered with it or outright soaked. Her shirt was more spattered with it than coated, but her jeans weren't so lucky. It looked as if those had been dunked in a vat of blood.
"No sense in calling them. I think I beat at least twenty of them on my way down. Idiots with guns, idiots with swords, and idiots with no weapons at all... The idiots with the guns were the most dangerous," She mused with a thoughtful look on her face.
As the mayor began stuttering, she took notice of the pirates in the room; her bronze eyes scanning their body language for any tells that they might jump her. The pirates lounged in front of the fireplace on sofas and armchairs located to the left of the now broken down doors. There were at least five of them in the room, four by the fire and one in front of the desk, and they all looked to be on edge, but nothing screamed at her that they'd attack her so long as she kept her wrath to the mayor and his men. Though she did spot a polar bear in an orange boiler suit... And a young man sitting in front of the mayor's desk who was just looking over his shoulder at her.
"Well, now that we've got all the formalities aside," She said, closing her eyes and trying to put an amiable smile on her face. It failed miserably due the left side of her face being swollen and bruised. "We should get down to business... Where is it, Caito?"
The mayor shuddered at the cold tone in her voice.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about..." The man stuttered.
Her eyes opened into narrow slits as she glared at him.
"Don't lie, Alderman sent me here," She informed him.
The mayor blanched even more if it were at all possible. Law couldn't help but notice that he looked more like a ghost than a man at this point.
"Damn it..." He backed up even further away from her. He just barely missed hitting the wall as he backed up in fear.
She sighed again, this time more in aggravation than anything else, at the current turn of events. She had hoped the mayor would cough up the items she needed so she could leave these godforsaken island.
"Looks like we're going to have to do it the hard way..." She decided with a sort of finality in her voice.
Running forward, the pirates were a bit surprised to see that she could move rather quickly even with her body in the state that it was in, and grabbing the mayor by the throat, she throttled him against the wall and pinned him there with her left forearm. His gasps for air were heard as he grabbed at her arm in attempts to get her to let go. She didn't; instead she pressed him even harder into the wall behind him that was decorated with gold wallpaper.
"Now... Tell me where Alderman's things are, and I might not hurt you too badly," She asked calmly.
"M-Might?" He rasped.
"Well you did keep me strapped to a chair for four days," She said as she looked at him blankly. "You can't really expect me not to be angry after that."
"I find that strangling someone isn't the best way to get information, Miss," A smooth voice interrupted their conversation.
The mayor's attacker looked over her shoulder to see that it had been the man in front of the desk who spoke. He sat in the leather armchair as if he was the owner of the mansion instead of the weakling she just pinned to the wall. The white and brown spotted hat of his shadowed most of his face, but she still saw his storm gray eyes watching the scene in front of him with a hint of amusement. The sneering face of a Jolly Roger was printed on the front of his yellow hoodie and she put two-and-two together; the fact that he was dressed differently than any other pirates in the room was the big clue.
"Hmm, so you must be the rookie pirate that Leon and Patrick were talking about," She observed. "And you're right. Strangling someone normally won't get answers out of someone."
With that said, she yanked the mayor off the wall and slammed him onto his mahogany desk. Her left forearm went across his throat as she pinned him down using her own body weight, her left knee resting on the desk for leverage. In a flash she'd picked up the letter opener that laid on his desk and pressed the tip to his right temple with her free hand. The letter opener was gold, a simple carving up the blade of the knife reminded her of waves, and a single ruby was set into the handle. It was an elegant design in her opinion.
"I think this is a better option if I do say so myself," She sounded almost proud of herself. "Now spill it!"
The mayor whimpered as he felt the tip of the letter opener dig into the soft skin of his temple.
"Better, but brute force isn't always the way to do things," The pirate was now wearing out his welcome.
She growled lowly as she tore her eyes away from the whimpering Mayor and looked at the pirate sitting in front of her.
"I'm not telling you how to do your job, am I?" She deadpanned. "I'm sticking to what I know here. Besides, I don't have much time left before the other forty-five guards make their way to this room and I'd kinda like to get out of here and take a shower."
"Your arms look like they've been through a shredder and you're concerned about a shower?" A ginger haired pirate in a white boiler suit asked her with a tone of incredulity laced in his voice.
Her brain finally processed the fact that the crew under the command of the pirate in front of her wore hats and white boiler suits as their uniform. Well, except for the polar bear that just wore an orange suit and no hat. Though, why on Earth would a bear need a nodachi?
"What can I say?" She shrugged. "I've been tied to a chair for four days, tortured, and questioned by someone who's literally dumber than a post. There's only so many drawling syllables I can take before I want to rip someone's throat out. That someone being Caito here of course."
There was silence after that little outburst. Scoffing lightly, she turned her attention back to menacing the mayor into spilling the beans. Giving the mayor her best death glare, the pirates in the room could practically feel the murderous intent rolling off of her at this point.
As she pressed the tip of the letter opener to the mayor's temple in an attempt to get him to break, the sound of a man groaning in pain made the woman look up yet again and towards the doors that she had knocked down to see a man in black hauling himself out from under the doors.
"Well, looks like Jeeves here is still alive," She rolled her eyes at the sight of the butler crawling out from under the door like some sort of bug and turned her attention back to the mayor. The butler hauled himself to his feet and gaped at the sight of his master in mortal peril.
"Master Caito!" He cried.
"Get the guards!" The mayor snapped.
The butler turned on his heel and ran for his life. The woman stared blankly at the door for a moment, a mask of indifference on her face. Suddenly, she hung her head and sighed heavily. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.
"You've gotta be kidding me..." She muttered more to herself than to the people in the room. "First the chair and now this! Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Caito, you do realize that you'd be dead right now if I didn't need your pea-brained mind to tell me where the hell the ledgers are!"
Dropping the letter opener for the time being, she grabbed the mayor by his lapels and shook him rather violently. His bald head snapping to and fro with the movement, a beat was established with every collision his skull made with the dark wood. His attacker was glaring darkly at the man as she shook the man in an attempt to get him to spill the beans.
As amusing as the scene was, the pirates were a bit concerned with the guards on their way down. Just as suddenly as she had started shaking the mayor, she stopped. The mayor hung loosely in her grasp, his head hanging as her bronze eyes snapped up to the pirates and something in her eyes screamed that she had a plan in mind. Looking to the young man still sitting in front of the desk despite everything, she studied him for a moment before speaking again.
"Ever hear the phrase, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" She asked.
Law saw her angle as soon as she spoke; and he was amused to say the least.
"What possible motive could I have for helping you?" He asked.
She gave him a crooked grin.
"I've memorized the floor plan for this mansion and can easily tell you where you'd find this man's treasury," She said as the mayor stirred in her grasp. "Of course, provided you can take care of the pest problem we'll be facing in a moment."
"Th-The floor plans...?" The mayor gasped as his head throbbed. "Wh-When...?"
She ignored him for the time being. Of course she could have told him that the great-grandson of the original builder still had the floor plans and with the right amount of "persuasion" he gave her the plans with little fuss. Now why couldn't Caito be more like that young man? He was such an easy person to get along with. All she had to do was threaten his wife and he gave her the plans without much fuss after that. Needless to say, she walked away from that deal happily and the man walked away with his wife in one piece.
"Oh, and remember that I said something about 'idiots with guns'?" She added onto her statement. "Well, from where I currently am, they'd be shooting at you anyway."
It was very true. The guards would most likely shoot at Law when they shot at her because he was still sitting in front of the desk. Also, there was something about this young woman that amused him. Maybe it was the fact that she sent a sofa flying through wooden doors, or perhaps it was because she was the most amusing thing on the island right now. The island, Inari Island, wasn't exactly known for being an interesting locale. Except when the Harvest Festival rolled around, or so Law had been told. Apparently that was the day everyone got drunk and passed out in the streets.
"I'll be holding you to that deal, Miss..." He may have agreed, but he asked for her name in the same sentence.
"Mina," She introduced herself. "Just call me Mina, Mister..."
"Law. Trafalgar Law."
Mina hadn't heard any whisperings of the man in any of the bars she went to in the past few months, so either he was relatively new to the Grand Line, or he wasn't notable in the least. However, she was betting more on the former than the latter. Considering from what she'd gathered from her former best friend Patrick, the man had a Devil Fruit if the description of what happened to the bandits was accurate. It was only a matter of time before the man in front of her rose to fame.
The mayor, however, was less concerned with Law's name as he was with Mina's. If she had been paying attention, she would've noticed that Caito went as white as a sheet at the mention of her name.
"M-Mina..." Caito repeated, gaining her attention. "You... A-Are Mina...? Y-You..."
Mina looked at Caito blankly. She really didn't know why she hadn't killed him yet; ledgers be damned.
"For Roger's sake spit it out!" She snapped at him. "You're stuttering like a drunk man with a hot date."
The mayor flinched at her tone and suddenly clammed up. Pressing his lips into a firm line, he refused to say anything more. For a moment Mina studied his face, looking for any signs that might tell her what he was thinking. Rolling her eyes and letting out an exasperated breath, Mina picked up the gold letter opener again. The mayor's black eyes going wide, she leveled the sharp object over his left eye, point down and gleaming rather ominously in the light.
"So, if you've heard my name before, then that means you know all about what I do," She said in an amiable tone. "And that means Alderman told you about me right?"
The mayor was silent as he stared at the woman menacing him.
"Answer me or I shove this letter opener into your eye," She informed him just as a weatherman would inform the public about an imminent rainstorm.
Caito flinched at the news; he knew she would do it too.
"Yes," He breathed. "Alderman has told me about you. He said that you'd work for anyone so long as they'd pay you. Or..."
The mayor trailed off. He swallowed out of reflex; the lump in his throat making it ever harder to swallow. His mouth suddenly felt very dry.
"Or what?"
Fate, still being the bitch that it was, decided that now was a good time to interrupt the mayor's interrogation with the appearance of the guards. Men dressed in green flooded the room and those with armed with guns took aim at Mina atop the desk and Law sitting in front of it. More of them congregated by the gunmen's sides, the gleam of swords were seen in the bright overhead lighting.
"I believe the pest problem has shown up Miss Mina," Law said evenly as he studied the predicament they were currently in.
"Well..." Mina began as she stared blankly at guards, never even flinching under the sight of a gunman and never lowering the gold letter opener in her hand. "This sucks. I was finally getting somewhere with this idiot."
To the ordinary person, it would seem that Mina and the pirates were screwed over in more ways than one. However that's what an ordinary person would think. The not-so-ordinary person would take note of the fact that Mina wasn't even the least bit fazed by the appearance of the guards and the small shift in body language of the pirates. The guards never noticed the small things though; they were too busy taking in the sight of their boss on the desk. And this is where they failed miserably as guards.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Hit the button below then. Alright folks, take your bets. Who's gonna win this little fight? Mina and the Heart Pirates or the guards? I'd love to hear from you.