Hello again. Yeah, I know a bit of a late update as fight scenes are not my strong suit, but I'll try to be a bit more consistent. I think Sundays are a good update day so I'll try for Sundays then. Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, that means I'd know what happened to Bepo and wouldn't be driving myself nuts over the MIA polar bear.

Chapter 3: Just Another Day at the Office

"There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result." -Winston Churchill

As the Heart Pirates and Mina stared down multiple rifle barrels, a single glance would have sent any sane person running in the opposite direction of the current predicament. However, it might say something about Mina's sanity as she continued to pin Caito to his desk with one knee on said desk for leverage. The gold letter opener in her hand glinted in the overhead lighting ominously as it hovered oh-so close to Caito's left eye. One simple flick of her wrist would have Caito sporting a nice eyepatch. It would be an improvement in Mina's mind, but having him screaming like a little girl who was just confronted with a rather large spider wouldn't be the best for figuring out where Alderman's ledgers were. No, best to keep him... Pain free for the moment. Though his silence on the topic of the location of the ledgers was irritating for her, Mina currently had bigger fish to fry at the moment; technically forty-five big fish. Though the lumbering oaf of a man who was her main torturer was still absent from the lineup... She figured he was probably sharpening his blade listening to polka music. Why polka music? Because she hated it with a passion.

Law, however, was studying the situation and working out a solution in his mind. Granted it probably wouldn't be a peaceful solution, it was solution nonetheless. What he needed was his nodachi and a bit of time. He had neither at this point and was rather reluctant to move when there were that many rifles pointed in his general direction. He also didn't trust that the guards wouldn't be trigger happy if he made a motion to stand up. However, when a green clad guard made his way to the front of the lineup and cleared his throat as he stood ramrod straight it was fairly apparent the guards didn't want to risk shooting their boss otherwise they would've taken the shot and asked questions later.

"Release the Mayor at once," The guard in front ordered.

The man was a good six feet tall and clad in the normal green uniform of the mansion guards. However, the red armband on his left arm made Mina think that this was the head guard; or at least someone important. He wasn't the best hostage negotiator she had ever seen. In fact a cat might be a better negotiator than him. So, with no intention of listening to the head guard, Mina thought about what to do in this situation.

The mayor was looking on expectantly while in her grasp and it was plain to see that he expected his guards to win against a rookie pirate and a hired... Whatever Mina was. Truth be told, Caito had no clue what to call Mina's profession and neither did she. Mina just sort of retrieved the items that her employer at the time asked her to. Caito knew that much, but what he didn't know was the lengths at which she'd go in order to get those items.

"I told you to release him you shrew!" The head guard snapped.

Mina frowned as he snapped her out of her thought process. Name-calling? How old was this guy, five? Still, she didn't appreciate the insult and decided that now was a good time to start the game, so she set the letter opener down as if she were going to surrender. Getting off the hard desk, Mina stood behind the mayor's desk and planned what to do.

Spying the blue necktie around Caito's neck, she reached for the tie and yanked the mayor off his desk using said tie. Hauling the man to his feet, she quickly undid his tie, spun him around, and yanked his arms behind him. Tying the mayor's arms behind his back using his own tie, she hooked her right foot behind his left ankle and sent him crashing to the floor; narrowly missing hitting his head on his chair.

"Sorry," Mina began. "But I don't negotiate. I'm a bit too stubborn for that."

"You will regret-" The head guard began, but was quickly tuned out.

Mina, now hating the sight of the man in front of her, snatched the gold letter opener off the desk and threw it. It arced though the air, end over end as it hurtled towards the head guard. The man cut off his speech mid sentence to look down at his chest with wide eyes. The letter opener had embedded itself in the man's chest and was buried up to the hilt in the man's flesh. Blood began to pool on the front of the green uniform as his hand went to grip the metal warmed by her hands, but quickly fell away as the man crumpled to the ground. The other guards stood by; stunned by the sight of their Captain being felled by a letter opener to the chest.

"Forty-four," Mina announced somewhat happily; her bronze eyes rather amused.

Law, taking advantage of the stunned guards, got to his feet and faced the guards. His crew following his lead, the four of them got to their feet and prepared to fight.

"Bepo," Law commanded as he held his right arm out for his nodachi.

The bear quickly crossed the room and soon the sword traded hands. It was at this time the guards collected their wits and decided that it was time for the offensive. Seeing the shift in their stances, Mina made her second move.

"You might want to watch your feet," Mina said as her sandaled foot slapped against the edge of the desk. The desk crashed to the floor hard enough to crack the tile beneath it. Everything that was on the desk, papers, writing instruments, and a lamp were sent to the floor and the sound of the lamp shattering was quickly drowned out by gunshots.

Mina immediately took cover behind the desk; her back pressed up against the hard wood. Getting shot was not on today's agenda and never will be. She had more important things to do other than getting killed.

"Room," She heard Law say. A light blue dome spread out and covered the area.

'Looks like this guy is a Devil Fruit user after all,' Mina thought as she listened to the cries of shock from the guards.

"Damn it! This guy is a Devil Fruit user!" One guard gave the genius observation.

"How on Earth are we supposed to fight a guy like him!" Another cried.

Curiosity getting the better of her and the fact that there weren't any more gunshots drove Mina to pop her head up from behind the tossed over desk. Her eyes widening, she took in the scene in front of her.

The guards had somehow lost their rifles. Or maybe "replaced" was a better word because the guards with guns no longer held their rifles but rather an object from the room they were in. Mina spied a few guards holding umbrellas that had previously been in the holder that was located in the corner of the room and looking at it now showed several rifles in said holder. Many guards now held books from the bookshelves on either side of the fireplace while others held logs from the woodpile to keep the fire running. The twenty-five gunmen in the room had lost their rifles and had been replaced with the more mundane items around them. Stealing a glance in the direction of Law and his crew proved to Mina that this pirate crew was highly dangerous for being rookies. Law was smirking at the guards; in a sort of way that made Mina very wary of her new allies for the time being. It was a smirk full of contempt for the guards and arrogance. Oh boy was there arrogance in that smirk.

"I believe the 'idiots with guns' have been taken care of Miss Mina," Law told the woman behind the desk.

She blinked at him.

"I can see that," She said as she hopped over the desk and back into full view. "That's some parlor trick Captain Law."

As her feet touched the ground, the sound of clattering got her attention. Looking at her feet, Mina saw that she had stepped on the butt of a rifle. Looking up at the now petrified guards, she saw that one of them was holding the broken lamp that had once been sitting on the Mayor's desk. Stooping down to pick up the rifle, a plan of attack wormed it's way into her head. Grinning at the plan, Mina picked the rifle up and rested it across her shoulders.

"You know how to use a rifle?" A young man in a penguin hat asked.

Mina scoffed.

"No. I don't think I could hit the broad side of a barn using a rifle," She admitted as she took it off her shoulders and instead of holding it properly, she gripped it by the barrel and held it as if she were going to use it as a blunt instrument instead. "But, I do believe that there's another type of 'headshot.' The type where you get much more up close and personal with the victim."

Many guards paled at the look on her face. The crooked grin that she sported was made even more creepy thanks to the wounds on her face. That grin promised pain, that much was certain.

"Men, don't give in!" A guard tried to rally them as he pulled out his saber from it's sheath. "Attack!"

With that, the battle had officially begun. As the guards rushed Mina and the pirates, it became highly apparent that the majority of them had no clue how to use swords if their flailing movements were anything to go by, and the lucky few that had no weapons went down faster than lead weights being dropped off the side of a cliff. The pirates, who had no weapons for the record, dodged sword blades with ease and then took their opponents down with little work; even the polar bear, who could talk for some reason, was kicking the guard's asses. The pirates were primarily martial artists from what Mina could tell. Other than their captain of course. No, Law had't moved so much as an inch from where he had been standing and was currently swapping body parts around like they were puzzle pieces.

Now Mina was having a much more... Hands on approach. Swinging the rifle like a baseball bat, she knocked people out of the park left and right. Being surrounded by them didn't help any, but she was willing to fight. With another swing, the rifle butt cracked into a guard's skull; spattering her with more blood; it was just another stain to her already blood soaked self. The only reason why her tan skin tone wasn't readily seen was because of the amount of blood on her person.

"Damn... Her strength is something else..." A guard panted and held his shoulder. She had clipped him on the shoulder while taking another guard out. She was pretty sure she broke something with that swing.

Mina smiled as she whacked another man in the head with the rifle.

"Of course I'm strong," She said nonchalantly. "How do you think I've survived by myself?"

Mina had learnt to depend on herself for things. In her experience, no one really cared about the poor child standing on the street corner begging for food, money, or shelter so no one was just going to hand her food and money because they felt like it. So she did what she had to do; she adapted. As another guard bit the dust, Mina rested the rifle on her shoulders.

"This is a dog eat dog world folks," She said with wry grin. "You either live or die like one."

There had to have been at least fifteen of these guys left. It was obvious that the guards weren't used to a close quarter battle situation as they dropped like flies with one or two hits. Mina thought Patrick and Leon were just greenhorns and that's why they went down with little trouble back in the room; but seeing these guys made her all the more pissed off that she got caught by them. Well, it wasn't technically the guards she got caught by, but the big oaf who whacked her upside the head and sent her to the ground unconscious. Still though, Mina was getting angrier as the fight wore on and that was never a good thing for the people around her.

Whacking yet another man in the head, Mina noted a shadow looming over her. The men around her backed off as well and went to face the pirates as they assumed that the woman using the rifle as a bat would soon be beaten. A shiver traveled up her spine as Mina looked over her shoulder. Any trace of anger on her face fell to a look that anyone would describe as "oh fuck" as her eyes widened. Behind Mina was none other than the big oaf who caused the wounds on her arms in the first place. Spinning around on her heel, she faced the much, much taller man head on. His face showed no emotions; his eyes were trained on her and only her. To the side of him, Mina could see the butler or as she liked to call him, Jeeves, cowering in the doorway peeking out from behind the door frame. Mina stared up at the much taller man with hardly an emotion on her face. Either she was fuming with silent rage or she really didn't care about the man in front of her. The man may be tall with thinning blonde hair and eyes that looked like they belonged on a dead fish, but he was muscular. Barrel-chested and hulking, he dwarfed any average man; including Law himself.

"Olaf!" The whiny voice of the mayor pierced the room.

Mina turned her head slightly to see Caito crawling out from behind his overturned desk much like how a worm would crawl out from under a rock. Suddenly, her stoicism snapped like a twig underfoot.

"Olaf!" She repeated in a semi-dumbstruck manner. "You've gotta be kidding me! I got knocked out and tortured by a guy named Olaf!"

Taking a deep breath, she attempted to calm herself down as a few people stared at her. All Mina really wanted out of this whole situation was to finish the goddamn mission and get the hell off the Inari Island. Sadly, things weren't going as planned really. Finally collecting her frayed nerves after that outburst she sighed.

"Alright, I feel better," Mina said as she rolled her shoulders a bit to loosen her neck.

"Olaf, finish off the girl!" Caito ordered. "We'll worry about the pirates later."

"Fuck my life," Mina deadpanned as she watched Olaf pull his arm back for a punch. "Things can never be easy can they..."

Musings aside, she dropped the rifle on the floor seeing as she wasn't even a marksman and proceeded to back up from the man. However, despite his size, Olaf was actually a pretty fast guy. Her eyes widening, Mina attempted a dodge by doing a backflip. Her arms catching her as she jumped backwards, she pushed off the ground to right herself only for Olaf's punch to connect with her abdomen. Biting back a strangled yelp of pain, Mina flew backwards and hit the wall; knocking the breath out of her. Her left arm almost immediately went across her body to grip her side as it was suddenly very painful to breathe. Every breath she took was incredibly painful and felt like someone knifed her in the chest.

"Hahaha!" Caito cackled from his position on the floor. "Serves you right!"

"Ow..." She coughed out; only for it to cause more pain. "Think that cracked a rib... Or broke one..."

It was at this point that Mina noticed the bodies littering the floor. All the guards had been dispatched in one way or another. Many of them had been K.O.-ed by the pirates; actually most of the guards had been taken down by the pirates as Mina herself had only downed at least ten of them with her rifle-baseball bat tactic. The pirates looked generally unscathed from the battle itself; a couple scratches and a few bruises maybe but nothing to what compared to the damage the guards had taken. Quite a handful of guards, at least fifteen or twenty, had been made into human jigsaw puzzles thanks to the fuzzy hatted Captain.

Speaking of the fuzzy hatted Captain, Law wasn't the least bit concerned with the appearance of Olaf as it would be simple enough to outsmart the seemingly dimwitted man. Though he'd admit that the blow Mina just received looked rather powerful. Powerful enough to break bones and he wouldn't be surprised if the woman did indeed have a broken bone somewhere from that blow.

"Good. Now while she's down, kill her!" Caito ordered.

Olaf proceeded forward. His heavy footsteps echoed in the room.

"Change of plans Caito," Mina said as she struggled to stand up. "I'm not gonna die here. Though I don't think I'll be able to take this guy down..."

It wasn't that Mina lacked the skill to take him down; it was the fact that her body was starting to wear down. Four days of not having anything to eat, being tortured, and then thrown into a brawl wasn't the best thing for her body. In fact the only reason why she was still standing was due to adrenaline. Her mind ran a mile-a-minute as she tried to find a way out of this situation.

"Should we help her Captain?" The bear asked his fuzzy hatted Captain.

"If she asks for it," Law said.

Mina frowned and shot the man a look. He merely smirked at the dirty look she gave him.

"You might want to pay attention to your fight," A pirate, a ginger with sunglasses, said.

After the comment from the bear and his captain, she wasn't about to ask for help now; damn her sense of pride sometimes. Getting her head in the game, she broke the stare with Law and focused on the task at hand. Olaf was encroaching on her rather quickly and Mina was slouched against the wall holding her side. Setting her jaw she knew what she had to do.

'Use your size and speed,' Mina coached herself.

Righting herself, she pushed off from the wall and calmly walked towards the towering man. Olaf took this opportunity to ready another punch. His reach may have been impressive, but the thing with these types of fighters is that they left plenty of weak points. As the man launched another punch, Mina jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding another hit, and bolted for the man's legs. Sure it hurt like hell to run flat out, but Mina could handle pain. Digging her left foot in, her right shot out in a strike to the man's knee. Now, there's only one way that a knee is supposed to bend and Mina struck Olaf's knee so that it tried to be bent the other way so it knocked him off balance. Quickly jumping backwards Mina readied herself for another attack as the man went on one knee. Before he could right himself, Mina was airborne and had twisted her body around as she kicked him square on the side of his head, smacking his ear. With a now disrupted sense of equilibrium, Olaf was swaying a bit from side to side.

"Still not going down..." Mina said through gritted teeth.

With that said, she brought her right leg back slightly before bringing it forward to connect with Olaf just under his jaw. Snapping his head backwards, the kick sent the man to the ground. Oh how sweet it was to have revenge. Grinning widely, Mina looked over her shoulder at Caito; the man looked like he had wet himself. The subsequent thudding noise that came from the doorway sounded like Jeeves had fainted, and when she glanced his way the butler was indeed out cold.

"Well, well, Caito," Mina said. "Looks like you're out of options."

The woman stalked forward and it was highly apparent that despite winning the battle, she was not happy. The mayor tried to flinch away from her, but she brought her foot down on the man's chest.

"No more fucking around now Caito," Her voice was like harsh steel. "Tell me where Alderman's ledgers are. I'm a very busy person you know, and I believe whatever patience I had is gone now. So unless you want to end up like Leon and Patrick, I suggest you spill the beans."

Oh, she wasn't angry; she was livid. Tired, in pain, and rather hungry, Mina wasn't the least bit happy. In fact she'd been cranky the whole night. Caito swallowed out of reflex and stared up at her. Mina's eyes promised death for him if he didn't tell.

"They're in my bedroom," Caito relented. "In my desk, third drawer on the left. Please don't kill me."

Ah... Sweet, sweet music to her ears at last. Caito just sealed his fate the moment he sung like a little birdie. Though cowards could always be counted on to take the way out that they felt would let them live. Mina grinned ear to ear at the news; things were looking up for her.

"I can't make any promises Caito," She said. "If I find out you've lied to me, I'll kill you."

Hauling the man to his feet, she dragged him over to his chair, which was still upright amazingly. However, she decided against that and instead dragged him to the wall, gripped his shiny bald head and slammed it into the wall forehead first and the man crumpled to the ground like a puppet who's strings had just been cut.

"Any objections?" Mina asked the pirates from over her shoulder.

Law's smirk was still present. Though a part of him wanted to be the one to shut the mayor up.

"None," He said.

"Good. Now if you follow me, I'll let you rob this guy blind."

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send a review! And thank you for those who have Subscribed, Favorited, Alerted, and Reviewed. Next time we say "Bye-Bye" to Caito and the mansion. And trust me when I say the fight scenes will get a lot better. I promise!