Well, I did say something about Sundays, but thanks to unforeseen circumstances that went out the window. So, instead I'll just try to update weekly. Though I can tell you for a fact that the next one will be before next Saturday. Disclaimer: Again, I do not own One Piece; only Mina and her rather bad luck.

Chapter 4: Another Average Night

"I've had a wonderful evening- but this wasn't it." -Groucho Marx

Exiting the parlor with the pirates following closely on her heels, Mina glanced once around the foyer to get her bearings relative to the floor plans she had memorized and headed up the stairs. The stairs had the same red carpeting as the hallways on the second floor and the once polished railing now had traces of dried blood on it from when she had come down the stairs to find Caito. It was rather apparent from the blood that either Mina's wounds had starting bleeding at that time or it had been on her hands from the guards she had fought.

"The treasury is actually an offshoot of Caito's bedroom, so we'll be headed to his room," Mina let the pirates know what was going on.

Her mood seemed to have improved marginally after Caito had spilled the beans. Though her left arm was still gripping her side it was fairly apparent that her body couldn't take much more abuse before it eventually gave out.

"Uh... Are you okay?" The ginger with the sunglasses asked.

Mina suppressed the urge to sigh; it would only hurt her more.

"I was used as a human punching bag as well as a knife-sharpener for four days only to get involved in a brawl that may have broken a rib or two," She deadpanned as she continued to walk up the stairs. "I'm far from the meaning of the word."

Coming up to the landing, the brunette took in the sight of three directions: left, right, or straight. All three directions had the same red carpeting and sconces lighting the wall. With every hallway looking the same, the pirates were wondering if she truly knew her way around the mansion.

"How did you end up as their prisoner?" Law asked as Mina went to the right.

She stopped mid-step and the tension in her shoulders was easily seen. It appeared that she didn't want to tell them. Mina soon recovered and walked on with the pirates following her lead.

"If you have to know, the big guy, Olaf," She spoke his name with a sneer. "Managed to come up behind me and hit me in the head. Next thing I know, I'm strapped to a chair with the big lug as my interrogator."

She didn't seem happy about admitting that out loud if her tone was anything to go by. It didn't invite any further questions really... It seems her marginally improved mood had been brought down by the memories of being caught. Now all she wanted was to wring Alderman's neck for not giving her all the information he should have given her in the first place. Though if she had her way Alderman would've been dead a long, long time ago. Mina's shoulders sagged a bit as she rubbed the back of her neck at the thought of why she was working for that ass. Damn her luck...

The pirates were curious as to what caused her to suddenly seem subdued, but the fact that her emotions flitted straight back to angry was a bit more troubling. Her shoulders stiffening, Mina walked on without even faltering. Law was partly curious and partly amused by her actions. She seemed to be the type that didn't hide their emotions but it was still difficult to read her. Normally he managed to get a read on anyone and was fairly accurate with his observations, but she wasn't giving much other than her mental state at this time. Granted he had never tried to understand someone who had just been held prisoner for four days as most of his captives ended up dead within the first twelve hours. At this point, he was quite surprised that she hadn't ended up on the floor passed out by now. He was assuming she hadn't eaten anything in the past ninety-six hours and a normal person would be on the floor unconscious due to that fact. It was intriguing to say the least.

Mina came to another four way intersection in the halls and turned to the right before abruptly stopping in front of a set of double doors. Much like the doors she tossed the sofa through, they were made of heavy wood but just weren't as tall as the ones she had knocked down. The gold doorknob gleamed gently in the low light as she grasped the cool metal. A small smile spread across her face as she found the door unlocked. Swinging the door open, they filed into the room.

Caito's bedroom was just about as pompous as anyone would imagine. His king sized canopy bed was pushed to the right wall and a rich red blanket was spread across it. A balcony was located farther back in the room, white curtains drawn half-way so he could have some semblance of privacy as he looked out over the town. That was the thing about the room; Caito had a perfect view of the town located on Inari Island. On the left wall, not only was there another set of doors, but his desk. With a satisfied smirk, Mina walked to the desk to flick on the desk lamp. Before getting to work, she saw the pirates waiting for direction.

"The door next to me is the treasury," She said blankly. "Have at it."

"Thank you for showing us the way Miss Mina," Law was more than pleased that such a small skirmish would net him some cash. After all, food didn't pay for itself... Actually it sort of did since he was a pirate and he could always "bargain" if things didn't go his way.

Leading his men, and polar bear, through the door next to the desk, Mina was left alone to her devices as she rifled through the papers and books in Caito's desk. Humming a tune once again, she tried the third drawer on the left. The tune abruptly stopped and the smile fell from her face as she found it locked. Now, it took much of Mina's self control not to toss the entire desk into the wall in the hopes that it would break open. Not only would her injuries not allow that at the time, she also remembered that if she just so happened to hit someone (namely a pirate) with the desk, the pirate Captain in the other room wouldn't take so nicely to her injuring his subordinates. So, no desk tossing for Mina today. Instead she calmed herself down by exhaling and then doubling over from the pain of her ribs. Pain was always like a good, sobering slap to the face; it made you stop, collect your thoughts, and then make you want to snap the wrist of the moron who just slapped you. However with the man who cracked (or broke) her ribs currently counting how many knives it would take to fell a giant, snapping his wrist wasn't an option. Yet.

Getting her mind back to the task at hand, Mina figured that there had to be a key somewhere. Opening the unlocked drawers, she tossed papers, books, and other items over her shoulder without a care in the world. Trashing his personal desk was her way of catharsis at this point. In fact, she'd love nothing more than to swing from the tacky chandelier in the foyer or run a knife down some wallpaper as she ran through the halls cackling madly, but sadly she didn't have the time. She looked up briefly from her search when she heard crashing coming from the other room followed shortly by someone cussing their lungs out. Suddenly an orange tabby bolted from the room and out the door. Quirking an eyebrow, Mina looked from the open treasury door to the hallway where the cat had bolted towards; sounds like someone was afraid of a kitty-cat. Mentally shrugging, she busied herself with raiding the desk. Upon opening the top right drawer, Mina not only found the key to the desk, but keys to every room in the house. Swinging the key ring with the literal keys to the castle on her finger, she finally opened the drawer to her prize. Two leather bound books greeted her eyes and the satisfied smile found it's way back on her face.

"Find what you're looking for?" A voice called her back from her thoughts.

Startled, Mina snapped her head up to see who was talking to her. It was none other than the fuzzy hatted pirate, Law. She hadn't even heard him enter the room...

"Yes, I did," She said after a moment. "How about you? Enough treasure in there for you?"

"We found plenty," He said with a smirk. "Though most of the chests in the room are locked."

Mina's eyes went to the key ring in her left hand. It looked like there were some smaller keys that belonged to chests. She also wouldn't put it past Caito to just keep everything in one place.

"Here, try these then" She suggested as she tossed the keys over to him. "They look like they could help."

Law caught them with ease; his right hand closing on them so Mina could see the tattoos on his fingers.

'Death?' She read. 'That's charming. Note to self: This guy is creepy.'

Mental musings aside, the pirate captain looked at the keys thoughtfully for a moment before taking her advice and turning to walk through the treasury doors again.

"Though I'll want those back," Mina said as she picked up the ledgers from the desk drawer. Upon lifting the books, she found some stray beli at the bottom. "When you're done of course."

He made no motion to signal that he heard her and continued onwards before vanishing into the treasury. Curiosity got the better of her at that point as she wondered how much money Caito had. Stuffing the stray bills into her pocket, finders keepers after all, Mina followed Law into the treasury.

The room was bright; bright enough that Mina had to blink due to the harsh lights in the room. When the glare settled, the sight that greeted her was quite impressive. Quite a few chests lined the far wall; the dark wood looking hard enough to stand the test of time with several large bags of beli were piled up near them. Though a pirate, the one with the sunglasses and ginger hair, was already stuffing the large bags into a much bigger sack with a grin across his face. Law was standing near his subordinate that had decided to take on the locked chests. The man was hunched over the chests and fiddling with the keys she had given them.

As her eyes scanned the room, Mina saw china cabinets being raided by the penguin hatted man with help from the bear. They were going over the things that might be of value and stuffing them into a sack the bear had. As she looked around the room, something caught her eye.

As Law oversaw the progress on the chests, the sound of glass crashing to the floor flooded his ears.

"Penguin, what did I say about breaking things?" He said without even looking over his shoulder.

"It wasn't me this time Captain," Penguin answered. "And the cat only surprised me!"

Shachi laughed from his position as he remembered the face Penguin had made when the cat jumped out from behind a cabinet. It was one of those moments that made him wish he had a camera. Law however, instead of remembering the face his subordinate made, was more curious as to what the crashing was. Turning around, it was plain as day as to what the crashing noise was. Mina had decided that one of the pictures on the wall had been looking at her wrong and knocked it from it's place. The blood covered woman was crouched in front of the broken picture frame as she carefully picked through the glass to get to what had been in the frame.

"Sorry about the noise," She said from across the room. "But usually the only way to tell if they're fakes is if you can actually handle them."

"What did you need to handle?" Law was curious about what warranted breaking a frame to get to.

As Mina grabbed the edge of the parchment that had been in the frame, she gently lifted it from it's place and more glass fell to the floor, shattering.

"Maps of course," She said as she studied it. "Or more specifically, treasure maps."

Those were the words that made the pirates stop everything to stare the the woman studying the map; Shachi paused halfway through shoving another bag into the sack, Penguin almost dropped (another) expensive looking vase, and the man in the striped bucket hat stopped fiddling with the chests. Law crossed the room to look over Mina's shoulder; she was fully aware of the man standing behind her, and made no motion to stand upright. The map was old to say the least; the parchment was well worn, she could feel the fragility of the paper. Faded lines outlined part of an island with a compass in the right hand corner. It was only part of a map; the frayed edges along the top and left side while the bottom and the right had smooth edges.

"It's only part of one," Mina gave Law the information he needed so he'd stop staring over her shoulder. The man was creepy enough without his eyes boring in the back of her skull like he wanted to read her mind. "It's useless without the other parts, but..."

Studying it closer, she saw initials within the compass; the first letter was unreadable, it was too faded, but the last initial read clear as day. Scrawled within the compass was a "C".

"Huh... Looks like it might be one of Conrad's," Mina mused as she turned the parchment over to inspect the other side.

"Conrad?" Penguin repeated. "Who was he?"

The brunette snapped her head in his direction, a look of incredulity on her face.

"You've never heard of Conrad? Have you lived your entire life under a rock or something?"

Then it hit her. These guys weren't from the Grand Line like she was. Closing her eyes, Mina shook her head.

"Right," She said as she stood up, grimacing at the pain in her side. "You're probably still new to the Grand Line so you haven't heard all the legends about this place. His name was Simeon Conrad, the Captain of the Orion Pirates, and sailed the Grand Line over sixty years ago. He was called the 'Wraith Pirate' for his ability to turn to mist. He's dead of course, but that doesn't stop his notoriety to us Grand Line natives."

Ending her brief lecture on Simeon Conrad, Mina carefully rolled the map up. She had plans on taking it with her, but she didn't know about Law. Chances are she shouldn't have told him parts of the legend as he'd want the map piece, but then again, it was useless without the other parts. There hadn't even been any indication as to what ocean the island was on and the location of the other parts of the map were a mystery.

"You seem to know quite a bit about him Miss Mina," Law observed. "Looking for his treasure are we?"

Mina scoffed and then winced yet again. Damn ribs...

"Nah," She denied. "It got better things to do than chase some old legend to the ends of the Earth."

Law started to frown. Although she might not know his ambition to be Pirate King and finding One Piece, it still sounded like she was mocking the idea of piracy.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not interested," She continued as she turned on her heel to walk out the door. "I just don't have the time right now to go off looking for treasure. Boss Alderman has been running me like a dog for the past fourteen months."

That made the fuzzy hatted man pause for a moment. Again, he could not get a good read on her. Reaching the door Mina stopped for a moment to look over her shoulder.

"Well, as much as I'd love to stick around, I gotta run. I suppose I'll be hearing about you again in a bar somewhere. Later."

With that, she was gone.

"Are we just going to let her go with a treasure map?" Bucket hat asked.

"There wasn't enough information on the map, Sergei," Law said. "Besides, there's enough here for now."

"Yeah, yeah," The man grumbled as he shoved another key into the lock. This time, the tumblers clicked. "Ah, got it Captain!"

The night air was cool and crisp; and the feeling of fresh air was the best thing Mina had felt in awhile. Now, time to get off this godforsaken island. It was dark so there wouldn't be any boats running at this hour. Mulling over her plans to get off the island, she walked down the cobblestone path from Caito's mansion and towards the town. It was a short jaunt from the mansion to the town and as the breeze blew by, rustling the leaves of the trees overhead was a well known sound to the woman. The stars shone brightly overhead as the glow of the moon shed some light on the path into town. Coming into town, the lights of houses and shops were off, but some light filtered through open windows and doors. Going down the main street of the town, she passed by the local bar, the sounds of drunks singing songs off-key assaulted her eardrums and the smell of liquor was thick in the air thanks to the open doors. Apparently a few people were celebrating the Harvest Festival a few months in advance...

Mina's goal was the inn she had checked into over a week ago. The innkeeper was probably curious as to where she had gone... Coming up to the two-story building, the blue inn was well lit; welcoming back it's patrons from the cool night. Knowing full well that she looked like she had been through hell and back, Mina opened the door. Hearing the gasp of the innkeeper behind the counter, Mina rolled her eyes.

"A-Are you alright Miss?" The innkeeper, a mousy young woman with light brown hair and blue dress, asked.

"Peachy," Mina deadpanned. "Now, how much do I owe you?"

"Uh, 2,500 beli for the whole nine nights," The innkeeper said when she consulted her books. "A-Are you sure you're alright? I-I can call a doctor..."

Pulling the money out of her jeans pocket, Mina counted out the money and found that she had enough without having to dip into her already dwindling funds. Tossing the bills on the counter, she clomped up the stairs to her room to fetch her suitcase. The inn was a pleasant building; warm in Mina's opinion. The earth toned walls were calming and the hard wood floors matched them well. Coming to her door, Mina left the door open as she grabbed the suitcase by the door. Not even sparing a glance into the room, her hand closed around the thick leather strap of the heavy suitcase and she was back down the stairs without any hesitation. Her suitcase was unusual to say the least; it was heavy and made of durable, dark leather with a combination lock keeping her belongings safe from anyone who would pry into them. There were two straps attached to it so she could pull it onto her back like a rucksack. Stopping at the foot of the stairs to quickly put the map piece and ledgers away, she pulled it onto her back. Straining when she put her right arm through the strap, the suitcase settled where it always did; on her lower back.

"Thanks for the room," Mina said as she walked out the door; leaving a dumbstruck innkeeper staring after her back.

As Mina walked down the street, heading towards the docks, she still had no idea how to get off the island. Shaking her head she made the decision to steal a boat. However, she didn't make it that far. Suddenly the world was spinning on it's axis as she stumbled forward, falling to her knees. Her body had finally given out on her. Finding some dry amusement in how far she had gotten without passing out, her eyes closed and she was out before she even hit the dirt.

Law was highly entertained at who he had run across in his walk back to his submarine. There they were, walking along main street when they found the passed out form of Mina. Laying face down in the dirt, it was highly apparent that she hadn't made it far before her injuries caught up with her. As Penguin, Shachi, and Sergei headed to the sub with their spoils, he and Bepo stayed behind for a moment to decide what to do. The doctor part of him said to help her out a bit, but the pirate in him argued that since she wasn't part of his crew so he didn't need to bother. Before he knew it himself, he was rolling her onto her side so he could slide the suitcase off her back. Handing the heavy object to Bepo, Law slid his arms under her knees and behind her back as he lifted her off the ground; she hung limply in his arms. And with that, they headed back to the submarine.

Another one down. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send a review then. Next time we hear Mina's job description.