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| - The day had slowly, but surely come to a close once more, and the animals were still partying away, having the time of their lives as the celebrated the unknown Animal King. And, of course, Knave and his crew were participating as well. “Bwah!” Art gasped as he finished chugging down a bit of alcohol they had managed to find, “we didn’t get to celebrate after fighting those casino guys, so this makes up for it in spades!” “Hell to the yeah!” Sid answered, taking his own swig and clapping beer mugs with the first mate. “Gao, gao gao!” Gopher said, jumping up and down as the Shroomian chef continued to push out tray after tray of food, the nearby animals and members of the crew reaching out and helping themselves, all enjoying themselves an immense amount. “Umm... sir?” Karasuke asked, flying up to a small ledge where the bald parrot was perched, enjoying his own drink, Kumasuke walking up right behind him. “Yes?” the bald parrot asked, finishing his current swig and looking over at his two companions. “Are you sure that there was no real Animal King crowned?” Karasuke asked. “Yeah, that water crown was a bit suspect,” Kumasuke muttered, finally taking another swig from his refilled mug, “there really was one crowned, right?” “...I suppose that there was,” the bald parrot finally said after a few moments of pondering, “but does it really matter who it is? The island will keep on going if there’s a king or not, for bad or for worse... but even if there is a King that was actually crowned... then things will all work out in the end, right?” “I-I suppose so...” Karasuke said. “The point is, at times that’s all we can do,” the bald parrot finished, “but... I like to hope that... if that green-haired young human is the Animal King, then he’ll return one day to help us all, I’m sure of it.” “Hmm...” Kagome thought to herself, walking around the area and skirting the main party, “t-that noise is a bit annoying... well, the guys probably won’t mind if I w-wander off for a little bit, r-right? Y-yeah...” With that, the little girl resumed her trek. Finally, she came across the bounty hunter whom Knave had defeated earlier. “O-oh!” she said upon noticing him, taking a few stumbling steps backwards, “i-it’s that guy!” She paused for a moment. “...I-I forgot his name, but...” She turned to head back, not liking the idea of spending more time in the same area as a man who had tried to kill both her and her friends, before stopping, something catching her notice at the corner of her eye. She turned around, and she saw it head on, her eyes widening as she gasped, her lungs rapidly intaking air to compensate for the sudden lack of it. And then she screamed, trauma hitting her head on! “Oi, Kagome!” Knave, Art, Sid, Stormy, Gopher, Pura, and Mercuia cried as they rushed down through the forest, rushing into the clearing itself and casting their eyes around, looking for their helmswoman. Quickly, they found her, a good few feet away from both Blitzkrieg’s knocked out form and themselves. She was crouched behind a small rock, grasping her shoulders with her tiny hands and shaking heavily, gasping for breath sometimes as tears began to form at the edges of her eyes. “Kagome!” they cried, rushing over and taking her shoulders, shaking them slightly, “are you okay?” “Y-you guys,” she said, looking up at them, “s-sorry, I just...” “What happened, Kagome-tan?” Sid asked, the others nodding in agreement. The little girl paused, gathering up her courage and pushing aside her incredible fear, before reaching out with her hand and pointing at the unconscious bounty hunter. “T-that man,” she said, “t-that symbol on his shoulder.... i-it...” “Symbol?” Mercuia asked, walking over and lifting up his arm, exposing, indeed, a symbol. It appeared to be something of a stylized, almost demonic-style eye with a variety of other rune-style lines arcing away from it, adding a sort of aura to the whole thing. Mercuia quickly concentrated, and one of her fingers shifted slightly, taking on the partial form of a dragon claw, which she quickly cut off the symbol with. The former World Noble turned around, lifting up the patch. “This symbol?” she asked. Kagome gulped and nodded, ducking her head into her lap slightly and shivering even more. Finally, the girl managed to reacquire her courage once more, and she stood up, facing them again. “T-that’s the same group that...burned down my town and island!” The pirates froze, Kagome’s words sinking in. Knave was the first to react, walking over and taking the symbol from Mercuia. The marimo lad lifted up his hand and looked at the symbol, confirming it. With that, he crushed it in his hand, allowing heat and kinetic energy to appear, quickly engulfing and burning it. “Guys,” Knave finally said, “we’re going to take these people down.” His crew nodded in agreement. “The guy probably has an Eternal Pose on him,” Sid added, “he’d need to get back to their base at some point, right?” “Right,” Pura agreed, nodding, “so all we need to do is find that and then head to their home base.” “Gao gao,” Gopher also agreed seriously. “Then let’s get ready to go,” Knave looked up, scowling deeply and angrily, “we’re gonna wipe them out, once and for all.” “Huff, huff...” Sirius panted, as his small rowboat finally reached the shore of the winter island where his organization, the bounty hunting corporation known as Deathwatch, had set up shop. The Zoan-user stood up and leaped onto the shore, ignoring the various townspeople-turned-slaves that were toiling all around him as he looked up at the sight that took up the center of the island, fully visible to even him, at the coast. A massive ship, plastic, rope, and leather wings extending from both sides, with a variety of beams and equipment located around it, as if repairing it... “Hm,” the massive man with the deep basso voice, the former Shichibukai himself, sighed, lowering his now empty wineglass. “It seems that Blitzkrieg failed after all. And with his defeat, there’s a high probability that those people will know who they’re up against for sure this time...” The man sighed, standing his massive and muscular frame up, his expensive and comfortable squeaking in relief as he did so. He turned around, ignoring the snow-flecked massive windows lying in front of his mahogany desk, and he walked towards the double oak doors leading to the meeting room just outside. Reaching out with both hands, the leader of Deathwatch pushed the doors open, flooding his appearance and a small portion of the office behind him with light as he stood facing the various Executives who had all re-gathered on the island in order to prepare for the final stage of their grand plan. “Good evening, my Executives,” the former Shichibukai said happily, “my name is Erik Khan, as some of you might know. It seems that some ants have managed to defeat a decent portion of their forces, and are probably on their way here as we speak. So...” And with that, a sinister and wolf like smile appeared on the man’s face. “...I suggest that we work quickly on the completion of Project Memitim.” Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
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